Hot Weather Running and New Jeans

So I'm pretty much not tracking at all.  I wonder if I'm just transitioning out of tracking mode as I get closer to goal.  I switched my tracker to the Simply Filling Technique and I'm supposed to be tracking any foods that don't fall into the SFT list.  But I'm not.  Instead, I'm just eating healthy and hoping the 80/20 rule will work.  80% healthy, 20% not so much.  When I lost weight in my 20's this is essentially how my eating evolved.  The difference this time is that I will continue to monitor my weight and intervene with more monitored eating when needed.  I want to maintain my free status at WW once I'm lifetime so that means at minimum a monthly weight check.  But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, considering I haven't even gotten to goal yet.

Friday night Miguel and I had our date night.  We tried out a relatively new restaurant, Terrapin Crossroads.  We sat at the bar and had drinks, I had a vodka soda, which was strong enough to keep me to one drink.  The bar is pretty big and we were directly in front of the wood burning stove so we got to watch all sorts of yummy food coming out of the oven.  We got to our table and ordered curried naan with peach chutney for an appetizer.  For our entree I had a "small bites" plate of fried oysters on tiny crepes with spinach - like tiny fish tacos.  There were three of them.  Miguel had a steak that came with Tabasco onion rings.  Fortunately for me he doesn't like onion rings so I got to eat those too.  A very carby meal but super yummy and I was full at the end.  Desert looked good but I didn't want to eat desert on a full stomach, just seemed like a waste.  So we left to play some pool and I figured I'd find something sweet later.  After pool we drove by a local ice cream shop and it was still open!  I had two scoops of ice cream with caramel sauce, minus the couple of bites Miguel had.  And I was full again.  The whole evening was great.

And we had a family filled day Saturday, albeit not very exciting.  We stayed home and organized the kids clothes - which seemed to take half the day.  Myra has grown out of so many of the clothes in her drawers so we organized everything.  Normally I do this on my own so it was nice to have Miguel do it with me.  The kids "helped" too.

I've been re-focusing on dinner.  I am SO tired of figuring out dinner at the last minute.  During the week it's a real time-crunch.  By the time we get home I have 30-45 minutes to get dinner on the table.  If I make a menu for the week I can be sure to have the ingredients on hand and get started on dinner the second I walk in the door instead of staring into the pantry/fridge/freezer for 5-10 minutes while my brain puts together a plan.  So for dinner I made chicken and rice, a one-pot meal tweaked from The Quick Recipe Cookbook by Cook's Illustrated.  I steamed some broccoli and made myself a salad too.  I have meals planned for the rest of the week and did a menu for next week too since I'll be gone this weekend.

Have I mentioned I'm flying to Aspen for my cousin's wedding?  We tried to make it work so Miguel could come with me but it wasn't feasible.  Taking the kids didn't sound like a good plan either so I'm going with my mom and Miguel is staying home with the kids (bless his heart!).  I'm leaving on Thursday and returning on Sunday.  The wedding is on a ranch and everyone is wearing jeans.  Of course I don't have any that fit really well so my mother offered to get me some as a reward for my weight loss achievement.  More on that in a bit.  But first, I want to tell you about my run today.

It was hard.  Really hard.  Miguel had a soccer game in the morning so I had to run in the afternoon.  It got into the 90's today.  Need I say more?  I maintained an average 11:16 pace, which I was thriled with given how I felt and how friggin' hot it was.  Funny thing, 11:16 is the exact same pace for my last 9 mile training run a couple weeks ago.  The difference is that today's route had a little hill.  I managed to run up and over it on the way out but on the way back I was struggling.  I looked at my watch and my heart rate was getting into the 170's.  "Don't be stupid Michelle, you have 2+ miles to go and it's hot as hell out here, just walk."  So I walked up the short but steep hill and started running again as soon as I reached the top.  I hate carrying water so at mile 2 I ran into a Subway and they let me have some tap water.  At mile 4 I passed a school so I found a fountain there, re-passed it at mile 5 and had more water.  Then at mile 7 I went into a Mexican restaurant and got water.  People are nice when you come in sweating (and probably red) panting for water.  In both restaurants I got a cup right away so I didn't have to stand around waiting for water.  It worked out great but if I ever do another long run on a hot day, and that's a big IF because it's just too difficult, I might have to carry water.  I also ate six Clif Shot Bloks along the way, two at mile 3, two at mile 5 and two at mile 7.

I was so friggin' happy to get back to my car and stop running.  I had started to get the chills and felt slightly nauseous a few times starting around mile 5.  I decided that if I threw up I'd stop.  Duh, right? But that never happened and the nausea was very mild and went away altogether before too long.  As hot as it was I felt like I was getting a decent amount of water.  I swore I'd never run on a hot day again unless I'm running along the bay and get that cool bay breeze.  I came home and read up on chills while running in the heat.  Not good.  Which I kind of figured was the case.  Chills can be a warning sign of heat exhaustion, which could then escalate to heat stroke.  If I were to stop sweating that would be a very serious sign.  Hopefully I'll never have to worry about this again because running in such heat is not fun and I don't plan on doing it again.  But it's good to know the signs of overheating.

After the run I came home and showered.  Miguel had just put the kids down for their naps so I relaxed for a bit and then decided to go jeans shopping.  I didn't have a lot of time and I'm not the most experienced shopper.  Add to that I am shopping for almost an entirely new body (and Mom was gifting me the jeans!) and I decided to go the The Blue Jeans Bar in Mill Valley with the hopes that they would take one look at me and hand me the perfect pair of jeans for my body.  It wasn't quite that idyllic, but close.  I told the saleswoman I wanted boot cut jeans that help my butt look less flat than it really is.  She had me try on about 5 pair and gave me a good critique of each pair I tried on.  I found some that I really like, DL1961 Milano Boot Cut...and, they were on sale!  Mom would be happy about that part.  I'd never heard of DL1961 jeans, but I've never heard of any of the brands they had in there, too high end for my normal budget.  I think they are a size 27 or 28 but I can't remember now.  The waist measurement just doesn't have the same ring as, say, a size 4.  Anyway, they were super comfortable and I like how they look.  Now I just need to find a suitable shirt and maybe a vest and I'll be set for the ranch wedding!  Man, this post is all high-end sounding - Aspen wedding, fancy jeans...but in reality our budget is more black beans than filet mignon - which is fine by me.  We have everything we need, and sometimes, as in the case of these jeans, then some.

Tomorrow will be a gym day, followed by another on Tuesday.  Wednesday is rest. Thursday is supposed to be a gym day but we're flying to Aspen that day so who knows.  Friday is a gym day so I hope to find some way to exercise.  Saturday is normally rest but I might do my long run in Aspen (If the air isn't too thin for me) since we're flying home on Sunday.  If I don't write again until after the trip, wish me luck with squeezing my exercise into this trip!