When you do everything right...

Just a quick post to remind myself that even when you do everything right, life doesn't always cooperate.

I have been weighing myself just about daily, of course the only one that counts is Sunday mornings. But despite the warnings not to, I weigh myself every day. Here is a lesson in support of the the naysayers of weighing yourself every day:

I am up 3 lbs for no apparent reason at all.

I've done fine food-wise this week with the exception of indulging in a Slutty Brownie yesterday. Though, my food intake was still under my BMR. Monday and Tuesday my calories were actually 1600-1700, which is under my 1800 goal.

I rode my bike Sunday, giving an extra workout to the start of the week, and with my run Tuesday my calorie deficit should be around 2,000 at this point in the week.

I also have been drowning myself in water.

I write this not to complain (OK, not entirely at least), but to prove a point that sometimes you do everything right and your body doesn't cooperate.

I know the week is only half over so I can only hope that my body will get with the program over the next few days.

Weigh in - Killing it and Challenge Check-in

Last Week's weight - 240.6

This Week's weight - 233.6

7 lbs LOST

95.8 lbs lost since June 2010


Sorry for the blurry photo, but I had to document my lowest weight EVER and I always weigh in right when I wake up.

WOOT!

I killed it. I tracked. I worked out. I drank lots of water. Now is about the time I fall off the wagon normally, so I just need to rinse and repeat.

House Challenge Check-in

This brings the week 2 totals to the following.

My Percentage of Weight Loss - 5.1% (edited 4/1 due to bad math)

KG's Percentage of Weight Loss - 6%

She's definitely giving me a run for my money with her big numbers and smaller starting weight. Numbers wise I've actually lost 2 more pounds than her in the last two weeks but that doesn't matter since she weighs less.

There are still 5 more weeks of this challenge, so we'll see how it turns out. But honestly, I'm just glad this seems to have been the kick I needed to get back in gear.

PS: there will be a post about my run yesterday coming today or tomorrow. 10.5 miles yesterday & Hunger Games yesterday....it was epic.

To Tri or Not To Tri?

I've had a lot of anxiety ridden thoughts about my goal to do a sprint tri this year. Since starting this blog, I haven't really failed at any of my fitness goals and in the back of my mind there is high potential to fail at this one.

A sport so unfamiliar. An event that combines THREE sports into one. A sport that will force me to swim against others....something I haven't done in about 20 years.

I've thought about dropping the goal to do it this summer and instead join a bootcamp of some sorts and get all toned up instead. But I can't deny that I want to do this.

But I have no idea where to start. I need a place to swim, so I guess the first step is to join the local Y. I also don't even have a swimming suit that fits. So I have to get one of those.

Another thing is, what the hell do you wear during a triathlon? I know a lot of people wear Tri Suits. Do you swim/bike/run all in this one piece of clothing? Is it comfortable? Will it compress my fat rolls so I don't jiggle (no, really). Should I get one? Thinking about a Tri Suit makes me see dollar signs. I don't want to invest a lot of money into new gear for a sport I don't know if I will like participating in. But, if I don't get a tri suit, what do I wear? I don't even like changing in front of people at the gym, no way I want to do it at a race.

Then there's the bike. Is my bike sufficient enough? I have a 1992 Schwinn cruiser style bike that came out of my aunt's garage last year. I know I can ride 9-10 miles at a leisurely pace on it because I've done that already. But can I race on it? And what if one of my tires goes flat during training or the race? I have no idea how to change a tube or where to learn.

Basically, the only thing I know I can do is run/walk the 3 or so miles that would be part of a sprint triathlon. Easy peasey right? But what about running 3 miles after spending 1.5 hours exercising? No way I can run after that, right?

I've considered joining a Tri group, but every one I've looked at is intimidating. I don't want to be the 240-lb beginner that shows up and can't keep up with the group on a group ride or swim (or even run).

The anxiety on top of being in the middle of half-marathon training is really getting in my way of getting started swim and bike training and picking a definite race to sign up for. Anyone know of any good beginner races in the Nashville area or within a 3-4 hour driving distance of Nashville? (Birmingham/Louisville/Lexington/Memphis, etc)

I need help! If you've done a triathlon, please comment with your best advice, I have no idea what I'm doing here!

Fat Trap - Going Home

The whole time I've been losing weight I've always struggled with trips "home" - back to St. Louis where ALL of my family is. I am the only one out of my immediate and extended family that now lives outside of the St. Louis area.

Nashville isn't a very far car trip to St. Louis so I get back quite often - usually every 2-3 months. And usually the trip is a weight gain waiting to happen. Every fat bomb that is possible happens while I'm there. Eating out with friends or family, nights of binge drinking with friends (or family), mom's homecooking, and my mom's endless supply of junk food she keeps in her house. I still haven't figured out how to survive.

Also, does anyone else associate long car trips with fast food and junk food? I blame this on childhood trips to the Lake house. Every time we made the 3 hour trip up to the Lake of the Ozarks we would beg my mom to stop at the half-way point to get McDonald or some other fast food. Sometimes, it wouldn't even be a meal time, but it wasn't a family trip to the Lake without some McDonalds fries. That's probably for a whole other blog post...

So back to the point, I can avoid fast food when I want to. Even on long car rides I can plan to bring my own meals and snacks. But for some reason as soon as I step into my mom's house I fall into a puddle mess of no-willpower and raid her fridge and pantry of every junk food item in her house. This time she had Entenmann's donuts, swiss cake rolls, Doritos, Cheez-its, ice cream (she always has Haagen-dazs or Ben & Jerry's pints), and the list goes on. And every time, I feel like I have to sample EVERYTHING.

Her house must be a vortex where all my willpower is sucked out of my brain because I often have things in my cabinets that I could binge on and I don't (usually). Like right now I have some leftover Oreos from a dessert I made. I thought about them last night, but I did not touch them. Now, if that was at my mom's house I would have eaten a whole sleeve of Oreos as soon as I started thinking about them.

I've been trying to come up with an answer for how to avoid this pitfall when I visit home, but after almost 2 years of trying, I just haven't come up with a solution. Thoughts? Ideas?

I'm determined to make a trip home this summer without falling into the junk food pit of doom.

Weigh in and First House Challenge Check In

Last Week's weight - 246.2

This Week's weight - 240.6

5.6 lbs LOST

88.8 lbs lost since June 2010

So, I lost almost 6 lbs of my 10 lb gain. Not too shabby, but you haven't seen the way I've eaten since I hit my mom's house Thursday night. On Wednesday before I left Nashville I was back to 239.

Once I get home I should be re-focused, but I did let this weekend be an excuse to eat everything in sight.

House Challenge Check In

My Percentage of Weight Loss - 2.3%

KG's Percentage of Weight Loss - 4.2%

So, this week goes to KG and let's be honest the skinny bitch killed me. But given she had such a high percent loss this week gives me hope for next week. We'll see who's on top!

Update on Half Marathon Training

I haven't really updated since my 9 mile run a few weeks ago, but I've logged approximately 35 miles since that run. Crazy.

The week after I did 9 I had a "rest week" and did 6. It was the best run I've had all season. I ran a familiar course at the greenway near my house and pretty much killed it. Here are my stats:


See that pace? 13:17 minute miles! For someone that was logging 15 minute miles just a few months ago, that is big....BIG!

Coming off that run, I felt in charge and rejuvenated for my higher mileage week to come. I should have known better. Because typically every good run is followed by a bad run.

Since I only 6 over the weekend I wanted to log some higher miles during the mid-week in preparation for wanting to do 10 the coming weekend. I did a good 4.5 miler on Tuesday and 3.5 on Thursday rather than my normal 3 miles during the week.

The problem is, all last week I ate out and didn't really pay attention to what I was fueling my body with. I felt lethargic and wasn't looking forward to trying to do 10 in that state.

My plan was to get up Saturday and bust out 10 before having to be somewhere at 11. Yeah right. I woke up Saturday morning at 6 am and asked myself why I was trying to rush around Saturday morning when the rest of my weekend (i.e. Sunday) was free.

So rescheduled to Sunday it was. (Which, hello is a stupid decision on the weekend you SPRING FORWARD and lose an hour of sleep.)

But I dragged my lazy arse out of bed and eventually I decided to go out to do a course I did a couple times during my Disney half marathon training. It's pretty flat, but it does have some rolling hills on the later part of my out and back route I use.

Considering I ate a 9 course dinner on Saturday (no exaggeration), I felt like pretty crappy from the get go. I wasn't fueled properly and that made every step painful, but I kept repeating to myself "this pain is temporary, the pride I will feel from completing this run is forever."

I briefly considered only doing 8, and honestly since I'm a bit ahead of where I need to be for my race at the end of April it would have been ok. But I didn't want the reason why I couldn't do 10 miles to be because I ate and drank too much the preceding week.

So I went out 5 miles.

Honestly, it wasn't too bad once I got over the 4 mile mark. Of course the last few intervals were painful, but I'm a firm believer the end of every long mileage run should be difficult. That's when you're building your endurance up!

I ended up finishing just a little over 2 hours and 19 minutes. Another sub-14 minute per mile pace! Again, even two months ago I was running between a 14.5 - 15 minute mile.


I promptly went home, showered, ate lunch, and fell into bed. And didn't really move from there unless otherwise necessary until the next morning.

I don't know whether it was my post-run laziness or because I ran a sub-14 minute mile on a 10 mile run, but I. WAS. SORE. I can't remember the last time I was that sore. Today (Wednesday) is the first day this week I haven't felt my throbbing quads with every step. I even made it to my weekly gentle yoga class on Monday with little relief. I did a slow and easy 3 miles yesterday and I probably won't run again until Saturday.

I have to say, I've felt more in control of my running lately. Making sure I get in those mid-week runs really help. We're just about 6 weeks from race day and I can't believe it's coming up so soon!

Time for a 'Biggest Loser' style challenge

Once, in a time not too long ago I had this weight loss thing under control. Each week I would track my calories, work out and avoid temptations to let me step on the scale and see a loss the majority of the time.

This hasn't been the case since October.

For 5 stinking months I've ridden the weight loss roller coaster. I've been running in circles losing 2 lbs, then gaining 3 lbs, then losing 4 lbs, and so on and so on. It's gotten exhausting.

Then I realized I ate out every day last week, sometimes twice a day, and I knew it had to stop.

Enter my roommate, KG, who extended a challenge.

A challenge that no 5-foot 4-inch, one hundred and something pound person in their right mind would extend to a 6-foot, two hundred and forty pound person.

A challenge to see who can lose the highest percentage of weight loss in the next 7 weeks leading up to our half marathon on April 28th.

The loser pays the price of buying a gluttonous meal (because what weight loss competition isn't rewarded with food? duh.) complete with an onion ring tower. And the winner gets full house-bragging rights.

I'm starting at 246.2 and KG, well she won't let me post her weight on the internet, but I can affirm she is in the 100s...somewhere. Each week I will post our percentage of weight loss so you can keep up with who's ahead, but the overall winner won't be decided until April 27th.

The shit talking has already started...

It reads: "I can't wait to see KG eat an onion ring tower of victory" and was posted on my bathroom mirror.

Oh, it's on like Donkey Kong.

***Disclaimer: Obviously, I know what they say about not rewarding weight loss with food. I don't care, it's happening anyway so kindly reserve your judgment."

Weigh in - Epic 9.4 lb gain

Feb. 26th weight - 236.8

This Week's weight - 246.2

9.4 lbs GAINED

83.2 lbs lost since June 2010

I haven't had an official weigh-in in two weeks and WOW it's a record breaker....and not in a good way!

I've gained nearly 10 lbs in just two weeks and my weight today showed well back into the 240s. Seriously, what the fuck in my problem? Every time I see a good downward trend on the scale, I sabotage myself. Take for example I've eaten out (sometimes twice in one day) every day Tuesday - Saturday this week. Unacceptable.

I feel like a drug addict coming off a binge. I have felt like crap the last few days and my run today was less than stellar because I felt like a big bloated whale running along for 10 miles. And I've been in bed since I got home from doing my run. So lethargic.

I have a plan for a challenge, which started today. I will post tomorrow to give the details. It's a good one and involves someone else so hopefully the accountability works in my favor.

I need a good swift kick in the ass.

A Guest Post over at Kate Schmate

My friend, Kate, recently had a beautiful baby girl. To help the new mommy out, I was delighted when she asked me if I would do a guest post for her wonderful space on the internet, Kate Schmate.

Of course I said yes and of course I stuck to what I (try to) know best: healthy living.

If you are so inclined, mosey over to Kate's blog and read my guest post on exercise motivation here.

No weigh in this week

In the 21 month history of this blog I think I have missed one, maybe two, weekly weigh ins. Even if I don't post anything else all week, I have always posted a weigh in unless I was on vacation / out of town without a scale.

This week, I basically just forgot.

My usual Sunday morning is I wake up and jump on the scale post-loo, pre-breakfast, but since I wasn't at home Sunday morning I didn't have a scale at my disposal. I did weigh later in the day, after I ate a big breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast and the scale said 238.0, which is probably +2 what it would read in the morning with nothing in my stomach.

So, I meant to weigh in officially this morning and I forgot again and had my coffee + egg sandwich on my fresh made bread from last night. I still stepped on the scale anyway, and it said 240 (I ate a lot of bread last night, dammit). So my best guess is I'm a little up from last week's 236.8, but I could be anywhere from 236 - 240.

C'est la vie...there may be a weigh in day change in my future. When do you weigh in?