so this is what they call living...

These are the times I wish I could bottle up all the motivation, pride and sheer joy to save for a crappy day or sell it and make a bazillion dollars so I don't have to work on a holiday. I can already hear the infomercial in my head!

In the past, by the end of a holiday weekend, I was tired and bloated and bitchy about having to "start my diet again tomorrow". This time I enjoyed my holiday weekend in a completely different way as if I was in the body of a different person. I loved every minute of it.

It all kicked off with proper planning. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that as soon as I could smell all the grills in the neighborhood, I would be craving all the foods that are synonymous with an American summer holiday. I was totally prepared and it worked.

Friday night I made a gorgeous 4oz grass fed beef burger on a small whole wheat bun with sweet potato fries and coleslaw with very little mayo. It was perfect if I do say so myself.

Saturday morning I went to Body Pump and was so excited to be back after a week of not going to the gym due to the sickness. I did better than ever before increasing all my weight and managing all but 4 of the lunges. Maybe next time I'll be able to say I did them all. As if that weren't enough, we walked 5 miles round trip to book festival after I got home. I purposely took the route by the Chick-Fil-A so I could stop and have my 300 calorie grilled chicken sandwich to prepare for the onslaught of corn dogs and other fried delights at the festival. After that I had 2 beers which was more than enough to fuel me for the walk home :) I stopped and bought $40 worth of socks at the running store too. Body pump, 5 mile walk, running store. All in one day. Who would have thought.

Saturday night I made very healthy shrimp fajitas for us and the neighbors and ended up overdoing it a little on the guacamole but managed to stick with 2 margaritas. The planned amount! Fajitas are a great way to feel like you are pigging out on mexican food but you have to watch the tortillas. Trader joes has a new small tortilla with 45 calories and 7 grams of fiber. Two is more than enough. They are a Godsend.

Sunday I did just about everything but the work I needed to do but managed a good three mile walk and some serious house cleaning while procrastinating. For some reason I was extra hungry all day so I decided to read to try to keep my mind off of it but of course it's a book involving lots of incredible descriptions of food but I'll save that for another post. We repeated Friday's dinner because It was that good and we already had everything.

This morning, I ran farther outside than I have yet. We did our 3 mile route and I managed more than half of that running. It was REALLY fun and I didn't feel like I was going to die once. A woman driving by gave me a thumbs up. I could have kissed her. Since I've embraced the fat girl running, I don't mind people noticing me. I owe that to Al and his sense of humor about it all.

Tonight is grilled pizzas on pitas from the Farmers Market which was planned because we usually order a pizza at the end of a holiday weekend binge. Not this time suckers :)

My dream about running was not just a one time thing. It's been a recurring dream now and for some reason it's helping me. In my dream I'm running with no consequence. No breathing heavy pain or heavy legs, just the freeing feeling of moving down the road quickly. I have a strange feeling it has something to do with my dad giving me encouragement from above.

I know this is long and probably mostly boring but to sum it all up, I think I now know what it's like to feel alive and I'm not sure I ever did before. I'm seeing everything from a different point of view. My body is changing but my mind has had a total makeover. I saw things in the neighborhood I've never seen in 6 years of living. I WANTED to walk 5 miles on a gorgeous day with my husband instead of watching HGTV and wishing I had the energy to do something. You couldn't pry the smile off my face right now.