It’s not easy to keep trying to make good choices every day.  My old habits always seem to be waiting at the wings ready to jump to the forefront the second I am not paying attention.  Yesterday when my alarm went off at 6:15?  I wanted to get back in my comfy bed.  Like a lot.  But before I could even step one foot closer to the bed, I put my glasses on (I am blind as a bat!) and got my ass out of the bedroom.

Shizz.  It was cold.  Like the first bitter cold of the season.  Bright skies, sun shining, but it was 17 degrees when I left for the gym.  I leave my house at 6:40 in the morning and am usually at the gym by 7:10 and starting my workout by 7:15.  This gives me 60-70 minutes to work out before I have to shower, change into work clothes and get to my desk at 8:45.

Whatever it was, traffic was so slow – I ended up not starting my workout until nearly 7:30!   I decided that I would try to do as much as I could in that time frame.  You all know I am low maintenance!  I ended up doing the arm strength training routine in 30 minutes – but I wasn’t able to do the two ab workouts.  I then jogged on the treadmill for 30 minutes for the cardio – doing 2.5 miles in 30 minutes.

Before the workout I had a high fiber English muffin with a teaspoon of all fruit jelly.  For my true breakfast I made another pumpkin parfait, although I think I have perfected it.

Peanut Pumpkin Banana Breakfast Parfait

• 1 serving:  373 calories, 25 fat, 65 carbs, 14.9 fiber, 34 protein
• 344% of daily Vitamin A, 28% of daily calcium and 39% of daily iron

Ingredients:

• 1 Chobani banana yogurt
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon peanut butter
• 1/2 cup quinoa granola (or granola of your choice)

Mix the pumpkin and peanut butter together.  Layer the banana yogurt and pumpkin with the granola in between, finishing up with granola.

This was SO good.  I got a bite of granola in every spoon and I loved the hint of peanut with the pumpkin.  This was filling too!

I called Tony when I was going back to the gym at lunch.  I forgot my bathing suit in the dryer, so that was out.  I told Tony that my run before work felt really good.  He wondered if it was a good idea to run twice in one day, and I thought, if something starts to hurt, I’ll just walk.

I’ve learned that I have to start out slow and up the pace as I go as I get more comfortable.  Every couple minutes I would up the pace and it felt okay!  It was after I passed the 2.5 mile mark and I saw the time that I thought “I could fucking PR today!”  That was really the furthest thing from my mind.

It was CLOSE.  I’ve always had a goal of doing a sub 30 minute 5k.  Like forever.  The closest I got was in June at 33:11.   I ended up having to sprint the final .2 tenths of a mile at a 6:37 mph pace!  Good thing I was a sprinter in high school!

BAM!

I was so fricken happy not to see a 30 in that time – I would have been pissed if I missed a sub 30 by 30 seconds!   I cooled down and ended up with 3.25 miles.

Lunch was more broccoli potato soup with some sourdough bread on the side with light balance butter, and half an apple.  Hit the spot on a chilly day.

I never did go grocery shopping this week, but I was confident I could find stuff to make that we had on hand.  I ended up making Tony fish stick tacos, and I had ground beef tacos with 2 ounces of the leftover sloppy joes – I just added hot sauce and a bit of taco seasoning to it.

Two corn tortillas, red cabbage, black beans, corn, beef and tomatillo salsa with some blue corn chips on the side.  I could have this every day and be happy as a camper.

So if you haven’t figured it out by now, I am an Instagram whore.  I love seeing what people are up to during the day, and finding new people too.  I don’t even remember who’s Instagram I was reading, but someone left a funny comment, and I decided to check her out.  Um, this is a hash tag that I didn’t know about.

#anorexia

I did a quick search of that hash tag, only to discover there were 1,279,000 POSTS with that hash tag.  I saw girls with supper skinny legs, color bones so exposed it looked as if you could reach in and pull it out with your hand, sayings like “if you skip dinner, you’ll be thinner!”

I am dumbfounded.  While I do have to say some of the girls I came across who had hash tags of anorexia also had hash tags that said #roadtorecovery, #edsoldiers, #foodisnotthenemy, #notgivingup.  I was so happy to see that!

But then there were DOZENS that had hash tags of this after #anorexia – #alone, #depressed, #empty, #fake, #suicide, #ugly and #unloved.

It broke my heart.  I thought to myself “maybe I should make it my mission to find these girls and tell them they are beautiful!”

I’ve only known two women who have had anorexia.  One is Sophia, who used to blog at Burp and Slurp.  I am happy to say she is well on the road to recovery and she looks so healthy now! 

I had the pleasure of finally meeting her this summer for a blogger meet up with Christina and my twin sister.

And then there is Melissa.  I’ve been following Mel at least since 2009, maybe even 2008??  I love this picture of her and her boyfriend Whit.  She looks so happy!

I am also happy to say that Mel is on the other side of recovery as well, after a 10 year battle.  You can read about her story here.  I am so happy that she finally sees the beautiful strong woman I always thought and told her she was all these years.

But how do you help save millions of women out there that are struggling with eating disorders?   What can you say to help them?  It’s just so sad.

Stats for the Day:

• 1609 calories, 241 carbs, 75 protein, 44 fiber and 76 fat
• B+ grade on caloriecount
• 30 minutes arms for strength
• 30 minute jog for 2.5 miles
• 29:57 PR 5k – total of 35 minutes with cool down
• average blood sugar 151

Today for strength is just shoulders, no cardio, so I’ll be able to do that at lunch.  I am off to do my 30 minute stretch before work – I am a bit sore today!  Make it a great day!