Cool Runnings

Yesterday's Running Goal: 4 miles
Accomplished: 4 miles in 49:08 (12:17 miles)
I wasn't trying to break any speed records last night, I just wanted to get out there and run four miles. I haven't actually done this since early August, in extreme humidity. Last night was anything but humid. It was chilly (48 degrees) and dark and a little windy. But after I got done working ten hours, I met Brandy at my mom's house to run with Hannah. Those 49 minutes dragged on for hours. Even though it was nice to have Brandy to talk to, it seemed like it was never going to end. Still, I wasn't going so fast that I was worn out. My legs were really achy when I got done though, which I think might be a sign of the cold weather, because I don't remember this happening in the summer. The last two times that Brandy and I have run has been less than optimal outdoor weather. So we are certain that we will be fine no matter what the weather is a week from Sunday. Later this week I will try to run another 3 miles extra fast. Tomorrow my goal is to actually register for the race. Then there is no going back.

Tonight Brandy and I tried a new Spinning class ( new teacher for me) at the gym. This lady was fun and spunky but her workout didn't seem as hard. I fell slightly in love with her when she said: you'll burn at least 500 calories in this next 45 minutes with me and that's enough for a large margarita! As always though, it was much better than Kickboxing. I can really feel it in my legs, and I am thinking that I should take some body measurements, so six weeks from now I can tell if my legs are actually slimming down or if it's just my imagination. I didn't have a chance to talk to Brandy about it, but we'll see if she wants to make it our regular Wednesday evening workout.

What's the Point?

Jennifer made a comment on my post yesterday about my frutration with weight loss. She thinks that I am too worried about the number on the scale and not noticing that my clothes fit better and therefore I must be improving. Obviously it is pretty arbitrary that I picked out this weight-goal and I won't stop until I see the scale read that number. Whenever I tell people that I want to lose 10 more pounds they look at me like I am crazy. Often people say: you don't need to lose anymore. I just assume that they are being nice, or that they're jealous; and who are they to decide what I want to do with my body? Still, people say this so often that I sometimes worry that I have become obsessed about that number. And reading back through my blog entries about my ups and downs makes even me think that it's not worth the hassle to get my weight down that low. BUT, it's not like I picked some crazy low number that I want to become; I'm not trying to be 120 pounds. I just want to fall in the healthy range for my height. I just want to have a normal BMI. I just want to be healthy. I would be happy with average. And according to the scale I am not there yet.

On the other hand, Jennifer is right. I wear medium or small shirts at almost all stores. I can fit into a size eight dress and last week I almost bought a pair of size ten jeans (money was the only thing holding me back). That was my ultimate goal in this entire weight loss lifestyle. I can run at speeds and distances that I never thought I would be able to do. I am getting stronger every day. I take classes at the gym all alone which I don't do anywhere else in my life (things alone). I enjoy working out and the feeling that it gives me. I am more confident; I am healthier; I make smarter choices about food or recognize when I don't. Maybe I have suceeded already.

So, what is the point?

After jumping up a few pounds early in the week and staying there, I was not surprised that I had gained a pound this week. I am now back at that 13 pound mark that just loves me so much. The sad fact is, I didn't eat that poorly this week. Sure I had one margarita and some chips. Sure I enjoyed a few Chocolate Chip Cookies at our Saturday evening bookgroup. And yes, I had to buy some mini-halloween treats and ate a few. But I worked out eight hours this week. And this leads to weight gain? My life has become a roller-coaster of emotions regarding weight loss. I lose a few pounds I am happy, then I gain a few and am disappointed. With this wedding just five weeks away, I am thinking of taking drastic measures. The Special K diet? Boring. Starvation? Well I don't want to pass out while dancing. Perhaps good old fashion calorie restriction is the way.

Another great round of spinning tonight. Mixed with some great weight lifting afterward. Makes for a great night of workouts and a great start to the week. Begining tomorrow I am working 9-8 on Tuesdays. So this will be the day that I am most likely to skip a workout. However, now that I am in heavy training mode for my upcoming race, I am hoping to do a little running tomorrow. I am also dog-sitting, and Hannah loves to be my running partner!

Stealing Jen's Workout

Taking a hint from last Sunday's workout with Jen I ran more intervals tonight. My goal was to do the same thing we did last week: run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes for 24 minutes, plus a three minute warm up and cool down. This week I was on a treadmill and was able to control my speed, plus I wasn't tired from doing another workout prior to this one (although I was tired from working all day). I made sure each running interval was between 9:30 and 10:00 minute miles. It was difficult, and the two minute walk break wasn't ever enough. But I travelled more than two miles in the half hour workout which was pretty good.

I had met my mom at Gold's so we went up to the weight room and did some things. I am planning on going to BodyPower tomorrow, so I didn't want to do lot of weight lifting. But I showed my mom how to do lunges and I did several using a riser. Then I showed her lots of the moves we did last week in Butts n' Guts. So I worked my abs some more. After 30 minutes wasting time upstairs we went home. But it was a good workout to end the week. And it takes my total workouts to eight hours this week, which I haven't accomplished in months. Unfortunately, my weight has only gone up this week, so I have no optimism for my weigh-in tomorrow.

Good Progress

Yesterday's Running Goal: 3 miles

Accomplished: 3 miles in 35:06 (11:42 miles)
This was a difficult workout. It was rainy and windy and 49 degrees outside . Brandy met me for a late afternoon run, for which I am very grateful, because I never would have dragged myself outside alone. She did an excellent job of pushing me hard enough, without dragging me down the street. I actually had to stop for about 30 seconds of walking about half way through, but she made sure that I was right back to it. Even with the walking, and a stop to tie my shoe, and another brief stop to wait for traffic, I finished in 35 minutes. My goal was to do this three miles in less than 36 minutes, less than 35 next week and less than 34 on race day. It was a difficult 35 minutes, so I am not overwhelmed with assurance that next week will be any easier. But I do have a little more confidence that I might be able to do 34-ish minutes next week and 33 by race day. However, I will have to do the last one alone, and I need Brandy's motivation and encouragement to keep pushing myself. I still need to get my 4 mile (long run) scheduled for some day. I think that is key to making the three miles easier.

Also, my abs were in quite a bit of pain while running and afterward. Apparently butts n' guts did really work something. My lunch plans got altered slightly and we ended up eating at the mall. I chose Subway, because that's the best thing I have to control my portions and calories. Dinner was light as well. But I let myself buy mini-candy bars at Target last night and enjoyed at least five of them. But I have been craving chocolate forever. And after that run, I deserved some.

Nothing is Happening

Wednesday evening I attended spinning and BodyPower. Pretty much same-old same-old there. Last night, was my first Thursday off in a long while. I am now switching my ten hour work days to Tuesday, so I will getting off of work at 6:00 on Thursdays from now on. So I started this new lifestyle by taking the Butts n' Guts class. It had previously been taught by Steven, an instructor I didn't care for. Now it is taught by Liz, who is the kickboxing teacher that I don't care for (confused yet?). She was alright for butts n' guts though. She's by no means inspirational, and she doesn't push us super-hard. But my glutes were in some serious pain a few times during the 45 minute session. And today my obliques are a little sore, even though I didn't feel them while it was happening. I could see myself taking this class on a weekly basis. However, I don't want to commit to it so much that I don't allow myself to have a life. Technically Thursdays will be the only weeknight that I am free to do other things, so I must keep it open. Still, if I am just going to go home to sit on my butt, I might as well be working it off first.

The scale jumped a little earlier in the week and has refused to budge. How upsetting. I feel like there is nothing I can do, and that just encourages me to go eat more. For example, I am now off to meet some girlfriends for lunch, and I must make sure to get something healthy, but what I am wanting is chocolate. I even indulged in a Margarita last night, although I split a meal. Maybe that's why the scale isn't moving...

New Trail

Today's Running Goal: 4 miles
Modified Running Goal: 3 miles
Accomplished: 3 miles in 38:04
I made a great pact with myself that I would take my workout clothes to work, change into them at 6:00 there, walk down to the trail that is only two blocks from the library, and run four miles. I would then have time to drive home just in time for The Biggest Loser. Then I got Erin talked into running with me. She wanted to do only three miles since she hasn't run in two months. I figured that since I haven't run three miles in a row in two months either, that was probably plenty. So we did. We did walk about .12 miles right in the middle. And we didn't set any speed records, but we did the workout. My dad, who is by no means an athlete, but calls me three times a week since he has nothing else to do, claims that even though you lose your running skills so incredibly fast, you gain them back just as fast. So I am confident that even though I can only run three miles in 38 minutes, I will be down to 33 or 34 in just a few weeks.

I have never run on that trail next to work. It was beautiful and it was obviously a wonderful evening for an outdoor workout. I really should take advantage of that trail and walk on it during my lunch break. Or take more run opprotunities right after work. Too bad it will be cold soon.

My Salsa Chicken and Black Bean soup was so incredibly good. It had black beans, chicken, broth, salsa, corn and fat free sour cream. Delicious and Nutritious. It was so good that I ate two helpings; still only 500 calories though! And I will have enough left overs for three or four meals.

Not too Shabby

After a great week of weight loss and a weekend of being away from home I was still able to lose three pounds and maintain it throughout the weekend. Being down to 12 pounds to lose in six weeks gives me a lot more optimism. However, I know that there are going to be weeks of no loss. And it seems that all this wedding preparation involves eating un-healthfully. Fortunately, this week truly is a week that I have nothing "official" to do. I will be in my own house all week; eating my own meals, having time to workout. That is the recipe for good weight loss!

Tonight I went to Spinning; I am really starting to enjoy the Monday spinning routine. Nobody showed up for Kickboxing, which makes me feel a little bad for the instructor. But I hope that the gym realizes that Turbo Kick is NOT what we're interested in, and will bring back an instructor that can teach Combat. My knee hurt a little bit again in Spinning, but nothing that I couldn't work through. My thighs were sore from running yesterday and we seemed to concentrate a lot on thighs tonight. But I want to work my legs, and this is the answer. BodyPower seemed pretty easy this evening. I need to get back to using a large on the warm up. That seems to make the entire session seem just a little better.

I was craving Chinese food today, so I decided to make something at home. Chinese food is so fattening and bad for me, so I have to keep myself from indulging. When I want Chinese food, I am not hoping for lots of veggies in a light sauce. I am thinking deep-fried Orange/Sesame/General's Chicken. So I found a recipe for grilled Orange Chicken. It was easy, but didn't fill the craving. I also bought the ingredients for a healthy Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup. It will cooking all day in my crockpot tomorrow. I can't wait!

Running With Jen

Amazingly today was only the second time that I have ever had the chance to run with Jen. Once, quite a while ago, we both went to Gold's and ran on the treadmill, but that hardly counted. Today, Jen was in town to work things for Jennifer's wedding, and while she was in town, we took advantage of the workout-partnership. Jen is on a six-week return to running plan. She was technically a day behind. So first we did her Friday run: 1 minute run, 1 minute walk. We ran really fast and I was really proud of us. I think we were doing 9-minute miles at one point. You can go almost all out when you know that it's only gonna last one minute. We finished that day's plan easily and then moved on to her assigned Sunday run. Now realize that we were already a little more tired that we might have been, but this workout was hard. Sunday's goal was: run two minutes, walk two minutes. Again we started running pretty fast. But I soon lost steam; my 9 minute-miles soon turned into 11:30 minute-miles. Still it was a great workout. It was a beautiful day for running and I had great company!

However, each time I run, I grow more and more hesitant of this 31 minute goal that I have set up for myself in just three weeks. Maybe I should just run it for fun and try to do the best I can and not worry about breaking any records. I had to skip my four mile easy run this weekend because I was out of town for 'Aunt and Niece days'. When I stay with my aunt I tend to eat really healthy for most meals (she does let us eat much at all) but then we end up having two desserts later in the night. On Friday morning when I left I had made a great dent on my weight loss for last week (from 15 to 12) but we'll see what I am at tomorrow morning. Besides running with Jen, today was filled with Pizza, breadsticks, brownies and Cheetoes.

Ab-solutely Not

After 2.5 hours of gym time on Monday I felt like a train had rolled over me on Tuesday. Every muscle in my body hurt. But my abs were on fire. You don't realize how much you use your ab muscles until the pain is so excruciating that you decide okay, I don't really need to take a deep breath anymore. It hurts to cough, eat, twist, roll over in bed and walk. So you can imagine how much it hurt to run. But I don't even think that was the reason I failed.

Yesterday's Running Goal: 3 miles in 35 minutes
Accomplished: 3 miles in something like 43 minutes
I have a million excuses. 1) See the above muscle ache complaint. 2) I tripped over something that a customer had left on the floor and my foot really hurt. 3) I forgot how much harder it is to run while watching TV rather than listening to music. 4) I forgot how much more difficult it is to run on a treadmill. 5) I hit the wrong thing on my Ipod about half way through and it stopped timing me. So I didn't know exactly how far I had run or how long it had taken me. 6) I haven't run three miles since early August. 7) I haven't run three miles faster than 5mph since July. So trying to run three miles all of a sudden at 11:40 minute miles was near impossible. The first mile went alright, but then I just sort of fell apart. I took a drink break. Ran a little more. Then I let myself walk a little. Ran a little more. Decided to just finish with uphill walking.

Now I am pretty sure I won't be running ten-minute-miles in four weeks. So do I re-evaluate my training plan and aim for 11 minute miles. But I probably need a week to get into running again, before I load all of this on. I also need someone to push me. I wonder what Brandy is up to. She's training for the Omaha half Marathon right now, but after that is over next Sunday, she might be needing a few 'slow' three mile runs!

The 4 Week Plan

Four weeks from Sunday I want to run a 5k in 31 minutes. Two years ago I ran my first 5k (this same one) in 41:10. What a huge improvement this would be if I could actually pull it off. However, I don't have a lot of time to train. I am going to follow an aggressive plan, and we'll see if it leads to record breaking races. I will run three times a week:

Speed: Run three miles (Week 1 - 35 mins. Week 2 - 33 mins. Week 3 - 32 mins. Week 4 - 31 mins.)

Distance: Run 4 miles at an easy pace

Intervals: Run intervals at 6.0mph (Week 1 - 3/1, Week 2 - 4/1, Week 3 - 5/1, Week 4 - 6/1)

Abs of Steel

I tried something new this evening: Abs class! This class begins right at 5:00 so generally I can't make it when I get off work at 5. I was able to make it today though, so I took the opportunity. It wasn't impossible, but it wasn't easy either. I bet if I took it once a week I would really see improvements. Unfortunately my schedule won't allow that. It might allow me to take the Butts and Gutts class on Thursday evenings though.

After that I went to spinning. As I mentioned last week, I do not like the new Kickboxing class or instructor on Monday night. The Wednesday instructor is better, although it's the same aerobic (jazzersize) type class. I also like the Monday spinning teacher quite a bit. Again, it was a really good class. I was sweating and my legs were burning. My knee had a little tension in it, but didn't really hurt until I started doing squats in BodyPower. Because my legs were so tired I let myself go a little easy on squats. I will need a few weeks to work up to spinning and high leg weights. Overall an excellent evening of 2.5 hours of working out. Hopefully that will get the scale to shift down a little.

Good news: I don't have to work on Oct. 18th, so I am going to register for the Governor's Cup Race around downtown Lincoln and the Capital. My goal is to do the whole 5k in 31 minutes (10 minute miles). That is really lofty though, and I would settle for something like 33 minutes. My training begins tomorrow.

Good Food

Technically I haven't been home for a whole week since the 10th of August. Since then I have been doing a lot of dog-sitting mixed with the week and a half that was grandma's funeral and family time. Finally, I am home again with nothing on the horizon. So it was time I went out and bought some food. I spent an hour at Walmart and came away with only $41 worth of stuff (seven of which was toilet paper). Still, it was all nutrious things like yogurt and fruit and chicken and special K bars. I am ready to get back on the right path tomorrow. And begin my four-week-run-faster 5k plan. More to follow...

I was up celebrating (meaning gambling: the only way Grandma would want us to mourn her death) with my family until 2:30am last night. I rolled out of bed at 10:10 so I could make it to work this morning. I worked until 8:00 and went to the grocery store. Needless to say, I did not workout. But all starts anew tomorrow. Now I must catch up on some sleep!

Even Worse

I was at my mom's house all week but I thought that I was doing fairly well on my eat-healthy plan. And I knew that I was doing better at working out than I had been. But somehow I failed. I am blaming the three times I ate out between Thursday evening and Friday evening. And I will also blame the very decadent dessert I got Friday night at The Blue Orchid just because Shannon always gets dessert and it looks so good. Either way, my weight was up two pounds this week. Now I am looking at fifteen pounds that I want gone in just seven weeks. That's discouraging, and much worse than the thirteen in eight I was facing last week. I need to make a very good effort this week and it needs to start with eating well. I know that I work out well and have got the exercise part of weight-loss under control. It's the healthy eating, and eating out that I need to work on. It's so hard when people put chocolate and chips in front of my face. But sometime I must have known how to say no.

I have decided that I need a new workout goal, so I am going to run the Governor's Cup Race in October. This was the 5k that I did two years ago with Curtis. I have high goals for this time around. First, I will probably be running it alone, unless there are any running buddies out there wanting to sign up with me. Second, I hope to knock about 10 minutes off of my time. I will have to check, but I am pretty sure it took me 41 minutes last time, and I would be so proud of myself if I could do this next one in 31-33 minutes. However, it is just four weeks from tomorrow. No worries though; I am developing a plan. I already know that I can run three miles. And if I went out today and did it I could probably do it in 36 minutes easy. Not too long ago I did it in 32:50. I just need to work on running over and over and over. of course, this all depends on if I have that Sunday off of work. It's too late to ask for it, and too soon to know if I am scheduled. I will begin training anyway.

Changes

I knew that change was coming but I had taken a week and a half off and hadn't realized that the month was half over already. Mary can't make it to the gym by 5:30 so she isn't teaching Kickboxing any more. So now we have two new instructors, Liz on Mondays and Denise on Wednesdays. I guess what I didn't think about is that Mary does BodyCombat. These other people don't. They teach something called TurboKick. I think that you will remember this from my days of taking Kickboxing with Katie. It was alright, but it is very aerobic. It's hard to explain how that is different than Combat, which is very aerobic as well. But I felt like I was in an Aerobics class last night. There were steps to learn, no different songs for different workouts, and Oh-My-Goodness, there were claps. I don't know how much of that I can stand. Combat is about building muscle definition while sweating, and getting out your aggression. Also, the instructor was bad. She was more out of shape than me, and I need an instructor who inspires me, not who takes the low-impact route because she's out of breathe. I am going to give Denise a try tomorrow, and then I may re-evaluate which days I leave work early to workout. There is a Bootcamp class that I have never been able to attend because it's at 5:30 on Tuesday and Thursday. Perhaps I could convince my boss that I need to be off at 5:00 on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays.

BodyPower was very difficult as well. I lowered my weights on a few tracks: squats, triceps and biceps. I knew that it would be hard after taking a week and a half off. But it was really hard. Even with easier weights I was struggling through it all. But as I was lying there during the Chest routine, I was thinking how much better I felt about myself when I was active. All last week I couldn't get my behind off of the couch to workout and that just fueled my non-active lifestyle. I love how powerful exercise is.

Tonight I am watching The Biggest Loser and loving every minute of it. And it encouraged me to stop grazing on the strange snack foods my mom has around her house. And as soon as it is over Hannah and I are going out for a run. I'm posting it here so we actually have to do it.

Unlucky Thirteen

I am getting serious about this now. I was serious about it two weeks ago as well, but then dog-sitting and family deaths put a hijinks in that plan. When I stepped on the scale Saturday morning I was still at 13 pounds. It amazes me that that's the number my body gravitates towards. I can eat a lot of junk or work out a ton, but unlucky thirteen is right where it likes to stay. You might be thinking that this is my "happy-weight"; the place where I can maintain without killing myself. But you are wrong. In fact, I am pretty sure that I have more than 13 pounds to lose, but I won't know until I EVER get to that point. Again, I am dog-sitting for the week, but I am making sure to eat right and workout. I had a granola bar and water for Breakfast. For lunch I met Erin at Subway (always a good place to start) and I am headed to kickboxing and bodypower after work. My mom's house is stocked with fruits and lettuce and grilled chicken, and there seem to be no chips or chocolate in sight -- the perfect combination. The weather should be great as well, which should encourage Hannah and I to take plenty of walks and the occasional run. Jennifer's wedding is just eight weeks away. I might as well use that as my goal to finish. I am serious... here I come.

Back in the Running

I have taken an entire week off from working out. Last Sunday I took my dad's dog, Jeanie running. But since she's not used to it there was a lot of stopping to smell things along the way. So mostly it was just a walk. And it included a time when she stepped on a sticker and I had to pull them out of her paw, while she was trying to limp along, and I thought that I as going to have to carry a 90-pound dog back a mile. Anyway after a week of not working out and a week of eating poorly, I finally got back to it this morning. I am dog-sitting for my mom all week so Hannah and I got up (pretty) early this morning and went for a run/walk. I knew that I wouldn't be able to run for 30 whole minutes, since I haven't run successfully in such a long time. So my goal was to run/walk for 30 minutes one song at a time. I made it 28 minutes before I was home again and decided to stop. But I was still pretty tired. I averaged 15 minute miles, so I must have been going pretty fast both in running and walking. The few times I checked my mph I was going between 10:45 minute-miles and 11:20 minute-miles while running. I still burned slightly over 200 calories, so it was a fine workout. I had planned to go to Gold's later in the day to do some weight-lifting, but then it got later and later, and I plan on taking BodyPower tomorrow and don't need to be sore for that. I guess 30 minutes of exercise is better than none.

Grandma Wouldn't Want Me to Get Fat

I feel like I have been eating non-stop for the last week. Funerals and everything that go with it are depressing. And not being in my normal routine has thrown my eating and workout habits way off. And now I am having trouble (emotionally) getting back to my real life. But I need to remember that my grandmother would not want me to get fat for her. For most of my life my grandma was on a diet. Every summer that I would go up to visit her we would talk about how we were going to lose weight together. Seeing as I was 11, it was probably really sick and wrong! But the woman cared about vanity more than most things: she wouldn't go out of the house without a full application of makeup and designer clothes. So it's no surprise that as soon as she started gaining "grandma-weight" she had a difficult time dealing with it. Since I have recently lost weight, she was always so impressed and encouraged me to keep going. I am very proud of the fact that the last time she went out of the house (besides to the hospital) was the day I ran the Columbus Downtown RunAround, and she wheeled out to cheer me on! I need to get back to it. And that includes throwing away the brownies and muffins that my family sent home with me. And hitting the gym this evening.

Remembering Grandma

Because I was the baby of the family and born at least ten years after all my cousins, I sometimes feel like I missed out on a lot of family memories. I never knew my Grandpa Simpson and I never got to partake in the fun family memories they made while he was around. But I still able to know my Grandma for 29 years. And in the style of one of my favorite children's books: The Tenth Great Thing about Barney, I am going to list 29 things I learned and admired from my grandma!

1) Life is about having fun.

2) Everything tastes better with Chocolate.

3) It's perfectly fine to own two cabins on two different lakes.

4) At the same time you have a house with a pool.

5) Never leave the house without your makeup on.

6) A real woman never dies her hair.

7) But she bleaches her mustache.

8) Your toe nails should ALWAYS be painted.

9) Napping in the afternoon is mandatory.

10) Always wipe the top of your soda can; you don't know where that has been.

11) Marry the man of your dreams.

12) But make sure you have enough girlfriends to get you through the 34 years after he passes away.

13) Always play the same numbers in Keno.

14) If pants don't fit in the size you think you are, find different pants, don't ever change sizes.

15) It's easier to go to bed if you have a snack first.

16) Two words: Shag carpet!

17) Make sure to have a drink in your hands whenever a photo is taken of you.

18) Being a Rollerskating Princess in your teens is a pretty cool legacy.

19) Always keep bread by the door for the ducks.

20) Everybody loves cash for Christmas.

21) And their birthdays.

22) Call your best friend every morning at 10:30.

23) Don't touch the windows with your hands, they're a bitch to clean.

24) There something to learn by reading People, Us Weekly and In Touch every week.

25) Every penny counts.

26) Don't be afraid to beat your ten-year-old granddaughter in Gin Rummy, she'll never learn the value of winning otherwise.

27) People are impressed with a clean house.

28) When it's windy, wear a scarf over your hair.

29) Always eat Dessert first!

Ugh

This week is a prime example of how not having to work does not equate more time left over for working out. I ran once with Jeanie on Sunday. Then I was home Monday and Tuesday and didn't workout or go to the gym once. I am heading out of town soon, and won't be making it the gym this morning. As I go more and more days without working out it makes it harder and harder to make it a priority. And as I spend more and more time away away from the gym, I eat worse and worse. I have only gained two pounds which is impressive with the amount of junk food I feel like I have eaten since Friday. I have this "the viewing" tonight and will not be home in time to workout (unless I could get my dad to go for a walk with me, but that is a 0% chance). Tomorrow morning is the funeral; we have to be there at 9:00, and about eight of us have to get ready in the same house. So unless I get up at 5am, I probably won't get a workout in. I have no idea how the day will go. I assume after the funeral there will be a lot of relatives at my dad's house and excusing myself to go for a run might not be the most tasteful. These are relatives that I have not seen in at least eight years.

I talked to Jen last night. She is back from her Honeymoon and is now on her lose-the-wedding-weight-diet. Once this funeral/family crisis is over I will have to go on one of those.