Being an adult sucks.
And the past few days I haven't been good at it. I'm in a funk--mad at the world and Mike because we're not going on vacation in two weeks with my family. Right now, Dave Ramsey is a curse word in my world.
We decided earlier this year not to go on vacation with my family this July because we wouldn't have a camper and we were planning to work hard at paying off our debt and saving for a kitchen remodel. I was the strong one, saying it wouldn't bother me, that I wouldn't care. We wanted an amazing testimony to share with my family (who thinks we're crazy, BTW) about "living like no one else so later we can live and give like no one else." Right now, I couldn't care less. I want to go on vacation. Yes, I did write "want"-- I know I'm being childish, but I can't help it right now. I'm weak.
I'm so sad and depressed now that we're not going. My family is group texting their plans for the week, so I'm seeing what they're planning to do while I'm stuck at my desk working. This will be the first time in something like 15 years that we haven't gone on vacation with my family. It's tradition.
I need to spend some time reading my Bible and talking to God because right now, I'm not feeling like a good Christian or a even a good person. *sigh*
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Sunday, July 16, 2017
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
#gmas17 ruined?
But, I'm supposed to be running.
This Saturday's long run was supposed to be the end of training and the beginning of my taper to race day in 24 days, 5 hours and 8 minutes. June 17, 2017.
This was supposed to be my redeeming marathon. Grandma's 2016 was hot, humid and miserable. I thought I could do better. So, I signed up for Twin Cities Marathon and got bronchitis 2 weeks before, but raced anyway. I thought I might pass out along the way, but I finished. Grandma's 2017 was supposed to be the end-all, my redeeming race--the race to give me my true marathon time.
One step and one-half second might ruin my chances at running. Somehow, getting out of the car in a hurry in the rain on Saturday night, I planted my foot and jarred my knee resulting in an LCL sprain. NOT good when I have less than 4 weeks until race day.
I've run hundreds of miles and hundreds of thousands of steps training for Grandma's 2017 with no injuries. I'm completely frustrated that it might end with one dumb misstep getting out of the car.
I have PT in the morning, and I'll know more from them what my chances at running are. I certainly don't want to risk permanent damage, but I've training my a$$ off for this race yet again, and I know that not crossing the finish line will be one of the hardest things I'll have to do. Hopefully, this will miraculously heal overnight. That's (selfishly) my sole prayer right now.
Friday, May 19, 2017
The beginning of the end
When this camper is towed away by someone else tomorrow my excitement for summer weekends away and family vacation go with it.
I'll childishly cry when we drive away without it because my weekends of getting away will cease to exist. Yes, it's temporary, but we're still not sure how temporary.
I have Dave Ramsey to thank (or cuss at).
I can't tell you how excited I am to be debt-free, but I also can't tell you how incredibly hard it is for me to sell this camper. Mike could take it or leave it, but I love it! I grew up camping. It's in my blood.
The camper, by far, carries our greatest debt. We'll sell it and instantly have paid down half of our debt. It just sucks. So, tomorrow marks the beginning of the end of our debt. No more. We're not sure how long it will take, but I'm praying for the fastest year or two of my life so we can get another camper--with cash.
When we visit the Dave Ramsey show in Nashville for our debt-free scream and he asks us about the hardest part to becoming debt free. My answer will be this. Selling one of my favorite things. I know there's another one just like it, and it's not that I'm attached to the camper itself--it's the fact that we won't be camping this summer and won't be joining my big family vacation in July and everything we WON'T be doing, which is the wrong mindset to have. Right now, I'm struggling with that.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Saturday afternoon ramblings
I find myself home on a Saturday afternoon. Alone. Almost bored.
This never happens.
Mike's up north for the rest of the weekend, my plans for today fell through, so I'm home wondering what to start and do next. The list is long, but I have no energy to start something that requires physical labor and mental clarity. A long run this morning and a crazy past few weeks at work have me totally burned out and overwhelmed.
Maybe today is supposed to be a "me" day? What the heck are those anyway? A day to be selfish about your time and do whatever you want. Maybe it helps a person regain perspective and reprioritize things. But for me, my mind wanders to the to-do list of things around the house, most of which can't be completed by me alone and everything else that requires way more money than is available. Then I get stressed about the list yet again. It's a vicious cycle.
Huh. I totally didn't intent to go this direction. Let's call this post DONE!
This never happens.
Mike's up north for the rest of the weekend, my plans for today fell through, so I'm home wondering what to start and do next. The list is long, but I have no energy to start something that requires physical labor and mental clarity. A long run this morning and a crazy past few weeks at work have me totally burned out and overwhelmed.
Maybe today is supposed to be a "me" day? What the heck are those anyway? A day to be selfish about your time and do whatever you want. Maybe it helps a person regain perspective and reprioritize things. But for me, my mind wanders to the to-do list of things around the house, most of which can't be completed by me alone and everything else that requires way more money than is available. Then I get stressed about the list yet again. It's a vicious cycle.
Huh. I totally didn't intent to go this direction. Let's call this post DONE!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
life's better in lower numbers
I haven't written about my super diet since February, and all I had to say about it that day was it sucked.
In February I decided I better do something about my weight and fitness since my thyroid didn't seem to be the root of my weight gain over the years. Many pokes and prods, two ultrasounds, a biopsy and two different endocrinologists confirmed that my thyroid is functioning as it should given the nodules on it. Ugh. Not what I wanted to hear, but that solidified the fact that I better just get off my butt and work out.
So that's what I did.
For about two-and-a-half months from March to May I worked out and was super careful about what I ate. No fast food. No sugar. No carbs. Nothing processed. Everything fresh. NOTHING that tasted good. Even though I was crabby about not getting the "good" food, I started feeling pretty amazing and the pounds were dropping off. It worked and it was inspiring.
Bub-bye 30 pounds in a matter of weeks, really.
Clothes that hadn't fit in years were back in my drawers. (Luckily I kept everything I loved and said "I'll wear that again.")
July, July and August were bad months. It's so hard to be diligent about being on a clean diet when you're running all the time and everywhere. There's no time to work out and only time for fast food. Those months I didn't lose much weight at all. Plus, we were on vacation twice during the summer and took weekend camping trips which helped me gain pounds back. Darn those tasty, sugary, alcoholic drinks.....
September was the time to get back on the wagon and really buckle down again. Mike and I signed up for a 5K at the end of October, so I really had to start running outside to train. This girl isn't a runner, just in case you didn't know that. I pretty much hated it.
Not anymore!
I still think it's pretty boring and I have to concentrate and pace myself when I do run, but I've come to kinda like it. (I can't believe I'm saying that!) I like how it makes me feel when I get home and stretch out. I feel great!
Here's my first 5k run in Eddyville, IA. Why we ran it in Iowa is worth a whole different blog post.
I ran the 5k in 33:40. (I forgot to stop my tracker when I finished.) Mike beat me by 5 minutes and my cousin and her fiancé were behind me by about 4-5 minutes.
I finished! And it wasn't THAT hard! I didn't die! The fatter me would have stroked out a 1/2 mile into it just months ago.
Right now, I'm watching what I eat again and making sure I get out on walks during the work day and then work out hard 3-4 times a week. I'm not as dedicated as I'd like to be, but I need more time for that.
All in all, I'm down more than 45 pounds. How crazy is that!??! I wish I never would have been that big to begin with. It's embarrassing to admit that I've lost that many pounds because that means I was WAY too fat. I still have about 15 to go, and then I'll be happy. I know these last pounds are going to be stubborn.
Life's good these days.
Small jeans.
Smaller jackets.
Smaller shirts.
I can fit into little black dresses I haven't worn since I was about 19. No joke.
My bed doesn't creak and moan when I thrash around in my sleep. ;) (Yes, I know Mike is still in bed next to me, but he's dropped some pounds, too!)
It's so much easier to work out when you don't weigh so much!
And, things don't jiggle around....
In February I decided I better do something about my weight and fitness since my thyroid didn't seem to be the root of my weight gain over the years. Many pokes and prods, two ultrasounds, a biopsy and two different endocrinologists confirmed that my thyroid is functioning as it should given the nodules on it. Ugh. Not what I wanted to hear, but that solidified the fact that I better just get off my butt and work out.
So that's what I did.
For about two-and-a-half months from March to May I worked out and was super careful about what I ate. No fast food. No sugar. No carbs. Nothing processed. Everything fresh. NOTHING that tasted good. Even though I was crabby about not getting the "good" food, I started feeling pretty amazing and the pounds were dropping off. It worked and it was inspiring.
Bub-bye 30 pounds in a matter of weeks, really.
Clothes that hadn't fit in years were back in my drawers. (Luckily I kept everything I loved and said "I'll wear that again.")
July, July and August were bad months. It's so hard to be diligent about being on a clean diet when you're running all the time and everywhere. There's no time to work out and only time for fast food. Those months I didn't lose much weight at all. Plus, we were on vacation twice during the summer and took weekend camping trips which helped me gain pounds back. Darn those tasty, sugary, alcoholic drinks.....
September was the time to get back on the wagon and really buckle down again. Mike and I signed up for a 5K at the end of October, so I really had to start running outside to train. This girl isn't a runner, just in case you didn't know that. I pretty much hated it.
Not anymore!
I still think it's pretty boring and I have to concentrate and pace myself when I do run, but I've come to kinda like it. (I can't believe I'm saying that!) I like how it makes me feel when I get home and stretch out. I feel great!
Here's my first 5k run in Eddyville, IA. Why we ran it in Iowa is worth a whole different blog post.
I finished! And it wasn't THAT hard! I didn't die! The fatter me would have stroked out a 1/2 mile into it just months ago.
Right now, I'm watching what I eat again and making sure I get out on walks during the work day and then work out hard 3-4 times a week. I'm not as dedicated as I'd like to be, but I need more time for that.
All in all, I'm down more than 45 pounds. How crazy is that!??! I wish I never would have been that big to begin with. It's embarrassing to admit that I've lost that many pounds because that means I was WAY too fat. I still have about 15 to go, and then I'll be happy. I know these last pounds are going to be stubborn.
Life's good these days.
Small jeans.
Smaller jackets.
Smaller shirts.
I can fit into little black dresses I haven't worn since I was about 19. No joke.
My bed doesn't creak and moan when I thrash around in my sleep. ;) (Yes, I know Mike is still in bed next to me, but he's dropped some pounds, too!)
It's so much easier to work out when you don't weigh so much!
And, things don't jiggle around....
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Road trippin' to Iowa!
740 miles
12 hours
5 kilometers
4 people
1 winery
1 brewery
1 corn maze
1 round of frisbee golf
1 observation tower
LOTS of pics and LOTS of laughs!
That about sums up a long weekend trip to Iowa!
Danielle (my cousin), Mike and I road-tripped to Oksaloosa, IA to visit my cousin's fiancé (Blaine) and to accept a challenge to run a 5k last weekend.
[back story: First off, Mike and I have been training for this 5k for months, it seems. We are NOT runners. Even though we've both been dropping pounds and working out, we're not distance runners, so we both had to train for this. Having this race looming on the calendar has kept me motivated to stay on my diet and work out as much as possible. When Blaine challenged us to run a 5k, I timidly accepted. And, now it's history.]
We left at noon on Friday and headed south on I35. Six hours later after driving through miles and miles and miles of cornfields and wind farms, we arrived at Blaine's house.
Bright and early Saturday morning we were dressed and headed to Eddyville (about 15 minutes away) to run the Cargill Ghoul Gallop. Did I mention that it was a Halloween fun run? Yep, it was. So, we dressed up in costumes.
Mike left me in the dust within the first 2 blocks. I stayed with Danielle and Blaine for the next block and then decided to do my best and run the race. I ran by myself most of the time, and that's a challenge for me. I'm not good at keeping a slow, steady pace. I like to think I can run faster and get it over with. I ended up walking three times because I couldn't keep my pace up.
In the end, I finished 33:45, Mike was 28:19 and Blaine and Danielle followed me. It was a hard 3.1 miles having to run into the strong NW wind along a dike on the river on a grassy path for about 1 mile. But, we finished!
After the race we cleaned up and then headed out to visit a huge winery with 100,000 vines. How cool is that!??! It was gorgeous! We got lost in a corn maze, drank some luscious libations at a brewery, shopped in Pella, IA, ate some de-lish Chinese food and then went back to Blaine's house and crashed on the couch to watch a movie.
Sunday morning we headed out to play a round of frisbee golf. (I'm better than Mike, btw!) We also climbed a 104' observation tower that overlooks one of Iowa's only lakes. hehe! True! It's man-made and used to be a mine. It's huge and very pretty. By the time we ate our picnic lunch and climbed the tower it was early afternoon and time for us to head north.
We packed a lot into our short weekend. It was great and I'm looking forward to our next 5k and trip to visit Blaine. Bring it on!
12 hours
5 kilometers
4 people
1 winery
1 brewery
1 corn maze
1 round of frisbee golf
1 observation tower
LOTS of pics and LOTS of laughs!
That about sums up a long weekend trip to Iowa!
Danielle (my cousin), Mike and I road-tripped to Oksaloosa, IA to visit my cousin's fiancé (Blaine) and to accept a challenge to run a 5k last weekend.
[back story: First off, Mike and I have been training for this 5k for months, it seems. We are NOT runners. Even though we've both been dropping pounds and working out, we're not distance runners, so we both had to train for this. Having this race looming on the calendar has kept me motivated to stay on my diet and work out as much as possible. When Blaine challenged us to run a 5k, I timidly accepted. And, now it's history.]
We left at noon on Friday and headed south on I35. Six hours later after driving through miles and miles and miles of cornfields and wind farms, we arrived at Blaine's house.
Bright and early Saturday morning we were dressed and headed to Eddyville (about 15 minutes away) to run the Cargill Ghoul Gallop. Did I mention that it was a Halloween fun run? Yep, it was. So, we dressed up in costumes.
Mike left me in the dust within the first 2 blocks. I stayed with Danielle and Blaine for the next block and then decided to do my best and run the race. I ran by myself most of the time, and that's a challenge for me. I'm not good at keeping a slow, steady pace. I like to think I can run faster and get it over with. I ended up walking three times because I couldn't keep my pace up.
In the end, I finished 33:45, Mike was 28:19 and Blaine and Danielle followed me. It was a hard 3.1 miles having to run into the strong NW wind along a dike on the river on a grassy path for about 1 mile. But, we finished!
After the race we cleaned up and then headed out to visit a huge winery with 100,000 vines. How cool is that!??! It was gorgeous! We got lost in a corn maze, drank some luscious libations at a brewery, shopped in Pella, IA, ate some de-lish Chinese food and then went back to Blaine's house and crashed on the couch to watch a movie.
Sunday morning we headed out to play a round of frisbee golf. (I'm better than Mike, btw!) We also climbed a 104' observation tower that overlooks one of Iowa's only lakes. hehe! True! It's man-made and used to be a mine. It's huge and very pretty. By the time we ate our picnic lunch and climbed the tower it was early afternoon and time for us to head north.
We packed a lot into our short weekend. It was great and I'm looking forward to our next 5k and trip to visit Blaine. Bring it on!
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