Living for the Moment...

Just heard this Jason Aldean song on my MP3 player at work (with my headphones of course…not everyone has an appreciation for country music mixed with some Kid Rock and some Black Eyed Peas…). Anyway…this song’s chorus, though it says “we”, in the actual song, I have altered to “I”…just so you know…”I was living for the moment…loving every second” (Bonus points if you can name that tune…not a JA fan? The song is “She Loved Me” from his first CD, “Jason Aldean”. Okay—I totally digressed there…hopefully impressing you with my country music useless information trivia…back on track (what a great segue to more country music songs…but I will leave that alone…for now! The words of this song really spoke to me…I do need to live every moment…and try (though it might be super difficult given several challenges as of late) to love every second…will make that a mission for this week!!!


So, I have signed up for the Country Music Marathon (see my previous post)...it’s 14 weeks away. Luckily, I have a 13 week training plan! How smart is that? Actually, I am hopeful that I can stick with the training plan (it’s a run/walk plan…we’ll see if it’s more walking than running (have never considered myself a runner…EVER. However, folks like Shelley totally inspire me…so I suppose that it could happen!). I started yesterday (after a about a 6 week hiatus from exercise). And I did all of my workout outside. Kyle Busch (my Garmin--thanks again to Shelley who named hers Ricky Bobby...I just continued on the race driven/NASCAR theme) showed dismal results (maybe I should rename it Jr...if you are a NASCAR fan, then you know what I am talking about)…but it’s all about the effort, right? I walked/run (way more walking than not) for 47:00 and a total of 2.62 mi. Please remember—while the weather has vastly improved in the ATL over the weekend, there was still lots of ice and snow…and parts of where I was killing myself exercising was still shaded and ice was prevalent. Not wanting to spend the next 13 weeks in an orthopedic boot, I exercised caution…extreme caution. So, I can only hope that those stats vastly improve as time goes on...(Fingers crossed).

I did lose this past week, according to the scale at Weight Watchers. A whopping .2 (that’s not two pounds…that’s 2/10 of a pound…but it’s still a loss, so I guess I will take it!). I am making a concerted effort to track all seven days this week (which I have done since Saturday…yay me!!!). I also bought the ingredients to cook at home and prepare lunches all week…including tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and all of the ingredients to make a huge crockpot full of the Weight Watchers staple, vegetable soup. Hopefully, the scale will be good to me (or would that be me being good to me? Hmmmm…). I have also made a concerted effort to intake lots of water…lots and lots of water. Another thing that I did, at the recommendation of Joy (my Weight Watchers leader) and several other members is to take the Weight Watchers smoothie mix (didn’t think I would be a fan…but man, these things are awesome!!!) and add fruit (I added an overripe banana in lieu of tossing it into the garbage). This thing was so filling—I was stuffed. I do make my smoothie with the mix, fat free milk (counts as 2 daily dairy servings (Healthy Guidelines)!!!), ice, and the banana. Combine all ingredients into the Magic Bullet…and Tada! Magic Breakfast. Was so super impressed....a banana “milkshake” on the way into work…does it get any better than that? The other “new” thing I committed to this week was spaghetti squash. What you might not know about me is that I can be a pretty picky eater. I like most veggies (can only think of a couple that I loathe—and will not put into my mouth)…so again, at the recommendation of several at the Saturday morning meeting, I decided to buy one…a small one. After wrestling with it in the kitchen (totally not prepared to be taken down by a squash!), I was up and running…Unfortunately, I totally overcooked it…so my “spaghetti” resembled more like a pasta mush…I did taste of it (and was surprised there was no more taste than that…guess that’s why it’s a good pasta swap!). So, I will try it again…cook a little less, at a lower temp…stay posted!

So…until next time…remember…”Every Man Dies…but Not Every Man Lives” (thank you, Jason Aldean).