Overdue.

It's been a busy time of year obviously, since I haven't posted in a few weeks.  I thought about just forgetting about my blog but I feel like I do that with a lot of things I set out to do so I'm posting again because I want to stick with this.  So here I am :)  I just finished with finals and have started my summer.  I'd say it's already off to a great start!

Our big race day has come and gone!  Yesterday David and I ran our very first half marathon up in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  It went well for the most part, except one minor detail-- yesterday was a scorcher!!  It started at 7 AM but it quickly warmed up and I was tiring out at mile four.  That's not good when you have nine more to go!  But I pulled through and I crossed the finish line with a race time of 2 hours 17 minutes.  I'm happy with it considering the conditions we ran in.  In fact, about ten minutes after I crossed the finish line they shut the course down because it was getting too dangerous for the runners (there was also a full marathon so several runners were still out there).

Here we are, post marathon, just glistening away!

David and I had separated early on in the race, as he has much longer legs and therefore faster than I am, so afterwards I looked for him.  And looked some more.  And some more.  Until finally, I found him- about an hour afterwards.  Just what you want to do after you run 13.1 miles, wander around in a hot parking lot full of other sweaty runners in search of someone.  Not so much.  We grabbed our running bags, found some strangers to snap a victory photo and headed out.  We were tired and sore along with post-running stomachaches.  We drove back to his parents house where we stayed for the weekend, showered off and went to lunch.  He mowed down half a pizza while I devoured a burger.  We took a nice nap and headed home.

Even though we didn't run as fast as we'd have liked to, we're happy with our first half marathon experience.  Now we have times to beat!  I'm mostly proud that I set a goal, stuck with it and reached it.  And I'm happy we did it together :)  We actually signed up for another half marathon tonight coming up in September.  Hopefully we'll have some cooler weather!

Enough about running, how about food??  Lately I've been trying to work on my sugar intake. We had a container of cookies in the house a while ago and when I was home during the day I was finding it hard to control myself.  I decided to quit cold turkey.  Temporarily, that is.  This Thursday I'll have gone two weeks without added sugar (with the exception of yesterday, the race day, I treated myself to not one, but two cookies on a job well done- or should I say run?).  But now it's back to reality.  It really hasn't been as bad as I thought.  I use my fruit as dessert and have been making more smoothies as a treat.

Sugar isn't the only thing I'm trying to cut out.  I'm trying to eat less red meat (so yes, that burger yesterday was a nice treat as well!) and follow more of the "Mediterranean" diet.  I hate using the term diet though.  I just like to watch what I eat.  I like to know what my food is made of and where it comes from.  I like to know that it's nourishing my body and not just tasting good.

My goal is to eat well most of the time and indulge less of the time.  I want to enjoy treats as they are meant to be enjoyed, once in a while.  As a...wait for it... treat!

One other thing that has been occupying my time lately is the four-part documentary that aired on HBO last week, "The Weight of the Nation."  All four parts are online so PLEASE go watch!  People don't realize how much damage we really are doing to ourselves.  It's scary.

Now I'm looking forward to a relaxing rest of the week.  I'm actually flying down to Georgia on Thursday to visit one of my best friends for a mini vacay.  I'm pretty excited to be laying on the beach!  We plan on doing some baking so I will have to update again soon with some photos from our adventures.

Until next time!