On my way to goal

Getting back on track

Tuesday, December 4, 2007 00:01:12

So, I took an impromptu hiatus. Didn't mean to....I stayed with my workout schedule for the most part -- I think I skipped two or three days. But between my teeth, travel, and training I've just been exhausted and a little overwhelmed. But, I'm feeling strong! And my triathlon is a little over 4 weeks away and I've got confidence that I will finish it. I think I've gained a pound or two (haven't weighed in at WW for *weeks*) but I'm trying to get my food back in order so I can start losing again. I cooked on Sunday (made pesto pasta with zucchini, tomato tortilla soup, and low-fat egg salad from all the Easter eggs). I'm counting points again and trying not to eat every sugary thing in sight....I win most of the time. :)

This week is a light week on my training schedule. I ran 6.7 miles yesterday and this morning I hit the pool for 25 minutes. I finished 13 laps or ~800m in that time. Today I have my last part of my root canal (finally!) and then I head to the gym and bike for 50 minutes and lift some weights. Tomorrow is off (yay!) and Thursday and Friday are swimming for 42 minutes and running for 25, respectively. Saturday I'm going on a bike ride with my friend (who is also doing the race) and then coming home, cooking, cleaning (so so so desperately needed!), and trying to get my life back in order.

To be fair, I've done many fun things over the last few weeks. I went to Tahoe with DBF and my best friend and her fiance (visiting from NY). Unfortunately being with my best friend always brings out the delicious food and good wine -- so I overindulged. Then we visited my parents on the way home and my mom always feeds us well...and by well I mean with lots of cheese. I had the choice to eat healthfully, but I didn't take it. Still, I had such a good time and being with my family and close friends was such a treat!

The next week I focused on training but didn't count points. I convinced a whole bunch of my friends to go on a bike ride with me up in Novato (where my friend who is running the tri with me lives -- she graciously lent out many of her husbands bikes to my friends). After having a nice bike ride we decided to have taco bar and margaritas....there went all that hard work. I crammed in several training days into the following week, but didn't have the energy for one whole workout and the evening section of another. It was exaserbated by the fact that I had the second part of my root canal. I was sore and unhappy from all the drilling and pressure and...you know what...it hurt! So I overate hot and sour soup and comforted myself with soft pot stickers. What can I say? I was stressed and hurting so I used a coping mechanism that has been tried and true. I think I can handle stress OR pain...but definitely not both at the same time.

Then, up and at 'em at the airport by 5:45 to catch my flight to NY. We had such a great time!! We went cross country skiing -- where I used muscles I didn't even know I had. We ate very very well (see the part about being with my best friend and eating and drinking A LOT!), but stayed very active. I ate and ate and ate. But we also went hiking and I ran on the treadmill. We tried on bridesmaids dresses (I'll be in her wedding next summer) and went to a play and listened to music at a bar. But I drank too much and could feel myself bloating up. Still -- worth it! Such a fun little mini-vacation. It was jam packed and I was exhausted when I came home. I wouldn't have had it any other way!

Last week TOM came. I got back on track with my workout schedule completely, so that felt good. This week is going to be the first normal week since the week after Tahoe. I'm glad for it because it means I get to have a day off in the middle of the week. However, with TOM came sugar cravings like you wouldn't believe. I was just out of control. I knew it, too...but I didn't stop myself. Then it was up to Sacramento to see my folks to celebrate my dad's 50th birthday (We went on a tough 40 mile bike ride together! How cool is my dad?!) and the snowboarding on Sunday. See the part about my mom feeding us well. She made veggie lasagna and the best chocolate cake I've ever had. We topped the cake with three types of Coldstone icecream. So...that 40 mile bike ride? Yeah, I made up for it.

So, after all of that I'm happy with a one or two pound gain (we'll see on Saturday) and I'm making a concerted effort to count points and plan my meals. I think this weekend (since I'll be home for once! YAY!!!) I'm going to plan out my food for the next several weeks until my race. I think it will really help me over the next month to have a game plan and stay with it since I'll be exercising 8-10 hours a week. I usually exercise 5-6...so those extra 2-5 hours I use to plan and clean and get organized will be gone. I just have to be smart about how I use my time over the next few weeks.

So the plan:

Plan out points for next 4 weeks -- make grocery lists
Stay on exercise schedule
Eliminate miscellaneous plans that will stress me out
Order wetsuit, tune up bike, and rent hotel rooms as preparation for race.

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This week's workouts

Monday, December 3, 2007 00:07:14

This post is boring...you can ignore if you like. :) Just wanted to post times and distances so that I can measure my progress in the future.

Monday: Ran 5.72 miles in 58 minutes on the Hill program, level 5
Tuesday AM: Swam 11 laps (670m) in 21 minutes
Tuesday PM: Biked on the stationary bike on the hill program for 45 minutes. Lifted weights (3X 14 reps whole body)
Wednesday: Swam 14 laps in 35 minutes (850m)
Thursday: Ran 2.32 miles in 21 minutes. Lifted weights (2X 14 whole body)
Friday: Biked 30min on stationary bike using the cross country program then moved to the training cycle. Worked pretty hard -- did the standing up and hard resistance and everything! Did that training cycle for 40min and was absolutely dripping.

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Hellllllooooooo weekend!

Monday, December 3, 2007 00:07:13

Damn, this was a hard week! Between the dentist and the errands and the nonsense, well, it was just tough! But I managed to stay 100% on my schedule and even worked extra hard to be OP. This morning I was a little disappointed at WI when I only lost 0.2 pounds. On the bright side, I didn't gain any water back or anything from my huge loss last week. I'm going to take this small loss and roll with it....I'm going to really focus this up coming week and strive for a 1.4 lb loss so that I hit my next mini milestone next weekend.

This weekend I'm heading up to Tahoe! Can't wait. I'm going with my DBF and one of my best friends and her fiance (who are visiting from NY). We're going to have such a wonderful time...and I haven't been snow boarding all season, so it will be fun to get on the snow. Hey, and a couple more activity points never hurt anyone. :) On the way home we'll stop off and visit my parents. I'll get to see my dog!!! And my mom!! And my dad!! And my dog!!!! :) I love that damn dog.

Next week is going to be about 7 hours of training. I made it through this week pretty well -- even skipped my off day so that I could go to Tahoe and not feel guilty...get all those workouts in before the weekend. But it was only about 5 and a smidge hours, so don't want to feel too cocky. Sunday is going to be a full on rest day (Thank goodness!) and then it's back to the ol' grind.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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Huge loss

Monday, December 3, 2007 00:04:08

You guys must have been thinking some really skinny thoughts for me this weekend! After all that whining and complaining about being on plateau, I had a 2.8 lb loss on Saturday. TWO POINT EIGHT. That's like...I don't know...three weeks worth of weight loss from one Saturday to the next. I think TOM really affected me this last time in a way I've never had it before. No matter what, I am completely thrilled!

My workouts have been really amazing. I'm over one week into my official training schedule and I love it! I'm working hard and really pushing myself -- though I don't feel exhausted or overly sore. Today I swim in the morning at a pretty good clip and then this evening I bike and lift weights. I'd normally have tomorrow off, but since I'm going to Tahoe this weekend I decided to move my workouts up one day and take two days "off" this weekend (I hardly call snowboarding anaerobic, but it's not technically training). I think it will be ok since this is a light week time-wise. Probably can't do that often.

I have to go to the dentist and have some work done tomorrow. I'm glad I'll get my workout finished in the morning cause dollars to donuts I'm not going to want to do anything the rest of the day. Hopefully it's not too painful...I'm pretty nervous about it and have to admit that I'm pretty frightened of the dentist. She's a wonderful lady....ugh....I just hate the sounds and the feelings and....yuk.

So, I officially hit another milestone:

182.4 (-2.6 from 185): WW 10% since rejoining on 09/23 20 lbs down! Acheived 03/01/2008

The next milestone is:

180 (-2.4 from 182.4): 2/3 of the way! Time to take another measurement.

180 -- that's 1.6 from where I am right now. I doubt I can hit that this weekend, but don't care. I'll get there soon enough! I'm really looking forward to getting out of the 180's and being less than 10 pounds to goal!! I've got to start buying some new clothes since things are starting to hang on me. But I'm being cheap and trying to wait till the last possible moment so that I don't have to replace my wardrobe twice. I pick up a new shirt or dress here and there once in a while (I love Ross!). But what I really need is pants and I don't really like pants shopping much. No matter what I weigh I feel as though I'm *always* between sizes when I'm shopping for pants. Stuff just doesn't quite fit me perfectly. I think I'm just weird. So, until my pants literally fall off my butt, I think I'm going to hold out. Stubborn much? Me?? No!

Have a great week all!

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Dessert anyone?

Saturday, December 1, 2007 22:09:13

I've been doing pretty well staying away from the desserts....but I still thought this was cute!

My run this morning was good. I ran 36 minutes instead of 35 (*gasp!*) because I wanted to finish my fourth mile. Getting to 35 minutes and being at 3.92 was just annoying. So I finished 4 miles in 35:44. I did my pace run. My plan for training is the "short" days are going to be speed work and the long days are going to be endurance and maybe some hill work (for biking and swimming).

My arms aren't *too* sore after swimming yesterday, but I lifted today so I bet they're going to kill tomorrow! It's cool -- I was really motivated this morning by the hints of definition I saw in my arms. Hopefully swimming will help me build that up some.

I did great with food all day yesterday until I came home. D'oh!!! I finished my alotted points and then could not stop snacking. I felt really driven for some more fats. I put a little bit of cheese on 1/2 cup of rice and probably 1/2 cup of salsa (or more) and nuked it. It satisfied me but I felt guilty about eating it the whole time....can I afford this 3-4 points??? I have celery. Maybe I should just eat celery.... I just kept thinking: you earned 6 activity points, Jen. Chill out. You can have this. I don't think I'd been as guilt-ridden if I've had a loss over the last two weeks or could see one ahead. But, such is life. I ate it. Not much I can do about it now.

This weekend should be fun. Dancing Saturday night with the girls after my 117 minute bike ride, cooking and chores. Sunday I hope I only have to cook for a couple hours so that I can sit and be a bump on a log. We'll see how much I can get done on Saturday between the biking and the errands. Keep your fingers crossed for me. :)

Tomorrow's WI. Please please please think skinny thoughts for me!

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Best kept secret

Saturday, December 1, 2007 22:08:13

I just found the best kept secret in SF and I'm not going to tell any of you! But, I will tell you that I had a GREAT swim this morning and I think I'm really going to enjoy my pool workouts for the next nine weeks. YAY!

I decided to go pretty slow since I haven't been swimming in a long time (read: over a year). I knew I had to swim for almost an hour and that I should work hard to not burn myself out. I ended up swimming 1320m, which is about 0.82 miles in 55 minutes. Ok ok...SLOW. But, I did 12 ful laps of free stroke and 5 laps of crawl and 5 laps of backstroke. It's a good amount to work up from and I need to swim 1500m for the race or 25 laps -- only three more than I did today. Granted, I'll want to do it a lot faster than 55 minutes, but I'm sure I can.

I am officially at a plateau with weight loss and none too happy for it. Im hoping the addition of swimming and biking to my routine and changing up my workouts will help me break it. If I don't lose anything by next weekend though, I don't know what I'm going to do. Over a month of this and my head just might explode.

Hope everyone is doing well! Happy almost Friday

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Wildflower

Saturday, December 1, 2007 22:06:20

My triathlon is in a little less than 10 weeks! EEEeeeek! I'm very nervous. Time to get in the water and get on the bike! I used a beginner triathlete olympic training schedule and augmented it for my needs. Hopefully this will post and you'll see what I'll be up to for the next ten weeks.

Time to get my bike into the shop so I can ride on Saturday!

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Ratzafratza

Saturday, December 1, 2007 22:03:11

So I figured it would be a maintenance or a very small loss. WI this morning was exactly what it was 2 weeks ago....so maintenance. Ok. A little disappointing but completely expected. I know next week will show a decent loss and I'm deciding not to obsess about it. So I log into my WW account and update my weight. Here is the message I received:
___________________________________________________________

THANKS for logging your weight! We notice that since the last time you visited the weight tracker, you've maintained your weight. Try to visit your weight tracker regularly so you can keep your weight history and progress charts up-to-date.

If you need a motivation boost, why not try a new Meal Ideal or Recipe? You might also want to consider switching food plans.

___________________________________________________________

Maybe I'm being a grumpy gus, but that's an annoying message! How about: Wow, you've done great! Don't let one week bum you out. Or: Give yourself a pat on the back for maintaining your loss. Ok. Rant over.

I plan on being pretty diligent this week with points. I'm going to plan every day and pre-cook my meals this weekend as to not slip up. I'm also going to try and keep it reined in over the weekend -- my usual splurge time. This week TOM is here (more than likely the cause of my maintenance) so I'm going to eat healthy portions of protein, drink water, and avoid trigger foods that are hard for me when I'm hormonal.

My friend's Oscar party is on Sunday afternoon/evening, so that should be fun. I'm going to bring a WW recipe apple thingy and try to avoid some of the more fattening foods I know she's planning on serving. I'm not too concerned though -- I'll bank my points in the morning and have a big salad for a late lunch.

As a nice extra special thing to do we hired house cleaners for this weekend. So I'm stoked to hand over my chores to someone else and relax. This weekend I plan on going to the gym (just today), working on my taxes, resting, cooking, spending quality time with my DBF, going to a party and crocheting! YAY!

Hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and fun weekend!

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Back after a long weekend

Saturday, December 1, 2007 22:00:13

Last week I fell off the wagon a bit. Not terribly -- I still exercised every day. But Valentines did me in with chocolate and those sweet hearts. I also had a pretty emotional weekend (2/09) and then a rough time at work and so was just exhausted. So exhausted that I just couldn't focus on being 100% on plan and my food intake was not great. Plus I knew that I wasn't going to weigh in last weekend because DBF and I went to NM to visit his dad. Sometimes I really do need someone to be looking at the scale with me to be accountable -- especially when I'm having a rough time of it. So...nobody looking means I wasn't as careful as I normally would have been.

Our trip was pretty good. It took us 10 hours to reach the town that he lives in, so though we were gone for four days it was really two days visiting and two days traveling. DBF's dad is very health conscious so we ate pretty well. Also we hiked a lot -- he lives near a national forest -- so that was pretty good. We got back Monday night and had a light dinner with a couple glasses of wine (we needed it after 2.5 hours in the car, two flights, and some of the circumstances of the visit!). I really like DBF's dad a lot. He's very kind and generous. I really believe that a lot of the more soft characteristics of DBF's personality like being caring and gentle come from his dad. It was really nice to get to know him better.

So, it's Wednesday and I'm focused and prepared for the week. If I gained from my indiscretions last week then I'm sure I burned it off with all the hiking and moving around this last weekend. Unfortunately I trashed my running shoes in the mud so had to go yesterday and buy a new pair. No biggie, I was due. Yesterday I went to work early and then during lunch picked up a new pair of shoes. Came home and walked to the gym. I was a rockstar! I ran 7 miles in 63:04. That's a tiny tiny bit over a 9 minute mile for SEVEN MILES. I felt awesome about that! And I rode the bike (slowly) for 20 minutes. This morning, though my legs felt like jello still, I ran a mile, did my strength training and then ran one more mile to round it out. I'm seeing my deltoids, biceps, quads and calves really developing. Now if I can just get rid of that bra overhang and my saddlebags....

Tomorrow is a light day -- biking for 45 minutes. Friday will be my pace run (TBD). Saturday I'll exercise after WI. Then I'm all caught up and I didn't miss even one workout. YAY!

I'm feeling a little stuck in the ol' weight loss, which is silly since I've actually been averaging around a pound loss each week. Hopefully my dedication this week will show and I'll have a maintenance or a small loss at WI. TOM is on the way, but I don't feel as bloated or icky as last month around this time, so that's good. Hopefully it won't be a problem at WI. I'd like to get to that 10% by the end of February! It's just two pounds but feels so far!

On my way to goal

Getting back on track

This week's workouts

Hellllllooooooo weekend!

Huge loss

Dessert anyone?

Best kept secret

Wildflower

Ratzafratza

Back after a long weekend

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