Day 10

First - If whoever is reading this is from Humboldt County . . . How'd ya like that shaker last night?  Our household was in bed when it hit.  Four of the cats scrambled to under the bed, one road it out on the back of the couch (good job, Goofy!), I stood in the bathroom doorway, Shorty went out to the living room to hold the TV in place, and Dad (who spent the night) didn't even get up, although it woke him up.

This past weekend was my first long run weekend with the dietary and HR training changes, and things went better than I anticipated.  I was so freaking hungry when I got up in the a.m. that I ate a small amount of fruit and yogurt with almonds and raisins, and then had a small amount of raisins and mixed nuts for the run on Saturday.  I ate some of it because my stomach was growling, but tried to keep the food intake limited.  "Why?" you ask.  Good question.  As I said before, this whole change is to get the body to use its fat stores for fuel, and heaven knows I have plenty of that on reserve.  If you feed yourself constantly during a run (especially carbs), you are defeating the purpose.  And like I said before, that's is a very simplified answer.  The full on answer is too much to put here.  Google "Metabolic Efficiency Training" and "Bob Seebohar" for more information.

So it was plain water in the hydration bladder, some electrolytes, a small amount of raisins and nuts, and work on keeping the HR between 132 and 142 with a goal of an average of 137.

I ran out at Headwaters (as it offered me more chance of actually running, as opposed to the Community Forest whether you're either going up or your going down), and by and large things went really well.  My legs were feeling a bit heavy at the end, but overall I felt good - not trashed and depleted like I usually do after a long run, and that's obviously due to keeping the HR low.  Finished the 14 miles in around 3:45 or so, so all in all not bad.

Sunday's run was wet, wet, wet, and, again, slow.  By the end, my legs were definitely feeling it more than the day before (and are today, as well, when going up stairs), and I felt fairly depleted the rest of the day.  We pretty much watched movies all day (it was pouring rain), so I ate when I was hungry and did my best not to sit and munch on stuff just because.

Breakfast/Brunch was 2 scrambled eggs with loads of spinach, some ham, a little bit of cream cheese melted in, avocado, and a small glass of milk.

Munched on Cutie mandarin oranges, had something else, but I can't remember what.

Dinner was a nice salad with hard boiled egg, avo, and my homemade dressing, some pork loin, Brussel sprouts sauteed in a little bit of olive and butter with garlic and onions, and red chard sauteed separately but the same fashion.  A short while after dinner, I actually had the bowl out for some fruit and yogurt, but asked, "Are you really hungry?"  The answer was no, so back it went.  Victory!

I won't be officially weighing in 'til Wednesday, but it's been hard to not pull out the scale.  Did it once this weekend and was happy with what I saw.  Won't do it again until Wednesday.

I am definitely feeling a difference.  The highs and lows throughout the day are decreasing, which is nice, and the full on munchies are decreasing.  Although Karen, who posted a comment the other day, posted on Facebook pictures of pizza and chocolate chip cookies, which just about killed me! ;-)

Oh - and my biggest "find" was to mix Zoi plain Greek yogurt (full fat) with some low-fat Lucerne vanilla yogurt, add in my fruit and raisin/almond mix . . .  Oh My!  I've nixed the idea of Greek yogurt for quite some time now because the ones I have tried, I haven't liked (flavor or texture), and those brands are so much more expensive than my cheapy Lucerne - especially considering the amount of yogurt I go through.  However, I do like the Zoi/Lucerne mixture, and the Zoi is "only" $.88 more per the same size container.