Not a Fan

I am not a fan of the Monday morning. I am especially not a fan after 5 days off work. The last three days we got later starts to our mornings than normal and I think I got a little bit spoiled. This morning the 4:45 a.m. alarm was brutal. I thought to myself "Well, at least it will still be cool for my walk." Not so much. The humidity was ridiculous and it was plenty warm already. At least there was a little bit of a breeze that helped.

I can not count the number of times I considered scrapping my walk and heading straight home this morning. It was just so tough to keep moving. My first mile was a good minute slower than my second and third. I always feel like I am moving along at about the same speed. Maybe what I am really feeling is the amount of effort I am making. I may be feeling the same effort, but the first mile it just takes more effort to get my sleepy body moving. Then by the second and third the body is working and I don't have to exert as much actual effort to move fast.

The highlight of my walk this morning was Bryan Adams. I hadn't been listening to my Pandora app for the first half of the walk. In an effort to drown out my internal whining, I finally put on my headphones. The first song was Summer of '69. How can that not make you feel at least a little better?  When I set up the "station" weeks ago I used Bon Jovi's Shot Through the Heart as the sample song. Since then I have walked and listened many miles and not once have I heard that particular song. Then this morning just as I was turning it off because I'd met up with my husband it came on :(  Being a good wife I turned off the music and chatted with my husband as we walked the last 4/10 of a mile home. Guess I will have to pull it up on YouTube to get my fix :)

Okay, I certainly don't want to be wishing my life away, but I confess I have been looking forward to the 4th of July for weeks. Starting with Mother's Day through 4th of July is a ridiculous "party" season for us.  We have numerous family birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day, anniversaries, graduations (some years). It seems like every weekend is booked.  This year it was even more challenging since we actually cared about what we ate. I think it was a bit of a wake up call how much we really do indulge without even realizing it. I found it a bit exhausting to be negotiating the calories of a special event or two every weekend.

Additionally, I felt like all my "treat" decisions were based on those parties. I would like a little more flexibility in choosing my "treats". For example, I am looking forward to being able to "afford" going out to breakfast again with my husband. It was kind of our thing to do on the weekend and we haven't gone since before "party" season. I didn't know how to make breakfast out work well with the calories I anticipated using later in the day.

Ready for a good weigh-in in the morning :)

Eating Out Challenge

This made me laugh.  I got up this morning a little before 5a to use the bathroom.  Then Millie started fussing that she wanted to go outside. I closed our bedroom door and took Millie outside.  Our dachshund (Zommie) was still in the bedroom.  Apparently she woke up my husband because she had been left behind.  While I am outside I see the light come on and go off in the room where Millie sleeps.  I figure my husband was just checking if I took her out.  I am outside waiting for Millie to do her business and I notice the bedroom light on and staying on.  I come back into the house to find my husband fully dressed and putting on is running shoes.  Turns out he woke up and found Millie and I gone.  He thought we went walking without him and was hurrying to catch up to us.  Funny how just a couple weeks of a routine and that is the first thought in his mind.  Not "Anna took the dog out to go potty," but "oh no they left to walk without me!!" Since he was already up and dressed we decided to head on out for a walk/run.  So much for sleeping in on a Saturday :)

The walk was mostly uneventful except for one scary moment.  I came around a curve and saw a big black dog sitting next to a driveway. It was just staring at me as though getting ready to pounce.  I moved Millie and I to the other side of the street and kept walking keeping alert.  Then the moment when I realized the big black dog was really just a car seat sitting next to someone's driveway.  Silly me!  It made me laugh though when I pointed it out to my husband the next time by and he said he thought the same thing his first time by.  Silly us!

Okay, I was super excited yesterday about how well I did at the restaurant.  Today was tougher.  My niece is looking for a wedding reception venue and we ate lunch at one she is considering.  I had a crab cake sandwich with sweet potato fries.  I will say it was very good...not just okay food that you eat cause it is in front of you...I enjoyed it. I did my best to log the calories in myfitnesspal - it cost me 820 calories. It is so hard to know calories on things you don't make for yourself.  If is is a chain restaurant you can usually find calories online.  I did plan ahead and eat light at lunch and planned a light dinner.  However, my in-laws invited us to dinner at our favorite Mexican place...how do you resist that??  We did make a plan though.  We split one of our favorite dishes Arroz con Pollo.  They make it will lots of veggies.  Again we did our best to calculate the ingredients and logged it.

Also since I didn't know we were eating dinner out I accepted a coconut cookie from a cute little cookie shop - my niece's fiance bought us each a cookie.  Seriously a few weeks ago I would have left with way more than one...they were only 70 cents and smelled insane.  Everyone else ate theirs right away (and I am NOT judging) but I decided to bring mine home and share it with my husband.  My thought was to save the treat for the end of the day and enjoy it.  My husband decided not to split is with me.  I split it in half and had him "hide" the other half for tomorrow.  Full disclosure...this was a big cookie, so half was probably the equivalent of a normal size cookie.  I ate it slowly and savored every bite. 

Not the best day, but I will give myself a little credit for being so cognizant of what I was eating and making better choices.  I will not let the need for perfection stand in my way...sometimes good is enough.  Including extra calories earned for walking today...I have 54 calories left of my allowance.  Going to bed before I decide to eat them...