Good golly, Ollie

(good thing my parents don't read my blog...)

My parentals are quite convinced they have the perfect "child" in Oliver.  He can do no wrong in their eyes.  He is the child they always wanted.

In my father's office, there is a picture of the 4 of us kids hanging on the wall.  Beside this picture is a picture of just Oliver.  There appears to be an imbalance in the world...

OLD picture...we all look much better now!

We all know that whenever the parentals go out of town, I stay at their house.  We like to keep Oliver in his environment, after all (and he is way too much dog to reside in my home with me and my own two monsters).

This past weekend, Oliver demonstrated just how far he would take his only-child mentality/status. 
Older sister Cathy and brother-in-law Jay brought home two cutie patootie puppies about 6 weeks ago.  Oliver was the first dog to meet the new additions and my mother thought he was so great with them.  She said he was gentle.  She said when they were sparring he would get in there and break it up.  All this changed when toys were introduced into the picture.  Oliver is a toy-hoarder.  He has many, many toys and they are all his.  Even when my precious blind Penelope is over and goes to retrieve the one toy she fondly remembers and still loves - a little blue football (she doesn't too much care for the red one and how she tells them apart is beyond me considering her...um...blindness), he will steal it from her.  Even when all the dogs are given brand new bones to chew, Oliver will want one that someone else is chewing on.  When we are outside with the dogs, he will want only the toy being tossed for another dog.

My mom is in the process of making some decorative items for younger sister Linda's baby shower.  She bought a cute baby toy - a stuffed giraffe that sings his A-B-Cs.  Somehow, one afternoon, when my mom left Oliver free to roam the house while she went for a walk, Oliver ended up discovering this toy up on the table and stole it (she claims it must have fallen on the floor and that he was confused).  She had to buy a second toy to hide for later.  Um...me thinks later Ollie will discover this hidden treasure and once again claim it as his own.

Cathy came up with a brilliant idea of buying a puppy mini monkey toy and then a grown-up matching monkey guy for Ollie.  She thought this would break him of the habit of having to have what anyone else had so that her puppies could enjoy their toys and so that baby-to-be Ethan (Linda's little bun in the oven) would be able to enjoy his toys in the future.  This plan didn't work.  Ollie only wanted the mini monkey toy.

Jay captured Ollie hoarding mini monkey.

Later, Ollie would put toys and/or bones into one of the puppy's beds to tempt them...and then, when they got curious as to what new and exciting item awaited them, he would attack (by way of growling/barking at them meanly and lunging forward).

Ollie tauning a sweet innocent puppy.

About the only time Ollie was sweet was when he was sleeping.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but Oliver likes to rest his chin high up on some body part of mine (or my mom's when she is home with him).  Usually he chooses my hip or my leg.  Well, on Sunday during our scheduled nap (yes, it was me and 3 dogs in a bed - yikes), Ollie rested his chin upon Penelope.  I couldn't resist taking this picture.

that's a pretty hefty head to have on top of you!

And just for good measure, here's another cute picture...this one of how my Penelli and Delilah sometime sleep - side by side - so sweet!

of course this is at the foot of the side of the bed where I sleep...

So yeah...Oliver was a bad boy this weekend.  We texted my parents pictures of him being a bully (no pun intended) and they accused us of posing him and/or setting him up (or even being jealous of him).  *Sigh*  how come I didn't get this whole "benefit of the doubt" thing when I was growing up???

One Week Check Point

As I stated previously in my Goals - Short Term/Long Term post, I'm going to maintain accountability by posting my goals and then following up on my progress on the ol' blog.

1 week = 8 lbs lost; work-out 6 days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes/day; track all calories, water, sleep, and exercise


Let's evaluate the week, shall we?

Diet
By "diet", I mean counting my calories.  For the most part, I'm still following South Beach principles as far as food choices go, but I'm upping the ante by paying attention to specifically how much I'm putting in my body.  The biggest struggle I encountered was recognizing I needed to establish a "NET" calorie goal because the more I work out, the more I'm going to need to fuel.  I set a 1200 NET calories per day target and with the exception of eating too few calories the first two days, I did well.  I also became VERY lax over the weekend which is something I don't want to make a habit.

Exercise
I set a target of working out 6 days of the week for a minimum of 30 minutes per day.  That didn't quite happen, BUT considering I went from VERY minimal exercise to a 4-day workout, I feel pretty good about the week.  I spent 2 days walking (with incorporating a bit of running at the end of each walk) and I spent 2 days riding my exercise bike.  I managed to burn a total of 1366 calories with an average of over 40 minutes per workout.

Hydration
This is an on-going struggle.  I hit over 100 oz of water each day, BUT my target is 144 oz, so I have a lot to work out in this category.

Sleep
My goal is to hit 7 hours of sleep per night.  Out of 7 days, I hit this goal 5 nights.  Still a work in progress, but I'm getting there.

Weight loss goal = 8 pounds
Actual weight loss = 7 pounds


Thoughts:  I am pleased with the results, but I do see where improvement can be made.  As I mentioned above, I became a bit too lax over the weekend.  Even though I went to restaurants with a plan, it was easy to stick to the ordering plan, but difficult to pass up table freebies - bread, etc.

Next check point (1 month) will be on September 26th!


Off to a great start!

(Chocolate) PB2 Review

Have you heard of PB2?  I hadn't until recently and when I did, well you bet your bottom dollar I had to get me some.

We all know how amazing peanut butter tastes (or any nut butter, for that matter).  We love it, but we don't love the calories and fat that comes with it.

I typically eat Simply Jif.  It has 190 calories and 16 grams of fat per every 2 TBSPs.  Yikes!

Now let's look at PB2:

Yes, that's only 45 calories and 1 gram of fat per 2 TBSPs.  Wowsers!!!  Now a warning, though...it only has about 1/2 of the protein.  My Simply Jif has 8 grams and as you can see PB2 has only 4 grams.

How do they make this happen?

Bell Plantation removes 85% of the fat calories by a special process without the use of chemicals.  There are also no preservatives/additives in this baby!  PB2 comes in a jar and is powdered in appearance.  You mix 2 TBSPs of the powder with 1 TBSP of water and VOILA!  Instant PB!

I tried the chocolate PB2 on a Sara Lee 90 calorie English muffin and combined it with Sugar Free Polaner Blackberry Preserves (yes, raspberry or strawberry would have been better, but I didn't either of these with me).

I purchased my PB2 via Amazon.com because I only wanted to try it - as opposed to committing to a 4-jar pack on the Bell Plantation website without knowing whether or not I would like it.  The price does come out to be cheaper per jar (even with shipping charges) if you want to buy it in bulk through Bell Plantation.  It comes in chocolate and regular.

I thought it tasted delicious and I, for one, am thankful to have a less caloric PB on hand since I'm counting my calories and every one is precious to me.

Has anyone else tried this?  Thoughts?

It's all starting to come together!

I know I've had the RunGirl 13.1 half mary on my sidebar for quite some time now, but I officially registered for it this morning.

I remember being super excited last year when I found out about this race.  It would have been my 3rd half and it was especially exciting because it was a female-only run AND in December.  This practicially guaranteed decent (read:  coolish) weather.

I was so bummed when my pelvic stress fracture kept me from racing.  I vowed to register for the race again this year...AND...to actually participate in it.

I let life conquer me for a bit...hence the weight gain and the lack of training as evident in my Hottest Half race, BUT it's not going to conquer me any longer.

As discussed in my GOALS - SHORT TERM/LONG TERM post, I'm back on the wagon and feeling fierce!

I can already see the fruits of my labor.  I have decided to ease back into running by incorporating small (increasing) runs at the end of my walks.  I tested this out on Monday night...walked 2 miles and then ran 0.23.  My average pace was 16:27.  This was not great, BUT I was out there doing it and that is what matters.  Tuesday was a cross-training day, so I hit up my stationary bike for 50 minutes.  Wednesday was another walk/run.  I managed 3 miles in total and I ran the last 0.4 mile.  I lowered my average pace to 15:43.  What does that tell me?  With dedication and determination...I'm gonna hit my goals!

I would love to run my last three half marathons for the year, but realistically I'm just not going to be able to accomplish that.  What I can do, however, is establish goals for each one based on my current (at the time of the race) fitness level.

For now, I will focus on See Jane Run (another all female half).  This half is in Austin on October 9th.  I have no way of knowing what to expect temperature wise (please God let it be cooler outside).  The elevation chart hasn't been posted yet either, so I don't know what to expect regarding hills.  We all know Austin has them.  =/  So, I'm just going to focus on hitting all my training walks/runs and lowering my average pace to allow me to finish my race with a 15:45 pace.  This means 3:26:19 will be my goal. 

On a side note...I just booked my hotel for See Jane Run using Hotwire.com.  My dad swears by this website as he uses it for all of his business travel (and even some personal trips).  I went "pot luck" instead of choosing the specific hotel and I got the La Quinta Inn hotel downtown for $78.00 per night (which includes breakfast each morning).  I looked up the published price per night and it's $99.00.  Yay for saving $42.00 in total!  =)

Ahhhh....it's all starting to come together and that makes me happy!