Resting

Last night I went to the pool to stretch out my sore legs. The second I got in the pool, my leg stiffness was gone. I felt no pain! (The picture to the right was just something I found online. It's not my pool, obviously, but I wish it were!!!!)

It helped so much! I always tell people if they are in any kind of pain or soreness, swimming cures it! My legs feel 90% better today. It also helped to sit in the hot tub for 10 minutes I'm sure.

The downside of the Shamrock: I think I hurt my ankle. Yesterday it started to bother me. Today is a little better but it's still troublesome. I wrapped my ankle last night and slept with it on. I also wrapped it today. I'd rather be safe than sorry so I'm trying to rest my ankle.

Years ago, I had surgery on my right ankle to repair the ligament. It was extremely painful. I also sprained my Achilles in my left ankle 3 years ago. Luckily, this current pain doesn't feel like either of those old injuries.

UPDATE: I'm going to the doctor tomorrow afternoon to see what's up with my ankle. I'm crossing my fingers it's nothing awful. :(

Eating the Moment

I recently read a book called "Eating the Moment" by Pavel Somov, Ph.D. The majority of the book addressed emotional eating and prompted the reader to find out WHY they eat.  There are three types of hunger according to the book:

1. We eat out of physical hunger (the need for food).
2. We eat out of psychological hunger (stress and emotional triggers) 
3. We eat out of habit (it's 6pm, I should eat even though I'm not hungry) 

The book asks the question, Why do we overeat? The answer: because we aren't mindful. [pg 8]

*Mindless of environmental triggers.

*Mindless of the process of eating.

*Mindless of sensations of fullness.

*Mindless of emotional eating.

What is eating out of Habit? Here is an example: you go to the movies with a friend. Even though you just had lunch and aren't really hungry, you get a large popcorn with butter (400-1200 calories) and an even larger soda (500 calories) because that's what you do at the movies. (On a side note, MSNBC reports that movie popcorn + soda = 3 burgers and 12 servings of butter!!! http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34023406)

What is eating because of Emotional Triggers? Emotional triggers could be anything from watching TV, people you associate with food or eating (like the girlfriend you always go out to pizza with) or even the weather (it's a cold,  rainy, winter day = let's eat comfort food!). The easy part is making a list of what your emotional triggers are. The hard part? Changing the behavior. 

I am very much an emotional eater--and always have been. When I was 250, I was going through some difficult times and I "medicated" myself with food. Ice cream and pizza were my absolute favorites. And to this day, those are the two "trigger foods" for me that can spark an emotional response. My decision to stop eating those two items for 2 years was crucial to me losing weight and staying motivated.

Now that I've lost the weight, I've slowly started eating those two things again. Of course I eat them in moderation now and not all the time. But I still get a feeling of anxiety at the prospect of eating ice cream or pizza. 

Question: Do you continue to eat even though you are full? Do you know what full feels like?

Sunday Dinner and Monday's Update

AFTER RACE DINNER: PROTEIN!
Last night's dinner was fantastic! Michael made steak, I steamed some broccoli and added a little butter. Michael also made one of his specialties: potatoes and onions. It was a great meal and I think it was the perfect food after a race.  I also had a vodka tonic. YUM! :) It's been a long time and I figured I'd earned a treat!

I slept great last night. I did wake up once in the night and felt like I could barely move my legs! When I got up this morning, however, I wasn't quite as sore as I thought I would be. 

I checked the Shamrock Run website to see where I ranked. I was ranked #452 out of 635 for the 8k in the group "Female 30-34 Years Old Net Time". I wasn't too worried about my ranking. I was more concerned with reaching my personal goals (like not having to walk).

MONDAY
I had Cream of Wheat and 1/2 of a banana for breakfast today. I brought a Dannon vanilla greek yogurt and an orange for snack today. I'm going swimming tonight to help stretch out my sore legs!  So far I'm not feeling the time change. 

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE 8K

• I can do anything I set my mind to. Visualizing myself running the entire thing and NOT walking really did help keep me motivated!
• Eating pasta the night before the race does amazing things!
• Walking after the race keeps me from locking up entirely.
• I will inevitably need to pee several times before the race starts. I need to get in the line EARLY!!
• Running the hills in my neighborhood GREATLY prepared me for the hills on the Shamrock! 

After Party

Here are a few more pictures from the after party at the Waterfront. It was fun! To the left is a picture of me and my very cold boyfriend, Michael. :)

To the right is me with water and the Stanford's salmon chowder. YUM.

We didn't stay a long time. I could feel myself starting to stiffen up and my legs were a bit shaky and jello-like. I was ready to go after I finished eating. A hot shower felt great. Soon, a nap!

According to my Nike+, my pace was 8'01!

I just wanted to point something out about the run today. I saw so many people of different sizes and shapes running the 8k with me. If you EVER feel like you can't do something, think again! YOU CAN! :)

UPDATE: According to the Shamrock Run website, my time is 52 minutes and 48 seconds!

I DID IT!!!!!!

I ran the Shamrock Race 8k WITHOUT WALKING!!! This is huge for me! That being said, let me start from the beginning...

Parking was a nightmare so we gave up and found a garage. I found my friend Robyn amidst the 21,000+ people and we made our way to the starting line for the 8k. I am VERY happy that the weather turned out nice today! No rain. The sun was out, but it was pretty cold. There were a LOT of people there for the 8k so our start was pretty slow. I felt stiff for the first mile but started to warm up after that.

We ran up Burnside and turned onto Broadway. I tried to take a few pictures during the run but they didn't really turn out great. Sorry. :) I was feeling pretty good with my pace. I saw a few people trip and fall but they seemed okay. One girl fell right in front of me and I helped her up but she wasn't scraped up too badly.

After turning onto Broadway it was uphill the rest of the way to Terwilliger. Ooof! It was okay though. My heart rate monitor said I was peaking at about 190 beats! Yikes! But my legs were doing okay so I didn't walk. It leveled out and I felt some relief for about a mile. I was excited that I had gone as far as I had without feeling like I needed to walk at all.

Turning from Terwilliger we headed back to Naito Parkway. I could see the finish line and it was all downhill! The last mile was where I started to hurt a bit. My ankles and feet weren't too happy but they weren't screaming at me either, so that's good.

A few yards from the finish line I started to sprint. I saw Michael on the side cheering for me and taking my picture! That gave me the extra little push to run as HARD AS I COULD! I crossed the finish line in 53 minutes and didn't walk at all!!!!!!!!!

It was hard to make my way through the crowd to where I was supposed to meet Michael but I finally did. I was choked up with emotion when I saw him. I gave him a hug, he kissed me and I felt so relieved that I had finished. It was a great feeling having reached my goal: completing the race without walking.

Race Day!

Woke up at 6:45 am (time change and all). For breakfast I had:

1 piece of Trader Joe's Organic Oats and Honey bread, toasted
1/2 a banana
1 serving of honey
Gatorade

Almost time to leave for downtown! I slept ok. A lot of my dreams were raced related: I was waiting for my turn to run, I was late getting to the starting line, etc. But I feel pretty rested. The sun is coming out and it looks like it will be a dry morning. Yay!

One thing (hopefully not TMI)...when I'm nervous about anything, I have to pee. Very frequently. Uh oh!

Carbs for dinner

Tonight for dinner, we are having "Fettuccine Paolo" from the "Athlete's Palate" cookbook. It makes 2 servings:

4 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 1/3 cups chicken stock

4 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, sliced

1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts with liquid

1 1/2 cups sliced grilled chicken

2 tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil

salt and pepper to taste

6 oz fettuccine

2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese

Rehydrate the sun-dried tomatoes by placing them in a bowl with 1 cup warm water. Soak for 1 hour, or until soft. Gently squeeze to remove excess liquid and set aside.

Heat olive oil in skillet. Add bell peppers and cook 3 minutes, or until soft. Add garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add the stock, balsamic vinegar, boil and then simmer until reduced by half. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and liquid, grilled chicken and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm. Cook fettuccine, drain and add to sauce. Mix thoroughly and top with cheese.

Per serving: 580 calories, 44 grams protein, 66 grams carbs, 17 grams fat


* * * * * * *

I forgot to get bell peppers at the store so I'm leaving that off. I also didn't feel like chicken, so I got prosciutto instead. Hopefully my alterations don't change the recipe too much. I also got whole grain wheat fettuccine pasta.

And yes, I had 1 beer! It's carbs! :) The result of the pasta: it was okay. It wasn't the best thing ever. We both decided it probably would have been better with the chicken. Oh well! Live and learn. I still got the carbs I was looking for. I really liked the artichoke hearts too. I also had a side salad of red leaf lettuce and baby spinach leaves. Dessert was ice water with 4 small pieces of dark chocolate. It's about 8:45pm now. I am heading to bed! Wish me luck!