Eating lies I tell myself.

Even though I wanted to do at least 8 miles today, I ended up doing a solid 6 with large dog.  Gotta give some props to the hubbs for catching a snap of large dog and I out in the 20-degree weather.

Large dog: ZOMG I'M RUNNING ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG

I think that this might be the last nice day for large dog to hitch a ride with me on a run; it's supposed to get supercold for a while (like it's winter or something), so I hope he enjoyed himself.  Especially the parts where he kept trying to drag me into the ditch.

But let's rewind back to the start of the day today, before my nice pre-Xmas run.  Let's go back all the way to the beginning, when small dog slammed himself on top of me to wake me up and take him outside.  As I stumbled my way to the bathroom trying to get that one eye that won't ever open all the way in the morning open, I decided for no particular reason to do something I haven't done in about 6 months: get on the scale and weight myself.

What were the results?  Well, I have gained back 9 pounds.  9.4 pounds to be exact.  But I didn't have a meltdown like I normally would have right there on the scale.  And I think the reason is because my clothes all still fit--I haven't had to buy any larger clothes, which is usually one of the main reasons I get back on the scale.

However, just because my clothes still fit doesn't mean I don't need to make some changes.  My eating needs some overhauling (which I've mentioned recently), but I think the biggest thing I need to change is to stop telling myself lies about what I can and cannot eat.  Below are some of the eating lies I tend to tell myself when I'm training for a race:

• I'm training.  I can eat that bread and all of the bread left on the table when I'm out to dinner.
• It's OK to have <whatever junk food is sitting in front of me> because I'm doing a 20 miler three days from now so, you know, it'll just magically burn off.
• Potato chips are carbs, right?  I need those for fuel for my runs right?  Right.  This whole family size bag should do it.
• These chocolate candies are sugar, which is mainly glucose...which is the same thing that's in my energy gels, so it's all good.
• I know I've been sitting at my desk all day and I literally just ate a health bar so of course I also need to eat this cheese and another health bar, because, you know, healthy stuff doesn't count.

So it's out with the rationalizing and in with the accountability for my eating.  From now on, you lucky readers, you're getting an eating report along with a workout report.  Hopefully this will consist of pictures of yummy, nutritious food, just like the one below of the beef and broccoli I made in the slow cooker tonight:

Learnings starting.....now:

• Large dog and I have a New Year's Day race...I hope it's going to be warm enough for him to run with me.
• Now you get workout/running porn AND food porn.  So lucky.
• Hopefully talking about my eating will shame me into actually cooking my own food more often.
• And if I cook more often I can stop all that lying to myself (even though I'm really really good at it).
• I'm just going to assume those 9.4 pounds are all sitting in my arms and move on with my healthier eating.

Tomorrow's workout: Some sort of Cathe total body workout. More muscle, more fat burning, you know...