Friday Favorites: Getting ready to cheer!

Fingers crossed that we have fewer typos today!

First, I have to tell you my favorite moment of the week. Oliver’s birthday was last week and I made a decadent chocolate cake. On Wednesday, I decided to throw out the leftover cake because it had been sitting around for days and was reaching the point where it wasn’t the freshest. I threw away half of a chocolate cake! In the old days, that would have never happened. This cake would have been gone in a day or two because I considered cake acceptable for any and every meal.

What a waste of cake!

The favorite moment wasn’t the NSV of throwing away the cake (although that is great – birthday cake is definitely something of a trigger food for me) – it was the indignant “Hey!” I got from Oliver when he came into the kitchen and saw his cake in the garbage! He was okay with my explanation that it was getting too old, thankfully. I suspect he’s going to get more vocal about his treats as he gets older and is exposed to them more often.

This has been a crazy busy but productive week, which is definitely preferable to those weeks where I feel like I’m running around like a mad woman and yet accomplishing nothing! During my “mental health breaks” this week, I’ve enjoyed these posts from around the web:

In RunDisney news, racing season is about to get started again with the Disneyland Half Marathon. I can’t wait to see everyone’s posts and recaps next week! I got lots of nice smiles while reading Half Crazy Mama’s post about things Not to Do at a RunDisney race. With a Disneyland race next on my horizon and rumors of how great the churros are, I particularly liked number 1 – churros are probably not great race fuel. 🙂

Princess Alana over at 2 Princesses on the Run has a great post about Falling back in love with running. I love her honesty and realism – sometimes we fall out of the habit of running and forget what we loved about it in the the first place. We forget that it really is possible to find time during the week to run and we forget that we are totally worth that effort! Read her post and get a dose of real world inspiration!

Speaking of real world inspiration, you guys know how much I love Katie over at Runs for Cookies. Her honest posts about weight loss, weight maintenance and struggles with binge eating have been so helpful for me over the last several years. This week, she celebrates 5 years since she started her weight loss journey and I think it is so great that she has framed her achievements in that time in terms of the things she can do now, not a number on the scale or on a clothing label. This is about so much more than the scale! Thanks Katie!

In that spirit, I have to share you what may be my favorite piece of weight loss advice ever: Make the next healthy choice. Simple, straight forward and oh so true. It doesn’t matter if you just ate a gallon of ice cream. Pick yourself and make the next healthy choice, whether that is taking a little walk, planning a healthy dinner or just choosing to forgive yourself for whatever has happened before. Definitely check out this blog post  for the whole scoop. So fantastic!

Last but not least, I got an email yesterday from Sweat Pink about the Skirt Sports virtual races to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Skirt Sports is a running skirt company that started ten years ago after its founder, Nicole DeBoom, won Ironman Wisconsin wearing a running skirt. In addition to that very cool beginning, they are also collaborating with Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to register for and complete the Boston Marathon, so they have girl power in spades. The virtual run (either 10K or 10 mile – your choice) comes with a gift certificate for their very cute running gear, as well as a finisher’s skirt or shirt. I’m tempted by the skirt/capris combo, as it is going to be too cold for my beloved SparkleSkirts before I know it! If you’d like to register or buy anything from their site, you can use the code SKIRTPINK10 until September 15 for a 10% discount on the virtual race registration and/or anything else on their site. (I wasn’t compensated in any way for mentioning this – just a coupon code passed on to me for you guys from Sweat Pink!) I’m going to try out either the capris or maybe one of the cute “Fearless” skirts from the Katherine Switzer 261 line. I’ll let you know how it works out!

Last but not least, my good deeds for the week: First, I donated to a friend’s sister’s autism classroom via DonorsChoose.org. I am amazed at all of the things teachers have to provide for their own classrooms so I’m happy to help out wherever I can.

Second, while I was getting coffee at work earlier in the week, the very busy barista had just passed the whole carton of milk over to a guy who complained that the carafe was empty. After he finished, I took the carton and refilled the carafe before doctoring my own coffee. As big as her line was, it would be a while before the barista got a chance to get all the way around to where the carafe lived to take care of it. It took me all of a minute to refill it for her and the look of surprise and relief and gratitude on her face was totally worth it. 🙂 Any little thing that saved her from a) cleaning up the mess when someone inevitably knocked the carton over or b) dealing with complaints about it getting warm in the carton is a good thing, right?

My goal to decrease my Splenda intake is going great by the way!

I hope you all have a great weekend! Tomorrow, I have an 8 mile run with a “ten minute strong finish” on the schedule which will be an interesting challenge. I’m planning on timing the run so that I end up near the finish of my co-worker’s very first 5K! I’m so excited for her and am really looking forward to being there to cheer her across the finish line!

Anybody need some virtual long distance cheering this weekend? Let me know and I’ll send good vibes your way! I’m in a cheerleader sort of mood. 🙂

 

 

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