Running

On to another crazy idea....I'm starting an 8-week training program to get me running for 30 minutes straight. I got it from the Runner's World website. It starts with more walking than running and gets you to 30 minutes at the eighth week. I'm excited. I am just going to focus on this for a few months, instead of weights and crosstraining and all that jazz. Once I have the running down, I'll add some other activites, but it's going to take some time and dedication. It's also going to be particularly funny, since I'm about 40 pounds overweight:) Jiggle, anyone? lol
Food is going okay, but I'm still snacking at night about every other night, and it's adding anywhere from 100-250 calories to my calculated 1500 total. But I'm all about the self-acceptance, so I'm trying not to beat myself up over it. I'm trying to allot the calories for a midnight snack, but I have yet to master that whole brilliant idea. All in all, it's still not too bad, I'm staying at 1700 or less per day, and even though that's not strict calorie restriction, it's pretty good for dieting, since I'm at 195 right now (shhh...don't tell anyone).
Have you all seen the recent news clips on Calorie Restriction? I've seen two already. They spoke to people who practice it and had monkeys that had been fed 1/3 less than the other group of monkeys, and the monkeys who ate less were way healthier and lived longer. Hmmm....I wanna be a healthy, old monkey! Then the second story I saw had to make the brilliant claim that modern medicine was looking in to creating a pill that would mimic the results. Hmph. It figures. We're always looking for a pill to fix us nowadays.
I just got a great book on DIY cosmetics and cleaning and first aid. I've already gone crazy and ordered a variety of essential oils. I'm going to try the recipe for facial cleanser, moisturizer, spray cleaner, healing salve, window cleaner, and deodorant. The book is called Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills by Raleigh Briggs. I ordered mine from buyolympia.com, but you could probably do a search and find some other places to order it from. This book was brought to my attention by Amy Karol over at Angrychicken.com. I have to give credit where credit is due. I love the whole DIY environmentally safe ideas. I'll post back what the results were.