Burning off Thanksgiving Calories

After two weeks of reduced miles due to a head cold and a busy schedule I was able to break forty miles for this past week. Even running over forty miles I ate more calories than I burned, although only by 300 (that's a bagel). On Thanksgiving day I ran 8.8 miles and would have had to run another ten just to balance out what I ate that day. Yesterday, I ran the ten miles but had turkey dinner leftovers twice so I only managed to pay half of it back.

For dinner last night I made what would be called turkey wrap by us Gringos. I heated turkey in gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and wild rice and wrapped it in a whole wheat flour tortilla. I was going to add cranberry sauce but Valerie felt that adding cranberry sauce to a taco violated her sense of acceptable crossover cooking. I could have enjoyed three but I exercised restraint and held it to one and a half.

The fattening leftovers are gone(there's still turkey) so I think we've made it through the hard part. I've lost almost thirty pounds since Elliott's birthday. When he was born in March, the two of us on the scale together weighed 216 pounds. He's gone from about seven pounds to almost twenty and the two of us together on the scale now weigh about 196. I haven't lost any weight perse in the last two months; this time of the year it is a feat to just not gain.

I prefer to run in warm weather. The hardest part is always just getting out the door so if I can head out warm in just shorts and a t-shirt I can deal with the heat later. Of course, I could run all day on a day like yesterday when it was in the high forties but the first twenty minutes in a raw wind is the daunting part. So far this "winter" I've managed to keep myself going out the door. The momentum is critical.

As a culture we need to make the healthy behavior the routine, then an occasional digression wouldn't be a problem, but I think too many people want their rewards right away, whether it be ice cream, a meal out, a bag of chips, etc. Letting go one meal a week would be a better way to go. Restaurants serving rich tasty foods used to be ok because eating out was an occasional treat but now it is part of many people's routine. Keep your mileage high.