Lunch plans

Over the summer I've been having lunch with a co-worker quite often, which is one of the reasons that the scale has not moved down (but has moved up and down) from 182.2 since July 5. When we eat lunch I've been buying in the cafeteria and usually buying a 12 oz can of regular coke as well. Well this needs to end! I don't want the lunches to end because otherwise I don't get much chit-chat in at work - I am only in the office 8 hours a day so I don't feel like I am entitled to a lot of watercooler breaks, much less lunch because I haven't want to work after hours this summer.

Since dinner time has always been such a problem time for me, I've made sure I was in control during the day and know what my points were. But I've known for a while that I wanted to mix up my lunches - a Lean Cuisine pizza and carrot sticks has been getting pretty boring. Plus the pizza is a lot of PPV and so many carbs. But it is so easy because I don't have to make lunch and with making kids lunches now, shaving off any amount of time helps.

My friend, who is looking to cut costs and cut calories, proposed that we bring our lunches Tuesday and Thursday (she will be working from home on Monday and Fridays) and Wednesdays we could go out (I am still up in the air about what to do with WW at Work - I am more inclined to start going to my regular Saturday one each week again now that summer is over). So I would still bring my regular lunch on Monday and Fridays (for the time being) so I won't get overwhelmed with actually making my lunch. Maybe I'll just start with 1 day a week, then 2, and so on.

We are looking forward to time at the county fair this weekend (ie, not diet friendly!) but next week brings the true Back to School when both kids are in school and both parents are back at work. I can't wait!

New school year, new routines

We are kind of in this limbo here. Tuesday was my daughter's first day of 3rd grade and my son had Kindergarten Orientation. But then he doesn't have real school until next Tuesday. She has school 3 days this week - my husband is home with him. So we are getting a glimpse of the new routine, but not really. That will have to wait until Tuesday. I just want Tuesday to come!

Once change I've decided to make is to throw in an extra cheese stick to eat as I am walking out the door at work. And then chug a ton of water on the way home so I am not ravenous when I get home - my absolutely hardest time of the day. I did it yesterday, but I still found myself overeating slightly at dinner because we had tacos, one of my favorites - Extra cheese always ends up in me on taco night if I am not careful :)

Another week of blown off running mornings :( Tuesday I decided I was just still too tired from my 10 miler. This morning I was up at 3 am for 90 minutes. Excuses, excuses!

Some of my new gym equipment came yesterday, so I am excited to try it out....sometime! I just need a descent night sleep. I feel like it has been 10 days since I got a really good night's rest.

I had my last Skinny Cow ice cream cone on Monday night and I don't have any sweet treats for me in the house, which is good! Not having extra sugar really helps me because I am not bloated and feel good about myself.

Scale this morning was 183.2. At first I was going to blow off WW, but then decided to go. No reason not too!

10 Miles and Back on Track

Vacation has come and gone - well, at least for me. My husband is home with the kids this week as Kindergarten doesn't start until after Labor Day. My daughter has school Tuesday - Thursday of this week.


Last week was pretty refreshing. I didn't check work emails until a couple of minutes ago.


Me and the kids went to New Hampshire Sunday - Wednesday. I ran 7 miles on vacation! 4.4 of which were hilly and on my 44th birthday!


My favorite part was seeing all the people who hadn't seen me in a year and commented on my weight loss!


But literally as soon as I walked through the door Wednesday afternoon I felt sick and had a sore throat.
Thursday was spent at home - the kids in their pjs and me unpacking and organizing.
Friday was spent back-to-school shopping.
I had to cancel on my friend for running on Saturday morning - I still felt sick, TOM was so heavy so I was worried about a 9 mile run, and I knew we had to get the house cleaned.
And that we did - all day Saturday.


Sunday I knew I needed to do 9 miles on my own. I wasn't into it. I hadn't slept well in over a week. But I forced myself to get up....and once I was out there, I decided to try to 10 miles and I did it. Albeit, incredibly, incredibly slowly, but I did it!


I originally had wanted to try it next Monday - but I have so much going on this week and I didn't want to take my focus away from those things worrying, anticipating 10 miles, so I did it Sunday.


I am feeling pretty good today. I don't know if it is because of how slow I ran, because I put on compression calf sleeves on before I got in the car, or what. The 1/2 is 6 weeks away. I don't have confidence I will finish until 2:30, but right  now I just care about finishing!


I definitely need to get back on track with the healthy eating. The scale said 184.2 this morning - could be worse! But my eating was less than stellar on vacation, so I need to clean it up. I really want to make an effort to have less/no sugar - no soda, no ice cream, etc. It all goes to my belly and I hate it! And I know I run better without it.


Speaking of which, I tried my first Gu yesterday. Salted Caramel = heavenly!

8 Miles

Originally I was going to try for 6-7 miles as that is what my running buddy had said she was going to do, but then on Thursday she said her 1/2 training plan called for repeating 8 miles. I thought maybe we'd do 6-7 together and then she'd had to turn around and finish off the last 1-2 miles. We chose to run on Saturday, which is always nice to get it over with. The thought of being able to sleep in on Sunday sounded appealing!


Friday was the end of camp and the beginning of vacation. I was so excited! I hit BJ's because we were in need of everything and had a pasta dinner to carbo load for the run.


On the way out of BJ's my daughter rammed into my heel with her cart - I almost cried and was convinced I wouldn't be able to run. But thankfully the pain didn't last.


I woke up to 183.6 - Yeah, up 2 lbs since last Saturday but I had had a large dinner....and eaten horribly for the whole week, so I will take it!


It was a crisp morning- high 50's. Didn't feel like mid-August! I wore shorts, my new sneakers (I love new sneakers!), a short sleeve shirt and my hydration vest.


I had some sports beans at 3 miles and kept going until the turn around.....at 4 miles! The 8 took us 1:45 - not great, but good for not having done a long run in 3 weeks.


But now in the evening my legs are definitely feeling it (we shopped all day long!) - Can't wait to get compression calf sleeves for my birthday!


Shopping was mainly for the kids, but I did get a bunch of size 14 pants and size L tops - felt so good! I brought size 14 and 16 to the dressing room - I didn't even try the 16s on - I knew they would be way too big!

Absolute, complete lack of motivation

It is Friday and my lower back is still sore when I've been sitting in a chair (hello, work) or driving. But sleep is back to normal.

Eating. Not normal at all. Completely out of control! Like, haven't been weighing myself out of control. But I will get it back. Not sure when, but soon. I've just been limping (literally and figuratively) to the end of camp - which is today! Lack of motivation to do anything - make lunches (the kids had lunchables 3, yes, 3 times this week), making dinner (we've been out too much) and today their lunch was scraps from the fridge and pantry so I can make a clean start when we get back from vacation.

I love camp, I really do, but 8 weeks is long. I don't want to break it up with vacation in the middle - I like going full steam ahead for the full 8 weeks and then have celebration week off after it is all done.

We did have a home day on Wednesday - I worked, they watched tv. All day. It was pouring, torrential pouring. I didn't feel like leaving the house to bring them to camp. So I didn't :) I did get my daughter's clothes organized.

Tomorrow is a all-day family shopping day. We'd planned this weekend for weeks and then it happens to fall on Tax-Free weekend - good I guess, but it will be crazier than normal.

I tried on my fall clothes - I put all the Size XL and Size L shirts in the closet - XL are too big, but some of the L are older so aren't as long, so may show too much tummy :(  I don't need too many fall clothes - Weekend casual tops and a pair of jeans and a pair of dress black pants. Hard to think about shopping when I have not been eating well.

But I will turn it around! I have to! I am going to attempt to run this weekend - hopefully 6-7 miles. We'll see how it goes!

Spartan Race = Sore

I am on the mend from my cold, but not 100%. But right no my whole body feels like hell. But more on that later.

After a day of eating poorly on Thursday (I went out to lunch with a friend and ate a bigger burrito than normal, and had a shake in addition to water; then that night was my daughter's 8th birthday celebration - pasta (and seconds), garlic bread, salad, cake and ice cream), I turned it around on Friday.

We were going to the beach on Saturday and I still wasn't sure if I was going to wear my bikini, so I didn't want to be bloated. Plus I thought maybe I would go to WW on Saturday. So I had my typical Friday meals - normal food during the day, PB&J and a piece of fruit for dinner.

Scale on Saturday said 181.8 so off to WW I went (I had already decided that a run on Saturday morning as not a good idea - I wanted to be my best for Sunday). It felt great to be back under 50 lbs lost.

We had a fun day at the beach - in the end I chose not to wear my bikini. Mainly for the burn factor. My stomach hasn't seen sun in years - I didn't want to risk being burned for Sunday. We only stayed for 3.5 hours because we had tickets for AAA baseball at 5:00. The kids got to dress up as superheroes and parade around the field.

Sunday would be a pretty big unknown. Me and my friend were signed up for the 'Biggest Loser Off Road Challenge', which means that you are running a Spartan Race but didn't have to do 30 burpees for each failed obstacle, and they shaved off 1.3 miles (but no obstacles). The only downside was that we had to wear the Biggest Loser shirts to prove we didn't have to do burpees. The shirts were way too big which don't help when covered in mud.

The experience was wonderful, but I am hurting big time today. But a good hurt - a hurt I haven't felt in a long time. I tried all obstacles, albeit a lot with help, didn't succeed at a ton of them, conquered a lot of fears, and had a lot of fun...until the last 30 minutes when we had to crawl/roll under barbwire for 100 yards - it made me feel so nauseous and I continued to feel so until I went to bed. And I fell right near the end, so now have some nasty, painful scrapes on my palms, knees and elbows. And a blister on my heel which will feel me out of sneakers for a while.

After the race reminded me of why I gained weight while training for Mt Rainier. To try to get rid of the nausea and dizziness, I ate a ton and ate crap food for the rest of the day. I did this after my day-long training hikes....but I also ate like crap the whole next day as well, which I am trying not to do today!

Happy 8-years-of-being-a-mom to me!

Yes, it is my daughter's 8th birthday. But since she is at camp and I am at work, I sit and celebrate what I did 8 years ago and everything I have accomplished since then.

I started out the day with my first weekday morning run in 3 weeks. I slept like a log last night so I was so freaked out when the alarm went off. I am not used to hearing it! And I always wake up before it. Part of the reason it has been 3 weeks is because the days are rapidly getting shorter, so 5 am now looks very different than 5 am in June. And I just couldn't get out of bed - if I had been, I would see that it was pretty light outside, the light just wasn't making it through our heavy shades.

I wasn't sure what to expect for my run since I am still full of phlegm. And I wasn't expecting the cool temperatures - heaven! We have been pretty spoiled this summer in terms of heat and humidity - not even close to a heat wave.

I ran 3.38 miles - I did well for the first 3 miles, but then started coughing and couldn't recover very easily, so cut short my intended 3.5 mile run.

I need to fix my Garmin - it isn't syncing the data :( But my running has been so slow lately, it isn't like I am very interesting in looking at my splits.

I celebrated at lunch in a more sinful way - an "original" size burrito instead of a small, and a small Nutella milkshake (which I had been dieing to try for a while) - I still went with whole wheat wrap and I could have gotten an "original" size shake, but didn't.

I am loving what I have been doing for ME these last 18 months of running - especially the last 6 months. While I still feel like I don't have enough time to do the things I want to do...and not enough time to do everything with the kids as well. Let's not enough mention time with my husband - poor guy does get 3rd place - there just isn't time! I spent so many years, even before we had kids, not putting myself first, so it is definitely time. When I reach my goal, while i will still want to run on my own and such, I will then focus more on incorporating my kids (and hopefully my husband!) into more physical activities.

Case of the sickies.....

I didn't run on Thursday morning - I didn't really have an excuse. The less sunlight at 5 am is definitely being problematic. I was mad because that would mean that I ended July with only 38 miles run. So close to 40!!

Then I hoped to get 2-3 miles in when I got home from work, but I had a call into the vet for results of a biopsy done on one of the cat's noses. I didn't give my cell phone number because I didn't really want to hear mid-run that my cat had cancer. I had to wait 2 hours for her to call me back - by that time I caved and had greek yogurt with fruit and granola. But by 7:30, when we got fairly good news - it is a tumor but not cancer and as long as it doesn't continue to grow, then we are okay. So I decided to get my miles in them and ran 3.14 as part of a Virtual 5K I was doing.

But after I got back I started to feel awful - My allergies had been bothering me all week, but there was just phlegm everywhere!

I had Friday off anyways, as a nice Me day. I did get some stuff done, but no where near what I expected because I wasn't feeling well. I slept like crud on Thursday and Friday night. I also was having weird dreams about my race on Saturday.

I couldn't cancel on my friends - we were doing the R.O.C. Race - (ROC = Ridiculous Obstacle Challenge). It is a lot of inflatables. Our heat was at 8:00, over an hour away from me, so I was up and out of the house at 6:15. It starting sprinkling just as I got to the parking lot, and full on raining once we started - they allowed us to start early because we were ready.

The race was in the parking lots across the street from Gillette Stadium, where the New England Patriots play. We used to have season tickets (in the height of their hay-day - which was great). It was so much fun to run through parking lots where I spent years drinking and gaining weight. I would have have imagined 10 years ago that I would be exercising again. So glad I am!

 A few of the obstacles purposefully knock you down (think the show Wipe Out) and after taking a digger on one, I chose to not do 2 of the other ones because I didn't want to risk getting hurt and having it affect my 1/2 training. With the pouring rain, the risk of getting hurt was higher. I am a little disappointed in myself, but I will get over it! It wasn't like they were obstacles to challenge you being in shape.

The rest of the day was spent in bed - not because the race was hard, because I was sick. Of course I had to cancel on my planned 6.22 mile run on Sunday morning - I was so mad! I was so looking forward to challenging myself since I never run 2 days in a row.

I managed to get some stuff done on Sunday, but no where near what I had hoped for.

We ended the night with our annual trip to The Melting Pot. Wow expensive - my dad couldn't make it, so we ended up paying for my soon-to-be-8-year-old to have an adult meal. We think next year we'll skip the meat course and just do cheese, salad and chocolate.

The scale wasn't too bad yesterday morning, but was atrocious today!