Day 61/62: Back in the Saddle (Again)

It's been an interesting weekend. I have been without one of my supplements for some time, and it has been an unrequited disaster for me. I am normally very mellow, having a good day all the time, but today my mood has been all over the place, moody and temperamental and everything! It totally sucked. I went running this morning, and since my fiancé was in the "guest room" where I normally sleep, my phone charger was in there, and my phone had completely crapped out. I had no timer, and not having a timer is like kryptonite to me. I only made it for a little while and felt completely discouraged. The negative self-talk made a guest appearance, and I was just berating myself for not being able to make it as far. I know now that it was a lot warmer and more humid than I was used to running in, and that probably slowed me down. Plus, I have been down for several days due to injury, so the fact that I had a pretty good run was not bad! I just couldn't wrap my head around it that morning. Add it to perpetual problems with my perpetually dishonest bank and I just couldn't handle it. I was emotionally worn down and thought I wouldn't be able to even get my supplements.

My fiancé was a perpetual blessing to me, calming me down and eventually paying for my supplements, which was a godsend. My mood is back to normal, and so is my appetite. Before I was ravenous and craving pretty much anything that was bad for me. Now I have only eaten a light meal this afternoon and have been fine. :-) I will have a protein shake for dinner since I missed it this morning.

I plan on picking up some hummus tomorrow and some veggies of some sort. I love my hummus and veggie combos, they really hit the spot when I'm having a bad day or just need something that tastes good. For those of you that don't know, my name is Shelly (AKA Girl on Fire) and I'm a hummus addict, lol! I had no good words to say to a certain retail chain that replaced the classic hummus and pretzel combos with the red pepper hummus. Thankfully my school stocks all three flavors of hummus and pretzels in the cafeteria, so there is always something yummy and healthy at school. :-) Plus, I notice a huge drop in my weight when I go to school, must be that brain food!

I have to admit, I never knew how much I needed the little buggers until I was unable to get them! I know people hate on supplements, and say you don't need a magic pill and all that, and I get that, but these have put me in a really good place emotionally as well. I have been able to get out and run everyday, I am always in a good mood, and I don't eat bad. Don't knock it til you try it. :-)

I hope everyone has a fantastic day. Be blessed and enjoy the journey!

Days 55/56: A Fun Weekend and Back to Running

I had a fantastic weekend with my fiancé. We decided that we were going to go to Taste of St Louis and to the Soulard Farmer's Market. I have been meaning to go to the Farmer's Market for some time now and haven't gotten to. We started at Taste of St Louis, which I looked at very carefully, ever eager to monitor my calorie count. I did fine there, eating a chicken kabob with all kinds of veggies.

The fiancé and I with the sous chef of Taste of StL. :-)

 

My fiancé's culinary school was there making food (yes, my fiancé is a chef, don't you love that? :-D) but we didn't get to try any of their food. He is trained primarily in French cuisine but has tried a number of different things and he makes a lot of good food. I was hoping to find the folks from LCB but we couldn't find them! It was too bad, too. We got to go to a lot of different places there, including some of the best foods in StL. Local Harvest Café, which is a favorite of ours, was at the festival as well, and they had $2 vegan chili! Sadly, I stuck to my chicken kebab, which was really good.

 

Afterward we went to the farmer's market and it was totally crowded! I have never seen that many people there. It was kind of hot and I was getting tired, so I also noshed on a polish sausage. I kind of wished I hadn't afterward, cause it was sort of okay but I ended up getting sleepy and crashed on the couch for like 3 hours. (Could be why I gained weight, lol.)

 

But the next day was much better. I decided that I was going to go for a run. I went to my usual park only to discover there was a HUGE 5k and triathlon being held at the park! I was insanely jealous, but still packed up my gear and went to my second choice, which was mercifully free of events and had good parking. Since it was around 65 degrees, everyone and their mom was there, lol. I decided to go a different way that time and walk the opposite perimeter of the park. I started running and realized that I was starting off at a 14 minute/mile pace, which was 2 minutes faster than my usual pace. I continued between 14-16 minute miles, until the very end when I got down to 17:01 minute miles, still a good 2 minutes faster than my last run. I even passed someone, which was a huge NSV for me because I am usually too slow to pass someone. :-)

 



Nice and sweaty after my run! :-)

 

I ran 1.47 miles, walked 2.03, for a total of 3.50 miles. I burned 919 calories and 3.5 miles took me 1:14:09. :-) I'm totally getting into running for more than a hour, though sometimes I wonder if I do anything else in the morning besides run, lol! I totally love logging long distances though, and as long as I can do it I will be doing it. And hopefully getting faster each time. I'm in my second-to-last week of C25K this week, so I'm hoping I can pull off a 2-mile run by the end! That would make me super excited. :-)

 

I hope everyone has a fantastic day. I'm going to finish reading my new running magazines (I have 3 now, it's seriously awesome!) and hopefully put a dent in some chem homework. Be blessed and enjoy the journey!