Mel -- I was doing some junk food fantasizing last night, too, but I asked myself if eating chips (which I have not touched in 2 weeks) would get me closer to my goal. UGH! WHY do I have to have a steel trap memory? Just browsing the cabinets and fridge took long enough for me to come to my senses. I am firmly convinced that I have to stash all the bad stuff out of my immediate line of sight. Congratulations on NOT buying the carrot cake. I hope the craving has passed. And do NOT let your "pace funk" escalate -- your pace is awesome and you have come such a long way. Oh, but don't use food to celebrate, either!
Carrie -- I am so proud of you for choosing the banana! Isn't it amazing that we can derive pride from those victories? Especially after a run, it is so easy to think we have the calories to burn, but we can really use those calories to replenish our bodies. You did good, kiddo!
NCRedding (is it Nancy? I'm sorry I am so bad at names!

) -- Congratulations on putting on the brakes. You must be so proud of yourself. I am so glad that knowing you'd be "sharing" your experience with us helped you to rein it in. Hopefully, we are all feeling that way. That the fun of sharing the victories and getting each other through the challenges and a bit of accountability thrown in will help us all stay on track. Good job!
I appreciate everyone's good wishes on the dr. appt last night. I went on and on about it on the weekly training thread, so I'll cross-post here:
keenercam said:
Thank you so much for all the pixiedust and prayers. I just LOVE my doctor (he is the director of sports medicine -- I think that is his title -- at the university and only works in this medical office 2 nights a week, and is just the perfect doctor for me). I told him I had a primary concern (breathing/breathlessness issues) and secondary (vtach) and though I knew he'd be more concerned about the second, I really wanted to talk about the first.
When I acknowledged how far I have to go weight-wise and that that could be the reason I run out of breath when I jog, he praised me for how far I've come -- 65 pounds since 11/04 and going from totally sedentary to physically active 4-5x/week). I thanked him with tears in my eyes. Then, he asked if we've created a monster and couldn't I be content with walking. I told him that if that is an inherent physical limitation, then "yes", but if it is resolvable, then let's resolve it. He is pretty certain that while I may have exercised-induced athsma, it is more likely that the really heavy-duty drugs I took for ten years may have had a negative impact on my lung, perhaps even creating scar tissue -- beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, amiodarone.
Long story short (sorry, I do tend to go on, don't I?) -- He gave me an inhaler to use morning and night of azmacort (sp?) as a prophylactic but is sending me to a pulmonologist for a pulmonary function test.
On the heart thing -- I am going to let my treating cardiology team here in Delaware know that the vtach has re-started, but we'll all just be hypervigilant to be sure it doesn't start sustaining. I am not going to contact the doctor at Johns Hopkins unless and until it sustains because I really don't want to go down there for testing or evaluation until necessary. Because it is so intermittent right now and random and not related to exercise, I'm allowed to continue my training and we'll re-evaluate after the marathon.
So, thank you so much, guys, for your support. I really, really appreciate you all so much!
Okay, I just realized I am hungry and duh! must be because I forgot to eat breakfast. Off to find something core -- shredded wheat w/skim milk or fat free yogurt with strawberries.
Oh, one last thing. I made a really cool core dish last night -- improvised pork fried rice
1 package mostly-cooked brown rice
1 cup frozen peas & pearl onion mixed
1/4 cup egg beaters prepared and chopped into tiny pieces
2 slices canadian bacon diced
2 tsp olive oil
I fried the rice in the oil, added the veggies, meat & egg and quick fried it all until the rice was kind of crunchy (I like it that way). It was delicious!