Winter's not so blue

Pre-workout eats: Slice of whole-wheat toast with Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams and sliced banana
Workout: Ran 5 miles; average pace, 9:15.

I went rogue today. Seriously, off the charts wild.

I ran the boulevard-park route backward. I'm so crazy, I know.

Want to know why I did it? I went a little farther before turning to avoid getting hit by a car but that doesn't really matter. Wanna know why? Simply running the route in reverse, even a loopty-loop route, seemed to shake things up. Markers don't mean the same thing. Sites aren't the same at a different angle. Uphills aren't in the same places. It was kind of nice.

And, the bonus, I didn't cry. Not one single tear.

While I was running, and actually enjoying it, I couldn't but help to think of some ways to make things better. Like in the puppy and rainbow days of late spring and early fall.

So here they are. A top 10 baker's dozen list of ways to beat the winter blues. And if I stole some of your ideas from my previous post, I'm sorry ... but only a little bit.

Kick winter blues to the curb

1. Abandon social politeness and laugh at the guy, with his bald head and bandanna headband, singing to himself and dancing in front of the soda machine at the pizza place. It's funny. Especially when he wiggles his butt on his way out to have a smoke.

2. Sign up for a new group exercise class or switch up your routine. I so signed up for that Groupon and am plotting which 10 days will be filled with yoga.

3. Exercise with people. Simply having Mark home to run with makes things less daunting, and I also feel more accountable when we plan to run the night before.

4. Put on some mascara. Swipe your lips with some gloss. A little effort into your appearance can make you feel 10 times better about yourself. Of course, this is coming from a gal who put on makeup for the first time in weeks yesterday.

5. When it comes to food, think about why you are eating what you're eating. There's been Panera shortbread cookies on the community table all. day. long. And they've been taunting me. I keep considering reaching out and grabbing one ... but why. I have snacks at my desk. I'm not hungry. I am not really craving anything sweet. So you know what? The cookies can stay there. Feeling more in control of what I'm doing does loads for my mood.

6. Use your clever and wit to glean information about your Christmas gifts from your husband. It's fun to try to break the men.

7. Find the humor in the little things. Like the company Christmas gift of a camp chair emblazoned with the logo. In two places.

8. Shift your focus from a workout schedule to just moving. You don't have to run M-W-F-Sa. You can run T-R-F-Su. You don't have to walk the dog (especially when the teacher husband is on winter break!). You can wake up with some sun salutations or squats or whatever gets you going.

9. Visit Expedia.com and plan exorbitant vacations that you'll never take because it's nice to dream. Paris ... in the spring? A weekend in Hawaii? A summer cruise in the Mediterranean? Yes. Yes. And YES!

10. Remind yourself that you're human. You make mistakes. You will miss workouts. You can't eat perfectly all of the time.

11. Treat yourself. Get that bagel with cream cheese you've been dreaming about. Make Monday a Starbucks day. Go back for seconds of Buffalo Chicken Pasta.

12. Plan dates with your girlfriends. You'll get out of the house, hopefully get something yummy to eat and catch up on your gossip. Plus, if your friends are pregnant like mine, you can rub a cute belly. That always makes me happy.

13. Call Grandma. She'll tell you that you don't have to be cranky - 9 times out of 10, it's a choice. And then you can listen to her talk about her crush (OK, I call it a crush) on the college-age lifeguard at water aerobics. Guaranteed to make you giggle!