Crappy eating and running in the rain

It's been a whirlwind of a week!

On Wednesday I hopped a flight to Michigan to make my way to meet Katie from Runs For Cookies - one of the racers of our Ragnar Relay team. Well. To call her just "one of the racers" is a great understatement. For one, she's the one who helped to make this thing possible. She really was integral in putting the whole thing together and she was the one to reach out to me and invite me onto the team.  An invitation that I will be forever and ever grateful for. In many ways I think of Katie as the team "mama" and Rik (the captain and the man who had the idea from the get-go) the team "papa." I've also been such a fan of Katie's blog that going to meet her was super exciting.

I got into Detroit around 9 AM and we headed out to Katie's mom and dad's home. They were gracious enough to invite my partner Angela and I to stay with them during our trip. At first I felt like we might be imposing but the minute I met Katie and her mom face-to-face, I knew we were going to be in for a great time.

UH. And the view from Katie's Mom's house didn't hurt either!

Needless to say, Katie is as cool as I thought she would be and her parents were beyond warm and welcoming. Have you ever met a group of people that you immediately felt connected to? I know it sounds corny but that's how they all were. They are the type of folks you kinda wish you were related to. It was really great to get to know them all.

We had three solid days of interviews, getting to know the family and learning more about each other. We talked about running, kids, the future and life in general. I didn't want to leave!

Interviewing Katie and her hubby Jerry

While there, I definitely ran less then I would've liked to and ate more than I should've. We went to LaPita  for lunch with Katie's friend Jessica - (LOVED Jessica - she was so funny and cool to get to know). If you read Katie's blog, you know this is Katie's and Jessica's favorite post-long run place for lunch. And now I know why. It was absolutely incredible. While the mediterranean food of grilled chicken kabobs, hummus, salad and rice was probably pretty healthy - I definitely ate too much. It was too good. Bummer, I followed it up with an indulgent dinner later that evening. I'm too embarrassed to even write what I ate but lets just say it was hearty and ended with some kind of apple pie ala mode. Shit.

And then we ended our trip with a visit to Cracker Barrel. The good - it was a salad. Uh the bad? It was chicken salad. - hello mayo. I forgot how tasty you are. Still, It was over greens (oh good. A vegetable) I held the wedge of colby cheese and I *think* it was still better than the eggs, sausage and biscuits dripping in butter I would've really have liked to order….

OH crap. And I ordered Chinese food last night when I got home. And it wasn't steamed vegetables and brown rice.

Hangs head in shame… What kind of fraudulent health blogger am I?  I'm a food disaster. All this talk about eating clean and organics… All these docs I watch… And I'm one trip away from home from falling into old habits. Ugh. What is wrong with me?

ARGH. I will think about all this and try to figure out what I could do different next time. The one good thing I've learned in this journey is that there is no bad few days of eating that can't be undone. Just have to get back to my cleaner act and add a few miles, a few more (organic?) veggies and extra glasses of water. Can't change what I did yesterday. Can only control what I do today.

Had to go all the way to Michigan but finally found it.

So I picked my crappy eating self out of the gutter this morning and met up with my Moms In Motion group - We got to run. In the rain.

I've always have had this thing about not wanting to run in the rain. But I needed to get myself back into the groove and while in MI Katie actually told me she liked running in the rain. I did it. And I did like it! :) There was something very peaceful about it... And I've knocked 3 miles out already.

Do you let a few bad days of eating get you down?
Do you like running in the rain?

XO
Jen