In My Element

Being in my element makes me feel so comfortable and so “at home.”

After a long day of teaching and feeling like I was on a stage all day, I went out for a run Tuesday night. As soon as I got in my groove, the stressors of life were lifted off my chest and I instantly felt as if everything in the world was right. I was instantly reminded how much running makes me feel “in my element.” I love it. I love everything about it!

– I don’t have to talk to anyone else. (I’m an introverted person.)

– I love being outdoors. (I pretty much refuse to run inside or on the treadmill.)

– I can get lost in my own thoughts and zone out.

– I love breaking a good sweat and pushing myself to run hard.

I can’t express how refreshing this run was for me! It was everything I needed after a stressful day!

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I have to admit that my meals lately have been less than exciting. I’ve been trying to eat up random food in the fridge, so it has been a lot of broccoli, carrot sticks, watermelon, and nut butter on bread. (Not picture-worthy.)

I really enjoy trying new foods, and lately I’ve been trying to incorporate different kinds of grains in my diet rather than just rice or pasta. A while back I used Israeli Couscous in an awesome dish, and then over the weekend, I cooked up some pearled barley.

Overall, the pearled barley is chewier than rice but has a nuttier flavor to it. I wasn’t that I disliked the pearled barley, but it wasn’t my favorite either.

Running

After running just a few miles at the beginning of the week and taking Wednesday off from running all together, I decided to give my arch a try on a 5 mile run this morning. I was very hopeful and optimistic it had healed by now–I mean, it has been 2 weeks since it started hurting.

As I started out on an incredibly dark and foggy morning, I was loving the opportunity to be out running at 6:00 in the morning. I’ve missed my morning runs! I was feeling great and the miles were clicking by easily, but with a mile left to go, I could feel the pain in my right arch creeping back. GRRRR!!!! I don’t need this right now. I’ve been really stressed out with work; can’t I at least have my running back?

When I got back home, I took my training log book out to see how many miles were on my shoes. When I did the math, I realized that my current shoes had over 500 miles on them! Whoops! Usually I am really good about replacing my shoes. I am not 100% sure this is the reason for my arch pain, but only a new pair of shoes will help determine that. Thankfully, I ordered a new pair of shoes over the weekend, so they should be here any day!

Breakfast

This morning a hot, steamy bowl of oatmeal was calling my name.

I am really bummed the sun doesn’t rise until 30 minutes after my breakfast is consumed, so no more outdoor photos. 😦 It might be time to invest in a SLR camera seeing my little point and shoot doesn’t take the best indoor photos.

I think I’m getting a little burnt out on oatmeal. Half way through this bowl, I was ready to be done with it.

This tends to happen quite a bit in my diet. I find something I like, eat it a lot, and then get sick of it for a while before incorporating it back in my diet. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing–I like change in my life, so it is now time to find something else to eat for breakfast. I’m okay with that.