20 Days to L.A. Marathon - 20-miler DONE!

Completing the 20-miler when training for a marathon is a big deal.  It not only provides physical preparation but the psychological assurance that one can indeed finish the marathon.  Once one hits 20 miles, the final 6.2 miles are all mental.  Thankfully, I got through the 20 yesterday but my legs were shot after I was done.

Now I can start tapering (running fewer miles until the actual marathon).  This morning I feel a sense of renewal and commitment.  I got up at 4:15 to clean my kitchen and cook salmon, chicken breast and baked sweet potatoes for the week.  I also did two loads of laundry and am about to grade some papers.

Last Friday I wore a pair of pants that I have not been able to wear in at least two years, maybe 3.  I am wearing another pair that I found while "shopping in my own closet" this morning.  I also weighed myself last Friday morning and was down another two pounds since the previous week.  So that makes 13 pounds in 5 weeks.  Woohoo!  My goal is to lose at least 2 pounds this week so I can finally be in one-derland!  I will do this by really paying attention to my meals, running 4 days this week, and weight training for at least 3 days.  

I got a little spring in my step as a new season approaches.  :-)

25 Days to L.A.

Well this week has really been going well as far as both training and eating are concerned.  I did 8 miles Sunday, 5 on Tuesday and 1.72 as a warm up this morning.  I am planning on doing 10 tomorrow morning.  I also went back to the gym Tuesday evening to do an upper body workout and woke up this morning to do a leg workout after the short run.

I have also been cooking a lot:  chicken, salmon, asparagus, turkey chili and salad have comprised the meals I have taken to work this week.  I also bought some Chobani Greek yogurt that I tend to forget is quite good and satisfies my sweet tooth.  

I expect good results this week.  Life is good.

Month 1 Results

In the month since I started the blog and I have lost 12 pounds!  I was not always consistent in my healthy eating and blogging, but I am happy to weigh less than I did a month ago.  

I have a goal this month of losing another 13 (or more) pounds, writing in my blog more and taking fewer 'cheat' days.

31 Days to L.A.

I woke up this morning energized and motivated following my week-long slump.  It was relatively warm in Chicago so I decided to do my 5-mile training run on the Lakefront.  The run was fantastic!  I then came home to make my lunch after eating a breakfast of egg whites and salsa.  Unfortunately I left the lunch right on my counter and had to buy food from the school cafeteria.  I bought a grilled chicken wrap but ate it with vegetables only...no dressing.  Finally I followed the Weight Watchers program to the letter.  It was a great day!

31 Days

I have been feeling a little blah this week about working out and eating right so decided I needed something to shake things up.  I am watching a program called "I Used to be Fat" on MTV where they follow teens for the summer after high school graduation as they try to lose some serious weight before going off to college.  One thing they do is put a big countdown calendar in their bedroom that starts at a certain number of days left- I have seen 110, 99 or 90 - and counts down to 0 days.  Each morning when the person wakes up they tear the top number off the calendar.  

I like that idea and counted the days until my marathon.  Interestingly enough starting tomorrow morning it will be 31 days until L.A.  So I will check in everyday with at least one thing I have done to evolve to my healthier self...a virtual countdown if you will.  That way I have a short-term, manageable goal which feels less overwhelming than the big goal of losing 75 pounds.

Thank you Ruthie for today's motivation!

With friends like these...

I just received a message from my best friend, Robin, asking "What's up with the blog?  You are missing your entries and you said that's a must for you!"  See, that is why she is my best friend.  

Why did I not post my week 2 results?  Was it because they were not as dramatic as week 1?  Probably.  And you know what?  That is ridiculous!  I have to learn to appreciate whatever movement comes on that scale, especially when it is in the right direction.  Moreover, my NOT posting had a negative effect:  I was not as strict during week 3.

So here are my results:

Week 1:  -9.1 pounds

Week 2:  -1.6 pounds

Week 3:  +1.5 pounds

Total:  -9.2 pounds

This blog is all about me being accountable with the good, the bad and the ugly...and the pretty.  I am among friends and have no reason to be ashamed.  

I am still having to come to terms with the fact that I can run my little touche off (18 miles between this past Tuesday-Thursday alone, with another 18 miles to be done tomorrow) but will NOT have the results I want if I binge on frosted mini wheats with milk!  I mean, dang...I'm not even eating ice cream and brownies as a cheat meal but cereal and whole milk everyday at 4 p.m.!  Perhaps I will allow myself one treat a week, but I cannot have huge bowls of cereal each day.  And this is the thing:  I am actually writing those bowls of cereal down in my Weight Watchers tracker saying "It's okay, I ran a lot of miles this week."  But I really don't want to run just to be able to eat junk on a regular basis.  That is not what this is about.  It is about me making healthy choices the vast majority of the time.  It's about me choosing whole foods like honeybells and pomegranates and baked yams when I want something sweet on a daily basis.  I don't want to say I will never have ice cream (although it will have been a month this coming Sunday since I had that creamy coldstone concoction after running the Rock 'n' Roll half marathon...but who's counting?  :-)).  I just cannot choose those types of foods everyday.  Period.  (Note to self:  The Costco-sized box of cereal, like the Sam's Club-sized jar of cashews just cannot come into my house.)

So thank you for the kick in the butt Robin.  I really do appreciate it and am stating now to all of you:  I will lose weight this week!

Day 19 - Choices (again)

I am sitting in the cafeteria at my school, a place I am able to avoid most days because I choose to bring my lunch.  The only reason I am here now is I have duty every Tuesday to make sure no kids are acting up.  (Thankfully I have never seen that happen down here.)  Before I came down, it briefly occurred to me I could buy one of those yummy cream cheese/chocolate muffins that has who knows how many calories in it.  I thought to myself, "I ran 4 miles this morning, I can afford to splurge".  But the point of my exercise is not to buy myself more calories but to serve as another component of my healthy lifestyle.  So instead of bringing money down for a muffin, I decided to bring down a juicy honeybell orange instead.  I won't say the honeybell tasted the same as that muffin, but it was very sweet...to both my taste buds and my waistline!