My nightly indulgence

I have found myself going through phases where I just crave certain beverages. I have gone through a tea phase, orange juice phase, apple juice phase and for the past months I have been in a hot chocolate phase.

This all started when I saw spray cool whip on sale at the store. After the purchase, I raced home and made some. To be honest, the cup was filled mostly with cool whip. I drank many cups of spray cool whip with a side of cocoa. After buying multiple spray cans within weeks, I told myself that I needed to cut back or stop buying. I have since stopped buying it because I could cut back. I had to stop cold turkey!

When it comes to the cocoa itself, I have bought the cheapest cocoa and the flavored cocoa, but I now buy the diet 25 calories cocoa. Some nights I drink a few cups of cocoa, so I knew I needed to continue to be aware of the calories.

One of the last times I was out of town, I stopped at a fast food restaurant and purchased hot chocolate with skin milk. After I ordered the drink, I went to that restaurant’s website and found out that I was sipping on 400 calories. My mind was blown. Never again! I will make my own if possible.

Below is a picture of tonight’s cocoa. You'll notice I have stirred in some coffee creamer. I use coffee creamer and cocoa instead of buying the flavored (creamer) cocoa. Save the calories, without eliminating the flavor!

 

Sassy, Classy and Colorful

Last Saturday I ran in my first color run. For those of you that don’t know, during this untimed 5k run, volunteers throw color powder on you while you ran by.  

I knew that the color could stain my clothes, so I wanted to wear as much white as I could and just have fun with it. I wore a two white shirts, white shorts, colorful leggings and old tennis shoes. I rarely run without my mp3 player, and I knew this race would be one of those exceptions. So the mp3 player was left in the car. I started the race wearing white, but by the time the race was over, I was covered with blue, green, pink and orange powder. The color washed out of the clothes easily enough, but was still stuck on my skin for a while.  

 

It’ll be a while before I sport this running outfit again, but I wanted to be sassy and classy yet practical for this run.

I used this race to distress after all the preparation that I’ve done for the half marathon, that’s quickly approaching.

a love/hate relationship

I have a love/hate relationship with lunges and squats.

I hate lunges. I seem to always be off balance when I do them. I have a fear that I’ll start leaning to one side or the other, which results in me not going low enough.

I also am not a huge fan of squats, even though I do them quite often. I'm getting better at them though because I find that I push myself to go lower and lower.

Even thought my love for lunges and squats is limited, I still do them. I know if I just grin and bear it, eventually it’ll starting paying off and it already has. I noticed my bottom in the mirror a while ago and I saw that it’s changing shape. Instead of looking like a pancake, like it always has, it’s starting to look like I always wanted it to look.

It almost goes without saying, but now that I’ve seen these results I know I need to keep the lunges and squats in my exercise routine.

I love seeing the hard work pay off. It’s great motivation to keep going.

Scale-mania

Usually when I leave town, I take my scale along. This time I wanted to change it up. I weight myself every day and keep track of it on a calendar. I don’t dwell on what my weight is nor do I used my weight as the only form of success. I do like to be mindful of it though.

When I first was deciding on not taking it along, I immediately became nervous and uncomfortable. I felt like I was neglecting to pack something essential, but I wanted to put myself to the test. I told myself I need to remove the comfortable of knowing what my weight is daily and go with it. It was only for two days anyways. While I was gone I continued to eat healthy, drink a lot of water, exercise and write down my food portions. I didn’t crave into nighttime eating either, even thought I was tempted.

It was nice, in a way, to not have to worry about my weight. I told myself to continue to do what I normally would have, so if my weight didn’t change it would be okay.

The morning after I got home, I did weigh in and I actually lost weight while I was gone. I was down two more pounds!

Less than one month to go

I have less than 1 month until my first half marathon. I am really looking forward to accomplishing this next big milestone. I am not focused on my time at all, I know eventually I will run many more half marathon races, so I am only focused on running.

When I starting running, I was apprehensive that I could run a 5k. I signed up for the race and started training. I didn’t care how long it took to run the race, I just wanted to finish and I did. Since then I have ran many more 5ks and my time is now 10 minutes faster than when I started. When I signed up for my first 10k, again I was apprehensive. I was only focusing on running the distance. I have now ran 3 different 10k races and have time has improved by 5 minutes. I went into my last race with the same mentality. “Run the entire thing, no matter how slow or fast you go, just keep running." I know eventually I will run the 10 mile race again, so I will improve my time eventually. I just wanted to prove to myself that I can do the distance.

I’m starting to feel apprehensive about my half marathon, but I know I will be able to do it!