Good article on the Hoka type shoes. My son ran against Leo Manzano in early high school in Texas. I’ve followed his career. He was totally out of sponsorships a couple of years ago and Hoka rescued him. He’s a great guy.
Well, ok, the snow might not be gone (maybe not here in Ohio either) but things might be looking up and the end might be visable!!
Abasket, I’m glad you’re thinking positive, but the forecast is for temperatures to stay below freezing until Saturday. The roads here are still icy and the sidewalks are impassable. I’m walking on the indoor track and climbing my basement stairs & stretching.
On the USA weather temp map this a.m., our little corner of the world (Cincinnati) was the farthest southern extent of the below zero temps. Yay us. 
@momannoyed, we’re talking another month - not this week! It was -4 as I drove to work this morning and -12 air temperature is in the forecast for later in the week in Northern Ohio - I am well aware things suck now but as the saying goes…you’ve got to overcome the schedule, barriers and plan! Believe me, I slip and slide on our sidewalks which have been snow/ice covered for weeks at least twice a day when I walk my dog.
fireandrain, I’d go with the fancy scale being wrong. Fluid retention due to travel.
Unfortunately, my motivation or lack thereof for better eating/exercising has nothing whatsoever to do with the weather. I’ve been very consistent with the exercise and in fact, have lost 6 pounds in the past week because I didn’t want to eat and what I did eat wasn’t sticking around to do my body any good. Definitely not the way to lose weight and improved weather won’t improve the situation. My biggest indulgence was a Valentine’s Day breakfast with Mr. Sabaray at Bob Evans - after a 9.2 mile run. A friend told me God would only give me what I could bear - I need a friend to tell God I’m at my limit!
abasket, I hear you about the pups! Sabadog and Sabapup love this weather. Frolicking in the snow is a huge treat for them - Sabadog in particularly enjoys chasing snowballs. The snow we got this time is super light and powdery - so no snowballs for him. If you don’t have a pair of Yaktrax for walking, I highly recommend them. I think iDad first mentioned them to me after I fell on my rear walking one dog - don’t think I could walk two without them.
Abasket-I like your positive attitude! I am really looking forward to Daylight Savings Time starting in just 3 weeks. That will make a huge difference in being able to do something outside after work.
Fireandrain-I’ll bet the fancy scale is off. It’s also possible that you are more fit now and so a couple extra pounds doesn’t affect how your clothes fit.
Sabaray-sorry to hear that you are so stressed out. That’s terrible! And losing six pounds in a week is crazy - as much as you run, you must be at a pretty healthy weight to begin with. I hope life settles down for you and you can de-stress.
My husband keeps talking about wanting the Yaktrax. We do walk all the time in almost all weather so it would probably be a good investment.
Had a good lower body workout at the gym last night, but I sure feel it today when I’m climbing the 4 flights of stairs at work.
Worked out with my trainer today. Afterwards I did a fast 2 mile walk on the treadmill and another 30 minutes on the elliptical.
I need new shoes–my trainer suggested trail running shoes. Does that make sense for someone who is in the gym mostly. I also do a fair amount of outside walking unless there’s too much snow. Trainer says I turnout and need support because of my old ankle injury.
Sabaray–hope your stressful situation resolves itself quickly.
sabaray- I hope things improve. I know how stress can affect everything in your life. Sleep, eating etc. Visualize yourself dropping a stone and letting it go. (yeah- easy to say)
Bromfield2- Why did he suggest trail running shoes? I have some Hokas that are labeled “trail running” but mainly I got them because the soles are a little more durable. They are NOT very pronounced tread like some trail shoes. It would really depend. Some trail shoes aren’t much different from road shoes while others are closer to light hikers. I used the latter for snowshoeing.
The one problem with Yak Traks is that they are sort of a pain to take on and off so it is better to dedicate a pair of shoes to them so you can leave them on. At least that was my experience.
4.3 miles on the dreadmill. Didn’t go as well as yesterday. My HR was too high and I just didn’t feel great. I’m sure it’s from my cold, but yesterday went better, so I was a little surprised.
That’s a good idea on the YakTraks- designating a pair of shoes to “own” them. Are the walking ones much different than the running ones?
Sabaray, 6 pounds is so much in a week! Please tell us you are eating ! - several small snacks at least!?
The YakTrax I have are for walking, abasket - I don’t try to run outside when it’s icy. And as MOWC suggested, they are permanent fixtures on an old pair of running shoes. They do the trick.
Definitely eating, abasket. While I’d like this to resolve quickly, chances are high this will be an extended situation that I have little to no control over, so I’m going to try and focus on what I can control. I think I might need a dumptruck of stones.
Did anyone see the article about Chipolte? http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/17/upshot/what-do-people-actually-order-at-chipotle.html
Nice walk with the dogs this afternoon, Pilates tomorrow. Pretty happy about that.
That is a good route Sabaray - focus on what you can control, deal with the other stuff as you have to.
I admit to loving Chipotle, but haven’t had it in months. I usually order a burrito bowl with brown rice, chicken, black beans, the hottest salsa, corn, lettuce, cheese and yep, sour cream (on the side). I can do without the guac there and the chips. Choosing the hottest salsa helps me to be satisfied with only eating half the bowl at a time - so two meals out of it. Not a stellar meal, but keeping the quantity serving down helps.
I like Chipotle and we have a competitor called Moe’s that has really good bowls, too.
We are disappointed that this ice event has caused the cancellation of our church’s Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner tonight. We look forward to that and it is a fundraiser for the youth group. It’s rescheduled until Sunday evening, but that isn’t exactly kicking off Lent. We are going to make our own pancakes tonight. Neither of our cars have moved since Sunday and we haven’t been off of our property. That might be the first time ever! One of my co-workers has a steep driveway that goes UP from his garage to get off his property. He emailed me that he’s not sure he can get out at all this week. He is heavy and has really bad knees and he said he couldn’t even walk up his grass today because it was solid ice. The key is to just stay safe. We can work just fine from home for now.
Chipotle is my go-to lunch – I get a 570 calorie salad. I checked out the calorie data a couple of years ago. I get a bowl with lettuce, brown rice, black beans, chicken, fresh tomato salsa and corn. No tortilla, cheese, sour cream, or guac (though I know the guac is healthy fat, I am just not crazy about it). My salad has 1400 mg sodium, and 900 of it is the tomato salsa and corn. For me, that is pretty much my daily quota of sodium. The tortilla is a huge chunk of calories and sodium, BTW.
I read the article and was happy to see that my lunch there is considered pretty much the healthiest option!
Chipolte is one of my “go to” lunches. I get the chicken burrito bowl with black beans, vegetables and guacamole. No cheese, no sour cream or chips. Now I have to read the article to see if I’ve bern fooling myself that this is a healthy meal :).
Just went back and read the article. Curious. When I order my chicken burrito bowl, I use Cipolte’s webpage nutrition calculator to track each ingredient and nutritional content. The burrito bowl, as I order it, shows at 490 calories. That seems about right to me given that all it consists of is chicken, veggies, black beans and some guacamole. The article claims that by adding rice and sour cream, the calories really shoot up.
I do often ask for a hybrid bowl/salad - so less rice, more lettuce.
Second day in a row of the dreaded Airdyne. Another 5 mile jaunt. Slathered on an extra thick coating of electrode gel on the heart rate monitor strap and the Garmin worked today! Managed to crank the ol’ ticker up to 88% of my max which was good. Just informal ‘intervals’ doing half miles at or near 60 rpm and half miles in the 40 to 50 rpm range. It’s been so long since I’ve Airdyne’d that I knew better than to fire up one of my slavish Airdyne nazi high intensity interval workouts.The good news is that, if I just do based on how I feel, I slowly increase my pace until my heart rate is up there.
It’s warmed up to 46 degrees in the basement, so I’m hoping to get in a real workout tomorrow, slinging a few weights around. I think I can get it up to 50 with my space heater. Sure don’t need the fan and the sweat towel this time of year! More snow in the forecast. I can’t bear to even look and see how much. Surprise me! 
No Chipotle for me. I’m having the second dinner of my Marcella Hazan memorial pot roast in red wine. It’s from what I think is probably the best single cookbook ever published:
http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Classic-Italian-Cooking-Marcella/dp/039458404X
Alas, I have to skip over the bookmarked and flour-stained pages with the homemade from scratch rolled in the pasta machine fettuccini tossed with butter, cream, and parmigiano that is to die for (literally). I may have to whip up a batch her authentic eggplant parmigiana, though. No breading on her eggplant.
Sabaray, hang in there! Do not let the stress eat you alive - the stress does not deserve it. What abasket said: even if there are things that are out of your control, there are things you can keep in check, and stress is one of them. I know, easier said than done (been there personally with stress). What worked for me is to gradually get back into my routines, including posting here in this thread. The dust bunny that looked like a sandstorm of epic proportions settled eventually and was taken care of. If you feel like screaming, just come and scream or rant - no explanations or reasons needed. 
Weights is what I had for dessert after making (and eating!) my dinner of chicken stewed with artichoke hearts. Decided against running since the knee was still bleeding a tiny bit (bandage-controlled). Wore my nude hose that masked the bandaids and the bruise marvelously, so no one even commented (the folks I hang out with always see this kind of stuff). Mission accomplished.
Just checkin in to send sabaray the de stress mojo, or mojitos, or whatever works 
So when I get back home and whine about my weight gain, please remind me that I likely didn’t need to indulge in the chef’s special gourmet five-course meal with wine pairings last night, however wonderful…
Airdyne time! 2 days in a row! Go iDad. My basement was 52 today. We don’t heat it much unless we are going to have someone s
That pot roast sounds SO good.
Had the best “Fat Tuesday” dinner out last night - would usually be eating pancakes but the weather interfered. Grilled shrimp skewers with rice and red beans and some kind of corn business. Delicious. Three of us shared a giant piece of chocolate cake so I figure it couldn’t have been too bad. Better than me eating it all by myself. I made a boneless rib roast this past weekend but iDad’s dinner sounds much better! I even own that cookbook - I’ve just been afraid to open it. I’d be going for the homemade pasta.
Hour of Pilates this morning, quick three miles on the treadmill, ready to face the day. We just don’t have such super cold weather normally - it was 3 degrees when I left the house this morning and it’s supposed to be even colder tomorrow.