My half marathon training schedule indicated that I should complete one mile on Thanksgiving Day. I really did not feel like it. I’ve been working with major overtime at work, preparing for trial. That’s why I’ve been kind of MIA on the blog scene (sorry!) One night I was at work until midnight preparing trial exhibits. Additionally, I have been preparing my apartments, because I have 2 new tenants moving in soon. My raggedy old “investment” building will not sell, and it looks like I might have to keep it. But, anyway, since I had already missed three days of training; “it’s a holiday” was not a good enough excuse not to train on Thursday. I got my best work out buddy Nyah, and we started walking. I realized that I needed an actual destination because the treadmill and the park trail just seemed too mundane. I walked down the street to my Shopping Cousin’s house. Her family was happy to see us. I was a little worried about Nyah being in their house because my cousin is a neat freak and Nyah is always shedding her black hair. She didn’t seem to mind, or at least she pretended not to. She probably ran the swiffer sweeper across the hardwood floors as soon as we left.
Then me and Nyah were off to my parent’s house. I took a different route and saw houses and side streets I didn’t really know existed. I almost got lost which is totally ridiculous since my mom’s house is only a mile away from my house. When I found my way, my mom and my little sister were just getting home from Thanksgiving church service. I stayed and talked for a while, and then my mom brought me back home. Later that afternoon, I packed up my homemade double layer pumpkin cheesecake and headed to the first family meal. The food was delicious especially the beef brisket that my mother made. Then it was time to go to dinner with my Dad’s family. I was too full to eat again but I definitely packed a plate to go.
My Big little sister likes to shop as much as I do. We have been researching Black Friday sales for about two weeks. We had our lists and stores mapped out days in advance. Wal-Mart is trying to cut back on the chaos of people rushing in the doors and nearly trampling each other at 4 AM, so they decided to start sales at 10 PM on Thanksgiving, after being open all day on the actual holiday. Of course it was still chaos, but there was a little order, they have lines for each special item. I saw small catfight over $1.98 Bath towels, while I got my 600 thread count sheets for $19. I was however very disappointed that they only had 11 Xbox 360 with Kinect
in the store. My Nintendo Wii
, died a while ago so it was time to upgrade. Luckily, my Gym Cousin was at another Wal-Mart and was able to snag me one for the low price of $199 plus a $50 gift card. We had so much fun it’s like a holiday for shopaholics. I came home still excited (at 2AM) and set up my new X-box & Kinect. I dogged balls and water rafted in my living room until 4 AM. It’s 10 times better than the Wii, your body is the controller. You can jump, squat, swing and push, and the camera picks up your every move. Thank goodness Friday was an off day on the training schedule, because I was exhausted.
Today, Saturday, I was supposed to go to group training, but I stayed up all night playing Dance Central 2
on the Kinect again. I was too tired to go, but I promised myself I would still get in my mileage. Even though the weather called for a 50 percent chance of rain I got dressed and Nyah and I went to forest Park. I was only able to get in two miles before the down pour, but I was okay with that since I danced in front of the TV for hours for two nights in a row. Do you have a Kinect? What games do you play?
I had such a fun-filled weekend. Friday night was game 7 of the World Series in Major League Baseball. St. Louis was on fire! I was sitting at home alone watching the game before called my Big Little Sister and suggested that we go somewhere and watch it together. We went downtown to the Casino and watched the game on the giant projector screen. It was so much fun! After the Cardinals won, there were tons of hugs and high fives from whatever stranger was closest to you. It was crazy wild energy. We waited around for about an hour, thinking that traffic had died down. We were wrong! Traffic was still bumper to bumper and Cards fans were everywhere. They were drinking, celebrating and dancing in the street. My sister is a bit more adventurous than me and she drove right towards the stadium into the madness. We held our arms out the windows into the cool October night air and slapped high-fives to everyone that walked through the traffic. We had a blast.
The next morning, my Mom and I went to the Farmers market. She got 8 crates of strawberries for $5. Sometimes you pay almost $4 just for one at the grocery store. I bought some new spices like Lime Chipotle and re-stocked my favorite one “Soulard Grill” which tastes good in everything. My Special Friend was “Busy” and didn’t want to “commit then cancel” hmmmm…So, that evening I went to the movies with two of my good friends from high school. We saw Paranormal Activity 3. I love scary movies, and it definitely had some cringe worthy parts. But it wasn’t as good as the 1st one. I came home and fell asleep watching “Bad Teacher” with Cameron Diaz. I’m such a movie fanatic. I thought about writing a blog for movie reviews, since I usually watch at least 5 movies each week, but when would I find time to do that?
Sunday, I finally made time for the gym. Barely. My little Sister and I chatted it up for a half an hour on the elliptical machine, before heading to Wal-Mart. Silly me I decided to wait until the day before Halloween to get a costume. There was nothing left at Wal-Mart, so we headed to Target. The only thing left was a horrible bloody arm and a Monopoly board game costume. Then I saw it! One glittery white glove, sent down from the costume gods. It wasn’t even in the original packaging. I took it to the register and gave the checkout boy a “don’t mess with me look” as I handed him a pack of lace costume gloves to scan in exchange for my unwrapped MJ glove. He obliged, even though my sister said I was holding up the line. I ransacked my closet at home and pulled off a pretty Smooth Criminal look if you ask me. My “Brother from another Mother” joined me at my friend’s Halloween party about 2 hours later. We had a good time. I could have eaten a little better, drank a little less and worked out a little more, but I still had quite a fun weekend.
“Operating out of fear means that you will always be scared and running for your life, instead of being in alignment with your life.” ~Oprah~
I mentioned in my last post that I have a new “special friend” a great guy that I’ve been dating for a couple weeks. So, today, he sent me a text saying “You mentioned several times that investing in something that you don’t know where it’s headed isn’t something that you want to do…so do you think we should pump the brakes and talk less?” I really had to think about it. This guy has taken me out a couple times, paid for everything, treated me with respect, catered to doing things I enjoy, invested a lot of time getting to know me, and has been incredibly honest. What the heck is wrong with me?! What more could I possibly want after 2 weeks? Why was I constantly telling him that I intentionally wasn’t willing to put my best foot forward, even though I knew that he was? And then I realized that I was operating solely out of fear, and comparing him to horrid experiences from the past. You never know where relationships or friendships will end up, but is that a reason to never get new friends or never allow yourself to genuinely care for someone? Of course not….I went to weigh in on my lunch break, I’ve lost 9 pounds total. YAY!…
On my drive back to work, I called and I explained to him that in my last really serious relationship, the guy was a liar, a thief and an alcoholic amongst other things. But, my sprecial friend had not given me any reason to believe that he was any of those things. He understood where a lot of my emotional brick walls came from, and I told him that I would allow myself to invest just as much as he had. So are we getting married and live happily ever after? Who knows? But, what I do know is that when I look back on it. I can say that I didn’t let fear run my life.
When I left work today, Cardinal Fever and an excited energy was in the air since we are in the playoffs. There were people everywhere dressed in red and the sun was shining on a freakishly warm October evening. I felt good that I had stopped allowing fear to drive my decisions and decided to enjoy the weather by walking in the park. It was beautiful outside, low 70’s. I climbed the giant hill for a boost to my walk circling the big water basin fountain. The sun was starting to set, but Nyah and I were able to walk about a mile and half before it got too dark. I must say, I had a great day.
I knew that I had plans this evening, so I decided to walk during my lunch break. It was pretty hot outside, but I walked around near the arch grounds.
Then my old coworker friend met me for salad. It was pretty good. I threw a little bit of everything in my salad including corn and black beans. 
I keep a copy of my training calendar on my desk at work, as well as my refrigerator at home. I proudly marked off my second day of 10 K training. Then I got an e-mail about Vibram Five Finger shoes. I had never worn them, but the article title was so catchy that I decided to use it as the title for my post today. I can’t imagine that I would like to wear them because I hate the glove-like socks that separate your toes. However, barefoot style shoes with separate compartments for each toe are the hottest new trend. They claim that there is an advantage for runners because you run more lightly, thus causing fewer injuries. Some people even commented that it helped relieve knee pain while running. That idea that actually intrigues me, since I do suffer from knee pain occasionally. Have you run in these shoes? What are your thoughts?
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Slim Fast Shake
S- 2 Sandwich Cookies (Lord, why did I buy them???)
L- Salad
D- Fried Chicken Breast, Rice, and Brocolli
Day One is done! Barely. I so did not feel like working out, even though I know how good my walk made me feel on Sunday. I actually came home and laid across the bed in just my tank top. I was only half dressed for the gym. Finally, I motivated myself to get completely dressed and run a quick errand to the store. I kept thinking about how much of a loser I would be if I missed the very first day of training. I didn’t even have a good excuse not to work out. And, I couldn’t lie about it and tell y’all how wonderful my run was if I really just sat at home and watched Oprah on my DVR. So, I went to the gym. My little sister actually called when I was just a few blocks from the house, and she joined me. The schedule only called for a 20 minute walk/run. For some reason both of my knees and one ankle were kind of hurting once I got up to the track. I’m not sure why, but I pretty much hobbled around the track at the gym for 20 minutes. There wasn’t any running at all. But, I was satisfied that I stuck to the plan and finished day one of my training session despite the fact that my body and my mind weren’t really on board.
