Tag Archives: healthy living

Sniffles, Wind, and Other Training Woes

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Check out this dreary weather from the Route 66 Half Marathon! It’s really hard to get motivated to run in less than perfect conditions.

This girl is back in the training saddle again! I’m training for my second Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon, and I am surprisingly not having that hard of a time with it. I can definitely tell that I have lost less fitness between this half and the Rt. 66 half than I did between last year’s OKC and Rt. 66. Taking an entire summer off of long distance running really takes a toll on the mileage base I had built up, but I really don’t have the motivation to run outside in 90 degree weather.

Which leads us to today’s topic… running in less than ideal conditions.

Two weeks ago, the wind was really proving why it was featured so prominently in the song “Oklahoma”. It was not only sweeping down the plain, but was also sweeping up the leaves, rustling up the dirt, and knocking over several skinny bicyclists.

I did not want to go run in 25 mile per hour winds. Already dressed in my running clothes, I spent 15 minutes Googling “skip windy run” to see if someone on the Internet could justify my laziness. Alas, every blogger told me to suck it up and run. So I did. While I was a bit slower than usual due to the extra effort it took to run into the wind for half the run, I was really glad that I sucked it up and ran.

But let’s consider another, more challenging situation…

Currently, I have some kind of allergy/cold mess hanging out in my nostril area. Last week, I really did not want to go hit the pavement for 7 miles with the sniffles. The sun was shining, however, and there was scarcely any wind. So, I compromised with myself and did 4 miles at a pretty quick clip. I know it was definitely better than nothing, but a teeny part of me feels guilty that I didn’t finish the run (even though I really did feel like poop).

What do you guys do in less-than-perfect running conditions? Do you reschedule your training run for a different day? Skip it altogether? Compromise and do less mileage for the day? Help me out (and also console my guilt).

Grocery Shopping Revisited

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Last time we talked about groceries, I told you my couponing tricks of the trade. Strangely enough, I’ve completely abandoned couponing. I’m just too busy to take the time to hunt around, and I found myself falling into the trap of buying unhealthy things and buying things I don’t need.

But cheap groceries without couponing is still possible! Here is an example of what I buy each week and how much it costs.

The total for these groceries was $23. And this is what I got…

  • organic spinach
  • celery
  • baby carrots
  • 4 sweet potatoes (small)
  • 3 apples
  • cucumber
  • 2 packages of sliced mushrooms
  • a loaf of freshly baked bread
  • small log of goat cheese + honey
  • frozen butternut squash ravioli (SO GOOD OMG)
  • 3 pork chops

With the lunch meat I had leftover from Target, this food definitely lasted me a week. I even still have the ravioli left to eat tonight! You can see that I am still buying food that I think is good for me to eat (less Cheetos, more mushrooms) but not spending an insane amount of money.

Unfortunately, my budget for the week got a bit…derailed by my fear of the impending winter storm that Oklahoma got. I went and bought extra food for the weekend for me and my roommate. Oops.

In a future post, I will try and provide you guys with an example of my meal plan!

Fitness Find: Blogilates

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Have you guys ever heard of Blogilates? It’s a healthy living blog run by Cassey, who is a Pilates instructor and makes amazing workout videos.

I remember the first Blogilates video I watched- she was doing something called Alphabet Abs and I was totally intrigued. Sadly, I clicked away and forgot about her site until I was looking into DietBet (a weight loss motivator that gives or takes cold hard cash depending on how you perform) and saw that she ran the biggest ever DietBet in the history of the site recently!

Her site is chock-full of interesting healthy living information, exercise plans, and personal stories. My favorites include her first half marathon and this info about ways to feel full even when you’re eating clean!