Never Give Up!

This weekend has been an inspiring one for me... for every time we slam ourselves, there is someone else wishing that they could be us. I know you may think that is not true, but I bet you .... there is someone out there. You are already someone else's goal.

This weekend started with a great 5K run. I met a wonderful gal in the starting corral who noticed by Jeff Galloway Run/Walk Timer and mentioned "hey I do intervals too." We started talking and I asked her PR (38mins) and what she runs on the treadmill (5.0) well I do neither, so I immediately became disheartened. Like a tire with a flat ... the air of my confidence began to slip. I told her maybe if I just kept her in my sites I would know I was doing well.

The race started and I felt good... fell into my groove quickly and just ran my own race. I passed that girl ... and then she passed me... and then I passed her again. As I passed her the last time she commented "your gonna beat me you know" I just smiled and told her to keep up the good work. I finished that 5K (with the finish line cruely up a hill) at 42:35 which was a PR for me. I was psyched!
This morning was the Scheels 10K. It was just another training run for us, since it was a down week, but I thought my running partner should have the experience of doing a 10K race too before the big half marathon. The weather was abysmal. Now listen, I am NOT a wuss I run in cold, rain, snow, sleet etc but this was the WORST weather ever. Standing out at the start line its downpouring... and I look around. Wow, this is the fittest group of people I have ever seen... uh oh ... this might not be good!

The race starts ... and we are maintaining a decent pace (a funny aside - remember last week when my shoe was covered in blood - well my husband cleaned it with dishsoap. Well when the water hit it ... suds and soap poured out of my shoe for miles. It was hysterical) and we can see people in front of us. I focus on a girl in a tan jacket - with the goal to keep her in my sites. We reach the 1.5 mile marker and the 10K breaks away from the 5K (which started 10 minutes after the 10K and we were unceremoniously passed by all the fast 5Kers). We run down this road... and its just us... I can see NO people around us. The road is a loop, so we are on one side and the fast 10Kers are on the other side.

As we run down this road... at least 30 people or more over the course of the route cheer for us "great job girls" "keep up the good work" "you can do it" and I start to settle down and just smile. So what if the weather sucks... we are doing this. We come to the end of the long road and volunteer says ... "turn left and then take the second right and follow the cones." So we turn ... run ..... turn run .... uhhhh there are NO cones.

We turn right at the next block because I have some idea of where we are going kinda... and there are no cones. We run through a parking lot that is under more than 1 foot of water. I have no idea where we are ... there are no cones.... LOL this is a problem. We decide to keep running ... somewhat towards where we are going...

Suddenly a teeny red car pulls up and a guy says "oh no you guys are still out here." Uh ... yeah where did you think we went? He says he will help get us back on course... so he takes us about 4 blocks. He then turns his car around comes back and says "sorry girls, I took  you in the wrong direction - here hop in and I will get you back to the course." I look at Katie and we both say "no thanks we will run."

Who the heck gets in a car in the middle of the race!! He finally gets us back on course... we get up the huge hill and there is a sweet man standing with 2 glasses of water that he got for us since they took the water station down. Onward we go... as we come into the last mile its starts downpouring sleeting -- I mean it was actually painful. Onward we go ... we finally get near the parking lot where the finish line is ... and we get stuck in the middle of the kids run... LOL nope not kidding! So I was passed by a 5 year old with alot more energy than I had at that point.

We finally finish! The guy at the finish line says "oh yeah sorry we took some of the course down" SERIOUSLY! This race had no time limit ... how poor. I have never been in such a poor run in all of the runs I have done. The kicker... I cant tell you if I got a PR or not. According to my Garmin we did ... when I went to check the official results... hmm they dont have one on either of us.

I guess sometimes its about more than PRs. Its about seeing what you are made of... seeing what you can handle. Giving up did cross my mind (heck crossing to the other side of the road where the 10K was running back crossed my mind) but in the end I would KNOW that I gave up. And I cant give up ....

So how do I apply this to life. Jeff Galloway once said "when you wake up the morning, never let weather be your excuse. How do you know that on the day of your big race the weather wont be the worst you have ever seen? So suck it up and get out there" and I live this quote to the fullest..... in all aspects of my life.

I do not give up! When times get tough ... I get tougher! I challenge you all to do the same, because I KNOW you can! We rock ... and are stronger than those weak people who never try. I may have finished in dead last today -- but I am tougher than those people who looked out the window and crawled back into bed!

Quick-- i am still here

So- i started c25k over too bit y'all know that cuz of facebook.

I also started doing the one hundred pushups plan. Dude! My shoulders are killing me!

Food.... Um..... No comment. Lol

However, now are freezer is restocked -- is it weird that I could live off of froZen veggies?

starting over

i am starting over today on my diet. the past week has been very crazy, busy, unhealthy, etc. 

my hubby and i are both on the dieting wagon, so we have cut out a few things to help us on our journey.  no soft drinks or fried foods for at least a month.  only eating out once just the two of us.  We can go to subway during the week and we will eat out for lunch when his brother comes to town which is usually once a week.

i borrowed the book racing weight and have started reading that.   i want to buy a body fat scale to help track my progress. 

i up'd my calories in myfitnesspal, bc i think with running 1200 was putting me in starvation mode and thus the reason for not losing. so i up'd it to 1500. we'll see how that works. 

i have a friend that is doing ww and she said she would buy the new books and the calculator for me next time she went to a meeting.  so i plan on doing that too as well as counting calories. 

i also plan to cut out my late night snack.  we dont eat dinner til between 8:30-9pm. and when we get home at 12 we both like to have a snack.  i am planning on cutting that out as well and just drinking a tea or water. 

i also am going to restart c25k and work on my speed. i know i can run for however long but really want to work on my speed so i think doing it with that program and running as hard as i can during the run intervals will help me get faster. 

any other suggestions? 

update

i haven't been dieting or keeping track of stuff on myfitnesspal.  waiting is not an easy thing to do.  i didnt get the answer i wanted but i am doing ok with that and know that it will happen if it's meant to be some day. 

so now that i am out of "baby making" mode  i can start focusing on losing weight.  starting monday my hubby and i are both going to get serious and start eating better. 

of course before we do we are hitting up the melting pot saturday night and chinese buffet on sunday.  he had told me we woudl go to the melting pot to celebrate when we were pregnant, since that is not happening any time soon we are going to go anyway and hopefully be celebrating the sell of our house.  we are still waiting to hear back if the people that are buying our house have gotten their loan.  it has seriously taken forever.  we were told last friday we would know, then told wednesday, then told today at 9:30.  it's not 2 with no word about it. :(  so frustrating!!

i am considering joining weight watchers too.  i need to talk it over with jeremy. i know several people that go to meetings and also several who are doing the online version.  not sure which i want to do if i will do it at all or just do it on my own by counting calories.  have any of you done one or the other or both?  which do you prefer?? 

Sickness Round 2

I have been doing good.
Making good food choices.

I was so excited to be back into exercising...  and then I got slammed with the cold again.  I wonder if I pushed it too hard coming out of it, or if I am just colossally unlucky, and the mom of 2 young boys, and am destined for this kind of cycling through the sicknesses?

(How's THAT for a run-on sentence??)

So:
Update on the sickness.
Last night was horrendous. I was coughing SO HARD that I was physically ill.  Today I feel  like somebody used my midsection as a punching bag.

I was able to do a phone consultation with  the Nurse Practitioner, and she called in a prescription for an inhaler, which I already think is helping, and some cough medicine with codeine, which I don't know if I need... but the sleep can't hurt.

I came home early from school, and had a nice relaxing nap before I picked my cutie pies up at daycare.
That is probably why I have not keeled over from tiredness yet!  Although, my eyes are definitely starting to get heavy!!

--

So on the food front- my latest fave is romaine lettuce.  Seriously! I can't get enough!  My lunch was a big old salad from the salad bar at the grocery store/pharmacy.  Dinner?  Romaine, scallion, and cheese salad.  Yum.

Okay... that's it for now.  Can't wait to finally be healthy, healthy, healthy.
*sigh*

jinx

i'm am probably jinxing myself here but oh well.  the last 2 nights i have eaten 2/3rd of a package of thin mints.  there are 2 packages in 1 box. both mornings after i have been down.  hmmm, this is the type of diet i could go for!! :)

weigh in

i went on and weighed in today. like mer we usually have a big lunch after church and it blows it for monday. so i weighed this morning and was 199.0!!!  this was what i was all the week before this past one. last week i was hovering 201-202 all week.  :( i was shocked i was down today bc i ate a whole row of thin mints last night by myself (well j might have had one or two) but still you the point. plus my exercise this week consisted my run 3k run yesterday and biking thursday. that was it!!

this week is THE week.  trying not to think about it too much but that's really all i can do. 

i have a 15k next sunday so i have to do more exercise than i did this past week for sure! 

mer - great job on your weight loss today as well!

blah!!

this has been a horrible week for me eating and exercising wise.  monday i was up after running 7 miles, tuesday i was down from monday but still up for where i was all last week. so i pretty much said screw it and went hog wild on tuesday.

my husband and i went to our fav mexican restuarant and i ate my whole meal and chips and cheese dip.  usually when i'm trying to diet  i will try to limit my chip intake and eat only half of my quesadilla.  not this time.  and to top it off we had one of our tuesday night dinners that i get which was taco salad, a very yummy bean/corn salsa dip with lot of oils, and a chocolate cake. 

today was my first day exercising this week.  my legs were sore for a couple days after sunday's run so i took off bc i have a race coming up this saturday and didnt want to be sore.  today i didnt run but did get on the exercise bike for 23 minutes and did some hand held weight stuff with my arms for the first 5 minutes. 

today has been better though. we had lee's for lunch (3 chicken strips, a biscuit, and potato wedges) but tonight we are having a lean cuisine meal (200 calories) so i will be under my calories for today, unless i get into the thin mints.  which i think i can have a one serving of them and still be under....

next week i find out if we are pregnant or not.  if not then no baby for me.....  i think that is part of my eating problem this week too. i just can't make myself diet knowing next week i may be pregnant.  of course if i'm not i will be able to diet easier, strange as it is i just can not do it for some reason when we are trying....  :(

Can it be Wednesday already??

Good Morning, My Lovelies!

What a fantastic week this is turning out to be!!  I am FINALLY HEALTHY!!!!!!

On Monday:
I ate awesome --- good choices, and felt happy and strong all day.
On my lunch break I did a Leslie Sansone walking workout in my classroom.  The second half, I just ignored the cues and RAN around my classroom.  (it's really big.) and it felt SO GOOD.  :)

Oh -- my dinner???  A whole heart of romaine lettuce, 2 scallions and a homemade little vinaigarette that I made. Lemon and Lime juice, a smidge of oil, and an even smaller smidge of white vinegar, and salt and pepper.  May have been the best salad ever!!    Oh -- and then I had some of the yummy thai fried rice that we had made on Saturday.  I love soy sauce.

On Tuesday:
I got up at 4:45 and found an awesome workout on my Netflix instant --- Self: Slim and Sleek Fast.  A fantastic cardio workout with some weights in it as well.  What a great start to the day!!  I knew that I needed to get it in fast, because my 5th grade band had their debut concert last night!!  It was awesome.

My pedometer registered over 12,000 steps for yesterday!  Woot!!

Today:
I got up early, ready to get my sweat on-- but little baby boy decided to sleep through the night!  Yay!!  Which means that when my alarm went off, he was hungry.  So I fed him, and by the time I got downstairs, bigger little boy was awake and wanting to "exercise" with me.  Basically that means that he TALKS THE WHOLE TIME and GETS IN MY WAY and complains that he wants to watch his own show.  Yeah.  So I got ten minutes of circuit training in so far.  The weather is getting warmer!  The sun is already shining and it is only 6:10.  I am going to bring my running shoes and stuff to school, and go for a run OUTSIDE!!  I am pretty excited about this.

------  Things that I want to tell you.

1.  I got a bonus check from a program that our insurance company is doing to promote healthy living. With it, I found a new pair of running shoes!  Brooks Ariels.  I am so excited to try them out today!

2. This one is really big.  In September, I finally went to my midwife and was officially diagnosed with Post Partum Depression, and put on Zoloft.  I felt better pretty quickly, but even with all of the reassurance that I would only need the meds for a few months, I was nervous that I would never feel like myself again.   When I was sick with the plague a few weeks ago, I was so out of it, that I didn't take the Zoloft for days and days.  When I finally realized it, I was floored.  I have been off for a while now, and I am REALLY feeling like my happy, normal self!!  I feel even happier than I did on my best days WITH the Zoloft.  :)  Life is, you know.... like, great and stuff.

Okay.
Must eat breakfast and make my lunch.
Huge heart of romaine salad perhaps??  Yummmmm.

??

i have been in the 199's all week long. sunday i ran 7 miles! and today i was up two pounds to 201!! i dont understand it! this is why i get frustrated with exercising.  i didnt eat all my burned calories yesterday although i did eat quite a few of them.  so tell me what in the world caused me to GAIN 2 pounds after running 7 miles?????  how is that possible??

Ack! Nothing like guilt to get a post out of me!

Just kidding.

This was a good/strange week. I am FINALLY healthy. I am finally ready to start ezxercising again! Yay!

Monday and Tuesday back at school proved that my old habits are DEEPLY ingrained. I blew my calories both days because of the teachers room cafe. What makes me REALLY ticked off though is that 1) I had brought my own lunch from home and 2) I wasnt even hungry!!!!

Oh well- Wednesday through Friday were better on the food front.

I lost another pound, and I think I might be able to see it in my face!!

Okay --- crying baby. Gotta go!

Where Am I?

I'm here, guys! Sorry that I haven't been around...it's been the week of Jennifer having to babysit everyone else in her life, and no time to blog. Good news, though...I've been totally rocking this food and exercise stuff. I can feel myself getting stronger while I do the Shred. I can now do Level 2 with almost no modifications with the 3 lb weights, and I can do all of Level 1 with no modifications at all with the 5 lb weights. I had a great run with Heather yesterday for the virtual 5k and I can't wait to run more. I've really missed it. Also I an reading this book called The End Of Overeating. It is VERY thought provoking and I think it explains a lot about all of us, and why we find it so difficult to put down the fatty, sugary food. I have to say that this book us making me completely change the way I view food...you guys should pick it up if you ever have the time. OH ¡!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe I forgot to tell you guys this!! I went out on Friday night and I was trying to figure out what to wear. I lovingly took my favorite pair of pants out of the closet so I could look at them. I do this every few months. They are a pale blue fuzzy of pants from The Gap. Haven't been able to wear them in 2 years....they are a size 14. Well I tried them on and they FIT!!!! With room to spare...i actually got to wear them out in public! I didn't believe it at first....it actually took Jeremy shouting at me for a few minutes before I would believe that they fit. It was totally insane. Anyway, my weigh in is tomorrow and I'm excited. I'm going to measure, too. I hope I get some good results.....i FEEL smaller.
So! What is up with everyone else???? Love you guys!

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Week One of P90X is in the Books!

I am very proud of myself right now. I survived my week long adventure of P90x, plus got my runs in.
My goal was to do exactly 1/2 of the videos and with the exception of Pylometrics, I did just that. Here is what my workout schedule looked like this week.

Monday: Chest and Back (half)
Tuesday: Ran 6.2 miles on the track
Wednesday: Arms and Shoulders (half) / 20 minutes of Plyometrics
Thurs: 30 minute run
Friday: Legs and Back (half)
Saturday: Kenpo (half)
Sunday: Long run 7 miles

I am quite sore, but overall proud of the success of the week.
T minus 3 days until I get rid of the scale... I might possible start shaking without it!

Jen and Mer - where art thou?

midweek update

yesterday i was down one pound from the week before. i was really pretty happy about this considering i ate out for every meal between friday am and sat. pm. and had chinese buffet sunday afternoon.
monday i did really well til dinner time. i fixed a light dinner but instead of eating my portions that i had already put on my plate, i got more after they were gone.  i was so hungry that night.  :( ended up being about 550 over.

tuesday i ran 2.4 miles with no stopping and no walking.  this is huge for me.  it's been a long time (aug) since i have run that far without walking.  i did well on food too and had 346 to spare.  362 cals were from running. so i was a little over my daily intake but the exercise balanced that out. 

so far today has been good as well. j and i went and biked for 2 miles. we had planned on more but j got a call from his mom that his grandmother was in the hospital and was not doing well at all.  since we already had the bikes out we decided to just ride for a few minutes around the neighborhood.  man oh man is our neighborhood hilly.  you dont realize it when you are in a car, but when you run or bike you start having a new found realization of hills.   i have about 450-550 cals left for dinner tonight.  not sure what we are having.  maybe subway since i can get a 6" and not feel hungry afterwards. 

also, i am completely amazed by myfitnesspal.  you said it yourself mer it has the most comprehensive foods than any other app.  i type something in knowing it wont be there and it is!  it's great!  :)

mer - i am doing ok.  it's easier right now than i thought just bc i know they are not practicing at all.  i think it will be the hardest for me next fall when they start practicing again and i am not there.  :(

ann marie - great job on the p90x and running. 

jenn - looks like your ticker moved in the right direction too! great job!  :)  cruise here you come!

Okay Jen... Where are you!!

Just kidding--- because I have been the most absent!

I am finally back in the land of the living.  I am not able to do exercise yet, because just going up and down stairs, or walking inside carrying the heavy, heavy, almost one year old produces coughing fits still, but I am wearing a pedometer and trying to get steps in whenever I can.

Monday and Tuesday I fell back into old patterns.  I went to the little teachers room cafe, and saw that the food was good, and I ATE IT.  Even though I wasn't hungry, because I had just eaten the sandwich I had brought from home.  And then I went back for more.

It took realizing that I had gone over my calories for the day before NOON to realize that I was in a BAD HABIT zone.  That realization, and then reading Prior Fat Girl Elle's latest post helped me to be armed and ready to make better choices today.

So- I went to the cafe today.  And I had veggie chili.  Yay me.

Oh....
I am going to change my weigh in days to Sunday mornings.  Sundays are very hectic days, and I am not always able to be making healthy choices.  So, I want to be able to enjoy my family, friends and commitments, and not be dreading a weigh in the next morning.  We'll see, though.  If I find that less structure on Sundays leads to horrible Mondays and Tuesdays, like this week, I may change it back.

Just so's you know.  :)

Hope you all are doing great!  Crystal-- are you hanging in there post season?  Hope you aren't feeling too sad!!!
AnnMarie -- you are amazing.  You got yourself better a lot quicker than I did, lady!  Look at you go, with you mileage and your P90X!  So Proud of you!

Jen..............  I miss you!  What's going on with you??!?

Not quite what I was hoping for

Good day ladies!
My weigh in this week is 251.6 up one pound from last week. However, last week I was just coming back from being sick. This week I was up as much as 6 pounds, so overall I will take what I got.

I am getting back into running, got 4 miles in on Tuesday, 5 miles on Thursday, and 6.5 on Sunday morning.
I love the feeling when I am back into the running!

Today was day one of P90X .. it kicked my butt.
But yes, I pushed play ... and did what I could.
And I am proud of myself ....

Next week will be better, I promise!

this weekend

our state swim meet was this weekend.  we left at 8:30 am friday morning and got back at 11pm sat. night.  lots of eating out.  i did try to do well and eat the best i could.

friday:
cereal bar for breakfast
chicken breast sub for lunch from subway
3/4 lasagna, 1/2 house salad, bread, and 1 scoop of vanilla icecream at old spaghetti factory
cinnamon latte and rice krispie treat at starbucks

saturday:
apple juice, kix cereal and milk for breakfast at the hotel
salt and vinegar chips, italian sub for lunch from jimmy johns.
pancakes, bacon, hashbrown and eggs at ihop for dinner.

i weighed myself this mornign just to see what the damage was and it wasn't too bad.  of course then we went to chinese buffet for sunday lunch.  i didnt eat as much as i usually do but still not a good choice in going there.  light dinner for tongiht.

My New Toy ...

Well, my Body Media Fit has arrived... and lemme tell you it is the greatest invention ever!
Today was a good day, I logged my food, I made good choices, and I got a 5 mile run in.

My run was not the greatest. I forgot my Chomps and I dropped my blood sugar at about mile 4 and started to get really dizzy, but I would not quit! So I did finish my run ... woo hoo. I was unfortunately FOUR minutes slower than my Turkey Trot time, but what can you do?

Here are the stats from the Body Media ... I burned 3429 calories today, took 14500 steps, had 75 minutes of vigorous activity (which means it counts my running as vigrous which is good) and 44 minutes of moderate activity. I had an overall 1267 calorie deficity after logging my food.

Now ladies... PLEASE look at what I burned.  Now if I ate 1200 calories what do you think my body would do. As it was I added some chocolate at the end of the night because I was low. I am still too low according to the recommendation of the software who says to eat 750 under your burn for the day!

Wellll......

Now my plague has taken on the shape of sinus and cold ick.
Yesterday, after every trip down to the basement for laundry, I had a coughing fit that I am not joking, lasted between 5 and 10 minutes.  The awful, can't get your breath kind of coughing fits.

Today I have done nothing, and felt mostly better, except for the headache I had in the middle of the day.

*ugh*.

So definitely no exercising here.
And since my husband is on vacation hours --- yay for time together!! -- we have been having takeout, and other not SO great choices.  And I have NOT been tracking everything.  But I am okay with it.
I am not staying under my CURRENT calories, but I am staying under my BMR calories, so I am feeling okay.

update

tues:
lunch:
6 piece nuggets w/ sweet and sour sauce
2/3 of a large fry

dinner: (def got my veggies in today!)
green beans
califlower/lettuce parmasian dressing salad
chicken pot pie

wednesday
lunch:
other half of fajita quesadilla from monday
apple cinnamon cereal bar

snack: cantaloupe, pineapple, couple bites of cheese dip with 2 crackers

dinner:
to be determined....