plus size runner

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Gross?

Every time the Zombies Run! app updates, I have to adjust my stride length… Which I did not do before this run so my pace is completely off.  I was digging around in the app and adjusted it and also noticed that 2020 was still the year of my highest mileage. I mean, of course. I was in lockdown and doing c210k, running a minimum of 45 minutes 6 days a week. Probably not likely to top that anytime soon. But, this was another really long run with no breaks and while again, the intervals give me water breaks I enjoy, I was able to get through the whole thing. I even did peek at the timing for c210k for the Just Run app and the shortest runs are 50-ish minutes. Doable if I get up early on a day I’m working late or run on a day off. There’s just no time to do a run that long after work but still have time for dinner and get to bed at a decent hour. I’ll have to tweak my schedule and see but I’m not finished with the 5k trainer yet.

These are… Not the most appetizing food pictures I’ve taken. I had a craving for pancakes. I had them after my run mid-morning. For dinner was butter garlic ready rice, salmon with garlic confit and shallots with some corn thrown in there. It looks greasy as fuck because the garlic confit I made had a ton of olive oil. Ugly to look at? Yes. Fucking delicious? Also, yes. This isn’t a food blog. It’s a “whatever random crap I decide to include” blog. And when you’re satisfying a craving, it doesn’t matter if your plate looks pretty. 

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Best laid plans?

This was a good run despite it being a bit stuffy in the room. I know it sounds prissy but, the more comfortable I am when I run, the more likely I am to do it. I know the weather is just going to get hotter and I’m not looking forward to that, mostly because of the damn electric bill for the air conditioning.

In my head, I had all these plans for meal prep: throwing out old food, putting the fresh stuff right in the front, making sure the containers were clean… Only to just rely on frozen food and have popcorn for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, the breaded cod is delicious and comes in clutch when I need protein fast and a break from chicken or beef. The Steamfresh veggies are convenient, too. They go very nicely in my Itaki and 20 minutes has all of it warmed up and ready to go. After my run, I’d had it for the day. Popcorn filled me up and I have zero regrets. 

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Gettin’ the steps.

After spending the weekend taking some really great walks (actually outside where other people are) I’m starting my week with a slightly longer run as I get into the latter weeks of c25k. I hit my goal of about 7k steps but I did notice that my feet are aching. Maybe I need a just walk day and not a walk and run type of day like today. Since I needed peppers for dinner and they were on sale, I walked up to the store on my lunch break to get them and perhaps my work shoes were not the best for this? It’s not terrible pain, just more than average soreness.

For lunch I had leftovers from the dinner I made for the kid. I ate pasta instead (trying to use up all the sauce I made and free up more fridge space) and as I didn’t want to have actual tacos for Cinco de Mayo, I had a taco salad that was 90% vegetables. I portioned out some for tomorrow and some for the kid. One pack of ground beef went pretty far when I measured it out. But just for my share. The child eats what he wants since he’s not the one dieting. I am. There’s some avocado in there, too. I managed to use it just in time. One more day and it would have been rotten. It was a really filling salad. I could have probably halved it and it would have been fine but I did enjoy it. Even with only a small portion of meat.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Success!

While I enjoy the intervals because I can take a drink of water more often, I was able to complete the 20 minute run! It wasn’t that bad and remember; I don’t go very fast. I run at only 3.5 mph. It’s just enough to get my heartrate up and I can keep that pace for long periods of time.

Since I got up early-ish, I had a protein shake before my run. I have no idea if that impacted my performance but I doubt it. Lunch was more of that chicken and rice I made and dinner was my Itaki. All in all, a damn successful day! My macros were decent, I topped 7,000 steps, and I got a bit of writing done around my work. I’ll take any win I can get these days.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Imma just do the thing

I decided to do the 20 minute run workout on Thursday since that’ll be my last run for the week and the weekend will be body weight workouts and walking. I do hope to make it so every run is just a warm up, run, cool down, without the intervals but the intervals may be good for training? I dunno. This is the kind of thing that when I look it up, there are benefits and downsides to both methods. I guess as long as I’m moving, it doesn’t matter?

Whelp, Kind bars were on sale again and making an appearance in my rotation. As I was making dinner last night, I packed some of it for lunch today and for dinner, I threw some rice and chicken in the rice cooker while I was on the treadmill and by the time I was all finished, I added some veggies and chili crisp for some lazy chicken and rice. Putting everything together in the evening did result in me eating later than I’d like. I try to be done by 8pm and have nothing but water or tea after that (maybe some CBD seltzer to help me sleep). I don’t like going to bed with that full feeling. But, there’s not much to be done about it unless I start batch cooking again.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Confidence

Despite the fact I’ve done it before, I still balk at a full 20 minute run. I still haven’t finished the latest week of C25k because of that even though I know I can do it. I just need to DO it and stop questioning myself. Not today, though. I’m still sleepy but wanted to get running again. Also, I really hope this app survives because I would LOVE a part two to this Atlantis mission series.

As I’d predicted, making fries as a weeknight dinner results in me eating it later than I’d hoped. I got a bag of panko breaded cod in my last Butcher Box order and the fries soaked while I was running. I let them dry while I was in the shower and after I was all lotioned and potioned; I fried them up. They weren’t as crispy as I would have hoped but that’s probably because they didn’t have time to dry enough before frying. Not a big deal! It was still a satisfying meal.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Faster

On the days I don’t do C25K, I’ve just been doing two minutes of running, two minutes of walking combo and slowly increasing my speed. It’s been getting easier to hold the higher speed (it’s only 4mph so it’s not that impressive) and I’m hoping to keep easing it up so it’s an actual running speed and not just a meandering powerwalk.

I had some of the pasta for lunch and my usual Itaki for dinner. I feel like this was a LOT of carbs but it was still comfortable to eat and easy to prepare. I also used less soy sauce to save on the salt. I’m still not on the full dose of the Saxenda and I’m thinking of pushing back to that. I’ve noticed I feel hungry more often lately.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Atlantis!

I love me some Atlantis stories. And I like how my role as a character changes mission to mission. Sometimes they do a riff on the number 5 and sometimes they just give me a new job like in this one; which is a hunter of sorts. It’s a classic with a silly professor and the guy who hired ‘me’ is shady as fuck and we’re after some magical macguffin. I’m enjoying it!

I used up the rest of the dumplings and rice for lunch and – since the fridge clean out is still in progress – I added broccoli from the freezer. I used more of it with dinner which was lemon pasta with spring garlic and parmesan. I made enough to pack for lunch tomorrow and dinner for the kid (if he eats it). I used an olive oil, butter, and pasta water mix for the sauce with that lemon olive oil from Trader Joe’s. That stuff is so great for cooking. I may need to find a cheap way for me to make it myself.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Switch up

Another side story marked complete! I think for tomorrow I’m gonna give one of those bodyweight workout missions a try. Sometimes it’s nice to have a workout where I don’t have to put on a bunch of gear. What I have been noticing lately is that my knees will feel fine on the treadmill but when I walk downstairs to get dinner after, that’s when they decide to hurt. It’s really fucking annoying to feel amazing and strong after a run then feel decrepit and old moving around my own home.

I decided to change things up (and have less salt) by having lemon chicken instead of soy sauce. I even used the Trader Joe’s Lemon olive oil instead of regular olive oil and I really enjoy the extra flavor. Dinner was the leftover hand-cut fries and steak I’d made Saturday. Making fries at home is definitely a weekend type of activity because this time I’d let them soak for HOURS and they turned much better than only soaking for the minimum amount of time. Or I’d have to prep them to soak before I go to work. It’s probably for the best that they take so much time since I probably shouldn’t be eating fries too often anyway.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Taking advantage of laundry day

It’s probably not a good idea to admit how many workouts I’ve done that were spurred on by dirty clothes. Back when I only had one decent sports bra, I would literally put the damn thing on first thing on the morning to make sure I felt gross enough to do a workout to justify a shower because I let that filthy thing touch my skin. This isn’t the case these days but still, if I’m gonna have a morning to kill, I might as well mess up a sports bra with the promise that it would be clean by the end of the day. The method to my laundry madness is I do my bedding first since making the bed sucks. Hey, I’ll take any type of motivation. I’d used that back in lockdown; I’d put on my workout clothes first thing, then make sure I’d had a reason to put them on. Using my aversion to being filthy to workout is a little hack I’ve discovered. I dunno if I’d recommend it to anyone else.

I will freely admit that part of my motivation to run in the morning was that once I was done, I’d pop by my favorite bagel place for that and an iced coffee, only to find that they were closed. Look, my very Pagan Witch self forgets what non-Pagan holidays are happening sometimes, but I hid my very inconsequential problem by having a salad after my run. I did chores for the rest of the day and had the very lame victory of an empty hamper by bedtime. I had some steak and a potato laying around. I made myself some hand cut fries that were damn good! It’s pretty easy to have fries soaking and drying to fry properly when you’re doing a bunch of other cleaning around it. I even double fried them! Gosh, I’m so fancy. Or I’m seeing what cost-cutting measures I can take as the world burns down around me….

Follow me on BlogLovin.