Fall Challenge, New Blog Feature and Looking Towards the Holidays

I'm towards the end of the final week of my Fall Challenge with my trainer.  It's been a good challenge, tough and eye opening.  As always, when working with Rebecca,  I learn a lot about myself, push myself to do things that I wouldn't otherwise attempt, and even if I don't lose a pound, I bring myself to a healthier place overall.

This challenge I learned the following things about myself.

• I can't handle sugar.  I just cant.  I can go forever without eating sugar, but as soon as I have it I need to eat all the sugar in the world.
  
• I can totally handle a longer wall-sit than I feel like I can.  This challenge, I went from an all time longest wall-sit of 2:38 to a 4:11  wall-sit.

• I have more mental toughness than I give myself credit for.  I did 2 10ks without the fitness to run them.  Granted, they both sucked the joy out of my life, but I am proud of this. 

I'm going to be adding a new blog feature later today.  It's "Stuff I Never Thought I Would Say"  Mostly dedicated to my son, but sometimes my dog or my occasionally strange husband.

Looking towards the holidays, I have some minor goals.  I want to leave this year lighter than I started it.  Currently I am about 6 lbs lighter than I was on 1 January 2013.  I want to keep losing, building strength and creating pride in myself.  I don't have some big, sweeping goal, but I want to do strength training of some kind 3 times per week, do yoga nearly daily and be diligent with walking the dog.  I'm taking a break from running, as I don't want to injure myself and sidetrack things. That being said, it's so good for the dog to run, so I might start couch to 5k again from the beginning.  Let's be honest, guys.  I don't particularly like to run, so I should probably get fit another way.

Stay tuned.  Later today, I will be in with a post or 4 of things that I never thought I'd hear myself saying. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Doing Ok

Last Sunday, I did my second 10K and my last for a time.  My time was around the same and with the adjustments I made, I ran relatively pain free.  I'm just too slow for such a competitive race.  I left the course feeling like a failure, fat, slow, unappreciated.  Some of this was my own insecurities, but some was race organization.

I'm not ever going to be the thinnest runner on the course, but at this point in my life, I'm usually the fattest (in the 10K zone).  I've got arthritis in my ankle and also in my spine and that adds some discomfort to my runs.   My toes are too close together, so they rub in my shoes, no matter how lose the toe is.  And I'm slow.  I'm actually QUITE slow.  This is fine with me, because I'm not out to win, but it doesn't feel nice to cross the finish line when only 2 volunteers are there cheering.

So anyway.  I've been back on Weight Watchers for about 3 weeks.  Looking forward to Saturday's weigh in to see if I crossed the 10 lbs lost range.  Whether I did or didn't, I've been giving it my best effort and am not thinking of veering off course. 

Some people get 7 year itch with their plans.  I get 3 week itch.  I've been trying to articulate a plan that will work for me for a few weeks now.  Here's what I've come up with so far.

1) Fall Challenge Weekly goals.  - I NEED to spend more time doing yoga.  My goal for next week is to spend at least 10 minutes a day doing yoga.  EVERY day.  Preferably more time than that spent.

2) Strength Training.  I avoid this when it's not part of a specific challenge.  I'm not pleased with this.  To this end, On Sunday, I will start 30 Day Shred.  I'm also running only 3 days per week.

3) Weight Watchers goals.  My goal is to leave at least 1 extra point every week. So far, I've been doing it and so far, I am averaging about 3.7 lbs lost.  I know this speed can't keep up, but maybe I can keep a slow, steady downhill.

4) Move more- It's knitting season. My knitting is ramping up, which is AWESOME, but I also need to be making sure that I am getting up at least 5 minutes of every hour.   It's just not a good idea to be sitting still for 3 hours, no matter how captivating my knitting is.

5) Stair Climb.  The Stair Climb is just 5 months away.  I better start running my stairs.  I'm thinking I will just start running the stairs in my house for 5 minutes of every hour.  It's not much, but it's better than nothing.  Maybe one day per week, I will just run up and down them for 20 full minutes.

I'm not expecting great, huge changes.   I just want to be a little better every day.

Last Sunday

Last Sunday, I ran the first of 2 10ks this season.  I've trained the distance several times, so I was unprepared for the pain I had. 


This course was HILLY.  REALLY HILLY.  I've always struggled with back pain, particularly when running, but by mile one, it was really cranking up.  I just took some extra walking breaks and soldiered on.  By mile two, my toes were really hurting.  I just kept on keeping on.

By mile three, I could think of nothing but the pain.  Nothing to do but go forward, as now it's as far to get back to the start as it is to finish.

Mile 4.  We stopped to take a selfie.  More than halfway there.  This run is torture, you all.

Mile 5... Everything hurts, but maybe we can do this.

Mile 6. AGONY.  I can't breathe either.  Exercise asthma FTW.

Jogged in the last .2 and OMG SO HAPPY WE ARE DONE.  It took forever. 1:28:08.  Slow but finished and that was my goal.

We weren't dead last, but we weren't far from it.  I have one 10k to go.  Right now, I feel like it will be my last, but never say never.

Doing well on Weight Watchers.  Feeling pretty good.  I don't want to get too optimistic, because I can stay on any diet for about 3 weeks.  I just need to stick with this. It's not EASY, but it's easier than other plans. 

Weight Watchers

Well, I've been thinking about it for months, but I joined Weight Watchers yesterday.  I'm really curious to see what's changed between my last go-round and now.

I've got a good friend doing it and she's lost a lot of weight and not gonna lie, my bitter heart was jealous.  So after rolling it over in my head for a few weeks, I went ahead and joined.    My first meeting isn't until this weekend, but I am on plan as of now. 

Maybe standing on a scale in front of someone will give me the accountability I need.  I'm really hoping that I can get my nutrition in step with my exercise and just move slowly downward.  I don't need big, flashy results.  I just need to be a little better today than I was yesterday.

Sunday is my first 10k.  I'm nervous about it.  I know I can move the distance but I'm a big girl and I am likely to be the biggest person signed up for the 10k distance.

I've got this, anyway. 

A New Approach

For the past 25 years or so, my diet approach has been 'Lose the weight as quickly as possible by restricting this or that or the other thing"

Well, that's frustrating because eventually you want one of the forbidden items.  and then the floodgates.

So, I changed my goals.  My goals now are to move SOMEHOW every day for at least 40 minutes, to do at least one strength training item per day and to eat about 2,000 calories per day.  If I run/walk for over an hour, I add a few more calories in.  I can usually make room for an indulgence or two every day.

It's not perfect, but it works for me.

I'm feeling happier and more comfortable with where I am.  Just watching now, to see if this is the honeymoon phase.  I hope not.

My week

So this week kicked off with a bang and a whimper. The bang was a shitload of jumping jacks. Like really really a lot of jumping jacks. Sunday was 300 and everyday added or stayed the same. Today's was 800. The whimper was me whining about the jacks.

The next bang was me committing to three six-mile runs this week. The whimper came from my poor, sad, blistered toes.  For some reason I decided that I needed to do that distance for the first time  three times. But I said it. And so I did it. Sunday morning crazy Conner and I went out and knocked that out. Slowly. I'm not a fast runner y'all. I planned to knock it out consecutive but Monday was a big no can do. I went for a four mile walk instead with friends Becky and Cooper. We had a lovely time taking notice of the day. Tuesday was OMG first day of kindergarten so sad old mom took the day off and ran with my friend Sara. She had no schedule or agenda and was just there for me. It was perfect. Six miles and one to go.  Wednesday was guilt day but more on that later. Thursday after work was my day. Hydrated all day and home long enough to put on my sports bra and my sneakers. I start off slowly and stay that way but meander my way around the neighborhood ticking off miles little by little. It was a pleasure although some of the actual miles felt rough. By the end of mile six my aforementioned blistered toes were voting to secede from their union with my body. But I did it. Goal met. Five points for me!

Guilt day. Dev had a fever. Dev had a cough. We treated symptoms but didn't really worry because he was acting fine. Not remotely like a sick person. Saturday morning we all did Color Me Rad. We get home. Whoa. Biiig fever. Give my little busy some Motrin and on with our day. Not acting sick. Sunday sick off and on. Monday same. Tuesday no fever so off to kindergarten we go. Mention to the teacher that he's not feeling perfect. Get a call from the nurse that he was in but not acting sick so she sent him back to class. We pick him up and take him to urgent care. Oh, have we met? Worst mom ever. My kid has pneumonia. Ten seconds after his first dose of his antibiotics and he's so much better.
I'm going to feel better about this in about a dozen years.

Moving into next week. My goal for this week is active recovery. Run our walk with Conner six days. Happy mom, happy dog.

Keep moving forward everyone.

Trying out blogger for the tablet, Weekly and Monthly goals +Challenge

My laptop had been functioning just fine until Thursday when it wouldn't boot. It hasn't booted since. My husband's computer is usually occupied by him, so my screen time is vastly diminished. This is a good thing as my first 10k is in less than a month. I've been struggling with my runs lately, so I devised a new plan. At least twice this week, I will go out and cover at least six miles on my feet. On off days I will work on my legs and back and core.

I've downloaded a Tabata timer and set it for 12 intervals of 5 minutes running/one minute walking. It is my hope that this will allow me to get the six miles under my belt. If I can keep this up I should be ready for the 10k by the end of the month.

Because I'm posting this blog from my tablet I can use voice recognition to type. This is super cool. The only thing is I don't always speak clearly enough and sometimes voice recognition thinks I said something kinda weird. I mean, I usually am saying something weird but not the way it thinks.

I met and exceeded my  goal to run 40 miles in the month of August. I'm really really proud of this. It was in no way easy for me but what it did was prove to myself that I'm far stronger than I think.

For the month of September it is my intention to continue the training program by running three days per week, to track my food every single day even when I don't want to, do at least 15 minutes of yoga focusing primarily on my back my legs and my hips, and to stay within my calorie range at least 5 days per week.

I'm in a fall challenge with my trainer so I will have lots of other goals to me throughout the month too. I'm looking forward to this new challenge and I'm feeling pretty good about myself despite the fact that I still haven't lost any weight. I met with my trainer at the end of last week and had a fat caliper test. I've lost inches just about everywhere and I have definitely lost fat everywhere. Seeing that has made it far less painful that I have actually gained 4 pounds since I started working with her at the beginning of the year.

The fall challenge requires me to make a weekly goal. For me this weeks goal is to do three six mile interval run walks.

I'm still really struggling with my food but I feel like I'm stronger and better. I know that if I keep staying the course I will eventually reach my goals. I just need to get my food in line.  This challenge should help me with that.

Be well, everyone. I hope you're also also moving towards making yourselves proud and meeting your goals.