Friday, August 31, 2012

Curiosity Didn't Kill the Cat . . .

Not much to talk about today. It's Friday, and it's Labor Day weekend. I pretty much have no plans aside from hopefully making my poor little car a little better. Oh and homework. You know, regular holiday stuff.

And now for your Midwest Hurricane Report:
Currently, it looks windy outside. It sprinkled a little rain on my way to work. Pretty sure the concrete barely got wet. On the one hand, I want a storm. Just for the hell of it. On the other hand, I don't want to drive two hours in rain tonight. Whatever. Weather people are predicting thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. My unofficial prediction? Rain. Maybe.

In other news:
Ashamed kitten 
You've heard the old saying "curiosity killed the cat"? Well this little curious kitten is not dead, but would love to have her eyes poked out. Occasionally I check my blog "stats." This tells me all sorts of stuff like how many people have viewed my blog today, from which countries they are viewing it, and from what websites people are coming from to get to my blog. I was looking at the sites, and some of them I had never heard of. Let me give you this advice: NEVER click on websites you've never heard of. Never ever. Two of the sites turned out to be porn. Oh dear god I thought I was gonna die. Highly embarrassing. Obviously the site names were not something that would clearly make me think "hmmm, this could be porn, let's not click on that." They were just oddly-named sites.

So the moral of the story here is:
1. Weather people don't know what they're talking about (probably).
2. Don't click on sites with strange names you've never heard of.
3. Curiosity might not kill you, but you will be ashamed.
4. Perverts like running too? I'm not really sure.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! :)

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Delicious Chobani!

Cutest little apple! 
Overall, today was a pretty good day. I was busy reading submissions at work all day (most of them were not very good) and I had a nice lunch. I started with the most adorable tiny apple. Unfortunately, they taste so good, I wish it was bigger :(

Yummy blueberry Chobani!
I also tried Chobani Greek Yogurt for the first time. I've had a couple other brands of Greek yogurt and I can't say that I liked them. Chobani was delicious though. I tried the blueberry. And I have another one that's strawberry banana. I can't wait to try that one. And the cups are so big! I couldn't believe that entire thing was ONE serving!

I had planned on making my way over to the gym after work so I could get a quick workout in before my lit class. But I wasn't sure if I could get in for free, and I'm super lazy and didn't want to drive all the way over there without knowing. Plus Kirsten is a bad influence and said she'd buy me Chick-Fil-A and there was just no way I could turn that down. Nuggets and waffle fries sounded so good! (I'm really a fat kid at heart.) After dinner I headed to class.

First of all, we got out almost an hour and a half early, so that was awesome. Also I was apparently the only one to finish the book, so go me! The discussion was really interesting though and I enjoyed it. We'll be reading 9 or so novels over the course of the semester, but we only have to write papers on 3 of them. And then we have a research paper for a final. I think that's great, and gives more time to write quality papers rather than 9 really short, crappy ones.

As far as the way things have been going for me lately, today was the best one I've had in a couple weeks. :)

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

2 Miles, Unplugged

Capris: Target, $24
Socks: Target, $8
Yup, I ran 2 miles (without stopping) with zero technology. No phone. No watch (not that I have one to use). No iPod. Okay, so the reason I didn't bring my iPod is because it's in my car and I was too lazy to go get it. Whatever.

I did run a pretty slow pace. And by that, I mean I'm not even sure you could call it "running." I don't care. I did two miles nonstop. It was pretty difficult to breathe, but I somehow pushed myself through that. And my ankle was hurting toward the end, and hurts now, but the pain was worth getting it done.

On Sunday when I was "buying groceries" at Target, I also got a few other things. Like more Disney movies (you can NEVER have enough!) and I bought a pair of capris to run in and some new running socks. It may have been a little too hot to run in capris today instead of shorts. But they're new! I had to. Aside from being hot, I love them. The socks were, well, socks. My only issue is that on the tag, it says fits size "5-9." That's a pretty big range there. So basically anytime I buy socks that are almost "one-size-fits-all" they are generally too big. I have tiny baby feet. Okay, they aren't really that small. I wear anywhere between a 6 and a 7 and a half. depending on the shoe. But these socks are big on me still. I have too much extra fabric. I can't imagine someone who wears a size 5 being able to make these work.

Oh well. They are cute and even have an "L" and an "R" on them for "left foot" and "right foot," which is kind of perfect for my sometimes OCDish ways.

I went to Plaza Tire after work, and the guy was super nice about everything and is more than willing to refund my money (yes I said "is" and not "was"). Unfortunately, I can't get my money back until I have my new debit card. Thankfully, he said once I get my card I can just come back up there and he'll take care of it for me. Gotta admit, I was really hoping he'd just give me cash so I'd have some money I could actually use if I needed it, but I'm not going to complain. I'll be getting my money back soon, and that's all that matters.

For the rest of my night, I will be doing some of my freelance work, finding something to eat for dinner, and cutting/filing all my nails because they're too long and driving me crazy. And I might possibly be icing my ankle at some point. Boo.

Dove Chocolate

Take a deep breath and exhale.
I got zero exercise yesterday. And probably had more chocolate than I should have. But my Dove chocolate wrapper said "Take a deep breath and exhale." Which is what I really needed right then. I was in the process of dealing with my bank and filling out fraud forms and stuff since some jerk somehow got my information and spent money at a Walmart in Yuma, AZ and a food mart in Austin, TX. After dealing with all the stuff with my car and everything, this was the last thing I needed.

The girl I spoke with said it will take 10-15 days to get my money back, and at least a week before I'll get my new debit card. Thankfully I filled up my car with gas and got groceries Sunday evening before they blocked my card. So I at least have what I need to get me through the week and get me to St. Louis Friday evening after work.

Today after work, instead of going home and immediately going for a run, I get to go to Plaza Tire and try to get my money back. I'm hoping they don't argue about it or anything and just give me my money back so I can go home and run. Unfortunately, I'm more worried about how they'll give me my money back since I don't have my debit card (which is what I paid with). Some places will only put money back on a card and won't give you cash. Some places are even worse and will only put the money back on the card that was used. Either way, I don't have the card I used, or any other debit card. So if they won't give me cash, I don't know what I'll do.

After that, I'm going for a run. Then I will have some dinner and try to get some work done. I'm doing some freelance editing right now, which is awesome and I love doing it, but haven't had much time to get it done with all the other crises going on. But tonight, I have no homework (at least none that's due this week), and no other plans besides my run. So I'll at least get a good start on it. I wish I had more time to do more freelance work. Actually, I probably would if all these other problems went away and all I had to do was homework and blog. I'm more than willing to do more work if there aren't super strict deadlines involved. Over the summer I could get stuff done within a few hours. Now it's taking me days to finish because of work and school.

Look for another post tonight to see how things go with Plaza Tire. Boo. And my run! Going for another two miles today without stopping. Let's hope my allergies and asthma cut me some slack and let me do it.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Lunch Break Post: I'm Beyond My Breaking Point

This weekend was about as good as my past two weekends. And by that, I mean it sucked. Okay, okay, it didn't all suck. But the fact that I've spent half of my paycheck on my car really sucks.

I was up at 6am Saturday morning. I had a little breakfast and hit the road, trying to make it to St. Louis by 9ish to have my car worked on. Surprise, surprise, I didn't even make it to the highway. My tire blew. So I pull over to the side of the road, called my dad (and I'm pretty sure I woke him up--oh well), and then I called my lovely roommate who had told me the night before if I had car trouble and wasn't over an hour away, she'd come get me. Lucky for her, I don't think I was even ten miles away. Unlucky for her, it was 6:45 am. But she's awesome and said she'd come pick me up and we'd try to find a tow company or whatever to get my car.

Then, something amazing happened. A guy pulled over to the side of the road, asked if I needed help, and then proceeded to change my tire so I could drive to Plaza Tire (more on them in a bit). I have never been so thankful for a stranger in my entire life. As he was changing my tire, Kirsten got there. After he finished and I thanked him profusely, Kirsten and I turned around and she followed me to Plaza Tire. By now it was 7:15ish and they didn't open until 7:30, so we hung out in her car for a bit.

I went inside and told them I needed a new tire because the rear right tire blew and I had a spare on it now. For whatever reason, these guys never seem to think I know what I'm talking about, so they go out and look at my car anyway. Whatever. I also told them to change the oil because I was well overdue for that also.

Kirsten and I left and made our way over to Bread Co. where I bought her some breakfast for being such a good friend and roommate. After we finished there, we decided to head over to Starbucks across the street for some coffee. It was a nice day, so we sat outside drinking our skinny mochas (I think they have less than 150 calories?). About an hour or two later, I decided I needed more coffee. I got a phone call from Plaza Tire, and I excitedly thought my car was done. It wasn't. The guy said that the belt was almost broken and needed to be replaced and he asked if I wanted them to do it. Well, duh. I don't want to break down again.

Those of you who have been reading for the last few weeks know that I just had a belt replaced two weeks ago. But as much as I hate to admit it, I don't know very much about cars (although thanks to all this nonsense, I'm learning) and because the guy referred to the belt as something different than what someone called it the last time I had it fixed, I assumed there were two different belts.

There are not. So they replaced the exact same belt they had replaced two weeks ago. My total cost for a new tire, oil change, and a new belt (plus labor, tax, etc) was $216. I get to St. Louis and my dad is looking at my car, seeing what they did and everything. He informs me that they replaced the same belt again. Well of course they did--because I can afford things like that and I have time to go argue with them. Blah. After that, I go to my cousin's house to have him look at it and figure out what was wrong that would make them replace it twice.

The balancer is messed up. When they changed the belt the first time, I asked them to look at all that stuff to make sure it's all working properly since the belt was less than a year old. Apparently they didn't, and so it was on the verge of breaking again two weeks later when my tire blew. Now, I have to go back there sometime this week and get my money back for charging me for something they screwed up.

In addition to all that nonsense, someone somehow got a hold of my debit card number and has been charging stuff from a Walmart in Arizona, and a Foodmart in Texas. Now I have to wait for a new debit card, and in the meantime can't buy anything online. And I can't buy anything anywhere else unless I write a check or pay with cash.

Sorry I didn't take any awesome pictures of my blown tire or anything. I really gotta work on that.

Head over to www.facebook.com/RunChata and show me some love! I could use it! :)

Friday, August 24, 2012

Feeling a Smidge Better

After moping around at work and my apartment since Wednesday, I finally went for a two-mile run after work today. It sucked. Hard. I had to stop more than once because I couldn't breathe. On the positive side, my ankle/leg didn't hurt too bad. So I guess there's some improvement there. I was not a happy camper earlier though. I was ready to scream and cry and just act like a 6 year old having a tantrum.

I didn't though. Instead, I came home, stretched, drank lots of water and decided to cook dinner. I made ground turkey with Italian seasoning and garlic and I cooked a spaghetti squash (and by "cooked" I mean microwaved). I added some pasta sauce to the meat and mixed in the squash and the roomie and I had a nice healthy dinner. Oh, we had salad too. Which I haven't had enough of lately, so it was amazing. Best meal I've had in a while. And I cooked it. Kind of makes me feel good that I'm capable of cooking something that tastes good and is healthy. I would have taken a picture, but it wasn't as pretty as the last time I made spaghetti squash since I had so many pretty vegetables in that.

Now I am impatiently waiting for the roomie to make banana bread. That may or may not be healthy, but it has bananas in it, so I'm just gonna go with it. In the mean time, I'm writing to you lovely people and I'm going to start on some homework when I'm done. Yuck. But we're also going to watch a movie I think (we went on a Disney movie shopping spree--and I have permission from my amazing boyfriend to go buy more, because I claimed it would "be for our new apartment" when we get one hehe). Good thing I can multitask and watch movies and read.

Unfortunately for me, I have to be up at 6am tomorrow so I can get to St. Louis early enough to have my oil changed and hopefully my cousin can fix my car. Ever since I had the belt replaced, my car has been shaking like it has Parkinson's. It was just a little at first. But the other day I was driving and seriously though my entire car was just going to fall apart. So fingers crossed, say a prayer, whatever, that it makes it to St. Louis in one piece. And that my cousin can fix it without costing me hundreds of dollars. :)

I hope the rest of you are enjoying your Friday evening and not doing homework like me!

Debbie-Downer

I've been quite a debbie-downer the past few days. It's just one of those times where you're stressed out and you start feeling like nothing is good enough. You get self-conscious about stuff. Like the way you look/dress, your weight, what you eat, what you buy, your work, school. Everything.

Obviously, I know I'm not really overweight or fat. But I am out of shape. And it gets discouraging when I can't run. And even though I was proud of myself for running two miles without stopping, it's still depressing. My goal when I started this blog was a half marathon. I have come no where close to that goal. The longest I've run all summer nonstop was 4 miles. And I only did that once. And I'm not eating healthy like I want to and should be doing.

The healthiest thing I ate yesterday was an "unwich" from Jimmy John's. But I also had chips and a Sprite with it. I know I don't eat like this constantly. But it feels that way sometimes. It's hard for someone who works 8-5 and then has class 6-9 to make healthy choices when it comes to food. I don't have the time or the energy to cook.

I'm not working as hard as I should be with my runs and workouts. It's hard to push myself through a run when it's hard to breathe. I don't like the way I look right now, and I don't like the way I feel. I'm not fishing for compliments here. But I can't be the only person who's ever felt this way. I don't feel good about myself right now and I'm not at the weight I would like to be. And I'm not in the kind of shape I would like to be. I want to be able to run that half marathon. It's hard to accept that I have to start out with one or two miles several times a week and keep working slowly toward that goal. It's extremely hard to accept that just a year ago, I was running 5ks with no problems. No stopping. And my longest time was around 36 minutes (which isn't super fast, but it's not bad either).

All of these thoughts and feelings are trickling into other areas of my life. School, work, friends, etc. I feel like nothing I do is good enough. I'm not working hard enough. I'm not doing my best. And when I feel like I did work really hard and did my best, it ends up terrible. I want to do well and I want to get A's in my graduate classes (yes, B's are devastating when you've tried your absolute hardest).

I know most of these things can be solved with simple changes. Like buying and eating healthier food. And getting out and running and walking as much as I can. Sometimes even the simplest of changes feels daunting and overwhelming. It's hard to tell myself that I'm going to go run 4 or 5 days next week when I don't know what my allergies or asthma will be like. Or what kind of headaches I'll get. It's hard to buy healthy food when I'm on a limited budget. It's hard to cook healthy food when I don't have the time it takes to prepare and cook it all. Time spent cooking is time I could be spending on homework. Or running. Or sleeping.

It's hard to force myself to start doing these things on a regular basis, but I know it needs to be done. I somehow need to get over my hatred of cooking. Because I need to eat healthy, home-cooked meals. I'm not going to run better or faster, or get in shape, or feel healthier if I don't start eating that way. I choose fast food or frozen foods because they're fast and easy. I don't have to waste time cooking or cleaning. I can eat and then get other stuff done.

I somehow need to feel better about myself, in every aspect. I need to have confidence in the way I look and the things I do. I need to learn to push myself to do my best. I need to stop caring so much about what other people think. I need to get myself out of this rut I've been in for the past few weeks.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Days of Rest

Nothing would cooperate with me last night. So I gave up and went to bed instead. Last night was my 19th Century American Lit class. About ten minutes in to the class, I started getting a terrible headache, which was pretty much a full-blown migraine by the time we got out of class (which was at 8, an hour early, thank goodness!). But I really wanted to try to write you guys a post when I got home. So I took some Ibuprofen since I have nothing stronger than that for my headaches, and started up my old, slow, dying computer. Seriously, this thing takes longer and longer to start up every time I turn it on. On top of that, our internet has been extremely slow lately too.

I couldn't get anything with blogger to load properly. After about a half hour of trying to get everything to work so I could just write a freaking post, I gave up. My head was throbbing and I was exhausted. I went to bed after that. Unfortunately I didn't fall asleep for a very long time. And around 11:30, I had an asthma attack. All of my coughing made my head hurt even worse. I got up, took my inhaler and some Benadryl and went back to bed. I finally fell asleep not too long after that.

My sad shoes--where I left them the other day to ice my ankle--
just waiting for me to take them on another run.
Aren't they pretty though? :)
In addition to all that, my ankle started hurting again sometime yesterday evening. After a nice little chat with my roomie, I decided I'm going to take today off as well. As she said, it'd be better to take an extra day now, than to make the injury worse and not be able to run for several days. Also, I still have a slight headache. So I'll be doing some other form of workout this evening rather than going for a run. I'm disappointed, but hopefully this extra day will do me some good and I can have a couple good runs over the weekend.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

For Every Action, There is an Equal and Opposite Reaction

Today was sort of a success. And sort of not.
I woke up at 4am sneezing and with a scratchy throat and all that nonsense. And because it was so early (late?) I couldn't take Benadryl because I had to be up in a few hours. So I didn't get much sleep after that. Needless to say, breakfast consisted of a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit from the gas station and a Monster Coffee drink. For lunch I refused to make anything, so I had my broccoli and cheese (which wasn't very good for some reason) and a mozzarella and meatballs lean pocket. I suppose there are worse things I could have eaten.

By this afternoon the coffee had completely worn off and I was super tired. I had to run this evening though. I didn't yesterday because of class, and I won't tomorrow because of class, so I didn't have a choice. I came home, dropped my stuff and changed. I remembered to take my inhaler (which didn't seem to do me much good on my run anyway, but whatever), and I did push-ups and squats before I left. I did my warmup, and ended up walking over half of that. My lungs were not cooperating with me. I decided I was going to start my run and take it slow, and if I couldn't breathe, then I'd stop and walk for a bit. After a while, I wanted to stop. So. Badly. I didn't though. I kept pushing myself and pushing myself. It was hard to breathe and my leg hurt and I was exhausted. But I kept going and didn't stop until I got back to where I started.

I'm so freaking proud of myself right now! I have no clue how long it took me, but I don't care. I ran the entire time and didn't let myself stop. Success!

Here's what's sort of not: My left ankle is killing me (so I probably should have stopped at some point...). The sharp pains I have been feeling in my left leg since last week-ish is not from an injury to my leg or shin splints. It is most definitely my left ankle, which is currently throbbing and sending shooting pains up my leg. I'm currently sitting in bed with an ice pack on it--I almost never ice anything, so this is pretty bad. It looks a little swollen, but this is the first time it has swelled up since I first hurt it. I'm not sure how concerned I should be about this. But, I'm going to ice it, and take some Ibuprofen to hopefully get the swelling down, and rest tomorrow. Fingers crossed it will feel better by Thursday. I will be super angry if it doesn't.

I think I've said this before, but it seems like every time I get into a routine, something happens to throw it off and I can't run for a while, which makes it so much harder to get back into again. So lets all hope and pray and cross our fingers that this is nothing serious and it will be better in a couple days. Okay, I'm willing to give it a few days. I suppose in the mean time I'll do crunches or something--whatever won't bother my ankle too much.

So like I said, sort of successful--I ran two full miles without stopping, which I haven't been able to do in over a month. And it's sort of not successful because now my ankle hurts pretty badly. I make progress in one aspect, and lose it in another. Does it ever get any easier?

Monday, August 20, 2012

First Day of Grad School

It's late-ish. And my slow computer took ten minutes to get started up. The things I go through to write a post for you all. This will be a short one though. I am tired and eating Oreos. Best way to stop that is to sleep. I think.

I just wanted to tell you all about my first day of school like I'm a third grader who did a super fun art project today and wants to have it hung on the fridge, even though it's probably fugly. Also I know my mom will read this and I didn't return her call to tell me good luck on my first day. But my phone was also dying a quick death.

I digress. I survived my first day of grad school! Go me! My biggest problem is figuring out what to do with my hour break between work and class. I'm considering going to the gym for a quick workout. That's assuming I don't have to pay to get in. I should get in free as a grad student. I'll be angry if I don't. I'm not paying for that. Blah. Anyway, tonight was my Editing and Research class. I'm a nerd and I love love love editing, so I'm pretty sure I will enjoy this class. And I know I'll learn a ton of stuff, and get lots of practice on stuff I already know. So this class will be helpful to me with my current job, and for any future jobs. I love when your classes and assignments have real-world applications. Unlike math. Why do I need to know how many watermelons Timmy has left if he gives two to Jane and she gives him an orange?

I'm also looking forward to my class on Wednesday. It's my 19th century American Lit class, and I'm almost done with the reading assignment for this week. Actually I think I'm reading more than I really needed to, but it doesn't hurt to get ahead of schedule a little. It is really time-consuming reading for classes like this. Not only because you have to read about ten novels in however many weeks is in a semester (don't judge me, it's been a long day and numbers aren't my thing), but also because you have to take notes while you read so you can talk about it in class and use it for papers and such. Writing stuff like that is kinda hard, believe it or not. And my hand freaking hurts from all the writing I've done lately. I can't wait to have my Mac and I will type all of my notes (yes, I am getting my Mac!).

I did not work out today. However, up until about ten minutes ago, most of what I did eat was healthy. Those Oreos were just calling my name! I plan to go for a run tomorrow, although I think I'm going to make it a short one--my leg is hurting quite a bit and I don't want to overdo it. But I'm also going to do some push ups and things like that, so maybe that will make up for it.

I'll write more tomorrow! I can't promise posts on every Monday and Wednesday, but I'm going to try!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Goodbye Summer :(

I ran 2.5 miles today. Well, I walked about half of that if I'm going to be completely honest. It was another one of those days where everything was working against me. Asthma, allergies, and my leg hurt a lot worse than I thought it would. But I ran the first mile straight through (I know that's not a super big deal, but that's about all I can manage right now). After that my lungs hurt and my leg hurt.

I came home and cleaned my bathroom and my room. Then I rotated my mattress. And then I did more homework. Boo. Not the best ending to my summer. But my roomie did make a delicious dinner, and now we're watching The Lion King on tv, so I guess that's not so bad.

I really don't feel like I've made much progress this summer. I never ran any races thanks to being poor (which is also why I never signed up for the half marathon in October). And I can't seem to run any amount miles straight through thanks to my allergies and asthma this summer. I tried a diet and gave up on that pretty quickly.

On a more positive note, I did get my new shoes (which I think I finally have broken in!). And my amazing boyfriend bought me the ipod I wanted and took me to the Muny to see Aladdin. I think we went to one Cardinals game (I have a picture from it, so I know we went at least once lol). We saw Third Eye Blind downtown (it was unbelievably hot). We watched fireworks on the Fourth of July. And I'm forgetting a bunch of other stuff we did. But we had fun in spite of all the 100+ degree weather. And I did force myself to go for a few runs in the heat, and I didn't die, so there's that. I also did quite a few 5am runs which I sort of started to enjoy.

Don't forget the spaghetti squash! I learned to cook spaghetti squash, and it turned out incredibly delicious! Chris even liked it. And it looked good too. I rarely cook things that actually look good and taste good. I'm very proud of myself for that accomplishment. It was by far the best thing I have ever made (besides cookies. I'm pretty damn good at cookies when I'm not too lazy to bake).

All in all, it was a pretty good summer, and I'm sad it's over. I don't feel like I accomplished a whole lot, and I'm not sure I read an entire book all summer either which is super depressing. From now on, my life will consist of Grad School, running, eating, sleeping, Grad School, sleeping, eating, running, Grad School, Grad School, Grad School.

Run Chata has a Facebook Page

Yesterday was kind of a crazy day. Lots of things going on. Change is stupid and hard, but sometimes it's good. Either way, by the time I got back to Cape last night, I was exhausted. I finally got the right book for my class in the mail (yes, I ordered the wrong book), so I eventually started reading that shortly before I went to bed. I still have a lot more to read today, unfortunately. But I'm going to get started on that after I finish this post. And then I plan on going for an afternoon run. My leg is still bothering me, so I can't decide if a long run or a short run would be better. I really want to do a longer run (even if I can't run the entire thing) but I also have homework and I really should clean my room and bathroom (been putting that off for a week or so). I guess I'll just see how I'm feeling later and then decide.

In addition to my leg pain, my allergies have been awful lately. I'm starting to think I'm allergic to something in my room/apartment and that's what causing all my problems. I woke up at 3am and my throat was scratchy and I was sneezing and my nose was stuffy. This happens pretty often. And waking up in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning with an asthma attack happens frequently too. I am allergic to dust, and because of this, I don't dust as often as I should. So that could be part of it, but the act of dusting usually gives me a worse asthma attack than just letting the dust be. The only other thing I can guess is mold, maybe. I know I'm allergic to it, and that's the only other "indoor" allergen I can think of that would cause me problems.

In other news, the Run Chata Facebook page is up and running! You can check it out here and I would really, really appreciate if you Like the page while you're there! Also, it's not so super fantastic looking yet or anything, but it'll get there. It needs some new/recent pictures and stuff like that. But don't worry, I will be adding more pictures both to the blog and the Facebook page. I'm going to attempt to bring my phone with me and possibly take a picture or two. Or maybe just pics before and after my runs or something. I don't know. What kind of pictures would you guys like to see?

I've been really excited lately because Chris and I have been planning a trip to Chicago to see the Cards/Cubs later in September. I've only been to Chicago once (this past February) and it was entirely too cold. So I hated it, but I wore my World Series shirts proudly. I thought it'd be much more fun to go to Chicago when the weather is warmer, and of course to see a game. We planned for the last weekend in September. Turns out, the series is the weekend before that. One of us got the dates wrong. Actually it was both of us I think. I swear when I looked at tickets they were on the 29/30 and not the 22/23. So we may not get to go see the game, which is quite disappointing. I've always wanted to go to one. There's always next year I suppose. We're still considering possibly going there the last weekend in September anyway. Trying to find hotels has been difficult though. Any suggestions on where to stay? Something that's not super expensive but fairly close to stuff like Navy Pier?

I might write another post later, especially if I go out for a run. But I feel the need to write a farewell to the summer since school starts tomorrow. So keep your eyes out for that one.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Friday! Finally!

I was supposed to run last night. Big shock: I didn't. My leg is still hurting when I walk. And when I sit indian-style (pretty sure that's politically incorrect now, but whatever). I didn't want to push it too much with my leg feeling like that. Plus, I was just in a crummy mood. Also there was a storm with a lot of lightning. Didn't want to take my chances with that. If it had just been rain, I might have considered going anyway, or at least walking for a while. As of this morning when I got out of bed, my leg still hurts. So I'm going to take today off as well. Plus I'm driving to St. Louis after work to hang out with my sister and watch movies like Superbad and hopefully order pizza with the money my mom should leave us--because, ya know, we're her kids, and good parents should not let their children starve. :)

I do plan on running sometime tomorrow when I get back to Cape. It will be evening-ish so hopefully it won't be super hot or anything. And hopefully I'm not exhausted with all the stuff I have to get done tomorrow. I don't plan on doing 6 miles (especially since I can't run the entire time anyway) but I'm gonna shoot for running 3 miles without stopping. And fingers crossed my asthma won't get in the way, and my leg feels better. I am thinking about doing a longer run/walk on Sunday. I haven't decided where though. Depends on the weather I suppose.

I am considering a return to Facebook, mainly for this blog. It needs a little more traffic. Maybe some more followers. Or at least more pageviews on a daily basis. Unfortunately I think I have to have both my personal account and the blog page activated in order to do this. Lame. But I might just start unsubscribing from a ton of people so I don't have to see their daily, mundane bullshit. Or read about how happy and great their lives are. I don't care. I also don't care if your life sucks. I really just prefer to read funny things that people post. I like those. So I'm gonna give this whole Facebook thing a try sometime this weekend. If I get a page set up for it, I will let you know and you can tell your friends and whatnot to follow/like the page on Facebook (there will be links to the most recent posts on there, so they can get to the site from Facebook).

Anyhoo, happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Did a Mile in 9 (ish)!

Tequila Tuesday was a success. Homemade salsa, jalapeno chips, Landshark beer, the delicious chicken my roomie made, and of course, Jose followed by a shot of pickle juice. Even the roomie sucked it up and did the shot. I am apparently the only one who liked it.

Before all that, I ran a mile and timed it, as I said I would. Approximately 9 minutes! I have no sort of stopwatch any more, so that number is not 100% accurate. And that was with forgetting to take my inhaler before I left, and some slight hills. After I finished my mile, I walked for a bit to catch my breath. Then I walked/ran the rest. I did it all in 45 minutes. My warm up, mile run plus another 2, and my cool down. 45 minutes. I'm pretty proud of that. And my feet didn't hurt at all! No blisters or pain of any kind!

I did however manage to injure an awkward part of my leg. I'm not even going to try to describe it because it's hard to describe. And stupid. But I somehow started getting sharp pains there not even a minute into my mile. Lame. But I toughed it out and finished. I doesn't hurt too badly today, so I have the day off to rest it and then get back out there tomorrow.

As far as today's workout goes . . . well I'm not 100% sure there will be one. I'm not feeling well, again. And no, I am not hungover. I did wake up in the middle of the night with a sore/scratchy throat. This morning it felt awful and it hasn't gotten much better throughout the day. And I'm getting all achy and yucky feeling again. So there's a pretty big possibility that I will go home and sleep. Or, assuming my book came, I will start reading, since I have to have at least 100 pages read before next Wednesday. One week. I can do this! As long as UPS doesn't screw up again.

Hope the rest of your Wednesday is just swell :)

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Tequila Tuesday

Over the years, I have learned that I do not like change. At all. I get myself into my routines and I hate having to change those routines. Even if it's something as small and insignificant as waking up 10 minutes earlier. No thank you. Obviously, eventually I get used to a new routine and everything is just fine and dandy . . . until it all changes again. School starts in less than a week now, and that changes everything. And it has a huge impact on my running/workout routines. This makes me extremely unhappy.

I am currently working full-time (8am-5pm) and starting next week, I'll be taking classes Monday and Wednesday nights. On those days I will have an hour break between work and class. Not enough to go home, work out, come back, blah blah blah. So those will be my "off" days. I use the term "off" loosely. Now I am in the process of changing up my routine to running Tuesday, Thursday, and every. single. day. over the weekend. But this change worked out to my advantage yesterday because I felt awful. Horrible headache and body aches. May have been running a fever, but since I don't have a thermometer, I don't know. Thermometers never seem to be accurate anyway.

So today I will go for a run. And I'm really looking forward to it. It's been a pretty cool day so far (and by "cool" I mean it's not 97 degrees) and it looks like there might be a chance for rain. I'm gonna make it a quick one though--somewhere between 1 and 3 miles, I haven't decided yet. If I do just 1, I'll time it and proudly tell you all just how slow I run! :)

Tonight is Mexican night! Chicken fajitas for dinner, chips and salsa, beer, tequila, etc. We are also going to try this whole chasing tequila with pickle juice thing. I like pickles, so I'm going to assume this will be good--better than limes. It will be interesting to say the least. But I'm looking forward to it. Once school starts next week, nights like this will be nonexistent. Plus I've just had a bottle of Jose sitting around since Christmas and it's time for it to go!

Tomorrow there will be no running (thanks to this whole new routine thing), but I do have a new workout to try, so maybe I'll do that instead.

Happy Tuesday!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Car Troubles

I've been kind of lazy this weekend. Well, as far as running goes, I've been lazy. Aside from that, I was pretty busy yesterday. Mostly because I had car trouble first thing in the morning when I was supposed to be on my way to St. Louis. What a perfect start to a Saturday morning. Ended up costing me $86 bucks to get it fixed. Not as bad as I was expecting, so I guess that's ok. Then I was off to St. Louis two hours later than I had planned. I needed to go to my bank (which is only in St. Louis) but I didn't make it in time. Didn't make it to the mall to look at Macs (which now I'm debating on getting. I need it for school, but can't exactly afford it right now, and yes, I'm going to use my loan money to pay for it, but I could be using that money for something else, like saving for a new car).

I did make it in time to have lunch with Chris's mom which was nice. Except for the part where I went in earlier to use the restroom and buy something (I feel weird about using people's restrooms and not buying something) and then she decided that's where she wanted to go. So half the people recognized me. One guy said "Amanda you're back! And you brought your mom!" So I just said yeah and went along with it. Seriously, those people were a tad eccentric. Or we can just call them weird. Because that's what I was thinking. They did have my favorite soup though (black bean) so I had that with a greek salad. It was yummy. And she made me get dessert. Kind of glad she did--it was delicious. :)

After that, I stopped by my parents house to say hi, steal some food, envelopes, and stamps, and then I was on my way back to Cape. By the time I got back, it was almost 7 and I was just exhausted. So I decided not to run. After everything with my car and stuff, I just wanted to lay around and do absolutely nothing. And that's what I did. I watched movies based on John Grisham novels until about midnight and then I went to bed. Today, I need to go grocery shopping (I HATE grocery shopping). So I've been procrastinating for a few hours now. I'm going to try to get a run in later, but my allergies are sucking today, and I'm just really tired. So I might not. And I'm not going to go tomorrow either. I'm trying to get myself into the routine I'll be doing once school starts. Since I have class Monday and Wednesday nights, I'm going to have no time to go run. So I need to get into the routine of running Tuesday, Thursday and on weekends. Wish me luck.

I hope you all had a great weekend and have a happy Sunday :)

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Another 6.5!

So I waited until a little later in the evening today to go for my run. Left the house at 6:15 and it was still 97 degrees. Blah. By the time I was almost done with mile 3, it had cooled off considerably (it's supposed to storm later) so I decided to keep going. And ended up doing another 6.5 miles. And I feel like I pushed myself to run more of it this time. Not a lot more--still having trouble breathing and troubles with my left foot and ankle. I alternated walking and running and pushed myself to do the hills. I have to admit, there were a few I couldn't get all the way up (that's what she said) without stopping. I'm kinda proud of myself that I did 6.5 miles again though. I do need to do a 2 or 3 mile run though and try to run the entire thing. And maybe throw in a mile run here and there to do some speed work. Problem is, tracks around here suck. So I'll have to map something out with minimal hills--HA.

As I mentioned, my left foot is still bothering me. In the last mile or so, the blister I had on my toe from Monday reblistered. Jerk. And now there is a blister forming on the arch of my left foot as well. What the hell? That one hurts the most, and it's a heck of a lot smaller.

I noticed something today. I'm not sure if this is what made the difference or not, but I had a sprite with my lunch today, and on my run this evening, my fingers didn't swell up. Normally, they look like sausages by the time I'm done running (I have very skinny fingers), but tonight they look and feel almost perfectly normal. They do feel a little stiff, but I think that's more from holding my water bottle and sweating. Or maybe it's just because I waited until a little later in the day. I have no idea what made the difference. But it was a nice change :)

It is now almost 8:30. I'm exhausted. I haven't had anything to eat since lunch, but I'm not all that hungry. Am I the only one who's not hungry after runs/workouts? Occasionally I am really hungry afterward, but most of the time, I feel the best after a run and I'm not hungry at all. Except for morning runs. I'm usually at least a little hungry after those. Now I'm rethinking dinner. I was going to make a frozen pizza (I know, not that healthy), but since I'm not that hungry, I don't know if it's worth it. But then, what else do I make? Blah.

Hopefully sometime in the near future, I'll be able to tell you guys I ran 3 miles without stopping. And then soon after that 5 or 6! Wouldn't that be nice.

Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Losing Readers :(

Boy, I am glad I decided not to go run today. My blisters were much worse this morning when I woke up. So, I did what I used to do: used a safety pin to pop them and then put on a bandaid. That may not be the best thing for them, but it worked for me a couple years ago, so it should work now. And yes, I sterilized the safety pin. No yucky infections for me.

Second reason I'm glad I'm not running: it's hot. It was really hot yesterday too, which made me regret not waiting a couple hours to go. Tomorrow I have some errands to run, so I'll wait til a little later in the evening before I go. Not sure I'll go quite as far/long as I did yesterday, though. I guess I'll see how the lungs are doing.

I quit Facebook a few days ago. Really, I wasn't using it for anything but my blog, and I was tired of reading about everyone else's crap. I have loved not having it. I love not knowing every little detail about people. It's nice. However, every action has an equal and opposite reaction: the amount of pageviews I'm getting per day has dropped significantly. So now I'm not sure if it was the best decision to get rid of it. Facebook was a big traffic source for my blog, and now that source is no longer there. I continually post on my Twitter (you can follow me @Run_Chata) about my blog, but as of yet, it doesn't appear that it has been useful. I could make a Facebook page specifically for my blog (I think) but I'm not quite sure how that works. Plus I'd have to go through the hassle of getting people to "like" it or "follow" it or however that works.

That's a little frustrating. For any of you still reading, recommend my blog to your friends. Runners, athletes, people trying to get in shape, people trying to eat healthier, etc. Or anyone who might think I'm funny (which I'm not most of the time, but every once in a while, I crack myself up, so maybe someone else will laugh too). Simply tell them to go to: runchata.blogspot.com

Tomorrow I'll be hitting the pavement again. I'll let you know how it goes!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Lies

As you all know, it's been a while since I've gotten my ass out there for a run. I decided to go after work. Still need to break in the new shoes. It was rough. I walked much, much more than I ran. And ended walking about 6.5 miles. So I didn't run all of that for several reasons. First, even though I took my inhaler before I left, I could not freaking breathe. It hurt to breathe. Kind of hard to run when breathing is painful. By the fourth mile or so, my feet were killing me. Specifically the bottom of my toes were blistering and the arch of my left foot was hurting. I don't know what the deal is with my left foot causing me all these problems, but it's starting to piss me off.

In spite of all that, I never stopped, except when waiting to cross the street. I kept going, and kept a pretty quick pace. It was really hard, especially toward the end. I was exhausted and my feet hurt and my lungs hurt and I just wanted to lie down. Can't say that I had much energy before/during/after this workout. I was tired before I left, but I figured since I usually have more energy/adrenaline after my runs, this would help. It did not. I seriously just wanted to sleep. I'm glad I went, and I'm glad that even though I ran maybe a mile total, I kept going for as long as I did. It was hard, but really I had no choice but to keep going. How else was I going to get home where I could take my shoes off?

I wanted to share with you guys a church sign that I saw on my run (of course if I had an iPhone I could have snapped a quick picture). I'm so proud I actually remembered what it said!  Generally I'm not a fan of church signs. Most of them are lame announcements or unoriginal quotes and whatnot. But every once in a while you come across the witty and clever one. I love those. This one was not witty or clever, but it had a pretty strong message: "The loudest lie is the one you tell yourself." I'm still thinking about it, two hours later. What it means. How it applies to my life. If you think about it, it's right. You can lie to someone else and they might not ever find out. But when you lie to yourself, it echoes constantly in your mind. And depending on what it is, other people can tell when you're lying to yourself too. Telling yourself you can't do something. That's a lie. You can. I can. I can run. If you think you can't, you're not looking at your options. You're not looking for ways to overcome your obstacles. You're just giving up. I tell myself "I can't" a little too often sometimes. Deep down, I know I can. I'm not trying hard enough. Except for today. I totally could and did 6.5 miles, even though it was walked. Tomorrow, I probably could (not can't) but my toes are blistered. If I don't rest them now, they'll be worse later.

That said, I will take tomorrow off. Give my feet/toes a little break. And maybe, somehow get my breathing under control. Obviously it won't happen overnight. But maybe if I keep trying, there will come a day where I can run more than a couple miles without having to stop because I can't breathe. Maybe someday.

Poor = Weight Loss

Some of the fitness blogs I follow (which are more or less people like me trying to lose weight and get in shape) seem to be having the same problem I'm having. Lack of motivation. Hitting that plateau. Getting comfortable. You're doing just enough to stay where you are, so you can eat just about whatever you want.

I do believe I have found the solution. I am well aware that this is not the healthiest solution, but it seems to be working for me. BE POOR! I know, I know, I bitch about it all the time. Shut up. I started looking at it differently. I buy the least amount of food possible to get me through a week or so, and I do try to keep it healthy (eating extremely healthy on a budget is quite difficult). So I have a loaf of bread, jelly, peanut butter, sometimes cheese and some sort of meat, sometimes milk, and whatever else. I try very hard to avoid snacks like cheez-its (although considering I tend to buy them once a week or so from the vending machine, it might be cheaper to just buy a box . . .). So I know that if I have a pbj for lunch, then have something else for dinner and then decide I want a snack, so I make another pbj, I'm limiting the food I have to eat the rest of the week for lunch and dinner.

It's easier to tell yourself you don't need a snack when you don't have snack food. Your snack food is now part of a meal that you're going to need later in the week. Aside from a couple times where I remember I have ice cream, I have cut back on snacking. And I'm eating a lot less at lunch and breakfast, and sometimes dinner too, depending on what I have. When you eat less than you normally do for a long enough time, food fills you up faster and you're not as hungry.

Like I said, it's probably not the best/healthiest approach. And you have the issue of what to eat/buy when you're no longer poor (assuming that happens, and in this case, let's do because I don't want to be poor forever). Once you make more money, you have more money to spend on food. Sure, you can buy more healthy foods, but man those Cheez-its you've been too poor to buy for the past two years just look absolutely delicious.

Of course there is the issue with the poverty level. Junk food is infinitely cheaper than healthy food. And the "healthy" foods that are available are over-processed and full of weird preservatives and such. In this case, poor/poverty = likeliness of obesity. So you have to be at just the right amount of poor to afford some healthy foods, or semi-healthy foods. I eat a lot of pbj's (I'm sure at some point in the near future I'm gonna get sick of them). Pbj's are not the healthiest food, and have quite a bit of sugar and carbs. However, it's better than eating a bag of potato chips or stopping at McDs for a large fry.

And, of course, you still have to work out. I'm struggling in this department a little. It's a large combination of things, but it boils down to I just don't have the energy lately. This could perhaps be related to eating like the poor person I am. But there's also allergies and headaches I seem to be getting on a daily basis. Is it October yet? I'm ready for Excedrin to come back. Although it's been gone so long, I'm sure it won't stay on the shelves long when it first comes out. Shoot.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Let's Talk About How Much Allergies Suck

If any of you have been wondering whether I have gone running lately, no, no I haven't. But I'd say I have fairly decent reasons for not running. Allergies. God. Awful. Allergies. My asthma has been almost unbearable since Thursday. I haven't had a morning since then where I haven't needed to take my inhaler before 7am. It sucks. In addition, my nose is stuffy, my eyes are itchy, and I just don't have the energy. Allergies suck. They suck the life out of you. So, I haven't gone for a run this weekend. 

However, I was not totally unproductive. I did clean. Did some dishes. Some rearranging. Some dusting. And I've watched quite a few movies. Surprisingly, only one of them has sucked so far, so that's nice. I also cooked. Not much, and it's nothing spectacular. Yesterday I had a cheese quesadilla for lunch. Ravioli for dinner (by "cooked," here I mean "I added cheese and put it in the toaster oven"). Today, I was up at 6:30 coughing up a lung. So by 10:30 I was hungry, but I don't have much of anything as far as breakfast food goes. So I decided to make lunch. I figured by the time I finished it would be lunchtime. So I made macaroni and cheese with hot dogs. While I was doing that, I multi-tasked and cooked some ground turkey to have with dinner. 

So that pretty much covers the productivity for the weekend. Assuming my allergies take a vacation and I find some medicine to take care of these headaches, maybe I'll be doing okay and can get myself outside to go for a run sometime this week. I will keep you all updated on my exciting life. I know you are all waiting on the edge of your seats to hear :)

Friday, August 3, 2012

A Whole Lot of Nothing

So I had every intention of running yesterday evening. That did not happen, thanks to the worst asthma attack I've ever had. It started shortly before I got off work (thankfully, since I didn't have my inhaler) and lasted for about an hour after I had taken my inhaler when I got home. I also took benadryl because when you're coughing like that, trying to breathe, your throat gets scratchy. Once my inhaler finally started working, I was exhausted from coughing and wheezing for the past hour, and the benadryl was starting to kick in. So I fell asleep. And slept. And slept. And slept. Yeah, I pretty much slept through the night. Skipped dinner. Everything. But I wasn't really hungry anyway so going without dinner wasn't a huge deal. Seriously, my appetite has disappeared.

Yesterday for lunch I had some almonds and an apple. Then no afternoon snacks (I sometimes go to the vending machine across the street and get Cheez-its and/or a Snickers). And no dinner. I did have mini blueberry muffins and a coffee for breakfast though. Today I had another fruit crisp/wanna-be pop-tart for breakfast. For lunch I have almonds and the pbj I had brought for lunch yesterday and never ate. (I'm out of apples, as I predicted. Also out of cheese sticks.)

After work, I plan on doing a whole lot of nothing. Because it's Friday. If I feel up to it/get extremely bored, I might go for a run. As for dinner, assuming I'm hungry, well, I have no idea what I'll eat. I think I still have some ravioli, or maybe I'll just make a cheese quesadilla. Those are always good. Definitely running low on food. I think. I'm really not sure what I have left in my fridge.

As for the rest of my weekend, it will look a lot like my Friday night. A lot of nothingness. Maybe a run or two. Maybe some cleaning (less likely than me going for a run). Probably quite a bit of watching Netflix. My life is extremely exciting. But school starts in two-ish weeks, so I'm going to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet while I can. No rest even the weekend before classes start. Lots to do. And I'm hopefully going to get my Mac that weekend because I enjoy waiting until the last minute to do things like that. Fast forward four or five months and that's what my Christmas shopping looks like. Except without the Mac. No way in hell am I buying anyone a Mac. So I guess that's nice, I can avoid the Apple store around Christmas time, which I'm sure is packed with a bunch of morons who have no idea what they're buying. Same with this weekend, tax-free. I'm not shopping. People trying to buy their snot-nosed, bratty kids laptops and shit for school and have no clue what they're doing. No thanks.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Thoughts on Facebook and Food

I'm giving serious consideration to deleting my facebook. Well, probably just deactivating it for a while. I'm sick of people complaining and I'm sick of reading about how great other people's lives are (no, I'm not bitter :p). It's just a waste of my time. I don't care what half of those people are doing with their lives, and yet--because people tend to post the most intimate details of their lives on facebook--I know almost every single thing they've done in the past week. Why? Who the hell knows? I certainly don't care about most of it.

I figure the people who need/want to get a hold of me have my phone number. They can text or call me. And the people who are interested in what I'm doing with my life (not much of anything really) are probably already reading this anyway. The only downside to deactivating my facebook would be this blog. I always post it on facebook, which is where most of my traffic comes from. So I may lose a few readers who are too lazy to read if it isn't linked on facebook. I think I'm okay with that. The ones who really want to read this will.

I've been toying with this idea for a while now. On the one had, I get a lot of family updates through facebook. On the other hand, I rarely post anything on it anymore other than my blog. And I normally check it to see if anyone's commented on the post and things like that. Every other aspect of it is a waste of my time, reading updates about people I'm not really interested in knowing anything about. And the things I could do with the time I normally spend on facebook doing nothing! I could probably get more accomplished with this blog. Or use that time to get some reading done (I've really been slacking in that department lately). Or actually read the news rather than reading about a story on facebook and then looking it up. The possibilities are endless! But I'll probably just stick to those things. No need to over-exert myself.

Now that I have all that out in the open (it feels better to talk things through . . . or write them like I'm talking to myself, talking to an audience. I don't know, now I'm confusing myself) let's get to the things I normally tell you all about, like what I'm eating today.

I had a special K fruit crisp thing for breakfast (they taste kind of like poptarts . . . but not as good). And I had an apple. For lunch, I have everything I didn't eat yesterday, which is almost all of it. Broccoli, apple, pbj. Yesterday I ate my almonds and had a cheese stick. Not sure where my appetite went, although I'm not complaining. To counter the healthy stuff for breakfast and lunch, dinner will be pizza and ice cream. :) Pizza will be from Imo's I think. So hopefully there will be cheese garlic bread. Or toasted ravioli/t-ravs/you should really watch this video. Shit St. Louisans Say. Cracks me up.

And I'll leave you with that video, because it's funny and that's the best way to end things. More tomorrow (can't guarantee anything funny . . . ).