Black Hole

Ok so you know that song Supermassive Black Hole by Muse (also known as that cool song that plays during the baseball scene in Twilight) ?

I love that song. It’s great to run to and drive to. It’s not so great when it is the theme of your day. Supermassive black hole issue number one: There is a ginromous hole in our yard. I have never seen it before and it looks big enough for a badger or something to live in. I keep telling myself maybe its a cuddly rabbit living down in there but we all know the truth. Its a snake or something terrible. So now I am obsessed with this hole. The hubs swears it has “always been there” and “nothing is living in it’ but I know better. 🙂 Next supermassive black hole issue: there is a huge black void on my laptop screen.

Yep. Something has gone horribly wrong with my screen. The lap top is one masters degree plus 2 years old (so like going on 5 years)  and worth less than the cost of the repair so it looks like I am in the market for a new laptop. What kind of laptop do you have? Do you love it? I have been coveting the pink laptops by Dell for a while. How nice would it be to write Running In Pink Project on a pink laptop? I think its meant to be!

Now, my last black hole moment is that I finally seem to be over the big black holes ie: ZEROS that have haunted my weight loss for the last 3 weeks. I lost 3.2 lbs today for a total of 33.6.  This is pretty exciting because I am 1.6 lbs away from a 35 pound loss, 4.8 lbs away from making my May mini challenge and 8lbs away from my first major goal point. So YAY! I am sticking with my scale free living this week. Eat Well, Workout Hard, and Stress Less. That is my mantra!

I started my morning with another “to go” breakfast sandwich from the hubs. He is the best breakfast maker ever. I also took a princess cup of coffee.

Lunch was a whole grain bun with turkey, spinach, lettuce, tomato, onion, bell peppers, banana peppers and pickles. Essentially it was a veggie sandwich with a little turkey. I also had a side of tart green apple slices. I did get the sandwich from Subway. Subway was never on my “naughty list” for the fast food challenge but I avoided it anyway just to see if I could (and I did). I don’t love Subway but I was wanting all of those veggies today. Lately I have been craving grains/protein/veggies in combination. Maybe my body is trying to tell me something.

I also had a Kashi granola bar later in the afternoon. These TLC bars are awesome. Pretty low calorie for a bar and you know me and dried cranberries. I love this!

Dinner tonight was chicken mug soup ala Rachael Ray. I love this because its healthy and comforting. My major substitution is using fat free 1/2 and 1/2 instead of cream. The calories I save in this case are worth the unnaturalness that comes from fat free cream.  Ivery much prefer organic whole foods but sometimes you have to make a sacrifice. This was the perfect meal for a rainy evening in. (That is paprika on the reduced fat crescent rolls).

Tonight I am packing my gym bag (running and body pump tomorrow), catching up on TIVO (2 episodes of Chuck to watch), and sending another card to my papaw ala caring in pink project. Plus I miss him terribly. My heart breaks not getting to see him. I am sending him a card a week until I can get “home”. I think it will help us both feel happier.

What is your favorite rainy day meal?

Be Thankful Each Day in the Month of May: Today I am thankful for my hair stylist Caleb. He is the bees knees and puts up with all of my crazy ideas. ❤

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Running on Empty

Look at me rocking an afternoon Blog! Normally I am at work during this time but I took a personal/vacation day to get some much needed things done here at home. Really the bulk of my morning was quite boring until I decided to take a well deserved break and go for a run. When my husband reads this he is going to cringe but all I had this morning was some coffee and I decided, after reading a lot on other blogs about running before eating versus after, that I would try my first pre-breakfast run. This is a special little pet peeve of the hubs and I think it is because he worries about me getting sick or hurt while I am out there alone so his concern is valid. However, I just thought I would give it a try to see how my body reacted to it.

I had intended on doing 6 miles today but due to the pouring rain I only ended up doing 5. There is something sort of cool about running in the rain. It kind of makes you feel tough but peaceful all at the same time. Plus the trail was empty for the most part. It reminded me of training in the dead of winter for the Princess 1/2 Marathon.

I got all rain geared up and set out for a run.

It was pouring the rain so my “beginning of the run” shot is a little blurry.

The trail is paved with mile markers and almost tented by huge trees. It blocked the rain enough to make it bearable. I was getting pretty drenched but not soaked to the core like I would have been otherwise.The other cool thing about the trail is you can take off road (dirt) trails that sort of take you all over. This is what I do when I run with Bryan but when I run alone I stick to the pavement.

It’s comforting to be alone with your music, concentrating on breathing and taking good strides.

I ran under some bridges

And across them..

I used to hate this part of the run (I am scared of bridges) until a work friend told me to turn off my i-pod when I cross. The sounds of rushing water are so peaceful that its now one of the best parts of this run!

It was at this point that I started regretting my no pre-run fuel choice. I felt hungry which was fine, but I also felt like I could be running stronger if Id eaten a little something before I went out. Live and learn.  It was also at this point that I decided to turn my 6 miler into a 5 miler. I was cold and hungry and I wanted to finish strong. However, I still had a little distance to go before I turned around. I ran through the tunnel which was extra wet and gross because of the storm.

Then I hit more open trail.

I headed back the way I had come and then ran by the garden. I got a little extra kick in my step because I was literally seconds away from being finished.

Finally, I saw the most beautiful thing of all…..My car. 🙂

I was cold and wet and starved. I packed up the wonderbug and headed home. On my way the hubs called and invited me to lunch. He had been meeting with his academic adviser for the engineering program at ODU (yes I am very proud!) and wanted to grab a quick bite before heading back to the office.  He decided on Mexican which was fine with me since I would have eaten almost anything by this time. I ordered a salad with grilled chicken and by salad I mean a plate of lettuce with grilled chicken, goat cheese, salsa and a slice of tomato on top.  Its not fancy but it was good. I also split a side of rice with the hubs and ate a few chips. I was actually shaky by the time we got there so the chip eating was kind of a must.

On the way out I grabbed an Andes mint. These are addictive to me. I cannot keep them in the house. One is of course fine, 20 not so much. 😉 So I had my lone mint and headed home.

I am getting back to work on the house and hopefully meeting up with someone who is buying our old dresser (YAY!). I am really looking forward to “The Big Reveal” of the new bedroom later this week! What is your favorite place to run?

I will recap the rest of my day later tonight. Have a Happy and Healthy Day!

Be Thankful Each Day In The Month Of May: Today I am thankful for my job. Yes its stressful at times. However, I love working with families and kids. I am grateful to have a steady income in an unsteady economy. I am thankful to work with a wonderful team of people who genuinely care about the  kids and families we work with. I have a cool boss who watches Gossip Girl and gives excellent workout advice. I get to work close to my house with a pretty flexible schedule.  I really cant complain. 🙂

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The Wizard and I

I guess I will start out with apologizing for my absence this weekend. So much for my intended breaking news stories through Saturday and Sunday but I think I had a good excuse. I wasn’t just having a lazy day in the sunshine like little Carrie here.

Saturday I woke up bright and early (really early) to make the drive to Roanoke to meet up with some girlfriends. I was really excited to wear the shirtdress I bought several weeks ago. It was comfy and very stylish with the smooshed roses detail on the front. I heart it!

We then made the nearly three hour drive to Durham, NC to see my all time favorite musical Wicked (yes again). My friend Kristen had been thoughtful enough to call around and find some quick options so I was not forced to eat fast food of any kind. We stopped at Panera for a quick soup and sandwich lunch.

Nikki and I had other plans since we spotted a DSW on the way in. Keeper of the time Kristen gave us 20 minutes to get our shopping fix and I ended up with some Sam and Libby ballet flats for the fall. ($12.00 YAY!)

After stopping to let Kris and I show off our matching green pedicures and green bags we were off to the show at the Durham Performing Arts Center.

The show was excellent although I was a little disappointed not to get to see Vicki Noon in the role of Elphaba. I had seen Anne Brummel in the part in Richmond and she was really great but I wanted to see Vicki just to see someone else do it. However, Anne was doing the performance during this show.  My all time favorite Elphaba though has to be Marcie Dodd- no doubt. She was the Elphaba I saw in Norfolk, VA in May of 2009. She was nothing short of amazing! Have you ever seen Wicked?  Do you remember who played Elphaba at your show? I have a little problem: Hello my name is Sara and I am a Wicked pusher. I try to get everyone to see it! You should definitely go if the tour ever comes near you!

During the long 3-hour drive back we stopped at a gas station/Dairy Queen. I was very limited in my options and my friend Kristen even suggested we should take a picture to document this little problem for the blog! All was not lost though as they did have Kellog’s protein bars. Not exactly the dinner of champs but it got the job done.

Sunday was less exciting. I had planned to blog but just never made it that far down my to do list. I should mention that when I got home Saturday night all of the new furniture was here. Woohoo! Yesterday I got the task of trying to get the house back in order. I am so excited to do “the big reveal” later this week and show off my new bedroom! However, yesterday was a headache though I did get to spend some time with the hubs watching TIVOed SNL.

Today started in a rush (me running late?? Shocking I know. ) 😉 I grabbed turkey sausage and vitatop on my way out the door.

Work was non-stop. To be fair, I never have a non-busy workday but today was just out of control busy. I spent the first 2 ½ hours on the phone before I could even start on my to-do list. Luckily all of the hustle and bustle made the day go by quickly. Before I knew it –it was lunchtime. I chose a spinach salad with deli turkey. Mmmmm.

After work I went to pick up groceries for the week and made the hubs and I some Potatoes with Spinach, tomato, onion and Italian spices, corn, and roasted garlic chicken smoked sausage. It was filling and super quick.

I should also mention that I did skip my weigh in as promised. This week is about eating healthy for health’s sake and not the scale’s sake. I am taking a personal/vacation day tomorrow because I still have so much that needs to get done at home. Since I have the day free I plan to spend a little while in the morning doing a 10K (just on my own). Its going to be the Sara Renee Run Because You Love It And Need to Make Running a Priority Again And Also It Has Been A Long Time Since You Did A Long Run and Really Need To Work On That Before Your Real 10K Later This Month 10K. Ahem. Yes. And Since I am the only one running it-that means I win which is also exciting. Hehehe. All joking aside I am looking forward to just me and the trail for 10K in the morning. I will make sure to include all of the fantastic details in tomorrow’s blog (along with my lettuce wrap recipe!). Though I am a touch jealous not to have the super cool new gadget that someone got last week. Hmmm. 😉 I am thinking of investing in one before I start training for the Wine and Dine ½ Marathon.

On a final note- I was told I should say hello to some new readers so welcome Jane and Heather! 🙂

Be Thankful Each Day In The Month Of May: Today I am thankful for my husband. I know I technically covered the hubs under my family entry but I feel very blessed to have someone who loves and accepts me just as I am-flawed and strange and all. He takes care of me when I am sick, cheers me up when I am sad, works really hard so I can do the things I want to do. He ran a princess race with me, sits through musicals no matter how many times I make him go, he never makes me eat the smooshed eggs or burnt toast… Hes my best pal. xo

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Friday News At 11. :)

So happy Friday everyone!! My weekend is jam packed from beginning to end but I hope to get in to make some mini blog updates as the weekend goes along. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the hubs and I were in the market for some new furniture. Well, the new bedroom is arriving tomorrow which means yours truly had the awesome task of clearing out the bedroom today (other than the big pieces that Bry and pal Matt are taking care of tomorrow). I started out my morning with a good wholesome Ezekiel English Muffin with deli turkey, cheddar, crasins, and honey mustard. In the glass is V8 fusion not wine although wine is sounding pretty good right now. 😉

I got started with the bedroom right away. I despise having the house all in disarray (night stands in the hall, TV table in the dining room. )Ugh.  The hubs and I purchased this house two years ago and how we managed to accumulate so much stuff is beyond me.  I have this terrible habit of saving magazines with articles I like but I did the functional thing and threw them out today. 🙂 The silver lining to this mess (and there always is one) is that I found:

• My Napoleon Dynamite talking pen
• My fave MAC eye shadow in “Club”
• My Glee Volume 1 Soundtrack
• My MukLuk slippers
• My pink pool flip flops

Now reading that I guess I answered my own question. Its me. Im the pack rat and the haver of the stuff 😉 But here is the master suite aka bedroom that is barely a smidge bigger than the others  all cleared out and ready to get fabulous-tized by the new furniture! Sorry for the crazy dark pictures. I promise the new and improved bedroom (to be revealed later in the week) will have great pics!

Covered the matress in sheets since I guess we do need to sleep here tonight. HA!

See my gigantic jug of water? 🙂

Now to clear the hall, make some lunch, and get ready for a date with my best guy. ❤ We are headed to see Iron Man 2 which I am ridiculously excited about.  This is normally not my kind of movie but I can’t lie- I have a little crush on Iron Man. It happens! Hopefully I will be on later to do a little recap of this awesome kick off to the weekend!!

Be Thankful Each Day in the Month of May: Today I am thankful for our little home. When we started looking for a house we were in a situation where we needed to move quickly. Bryan was recovering from surgery and I was house hunting alone. After oodles of terrible houses I saw this one as a “last resort”. I fell in love the second I walked in the door. Its an older home and has its flaws (one bathroom really???) but its ours and I love it. I love my red kitchen and striped walls. I love all of the furniture we’ve chosen together and the pictures on the walls. We’ve made our home here and that is something to be thankful for.

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A Change Is Going To Come

There must be something in the air today inspiring positive change. My parents decided to adopt a Husky pup after the longest time of not being able to get past our family dog passing away, my husband met with an admissions counselor about going back to college for a degree in engineering, and I decided to make a shift and change the way I am looking at this fitness process.

Here is how it happened: I was eating a spinach salad today for lunch and even though I had more than enough points allotted for my dinner tonight I was stressing out about the pecans on the salad. I started thinking that it is not normal for me to be freaked out about a tiny tiny serving of pecans on a salad. I have some other unhealthy habits too. I weigh myself obsessively in the mornings. I mean I literally dash in there and hop on the scale. If I see no change or heaven
forbid an ounce of gain I flip out. I get discouraged. I worry about food more than I should. There is nothing normal about it. This is what lets me know that my current relationship with food is not a healthy one, even though I am trying to get healthy. I need to stop looking at food as my arch nemesis and more as fuel for my workouts. This was a lot easier to do when I was training for the ½ marathon earlier in the year. Since I don’t have another until October I am going to kick start my plan by doing a 3 week “mini training” for my upcoming 10K. I want to use this time to get in the right mindset. I have to get mentally healthy with food and fitness before I can truly get physically healthy. I am thankful to have picked up on this now. In order to jump start this process I am doing the following

1.      Using the Scale on Thursday’s and Monday’s only. (Monday is my official weigh in day)

2.      Skipping the weigh in this coming Monday and Thursday. I need a few days to get my head in order. If I have another zero or 0.2 I think it might sabotage all of this mental cleansing I am trying to do. I want to live a week of healthy living without being dictated to by the scale.
3.      Stay consistent. Once this week is up I will not skip another official weigh in. There are WW centers everywhere. I can pop in on vacation, visiting my parents etc.
4.      If I cant learn to view food in a healthy way I will look to talk with a nutritionist or counselor. It’s really important to get the mental aspect in order.

I am a little embarrassed to be struggling so much with this. I envy some of the other blogs I read and how effortless the meal planning seems. I want to get to that place and in time I think I will.

My week has been really demanding so I needed a little Sara Renee time after work. I went window-shopping and ended up finding a new outfit. I will most likely go back out and pick it up in the morning if I am still wanting it.  I guess that technically means it was shopping shopping and not window so much but whatever. 😉

To celebrate the hub’s triumphant return to college I was willing to honor any dinner request (home, out, or delivery) and he wanted pizza. I picked the extra thin crust BBQ chicken pizza with onions and herbs. YUM!

I am very much looking forward to one of my guilty pleasure shows Vampire Diaries tonight. Do you have a guilty pleasure show?

Stop by tomorrow to see how the intense workout/operation get everything out of the bedroom before the furniture comes/dinner and a movie date with the hubs turns out!

Have a Happy and Healthy Thursday!

Be thankful each day in the month of May: Today I am thankful for my family. I am thankful for the amazing parents, grandparents, and love I grew up in. I am thankful for the little family I have made with Bry and the pups. I am thankful for the wonderful family I married into and thankful for the couple of incredibly good friends that have filled the gap where brothers and sisters should be.

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May Challenge (and April Challenge Wrap Up)

My April Challenge was to lose 6lbs in the month of April. Even though this has been a rough month for me in terms of weight loss I did lose a total of 7.4lbs in April. Success!

Now May is upon us and I started thinking of a new challenge. I want to hit the 2lb a week target if at all possible so I am looking for an 8 lb loss in the month of May! I know some weeks I have big losses and others small so I am not caring so much about the increments in which I lose the weight, just the total itself.  Keep your fingers crossed!

My next May challenge is to combat the negativity in my life. That is why I am doing a Be Thankful Each Day in the Month of May challenge. At the end of each May blog I want to post one thing I am thankful for on that day. I think it will be a good way to stay on track with the power of positive thinking.

My final May challenge is the Caring in Pink Project. 😉 I want to make sure I reach out to friends and family this month with phone calls, cards etc and get into the habit of expressing my love and friendship to the wonderful people in my life. It’s also a great way to make sure I don’t get so wrapped up in my own life and drama that I forget there is an important world out there with great people worth the effort.

On a final note I have decided to buy myself 5 new songs a month to keep the workout music fresh. So far for this month I have:

1. Usher – OMG

Help me with my May music! What are some awesome new songs to get my workout on to???

Be Thankful Each Day in The Month of May: Today I am thankful to have good friends who know me so well they can text me photos of housewares that I would love,send me links to bracelets I should buy (and WOULD buy), who are honest with me (even when it hurts) and who love me just the way I am.

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