Monday, March 26, 2012

Shufflin'

 



 


This weekend was the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8k race in downtown Chicago. It was my first "official" 8k. I've ran farther than an 8k on my own but never participated in an official race. I ran it with my brother-in-law and his boyfriend and it was lots of fun! We got dressed up in St. Patrick's Day gear and ran it together. We ended up with a time of 56:37 which was totally okay! It was most fun to have ran together and chat during it. We also were able to spend time at the runner's expo the night before and it was great to see all the different products out there and try some new things. It was pretty informational! It was my first race through Chicago and it was fun to see the sites, especially when main roads are closed off for you and people are on the sidewalks cheering for everyone. It was definitely the largest race I've ran, with some 40,000 people, and at certain points it was a little crowded around turns where you couldn't really run too much, but other than that it was a really nice race! The weather was absolutely perfect too. I knew we all could have ran it much faster, however, on 4 hours of sleep and *cough* slight hangovers *cough*, our time was pretty decent. We hadn't intended on that part...but the night before got the best of us. One of my goals was to run the entire race without stopping and we did just that. Not to mention, we stayed at a condo on Lake Shore Drive that was pretty far north, so we walked exactly 3.2 miles to the race, ran 4.97 miles then walked 3.2 back home. We ran/walked about 11.5 miles yesterday on top of all the walking we did Saturday night around the city! 2 5ks AND an 8k in one day. Phew! Good training for my half marathon!

This whole past weekend really was just about having fun with those we love! We had two friends visiting from Germany so we took them out into the city and ended up at two different bars. One bar we actually ran into a friend of mine from high school who was celebrating her bachelorette party! It was fun to be able to join in for part of it! Around 2am we finally had decided we should probably get a little sleep before the race in the morning.

By the time we got home from dinner last night, my body was on empty. I laid down to spend time with my husband since I hadn't seen him since Saturday morning and before I knew it I was asleep by 5pm. He woke me up to tell me to get to bed at 9pm and I slept until my alarm sounded at 5:30am this morning. Now I'm refreshed and refueled and feel like I can do it all over again today. I was surprisingly not sore today. Yesterday, a few hours after the race I was sore, but not today. I did stretch really well and I'm sure walking another 3.2 miles home helped. My next race on the agenda is the Warrior Dash on June 16th. I'm looking forward to getting down and dirty at that race!


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Thursday, March 8, 2012

New Goals

I'm feeling slightly strange now that I am at goal. I keep thinking, well, what's my objective this week? I'm  not trying to lose weight anymore. For the past 2+ years that has been my main objective every week. Lose weight. Sure, I worked out and whatnot but only to succeed at the main objective of losing weight.

True, my goal is to maintain my weight week to week now, but I find that a boring weekly goal. Making a goal to lose was far more fun and challenging.

Now that spring is rapidly approaching and starting Monday I've got a full time teaching gig until the end of the school year, I figured it would be good to make my objectives geared towards fitness. While I generally workout pretty regularly, I'm not as dedicated and goal oriented towards it as I was towards losing weight each week. So this week I wrote out my activity plan. It's already been altered slightly, but I'm still basically on track.

Sunday evening when I planned it out it looked like this:

Monday: 30 Day Shred Level 3
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Run
Thursday: Jessica Cohen Weight Watchers DVD
Friday: 30 Day Shred Level 3
Saturday: 30 Day Shred Level 2
Sunday: Rest

Here is how it has gone so far and what it looks like for the rest of the week:

Monday: 30 Day Shred Level 3
  • Goodness, I forgot how INTENSE Level 3 was! Perhaps I should have started at Level 1 or 2 just to get myself use to Jillian Michaels' crazy workout antics! So much plyometric (jump) training!
Tuesday: Run
  • Ran 7.3 miles, unexpectedly. Just kept going. Was in a zone with my music and the warm 60 degree day with the sun blaring. Never mind the 30 mph winds, see, they were at my back for the first 3.6 miles. When I turned around I was surprised how much I underestimated those winds, especially since I run down a long straight road surrounded by open cornfields. Nothing blocking the gusts that randomly pushed me off course at times! Regardless, I completed 7.3 miles in 84 minutes. Not my best, but definitely the most difficult run I've done due to the high winds.

Wednesday: Run

  • Tuesday evening I received an unexpected phone call from the high school near my home asking for me to come in the next morning to meet some people and talk about starting earlier than anticipated. This threw me off course for the day. Since I had to shower early for this meeting and we had plans to go to my in-laws, I chose not to run so I didn't have to shower and get ready twice. Wednesday became my rest day.
Thursday (today): Jessica Cohen Weight Watchers DVD
  • Completed the 34 minute routine. I have the sampler DVD that was given to Weight Watcher employees and I absolutely love it. Saturday morning at my meeting I am going to buy the entire 5 disc set so I can incorporate the whole program throughout the week. 
Friday: 30 Day Shred Level 3

Saturday: 30 Day Shred Level 2

Sunday: Run
  • No longer a rest day because of Wednesday's run being interrupted. Not sure how far I'll run - that usually is dependent on how I'm feeling when I hit the ground running. 
If I'm not outside running, I really enjoy working out at home to DVDs. I feel so much less pressure than when I had a gym membership. It was always hard for me to get to the gym after I'd come home from work. I'd always just want to rest. In the winter, forget it. I wasn't about to get into my cold car and get to the gym, sweat, and then return to my cold car. Plus I always hated when I had to wait for a machine or if it was really crowded. I love my DVDs because I can workout on my own and I don't have to wear anything but my shorts and my sports bra. I don't have to leave my house. And I use mostly my own body resistance, which I prefer, as opposed to weight machines. 

I mention this because I want people to find what works for them and their individual schedules. I'm not a gym person, it doesn't work for me. I get more intense workouts on my own at home or out on the pavement. If you are a gym person - then rock it out! Find what works for you. 





Friday, March 2, 2012

GOAL!

Finally, after 383 days, I hit my personal goal of 125lbs!



In the past two weeks, I switched to Simply Filling, which I've been blogging about. The first week I lost 3.8lbs which left me with 1.2lb to lose in week two in order to hit goal. I did well all week, but the weekend is always tough. We had friends over Saturday evening and ordered a deep dish pizza from our favorite pizza place. I ordered a salad, and only had a little taste of the pizza. I didn't want to work so hard and ruin it by eating a piece of deep dish. On top of the pizza, we had multiple desserts and wine. I had the desserts and drank 20PPV worth of wine. I was seriously afraid for Monday morning.

When I walked into my meeting on Monday, I wasn't feeling confident. In fact, I talked to myself, telling myself it's okay if I don't hit goal, I will next week. I feel that it is a pattern of mine, that when I am so close to goal I destroy myself the week before and gain. I think it's because I know things will change when I hit goal - and almost feel like the learning will stop, although that's silly because I know it doesn't. But again, it's more of a mental/emotional journey than a physical, at least for me.

At any rate, Monday morning I hopped on the scale. I had weighed my shirt and my wedding ring together prior and it came out to 2/10th of a pound. I was fully prepared if I weighed in at 125.2 to take off my ring...and shirt. Silly enough, it's not the first time I've done that. Other weekly weigh-in people will understand the crazy things we sometimes do for the lowest possible number. When I got on the scale, I closed my eyes at first, sure that I had possibly maintained but not certainly lost 1.2lbs. To my surprise, the scale read exactly 125.0 on the dot. I'm not sure I could pull that off again if I tried! I was ecstatic and couldn't believe it. I squealed with joy! Finally, after 2 years and 2ish weeks, I had done it. I had a goal in mind, and I achieved it.

So now begins my six weeks of maintenance. Maintaining a number between 123-127lbs, because after all, if I can't maintain my goal weight, what was the point? I certainly don't want to change habits to where I put 10 pounds back on, right? My goal was 125lbs. and that is where I intend on staying.

Monday night we celebrated. Quite honestly, I wanted to do something that I hadn't done since before Weight Watchers. I want to eat a meal that I wouldn't typically eat anymore. While it might sound counter productive, I live a lifestyle where I am so active and 99% of the time I eat strict to my new lifestyle. Eating like I did Monday is something that might happen only once in a few months, and I think I deserved the opportunity, so long as I was accountable for it. As you can see by my progress chart above, I was accountable as I'm -16 PPV in the hole this week. ;-) What did I eat? Well, we went to Red Robin. We ordered the Towerin' Onion Ring appetizer, split between 3 people. I had ordered the Royal Red Burger, no mayo and only ate about half. Also enjoyed a few fries and a skinny margarita. Afterwards, one thing I've been craving for a while was a Concrete Mixer from Culver's - so I got a Snickers Concrete Mixer. I didn't eat until I was stuffed, I ate until I was satisfied, which is a big change already. Before, I would have wolfed down the burger and friends and probably would have had 2 regular margaritas and a large concrete mixer. So, not only was I held accountable for what I ate - I didn't force myself to eat it all. Positive changes happened. For the rest of the week - it's been back to Simply Filling and eating "Power Foods".

I'm very happy with my journey. Now begins a new journey, maintenance. I never want to go back to the person I was, physically or emotionally. I am a new person in both aspects. A better person.

I want thank everyone who has supported me throughout the weight loss portion of this. Those who have put up with my modifications through every meal. Those who accepted my choices to stay home on nights out because I didn't feel strong enough to make good choices. Those who pushed me to challenge myself physically. Those who called me first when they had clothes to get rid of and knew I was looking for newer sizes. Those who have followed this blog and provided positive support and feedback.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I couldn't do this alone and I was luckily enough to not have to.