Product Review

Because it's 9:30pm and BOTH BOYS ARE ASLEEP IN BEDS. Yes. We did the sleep training stuff with the baby over the long weekend and lots of prayers and whatever other magic happened and he got with the program within 20 minutes the first night. Since then it's been amazing. He cries for not even 5 minutes and is out for up to SIX HOURS. Yes. He slept for SIX HOURS the other night.

Anyway, for Mother's Day my mom gave me a Fitbit One. She asked me to research Fitbits for her, and when I compared and contrasted them online we came up with the two most useable ones. She kept one, and gave me the other one. I waited an entire month to write this just to make sure I loved it as much as I thought I did.

And I do. I love that I can see my steps during the day. I love that I can stuff it in a pocket while I'm doing massage (although it doesn't count massaging as "stepping" so that's a bummer). I TOTALLY love the app that I'm addicted to where I input all my foods and water for the day and it automatically tracks my calories in vs calories out. I've never been good at counting calories. And maybe I'm still not great at it. But it's been amazing for me to see what foods I eat a ton of for almost no calories (air-popped popcorn anyone??) and what foods I indulge in that cost me an entire day of walking (french fries are the DEVIL). I'm a numbers person, so I'm totally motivated by thinking about the calorie deficit I need to maintain in order to lose weight.

So far I've lost 6lbs this month.

The saddest part is realizing that the old saying of "weight is lost in the kitchen" is completely true. I once ate french fries for lunch and figured I would just walk them off later. Nope. 3 miles later I wasn't back to baseline. Food is SO much easier consumed than burned.

I'm still not running, so getting the 5 miles (about 10,000 steps) a day is really hard. Luckily, when I sit on the exercise ball to soothe the baby it thinks I'm walking, so I can get a few extra steps in that way. I don't feel like it's cheating since bouncing takes a lot of coordination and core strength.

Wow. A coherent blog post. See what happens with sleep and a quiet house??? I may run for president next.

Packing List

There are lots of reasons why I packed my gear for an indoor run on a treadmill this afternoon. I pack myself often, so I didn't think twice that I had everything.

Dude(s). I forgot the sports bra. All I had was the cotton one I wore to church. And I'm not sure about any of you... but I did NOT want to try a 5 mile run in a regular cotton bra. I thought about scrapping the whole plan, but that would leave me 5 miles short for the week!!

Sigh. I decided to walk it. Ugh. Walk 5 miles on a treadmill. I calculated it would take... scientifically.... forever to walk 5 miles. About 0.5 miles into it, I changed the plan. I decided to walk for an hour, see how far I got, and just call it a day.

And THEN.... THEN?!?!?

Nike+ had my pace at 11:40/mile. Hahahahaha!! The treadmill was set to more of the 15 minutes per mile, but Nike+ decided my short little legs and quick long arms were going much faster than that.

After an hour, Nike+ registered my 5.0 mile run. The treadmill read 3.5 miles.

Voting time!!

Do I take the 5.0? Or the 3.5 and just make it up next week?

Stop Running

What?!

Yeah, I know. That's insane. Crazy. Who on Earth would ever Stop Running?

Uh, me, I guess.

What's the deal? A doctor (man, these doctors) looked at me and explained that the circulation/blood/heat issues I'm having aren't going away and we've changed everything else except the running. So now it's time to change the running. She says that I need to walk every day for 30 minutes. I'm supposed to resist the urge to break into a run, and not take any days off. Less of a 'streak' and more of a 'smear'.

This means that the 1/2 marathon I've signed up for (and raised $800+ for the American Cancer Society for) is off the books this year. I'm still going to the event, still suiting up and possibly wearing the bib around, but I'm not running it.
Have you seen the shirt that says:

FDL (finished dead last)
is better than
DNF (did not finish)
is better than
DNS (did not start)

I'm not starting this one. And it sucks. It sucks just typing these words and making it official. Plus, this is stressful. And how do we handle stress? Apparently, with a 2 mile, 30 minute walk.