What a weekend!

I had a completely unhealthy, exercise-free, eating challenged, drank-too-much weekend. It was wonderful.

Saturday morning/early afternoon my husband and I had a big Valentine's themed brunch party. I stayed up most of Friday night cooking, got up early Saturday morning to finish cooking, and put out one hell of a spread ... I made three kinds of quiche, egg and sausage casserole, hash browns, cookies, homemade coffee cake, homemade strawberry bundt cake, homemade cherry pie, toast, bacon, cheese and crackers, and we bought donut holes and sausage rolls, too. Champagne, mimosas, poinsettias, screwdrivers, bloody maries and coffee with Irish cream and Kahlua flowed freely.

I was so busy entertaining that I forgot to eat (it's true!), but somehow I didn't forget to drink, and I ended up passing out from exhaustion and intoxication at around 5 PM. I woke up at 2 AM with a hangover, but managed to get back to sleep, and when I woke up again at 8 AM I felt better.

Then on Sunday I ran errands and ate junk food all day ... why do McDonald's and Dr. Pepper and pizza all taste so good post-drinking?

The only thing wellness-related that I did all weekend was buy a new pair of running shoes. I'll be doing week 1 day 2 of the couch to 5k program this evening. I'm not letting a weekend of being off-plan derail me.

I have to confess ... I don't feel at all bad about my weekend of depravity and decadence. I feel like I should feel bad, but I don’t. In my married, suburban, 30-something existence, weekends like this don’t happen very often.

Couch to 5k invitation

I don't have much time right now, but I wanted to throw an offer out there. I've been exchanging messages with jb, and we're going to do this Couch to 5k thing together.

Anyone else want to join the fun? The more the merrier! There's no time like the present! Strike while the iron is hot! Insert cliche here!

Seriously, if you're considering running, why not join us? We can share our experiences and compare notes. I've only done 1 day so far, so I'm just starting out, too.

If you're a beginner like me (who historically has only run when being chased, or maybe when someone dangles a carton of ice cream in front of me) it'll be perfect for you. It's a program that starts you out slow, with very little running and mostly walking. Then, over the course of weeks, you increase how much you run and decrease how much you walk. If you're having a hard time, you can repeat the weeks. The focus isn't on speed, it's on getting your body used to running so you can run 5k.

There's even a podcast that you can use to tell you when to run and when to walk, and it has good music, too. I used it for my week 1 day 1 run.

Someone else sent me this info, too ... I haven't read it yet. But I figured I should share it anyway.

Think about it! If I can do this, you can do this.

And a quick aside ... I'm probably not going to be on here much for the next few days, but I'll be back Monday for sure. I'm having a Valentine's champagne brunch party Saturday morning and I have to get ready. I haven't even been grocery shopping yet. Ack!

If I do find a spare moment, I figure I should spend it working out and not blogging. Crazy concept, right?

Cleaning out the house

Other than starting this blog, yesterday was a crappy day for fitness. I ate and ate, then I ate some more, then I had a little more to eat. Then I ate. Ugh.

During the week and a half around Christmas and New Years I ate whatever I wanted to eat, with no consideration of calories or fat or health. Our house filled with junk food that normally wouldn't be here. Yesterday morning my husband took some of the junk to work with him, but not all of it, and I went a little nuts eating my way through what was still here. Cookies and candy and leftover lasagna and more cookies and .... blech. The more I ate, the crappier I felt, but somehow that didn't stop me from eating.

It was a little crazy, really. What was that all about?

Finally around 8:15 PM I made myself get on my stationary bike and do 30 minutes of cardio. I didn't want to get on the bike, but I forced myself to do it. And since it's hard to ride the bike AND shove food in my face, that stopped the binge.

I didn't buy this junk food - my friends and relatives brought it into the house, and I haven't felt like I could remove it until now, post-holiday. I don't trust myself to have junk food in the house. Once I get into it, I can't get myself out of it. I open the bag or box or tin and fall right in. Junk food I haven't touched yet is somewhat safe, and I may never touch it. If I haven't tasted it, I have some level of control. But if I've tasted it, heaven help me. I know this about myself - I don't completely understand it, but I know it - so after the bike ride I threw away the rest of the leftover lasagna and put the rest of the junk food in a grocery bag for my husband to take to work today.

OK, in all honesty, I had one more homemade Christmas cookie, THEN I put the rest in a grocery bag to send to work with my husband.

I'm trying to look back at yesterday as something other than a complete failure. I started this blog, I did a little cardio, and I ultimately did the junk food clean-up. It was a start. Now I just need to keep on going.