First Fall Run

Gooood Morning! It has been quite a while since I have posted anytime before 9 a.m., hasn’t it? I blame it on a lousy hotel Internet connection and the cold.  This morning, however, I seem to have tackled both of those obstacles!

It has been surprisingly warm these past few days.  A lot of people around us are saying we “brought the Florida weather with us” and I have to agree.  It is b-e-a-utiful outside and I took full advantage of it yesterday.

Do you remember my friend from Ukraine, Yana?  She too recently moved to Detroit and lives in a charming little city called Birmingham, about fifteen minutes East of us.  I went to visit her yesterday and seeing as though it felt nothing like fall in October here, we decided to take a mile stroll and back to downtown Birmingham.

The walk was like something straight from a post card to me.  I just can’t get enough of the trees here!

By the time we got downtown, ordered pumpkin spice lattes from Biggby Coffee (<– founded in MI, and delicious!) and started walking back to her place, we both noticed how it was actually hot outside.

Michigan… I am confused.

I am not complaining though.  I have to admit that although we are settling in, I am still not ready for the snow just yet.  I will take another month of changing leaves and “warm” temperature waves instead, thank you.

As I was driving back home, I got the idea to finally give running outside the hotel a try.  It was like the crisp fall air was calling to me.  This is my absolute favorite time of year to run, and I was not about to miss an opportunity to take advantage of it.

Scott and Roadie were right by my side, and we ended up getting through 3 miles in just under 27 minutes.  As you can probably guess, I absolutely loved the scenery.

The three have us hadn’t been running together in ages!  It felt really good to get off the treadmill and hit the pavement again.

We just so happened to find a perfect three mile loop around our hotel, and made it back just in time to catch the sunset.

Those are always my favorite kinds of runs.

Hotel Dinner

Eating healthy at the hotel has been easy and challenging at the same time.  Easy, because they offer all the oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, and fruit we can handle, but challenging because I am getting pretty tired of eating it.

Luckily, they also offer a complimentary dinner every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  As much as we like to explore the city and check out new restaurants, Scott and I are trying to be conservative in our spending and appreciate anything we can include in our stay here.

I want to hug whoever is in charge of the hotel dinners.  Seriously.  We are provided with a menu of what the main dish is each night, but offered on the side of it is also a small salad bar.  I was very impressed with it last night, and went to town on this perfect post-run salad:

Lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, green peppers, black olives, pickles (yum!) hard boiled eggs (I told you…endless!) and a little bit of blue cheese all drizzled in oil and vinegar made me a very happy lady.

I also enjoyed the brown rice with vegetables that tasted fresh and not fried.

Both Scott and I ate similar and felt fantastic getting back into our old ways.

We finished off the “we are so on our game” night by giving Mr. Roadie a bath.  He was a little stinky from being on the road and sweating outside, and obviously thrilled.

If the hotel hadn’t felt like home yet, we sure made it feel like it last night!  Sorry about the dog hair, housekeeping.

It really is something how different a few days of eating right and exercising can do for your attitude, productivity, and all around sense of well being.  Both Scott and I agreed that we are ready to get back into a consistent running, training, and healthy eating schedule.

As far as my diet goes (for those who have asked) I have never really cut out sweets, sugar, or anything for that matter completely out of of it.  I allow myself to eat whatever I crave, in moderation, and try to curb my sweet tooth with healthier alternatives.

I have been on a huge chocolate kick lately.  A perfect example of my “heatlhier treat” are two of these SnackWell’s Devil’s Food Cookie Cakes.  These little guys only equal 100 calories and might just be a new obsession of mine.

Hope that didn’t make you want chocolate for breakfast…. 😉

Have a great rest of your day!

Questions of the Day

• Have you ever gone through a period of not exercising, then became anxious to get back into it?

• What are some of your “healthier” sweets you keep at home?