Weigh-In #2

Sorry I forgot to post my weigh-in yesterday, but I did take the picture:

Down two pounds! Couldn't ask for anything better than that! And please ignore my toe nail polish that needs removed....

Obviously this week went pretty well. Thursday West Virginia had gorgeous weather and I was so excited to go on a run. I had gotten busy that day and didn't eat a real lunch, just some yogurt and a granola bar. Therefore I decided to eat dinner when I got home and then go on a 4 miler. Bad, horrible idea. I guess I drank too much because a mile in I got horrible stomach cramps and I could literally hear the liquid swishing around in my gut. Not fun. So I ended up having to walk most of it. I still got the four miles in, but it took me over 50 minutes! It was still a nice walk though, lol. I saw at least four deer! And the trees were lush and bright green from all the rain we've been having here.

I will make a confession though. I exercised less this week than I had planned. But I still got my important runs in, but I actually think my body might be appreciating the little break. Is it possible that I've been working out too much? I don't know. I know that I like riding bikes and running, so I probably won't slow down on that front just because my weight goes down, but it's nice to know I can take it easy on some weeks and still lose weight.

This week was a big week for me. First my car got hit....again.

I've only had this bumper a couple of months after someone rear ended me in a four car accident. Then on Monday an ambulance hit me with their big steal bumper. I'm not upset about it, accidents happen, but I can't believe I have to get it replaced again!

Then yesterday (Friday) I finally told my boss some news that made me feel relieved. I'm not ready to reveal the news yet, but I definitely feel better that I don't have to hide it any longer from my work.

Big 10 miles this weekend. It's raining right now, so I'm going to hold off for either this evening or tomorrow and see if it clears up. There's no way I'm doing that long of a run on a treadmill!

And apparently this is going to be a very random post. A lot of people may hate the summer heat, but come on, you have to love the fruit summer brings. I've been loving watermelon, blueberries, cantaloupe, and peaches. and grapes. and apples. See, I love it all! Fruit really helped me stay on track at my family reunion last weekend and it helps when I have the munchies. Most of the fruit is full of water, this satiates thirst while providing a refreshing snack. Can't wait for Fall, but yeah, I'll definitely be sad when all of this goodness isn't in season any longer. Enjoy it while you can!

Weigh-in

I have no idea why this is coming through sideways.

This is not a picture from last week. This is my weight this week. Yup, same as last week. Obviously things didn't go quite according to plan, but I have a couple of reasons this might have been. The big culprit is unfortunately "Aunt Flow". Ugh I know. Another reason is the heat and I've been kind of down lately (which now may be explained by the first reason).

This is what I looked like after my four(ish) mile run yesterday. Pretty I know. I'm not sure of the exact mileage because my Motoactv started going kind of crazy. It would quit working and then start all over again. I don't know. Hopefully it'll be fine the next time I use it. 

Anyway, all these things combined have led me to eating my weight in watermelon, skipping my spin class (that may have been laziness), and just not feeling like I want to work out. Everyone has down times when it comes to fitness and this is that week for me. I have a long run tomorrow morning, which hopefully I can get my butt out of bed before it gets miserably humid outside. Then Sunday I have a family reunion. I might take my bike with me and get a ride in, but I'll see what the weather is saying. We've had a lot of storms lately.  

This week wasn't all that I hoped that it would be, but they never are. Just keep moving forward and try to make a better decision at the next crossroads. At least I didn't gain, right? Yup, need to get focused, haha.

Perhaps one day I'll overcome emotional eating. Exercise definitely helps with that, but sometimes it happens. I tend to be a lot better at controlling myself when I can go outside, but like I said, it's been storming every evening. I also realize that I'm doing it now. This is new. I realize it, accept it, and try not to let it get out of control. And it hasn't really. I've just been eating too much fruit and not stopping when I'm full! Tummy ache tomorrow anyone. Eeep especially on my long run. Yep, I bet I'm going to regret all that watermelon and salad.... Okay, I'm going to go find something to do so that I'm not sitting here, bored and tempted by my kitchen. 

Have a good weekend and make at least one healthy choice.

Jamboree

I was perusing Yahoo working when I came upon this article about the Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia. This is a massive event they are having in southern West Virginia (where I'm from).

It wasn't the Jamboree that I was interested in really, but the fact that they put a physical limitation on the Scouts that were able to attend. According to the article, scouts who had a BMI higher than 40 were ineligible to attend. Okay, I get that they want to promote healthy choices and being active. Their facility is amazing, with Olympic pools, rafting, rock climbing, etc. However, my problem is, how are these kids going to realize their full potential and how being active can be fun, if they are  being ostracized?

Perhaps these kids need to be given a chance. Just because one is obese does not mean that they couldn't do the physical activities the other kids could do. It probably would be harder, but not impossible. Ugh, I just hate it that such a thing exists as being too fat to go to camp. Poor kids. I hope that some of the ones that were denied have their "ah-ha" moment and start changing their lives. This is probably the objective of the limitation, but it doesn't always work...

__________________________________________________________________________________

I've been working on my goals that I set for myself. I've made healthier choices, though I did have some tea. I've been catching up on my blogs. And I got in a long run Sunday. It was 8 miles, but I only ran probably 7 of those. My knee just hurt so badly. I talked to a girl at my group run today (2.6 miles) and she is using tape for her shin splints and various other pains. I might give it a try. Basically it's using a type of medical tape, shaping it around whatever hurts and this causes the skin to pull away from the muscle so that there's less pain. At least that's what I understood she was saying. I don't know if it will help, but I'm willing to try anything!

My knee coupled with the hot humid air made for a rather miserable run. It also didn't help that I decided to run around 2 o'clock. Yeah, not a smart decision! I guess I know why most people run before the sun really comes up.

My week of training looks like this:

Group run today
Spin tomorrow morning
Spin on Wednesday followed by a run in the evening
Thursday tempo work
Friday rest
Long run Saturday morning.

I have a family thing on Sunday so I have to get my run in on Saturday before I go into work that evening.

Back to watching Bones! I'm going to try and get some tape tomorrow and will update after I try it out a couple of times. I can't stand this 'runner's knee' any longer!

Vacation and Getting Back to Basics

I've decided not to do a big long post about my vacation. But I will say a little about the lack of control I experienced and the lack of exercise I put in.

When I get around my family, we like to eat. Ice cream just about every day and junk food everywhere. I don't keep junk food in my house for a reason. I don't have the will to say no. And I didn't say no all week long! I know it could have been worse because we didn't eat out that much. We only ate out three times and one of those times I got nauseous and couldn't eat my meal. (It may or may not have been the cookie that I had before I tried to eat breakfast....). And I did break my streak of no soda, but I only had some with my alcoholic drinks. I opened a can of cherry coke zero at the beach, but ended up giving it to my sister because it just tasted gross. I guess after not having it for a while, my taste buds have changed for it.

As far as exercise. My week started out well with the Biggest Loser 10K. Then I tried out Zumba for the first time on Monday! It was fun to do with my sister, but it's not something I would do every week. I guess I like more high intensity workouts and I ended up just laughing at myself half the time. I've never really liked aerobic classes though. Rain poured most of the days we were there which put a damper on the running I had planned. When I did go running (only twice) I didn't go for very long. It was very humid and hot and excuses, excuses.

 



So this is the result:



Weigh-In on Friday Morning 7.12.13




I'm way over what I once was. My lowest has been 158-159. My goal is 150. I'm not sure I really care about getting exactly to 150 as long as I work on body re-composition (toning, getting stronger, tightening things up), but I definitely don't want to be mid-160's.

 

A few things that I've been working on:

 

Eating- getting back to when I was a little stricter. Staying away from sweets and cooking more. Try to count calories or at least be aware of calorie content BEFORE I eat something. Doesn't really help to know the calorie count for something after I've devoured it. I've also cut back my consumption of tea. After my morning cup I'm trying not to have any iced tea and only have it as a rare treat. I felt like it was getting out of hand. It had replaced my addiction to soda. When I make it myself it's not that many calories, but I wasn't just drinking it at home. I would order half sweet/half unsweet at restaurants all the time. Water is ultimately the better choice so that is what I'm trying to stick with.

 

Exercise - It hasn't been the greatest week as far as running goes. My knee is hurting badly again and it's been very humid. But I've been exercising and working on strength training. I think ramping up my core exercises and strength will really help with my toning goal.

 

Weigh-In - Post weigh-ins every Friday. I already weigh myself, but posting a picture on the blog every Friday for the world to see might make me a more conscious of what I'm eating!

 

Blog - Not only write more, but get caught up on the blogs that I read. I didn't have good reception at the beach and I got behind on all my blogs. Plus my Google reader quit working as of July 1st and of course I didn't reinstall a new one until after it quit working. (They shut the application down). As I've said many times, reading blogs and health articles really does help me stay on track.

 

These are basic rules. Nothing too crazy. But I think these will really help me get back to losing weight and getting stronger, mentally and physically.

 

Saying no to foods that are bad for us takes practice. No one is going to be perfect, but I think with time and choosing healthy options more and more often it will get easier. The most important thing is to get back on track! I didn't gain the 80 pounds back that I've lost. There's absolutely no reason to give up and go back to being the lazy person I once was. There are always choices. I'm hoping that by making small, good choices everyday that next year I won't have a gain on the scale when I go on vacation. Don't get me wrong, the food was good. I just went way over any reasonable idea of portion control.

 

So here's hoping that this good week turns into another one next week and so on!

Biggest Loser 10K

*Sorry it has taken me so long to post. Technical difficulties with my computer.*

 

I'm back! From vacation that is. I've been gone over a week at the beach and boy it is hard to get into real like (mainly just getting up to go to work). Vacation will be a whole post of it's own, because I'm too tired to write about the whole week right now, but I did start my vacation on a positive note and ran the Biggest Loser 10K in Charleston, WV (it quickly went downhill from there, health wise, but again that's for a different post).

I arrived at the packet pick up relatively late, so I didn't get to enjoy the full expo, but I did get to see Dan and Jackie Evans from the Biggest Loser, Season 5. They were already on stage when I walked in.While I was there, they talked about how better they felt now that they were active and how simple it can all start with just walking.

Also Michael Dorsey from Season 14 was there. People were in line to take a picture with him, but I parked in a short term parking spot, so I didn't take the time to get a picture. I did say hi though! 

As far as vendors. The expo was a little sad. There was only one other store there, who sold jewelry and magnets/stickers that involved running.  I received a bag and white shirt, which looked incredibly small.

There was a 10K and a 5K. A friend of mine was doing the 5K with a friend of his. It was nice to have people to hang out with before and after the race. Both races didn't start until 9AM, so we didn't have to get up until after 7. I stupidly woke up at 6:30. Thanks bladder. I mistakenly only ate two frozen waffles. I should have eaten more or took a little granola bar since it would be two hours before I actually ran, but ya live 'n learn. The race had a good atmosphere, but there weren't really enough toilets. The race relied on the park restrooms and frankly there weren't enough and they should have had at least a couple of port-o-potties. They did have some on the course, but that didn't help before the race! We eventually went into a hotel to use their bathrooms, so did a lot of other people, but it move quickly.

My friend Brian, his friend Lauren, and I all started out together. We tried to get into the correct corral to start, but they had it so blocked off that there were too many people and we were stuck around the 15 min. mile pacers. It didn't really matter since our time didn't start out until we crossed the mat and none of us were there to win it. But it was a bit crazy to have to dodge and weave around everyone and it took about a mile in until we could finally get a steady pace. Unfortunately, they had to turn at the 1.5 mile marker and I had to keep going. My pace/effort seemed to be going okay, but looking back my pace dropped quite a bit after they left. It was so hot though and I felt tired. At the turn around, I could start feeling that I should have eaten more. I do not do well in the heat. That is for sure!

At the turn around point for the 5K'ers I got to slap the hand of Mike and Lauren Lee from the Biggest Loser. They had actually been running it and as I went past them I told them how happy we were that they were here. It was also nice to get a little support at that point. I just kept trudging along. The course follows the Kanawha River. It does not have any trees or shade except for one bridge you go under. It was freaking hot! We passed by the state capital and it looked beautiful as usual, but my goodness, I would have traded it out in a heartbeat for some trees.

Needless to say, this was not my best run ever. My time was 1 hr and 4 mins (almost 5 mins.). My knee did considerably well which I was thankful for. I didn't wear my big brace, just the strap, but it did fine. Still some twinges, but not the kind of pain I have had. They can't all be PR's and I'm a little disappointed, but it was still good to get a run in and join in on the fun and welcoming environment that the Biggest Loser provided to a variety of people.

Coolest thing were the free pictures!