Somewhat on Track :)

Meals cooked at home are on track so far!  We had the Spinach Lasagna Rolls which were better this time than last time I made them.  The only thing I did differently was that I used the steam fresh spinach and since I'd forgotten to thaw the spinach, I was able to cook the spinach in the bag using the microwave.  I think that may have made the spinach a little softer and made it mix better with the ricotta and parmesan mixture that is in the noodles.  But the best part......clean plates all around!

I had a plan for todays run.  My run that was scheduled was a one mile for time improvement, and then a 4 mile run.  My plan was to do the warm up, the 5 minute warm up run and the mile for time all on the treadmill and then switch up and do the 4 mile run outside- after all, it was a beautiful day!  Well, I go through the warm up and the mile for time and my legs were just not having it today.  I kept trying to talk myself into it, but it just wasn't happening today.  I managed to get a little more than 2 miles in and I was done.  It's ok- I just switched my planned mileage days (I had a short 2 miler planned later this week), but I do wish I'd been able to push through.

Today is my rest day from JMBR as well, so there isn't anything to report from there :)For some fun news..... runDisney announced today that New Balance is the official running shoe of runDisney.  They have even released a new limited edition New Balance men's and women's running shoe, the 860v3 runDisney edition- in special Mickey and Minnie colors.  I've been running in New Balance minimus zeros for as long as I've been running, and I've loved them.  I'm actually now looking for a new pair to replace my current ones- which means a new color maybe....these are my current ones:   

What are your current shoes?

Diva Recap

This was a short weekend away, and a very quick trip, but such a fun weekend! We left home around 2 on Friday afternoon. Dropped off the monkeys and continued on our way. After a couple stops along the way (and one missed turn) we made it safely to our destination. Saturday we got up and had breakfast at our condo and then headed off to the Diva expo (called the Health and Fitness Boutique). It was a fairly small expo, we got our race numbers, shirts and bags and then looked around a little. I even ran into Amy from Pumpkin to Princess while we were there and we chatted for a few minutes. We made a few purchases and then left right as it was getting a little crowded.

After some outlet shopping, we went to pick up our celebratory after race cupcakes from a shop that we had seen when we were driving to the expo. Yummy!

We relaxed for a little while and then headed out for our other tradition- pre-race fajitas. That is a tradition that started at Disney when we did the Princess Half marathon. We considered changing our pre-race meal to this:

Just kidding- but it did make us laugh to find these chips at a Wal-Mart in North Carolina. We headed back to the condo to make sure we had everything ready for the race the next morning and get to bed early. 4:30 am comes early....

Everyone was up and we left the condo at 5 am as planned. We got to the race site easily and had a great parking spot right by the porta potties and the start corrals. We were able to stay warm in the car while we waited for time to go to the corral. This was a smaller race- about 3600 runners, and no assigned corrals, so we were able to go right into a spot near the pace sign that we chose. Here is the before the race photo

This was a pretty nice course, lots of shade and the weather was beautiful. There was the possibility of rain, but we were very lucky to get to enjoy a great morning for our run. The first half was really good for me. I was happy to discover that I was on target to complete this half at about 3 hours at halfway. But then it went downhill (at least a little!) It was about mile 8 where I started to struggle mentally (seems to be when that happens). I was taking a walk break when I came across a friend that had come close to passing out and her sister was there with her so I stopped to see if there was anything I could do. After staying for a few minutes I went on, but still had trouble getting back into a good running pace. I switched to a run/walk and that seemed to help. I finished with 3:12:38 unofficially (3:15:38 was the official clock time). Either way, it is a new PR for me, so I'll take it!

Finished!

Finishing again with Katie :)

Heather (my brother in law's girlfriend) also ran this race and she found me at the finish.

My two traveling partners and now official Divas :)

Mileage breakdown- you can really see the slowdown after mile 8....

1	12:50	12'50"/mi
2	26:41	13'51"/mi
3	41:01	14'20"/mi
4	55:07	14'06"/mi
5	1:09:15	14'08"/mi
6	1:23:32	14'17"/mi
7	1:37:50	14'18"/mi
8	1:52:21	14'31"/mi
9	2:07:57	15'36"/mi
10	2:23:54	15'57"/mi
11	2:40:08	16'14"/mi
12	2:55:46	15'38"/mi
13	3:11:21	15'35"/mi

Next up....lots of speed work and more JMBR!

Weigh In, Meal Planning, Week Planning.....

Sometimes it all seems to run together-especially in our house. Friday I did weigh in, down 2.6 pounds- brining the total to 40 pounds in 19 weeks. I am proud of that, but I am still fighting my lull. I'm hoping that this week will be a turning point. The Diva half marathon is only 2 weeks away, so I'm still preparing with that along with starting week 7 of JMBR and that means the second half of phase 2, along with two more workouts.

Meal planning for the week:

Monday- baseball practice so an early dinner- stuffed chicken with broccoli

Tuesday- gymnastics and then baseball game so dinner on the go

Wednesday- spinach lasagna roll ups

Thursday- gymnastics and a meeting, so dinner on the go again

Friday- turkey burgers

Saturday- kids' choice

Sunday- leftovers

Hopefully I'll have a little more down time this week, but it's not really looking that way...so with that I'm headed to bed early to prepare for tomorrow's workout.

Workout 5 and an interval run

Wow- it was tough. I've been reading some other people's blogs as they post about JMBR and also checking out the JMBR Facebook page. It seems to be the consensus that odd number workouts are harder than even numbered ones. I'm thinking that is proving to be true. My arms are really going to feel this workout tomorrow. She also added in a yoga stretch warmup and that was interesting to me. I've never done any yoga, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I felt like it was a nice warm up.

I was fortunate today to get to talk with a friend that I've know for several years. We were able to catch up for a bit after dropping our kids off at preschool. Yes, our kids go to the same preschool, but we rarely get the chance to catch up. Thanks to carpooling neighbors, I am usually only at the school once a week. And until recently I only picked up kiddos once a week, so the craziness of getting5 kids into the car after school did not lend itself to getting to hang out and talk a bit as you can imagine.

We were talking about running and I was telling her that I am wanting to really concentrate on speed improvement. She mentioned that she also does a running interval workout that has really helped with her speed. So I tried that out tonight after finishing workout 5. Each interval is one minute and this is what I did:
4 mph, 5 mph, 4 mph, 6 mph. 4 mph, 7 mph, 4 mph,6 mph,4 mph,5 mph, 4 mph (repeat)

This was not easy. I was very excited to get through the 7 mph minute. I barely made it through that minute, so I will attempt a faster speed at a later date! After thanking her for the suggestion, I asked if that was right (it'd been several hours since we talked about it and I tend to jumble numbers on occasion). She actually said that what she does is this: 4.5, 5, 4.5, 5,5 4.5, 6... Continuing up to 9 mph, and going back to 4.5 as the base but increasing at half mile increments instead of mile ones. And then repeats. So I'll try that next. Still not sure about over 7 mph, but I do know with time I will get there!

Days 15, 16 & 17

We were out of town over the weekend for Easter, it was busy a busy weekend and I didn't get a workout in while we were out of town, but I've caught up on the workouts for the week. Day 15 was week 3, workout 3- it was a tough one. It was a real step up from workouts 1 and 2. I added in cardio 1 because I missed it over the weekend (supposed to have done that on day 13). Day 16 was week 3, workout 4- I'm not sure if it was easier or harder than workout 3. Also added in cardio 1, which caught me up on all of the workouts up to this point. I really like that the program is designed so that you do each workout 4 times- it definitely keeps it interesting. I'm lucky this week- my youngest sister is here visiting and she's been doing the workouts with me, so it's been fun to have a partner in these couple days- makes the doing the cardio workout a little more fun- that's the only one that is getting a little old, but what wouldn't get old when it's been done 14 times?

Saturday is the Dismal Swamp Stomp half marathon. I'm hoping it is a good run- I haven't run as much as I usually do following the Shamrock half last month, but with doing the cardio from JMBR, I have noticed better stamina when running the intervals this past few weeks. The course for the dismal swamp is supposedly flat- that should help a lot :)

Shamrock Half Marathon

Today I completed half marathon #3 of my deployment challenge. I really enjoyed this race. It was a little chilly waiting for the start, but overall the weather was really nice during the race. I was doing really well the first 8 miles. But I must have pushed too hard, and ended up walking the majority of the miles from 8-12.5. I'm still very happy with my end time (3:17:13- a new personal record). It is very close to what my goal was for this race, but not quite- I was really hoping for 3:15 or better this time. I maybe could have pushed a little more in my walking miles, but lesson learned- I will try harder next time. The best part of my race (except finishing!) was getting cheered on by my friend on the course. Her encouragement came at just the right time! Here is how my miles break down:

Mile 1 ~ 14:01

Mile 2 ~ 14:38

Mile 3 ~ 14:40

Mile 4 ~ 14:19

Mile 5 ~ 14:27

Mile 6 ~ 13:57

Mile 7 ~ 14:09

Mile 8 ~ 15:33

Mile 9 ~ 15:44

Mile 10 ~ 15:55

Mile 11 ~ 15:59

Mile 12 ~ 15:33

Mile 13 ~ 15:16

Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend

What a weekend! This was probably one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. We shared so many laughs and we really just had a great time.

I did my weigh in on Thursday because we were leaving so early in the morning, and I was down 2.4 pounds. Making my total for 9 weeks 20.2. So that was a great beginning. It was a pretty busy day for me on Thursday. I was trying to get everything finished up for the trip and also make sure that everything was organized for the kids to be left at home. The big boys got home from school and then all the boys were off to gymnastics. Next it was time to go to the airport to pick up Kelly one of my best friends from highschool. Here's where we hit our first obstacle of the weekend- her luggage missed the flight! Luckily, it made it onto the next flight, so we went back to the house and then returned to the airport to pick it up a little later. Thankful for a neighbor who came to hang out at the house while the kiddos were sleeping! My parents and sister arrived about the same time that we got back to the house with her luggage and we spent some time catching up and going over any last minute instructions and questions.

Then we headed off to bed. The plan was to leave at 4 am. Kelly and I were sharing a room and still busy catching up, so it was probably closer to 1 am before we went to sleep :) Alarm went off a little after 3 (I have to shower in the mornings to get going), and we were on the road by 4. On this trip were myself, Kelly, Katie (my sister) and Darlena (neighbor and friend). We were all a little excited getting started so everyone was awake and chatting a little. They all got a little rest on the way down- everyone was napping on and off. We went straight through and arrived at Walt Disney World at 4:30 pm (just a little traffic in Orlando). We headed straight to the expo to pick up our race bibs, shirts, and also to pick up a few things from the expo for the race.

We made it!

The expo

The glass running slipper

After finishing up at the expo, we went to check into our resort. We stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort, which was one of the host resorts for the race weekend. That meant that bus transportation would be provided to the race start (very important if you don't want to have to drive over at 3 am! Plus, it was really cool to stay in a pirate room! We got settled, checked out our goodies from the expo and then walked over to the resort's quick service restaurant for dinner. After dinner, we headed back to the room and soon I was fast asleep.

Our pirate beds in our pirate room

Saturday we woke up and relaxed a little before going to get some breakfast. We had planned on a low key day. After breakfast we went over to Downtown Disney to shop and walk around. We took plenty of breaks through the day- we were trying to be careful not to overdo it. We made a dinner reservation at Rainforest Cafe for dinner at 5:15. We ended up getting there a little early and they sat us immediately, which was good, we were getting hungry and I think all of us were anxious to get back and make sure we were prepared for Sunday. After a yummy dinner, we caught the bus back to our resort.

Shopping

I usually have a hard time sleeping before a race, but I was exhausted. I think I was the only one who slept well Saturday night. I heard someone moving around before my alarm went off, and we all were awake. The plan was to try to catch one of the first busses and they started at 3 am. We all got dressed and made sure we had everything and headed out to the bus stop (did I mention that it was only about 20 steps from our door? This was very helpful when we got back!). We got over to the bag check and porta potties and hung out there for about an hour before walking to our corrals. This was where more waiting began. Kelly, Katie and I were in the last corral (H), so our start time was not until about 6:30 (the first corral took off at 5:45). It was so cool to see the fireworks start and see the first runners take off- it was really starting! Katie, Kelly and I made sure to yell for Darlena (not that she could hear us!) when her corral (F) took off and then we were one corral closer to starting.

The start line

The sea of princesses behind us

And then we were off! We had all talked before starting the race saying that we were all just going to run our own race and if we caught up with each other, great, if not, we'd just see everyone at the end. That is what ended up happening. Everyone just kind of took off at their own pace and we didn't see each other again. I really enjoyed the course, it was fun to check out the characters as I passed by (I didn't stop for any pictures) and also the spectators. I ended up beating my Tinker Bell time by over 3 minutes. I was happy with that, I do wish it was better, but maybe next time. Overall I am very happy with how I did.

My Mile Times:

Mile 1 ~ 15:18

Mile 2 ~ 15:23

Mile 3 ~ 15:39

Mile 4 ~ 15:18

Mile 5 ~ 15:16

Mile 6 ~ 15:20

Mile 7 ~ 15:11

Mile 8 ~ 16:09

Mile 9 ~ 15:36

Mile 10 ~ 15:51

Mile 11 ~ 16:31

Mile 12 ~ 16:09

Mile 13 ~ 16:34

Total time for 13.1 ~ 3:28:34

I was so excited to be finished. I cried again- I'd done it again- the second half marathon of my deployment challenge was complete! I got my medal, got some powerade and water and then went down the line a little further and collected my coast to coast medal as well! I had signed up for runner tracking for myself and for Katie. This is a really neat free tool that rundisney does for all of it's races. It will send your split times for 5k, 10k, 15k and the finish in the form of a text or email to anyone you choose. It was great to check my phone after I'd gotten through the line and see that I already had a text from my other sister and my mom congratulating me on my race. I was also able to check Katie's status and see that she was estimated to finish just a few minutes behind me, so I decided to wait until I got to see her. I got the text that she had crossed the finish, so I waited a few more minutes and then she came through as well. We hugged- I was so proud of her.

I got through to Kelly to find out where she and Darlena were and we headed to meet them. After meeting up with them we got on our bus to go back to the resort. We all were in good shape- taking the stairs on the bus a little slow, but all feeling decent. We got showered and just relaxed (napping off and on) for a few hours and then decided to head out and walk around a little to avoid getting stiff. Our dinner plans were at Chef Mickey's, so we caught a bus to Magic Kingdom and then rode the monorail over to the Contemporary Resort. We had a little extra time so we browsed the shop there and then went into the arcade. Here is where I need to mention that I beat Katie twice at air hockey, and Kelly ended up with her only blister of the weekend- and that was from playing Pac Man! Then it was time for dinner. We all enjoyed a very yummy buffet and also visits from various characters.

Thank you to these three ladies who made this a very enjoyable weekend! I'd do it all over again!

My Weekend Struggle

I have a hard time getting a run in over the weekend.  This happens most weekends.  Weekdays are easy- it's built into my schedule.  I get up, get Caleb breakfast, make sure everything is ready for him to get out the door and get on the treadmill.  By the time I am done, the other two boys are up and I get them breakfast and then get my shower.  By then Sophie is up and we are all up and moving ready to take on the day!
Saturday is different.  There isn't an alarm going off to wake anyone up.  I am usually woken up by one of the boys coming to snuggle.  It is really hard for me to interrupt that time- there seem to be so few of the snuggly, sleepy, quiet moments that happen in our house.  I usually run a short distance/time Monday-Friday, so missing that Saturday morning run isn't that big of a deal, except I did plan to run on Saturdays for my longer run.  I have been very committed to my weekday runs, and I know that has paid off.  And even with my shorter runs, I am increasing speed and mileage with every week.  But, since I had planned on doing a Saturday run, I feel like I am letting myself down.
So the answer to that problem would be just to run during the day sometime, right?  That's almost impossible.  Not because there isn't time, but because I feel so guilty for taking the time away to run.  Gotta find a way to get over that guilt (or figure out how to squeeze a long run into the week).

On another note- I switched up today's menu.  We had corndog waffles instead.  My kiddos loved them.  We had broccoli as a side, and since I used turkey hotdogs and made the batter myself, they were healthier than they sound :)  We had them with broccoli- a much better choice than the tater tots we used to have with hotdogs!

Friday Weigh In and Pinterest....

Down 2.8 today! Very excited about that number because it keeps me on track for my 10 pound goal for February. This week it took a little more to get running. It was definitely a week for overcoming excuses and putting goals first. I got in a run every day Tuesday- Friday. I'm planning on another run tomorrow and taking Sunday off. Next week I'm also planning on running Monday- Thursday and then off Friday and Saturday in preparation for half marathon #2!

And on to pinterest. It is full of craft inspirations, recipes (dangerously delicious looking ones), organization ideas, quotes and endless ways to consume your time. Not by actually doing anything, but just by having tons of things to look at and just when you think you've seen it all, someone goes and pins something else! It's an endless cycle.

I love pinterest. I love to check out the recipes (even knowing it'll be a while before I make any of them), get ideas for reorganizing my house, finding new craft ideas, and even to make my list of places to visit one day. I really love to read the funny quotes that people pin. I don't know who comes up with some of them, but I like that when I am having a rough day I can usually count on being able to find a funny quote to make me laugh.

I've seen this one before, and being that I am now 8 weeks into this journey, I thought it was appropriate.

I have noticed a change. I don't know that I 'see' it as much as I feel it in my clothes. My 'small' jeans are loose and my shirts are also feeling loose. I have so much more energy than I had before. I've noticed a change in my attitude. I also feel like I have more confidence. I've got one half marathon of my deployment challenge done and in 11 days I will have the second one completed. I am not feeling as unsure of this half marathon as I did a month ago. I know I can do it. I know I can complete it in the time allowed. I just know. And that confidence hasn't been there- at least not in an exercise sense. So here we go, another week down- just keep going.

Non-Scale Victory

Today was a definite non-scale victory day for me today. I didn't sleep well last night- I was just kind of restless. No real reason, just didn't fall asleep until late (like after 1 am) and then up several times through the night. One of the times when I was awake I remember thinking that I would just skip my run in the morning and that would allow me to sleep a little later in the morning. But, when my alarm went off, I decided to get up anyway and run on the treadmill. I'm so glad I did. I felt so much better after that run and my general attitude was just better overall today. I hadn't run since Thursday, so it was good to get back into that as well.

The Chicken Divan that we had for dinner last night was really good. I was a little worried about the kids and the swiss cheese, but they seemed to really like it. I think this is also a recipe that will reheat well for leftovers. That is always positive because with just me and the kids, we always have leftovers.

Tonight we had Meatball and Spaghetti Soup. It was good. The kids loved it and ate it up very quickly- a good sign. I think it would be better with a little more spaghetti sauce, but the turkey meatballs were very good. They didn't seem dry at all, which is usually the problem I have with ground turkey. This was also a very easy recipe to make in the crock pot. I put everything in earlier this morning and then before we left for gymnastics, I added the noodles. When we got home, we had a nice meal waiting on us.

Winning Dinner!

The Chicken Pot Pockets from Hungry Girl were amazing! Since they were only 2 points per pocket, I also added a cup of shredded cheese to the filling mix, making them 3 points each. They were so good. Each of the kids had more than one- except the youngest. But, if you know her, you'd know that the next time I make these for us she'll probably eat the whole thing and seconds also. I was a little concerned that it would take a while to put them together, but it was really a fast process. One thing that I did do that I think helped was I got the egg roll wrappers that had a plastic wrapper between each wrapper so that I didn't spend a lot of time separating the egg roll wrappers. I was very happy with the finished result of this meal and I will plan on making them again.

I also ran one of my short intervals today. It was a good workout and I felt really good after finishing, but I've had a horrible headache since finishing. I used to get them a lot after my long runs or my races, but I haven't had one in a while. Oh well, nothing that a good night's sleep won't cure most likely.

Crusted Honey Mustard Chicken Review

I thought it was good, all the kids ate it, so it is a keeper. One thing I was unsure of was the points value. WW has it as a 16 point per serving recipe. I thought that was extremely high for a serving. I decided to plug the ingredients into the recipe builder to see what it came up with. Also, I decided to skip the dill and scallions, so really the recipe was just the 1/3 cup of lite honey mustard dressing (I used Kraft reduced fat honey dijon), 1 cup cornflakes and 1 lb chicken cut into 4- 4 oz pieces. After I plugged that into the recipe builder, it came up to 6 points per serving. Much better! A side of broccoli completed this meal. After reading some of the reviews of the recipe on WW, I realized that I was not the only one who thought it was a high point value recipe and adjusted it using the recipe builder. I also used my ridged baker from Pampered Chef- it kept the chicken from sitting in the juice that chicken creates when it bakes, so the outside was crispy. Yummy! It is one we will definitely have again!

So I switched my interval days up a little. I did a long interval today and will do my short interval on Wednesday. I did long interval #1, each of the 800 meters I did at 5 mph. Not an average like last time, but at 5 mph the whole time. I'm very happy with that. Next month when I do this interval again I am hoping to do it at 5.5 mph. Tomorrow I am planning on doing my 10 minute trainer video as well as walk/jog a couple miles or so. We'll see how the morning goes!

A Horrible 10 Minutes

Today's run was short interval #4. Total workout time was 10:00. Not fun at all. First few sprints were okay- hard but okay. When the rest time shrank, it made it almost impossible. I finished, but I will admit the speed at which I did the sprints did decrease as I went on. I so look forward to doing that interval again! I am hoping by the next time that one rolls again I'll be able to keep up my sprint pace. My goal is to complete them at 7 mph.

About dinner....the Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Chicken was amazing! This was the favorite recipe so far. All four kids ate it up without me having to prompt them at all. This is one that I would highly recommend, and we will be having it again. Very yummy and filling!

Sunday Meal Planning

Yesterday was a bit crazy for us. A birthday party in the morning that went into the afternoon and a dinner that evening, squeezing in a run just didn't seem like a good idea. I went with reorganizing the kitchen instead. But I will say that skipping that early morning run was a bad idea. My attitude is definitely affected by a lack of exercise. That was a mistake that I fixed this morning! I actually waited on everyone to get up (I decided that after seeing it was going to be a high of 39 this morning that it was going to be a pj day), after getting them all fed breakfast, I got on the treadmill and got started. I didn't go as far as I had planned, but I decided to make a 5k out of it. I finished 3.1 miles in 46:20. Pretty great since my last 5k was almost 55 minutes. Tomorrow is a short interval day. I really think that these intervals are making all the difference.

So the recipe reviews- both the Buffalo Chicken Dip and the Skinny Taco Dip were great! I would make both again. The only thing I would change about the taco dip is I would not add as much salsa- it made it a little more runny than I like, but it tasted amazing! I added avocado also because I just love avocado. I just cut it up and added it to the tomato layer. I loved them both and so did everyone else!

This week's meal plan:

Monday: Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Chicken from SkinnyTaste

Tuesday: Crock Pot Italian Turkey Meatballs from SkinnyTaste

Wednesday: It is my kids school's night at Chick Fil A, so we will be there for dinner- planning ahead will make all the difference

Thursday: Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli from Weight Watchers

Friday: I'm going out with for a progressive dinner. I do know the restaurants that we are going to, so again, planning ahead is key!

Saturday: Crusted Honey Mustard Chicken from Weight Watchers

Sunday: Leftover day as we get ready for the week!

We didn't have the crusted honey mustard chicken last week because of the last minute things we were invited to, so since I already had what we need for it, it just makes sense for us to have it this week!

Windy!

It is so windy outside today that it woke me up this morning (before my alarm- ugh!). As I laid there and listened to the wind I was totally dreading my long run today. Even last week when it was barely windy, pushing the jogging stroller was frustrating enough, today was going to be horrible. Then I remembered that my neighbor (husband also gone) and I had discussed child swapping so each of us could do our long runs without having to take a kiddo too. Yesterday we talked about doing those on Saturday, so once I decided I would take her up on that offer I was left with the decision to get up and do a shorter run this morning or not. I didn't do anything yesterday so I thought it was better to at least get up and do something. So I got up and got Caleb ready for school and then got started. I thought I'd try out a 4.5 mph mile and see what happened. I was actually able to complete a mile and a half before my boredom got the better of me (ok, I was a little tired also, but mostly bored). The pace felt good, I think I will try it out on my long run tomorrow. I know I probably won't keep it up, but I am going to work towards that, hoping to stay under the 16 minute pace that is required for the half that I am running in two weeks. More to come on that run later....

Now we are off and running for the day- a stop at the grocery store (because Monday is a day off school, and I really don't feel like torturing myself with a trip to the store on a holiday with all four), pick up a birthday gift for a party tomorrow, and make the buffalo chicken dip for the party tonight. I'm anxious to see how these "healthier" versions of some of my favorite dips turn out- reviews for those later this weekend.

And the big news of the day- it is weigh in day- down 5.4 pounds this week! That number thrills me. I've been paying very close attention to what I've been eating this week and I've exercised 4 out of 7 days this week. I'll probably try to increase the number of workout days this week. I didn't run or do any other kind of exercise yesterday and my attitude really suffered for it. I want to at least get on the treadmill or outside for some kind of exercise every day. That's going to be the goal for this week (along with some more pounds).

A couple new things

Yesterday was my first long interval day with my new running schedule. Before my husband left, he left me with 4 short interval running workouts and 4 long interval running workouts to rotate through. As of right now, my schedule is to do short intervals on Monday, long intervals on Wednesday, and my long runs are scheduled for Friday. My run yesterday was to run 800 meters as fast as I could and then rest the same amount of time as it took to run. Repeated 4 times. As always, I started off way too ambitious. I started off at 6 mph, but ended up the first one at 5 mph. Then was the nice break. I got some water, checked on the kids and got ready to start again. I managed to finish them all, with an average of 5 mph for them all, slowing and speeding back up. It was a great workout, and I even get to add 2 miles to my running total :)

New thing #2- I've joined weight watchers online (I mean, do they really think I can make a meeting without childcare?!?!?). I am now actively counting, measuring and paying attention to everything I eat. I've never liked being so anal about food, but I've come to accept that it is something I'm going to have to do. Sure, I can run at my current weight, but I simply want to be healthier over all, so this is what has to be done. The days of counting points are in front of me, but it is something I'm looking forward to. I'm mostly looking forward to the end result, but I also am enjoying the researching of all of the new recipes and planning out meals (I do love to plan!). So now I will also post some new recipes and reviews of them by myself and my kiddos. Because, honestly, that's the part that is always hard for me- to find kid friendly recipes that also fit a healthy lifestyle.

And on that note- tonight's dinner is Spinach Lasagna Rolls that can be found on Skinnytaste. They were really easy to make and are now cooking. Because of the rolls, they are all portioned out and each roll is 6 points. I'm really looking forward to having them for dinner. My oldest actually picked them out- I was searching recipes online and he pointed to them and said we should have them for dinner. Hopefully he likes them as well as he liked the picture!

*Update*
The verdict is in on the spinach lasagna rolls- I had 4 clean plates after everyone declared that they 'loved' them.  My oldest even went as far as to say he wanted to have them every day.  I thought they were very good, and I'm not a fan of spinach at all.  It is a recipe I would recommend to a friend though!