I did much better today than yesterday at the conference. After the cookie incident in the afternoon, there was another cookie incident – I had a few glasses of wine that helped me decide it would be a good idea to chow down on two more cookies for dessert. On the positive side, after the original cookie incident, I found out that my meeting actually started at 5 instead of 4, so I threw on some workout clothes and got in a quick 2.4 miles on the treadmill before showering, throwing my business clothes back on, and returning to the conference.
Today, I’ve been doing really well. I got up at 5:30 AM so I could get in a workout before the conference, and it actually wasn’t that bad. I biked to help resolve the pain in my thigh, and it was pretty intense. The bike in the hotel gym was much harder than the bike at my home gym, and I was really working up a sweat! It’s a good thing that I’m teaching myself to be healthy on the road, because I just got word that starting Monday, I’m going to be traveling to Boston for a quick two week project. I tried to book the Westin, which is supposed to be amazing for health-conscious travelers (a state-of-the-art fitness facility, fitness equipment in guestrooms upon request, AND a running concierge who will take you on running tours of Boston!). Unfortunately, it was booked for the first week. I booked it for the second week, and chose the Hilton for next week, which is supposed to at least have a new gym, which will hopefully be good. I will keep up with my workouts, and I will keep losing weight instead of gaining it all back. No consulting 15 here!
My new mantra that will help me with traveling: there will be more treats tomorrow. For some reason, whenever I have treats in front of me, I always feel the need to gobble them up, as if it’s the last time I’ll ever be able to get food that delicious. I’m hoping that by traveling regularly, it will help me break that mindset, because there are going to be yummy things everywhere. Just need to keep repeating that: there will be more treats tomorrow!
That mantra has helped me pretty well today. For breakfast, I skipped all the pastries and donuts and bagels and cream cheese, and whipped out the packet of oatmeal I had tossed in my suitcase just for that occasion. Thanks to the hot water pot for tea, I was able to have a healthy breakfast when combined with a bowl of cut up fruit! For lunch, we had pre-made sandwiches, but at least they didn’t have dressings/sauce. I took two halves (one turkey, one roast beef), took the cheese off both, added mustard, and removed the bottom of the bread from both and folded them in half. Voila – one serving meat, no sauce, and only one piece of bread, plus tons of veggies! For dessert, I did take one of the mini cannolis, but when I was done eating I hightailed it out of the room so I couldn’t have more. I really wanted a second one, and I’m thrilled that I was able to resist! Dessert – 1, Laura – 1. A tie isn’t that bad…
On the running front, yesterday on the drive down to Delaware, I stopped at the Jersey Gardens outlet mall, which had both a Reebok and a Nike outlet. Guess what? It was the first day of a HUGE sale at Reebok, so I made out like a bandit and got tons and tons of all Dri-Fit wicking stuff. For $100, I got 3 jackets, 3 tank tops, 1 turtleneck, 1 regular long-sleeved shirt, and a pair of pants. I was planning to get a new outfit as a reward for my half-marthon last weekend, but this was so cheap it worked out to get all of it instead of one outfit! Yay.
Speaking of the half-marathon, I got the pictures back from Brightroom today. And oh my goodness, I look like a crazy person (bib number 3816, in case the link doesn’t work)! The pictures of me during the race make me look like I am seriously deranged, and the ones of me at the finish look like I’m about to either fall over and/or die. I wanted my facebook picture to be from the race, so I had to opt for the one of me at the finish where my arms are covering my face – that one isn’t too terrible. My goal for the Bronx half-marathon was originally to beat my time for this one and get under 9:00/mile, but now I think my goal is just to look normal while I run and get some good pictures! Hopefully my new clothes will help me look hot… just gotta work on the face 🙂
Have a great weekend, everyone! I will unfortunately be working, but it’s actually a really cool project that I’m really interested in that also happens to be for a pretty famous politician! I have a conference call with him later tonight, which I’m really excited about. Unfortunately, can’t really give more details, but trust me, I’m thrilled, and it’s awesome. Work is really looking up these days, which is great.
That mental trick of there will be more has helped me a ton too. Plus I know I eat things when they are free just because and figuring that out helped!
Those pics don’t look that bad… I’m sure you probably look loads better at a slower pace tho :-). I’m outright dreading the pictures of the half I’m going to participate in.
Cookies can’t be that bad :-).
I have a similar mindset – it’s like I’ll never see another cupcake again! But, when I’m in front of it, I never remind myself that I will see them again, so good job keeping yourself in control!
Gotta love tax-free Delaware!
Laura, I am new to your blog. I contribute to a running blog with several friends. We are all women, mostly Army wives, one lives in your neighborhood of NY. We run the gamut of pace and distance, but we all feel the same pain, enthusiasm, pride, frustration…
Come check us out.
http://www.runarmy10.blogspot.com
By the way, in every picture there is a guy behind you. That’s fabulous. Run like a girl!
Nice job on the cookie mantra.
Don’t spread your hotel points too thin, you’re right about Westin aLthough their concierges can be a bit hopeless at times, remember the W and the Sheraton are all part of the same group SPG, and they have great gyms etc
Amanda – EXACTLY. I can’t get out of the college mentality of “ooh free food! Must eat it!”
Chia – can’t wait to see your pics!
Meg, I didn’t know Delaware was tax-free… I went to an outlet mall in New Jersey. Oops!
V – gotta love beating the guys! (Though you’ll notice I crossed the finish line at the same time as some guy who’s about 65 years old. Good for him, kind of pathetic for me). I checked out your blog – let me know if you ladies have any interest in doing one of the Skirt Chaser races with me!
SLB, my thinking is that this is just a two week project, so there’s no point in really picking a loyalty program yet. My next project will hopefully be a longer term travel, and for those I think it’s definitely worth choosing one to stick with. So far I’ve only traveled a few days here and there, and previously I never really had much choice with hotels, so I already have a few points at each of Marriott, SPG, and Hilton.
hi, laura! thanks for commenting on my marathonomy blog so i’m returing the favor. i am laughing my butt off at what you said about the pics. my myspace page has a collection of all my “dumb running pics” because i decided to just celebrate how they are usually going to be really dumb. yours are great, it shows you are fired up about running…bottom line. awesome job on the oatmeal…and you are so lucky on that reebok sale. i would have cleaned up there, too! have fun and thanks for stopping by.
Hi–came over here via your comment on my blog, thanks! Hmmm–I don’t suppose you’re Upper West Side based and interested in sharing a cab to the Bronx half, are you?!? Drop me a line at jmd204 at columbia dot edu if you think you might be interested…
I don’t even see a hint of derangement, those look great!!
You are cracking me up with the cookie incidents, your travel sounds a lot like my travel. Way too much food around. Stay strong!!