Pre-race jitters

I can not believe that the half marathon is tomorrow.  Have I mentioned how much I hate running?  Ironic I know, I am fairly certain that once this bucket list bullet is checked off I will not be doing any distance running for a very long time...and let me just clarify anything over 5 miles is "distance" running in my opinion, so while I won't be running those I don't mind short spurts like 5ks every now and again, in fact I am thinking that I am built more for those to begin with.  After all of this training, and lets be real I didn't even fully do the "training" every week. I skipped an 8 miler a few weeks ago due to horrible winds and my reluctance to run on the treadmill that far, I am ready to get my body out of "fight or flight" mode.  I definitely feel a lot more exhausted after putting my body through the ringer, I prefer weight training and HIIT workouts far more than this!  The injury associated with these runs has been ridiculous, I have fallen and skinned my knees 3 time (yes my knees look like the knees of a careless 5 year old boy), and I strained my left foot on the last mile of the 10 miler last Sunday, so that means I had to "take it easy" all week, and I do not "take it easy" very easily I hate sitting still!  Sorry about the rant, and if you are a distance runner well I am impressed with your stamina, but it is not for me. 

Outside the Box: SnickerDoodle Cookies...In appreciation for all th...

Outside the Box: SnickerDoodle Cookies...In appreciation for all th...: So this week is teacher appreciation week and I had yet to show my appreciation for all the hard work my kids' teachers do day in and ...

SnickerDoodle Cookies...In appreciation for all the wonderful teachers out there!

So this week is teacher appreciation week and I had yet to show my appreciation for all the hard work my kids' teachers do day in and day out.  A thankless job really, but an ever so important one.  I have been blessed to have both of my older children in the classrooms of some pretty amazing teachers.  At any rate I needed to find a way to show appreciation, and well the way I show love and appreciation is through cooking and baking so I might as well do something with that right?  So at 9:30 tonight as I was scrolling down my Facebook feed I was reminded of the fact that tomorrow is in fact Friday and I had yet to do any sort of appreciation, I did what I always do when I procrastinate, I decided what a perfect night to try and create my own recipe?

4 ingredient fudge

Velvety yummy fudge the best end to a long day.  Today I finally got done with all the laundry that was behind for the past week, I also managed to hire a sitter and get my butt to the big girl gym for an awesome workout filled with bench pressing, tricep dipping as well as a lap around the sand trail...oh yeah and the stair-master, which let me tell you is so not cool after hitting legs hard the day before.  I also managed to get back to working on the blog, took kids to karate, cook up some chicken thighs and other various tasks along the way.  Oh and I am watching How I Met your Mother Season 2 woo hoo can we say successful day?  At any rate I will keep this post short and sweet because I need to go get my beauty sleep, but I simply had to share this and I cant take credit for it as I found it on one of my other favorite blogs:  The Paleo Mom:

http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/04/recipe-chocolate-walnut-freezer-fudge.html

Check out the recipe here and Enjoy!

Excuses are like armpits....everybody has them and they all stink

So every now and again I get asked how I lost all the weight, and though I know it is a natural question, its always hard for me to sum it all up.  I think many times people want to know what "magic pill" it was or a specific fad diet.  The truth of it is that it took me many many years to get healthy, it took me trials of different fad diets, nothing too extreme, but nothing I could keep up for the rest of my life.  Ultimately I did lose weight because going from eating in excess of anything and everything coupled with little to no activity meant that I could just go for walks every day and lose weight, or decrease my calories a tad and lose weight, when I was so overweight the minor changes I made at the beginning made a huge change, for instance I cut out soda and switched to diet (I don't advocate diet soda, but I drank it for a number of years to avoid regular soda...lesser of the evils I guess?), not drinking regular soda I dropped over 10 pounds alone. 

Running, lifting and eating oh my.....tips appreciated!

So a few weeks ago I decided to train for a 1/2 marathon that was 6 weeks out from then, I know I know it goes against all the things I have said...chronic cardio bad, running miles on end bad...however this half marathon seemed like a good idea to check off the bucket list as it takes place at Edwards AFB and we will be running on the dry lake bed which is pretty awesome, and if you know anything about this place you know that there is a lot of history out here so why not do a run that has some sort of awesome attached to it?  While I don't advocate running marathons consistently because I think as humans we are not really designed to be running such mileage often, however this is a lifelong goal of mine and I am doing it... I can tell you right now I don't plan on doing this often or running a full marathon ever.  I prefer to be strong and as I have learned you simply can not serve two masters when it comes right down to it...I can not call my self a runner and a lifter simultaneously, however I do still squeeze in my strength training, just not as intense as before. 

So as far as my diet goes, I simply can not be low carb and support the training I am doing right now, that is unfeasible, running requires quick access to glycogen stores, therefore I must eat a higher amount of carbohydrates in order to fuel my body more properly.  So eating a lot of sweet potatoes, apples, squash etc have been essential to power me through.  This is great though I am not restricting myself, so when I crave carbs I am not worried about gaining weight, because I know that my 9 mile runs will erase any damage I could have possibly done.  This is my favorite part of running.  I know ridiculous, but thinking about a big piece of zucchini bread or a loaded sweet potato is enough to get me through a tough run.  Obsessed with food....yup.  I am not ashamed of this.  This training has left me on the pursuit of yummy recipes that I can hopefully share on here soon! 

My fellow half-marathon veterans please please divulge any information, tips etc...that can help my husband and I, mostly myself....my husband is the type of guy that can just jump into an event like this and not train whatsoever...not me I have to train mentally and physically.  However we have been doing the weekly long runs together and I am insanely thankful he is willing to slow down for me as we have been averaging 10-10:30 min/mil for our 8 miles...if I can hold this pace for the last 5 in the race I will be ecstatic.  Honestly my only goal for this race is to run the entire thing and not walk at any point....  No time goals at this point.  Just finish!  At any rate any tips are appreciated! 

So in the meantime I will eat my extra carbs, drink my wine, take my epsom salt baths and  enjoy the path to pursuing a goal.  Yummy recipes filled with carbs soon to come!

Not-completely Paleo Banana Bread

I have had 4 overly ripe bananas taking up residence on my counter for almost a week now, begging to be molded into an amazing dessert. My go to....banana bread...this particular banana bread is not completely Paleo with my addition of Nutella...just wanted to throw out that disclaimer in case the Paleo police come a knockin.  My 8 year old LOVES Nutella so I wanted to surprise him with some in the bread.  And as for most things I post I had to have the confirmation of yuminess from at least 3 parties...and that I did folks.  I loved it so much that it was my post-run treat/lunch.  And I ate it while watching "How I met your Mother," which is my new favorite show by the way, its pretty much awesome.  Double awesome afternoon for me.  I am still in season 1 so please don't blow it for me, but I am getting seriously annoyed with Ted and Robin...I mean come on would they just get together already?  At any rate I hope you all try and enjoy this recipe as much as we all did! 
I apologize for the blurry picture...I don't know what went wrong...maybe I was just way too excited to eat this that I didn't balance the meter properly, oh well let the recipe speak for itself and Enjoy!