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MICHCLEARY's Recent Blog Entries
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Friday, November 25, 2011
One of the best ways for me to jump back on the wagon after a day of eating whatever is to photo blog my food. I have logged my food and my workout for the day so here goes the food parade:
1 cup sweet cherries, 1 pepperidge mini whole wheat bagel, 1 egg, and 1 T fat free cream cheese.
Mid morning snack, whole wheat tortilla, 1 T chocolate almond butter, 1/2 banana and cinnamon.
Lunch 1 zucchini, 1/3 c leftover sweet potato casserole, 4 oz turkey and 2 T homemade cranberry pomegranate sauce.
Prior to the gym trip, 1 cup swiss miss diet hot chocolate with 2 T cool whip
After workout shake while logging my workout on SP - 1/2 serving Muscle Milk Lite Chocolate protein powder, 1 T PB2, 1 frozen banana, cinnamon and water.
Dinner - leftover baked ham, black beans with jalepenos, and a honeycrisp apple.
Random snack this afternoon - 5 ritz crackers.
I'm under my calorie range for the day slightly, but I'm cutting back because my fitness minutes are down and I over ate yesterday. I'm logging now so this is the end of my food today.
At least 8 cups of water - check
at least 5 freggies - check
workout - check
tracking = check
feeling good about a relaxing day = check
I will be happier when:
there is no more pie in the house
my daughter's homemade banana pudding is gone
I go to the store and get baby spinach - really I eat it everyday and I'm out.
How was your day? Are you back on track? If not, what are you waiting for?
Friday, November 25, 2011
Turkey day prep for us started the day before. Usually we go to my BFF's house and join a lot of extended family and friends for a total of close to 30. This year the big group decided to disband into families. So we were prepping the whole dinner for our family + BFF for a total of 6, and sending food to her dad who was sick and couldn't come.
I wish I had a picture of my two daughters cooking but I didn't slow down long enough to remember to do that. Technology helping me make it faster - I put my grocery list in excel and sorted it by store location. We were in and out of there quickly. We unpacked the food into the pans it needed to be by recipe. Both my daughters were cooking and I was the bus boy, clean up crew, and advisor. They are both in high school and I tried to use this as a learning experience so it will be easier for them when they move out to create the "meal". Most of the casseroles were made the day before and were ready to just warm up.
Why all this prepping? BFF and I were once again doing the Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot. This requires me going to here house in Dallas (5K lodge), doing the race and then driving back to my house - where the turkey should be cooking.
The morning of started at 6:30 in the morning getting ready for the run. We were at the dart train station in the foggy, chilly morning air. The ride in to downtown was like a sardine can. I think there were alot more runners this year than last. We saw bib numbers as high as 37,000. I haven't heard what their final headcount was but it was mayhem there.
We were both very irritated with Capital One who was their main sponsor. We followed procedure a week ahead of time and went to one of their branches to register so that we could get a VIP band and be one of 500 people who would run the race in a full body turkey suit. There was supposed to be restrooms, lockers, hot breakfast along with the perks. We got to the race during the allotted hour we were supposed to show up.... turkey suits had randomly been handed out to whoever showed up and not held for those people who followed procedure. There was no bathroom or lockers and the hot breakfast was some sort of rolled burrito with eggs that they were passing out. I swear if I get one piece of marketing material from them I will call them and vent.
So instead of being one of 500 turkeys at the front of the race, we were in line at the port o potty and racing with the close to 40,000 other people.
Here we are before the race, and the huge crowd of turkeys getting ready to be sent to the front :(
This two pics show our perspective of the crowd. In the first one you can barely see the balloon arch which is the starting line of the race. The second picture shows the people behind us, and you can't really see the end of them.
By the time the race started, it took our section of people about 10 minutes just to make it from where we were to the starting line. There really is no "running" this for speed because of the mass of people, walkers, strollers, dogs, etc. It's really a trot and try not to get tripped. The people started from left to right - on the side walked, completely filling two lanes, up over the hill median which you can kind of see in the picture, filling two lanes, and up on the sidewalk of the other side of the road.
Interesting things I saw while running - people sitting in their downtown condos with coffee just watching all the crazy people running by. There were a couple of bands playing along various points of the run. Funny turkey hats, indian head dresses, dads who can run the whole race with a toddler on their shoulder and buildings lost in the fog...
The most touching thing of the day ... we saw a young man - presumably military - who was running with no arms and artificial legs. He was passing alot of people too. I almost burst into tears at the sight. What a brave soul who obviously wasn't letting tragedy keep him from pursuing new goals in life. I immediately quite thinking about whatever minimal soreness I was experiencing and remembered how easy I had it.
Overall we enjoyed the race once we got passed the whole turkey frustration. We did a leisurely pace around 13 minutes a mile once we got past the first mass humanity mile. Yeah for burning calories to start the day. We ran into SP Coach Nancy at the end of the race.
We had a great turkey day experience. I didn't track food or count calories. At the end of the day I did all my arm weights and PT exercises while watching the game. So I ended up burning some more calories at the end of the day.
Today I'm back on tracking my food, and I'm going to photo blog what I eat. That always helps me get right back on track.
How was your turkey day? Did you get a workout in?
Monday, November 21, 2011
I changed my ticker today to reflect how many days we have left in 2011. I want to focus in on what I'd like to try and accomplish before we switch over to a new year.
This time of year can get so busy and chaotic, that if I don't intentionally set about to do something it will just get lost in the blur of the holidays. So here is my goal list that I came up with today:
 Drink 8 cups or more of water a day. You would think that after 2 plus years of SP that I would have this one down pat, but alas no. I don't like to be cold, and for some reason when we hit winter time drinking water goes way down for me.
 20 mins of fitness minutes a day. I'm starting to include some YOGA in my day again. Shoulder surgery in May really took my practice away from me. I still can't do alot of downward dog or other positions that push my shoulder joint together, but I am healed enough to do many other poses.
 Do my Physical Therapy stretches daily, and arm weights at least 2 times a week.
 Increase my vegetable consumption. I can eat fruit until I look like one, but I don't think I always get in enough veggies.
 I need to go swim once a week - I am supposed to be trying to build my ability to move my arm like that. Means I have to pack it up and go to a gym father away which can be annoying sometimes. I must make time for this.
 Behave and take care of my leg. I have some kind of recurring injury/pain to my right quad/knee. A friend who is a trained physical therapist told me to take 4-6 weeks off. It's possibly just a bad sprain since I focused so much on lower body work after surgery for my shoulder. I'm almost two weeks into the self-imposed break. My fitness minutes have taken a nose dive and it's tough to not get paranoid and try to work out or worry about my weight.
 Not take myself so seriously. Stress can undo many good things, so I'm trying to laugh more, enjoy music, and take plenty of deep breaths.
So what are some of your goals? Are there some small baby steps you can do during this busy time of the year? Do you make New Year's Resolutions? Did you keep any of them this year?
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Today was the HellRun. If you've been reading my blog lately you know I'm not able to run and it was a tough decision for me to not participate in the race. Despite the fact that she would have to go it alone, my daughter Rachael decided to stay in the race.
We were on the road for the 90 minute drive to the venue early. It was out in sticks! We got there in plenty of time for packet pick up and some fun pictures.
I told her to give me a Home Alone type scream to show how she was feeling before the race.
The wind was blowing so hard the flags were all straight out. It was a 5k with lots of hills and obstacles that included mud, water, fire, walls, tires, etc. Here are a few pictures of the part where I could see her:
In the holding pin getting ready for her wave to go....
Some of the costumes where crazy. There was a gang of guys whose manhood you would question - dressed as Brittney Spears from her Oops I Did it again video. Many guys in kilts, green lantern, spider woman, lots of tutus. It was a crazy, messy scene.
This is her coming in near the end when I captured her doing the fire hazard.
Barbed wire mud pit...followed by water hazard
Up and over this hill to another water hazard and final hill before the finish...
Their very expensive shower setup...
One happy camper with her first ever running medal...
It was dirty, muddy, windy, chilly, and a ton of fun. She did all that in just under one hour and then fell asleep in the car on the way home. I had a blast just being her cheerleader and photographer. Next year hopefully we will be able to do it side by side.
I wonder how many calories she burned??? It looked like a lot!
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Member Comments About This Blog Post:
looks like she had a lot of fun! It is great that you daughter has followed your lead :)
to you PROUD MAMA for leading the way to an active lifestyle... That is so important! The smile on her is priceless! 
I can't stand tofu or lots of yogurt or lots of fat free this and that. Sorry to say, but Chef Meg makes alot of foods I can't tolerate! I guess I'm just too old-fashioned! I'm just trying to cut down on good foods and are modifying recipes to be more healthy, without losing the good tastes! My family doesn't know the difference...usually!! Thanks for posting! I'll really be working at good tracking this week and more veggies and fruit! 
scale!!
