Say no when you want

Can I be surrounded by temptations and come out of it without feeling guilty?




YES.

Saturday night was UD alumni night but before then Adrian and I had dinner with his parents for his mom's birthday.  The whole weekend was full of difficult choices.

Difficulty #1- the menu at dinner consisted of a ton of appetizers, sandwiches, burgers, and a few salads.  They had ONE good entree choice on the menu (for me)- a house salad adding on grilled chicken with ranch on the side. It was a very blah salad.  Fresh vegetables (an obvious must) but the chicken was very dry and chewy. Seriously? You can't make a simple grilled chicken breast? LAME.   The one saving grace was there was again, ONE broth soup (Maryland Crab soup) that I had a cup of. It was yummy, thank goodness.  Everyone else loved their food, so that's good at least.... AND I chose what was the healthy, right choice for me. 

Difficulty #2-  Before mentioned UD Alumni night.  Aka we went out to Newark and got some drink on at Deer Park, our go to in Newark.   It was the usual tight-nit crew: me, Adrian, Jen, Evan, and Alex.  And I hadn't drank any alcohol since April....and that night I had a single beer.  So Saturday night I was debating what I wanted to do and ended up with a diet coke and rum, my usual low cal choice.  And then I had a second.  Occasionally I let a little peer pressure help direct my decision, not gonna lie.  Both were pretty weak but I was feeling it, hard core.  This is a hidden nice side effect of losing weight.  Yay!

Difficulty #3- After having fun at Deer Park everyone wanted pizza. Like, whoa they were about to get a pie and in my head I was screaming YES PLEASE! GIVE ME A SLICE!  But my body knew better and that would just make me want to binge.  I knew that some of it was legitimate hunger after my crappy dinner and lots of walking and dancing so I suggested we all hit up a diner instead.   Diners are actually very challenging for me, but I can usually modify a few things to make them acceptable.  And then we remembered that there was an Ihop on main street. PERFECT my brain literally screamed at me.  I knew I could get an egg beaters and veggie omelet and some fruit.  Exactly what my body and brain wanted after the alcohol to get on an equilibrium.  So I loved my egg beater omelet with fruit and a single pancake and it was like heaven in the form of a 1:00am snack.

Difficulty #4- I woke up Sunday morning feeling GUILTY. Like, mega big time guilt.  The kind of guilt that makes me either want to binge, starve myself, or exercise myself to exhaustion.  The weird thing is, my choices weren't that bad.  I avoided crappy food at dinner, only had 2 weak drinks and then made a good choice for late night food, plus we walked a lot.  I tracked all my food and shouldn't have any regrets, but I was sitting on Jen's couch feeling the familiar guilty itch.  I turned my phone on and saw a text from my sister- mom isn't feeling up for horseback riding today, how about a run instead?  Immediately I calmed down knowing that I would be going for a long trail run with Brianne.  I was going to be able to run off some of the guilt I had and get a good endorphin high. 

I downed some fruit and a snickers marathon bar for breakfast and went out and KILLED my 3.6 mile hilly trail run.  I felt totally awesome and for the first time, enjoyed running with no buddy to talk to AND no music because Brianne ended up walking with the dogs.  It was liberating and makes you feel one with nature to just hear your own even breathing and the birds chirping.  O yeah, and seeing deer and bunnies. Very nice. :)

So I made it through a potentially derailing weekend and out the other side just fine.  Well...my left hamstring is all tight and sore, probably from the trail run , so Emily showed me some stretching and foam rolling techniques to help it after our workout today.   I guess I need to stretch more even after my normal stretch routine after every workout.  I thought I might need a rest day, but I took one on Friday so I'm gonna go for a nice gently stationary bike ride tomorrow morning and stretch like crazy....then hope I can get a run in tomorrow afternoon. hehehe

And......

got abs?

I did 45 seconds of plank today!! 2 sets!  This may not sound very impressive but A- have you ever held plank? ouch. and B- this is a big deal with arm injuries.  Although the majority of the work should be in your abs, there is some pressure on your arms.  And it felt achingly (only in the abs) delicious.  I couldn't help grinning after each set. I've been doing a killer amount of ab work because I can never get enough, but holding a plank is definitely the best move to work your abs.  I was nervous to go there, and I'm glad Emily had me try today because I think I needed the little push.