Brain Engaged, Hands Busy

It's clear to me that my motivation for writing has diminished severely! It is so unlike me not to be sharing my journey with my reader. Well, hopefully this post is refreshing for you.


There are a couple things I have been meaning to write about - but I'll limit this post to my newly developed hobbies.


Until recently, if you were to ask me what my hobbies include I would probably respond with journaling and singing karaoke. The problem with those is that I don't journal often enough to consider it a hobby and karaoke, let's be honest here, involves late nights out with certain beverages that can have adverse effects when losing weight. (wink wink).


I had two and a half weeks off for Christmas break (teacher perks) and I knew I would end up off my routine and probably track my food less and binge watch Netflix in my sweats. In fact, that's exactly what I did. I made it through all 10 seasons of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. for about the umpteenth time.


Will there ever be another T.V. love like Ross and Rachael? Sometimes I think Nick and Jess are a close second. Wait, that's a different entry entirely...back to hobbies...

Puzzling with my cousin -
"Christmas in NYC"

My uncle is a home-brewer and beer enthusiast so when I was browsing Amazon and came across a 500 piece puzzle of various beer caps I thought that would be a fun Christmas gift for him. Then I found a Wrigley Field 1000 piece puzzle that I thought would be fun for me to do over break. After weeks of delayed shipping of the puzzle I bought for myself I canceled it and started looking at different puzzles. I then bought two 1000 piece puzzles and that was going to be my Christmas break hobby. I figured if I was going to binge watch Netflix I should at least keep my brain engaged.

2000 piece puzzle

I grew up putting puzzles together with my grandparents so puzzling has a sort of sentiment to me. As a child, I used to hide the last piece so that I was always guaranteed to put the last piece in the puzzle. It was just our thing. And I loved it.


So, my puzzles were delivered and I quickly set in on the first puzzle. 16 hours later...I finished the first one. How were two puzzles going to last me two and a half weeks if I concentrated so hard on the first one?! Day 2 - second puzzle completed. I clearly needed to purchase more. Long story short, I completed seven 1000 piece puzzles in two and a half weeks.


Here is my point. Concentrating on my puzzles was a great way to keep my brain engaged and my hands busy. I did not focus on eating, I did not graze throughout the day, and honestly I preferred to stay home to finish my puzzle than accept invitations out with friends. I brought this up in my Weight Watcher meeting and another member expressed her love for puzzles too. That next week we traded our completed puzzles. Two of the puzzles she gave me are 2000 pieces. I have been working on one of those for roughly two weeks now. Since school is back in session I don't have the time I did over break. Again, this is keeping my brain engaged and my hands busy when I would otherwise graze in boredom. Last weekend I played around with something else I'd like to make a hobby and that is DIY candle making. It's really easy and your house smells amazing in the process. So now if you asked me what my hobbies are I would respond "Puzzling and candle making!"


Update on my weight loss progress - as of the 18th I was down 23.4 lbs. I weigh in today so hopefully it will be more than that. This past week I took our traveling journal home with me to manually track my food for others to see. This was the first week that I was 100% on tracking. Weekends are a struggle but I made it through tracking everything. Even Sunday when I ate all my points plus all but 15 of my extra weeklies. Tonight I'm looking for a 1.6lb loss. With that I will be at my starting weight from the first time I started WW and this blog.


Here's to hoping for a good loss!'


Instagram: PapaGrl

Family Ties

Question...have you ever seen a cuter family?

I am literally obsessed with this family selfie I took last week as we hiked Starved Rock. These people are my absolute world. In this picture beside me is my cousin Jessica, cousin David, Uncle Jay, Aunt Tiffany, Aunt Teri, Uncle Larry, Uncle Scott, Audie and Grandma. Some people don't like the time they spend with their family but I would absolutely choose the people in this picture over anyone else. How is this related to the theme of my blog? Well, weight issues are something we all have dealt with in my family.

My cousin Jessica is currently becoming a lover of running. Naturally thin, she is getting into being fit. She is training for a longer run than she's ever done and she's doing an amazing job. I love supporting her and she loves supporting me. My Uncle Scott recently joined a contest at his gym - he is naturally a larger person but not larger in the "fat" way but more in the "built" way. He's a BIG guy! Very intimidating but a giant teddy bear. He has cut out alcohol and refocused his diet to cut what fat he has to build more muscle. He's a solid man! My Uncle Jay and Aunt Tiffany together have lost a lot of weight over the years. They work together as a unit to eat healthy and work out, along with their pups. Aunt Tiffany had also worked for Weight Watchers before I did and she was very successful on the program. My Grandma has been working Weight Watchers for YEARS! I mean back in the day when basically they could only eat liver and onions or something crazy like that. We check in with each other weekly on our weigh-in progress and she has always been concerned about my health and weight. Finally, my Aunt Teri was the initiator of our family becoming healthier. Back almost 20 years ago my aunt embarked on her weight-loss journey where she lost a significant amount of weight through health eating and physical activities and has since kept it off and remained as healthy, along with her husband. Both are extremely active and support everyone in all of their health lifestyle choices.

This past weekend was an example of why I love spending my time with them. We had plans to go apple picking which we do every year as a family. It is something my grandparents did with me as a child and I wanted to continue this tradition as an adult and hopefully will be able to continue with my children. We especially look forward to this weekend each year since my Papa passed away because he always really enjoyed apple picking. We do it in his honor. We decided to try a new U-Pick place this year instead of the place we've gone for the past decade. When I pulled up, two sets of aunts and uncles were already there. We were waiting on the last set, plus the cousins, and Grandma. My aunt greeted me with a cheerful "Want to hear a funny joke?" - well, duh. She proceeds to tell me that there are NO apples to pick! We all drove 2 hours and there are no apples! We are an incredibly positive family and right away I laughed. Of course we'd drive two hours for no apples! What now? Collectively we decided that the day must go on! Until a few years ago, we would have never decided that our back up plan would have been to drive 45 mins to hike. We decided that we were going to go to Starved Rock and hike the trail. It was so beautiful and we were so proud of Grandma for how much she walked with us on the unsteady paths.

We followed our hike with a well-deserved lunch at a brewery in town. Here is a personal celebration for myself: I chose not to drink beer (I love beer. Especially craft beer) and I chose a healthier option for lunch. This all culminated into my weight-in last night where I lost 3.0lbs this week. 8.0 lbs total. It's a good start for my first month and I'm really happy with my progress so far. I've made many better choices from the food I eat to the beer I drink. I am still able to enjoy the things I love and I am able to be social but with modifications.

What followed our fun family day was our 7th Annual Chili Cook-off on Sunday. Another family-filled day with some friends in the mix as well. Between both Saturday and Sunday and I was still able to lose 3 lbs. I'm pretty proud of myself! I earned my first token at Weight Watchers which is a charm holder for the milestones I'll earn.

I don't quite feel any different from the 8 lbs. However, my attitude and self-worth is much higher than it was last week in my resurrection post.

It's a good start for another long journey.

A "Big" Disappointment, Pun-Intended

If I were you I'd be asking myself why I'm even reading this latest blog post.

Haven't I disappointed you all enough? Coming and going, being inconsistent, seeming like I'm ready to succeed and then failing. What a disappointment.

Well my friends, I've joined Weight Watchers again. Three weeks ago actually and so far I'm down 5 pounds. It's a start. Here's the most depressing part of it all...I weigh more than I ever have. After losing 68 pounds those few years ago, I've put it back on with some extra. Absolutely disgusting, isn't it? What kind of inspiration am I? I've lost myself. I've become distracted with temptations and vices. I am unhealthy, again.

I decided it was time to make changes. Again. It was the quote to the right that made me decide that it was time to begin again. Time to find the old me again. It was time to stop saying "I'm sorry" to both myself and to others but to really make a change in my behaviors.

Things in my life have been going pretty well. I earned tenure at the school I teach at, I finished my Master's Degree this past summer, I've moved into my own apartment, living for the first time alone, and I'm in a relationship for the first time since my divorce. Each of these items are pretty momentous in their own right. The most influential of the events listed are both moving into my own apartment and being in a relationship.

As cliché as it sounds, turning 30 was a milestone for me. I've always been one of those people who has always on the surface seemed to have had it together, but to those who know me intimately, they know that I really don't. I'm terrible with money, I've never lived alone, I rely on close friends and family a lot, and I don't ever want to grow up. Moving out on my own was a big step in the right direction. I love where I've moved - I fell in love with the building the minute I saw it. It is an old historic building that was a hotel doubled with a recording studio where a lot of famous people stayed back in the 1930's and 40's. The historic music vibe and the people in the building were incredibly welcoming and warm. It was the first space that I could make exactly my own with no outside influence. It was liberating! A new place to explore and new people to meet. Two of my favorite things! Naturally, that came along with trying new restaurants in the area and having company over at an alarming rate. This past summer was full of friends and food. All that being said, one of the great things about living on my own and restarting my weight loss journey is I do have my own space. I do not need to share a kitchen with a roommate or cook for anyone else. As I'm getting acclimated to eating differently again I can focus entirely on myself. In the past three weeks this has worked out fantastically. I cook when I want and what I want.

Turning 30 also made me think about the relationship I have. I am getting older and I have always put on the front that I do not want children or that I do not want to get married again. Truth is, I did not want children with my ex-husband. Luckily I was smart enough to realize this and ,after being together for 11 years, avoided having children. That being said, I have found someone that I do want children with some day. Let's be honest, some day means in the next 4 years...I will be in my mid-30's by then and I don't want to be an "old" mom. Finding someone that I want to have children with is a big deal. For years, I've stayed silent about how much I crave to me a stay-at-home mom and take care of my family. Oddly enough, this is not how I was raised. Everyone worked and I was given an amazing childhood, but for whatever reason this is what I want. I have been lucky enough to find a man that loves me both physically and emotionally. We aren't perfect by any means, but we know that regardless, we have each others back.

So what do these two things have to do with losing weight?

I feel that I've finally, in the past month, gained some control back. I have made decisions in the past year or two that have not been appropriate. I have lied to people, abused substances at times, and have been irresponsible. Not consistently, but even inconsistently that is not the person I know I am. When I came across the quote above I decided that when I was in control of my eating I was in control of most other aspects of my life. If you've never struggled with an eating disorder maybe this is hard for you to comprehend. When I am in control of my eating the decision I make overall are influenced. I drink incredibly yes, I have no problem telling people "no" and that being enough, I am more alert and more in tune to others around me. Getting this control back takes a level of selfishness. The first time I went through this journey I lost a lot of friends who did not support me. In fact, I was just going to mention being A Product of Your Environment but I've already written a post about that!

This post has been all over the place, hasn't it? I have a lot thoughts, especially since it's been so long since I've last blogged. Along with my goal of losing weight I'd like to get this blog back up and running like it use to be. My future posts won't be as scatterbrained as this one, but I'm sure you can understand that I have a lot to say. I've been struggling publicly with myself for the past five years and I think it's important to continue to add to this journey that I began back in 2011. I hope that as I continue to write you find things that are relatable to you. I remember a time when this blog was relatable and I let it go. It's time to bring it back.

When Life Gets in the Way

August 2013 was the last time I blogged. You can imagine that I haven't blogged because I haven't been taking that great of care of myself. Isn't that what this blog is all about after all? I had excuses. Legitimate ones. Well, don't we all think our excuses are legitimate? In 2013, I unexpectedly lost my Papa. If you know me, you know how close I was to him and how unexpected his death was. One day fine, the next gone. At that time I decided to stop working for Weight Watchers. If you remember, I was a Weight Watcher leader for a couple of years, leading two meetings during the week on top of my regular teaching gig. I had lost my spunk, my sparkle. Keeping tabs on my health was not a priority to me anymore. I was sad. And like a lot of people I would drown my sorrows in food and drink, straying from the strict path of tracking my foods that I was previously following. I had attempted to get back to Weight Watchers but did not stick with it. Excuse number one. Excuse number two happened in 2014. Without getting into detail, my husband of six years asked me for a divorce. Another unexpected devastation in my life. I had felt as though I lost everything. My world as I knew it was coming to an end. I was less sad this time but rather more angry. With everything. My mental health has really taken a beating the past two years. I moved in with a great friend of mine in July. We work together and have the same schedule, so we had the rest of the summer off together. We had an amazing time, meeting new people and taking advantage of every opportunity to have fun. That all came at the expense of my weight. However, I had not realized it because my priority was surrounding myself with positive and happy people who could keep me smiliing and laughing during the most difficult times. Where do things like that typically happen but at bars and restaurants. I made a decision that in 2015 I have no excuses except my own laziness. I'm making this year about me. I know, I know, some of you who know me are staying to yourselves, "when isn't it about KC?" Touche. But back to when I took care of myself, consistently. Remember when I was running daily? 3-5 miles?! Where did that girl go? I was cooking new and exciting healthy meals and loved every minute of it. I did squats during commercial breaks when I would watch TV because I felt guily being idle! Luckily, I have not gained all the weight back from my original beginning of weight loss, but I have a good 40 pounds that I would like to lose. I did it once, hell, I lost 68 pounds - what's 40 this time? I still enjoyed myself and participated in all the social events I could get invited to, nothing is different this time. If you followed my journey before, I hope you are ready to jump back on board with me. If you weren't aware of my journey before, I hope you look at my past posts and see where this all started. The engine is started and I'm ready roll...

Taking Back Control

It is no doubt I have lost it these past five months. I believe my last post was even about how I was getting back on track, however, I hadn't. I am not going to apologize that I am not one of those people who can come across clothing I wore a year ago and say they still fit. I am not going to apologize that I really don't like working out or always eating healthy. I will apologize, however, that I have not been the best motivator or “inspiration” to those people who had looked so closely to me for weight loss support and followed my journey the past three years.

School is back in which means routine is back too. I am a person that heavily relies on routine. When routine wavers, so do I. I suppose that is something I need to work on.

Today I joined a Biggest Loser contest at school that runs for 12 weeks. There are 35 of us involved in this contest and it's a really decent prize at the end of the 12 weeks. Good motivation, besides fitting back into my smaller jeans. I'm doing a lot of the same when I was doing Weight Watchers; packing my lunch for the week, heavy on veggie and protein, beginning a workout regime, every day after school, watching alcohol intake, etc. One major difference I've decided to do this time around is not seeing my actual weight.

How weird, right?

I do not want to know what my actual weight is. I want to focus on how I feel. When I was an active Weight Watcher member, I became very obsessive over the number on the scale. When I was doing all the right things, like exercising well and eating perfectly and wouldn’t see a difference in number I did not care that my pants fit better or that I could run farther or faster than the week before. It was all about the number. For me, that was not good. When I finally hit my goal weight at 125lbs, I was happy to hit the number but I was way too thin and did not look attractive to myself. I should not wear a size 0 like I did at 125lbs. I had no hips, a small chest, was just not “womanly.” I’m prideful of my curves and quite honestly, so is my husband. So, this time around I am not looking at the number. My co-worker will weigh me in each week and keep track for me. I’d like to know what I lost in pounds each week but don’t want to focus on hitting a certain weight. I know how my pants should fit and once I’m back into my 4/5’s I don’t care what the number is on the scale only that my pants fit well again.

This is a new approach for me, so I’m anxious to see how it goes. It will be nice having my co-workers doing this with me and some looking at me for support or advice because I have done this before and have still managed to keep a lot of the weight off.

It is time to take control of my body again.

Ready or Not

It's been three months since I last posted and a lot has happened in those three months, which hindered my blogging. But I feel I am ready to post and write about it.

Many of you know that my grandparents did a majority of raising me. Not taking anything away from my mother, whom I love so much, but she had me at such a young age that she took support from her parents. I lived with my Grandma and Papa until I got married at 22, with the exception of living with my mom for a few year when she was married to my sister's dad. Although I would typically go back to my grandparent's house on the weekends. Needless to say, I am extremely close with my maternal grandparents.

On March 6th, during 2nd period, I received a text message from my Aunt Teri, asking for me to call her when I get a chance. Luckily, I was on my plan time so I called right away. She informed me that they think Papa had a stroke and not to worry just yet because they were unsure of exactly what had happened at this point. Naturally, I instantly lost it at work. One of my co-workers pulled me into her office to cry and call my husband to tell him that he has to come pick me up and we need to get to the hospital.

Upon arrival to the hospital, my grandma and aunt were the only ones there yet and told us that it was not a stoke but a brain aneurysm. The doctor gave us little hope of survival, saying that only 50% of people make it this far and it only gets worse from here. Unless a miracle was to happen, I was going to lose my Papa. My God how I prayed then that it was just the stroke that I had been told they thought it was first.

I am not going to go into all of the emotional details of that day and the days that follow, but I reminded of how blessed I am to be surrounded by supportive in-laws, friends and even co-workers. I still cannot believe the support I recieved from the school I've only worked at for not even one full school year. I cannot say that I am surprised as to how strong our family is, because I already know that. I don't have a typical family setting, as my brothers and sisters are my aunts and uncles. We choose to spend a lot of our free time together, sharing a meal and/or playing games. We are luckily a big picture taking family. We figured that out when we made the photo boards for Papa's wake. We could have filled 50 boards and still had pictures left over. The running joke was if there was any picture without me and Papa and me sitting on his lap, even at the age of 27. I was Papa's girl and everyone knew it. Hey, my license plate even says it. They say parent's don't play favorites but we all know he was my favorite and I was his.

Changes followed after this. I dropped both of my Weight Watcher meetings that I was leading. I was not the spunky, lively leader at the front of the room and I wasn't sure when I'd get that back. It isn't fair for me to guide people when I myself needed some guiding. I'm not much of a talker or a crier and being around people isn't really what I wanted. So I dropped them both. And to be frank, in the weeks to follow, I cared less about my eating habits and my exercise habits. I could probably stand to lose 10-15 pounds which is what I gained since the beginning of the school year, the most of it since March 7th. I weighed in at 148 this past Monday.

Good changes follow also. I have been thinking about extending our family. I've never much cared to be called "mom" but with the loss my family has had, maybe it's soon time for a gain. That's all I'll say for now.

I've started getting back on track this week. I haven't started tracking my food just yet, but I've begun running again and working out with co-workers after school since we have access to an entire gym. I've been more conscience of what I eat and how much I eat. And drink.

We know that I am not one of those that naturally gets high from exercise and heathly eating. I have poor eating habits when I don't think about them and like most people, exercising blows. I do it because I have to, not because I want to, generally. This is why I relate to most people who struggle with their weight. I'm not even close to perfect. I have to work hard to keep motivated and I'm easily distracted. When stress hits or routine is changed or a huge piece of life is taken away too soon, sometimes relapse follows.

I'm ready to get back on track and live post-Papa. I will still struggle and I will still fall off track once in a while. But with the support around me, I will continue to succeed and I have before.

To cleanse, or not to cleanse?

I have never done a cleanse before, and quite frankly, at this exact moment, I'm not a huge fan. That's probably because I'm starving and can't do anything about it.

Why I am I doing a cleanse? It's post-holiday season and I ate a lot of foods that I only get once a year. My first holiday season when I began to lose weight, I was very strict and lost weight over the holidays. However, I focused so much on losing weight that I didn't truly enjoy myself while visiting with friends and family. All I thought about was what I can and can't have if I want to lose weight. For the last two holidays, I've been at goal (or around goal) and I've thoroughly enjoyed myself. I didn't worry about what I consumed because I knew once the holidays were over, I'd get right back on track with my normal healthy eating. For some reason, I thought doing a cleanse this post-holiday would be something new to jump start me back on my normal path of eating. All I feel like doing right now is consuming a family size pizza in bed while watching a Lifetime movie. And it's only day one.

I found this cleanse on Pinterest and it seemed like a good one because there is actual food involved, it's not just a juice cleanse. Here are the details:

Breakfast:
1 cup skim milk
1 cup berries
1 tsp peanut butter

Snack:
1 cup cucumbers
1 cup green tea

Lunch:
4 oz chicken breast
steamed spinach
2 tsp. EVOO

Snack:
10 asparagus spears
1 cup green tea

Dinner:
Same as lunch

I've only had 5 WW PointsPlus today out of my normal 26. This is giving me a great new appreciation for my typical WW plan and how much food I actually get to eat in a regular day. Today, I feel like I'm dieting, which I've never done before. I really don't know if I can handle 48 hours of this. I'm irritable and losing concentration quite easily. I cannot work out because I have no energy.

I spoke with a good friend of mine about cleanses and she's a pretty clean eater regularly plus has a rare digestive issue that causes her to really have to limit the fruits and vegetables that she consumes. She suggested a Detox Bath that she takes frequently. Instead of the lavender oil shown in the link, she uses ground ginger. I haven't taken this bath yet, but I do plan on it tonight.

I haven't decided if I'm going to finish this up or not. This is just my first go at a cleanse, maybe it's just not the one for me...? I'm not sure. Do all cleanses leave you feeling so deprived? Maybe just getting back into my normal eating routine is what I need to do, and not mess around with calorie-depriving myself. I'm not looking to lose weight, I'm just looking to get healthier foods back in my body. Certainly I don't need a cleanse to do that.

Schaumburg Half Marathon

The day finally came and went. I started a training program 11 weeks ago for the goal I had myself at New Years. I've started this last year, instead of a New Years resolution, I made a New Years goal in which I have all year to accomplish. For 2012, it was the half marathon.

I did really well on the training program for about 7 weeks. I was making all my runs and cross-train days, but I started assistant coaching freshman basketball and that really took over my time after school. My training started to slack because I typically don't get home until after 7:00 pm, by which time we have dinner and it's too dark for me to go running outside. As yesterday approached, I wasn't too concerned. I knew I could finish and I was up to 8.5 miles of non-stop running in my training. Yesterday I made it up to about 9.5 before I took my first walk for about 30 seconds. Overall, I walked less than 1/2 mile throughout the entire 13.1 miles. I was pretty impressed with myself.

I was pumped and ready to go. I was a little nervous on Friday, but Saturday I felt great. Friday night I went to Dick's Sporting Goods and bought a brand new running outfit. I've wanted compression pants for a long time but didn't want to drop the money on them. I was lucky to find both Nike compression pants and a Nike compression top for only $70 with all the Black Friday sales/coupons. For $70, I had to get both and I'm glad I did. They were the keep warm kind also, which was perfect since it was only 25 degrees during the race. At 9:15 am, off I went. Well, really it was 9:25 am by the time I crossed the starting line. I had set a light goal for myself. I say light goal, because realistically, my goal was to finish a half marathon this year. However, throughout training I was keeping a good pace on long runs at 11:00 min/miles and was hoping to be consistent with that during the race. It's amazing how different it is from short runs. At first I was down on myself for training at such a slow pace for myself when I can run a 5k with a 9-9:30 min/mile. Obviously, keeping pace for 13 miles is much different than 3 miles and I eventually got over it. So, at 11:00 min/miles for 13.1 miles it should have taken 144.1 minutes which is 2 hours and 24 minutes. My official race time was 2 hours and 29 minutes (17 seconds), so about a 11:24 min/mile. I placed 1424 out of 1647 runners, and 115th out of 150 in my age group (Female 25-29). I was a bit on the slower side but I'm okay with that! I did my absolute best and I am sure feeling that today.

Up until around mile 9 I was doing great and felt great. Towards the end, my hip flexors really began to hurt. My aunt had suggested it was because I was taking the same sort of step, or running the same way for so long, so we quickly walked using a long stride and sort of swinging my hips in a different motion to open them up and move them differently. That was the only thing that had bothered me throughout the entire race, but boy was it painful! That was during mile 11 that I finally stretched them out because I wanted to finish strong, which I did. I picked up my pace and sprinted (or at least what felt like sprinting after 2 1/2 hours of running) through the finish line to pick up my finishers medal.

Kristian felt really bad that he couldn't be there to support me, however, in my absentmindedness, I registered for the race during his annual family trip up to deer camp. I was totally okay with it though, he felt worse than he needed too. It worked out well, I took the dogs and stayed at my uncle's house which is a bit closer to the race than where I live. I drove to my co-workers house, which is like 2 miles from the starting line and she and her boyfriend dropped me off and picked me up. It was great! Didn't have to fight parking or anything. I really appreciated that.

What really helped me through was having my Aunt Teri there to help pace me throughout the race. She met me some time between mile 3 and 4 and jumped in to run with me. It was nice to chat with someone while running, it really made the time fly when she left me around mile 6. Then I was on my own again until she met up with me around mile 10. This time, my Uncle Larry was with her too, taking photos. He ran with us a bit, snapping photos but not for very long. He's a bike rider, not a runner. My aunt ran with me just until the finish line where she hopped out and let me finish in all my glory. I'm really glad she was there. Once I started hurting, if I was alone chances are I would have walked more and gotten down on myself, but I didn't. So a big "THANK YOU" to my aunt for being there and running with me.

I'm pretty sore today. My hips are okay, but my back, my thighs and the front of my feet hurt. Almost the ankle, but more towards the front, like the tendon that goes to your big toe. It's weird but that's where it hurts.
As I mentioned yesterday to those I was with, I have absolute no desire to run a full marathon. As I was closing in on the finish line yesterday, I told my aunt that there is no way I'd do 26.2 miles. She reminded me that I'd only be half way done. No way! I am proud of my 13.1 miles. If you ever hear me mentioning that I want to run a full marathon, please direct me to this blog post so I can remember the half marathon.

Half Marathon Training

I have been epically failing at blogging lately. My new job has me so tied up, in a good way, that I'm barely on the computer for personal use anymore. I absolutely love my new career as a high school teacher and am thrilled that all the people I work with are super supportive in helping me adapt. After four years of not working, this is definitely a breath of fresh air. I love getting involved and meeting new people. There is just something about walking down the hallway and hearing a student yell over people "Hi Mrs. Jagow!!" I am a lucky, lucky girl to have not only one job that I love and get to help people but TWO, between school and Weight Watchers.

In a post from the beginning of the year, I made it my new years resolution to run a half marathon. I am not a summer runner, in fact, I'm quite a sissy to the heat. On September 10th, I started training for a half marathon I am running on November 24th. It's an 11 week training program and here is where I am so far.



Week 1:
Monday: 3 m (33:33)(11:07)
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 3 m (34:13)(11:23)
Thursday: 3 m (33:05)(11:00)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 4 m (38:39)(9:35)
Sunday: 90 minute Bikram Yoga class

Week 2:
Monday: 3 m (31:19)(10:23)
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: (31:04)(10:18) Later in the evening I started to feel under the weather.
Thursday: 3 m (30:55)(10:17) Sick
Friday: 5 m (54:45) Sick. Didn't care how long it took as long as I finished and got in the miles.
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Fighting a nasty cold...took an extra rest day on cross train day.

Week 3:
Monday: 4 m (47:57)(11:57) Day I felt the worst. Again, just wanted to get in the miles and not skip a run.
Tuesday: Rest. Thank God.
Wednesday: 3 m (29:33)(9:50) First day I started feeling better. Obviously.
Thursday: 3 m (29:26)(9:48)
(Today) Friday: Rest
Saturday: Will complete 6 m run
Sunday: Cross - Likely a Bikram Yoga class.

Week 3 was really tough. I've been running inside on a treadmill since my cold hasn't fully gone away. It's a little easier on the respiratory system inside rather than outdoors which it's a bit cooler. Hopefully next week I can get back outside. Treadmill running is so boring, although since I'm running at school it is nice to have other people around while I'm running. My overall times are getting better, but I'm struggling to find a good pace that I can keep for 13.1 miles. If I make a goal of 120 minutes that would be a 9:16 mile. That seems like an unobtainable goal right now. Although, I think I can do better than 150 minutes which would average an 11:45 mile. Somewhere in between two and two and a half hours would be acceptable to me. It's my first half marathon and a really just want to finish. Any pace I have would be a personal best since it's my first one!

I recently purchased new running shoes and I love them!


They are the new Nike Vomero 7's and I hadn't realized how old my previous ones were. It was like getting new tires for your car. It was so much more comfortable! I also got a pair of inserts because I hadn't realized how high of arches I have. What a difference! Although yesterday I forgot socks and now I have some awesome blisters.

I'm pretty excited to continue training and increase my running endurance. It's almost time to start thinking about a new years resolution for 2013!

Post-Vacation

Last week, my husband and I decided, relatively last minute, to take a trip. I say relatively last minute because while we had planned for this time off we didn't really know where we were headed to. We were trying to decide between Memphis, New Orleans or Cabo. His first choice was New Orleans and my first choice was Memphis. Naturally, Memphis it was! We were off to celebrate his 31st birthday and my last week before the school year starts for first year teachers. Not to mention - we hadn't been on a vacation together since our honeymoon in Fiji almost 4 years ago!

Hello Beale Street!

My intentions were good. I packed us a bag of goodies for the 8 hour car ride to Tennessee, full of all my yummy Weight Watchers snacks.
First stop we made - Casey's General Store - for Slim Jim's and Apple Fritters, of course.

Whoops. 

We stopped in Sikeston, Missouri at Lambert's Cafe for lunch. It's a cute country restaurant that is known for their "Throwed Rolls" - literally - the roll guy comes out of the kitchen with hot rolls and throws them right to you. Put your hands up and you've shortly after got a hot roll nestled in between them.

Hot Buns!

Once we got to our hotel, which was facing Beale Street - we unpacked, rested a bit and then started our long weekend of living it up in the night life.

View from hotel - Beale Street - and right below is Silky O'Sullivans. That was our "go-to" place.

Each day started with lunch someplace, then a nap, followed by setting out for dinner around 6pm and returned back to the hotel sometimes between 3am-5am the next morning. I'll say, for 31, Kristian can sure hang with the best of them!

Because Beale Street is closed off and open containers are allowed we had a lot of these 32oz "Big Ass Beer" cups.    And one of these Hurricane drinks from Silky's ^
<------I even got a little bit more crazy and got a 100oz WalkMeDown drink from an outside bar.   
 At any rate, the food and drinks were plentiful. No surprise.

So much fun!

By Saturday afternoon, my body was hating me for what I had been doing to it for the past few days. Trying all these new foods and few drinks I'd consumed. Our hotel had a workout room - so I utilized that and ran on the treadmill for about 4.5 miles in addition to all the walking were were doing already. It reminded me how much I hate treadmills, but I knew I had to kick up my activity. Luckily, I have my awesome ActiveLink device that let's me know where my activity is for the day in relation to my activity goals.

Goodness I love this device!

 Once I got home and plugged it into the computer to see all my fancy graphs of activity, I found out I AVERAGED 102% of my daily goal!

Today was the dreaded weigh-in day. It's always stressful to weigh-in after a gluttonous vacation. I was curious to weigh-in on Sunday after we got back home but I knew it wouldn't be an accurate depiction of my actual weight so I waited until my regular weigh-in day of Wednesday morning.

To my surprise - I lost 1.7lbs over vacation.

WHA!?

It was the perfect mixture of extra activity and eating I suppose. This vacation was already guilt-free because I told myself before we left, "it's okay if I gain a little weight". I think it is very important to set that goal for yourself before you leave for vacation. What is your objective? Is it okay to gain a little weight because it's vacation and you know you will get right back on track once you get home? Do you just want to maintain your weight? Or do you want to lose? And what happens if you don't hit that objective or it isn't realistic? I knew I hadn't been on vacation in quite a while so gaining was okay for me, however, I still kept up with regular exercise and much more was added on since we walked everywhere and danced every night while we were out enjoying the live blues music.

This post would have taken a slightly difference direction had I gained over vacation - but it still would have been positive and I would still have been accountable for what I ate and drank. It was my choice and now I'm right back on track to my regular eating habits.

Warrior Dash!

This past Saturday was the Warrior Dash. I have been looking forward to this event since I registered in December for it. That's a long time to wait! This event is pretty epic. I am still ridiculously sore from it and I like to think I am in good shape. I used so many muscles that I did not even know I had. For those who don't know about the Warrior Dash, here is what is to expect...

The Warrior Dash is a 5k, but not an ordinary 5k where you run the entire thing. I can run a 5k in about 28 minutes, when in competitive mode. It took our group between 48-50 minutes to complete this 5k. It is full of obstacles, roughly 12-17 different kinds. There was a tight rope walk over what I think was a dried up stream, rock climbing walls, vertical and horizontal cargo net climbs, lots of crawling in/through dirt tunnels and under barbed wire, jumping over rusted out cars, sliding down mudslides into pools of mud, giant hills to run up and at the end, before wading in a small pond of mud, we leapt over two rows of fire. It was intense. Much more so than I had anticipated. You definitely have to be in some kind of shape to do this. There was a lot of jumping off obstacles. Kudos to my Aunt Teri, who recently had back AND knee surgery and she still completed it like nothing. It was amazing to see someone who just a few months ago was in a knee and back brace from surgery, jumping and climbing and crawling through these obstacles. She's a warrior, no doubt!

Aunt Teri and I before the race!

If you didn't take some caution throughout this race, you could seriously injure yourself. Two of the six of us in our group were bleeding by the end, and my knee is scratched up pretty good. We all survived to brag about it though, and we are getting pumped up for next year’s Warrior Dash! The obstacles change each year, my group said that last year there were different ones and about half of what there was this year, so I anticipate next year’s course! 

This is our group before and then after. The best is that Carrie, Maggie and Steve all wore white shirts and clearly you can see how dirty they are!

At one point, I think I had more mud in my mouth that actually on my body!

After the race, there was someone at the finish line giving out the medals. This was the first event that I've earned a medal! Yay! 

After the race, we hung out for a while at the festival that follows for a while. It was hot and I ended up getting pretty toasty! Once I got home, the first thing I did was shower. Twice! After the first shower, I was drying myself off and noticed there was STILL mud on me! So I hopped back in and re-washed again! After the second one, I was good to go. I drove over to my aunt’s house where we proceeded to  nice little restaurant, Brio, for appetizers and martinis and then met my uncle a little later at Adelle’s for dinner and more martinis. My aunt and I know how to treat ourselves after an event like that! 

I am still working on my Jillian Michaels’ 6 Week 6 Pack challenge. I just finished week 2 and wrote out my schedule for week 3 this morning. I hadn’t planned to take yesterday as a rest day, but I had too and after I woke up this morning, I decided I had to take today also. In the DVD, there is A LOT of upper bodywork and my upper body is still quite sore from Saturday. It is no big deal, I’ll just do the DVD workout Tuesday through Saturday and I’ll still be on track. Sunday, I’m going to the Pride parade in Boystown, so I know I’ll get plenty of walking anyway. Even on my schedules days off last week, which were Tuesday and Saturday, I got lots of activity in. Tuesday we went to see the Conan O’Brien taping and in between getting our tickets and the show starting, we walked at least 6-7 miles. And Saturday, obviously, was the Warrior Dash.

It has been an extremely active week for me and I’m looking forward to a calmer week this week. At least I came out of it a WARRIOR!

  

6 Week Challenge

For many, winter is the tougher season to lose/maintain weight, with being inside a lot and craving comfort foods in the cold months and moving less. Summertime is ideal to lose/maintain weight; your outdoors, moving more, gardening, eating less when it's hot outside, etc. I swear, I'm the opposite. Winter is easier for me to maintain. While I'm inside more and move less, I tend to eat less because I'm not in as many social situations. Once Memorial Day hits, BANG! Outside every day, with friends every weekend, BBQs and whatnot. I'm more of a fall/winter runner than a mid-July runner, but I do use my DVDs more in the summer.

This summer, my goal is to maintain/lose instead of gaining a little. I don't typically gain much, maybe 5 lbs, but I'd rather lose 5 more, right?! My biggest challenge in the summer is the weekend BBQ's and the cold drinks. There is nothing better on a hot summer day than an ice cold beer. Seriously. It's so refreshing! Plus, when we are all outside playing Ladder Ball or Bags or Bocce Ball...everyone always has a full drink. It's pretty much mandatory. Since typically the eating/drinking increases and my activity is relatively the same, I tend to gain a little.

So, on Monday I started a new 6 week challenge for myself. I've been doing Jillian Michael's 6 Week to 6 Pack DVD, intermittently, for a while now. My challenge is to do it 5 days a week for 6 weeks, which is her recommended frequency of the program. It might sound silly, but I can already see a slight difference since Monday in my core. I'm taken progress pictures so that I can see the difference from week 1 to week 6 and I will likely share. This week, my plan is Monday-Friday with rest on Saturday and Sunday...although I'll be open to running or whatnot but I won't mandate myself to pushing it too much. I really want to see just what this DVD can offer on it's own along with a healthy diet.

Sunday I'm, hopefully, participating in the Weight Watchers 5K, although I doubt I'll run it. I say hopefully because I have a bridal shower to attend at 1pm about 40 miles from my house. The 5K starts at 9am but because it's a Weight Watchers event, I end up walking the 5K a few times with members and chatting a lot.  Last year, I walked it with a new member who was by herself and didn't necessarily think she could do it. Of course, she did. I'm just not sure how much time I'll have to go there and socialize only to rush home, get ready and leave for the shower. I'm debating still.

Jumping over fire!

Next Saturday, June 16th, is the Warrior Dash. I'm so excited for this 5K! I registered before Christmas and have been anticipating it since! It's not a 5K that I will run for a PR, since it's an obstacle course. I was told by someone that did it last year, that you could run the first mile, maybe, but then it's pretty much obstacles. Climbing over cargo nets, army crawling through mud, jumping over fire...can't wait! Hopefully we get some awesome pictures! It's a very crowded race - a few hundred people in each 30 minute wave and it's a 2 day event!

Climbing cargo nets

So I've clearly other activities planned during my 6 week challenge and hopefully it's all a good mixture to help me look more toned. I'm excited to see the end results!

Tire obstacle

Mud pit!

"Fat" Days

I hope no one is offended by what I've titled this entry, but let's face, regardless if your skinny, fit, chubby or obese - we all have better days than others when it comes to how we feel in our bodies. Don't we typically label the days we are uncomfortable in our body as "fat" days? Well, that's how I'm feeling today.

Let's start this off with good news first and also the antecedent to why I'm feeling "fat" today.

After waiting for almost 4 weeks after I had a second interview at a high school nearby, they FINALLY called this past Friday to offer me a teaching position for the 2012/13 school year. I couldn't be more happy and I know I've worked hard and deserve it. It works great also because this was just my first interview for the next school year and now I don't have to worry about interviewing and can just enjoy my summer. This job is also pretty much exactly what I wanted so I'm glad I waiting an entire school year and just subbed last school year to wait for what I want. I hate settling for less than that. At any rate, after I received the phone call from the principal, I literally hung up the phone and started jumping up and down like a fool. It was a humorous site to see, I'm sure.

So, as our society is accustomed to, we celebrated with food and drink. We first went to one of my old college professors' home, who lives near us. She was having an end of school year party for the families at her children's school and invited us by for a drink to celebrate. Then, my husband and I went to a Mexican restaurant, where, since we were celebrating I ordered whatever I wanted plus two margaritas. We continued the evening at home on our patio with a few more drinks. The next morning I woke up bright at early for work (ironically, a WW meeting) and felt great! But, by the time I was getting ready to leave I was famished and everyone knows the foods you crave after a night of some choice beverages. So, I picked up 2 hot dogs for the husband and a gyro for me, although I only ate half. That night we grilled chicken tenderloins and had a balanced meal so that wasn't terrible. Afterwards, I went to my friend's house and sat on her patio and had some drinks with them. Sunday, I finished my gyro for lunch and then we went to a Memorial Day party. Naturally, there were grilled foods and different kinds of sides and realistically, I didn't too do poorly there. But, in the hot summer heat, a few more beverages were consumed. That night when we got home, I started getting hungry and made some pierogies. Not the best choice at 7pm. Finally, yesterday we had a few friends over. We used our smoker for the first time and smoked fresh salmon that my husband caught off Lake Michigan last weekend, 2 racks of ribs and had a beer can chicken on the grill,  plus the necessary sides. Oh, and how could I forget? After everyone left yesterday we topped off our weekend of gluttony with a Culver's Concrete Mixer.

So, is my "fat" day warranted now? I think so.

Ha! This is what I feel like...like my inner fat girl is torturing me with temptations, resulting in fear of the scale!

It doesn't matter how active I was or what exercise I got it, I just feel blah. I feel soft. So this week it's time to get back to my regular scheduled programming. I picked up Jillian Michaels' 6 week to 6 pack DVD that I was doing sporadically but I think I might do it as recommended, 5 days a week for 6 weeks. I did her 30 Day Shred last year for 30 straight days and loved it. So on top of running, I think I'll get back to feeling like my normal self in no time, but in the interim, this blows!

 But, this happens to most of us and the reason I have this blog is so that people going through the same journey know they aren't alone. Whether others admit it or not, no one is perfect at their exercise routine or their eating lifestyles. We all slip up, or don't give the 100% that you know you could. The important thing is, you recognize it, own it and get back on track by making a plan.

My plan this week: increasing exercise and accurately tracking my food. I know it works and it's fool proof for me. Do what works.

What Works For You?

What works for me, doesn't work for everyone. Beginning or maintaining a healthy lifestyle means something different to each individual. Lately I have heard a lot of "this is how you do it if you want to do it right" kind of tones and I don't agree with it. Everyone knows that I lost all my weight with the support of Weight Watchers, and I now work for them. This worked for me. I recognized that I couldn't do this alone and that I needed the support of other people going through the same thing as I was. I do not feel weaker because of this, but rather stronger, that I was able to put pride aside and ask for help when I needed it. However, not everyone needs a group of people to hold them accountable but rather only themselves. Perfectly awesome! Whatever works for the individual is key.

All of us on a weight loss journey have the same ultimate goal: to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. How you get there doesn't matter. I've made it known that when I began my personal journey, my main focus was on food and portion control. I exercised here and there but that wasn't a main focus for me at that point in my journey. I lost probably the first 40-50lbs with little exercise but strictly portion control and keeping my food journal. I had reasons why I did it this way. I knew that if I started off with high intensity workouts, there would be a chance that as I lost my weight I would stop exercising as much. I can't prove that this would have been the case but I know myself better than anyone, and I believe that would have happened. If I were to stop the high intensity workouts and only focus on food, I wouldn't have hit my ultimate goal. Instead, I focused on food more strictly and as I got closer to goal, increased my workout. I know that if I don't workout for a week, I won't put weight on, as long as I eat in a healthy way.

Exercise and activity is no doubt a huge part of my life now. I'm up to 7 miles of non-stop running with a 9:30/mile roughly and am training for a half-marathon soon. If I'm not running I'm using a DVD at home. Not to mention, at work I push around a 140+lb girl in her wheelchair who cannot help because she has had a few strokes and is dead weight on her left side. On Monday I ran a mile with her in P.E. - albeit a 13 minute mile, pushing 140+lbs while in work clothes/shoes (not workout clothes/shoes) I was pretty happy to have had that extra activity.

Others focus on eating and activity at the beginning and that works for them. And then some just focus on activity and not the eating portion at first and that works for them.

It's not a competition with anyone but yourself. It doesn't matter how long it takes one to reach their ultimate goal. My theory was, the longer it took me to reach my goal the more I learned and was educated about my choices.

Find what works for you and what you can maintain for the rest of your life. Forget about what everyone else is doing. If it works for you and your body, you're well on your way to you ultimate goal.

Importance of Progress Monitoring

Tuesday's are very busy days for me and I rarely get much activity. It's a simple schedule, but has me tied up just about all day. I work from 6:45am-2:30pm and then come home and get ready for my Weight Watchers meeting that I arrive at around 4:30pm and don't get home until roughly 8:30pm. By then, activity is not a priority. Sleep is. The two hours in between school and my meeting include travel times and changing from one outfit to the next and freshening. Certainly, not enough time to workout and shower. Today was different, however. School was dismissed at 11:00am thanks to PSAE testing. I took advantage of the early dismissal and packed accordingly to run home. MapQuest tells me it's 7.07 miles from school to home but MapMyRun calculated it as 6.76 miles, so that's what I'll go with.

I crushed my times and made a personal best. I ran the distance in 1 hour and 7 minutes (12 seconds). And I ran the entire thing, not stopping once.

What made me most happy is when the woman come over my music on my iPhone and said "Time is 48 minutes and distance is 5 miles." It made me think back to the Shamrock Shuffle when I ran it in just over 56 minutes and I knew I could do much better had I not enjoyed the evening before as much as I had. I love when I can prove myself right. 48 minutes. I was happy as a clam. When I got home from my run I was looking back at my old runs and the longest run I've done so far is 7.3 miles and that took me 1 hour and 26 minutes. Whether 7.07 miles is correct or 6.76 miles is correct for this run - I would have crushed my 1 hour 26 minute time if I ran to 7.3 miles.

I averaged a 9:36 min/mile this run. I guess the speed trials I've been doing are working. Lately I've been testing my speed rather than my distance to try and work up my endurance. The last run I did was 1.86 miles in 16:10 which was an 8:36 min/mile. Since the 7.3 miles I ran on March 6th was an 11:36 min/mile I'd say I've vastly improved. Funny this was, I told my husband that if it takes me more than 90 minutes to come look for me. He was surprised when I got home much earlier than he thought I would. Ahh the power of positive thinking! It really keeps you going!

This has shown me just how important it is to progress monitor your workouts. Even if running isn't your thing - take notes on the workouts you do, how you feel, and what you were capable of doing that day. To see the progression is such a great feeling - it's proof that you are getting stronger! Knowing that I've crushed my times and have improved my overall endurance really makes me happy and keeps me pushing harder with my running abilities.

Life After Goal

I find it so much more difficult to find things to write about now that I'm at my goal weight and maintaining. I had mentioned before that my new goals were to increase and focus more on my activity and I've been doing just that. Specifically, the territory in which I work for Weight Watcher is divided between two states. We are currently have a battle between states on activity - which state can get more Service Providers to be active at least 15 minutes every day, anyone who has less than 5 days of rest is entered in to win some prize. This is a great motivator for my new goal, if I have a chance to win a prize! Luckily, for me, 15 minutes is no big deal and I rarely would do activity for anything under 30 minutes. Since I have been working full time, until the end of the school year now, I've been participating in my students' P.E. class. It's not intense exercise, but I could just choose not to participate at all and risk no activity for the day. Plus, it's activities I wouldn't do at home - like playing basketball and dancing. It's so fun!

This week I'm on spring break so I've really been focusing on more intense workouts. On Sunday, I went for a 2 mile run, focusing on speed, not distance. I ran 2 miles in 18:03 which was a 9:01/mile. I was extremely happy with that, especially since I had completed a 30 minute upper body boot camp right before. The rest of this week I've been switching it up. I bought a new DVD series that I'm really enjoying. 

This Jennifer Cohen PointsPlus Fitness Series includes five DVDs
*Total Body Cardio Stretch - this is essentially a yoga DVD
* Upper Body Boot Camp
*Lower Body Interval Training
*Core Cardio
*Cardio Basic

This week I've been doing two DVDs each with their Express Workout option. It's a quick 15 minutes intense workout. I've been starting with Disc 1 which is the Total Body Cardio Stretch and then proceed to Disc 2 for the 15 minute Express Workout. Then the second day I started again with Disc 1 and then Disc 3, etc. Today I did the main workout for Disc 5 - Cardio Basic. The main workouts are between 30-40 minutes and every exercise is broken down into beginner, intermediate and expert. It's nice when DVDs offer that option because anyone can do them and you can increase your intensity at your own personal level. It's always a good way to show growth when you've been doing it long enough. It's my guess that Jennifer Cohen uses Jillian Michaels as a fitness mentor, because she says a lot of the same things I've noticed in Jillian says also, but without the intimidation Jillian has.

Tomorrow I'll be switching it up and I'm very excited to be getting back to a Bikram Yoga class. If you recall, I did a 30 day Bikram trial at a studio near my home and really enjoyed it! It's been quite a while since my last Bikram class and I've convinced a good friend of mine to join me. It should be a fun 90 minutes! I think it's time I take my measures too. All this activity surely must have changed those!

My favorite Bikram pose!

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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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. 

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.