Not much to say about the weekend

I don't really have a weekend recap to speak of.

Friday was a busy day at work and I realized 1/2 way through the afternoon that I wasn't eating like it was a day before WW day - I think at that moment I realized I wasn't going to go to WW the next morning. And thus I made myself popcorn for dinner - yep, dinner of champions.
My weight was atrocious the next morning - 227.4 - And that was after sleeping in a bit AND going to the bathroom 3 times!
My daughter and I had to be in downtown Boston for a 10:30 soccer game. After it was over she wanted to go to a store in the trendy shopping area. Not wanting to try to find on-street parking we parked under one of the skyscrapers. California Pizza Kitchen was right by the elevator when we entered the mall. I had a side salad, an asian noodle dish and some bread....and probably too much of her pasta as well.
After going to the one store (and another!) I caved at the upscale candy store - 3 pieces of chocolate (and $22(!) later) we got our car. $42 dollars for parking later, I was done with spending $!

I hadn't been feeling great all week and I found myself chilled from the cold weather, so I got into bed at 5:00 and didn't get out until 9:00 am the next morning. My husband very nicely brought me some spaghetti for dinner.

I had wanted to hike up a ski mountain (a small one!) on Sunday but the weather app was saying rain in the late morning with high in the high 40s. Not exactly hiking weather when I didn't feel well to begin with.

So my entire Sunday - 8 hours with a few breaks, was spent organizing, editing and uploading to Shutterfly our pictures from our trip. Here are a few of the more artsy ones.

I did get some food prep done, laundry, paid some bills, but mainly it was a day spent in my pjs, in front of the computer, and then in bed

I had originally said I would eat well yesterday but my day was 100% carbs - microwavable pancakes for breakfasts, leftover spaghetti for both lunch and dinner. I did drink quite a bit of water though.

On a good note I got up and did Total Body Cardio fix this morning - I still am not feeling 100% and I got zero walks in at work, but it was better than nothing!

Not the week I wanted

Thank goodness it is Friday! I need the time off to get some s**t done and unwind. This week has not been the fairy tale back on plan that I wanted.

The good news: 4 mornings of exercise
The bad news: Easter candy, bought food at work, just carbs in general

Wednesday I did get and did Upper Fix - my arms were on fire!

Thursday I slept in - I didn't want to do Lower Fix since I knew I would be running on Friday. Plus cramps were pretty bad (though exercise does help cramps, temporarily), so I felt 100% okay sleeping in!

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning but it definitely was "red sky in the morning" as rain was coming quickly.

I had 4.5 miles planned this week. Since I want to get in a hike on Sunday while my family goes to see End Game and I won't have time on Saturday morning (nor did I want to go the day before hiking), I knew I needed to go on Friday. I arranged for my husband to drive my daughter to school because I didn't know if I would be back to the house by 7:00. I wanted to do the 4 mile loop I used to do when I would run at 7:00 am, then I would have to add on.

The run wasn't too bad. I tried not to be self-conscious as I ran on the main streets in town. As usual my mile times got longer and longer as I ran - average of 12:30. The rain came just as I was finishing up, hence the car selfie (I really suck at selfies, but I am always in such a hurry I don't have time to perfect where I am looking at).

Tomorrow is soccer for my daughter (though I am secretly hoping it will get rained out, though it is not supposed to be raining during the actual game).

I need to organize my weekend/hiking clothes - they are in 3 different places, as well as inventory my husbands as I think he needs a few pieces for our trip.

My hike on Sunday won't be terribly long. Up a ski mountain (but not a big one) - I don't want to head up to New Hampshire yet as I am not sure if there is still snow on some trails - I doubt it because we really didn't get much snow this winter, but the mountains did.

The relaxing part of the weekend will be finally finishing up all my DVRed shows from vacation. My husband and I have 4 shows we watch together (The Blacklist, The Resident, The Enemy Within, and Whiskey Cavalier) so we've been trying to catch up together, but often one or the other of us is busy - I'm telling him I may just watch without him - I want this item checked off on my To Do list!

Back to the exercise

I did walk quite a bit on vacation - 63 miles!!!

4.25 of that was on a lovely run through Washington DC. I had hoped to do a couple of other runs but the humidity had me staying in bed :)

But my nutrition was poor and I have been feeling very bloated.
I did start out the week right with a Total Body Cardio Fix workout Monday morning.

 

I got one walk in at work, but was pretty busy with it being my first day back. And despite me wishing I hadn't, I got into the Easter candy some :(

Sports were rained out and I went grocery shopping around 5:00 to finish up the list I didn't want to deal with on Saturday because it was so crowded.

Dinner was everyone for themselves - I had made pasta Sunday night so the kids could easily heat it up themselves. I made myself a spinach salad with hard boiled eggs and strawberries (okay, and a little bacon too) and a pasta salad with cheese, chicken, apples and honey mustard dressing.

I knew from my 5:30 wake up on Monday that I could now run outside at 5:45 because it is light enough. I have about a 3 month window from April until July. I could have done it right before I went on vacation, but wasn't going to change my routine then!

I got 3 miles in in the spitting rain - They were slow, but I did them! I know I will be faster once my nutrition is better. But I am also not used to rolling out of bed and running so I am not sure how fast they ever will be, but getting the miles in is good for the body and brain.

So now that one vacation is over and another is 9 weeks away, where do I go from here?

I will continue to increase my miles a bit - this weekend will be 4.5 miles, then 5.0 the next week and I'll stay there for a few weeks.

I want to get in a few hikes before our vacation, so my long runs may need to be on Thursday or Fridays, which would require me to get up a little earlier so I have time to get the miles in.

There is a 10K on our vacation (on the 4th of July) but I am not sure how I would do running at altitude - I think I would sign up day-of so it could be a game day decisions. It would also force me to get to 10K mileage before our vacation which isn't necessarily a bad thing because my actual 10K is at the beginning of August.

And I will continue to do Beach Body 2-3 times a week - I really like how my arms are feeling with the weights.

And occasionally I may try to get on the bike - either inside or out.

So I've got a plan for exercise. I just really need to dial in the nutrition and get back to where I was at.

Vacation over....starting over

Today is my 1st day back at work after a 10 day vacation. I'll just say that the scale was very, very cruel yesterday (hello 227) but I am hoping some of that is just post-vacation bloat and PMS bloat. But it also wasn't unexpected because my eating was very poor on vacation. We were very busy - we drove to Philly then Williamsburg then Washington DC. I was with the kids solo for 5 of the days and while they weren't difficult, it was still stressful. We wanted to see and do so much on the trip that aside from the breakfasts provided at the hotel, we were lucky if we got 1 real meal per day - the other meal was grab-and-go snacks, pretzels, hot dogs, ice cream (yes, more than once ice cream was a meal!). I did walk an incredible amount (more than 1 day I got 26,000 steps) but that didn't outweigh the poor nutrition.

I also did get in 1 run which was my favorite part of the vacation (is that bad to say that an activity I did by myself was the best?!) I ran 4.25 miles through DC at 7:00 am on a day where it was 44 degrees and low humidity. Perfect running weather. And then I came back to the room and signed up for the Disney 1/2 Marathon in January!

Here is just a quick dump of pictures and I'll be back tomorrow to talk about what I need my life to look like in the next 9 weeks before our kid-less vacation, during a period of time that is notoriously difficult (lots of sports commitments, lots of school commitments)

Philadelphia - We saw Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, City Hall, Love Park and Reading Terminal Market (one of our ice cream meals)

 

 

We drove through Delaware to get from Philly to Williamsburg and stopped at Rehoboth Beach for a very late lunch

My son loves plants so was chatting up the woman at the public gardens

Palace at Williamsburg

We took a carriage ride

The kids loved Busch Gardens - they have no fear!

While the Cherry Blossoms were gone around the Tidal Basin there were some around, including here at Arlington Cemetery 

The day after Notre Dame burned we visited National Cathedral

While I was sad the pandas weren't outside, it was still fun to see them inside

I had an amazing morning run through DC

 

Waiting for our tour at the Capitol

Botanic Gardens

Hanging out at the WWII Memorial (dipping your feet is allowed :) )

We took a night tour of the monuments

Drove from DC to Boston in 1 long day, had a busy day of kids sports, and then celebrated Easter. I need an extra day of the weekend!

Not falling off the wagon

I realized I never updated the weekend and then I just realized I pulled off pictures from my phone in preparation for vacation, so nothing to show!

I went to WW on Saturday - 221.8 so up .4 lb - that is okay! I did nothing last week to warrant a weight loss!

Saturday was a crazy busy day with kids sports starting. While I absolutely love spring, I don't love kids sports.

Sunday I got up and ran 4 miles on the rail trail. I definitely was feeling a little sluggish - I didn't get enough water in on Saturday. I need to be better about doing that when I am out and about and definitely when I am spending time in the sun.

I've definitely been slacking these last few days. My mind is in vacation mode already. I put my Fitbit in the charger on Sunday and haven't taken it out yet (I will take it on vacation). I haven't exercised at all since Sunday. But I am bringing some running clothes with me and we also will be doing a lot of walking.

Eating has been trying to get rid of food in the house - It will be nice to come home to completely empty fridge and pantry and filling it with healthy food. I am not sure how healthy we will be eating on vacation - but I also don't plan on going off the rails. Our eating is just the one aspect that we haven't planned at all, though I do have a lot of snacks for in the car and will try to get in as much water as I can.

Talk to you after vacation! Maybe by then spring will really be here, because after a beautiful weekend the last couple of days have been awful  (including the Red Sox home opener - okay, the Red Sox have also been awful this spring!).

The week that wasn't is coming to a close

I am pleasantly surprised that the week has flown by so quickly. Work has been completely overwhelming, so not a lot of good has happened on the healthy living front.

Tuesday I got in 1 walk at work before all heck broke lose. I ended up buying my lunch (chicken salad wrap, Coke, macaroni salad). Snacks at home were grazing about, and I really didn't want to cook anything (or eat the taco salad I had prepared) so I had my husband pick up a pizza and a salad on his way home from my daughter's softball practice (and we didn't eat until almost 7:30).

Wednesday I just didn't have the desire to work out. I hadn't gone to bed until 10:30 and my calves still weren't feeling fantastic, so I stayed in bed. I worked from home but got zero walks in - work just didn't allow for it. "Lunch" was grazing between 11:00 and 1:00 - Peanut butter crackers, potato chips, dried fruit. No actual afternoon snack and dinner was pasta with meat sauce and cheese, salad and dressing and 1 piece of garlic bread.

Thursday I actually did get up. Since it was Thursday I wanted to do cardio but wasn't feeling the bike, so decided to do the Total Body Cardio Fix. Felt great! Eating Thursday was pretty good. I dropped my daughter at soccer practice and ran to go grocery shopping. Much better than sitting in my car during practice!

Friday I got up again. I did Upper Fix which was kind of a mistake as my arms were already a little tired from the Total Body Cardio Fix, but I can definitely feel myself getting stronger. I can do more push ups (on my knees) and longer forearm planks (again on my knees) each week.

My weight was 223.4 this morning, so up 2 lbs since Saturday. We will see if I can drop that at all by tomorrow. But I am still expecting a gain tomorrow, but I will still go to my meeting! It is the last one before my trip. I was hoping I could get in a 4 mile run on Saturday so Sunday would be free, but the day is looking pretty full so I will probably run on the bike trail Sunday morning and they may try to get in a walk in the woods to practice with my new camera (well not new to me - I am switching from my Canon's to my dad's Nikons).

Here is hoping I can be strong today!

Overdue update

It's been a long 5 days. My husband has been gone on business so I've been solo mom. I am beyond thrilled that he will be back when I get home, but it is a start to a long, long spring.

I am going to try to remember my weekend. I started a new journal yesterday so I don't have  my weekend log here at work.

What I do have is that on Saturday my weight was 221.4!!!! Down 3 pounds in a week (thank you end of TOM!). Even though I had manually re-set my weight at WW, the receptionist (or whatever they are now called with the re-vamped WW) didn't acknowledge my 5%. But then again, maybe they don't do that anymore (But I think they must since I got charms for 5 lb and 10 lb).

After WW I did an Upper Fix work out after having not done anything the 2 days prior. Saturday was pretty busy around the house getting stuff finalized for our trip and then a trip to Dick's Sporting Goods to get my daughter stuff for spring sports. Eating was pretty good - dinner was spaghetti with a homemade caprese sauce. We watched National Treasure to get ready for our historical trip.

I was beyond excited to try out my new trail shoes on Sunday and get in my 4 miles. Even though I have not been about time lately, it was still hard to see the 14:27 average. The run was mentally tough because it was 2 loops plus some to get to the 4.0 miles. Next time I'll just run the 2 loops which is a 5K. I don't plan on running it every week because it definitely took a toll on my body.

The rest of Sunday was busy, busy, busy with 3 commitments in the afternoon/evening plus trying to get stuff ready for the week (including getting the house picked up for the house cleaners). One of our commitments was a friend's birthday party - I enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine, not the healthiest food, and ice cream and cake.

I worked from home on Monday. Originally I was planning on getting up and doing yoga but my calves hurt so badly and the weekend was so hectic that I really needed the extra rest. I was so busy during the day that I didn't get in any extra steps. I got into the Dark Chocolate bits I had bought but threw the rest out in the trash. My daughter did make homemade Tollhouse Cookies in the afternoon so my dinner included 3-4 of them. They are my favorite food on the planet. Thankfully she took the majority of them to school and I came into the office today to get away from them (and the housecleaners!)

Working out didn't happen again today - my calves are just so tight (and I didn't get to bed until 10:30 because I was out taking kids to and from sports practices from 4:30-8:00).

But I am hoping to get back at it in the morning. But for today I am going to try to get in some walks here at the office.