Thursday, October 27, 2011

taking a walk

This moring when I went to go out for my run I noticed my cell phone battery was basically dead. Since that cell phone pulls double duty as my pace/distance monitor and my music player, I was about to scrap the whole run and stay home. When I don't monitor my pace I tend to go nuts and hurt myself somehow... not worth it.

Then I thought about it some more and decided to just go my usual route and walk it. If nothing else, it gets me out of the house, gets me moving around, and I still get in 30 minutes of exercise even if it is less intense.

After all, if I am serious about my goals, I need to make choices every day that reflect those goals.

So... I walked it out. And you knwo what? It wasn't super intense. It wasn't anything like my runs full of sweat, adrenaline, and loud music to keep me going. My walk was relaxing. It was refreshing. It was energizing in a different way than my runs normally are.

Tomorrow I can lace up the running shoes and make up the training run I skipped today. I can stay on track to rock my 5K in about 2 weeks. But today I'm going to be happy that I did somethign good for myself, even if it was different than what was planned.

Sometimes you need to take the endorphins whichever way you can get them.

Friday, October 21, 2011

it's that time again

Steve and I went to our leasing office this morning to renew our lease. Hard to believe it's been almost a year since we moved in already!

Along with our new lease (which starts in January), we found out some interesting things:
- they are completely renovating the on-site gym and extending the hours of operation
- they are converting the infrequently used walking track into a dog park!
- residents are now allowed to paint their apartments as long as they paint them back before moving out.

We've had our ups and downs with this property, but so far the new management company is making some great changes.

As a perk for renewing our lease, we received a memberhsip to the brand new LA Fitness that opened up down the street. It is good for the entire length of our lease and I am beyond excited. Although the property is redoing their on site gym, the gym down the street offers things like group classes which are obviously not available at the on site gym. They also have a swimming pool available to swim laps in... something that is definitely not an option at the neighborhood pool.

Overall, I'm excited to have all the paperwork taken care of so that we can just relax and enjoy our home. I'm so excited for the holidays and the ability to actually decorate for them this year and next year.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Biggest Loser

While watching my DVRed episodes of his season of the Biggest Loser I came to understand why I love this show so much.

Of course I like watching people change their lives.

Of course I like seeing the impressive results at the end.

However, I think the reason I continue to watch, season after season, is because of the people. No matter how many times I watch, every season the people struggle with the same issues regarding food and their own body image. These people started out relatively healthy and, somewhere down the road, something happened that sent them on a downward spiral. They used food as a coping mechanism and hid themselves from life as much as possible.

Then, somehow they end up on the ranch and the trainers there help them recover from this dependence on food and avoidance.

It's so much like an addiction recovery that at times I feel like I'm watching Intervention.

I love this show, even if their methods are a bit extreme.

Monday, October 17, 2011

pumpkin muffin/cake goodness

I made a recipe from Pinterest for pumpkin muffins and the only appropriate description is this...

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Nothing this simple and this low in calories has any business tasting so good. I'm not even kidding.

You want the recipe?

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then, mix a can of Libby's pumpkin puree with one box of yellow cake mix. Spoon into a muffin pan with liners and bake for 20 minutes.

Ta-daa! A crazy delicious fall snack awaits you! All for 17 measly calories per muffin.

Go... make them. You can thank me later.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

back to training

My run this morning was a bit rough. I haven't been out for a run in about a week (Doctor's orders due to the vertigo diagnosis) and I could tell from the first steps that it was going to be a battle every step of the way.

The toughest thing about running for me so far has been the mental aspect of it. I can make all the plans in the world to rock my run, but when I finally make it out the door I can find a million reasons to go right back inside.

When I focus on the fact that I'm exercising my mind loves to put up road blocks and set limitations. It's only when I let go and decide to make my run about clearing my head and put my feet to the pavement that I'm able to get something worthwhile out of myself.

Bad run... good run... no big deal. At least I got out there and earned myself another gold star.