I’m in a major food rut. I’m just sick of meal planning, sick of cooking, sick of it all… We go out for dinner 1-2 times a week and it’s to the same 3 places and then I make the same 5-6 meals the rest of the time. I used to think I liked cooking, but then I realized I was married to a picky man. And then I had a child who wants lots of attention and doesn’t give me much space/time to prepare food. So now I hate cooking. I need help!

I get very frustrated that I do the vast majority of parenting myself. And there are times that I’m really annoyed that I have to wake up way before dawn to be able to get in a run before the kid wakes up. But you know what is more annoying? Not even having that option. I really do like running early (except I still find it a lot harder to wake up in the 4AM hour than I ever did pre-kid, what up with that?) and this week my hubby has been out-of-town for work. From what I understand, it’s not considered “good parenting” to get up really early and go for a run and leave your toddler asleep at home alone. Even if you leave the dog behind to watch her. 😉

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And my hubby does usually take her to school each morning, so most days I can get started working early enough. But this week I’ve been late to work every day. Which means that I worked my 8 hours each day without taking any breaks so I could still go pick her up on time, 8-4. So no lunch break workouts either. All my fitness endeavors this week have been after I put her to bed. But no running, because remember… you’re not supposed to leave the kid home alone to go run! (And my treadmill scares me, it just changes incline on its own without warning. Which wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t the fact that it decides to rise the incline all the way and then plummet back down. That’s dangerous!)

Not that I could have run anyway… my hip/groin/glute/quad/hammie/IT Band* has been bugging me. I’m on about 3 weeks of no running now. Taking my shoe selfies lets me know that my last run was on September 2. I think it might be starting to feel better, but I can’t tell for certain. Just when I think it might be easing up, then it gives me a sudden and sharp reminder about its existence.

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And no running has been making me grumpy. I had to miss a half marathon I was registered for last weekend. Of course, a freak storm washed out the freeway and would have made travel to the race a nuisance anyway. But still… And it’s playing head games with me and making me have body confidence issues. (Just being totally honest here.) I feel the ED voice getting louder telling me that I’m getting huge with this break. I know that’s not the truth, but it’s hard when something that helps keep that voice quiet (running) is taken away from me. But it hasn’t been too overwhelmingly hot out so I’ve at least been able to take the kid out on a few evening walks in the stroller this week. (By not overwhelmingly hot I mean in the mid 90’s!)

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* Seriously, I am not entirely sure what this pain is, the pain source seems to move all around. Some times I think it’s a groin injury, sometimes I think it’s my hip, sometimes I’m afraid it’s a bone injury, other days I’m sure it’s all muscular/soft tissue. And I don’t really want to go to the doctor because truthfully, I’m cheap. I hate going to my primary care doc and paying a $40 co-pay to have her say, “That sounds like this. Go see this specialist.” Then the specialist charges $50, then sends me for other diagnostics that cost more money. But I’ve been dealing with other health issues that I may or may not discuss on here, so all of the tests and appointments on that may have me nearing my deductible amount now. So that expense would be gone! I need a good sports chiropractor that isn’t super far away from my home.

If you’ve read my site long enough, you know that I am a fan of ChiRunning. I’ve wanted to attend a ChiRunning event with Danny Dreyer since 2007 or 2008 when I first stumbled upon the book. But who has time to go away for a week to a camp for grown ups?! They’ve just announced a ChiWeekend on October 24-26 in North Carolina. And I’d really like to go! I don’t think I’m going to get the opportunity, but one can dream, right?

Amazon announced a new kid-friendly Kindle Fire tablet. Watching stuff on the iPad is the closest my kid gets to watching TV. We watch a few videos from the Super Simple Songs channel on YouTube. Media is totally addicting to kids and she now begs to watch the videos. “Mommy, get the PAAAAAAD! One more? One more?” I can see her vocabulary expanding from these 3-5 minute clips, but it’s amazing how angry she can get when it’s time to shut it off. Media and children are a whole new world these days… we get in the car and she asks for certain songs to be played. And we can just bust out the iPhones and play it for her. *crotchety old voice* When I was a kid we had to wait for our favorite songs to be played on the radio and we were happy when it did! *end crotchety old voice*

Got any fun weekend plans? Have you ever dealt with pain-of-unknown-origin? How did you track down the problem?