Thoughts for the Week

This has been an interesting week for me. I started running. Yes. Running. Now, I have never, ever considered myself athletic...at all. I hated gym class in school. I even skipped so many gym classes my Senior year that I had to make them up before I could graduate. I could never run without getting a "stitch" in my side. I was once told by my very "manly" gym teacher that I should consider race-walking, because I had the right "gate" for it. I took it to mean that I ran funny. It stuck with me all this time. My husband began running a few years ago. I've now watched him run several 5K races and two half-marathons. I've seen him come home drenched in sweat and panting. I've seen him have to ice his shins. I've seen his black toenails. I've heard him groan when he tries to climb the stairs. I've asked myself a million times, "why would anyone put themselves through all that pain?" Last week, I began to change that question to, "why not?" And better yet, "why not ME?" And so, I started. I'm going slowly, so that hopefully I won't get injured. I bought some cool running clothes. Because, after all, you have to look good while you're sweating! I started logging my workouts on Dailymile.com. And you know what? I started to feel GOOD. I find myself smiling a lot more now. It's really strange. I guess it's true what they say about "runner's high". It's real.

I even took a picture of myself in my crazy new running tights. Wanna see? OK.

The picture is a little blurry. Couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Must be something to do with the self-timer thingy. Now, not to get too carried away with all this running stuff, I do have some news on the gluten-free front to share. I stopped into Walgreen's yesterday to pick up my husband's allergy medicine and there, right on one of the end counters, was a display of Walgreen's Spice Drops, Gum Drops and Spearmint Leaves. Yum! I had heard that Walgreen's marked their gluten-free candies and I was happy when I saw "Gluten-Free" right there on the front of the bag! Of course, I picked up a bag of the Gum Drops and a bag of the Spice Drops. Pictured are the Spice Drops. The Gum Drops are looooonnnng gone! LOL!

When my daughter got home from school, I took her books out of her backpack and found a PTA fundraiser package. This fundraiser is Joe Corbi's Family Favorites. A catalog full of gluten-filled pizzas, cookies, brownies and cheesecakes. I immediately said to my daughter, "Well, I can't eat ANY of this stuff!" Then, as I was leafing through the pages, I saw this:

Yep. I read it right! Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough! Whoa! I nearly fell right off my chair! THE WORLD IS CHANGING!

The allergy warning states that the cookie dough contains eggs, and soy and is manufactured in a facility that uses wheat, dairy, peanuts, and tree nuts. Each cookie dough tub contains 48 frozen cookies and each cookie has 130 calories, 1 gram of fiber and 7 grams of fat. That's 3 WW points per cookie.

Even though I know I don't need the extra calories, I'm thinking I should order a tub just to see what they are like and maybe review them???

I also had a little gluten mishap this week. I mistakenly put my Van's Gluten-Free Flax Waffles in the "family" toaster, instead of in my gluten-free toaster. Ugh. I had to throw them away. I think this is the first time I've ever done anything like that in the 2+ years I've been gluten-free. Have any of you ever done something like that??? I'd love to hear about it!

I just realized that while I was sitting here writing, I opened the bag of Spice Drops and ate almost half the bag!!! Bleck. Now my tummy feels icky. I'd better sign off and get my crazy new running tights on and get to the gym!!! LOL!

Have a great gluten-free day!!!

Oh, and I apologize for the spacing issues I'm having on my blog. Every time I use the spellchecker, it puts a whole bunch of spaces between my paragraphs! **%$%$##$%%^!!!