Day of New Things

Apparently, today is a day of adventure for me.

(More importantly, it is my last day of work for the week -- since PhillyGuy and I are leaving for a weekend in NYC tomorrow!)

For some reason, I've decided to try some new things today.

I headed out this morning in that oh-so-bizarre combination that the weather this time of year makes necessary: a skirt and Uggs. (Look, I'm so sick of tights -- and it's going to be mid-60s! That means it's OK to wear a skirt with bare legs! Unfortunately, a 38-degree morning is NOT really flip-flop weather. Hence, the oh-so-chic gray Uggs.)

For some reason, I decided to vary my usual route to work. Instead of cutting through Fitler Square and that area, like I usually do, I headed straight down South Street to 20th. That meant that I didn't pass Good Karma, my usual coffee place -- instead, I hit up La.Va, which I've passed a thousand times but have never stopped in. Verdict? I prefer Good Karma, but only a little bit. They're both a bajillion times better than Starbucks -- not that I dislike Starbucks by any stretch of imagination. But after trying a real, handmade latte, Starbucks tastes...well...corporate.

Anyway. My next change-up for the day? Breakfast. I'm out of yogurt, so I sliced up some strawberries and packed those up with a little baggie of granola, figuring I'd just stop on the way to work and pick up a container of my go-to Chobani. Except the grocery store I stopped at only had two or three containers of Chobani left, none of which I wanted (2% plain, 2% pineapple, and one lonely nonfat strawberry, which I'm sick to death of). They DID, however, have a massive variety of other brands of yogurt. I was intrigued by this:



(Forgive the lousy blackberry picture.) Skyr? Icelandic-style yogurt? The ingredients list looked good, so I grabbed the pomegranate/passionfruit flavor and headed out.

Verdict? MAN, is that stuff tart. It's a little bit of a different texture than Greek yogurt...more of a thick custard texture than a sour cream texture. With the strawberries and granola mixed in, I really liked it -- but plain it was a bit much, even for me. For the whopping $3.29 per container, though, I don't think I'll be making this a regular habit.

Next on the list of changes...well. Guys, I started this blog for a specific reason: to help keep myself accountable in losing the 18lbs I let creep on over the past year. Instead, it seems like it's been a venue for me to record justifications for having several lousy weeks in a row. That's not really what I had in mind, you know?

In honesty, I don't know WHY I've been letting myself be lame like this. Some of it had to do with my nagging knee, but not all of it. I worked late a few times, not getting home until 7:30 or later, but nothing stopped me from getting up early to work out in the mornings instead...except for my desire to sleep in. This has GOT to stop. Because let me tell you, justification ain't helping my ginormous thighs fit back into my suits, you know?

I'm almost embarassed to admit this, but...well...PhillyGuy and I bought P90X. Yes, that DVD set with the d-bag-ish infomercial. He's at his breaking point, too, and we decided together that this was something we'd do -- TOGETHER -- to get past this lousy stage we've let ourselves fall into. Do I need a 13-DVD set to show me how to work out effectively? Nope. Do I need the eating plan that it comes with me show me that eating less crap and more veggies and egg whites is going to help me drop body fat? Nope. But, here's the thing about me -- I just do better with a program laid out for me. I tried the whole keeping-myself-accountable thing, and while I generally do fine MAINTAINING that way, I never get anywhere new with it. This isn't limited to losing weight, of course -- I know that I need to do speedwork and tempo runs to improve my race times, but without a specific week-by-week plan, I don't work out the way I should and, shockingly, my race times don't improve. By contrast, give me a Runners' World SmartCoach plan that tells me to run X miles at Y speed on day Z, and what do you know, I PR.

So here I am, with an overpriced DVD set, a door-mounted pullup bar, and a husband to accompany me on what I hope will be three months of getting my ass in gear (and, preferably, getting my ass back in that navy suit I bought in April 2009, none of which fits right now).

Stupid cold

or allergies, or something. Either way, it's Thursday and I haven't been to the gym yet this week. Blech.

I had planned to wake up and run in the morning both yesterday and today...FAIL. Part of it was because I woke up sniffling with a sore throat -- but honestly, part of it (most of it?) was because I just used that sore throat as a big ol' excuse.

Lame. Because both yesterday and today, I found myself walking to work, WISHING I'd gotten up and taken advantage of the nice weather...especially since it's supposed to start RAINING today or tonight, and not stopping for, oh, like a week.

Oh well. Since today is one of the very last days EVER that I have to deal with the little condo gym, it's probably fine that I spend some time on the treadmill tonight.

Also, just an FYI on a product I will NOT buy again: Skippy "Natural" peanut butter. I figured I'd give it a shot -- Sophie gets a kong every morning filled with kibble and topped with a bit of peanut butter. I usually buy natural PB at Costco -- two enormous jars, tastes good, good texture. For eating off of a spoon, anyway, which is generally how I eat my peanut butter. But, unfortunately, the natural stuff tends to run a bit when I put her kong down, which -- if she doesn't eat it right away, which she usually doesn't -- leads to a pretty frequent crate-cushion-washing.

So, I was at the store the other night grabbing a few things, and I figured I'd give the Skippy Natural a shot, figuring it would have a texture closer to that of "regular" (read: fake and sugary) peanut butter.

Um, and it sort of does. But...ew. First of all -- it's got just as much sugar in it as "regular" peanut butter, which means it tastes like candy to me. Blech. But also, they use palm or canola oil instead of the oil from the peanuts themselves...and it gives it this weird, almost gel-like texture. Sophie doesn't mind it, really, but I think it's freakin' gross. Food is NOT supposed to behave like that. I almost want to throw the rest of this jar out, but I don't have any other PB, and she doesn't really care for almond butter (freak dog).

On a related note, I cannot WAIT to go grocery shopping this weekend -- we have nothing in the house. NOTHING! (OK, well, not NOTHING. We have a couple sweet potatoes, a package of Arnold's thins, a ziplock baggie of mushrooms, and about half of a Costco-size container of Sabra hummus. But that is NOT the makings of a satisfying meal.)