C25K Week 3 Day 1 - I Made It!

Today is Monday, so that means that my running schedule changed according to the C25K app I have. This week is run 90 seconds, walk 90, run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes, and repeat. Last Friday I was kind of freaking out about the run 3 minutes part. When I started my run today I wasn't exactly excited to try running for three minutes, but I knew that I was going to do it no matter how I felt about it. After I was done I'd see how I did and see if maybe I should repeat last week's run (run 90, walk 90, repeat) instead.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with myself. The first part (run 90/walk 90) wasn't as bad as it was last week. I think maybe because I knew run 3 minutes was coming up that I expected it to be longer and was surprised when my 90 seconds ended. Then came the three minutes. And I did it! I pushed myself to keep running, even if it was at a slower pace, just to complete it, and I did. No cheating (walking when I'm supposed to run) at all. It wasn't the most pleasant experience, but as I've done before I forced myself to not check the clock to see how much time I had left and just run.

As I finished today's sets I felt accomplished and pretty proud of myself. I know for some people that running for three minutes (twice) is a small feat, but to me it's pretty big. I mean, I'm a person who has walked miles for exercise but never was able to jog for any extended period of time. Three minutes is a lot, and I'm looking forward to doing it again on Wednesday - soon running for 3 minutes will be as easy as running for 60 seconds in the first week (I hope)!

Thank you everyone for all the encouragement last week - it really helped :)

Orgreenic Kitchenware

I didn't buy it.

And Mike didn't buy it because it was "As Seen On TV." He bought it for two reasons: 1) we needed a new pan, and 2) he's always wanted ceramic cookware. It must be the ceramicist in him or something. Regardless, yes, we have and use Orgreenic Kitchenware. Go ahead, laugh. When you're done, I'll tell you why it rocks.

Once you've got it "seasoned" with oil/grease this thing has very little upkeep. Sometimes I use some sort of oil in it, sometimes I don't, and nothing burns. Nothing sticks. We've made eggs and left it uncleaned overnight. It took 1 minute to clean. Same with pancakes.

If we could afford it I would totally "upgrade to the full organic cookware set." But this stuff's expensive (and with reason). 'Tis good. And no, I didn't get paid for this post, I didn't get free stuff to comment on...I just saw a commercial and thought, "I bet you someone somewhere is hating on this because it's As Seen on TV...I need to share..."

You've been informed.

C25K W2D3 I was fine until...

I finished my run today and thought, "Meh. That was ok. I wonder if I should repeat week 2 since my knees and calves aren't feeling ready for more." Then I did my Friday "ritual" (of two weeks mind you) of checking next week's run schedule to get my brain thinking about the change.

Oh. My. God.

Seriously? Run 90, walk 90, run for 3 MINUTES, walk for three minutes, and then repeat that?!?! 3 minutes?!?! I already want to decide to repeat week 2 just because that freaks me out. That's double the time I ran this week and my knees and calves already slowed down at about 80 seconds this week.

So here's my plan. I will do W3D1 Monday. If it doesn't work out well, I'll go back to W2D2 and D3 for next week and see if that helps. Hopefully that will be enough to get me to feel better about a full week three after that. But if Monday goes well then I'll do W3D2 and D3.

In the Kitchen Together

For the past five years, dinner at The House has been I buy it, Mike prepares it, we eat. Most of the time it was frozen or something easy. I buy chicken, he adds stuff to it (such as spices and whatnot), and we eat. When we opted to do the Paleo diet I looked for recipes, cleared them with him, and bought the stuff, but when it came time to cook I realized there was a lot more to it than just, you know, take it out of the freezer, take it out of the box, and put it in the stove (bad me and frozen pizza). So rather than cook alone (I had the recipes on my phone so I was now "The Cooker"), I called Mike in, showed him what we were making, and set him to cutting or doing something.


Our kitchen isn't that big. So we're sometimes in each other's ways. And we cook differently. I follow recipes. He cooks to taste (which he imagines in his head, which I can't do). He's creative about cooking - he can throw something together from available stuff. If I don't have a recipe I make something I've always made (not just a throw together meal). So imagine these two people in the kitchen together, trying to reach one goal (a meal). Yeah. It's been...a challenge. There we go.

Bacon, spinach, and
mushroom casserole

But we have found some things that we both liked, and I want to share those with you. All of these came from Quick Paleo Meals at Paleo Diet Lifestyle. First up, bacon, spinach, and mushroom casserole. First off, my brain says this isn't a casserole because it doesn't fit my brain's criteria for a casserole. But whatever you call it, it has a good taste. I personally would prefer the bacon crispy (as I always do), but it had a good taste and we liked it. Mike took the leftovers and made an omelet with them. The recipe calls for a casserole dish that you cook everything in on the stove but we just used a regular saute pan. One nice thing about this is it's a one pan deal - no other pans or lots of cleanup required.


Moving on. Liver and onions. You can tell me as long as you want that liver's good for you. And that's great. And Mike likes it. The idea of it, the taste of it, and everything about it just don't sit right with me. But at the beginning of this Paleo journey I said I'd try everything once (but not brains, Sarah). I tried it. I don't like it. I'm done. Will I have it again? *Rolls eyes and sighs* If Mike asks for it, sure. It's easy. It's pretty inexpensive. I don't know about your grocery store, but my grocery store had 1 container of liver (that I bought for $2.50). Moving away. From liver.

Paleo pork chops
with apples and onions

Pork chops with apples and onions. Yeah. This is good. I've talked to a lot of people about different Paleo pork chop recipes and I was pretty happy with this one. The apples and onions give it a good flavor and again, it's pretty easy and quick. The cutting up of the apples and onions took the longest time honestly. I may start cutting up gads of stuff at a time so that cooking will be easier. I should have eaten two of these but Mike had two, I gave one to Silas (who refused to eat it), and we only had 4. I did eat his leftovers the next morning for breakfast...

Canned salmon salad

Cold salmon salad you say? Sure. For lunch one day we made canned salmon salad. We halved the recipe because it was just the two of us eating lunch, and we still had leftovers. We used lettuce wraps to make little "sandwiches" rather than just put it on a bed of lettuce as a salad. Quick and easy (aside from the cutting, again). I will definitely make this again and may even make some up to bring to work. Mike says he thinks it would be tasty with celery rather than cucumbers as well.

Paleo Chicken Fajitas

Last up was Paleo Chicken Fajitas. We had these for dinner one night when a family friend was over. He enjoyed them as well (in a tortilla, no lettuce wraps for him). Definitely tasty and "one skillet easy." We'll definitely keep this around because it's quick and something good to serve if folks who don't follow the Paleo diet have dinner with us.


So what would we like to try? I'm really interested in some sort of pizza type thing. But I think the crust would involve a lot of work so I'm kind of waiting for next week when I can have a leisurely time of making it (kids at school, Mike at work). Do you have go-to lunch and dinner ideas? Share in the comments!

C25K W2D2 All Systems Tired

It was a rainy day today. Total motivation sapper. But it did stop raining for a bit around 11 am so I decided to kick my ass outside and get my run in. You don't have to be excited to run every day, right? You just have to do it.

As soon as I started warming up every currently moving part of my body cussed at me. As if an "All Systems Failure" light should come on, my hips, knees, calves...you name it...were unhappy all at once. But just like when you're driving, I kept walking and they simmered down.

I noticed that my calves felt tight around the same place in my run that they did Monday. I stepped off a curb and there they were. Note to self - don't be running and step down a curb. Maybe that will make for a happier Friday run. Who knows.

Pink!

I did get some KT Tape today as suggested by my awesome running mentor Erin. Now to figure out how to use it correctly to support my knees! If you've never seen their instructional videos, check them out. I imagine myself covered in tape head to toe and not able to move LoL

If you're doing the C25K too, keep at it! We're doing a great job :)