Do You Want This or 100 Pounds?

I went to a local mall for a stretching-for-runners clinic last week.  The clinic lasted only 30 minutes and my daughter and I were at the mall for a total of about one hour so we weren’t planning to eat there.  I especially wasn’t planning to eat at the food court.  Yuck!  Yet, as I walked past those restaurants I thought about how good (some) of the food would taste.  At the same time the thought occurred to me, “Do you want this or 100 pounds?” [to reach 100 pounds lost]

Do you want this

or 100 pounds?


Do you want this

or 100 pounds?


Do you want this

or 100 pounds?  (Actually, I would've chosen Auntie Anne's pretzels, but that's beside the point.)


Do you want this

or 100 pounds? 


Haagen-Dazs even had labels on the entrance doors

 

Yes, I snapped a pic but I didn't use it to get $1 off.  I used it right here in this blog.  :-)

 

 

We left the mall without buying any food at all.  It IS possible!  When we got home I was faced with

 

Do you want this

 

or 100 pounds?


I didn't have ANY of this food!  And I'm that much closer to 100 pounds lost!  In fact, as of this morning I've lost 97.2 pounds!  Praise God! 

 

Color Me Rad!

Almost 2 weeks ago I did my first color run, Color Me Rad.  It’s a 5K run (3.1 miles) and every kilometer they throw a different colored powder on you. 

http://www.colormerad.com/

So many people sign up that they have to assign you to a wave with waves departing every 20 minutes.  My cousin and I

 

were in the first wave, which started at 9:00.  My daughter and a friend didn’t go until 10:40.  Even though I was in the first wave, 9:00 is very late for me to be running.  I usually run at 6:00.  Oh well.  Can’t have everything go my way, can I?  :-)  They encourage you to wear white clothes so the color shows up better.  

 

We started with 500 other people and were off!  At kilometer 1 we got color thrown on us.  It’s colored cornstarch, which doesn’t taste very good if it gets in your mouth but won’t hurt you.  I don’t remember the order of the colors, but they had different delivery methods.  Sometimes it was thrown on us by hand from bulk boxes.  At one station it was mixed with water and sprayed on us from sprayers like pest control people use.  At another station they were using fire extinguishers to deliver the color!  

This run is just for fun and is not even timed.  I didn’t take my watch so I don’t know what my time was.  I’m sure it was a little slower than usual since I didn’t know the course and it was later in the morning and getting hot.  

This was my daughter’s first race.  Go Brianne!  (She's on the far right in the picture above and in the group one below.)  She didn’t time herself, either, but she did have fun.  The cornstarch messed with her breathing a little bit, but nothing serious.  

So at the beginning we had “ridiculously white shirts,” as the DJ called them, and by the end we had colorful shirts.  And pants, socks, shoes, skin, hair, etc. 

 

We met up with some friends afterward for a group picture. 

This run was fun, which is how they designed it to be, but I don’t think I’ll do another one.  It was more expensive than other 5Ks, it started late in the day, it was on Memorial Day weekend and that’s late to be running in Florida, and…um…I’ve moved beyond 5Ks. 

:-O 

Did I really just say that?  I run a 5K three times a week just in my normal training, I’ve already done one 10K and am training for another in less than a month, and I’m training for Ragnar, the 200-mile relay race.  This would be a good first race but I’m not a beginner anymore.

Here’s a bonus picture of someone’s shirt I saw and liked. 

 

 

 

 

 

Cereal and Tomatoes

A couple weeks ago I did my usual Monday night fitness class then ran on the beach the next morning with a lady from class.  I wanted to try running in the sand with no shoes on for a short distance, but I underestimated how close we were to the end.  I ended up running at least half a mile barefoot carrying my shoes.  Not fun.  I won’t be doing that again and I definitely won’t be getting any of those minimalist shoes!   

At the end of the run I was HUNGRY!  I was determined to not get McDonald’s or any other fast food, so I was trying to think of what was available on my way home.  Ah, a grocery store!  I didn’t expect there to be too many cars in the parking lot at 7:00 a.m., but the reason there were hardly any is because they don’t open until 7:30.  :-(  

The only other place on the way home was Walmart.  The one I pass is not a Supercenter so the selection of groceries was limited.  I walked down a couple aisles not knowing what I wanted but quickly ruled out crackers, granola candy bars, and stuff like that.  There was no fresh food.  On the cereal aisle I saw

Chocolate strawberry cereal?!?!?!?!  Oh yeah!  And it’s Special K?  That’s better than Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs!  Moderation, of course.  I didn’t plan to nor did I eat the whole box.  I saw it as God having something special just for me because I honored Him by not putting junk in my body.  I ate some straight out of the box on the way home but didn’t pig out.  

 

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Yesterday I went tomato picking. 

 

Some of the tomatoes were riper than others and some looked good until I turned them over and saw a rotten spot on the bottom or back.  What was interesting is that even if the tomato was on the ground,

which would seem like a not-very-ideal spot for it to grow resting on the plastic (fake) tarp and surrounded by weeds, if it was still attached to the vine it was usually good with no bad spots.  The bad tomatoes I left on the ground or even smooshed with my foot.  I threw one at my daughter after she threw one at me!  (just at each other’s feet)  They were useless for me to put in my bag, pay for, and bring home to use for their intended purpose. 

John 15:4-8  ⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

⁵ “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches.  Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.  For apart from me you can do nothing.  ⁶ Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.  Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.  ⁷ But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!  ⁸ When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.  This brings great glory to my Father.

Even in undesirable circumstances, if we stay connected to the Vine we can be fruitful.  :-)