Looking Towards 2017

I've not blogged for over a year.  I'm not sure why. There's something cathartic about logging your thoughts, so I'm definitely going to try to do more of it this year.


It's totally cliche to do a resolutions post, but that's ok, I'm thoroughly unoriginal.

I don't really have resolutions so much as I have a set of goals I'd like to work towards this year.


Nutrition- I've got several bulletpoints here

• Log my food most days.  I'm aiming for at least 25 days per month
• Incorporate more whole foods.  
• Pay more attention to how much sugar I'm consuming
• Drastically reduce the number of restaurant meals we're having.  I'm aiming for one per month 

Fitness-

• Do some form of exercise at least 4 days per week- don't get too caught up on this.  It can be yoga, walking the dog, doing an exercise video, riding a bike, etc.  
• Spend more time doing yoga in general

 Finances

• Track our spending
• make reductions in food budget
• increase our savings

 Home

• Start making small renovations towards making our house the home we want it to be
• Do the UFYH app 20-10s at least 2 per day
• once winter is over, spend one weekend a month in the yard making improvements.  Most of these improvements are just manpower, not expenditure

Education

• spend 1 hour per day working on my coursework.  
• Aim to test for a new class every 8-10 weeks
• BIG GOAL- Finish my ChFC designation

 Knitting

• Reduce my yarn stock by 30%
• Start holiday knitting now, make a spreadsheet and double check it
• reduce stash of remnants by 50% instead of an overflowing basket, half a basket
• finally finish a pretty thing A Pretty Thing
• Make some modifications to my alpaca fingerless mitts so they are a little easier to wear
• Finish fixing the mitt that my dad's dog ate
• Log any new yarn purchases on Ravelry
• Knit an Ease sweater
• knit another Skew sock 
• Knit Tradewinds
• Knit Wink
• Set aside an evening and photograph and log yarn  stash on Ravelry.  Add at least 10 of the existing hanks 
• Do project pages for everything I start in 2017 on Ravelry
• Take a Craftsy class
• Take a knitting class- Maybe a Fair Isle Class?
• Knit at least 8 pair of socks this year.  This will include SKEW
•  I really want to make and wear this Cabled Poncho

Life in general

• Try to be more aware politically.  
• Be the change I want to be
• work on being more positive
• work on getting more and better sleep

I think this list should keep me out of trouble this year.  

June

Today is June 1.  Let's look back on May and see what I accomplished.  Some of this is real accomplishment and some is brain dump because of really lax blogging.

•  I made serious progress changing my relationship with food.  At the end of May, I stopped counting points (which is a SERIOUS step away from disordered eating in my view) and started logging calories.  There is something about that Free For All mentality that really leads to bad things in my head.  I've done some seriously disordered things as a Weight Watchers member that I wouldn't do just in life.  As a Weight Watchers member, I didn't change my relationship with food AT ALL.  I just changed the garbage I binged on.  Going to a meeting lead by another binge eater is NOT what I need to be doing.
•  I stepped completely away from Weight Watchers.  The leader I connected to the most isn't a leader anymore (but is still a friend.)  The leader I could kind of relate to left my meeting and went to another state.  That left us with a leader I cannot relate to.  I find that particular leader triggering because SHE still has so much work to do to change her relationship with food.  She mentions AT LEAST once per month that she tried emotional eating again and it didn't help her.  I am sure seeing her standing there, 160 lbs lighter is inspirational to some, but to me, hearing her talking about continuing with emotional eating is really triggering.  Sorry, disordered eater here.   I've mentioned here that there's a disconnect for me between Weight Watchers promoting a 'healthy' lifestyle and their endorsement of artificial sweeteners, tons of chemicals, fat free dairy, INCLUDING CHEESE, etc.
• Mile a Day May.  Well, I haven't run a mile in 2 weeks.  Last week, I got a TERRIBLE cold.  Like I missed work for 2 days. I never do that. Then my cough held on for another week. Then I got another cold.  I've continued to walk every day, and probably actually moved my body at least 100 miles in determined exercise in May.    I will keep running 3 times per week, and walking all of the other days but for now, I'm delighted with my activity level except...
• STRENGTH.  OH MAN, I am bollocks at strength lately.  I'm really wanting to focus on my butt and my legs.  And do some arm work.  I'll do some body weight exercises every day in June.  PROMISE ;)
• Yoga- I started stretching for 5 minutes after my runs.  But it's not enough.    I'm going to do some more in June, because it's good both for my strength and my flexibility. 
• I'm changing my focus to learn to love myself as I am.  I'm not moving with ANY weight loss intention right now.  I'm just trying to live a healthy life and not gain weight.  I think this will be a good exercise for me.

So, what's up for June?  Some stuff I'm excited about.  Some stuff I am kind of meh about.

Excited! for:

• Some friends and Raj's sister are visiting in a couple of weeks.  Can't wait to see everyone again!
• My friends bought me tickets to see Cyndi Lauper and Cher for my birthday!  I haven't been to a concert in YEARS and WHAT A COOL CONCERT THAT WILL BE.  
• Taking a PTO day with one of my BFF.  I love hanging out with her.
• Father's Day.  I'm delighted that it's coming up, that Raj will get to spend it with his friends that are here.  He's an amazing Dad.  Dev and I are lucky to have him.
• Relay for Life

Meh:

• Actually turning 40
• Doing 40 push ups on my 40th. 

I'm really feeling like I'm in a great place right now.  I hope you are as well.

Mid-May Update

Several things going on right now....


First up, Mile a Day May.  HOLY MOLY do I feel strong.  I've shared here before that I am slow and I am totally fine with that.  BUT this morning's two mile run was amazing.  I wasn't worried about the amount of time I had left, my speed, my distance, etc.  I was just running.  My first mile, it's hard to quantify my speed because it also had my warm up walk in there.  But my second mile, well, that was pretty strong, for me.  Mile two was 12:07.  Given that my fast mile (a one-off) was 11:17, this is a very strong second mile.  It was one of those mythical runs were you feel like you could just keep going forever, if only you had unlimited time. (I don't,  I have to hurry back from my run so that Raj can go to work)- Yesterday was intervals and I struggled through them all.  Weird.  But maybe that 12:07 is like my happy pace?? I just don't know.

Second, Sugar.  I am not missing sugar at all.  My food cravings are way down and I am sitting around 1400-1800 calories per day.  I'm naturally eating more on days when I have CRAZY high activity.  I'm very happy right where I am at right now and hope to carry on like this.

Third, scale?  Honestly, I don't know.  The scale was making me crazy, so I am off it right now.  I will go to Weight Watchers for weigh in and meeting on Sunday, but I'm really pulling all the way away from Weight Watchers right now. 

Fourth- Weight Watchers.  I'm trying to make peace with the program.  I'm still paying for it, still going to meetings (most weeks) but I am NOT using the tools. AT ALL.  I turned off my active link, am wearing a fitbit instead.  I'm counting calories instead of points and doing really well.  So mainly I am paying $42 per month to go stand on a scale and talk about food with others.  I enjoy my meeting, but that's a pretty hefty price to pay for an hour of talk a week. 

Fifth- wheat.  I don't miss it.  I had been missing pasta, but really, what is pasta but a vehicle to eat sauce?  So, I got a Veggetti and OMG, I AM BACK.  In my opinion, pasta sauce tastes better over zucchini than it does over noodles.  I'm so happy eating this way.  I just registered for a big work conference and listed wheat as a special diet consideration.  I don't think I have a gluten problem, but I am afraid that suddenly eating wheat after weeks and weeks without could cause... uhm, embarrassing problems at a work event.

So, no loss on the weight front, that I know of, my my runs are telling the real story.  I am happy and comfortable where I am, eating the way I am and I have no intentions of making any changes.  I'm still trying to decide what to do about Weight Watchers.  I'd welcome anyone's advice, guidance, or words of wisdom.

Mile a Day May

At the end of April, the end of my challenge, I was looking for something to do.  I'd already been doing Couch to 5K so it seemed natural for me to challenge myself to run a mile every day in May.  So far, this has been going very well.  My run is getting stronger, I'm getting faster, I'm forcing myself to work hills and am generally happy with my run.

Know what I'm bad at/about?  Stretching.  If you run, you  need to stretch after, y'all.  I get bored from this so I like to act like I am totally immune to the needs of stretching but OMG, one pole dancing class was enough to let me know that I am tight in the legs and hamstrings.

So today, I set my HIIT timer to chime every 30 seconds.  I'm able to just focus on stretching and not wonder how long I've held each stretch.  I totally felt my muscles releasing tension and am energized after my run.

I continue to feel like I am working off of Weight Watchers message, but the accountability of the meetings is really important to me.  So, I'm counting calories, moving more and most importantly, avoiding sugar and wheat.   Somewhere after the 4th day of no sugar, I stopped wanting it.  I don't want fake sugar, I don't want real sugar.  I don't want honey (with the exception of some granola bars I made for my son!)  I just want real, healthy food. 

Having a couple of challenges going at once and I'm enjoying life quite a bit.  I made a bit of a life change because I started running before work.   It's good for the dog, who is a jerk, because he gets exercise before he's crated all day.  It's good for me because I get a minimum of 30 minutes of  activity before I get a chance to decide not to do it.  It's good for me because it helps me set my intention for the day.

I'm not losing any weight right now, for some reason.  That's ok, but it is disappointing.  I've got at least 50 if not 80 lbs to go.  I just keep working hard and moving towards my goals, little by little, day by day.

OOOOH Sugar

So the whole 'No Sugar, No Wheat' thing is getting easier and easier.  I don't feel like I am missing anything, I'm way less hungry and the natural sweetness of food really shines through now.

I'm also starting to understand a little more about the way my body works.  For example, this week we added a second fruit back into to our diets.  I was happy because I missed that fruit so I packed up a banana to go with my homemade yogurt and frozen cherries and headed to work.  All other things were normal.  I had fewer vegetables to compensate for the extra fruit.  WELLL, I was ravenous with the addition of the banana.  Maybe the banana plus the cherries plus the carrots was too much for me?  All I know is that I probably ate about 500 calories more eating the banana over not eating it.  Interesting.

So yesterday instead of a banana, I took strawberries as my second fruit.  I had no such effect.  Another observation I've made is that I'm no where near as hungry, so I can definitely scale back my portions.  First a little then maybe a lot in the future.

I've been taking quinoa tabbouleh with chicken and avocado for lunch.  Delicious and filling but I need to shake it up next week so I don't get bored.  Snacks have been veg with hummus and yogurt with fruit.

Workouts have been pretty good.  I couldn't face the thought of 30 Day Shred coupled with running and a lunchtime walk for May, so 30 Day Shred will get moved to June and I will alternate Yoga Meltdown with a few other workout DVDs.  I'm also incorporating a lot more  yoga as I need to make sure that I get some good stretching in after all those workouts.

One thing I'm really torn with is Weight Watchers.  More and more I feel like my idea of what's healthy diverges with Weight Watchers.  I'm still going to the meetings for the accountability and the friends I have there, but 45 bucks a month is a lot to pay for friendship. 

So here's where I diverge with Weight Watchers.  1) Weight Watchers seems to be, at its heart, a low carb, low fat diet.  I believe that eating MORE heart healthy fats trigger your satiety points and in turn you eat less.  2) Weight Watchers allows unlimited 'free' fruits and vegetables.  These foods are not without calories and they should all 'cost' something. 3) (Most importantly to me) Weight Watchers sells a ton of nutritionally void processed crap, both at your local supermarket and in the front of their meeting locations.  It's literally not possible for me to disagree with that more.  That kind of stuff TRIGGERS more overeating in people like me.  I feel like the moment they hitched their wagon to that kind of stuff, they should have re-evaluated if 'healthy' was their prime objective.

I can't tell you how many of the meetings I have attended over the years where I hear someone talk about hacking a recipe, driving down the points value for some junk food by adding fiber one to it.  STOP ADDING FIBER TO SHIT AND JUST EAT REAL FOOD.  So I'm struggling with that and trying to formulate a plan where I leave Weight Watchers and keep up my health living journey.

I'm not convinced I am strong enough to go it alone yet... But I bet I can sort something out.

I'm going to try to check in more in this space and keep you all informed about what I'm up to.  I'm still here, still plugging away. 

Be well, everyone.

Suuuugar

I've been throwing down the Gauntlet Against Sugar for the past 2 weeks.  In that time, my cravings  have decreased significantly.  I've not eaten anything with added sugar at all in that time WITH THE EXCEPTION OF SOMETHING SNEAKY.  I'm looking at you Costco's Rotisserie Chicken.  WHY does that have sugar in it? Stupid and frustrating.

I've made a lot of really positive changes in my life in the past couple of years.  I'm fitter/stronger/heathier. 

I'm still overweight and still overweight by about the same amount I was before but that's OK.  I'm smaller than I was, changing my relationship with food and making permanent changes.

I've been running with Conner most days, gearing up for Mile A Day May.  The dog loves it and I love it.  I've also got a May challenge coming up to eat clean and to workout as much as possible.  I think I will hit up the 30 Day Shred and also some Yoga.  This plus the addition of a Fitbit I've got coming and I should be on track to be the healthiest 40 year old possible in June.

I've got this.

It's always a struggle

As long as I live, I will never not be struggling against sugar addiction.  I crave it hardcore.

I'm trying to go 30 days without any sugar or sweetener added to my food.  I'm really only at about day 3, and it's tough.  I've cut waaaaay back otherwise and the only added sugar I had last week was from sneaky sources.

Which brings me to a point... WHY is there sugar in chicken sausage and in rotisserie chicken?  MEAT DOESN'T NEED SUGAR.
*grumble*

My weight is still up and down.  I'm fine with this because as I fight sugar cravings, I'm eating more of other things like nuts, nut butter which is not calorie free or low in points.

My trainer challenged us to really turn up the fight on sugar this week.  We are also avoiding things like
*all refined flours (already doing this)
*carrots
*potatoes
and limiting
*fruit to one piece per day
*cheese to an amount the size of your thumb
*milk to one serving per day

PLUS sweets.  She totally ratcheted things up by issuing that challenge on Easter week.  I'm a little shocked at how much sugar is in my son's Easter Basket.  It's quite a lot.  In general, I want to remove most of my family's dependence on sugar.  It causes so many more problems than just weight.  *Sigh*

I really hope I can avoid passing my food issues along to my son.

Countdown to 40

90 Days.   I've got 90 days before I turn 40.  I'm not sure how it happened, but here it is.

90 days before I'm an age I never thought I'd be.  90 days to make some really positive changes in my life.

I don't want to whimper into 40.  I want to go into the next decade of my life with purpose, as fit as I can be.  I want to go in feeling accomplished.

So I've got a goal.

To be the fittest me I can by 40, I want to:

1) Do a better job keeping my whole house clean.  My kid is 6. He can start to pitch in with his own mess.  I can sit on my ass less.  I can be proud of my home.  I don't need to knit for 3 hours per day.

2) Strength training.  I've got to do it. Period.  I'm going to do strength on Tuesdays, Thursdays and on Saturday when my trainer hands my ass to me for 90 minutes.

3) Cardio.  I'm going to start running again as soon as the sidewalks clear.  I'll be taking the dog for daily walks until then.

4) Stretching.  Yoga and I are going to rekindle our relationship.  This will help with the pain that comes from numbers 2 and 3.

5) Food.  I've been doing well on that regard, but it can always be better.  I'm going to continue to watch what I put in my mouth and remove my reliance on man-made food.  I'll eat what I have and then make a positive change for my health and for the health of my family.

6) Push Ups.  SOME WAY, SOME HOW I am going to do 40 push ups on my toes.

Forty is going to be freaking FABULOUS.  I've got this.

Time to break the cycle

I've been on holiday mode for weeks.  In my world,  holiday mode is eat a lot of crap, gain weight, get my groove back, lose the gain, rinse and repeat.

I restarted my activity challenge on my active link and I am going to change my focus away from sugar.  I've been eating A TON of sugar.  It's ridiculous, really.

I was thinking about doing Weight Watchers' Simple Start, so I think I will start that on Monday.  Not today, because today we are having a birthday party to celebrate my son turning six!  I want to relax and enjoy his party.  His birthday marks the end of the holiday season for me, so I am hopeful I can get my groove back.

I'm down right at 20 lbs from last year.  I need to get the scale back into a losing trend and myself back into the right mindset.

Simple goals for this week.  Track all my food, have at least 3 days without added sugar and end the week without dipping into my activity points.  Meet my Active Link challenge activity level every day.

I've been struggling with resentment.  WHY do I have such food issues, I resent having them.  I just want to be able to take or leave certain foods and that's just not me.  I don't do that. EVER.  That's why I am gearing up to do Simple Start.  It focuses mainly on real food, with small indulgences every day.  I do take some exception to what qualifies as an indulgence, but what are you going to do?

I need to start training for Fight For Air.  If you feel so inclined, please feel free to support my climb.  It's the toughest event I do, and it's for an important cause.  Any help you can give on my fundraising efforts would be greatly appreciated.

Starting today, I will begin doing the stairs in my house 30 times per day.  I'll add more next week and the week after.  I suspect this will go a long way towards hitting my activity goal.

So, in summary, I am not on track right now, but am going to get back on track RIGHT NOW.  Just by putting one foot in front of the other.

2013 Year in Review and 2014 Goal Setting

First. I would like to take a minute to look back at my 2013.

I had a lot of victories.

I started working out for serious.  During 2013,  I did all of the following:

• Deadlift 175 lbs
• Did the Fight for Air Stairclimb- this is serious business!
• participated in several 5ks
• did 2 10ks.
• finally picked up yoga as a serious habit

It was all imperfect.  But I did my best at each race and what more can you ask, really.

In 2013. I also did a lot of knitting. I made:

• Several pairs of mittens
• Several hats
• a scarf for Dev
• a couple of pairs of fingerless mitts
• finally finished socks I cast on in Maryland
• a lovely shawl for one of my BFF

 And I lost about 20 lbs over the past year.  I gained and lost much more than that, but the net loss isn't bad at all.




 2013 was a tough one for a lot of people in my family, and it wasn't exactly easy on me, either.  My life went fine, other than my company having a layoff, but in 2013, the following things happened to my sister

• divorced her husband
• moved into a rental after years of owning
• bought a house, but a major fixer upper
• as a single parent of 3 kids, started nursing school
• developed anxiety
• children got into her anxiety medication and two of them were airlifted to a hospital an hour away (they are ok!)
• witnessed her lovely, 13 year old yellow lab having a very long, grand mal seizure
• fell down the stairs at her house, breaking her leg
• had to withdraw from nursing school due to said broken leg

That's a lot of crap for one year.  Thankfully, there was some good mixed in with there, so she's not giving up on life or anything :)  it was a harder year on me, because I love my sister a lot and hate to see her suffering

Now, what do I hope to accomplish in 2013 in three sections

Fitness Goals

• complete several events.  Fight for Air, Relay for Life- walk a half marathon
• in the spring, I am going to start back on Couch to 5K.  To this end, I want to complete a 5k where I run the entire thing
• I'm doing Fight for Air again.  Normally, I would be gunning for a PR, but I have a friend that's doing it with me and my goal is to support her up the stairs.
• I want to be able to do 50 push ups on my toes.

Weight Loss Goals
I don't believe in setting defined be x weight by x day goals, so for this I will say I just want to be a little better one year from today than I am today.  If I could be out of the Obese range, I'd be delighted.  If I was out of the overweight range, I would be estatic. 

Knitting goals

• Knit through at least 1/2 of my (admittedly small) stash.  Most of my stash is remnants.  I will be making at least a few pairs of crazy socks for Deven.
• Start holiday knitting sooner.  Like July
• SAY NO to people that want me to knit things for them in November.  
• Knit more for myself.
• Challenge myself to make harder projects. Lace- a sweater maybe?  MAYBE TRY ARGYLE?  Learn how to Fair Isle

Organizational Goals

• Finally tackle the spare room.  Reduce the volume of stuff in there by 1/2
• put in a shelving system that actually makes sense in the spare room
• get better at keeping things organized in there

All in all, these goals are all both big and small.  Doable and frightening and challenging.  Just what goals should be.


Happy New Year, everyone!

Visiting Family

On Friday, I headed to Weight Watchers before work (Woohoo! I lost 2.4 and got my 5%) and went out for breakfast with Dev.  Looking at this picture, you can see how many tries it takes to get a picture of him where he looks legitimately happy.

  I dropped him off at school and headed into work.  I had a half day because we were going to Iowa after Raj got off work and I wanted to get us ready.  Once I got home, I did my Planksgiving, my challenge workout and took the dog for a walk.   I didn't have a ton of time to walk, but I did hit this trail.

I'm lucky enough to live in a neighborhood that has loads of trails and nearly all of them are as lovely as this shot.  If you look closely, you can see that there are a couple of apples on the ground near where I took this picture.  I wish you could smell the area.  It smells like an orchard even though there's just the one apple tree.

I need to get a picture of Conner on a walk sometime.  He smiles the whole time.  In a few weeks, Conner will turn 3.  I am here to tell you that the older he gets, the more pleasant it is to have him as a pet.  Now, you can sometimes pet him without him assuming that you want to play.  He's still busy, probably always will be, but he becomes more and more a faithful companion with each passing year.

It was too dark for the drive to Iowa for me to get much knitting done, but I was able to finish Deven's mittens while we were in Iowa.  I snapped this shot of me knitting in the car.  I'd just started the thumbs.

Once you get to the thumbs, you just have a few minutes of knitting left.  Less than an hour later, I snapped this shot of Deven wearing the finished product.

Dev couldn't be bothered to look at the camera or smile properly.  He was far too busy watching a DVD in the car. 

So, we got home and I got started on the laundry.  Dev had gotten his sneakers FILTHY at school, so those needed to be washed and dried before Monday.  We ran out, got some groceries and collapsed in a heap on the couch.

We've almost got our lives back together.  Today is the last day of the first week of the Holiday Hustle. I owe 10 minutes each for strength and cardio.  Obviously this won't be a problem at all.  I'll do my requirements and finish up the 10 minutes by running stairs.  My strength- I will do the daily challenge and finish up with crunches and push ups.

I'm off to scour Ravelry.  I need to find the perfect mittens to make for Dev's teacher and for a volunteer that is working with Deven.  We feel so lucky that Dev's school is working so hard to keep him challenged.  Dev reads above grade level-so they did an assessment and are utilizing a retired teacher to work with him at his level.  He reads books that are a little challenging for him and after she has him write a few sentences about what he's read.  It's easy enough to look at a kid and say 'he already reads, so phonics will be a good review.' I'm so pleased that his school didn't do that.

Anyway, I'm grateful for Dev's wonderful kindergarten teacher and his volunteer, so I really want to make some special mittens.

Be well, everyone!

Invitations

Thanksgiving season is here.  We don't usually travel for Thanksgiving because 1) airfare is ridiculous and 2) I don't want to :).  We've got a plan for a nice, solitary Thanksgiving around here.

We are lucky enough to have invitations to several Thanksgiving meals, but I feel like Thanksgiving should be a family event, so I am going to keep it to my family of three.  We might have a friend come by as she's at loose ends, but if I am the one doing the cooking, I have a lot more control of the food on the table, healthfulness of the choices, calories I consume.

I'm thinking we will do a small turkey roast that comes built in with cranberry stuffing.  That way 1) I am not buying a separate cranberry dish and 2) we won't have a ton of leftovers.  For a veg, I think I will make a nice harvest salad with dried cranberries, roasted almonds, lovely veg.  And mashed potatoes, BECAUSE I SAID SO. 

I'll be making a pumpkin pie without modifications because I can splurge on one thing on Thanksgiving and that will be it.  No one will be overstuffed and uncomfortable.

I'm also starting the day with a 5K.  I'm not sure if I will be running or walking. I am going to listen to my body and do what feels right.  Right now, I'm having pain in the hamstrings, low back and calf, plus feet as always, so running seems like a really silly idea.  But that's several days away and I could end up being a ball of fire on Turkey Day.

Activity v. 2.0 will come when my friends pick me up for a night of Christmas shopping.  We are going to brave Black Friday and probably overconsume on the good old caffeine.  It sounds like we will be out most of the night and into the morning.  Raj has to work day after Thanksgiving, so he'll be taking Dev with him to work and I will be picking him up when we are done.  Should be fun.

I'm nervous about getting in so many workout minutes, but I know I can do it.  Yesterday I set a goal to do 50 push ups on my toes by the end of 2014.  This means that a good portion of my strength training for the year will be dedicated to push ups and things to move me towards that goal.  As always, my legs and core need a lot of work, so I know I can get where I need to be. 

I will probably set up a tabata style workout for myself to get the cardio in.  Plus maybe get Raj to mitt for me a bit for more boxing time. 

Either way, little by little, reaching my goals and making healthy plans.

Be well, everyone.

Goals for the Work Week

So, here I am without a challenge (until Wednesday,) but I am not without goals...  Here's what I want to accomplish this week.  I'll check back in on Friday and let you know how I did.


1) Make a point to get up every single hour.  I'm going to set a reminder to this end.  I'd like to make myself a cup of tea or something that will require me to walk around for a few minutes.

2) Make sure I move at least 40 minutes per day, preferably one hour per day.

3) Keep up with the 30 Day Yoga and Planksgiving challenges. 

4) Do some strength training every day.  I've got a 50s challenge in my mind.  Something like on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I do 50 Crunches, 50 bicycles, 50 reverse crunches and on Tuesday and Thursday I do 50 butt tap squats and 50 yoga block lunges and 50 push ups (as many as possible on my toes.)

5) Track my food.  I KNOW for a fact I do better if I have to put things down on paper.

6) Finish my mittens.  I have about 1/4 of the last mitten to go.  If it was a weekend, it would be a slam dunk that I would finish it today, but I think at this point, I will be lucky to finish this week.  After that, I will be casting on mittens for little Dev.  

I'm a little sad about daylight savings time.  It means I am going to be coming home in the full dark at 5:30.  I don't like to exercise outside in the dark, so that means I will be working out in the house.  I miiiight need to pick up a Weight Watcher's active link to make sure that I am getting enough fitness minutes in.  I need to constantly be challenging myself so that I can be constantly improving myself.  I think it's really easy to kind of kid yourself about how much you are really doing.

Dev and I have been walking about a mile and a quarter to his school every day, I walk back home to grab the car and drive home.  This has been working out VERY well for us.  It puts us both in a positive mind frame for the day and it starts my day out with a little activity.  It's time to get my bum in the shower so I can walk that crazy kid to school.

Have a great week everyone!

Sunday

Planksgiving is going well.  I mean, it's only 3 days in, so it's not like it is that hard at this point.

I'm feeling a little lost this morning, since our fall fitness challenge is over.  We have the Holiday Hustle starting this week, but it's not as involved.  I'm really looking forward to the 90 minute fitness classes that are upcoming.

I'm also on day 11 of doyouyoga.com's 30 Day Yoga Challenge.  You can find out more about that challenge here.  Erin is a great yoga instructor.  Some days this is a huge challenge and some days it's just a pleasure.  Either way, you've totally got 20 minutes to add more yoga into your life.  I strongly recommend it.

Sunday mornings are my favorite.  We all get up whenever we want, Raj and I sit around drinking coffee.  I usually work on some knitting.  Deven gets to watch movies or play video games.  We all tidy up the house a bit and I try to take the dog for a 4-5 mile walk.  It's a wonderful, restorative day.


Today's project is to get going on and hopefully finish knitting my mittens.  I finished my first mitten yesterday, on to the second one.  I will probably do a proper pattern review on Ravelry and will definitely post pictures of my finished mittens once I get them both done.  They are not meant to match, but coordinate and I love the look of my first finished mitten.

Yesterday's weigh in was a really good one.  I was down 2.6 lbs for a total of 11.4 pounds lost overall.  I'm a bit over what the My Fitness Pal tracker says I am, but that's because I regained EVERYTHING and I didn't want to reset everything.  In any event, I am back on a losing trend and counting points, logging food and staying active.

Last night we went to a friend's house for s'mores, a bonfire, and conversation.  I had one s'more. To be honest, I am pretty meh about the whole deal.  I think they are overly sweet.  So yeah, I am out for future s'mores.  It didn't trigger me to eat all the sugar in the world, but I think that's because I took the time to log my points about it.  They were also offering caramel apple crisp. THAT was tempting, but after the s'more, I certainly didn't need more sugar.  In any event, I think that sticking to my whole no sugar thing is the best for me.  I was much more satisfied with the conversation, watching the kids play, watching our dog play with their dogs, and warming up by the fire.

I'm going to try to post a Sunday brain dump, so that I can keep active on this blog.  I don't have a ton of readers, but I love those that I have :) 

I am happy with the place I am at right now.  I don't need to be perfect, I just need each day to be a little better than I was the day before.  To try one thing each day that's challenging.   I've been doing that and seeing great results.

Now, off to the couch for some knitting and coffee sipping.  I'll get Sunday dinner in the crockpot soon and we will all just relax and enjoy each other.  Be well, everyone.

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.

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.

My week.

Stuff I did this week.

Bootcamp, twice.  I really enjoyed it, too.  I needed a good run with bootcamps, because last week, I was ready to quit.  I was doing whole thirty and I would run completely out of energy before it was over.  There were a lot of factors at play here, but I think not having any non-fruit carbs was really kicking my butt.  I brought some Ezekiel bread back in and I've now got enough energy to make it through about 90 minutes of strenuous exercise.

3 training runs.  Sunday morning's run was ok, I really struggled on Wednesday- had to keep talking myself through it until I finished and today's run was an absolute dream.  I loved every second.  One of my BFFs met me for the last half-mile or so and it was such a joy to see her pretty face and hear her ramp it up beside me.  I've come a long way.  I can now run and talk a little at the same time.  It used to be that I needed to spend ALL of my attention on watching my breathing.  I'm really starting to think I can run these 10Ks.  Total mileage for the week was 13.11.  That's 3 3.5 mile runs and a shorty before bootcamp on Tuesday.

Not knit.  I've got projects on deck, really I do, but I keep turning my head away from them.  They are pretty much all straight knitting and that's so damned boring that I just want to do something else.  I need to stop, because I can't pick up something more interesting until I have these things off the needles. BECAUSE I SAY SO.

Ran a webinar.  At work, I've taken over running our team's weekly webinar.  I get a good amount of stage fright, but I am getting more confident week by week.  I'm starting to get to a place where I believe I can be good at it.  That's a good place to be.

Boxing class.  I LOVE TO BOX.  REALLY REALLY.  Something about boxing class makes me feel like all is well in the world for at least 3 hours after.  A friend I haven't seen for too long came to class today for the first time and she seemed to enjoy it.  This makes me happy.  Everyone should hit some stuff once a week.  It's good for the soul.

Counted calories- Even when it was inconvenient.  I may not lose weight this week.  I really can't be arsed to care too much.  But if I don't, it won't be because I didn't make myself accountable. 

All in all, I am really great with where I am.  I had an epiphany today.   I honestly don't care if I stay this weight forever, so long as this body will allow me to do the things I want to do.  I want to fuel it with healthy foods, do a better job of getting enough sleep and keep pushing myself to be better, faster, and stronger.  I am not defined by what the scale says.  Do I wish I looked better? Sure.  I think we all have that voice in our heads telling us to feel a certain way about ourselves.  But I am taking myself back from that voice.  I may not always feel this way, but today I do.  And I would like to feel this way tomorrow.  And that's a really, really great start.

So, how the heck are you?

Awakening

I love Spring.  I love those first crisp days when you aren't sure if you should wear a jacket or a coat.  My desire for outdoor fitness is high, so I put the Gentle Leader on crazy Conner and put on my running shoes and head out the door. 

The world is still mostly painted in graytone.  Grass is gray, dirty snow melting into rotten puddles on lawns.  Many sidewalks are damaged from winter's aggression.  There is a crunch underfoot from sand, no longer needed, but yet to wash away. 

My app tells me it's time to start running.  I quicken my pace slightly and urge the dog to a jog.  We run along, turning up a steep hill in a neighborhood street.  I notice the trees are starting to bud.  I smile, remembering how gorgeous this stretch of land is in the summer.  My app tells me it is time to walk.  I slow my pace and look at the ground below.  Little patches of grass are starting to turn green.  I smile again, I love watching the world wake up.  My app tells me to run again.  This run is longer.  As I go, I focus on my breathing. One, two, three, four in and one, two, three, four out.  I'm getting more tired.  This is the part where I start to think about giving up.  I remind myself that I am no quitter.  I pick up my knees a little higher, push a little harder.  The run gets less tiresome.  I have renewed energy.  The app tells me it is time to walk.  I slow my pace and praise the dog.  We decide where we want to go next.  The app tells me it is time to run again.  It's going well.  I am lost in noticing the earth's awakening. It occurs to me that I am having my own awakening. 

This past few months, I've realized that I am strong, way tougher than I give myself credit for.  I can keep up in a very challenging workout.  I'm not elite, but I am trying.  I don't quit.  I keep running at a challenge until I finish it.  The app tells me it is time to walk again.  We slow our pace and notice the world.  I'm grateful for these minutes, where it is just me and my dog vs. my desire to succeed and my obesity.  I'm getting stronger every run, every workout.

It's time to run again.  I am tired when this run starts.  Normally, I'd want to quit.  I won't be quitting.  The dog starts to pull in pursuit of another dog.  I tell him to stop.  We watch where that dog goes and turn the opposite way.  I don't want to spend the last few minutes of this workout being pulled.  I am in charge of me, of this time.  I push myself.  Very tired.  Pick up feet a little higher, count my breaths again, one, two, three, four in and one, two, three, four out.  Focus on one thing so you can't focus on the smaller things.  I'm not really that tired.  One, two, three, four in and one, two, three, four out.  And it's time to walk and cool down.

The athlete in me is awakening with spring.  I am inspired.  I can't wait to see how far I can go.

Be well, everyone.