Still on the Wagon

Today started week 4 of boot camp! Lakeview Circle kicks butt! I am so proud of my neighbors. I am totally hooked, too. I had the opportunity to spend the night in Denton so I would not have to leave so early for work today, but I did not want to miss the workout! I have to say, Pete is the boot camp trainer champ. He is keeping us on our toes; we never know what the day will bring. Fridays are fun days and we have enjoyed flag tag, relay races and team activities. We are all learning some fun yoga lingo, too. It is so hard not to laugh at some of those moves. So anyway, we are really enjoying it and have no plans of quitting. We have up to 10 people some mornings; 6 has been the fewest. We are total dorks and are considering getting "LVC" (Lakeview Circle) t-shirts made. You know you're jealous.

My running continues to improve. For the third month in a row I went to the Burleson Run Club 5k and shaved a little more time. I am down to 23:30 and my PR is 22:45, so I am closing in on that. I think I could have run faster yesterday but Pete and I put in 120 miles on the tandem over Saturday and Sunday. Before the run on Sunday we rode in Glen Rose and busted out 40 crazy hard miles. The group we were with took off at a cool 27 mph. If I had not been on the tandem I would have turned around after 1 mile, but I had no choice given my position in the rear! It was one of those days where you sigh and think "I do NOT want to work this hard today" but when it is over and you see how fast you went and know how hard you worked it feels great and you go reward yourself with some Hammond's BBQ! Saturday we rode from the house to Panera (stopped and enjoyed a sandwich) and back for a nice 80 mile ride. Since we had the break in the middle we decided to push hard during the ride, so that made for two hard ride days in a row with my 5k to round out the weekend. I am not disappointed in that.

Want an update on the eating thing?! I am STILL with it! I have eaten vegetables at every lunch and dinner. Last weekend I rode in the Meunster German Fest bike rally and was invited to eat at Catfish Platter after the ride. I, obviously, could not refuse! My meal came with catfish, pinto beans and hush puppies. No green vegetables to be found on the menu. So do you know what I did? After we ate I went to the grocery store and bought some V8 garden vegetable soup and I ate it. Pat me on the back.

And Fruit... I have had a break through. I was pretty stuck, because I just don't like fruit and for some reason could not choke it down like I have been able to do with the vegetables (do not misunderstand me, I still HATE vegetables, but for some reason I can get them down). So I decided I was going to make a smoothie. I don't like yogurt (surprise!) so I was just going to use ice and frozen fruit, like a snow cone! So I got the fruit out of the freezer and a frozen blueberry rolled out of the bag onto the counter. Remember, this is just about 2-3 days into my craze and I have not had my processed carbs that I love so much and my sugar crave is in full force. So this tiny frozen blueberry looks dangerously like a piece of chocolate and before I knew what I was doing I grabbed it and tossed it in my mouth. Shock and fear rushed over me as I realized that I was, in fact, chewing up a piece of fruit. Oh my gosh...no gagging! It didn't taste bad at all! In fact, could it be, no certainly not, but yes, I actually kinda liked it! Then I tried a tiny piece of frozen strawberry and that was ok, too! I did it! I ate fruit! I ate a small bowl full and was so unbelievably proud of myself. I don't know what freezing does to the nutrition of blueberries and strawberries, but whatever, I am eating them. They are organic with nothing added, so I say they count. What an ordeal.

So life goes on. And it is going on for me as I add new exercises and foods for the first time in my 33 years of life. As I have been composing this we broke for lunch and I ate, for the first time in my life, broccoli. Gross. I put a bite in my mouth and had to spit it out. It was making my throat close up and I could feel a gag coming on. That would be embarrassing at work so I discretely did the napkin thing and got rid of that crap. Then I decided I had to eat it because it was the only vegetable (besides those little strings of carrots) that came with my meal. So with every bite of chicken I piled on a small piece of broccoli, so small that even I didn't mind it, and I eventually ate a few stalks of the nasty green stuff. Go me.

Life is good. Mine is blessed. I am extremely grateful.