A Night of Firsts

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And the result of those firsts is one sore girl! I’ll explain, but first to get caught up …

I’m struggling a little bit with trying to get the right nutritional balance. As many of you know, I’m a food journaler. But I’ve never really looked that closely at anything but my overall calorie intake.

(I use sparkpeople.com AND weightwatchers.com — both great sites!)

Based on some nutrition and food blogs I’m reading, and the latest recommendations for someone my height, it appears that I generally eat WAY too many carbs, and don’t even come close to eating enough fat. Today’s not a great example, because I had a big ol’ bowl of pasta for dinner, but still.

So for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to try and bring the whole thing in balance. But this is tricky — most fruits and veggies, while being very healthy, are also high in carbs and natural sugars. I ate two kiwi fruit today, for a total of 23 carbs!

I’ll keep you posted, but I’d love to hear from anyone else that’s struggling. (Oh, and if you’re looking at the numbers above? no worries, I still have to eat dessert, so that calorie count isn’t complete)

Speaking of fruits and veggies, I just had to post a picture of my fruit bowl:

Look at all of the yummies! The long brown thing is yuca, the yellow banana-looking items are actually plantains, the green thing is a chayote squash, and there are a bunch of apples, oranges, garlic, onion, etc. in there. My mama taught me to love fresh fruit (I was the only kid in third grade with starfruit — thanks, Mom!)

Okay, onto my night of firsts. Remember last week, when I had that amazing post-work run? (Refresh your memory here.)

Well, my plan was to try it again today. But it was too darn cold. Yes, cold — 33 degrees on the way to work. Even with gloves, I wasn’t prepared to be outside.

(For the record? YES I grew up in New England and YES I went to school in Syracuse, NY, the lake effect capital of the world. I now live in Florida, where they pump wuss juice into our deliciously fresh oranges.)

So, I decided to try the treadmill workout by Crunch Fitness that so many in the blogger world are raving about.

After all, I need to get ready for the triathlon in March, and the half marathon in January, and I am sloooooooow.

The workout? It rocked. 45 minutes is not a long run for me these days, but because of the changing inclines and speeds, it not only kept my heart rate up, it kept my thoughts from drifting, always a possibility when I’m on the treadmill. Here are some pics I snapped during and after the run:

I love the spikes in the little chart, showing when the treadmill was at a steep incline. Of course, you know (you do know, right?) that you can’t believe the amount of calories burned. It’s all based on a ridiculous average/assumption by the makers of the treadmill. My HRM told me I actually burned a little more than 300 calories.

Now, normally I try and run at least 45 minutes, and even *that is a shorty these days. Since the beginning and the end of the treadmill workout force you to walk, I decided to stay on the treadmill for a while and work my way up to an hour.

60 minutes of running came and went, and I was not ready to stop. So, I bumped UP the speed, and told myself to take it 5 minutes at a time. Eventually, I made it through 75 minutes of running — 90 minutes total with warmup and cooldown — and burned about 625 calories.

I felt … well, I’ll say it … I felt awesome! Every time I push myself past my perceived limit, I feel stronger, both physically and mentally. I say it all the time, I often regret NOT working out, but I never wish I hadn’t worked out.

Another first? When I came home and took off my shoes, I found a bloody sock!

Okay, Sox fans know that’s not my sock, but Curt Schilling’s … mine wasn’t nearly as dramatic or epic. But I still celebrated my own blood, because it meant that I am getting it done when it comes to working out. What a feeling! We’ll see how I’m feeling at 4:44am tomorrow when my alarm goes off for spinning.

Speaking of the Red Sox … this is random, but we have these drink coozies that, when pressed down, emit a play-by-play call from a Sox grand slam. They live in our pantry, and I haven’t had them out in a few weeks.

Lucas and I were sitting in the living room the other night, when we heard the coozies spontaneously going off! There was no reason for it — but I took it as a sign that it’s going to be a great year for my boys.

Other randomness? My grocery store FINALLY started stocking these:

So, hopefully I’ll find out what all the food blogger fuss is about. I love my Flat Out wraps, so these will have to be pretty good to stand up to them!

I’ll leave you with a picture Lucas secretly snapped of me crashed on the couch the other night. Don’t you love a good nap?