21 day Habit: the good and the bad

So last night was the conclusion of the 21 Day Habit Challenge, and it was both good and bad. Overall I do feel I've become a little better about eating, but I think mine will have to be a 42 (or 63!) day habit for it to really stick, so I'm just going to continue with it.

I was up and down (both with weight and how good/bad I was eating) over the entire three weeks. I found I do very, very well on days when I just have work/home, but any sort of 'activity' and it's all over ;) As of last Thursday I was at 152.8, a full 6 lbs down from the start of the challenge, but I knew it wouldn't stick.

I had one of our Around the World dinner parties on Thursday night (South Africa- yum!), and then tailgating at the LSU game Saturday, then a double birthday party last night :( Needless to say, I avoided weighing myself over the weekend because I KNOW I am definitely up now from Thursday. So I didn't officially achieve my challenge goal of 5 lbs, BUT...

I think I definitely did make some progress on not being a total pig at functions with food, and also how to handle parties and get togethers where there is a lot of food. For instance on Halloween I brought chicken wings to a party (in honey, butter, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce). Luckily I didn't eat any, but still ate a lot of junk food because everyone else's dishes were just as bad for you. Yesterday I was smarter- I brought a fruit tray and a veggie tray and ate almost exclusively from that. Not perfect, but a step in the right direction. So hopefully the holidays won't have their usual hold over me this year. And in general I am eating better, and at least avoiding junk food for the house (to my husband's chagrin). I will do an official weigh in tonight, but it's not looking good people!

On the running front, I was feeling hip pain since my 12 mile run last Sunday, and while it isn't severe, it is annoying! My husband came with me for a three mile run on Thursday, and totally annoyed me with his antics. You know, the whole I'm so bored we're going so slow so I'm going to do strange exercises and drills while we run'. He swears these are soccer drills, which they may be, but cut the crap! If you want to run through orange cones and the like, do it at home, not while you're out running with me. He kept urging me to hurry up, which also greatly irritated me as this was literally his third run, like EVER. How can men just go from the couch to a run on a whim and not struggle? Though to be fair it was only three miles, and he is a soccer player, and I am plagued by this damn hip pain....If he had come with me yesterday for the nine miles I'm sure he would have quit. Ha! So there.

I was particularly proud of getting in 9 yesterday. I wanted to get it done in the morning, but after my 12 hour tailgate Saturday that wasn't happening. I worked at 9:30, and knew I wouldn't get off until 4 and had a party at 7....I stopped by the grocery for my healthy snacks, headed home and was outside by 4:30. Totally forgetting that with the time change it was going to be dark by 5:30. I run on a running/biking path, surrounded by woods. While very safe during the day it is 'closed' at night and probably not a good idea. I did the first 5.5 on the trace, and then stuck to the neighborhood streets. It was a little difficult to come up with the mileage while trying to avoid major streets I might have to cross. I prefer out and backs, so this circling around zig-zagging felt like it took forever. But I did it! Like this: 9:41, 9:31, 9:26, 9:35, 9:58, 10:03, 10:24*, 10:02, 10:15 (*had to stop and tie my shoe). So I was pretty happy with that, and then could go to the party after having burned near 1,000 calories!

This Friday I have my first 14 miler, so stay tuned...I'll finally be over the hump and more than half way to the marathon distance....