The Possibilities....

... seem endless to me right now.  For those of you who know me, you know by now (since I've mentioned it constantly) that I'm training for my first ever half-marathon coming up in Atlantic City.  For those of you who don't know it already, I'm training for my first ever half-marathon!!!! So excited! 

So yesterday was my long run day, and  my running partner and I met at 8:00 a.m.  We were scheduled for a 9-mile run, my longest ever since I started running a few years ago (including several times when running was put on hold times due to injuries, surgery, and injuries). I had our route all planned out, which included a little of this...

...and a little of this....

... and even a bit of this...

So much for my brand new Brooks running shoes.  In order to avoid a huge puddle, we tried tip-toeing through the grass, but turns out that was totally soaked as wee and so were our feet!  Slosh slosh slosh...oh, gross. 

Not too much of this during the run...

But that's okay, because if the sun were out, I would have been hotter and sweatier and thirstier, and it  might not have been such a great, awesome, and motivating run!  I feel so strong right now, like I could do that half with no problem.  Hopefully, I'll keep this attitude right up through the Atlantic City and beyond, and then the possibilities...well, so many possibilities.  Who knows what will be in my future in 2012, but I know what I'd like to do!

And made this over the weekend, which turned into today's lunch.

Black Bean Butternut Squash Chili.  This is only an estimate, since I didn't actually measure exactly how many servings, but I'm estimating it made approximately 16 cups at 14 PP per cup.  So yummy!

Now for a little more honesty, I'm STILL struggling with my food choices.  Now, I know, I know, I'm running a lot and I SHOULD be eating more, but that doesn't mean I have to make the choices that I'm making!  Today has been much, much better though.  I've stuck to tracking all my meals and have been snacking on fruit.  I did have 7 Sunchips on the side of my chili for lunch, but counted them as well.

I CAN do this AND make wise choices while I'm doing it.  Of course I can.  Now that the "junk" is out of the house, it should be much easier, although I do have to learn to control it when the "junk" is in the house.  The more I run, the more I SHOULD be fueling my body with good choices, lean meats, fruits, veggies, and lots of water, NO DIET SODA! 

Now I'm left with an evening of relaxing, watching tv, and doing some needlework.  I have 6 points left for the day.  Thinking of some low-fat yogurt with fresh peaches and a little bit of fat free coolwhip, oh, and a little Fiber One cereal for some crunch.