The Fact Is(I Need You)

            Last week I expressed feeling a little down. We all get the blues. I have to allow that from time to time. In addition to my mother being in the hospital, I had a lot of work events going on as well. Put all these things in a pot and you have one tired Carin. I was in denial because I am the bionic mom, right? Wrong. I am human after all. I had to stop and smell the roses ( pink roses of course). I took things a little easy or in other words, I did not work out. Please do not clutch your pearls here. I actually clutched my pearls tightly at the idea of taking a break, especially with a 5 K coming up this weekend. It took a bit to wind down. It started with not doing the stairs after a work from home day. I made dinner, watched a little television with my family, read a book and went to bed.
         On Thursday, I went to a work dinner event. We went to the historical restaurant in Harlem called The Red Rooster. Since we rarely go out for dinner, I usually eat what I want. But I took the time to find out what they were serving and I ate what I wanted anyway. For starters, I ate hors d'oeuvres. I had one of each sample ( there were 5). Then there was a salad. The usual weeds, nothing spectacular.Then for the main course I ordered oxtails. They were served with 1/2 of a plantain, on sweet potato puree.  I also had dessert; apple pie. It's a fruit you know :) I washed all this down with two glasses of red wine. This sounds like a lot but it really was not. There were two braised oxtail bones, maybe one sweet potato pureed to the consistancy of baby food and literally a half of one plantain sliced in half.  I was so busy networking and having a great time that I barely ate. At home, this meal may have lasted ten minutes. I actually left food on the plate. I only had a few bites of pie. Being out to dinner with friends and collegues keeps me in check. I spent more time talking than eating or drinking. It was nice. I did not take the shuttle bus back to the office. I walked the eight blocks to my bus stop. I felt good about it. I was not stuffed. And when I took off my pedometer, I had 10,033 steps. Here are some pictures. No food porn because we ate in a private dining room and it was dark.

                                    The next day we had an all day seminar (breakfast, lunch and snacks). I played it safe with my old reliable breakfast from my favorite deli guy who smiles at me and says "the usual".  I also picked up some grapes from the fruit guy , cleaned them up and brought them with me to the meeting. When I joined the seminar they were finished eating. For lunch they served salmon, tomato and mozarella salad, couscous and green beans and carrots. I looked forward to this because it was all good food. In the middle of lunch we had a guest speaker. I soon realized that I was the only one eating ( insert fork clinking sound here). I was embarrassed to be eating while everyone else had stopped. So I stopped too. I never got to finish. I had to make do with a banana.

        On Saturday, Jake and I went to his school's fundraiser where they had movie afternoon. For five dollars you get to see "Despicable Me", a small bag of popcorn and a juice. We arrived a little late and they were out of popcorn. I came prepared. I popped fat free kettle korn for us from home, red seedless grapes, bananas and bottled water. I gave Jake monies to purchase candy. When the lights came on, there was a little boy that came to get candy money from his mom who was sitting next to us. He started staring at our grapevines with one or two grapes left. I heard his mom say "his mom was smart she brought grapes".  After the movie I let Jake play in the park for a few minutes before we went home.

       My family was kind enough to hold me hostage this weekend and talk me down from guilt of not working out. I cannot believe how exhausted I really was. But the truth was out there. I had dark circles under my eyes from sleeping about four hours a night and my ankles were swollen everyday.
This Week's Activity- Not much
Tues. all day = 4pts
Wed. all day =  1pt
Thurs. all day = 7 pts
Fri. all day= 5pts
Sat. all day = 1pt
Sun. all day = 0pt
 Mon. all day = 4pts
Total = 22 activity pts
      I gained .08lbs this week. Not bad for someone who did not work out so I am not angry. This week's topic is about the buddy system. Last week my WW homies and I were having a Facebook discussion and I had to remind them that I really need them. All of them. They have seen me through some hard times in this journey and they are very important to me. I also stated that it takes a village to fix me. I am not a solo project folks. I can't do this by myself. As a matter of fact, by myself is probably how I wound up in this condition by thinking I could do things myself. In addition to my WW homies there have been many wonderful people who encourage to keep it going. Who compliment me at just the moment as though they knew I was feeling defeated. A passerby who gave me a thumbs up when I was about to give up jogging. The meeting attendees with so many super ideas.My family who eat brown pasta , rice and bread and never complain. My hubby who watches me turn into an American Werewolf in the Bronx on a not so great weigh-in day.
      This afternoon, after my work from home day, I grabbed my hubby( who was home early for a change), my sons and Jake's buddy Vanessa and I told them that we are going to take a long walk around our neighborhood ( not the track). At first everyone had that here we go again look, especially my hubby who probably thought it would be just us two. Before long we saw signs of Spring; a tree budding, a robin red breast on the ground. The kids and I started playing "that's my car". The kids were running, skipping and jumping.They would have been on the couch playing video games.  They started playing tag and kept tagging me and my hubby ( we promptly tagged each other). When we got to the finish line from where we started , we completed 2.69 miles. Everyone went to the back to help Jake work on his catching skills and I decided to head over to the track to do one more lap to bring it up to 5k mode. In the end I walked a little over four miles. Not bad for someone trying to get back on track after last week. All week long, I did not overindulge or binge. I went outside my comfort zone to a restaurant and ate catered lunch the next day.And I rested.

Signs that Spring is coming

Jake, Vanessa and me

Jake, Vanessa and Josh

At the finish line

    Next week I hope to get my exercise groove back and this Saturday is the 5K event with Tamra and Cindy. Hopefully I will jog for most of it. Most of all I'm glad to have friends to do it with.

WALKING FROM BRONX, N.Y. TO SEATTLE

Last week 2822.72miles left - 16.08 miles all week = 2806.64 miles to go