I've been pretty busy this week trying to keep track of everything I eat. I look up calorie counts on everything I eat and and then enter it all into a log. It actually gets pretty complicated and time consuming, especially when I cook something myself and have to enter in all the different components. And why am I going to all this trouble? Am I trying to lose weight? Is this a new year's resolution gone wild? Actually, no. I am trying to do the exact opposite. I am on an un-diet. I'm trying to make sure I'm not losing weight.
Now before everyone gets all mad at me, it's not actually as cool as it sounds. Evidently, all my running has a big payoff: it burns lots of calories! But apparently my body needs those calories back for energy or something lame. And not only do I have to make sure I'm getting enough calories, I have to make sure it's healthy calories! No fun at all.
So as you sit there reading this, living your non-Nutritional-Facts-reading-calorie-logging-lives, think of me munching on my apple (1 small, raw, unpeeled = 55 calories) and feel sorry for me. Even just a little bit.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Tagged
I was tagged a few weeks ago by Camilla while we were on vacation to tell 5 things about myself. I put it aside for a while because, hey, I was on vacation, but we have been back for a while and now it's just getting embarrassing that I haven't responded yet. So here goes.
Admission #1: I am a procrastinator. (see example above) I've always put things off a little bit, but it only gets worse when you have kids because you always have a built-in excuse, or at least I like to think I do anyway. And even though I'm not in school or working anymore, I find there are still lots of things I can put off: laundry, emails, any sort of cleaning, cooking dinner, blogging....
#2: I can be a little stubborn. I get it from both my mom and dad so you know it's pretty bad. But I like to think it's that stubbornness that gets me through some of my long runs. And I go on some long runs.
#3: I like to be organized though I have resigned myself to the fact that with 2 kids, this will never truly happen. My one consolation is that after the girls both go to bed I can pick up everything and have a clean house for a few hours until the craziness starts all over again.
#4: For some reason, I remember lots of random facts, causing me to say seriously at various times, "You've never heard of the great vowel shift??", "I wouldn't necessarily call Charles Mingus obscure," or "I can't believe you don't know the name of Lance Armstrong's trainer." Since Ben is usually the recipient of these remarks and he looks at me like I'm crazy when I say them, we have to call in a referee (our friend Brigham) to gauge the obscurity level of what I've said. I usually lose.
#5: I secretly envy all of you out there with minivans, and you know who you are! I know it's not the most fuel efficient or cool thing out there to drive, but have you seen those automatic door openers? Wow. It sure beats throwing both girls into the back of our Mazda Protege any day.
Ok, that's it for me. I am going to tag Dinah, Jenny, Courtney, Christa, and lastly my brother Josh because I'm interested to see where he'll take this.
Admission #1: I am a procrastinator. (see example above) I've always put things off a little bit, but it only gets worse when you have kids because you always have a built-in excuse, or at least I like to think I do anyway. And even though I'm not in school or working anymore, I find there are still lots of things I can put off: laundry, emails, any sort of cleaning, cooking dinner, blogging....
#2: I can be a little stubborn. I get it from both my mom and dad so you know it's pretty bad. But I like to think it's that stubbornness that gets me through some of my long runs. And I go on some long runs.
#3: I like to be organized though I have resigned myself to the fact that with 2 kids, this will never truly happen. My one consolation is that after the girls both go to bed I can pick up everything and have a clean house for a few hours until the craziness starts all over again.
#4: For some reason, I remember lots of random facts, causing me to say seriously at various times, "You've never heard of the great vowel shift??", "I wouldn't necessarily call Charles Mingus obscure," or "I can't believe you don't know the name of Lance Armstrong's trainer." Since Ben is usually the recipient of these remarks and he looks at me like I'm crazy when I say them, we have to call in a referee (our friend Brigham) to gauge the obscurity level of what I've said. I usually lose.
#5: I secretly envy all of you out there with minivans, and you know who you are! I know it's not the most fuel efficient or cool thing out there to drive, but have you seen those automatic door openers? Wow. It sure beats throwing both girls into the back of our Mazda Protege any day.
Ok, that's it for me. I am going to tag Dinah, Jenny, Courtney, Christa, and lastly my brother Josh because I'm interested to see where he'll take this.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
New Year's Day Upset
Ben and I have been married 6 1/2 years. There's not much I don't know about him. I know his favorite pizza (thin crust with onions). I know which websites he checks obsessively during the day (Drudge Report, CNN, Woot, and Rotoworld). I know that he secretly watches Ultimate Fighting (Ben says, "mixed martial arts") when I'm not home. Still, it's good to be reminded that you can never truly know everything about another person. I guess it helps keep things more interesting.
The whole thing was my idea. I thought it would be fun to run a race together with my brother, sister, and Ben when we were in Dallas together after Christmas and I found a 5 mile race to do on New Year's day, not too short, not too long. Ben has come a long way with his running. He could barely run a mile a year ago because of some knee issues and now he runs regularly and is training for an Ironman, which involves running a marathon after all the swimming and the biking. We don't get to run a lot together. One of us has to be here to watch the girls so we usually take turns. Still, the times we have run together, I'm usually the stronger runner. I don't know what it is.
So, I was feeling pretty confident about the race. My brother refused to train so I knew he was no threat. (For his amusing take on the race see http://byudalton.blogspot.com/) My sister runs and is in good shape, but wasn't really in training. And there was Ben. Ben was the known factor. There was no way he was going to take me on. So at this point I might have indulged in a little trash talk. Not a lot, but what's the use of training hard if you can't have a little fun at the expense of others?
I knew Ben was a little worried. I could see it in his eyes. The race started out great. We lined up near the front and got a good start. I lost Ben for a little bit, but he caught right up to me. Here's where I should have realized something was going down. I tried to talk to him. Just to see how he thought our pace was, how he was feeling etc. I got a small grunt in response. 1 mile went by. We were going way too fast so we slowed down a little. Then a few people passed us and that wasn't cool so we sped up a little bit. The second mile went by, Ben was still with me. And we are running pretty fast and I was already thinking, "how much longer is it already?" We hit mile 3, Ben was still there, and I thought for the first time, "I wonder if he DOES have it in him to beat me."
Around mile 3.5 Ben dropped me. Not by a lot and I let it go for a little bit since there's still a lot of race left and I was pretty tired. When we hit the 4 mile mark I gathered up some strength and came up behind him. He says he heard me coming and was tired himself, but also heard that I was breathing pretty heavily and decided to demoralize me. Just as I caught up to him, he put in a burst of speed and left me behind again. And that was that. I couldn't recover from it. Final times, Ben 33:08, Juli 33:15. It doesn't sound like a lot of time but that 7 seconds represents the whole of Ben's masculinity.
So on the first day of this new year, I learned that Ben has a lot more game than I do. In the end, I think it's great we are able to race together and push each other to be better athletes. I'm hoping for a better outcome next race though. After all, Ben has lost his element of surprise. And so, until we meet again...
BEN'S SIDE OF THE STORY
Juli is a better runner than me by far (even when not accounting for the gender differences). My plan was to stick with her and try and win it somehow at the end. I beat her with simple mind games--years of competitive swimming may have given me a competitive edge here at the expense of my stunted height.
Mile 1: Juli was running way too fast. I was a little behind her, but I gutted it out to stay close. I was worried.
Mile 2: Juli slowed down, and I was barely hanging on. I thought I was slowing her down, and I did not think I could hold the pace very much longer. I told her twice to go on and have a good race (I had rehearsed how I was going to send her off in my mind for many weeks before the race when the inevitable time came for her to drop me. I thought this was very magnanimous of me.).
Mile 3: Hey, I was still running with Juli. Weird. This is where Juli starting making mistakes. We were looping back and people were starting to tell us "Good job" as we passed them going the other way. Juli would invariably respond "thanks." I huffed to her not to say anything. She responded that that was rude.
At about 3.6 miles Juli made her big mistake. She told me that maybe I had it in me to beat her. I sensed a moment of weakness and started my kick. Now, I wanted to start my kick at 4 miles, but I started it early due to a miscalculation. (I thought the 5K marker was 3.6 miles, and thus was thinking that I was starting my kick at 4 miles. But I wasn't).
Mile 4: I was beating Juli. Sweet. I was really tired. At about 4.25 miles I heard Juli coming up behind me. I didn't get very far ahead of her with my premature "kick." All my visions of glory were slipping away. I fully expected her to blow by me. I heard her coming . . . inevitable . . . inexorable. She was right behind me when I heard her breathing really hard. Had she pulled even with me, I would have given up and walked the last 0.5 miles. I was tired, hurting, and done. My premature kick hurt me. But instead I turned it on and ran like a man possessed for only about 10 seconds, but it was enough. I couldn't let Juli pull even with me. And it worked.
Mile 5: I won by a few seconds. It was a miracle. I finally earned some respect in this household. It was my one moment in time. Oh, and Juli did much more than "a little trash talk." Juli just told me that no one cares about our stupid race. But that is only because I won. And mixed martial arts is less violent than boxing.
The whole thing was my idea. I thought it would be fun to run a race together with my brother, sister, and Ben when we were in Dallas together after Christmas and I found a 5 mile race to do on New Year's day, not too short, not too long. Ben has come a long way with his running. He could barely run a mile a year ago because of some knee issues and now he runs regularly and is training for an Ironman, which involves running a marathon after all the swimming and the biking. We don't get to run a lot together. One of us has to be here to watch the girls so we usually take turns. Still, the times we have run together, I'm usually the stronger runner. I don't know what it is.
So, I was feeling pretty confident about the race. My brother refused to train so I knew he was no threat. (For his amusing take on the race see http://byudalton.blogspot.com/) My sister runs and is in good shape, but wasn't really in training. And there was Ben. Ben was the known factor. There was no way he was going to take me on. So at this point I might have indulged in a little trash talk. Not a lot, but what's the use of training hard if you can't have a little fun at the expense of others?
I knew Ben was a little worried. I could see it in his eyes. The race started out great. We lined up near the front and got a good start. I lost Ben for a little bit, but he caught right up to me. Here's where I should have realized something was going down. I tried to talk to him. Just to see how he thought our pace was, how he was feeling etc. I got a small grunt in response. 1 mile went by. We were going way too fast so we slowed down a little. Then a few people passed us and that wasn't cool so we sped up a little bit. The second mile went by, Ben was still with me. And we are running pretty fast and I was already thinking, "how much longer is it already?" We hit mile 3, Ben was still there, and I thought for the first time, "I wonder if he DOES have it in him to beat me."
Around mile 3.5 Ben dropped me. Not by a lot and I let it go for a little bit since there's still a lot of race left and I was pretty tired. When we hit the 4 mile mark I gathered up some strength and came up behind him. He says he heard me coming and was tired himself, but also heard that I was breathing pretty heavily and decided to demoralize me. Just as I caught up to him, he put in a burst of speed and left me behind again. And that was that. I couldn't recover from it. Final times, Ben 33:08, Juli 33:15. It doesn't sound like a lot of time but that 7 seconds represents the whole of Ben's masculinity.
So on the first day of this new year, I learned that Ben has a lot more game than I do. In the end, I think it's great we are able to race together and push each other to be better athletes. I'm hoping for a better outcome next race though. After all, Ben has lost his element of surprise. And so, until we meet again...
BEN'S SIDE OF THE STORY
Juli is a better runner than me by far (even when not accounting for the gender differences). My plan was to stick with her and try and win it somehow at the end. I beat her with simple mind games--years of competitive swimming may have given me a competitive edge here at the expense of my stunted height.
Mile 1: Juli was running way too fast. I was a little behind her, but I gutted it out to stay close. I was worried.
Mile 2: Juli slowed down, and I was barely hanging on. I thought I was slowing her down, and I did not think I could hold the pace very much longer. I told her twice to go on and have a good race (I had rehearsed how I was going to send her off in my mind for many weeks before the race when the inevitable time came for her to drop me. I thought this was very magnanimous of me.).
Mile 3: Hey, I was still running with Juli. Weird. This is where Juli starting making mistakes. We were looping back and people were starting to tell us "Good job" as we passed them going the other way. Juli would invariably respond "thanks." I huffed to her not to say anything. She responded that that was rude.
At about 3.6 miles Juli made her big mistake. She told me that maybe I had it in me to beat her. I sensed a moment of weakness and started my kick. Now, I wanted to start my kick at 4 miles, but I started it early due to a miscalculation. (I thought the 5K marker was 3.6 miles, and thus was thinking that I was starting my kick at 4 miles. But I wasn't).
Mile 4: I was beating Juli. Sweet. I was really tired. At about 4.25 miles I heard Juli coming up behind me. I didn't get very far ahead of her with my premature "kick." All my visions of glory were slipping away. I fully expected her to blow by me. I heard her coming . . . inevitable . . . inexorable. She was right behind me when I heard her breathing really hard. Had she pulled even with me, I would have given up and walked the last 0.5 miles. I was tired, hurting, and done. My premature kick hurt me. But instead I turned it on and ran like a man possessed for only about 10 seconds, but it was enough. I couldn't let Juli pull even with me. And it worked.
Mile 5: I won by a few seconds. It was a miracle. I finally earned some respect in this household. It was my one moment in time. Oh, and Juli did much more than "a little trash talk." Juli just told me that no one cares about our stupid race. But that is only because I won. And mixed martial arts is less violent than boxing.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Post Christmas Daze
Well, we are finally getting around to posting our Christmas pictures. We were here in Roanoke for Christmas and then left a few days later to rendezvous with the rest of my family at my sister's house in Dallas and were there for a little over a week. Christmas was really fun this year. There is no better feeling in the world than making your kids happy and though Chloe was pretty oblivious to everything, Elise had a great time.I told Ben to put captions on the pictures, but he only did a few of them and got bored so I had to finish them. I think you can tell where he left off. There were lots of fun things to do in Dallas and we had fun exploring a new city. We hope all of you had a wonderful holiday too!
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