Last Place Runner

All day yesterday my husband and I had to carry one of our dogs outside to pee. My husband tried to help her walk by putting a towel around her middle and lifting her up enough that she wouldn’t have to use the back leg she was staying off of. That didn’t work, she was just confused. So I had to put her leash on her so she would know to try to walk while Justin held her up.

It took both of us, and it took several minutes to get her outside to pee and then several more to get her into her bed in our bedroom. And I realized that was no way for any of us to live. I couldn’t carry a dog outside 10 times a day, and what would happen when I go back to work? So I went to bed probably having a little bit of an anxiety attack. Not surprisingly, I was exhausted and fell asleep right away.

I woke up around 12:45, though, when the dog just casually got off her bed, strolled out of our room and through the living room and let herself out the dog door.

I jumped up and ran to the back door to make sure she wouldn’t get stranded outside or fall down and hurt herself worse. But by the time I got to the back door, she was done and on her way back inside. She was a little wobbly on that back leg, but she got back to our bedroom and into her bed like it was no big deal.

This morning, she was a little slow getting up. But when she did wake up, she went outside and then came right back into our bedroom. Because I’m a total pushover, I let her eat breakfast in our bedroom. Now she’s curled up on the couch with a blanket I just washed and took out of the dryer for her. WHO KNOWS? I hope she will feel better.

Needless to say, the day already felt like a success. I swept the kitchen and living room before I started some laundry and got dressed to run. I decided to go with the end of week two of Jenny Hadfield’s walk/run 10K training program. The workout is 7 reps of run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute. It was easy until the last round, and even that wasn’t too bad. I just had a little side stitch. I was watching “Freaks and Geeks” on Netflix and when I hit the 42-minute mark, which was quittin’ time, my episode still had about 18 minutes. So I decided to walk 20 more minutes to get to an even hour.

I feel amazing now. I vacuumed the house, showered, cooked my lunch … I need to make a grocery trip, but I can’t decide if I want to do that today.

Before I start my cleanse on Monday, I want to have some of my favorite cleanse snacks and foods in the house. One thing I love to do is to make “fruit roll-ups.” I like to blend fruit, herbs, and veggies. In my food dehydrator, I can make two or three batches at a time.

I also like to make “awesomesauce,” which is basically orange-ginger pear butter. Think applesauce, but so much better. I grind my own cinnamon sticks and grate the ginger and the recipe I created is delicious without a drop of sugar. I have a bag of blood oranges, too, so I am thinking about what I can do with those.

The weather is supposed to turn bad again tomorrow — not that it is too great right now — and the grocery stores will be crazy if I wait too much longer.