what a year...

I hope you all enjoyed the special guest post from yesterday. Mike is already begging to do more. :)

Last night, we ran in the Foxhunt 5k race, a race that is one of my favorites. It is held downtown, which I love to run through, and after the race they have live music and beers. The concept of the race is also a lot of fun. The girls start running first. Then, after 3 minutes go by, they let the guys go. The point is for the guys to "catch" the girls. I guess it used to be called the "skirt chase race," but later changed to the fox hunt race. My goal last night was to make sure Mike couldn't catch up to me. :) Mission accomplished.

As always, Layne ran with us and she and I actually stuck together for most of the race. She got ahead of me by a few seconds at the end, though. Also, the REAL Elizabeth and Mark were there along with a few other friends.  Kind of a fuzzy picture, but here is the crew.

 
After the race, we all stayed to have our 2 free beers and get some dinner at Natty Greene's. I went with the Top Hat, which was a chicken salad sandwich and french fries. Since I am a major pig, I ate everything except my leftovers before taking a picture. Sorry!

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I have now been running in races for a full year, so I thought it might be fun to take a trip down memory lane, to see how far I have come. I ran my first 5k on April 19, 2011, and completed a 5k last night, exactly 1 year later.

My first 5k ever, the NCVAN, 2011:

Time: 33:30

Pace: 10:49

Being my first 5k, I didn't really know what to expect. I remember telling everyone my time, and they were all so impressed. I really liked this race since it went through a fun neighborhood downtown and it was a great feeling finishing for the first time.

Foxhunt 5k, 2011:

Carolyn Time: 34:33

Pace:  11:09

Mike Time: 30:48

Pace: 9:57

This was my worst time to date. I was pretty disappointed with my performance that day, since I actually did worse than my first race. It was a fun run, but you can tell by the picture how out of shape we both were. 

Gobblers Run 5k, 2011:

Time: 31:19

Pace: 9:45

I had really trained hard for this run, and my goal was to beat my personal best of 33 minutes. I was really happy I had achieved that goal, and enjoyed every last bite of my Thanksgiving dinner that day. Unfortunately, I didn't run again for a month or too, which put me a little back out of shape. 

Miles for Matt 5k, 2012:

Carolyn Time: 28:19

Pace: 9:08

Mike Time: 28:46

Pace: 9:16

Starting out 2012, I set a goal for myself to run a sub 29 minutes 5k. I really didn't think I would be able to do it in my first 5k of the year, but I did. I was certainly ready for this run, and was really, really happy with my time and pace. And that I beat Mike. :) 

Cary Road Race 10k, 2012:

Carolyn Time: 54:22

Pace: 8:45

Mike Time: 53:30

Pace: 8:37

Another goal I had for 2012, was to complete an 8k. I went a little above that and completed my first 10k just last weekend. I was extremely nervous for this race, but completely shocked myself finishing with such a great time. 

Foxhunt 5k, 2012:

Carolyn Time: 26:35

Pace: 8:34

Mike Time: 25:14

Pace: 8:08

Scroll up to this race from last year... then scroll back down to this time and photo. I am blown away by the difference. Not only do we look SO MUCH DIFFERENT, but our times are amazing. Last night I ran my fastest 5k to date, shedding almost 8 full minutes off of my time. Mike also ran his fastest 5k, dropping over 5 minutes off of his time since last year. If this isn't some inspiration, I don't know what is. 

Since we are talking about my New Year's Resolutions, maybe I should look at what else we can check off of that list. Here it is, copied directly from my post in January.

2012 Resolutions - I have a bunch:

• Get to church more - we fell in love with a church, but just haven't had/made the time to go very often. I would like to make more time for that this year.  - we have been really involved with our church this year, we joined and I was baptized. I would say we are doing really well with this one.
• Date night every week for Mike and I. - Sadly, we have not done a very good job with this one. We are going on a date night tonight though! More on that below!
• Shop more - that sounds like a bad resolution, but I have a problem where I won't shop for months on end, then I will be so far behind in the things I need and can't ever get caught back up. I would like to set aside a little money each paycheck to put in a shopping fund. That way, my wardrobe will be up to date. - While I have not really done a good job of creating a shopping fund, I think we have been shopping more this year, and with the weight loss, we have had to go buy new and updated clothes, so this one is iffy.
• Update my iPhone more - now that I have a new phone, I want to keep it up to date and current. - I have been updating my phone every month, getting pictures removed and onto our laptop to keep it clean! Whoo Hoo!
• Stay home more - I have a bad habit of planning tons of mini-trips to see family and friends. As much as I love doing this, we need to spend more time at home, enjoying what Raleigh and our area has to offer. - We spent the entire month of January and February, at home! March was a little crazy, and we have a few weekends of out of town coming up, but we have definitely been better about this one.
• Pay off debt - we have a really great plan for our debt pay-off and I really want us to stick to it.- This has been tough with the massive amount of plane tickets and weddings we have going this summer, but we are still trying!
• Savings - we also have a good plan for our savings, but we haven't been very good about sticking to it, so this year, I hope we can do that.- See directly above.
• Finish re-decorating our downstairs.  - We did get some of our wedding pictures framed, collage put up in our foyer, and made some fun art for the bathroom. The rest is still waiting...
• Continue with my goal of losing 25 (now maybe 30) lbs by the end of next summer. Get to the gym more, continue eating healthy.  Officially 15 lbs down since the start of this blog, completely out of size 10 pants, and only 10 lbs to reach my goal by the end of the summer. Definitely on track with this one. Plus, Mike is now on board!
• Run a sub-29 minute 5k race  - CHECK!
• Run in an 8k race - I see your 8k and raise to a 10k and CHECK!

Overall, I would say I am doing really well for it only being April!!!! 4 months in and the majority of my goals are practically met!

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Tonight, Mike and I are going on a date. We do a lot of date nights at home, where we make dinner, get a redbox and just hang out, but it is pretty rare that we actually go out to eat and go to a movie or do anything else without meeting up with friends first.  Usually, that is fine with us, but it will be nice to go at our own pace tonight.

We really wanted to celebrate the fact that Mike won the challenge, so we thought tonight would be a perfect night. In true Mike fashion, we are heading to Buffalo Wild Wings (fancy establishment) to eat dinner and then we are going to see American Reunion! I am sooo pumped about seeing this movie! 

I feel like the American Pie movies are my generation's Animal House. They are like OUR movies. The characters in those movies were at the exact same stage of life as I was when they came out, and American Reunion is no different. Most of us (hush, Layne and Elizabeth), have either already had our high school reunion or are getting ready to.

I remember laughing so hard at American Pie and American Wedding, so I am so excited to see American Reunion. CAN NOT WAIT!!

Well, I think this blog post is long enough, don't you? Time to get to work, and count down the hours until I get to head home and go on a fun, relaxed date night with the hubster. I think I am most excited that I don't have any reason to get dressed up, since we are going to a casual dinner and a movie. Since this is Mike's celebration, he wouldn't have it any other way, and neither would I.

Hope you all have a fantabulous weekend! 

Yesterday's Stats:

Calories (-) 115

Sodium (+) 15

Protein (-) 16

cheeseburger, with a side of cheeseburger

 

 And now, a special guest post from my husband....

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Hello Blog Readers!!

I’m sure everyone is ready to hear about the competition and my strategy for losing 19.4 lbs. and 10.3% of my body weight in 6 weeks. Never fear, as I will absolutely talk about the past 6 weeks and how I truly believe they changed my life forever. A lot of people have said to me over the last couple of days how I should be so happy we did this competition. Of course, they are right. This competition and the chance to win $600 doing something I needed to do anyway, was the kick in the ass I needed to get going in the right direction. Though, I probably would not have had to do the competition had I just listened to my wife all along. Had I listened to her, I certainly wouldn’t have had as much weight to lose. We have a joke in our house that if I just listened to her, I wouldn’t have nearly the problems I find myself having. Sadly, most of the time this is less of a joke and more of a true statement. I will get back to the competition in a minute, but first, a few things…

It’s funny really. My wife has been blogging about healthy living now for almost a year. In addition to that, she has truly lived a healthy lifestyle. She works out, she eats well, and she is conscious of the decisions she makes in regards to her health. I’ve watched her put all of her food into her phone for the day (as we watched TV at night) to determine how many cookies she could have. Meanwhile, I would eat cookies until they ran out. Have you ever eaten so many cookies you had to get more milk? You literally had to stop eating cookies to get a refill on milk because you had ALREADY EATEN SO MANY DAMN COOKIES?

Typing this out makes me wonder two things. How did my wife stay strong when despite being vocally supportive of the changes she wanted to make in her life I provided no REAL support for her? And, How did it get to this point? The first one is a tough one. How does one stay on a healthy path when their partner is pulling them off of it whenever possible? Carolyn only needed to mention 5 Guys burgers or B-Dubs wings and we would be there. It is amazing to see that despite all of this, she has been able to start hitting her goals. I can only imagine how much quicker it would have been had she had more support from me. 

My second question is how had I gotten to this point?  I was once pretty athletic, I loved the gym, and I didn’t eat like an absolute moron. Sure, I wouldn’t say I ate healthy because that would be a lie, but I understood portions. I was running businesses at the young age of 21 and working a lot, so going through a drive thru wasn’t uncommon. Then one day, portions stopped mattering. Furthermore, what little free time I had wasn’t going to be spent at the gym. Drinking with my buddies was much more fun than running on a treadmill. So it went on like that. Instead of a burger and fries it became a burger and a side burger. Then it became a burger and a side burger AND fries. Then it became 3 tacos and 2 burritos when we went to Taco Bell. Why not? They are little! I’ll get the ones with chicken! And we all know anything that has chicken in it is healthy. I work hard and I should enjoy myself! 

Not sure who's photo this is, but it sums up the above statement quite well.

I ignored all warning signs because who wants to pay attention to those? I couldn’t run a mile anymore. Even when we went to the gym and lost weight for our wedding I didn’t do any cardio. I didn’t need it I would say to myself, "I want to get built! Cardio makes you lose muscle mass!" So the fact that I couldn’t run wasn’t a sign of anything bad, so I thought. I had been getting regular chest pains (absolutely heartburn) and  I would wake up in the morning gagging. My stomach was always upset, my clothes fit like shit, I literally lost my chin. No worries, I would think. This happens with age. Even when my doctor told me that at the age of 28 I had elevated  sugar levels, I dismissed it. 

Carolyn tried to help with some tough love. As I would open my 2^nd cheeseburger she would mention how sad it was going to be raising our children alone. That may seem drastic, but it was true. I thought, "I wasn’t that big right?"  Even at my largest, I was right at 200lbs. That’s not enormous for a guy who pretends to be 6ft tall? Right? She certainly had a point. If I take after my Dad's side of the family, it isn’t a question of whether I will die of a heart attack, but when. Should I really be tempting fate like this? Then, for no other reason than the prospect of having $600 extra dollars, I decided to give change a shot…   

I weighed in for our competition the day after returning from our trip to Snowshoe. This annual trip is my favorite of the year. What a great group we have going each year, it is so much fun. But, it also probably the most unhealthy 5 day binge one could possible be a part of. I think I literally drink every minute I am awake while there. I f you see me in Snowshoe, come up and say hello.  I am sure to give you one of the extra beers I have in my pocket. I won’t even begin to describe the food we eat since Carolyn has already done that in previous posts. I weighed in at 187.6lbs in our initial weigh in. I was actually pretty happy about that since I was certain I would be back in the 190’s. Since the wedding, I have kind of hovered in the high 180’s to mid to low 190’s. 

It’s worth pointing out that at my wedding, I was in the high 160’s. This was due to a combination of not eating and stress and was in no way related to some type of positive change I had made in my life. This was proven when I returned home from the honeymoon and I was over 10lbs heavier. 

 

Anyway, I immediately assumed that to win this competition I would need to lose 10% of my body weight. This was a winner take all competition, so anything short of that would simply not do. I decided that I needed to do two things:  run a lot and listen to all of the crap Carolyn has been saying about food and portions. To defend myself, I love fresh food. I love to make things from scratch. Though she may not admit it, a lot of the pictures on this blog came from food I made while Carolyn was on her way home from work. What the pictures don’t say is the AMOUNT of the food I would then eat. I recognize that meals made from scratch are better than those handed to you through a window. What I didn’t realize was HOW MUCH better they were.

Carolyn downloaded the MyNetDiary app to my phone right away. She wanted to make me conscious of what I was eating. Boy did it work. I had no idea. I recommend this app to anyone looking to make a positive change. Knowing just how bad something is for you is key to training yourself to not want it. I now know that my daily Snickers bar was adding 260 calories to my intake. 260! It also helps you set goals and track how you are doing in achieving them through your food. Nutrition has got to be like 70% of any weight loss program. It is THAT important. At first, lowering my calories was tough. I had cravings that before I would just eat to satisfy, but now, I had to work through them. I started to find that going to bed at night and knowing I was under my calories for the day was a much better feeling than eating a candy bar at 230pm. 

I also started running. A few days a week, at first, just to get some cardio in. It was brutal. I couldn’t go a mile. I couldn’t break 10 minutes. I couldn’t keep up with my wife. It hit me how far I had fallen when we went for a run one night and she was ½ mile ahead of me pretty much the entire time. She would have to go into cul-de-sacs just to waste time so that I could catch up. All the while, Franklin would be running beside her, looking back every few minutes and probably thinking, “Looks like Daddy is about to die”. He was right. I was dying. Sadly the only thing that would provide me with motivation was the thought of winning $600. I powered through it. Then, a funny thing started happening. I started to lose weight. Eating well and running daily seems to be a magic formula for weight loss! 

March, 2012 - just after starting the competition

I started to get faster and stronger. My breathing was easier. I was almost able to keep up with my wife and my dog. I ran a 5k with my wife and our friend Layne and they barely beat me (I consider this to be a win). Then I kept running more and more. 10 miles per week, 15 miles per week, 20 miles per week and I was loving it. I felt worse when I didn’t run than when I did.  The pounds just started coming off, 183, 181, 178, 176, 174, 172, and I kept getting smaller and smaller. No more heart burn. No more gagging. When we went out with friends, I ate human sized portions. I only had a few beers. I have always been worried about the social aspect of change. My entire life I’ve been Mike the funny guy who drinks beers and says funny stuff and does funny things. What if I wasn’t that guy anymore? Turns out, it wasn’t the beers I drank that made me funny, it was the beers that others drink! 

 172 lbs soon became 170, then 168. I ran a 10k the week before the final weigh-in and I finished (by my count) in 51 minutes. 51 minutes for over 6 miles? I couldn't believe it. I remember driving home that day and realizing something. I had already won. Sure, the money would be great, but I didn’t have to win cash to know I had achieved victory. For the first time in a long time I made the right decisions for my health. I remember thinking that day that I hadn’t joined a competition. I had changed my life. 

Last week, 3 days before the last weigh in

 Shortly before the last week of the competition, a couple of my best friends and I, decided to train for a marathon. Me? A marathon runner? I guess we will see. But why not? If I have learned anything these past 6 weeks it’s that doing the right thing is hard sometimes, but if I really want something there is no reason to think I can’t do it. Six weeks ago I couldn’t finish a mile. If and when I finish this marathon training, I will have logged almost 900.

I’ve learned that I am capable of more than I once gave myself credit for. I have learned that I love running. Oh ya, and I’ve learned I should have just listen to my wife all along.

Ahhh... true love. Thanks to Tereasa for this gem.

Thanks for reading this long story. Sorry about that, but I just had a lot of thoughts to get down. Maybe if I promise to shorten it I will get to blog again sometime and I can let you know my progress on the training…

champagne problems

On Sunday morning, everyone was dragging a little from the late night karaoke-ing. Mike and I attempted to make it to church, but when we were pulling in at 11:10, I just wasn't in the mood to sneak into a pew after things had already gotten started. We decided, instead, to go for a run.

Oh, did you not hear that correctly? We went for a run the day after a 10k. Yeah, we are some serious people now.

I never really thought I would get to that point. But now, going a day without some type of exercise is just unusual. Since we rarely get the chance to go running anywhere but our neighborhood, I took full advantage on Sunday. Plus, with Mike being so interested in the healthier lifestyle lately, it makes it so much easier to get off the couch, and get moving. I am not allowing him to ever go back to his old ways. Ever.

We headed to Shelley Lake, a local lake with a trail around it. One of our friends had told us about it, so we decided to give it a try. We only wanted to do 2-3 miles, since we were pretty sore, so we did 1 loop around the water.

I think the total amount was 2.06 miles, which was plenty for the both of us. It was a pretty nice run, with the weather being breezy and not too hot.

Our hamstrings are really sore from Saturday, so I don't think we could have gone much longer than what we did.

After our run, we ran a ton of errands. Mike needed his hair cut, so I browsed the shopping center while he was doing that. We also had to make the usual stop at Target, where I got some new running socks and Mike got some new work socks.

After running over 6 miles on Saturday, I realized I needed something better in the way of socks. I had some serious blisters on my toes, and I think it is because I don't wear thick enough socks. It felt like when my feet would sweat, there was nothing to absorb that, so I got some moisture wicking socks.

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As you know, I have officially gone down a full size in my pants. I can still wear a lot of the same shirts, because I have always been kinda small on the top, but I am getting a little tired of looking like a slob at work. I feel like I don't want to leave my desk because my pants are so saggy and look ridiculous.

I was telling my friends about this problem over the weekend and felt like the term "champagne problems" fit perfectly. Let me pull the definition straight from Urban Dictionary for you...

Champagne Problems - 

A problem or dilemma that, when compared to issues of poverty, national disasters and war, are not all that big of a deal, but nonetheless provide individuals with issues that must be dealt with.

An issue that must be dealt with is right...  Mike and I headed to the mall for a few new pairs of pants for me, and since we were there, Mike found a few new pairs as well. And, some new shirts. haha. He is in need of new clothes too, since his pants and shirts are looking quite saggy since he has lost weight. I told him there is no turning back since we just bought new clothes, we are going to keep this up! 

Express is our go-to place for work clothes. Their clothes just seem to fit Mike and I both very well, they aren't very expensive, and they are easy to wear, without being too fancy or casual. It helps that they are constantly sending out coupons and always have a  pretty good clearance rack to pick from too. 

We should have done a little fashion show to post on the blog... 

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Foam Roller Love... 

I have been reading healthy living blogs for a long time, and I always see the foam roller make an appearance. I had never tried one out, but after running that 10k on Saturday, I felt like a rolling pin to my hamstrings would be the most amazing feeling ever. I gave the foam roller a try at they gym yesterday, and skipped out on any kind of cardio, and my legs feel so awesome.

Here is a good guide to how to use one. I pretty much just did the hamstring pose, which felt so great. 

Source

I think I will be needing to buy one of these things to keep on hand soon. I think it would be great to have before going to bed and immediately after a run.

I am going to try to get in a 3-4 mile run today after work, before heading to the hospital. We are running in a 5k on Thursday evening, so I don't want to give myself too long of a break.

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We are currently awaiting the results of Mike's work weight loss challenge... Although I would love for Mike to win, I feel like this has been a great way to jump start his journey, and we are really happy with what it has done for the both of us. Mike has been educating himself so much on eating better, working out, and running, I think this is a lifestyle change he really wants to stick with. From what I hear, a lot of people who did this challenge with him feel the same way. No matter who wins, I hope everyone is really happy with their success.

Yesterday's Stats:
Calories (-) 109
Sodium (+) 905
Protein (-) 7

trial run

I'm back!

The last 2 days have been very long and busy, so I am really glad to be back to my normal schedule. Yesterday, my day started at 6:00 am and I worked until 6:00 pm. It was such a long day. I came home yesterday, immediately changed into my pajamas, and then vegged out on the couch until I went to bed at roughly 8:45 pm. I don't think I was awake past 9:00.

I woke up this morning around 7:30, thanks to some hyper dogs playing around my bedroom. Unfortunately, Mike had to go back to his hometown for a funeral, so he wasn't there this morning, so I was on my own.

So, for the past 2 days, I have been back and forth between a few buildings, eating complete crap, and getting through some boring, but needed training.

On Tuesday, after a run on the treadmill, I had a yogurt parfait for breakfast with greek yogurt, thawed out cherries and berries, and pumpkin flax granola. I also had some thawed out mango chunks on the side.

In between breakfast and lunch, I probably had 3 or 4 spoonfuls of chocolate chip cookie dough almond butter, which reminds me... take that jar of almond butter home so I can't snack on it all day!

I rode over to the training with a co-worker, and we decided to grab some lunch on the way. We ended up at Chick-Fil-A, which tasted amazing, but was certainly not the best choice for me. Later on in the day, I needed a chocolate fix to pick me up, so I got some Peanut M&Ms from the vending machine.

We were promised breakfast yesterday morning since we had to be at training so early. The only option was donuts, so I decided not to partake. Instead, I had a banana and some cheese and whole grain crackers to tide me over until lunch. By the time our lunch arrived, I was starving!

The lunch that was ordered was from Bear Rock Cafe, which is one of my fave cafes that I used to frequent while in college. I haven't been to one in years, so I was pretty excited about having a sandwich yesterday. They just ordered several items from the menu and allowed everyone to choose what they wanted. I went with the Colorado Turkey, which was basically a turkey club with raspberry chutney on a flat bread. It was really good, but after looking at the nutrition facts, I will probably not be ordering that again. I ended up just eating half the sandwich, and saved the other half for today's lunch.

It has a TON of sodium, and the calories were pretty high as well. Oh well, I guess as long as it is only every once in a while, I can manage.

My dinner last night was simple, but delicious. I wanted dinner to be easy, so I could get to bed early and get some TV time in as well. I made 2 eggs with a side of sauteed vegetables. Swiss chard, yellow bell pepper, onions, and tomato. It was awesome. I think I have found a new vegetable love as well - swiss chard. It was so good! I actually liked it better than spinach, which spinach has always been a favorite of mine, so that is pretty impressive. It has a really good flavor, and it was really tasty sauteed.

I meant to have my eggs over medium, so I could use the yolk as a sauce of sorts. They broke while I was cooking them, but there was still plenty of yolk by the time I sat down to eat, so it turned out fine. I also had a piece of honey wheat toast to load up with eggs and veggies. 

I was feeling pretty crappy about not working out at all yesterday, so I went for a run this morning after taking care of the dogs. I took a big chance by allowing Franklin to stay out of his cage while I was gone. We try to allow him these "trial runs" to see if he is getting anywhere near the point of being able to stay out of the cage. I made sure all the cords and paper were up off the floor, closed all the doors upstairs and to the bathroom downstairs, and tried to hide anything I thought he might get into. Then I headed out the door, telling him (and Deluca) to be good.

I had a great run this morning. It wasn't as fast as I would have liked, but the weather was amazing. I had the Avril Lavigne Pandora station blaring in my head phones, since I enjoy listening to man hater, chick music when I really need to get myself moving, and it was working pretty well.

I did a hilly 4 miles and then a nice cool down walk, just as I remembered Franklin being out of the cage.

Considering I was only gone for 40 minutes, I would say he isn't quite ready to be sans cage anytime soon. This rug normally sits in our foyer, and he dragged it out into the living room, probably to tease Deluca with it. I am sure Deluca just shook his head, without giving any kind of warning what kind of trouble he would be in when I got home.

Franklin doesn't take scolding very well. If you yell at him, he pees. So I try not to yell at him in the house. Then again, if I yell at him outside, of course he doesn't pee. I brought the rug outside to yell at him, he tucked his tail for a second, but then came running back over to me, wagging his tail, hoping I would pet him. He is such a crazy dog. Good thing that rug wasn't expensive!

 
Mike Update:

Since I know you are all probably wondering how Mike has been doing on his weight loss, I figured I would give you a little update. He is doing really well and has lost quite a bit since starting everything. He attempted a juice fast this week, which I find a little extreme, but he had to cut it short due to heading back home yesterday.  But, even without me there to push, he sent me an awesome picture from a run he went on this morning with his friends. I am really proud of him and hopes he keeps it up!

Yesterday's Stats - they aren't pretty

Calories (+) 1116
Sodium (+) 1786
Protein (+) 8

high risk

I am currently researching how I am consuming too much saturated fat. I am not quite sure why every.single.day. mynetdiary tells me that I am consuming too much. I know that you should keep your saturated fat less than 10% of your total calories and if you are at high risk, you should keep it less than 7%. I treat myself as if I am high risk.

I have a strong family history of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. The odds are stacked against me. I would like to do everything I can to reduce my risks of developing those same ailments, so I treat everything as if I am high risk. I, myself, have had high LDL levels (bad cholesterol), along with high blood pressure (which is now normal).

Saturated fat comes primarily from meat, dairy, and eggs. Yes, I drink a lot of milk... but it is skim, no saturated fat there. Cheese, of course I eat cheese, but not at every meal, and I always portion it out correctly according to the label. It is true that I eat a lot of eggs, but an egg only contains 1.5g of saturated fat, which is not very much.

The only logical reason I can come up with for my saturated fat always being too high, is my calorie reduction. Since I am only consuming 1500-1700 calories per day, the few items I consume that do contain saturated fat make up for a larger percentage. Anyone have any thoughts on this? 

They sky last night was pretty incredible while Mike and I went for a run. I was not feeling too great after my run and felt completely out of shape. I was running incredibly slow and felt out of breath and heavy the entire time. I hope I remember this feeling before consuming way too much alcohol and crappy food on our next vacation. I feel like I need a cleanse. Or my running buddy back. :(

I did get to use my new Nike+ GPS app that my sister recommended to me. I love this app so far. I love that it talks to me and lets me know my status. I love that it plays my playlists within the app so I don't have to manipulate 2 apps while running. I also love that you can provide feedback from your route so you will know how you felt during the run and add any notes in.  I haven't played with it much more, but so far, I am really digging it. It seems to have a lot of fun features that will help me to improve in my running.

I was really excited that Mike was so interested in going for a run last night. He actually out ran me and didn't stop to walk at all. I think if you have ever read this blog, you know that Mike is a pretty great guy. He lets me make the most random dinners and just goes with the flow when I decide I want to purge our house of any junk, sugar filled foods, or meat. He eats whatever I make and mostly eats what I pack him for lunch. But, he cheats. He will get fast food when I am working at the hospital, never eats breakfast, and drinks soda more than I would like. He doesn't really listen to me when I try to explain portions or calorie ratios. He doesn't exercise very much and usually will turn around long before me when we go for a run. That may all be changing.

Apparently, there is a teensy weight loss competition going on at his work, and he is pretty determined to win. I am all for it, since he is actually listening to what I say now. :) His dinner portion was the same as mine last night and he got up this morning to make himself a smoothie for breakfast. He packed himself a pretty nutritious lunch with lots of veggies and fruit and agreed to a bland dinner of grilled chicken, asparagus, and cabbage. He also downloaded mynetdiary and is asking all kinds of questions about it and really using it like he should. I don't really care if he wins or not, I just hope this competition never ends.

After our run and a quick dinner of eggs and toast, Mike and I parted ways for a little men and ladies night with a group from church. Since we are pretty new at this church, we don't know a lot of the people and were invited to join a group of young adults our age. Mike and the boys headed to a bar for beers and trivia while the ladies went to one of the couple's house for soup and chatter. I am usually really shy (although you would probably never know it) and uncomfortable around people I don't know, so I was pretty proud of myself for walking into a house full of people I had never met before and striking up some conversation. Mike had it easy going to a bar, ordering his favorite beer, and using his amazing useless knowledge skills to get to know the other guys.

I got home a little after 9 and packed up my lunch and breakfast for today. I finally had some extra bananas lying around, so I added that to my breakfast cookie. It made this cookie 10 times better. I had to eat it with a spoon, since it was not really formed enough to pick up, but it was pretty amazing.

Looks so gross, but tastes soo good!

I also had a chobani and apple for the remainder of my breakfast when I got to work. I am trying to keep my sodium really low these next few days since I am still feeling swollen from all the drinking. I need to flush my body of all that retained water!

Hope you have a great day!

Yesterday's Stats:
Calories (+) 406
Sodium (+) 1537  *Chinese Food
Protein (+) 14