VICTORY!

So, yesterday's projected workout was 3-4 miles and some core work.
However, instead of just going with the plan I listed to what my body was telling me.
After 3 miles I still felt great so I kept going. After 4 still felt good so why not go some more...I made it to 4.5 miles (my personal best) before I stopped.  4.5 MILES! WOOT!

I was (and am) so super jazzed!
Happy dance? Check. Party Boying the Tredmill? Check. Call the hubs to tell him of my accomplishment? Double check.

I actually think I could have even run for another half mile.  I had to stop though because I was already running 20 minutes late meeting hubs and my family for the college football kickoff at 6:00.

I think I may still be glowing from my Thursday victory run. I am so pumped and proud that I have come this far.  I have now lost 23 pounds and am able to run 4.5 miles and in May I could barely run for 5 minutes without having to stop and walk. Just...awesome.

Today I am going to pick up Bud from his mom's for our weekend.  So, depending on what time I get back, here is the projected workout for today:

1. 30 Minutes - Cardio/Core Circuit

Please feel free to share one of your recent victories so that we can all bask in each other's victory glows!

My Food Obsession and Some Found Motivation

Had a tasty and healthylicious supper with the hubs last night.
Grilled Chicken, Oriental Salad, and Cons Mate Rice. AMAZING!

I have a deep, almost unhealthy, love of Oriental Salad. I will do a post on the recipe next time I make it. Let me tell you, it is a mouthgasm.

OOOoooooh did she say mouthgasm?! Yes. Yes she did. Mouthgasm. It's so nice I said it twice.

Moving on....

I also got super lucky and they had salad bar in the cafeteria at work today.  Let me tell you, the dietary staff here make a wicked salad bar.

Cottage cheese, grapes, carrot, avocado chicken salad, salad w/sunflower kernels-cheese and italian dressing.
It was great and healthy. Woot!

I woke up this morning and I instantly knew it was going to be one of those no-freakin-motivation type of days when it comes to working out. Then when I was checkin on some of my favorite blogs this morning it was as if the clouds opened up and a light from the heavens shone down upon this heavenly post from Hungry Runner Girl about finding and keeping motivation, that is definitely going to help me make it happen today with my run. Click the link and go check it out.

Projected workout for today:

1. 3-4 Miles - Up pace by 15 secs per mile
2. 15 Minutes Core Work

Anybody else out there have an unhealthy obsession with a particular food?
Hope I'm not alone in this.

Weigh in Wednesday - Yesterday's Run

Morning Weight: 171.0
Happy Dance?? Don't mind if I do... Beep boop beep bee boop boop boop beep beep and fist pump pump.
So I have lost the weight from the vacation plus a few more ounces. Woopie!

How was this accomplished you ask? Well as I said yesterday my brother asked me to run with him.  More like him running with me. He runs about a 7:00 - 8:00 pace and I run about a 12:00 pace. He runs outside in the heat, I run inside on the TM with the a/c. His short run is 4 miles, my long run is 4 miles. He was running at about 30% and I was running at about 90%.

My brother super pumped for one of his races.

Shirtless running = Digits from sexy spectators??

Long story short - Austin = Massively-dedicated-kickass-motivating brother

He ran at my pace and helped motivated me through the last mile when I was just praying for it to be over.

Even though he had to slow way down to run with me and never seemed to get the least bit winded, running with him made me feel like a mega champ. He is one of the big reasons I started running and it felt really good and definitely boosted by self esteem to run with him. It also go me super motivated to work on getting my time down to 10:00 and my long run up to 6 miles over the next 6 weeks.

It was an excruciating, hot (94), side-stitch-inducing, mind grapling, craptastic 4 miles... And I was STOKED after I did it. Perma grin all the way home. It was an awesome way to wrap up the work day.

Big thanks to my dedicated brother.  You're a beast.

Projected Exercise for Today:

1. 1-2 Miles - Easy Pace
2. 30 Minutes - Core & Abs Circuit Training

Mini Goals:

1. Keep it under 1,600 calories
2. Drink 2.5 liters of water
3. Bring my time down by 20 sec. per miles this week

Change of Plans: Level - Intimidating

Just got a call from my training-for-his-umpteenth-race brother.  He is really supportive and excited about my taking up running too and has asked me to go on his short run with him today. "I'm only doing four miles," he says, "We can go at your pace," he says, "No pressure," he says.... Well.... You are my big brother/running role model.... No pressure my less fat ass.

This guy usually runs at a 7:00 - 9:00 pace depending on the length of the run. Me?? Oh, I run at a 12:00 pace. So basically you could speed walk beside me. Great match we are huh?

So to this nonsense I of course responded, okay.

So now I am going on a 4 mile run (a distance I have only run once) with my big brother at 5:00pm today. I am, by no fault of his, intimidated and just a tidge petrified.

Never the less, I will run with him to prove to myself that I can do it and to kick start running outside. I have been talking about starting to run outside now that it is down in the 90's again.... so, what the crap, why not today?

Wish me luck and Pray for me.
Pray for me lots.

Yesterday's Run = Epic Fail. Will Do Better!

So...I did not do my run yesterday.  I went to the PT room but they were still working.  I came back later and, to their credit, they were still working. I decided to go home and take the chicken out of the freezer to dethaw and I would run while that was happening.  To my husband's credit he decided to start running yesterday. Thus, no tredmill action for me.

Here is why I didn't run outside...We live 30 miles away from the nearest hospital on a crazy-oilfield-truck-driver-infested dirt road.  So I am too scared to run on our road for fear of getting made into a Henderson pancake and being 30 minutes away from the nearest EMTs.

If I would have foreseen that my husband would start his journey into the world of running yesterday I would have just sucked it up and ran in town in the 104 degree heat... but I didn't. BTW the ass hasn't run in at least a year and he ran for 45 minutes straight at a 10:00 pace. Guys suck major sac sometimes.  Thank God he is gorgeous, funny, and able to put up with my weirdness or I'd give him a swift kick to the pills.

Small Tangent.

Anyway here I am, lazy and hefferier than yesterday, determined to run 3 miles today if it KILLS me!

Projected Exercise for Today:

1. Run at least 3 miles - Easy Pace

Mantra for today: I will do better damn it.

Vacation Done - Running On...

First of all, FANTASMIC vacation!! Had a great time with some of the most amazing people and got some very indulging down time.

Now, lets look at my very fun yet epic fail of a weekend.

1. Weighed in before departure at 171.6 lbs. Drove 12.5 hours to the Steelman's lake house in Mississippi. Packed smart snacks but undid all that by eating at Long John Silver's and Krystal's for meals. I must say though if you are going to go bad Krystal Burgers are definitely the way to go.  I get to eat them about once a year when I go to Mississippi and they are effing fabtastically delicious! Yum.

2. Got to the lake house at about 9:30 pm. Hubs and I were showered with gifts of flip flops, shades, MSU cups, and love. Gave lots of hugs and drank beers. Lots of beers. You can't get all caught up with your bestie and not have any beer involved. That would be rediculous.

3. Got up 8:30am ate breakfast, drank coffee. 12:00ish got ready and went to hang out on the pontoon . . . makin waves and catchin rays up on the roof (if that is lost on you download the song ASAP because you are missin out). Swam and floated in the water in excess of 4 hours. Burned some good calories . . . until I went mad crazy on the cheetos, pita chips, and hummus.

This is where we decided to float . . . and float we did.

4. Went back to the lake house. Ate a big steak dinner and drank diet cokes.

5. Next morning. Up at 8:00am did I run . . . no.  I ate a meal of breakfast cheetos and coffee.

6. Went to see the site of the battle of Shiloh. It was amazing. A historical mind blowing.



This is my bestie at the US National Cemetery at Shiloh.

7. My Sister and her man came for the day and we went back to the lake for MORE floating and swimming . . . . and drinking. It was an ass kickin' good time.



Me and my Keister




My sisters lifemate . . . he's special.




My sexy hubs drivin' the pontoon like a champ.


8. Back to the lake house. Pizza. Cream cheese sausage dip. More beer.

9. Got up 7:00am chicken salad sandwich for breakfast. I know.

10. Got packed, showered, helped tidy up.  Gave bestie a few hugs. Tears. Gave keister and Sam hugs. Tears.

11. Got in the car. More tears. Drove 12.5 hours back to Texas.

12. Awesome. Awesome. Weekend.

13. Weighed in Sunday morning at 173.6. No surprise there. Eat and drink like a mad woman = fatty-fatty-no-friends.  Please Lord give me the strength to make it through today's run without completely pussing out.

Projected exercise for Monday:

1. Run 2.5 Miles - Easy Pace

Destructive Down Time vs. A Victorious Vacation

How to keep from undoing all your hard work during a few days of vacationing.

I am going on vacation starting tomorrow WOOT!  I will be around good food (that's terrible for you) and some good binge drinking for 3 days. So I thought it might be good to go over some ground rules for vacation time so that I/we don't completely undo all our hard work.

1. Drink 2 liters of ice cold water through the day.  Easy Peasy. This will not only burn about 140 calories but will keep you from getting dehydrated and suffering a bad hangover if you are going to partake in the partay.
2. There are two options when it comes to throwin down beer (or whatever it is you drink):
1. Wait to drink til later in the day rather than drink slowly all day long.  You will end up consuming less beer if you are only drinking from 8:00-Midnight than if you have a couple drinks an hour from Noon-Midnight.
2. If you want to make it an all day thing, only drink one of the days. Not both. This may be the better way to go anyway, because it will leave everyone with an automatic DD for the day you aren't drinking.
3. When you are drinking lots of alcohol you are taking in LOTS of empty calories.  So, you will have to be really smart about what you eat. Try to stick to lean proteins, veggies and fruits. Stay away from chips, hot dogs, burgers, and desserts. If drinking is not on the menu for you, you can be a little more lax and indulge here and there as long as you don't go nuts.
4. If you are driving to your destination be sure to pack lots of healthy snacks for the drive so you don't get sucked in by the tempting sodas, candies, and chips at the gas stations along the way. Candy is my weakness.  If I don't bring along my own snacks the candy reels me in every freaking time!
5. Exercise. At least half of the days you are gone exercise.  Just 30 minutes of cardio. Use the hotel gym, swim in the lake, hike. This is the best thing you can do to keep from weighing in 3 pounds heavier on Monday.

We will be going to the lake with one of my very best friends and her family for 3 days.  So I am going to set some mini goals for the vacation to try and help me stay on track and keep me accountable:

• Run or Swim at least one of the 3 days for at least 30 minutes.
• Don't drink more than 6 drinks in a day. This shouldn't be hard. Now that I workout so much I am a total light weight and get a hard buzz off of 3 ;)
• Bring healthy snacks for the trip and make healthy choices at fast food joints along the way. So....I guess that means no double quarter pounders. Damn...
• Only have one indulging meal each day. (3 pieces of cheese cake = not one meal)
• Drink 2-3 liters of ice water per day.
• Have a F#!&ing blast and take tons of pictures to share.

Today's workout projections:

1. Run 3-4 miles - Easy Pace

Long Hours - Long Miles

It is 10:00am here and I have already been up for 6 hours. Craptastic!!

In all actuality I am kind of a morning person so it's not to terribly bad.  I am having to try and work 24-30 hours in two days because we are going on vacation Wednesday and I have a lot to get done before then.  Also I don't want to get back to a crummy pay check.  So I got up at 4:00am got to work by 5:30am and here I am whipping up a quick blog while I eat oatmeal at my desk.

On to the game plan.
Today's projected workout:

1. Run 30-45 min - Easy Pace

Today's actual workout:

1. Run 40 min - Easy Pace - 3.25 miles (Yes I ran that slow.)

I am contemplating trying to get that arm workout in that I missed Friday but after a 13 hour work day . . . I'm thinking that would be beyond optimistic at this point. So I will plan for a 3 to 4 mile run and then go home to make love to my ... bed.  Sorry husband, maybe I will catch you after my quicky with the matress.

PS. We are going to Lake Pickwick (Mississippi) Wednesday to spend a few days with one of my very best friends from college, Kara, Whom I haven't seen in 9, count them, NINE months! I am so completely stoked that I can barely contain myself. WOOT!!

This will be my first time in a bathing suit since my honeymoon in 2008. I will try to balls up and post a picture.

Seriously Healthy vs. Serious Heifer

Why is it that on the days I don't workout I eat like a total heffer?! (for non-Texans that is a lady cow)
Is it just me or does food taste better when you aren't going to burn it off later?

For the past 3 days I have rested due to some intense shin splints suffered during my previous two runs. All three rest days have been 1,800+ calorie days? What the shiz?!

I am really going to have to start practicing some self control on my rest days instead of considering them binge days and going completely ape on any and all food within my reach. Not Good.

Today I am getting back to my regular running schedule.  I am starting a new 10K training schedule since I finished the 5K Novice Plan. My longest run so far is 4 miles, which I did at the slugs pace of about 12 minute miles. Lame sauce time? Maybe. Ashamed? HELL NO! I ran 4 bleepin miles! I even had enough energy left to party boy the tredmill. Eat that couch potatoes!!!

So, now that I have done my 5K plan, the new goal is to run a 10K which is 6.2 miles. I am very pumped about the prospect of running over 6 miles. I NEVER thought that would happen. Ever. But here I am excited about not just running but runner farther. Squirrel Poop.

So on the menu today:

1. 3 Mile Run - Easy Pace: 35-38 minutes
2. Arms - Low Weight, High Reps: 15-20 minutes
3. 2-3 Liters of Water (throughout the day)
4. Don't eat like a damn heffer!

Will report back on what actually happens.

What actually went down:

1. Ran 2 miles - Easy Pace
2. Went to the Purcell's and ate some deliciously unhealhty food.
3. Shit...

Does anyone else have the same problem of eating bad on rest days??

Weigh in Wednesdays??

So, I think I need to make a few "day of the week" topics to hold myself more accountable to posting than I currently do . . . which is not at all. Therefore, I have decided to dub this day of the week "Weigh in Wednesday."

From now on every Wednesday I will post my weight and possibly a picture so that you can see any progress or lack-there-of that is taking place in my weight loss journey.

I am betting that you are assuming that I have decided to do this today because I had a loss over the past week. Well you know what they say about assuming . . . you are an ass. But you are a CORRECT ass today because that is exactly why I have decided to this today!

Weight as of 6:00am today:  171.4 pounds!

This is a 22.6 pound total loss for me since I started in April. Did I do a happy dance? Hell yes I did!! I also gave myself a few fist pumps and boo-yahs as well.

Why I am I so excited about this definitely-not-thin-still-has-a-long-way-to-go weight? I will tell you!
It is for a few reasons:
1. I weighed last week and had gone back up from 172 to 175! WHAT?!?! You mean you can't drink beer all weekend and eat whatever you want while not running and not gain weight? Who the hell made these rules? Whoever it was they can eat my shorts!
2. I have been experiencing really bad shin splints over my last few runs so I decided I better take a few days off to heal up and give my legs a break. So, when I weighed this morning I was worried that after two days off I would have gained rather than lost. BUT NO!
3. I have been trying to break into the 160's for almost a month now and have had no luck. I am hoping this is not a long term plateau and that I will be able to push through soon. The 171.4 has set me pretty close to the line. I am hoping that if I am careful to eat healthy and get back to running again today that I will finally be able to break through to the 160's for the first time in 5 years!! Please please please let me have unfaltering dedication!!

Well there is my first Weigh in Wednesday. Please feel free to join me and post your Wednesday Weigh ins below if you like.

A Complete Miracle!

Vacation!!

So, this past weekend my husband, son and I went on a three day vacation to Red River, NM.  It was fantastic funliness! The extremely bad for me food was fantastic as well! Do I feel guilty for eating unhealthy all weekend? No. Why, you ask? I will tell you why, because being good 100% of the time is craptastic lame sauce.

There is no way anyone can be perfect 100% of the time.  Even if you could ... umm, Big Suck! It's nice to get to eat what you want every once in a while in moderation. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I refuse to feel bad for endulging when the periods of endulgence are few and far between. Not to mention, if you try to be good all the time the likelihood that you will fall back into bad eating habits are much higher for the following reasons: 1) You start to resent being healthy because you never let yourself have any of the things you want. 2) You never get to eat/drink what you friends are eating/drinking (especially drinking) 3) Your body is going to crave things from time to time and if it doesn't get what it wants ... Crazeballs Binge Eating!! That shiz will jump up and bite you in the ass one day after too much abstaining. Been there, eaten that. 4) It sucks!

So, it's fine to say yes to a piece of pizza every once in a while.  You just have to make sure that you are eating these things in Moderation! Yes you can eat pizza.  No you can't have a 3rd/4th/5th slice.

Back to the complete miracle that merited the title. I lost a pound on vacation!! No Lie!!

You may be wondering why this is, and I will tell you.  We walked EVERYWHERE. It was only 75 degrees out and we were not going to waste it being in a car.  So we walked everywhere we went for 2 days. This wasn't fast walking either. We just strolled around town at a leasurely pace and it not only kept me from gaining any weight from the breakfast burritos, pancakes, pizza, chips, and loaded baked potatoes, but it actually made me lose a pound.

So I got to endulge and just had to put in minimal efforts to keep from gaining any weight on our vacation. Life is good. So good.