I have several random thoughts I would like to share OR its time for a new blog entry…you can take your pick. I like to bore everyone to tears at least once a week so the time is here once again. Some of you are cheering and some of you are saying…oh no not again. Again, take your pick, take a heart pill and settle in for another installment to My Blog.

MY REVELATION: Since our last visit I had quite the revelation thanks to some members my BLC11 challenge team. Simply put, I was not eating enough calories for the amount of calories I expended with my running. I had reached the point where my weightloss was at a standstill and I was not shrinking at all. So, I had mentioned this to my BLC11 team…call it a pity party with whining included. Since I have my nutrition and fitness tracker available to anyone to see, they figured out my problem immediately. I was not eating enough and my body was in starvation mode. One of them took me to an awesome website that does a body fat calculator that uses height, weight, neck and waist measurements. I had a body fat of 30%...NOT ACCEPTABLE at all! So, for almost a week now I have been eating and eating and eating. If anyone wants to see what I am eating, go ahead and look. I believe you will be quite impressed!

ADDING ST TO MY FITNESS: With the aforementioned revelation I was informed that if I want to lower my body fat and add muscle I would need to add ST. So I have and I am already seeing a difference in my waist measurement AND jeans. Who woulda thunk! To some this would have been just another notion, but to me its huge. So I am now running three days per week, one or two days of brisk walking and at least four days of ST. I will not lie…I HATE ST but the way I am convincing myself to do it is to tell myself that it WILL improve my running. It will accomplish this by strengthening my core, back and legs which will improve my endurance and lessen the chances for injury. That is huge to me.

DISCOVERING SPARK RECIPES: I made another revelation this week and that is Spark Recipes. I made my first one which was Low Sodium Vegetable Beef Stew and IT WAS AWESOME! I literally lost count how many times Jim said that it was so good. He even enjoyed the leftovers. SO now I am on the lookout for more low sodium Spark Recipes that both Jim and I will enjoy. I also enjoy cooking again which has waned in the past few years.

TRYING NEW FOODS: I have been trying a different piece of fruit or vegetables a week the past few months and it is sorta kinda fun. I tackled a pomegranate and loved it BUT it came with a price. As many of you know, I have been taunted with this pomegranate seed stuck in my tooth for a while now. Yesterday was D-Day for the seed. My dental hygienist tackled that sucker with her explorer and was very successful in nudging that stupid thing out. Now, today I tried a persimmon and I will NOT be eating any more. For one thing they really have no flavor AND there are way too many carbohydrates you give up with just one stupid piece of fruit. No more.

THE DREADMILL: We have had a few days of rain and today I was scheduled for running…MY FAVE!! So, either it was running in cold blustery rainy conditions that I have no desire for OR it’s the Dreadmill. I donned my running stuff except for a few items not needed inside. I set up my laptop and started Apollo 13 which is my favorite movie. I also used my Gymboss for my interval running/walking and my Nike+Ipod for distance and pace. Oh and my Polar F7 goes everywhere including the dreadmill. In all, I ran 4.28 miles which is for some reason less than what I run in the usual 60 minutes. I also made a huge discovery running on the treadmill. That is the fact that I could run with an incline a lot easier than I ever could before. Wow! I didn’t see that one coming! We are talking A LOT easier! I burned the amount of calories I wanted to, watched some of my favorite movie and broke into a wonderful sweat. You cannot ask for more than that. Have I told you lately how much I love running?

That is about all for now, BUT you will have some pretty interesting reads in the upcoming weeks. I will run my first Turkey Trot (5 miles) AND Jim and I will be babysitting our 18 month old grandson for a little over a week! THAT in itself will be a workout. Is there an entry on the tracker for that? Stay tuned and carry on…