Currently!

Hey All! Here's what's going on with me these days...

Current Running Situation: My plantar fasciitis is officially gone! Hopefully my days on the arc trainer are over! I ran nearly 30 miles last week and everything felt fine. I'm back, baby! (And I didn't lose my speed!)

Current Sleeping Situation: If I don't take 1 trazodone and 1 dyphenhydramine I am FUCKED!

Current guilty pleasure: I don't feel guilty about anything right now. I'm living my best life!

Current drink: "Moscato Mama"... Grapefruit seltzer water, moscato, and a shot (or two!) of vodka.

Current favorite TV show: Big Brother has begun! It always takes me awhile to learn everyone's names and get into it. But I think this is going to be a good season!

Current triumph: Learning the whole first page of The Maple Leaf Rag on the piano! I started learning the second page but it hurts my wrist. So. Many. Octaves.

Current food: I haven't had a huge appetite lately. I think it's because I have been eating the same things over and over again and I'm just in a rut. I need to get more creative with summer recipes.

Current excitement: My garden is actually doing well this year! My herbs are flourishing, I already have several peppers, and I'm just waiting for more tomatoes to turn red!

Currently listening to: Lady Gaga. All. The. Time.

Currently needing: To catch up on Kristina's vlogs!

Currently thankful for: Summer. I needed this time!

Currently "over": I know this is going to come as a shock... but quiche! I think I am done with quiche for the foreseeable future!

Currently enjoying: Feeling loved.

Tell me something current about you!

I'm still a little effed up!

For a lot of my life, I suffered from disordered eating, exercise addiction, and poor body image. Luckily, for the past several years, I have done a good job at keeping those bad thoughts and habits at bay. As I've shared before, about 90% of the time, I feel fine. Only about 10% of the time do I still let those bad thoughts affect me. I never thought I would get to this point and I am so thankful I did the hard work to get here. 

Sure, I would love to feel good 100% of the time, but I feel like with disordered eating and poor body image, it's really hard to totally get rid of all of those negative feelings. Keeping them at bay the majority of the time is a HUGE victory for me.

But I want to share an example of how I sometimes let those bad thoughts creep into my brain and control my life.

One night while I was at the beach with my friends, we decided to go out for ice cream. I was actually in the mood for ice cream and was looking forward to getting something yummy. But when we got in the ice cream shop and started looking at flavors, I noticed all of the calorie content was displayed right on the freezer. It was impossible not to notice the exorbitant amount of calories contained in every flavor of ice cream.

I immediately shut down and got in a bad mood. I just could not eat the ice cream after seeing the calorie content staring me in the face. Why did they have to post the calories right there? We all know ice cream is bad for us. Did they have to rub it in our faces? 

I know it's messed up because a "normal" person would just enjoy the treat whether they knew the calorie content or not. Had the calories remained unknown to me, I could have easily enjoyed two big scoops of ice cream and not felt a lick of guilt about it.

Instead, with the numbers staring me in the face, I had to walk out of the ice cream shop, angry with myself.

Don't worry, a couple nights later we went out for ice cream again and I got peanut butter pretzel ice cream in a cone. It was divine! And there were no calories posted!

Do you mind when calories are posted?

Note: I will give the answer to how I chipped my tooth (detailed in yesterday's blog post) on Sunday! I want to give more people time to respond!

I chipped my tooth!

Guys! When I was on my super duper fun beach vacation with my girls, I chipped my tooth! It's one of my front teeth and it's on the inside. It didn't hurt when it happened because it was apparently just a bit of the enamel that broke off.

The chip is barely noticeable, thank goodness. I will be honest, I was a bit freaked out until I called the dentist and they said they would be able to fix it for me. In fact, they want to fix it $$$$$ because the tooth is more likely to decay if it stays damaged. I have an appointment in a couple days, so it will be as good as new!

I know what you are wondering: "Megan, just how drunk were you and what were you doing that you managed to chip a tooth!?"

So here is a fun game! Below are 5 choices on how I chipped my tooth. One of the choices is correct, the other choices were made up by my girlfriends!

Scenario 1: While in the kitchen preparing a delicious quiche lunch for my friends, I was trying to cut ham with a dull knife. In my efforts, I slipped and chipped my tooth on the counter.

Scenario 2: In my constant quest for "outer order, inner calm", I found myself vacuuming our Air BnB one evening. When I leaned down to unplug the vacuum, I chipped my tooth on the table beside the outlet.

Scenario 3: While relaxing on the beach, an airborne beach umbrella whacked me on the back of the head and slammed my tooth into my cup just as I was about to take a sip.

Scenario 4: In the middle of the night, I heard my roommate making some interesting noises. I realized she had brought home a hot lifeguard! While trying to sneak out of the room, I chipped my tooth on the bunk bed, thus interrupting the coitus going on in the next bunk.

Scenario 5: While day drinking on the beach, the hottest lifeguard walked past just as I was bringing my cup to my mouth.

Also, I know you are wanting a picture of this chipped tooth. But I promise it is not that noticeable, and every time I try to take a picture it comes out very unflattering!

Scenario 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5!!??
Winners get bragging rights!!!!

Running at Gordon's Pond

One of the exciting things about traveling is getting to run in a new place! But I never get too excited to run at the beach. Running in the sand bothers my IT band and running on the busy, hard, flat road with the sun beating down isn't my cup of tea either. I know some runners like running on the boardwalk, but that usually requires weaving in and out of people so it's hard to zone out. So what was this picky runner to do?

Last week, I went to the beach with four of my girlfriends. Three out of the four mornings I was at the beach were spent running at Gordon's Pond in Lewes, DE. This state park was only about 11 minutes north of our Air BnB in Dewey Beach. Parking was $10 per day for out of state vehicles, but it was worth it to me to pay and have a beautiful place to run. I mean, just look!

I took the same route each day. The Gordon's Pond trail is about 2.6 miles one way to Cape Henlopen State Park. Then I would do a short out and back on one of the trails at Henlopen and run back to Gordon's Pond to get me 6 miles total.

The first morning I ran, I took my time and stopped to take a lot of pictures. The trail was busy with bikers, walkers, and the occasional runner. But it wasn't so busy that I didn't have alone time. I could easily zone out.

The second morning I was Miss Speedy Pants, even though it was scorching hot! I ran the first half of my run in 23:08. I decided to try to get a negative split for the second half. Mission accomplished! But this run was an effort!

The third morning, despite it being 92 degrees, I had quite a pep in my step. Even though I was a teeny bit slower than the day before, this run felt like much less of an effort.

I'm so glad I didn't have to pound it out on the pavement each morning and got to run on the crushed gravel trail. If you are ever staying at one of the DE beaches, I highly recommend checking out Gordon's Pond or Cape Henlopen for your running, walking, or biking needs!

Beach Week with my Girls!

Last week, four of my very dear friends and I spent a girls weekend at Dewey Beach. We are all music teachers, but we are different ages different stages of our lives. I learn so much from these incredible women. I'm so glad we got to spend five days together!

On Monday morning, Karen, Cat, Andrea, and I loaded all of our stuff (I definitely over packed!) into my Mazda and headed to Delaware. Laveena would join us the next evening as she had a work commitment.

The trip down flew by because we jibber jabbered the whole way. I was thrilled to get compliments on my driving from all of my friends. My new Mazda is very roomy and handles quite well! I was very efficient as I zipped down Route 1!

Our AirBnB was about a 10 minute walk to the beach. It had three stories. The first floor had a common room comprised of a couch, table, and kitchen. There was also a half bath. On the second floor was a bedroom shared by Cat and Laveena as well as a full bath. On the third floor there were two bedrooms. Karen, as eldest, got her own room. Andrea and I shared the room with two sets of bunk beds. 

Funny Story: Due to the bunk beds, Andrea and I joked that we were in prison and called each other "Cellys". We also assigned prison nicknames to each other. I was Moscato Mama because I'm older and I drank moscato all week. I dubbed Andrea Snoop Dog because anytime we needed something in the Air BnB (toilet paper, extra coffee mugs, etc) Andrea would go digging around in closets and cabinets and find whatever we needed.

Even though there was only one common room, we never felt crowded and we never got sick of each other!

Outside, there was a pool. I was convinced it would be swarming with children, because that's usually the case. But surprisingly, we had the pool all to ourselves each day!

We quickly fell into an easy, relaxing routine. Each morning, we would wake up whenever we felt like it (usually around six, since apparently we were all still on "school time"), drink coffee, make breakfast, and just chill out for a bit. Then we would all go off to do our various workouts for the morning. My friends did a lot of walking while I got my runs in.

Around 11 it was time to hit the pool and start daaaaaay drinking! We had stopped by the liquor store on our way down so we were all loaded up with our drinks of choice. I was drinking "Moscato Mamas", which is my own concoction of grapefruit seltzer water, moscato, and vodka.

Each day, someone made lunch for the group. This was an awesome way to try new recipes and save money. I made quiche, Laveena made toasted cheese with homemade tomato soup, and Andrea made gyros with French fries. One night Karen made us a yummy salmon dinner and another night Cat made chicken wraps. The other two nights splurged and went out to eat!

After our lunch, we would head down to the beach for more relaxing and day drinking. One night we even stayed at the beach until seven! We had perfect weather all week. I definitely got a bit of a tan.

In the evenings, like I said, we'd either eat out or eat in. Sometimes we would head to Rehobeth to check out the boardwalk and shops. But we always went to bed tired and happy.

 

  

On our last full day, we switched things up. Instead of hitting the pool and the beach, we went to a winery for a tasting and then Dogfish Head Brewery.

By the end of the five days, some of us were more ready to go home than others. I myself found it to be the perfect amount of time to be away. I was ready to go back to reality and back to the KITTIES!

This whole vacation was Karen's idea and I'm so thankful she organized it. I really hope we get to do another girls vacation next summer!