Last Chance Workout

Tomorrow is the final weigh-in for the Biggest Loser competition at work. I'm not sure how I'm going to fall (obviously there's no yellow line) but I have a pretty good feeling it's not in first place. I organized a second session for another twelve weeks starting July 12, so I'll have another chance. I do feel a lot healthier now compared to when we started this session twelve weeks ago. And, I can run much farther.

Tonight on my last chance workout run, I observed several things:

• I find it hilarious when old men tuck their plain white t-shirt into their gym shorts to work in the yard. It says "I'm out here to do business."
• It's summer, so it's hot out. Thursday is trash day in my neighborhood, so people put their trash out on Wednesday nights. That's a smelly combo. 
• I'm glad to see we are not the only ones with weeds.
• I counted 10 houses for sale on the two-mile route through our neighborhood, and thought that looked pretty good. That's about 9 percent of the houses in our subdivision. We live close to a military base so we have a high turnover rate.

New favorite snack

For whatever reason, I tend to munch on crap the minute I get home from work and have a hard time stopping until I go to sleep. I'm pretty sure it's just out of boredom, so I do not allow items like chips or cookies in the house that I will just gobble up in one day. A while ago I gave myself the rule of no eating 2 hours before I'm going to sleep. That has been working fairly well, but I'm going to sleep hungry which I'm proud of, but I don't like the way it feels when I lay down.

To fix that problem, I've been planning a designated snack/dessert around 830pm so I know that I will have something to eat and I can tell myself not to eat any other stuff from dinner until then. The best part is it's only 2 points! I chop up about 3/4 cup strawberries and dump a vanilla (I took a photo of key lime because I like the combo packs) Activia yogurt on them. It's seriously really filling and delish!

*Activia did not pay me, I just really like that stuff!

Early fat versus late fat

I think growing up as an overweight teenager/child has a much deeper affect on your emotional well-being than growing up at a normal size, then becoming overweight in college/20s. I'm not a psychologist, nor do I play one on television. However, I know that for me, being made fun of for my weight in middle school and even some in high school has scarred me.

Let's go back and revisit one of these such memories. The setting is a middle school cafeteria, tables are square or rectangle-ish and I remember sitting across the square from a girl named Jackie (and yes that's her real name and I will forever hate the name Jackie.) enjoying my lunch. I'm not sure what I did or said to provoke her, if anything, but I do remember what she told me. She said "Your belly is bigger than your boobs."

Some "fat girls" are lucky enough to have their "boobs" get bigger when they gain weight. Unfortunately I did not get that gene and have always been on the smaller side. I'm not upset about that, though. I was upset that the bia Jackie took the time and effort to tell me about it. Because of her I will probably always wonder if other people are thinking that same thought.

That's just one example of how growing up fat is different than getting fat later in life.

Let your tongue hang out

Sometimes after a busy weekend you just need a nap.

Bacon Explosion

Part of the problem with the weekend is unlimited food temptations. Like this guy for example. His name is Bacon Explosion. It's basically some bacon and pork pieces wrapped with more bacon and baked with something sweet, I'm guessing brown sugar.

This four-pound animal came into my house this weekend for breakfast. I couldn't NOT try the Bacon Explosion, so I ate some of the outside - estimating at the equivalent of two pieces of bacon. It was seriously delicious though. We also had cinnamon rolls and biscuits. That's not a very healthy combination, so I cooked myself an egg to go with my bacon and ate it one one of these:

(by the way it says "no high fructose corn syrup")

I'd rather sleep

For me, the hardest day to get up and run or work out is Saturday. Because we are still on the "no kids" side of things, I don't have to get up for anything. I do not schedule things for Saturday mornings so I can sleep in. The hubs tends to tell me I'm sleeping my life away, but I just really enjoy being well-rested. I tend to get cranky and snippy if I don't sleep well and it's best to stay away on those days.

Last night we had several people come over and several of those stayed the night, including two in the guest room, two in the "man room," two in the dining room and one on the couch. And since none of us has anything but a dog-child to worry about, it was obviously a late night. Regardless of that, I'm proud to say that I set the alarm this morning, and even though it was a slower roll, I did roll myself out of the bed to go run.

My backyard today