arewethereyet

What a lovely Sunday it has been. I woke up around 9am and watched Tim sleep for a while. He woke around 9:20 and didn’t realize I was awake - he slipped out of the room quietly which was sweet. I lounged in bed til 9:30 and then decided well that was enough of that and began my day.

Looking back, our day was in many ways all about food but kinda in a good way. Tim begins a new job tomorrow about 75 miles from the house. He was going to stay in a motel near there but last night told me that he really wanted to try to commute. I am against it - he’ll be working 6 10-hour shifts a week as far as we know and adding 150 miles of driving a day to that is just too much, you know? Anyway, this work schedule puts me squarely 100% of the house, and squarely 100% in charge of the food. I decided to meal plan, and make a nice healthy list. When Tim works this many hours, he can eat us out of house and home. So I wanted to make sure he was getting good food as much as possible. I didn’t want him to be buying stuff off of the ‘roach coach’ - that’s just bad for him on so many levels and it’s not cheap either! So we are now set for the week. I read some good recipes too in my GF/WF book and I’m creating multi-tiered meals that I can repackage for him for other meals during the week. Tonight we had meatloaf (low fat, GF) with sweet potatoes and green beans and Tim’s got a perfect dinner already for him for later in the week. And I can just pop it in the microwave when he’s done with his shower.

I will confess to all of you that I was sad and a wee bit happy when we thought he’d be gone 5 nights a week. The sad is obvious - this is my new husband and I adore him of course. But I have always relished my alone time and I don’t get all that much of it lately. I was looking forward to cooking my own food, with no “will he like it?” attached to it when I bust out and create some ‘Ellen’ food. Truthfully he’s actually handling the GF pretty well - not that his bread is GF. Just the recipes I make for dinner etc. The other thing I was looking forward to was no-excuses gym time. I find it difficult to leave him when I get home from work and we haven’t seen each other all day (I know, it’s nauseating newlywed time here) and I find it difficult to drag him with. I think this coming week I’m going to get focused on the gym. Like, when I get home from work, I’ll have a snack and then I’ll go work out. Then I’ll come home and eat another snack and get cleaned up so I’m all purty well he gets in. Not that he’ll notice because he’ll be so knocked out.

Anyway, I think this will require some organization, both mental and physical, the next few weeks. I can’t figure out how to do it otherwise.

Today after the fooding was done - I made myself some GF cookies for treats after I made Tim’s brunch (he was out shoveling - another thing I’ll have to do on my own this week!) - I went to the gym. Victory! I did 4 miles in an hour. That includes a full mile of serious freakin incline and some speed drills that I picked up from Bob on Biggest Loser… when he was yelling at that lady (was is Joelle or something like that?) Anyway, from time to time I just pushed the speed up to 6 mph and ran for 30 seconds. I did probably 3 30-second spurts in the last 2 miles. I also did 2 1-minute spurts at the same 6 mph. I realize this isn’t supersonic fast for most people, but for me it was running like I was being chased. By a serious bad guy. A few days ago I was struggling big time at the gym. Today I worked hard, but I could do it. My spirit was renewed. My body remembered what it could do back when I worked at it. It rewarded me with stamina and reasonable grace. Tonight it is punishing me a bit for the months of carelessness but that’s okay. I know I can do it when I try and when I am motivated and it feels oh so good to know that again.

Here comes my husband. I think he’s heading to bed. I hope he’s heading to bed. 5 am comes awfully early that’s for sure.

More soon, Ellen