Hot 100 Update # 6

My not-so-better half is out for the night. Ahhhhh, sweet solitude. Very long, difficult day, capped off with a corker of a headache that started late afternoon.

Without further ado, my update this week:

Goal # 1: Run 5k. As regular readers know, I believe I've developed a swollen nerve in my foot, a condition called Morton's Neuroma. I'm trying not to panic and worry and freak out. I have a doc's appt on Monday and you can be sure you'll get a full update. Long story short, I ran a 5k on Monday but it was pretty painful. I walked 6 miles Tuesday and 3 miles Wednesday plus the elliptical, but it took some teeth-gritting to get it done. By Wednesday night I had to ice the bottom of my foot it was so painful. I didn't run a 5k Thursday. So I'm one down this week, unfortunately.

Goal #2: Weight-loss portions at every meal: Fell off the wagon on two meals this week, both involving pasta (go figure). Sunday night after our Halloween walk I way overdid it on the yummy spaghetti and meat sauce made by the B/F. Not a binge, but an overeat.

Thursday night I made pasta at the B/F's request. Again, I overate. There were leftovers, which I polished off tonight, but I definitely ate past fullness because it tasted good. No other reason.

Goal #3: Lose 25 lbs. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to drift into fantasy land and start imagining that you've lost oodles and oodles of weight? I did that one night last week while walking home. My mind started whirling and I began to wonder if, when I next get on the scale, it might show a really really big loss. This is how I set myself up for disappointment -- unrealistic expectations. I seem to feel I'm owed a very big reward from even just a few days of clean eating and exercise.

In truth, from the way my clothes fit, I think maybe I've lost 6 to 8 lbs over the Hot 100 challenge. Maybe. In anycase, my goal is a very achievable 5lbs a month. So.... I'm doing my best, I really and truly am.

In other NSV's, tonight I left work late and exhausted and had to walk to the bank, then to the store for cat food. With the B/F out on his own, there was not hot dinner waiting for me at home.

Strangely enough, I felt barely an urge to buy something decadent and "splurge" at home alone. Despite the exhaustion, the headache, all the excuses I could summon for buying a "goodie" and burying myself in it when I got home and could sit down on the couch, I just didn't do it.

I was curiously numb to the idea. It surfaced a few times, but with no real force behind it. There was no crushing desire to wrestle with. My honest-to-God reaction was just "Meh." I knew I could grab something gooey or hot or fattening and eat it -- but I wasn't going to feel any better if I did. It wasn't even a struggle, I'm happy to say (but I'm far too aware that it may be different another time).

So it was leftovers for me, and I quite happily reheated the leftover spaghetti (made with broccoli, sauteed garlic in olive oil and sprinkled with feta), threw in spinach leaves to use them up, and a wee bit of diced chicken we hadn't eaten up earlier in the week. I was fed, and the fridge was clean.

Steve asked tonight about our favorite Hot 100 blogs. Truth be told I have many. There are so many I love! I'll list some another time -- I'm just too wiped out tonight.

Catch up with all you Hotties soon!

Words You Don't Want in Your Vocabulary

Here's a big one: Morton's Neuroma.

Apparently it was once featured on an episode of "The Golden Girls." I did not know that, but a friend of mine who strangely LOVES to watch those reruns (she's 32) mentioned it to me. You can't imagine how wonderful it is to learn you're sharing an ailment with a TV character nearly twice your age.

So, I've had some strange nerve pain in my left foot for the past couple of weeks, off and on. It started when I bought a new pair of sneakers. It gets worse when I run my 5ks, then dissipates a bit (until I run some more). This Monday is was excruciating. I barely got through the 5k. And it's been painful to walk every day since.

Whenever I have weird pain, I go to the Internet, of course. It tells me I likely have Morton's Neuroma, which to me seems a fancy word for a pinched and inflamed nerve in my foot.

Podiatrist appt on Monday. I believe I caught it early, it's probably not severe yet and I hope to be able to treat it easily and make it go away forever. Inflamed nerves, once upset, don't like to calm down, apparently.

Steve also added to my vocabulary growth this week with his list of antioxidant foods.

Turns out I don't eat any of them!

So I bought this:

This is a pomegranate. I confused it with a papaya and made a stupid comment about it on Steve's blog. Papayas are one thing, this is another.

Apparently you go through a lot of work to open this cute little sucker up, and then you just eat the seeds. It's a strange fruit.

Then I got these:

Of course I already knew what a pecan was. But I added some four-letter variations to the name when I realized that a small handful of these bad boys equals about 200 calories. Whoa!

All antioxidant foods should be calorie-free (or at least very low). I think we need to make it a rule.

I also decided to get wiggy with things in the mushroom section. Instead of nice buttons, cremini, or even shitake, I got these. They're called Earwood Mushrooms. Or Tree-Fungus Mushrooms. I keep calling them Earwig Mushrooms -- and apparently yesterday in the kitchen I asked my b/f to "hand me the earwig muffins," which shows you where my head is at.

I was so hopeful they'd be good. Instead, kind of blah. Better in the yummy Thai soups where I first saw them. Not so good with eggs in the morning.

So, lots of new words to roll around my tongue, and some anxiety over the alleged Morton's Neuroma. Having just started to run, I'd hate to have to stop again. But I also don't want this to worsen.

For now, it's the elliptical for me, where the nerve nags but doesn't shriek.