Today's Lesson: Don't Eat and Run?

A few weeks back I joined the Valparaiso Noon Kiwanis Club. The club meets every Wednesday at noon (thus the name) at Strongbow’s for lunch. So far, I’ve been enjoying meeting some new people at the meetings and trying to get the hang of how this organization operates. Each week there’s a different program. (Side note:  If anyone who's around Valpo ever wants to consider joining Kiwanis or just coming to a meeting to see what it's about, let me know!)

This week we heard from one of our very own Kiwanis members who is retired from the United States Air Force. She presented a very intriguing program about a segment of the military for which she worked that accounts for service men and women who were lost during past military conflicts. During the years at the end of her career, she was involved in accounting for those lost in the Vietnam War. I found it all very interesting. She gave us a few web links to check out to learn more about these efforts: http://www.jpac.pacom.mil/ and http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/

I just wanted to mention that, now I’ll get back to how Kiwanis is playing into the originally intended theme of this blog which is my “Fatty to 5K Quest”…

So for those of you who are unfamiliar with Valparaiso, Indiana, Strongbow Inn is a locally-owned landmark that has been known for its turkey dishes since the 1930s and now they dabble in a wide variety of “comfort” foods. Though a nice salad is an option each week at the Kiwanis meeting, I’m drawn to the comfort food and one of Strongbow’s amazing dinner rolls (I love bread!). I need to break myself of this habit and just have salad or just eat light before I go and not even eat there!

Tonight I had a meeting, and what I do on days that I have evening meetings is leave the office at 2:30 to go run, go home and shower, and then go back for the meeting. The hearty 12:00 lunch followed by a 2:30 run was a bit rough. I guess maybe on a regular day when I don’t go run until after the office closes at 4:30, it might not be so bad. Hopefully, after I’ve been a Kiwanian for awhile, I’ll be tired of eating such a heavy lunch and I’ll make wiser choices. Or will I? I’m a single girl who’s always on the go and that’s pretty much the only opportunity I have each week for a “real” meal. Well, anyhow, I’ll get that all figured out on my own. I don’t want to cut out foods I enjoy; I just need to be extra conscientious about moderating.

Despite the lunch, my run went well today. Last time I did 2/6 (walk two minutes/jog six minutes), today I upped it to a 2/7 run. My time got a bit worse, ‘cause I felt the need to slow my pace to enable me to make it through seven straight minutes of running without keeling over and flying off the back of the treadmill. Just two months ago one straight minute of running was rough…I’ve come a long way!!

I just got home from my evening meeting a little while ago. On the way home a mystical force pulled me into the Taco Bell drive-thru for a chicken quesadilla. I should know better, especially after the heavy lunch, but this working out really gives me a hankering for junk food sometimes! When I have a “setback” like this, I tend to justify it with the theory of it’s better to have exercised and eat Taco Bell than to have not exercised and eaten Taco Bell! My theory is probably flawed, since I want to see progress with my fitness level!

Last night I left a phone message for the female personal trainer who works through my local Cardinal Fitness. I haven’t heard back from her yet. If I don’t hear from her tomorrow, I’ll try to give her another call. Whenever I do connect with her, she’s certainly going to have her work cut out for her!!