Another one bites the dust

Thank goodness the past week is over, because again, it was not a good week. For a second week I did not go to WW and I have not stepped on the scale for over a week.

Except for a couple of runs I have not exercised, but really hoping to change that this week.


Thursday I ran 3 miles in 39 degree weather - it was heavenly! I ran without music so was free from most attachments. I could have run without my phone but I am so used to having it I didn't even think of leaving it behind. I ran an average of 12:13 minute mile.

We've had a house guest since Wednesday - my workout area doubles as our guest room, so I haven't been able to get down there. But Tuesday it should change.

My husband has been cooking a lot (his sister is visiting) so it has been a nice break for me. It also meant a nice meal Friday night and no way I wanted to get up at 6:00 on Saturday after that! Later on Saturday we headed to the coast to get lobster and visit Rockport. It was a beautiful fall day - though still a little warm. A few trees are starting to change but we are still a few weeks away.

Eating on our outing wasn't very healthy - lobster with butter and ice cream. I said I didn't want to be out for dinner because I wanted to be able to have pasta before my long run on Sunday.

So let's talk about my long run on Sunday.....It did happen, sort of. But I was so discouraged I didn't take a picture.

I had plans for 6.5 miles around my town - I wanted some hills and I didn't have time before my daughter's 10:00 field hockey game to drive to the rail trail. I had known for 2 days that it would be able 60 degrees when I started, I just wasn't expecting 91% humidity. The day before it had been 60 but was only 50% humidity.

I hadn't slept well and was definitely having the thoughts before I got up about not even running. But I knew I had to. That is the difference between training and just running - you have to run to train. And with my 10K 2 weeks away, this was the last time to run this distance (for a 10K I usually run a 5K the week before). I loaded up my vest and in my haste, 2 things happened:
1) I didn't put my vest in my lunch bag which keeps it upright, so when I got to the start of my run the vest was sopping wet and I didn't realize how much water had actually leaked out until 1/2 way through my run and I was almost out of water.
2) I put way too much of my tailwind powder in one of the bladders, so it was very salty tasting.

So with both of those I was starting out the run with not enough water.

I also decided not to run with music. My run on Thursday with out music was great! I could concentrate on my breathing. My wireless headphones muffle the sounds around me - I do think I need different ones, or perhaps go back to my normal wired ones. But I feel so free without the wires. I don't really want to invest in earbuds, but maybe that is what i need to do.

Needless to say the run sucked. I ran for about 3+ miles and decided I would take another Gu (I had been contemplating not - I have never taken one for a 10K but I have been training with the second one since for 1/2 marathon training I will need one between 3 and 4 miles). Last week I took the Gu while I was running, which 5 years ago I always did, but previous to last week I had stopped to take it. Yesterday I chose to take one and to stop. It was at this point that I realized how little water I still had left. I didn't want to have a splitting headache all day, which I tend to when I don't drink enough when I am running. So I ran for another 3/4 of a mile, then walked a quarter miles. Then ran another mile, walk a bit, ran a bit and then said screw it and walked almost a mile back to my car.

In the end I have it as a 5 mile run not a 6.5 mile run. But I can deal with that.

I am going to try to squeeze in a 3 and 4 mile run this week and a 3 mile run on Sunday.

I am also going to focus on my nutrition.

Which reminds me - I did something yesterday I hadn't done in a week. I bought my Lean Cuisine pizza. With a house guest and a busy weekend and I was cranky due to my poor run, I just didn't want to do any more food prep than I am used to (ie 2 days of yogurts and carrots) so I chose to buy pizzas for this week so I can focus on other aspects of my nutrition.

Happy Fall - Here is to a better week!

Bad bad week

Yeah, I blew off WW in my 2nd week.
I had such high hopes for the week on Sunday - I food prepped for hours.
But then my client was in on Monday and Tuesday and Monday's lunch with them was buying from the cafeteria. Why did I buy a coke???!!!

The two days were just meeting heavy and needing to be "on" all day, but the good news for those days is I got in a Yoga session and weight lifting. And the beginning of the week felt like fall, which is abnormal for the Northeast in early September.

  

And then the week just went down hill from there. My son had 8 teeth extracted on Thursday which he was a trooper about but due to trying to balance that and work, I was eating way too many bad carbs (ice cream, frozen chocolate chip pancakes, white pasta). And then a stressful annual visit at the vet for my 14 year old cats had me hitting the carbs again.

Before I went to bed I turned off my alarm for WW. I needed the sleep. I was 229.0 on Saturday morning and I resolved to eat better. Plus I wanted to eat clean for my run on Sunday. I also spent a good amount of time on the couch watching snippets of Downton Abbey before the movie comes out.

I headed back to the rail trail on Sunday for 6.5 miles. It was about 60 degrees and 90% humidity when I started - not horrible, not great. I ran the full way without stopping at all - My time was 1 minute faster than the 2 previous weeks.

 

After my run I did a bunch more food prep (though not as crazy as last week, much of which didn't get eaten in favor of crappy food) - I prepped 2 days of yogurt parfaits, carrot sticks, hard boiled eggs, cut of veggies to snack on, healthy pasta and chicken sausage, and orzo for the kids. I then also made a mexican casserole for dinner. Usually we do a Sunday night dinner but my daughter has volleyball from 4:30-6:30 for the next couple of months, and is 30 minutes away, so kind of screws up our Sunday evenings.

Despite my run I ate fairly well yesterday. I was 228.4 this morning. Hoping to be back down to 226.8 by Saturday.

A client is in on Tuesday but we may or may not have dinner brought in. And we have a house guest from Wednesday - Monday but I am not going to let that derail my plans - We are planning on lobster for a late lunch on Saturday but other than that I am hoping it will be business as usual in the food department.

3 Day Reset - sort of + 6.5 miles

First of all - Labor Day weekend. We had no plans but a lot of the weekend was spent organizing stuff. The kids had started school the week before, they had a 4 day weekend. My daughter was away in Maine for the weekend. My husband and son had plans on Sunday to go to Connecticut to get this guy. My son has been asking for a hedgehog for 18 months - finally it was time. He is pretty cute. I had said I would have nothing to do with him, but he's pretty quickly engrained himself in my heart.

 

I had decided to go hiking in New Hampshire on Sunday and then go antiquing in Maine after, but 2 different spam calls, one at 12:45 am and one at 3:30 am, one on the home phone and one on the cell, had me up most of the night (while my 13 year old had been away from home plenty, it was her first time out of state for the whole weekend). So I decided not to hike as I was exhausted, but not too exhausted to jump in the car at 8 am and go for a 10 hour road trip.

I stopped at one beach and took a walk and had a late breakfast.

Then after some antiquing I went to a nature preserve for another walk.



It was a very successful day - exploring and antiquing.

I was going to start the Beachbody 3 Day Refresh on Tuesday, but since it is easier to do it at home with a blender, and I work from home on Wednesday and Friday, I decided to start it on Wednesday and also work from home on Thursday.

Knowing that I wouldn't want to run on Wednesday (they suggest you don't do heavy exercise while doing the cleanse) and it was pretty humid, I decided to do an 30 minute Advanced Beginner ride using the Peloton App. I am slowing learning how to translate the videos to my Schwinn even though I don't have a Peloton bike.

Wednesday I woke up to Time of the Month. Originally I thought it was 9 days late (hello perimenopause) but then I realized it was only 2 days late! Needless to say Day 1 of the 3 Day Refresh didn't go quite as planned, but I still did pretty well. The only thing I had that wasn't on plan was a bunch of nuts.

Day 2 and Day 3 were much better.

Each day goes about like this:

• Breakfast of a regular Shakeology smoothie and Fruit
• Mid-morning Fiber Sweep (below) - Personally I drink it fast and holding my nose
• Lunch - Shake provided with the program; fruit; vegetables and good fats
• Afternoon snack - vegetables and good fates
• Dinner - Shake provided with the program; a recipe from the program booklet which is basically vegetables and good fat

There were times that I was definitely hungry. And I didn't work out at all those 3 days - I should have. But I didn't.

And the results are:
Wednesday: 232.0
Saturday: 226.8

Down 5.2
Yes, some of that is period weight
Some of that will come right back (I was 227.0 this morning)

But I used this time to also clean out the pantry, again. And make a list of the foods I will eat. I am going to try to avoid some things, at least for the next 4 weeks - like I had sweet potatoes at dinner, not while potatoes. Avoiding processed foods as much as possible.

Saturday I was able to eat real food again and I had to because I had a run to do on Sunday!

Can I tell you the run sucked?! 6.5 miles (58 degrees to start, 86% humidity) I didn't go to my favorite rail trail - field hockey is starting for my daughter and I can't be 25 minutes away. Plus I have a 10K race in 4 weeks - while it is relatively flat (it is by the ocean) I need practice on real roads and out of the shade of the bike path (again, but the ocean, I will be direct sunlight).

I think the run sucked for a few reasons - one, I pretty much haven't moved much in the last 9 days - Except a couple of walks in Maine and a stationary ride on Tuesday, I have been extremely sedentary. So the Fitbit goes back on tomorrow. I need steps! I need to be active during the day beyond 5:30 am.

The run sucked because perhaps 1 day wasn't enough to eat normal food (even though I also ate something an hour before and took 2 Gu - I before I ran and 1 at 3 miles).

And because I was running in my town I was worried about what people thought of seeing me run and I couldn't get out of my head how far I've dropped in my running ability. But I can't go back!

Finally this afternoon I spent tons of time meal prepping. I had lots of veggies left over from the cleanse - I pretty much ate the same thing for 3 days. So I roasted a lot of it.

Other meal prep I did:

• Yogurt Parfait for 2 days (plain greek yogurt with a touch of vanilla greek yogurt, bluebeeries, granola)
• 5 days of carrots
• Hard boiled eggs
• Quinoa and black beans for lunch
• Pasta and frozen pizza pre-cooked so the kids can grab it

Now I am tired. Football is really starting tonight for us New England fans (yes, I completely understand why people hate us, especially now). But no way I can stay up for the whole game. That is a downside of being a Patriots fan - lots of Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night football games which practically are just starting by the time this gal goes to bed at 9:30 pm.

Here is a to a full week (well not exactly, my son is getting 8 teeth extracted on Thursday so he'll be home for 2 days and I am taking Thursday off). But my daughter will (hopefully go 5 days - I say hopefully because she got sick at school on Friday and I had to pick her up at 9:30)