OMFG! I tried something tonight that absolutely knocked my socks off! Ok… actually, I wasn’t wearing socks. I was finishing up a french manicure, only on my toenails, so I guess that would make it a french pedicure? Anywho, more about the deliciousness in a second.

I have been lukewarm about my fitness and nutrition goals the past week or so. I cut myself a little bit of slack lately because my grandad has been in the hospital, so eating has been on the run, unplanned, and totally not in sync with my normal plans. Add to that that I have had strep throat the past couple of days, and it really only compounds the problem. I really haven’t been beating myself up over it, though, because I’ve got bigger things on my mind. We found out this past week that his lung cancer has spread to his stomach, his blood, and his lymph nodes, and he has been wheezing and rattling when he breathes. He went into the hospital because he couldn’t keep any food down, and came out with all of these other diagnoses. Sigh.

Anyway, I am now trying to get back on track, and have decided that to do this, I am going to have to find a goal to commit to in the short term- a definable endpoint where I can check it off of a list. For this reason, I have decided to return to running, but only do it outdoors, limit myself to 3 days a week (so that I save time for some other, “fun” exercise), and to run a 5K race in September. The Susan Komen Race for the Cure is in September, and it’s a cause that is very close to my heart, so I think that it would give me some good motivation.

I will begin running on Monday. I am going ahead and setting tomorrow as an off day, because I know that I won’t do anything. I will be celebrating tomorrow. Because as of 5:00 tomorrow, I am officially finished with my Master’s degree!!!! I have every intention of doing nothing constructive from 5:00 until the end of the day. Hey, a girl’s gotta celebrate a major accomplishment like that! Of course, graduation isn’t until May, but I will be finished with the class tomorrow. So that means double celebration, right? One now, and one then?

Eh… anyway, on Monday I will be starting to run again with a goal clearly in sight for September. Along with that, I will be returning to my more nutritious foods as of tomorrow morning. Green Monster, here I come. I did try to have one the other day, but my throat was just too sore, so I drank about 8 oz. or so, and then poured the rest out. But I have a fresh bag of spinach, a very ripe banana, and some almond butter and almond milk just calling my name, so tomorrow, it’s back to business as usual.

What I have found very soothing the past few days, in light of the sore throat, are hot teas. I used to drink hot tea like crazy. Mom always loved them, so from the time I was 15 or so, there was always herbal tea in the house, and I became something of an addict. I’m not sure why I quit drinking them so much, but I hadn’t had any hot tea in a couple of years. With the sore throat, though, nothing sounded better. I have thoroughly enjoyed some apple chai from Starbucks (which you usually couldn’t pay me to go to, but this is the one thing they have that I love) and some hot Stash green tea.

But my new love (and I’m very sad that I only have one more teabag of it) is Tazo Passion tea. OMFG it’s so good! I wanted to try something different, but didn’t know what, so I bought a variety sampler of Tazo teas the other day, and the passion flavor was the first one I tried. I absolutely fell in love with it. I haven’t tried any of the other flavors yet, but I hope they’re all as good as that one was! I will definitely have to remember to jot down which are my favorites, and this one will definitely be on the list!

So, I know this was a pretty lengthy post, but I haven’t updated for days and needed to just get a couple of thoughts out. Besides, it’s not like anyone is reading!

Most likely, the next couple of posts will be much less upbeat, since even though there is a lot of good stuff going on, I also have a lot going on with my grandad, and it’s not looking good with him right now.