Getting Complacent at the Old Normal

Well I am writing in good spirits because we're about to go visit my cousin.  I always look forward to relaxed family time.  Slightly nervous about the car ride with the kids but I know it will be fun!

Weight wise.  I really need to write a time line of my weight gain but basically since this is my old normal, I don't feel so fat anymore.  However, its setting me back a bit because I feel like I'm not focusing as much on my eating as I should.  I gained last week 1.2lbs which brings me to an even 20lbs down overall as week 19 commences.  I feel like I can't complain after having so many weeks in a row of being down.  I enjoyed Valentines and all the chocolates, plus two birthday parties last week.  Why just today I enjoyed an entire bag of Valentine mini Snickers followed by many valentine almond Hershey Kisses.  Oink! Oink!  Now, I need to settle down and bounce back.  Unfortunately, bouncing back will be difficult to do on vacation.  I will give it a go though!    Good news is that in the last several weeks I've noticed that every third week I seem to lose a little more than one pound so hopefully my luck will hold out and I'll have a good week and it will pay off big time on the scale since this is the third week.

Running has not been going so well either.  My lower legs seem so sore when I run on the treadmill that this week I just got off of it and decided to rest my legs.  I ran my long run  of 7 miles outside, most of my splits were less than 10 minute miles but I felt heavy nearly the entire time.  I'm thinking the half marathon in under 2 hours is going to be really really hard but its supposed to be a challenge so we'll see.  I used the Precore today for my short run, its sort of like the elliptical with no arms.  Anyway, the upper leg muscles were the ones I was working in an effort to let my lower legs rest.  I was limited to just under 30 minutes since I only get 75 minutes for the baby and I had to use 45 minutes of that precious babysitting time to do gymnastics class with my daughter.  I'm really getting concerned about how many runs I'm shortening or just missing.  I have no idea how I will get my runs in on vacation.  Only 5 weekends until marathon weekend!!

Michelle Obama Arms

Just completed my 6th long run which was roughly 6 miles, that means only 6 weeks until half marathon time!!  Time is flying.  I do feel like my endurance is increasing but I still don't feel that strong.  Legs feel kind of sore in spots and I know its from running on the treadmill.  Oh how I HATE the treadmill!  The annoying part about today's run was that I didn't feel loose until well after 4 miles.  The good news is that the whole route I did was 6.6 miles, part of which was just my warm up and cool down walk, I did the whole route in exactly an hour!!  That's definitely less than 10 minutes per mile, I'd be more exact but my phone died on the run and I was using its pedometer.  I'm very happy with that though.

I got the best compliment ever yesterday.  I was still wearing my tank top from the gym yesterday when I went to visit my grandma.  My uncle asked if I was lifting weights and I said, "Yeah, why?"  He said, "Wow!  Michelle Obama arms!"  That could be THE best compliment ever.  So excited!!  Glad those weights are paying off b/c I'm never sure that I'm doing them right even though I only use the machines which are idiot proof.

Starting to get nervous that this next stretch of WW is going to be tough.  Wondering if the weight I lost so far has just been the low lying fruit sort of thing.  Its nice to be back in the realm of my normal.  Got size 8 jeans today at Old Navy.  I'm feeling like the noticeably troublesome spot is my jelly belly/muffin top.  No surprise after having three kids but I will have to work on it.  BIG TIME!  

The Keychain

The Weight Watchers 10% keychain pictured above.  I got it today!  Well, surprise, surprise its in the shape of a 10.  My leader made me stand up in front of our group and say what's been working for me.  I said, "The weight was coming off slowly.  Once the baby became old enough to put in babysitting my exercise has increased a lot as well as my weight loss."  I mentioned that I signed up for a half marathon and some old lady sort of snickered, "Oh the weight will come off now."  But I responded that I had done a half marathon once before and not really lost much weight and I know its the two things together.  Unfortunately, I got there late because my doctor appointment took forever.  I really miss my leader's pep talk for the week, I was really looking forward to getting motivated.  Oh well, there's always next week.  Feeling on track though, lost another 1 lb this week, in total down 21.2 lbs.  

Stars Did Not Line Up

Tough day at the gym.  I actually felt nauseous while running so I decided to stop running and do the rest of the weight circuit that I didn't finish yesterday.  I usually arrive at the gym feeling a little accomplished, the stars have to line up just perfectly for me to get that hour at the gym.  The kids need to be settled in the babysitting (most days they like going but sometimes my daughter doesn't want to) and I've got to get in out before anyone needs to eat something, a nap, picked up from school, brought to an activity or nursed.  This was the first time ever that I got in there and just wasn't up to doing my run.  I keep missing that run on the weekend which makes me exceed the 10% rule (10% rule is only increase your weekly mileage by 10%).  I'm going to get injured. UGH!  Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today.

I also took time out to schedule some doctor appointments today.  I got one for tomorrow but it means I'll get to my WW meeting late.  Wondering if I should cancel the dermatologist appointment and get to my meeting.  I get my 10% keychain tomorrow!!  I know, I've turned into a Weight Watchers nerd.

Less than 9 Minutes!

That's right less than nine minutes per mile today!  I have to ask my running guru/friend about interval training since after doing it only once it made such a difference.  I got on the treadmill today and again my old pace seemed sort of slow.  I decided to play a game with myself and change the speed every quarter mile up or down, mostly at a pace of 8 minutes and change.  I can not believe that I ran my first three miles at a less than 9 minute pace, I went easy on the fourth mile.  I'm really proud of myself.  I think this is huge improvement.

Hopefully the piggy inside me didn't cause too much damage this weekend.  Valentine's cookie, need I say more.  They were delicious.  Followed by Super Bowl food, summer sausage and cheddar cheese for Green Bay.  No idea what was supposed to be Pittsburgh food.  I also did not get my weekend run in AGAIN.  I should just amend the training schedule.   Despite my cheats/treats people continue to notice my weight loss.  My daughter's dance teacher said, "It looks like you are melting away!" Another mom in my daughter's gymnastic class commented that she can't believe I lost all the baby weight already.  I am so proud of losing all the baby weight before the baby is even 5 months old.  Toot!  Toot!  That would be my own horn that I'm honking.

My second pair of "reward" pants are too big!  Not sure if its just those pants or could it be that I am down to a size 8??  Would love to be back in the single digits again.   Looking forward to getting to my meeting on Wed to discuss/determine my goal weight.  

What a Day!!!!!!!!

This week I was down 3.6 lbs!!  This is important for several reasons (1) I hit the 10% goal, I lost 10% of my body weight since starting WW, (2) Its another 5 lbs!!, (3) Grand total lost is 20.2 lbs!  I'm just starting week 17 so I am ahead of my 1 lb per week goal.  Its definitely a lot to do with the running, I'm now in the 10-15 miles per week range. I trained for a half marathon before and did not lose weight like this so I know its the WW too.  The biggest thing is the tracking and I've been so good for several weeks now.  Can not let myself get lazy now.  Unfortunately, no meeting this week with the snow.  Wonder what the 10% keychain is like?  Guess I'll find out at the next meeting.

Lucky me, they evaluated my kids swimming ability in their swim class today and they are able to take lessons at the same time in different groups.  THIS IS HUGE.  No swimming in that cold pool for me!!  Plus I was able to fit in some exercise unexpectedly.  Managed to get my long run in today, unfortunately on the treadmill.  HOLY INTERVALS!!!  I picked up my pace a lot. I would normally run on 6.0 which i think is 10 min per mile pace.  I started out on it and it felt slow!  So I mostly ran on 6.7- 6.3, which is like a 9:13 min - 9:30 min/mile pace.  Maybe I should really set the time bar higher and make my time goal under 2 hours.  That's secretly what I was hoping for but I thought that would be too hard.  So happy the shin splints seem to have gone away, just a little tightness at the beginning of my runs and then it subsides once I'm fully warmed up.  I sound like I'm an old car.

Met another mom today at the Y with 3 kids close in age like mine.  Its so easy to relate to people that are in a like situation.  Hers are even closer together than mine.  She was so funny how she commented that she only now feels like she's having a life again (her baby is 9 months).  She commented that she's had to teach herself how to talk to other adults again.  I wouldn't say I've gotten that bad but the coolest music I listen to is in my 2 year old daughter's gymnastics class.  I really should go Biggest Loser on this blog and start calling it "My Journey."  My Journey to what?  A healthy me, a healthier family, goal achieving, being interesting, having something interesting to work on, perhaps all of the above.  I think being boring or rather not boring is good motivation too.  Totally anticipated that today was going to be a little boring and what a pleasant surprise it was so far from it!

Still hoping to hit 10% tomorrow

Finally rewarded myself for this last 5lb loss.  I'm not creative enough to think of something that I didn't have to spend money on but I got the next best thing. Pants on clearance at Target!  My previous reward jeans, remember the brand "Not Your Daughters' Jeans" Ugh!  I was squeezing into a size 12.  I kind of almost thought that they looked like skinny jeans (by "skinny" I mean the tight look, not actually skinny).  They are really baggy now!!  YAY!  For this next pair of reward pants I was in Target and surprisingly Target has all these different numbered fits which in some ways is annoying b/c you have to look at more than just your size but in other ways is easy b/c you can eliminate several fits just by looking at them on the poster. So I found a pair of jeans I liked enough to get on clearance but the pockets were plain which did nothing for my backside so I decided not to get them.  I did on the other hand get a pair of green size 10 cargo pants  (not even sure if that's what they're called, more fitted than cargo pants, khaki pants?).  Anyway, I've already worn them twice and I'm happy with them but even these new pants are starting to look a little extra baggy so I am wondering if this week I am doing really amazing!

If I am down more than 2 lbs I will hit my 10% WW goal.  That's exciting b/c then you set your ultimate goal.  I know ballpark where my goal will be so when I hit 10% I should be nearly half way there depending on what me and my leader decide on for my exact goal weight.   I can't remember if I wrote about it already but people have been noticing my weight loss.  The dry cleaner said something that made my day, a mother from my daughter's class has said something twice to me in the last couple of weeks, and today a mother from my son's class said how skinny I looked (skinny was her word not mine).  Needless to say I am pumped!!  But not pumped enough to stop myself from treats.  With the amount of exercising I'm getting in, I wonder how much I would've lost without the treats!

The last several weeks I've been really good about tracking my food.  I've been eating up my points but I know that if I stay within my points I will still lose.  I kind of just have to trust that b/c some weeks for better or worse this does not feel like a diet.

Running.  Well I missed a run last week.  That weekend run is hard to fit in.  I either get out of the house early and miss the lazy weekend wake up or it just does not happen at all.  I didn't really beat myself up too much over it.  Its tough to get motivated to run on a treadmill and there's too much darn snow to road run.  So far this week's run have gone really well.  Yesterday a personal trainer at the gym struck up some conversation with me.  She suggested I try to lift weights twice a week and do intervals once a week.  I tried intervals today.  First no treadmills to warm up on so I used the arc for 5 minutes and then stretched.  New trainer friend introduced me to one of her clients who runs and is in a running club.  Finished stretching, still no treadmills, back on the arc on some interval setting for 30 minutes, only went 1.5 miles in 30 minutes!  Finally a treadmill was available and I tried going much faster than my normal 9:30-10:30 minutes per mile, just under 8 min miles only for a quarter mile at a time (trainer had suggested 30 seconds at a time but I prefer the distance measurement).  I really enjoyed it and definitely think it will help my speed, treadmill wasn't quite as boring this way.  Unfortunately I couldn't finish my last quarter mile b/c my daughter's diaper was leaking and the gym babysitter came to get me.  Darn these new diapers!