Its time for #Junathon - Day 1, 2 and 3...

Well, I'm not off to a good start on the blogging portion, now am I?  Here I am, according to the "Rules" of Junathon - supposed to exercise and blog every day, yet I am already combining my blog-postings into one, instead of three!

That's ok though, because this weekend was awesome enough that NOT blogging simply has to be forgiven.    Coinciding with Junathon - my wife and I are doing an "almost no bad food" month.  (It would be a NO bad food month, but our anniversary is this month.. There is no way we aren't celebrating that!  9 years of marriage and no murder-charges? YES!)  So, in order to start this off right - we headed out to the Anne Arundel Farmers market.  I love farmer's markets.  The people selling things they grew/made, the people buying the local items.. Fresh Air.. Fresh Produce.. Whats not to love?

[caption id="attachment_2739" align="aligncenter" width="490"] Photo from the Anne Arundel Farmer's Market Facebook page.[/caption]

In fact, it is partially in thanks to that wonderful market that my day's food looks like:



With food like that, and exercising every day? Those pounds are just going to VANISH! (at least that is the hope & plan! I have a class reunion in a couple months!)

Back to the awesome weekend.. So we hit the farmer's market, paid rent (this is VERY important children.. Don't forget it!) and then tried to come up with the days plan..  Well, it was hot.. and water is cool... So we liked the idea of water (we being my wife and I.. My kids were clueless as to what was going on.)  That made us think - BEACH!!!! Well, Ocean City is 2.5 hours away.. Not a trip to start at 10 am.  I had heard about North Beach - down in the town of Chesapeake Beach, a measly 45 minutes away..  So...



PICNIC ON THE BEACH!!!! YAY!  So, quick trip back home, grabbing suits and a picnic-makings, and off in the car (Without telling the kids anything.)

One thing I have to say.. I was surprised at the cost.  It's not that it was unreasonable - it wasn't.  Having lived in VA Beach for 4 years, I think of the beach as free.  Now VA beach isn't taken care of by a small town on the bay, that seems to have to ship sand in so that they have a sandy beach in an otherwise rock-beach area.

It's also quite shallow.  If you look at the first beach picture in the blog, you will notice that everyone is standing in water up to their mid-thigh.  The swimming area (as outlined by the wooden wall and pilings with ropes blocking you from going further) isn't all that large either.  (We are still on the lookout for a beach within an hour that goes at least as deep as my shoulders.)

But on a 91 degree day?  It had water you could sit in and cover you up!  Think of it as the Chesapeake-bay equivalent of those blue inflatable pools!  I have to admit that if I had known it was going to cost us 40 bucks (+ another 10 dollars for the beach-umbrella), I would have gone to the water park in the same town. that was $76 for the family!  But regardless, we had a wonderful time!

[caption id="attachment_2743" align="aligncenter" width="490"] My kids can find friends to play with anywhere![/caption]

Between the swimming/horseplay/etc - I got my exercise for the day!



Now on Sunday!   Sunday, we went to a Walk for Wellness for Mental Health, sponsored by the Volunteers of America Chesapeake.  My wife and I (and my kids!) had volunteered (or I MIGHT have volunteered them.. ) to help out.  We ended up going on the walk as well.  While these walks are normally around 5K, this one wasn't mapped out as firmly.. Which really was to our benefit!  We went through the Brookside gardens - and they were BEAUTIFUL!

[caption id="attachment_2745" align="aligncenter" width="490"] Look at me, getting all fancy with the Collage![/caption]

After a full day on the beach, followed by a several mile walk - the family as a whole was exhausted!   We returned home for family nap time.  Truly an awesome weekend!

Now as for today!  I set my alarm for 5:30, thinking that Junathon would be a great time to spend a month getting up and working out first thing.  Then I could truly decide if I wanted to or not (as it takes 3 weeks to start a habit!), or if I would rather keep working out at night!   I got up and headed down to the laundry room to find running clothes, and switch laundry.... Then i started folding... Then I realized I was putting off running as I was scared.

I'll admit it. It takes a real man to admit when he is scared!  I was very worried that I would go out and take a step - just to find out the pain was all still there and I couldn't run.  I was scared that I would finish and have the sharp intense pain back.  I was (and still am) scared that tomorrow morning I would find out that the pain was as bad as it has ever been.  Well, realizing this I decided it was time to suck it up and go.

I was right. The pain was still there.  Now it wasn't as bad as I feared it was going to be (or as pain-free as I hoped..), as I was able to run.  I decided I would keep it at a short distance of 1.5 miles.  The pain never went away totally, but it was bearable.  I am feeling it now, as I walk around as well.  But I don't know how much of the soreness is from my long walk yesterday either.

Deborah will be pleased to know that I have been wearing my orthotics faithfully, and have only been without shoes at the beach.  Even there - I wore my arch-support strap the entire time.   I know that helped as yesterday was one of the more pain-free days I had had in a long time.

I did stretch after the run, and do 10 minutes of yoga.. 10 minutes was all I could take... I find yoga sooooooo boring.

So we will see how my foot feels when I wake up tomorrow!  But either way, I will be up at 5:30 to exercise!