Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Cheers!

I'm hoping everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with family and friends and good food and laughter. My Thanksgiving week was fantastic and included a short work week, two Thanksgiving dinners and a weekend of solitude.

This year, I choose to not run in the Naperville 5k Turkey Trot, which I otherwise would have done, however, since I've been running so much on my own and farther than 3.1 miles it is hard for me to spend the $25 or $30 that the race may cost now that I have student loan bills due and Christmas is approaching rapidly. I had to sort out some priorities and unfortunately spending money on that wasn't at the top. I did miss the group setting of running, however I am still in the infant stages of running I feel and I am always trying to out-do myself. In a race like that, it's impossible because it is so crowded. One of my fellow runners offer to pay my entry fee, however, I graciously declined. I knew I could run my own Turkey Trot. I don't mind running alone. Realistically, when I run, I wear an iPod anyhow and we are all at different speeds once the race gets going so it's like I run by myself anyway. So I suited up in past Turkey Trot gear and headed out for my 3.1 mile run, feeling empowered that I didn't use the absence of the "official" Turkey Trot as an excuse to not run at all.

Our first Thanksgiving dinner was with my in laws. This year it was a much smaller crowd than the regular 35+ guests that my mother-in-law would typically host. We had about 17 guests, with about the same amount of food as if we had 35. That's how it always goes though, isn't it? We had three deep fried turkey's, stuffing, cheesy broccoli casserole, mozzarella salad, green salad, rolls, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and whatever Thanksgiving essentials I might be missing. Not to mention desserts...cheesecake, rice crispy treats, lemon cake, cookies, cupcakes...etc. How did my inner "fat" girl deal with all this delicious, decadent, once a year foods?

Let's put it this way. I ate enough on Thursday that came Friday evening 8pm and I still hadn't eaten a thing because I physically wasn't hungry yet.

On Sunday, my family celebrated Thanksgiving. This was a much more toned down meal for the only reason that all the guest presents (all 7 of use) are following Weight Watchers, with the except of two (who are extremely health and wellness conscious). When we get together we have meals that have very little left overs and that are relatively healthy. We had a pork roast, spiced in a Bohemian way, potato and bread dumplings, a green bean casserole made in a low fat/low calorie way, homemade cranberry sauce and a green salad. I'm not much a fan of the Bohemian way of cooking so this meal was easy for me. One chop of the pork roast, green salad and a little green bean casserole. My meal was easy, however, have I mentioned my uncle is an amazing home brewer, brewing at least 4 different kinds of beer that are all equally as tasty as the next? Oh, I haven't? Well, he is. And I enjoy every one last of his home brews.

In between Thursday and Sunday, my husband was in Michigan for his annual deer hunting trip with his father and brothers. I've mentioned before that when he is gone, I go one way or the other. Perfectly on plan because I have no one to cook for so it's easy to make good choices, or completely off plan because there is no one to watch what I eat, therefore I feel I won't be judged. I'm not saying my husband judges me when I eat, or anyone else, but you can't help but feel like that sometimes. While he was gone to Missouri for a week I did great. This time, not so much. I was a grazer. I grazed all weekend.

Good news?
Indeed.

I must have made better choices than I anticipated. And I was active. I lost over a pound and a half from my last weigh-in. I struggled on Monday, deciding if I was going to go to my weigh-in and hold myself accountable for my lack of tracking last week and my (what I thought was) over eating. I knew I had to be held accountable for whatever damage I thought I had done. To my surprise, I worked it out that I lost enough to see 129 again. And damn it, I have 4.8 pounds until 125 lbs, which I have embraced as a good goal for me and my body. Any less and I feel I'll start looking like a pre-pubescent boy. Not the look I'm going for.

This week I've tackled head on. Sunday I prepared my lunches for this entire week. Two of those days included my new go-to food, spaghetti squash. I am in control of my food this week. I am ready to take on the two holiday parties I have this weekend, a staff holiday party and an ugly sweater party.

On the Weight Watcher leader front, I am so proud of my members this week. At weigh-in last night, out of the 10 members that weighed in, the collectively lost 19 lbs. That's huge for the week after Thanksgiving. I am so proud to be this groups leader. They all make me so proud.

Cheers to the holiday season!

With more activity and more conscious food choices, we can all enjoy the holiday parties to the fullest extend and still lose weight!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Because time has been getting away!

Next week is Thanksgiving, already?! Goodness gracious, where has this year gone? At any rate, I am here, blogging, which I've been trying to do at least once every two weeks. Since I started working full-time this week, I've barely had much time on my hands (I'm not complaining, trust me).

I haven't ran in two weeks. I am slightly okay with this because I had to transition into a brand new schedule and get things figured out. On the flip side of that, because I'm on a strict schedule now, I'm planning meals much further in advance that I was when I had a lot of time on my hands. Not to mention, at my last weigh-in, I lost an entire pound in one week which I haven't done in month. Typically it's between .2-.8 of a pound. So I'm okay with this. In lieu of running as much as I was, I've been increasing the amount of push-ups, squats and ab work throughout the day. I have traded out a normal chair at work for a yoga ball and although I am standing more than sitting throughout the day, while I am sitting I am engaging my core.

I am loving this opportunity to be back on a schedule. When I wasn't working, I was able to just do as I please and I would workout whenever, eat whenever, do housework whenever...etc. Being back on a schedule is fantastic. I'm up at 5:30am, shower and get ready for school, eat breakfast and then relax until it's time to leave for school at 6:45am. On Monday, I get home around 3:45pm and relax until I leave for my Weight Watchers meeting which begins at 7:00pm, then come home and we eat dinner together. On Tuesday, after school I work my Weight Watcher meeting and get home around 8:30pm. Tuesday is a really long day, but I love both of my jobs so it's pretty painless. Wednesday, by the time I get home it's time to head to my in-laws for dinner. I really look forward to Thursday. I have absolutely nothing to do after school.

Hunting season began in Illinois today. I was up at 2:30am, sending Kristian off with snacks and sandwiches to keep him going all day. Decided to stay up and get the laundry done, paid some bills, and blog - this way I won't have many chores to keep up with over the weekend. It's 4:17am and I've still got over an hour before my alarm goes off. Kristian will hunt today, tomorrow and Sunday all day. Then next weekend he heads up to Michigan for his regular deer camp season and finally, the first week of December is second season Illinois, which he was lucky and won the lottery they do for hunting in Illinois. He is very excited. Our stock of venison is just about out and it's time to replenish.

The holidays are rapidly approaching. Regarding weight loss, I do believe I can lose over the holiday season (Halloween-Valentine's Day), like I did last year. The holidays are not a problem for me. I choose to eat as I want on actual day (making conscious decisions) but I don't eat leftovers. I think a lot of people gain over the holiday season because there is always so much food leftover and it's continuous throughout the next few months. The holidays are tough. Knowing I lost weight last year during this time is comforting and assuring I can do it again. I'm a short five pounds from my goal.

For a little holiday humor...








Saturday, November 5, 2011

Womanly Curves

Now is as good a time as ever to update. Clearly, I've been slacking in the "blogging" department. Luckily, that is the only place I've been slacking.

I am finally back to weighing in under 130 lbs. I intend on staying there. Damn it. However, I am struggling. My goal is 120, however I recently saw a picture of me that makes me think I should change it to 125lbs.



This is from Halloween. I'm in the background (I hope, obviously) and although you can't see my face, I saw this picture when my sister-in-law posted it and I was looking at my waist and hips. I feel like I'm losing my curves. Halloween was the first day I was wearing my size 1 jeans other than just trying them on and being discouraged they were too tight. They actually fit GREAT! I'm afraid that if I lose about 9 more pounds, getting my to 120, I might just look too thin.

We are going away this weekend and I'm sure we will be taking pictures. Maybe I'll reassess this after looking at those. I don't want to lose my "womanly" curves. Perhaps it's just because I'm wearing a t-shirt.

On a side note, if you would have told me two years ago I'd be whining about not having curves, I probably would have laughed at you.

That all aside, I did feel like a million bucks at a recent event...

 Absolutely LOVING this look. I love the cooler weather. I get to break out the tights and boots. Possibly my favorite season to dress for.

Been keeping up with my running.



This is my friend Val. She and I have ran two 5k together. She's significantly faster than I am, running her first 5k in just over 26 minutes. But not to worry - we are both extremely supportive of each other and she is a fantastic running partner. Now I need to talk her into running longer distances. I've been running 3 miles on short days and up to 7.5 miles on longer days.

My progression is impressive I think.

Starting in August: You can tell I was just starting to get into being more active here. At least outdoors. However, most of my mileage came from my bike.

In September I had less mileage, however, all my mileage was from running. The two areas in gray is where I was messing around with putting in my "at home" workouts but I've decided there is no need to put those on the calendar because I have a separate calendar for that at home anyway. My longest route here was just about 3.3 miles. 

October absolutely rocked for me. A total of 56.35 running miles. Although it averaged 1.8 miles a day, I obviously didn't run every day. Clearly, I took the week of the 16th off. That week, my allergies absolutely got the best of me. Although, I do remember on the 9th, my allergies were terrible and I was on allergy medicine but I felt so guilty not running all week so I hopped on my bike and rode 7.44 miles. All the while, my nose running and it being completely disgusting. My best day was on October 29th, when I ran 7.57 miles. I'm slightly disappointed because today is the Hot Chocolate 15K and I was asked earlier in the summer to run it with a friend of mine and I told her there is no way I'd run that far. Ha. What a difference a couple of months make. I totally could have done it with her today. 


I'm going to take a break on running official 5k's or any other races. I've been running a lot on my own that I don't feel I need to pay anymore to run these distances. Before, signing up for a 5k would motivate me to run prior to the race - however, now I don't need that extra motivation so I'll save the money and continue to run on my own. I am thinking about a half-marathon in the spring. 

This has been another great "on plan" week and I'm anticipating a good weigh-in on Monday. I have to start going back to Monday night meetings, because I start working this Monday. It's going to be so nice having a job again. This brings up the challenge of keeping up with running, but I will figure it out somehow. With the pending winter weather, I may be doing more inside workouts than outdoor. Whatever gets the job done my friends.