Good evening! Whew! I always feel so overwhelmed when I come back from a vacation — getting into my normal routine is comforting, but there’s always "clean up" work to do after letting stuff go for a few days.

Work was actually…. REALLY GREAT today! I know I don’t discuss my job that much, but today was very positive! Yay for silver linings!

The theme of the day continued — my afternoon eats were lighter than normal.   Not on purpose really, but after eating and drinking so much this weekend, my tummy kind of needed a break.

I did have a serving of Grape Nuts around 1 PM….

But that didn’t satisfy me, so I had another 1/2 serving around 2 PM…

Before the gym, I ate an apple….

And some celery with PB.

Future Husband and I had *a lot* of work to get done tonight, so we made the gym session quick.  I decided to do a *sprint-y 5k*!

Here’s what I did on the treadmill:

• Warm-up: 6.0 mph; 1 mile
• Sprint Sets: 200 meters (0.25 mile) at 7.5 mph, with a 1 minute rest at 6.5 mph rest in between each sprint.  Repeat 5 times.
• Run for 2 minutes at 6.5 mph (until I reached 2.5 mile).
• Serious Fast Sprint for the last 0.6 miles at 7.5/8.0 mph.

Finish time: 27:30 minutes! 

I think the key with sprinting is that you have to learn to ignore the physical discomfort.  Sprinting is NOT fun — its extremely challenging, both mentally and physically.

Now, doctors will tell you "don’t work out if it hurts," but I’m not really sure what that means — because any serious runner will tell you that at some point, it HURTS!  When you’re running 13.1 miles or sprinting a 10K, your body is not going to be thrilled.  I try to transcend the discomfort — I place my mind elsewhere.  It’s the only way to improve; you have to push yourself past  your comfort zone (in a safe and sensible way)! 

I’m not suggesting ya’ll go out there and run yourselves to death (overuse injuries suck), but there’s something to be said for pushing yourself!

After the gym, we ran wedding-related errands at Wal-Mart (buying wrapping paper for the bridal party gifts, etc)… while I approached the checkout register, I spotted….

AHHHHH! The 2nd (New Moon) and 4th (Breaking Dawn) books in the Twilight series!  They didn’t have any copies of the 3rd book, but I snapped these up immediately (they’re sold out everywhere)!

We didn’t get home until 8:30, and I knew dinner would take at least half an hour, so I had a light snack…

Just 1 cup of this cereal is 70 calories (its like eating air!!), but it was delish!

Dinner was 1 cup of brown rice with steamed red and green peppers and stir-fried chicken.

I was craving veggies all day long, so this dinner hit the spot!

I realize I am late on the third installment of the December Challenge — sorry! I will post a new ab exercise tomorrow, I promise!

Time to unwind!  Have a wonderful night!

Oh, Clifford was flushed tonight after a brief eulogy.  RIP, Clifford.