Yippee!

The sight of this just makes me happyhappy as two-year-old Booie would have said. It even feels like spring out there. It's about time. Now if I can just salvage all the bulbs I didn't plant last fall. I'm an idiot. No, I'm lazy. Well, I am an idiot, but this is due to laziness, not idiocy.

I think I was more tired today than yesterday if that's possible. Yesterday's time change tiredness combined with a good long run and a strength training session kicked my bootie. The plan I had yesterday to come home and lay down after I took the kids to school came to pass today instead. I was just beat, and I really needed the rest. Turns out, I really needed a cup of coffee more than anything. As hard as I try to give up that last cup, I just can't seem to do it. Last year, I managed to quit drinking coffee just in time for vacation, which was terrible timing. Being stuck in a house where coffee is brewed by the gallon along with my sacrificing sleep for fun (I can sleep at home) is a recipe for no willpower. If I can keep it to one cup a day, I should be ok.

My greater vacation downfall is keeping up with my exercise program. Every single year so far spelled failure. It cannot happen this time. If I am going to allow myself to party and drink and eat, I just can't give that up. For goodness sake, I have the opportunity to run along the beach. There is no reason, well, no good reason why I can't do this. I think I view it much like I view sleep during vacation--expendable. But it isn't. Not this time.

I do get to have my annual skate while I'm there and never miss out on that. I don't skate at all now that I live in Pittsburgh. The best skating trail is a good half hour from my house in non-rush-hour traffic, and between the hour commute and the one to two hours of skating time, that is a good chunk of a weekend day and absolutely impossible on the weekdays. I prefer distance to stunts, so that trail is my only option here. I'm debating taking my skates with me back to Omaha over Easter, but I don't know how much time I'll have. I may be lucky to get a run and some Tae-bo in. The days are sounding pretty full from arrival to departure.

I will most certainly need to work some form of activity in there, because I will be having my candy feast on Easter Sunday. My mom, being the master planner that she is, already secured a truckload of my favorite candies as well as some of the stuff other people like. Between the two big dinners for Grandma's birthday and the next for Easter, I shall be very lucky if I can move at all. Seriously though, I will maintain a bit of self-control. A bit.

Until that day, I will continue to be careful. I've already lost six pounds though I haven't lost an inch in size, which troubles me considerably. I couldn't care less what the scale says if the tape measure can be cinched up a little more every two weeks. I'm not seeing any improvement either, and my clothes certainly aren't fitting any better. It's things like those that make me want to dive into a pack of cookies, but I will resist, because my running endurance has improved. Something must be happening.

As much as I tried to avoid talking about the whole exercise and eating thing, I did. I could talk about the six piles of laundry that need done or the shuttle service I must provide every Tuesday, but somehow that doesn't seem any better. At least I don't have dishes to do, since I'm doing so well in the kitchen. That's a previous commonly neglected chore. Now if it could just get me to finish this dining room table.