Five For Friday - 11/28/14

I hope you all had a fun Thanksgiving! Mine was quiet but nice. It's just me, my mom, and grandpa here is So Cal so we usually go out to lunch instead of cooking. I like it because my grandpa doesn't like turkey so he usually gets fish and I don't have to worry about leftovers tempting me for days on end. I LOVE turkey, dressing, and mashed potato sandwiches so it's best if I don't have that stuff around to tempt me.

I did enjoy my lunch yesterday, for sure. I ran 8.1 miles yesterday (2.2 mile warm up, the Claremont Turkey Trot 5K, and then a 2.8 mile cool down) so I didn't feel too guilty about enjoying the dressing and mashed potatoes. Actually, I didn't feel guilty at all!

My mom said grace for us and she talked about how thankful she was that I was healthy. It reminded me that last year, I didn't get to enjoy Thanksgiving so much because I'd just had my 1st round of chemo and food was issuey. It also reminded me how much I have to be thankful for right now.

So here's this week of 5 things I'm thankful for:

1. I'm thankful I got to spend Thanksgiving with my mom and grandpa. We had a nice lunch and then watched Million Dollar Arm after. It was a good day. :) I missed my AZ family but at least got to talk to them.

2. I'm thankful that I am strong and healthy and almost back to my normal weight. I weighed myself on Tuesday and was down to 166.4 pounds. I actually thought I might have gained because didn't really focus on food the past 2 weeks so I was a little nervous. I was so happy to see it had gone down. I'd hoped to lose 50 lbs by the Dallas Half and I'm at 48 lbs lost right now!

3. I'm thankful I was strong enough to rock the Turkey Trot yesterday! 26:37! I didn't have a set goal going into it other than I wanted to run it hard and beat my last 5K time of 27:57. The race is a big square with the 1st mile being uphill and then flatish and then the last mile downhill. I gave everything in that last mile though I really wanted to slow down! So I have 2 shiny new post cancer PRs for the Mile and the 5K!

I didn't realize this race would be so big and I was pretty happy to see I was 8th in my age group. So fun to see my pace too. I have a 5K next Saturday and Justin, my coach @gilletterunning,  wanted me to go 8:40 pace for it. Now, I'm a little scared to see what he's going to ask me to go now! But also excited!

4. I'm thankful my company gives us Thursday and Friday off so I could spend a little time on the trails today. It was a beautiful, warm day here in So Cal.

5. I'm thankful one of my staff is a baker and brings us cupcakes & cake pops to test!

Not all the time (for which I'm also thankful) but it's fun to get a treat every now and then and Renee is very talented. It also reminds me that I need to be diligent about my nutrition and weight loss most of the time but it's okay to relax once in a while to just enjoy what life brings you. I have, in the past, been obsessive about food going from extremes - being obese and binge eating to borderline anorexic. I have had to work really hard to get to a place where I realize that food is not the enemy but something to help fuel my running & riding. You can get away with eating crap on the bike but not on the run so I credit running with helping eat well! Running has given me a better life in many, many ways.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a great weekend!