Graduation Week!

So far, a decently productive day, though I feel a huge headache coming on as I continue to stare at this computer screen for hours on end. At least I have half of my last final paper of undergrad written. Oh, Racine and Corneille, I'm just not feeling you two today.

Although it was painful, Jon and I did manage to drag ourselves out of bed at 5:30am for our morning run. We seem to have gotten a decent routine down for mornings that we run: get up at 5:30, eat breakfast/pack lunches, run from 6-7ish, then shower and get ready/out the door by 7:30am. Well. Oiled. Machine. It's ironic though that on the days we sleep in, regardless of giving ourselves the required hour to get ready/out the door, we always manage to be late. Hmm...

Speaking of breakfasts, I've recently stumbled upon Special K's Protein Plus cereal, and I'm in love. It has a slight cinnamon-y flavor so it's not bland, and I can mix a cup of that with a 1/2 cup of Fiber One Original and cover it with a cup of almond milk for a whopping total of just 2 points. I've become a huge fan since the mix of high fiber + high protein keeps me full from 5:30am until at least 10-11am (when I can have a quick snack).

Okay, gushing aside, this morning's run went well. We're still keeping with the 40 minute time-frame, so I'm going to try and speed it up instead before forcing myself to get up even earlier to start adding more time. Ideally, I'd love to get to a 6.0 pace, since I'm currently averaging at around a 5.45, but we'll see. We're still kicking around the goal of a half in September, but I'm really uncertain as to whether or not I think I can be ready in time.

Anyway, here's the photo/stats from our run. I'm using a screen grab from Jonboy's runkeeper since I was too lazy to plug in my Garmin this morning. Definitely better than our pace on our last run (where I thought I was going to die).



To wrap up, I know today isn't my weigh in day, but I was pleased to step on the scale this morning and see a 170.8 glaring up at me instead of a 175 (from the other day) and then a nice 169.8 after my run. Whew. I really can't wait to get back to the 160's so I can hopefully get into the 150s this time. I'm feeling good being back on track. Tonight I'm going to make a moroccan chicken recipe from one of my WW cookbooks, I'll take photos and let you know how it goes--it sounds delicious!

Oh, and two quick questions since I've been thinking about investing in a food scale.

1) Do you use one and, if so, how often?
2) Do you have any particular models that you would recommend or specific criteria I should look for?

Thanks!