This week has been beleaguered by much over-scheduling and emergent shin splints, and I have found myself fighting to keep my mental fortitude intact, to stay committed to the running program and healthful eating plans I put in motion last month. And this week, it has been a struggle.

I realize it is inevitable to have highs and lows where these things are concerned, and I am making a concerted effort to stay positive and to just do something, anything, EVERY SINGLE DAY that gets me even one tiny step closer to my goals. This week, it has been a battle.

I have mulled over the challenges this week has brought me, and talked it over with those closest to me, and put it out there to the universe that THIS WEEK I need a little cosmic push to KEEP ON GOING.

Linda Lee at All & Sundry said:

So, there is this: trying the best you can. There is this: pushing yourself past of what you believe you are capable of. There is this: living in the moment you are in, and letting go of the things that have already happened. There is adventure when you can take it, a quiet room when you can find it.

Tomorrow will be like today but it will also be different and you won’t know how and maybe there is a wild and luscious beauty to that.

I like that. It gives me hope for next week.

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(Read Linda’s entire post here.)

(Graphic by Dean Lindsay.)

So in addition to being one day away from finishing Week Three of my Couch to 5K program, which is a nine week program, I also started a “carb clense” program today. Which is an eight week program. In case you were wondering.

See, I have been fairly consistently treadmilling three to five times a week for a little over a month now and, as well, I have seriously reduced my calorie and fat intake in that month, but have yet to see any REAL movement in the downward direction on the scales. I mean, I haven’t been expecting miracles, but even four or five pounds would have been encouraging. Right?

Right.

This lack of Encouraging Pound Reduction, or E.P.R., led me to do a little dietary research, the results of which led me to theorize that I am afflicted with the “Metabolism B” (as described by Diane Kress, R.D., C.D.E. and author of the book The Metabolism Miracle), requiring some rest for my poor, overworked pancreas.

Which is to say, for the next eight weeks I will be surviving on MEAT, EGGS, and PROTEIN SHAKES. Oh, and a wee little bit o’ carbs of the 5 gram or less variety every five hours while I am awake.

Hold me now.

Anyway, more on this developing story later. Right now I need to: 1. go yell at Rob or a miscellaneous child for no good reason, 2. eat a twelve ounce ribeye washed down with a two-liter of Diet Pepsi, and 3. set my iPhone to wake me up every five hours tonight.

Hahaha. I kid.

(About two of those things.)

As you were.

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UPDATED TO ADD: I am so very honored and thrilled that Crash Test Mommy is amongst the nominees for an Okie Blog Award, in the Best Family Blog category! So many thanks to everyone who nominated my little website. You can vote for me HERE, should you feel so obliged. Congrats to ALL the nominees, such a deserving bunch.

I’m going to write about running again and I know what you’re thinking, you’re all “She’s writing about running? Again? What is this turning in to? A running blog?” And the answer is yes, I guess, I don’t know, and maybe.

So.

After surviving one blistertastic week of Couch to 5K (C25K), then deciding I needed to take a week off to let my wound fully heal, last Monday I made the executive decision to start the program over from the beginning. Begin the begin, as R.E.M. said. (Love me some R.E.M.) And I’m happy to report that as of last Friday I completed Week One with no new taxes blisters! Granted, as previously reported, I started having some knee pain, but I figure that’s the price of getting drop dead sexy physically fit when you are thirty-eight years old and roughly fifty pounds overweight. Not so much an “injury” as an “insult” to my knee. If that makes sense.

Anyway, I previously left out part of the story of my blister experience for brevity’s sake (see Mom, I DO know what BREVITY is) and since it’s a topic I would like to address today, I’mma fill in the blanks I left in earlier posts. Because regarding my ginormous, bloody, bright red, four-layers-of-skin-deep blister? I BLAMED THE NIKES.

And not just because they were brand new and not broken in and not one-half to one-full size bigger than my usual size eight-and-a-halves, but also because the heel part came up higher and was shaped differently than other running shoes I have worn in the past. So I took them back to the store for a refund and proceeded to try on the other gadzillion pairs I hadn’t tried on during my first trip, and I luckily found a pair of Sauconys that are the new love of my life.

< — This is what they look like. They are the Saucony Grid C2 Flash. In the past, I have had really good luck with the Saucony brand. The pair of runners I just retired were the Saucony Grid Cohesion NX which I almost exclusively wore to work for over a year, and also wore on the occasional treadmill excursion. Very occasional. Where “very occasional” is defined as probably less than ten fingers in a year’s time.

I think the secret to my success with Saucony lies in the design of their toebox. See, I inherited some seriously wide feet (not to mention freakish big toes of which I drew an astoundingly true-to-life illustration here), a fact my mother and Aunt Patty can confirm, having been forced to limit our shoe-shopping to Trippets and Cinderella Bootery when I was a child, and the Saucony toebox fits my twinkle toes to perfection, allowing the rest of my foot to fill out the body of the shoe as intended, and yes, I’m pretty sure it’s not actually called the body of the shoe.

I did, of course, buy this pair in a size nine and broke them in for a few hours at a time around the house the first day or two I had them. Proving that I CAN learn from my mistakes.

I’ve now C25K’d in them five times and I have to say I am a VERY SATISFIED CUSTOMER.

Which is not to say that everyone should run (haha get it? run? since we’re talking about running? haha? ha? ahem.) out and buy themselves a pair of Sauconys. I’m not suggesting that at all. This is NOT a paid or unpaid advertisement for their brand. I’m just trying to make the point that I believe there exists the “right” pair of running shoes out there for everyone, and that when you find the pair that feels like it was made just for you, you might just feel like you could run forever.

And also? This MIGHT be turning into a running blog. We shall see.
I know the suspense is KILLING you.