So after 3 days of watching my food intake the scale is moving down. I was greeted on this cold Tuesday morning with 131.6. That is almost a lb down from yesterday. I am not going to weigh myself again until Friday. I have 2 friends that I am checking in with as we all try and lose those stubborn last 10 lbs. I decided to set a weekly non weight related goal. Mine for this week is to focus on 3 meals and 3 snacks, no more, no less. So often I just kind of graze all day and those calories add up. It is hard at work. I sometimes have to do a lot of data entry type work and it is hard to not sit there and snack on crackers or something along those lines as I type away. I stocked my cube with crunchy, carby, yet nutritious snacks and have been enjoying them. I picked up some crackers made out of almonds and super thin “rice cakes” made out of quinoa and sesame. Good stuff. Monday was a rest day, so no real exercise yesterday aside from some lunchtime stretching with a friend. On Sunday I did enjoy a wonderful 7 mile late afternoon run with the Fonz. When I run it is either dark and cold early morning or long slow runs with friends. It’s good to get out by myself every now and then during daylight hours and run as fast as I can. I kept an eye on my watch and made myself stay under a 9 min mile even though it was uncomfortable at times. I really want 9 min/mile to become my comfortable long run pace. I want all other runs to be somewhere in 8s, hopefully next year I can do a race where I am much closer to 8 even per mile, as opposed to the 8:47-8:52 I have done on my last several 10 milers and halves. Baby steps folks. Reading about my super speedy friends who do amazing things like come in second overall for females in Columbus (that’s you E-speed) or first female at the towpath marathon while pregnant (that’s you Salty) motivate me and give me hope that I too can be much speedier. I never would have believed that I could run under a 9 min mile for a distance race, never ever and yet I can now. I look forward to a 5K this winter. I don’t do a lot of 5Ks, I don’t like to run fast. But I know I will shatter my old PR of 25 and change soon. But I digress, I’m here to talk about my muffin top.

Weight is down today, I hope the trend continues. Gary is out of town today and tomorrow. I hope to get a short run in tonight with the kid and dog. Tomorrow morning will be yoga since I am home bound and hopefully another short run. Thursday morning I am taking my maiden early morning bike ride with my friend Natalie. I can’t lie, I am super scared. It was my idea and yet I am a wreck over it. I see people biking in the morning and I thought that I should really do that, but not alone. So Natalie is crazy enough to agree to meet me and bike in the dark. We obviously only have a few more weeks that we can even do this, but hopefully in the spring we can pick it back up. We are going to stick to well lit roads. I have 2 new lights to put on my bike. Friday is a run and Sat is my last 20 miler. Hoorah. I am sick of marathon training. I still want to do several marathons a year, but I think I want to switch from 16 & 18 week training plans to a 12 week plan. I keep myself in good enough shape that I think it should be sufficient.

Guess I better do some work. Have a great Tuesday!