Walk vs. Hike

I've been walking. Not running. Just walking.

A few weeks ago my knee reminded me why regular running hasn't worked for me in a long time. Just when I get back in a groove, some nagging part of my body shuts me down.

So....walking.

I like to move, but move quickly. It takes patience to walk. Even the dog leans forward, pulling (though he's trained not too), straining to pick up the pace. He looks back at me. Why aren't we jogging his face asks. "I can't," I say out loud to him and the pavement and the trees and anyone who will listen. He and I are both happier when we take to the trails and the mountains. There it's okay to slow down. He is off leash and so am I. My mind doesn't race on the trail. It's distracted by the landscape and sounds. It has a job to do. Watch out for rocks, snakes, bears. My brain is simultaneously soothed and stimulated in the woods. It might just be the best form of therapy.

This morning we walked. While the car was being worked on we hoofed it to a nearby neighborhood around a small lake and walked three miles. The exercise felt good, the fresh air felt good, the chill that has finally hit our mornings felt good. But being on pavement, walking past houses, listening for traffic...none of that calmed me. I came away from our walk even more wound up than when I started. Which means its settled. I can no longer walk. I'll just have to hike.

Always A Work In Progress

So a while back I broke up with Paleo.

Duh. Duh. Duh.

Okay, I admit I still love Paleo style eating. But I'm beginning to believe that my body needs some grains in order to perform its best. My runs were suffering. My weight sessions were lackluster. I decided to add some yummy grainy carbs back in the form of sprouted bread, rice, corn, and gluten free baked goodies. My runs improved almost immediately. In fact, I completed a 7.5m run up the mountain the day before my surgery.

But, I still need to lose some weight. About 10lbs and I'll be back down to racing weight and my thighs won't create so much friction when I wear shorts.

I've decided to go back to counting calories with Sparkpeople and having a cheat day once a week. I used to really really love cheat days. Now I can enjoy them again guilt free. I've already got an amazing treat lined up for my first cheat day next weekend. This recipe from The Urban Poser is printed and on my fridge as an incentive for keeping my calorie intake in check for the next week.

I'm very happy with how my belly is looking. I seriously can't believe all that loose skin is gone. Just gone! It's motivating me to work on getting in the best shape possible. I'm absolutely aching to get moving, but I won't be cleared for exercise for another three and a half weeks. In the meantime though, I can really focus on my eating and getting some of these extra pounds off my frame.

Eats & Workouts

Lots of yummy Paleo foods! Including me finally mastering (with the help of a new immersion blender) Paleo mayo.

I've ran in the pitch dark, in the pouring rain, and in my newest pair of Vibrams (cause the Brooks were killing my knees).

Also! Also! I'm ridiculously excited about the fact that I completed a 4.7m run with my friend. It has been literally forever since I have done anything over 3.75m. This coming from the gal that used to run 6 nearly every day and 10 on the weekends for fun. I really do miss my running addiction. It kind of feels like that love is rekindling but I'm going to take it slow and not read to much into it. Just go the distance when I feel like it and not force it. Oh relationships are hard, aren't they?

Pizza & Yarn

There is a bonafide artsy type store in the town over from our little hamlet. It just recently opened up, and the kids and I went on our last playday to get our pottery painting on. I noticed then that they had a small yarn selection. When I went back the next week to pick up our finished creations, their small selection had grown. I tried hard to behave myself and only came away with two new lovely skeins. Oh how I do love yarn! And I loved this article on the health benefits of knitting.

 

 

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For the most part I believe that chores and generally just being active can keep you pretty fit. But, I am also a former distance runner and novice gym rat. I miss how fit I was just three years ago. Our current schedule doesn’t really leave me a lot of time to run 8 miles or lift weights for 45 minutes unless I get up while its still dark, and then the gym is still a 20 minute drive. It’s a lot easier to have a buddy for motivation. A good friend talked me into setting up a gym area in our shop (I had all the stuff already) and she is coming over at 5:30am, three days a week to workout with me.

After my 30 days of being sober, I felt like I needed another challenge. Because I’m crazy and I feel the need to torture myself with some kind of deprivation. All joking aside, its not really deprivation. Just choosing to abstain from certain things that aren’t really that good for me. This month will be grain free, beer free, raw dairy only, and no eating after dinner. Notice I said beer free. Not alcohol free. I’m doing quite well with my moderation after seeing with clear eyes the true effects booze has on me. Today is the first day, because yesterday I went totally nuts and ate some nachos. I love nachos. Last week, Stella and I made the best gluten free pizza I have ever had. I won’t be indulging in anything like that during my 30 days, but it was so so good. Here is the recipe for the crust if you care to give it a try. FYI: I didn’t have xanthan gum to make the gf flour mix so instead subbed BRM GF Biscuit and Baking Mix and it was awesome.

 

Do you ever limit yourself from certain things for set amounts of time? If so, what?

Being Kind to Myself

 I feel like I have been way to hard on myself the past couple of years. I have tried and failed miserably to lose 10-15 pounds that I gained after my major weight loss. I have restricted my calories and ran 5 days a week for a month straight with no change on the scale. I have eaten a strict primal diet and did a mix of running and crossfit 5 days a week for two months and saw no change in the numbers. I did notice toner muscles during that time but my jean size didn't go down.

I'm tired of it. I don't enjoy lifting weights, even in a sporadic crossfit exercise routine. I'm not a big fan of getting my heart rate up during sprint intervals (even though I do love to run fast).

I am completely burned out on road running any distance. I used to live for a good run. The longer the better. Ten miles was a piece of cake. These days I complain about doing three.

My diet is what I would call modified paleo. I eat a lot of meat and veggies, a lot of healthy fats, minimal fruits, moderate dairy, and a very small amount of sugar. We're talking sugar from fruits, honey, or whatever they have added to the dark chocolate I am consuming. I use coconut sugar in all my grain free baking. And I drink.

That might be the biggest obstacle to my weight loss. But I've decided to stop berating myself about it. I really enjoy a bottle of good red wine. My husband is an excellent homebrewer and I don't want to turn down his amazing brews. When drinking, its all about moderation.

I might just have to accept the fact that this is my healthy weight and that is why I am not gaining nor losing. My brain seems to think my healthy weight is ten pounds less because that is the number I am always shooting for. My body disagrees.

So for now I am going to do what I love to do.

 

I love to practice yoga. As many times a week as I can. 30-45 minutes at a time. It makes me and my body so so so happy.

 

 

I love to trail run with my dogs and hike with my kids. The presence of Mother Nature calms me down and the exercise is amazing. Now that the weather is cooling off I can do this weekly.

These activities are gentle on my body and my soul. The kinder I am to myself, the better I am to those around me.

What are you doing to take care of yourself these days?

Rise

Last night I went to sleep at 9pm.

Wait....that's untrue.

Last night I drank three beers and went to sleep at 7pm on the couch and then woke up at 9pm and put myself to bed properly.

In my defense I did get up at 5:30am and work out. I also did that again this morning.

I used to be an early to bed early to rise kinda gal. Like every day. And you know what? I loved it! I was more productive. I was healthier. I actually enjoyed exercising. I drank less.

And of course I had to bring that up. The pesky drinking thing. I feel like I spend a lot of the little time I am actually on this blog whining about drinking.

I picked myself up a nifty little leather cuff the other day to add to my collection. I had the word balance inscribed on it. I was going to go with moderation but that was a bit wordy. Thats all I want. All I am seeking on a daily basis. Balance and moderation. Moderation and balance. Just staying on an even keel. Sure life can be tumultuous but just because the boat is rocking doesn't mean you have to fall off.

Here's to another early bedtime this evening and the fortitude to rise with the sun.

Hot Weather Makes For Hot Yoga

Monday evening found me drowning in my own sweat at our new local yoga studio.

This wasn't a scheduled hot yoga class.

This was the result of being in a very old building, on the top floor, with a broken air conditioner, in July, with 105 on the thermostat, in Arkansas. All those things add up to one very very hot class.

Strangely enough, I enjoyed the extreme heat. This was my 3rd class in the past two weeks and I can already see a tiny improvement in my stretchability. Stretchiness? Bendability? I attended another class last night and while the sivasana might be my favorite part, I really do like seeing just how far I can get into warrior poses. And balance poses like dancer and tree are almost like a game. How long can I stay up? Can I do it without shaking? Our instructor always says to pick a focal point for our balance poses. The lovely thing about this studio, is the old tall windows lining the wall that look out directly at Rich Mountain. A mountain top as a focal point? I'll take it!

Last night's class was extra special because a very close friend who I only see once a year or so attended with me. When we were kids playing in the hayfield, I never would have imagined we would be women one day, in a yoga class, practicing side by side. In a moment I would flashback to our childhood, and then marvel at how old we have gotten. When you have known each other for over twenty years, twenty-nine can feel old.

I would love to fill you in on my recent runs, except....yeah that just hasn't really been any. Warren drug me out for an evening run about 4 or 5 days ago. We banged out 4 miles at a pretty quick pace. I don't think we set out to run that fast, we were just trying to beat the sunset. It was only about 95 degrees so not too bad. I attempted to run on the treadmill the day before yesterday. It is outside in our large shop. 1.5 miles into it, I threw in the towel. It was completely ridiculous to try and run in that heat. I can hardly wait for cooler weather. I miss November and December morning runs.

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My IQS experiment is going well. I am into Week 2, the phase where you eat more fat. Not a problem for this gal! Breakfast this morning was a few slices of deli ham, topped with a bit of fresh tomato, two poached eggs, and provolone cheese. Accompanied by coffee with heavy cream. I am making a promise to my body to never ever ever have a Skinny Vanilla Latte' again. After drinking my coffee with cream or half and half, I can't even understand why I thought that fake sweetener taste was any kind of good.

I received an advance copy of Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo and will be reviewing it here on SugarBritches in a few days. Each one of my darling kiddos is picking out a recipe to try. Look forward to fun pictures and commentary from the little ones. I can tell you from what I have already read, this book is the go to book for anyone interested in Paleo. The wealth of information is outstanding. It is that good!

Friday....Because I Seriously Could Not Come Up With Anything Else

I'm just gonna go ahead and put it out there that this is going to be a jumbled mess of randomness. Nope, no coherent blog posts here today folks. You're lucky you are even getting a post. If you look at it like that.


Sugarbaby and I just returned from a chilly, nearly 3 mile run. I shamelessly jacked this photo off my running buddy's FB page. Notice the crazy Gary Busey hair. It was windy! Sugarbaby does not look pleased, even though she was actually having fun.

I fit my running in where I can because as you can see from this schedule below, I got no time for running or blogging these days. Which makes me sad.

MON- Piano lessons, soccer practice

TUES- Run with husband, tutoring, soccer practice, WRA Run Clinic (I get to run twice this day!)

WED- Work

THURS- Work, soccer practice, WRA Run Clinic

FRI- run with husband or whoever will have me, soccer practice and games

SAT- soccer games, work

SUN- RUN

Phew. And I am exhausted. Want to know what WRA is?  I am super excited to be helping with the clinic in our area. I get to run more, and I get to share what I love with other women.

We added some new members to our flock yesterday. Baby chicks are cute bombs! All the kids want to do is sit and hold them. Sometimes they love them a little too much, if you know what I mean. The husband has been hard at work building a chicken coop, which is more like a condo. Chickens need nice digs ya know.

Treehouse is nearing completion. We have had perfect weather for being outside until yesterday brought torrential storms to Arkansas and most of the South. Construction is currently on hold.

Plus.....lots of cute vintage dishes in the Etsy shop!

This Is Why They Prescribe Xanax

Detoxing off alcohol, sugar, dairy, red meat, white flour + PMS = not such a good day.

I'll be the momma curled up in the corner rocking back and forth.

Regular eating to resume on Monday. Must get this junk out of my system.

(I even did Jillian's Shred this morning. I must be desperate)

I Call Uncle

I booked our summer vacation this week.

Then, I went and stood on the scale. I was not happy. 139lbs is not my happy weight.

I spent a whole year shedding 50lbs of yuck just to put 10 of it back on.

So tomorrow it starts. No matter what style of eating I adopt: Paleo, low carb, whole foods strict, vegan, vegetarian, I know that only one thing works for me.

We'll call it the SugarBritches Plan. No dessert, no alcohol, and counting calories. No more than 1300-1500 a day. Exercise 3plus days a week.

Now admittedly I would rather die than quit eating dessert and stop drinking. But, I do want to look bangin' hawt when we hit the beach this summer. Even more so because the husband is coming this time.

So here we go peoples.

If I come off as a little cranky, cut me a tiny break.

If I take to Twitter needing someone to talk me down off a ledge of Rocky Road, please help me. (You can find my Twitter follow in the sidebar)

Don't invite me out for Girl's Night or Happy Hour.

It's only 4 months. One cheat day a week.

I can totally do it. I have got this.

Race Re-Cap: 1st Annual Cossatot Trail Run Half-Marathon

Me. 6am. Sleepy. Cold. On my way to run 13.1 miles of mountainous trails. I am insane. Don't I look it?

This trail was brutal! There is no way around it. It went up and down again and again and again. I run hills regularly but I was in no way prepared to run up these climbs. There were about 50 participants and I would say at least 20 of them were hard core trail runners. A bad ass bunch of dudes and chicks. Totally something to strive for. I was honored to be running with them.

We had some amazing scenery and it was nice to look at when you were on safe portions of the trail. Unfortunately many many miles of trail you didn't take your eyes off of for fear of plunging down a mountain.

There were a couple of these encouraging signs. Really perked me up when I was feeling tired.

Me at the end of the race. My only complaint was the final .4 uphill climb to the finished. I was too wiped by then to run up it until it flattened out a bit. My finishing time was 2:45:47. I was told by a friend who was a volunteer that I came in 2nd in my age/gender division. I still have to confirm that with the official results.

It was a fantastic race and one I can not wait to run next year!



On The Eve of My Very First Half-Marathon...

I'm:
polishing off a bottle of wine.
trying not to think about how cold it will be in the morning.
ignoring the pain in my foot and planning on downing pain killers pre-race.
wishing I could wear my barefoot shoes but instead playing it safe and wearing trail shoes.
cursing myself for my awful eating habits this week.
contemplating eating a brownie and ice cream and then cursing myself.
wishing I had the willpower of last year's Ashley.
laying out all things needed for the husband to take the kids to soccer and not be cursing me.
ignoring the fact my longest run is 10 miles.
ignoring the fact that this trail is going to be steep, narrow, etc. etc. etc. all kindsa dangerous.
thinking it would be a whole lot better to stay in my warm bed in them morning.
remembering how important it is for me to complete this 13.1m run.

Wish me luck!

The Post In Which I Reveal My Need Do Everything

So hey...it's raining.

Which in itself wouldn't be too bad, cause after this crazy drought Summer we can always use some rain. And I suppose that if I had to be home with a puking Sugarbaby, a rainy day is a good one for it.

But...on the other hand, Sugarbaby is pukey (although bless her little heart she waited until I got the car stopped earlier while driving home, and she runs to the toilet) which makes my heart hurt for her and I couldn't run this morning.

The not being able to run this morning has put me a bit on edge. See I have a half marathon trail run in exactly 12 days. Nevermind my most recent longest run was 8.5m with another 2m tacked on a few hours later. I hope to get in at least a 9-10m run on Friday so I feel a little bit better prepared. Also, I did something absolutely insane and signed up for the Little Rock Marathon in March. I've got the training schedule tacked to the fridge and am doing my best to ignore those 18-20m training runs that fall in the dead of Winter.

But on a happy motivational note, I have a 10K in November and the husband is running his first 5K. It's been fun training him. I'm pretty sure he wants to reach out and smack me during most of our runs, but I keep telling him he has to catch me first.

Also I'm sure y'all missed me so much during my two week absence (right?), so here is one of the things I was working on.

We celebrated this dude's 6th Birthday. I seriously can't believe it. Time has just flown. With those eyes and that smile he is gonna be a ladykiller. Happy Birthday Cashman!

I also started a very big project.....

This is just the corner cabinet in my kitchen. I have nearly thirty more feet of cabinets (top and bottom) and bar area to redo.

And this is what I'm doing to them. I'm thinking they will all be done by this time next year. If I'm lucky.

This Post Brought To You By Adverse Weather Conditions

So...as much as we need rain in our drought stricken area of the country, I am none to happy at this moment that my morning run got cancelled by a thunderstorm. Rain is okay to run in. Lighting...not so much.

Not to mention I've been up since 4:30am when my phone rang. Phone calls at that hour are either a) an emergency or b) some idiot drunk. This was option b. No, I'm not Josh and I bet Josh wouldn't appreciate it if you had actually gotten his number right. That is unless it was an emergency for him. But I'm betting not.

Random beach picture thrown in for good measure. This is me and my absolute best forever childhood friend, Lindsay. We spent a good 7 years attached at the hip. We literally lived together for about a year at one point in time. Meaning, her and her mother shared a house with me and my mother. She is my sister, one of my all time favorite people, and isn't she just the cutest thing? We stayed at her MIL's condo on our Florida trip, because lucky Lindsay lives in Gulf Breeze. Must be hard being her.

The point of this photo is to illustrate that I am officially 14lbs heavier than I was this time last year. Something has to be done. In fact something is being done. I am down 4 of those pesky pounds from last week already. It's not that I stopped working out, although I did become a lazy ass runner, it's that I was out eating my workouts. Did you know that is possible? Yes. Yes it is. You can go to the gym 4 days a week and spend an hour there each time and gain weight. I know some of it was muscle but way way too much of it is not fitting in my jeans right. Luckily I know how to fix it. I've ramped up my running and cut back my eating.

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School started last Tuesday and if you have read this blog ever in your life before this post you know that second only to Christmas and Thanksgiving, it is my favorite day of the year. This is how excited I was last year. 

And here is the obligatory first day photo.

I should have lined them up under the house numbers. But...whatever. I now officially have a Kindergartener, a Third Grader, and a Sugarbaby. She was all set up to start her first of two years of preschool, but at some point over the summer her father and I decided to send her back to her beloved Miss Christy. Preschool is not ready for Sugarbaby. She is rotten. Bad to the bone. Hell on wheels. She defines the phrase "payin for your raising."

Two cups of coffee down and the house is still asleep. I'm going to whip up a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls and score major points with the family. Maybe enough that they will let me take a nap.

Somebody Stop Me

I have a new addiction.

Leggings.

Yes I realize I am way behind the trend, but I finally just caved and bought some. I'm not sure I have taken them off since. I need an intervention.

P.S. My birthday is the day after Thanksgiving this year. Lots and lots to be thankful for. My husband bought me a new (to me) car and my running buddy Phyllis paid my entry fee at the 10K we ran last Saturday. I am one lucky birthday girl!

After the Spa City 10K, halfway up the mountain. Ya know... the one we ran up.

I Was Busy Suffering from Heat Exhaustion

Sorry I've been lax kiddies.

Check out RFGR for a race recap.

Stay tuned for hummus and squash pie recipes. Yum!

Mwahahaha!

A brain dump blog has been birthed! If you are fitness inclined, want to be fitness inclined, or just want to make fun of my silly ass please come visit at Run Fat Girl, Run. I promise that SugarBritches will now be free and clear of all that health junk.

Excuses Excuses

Okay folks. Let's be honest here. SugarBritches is just not rolling along so smoothly. Believe you me I've noticed the insane amount of fluff posted here. I promise I used to actually post substantial things. Stories and recipes and rants, er I mean opinions. Lately I've realized that all I give you lovely people is a random picture here and there, or a lame excuse as to why I'm not blogging. Or even a nicely bullet pointed update to my life. And while I realize you come here to read about my life (in a sense), you also don't give a flying rat's you know what about the mundane details from the past few weeks.

When I actually think about a blog post it almost always has something to do with running or eating. This is not a diet blog, a health blog, or a running blog. So maybe I should start one of those to get all this out of my brain and make room for things actually pertaining to SugarBritches. Would any of you read that? Probably not because if you're into running/health blogs you're probably off reading Tall Mom or Prior Fat Girl. I just love those two by the way.

Anyways, I do have a legitimate excuse for slacking on this blog and not starting another blog for my exercise brain dump. After the laptop breathed its last, the desktop caught a nasty bug. SUMS has installed some crazy non-Windows operating system and while I have access to all my old photos and can surf the Internetz to my hearts content, I can't get any new photos off my camera. I also don't have access to my Photoshop to manipulate said photos. That makes me sad. I think I might have even done the ugly cry a time or two. So all those lovely pics from my roadtrip with Supergrandma, well I can't make those into a even more lovely blog post. And it's a shame too because I captured a honest to gah genuine smile on the woman and that is damn near impossible. And those photos I took at the pottery gallery where we all procured $30 dollar (so you know they are bitchin) coffee mugs made by the sweetest Japanese artist? Can't get those either, although I do plan on linking to her shop because she is crazy talented. Oh and our new puppy? Won't be seeing her precious mug on here anytime soon.

I need a sugar daddy or a computer fairy or access to a small fortune. A reader and childhood friend in Florida recently emailed me that she was about to break down and send me a damn laptop just so I would blog again. "Love ya Sam!" I should just quit whining and make due.

In the meantime...I'll be running and savoring these last two weeks of school before summer unleashes the boys upon me 24/7. Pray for me.

Well That Brightened My Day

Winning is awesome!

Wordless Wednesday: The Truth