Food-filled Holidays..

As we all know, the last 3 months of the year are celebrated with lots of FOOD!  

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Black Friday (because who eats good food when you are up at 3am?!)

Hanukkah

Christmas 

and can't forget New Year's Eve, a night where our diets consist of all liquids!

And as we go about our life-changing ways, most (not all, but most) of us will get side-tracked in some way, shape or form.. Is it better to know this going into the Holiday season?  Is it really helping us to just say "Eh, I knew I'd gain ____ pounds, it's okay"?  Honestly, I know I will probably do this.. and that scares me, because I did that with my birthday, and I gained 5 pounds.. which isn't cool!  So what can we do to keep ourselves accountable during this food-filled holiday season?!  

** Don't give yourself any excuses**

Just because it's Halloween (there's candy year-round people) or Thanksgiving (focus on the people you only see once a year, not the turkey you can have ANY time), doesn't mean that we should go all out and gorge ourselves.. 

** Pay attention to what you put in your mouth**

It's so easy to get to talking to someone and not realize that you've been munching on half a bowl of M&M's.. 

** Eat only until your satisfied**

I think it's natural instinct to try to eat until we are full.. some of us have had times where we don't know when our next meal will be.. but if that is not the case, don't eat until you have to unbutton that button (because that ain't attractive on ANYONE).. 

I hope that these tidbits help you, as I hope they'll help me too.. Now onto the fun question of the day..

What is the one food tradition you WILL NOT give up during this Holiday season??

Mine is Hershey's Goodnight Kisses Hot Cocoa Mix.. We drink this on Christmas Eve night while we settle down after our Christmas with my Grandma Betty.. One packet of this is 3 points.. but it has mini hershey's kisses in the hot cocoa, so I'm DEFINITELY okay with drinking 3 pts.. lol..

Catch-Up Monday

So I just got back from my Monday morning Zumba class, and boy does M really kick our asses.. In such a good way!  I'm always so beat when she gets done with us.. Not to say the other Zumba teacher doesn't.. C's fabulous too.. but I think it's the fact that M only teaches the one day, and just Zumba.. who knows.. :)

But I'm about to start playing catch up on all the blogs I've been missing out on over the past few days.. I can't wait to see what everyone else has been doing over the past 5 days.. And to add my blog to the blog hop!  :)

I am loving that, during the week, I love to go to work.. Yeah, I only work 4 hours, and yes I don't do much work during those 4 hours, but that's not why I love it.. I love the people.. My client, his gf and their puppy are the highlight of my days.. lol

His girlfriend is WONDERFUL!  And guess what?!  She's a runner.. and a hardcore one at that.. some days she will run 30 miles (in one run!).. and she doesn't run inside.. She's wonderful because she shares any kind of advice I may ask about.. Like running shoes.. or running outside.. I can't wait to pick her brain about things I am confused about..

Birthday Weekend.. Overview and Wrap-up (Part Two)

Didn't want to totally bore people with my whole weekend in one post (because even I was kinda tired of writing about it.. lol), so I'm breaking it into two entries..  This one covers Saturday and today (Sunday)..

Saturday morning started off REALLY early (after getting in bed at 3:30am) to go shopping in Indianapolis, Greenwood and Edinburgh with my best friend, Amanda, her mom (and my second mom) Donna, and our good friend Jenni.. I woke up at 7:30 am, got on the road by 8:30, and we were on our way to shop til we dropped.. I had $160 with me to go shopping (which still didn't last very long, thanks to Victoria's Secret.. lol).. and boy, did I make out with tons of stuff..

Plus, snacks at Cinnabon (couldn't believe I've never had one of their cinnamon rolls).. And lunch at Applebee's.. including a mudslide (which was made wonderfully, aka you couldn't taste the alcohol).. that seems to take some skill.. :)

Saturday night was boring (thank goodness!).. showed my mom my loot, did some scrapbooking, and did a little cleaning.. Only bad thing was that I was getting sick.. I can't stop coughing, and it's gotten worse since Thursday.. I went to bed loaded with Mucinex, Vicks going through my mini humidifier, and one of those Breathe Right strips on my nose.. I looked gorgeous!  lol

My alarm for my race today (that I honestly was looking SO forward to doing on my actual birthday) came WAY too early, but I got up and then proceeded to go back to bed after realizing that I couldn't even go down the stairs without coughing so hard I actually peed a little (yeah, I was amazed when it happened).. I was so pissed that, of course, on the one race day that I had actually wanted to race, paid in advance for, and bought a running outfit for, I wouldn't be able to do.. 

Yeah, I can imagine once I get into running races that I will be able to figure out how I can do it with a cold, but I didn't want to run/walk my first race and either have to not finish or have to use my emergency inhaler because I pushed myself too hard.. So I signed up for another one to make up for it, on December 4th, in my hometown.. :)  Plus, I get to run with Santa!!  YAY!!  lol

Today brought my family over.. for some of my momma's AWESOME cooking.. Our tradition for me and my brother's birthday is that we get to pick what we want her to make us (or order).. This year I chose baked chicken, mashed potatoes, homemade mac'n'cheese, broccoli casserole, rolls, and instead of cake I wanted mini-cheesecakes..

Aren't they just so cute?!  And SO much healthier than cake.. because right now I can only eat one of these at a time.. ya know what I mean?  I can't eat more than one without feeling so gross.. lol.. and the sugar icing on cake makes me SO sick anymore..  But after eating food, I got to open my gifts, and was so excited to see that my brother had been able to get what I absolutely wanted in such a short time.. Wondering what it could be?  Well, wonder no longer.. :)

I asked him for this on Monday (like not even a week ago).. and he was able to get it in the color and size I wanted.. YAY!!  I can't wait to wear it when I start running outside in a few weeks (or sooner, ya never know).. :)   

Well, that's the end of my birthday weekend.. complete with TONS of birthday wishes on my FB wall.. I hope you all had a great weekend too!  :)

Before I totally sign-off and go blog hoppin, I have a question for you runners (new or not).. What brand/kind of shoes do you run in?  Are there certain ones you wouldn't recommend?