The number on the scale went down.

 When my midwife asked me in a follow up visit after having Jupiter almost eight years ago what weight I wanted to be, I said I was most comfortable at 145. Its a weight for me that is not stressful to maintain and thin enough to like what I see in the mirror, find clothes that fit, and not feel burdened by unnecessary baggage. I am blessed with pretty good genes in that I am tallish at 5'9" and carry my weight fairly evenly throughout my body with a small propensity to collect fat on my midsection.

  After 4 children and 10 years of babies and nursing, I am now at that 145 weight according to my early morning every couple of weeks weigh in. This is encouraging in and of itself but also the fact that its winter and I have not stress eaten myself into a bigger pants size makes me pleased with my hard work and also rather sorry for my bitchy "I want sweets and meat because I am hungry all the time" moments. Notice the plural on the word "moments". It has been a roller coaster ride of weight gains and loss over these ten years and now I think its can finally  be at a balance again.

  Now that I am calling myself a runner and taking my training more seriously I want to take it down to 135 give or take some muscle weight increase.  I don't want to lug around the extra poundage when I am running more and more miles.  The longer miles are definitely burning off the fat slowly but surely. Its amazing that adding some calories seems to boost my metabolism and I can move past that aggravating plateau. Weight loss is tricky. You have to cut calories and exercise more however you have to eat enough to  burn the fat and recover well from said exercise. Like I said, tricky and a tad bit frustrating at times as well.

  This last week has been another treadmill week.My week goes from Monday through Sunday.  I did 10.5 miles twice and 11 miles on Saturday for a total of 32 miles.  I wanted to run yesterday but spent some time with my Valentine instead which also burned some calories hehe!
 I was working on speed a few weeks ago although it was wreaking havoc on the bottoms of my feet from running barefoot on the treadmill.(running barefoot on the roads does not do this to me) I decided that I need to run regularly especially in the winter to stay sane and that working on distance with less risk of injury was a better strategy for now. The speed will come. Last year I was surprised over and over how the speed came without me really working on it as the distance continued to  increase.

  For now it seems to be paying off since my last run of 11 miles felt easy and I still felt like I could go for a few more miles. No blisters, minimal aches and  my easy runs are getting longer.  There will be plenty of time to get out and hit the trails and roads when it warms up but for now watching Lost or Ugly Betty on Hulu for hours while running in the basement is working just fine.

 This week will hopefully be the same as far as mileage goes and maybe I can increase to 35 if I stick in a lower mile day once a week too. Hopefully I will get in some yoga and get my slug self to work on that handstand and core work.  I have Px90 giving me the stink eye as it sits collecting dust on my desk.

 I feel like I am missing something nutritionally  in my diet and am going to start drinking a smoothie everyday again with fruit, kefir and Chia seeds and some kind of protein.  I don't know why I got out of the habit but a friends blog post about drinking a protein shake everyday reminded me that it was something that made me feel good in the morning.
 My SCOBYs seem to be in hibernation and not making very good kombucha due to the cooler temps. I miss my kombucha in the evenings and can't wait for hot weather when a batch  brews in a week!
 We are headed to the store shortly and I am going to pick up some bison meat for a soup recipe a friend gave me and some rosemary for gluten free crackers so I can spread butter and Marmite on them for a snack. Maybe some frozen berries and definitely bananas for those smoothies that will be added to my morning routine again.

Birthdays coming up and cake shopping is in order :)  Maybe a pineapple upside down cake can be done in a gluten free fashion....There has to be, its my favorite!