P90X Before and After Pics

I've been done with P90X for over a week now, but I just hadn't taken the time to have my husband take the after pics of me. He's working from home today and suggested we take them this morning. I really didn't expect to see a whole lot of difference, although I don't know why. I had to buy a size 8 pair of jeans recently, so obviously things had changed. A freakin' size 8!! I have never in my life bought a size 8 anything. I was freakin' over the moon!

So, without further ado, here are my before and after pictures!

























My baby boy wanted to show off his muscles there in the last one. :) So, obviously, there was quite a bit of change in my body. I would have liked to have lost a bit more belly fat, but what I lost was pretty noticeable. The last few weeks I didn't follow the program as closely as I did at first, so that may have been part of it too. I generally run on Tuesday and Thursday, so a lot of days I'd skip the P90X workouts for those days since they were cardio-focused. And some days I didn't do the ab workout because I just ran out of time. I'm pleased with my results, though. I don't know if I'd do it again, but that's just because it's a big time commitment every day and working out at home is a lot harder than going to the gym. There are way more distractions when I exercise at home, and I hated that I had to do it during my son's naptime.

General update

I don't know how I've fallen so far behind on all my blogs lately. In the weeks since I've posted I have hit my goal weight--I've lost 30 pounds!! I had a doctor's appointment last week, and she flipped back through my chart and said this is my lowest weight in the 10 years I've been her patient. Wow!! She was really proud of me, and I have to say I am too.

I started doing P90X and as of today I'm six weeks into the program. I really like the workouts, I just don't like that I have to do them during my youngest son's naptime because that really cuts into my time to get things done around the house. But I've learned it's nearly impossible to workout with him around, although initially he tries to follow along which is pretty stinking cute.

I think that's about it. I've started training for my next half marathon coming up in January. I did a five mile run on Saturday morning. My pace wasn't anything to really write home about, but I enjoyed it and I'm putting more value into that than my pace. I think my average was 11:45. Not terrible--and definitely faster than most of my training runs for the last half marathon I did--but not awesome either.

5k PR!

Well, it was only my second 5K so the fact that I set a PR isn't that surprising. My previous 5K that I ran in May was a time of 38:25, an average pace of 12:02. I decided last night I wanted to shave at least three minutes off of that and get my time around 35:00. I ran with the husband who usually averages about a 10:30 pace. I was nervous I wouldn't be able to keep up, but I also didn't want to slow him down. Let me tell you how surprised I was when my app came on after five minutes and said I was running at a 10:37 pace! Wow!! My average pace for the entire race ended up being 10:47 and my total time was 32:22. Yup, I shaved six minutes off my time! I was pretty pleased with myself, I have to say. I don't think at this point I could have sustained that pace for a much longer run, but it does give me hope for my next half marathon in January that I could potentially average a pace closer to 11:00.

Measurements

The husband and I have decided that once we meet a fitness goal of some sort, we need to have another one in mind already so that we don't just get lazy and fat again. I had decided after the half marathon that I was going to do P90X. I've known several people that have done it and had great success with it and really liked it. Plus I had to take a temporary leave from my gym membership, so this will be a great way to stay active and fit while I can't go to the gym. Yesterday I did a bunch of pre-P90X stuff, and today I'll actually start it. I had to take my measurements so I can track my progress at the end of the 90 days. Once I was done I remembered seeing a notebook in my bathroom recently that had measurements I'd taken one year ago today. it must have been when I started South Beach Diet for the first time. It's amazing how the numbers have changed!!

September 8th, 2010
Weight: 187.2
Waist: 35"
Hips: 40"
Thighs: 22"
Arms: 12"
Chest: 40"

September 7th, 2011
Weight: 160.8
Waist: 32"
Hips: 38"
Thighs: 17.5"
Arms: 10/5"
Chest: 36"

Wow. Those are some pretty significant number changes!! I'm curious to see how my numbers compare 30 days from now!

Run a half marathon - CHECK!!

I ran my half marathon on Sunday! With strep throat and maybe whiplash. I gotta say I'm pretty pleased with myself and think I'm bordering on rock star status because of that. All last week I was paranoid I was going to get sick for the race because my youngest had a cold, my BFF had a nasty cold, and we knew a few other people we'd been in contact with that were sick. Thursday night I thought my throat was starting to hurt, but I was trying to convince myself it was all in my head. Friday morning I woke up and knew that wasn't the case. My husband was trying to convince me still that it was just anxiety or allergies, not strep like I was thinking it was. He was going to Dallas for the weekend for the LSU season opener, so we took him to the airport then went home to pack up and head out. The plan had been for the boys and me to go to my mom's so we could leave for CA around 9:30 or 10:00. Plans changed so that I dropped my kids off at her house then went to one of the Walgreens clinics to get a strep test done. I tend to get strep about once a year, so I normally know when I have it. While I was waiting I had pretty much convinced myself it wasn't strep. It didn't hurt as much as it had in the morning, so I thought maybe it was just allergies. Even the nurse at the clinic didn't think it was going to be strep, but it was. Thankfully I knew that by day three of being on antibiotics I was usually feeling mostly normal, so I wasn't quite as worried. I figured at that point I'd run what I could, take walking breaks when I need them, and go in knowing I wasn't going to have an awesome race.

I got a little worried at the race expo because I felt pretty lightheaded most of the time we were there. Thursday night I woke up and had gotten up to shine a flashlight in my throat to check for white spots to see if it was strep, and while I was up doing that I got really dizzy. I was in my kids' bathroom and went to sit down on the floor outside the bathroom and ended up collapsing as I tried to sit down. I banged my head on the floor pretty hard, so I was worried then after feeling lightheaded Saturday that I'd end up passing out at the race.

Sunday morning my alarm went off at 3:20. I caught the shuttle to Disneyland, met up with Jen, and we headed to the race. We got in our corrals around 5:15. A little before 6:00 they had fireworks at the starting line and then the race got underway. The official start time was 6:00, but it was about 6:20 I think when we crossed the starting line. Right away, I felt awesome. My breathing was great, my legs felt great, the energy from the crowd was fantastic. We started out running on a street by the Disney hotels then around Mile 2 got into the parks. There were Disney characters all along the route, and you could stop to have your picture taken with them, but the lines were all really long. Phineas and Ferb were there, and I would have loved to get my picture taken with them, but not at the expense of waiting in line and losing time. After we ran through California Adventure and Disneyland, we went out on the streets of Anaheim. Every mile or so there were high school cheer squads and marching bands--it was pretty cool. We ran around the Honda Center where the Anaheim Ducks play, then along a river, then into Angels Stadium. We got to run on the track of the baseball field in the stadium!! It was so cool!! They had the Jumbotron camera there so everyone ended up on the Jumbotron.

The stadium was around mile 9.5 of the race. I felt great until Mile 11. Eleven miles was the longest training run we had done, and as soon as we hit it I thought "This is longer than I've ever run." I was just tired at that point. The only walking I'd done was through the water stops. I really, really, really wanted to walk for awhile, but I had made it that far without walking and only had two miles to go, plus if I kept running I'd be done a lot sooner. So I kept at it. I remembered when we got to the Disney parks initially there was a sign pointing one way that said Mile 2 and the other way said Mile 12, so I knew once we got back there we were almost done. I was so relieved to see that Mile 12 marker! One mile to go. At that point there were starting to be a lot of spectators along the course cheering everyone on which was great. I was just so ready to be done! Once we saw the Mile 13 marker, we started sprinting for the finish. It was so crazy--I couldn't even feel my legs, it felt like I was flying! Ah if only running could always feel like that.

My official race time was 2:48:32 which took into account two bathrooms tops. I have a running GPS app on my phone that I use, and I paused that at our bathroom stops, so my time on my app was 2:45:03. I was pretty pleased with that time--I had estimated my time as 2:46:00 when I registered but didn't take bathroom breaks into account. It was just so fun, and I'm so ridiculously proud of myself. Honestly running a half marathon was something I never would have expected to do. I'm already excited for the next one I'm signed up to do in January!

Here are my official stats:

OFFICIAL TIME: 2:48:32
Distance HALF MAR (13.1 miles)
Clock Time 3:05:41
Chip Time 2:48:32
Overall Place 7554 / 12785
Gender Place 4328 / 8368
Division Place 770 / 1241
Age Grade 39.4%
5K (my time isn't posted for some reason)
10K 1:17:08
15K 1:58:08

Seriously?!?!?!

My race is the day after tomorrow, and I was diagnosed with strep throat this morning. FML. I guess thankfully I'm allergic to penicillin so I always get a Z-Pack when I have strep. It's just five days of pills instead of 10. The nurse said as ling as the first dose doesn't cause me problems I could double up and take 500mg for three days instead of 500 just today and then 250mg for four days. I may do that. I think I caught it earlier than I usually do, so that's good. Normally I'm feeling better with strep by day three of antibiotics, so I should be okay come Sunday. I just can't believe it...of all weekends!

By the way I'm in the car writing this while my mom chauffeurs my sick ass to Anaheim. Isn't technology amazing?!?!

Four days!!

My youngest son and I have stayed home today because he has a nasty cold, and I wanted us to have a day to just hang out and relax. I've gotten stuff done around the house all morning, so while he's napping I decided to do some Googling on my upcoming race. I've been pretty anxious about it, but just in the last day or two I've started to get excited. Like really excited. In my searching, I came across a video of the race from two years ago. In watching it, I cannot wait to cross that finish line!!

Running 13.1 miles is something I never, ever thought I would do. And I would have never, ever thought I'd be excited to do it. I've hated running my whole life, and now I love it. I'm so amazed at how far I've come since starting to run at the beginning of this year. I was reading back through old blog posts and laughed to myself when I said something about struggling to run five minutes in a row.

I'm so freakin' excited!

Here's the video in case you're interested:

Total Miles

I just walked past my training schedule on the side of my fridge and was curious how many miles I've ran while training for my half marathon. I don't have an exact number because I didn't always use a tracking app when I ran on the treadmill. I've since started using the Nike Plus app for treadmill runs. I used it for a three mile run outside to see how it compared, and I found it to be inaccurate in my distance. Three miles is a distance I do often enough that I know the exact points where I hit 1.5 miles and turn around and when I hit three miles once I'm back in my neighborhood. This was off by 0.10, which I think is pretty significant. Normally I use the Run Keeper app for my outdoor runs. I really like it, and it syncs to a website so you can see all sorts of great information about your run once you're done.

So my rough estimate of miles ran in preparing for my upcoming half marathon:

194.5

Yowza!!! That's a lot of mileage! Granted it's probably a little higher because there were some 30 minute runs here and there that I didn't do, but I'd say it's off by no more than 8 miles total. Wow!! That's amazing!! And really by the end of this week it will actually be right around 200 since I'll do 2.5 tomorrow, and I think we're doing three miles this weekend.

Wow!!!

Running update

Apparently I've used this as a blog entry title before. Oh well. The half marathon is 12 days away, so I thought an update was in order. I'm pretty freaked out about it, to be perfectly honest. After our 11 mile run we decided it was too hot here to do another long run before the race, but we really needed to do another long run. We had the genius idea of driving 90 minutes north where it's usually significantly cooler to do a 12 mile run. We knew the altitude might be an issue, but honestly I thought the cooler temperature would counteract the thinner air. As in, yes it would be slightly harder to breathe, but it's significantly cooler so it won't be that bad. Ha! Was that ever a dumb idea. We only did 4.8 miles before we called it quits. The altitude kicked our asses. Our average pace was around 13:00. Yikes. Even my hilly run in San Francisco was faster than that, so I know it had to be the altitude, not the hills we were running on. It was also a lot warmer than we anticipated.

It was a pretty huge confidence killer actually. I said to my husband the night before that I was ready to take the 12 mile run and make it my bitch. Then for it to just be a complete fail was really hard and killed any sense of morale I had for the race. Even in runs following that it's been hard, I keep thinking that since I had a hard time with that one that the race itself is going to be hard too. I know deep down that won't be the case at least. Anaheim is flat, and the temperature will be significantly cooler than it is here, and I'm sure just the temperature difference alone will really help. I know I can run 11 miles, and a half marathon is just two miles further--that's not even 25 minutes at my normal pace.

I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at the gym today and felt great. I ran at 11:30 for most of it and bumped my pace up to 11:19 for the last five minutes. I even enjoyed it, which is rare for me on the treadmill. That helped my confidence a lot--if I can feel like that for the actual race, I should be in good shape. I'm not looking to set any sort of time goal, I really just want to finish and not be disappointed in my time. As long as I finish under 12:30 I'll be pleased.

Fit Claire, here I come!

After our vacation last month I've had a really hard time getting back on the exercise bandwagon. I've stuck with my running training, but I haven't been overly excited for it. I think the last few miles of our 11 mile run really did me in. Before we left on our trip I was weighing in at 158 or 159 every day. We took our scale with us on our trip to monitor our weights while we were gone so we didn't come home and find out we'd each gained 10 pounds or something awful like that. I came home weighing 162 which wasn't bad, but then after slacking on exercising and not really paying attention to what I ate (or rather, portions of what I ate) I have yet to break back under 160. I don't like being in the 160s anymore--I want to be back in the 150s and hover closer to 155 than 160.

Last week I was feeling especially squishy, and I decided I needed to get my ass in gear and start working out hard again. So I did. I even worked out alone on Thursday and Friday. it wasn't nearly as fun as being at the gym with my group of friends that I work out with, but I went and did it and had a great work out each day. I was so loving the muscle definition I was starting to get before we went on our trip, and I worry that some of that's already gone because I've been slacking. I'll probably have to figure out a new routine in a couple weeks when my oldest starts kindergarten, but that's not a big deal and I still plan on working out six days a week. I'm hoping I can follow a schedule like this:

Monday: weights and interval cardio
Tuesday: weights and 30 minute run
Wednesday: yoga
Thursday: 30 minute run (maybe weights, maybe kickboxing some weeks)
Friday: weights and interval cardio
Saturday: long run (3+ miles)

Running update

It's been so long since I've done a running update!! Yikes, a month and a half. The last run I posted about was our seven miler. Two weeks later we did an eight mile. It went pretty well. I use the website MapMyRun.com to map out our runs. I really like it, once I got the hang of how to work it. I don't remember much about the eight mile run, so it must not have been too bad. Although I do distinctly remember thinking when typing up our training plan, "Eight miles?! I'm going to run eight miles?!" For whatever reason that one stuck out the most to me and was the most crazy. Well, every run after that would be crazy but the thought of running eight miles was mindboggling.

The next long run on our training schedule was 9.5 miles. It happened to fall during our family vacation in California, while we were in San Francisco. At first when I realized we'd be in SF for that run I wanted to switch up our training so I didn't have to do it in one of the hilliest cities ever and by myself. Then when I looked up where we were staying and saw it was near Golden Gate Park, I reconsidered. I assumed the Golden Gate Bridge was in GG Park and I could incorporate running across the bridge into my route--how awesome would that be?! But, it was too far to work it in. But I did map out my run through the park (and later had to be remapped because upon seeing the park I realized the route I had initially plotted wouldn't work). It was nice and cool, I started my run around 7:30 and there was hardly anyone else in the park at that time. I had my first Gu stop along the ocean...how often does an AZ girl get to do that?! For some reason, I figured the park would be pretty flat, but I was WRONG. It was HILLY. I swear 3/4 of the run was uphill. I tried to power through and run most of the hills, but a few times my legs just stopped running...it was too much for this girl who is used to running on flat. I saw some really cool stuff while running--a bison paddock, lots of beautiful little gardens, I ran around a lake. As I was finishing up my run the park was a lot more crowded. My average time per mile ended up being 12:30 which I didn't think was too bad considering how much of it was uphill. I was beyond proud of myself for 1) having done 9.5 miles by myself and 2) having done the run in such a hilly place. I pretty much felt like a rockstar.

Last weekend our training plan was 11 miles. It's hot here in AZ, even early in the mornings unless you're out at the ass crack of dawn (or earlier). So we went at the ass crack of dawn. I got up at 4:00 and Jen was here at 4:30. We went and stashed our waters and then were underway by 5:00. It was still dark. I felt great the first eight miles. I didn't walk any, my breathing was good. Then we ran by a field. Or at least that's what I'm blaming it on. It was starting to get hot, but it hadn't been too bad yet. Then we ran by this field near my house, and it was so insanely muggy running along next to it. We got to our water stop at Mile 8, and I wanted to be done. I was so overheated. Jen insisted we press on...it was one mile down a road, another mile to our last water stop, then one last mile and we were done. I agreed. Mile 9 was pretty tough...I was so hot and just not feeling it anymore, but I managed to run I'd say 90% of Miles 9 and 10. By the time we got to our last water stop I was really done. I had felt like I might pass out at one point and the thought of running one more mile made me want to cry. Jen agreed she was pretty hot too (we were concerned about ending up with heatstroke), so we agreed to walk the first half of the last mile. We walked to a stop sign near my neighborhood and then ran the rest of the way, ending at exactly 11 miles at the start of my driveway.

Because it's so hot here now, we've decided to drive to a town about 90 minutes north in a few weeks and do a 12 mile run as one last long run before our race Labor Day weekend. It's funny, we ran five yesterday and I didn't think it was any big deal, but I remember really struggling with our first four mile run and then even the five mile one I did was tough for me. I really think that after running the 9.5 in San Francisco, I feel like I can do anything.

Before and After

I know it's been awhile since I've updated, and I need to do a good long entry about what's been going on, but first I need to share these pictures. I had been lamenting the fact that I didn't really take any "before" pictures when I started on my weight loss journey. I'm going on a scrapbooking weekend in a few weeks with some friends and was going through pictures today to figure out what to print. I came across a folder of pictures of my kids playing outside and there were some from two summers ago when we were all playing on a slip & slide. I honestly almost threw up in my mouth a little. I shudder to think what I'd look like in this if I was actually standing up. Rolls of back fat? Ugh. I sent this to my husband and he replied "Were you pregnant?" Double ugh.

This was taken on August 10th, 2009. I really have no idea what I weighed then, but my cousin's wedding was days before that, and I think that was right around when I tried to really get serious about losing weight. I'm guessing I was around 187 or 185. Here was a picture of me (fully dressed) at my cousin's wedding...I didn't think I looked that bad but I sure do in the above picture!

I guess it's kind of hard to see what I look like exactly.

We just got back from vacation, and here's a picture of me (and my family) taken a few days ago:

Wow!! I'm pretty astonished.

Pregnancy weight

Yesterday and today I weighed in at 159.6! It's pretty awesome to have broken under 160. I'm fairly certain the last time I weighed in the 150s was college.

It occurred to me this morning that had I weighed this when I got pregnant with my oldest, at my heaviest pregnancy weight when he was born, I still would have weighed less than when I started losing weight last fall. Crazy, huh?! Only by a pound, but still.

Seven miles down!

The marathon training is moving along great. Jen and I skipped the three mile run last weekend and opted to walk instead. So instead of doing just a 30 minute run last Tuesday night, I ran three miles because I felt guilty for skipping (even though Jen and I were both still full from dinner the night before). I also ran at my fastest pace ever...11:18 was my average! Thursday I ran at the gym and mixed in some sprints. Sunday morning--at the ass crack of dawn--Jen and I headed out for our seven miles. We did the same route we ran for six miles but added in a one mile loop around a nearby lake. Miles 2.5 to 4 were the hardest for me. We had our water and Gu stop at mile 4, so that kept me going from mile 3 until we got there. What a difference the water and Gu made, I felt like a new woman. We had another water stop at mile 5 and we ended up carrying those bottles with us for the rest of the time. Even though it was early it was still getting hot. As usual the last 0.10 miles was the worst. I swear I check my total distance every 30 seconds at that point because I'm so ready to be done. In reviewing my times per mile my fastest was mile 4 at a pace of 11:10! Pretty good, I think. I also walked less this run than any other run I've done. All in all I felt pretty awesome after we were done. I was really excited the night before the run and then got nervous the morning of the run, but once we were going I felt fine. I'm pretty amazed that I can run seven miles. Go, me!

Lose 25 pounds - CHECK!

As of this morning I have lost 25 pounds since September.

I'm beyond pleased. Initially I did the South Beach Diet on the recommendation of my doctor. Lately I've just been exercising a lot and keeping track of my calories. I use an app on my phone called Lose It. You can do the same thing on LoseIt.com.

Now I can't decide how much more to lose. Honestly I was going to be happy three pounds ago, but I figured I'd go for five more. Now that I'm two away from that goal I think of tacking on another five. That would put me at 155. I think I weighed around 150 in college, so 155 would be pretty awesome. Honestly for awhile I never thought I'd even get down to 175 or even break under 180, so to even be considering 155--and for it to be attainable--is pretty huge.

Longest run EVER

Well, not ever since in two weeks I'll do a longer run then another longer run two weeks after that and so on and so on, but today on our Disneyland Half Marathon training calendar was a six mile run. I did a five mile run two weeks ago and it wasn't too bad. I did it alone since Jen was busy doing the Warrior Dash with Michelle and Dani that day. The last 0.3 miles was insanely hard, but I pushed through. Did I blog about that run? I don't think I ever did.

Anyway, I was actually looking forward to today's run which I never thought I'd say. Jen got here at 6:30. I had mapped out our route using a pretty cool website, MapMyRun.com. We hopped in Jen's car to stash some water along the route so we didn't have to take it with us, then once we were back at my house we were off. The first 2.5 miles were along a route I'd done before and wasn't too bad. I had some breathing issues around 1.5 miles but after walking about 15 seconds I was fine and kept going. I walked one more short time before getting to our first water stop that was right around mile 3. Man did that water taste awesome. And it felt great to pour some all over me, although it was kind of gross how quickly it dried while running at 7:30 AM. Summer is arriving in AZ, that's for sure. I had taken along a packet of Gu but didn't think to have it at our water stop, so I had it around mile 3.5 or so. Ugh. It was my first time ever using it and the texture of it was NASTY. I was kicking myself for not having taken it at our water stop so I could have at least gotten the slimy texture out of my mouth. The last 2 miles (our second water stop was at mile 4) weren't too bad, surprisingly. I kept thinking how awesome it would be to jump in my pool when I got home and debated if I should do it with running clothes on or strip to my sports bra and panties. Seriously, that was what kept me going. You know what's amazing? How long the very last 0.10 mile of your run can take. I kept checking the GPS running app on my phone once we hit 5.90 miles to see if we were almost there.

Our total time was 1:10:53 with an average pace of 11:49. I think it was actually a bit faster than that because I forgot to hit pause right away when we stopped for our second water break. I was pleased with it...I figured anything under 12:00 was pretty decent for my first time running that far.

So the training continues. I'm pretty pleased with myself that I ran six miles today. SIX MILES!!! That's freakin' awesome!! [insert pat on back here] Our next long run will be more than half the distance of the half marathon!

Run a 5K - CHECK!

Well, I've done it. Thanks to the awesome Couch to 5K program, I have gone from not being a runner--nay, abhorring running--to having finished a 5K. This past Saturday morning I got up bright and early (the day itself was bright...me, not so much) with my friend Jess who was here visiting from Seattle. We went and picked up Jen and then headed to Kiwanis Park in Tempe for the Girls on the Run 5K. My friend Benah met us there. She's such a rockstar...she got up early on her birthday to run this!!

I wasn't really familiar with Girls on the Run prior to the race. A friend of mine is a teacher at a local school and helps run a chapter there, and we saw her at the race with her team. She filled us in on the program, and I gotta say I'm pretty impressed. Actually I'm so impressed that Jen and I are talking about seeing if we can start a chapter of it at the school our boys are going to for kindergarten next year because I don't think they have one there. I really struggled with body image when I was growing up, and I think this would be a great way to educate girls so they don't have to go through that.

Anyway, the race looped around the park twice. It kind of sucked to be quite honest. The area where I live (and run) is flat. Really flat. The course was not flat. It wasn't hilly, but there were small hills here and there, and I'm just not used to that. Plus it got hot really fast. It was supposed to be around 100 for the high on Saturday, but I figured an 8:00 race would be okay. Yeah...it wasn't really. Especially for poor Jess who lives in Seattle and hasn't really seen the sun since last September. But it was cool to see all the parents and coaches of all these young girls along the race route cheering them on. It was a pretty good first race experience.

I have a couple pictures on my phone, but I currently am not sure where I last put it down in my house. So Benah posted this one on her Facebook page, so I just copied it from there. I also have one of Jess and me.


Awesome running mommies!! Me, Benah, and Jen before the race.

I told Jen on New Years Eve that 2011 would be the year I become a runner!

20 Biggest Health Excuses That Hold You Back

This article was posted on my Facebook news feed (I don't remember by whom...Active.com, maybe? Anyway, I thought it was pretty interesting and worth sharing.

20 Biggest Health Excuses That Hold You Back

It's so easy to come up with excuses why we don't want to eat healthy, go to the gym, etc. but in the end we're just hurting ourselves by doing (or not doing, as the case may be) those things. No one else cares if you make it to the gym or sneak a bag of Cheetos. I'm fairly certain that if you have an excuse for not doing something health/fitness related, it's covered in this article and therefore worth reading.

I love reason #2 about craving something sweet. There's nothing wrong with eating something sweet and no reason to deny yourself that if it's what your body wants, but be smart about your choices. There are healthy sweets out there...it doesn't have to be a box of Twinkies or a pint of ice cream. Same with #12...I'm a firm believer in everything in moderation. It does no good to completely deny myself something because then when I let myself have it chances are I'm going balls to the wall with it. If I let myself have a little bit of something on occasion, I satisfy the craving but won't go completely overboard with it. In fact, my whole "moderation" mentality came about my freshman year of college. There was cake in the dining hall EVERY NIGHT. I love cake. But eventually I didn't love what it was doing to me, so if I wanted cake, I'd take a piece and have a bite and leave it at that. Or more often a friend and I would share a piece and each take a bite or two so as to not be completely wasteful about it. I managed to avoid the dreaded "freshman 15" with my simple moderation strategy.

As for exercising, I find it's so much easier if I do it with a friend. I'm less likely to quit or phone it in, and they'll help push me when I want to quit. honestly I rarely work out alone. I much prefer to run with Jen than I do by myself, and when I go to the gym I have 3-4 friends (depending on the day) that I work out with. Two of them come up with awesome workouts for us to do that are tough and challenging and really really sucky, but they work. And they don't let me quit. Okay, sometimes Michelle lets me slide on some of the ab work using the Swiss ball that I'm flat out just not coordinated enough to pull off on my own, but that doesn't mean I just sit there while the rest of them exercise--I do something similar that won't potentially have me rolling off the ball and breaking a limb.

If you read the article feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on it. Do you have a particular excuse that keeps you from doing something you know you should be doing? What can you do to work past the excuse and really get down to it?

Allergic to running?!

No, I don't think I'm allergic to running, but I do think I'm allergic to something on my route when I run in my neighborhood. I like to run around the perimeter of my neighborhood then down the middle because it's 2.5 miles, so it's great for my 30 minute runs during the week. Jen and I ran on Saturday morning, and I was sneezing up a storm when we got back to my house. I chalked it up to a cat encounter we had while we were out. She was in pain when we finished so we were just hanging out letting her rest for a bit when a cat wandered up to us that Jen could have sworn was her old cat, Flanders. I'm allergic to cats and figured my sneezing fits were from the cat hanging around us while we chatted with his owner (turns out it wasn't her cat). I thought it was odd because cats don't really bother me like they used to and I didn't have much contact with the Flanders wannabe.

Jen decided to take this week off from running, so I headed out for my 30 minute run while my husband put the kids to bed last night. I was really looking forward to running...so it was extra disappointing that my run totally failed. About halfway through it my stomach HURT. not like a stitch in my side, like my whole stomach and abdomen HURT. I had to walk for probably six minutes and even then I forced myself to finish running. As I was finishing out the last few minutes of my run, my left eye felt really hot and itchy. When I got home I saw that it was red...not bloodshot or anything like that, RED. Yikes. I was sneezing again and wheezy and pretty miserable all around. My genius husband (not saying that sarcastically) deduced that I must be allergic to something I'm encountering on my run. I felt better after a lot of water, some Sudafed and Benadryl and laying on the couch watching Glee.

So I guess I need to find a new route or try taking an antihistamine before I go. Or both.

Training update

I realized I hadn't updated my blog (or my other one) for awhile, so I figured a check-in was probably a good idea.

Training for the half marathon is well underway. Some days I love running, other days I struggle. it's not to say I hate it, but I struggle. Like today. I was out for my 30 minute run, but I just couldn't get a handle on my breathing. I felt like it was all over the place and that I wasn't getting enough air no matter what I did. But I finished it, and that's what matters I figure. Some days are going to be not as good. Tuesday's run was fantastic--I loved it! Jen and I did four miles on Sunday night. That was the furthest I've ever run. In 9th grade PE we were supposed to run four miles, but I distinctly remember asking what would get me a B grade and was told three miles, so that's what I did. PE was the only class I was ever okay with settling on a lower grade. Especially because my PE teacher that year was the wrestling coach. Ever had a wrestling coach for a PE teacher? Count your blessings if you haven't, and if you had, I feel your pain. Anyway, we did four miles. I honestly felt like I was going to throw up for quite a bit of it (the result of too much food and wine the day before, I assume), but I only walked a few times and never for longer than probably 20 seconds. Now this week I think we go back to either 2.5 or 3 miles for our long run, then next weekend it's back up to five.

I haven't been hitting the gym as much as usual because there have been other things going on, but I went Monday and will go tomorrow, then hopefully next week I can get back into a normal routine of going and doing weights. Have I mentioned that I love how I can see muscles?! I was pulling up my hair recently and the husband even noticed and commented on the definition in my arms and shoulders. Hooray!!

Tuesday I had my annual physical. I was pretty excited for my doctor to see how much weight I'd lost, and she was VERY pleased. I had fasted to have blood work done to check my cholesterol. Last time--back in August I think it was--it came back bad. I don't remember what the numbers were, but she basically said I either needed to try the South Beach Diet or go on cholesterol medicine. It worked because my bad cholesterol was 99 and my good was 59--both great numbers! Well, bad cholesterol is supposed to be under 100, so it was barely a great number. My sugar, on the other hand, was "normal but high." I have to admit I'm pretty freaked out about that part. Your "three month sugar" number is bad if it's greater than six. Mine was 6.1. A score of 6.5 means you're diabetic. I was pretty shocked by that because I feel like I'm a very healthy eater, I run three days a week, I do weights anywhere from 3-5 days a week. Aren't those all the things you're supposed to do in order to avoid being diagnosed with adult onset diabetes?? Googling has lead me nowhere this afternoon. I called and left a message for my doctor asking what I can do to get that lower, so we'll see what she says. Turns out my mom and grandma's numbers are both borderline high, too, so I'm kind of hoping it's partly genetic. Who knows. She did say--my doctor, not my mom--that I should be able to keep it in check by always keeping my BMI at 25 or lower. When my weight is at 170, my BMI is exactly 25. Thankfully I prefer my weight to be around 165. I'm wondering if it would be in my best interest to try and drop another 10 pounds, though. Another question for when I talk to her. I have to go back in six months to have blood work done again instead of waiting a year again for my next physical.

belly issues

Even though I think of myself as fairly skinny now, I still have a little poochy belly. I've always had a little poochy belly, even when I was in college and high school and weighed 20-30 pounds less than I do now. Doing sit ups and crunches has never helped my cause...I always figured I have round ab muscles. Active.com posted this article on Facebook yesterday that I thought was pretty interesting.

Why Crunches Don't Work

Perhaps there will be more planks and less crunches in my future!

And so it begins

Yesterday marked the official start of training for the Disneyland Half Marathon. The Run Disney website has links on it for training programs, but the one for this particular race hadn't been posted/updated, so we made our own. I used one of the other training programs and changed up the dates on it to fit for our race. We ended up pushing it back a week, too, because it had us doing full runs leading up to the race, and it's best to rest the week before.

So Tuesday and Thursday we run 30 minutes. Then on the weekend we do a longer run. The length of the long run varies by week. Basically it's a short distance, then a long distance, short, long, etc. Last night we did a 30 minute run, and it was pretty easy. We ran around Jen's neighborhood and did about 2.5 miles. Our first mile time was around 11:00 minutes, which is pretty good for me as I usually run around a 12:00 minute mile. Honestly the first mile was pretty sucky because I kept telling myself how much I hate running. The second mile was easier, thankfully. I tried to focus on just being out of the house, having a break from my kiddos, running with my friend, and being able to be out running on a beautiful night. It wasn't bad. I bought new running shoes on Sunday, which really helped. I think I would have been miserable in my old shoes. I also tried out my new running hat, which I really liked and worked great.

If you're curious, I uploaded our training schedule to Google Docs:

Claire and Jen's Disneyland Half Marathon Training Schedule

The actual Word doc looks a lot nicer because it has Mickey Mouse clip art on it, but that didn't seem to transfer well to Google Docs. So just imagine a Mickey head silhouette in each of the top corners. ;)

And there was much rejoicing

I did it...I met my goal weight!!!!!!!!!

165, baby!!

Maybe I just need to complain more often

166.2 when I stepped on the scale this morning!!!



Not sure if it's coincidence or the fact that I ate normal meals yesterday. I'm assuming the latter. My stomach felt a little off for most of the day, so I kind of forced myself to eat, but after a nap I felt a lot better. I'm ridiculously excited I'm 1.2 pounds away from where I want to be. I still have five days of Phase One left, and it would be really awesome if I could get closer to 160. I have no idea when the last time was I weighed that. Sometime between graduating college and my wedding. It was definitely before my wedding because I was 167 for that and thought that was pretty good. honestly I didn't have a scale for a lot of years, so I really have no idea what I weighed at any point from roughly '99 to '03.

And still nothing

This is getting ridiculous. So I ranted Sunday about weighing in at 169. Yesterday I was 168, now today I'm 169. I do not get it. I didn't cheat at all yesterday. I'm so annoyed. Although, I didn't eat consistently either. I was in a major funk all day and just kind of grazed instead of ever sitting down and having a real meal. So my plan for today is to eat three real meals and have two snacks. I had eggs for breakfast and may have a couple turkey sausages. Lunch I think I'm going to have tuna salad, and dinner is slated to be smothered turkey burgers. My morning snack will be a thing of string cheese, my afternoon snack I'll have some almonds. And I'll drink plenty of water today. I'm supposed to meet my friend Dani at the gym to work out this morning, but my youngest seems a bit off and had diarrhea yesterday, so I don't know if we should go. I hate to miss because I haven't been since Thursday (and that was a super lame workout), but I don't want to leave him in the child center if he's sick. I'm supposed to meet her in an hour, so I'll see how he's doing in 30 minutes I guess.

Frustrated

So I'm one week in to Phase One of the South Beach Diet, and I'm down seven pounds. But I'm up 0.2 pounds from yesterday. Plus my starting weight was slightly inflated since it was post vacation and post carb binge. My weight had been hovering between 170 and 172 pre-vacation, and this morning I weighed in at 169, compared to 168.8 yesterday. So really I feel like I've hardly lost anything at all, and I'm really annoyed. I'm just so tired of being stuck around 170. I really want to get down to 165 so if I do have a bad couple days with a swing of 1-3 pounds I'm still in the 160s. is that too much to ask?! Honestly I expected to be at 165 by this point in Phase One and kind of secretly hoped I'd be down in the low 160s by the time the two weeks were done. Why am I depriving myself so much if it's not even doing that much? Granted I did cheat a little last night and had a glass of wine, but my husband has been having wine all week and still dropping weight. He even went out drinking with a buddy last night and was down almost a pound this morning. WTF?! What is wrong with my body that I can't just get to the weight I want to be? I'm really annoyed, and it's shaping up to make today a very grumpy day. Why the fuck should I keep denying myself carbs for another week when it's barely being effective?

Here's to hoping that my ranting and pessimism somehow leads to me dropping 4+ pounds in the course of the next week. I hate being a fat ass.

uh oh

We got an ice cream cake for my oldest son's birthday party last month from an awesome local ice cream shop, and along with the cake they gave us a quart of ice cream. They call it Cookie Monster...it's cotton candy flavored (blue colored) ice cream with crushed Oreos and chocolate chip cookie dough mixed in. I had forgotten we had the quart left...until I went out to the garage freezer to look for some chicken tenders I thought were out there and spotted the container. Sigh. talk about willpower...you have no idea how badly I want to go dig a spoon into that bad boy.

But, that won't get me skinny.

Double sigh.

marathon anxiety

So I'll be honest. I'm starting to freak out about my upcoming half marathon. It's still more than five months away, but when I was typing out a training schedule, the idea that I'm going to run 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 miles really freaked me out. I mean, that's insane, right?! To run that far?! Why run that far when you could just drive? I think it's about 13 miles from my house to the airport. I'd never run to the airport!! But, I've signed up and paid the money to run 13 miles through Disneyland and Anaheim, so I have to do it. Granted I haven't even really started training for it officially, but I'm still freaked out. The most I've run so far is 30 minutes straight, which honestly I'm pretty pleased with considering January 1st I couldn't run at all.

We actually just got back from a trip to southern California, and we spent a day at Disneyland. It was crazy to think that the next time I'm there I'll be running through it. But it did kind of get me excited for it. I mean, really, how cool is it to get to run through Disneyland?!?! Okay, not as cool as spending the day there riding the rides, but it's still something not many have done.

back in the no carb saddle again

I've decided that in an effort to get down to my goal weight of 165, I'm going back to Phase One of the South Beach Diet for two weeks. the husband is doing it with me so he can try to finally break under 200 pounds. We started yesterday, and somehow it was a lot easier than I remember it being any other time. I did forget once and had a handful of popcorn my oldest was eating while we watched a movie (mmmm...salty, buttery popcorn...), but I thought that was pretty good for only slipping up once on my first day. And it's something that's allowed in Phase Two, so I didn't feel too badly about it. I planned out three meals for each day and snacks, so I'm hoping that helps. Today I need to do some food preparing so we're ready for the rest of the week...some egg muffin things for breakfasts, and I'm going to make up a batch of black bean soup that will be good for lunches. Lunch is what I struggle with the most, especially for what I can send along with my husband, so I really need to be good about planning those out.

Is it too much to ask?!

Just one week I'd like to be able to stick to my running plan. Is that too much to ask?! I don't know why it never seems to work out that way. I thought I was on track this week. I ran Sunday and Tuesday at the gym and planned to get up this morning and go before everyone was awake. Then yesterday I felt like I was getting a cold. This morning I woke up about an hour before my alarm was set to go off and decided the extra hour of sleep was more important because my throat hurt and I was pretty congested. I'm going to hit the gym to run this afternoon with Jen and Michelle, so at least it won't be a total loss. I just miss my morning runs when it's quiet and the sun is just starting to peek up.

What have I done?!

I've signed up to run a half marathon, that's what. Yikes. I'm still kind of in disbelief that I did it. Jen, Michelle, and I have been talking about doing the Disneyland Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend. Michelle and I were keyed up to start running after going and cheering for Jen at the Rock and Roll Marathon last month. Jen checked the other day and found out the marathon was already 65% full. Her sweet husband went ahead and signed her up for it. I was hemming and hawing about whether or not I wanted to do it. I mean, I'm only on week 7 (out of 9) of Couch to 5K and the most I've run continuously is 1.5 miles. I really wanted to have at least run a 5K if not a 10K before I had to register for the half marathon.

When I was running yesterday morning I kept going back and forth on whether or not I should just sign up for it or not. I still hadn't decided. My husband said I should, that he had just signed up for the Alcatraz swim without being able to actually swim the whole distance, but I still wasn't sure. Jen posted on Facebook that she'd registered (or rather her husband had registered her), and John replied that he was thinking of just signing me up for it to make me train and get ready. I didn't really want it to come to that, so I went ahead and registered for it yesterday. Yikes!

I'm excited and nervous. The race is a little more than six months away, so I have time to train for it--the bummer is just that I have to train over the summer which means running in HOT weather. A friend told me about a summer race series that I'll probably do to keep practicing, so that will help. I'll just have to get up at the ass crack of dawn and go running before it gets hot. That will just mean I can nap in the afternoon, right? It will definitely be cool to be able to say I've run a half marathon, so here's hoping I can actually do it!

My dog isn't invited anymore

I've been taking our dog, Sam, on my morning runs with me. Since it's still dark out, it was nice for a sense of added protection, plus he loves going on walks. Today was the final straw, however. I'd get annoyed with him in the past because he'd want to stop and sniff stuff. I can't fault him for that--he's a dog and dogs like to sniff things. I'd just yank the leash and he'd catch up with me. Monday I was pretty impressed with him because he'd get as far ahead of me as he could, sniff, and then fall back in line with me once I got to where he was. Not so much today.

He tried to take off after a cat at one point. Then a bunny. Then there was a guy running with his dog, and Sam freaked out and wanted to meet that other dog. He's usually really calm when he sees other dogs, so I was surprised with how he was acting today. When we saw the other guy I had to stop running, let them get far enough in front of us that the dog wasn't a distraction and then keep going. Ugh. I didn't want to get up and go running this morning anyway, so having to stop during one of my running segments did not help.

Poor Sammy doesn't know it, but he's not coming with me anymore. I had figured I wouldn't take him much longer anyway because the length of the runs is increasing (Friday I do 20 minutes of straight running...God help me!), and I didn't want him to have to run the whole time. But he pretty much decided for me today that taking him with me just isn't going to work anymore.

Body Fat Percentage

I found out from my friend Michelle that I can get my body fat percentage tested at our gym. I'd been curious to find out what it was...supposedly our scale here at home will tell me, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous what the number was going to be, but I told myself as long as it was under 40% I'd be happy. I really had no idea what to expect and wasn't sure if that was a high enough number to pick. The guy who tested it was kind of an ass hat--you know the type, douchey jock sales guy--but I was pretty pleased with the results. It came out as 27%! I didn't think that was bad at all. It fell in the "fair" category when he busted out a chart that showed what numbers meant what for age ranges. I thought that was decent. I'm not sure how often going forward I should check it, maybe once a month?

I like running?

I got up at the ass crack of dawn this morning to run. Actually I don't think it was even dawn yet as it was still dark. And cold. And quiet. As much as I don't like getting up super early with my kids, I don't mind it if it's for something I'm doing for myself, like time alone without them awake or doing something like going for a run. Plus my neighborhood is so quiet. Not that it's usually loud, but it's different when most of the houses are dark and there aren't any other people out or cars driving around.

Anyway, I decided to redo Week 5 Day 1 of my Couch to 5K program since I hadn't been running since last Tuesday. I knew that Day 2 was going to be eight straight minutes of running, and since it had been awhile I didn't want to jump straight into that. Halfway through my run I was wishing I would have because I was having a really easy time of it! My breathing was fine, not labored or panting, I wasn't getting tired towards the end of the running segments, I was kind of itching to run again by the time the walk segments were done. So apparently I like running now! I was pretty excited when I realized it because that should make going forward a lot easier. I was pretty proud of myself, too. I'm even looking forward to getting up Wednesday and Friday mornings to go run. Weird!! Friday's run is a five minute warm-up, 20 minutes straight of running, then a five minute walking cool-down. Yikes. I talked to my friend Michelle at the gym today, and she said that she and Jen ran four miles yesterday, they'd run a mile then walk a quarter mile. So if Michelle can do that, I should be able to run 20 minutes straight right? I'm just worried I'm going to get bored running in my neighborhood. Since it's still dark when I go I like to stay inside the confines of my neighborhood so I'm a bit safer, but 20 minutes straight running through the streets here might get boring. Maybe I'll try a new route to liven things up a bit.

workout fail

It's Sunday afternoon. I haven't been to the gym since Wednesday and haven't gone running since Tuesday. I feel fat and out of shape already. There were extenuating circumstances involved...a big freeze came through and I didn't want to go running when it was 20 degrees with a wind chill taken into account. If I had cold weather running gear I wouldn't mind, but I don't. Then Friday my oldest had a stomach bug, so I couldn't very well go to the gym. Our weekend has been busy, so I haven't gotten any exercise. I had been doing so well with sticking to my c25k running program, but I think I may have to start this past week's runs over again since it will have been almost an entire week when I finally go run tomorrow. Although even that's up in the air because now my husband has the stomach bug. Since I go at the ass crack of dawn maybe it won't be an issue since everyone is still usually sleeping when I leave.

Here's to a new week and getting back on track!

It's getting better all the time

Conveniently I had that Beatles song stuck in my head, and it worked for a blog post title!

This morning at the gym I completed Week 3, Day 2 of the Couch to 5K running program. Week 3 consists of a five minute warm-up walk, 90 seconds running, 90 seconds walking, 3 minutes running, 3 minutes walking (two cycles of all of that), then a five minute cool-down walk. On Wednesday when I did Day 1 of this routine, I thought for sure I was going to die on the last running segment. Okay, maybe not quite that severe, but it was tough and I was really panting. My heart rate got above 170 which hadn't happened I don't think since Week 1. I don't like it getting that high because it crosses over my anaerobic threshold, which means my body is burning sugar instead of fat. Not cool. I was kind of nervous about today's running segments in case the same thing would happen. But it was actually pretty easy!! When I was on the last three minute running segment, I didn't even realize it was a three minute one, nor did I realize it was the last running segment. I thought that was pretty awesome! I'm going to do Day 3 on Sunday with Jen. She hurt her knee running her half marathon last weekend, so she figures taking it easy and doing a combo of running and walking will be good for her. I haven't looked ahead yet to see what Week 4 consists of, but as it's a nine week program, I have to assume the walking portions are going to be getting shorter and fewer and far between. That's fine, though. I'm finding it pretty easy to adjust, and I'm so glad I've stuck with it!

Exercising while sick

I never know if it's a good idea to work out when I'm not feeling 100%. Is it best for my body to keep going? Is it better to rest up and recover? Someone on a parenting message board I belong to posted a link to an article that answers just that. I figured I'd share it here for others and as an easy place to store it since I'm sure I will at some point forget what it said.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/cold-or-flu-how-to-know-if-you-re-too-sick-to-work-out-2439448/

Article text:

Are you sniffling, sneezing, and coughing? If you’re like most people, you probably don’t relish the thought of lacing up your sneakers and hitting the road (or the gym) when you have a cold or flu. But those who persevere when they're sick and don’t break their exercise routine may be on to something. Some experts argue that moderate exercise can actually have a beneficial effect on cold symptoms, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

Exercisers in general tend to catch fewer colds than their sedentary counterparts, research suggests. If done regularly, moderate exercise can halve the number of days you spend with cold symptoms, according to a series of studies conducted in the 1990s. While working out may help fend off viruses, even the most dedicated gymgoer will come down with a cold at some point.

Not everyone who feels under the weather should exercise, however.

What’s the neck rule?
Experts like to cite a rule of thumb known as the “neck rule.” If your symptoms are all located above your neck (stuffy nose, scratchy throat, headache), you almost certainly have a head cold and can hit the road or treadmill safely. If, on the other hand, you have a fever, congestion in your chest and lungs, or feel achy, it is probably a sign of flu, bronchitis, or another more serious ailment, and you should rest up. (Exercising with a fever will make you more vulnerable to dehydration, among other ill effects.)

But the neck rule isn’t foolproof, and a little common sense is always a good idea. “The above-the-neck rule is a good one, but I’d say severe above-the-neck symptoms warrant cessation from regular exercise until the symptoms abate,” says Jeffrey Woods, PhD, professor of kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “ Even Olympic athletes need a day or two off every once in a while.”

Even if you pass the neck test and are determined to get a workout in, you should take it easy at first. “To be prudent, I’d recommend cutting exercise duration and intensity when symptoms are present,” says Woods.

Daryl Rosenbaum, MD, director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, recommends that people with colds begin working out at 50% intensity. If symptoms improve after the first 5 to 10 minutes (as they often do), you can gradually increase the length and effort of your workout up to about 80% to 90% of your usual routine.

“Moderation is the key,” says Dr. Rosenbaum. “Studies have shown that people suffering from the common cold who get up and get moving actually feel better. If you go too far, however—either with extreme short-term activity or long-term overtraining—the immune system weakens. A viral cold that is allowed to linger for longer than normal could create sinus conditions that are ripe for a bacterial sinusitis to take over.”

There are some other precautions to keep in mind. Staying hydrated during exercise is always important; it is especially so if you’re planning to exercise with a cold. The nasal drainage associated with colds can hasten dehydration, and some over-the-counter cold remedies containing antihistamines (many cough syrups, for instance) can dry you out further, Dr. Rosenbaum points out.

Don’t spread—or catch—more germs at the gym
If you work out in a public gym, be extra vigilant when exercising with a cold. Germs can be transmitted through the air and through any person-to-person contact, so if you use a treadmill, gym mat, or barbells, be sure to be extra careful when it comes to wiping down the equipment. And avoid touching your face after handling equipment; you can pick up germs that will be more likely to infiltrate your body that way.

Your vulnerability to upper respiratory tract infections spikes for several hours starting just after a strenuous workout, studies suggest. So if you’ve just stepped off the treadmill after a 10-mile run, give that sweating, coughing, and sniffling stranger in the locker room a wide berth.

“Regardless of whether you’re exercising moderately or intensely, you want to take precautions against infection,” says Woods. “Clean your exercise equipment before and after, use a clean cup to get water from the fountain, and try to pick a machine away from other people.”

Another thing I like to keep in mind is, "If someone else was this sick, would I want them out in public?" That's usually my deciding factor for anything, whether it be going somewhere for me or sending my kids.

Hello, wagon, I need to hop back on

Oh man...what a few days of food I've had. It all started Thursday morning. We had a birthday breakfast party for January birthdays in my MOMS Club group, and I swear it was a total carb fest. The only non-carb was lil' smokies and even though those aren't a really healthy source of protein, and they were wrapped in crescent rolls. Note to self: going forward take an egg and meat dish. I don't even remember what all I ate, but it was all carbs. And not good carbs either...starchy, white bread and potato type carbs. So then of course all I wanted the rest of the day was carbs. I caved some since I figured I'd already blown it, but in hindsight I should have had more willpower...recognized I had too many and stopped there instead of continuing to indulge. Saturday I went to my friend Gina's baby shower, and although I didn't eat a whole lot, I did have a mimosa and a few glasses of wine. At least it was red wine, which has fewer carbs than white. Saturday night was our Thanksgiving 2.2 feast at my house. You can't have a Thanksgiving dinner without carbs (and wine). I already knew Saturday was a lost cause. I did okay yesterday aside from having the leftover stuffing for lunch. Then today I was (easily) talked into going for burritos for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. Sigh. I did only eat half my burrito at least.

My goal for the rest of the week is healthy carbs and lean proteins. I took the time this morning to cook myself some eggs before going to the gym, so two scrambled eggs and some Greek yogurt with just a hint of fruit in it were a great protein rich breakfast. I need to see what vegetables we have on hand to go with dinner tonight so I can load up on veggies along with the chicken I'm planning on making.

Stupid processed, bad carbs.

Disneyland, here I come!

I've decided to run a half marathon with my BFF Jen and our friend Michelle. And maybe some other friends as well, but so far it's the three of us talking about it. Jen had mentioned the Disneyland half marathon this coming September. I've decided to set it as a goal for myself.

I'm loving the Couch to 5K program and find that running each day is easier than the day before. I don't know why I didn't just stick with this program last year when I wanted to start running. I'm not signing up for the race yet, I want to make sure I can do a 5K or comparable without dying first. We've found a race in April that we're probably going to sign up for, Pat's Run that benefits the Pat Tillman Foundation. It's actually a 4.2 mile run, not a 5K, but if I can run a 5K I should be able to run another mile, right? Let's hope so. So if that goes well, I think I'll sign up for the Disneyland one. How cool will it be to run through Disneyland?! I'll just have to fight the urge to get on any rides.

I wonder if I should invest in something like this for the race:

Back in action

My friend Michelle recently started a fitness blog. I told her I had this one but didn't update it, and she told me I should. So I am. I cave easily to peer pressure, what can I say. Let's not talk about how that affected me during college. Ahem. Anyway...

I think the last time I was really posting was when I did the South Beach Diet. I loved it! I ended up losing 20 pounds which is pretty freakin' awesome. Ideally I'd like to lose about seven more to get me down around 160, but I'm pretty content where I am. I'm hoping that by sticking with the South Beach way of eating (lean proteins, good carbs, minimal alcohol and junk) and working out that I can get there.

The downside of dropping 20 pounds? None of my clothes fit me. :| Even that isn't really a downside...just means I need to go shopping. At one point I had no pairs of pants that fit me. They were comically large. Now I have one nice pair of jeans and a couple pairs of "these will do for now" jeans. I hadn't cleaned out my closet in years and have been holding on to a lot of shirts for "when I was skinny again" but now that they fit, I don't like them or they look funny. I guess that's what happens when things have sat in your closet for 5+ years...

I've decided that 2011 is the year I become a runner. I tried to start running last year, and I hated it. I started out doing the Couch to 5K program but decided I could just run instead of working up to it. Didn't work out so well for me. So this year I've started the program again. There's even an app for it that I downloaded to my phone. It chimes when it's time to switch from walking to running, and it imported my music that's already on my phone. Sweet! I'm on Week 2 of it, and so far I'm really enjoying it. I struggled some last week--90 seconds of walking then 60 seconds of running--with my heart rate getting up to high, hitting the anaerobic threshold. I had to pause a couple times and walk to get my heart rate down before I could keep running. Today was my first day of Week 2--two minutes walking then 90 seconds running--and I didn't have to stop at all. My heart rate (according to the treadmill...must invest in my own heart rate monitor!) would get up near 170 (my anaerobic threshold) when I was done with the running segments, but it would be low again when I was done with the walking portions. And the running was much easier today! My BFF Jen and I are looking for a 5K race we can do together in March or April. The Couch to 5K program is nine weeks long, so I figured that timeframe would be good. I'm excited to be able to call myself a runner! And be able to run without wanting to die!

So far this year I've been going to the gym at least three days a week. It works out great...I drop my oldest off at preschool at 8:15, then the younger boy and I head to the gym. Several of our friends are there at the same time which makes it easy, and honestly that motivates me to go the other two days because my oldest has friends there that want to see him and he wants to see them. My kids get to play with their friends while I get fit--perfect!

At the recommendation of my friend Danielle I downloaded a fitness app on my phone that has weight routines in it. I haven't used it yet, but I'm anxious to play around with it and work on increasing my strength and muscle tone. She created an awesome plyometrics workout for us and our friends at the gym yesterday. I'm lucky to have so many fitness minded friends to 1) share their knowledge with me, and 2) encourage me to stick with the gym and exercising!

So, on my quest to become a runner and be more fit, I think I'll take Michelle's advice and dust off this ol' blog and start using it. I figure I'll kind of use it as a fitness journal to monitor what I'm eating, how running is going, etc.