we can do anything.

I was feeling reeeeeally sore yesterday pretty much from the moment I woke up. I spent the whole day at work reading beginners' guides to running feeling pretty confident that I got this under wraps, minus one thing: the rest day. The great thing about elliptical training is that it's low impact and I never feel the need to rest since my body handles the workout pretty well. But with running... ugh. Not so much.



I stepped up my speed to 3.8 and I finished a mile in 15:50! I've shaved almost a minute off my time from Monday. I know timing is a matter of belt speed when running on a treadmill, but to put things in perspective my first run was on Sunday and I can already do 32% of a 5k non-stop. GO ME.



I thought a large part of my soreness was due to the increased resistance on the elliptical (I'm now working at level 4) but yesterday's two miles were a walk in the park. I seriously contemplated going up to level 5, but since I'm not taking a rest day from running until this weekend I'm going to chill it on my zeal for the elliptical.

This is motivation. This is what gets my blood flowing. I know for other girls it's having a boyfriend (I already have one... a GREAT one at that), or fitting into nice clothes, or that really cute two piece for the summer. But for me, this is it. LAS FREAKIN' VEGAS.

When I'm about to make a bad decision, I think of Celine Dion in a mini dress. I have an entire playlist on my iPod devoted to Las Vegas inspiration (seriously, it's called "Workout Las Vegas") and it's entirely Celine Dion songs. Live, up-tempo, concert recordings of course. When I think about what I want for my life and how I'm going to motivate myself, it's Vegas that comes to mind.



After leaving the gym yesterday, I ran some errands and picked up boyfriend from work. I convinced him to make a mid-week grocery run because the sad status of the fridge was going to put me in serious food trouble if I didn't get some greenery soon. The truth is, I could feed boyfriend for WEEKS based on what we had in the freezer and pantry, but his severe dependence on processed food is a path I just can't follow.

I spent $90 on food, at least $10 of which went to chips (no joke, he bought like 5 bags of chips). But it was such a treat to open the fridge this morning to see the beautiful rainbow of fruits and veggies waiting to be eaten! I get so excited the day after we buy groceries because everything is new and fresh and it feels like the opportunities for amazing food are limitless.

For breakfast this morning I am rocking a bowl of bran flakes, vanilla yogurt and a frozen berry blend (blackberry, raspberry, blueberry) and chunks of banana. It's the sad, unfortunate reality of my medication that bananas are a staple of my diet but today I think it'll do me well (yay muscle!). For lunch I made a turkey sandwich with a slice of pepperjack cheese and lettuce on 100% whole wheat bread, with a shit load of baby carrots as a side. For mid-afternoon snacks I will be nomming an orange and a red apple and 5.5 oz of V8.

In addition to my morning food goodies, I got another surprise I wasn't expecting. The scale gods decided to have mercy on me today. 264.5. This is the first time in WEEKS that it hasn't be 266 or 268. I've been teetering around those numbers for such a long time that I was starting to believe that my scale and/or my body was broken.

Side note: caloric restriction as a diet plan will never work for me, because things like Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster are pretty much a holiday in my world.