Wednesday Ramblings

Is it really only Wednesday? Oh my.

I will warn you: this post has basically no point. Just me rambling.

This week has been a sloooow one! Or maybe it just feels that way because I am depressed about the weather. 60 degrees in January? No bueno. All my snow melting because it is warm and raining? No bueno. At least we are supposed to get another foot in the next couple days. That will make it better. But I really miss the good old days when the snow was up to your knees!

I know I said in my New Year's Goals that I was going to start exercising everyday. Well I was being a slacker and today was the first day I finally got back into it. I did 4.25 miles (60 minutes) on the treadmill and then 22 minutes on the elliptical. It was surprisingly not as hard as I thought it would be (honestly that is the reason I was putting it off, stupid. stupid. stupid!) but I did almost puke. Twice.

Turns out that HIIT (high intensity interval training) is no flipping joke. Probably wasn't the best idea to try that on my first run in awhile, but hindsight is 20/20 right? That is hard. (Run 30 seconds at the fastest pace you can, rest 30 seconds, run, rest...) It is apparently really good for you to get your heart rate way up and then way down, and is supposed to be good for weight loss I guess (that's what my Biggest Loser watching tells me anyways) so I thought I would try it out. I managed to do it for a mile but seriously thought I was going to vomit. Thinking back now though I guess that is good... they always vomit on the Biggest Loser ;) 

Anyways - now that I am done, I feel junk in my chest again. I can't tell if it's because I'm still sick (I was feeling so much better!), or if it's just from running again. Sometimes I get that way after an intense run. Judging by my poor choice of HIIT for today and adding into the mix I haven't ran in awhile, it could just be from that. Who knows. I really hope it's not coming back because seriously we are so done with this nonsense! Husband is thankfully not showing signs of getting it again, so hopefully once it is out of my system we are done for awhile.

Tonight I made Green Monster Smoothies! So good. I was leary of all those people who put spinach in their smoothies and tell you that you can't even taste it. But it's true! And it really doesn't mess with the texture either. Just the color. Looks more brownish than green (not really appetizing, I know), but once you get passed that it is tasty. Ours had spinach, frozen strawberries, a banana, frozen raspberries and an apple and I used almond milk (new favorite) instead of regular milk. 

Husband didn't even know I included 'special ingredients' until afterwards. I told him that it had spinach and almond milk and he said "It retroactively is not as great now that I know that." HA! Just like the time I used ground turkey instead of beef in our tacos ;) My next experiment? Dairy-free cheese. Sister Kim used to eat it and I tried it once and it was fine to me, but we'll see if I can get it to pass the husband test...

I'm thinking about cutting out some of the dairy in my diet. My lactose intolerance isn't going away anytime soon and I can only imagine how much better I will feel once I cut it out. Problem is, I kind of love dairy. Ice cream, pizza, milk...yeah, all favorites. While I do use the Lactaid pills (and they work most of the time) I still feel like I would be better off just getting rid of it. 

I am not aiming to cut it out altogether cold turkey - I just want to cut back and use alternatives when possible. I am not at all prepared - or willing! - to cut out pizza or modify it yet. That is just not happening. Pizza is a staple and basically its own food group! But my thinking is that if I cut out/switch out most of it, then when I do eat 'normal' dairy it won't taste as good to me (and probably wreak havoc) and I will be more motivated to cut it out altogether. I also have the husband to think about, who turns his nose up at anything different and proclaims it 'weird' and won't even try it. So basically I have to be sneaky... ;)

Tomorrow night husband's Grandma flies in from Washington. She will be staying with us for a week! I'm excited, but also kind of nervous. I have only met her twice - once for our wedding, and once for Grandpa's funeral last March. I'm a little nervous about how I am going to entertain her for an entire week, but she keeps telling us not to worry and that she is bringing her knitting! I'm sure it will be fine, she is the sweetest lady and will just go along with whatever. There are a lot of people she wants to see so I am pretty excited about all the family time that will probably be happening this week :)

I am also slightly nervous because she will be here for Husband's Dad's birthday (Feb 2nd). This year marks 20 years since he died. I am pretty sure a trip to the cemetery will be in order since she hasn't been there since they were here for our wedding. She normally always emails/calls on those his birthday and the day he died, and that alone is hard. I'm a little anxious to see how it will be when everyone is together reminiscing, and we all go to the cemetery. Especially now that Grandpa has passed as well.

Okay well I've rambled enough for tonight...if you read all that you get a gold star :) I think I will go read for a bit before heading to bed.

Goodnight :)