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.

Simply...Spectacular!

Last week, I conducted an experiment of trying the Simply Filling technique for 7 days. I was nervous - afraid I might gain because I wasn't to track and weigh all my food, which I've been doing for 2 years now, however, to switch things up, I gave it a try. 


Check out the progress report...

I lost 3.8 pounds in one week! I weighed in this morning at 126.2 lbs from my 130.0 last week! I have 1.2 lbs left until I hit my personal goal of 125. So I am going to continue the Simply Filling technique this week. 


Looking back at last week you can see that I tracked on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Those days I had foods that were not "Power Foods" and I had 49 weekly points plus values to use for non-power foods.   In fact, I exceeded the 49 by 17 and I still lost 3.8 lbs. Unbelievable! 


As far as the food health guidelines go - I got liquids, daily and fruit/veggie every day. I'm out of my multivitamin and haven't pick up another bottle yet, so I didn't get that in. There is no excuse not to get in my 2 tsp. of EVOO everyday because although it's not a "power food", I don't have to track up to 2 tsp. of a healthy oil. Sometimes it just skips my mind. 


Exercising - I haven't been tracking anything other than when I run outdoors. Last week, I was able to handle the chill twice. Wednesday, I when for a 1.98 mile run (21:53) and Friday, I went for a 3.5 mile run (36:29) for 8 activity points plus values. 


A lot of people have been interested in what I ate all week because I had mentioned that it was a lot of food and so strange not to track these items! So - here was my weekly menu!


Monday Feb. 13th
Day 1


Breakfast:
Coffee, black, no sugar
1 Hard-boiled egg
1 Weight Watchers Maple Oatmeal
8 oz. of Skim Milk

Lunch:
Weight Watchers Creme Brulee Smoothie with Strawberries - 1 small clementine

Dinner:
Venison roast - Brussel Sprouts - Sm. Sweet Potato

Dessert:
Tall glass of skim milk - Strawberries w/Splenda


Tuesday Feb. 14th
Day 2


Breakfast: 
Coffee, black, no sugar - 3 poached eggs - 3 slices of Pepperidge Farm light style wheat toast

Lunch: 
Bag of steamed edamame - clementine

Dinner: 
Barilla Whole Grain pasta with green peppers, tomatoes, half chicken breast, & EVOO

Snack/Desserts: 
half chicken breast, Starbucks Skinny Caramel Macchiato (SIMPLY FILLING!!!!!), Strawberries & Splenda. 


Wednesday Feb 15th
Day 3


Breakfast: 
Coffee, black, no sugar - 3 eggs - 3 slices of Pepperidge Farm Light Wheat Bread - Banana

Lunch: 
Leftover whole grain penne with chicken breast, green peppers, tomato and EVOO

Dinner: 
Bowl of Chicken enchiladas soup (I counted as 6p+)

Other/Snack:
2 beers (Counted as 10p+), strawberries with splenda, 3 clementines

Thursday Feb 16th

Day 4

Breakfast:
Banana - Clementine - Coffee, black, no sugar -  Hard-boiled egg

Lunch: 
Steamed edamame - WW yogurt

Dinner:
Venison sandwich (triple decker y'all!): 3 pieces of pepperidge farm light wheat bread, onion, tomato, venison, 1 tbsp light miracle whip (1p+) , vension, 1 small sweet potato

Other: Starbucks grande skinny caramel macchiato

Friday Feb 17th

Day 5

Breakfast:

Coffee, black, no sugar - 2 bananas - 16 oz fat free milk - 2 sm. clementines

Lunch:

3 slices Pepperidge Farm Light Style Wheat bread - 3 eggs - WW yogurt

Dinner: I met my aunt for happy hour/dinner Friday evening...we went to two places.

@Kona Grill - Edamame, 2 glasses of red wine that I counted as 16.5 oz (I'm sure it was less but I'd rather over track than under) for 14 p+

@Redstone - Spinach Salad with grapes & apples, dressing on the side (barely used) and 2 Blue Moons for 11 p+

Saturday Feb 18th

Day 6

Breakfast:

Coffee, black, no sugar - 1 banana - WW Oatmeal - WW smoothie

Lunch:

Steamed Lima Beans - Poached Chicken Breast - Activia light FF yogurt

Dinner: Went to a Mardi Gras party @6pm

Crab legs - 2 crab cakes for 5p+

27 p+ worth of alcohol

Sunday Feb 19th

Day 7

Breakfast:

3 sm. clementines - 2 eggs - 2 slices of Pepperidge Farm Light Style Wheat bread - WW Oatmeal

Lunch: 

Steamed Lima Beans (big breakfast, wasn't too hungry for lunch)

Dinner:

2 sm grilled sweet potatoes - grilled asparagus - grilled chicken breast

So what do you think? That's a lot of food to eat and lose 3.8 lbs in one week, isn't it!? I'm sure you can't blame me for doing it again this week. Also, we've only plan on Saturday so I won't drink as much as I did between Friday and Saturday and it's suppose to be nice this week so hopefully I'll get out running more!

Meanwhile - here is a photo of me at the Mardi Gras party!

I'm looking forward to this next week and hitting my goal, finally. Maybe if I get really good at Simply Filling I can try for 120 lbs...?? 

Simply...Experimenting

If you are a regular reader of mine, you know that I have been struggling to get to my personal goal weight. If you are a Weight Watcher member that has been in some of the same meetings as I have, you know that I'm terrified of trying the Simply Filling technique. This week I'm taking a leap of faith and trying it out.

Yesterday I weighed in at 130.0 - and while that's 2.4lbs more than I weighed in two weeks ago, I wasn't really upset about it. I know that I had been tracking very inconsistently over the past two weeks - and that's why I hadn't even weighed in the week before. So, I take accountability for it and I own my 130.0lbs. It's still a healthy weight for me so I'm not worried about it - but I'd like to sit comfortably in the 120's.

I am all about changing things up when it comes to my weight loss. I look forward to winter when I switch from running everyday to indoor workouts, and now I'm looking forward to spring to continue my running again. I was talking yesterday with my husband how for me, no other workout compares to running. When I consistently run throughout the week I have flat, defined abs. Once I stop running, while my stomach stayed flat it isn't as defined, even though I still workout. I missing running. I also like to change things up when it comes to what I eat. When we switched over from the Momentum plan to the PointsPlus plan, a lot of people were hesitant. Like them, I had lost most of my weight on the Momentum and it's difficult for some people to abandon something that worked for them. I saw it as a change in the right direction - a kick start for our bodies. And of course, it was. My first week on PointsPlus I had lost something like 4 pounds which is an insane amount of weight for me.

While we've always had the Simply Filling option, it's something that I was very scared of. There is little tracking involved and you don't have to weigh out your portions. Simply Filling is a technique used when you eat only Power Foods, or, whole grains, lean proteins, low fat dairy, etc. The only thing you track are any foods that are not Power Foods and you have 49 PointsPlus to use for those. On this technique, you can eat until you are satisfied. That is the part that scared me - do I know when I'm really satisfied? I know that I can eat and eat and eat, that's how I got here in the first place. However, looking at this as a change, I'm going to try this for a week and see how it reflects on the scale. If it goes down, perhaps I'll continue this into next week. If it goes up, I won't be upset, as I'm just simply experimenting.

Yesterday was my first day trying Simply Filling and my verdict so far....I love it!

Here was my intake yesterday:

Breakfast:
Coffee, black, no sugar
1 Hard-boiled egg
1 Weight Watchers Maple Oatmeal
8 oz. of Skim Milk

Lunch:
Weight Watchers Creme Brulee Smoothie with Strawberries
1 small clementine

Dinner:
Venison roast
Brussel Sprouts
Sm. Sweet Potato

Dessert:
Tall glass of skim milk
Strawberries w/Splenda

It was completely foreign to not weigh out my protein or potato, but liberating at the same time. While I didn't "track" my foods, I still kind of did. While they aren't worth and PointsPlus values, I still tracked them so I could review my food intake at the end of the week. My lunch would typically be larger, but I had been running around and didn't get home until 3pm and didn't want to eat a larger lunch that close to dinner.

I'm excited to see the outcome of this and I'm keeping it positive. Hopefully my experience will encourage others who have wanted to try Simply Filling but just aren't sure about it. I can report, although I don't count it because it's Tuesday, not Monday, but I weighed myself this morning, with sweatpants on and I weighed in at 128.5lbs. I know you can't rely on an accurate weight throughout the week, and only rely on the one weigh-in that is the same time and day each week, so I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.

That being said, if this is what 130.0 lbs looks like that I am a happy lady!