All Quiet on the Midwestern Front

While I was training for my first 5K a few months ago, I really enjoyed getting up in the morning to run. If I had a stressful day, I’d throw on my workout clothes and go for a run. It soothed me. Back then.

I’d like to say that my workouts remained a steady pattern after the race, but that didn’t really happen. Sadly, I’ve only worked out a handful of times in the past month and a half. Bad Amanda! Maybe that had something to do with my sticking at 153-154 for the past few months. Hmm who woulda thunk? Duh.

I knew what I was doing (or rather, what I wasn’t doing) was not good. I got busy. My life’s events ran away from me, and I wasn’t running (literally) with them. In the past month and a half, I’ve been out of town four of the weekends. I wasn’t fitting in workouts while I was out of town, and when I’d be back in St Paul, I was focused on work during the week and social gatherings on the weekends. I just DID NOT want to work out during my free moments. I wanted to sit, lay, read, R-E-L-A-X.

Not exercising for a few days turned into a few more days then a few weeks, and I fell off the workout wagon. I’m now realizing how poor of a decision that was.

A regular workout routine would have been one of the only constants in my busy-bee life. That, in itself, might have alleviated some stress. The endorphins produced during my workouts would have made me happy. The positive results I would have seen in my body would have made me ecstatic!

Now that I’ve come to this realization, I will jump back on the wagon. Actually, I already have!

http://www.nataliedee.com/

No, not that wagon.

This morning, after waking up too early for a Sunday and watching last night’s Saturday Night Live, I put on my exercise gear and headed outside. I did my warmup walk then broke into a jog. Then, the dreaded thing happened.

MY IPOD BATTERY DIED!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I was only 5ish minutes from home. I could have gone back. How can I run without tunes?!?! But NO. I stayed strong. I decided today is the day I will enjoy the nature around me. Today is the day I will use my workout time — my ME time — to think.

I took a couple of laps around the lake, and then, as I was on my route home, I decided to take a detour. A detour that would make my route LONGER. I wound up walking more than running, but I really didn’t care. I like walking, and it made focusing on the scenery and my thoughts more enjoyable.

The last half of my route was kind of depressing, actually. Is it weird that I even found THAT enjoyable? I’m generally a happy-go-lucky person, but every so often I like to wallow. I’m a weirdo. I was thinking about how my apartment’s getting too small for me and the kitties, how boys are stupid and I’m probably going to be single forever, how I don’t know what to get anybody for Christmas, how I just KNOW that I’ll gain weight over Thanksgiving weekend, how I had lost weight this past week only to RUIN IT ALL last night at Emily and Roland’s housewarming party. Oh thinking. This is where it gets me.

At one point I actually felt myself walking hunched over like a sad Charlie Brown. Or even better, a sad George Michael Bluth.

(I love Arrested Development. LOVE it.)

Anyway, I got home, stretched and checked out my distance on MapMyRun.com. 5.65 miles … sans iPod! Pretty big deal for me considering I rely on my tunes to keep me goin. Turns out I don’t need ’em! Buuuuut in the future I’d much rather jam to my happy tunes than swim in my sadness. Just sayin’.

On the bright side, now that that’s over, I’m happy as a clam :) This weekend I get to hang with my family and friends that I rarely see! Woot! I’m also contributing two dishes to Thanksgiving dinner this year. It’ll be my first time making anything for it, and I’m kinda pumped. I will make Lemon-Marinated Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potato Chips. I’ll be sure to take some pics and post them with the recipes within a week or so of Thanksgiving.

Speaking of recipes, you should really check out the e-cookbook PriorFatGirl Jen compiled. My Black Bean Chili recipe is in there along with more than 50 recipes for various tasty eats. Each recipe contains the nutrition facts, which I LOVE because that’s the first thing I look for when paging through cookbooks. More often than not, there are no nutrition facts and I put down the book and find another one that does. And this cookbook has ’em!!!

It’s only $5, and $4 of each payment goes to a great cause: YMCA Activate America. Very very cool. Check out the PriorFatGirl E-Cookbook 2009 if you know what’s good for you ;)

Wow. This got long. Peace, I’m out.