Welcome to my fitness pipe dream.

I had to go to work today, so that meant it was Tuesday as per usual around our house: I got up at 3:45 AM, took the dogs outside so large dog could drag me around almost ripping my arm out of its socket, made breakfast and ate it, and then hopped on the treadmill while the hubbs was sleeping in the recliner nearby because I don't not treadmill for no man sleeping in a recliner when he should be upstairs in bed.  I only did 3 miles though, with the last two miles being one-minute pickups with 2 minute recovery jogs.

And there I am in all my treadmill glory.  With some righteous bed head to boot.  You're welcome.

It felt good to run fast, even if it was just a few minutes at a faster pace. My quads were still pretty sore, but that little workout loosened those suckers right up.

But I know you're way more interested in how my eating went today.  I know I am too, so let's look at the highlights:

1) My breakfast game is strong.  I make instant oatmeal and add a big scoop of PB, a mashed-up banana, and many dashes of cinnamon to it and I'm good to go for my morning workout.  That breakfast has served me well before all my workouts and a lot of my marathons.

2) Nutrisystem muffins as snacks.  They are filling, but beware the "high fiber" label on them.  You don't want to be in an enclosed meeting room with loads of innocent other people for a few hours after eating one of those, if you know what I mean.  And I think you do.

3) Begrudingly ate carrots and string cheese and my PB sandwich for lunch.  I was distracted during lunch from eating crap by an overwhelming pile of work that came in my email today because..you know..day after holiday and all.

4) My husband bought me chocolates for Christmas so I ate the serving size (3), gave them a dirty look, and dumped them in the break room for others to eat instead of me.

5) I wanted to eat the rest of the bag of those chocolates, but instead I ate some string cheese and was super duper proud of myself.  Until I caught myself wanting to go into the break room and have more chocolate.

6) Alas, my string cheese win over chocolate was cancelled out by my post-work trip to Starbucks for my fruity, sugary Starbucks referesher that keeps me company on my hour-long commute home. I just need to stop feeding that Starbucks habit to save pounds AND money.

As you can tell, I'm a bit of a sugar addict. And I suck at resisting the allure of the sweet stuff.  But I need to figure out what I'm going to do about it, because eating that crap isn't going to get me where I want to be.  And where I want to be is here:

I really want to look like this.  But I'm going to have to eat clean.  Like, perfectly clean.  And that means I'm gonna have to go here first:

I don't know if I'm going to make it.  

Learnings?  Sure, there's some right here:

• It did feel really good to run fast this morning.  I predict much joy during speed work for this nedxt training cycle...except for mile repeats.
• Sugar has always been my BFF.  It's time to end that friendship.
• I know that pic is a pipe dream for me...but I'm going for it.  Better to have tried to look totally ripped and fail than stay all soft in the middle.
• I think "going for it" will mean me eating a lot of veggies while crying.

Tomorrow's workout: Some upper body weight goodness.  Hopefully my eating will be better--going to try getting rid of a Starbucks run.