nothing is impossible, really.

I have been majorily slacking on the blog, my routine, school, work, and pretty much everything on my responsibilities list. Its funny how one thing is off and everything else goes out the window.

Today is day 19 of the 2 month challange. Monday was weigh in for week 3 for this challange and I was definately above what I was in week 2. I know this is due to the Austin Half Marathon on Sunday as well as the pre-race meal and overall exhaustion.  So I have started to watch my white, processed carbs and limit my fruit this week to hopefully mix up my eating habits and get my weight loss going again next week. I also added cinnamon to my morning coffee, as per suggestion from The Four Hour Body book that I am reading. I'll be focusing on this for two week to see how things go. This is, however, NOT a sustainable way of eating for me (I <3 fruit and the occasional piece of bread or tortilla) so I know its not a good thing since I dont believe in "diets." As I said, I'm mostly trying to boost the metabolism but in turn am getting more proten (thats the other alternative to  carbs since vegetarian diet is low-fat to start with). I feel good now but earlier in the week I had carb-withdrawal headaches. I'll keep updating this as things progress.

I was legitimately sore on Tuesday and Wednesday, especially my hips. I did do a 4.25 mile run on Tuesday which, in retrospect, was not a good idea. I COULD have worked out yesterday, but didn't because I was in a crappy, depressed mood which was likely caused by NOT running in the first place! I haven't had one of these bouts of depression since last summer and though I had rid myself of them for ever, but i was wrong. As I laid in bed last night, I didn't care to do anything- work, school, eat, exercise, talk to my husband, nothing. I just laid there like I used to do for days. I knew that I didn't want this to continue but I also didn't care at the same time. It's diffuclt to expalin depression and even harder to understand if you've never expericned it. Mike doesn't get it, he thinks I make it up but when you are depressed you dont care about ANYTHING and making something up requres effort which you dont have the initiateve to do. So he yelled at me like he always does when i'm depresssed and we argured about money like we always do when im depressed. Then I stromed off into the other room (with our dog and mike's child hood blanket) like i always do when we fight only to wait three minutes for him to come in to the other room and ask me to come back to our room. <we made up after this, but I'll spare the details> Same old same old. 

But this morning I woke up feeling better.  I didn't WANT to get out of bed/ But I did. I got dressed, packed a lunch, and went to work. I WILL actually go for a run tonight. No excuses. I will run on Saturday also. I will run on Sunday and go to my favorite yoga class at 11. I will get out of this depression phase. 

I know the let down after the awesome weekend race caused this. I was SO excited to have set a new PR on Sunday and then there was nothing else to look forward to. Ya, I have a mud race next month, but its not a challange. There are halfs that I'm looking at for April, but thats a ways away. School isn't motivating nor is work. So there was nothing. And since I couldn't work out on tue/wed and my weight spiked up from the race, my only positive reinforcements weren't positive any more. I have just identified what caused my funk. Now I have to remind myself that I do have things to look forward to. I weigh 155 lbs. I have not been this light since freshman year of high school, but not only that, pants that were tight in 9th grade are LOOSE now. I am more toned. I have ZERO pieces of clothes in my closet that are too small and I have a MAJORITY that are WAY too big. I also did not get off track on my food this week even when I had  cravings and was sad. I stuck to my plan and stayed at my calorie goal.So I will look forward to getting back into my routine so that I can continue to reach my fitness goals.

Monday/ Friday: P90X at the gym @ 4:30 am

Tuesday/Thursday: Easy run outside @ 5 am

Wedneday: Spinning @ 5 am

Saturday: Tempo/Speed Run (and golf when time permits) @ 8 am

Sunday: Long Run @ 7:30 am + Yoga @ 11 

I will get my body fat measured this weekend when I'm at the gym and compare it to the 34% I was in January. I will continue steadily losing weight to reach the range of 135-140 lbs. I will decrease my body fat to the 20%'s. I AM a size 8 and will be a size 6. I will run 5k's in under 30 minutes. I have so much to look forward to...gradution, a new house, new opportuntieis...that there is no time/reason/need for me to be depressed. I will get my endorphins going again! 

I am worth it. 

Even as I type this blog I cannot wrap my head around the notion that I just smashed my newest PR by 2 minutes on a harder course with ZERO hill training.

Former PR Times Recap:

Houston Half Marathon 2010: 2:39:10

Houston Half Marathon 2011: 2:24:52

Austin Half Marathon 2011: 2:22:05

The difference between the Houston 2010 and 2011 times is easily explained; I lost 20 pounds. The difference between the 2011 races in Houston (adverstized as fast and flat) and austin (scenic, HILLY AS HELL, and filled with crazy austin residents) isn't so apparent.

Obviously, I inproved my training for the 2011 half maraton season. I ACTUALLY completed all of the work outs and pushed myself to the fullest. I didn't take a "cool down" until I reached my driveway, as compared to 2010 training season where the last 2-3 MILES would constitue a cooldown. I did the speedwork and tempo runs WELL. My Garmin (which I will specifically be addressing in detail in a bit below) saw three digit mile pace times for the first time ever. During sprints a "6" would be the minute time...I didn't think my body could be pushed like that. I was proven wrong.

I have been eating better since becoming a vegetarian in the summer of 2010. I eat substantial amounts of protein and have been watching for empty calories. I can't remember the last time I had junk food.

Now, the pregame meals were both itallian and involved copious amounts of carbs (a rarety for me) as well as desert. For the houston race I ate tomato cream pasta, salad, bread, and death by chocolate cake. For the austin race, I ate a fennel salad, mushroom ravoli in a tomato basil sauce, bread, and a warm apple ravoli dessret with carmel. I also had half a bottle of wine. Was it the apple ravoli dessert or the wine that led to the new PR? Hard to tell.

My mentality between the two races was definately varying. For Houston, I was very excited to see what I could push my body to do. I knew in a training long run two weekeds prior to race day, I clocked 11:05/mile average for 10 miles. Could I sustain for 13.1? Could I push further? On race day I had many doubts in my head as to what my time would actually be. My goal was to get a new PR and I was shooting for 2:20 overall. I never setteled into a comfortable pace on this day and had to keep myself focused on pushing my pace.

When I saw my family at mile 9, I was teary-eyed because I knew I was going slow AND MY GARMIN WATCH DIED. This $450 watch has NEVER had a problem on any runs. EVER. It charges in the wall rather than using batteries so I knew it was clearly charged the night prior. The watch has a limited memory of 800 miles total or so and I was just exceeding it during this run. Like many electronics, once the internal memory is reached, it starts deleating the oldest lap data. Well, as it was deleating my old runs, my new run wasn't being "remembered."The functionality of the watch providing me with my pace, overall time, and distance to go was zapped as well. So, as I'm pushing for this new PR, i know I have about 3 miles to go and i've just got to dig deep and go. I had no clue what my speed was or exactly how much was left but I pushed it. In those last three miles I ended up increasing my TOTAL race pace per mile from 11:05 to 11:03 and finished 15 minutes faster than the year before.

For the race today in Austin, I was well aware of the hills and even more so awae of the fact that I hadn't done ANY hill training. I was prepared for this and was mentally prepared to be happy with anything under 2:40. More than anything, I wanted to ENJOY the race by taking in the scenery and setteling into a comfortable pace. When heading to the start line to join a pace group closest to my pace, I settled on the 4:30 full marathon time which is about 10:20 per mile.It took a good 20 minutes to reach the actual start line, but with the capitol behind me, i started my watch and was ready to enjoy this race. As I was climbing the first hill (I lost count after 5...) I went to glance at my watch to see what my hill-climbing pace was only to see A BLANK SCREEN!!!!! Honestly, my first thought was to abruptly turn to my right, reach the side walk, and quit. Even for the next quarter mile or so I thought about how I could "fake" an injury or something to get me out of continuing the next 12 miles. The thought of running yet another race with out a watch was just unbarable. 

 However, I am not a quitter. I sucked it up and just kept going. My new tactic was not to look too far in front of me so I couldn't "see" the hills. I figured, if I didn't know they were coming, I couldn't quit on them. I was still cursing my watch, even thinking of how much enjoyment there would be in smashing it on the pavement, but I knew Mike woudldn't replace it so it stayed (useless and dead) on my wrist. I saw mike at mile 2 and pointed at the watch saying "it died. again." I don't think non-runners quite understand how important having any sort of data available to spin in some sort of a positive manner is during a race. I didn't have any.

I was trying to focus on enjoying the course (with out looking ahead, of course) since I had little sense of pace to focus on. Just before mile 3 the 4:30 pace group passed me. I was okay with this and the new goal was not to let the 5:00 pace group get near me. At about mile 4 I was fixated on the notion of stopping. I had gone up and down so many hills that I just wanted to stop. Before the cloud of quit fully came over me, I said to myself that I could take a walk break at mile 7 but I could not stop before. My mind was okay with this and we continued to push on. Mile 5 came along and was the first turn of the race. It was at this poin that I started to feel okay. Genuninely, good actually. I was passing others while going up a hill and wasn't too terribly taxed. I didn't really see the mile markers for miles 6-9 but the rolling hills (and all the spectators and dogs) kept me occupied. I felt good. I saw Mike again at the mile 8 turn and gave him a slimy, salty, sweaty kiss...thats what you get for not running with me, buddy! At this point I was crusin in at a comfortable pace. Mile 10 was the livestrong mile and all sorts of people in yellow were cheering us on. These were cancer survivors, caregivers, and those with memories of other affected by cancer. As I always have one emotional part of the race (all those endorphins, you know), this was the mile I got a bit teary-eyed. This also gave me a motivational surge to keep going and go strong.

I was till in this runner's high state, smiling and pusing, when I broke my rule and looked ahead at mile 11. What did I see? Only the biggest, steepest, longest hill I've EVER seen standing between me and the finish line. So, I dug deep and told myself that I have this good feeling for a reason, to beat this huge ass hill. My steps shortened and I leaned forward a bit as I began to sumit the hill. Okay it was a mountain at this point. People were droping left and right and giving into the hill. I kept pushing. Then I broke my rule AGAIN and looked forward. There was still more hill. I turned around to make sure that I was still moving up this hill. Indeed I was but at a snail's pace. My steps shortened to a walk as I gave into the hill for a minute. I gave that hill all I had and now I had just under two miles to go. I picked up my pace until the end. My fellow runners were chatty at this point and the last two went by fast. I was moving along and knew that there was one last "little" hill left. At 600 meters left, it arrived. Luckily the full marathoners were finshing up along side the half and they gave me the last push I needed. Their light and agile bodies were gliding up the hill (I'm still not sure how this is possible because i was certainly NOT gliding) until they reached the apex. I too reached the top and from here on out, I ran as fast as I could. If i had a watch, I bet it was low 9's/high 8's. The croud was really loud and thick at the end. I stopped looking for mike and dug deeper to somewhere I didn't know I had and I ran like a Kenyan through the finish line. My legs were gliding at this point and I was all smiles despite being a sweaty mess that was gasping for air all while posing for the finish line photos. I didn't even see the finish clock, I was going so fast.

I walked to get my banana, shirt, and metal still not know how well I did. I got out my phone and did some math...

Current time: 9:46 am

Gun time: 7 am

Approximate time when I started: 7:20ish

So that leaves me under 2:30 ish.

And I was happy...

...Until I checked the race stats online just a few moments ago. 2:22:50...I was astonished that I actually BEAT my previous PR that I had expected (and accepted) was going to last until Houston 2012. I'm still in post-run shock and cant decide if knowing I did the inpossible or the runners high during the race is more satisfying!

Run on my friends. You CAN do the unthinkable! 

I've been lax with the blog posting this week BUT I've been making good desicions and exercising as scheduled. I haven't indulged on empty calories even with V-day on monday which is great! I have packed my lunch/dinner each day this week to make up for eating out this weekend in Austin. I will still make conscious desicions though! (any suggestions for healthy places to eat in Austin for a vegetarian and her meat-eater husband would be appreciated.) I have the Austin half marathon on Sunday and golf in Austin on Saturaday. I'm very excited for this weekend mini- vacation and will post results of the marathon when I get home. My weight is slowly decreasing and I'm noticing the improvement of muscle tone all over. Those 30 lb progress pictures are so close but I'm still at 29.0 so I've gotta rid myself of this last pound before I can post.

I'm still reading the four hour body and will definately have a post about that as soon as I'm finished. Just from the bit I've read, I can tell I'll be focusing on these NSV's A LOT in the coming weeks. Tim suggests a 20 lb change is huge but doesn't have to just be minus 20 lbs of fat...it can also be minus 15 lbs of fat and adding 5 lbs of muscle. This is a new perspective since you cant "weigh" muscle addition but my measurements will suffice for this. The book has sections on fat loss, running faster, and vegetarian diet which I cannot wait to read; If only my school work can be posponed a few days!

Some non-scale victories of this week include being flexible yesterday with all of the food/exercise changes during the day and STILL saying at 4 calories over my goal. Ordinarily, my whole day would have been shot to hell with all those changes, but I planned ahead and swapped out my dinner for a better choice since the scheduled work out didnt happen (this is why I MUST work out in the am!!!). This morning Mike and I got up for a run so I'm on track for the day.

I made some old recipes this week including my favorite mushoom casserole from 101cookbooks.com (with greek yogurt subbing for sour cream and adding ricotta cheese for protein) and my veggie chili. I enjoy having these "warm" left overs for lunch during the week :-)

I'm focusing on eating around 100 g of protein a day and cutting out the carbs this week. I also changed my "goal" time frame to lose the last 20 lbs from minus 2 lbs a week to minus 1.2 lbs a week which is closer to my actual progress. I'm sure this will slow again after I lose more, but for now this is a good number that won't discourage me like 2 lbs/week has.

Have a great weekend everyone!                                                                                  

Checking in for Tuesday Feb 15/ Day 9:

 1. I got in my scheduled training run this morning, an easy 3 miller at race pace in my vibrams. The weater was great at about 70 and sunny. With being so used to 4:30 am work outs, I really enjoy Tuesday work outs that I can do at a leisruely time of 9 am...seeing the sun at this time is great! I did not, however, get to do my hour and a half of P90X YogaX this morning to make up for missing it last week so I will do at least the sun salutations portion (first hour) tonight after class. I do want to be in bed by 10:15 so I'm going to have to use my time efficiently after class at 8:30. I am 2/2 on work outs this week so so far, so good.

2. I am doing awesome with staying with in +/- 5% of my net calories. I just hope that this is the best plan to lose weight. I'm back down to losing less than a pound per week. Granted, any weight loss is good, but I just want to be sure that I am eating the right amount. My nutrient levels are really good lately, with carbs and protein in check. All the peanut butter is making the fat content be above 15% on most days, but this is fine so long as it is just a bit over.

3. I haven't eaten any empty calories today either. Really sticking to my planned lunches and dinners is avoliding this from happenening, but being super busy from 7 am till 9 pm is helping too.

4. All my new year's desicions are being met as well. I'm really looking forward to the Austin half marathon this weekend!

NSV: My size medium green nike running shorts which were always WAY tight so I couldn't actually run in them were my shorts for this morning's run. AND there was plenty of room in the leg. If it was about 10 degrees warmer, I might have gone out in just the shorts and the matching sports bra (I can't wait till the summer when I can do this with out being self conscious of my tummy).

The post is short because I have lots of homework to do today so that I can actually run this weekend and not worry about lots of school work. Happy Tuesday!

So I took the weekend off from blogging since I had lots of school stuff that needed to get done, but I am back with updates!

Today is the first weigh in of the 2 Month challange and I'm down 0.8 lbs. The scale has not said 155 in the past decade (ya, I'm taking 9th grade) so this is HUGE progress. It doesn't look like I'll be reaching the goal of 150 next week but slow and steady is just fine with me. Also, my old Abercrombie and Fitch capris that NEVER fit in high school are LOOSE! When I put them on to go to the garden store yesterday, I remember thinking I resembled the A&F topless models in jeans with flat and chisled tummies. Then I turned around to notice that I actually have a rear-end and therefore cannot be an A&F model. I'm getting quite obsessed with these non-scale victories!

2/7: 156.6 lbs

2/14: 155.8 lbs (-0.8 lbs)

2/21: 150

2/28:

3/7:

3/14: 145

3/21:

3/28:

4/1 (Monday 4/4 Weigh In): 140 

In terms of the four things I was focusing on for this challange I got in my 4 runs, 1 lift, 1 spin, but I did not make it to yoga on Sunday. I will do yoga twice this week (on Tuesday and Thursday) to make up for missing last week. This will be great before the marathon too.

I did such a great job of eating right at my net calories last week. I logged everything and did not alter any of the serving sizes to get to my goal caloires. I ate lots of filling, healthy breakfasts and did not eat out but once (I had steamed veggies, white rice, and some chineese sauce on Sat).

I also did not eat any empty calories. Everything I consumed was nutrition packed and purposeful. I really was tempted to eat a snickers ice cream bar yesterday while I was studying but I noted that this was just my emotions trying to get me to eat so I just drank water and sucked it up while I finished some stupid homework assiginments. August cannot come soon enough.

My new year's desicions are also still being accomplished. I've been getting closer to 80 g of protein a day which well exceeds the minimum goal of 60 g that I initially set. My run for this month is this Sunday in Austin. I highly doubt I'll be hitting a new PR here since the course is substantially more hilly than Houston, but it will be an Austin PR. The goal for this race is to have fun and not to take any walk breaks. I can walk when I cross the finish line!

I know that this healthy lifestyle is sticking when I was tempted by my family for valentine's day associated sweets. I was over at my parent's house (which is a carb-lover's retreat) and did my best to stay out of the kitchen since there are lots of sweets just sitting out on the table. My mom got me a chocolate covered apple and my sister made Mike and I cupcakes. I was very pleased to get V-Day gifts since Mikeypooh doesn't "believe" in such a holiday, but while recieveing them I thought about only having a few slices of the apple and just taking ONE cupcake. There were about 7 cupcakes left and I really wanted to add a few more to my tupperware container, but I resisted and just took one. Since I did my long run yesterday, I had 910 extra calories so the singular cupcake (about 350) was well with in that limit. The sugar was a much needed energy boost post-run.

I am so pleased that I posted my marathon pictures over the weekend. I would have NEVER imagined that I had the guts to post those picture for people to see but I did. I'm proud of my accomplishments knowing that I've lost way more than just 30 lbs (okay fine, technically, 29.8 lbs but 30 lb progress pics will be up this week!).

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Here are my Houston Half Marathon pictures from 2010 and 2011.

2010: Pink shirt (the pants are the same pair) 2:39:10 185 lbs

2011: Green Shirt 2:24:54 157 lbs

Its amazing what MFP, becoming vegetarian, and actually sticking to a training plan can do!

This picture is from my very first FULL Marathon back in 2008 (I 2009 I had a knee injury I was recovering from so I didn't run this year). I'm not sure my exact weight in 2008 but it was 180-190 for sure and I ran the 26.2 miles in 5:48:55.

I've finally figured out how to upload pictures (please tell me how to make them smaller) to blogs so I'll be uploging my favorite recipes of the week now!

Get excited, to set the bar high this week's recipes include whole wheat nutella banana pancakes and black bean quinoa. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Nutella Banana Pancakes

Makes 9 - 4" Pancakes

Ingredients for Pancakes:

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.

2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,

3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans, tomatoes, and cilantro.

Nutrition  (per 1/10 portion)

Calories 140

Carbs 27

Fat 1

Protein 5

Sodium 391

Iron 12

Both of these were so delish! Enjoy and I would LOVE to hear any other good recipes or modifications to these

In honor of today being Friday, the end of the work week, I will provide an in depth analysis of my challanges for this week as part of my 2 month challenge.

My focuses are as follows: 

1. Exercise 6x a week (4 runs, 1 lift, 1 spin, 1 yoga). So far this week I have ran twice, lifted once, and gone to spinning once. That leaves a run on Sat and Sun and Yoga on Sunday also. I'd also like to go golfing with mikeypooh this weekend, but I must complete all of my homework before I can do that. I hope to continue this pattern next week as well because I feel great and I get to eat so much more on non-rest days.

2. Eat with in +/- 5% of net calories. I have done this every day this week and have the energy to proove it. Planning is always the important aspect of getting this done and I have forced myself to bring my meals every day regardless of how late/busy/tired i am. NO EXCUSES. 

3. No eating empty calories. I have not eaten any empty calories this week! ZERO! Absolute NO cheating! I also have focused on eating hardy breakfasts that have kept me full until lunch, I'm sure my co-workers appreciate this since I get grumpy when I'm hungry.

4. Keep up the new years decisions (protein> 60 g/day, run a race each month, hit a PR at each race, keep up healthy lifestyle, yoga once a week, and the weight loss goals 140 by April 1 and 134 by May 1). All of these have been met but I'm getting more flexible with the weight "deadlines." 

I will also include a NSV each day to my blog entry since this served as a great pick-me-up.

NSV: My new size 8 skinny jeans getting to the loose feel after coming out of the dryer! I just purchased these jeans at the beginning of January since I am all about buying clothes that fit you now so that you look your best regardless of size. When I started this journey, I was busting the seams of my size 14 clothes. Honestly, I was a size 16 in denial. But now, I'm a loose 8/tight 6. 

I will update this (probably brifely) over the weekend. Weekends are no longer hard for me to stick to my goals because it really is a lifestyle. Happy Valentine's Day to all.

 Here is to hoping that next week I can post 30 lb progress pictures (2.2 lbs to lose)

~Cass 

I had the best breakfast EVER this morning...homemade whole wheat nutella banana pancakes. My new thing is going to start the day off with a delish breakfast, it really makes for a way better day since I'm full and happy. Anyways, the recipe came from food.com and was very simple.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup skim milk

2 tbs honey

3 tbs oil (or applesauce)

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions: Mix the oil (or applesauce) and the honey together. Add the milk and eggs and stir well. Add all of the dry ingredients until moist (over mixing will make your pancakes flat). You can also add vanilla or blueberries at this point as desired.

Cook the pancakes as usual on high heat. This recipe makes 9- 4" panckes.

Topping (for 2 pancakes)

2 tbs nutella

1 banana 

Spread nutella on pancake and slice up bananas on top, making for a yummy and portable breakfast.

Carbs: 79

This was such a yummy breakfast and made for a great day. I met all of my other objectives for the 2 month challenge (food, exercise, no empty calories, healthy lifestyle)  but was SO busy today that this post will be short. I may try to upload a picture of the pancakes later because they were so good.

Happy Thursday, my friends! 

I've been using this blog as motivation to finish my school stuff all day and now I've finally gotten to a point where I deserve a mini break.

First, I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who has been reading my blog and commenting. Knowing that there are others out there keeping me accountable is highly motivating! As for updates on the four goals for this two month challange:

1. I went to the gym this morning and did 15 minutes on the treadmill, 35 min of P90X chest and back, then 15 min of P90X Ab Ripper X. Today was supposed to be a day off from running so I set the treadmill to what I thought was an incline program. To my surprise the pace kept changing every few minutes. At first I thought this was just a warm up of some sort but once the pace exceeded 6 miles per hour I realized that this program was an increasing speed, rather than incline program. So I ran all the way up to 7.6 mph (crazy fast!) and did not give my legs the rest they needed. Luckily this was only 15 min so I'm certain my legs will survive on tomorrow's run. As for P90X, my work out buddy slept in this morning so I feel that though there were less rest breaks between sets, I did not push myself like I normally do when Mike comes to the gym with me. I did increase the weight on most exercises so only doing 8-12 reps is probably fine. We shall see tomorrow by the degree of soreness I expericne. I LOVE Ab Ripper X and HIGHLY recommend it to everyone! This is a series of 11 exercises that you do 15-25 times depending on your level. It cycles through all of your core muscles and is a killer routine putting simple crunches to shame! I'm shooting to do this 3x a week and am already at two times. So for this week, I"m 3/3 on the exercising and am looking forward to an outdoor tempo run tomorrow at 4:30 am!

2. Today I have 2 net calories to spare and am not near as hungry as I was yesterday. I can definately tell my metabolism has picked up because I get so hungry every few hours. The whole idea of eating little snacks every few hours is great for keeping me relatively full and getting my body moving! Yesterday, I ended up going to Ninfas for dinner and went over about 30 calories. This isn't bad considering how tough it is to do vegetarian and healthy at a mexican restaurant but I was pleased with my choices and enjoyed actually seeing Mike for more than 20 min before bed! My schedule this semester SUCKS and I cant wait to be done with school (only 182 days til I"m done for EVER!)

3. I dont consider anything I ate yesterday or today as empty calories. Yesterday I turned down all the chips and maragarita and just had a veggie taco with yummy black beans. Today I had that delish carrot cake oatmeal that was all natural and SO yummy as well as homemade veggie pizza for lunch. The oatmeal was from http://www.katheats.com/?page_id=2953 and was so amazing. I used pineapple instead of mango but I'm thinking bananas will be even better. The recipe makes 2 servings and is so filling. I highly recomend this to everyone with thanks to ickybella for posting this recipe on her blog! There's also a recipe on that site for cheese danish pancakes that I cant wait to try next week! When I eat natural, clean, foods I just feel so much better. All those 100 calorie snacks are unsatisfying and really don't do a whole lot for you compared to whole grains, protein, and complex carbs.

4. Lastly, I have my new year's desicions to update, all of which are still being achieved. The next run is Feb 20. After looking at the HILLY course, a PR in comparison to my current course's PR isn't comparable. So, I'm just going to try to run it in less than 2:30 and actually set into a comfortable pace during next week's run. I do have an April 23rd race that I'm eye-balling for my 4th race of the year. It's a half so I printed out a training schedule to keep me motivated even when my March race is just a 5k. Running is SO addicting. It sucks at first but once you get past that you just dont want to stop.

After thinking about more NSV victories last night, I remembered that at the start of the semester my class friends, who I had not seen in about 6 months, didn't recognize me at first because I lost so much weight. I also had to get new undies in December because my old ones were so big that they were rubbing in awkard places. I have always had to buy my bras from speciality places at $80 a pop but now I can wear ones from Victoria Secret at $35 each! Then, yesterday I noticed my nice Calvin Klein pumps were TOO Big. Is it possible for my FEET to be losing weight? I think this is a great excuse for new shoes!

I'm thinking of setting my weight loss goal to only 1 lb per week rather that the 2 lbs/ week it is currently at. I'll still sick with my 1200 calories + work out calories but slowing the goal pace may get me out of this i'm-not-losing-fast-enough slump I"m currently in. I refuse to step on the scale again until this weekend's official weigh in but depending on what the scale says, this will be the deciding factor. If anyone has thoughts on this, I'd appreciate it. I'm not in a rush to lose the weight (no wedding or fun vacations to try to lose for) but the faster it's off the better I'll feel.

Now, its time to get back to school work! Thanks for reading.

~Cass