This isn’t some big magical, mystical revelation, but these three mantras that I tend to use when the going gets tough are pretty universally applicable to other areas of my life. I like when my motivation points me generally toward one path, and I think these are all saying: Suck it up, buttercup.

Probably a little more poetically.

1. “Someday you won’t be able to run, but today is not that day.” Credit goes to a lot of people…I have no idea who the original source is, but my favorite marathoner told me this prior to my December 15K and it stuck. I’m especially reminded of this mantra outside of running when I take special time for myself – maybe just relaxing with a book and a cup of tea or visiting antique shops for hours on end. Someday, I may not have the free time to do those things, and I’m grateful to savor that now.

2. “This doesn’t feel bad, and you don’t have any reason why you can’t do this.” It’s usually easy for me to conjure up some reason why something hurts or I can’t do something. So when a run is going well, it’s good positive reinforcement for me to remind myself that it doesn’t feel bad, and there’s no reason why I can’t keep going with the run. This was my mantra for my first mile today, and it kept me from stopping to walk. The “no reason why you can’t do this” is something I remind myself of when I’m at work and the task seems overwhelming at first.

3. “Look how far you’ve come.” On Saturday’s 7 mile run, I started to lose a little mojo around mile 5.5. Then I thought, Self, look how far you’ve come! What’s 1.5 miles when you’ve already done 5.5? No, seriously? Barring injury, it’s nothing.  And the same is true of other areas in life. In particular, when things generally don’t seem to be going well, I think reminding ourselves of the obstacles we’ve previously overcome puts the ones we face in perspective.

And thus concludes the cheeseball portion of the evening.

Got a favorite yourself? Hit me up!

Training Mode: BACK IN THE GAME! This was week 8 of half marathon training, although my schedule is modified from the original based on my injury-induced rest.

Days until the race: 26

Feelings about the race: I really wanted this race to be better than I think it’s going to be, but, it’s more important to me that I take care of my body and ensure that I try my best at long-term injury prevention. I wanted to hit a pace of 10:45/mile, but now my goal is to just finish, and I’ll truly be happy with that. Plus, some good friends are also running the race and other friends are cheering us on. And, it’s on St. Patrick’s Day. Clearly, March 17th is going to be awesome.

You can run and tell that: 17.85 (what what!); long run: 7.1

Busted more moves: One Body Pump class, one arc trainer session.

Busted body: Some stress-related GI issues (and that’s all I’ll say about that). A little diet modification is helping.

Ear candy o’ the week: Body Pump release 80 (this week marked my third time doing that one) features a remix of Roxette’s Fading Like a Flower by Dan Winter. It’s catchy and I have it stuck in my head for days after Body Pump. So now it’s your ear candy. You’re welcome.

The takeaway: Around mile 5.5 of my long run, I thought: “Self, you could just walk the rest if you wanted.” Then I mentally smacked myself and revised: “Self, you feel just fine. Why not keep running?” And so I did, and it was just fine. Nay, great. I felt great when I was done, and later that day, I didn’t even feel like I’d run (okay, jogged – the miles were slower than my last race pace) 7 miles. Knocking off the self-doubt is big progress for me.

Things to work on: continuing to get in the miles, continuing trying to complement running with other workouts.

To Try:

• Attend Body Pump once a week for four more weeks
• Attend Body Pump twice a week for four weeks
• Fartleks
• A new running shoe fitting

To Achieve:

• Run a 5K (official or unofficial) in 32 minutes or less
• Run a 5K (official or unofficial) in 30 minutes or less
• Maintain or beat my December Hot Chocolate 15K pace in my upcoming 10-miler (11:02/mile) (more about the 10-miler below)

To Buy:

• A fuel belt (because, yes, holding a sloshing water bottle in my hand for 7 miles WAS annoying…and inspired feelings of needing to, you know, use the facilities…)
• 2-3 short-sleeve tops for running/other activities (the ones I have are mostly old, raggedy, have a slight perma-stench, and…too big!)
• A new sports bra (Let’s just say that I was…blessed…(?)…in this department, and buying new sports bras is neither enjoyable nor always easy.)

To Think About Buying:

• A Garmin

As with just about any physical activity, the range of capital outlay for running is broad. You can spend $12.99 at Target on a poly/spandex T-shirt, and you can spend $58.00 for a technical tee from lululemon. Any number of blogs out there will probably tell you which one is better, and I don’t mean to provide those two options as a quality comparison. It’s just to say: wow! There’s some serious variation, and your mileage may vary from any of those options. For example, I choose to spend more on sports bras, but go pretty cheap on running capris.

For more on what you need to run, I really like this summary. And I love this review of just how much bang you can get for your buck from big-box stores.

With the spring and summer just around the corner, folks have started mentioning upcoming races to me. To add to the growing list of running expenses: race registrations. Obviously, you don’t need to enter races to have a fulfilling running life, but I enjoy them. And, well, these days, I’m feeling racy…

So I decided to add a new line item to my budget: The Fund to Keep Racy Stacie Racing. I’m still working out the details, but I started my virtual racing earmark by adding up the number of pounds I’d lost since starting WW and the number of workouts I’ve logged since my last race. [This is virtual because, while I love this idea for rewarding yourself for weight loss or other achievements, putting dollar bills in a jar is harder to translate into an online race registration purchase.] I’ll have to add in some other reasons to add to the kitty to keep up with my goals, but I thought this was a good start. Also, not helpful now because my birthday is in December, but for my last birthday, my parents bought me my registration to the half marathon…that’s now in less than 4 weeks!

So, here’s the first application of The Fund to Keep Racy Stacie Racing:

How perfect is THAT?! Looking forward to my next 10-miler!

How do you budget for your athletic hobbies? Is it a conscious decision for you to budget for races or gear? What other ideas do you have for ways I can add to my Fund?

I happily obliged and got in a nice 5 miler. I’m trying to get back into my training schedule, and today’s option was a cross-train or a 3 mile run. So…I overshot a bit, but after weeks of not hitting the mark, this felt like a big victory. I felt awesome, the weather was fantastic, and it was nice to run in the daylight and with nothing that I had to “run” off to as soon as the run was done. I don’t like running with the pressure that I have somewhere to be.

And, I realized that I really like 5 miles. It’s a nice distance.

And as a follow-up to yesterday, here’s the 23-pound difference. On the left: me in the dress I tried so hard to find because nothing fit, which then inspired me to try to lose some weight and generally lead a healthier life. On the right: me, today, just before leaving for my run. And wearing the super-cute headband a friend gave me, which so nicely goes with my favorite running shirt (oooh – glad I looked this up – they are on sale right now!).

I’m sure there are other pictures floating around out there that show the difference in my body, but frankly, I probably didn’t save them. I wasn’t too proud of how large or out of shape I’d gotten.

Anyway, going to spend the rest of my night basking in the awesomeness that was leaving work early and having an awesome run. I hope I don’t jinx it, but I think I’m…

There was a gigantic pink stuffed teddy bear

Tuesday is my Weight Watchers weigh-in day (I do WW online, and weigh myself wearing the same thing – I’ll leave it up to you to imagine – at approximately the same time on the same day of the week). I suppose wearing winter clothing this wouldn’t be true, but sans sweaters…today’s weight was my first goal weight!

Perhaps someday I'll reveal the hard numbers, but, yes, that's 23 pounds lost. And, ignore the points averages at the bottom - there were some weeks of not tracking, and I don't track every activity....lazy Weight Watcher, right here.

So! Now what? Well, first, I’m really excited. See?

This is my new stock excited pose!

When you reach your goal weight, you get the option to start maintenance or set a new goal. I set a new goal. At the rate I’ve been losing, I should lose 16 more pounds just in time for my year WW anniversary. But that’s at the rate I’ve been going, which, lately, has been pretty comfortable. At the beginning, I was pickier about what I ate at restaurants, I fretted over food, and appropriate portion sizes haunted me in my sleep were something I thought about quite a bit. Now I’ve taken a more relaxed approach where I still track and pay attention to portion sizes, but I’m a slacker less precise and if I get off course, I try to gently steer back on course. If I want to speed up the weight loss a little (I averaged 0.7 pounds per week for the 7 months I’ve been on WW), then I know I can make some adjustments to get back on a steeper slope, if you will:

Yeah…so that looks like right around…November…that I started slacking a little. Makes sense.

Another day, when I’m not frantically trying to get to work, I’ll write about this milestone from the perspective of what’s changed. When I think back, honestly, nothing too drastic. I am proud and confident in this victory because it hasn’t compromised my lifestyle (too much). I’ve certainly made some sacrifices, but, truly, they’ve been pretty easy and 100% worth it.

Onward toward the new goal!

Things have been pretty crazy at work; new hours, new responsibilities, a ton of running around at the last minute with a figurative fire under my ass. Happy it’s not a literal one, and, frankly, the excitement is…pretty exciting. But it’s made it hard to stick to a schedule and keep on top of my life. I’m proud to report that Operation: Rein It In was successful. Wish I’d cooked a little more, but, considering that I went in to work on Sunday, too, very productive process of regaining control.

Training Mode: Meh. This should have concluded Week 7 of half marathon training.

Days until the race: 32

You can run and tell that: 3.25 miles! Which is…not enough! But it’s better than it has been!

Busted more moves: One yoga class, one Body Pump class. And…running around my office?

Busted body: …..  (Nothing to report – yay!)

Ear candy o’ the week: I’d forgotten how much awesome music is in my library, what with adding new things to my workout mixes. In rediscovering my more rootsy, folky selections, I remembered that membership at the top of the pop charts isn’t the only thing that makes a great running song. I happily ran to Neko Case’s version of “Soulful Shade of Blue” yesterday; a driving beat, great lyrics, and knowledge that there’s much more to life than Britney Spears will keep you going.

The takeaway: I can’t let changes at work or in life change my habits and affect attainment of goals as much as they did last week. The eating habits were healthy last week, but the fitness habits suffered. I really enjoyed Theodora’s post on staying healthy when busy.

Things to work on: getting back into my running plan (2nd attempt).

I haven’t run in over a week. My apartment looks like someone threw a grenade into it. And I’m really behind on catching up with folks and some other miscellany that needs attention. I need to GSD (Get Sh*t Done). I’m proud of myself that I’ve kept my usual stress-induced poor eating habits at bay; normally when chaos starts to creep in (another week of long days at work), the cupcakes start to magically appear…this week there was only one instance of celebratory cupcake consumption.

Anyway, things are starting to feel a little out of  control. I’d felt some hyper-control over my life for a while, and I find myself slipping back into bad habits.

Hitting that reset button this weekend! OK, so maybe the whole of life can’t have a reset button, but in this journey toward healthier living, I find that I’m more aware of when things start getting unraveled, and I can make small resets when I start to get off course.

Big shout-out to the practices of journaling and logging things like food and workouts. Actually seeing my habits on paper screen is a very objective reminder of lagging commitment, and I think helps me to recognize that the more subjective feelings of stress or being sluggish aren’t random. Prior to keeping track of these things, I’d go much longer down the not-so-healthy path before trying to turn around, and sometimes by that point, the whole process would just feel overwhelming.

So time to restore some balance and a little control; hyper control may be the opposite of out of control, but it’s not especially healthy either. This weekend is Operation: Rein It In!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

By: Leah

Let me start my stating the obvious this is a cookie recipe NOT a health food recipe.  I am posting it here as a springboard to talk about moderation and the spectrum of what makes food healthy. Clearly we are all committed to being healthier people, which for all of us means moderating something. I’m not going to pretend that it’s easy. Instead I’m admitting that it is a lesson I learn over, and over, and over again! One cookie is not going to wreck a week, but eating the whole batch by myself is a different matter. That is why I sent about 2/3 of the cookies to work with my husband. Out of site and out of mind

This weekend I thought a lot about whether or not these cookies are healthy.  In the end; yes and no.  I believe that anything made from scratch is healthier than a store bought version. This is because cooking at home eliminates preservatives and high fructose corn syrup, and allows you to control your ingredients. These cookies go from there and step it up a notch.  The whole wheat flour and raw turbinado sugar are processed differently by your body than their white flour and sugar counterparts.  There will be a lower spike in your blood sugar (a.ka. lower glycemic index) and will take longer to digest because of the whole grain flour. They also give the cookies a delicious nutty quality.  Of course there is no escaping the fact that this is a recipe for cookies. In moderation or for a treat these are a great choice.  I would argue you should buy the best quality chocolate you can afford since this is something you’re not likely to make and eat every week. I bought my ingredients at Whole Foods and chose to use Ghirardelli semi sweet baking bars that I chopped up myself.  Taking into account that I did not use the whole bag of sugar or flour I estimated I spent about $15 on ingredients, and with 64 cookies to a batch that’s about $0.23 per cookie. Not so bad after all.

This recipe has been modified from one written by Jennie Perillo. (Side note: Jennie recently and unexpectedly lost her husband. She is a brave, humble, and honest women. Her blog reflects that, so have tissues handy when you read it.)

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 64 cookies

Ingredients:

4 cups (490 grams) whole wheat pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt (kosher or fleur de sel if you have it)

2 cups (400 grams)  raw turbinado sugar

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons (30 ml) molasses

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

8 ounces chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350º. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and fleur de sel.

In a separate, clean bowl, beat the butter, sugar and molasses until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until well mixed. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

If you can wait consider ‘dry aging’ the dough by covering the top with plastic wrap and allowing it to rest in the fridge overnight.

Use your tablespoon measure and place 1 tablespoon of dough about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes on the center rack of the oven. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan for exactly 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely, or at least until cool enough to eat without burning your the roof of your mouth or tongue.

Weight watchers points plus (I can’t explain why, but for your reference)

1 cookie=3

2 cookies= 5

3 cookies = 8

4 cookies= 10

And how do I know that 4 cookies equals 10 points plus?  Because I had trouble moderating myself when they were warm and gooey out of the oven

Training Mode: Hiatus…ish. This should have concluded Week 6 of half marathon training.

Days until the race: 39

You can run and tell that: 2 miles! TWO MILES! I went out for a run after a few days of no pain at all when walking up and down stairs. It felt great.

Busted more moves: One yoga class, one Body Pump class. [And I could bore you with excuses about why that's such a short list, but I won't...duly noted that I need to bust more moves if I want to bring sexy back. And I do. I just caught a glimpse at some potential bridesmaid dresses, one of which I'll be donning in July. I need to bring sexy back. Real bad.]

Busted body: A tight left calf…can’t seem to stretch it out very well.

Ear candy o’ the week: May you someday be as blessed as I was to have a sweaty, slightly scary gay man yelling at me that he was going to take us all to “The Edge of Glory” when we went to, THAT’S RIGHT, LADIES….SINGLES!!!! I really like Body Pump and my super enthusiastic instructor.

The takeaway: It felt great to run again, but some lingering tightness in my left calf is a reminder that I can’t expect to just hop back into my training plan as if nothing was wrong with my leg.

Things to work on: getting back into my running plan, better healthy meal preparation. Every meal can’t devolve into scrambled eggs or Greek yogurt or hummus.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Monday night update: I left my regular Monday night yoga class tonight feeling…blah. Similar moves as always, but my legs just felt…heavy. And all of my muscles felt sore. Hangover from the weekend? Not sure, but it’s frustrating. I typically look forward to this class as an opportunity to feel strong, but I just felt weak. Proud of myself for not giving up, but a reminder that not every day will be your best day.

Ever have those days when there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason why you’re not feeling your best?

But! That’s neither here nor there. Trails are a great option for people to get out and get fit, and, in more urban areas, great alternatives for commuting.

For all you folks in the DC area, here are my three things for Thursday: rail-trails you should check out.

1. Capital Crescent Trail – Through the mid-1980s, a slow-moving freight train traveled from Bethesda to Georgetown every day. Now you can enjoy a nice run or ride between the two above the Potomac River and into the urban areas of Bethesda and Silver Spring (connect to the Georgetown Branch Trail to take you into downtown Silver Spring, and, eventually, to the Metropolitan Branch Trail).

2. Washington & Old Dominion Trail – Hop on the W&OD in Arlington and you can ride (or run!) west for 45 miles to Purcellville. Numerous trails connect to the W&OD from local neighborhoods and towns, making it accessible to a large segment of the Northern Virginia suburbs. It’s one of my favorites, and I did most of my training for the Hot Chocolate 15K on parts of the W&OD.

My parents' old neighborhood was also close to the W&OD. I'm getting ready to head out on ride during Summer 2010.

3. Baltimore and Annapolis Trail – So it’s a little trip from DC, but you can hop on this trail in Annapolis or Glen Burnie, and the trail is a solid 13+ miles, with options to connect to another trail near BWI.

I went out on a run tonight for the first time in about two and a half weeks. I walked a little, but had a pretty good 2.5 miles, part of which was on a trail that connects to the W&OD. I made it a good run, I guess out of my own little personal protest. Should you find yourself wanting to protest…or just get in a good workout, there are probably some great trails to explore, wherever you live.