Thursday, July 12, 2012

Eating Dirt

Did you know that in 3rd world countries starving children will eat dirt?  While the dirt has no nutritional value or ability to prolong the starvation process it does temporarily fill their empty bellies and satiate hunger. In Haiti they make dirt cookies with a little oil and salt.  Yum...

Having recently eaten a McDonald's hamburger, I can't help wonder if that is the american version of eating dirt.  While that hamburger does have a caloric value which keeps up our fat deposits and keeps us from starving to death, I often wonder if it really has any other nutritional value.  When I eat McDonald's or any other fast food I am really just satiating hunger without actually feeding my body.

Dirt Cookies

    My lunch on Friday




Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Ugh

I am fat.  I ate some version of fast food 3 times last weekend plus coffee drinks and dairy queen.  Bloated, constipated, tired, crabby.

And let's be honest.  Am I really doing myself a favor by running 2 or 3 times in a row and then doing nothing for 2 weeks?  Am I even trying?  I canceled my YMCA membership.  I am going to turn to mush.
ME

Not Me

Definitely Not Me

That is all.

Carry on.


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Week #3 Check-In

 This last week reality hit.  The reality that I am a mother of 5 small children.  Including a baby who doesn't sleep through the night yet.  The reality that on any given night, one - or more than one - child may wake up throughout the night with an array of different ailments.  Which is exactly what happened.  Puking to be more exact. 

How does this translate into my weight loss?  Well, no amount of pretending to be a spry, focused athlete who is driven to get out of bed at 5:30am lasts after being woken up multiple times on multiple nights.  Long story short?  I chose to sleep in folks, and missed a couple of my workouts. 

And since I still can't seem to get the food tracking into a well-practiced habit.  Well... there ya have it...

Though, the silver lining is that 4 lbs lost...  It's a start, right?

Oh, and the children are sleeping better this week, and I have been that spry, focused, driven athlete.  (Now where's that food journal?!?!)

Wk #3:
Weight Loss this week: -.2 lbs
Total Weight Loss: -4 lbs
Pounds to reach goal: 50.8

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Eating Goals



 

 This is what I have typed up, on my fridge.

With one minor tweek.

The Vegetables are first.

Thought I would share.

Iceman Out

Week Two Checking In...

Ah, I like to eat. I'm sorry, it's a weakness of mine. (Uh, duH!)

This week is was hard to abstain from sweet little nothings (that add up to "somethings") and yummy indulgences that are too common in my house. My goal is to lose at least 2 lbs a week. So, though the weight loss was in the right direction, not entirely what I wanted to see. I sure don't want to be vacuuming out all those cars in June. On to better tracking this week. Keeping up with my food journal always helps me to stay on track.

As for exercise, I did get my 3 weekly runs in, but just barely. I did some internet sluething and realized I have "Posterior shin splints" Geesh they hurt. I guess it's directly correlated to flat feet and no arch support. Oh, how that is me. But I have bought new shoes, have been doing some rolling and stretching. I will add some icing. And hopefully I haven't done too much damage.

Wk #2:
Weight Loss this week: -1 lbs
Total Weight Loss: -3.8 lbs
Pounds to reach goal: 51

Onwards and upwards my friends.

Ice Out (well, and on, my posterior shin splints)!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Rolling Along

Maverick Here.  Just thought I would check in.  I am still feeling a little like agreeing to sign up to run a 1/2 marathon on June 3rd is insane given the current state of my life but another part of me thinks the discipline of training for it is exactly what I need and will likely extend into other areas as well.  So for now I am marching forward with the idea that I am indeed doing this race.

Currently my training includes no running at all.  In fact I haven't done a cardio workout in more than a week.  I have however, rolled my leg out multiple times a day, done leg lifts and the IT band stretch everytime I have had a free moment.  I have been bringing the foam roller to work and going over to my brother's cube during breaks to roll my leg out.  He has basically decided to ignore me, the guys in the cubes near him seem to have accepted the fact that they might come around the corner and see me laying on the floor of Mike's cube.  It is like I have a little team of people that now know I am trying to get my leg healed to run and if I don't actually get this knee rehabbed then they will wonder why I spent so much time being weird over at Mike's cube.  So that alone is motivating me to continue strengthening my legs and rolling out the injury.  I am planning to hit the elliptical this weekend and try a few other cardio workouts this week but will probably wait until next weekend to try a treadmill workout.

My goal is to be ready by the beginning of April to start a formal training program so that gives me 2-1/2 months to rehab my leg and re-build my cardio fitness.  Should be a no-brainer.

Also, down 3 pounds.  Long term goal, 12 more.  Short term goal, 2 more by the end of January.  No problem.

--Maverick Out

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Be Scared, Mon Frere

When I first started this blog, I blogged my Weight Watchers weigh-in's each week. It was another good level of accountability, and it was a nice way to give an overview of my week to look at later. So I thought I would start up that tradition again since I am in full-on competition mode with my brothers.

So wk #1:
Weight Loss this week: -2.8 lbs (Yeah!!)
Total Weight Loss: -2.8 lbs
Pounds to reach goal: 52

So who knew that journaling food intake and working out can help you lose weight?! :) This week was the 1st time I have done both of those things, together, in a long time. It's nice to see my efforts reflected on the scale.

So, dear brothers, Watch out, I'm on the move!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

7 Stickers!

Goose In...

I have 7 stickers on my 1/2 marathon training calendar. It is very 1st grade-ish how giddy I get when I finish a workout to go and put my smiley face on the calendar day for that workout, but it works for me!

Some how, some way, I have managed to quickly strip off 5 bloatish pounds in the last week or so. I am so glad. I really wanted to be only 10 lbs up but somehow ended up 15 lbs up and it wasn't pretty. I feel invigorated now that I am starting to get my eating to match my workout efforts and 10 lbs doesn't seem as traumatizing as 15 lbs. Darn it, if food just didn't taste sooo good!

Here is what my my training schedule looks like for the next 11 weeks:
M, W - 3 to 4 mile run
T, Th - rest
F, Su - cross train; bike or ripped in 30 video
Sat - long run, increasing one mile a week

I am still not doing well with my water intake. I just want to drink coffee the entire time I am at work. Must improve on that, will keep you posted. I am eating greek yogurt with granola in the morning, a turkey-no cheese-panini with pesto and sundried tomato spread in the afternoon, and a regular dinner-whatever my husband makes. I have still been drinking red wine but just finished a bottle so I think I will purge that from my diet for awhile. I also have been having a square or two of dark chocolate every afternoon. I think I had a bite of Grace's grilled cheese this afternoon, too. Oh well. I am trying. When I am thin, I really don't eat much, so spare me the comments about that I am not eating enough! :) I am old and it takes less and less to fill up this nearing 40 woman with this slowing metabolism!

That's all for now. Proud of what I am hearing from the Maverick and Iceman camps, and so glad we have Jester and Viper as motivating sidekicks!

more updates soon!
Goose Out!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Rolling Along

OK First of all.  I am hormonal.  And I talked to a friend who is also experiencing crazier than normal hormonal episodes who assured me that we are stuck with it for the next 10 years or so.  yeah.  But there is some progesterone cream at the health food store she has been using and said after a couple months she thinks it is helping.  So I will be picking some up tomorrow.  Just thought I would share in case there are any other 41 year olds out there.

So I have been a little crabby the past couple days and when I told my husband that I was thinking of going to the Y he pretty much pushed me out the door.  And Isabelle was so excited to go play there she practically dragged me out.  So I went to the Y. 

I was standing at the elliptical machines which I have been using for the past couple months in an effort to give my knee a break but the treadmills were calling me.  Especially with this 1/2 marathon looming out there.  So I got on and told myself I would take it easy.  So I did a 5 minute walking warm up and then I did 5 minutes at 5.5 mph, then I thought I should go to 6 mph after another 5 minutes, then I thought I would just go up to 6.5 for 5 minutes and then go back to 5 mph for 5 minutes and so on.  But of course about a minute into the first 6.5 my knee starts hurting.  So I walk for a minute and then try to run at 6 mph but it still hurts so I drop down to 5 but it still hurts.  Worse than I remember it hurting before I started doing the Elliptical machines.

In the mean time I have an ipod now and I am plugged into my ipod+nike machine which is tracking my workout while I listen to wonderful worship music.  And I just really want to run free while I worship the Lord.  And it isn't working out!

So I finally have to just walk while I worship and I had a little chat with God about not running.  I really want to run but was thinking I might have to give it up.  Then I thought about our cousin J, who needs a Top Gun Moniker and I happened to see a scene from the movie this weekend and one of the instructors went by "Jester" and so I hereby proclaim our cousin to be Jester.  So Jester had the same injury I have this past year and she worked through it and is able to run again.  Ice and lots of let rolling got her through.  So I realized that I can experience God's healing for me if I am willing to do the work of caring for myself (I prefer the healing without the work), I worship God by doing the work he has given me.  And in this case he has given me an injury that needs attention not ignoring.

So tomorrow morning I am going to work with my foam roller under my arm and will have smoothed out that IT band within an inch of its life by the end of the month.  I will call Jester to get her exact rehab plan.

I am off right now to roll out my legs and the ice them while relaxing on the couch the rest of the night.

Monday, January 2, 2012

But I Work...

OK OK I am here. I have thought of posting several times this fall but instead decided to just let my butt get bigger and bigger and spread further and further across my desk chair. I don't keep a scale at home but I kept telling myself I had only gained about 5 pounds because my pants were all still fitting fine.  And I can drop 5 pounds without thinking about it.  At least that 5, I gain and loose that 5 all the time.

Then a few things happened simultaneously. My pants felt tight, I realized the jeans I was wearing were a size larger than I normally wear and thus why they felt roomy and I went to a yoga class and spent an hour staring at my butt in the mirror. During that yoga class I kept trying to realign my body because my butt was sticking out so far. Then I decided it was just shadow since the lights are dimmed during the class. So I reached back to confirm my theory and was horrified to realize that was actually my butt. I am one of those people that if I gained 100 pounds it would all live in my lower half. It would not distribute evenly. If I was sitting in a car you would never know I was over weight. During the dark time when I was 10 more pounds than I am right now I still had a flat stomach. It is all in the butt. Anyway, after yoga I went down to find the scale in the locker room and confirm my fears. I am 10 pounds heavier than I was 6 months ago. 10 pounds! In 6 months! NOT. GOOD.



Admittedly that little revelation does have me a bit freaked out and slightly obsessed.  Yet one problem remains.  I am still working.  I still sit at a desk all day, I am still tired after work, have a million things I want to do and somehow rarely get running to the top of the list before bed.  It isn't that I never eat healthy or never go work out it is just that I have lost the consistency and it is easy to loose track of how much you have eaten when you are just responding to what each day brings and it is hard to train for a 1/2 marathon when you might go run 3 times one week none the next and once the next and then back to 3 times.

Few thanks for letting me get all those excuses off my chest.

So at this point my intention is to run this 1/2 with Iceman and Goose. I also would like to do the iron girl duathlon. I am toying with returning to Georgia for another triathlon at some point (the water is much warmer down there) but I am not ready to rush into things since I have no clue when I am going to train for anything quite yet.

I did manage to loose 2 pounds before Christmas but the likely hood it has stayed off is questionable. Let's say I gained 1 back so I have 9 more to loose. And I actually have been trying to loose another 5 for years. So if I must start in ernest then I might as well loose that 5 too. So 14 pounds total is what I would like to loose by summer.

I am not sure how committed I am to it since today at lunch I got a vanilla white chocolate mocha from Caribou to finish off my regular sized bowl of pasta from Noodles.

I did have a happy surprise on Saturday.  I went in at 9am so Isabelle could go to the 9:15 kids yoga class she loves and noticed they were setting up for body pump which I love but haven't done for months.  They normally don't have it until 10:30 which was too late for all I wanted to do that day but it was a special holiday schedule and the class was at 9:15!  I quickly checked Isabelle in, and discovered her class was canceled, and rushed back to get my butt kicked by one of the instructors I had enjoyed back when I was an Edina housewife.  I am happy to report that while I definitely have been moving slower the last 2 days I was not even in the ballpark of the sore I was the first time I did the class.  Which I reason means I have not fallen nearly as far into mush land as I thought I had.

This week my plan is to plan.  While planning I will attempt to be aware of what I am eating and where I can exercise. 

I have a few thoughts so far:

I have created a 5 day menu that I plan to implement monday-friday for at least the rest of the school year.  Spaghetti, pork tenderloin, thai chicken wraps, tacos and pizza.  The weekend we can be creative but m-f we are keeping it simple.  While these meals may not be overly healthy I find that I loose weight simply by eating at home.  I think it is because I eat far smaller portions when I dish up my own food and because my tacos are way less calories than the local mexican restaurant.  Ditto for my lunches, salad every day.  I love it.  Could eat it for dinner too and be happy.

Santa put swim goggles and a cap in my stocking this year to replace the cap and goggles that have disappeared off the face of the earth.  I am thinking of going in one morning a week to swim.  I will get ready and head to work afterward.

I will do the morning cycle class on Saturday while Isabelle is doing yoga.

I will continue the Wednesday evening yoga class which has been about the only thing I have done the past few months.

That leaves running/elliptical.  When will I do this?  And I would like to do a body pump class too.  Need to figure out what I am prioritizing in my life and schedule.  I figure around April 1 it will be light enough and warm enough to run outside in the mornings so I just need to get through the next 3 months in good enough shape to start a training program.

I am not even going to pretend to respond to Iceman's competitive challenge.  Just sign me up to detail someones car.  I am exhausted thinking about trying to compete.  I would be up for some sort of work together and encourage one another along the path plan, but I know Goose and Iceman are both rolling their eyes as they read that.



Smell That Change

(Tap)...(Tap)...(Tap)... Is this thing on?

Iceman here. No, really, it IS me.

Here it is, January 2nd. And I am excited. It's time to reclaim that body that I let go to child birth and stress about 18 months ago. I know I've been saying the same thing for the last 18 months. But there is a distinct change in the air, smell it? Maybe it's the dawning of the new year. Maybe it's the fact that I have promised no less than 5 people that I WILL run races with them in the spring. Maybe it's that I've gone to see a Dr. that can actually HELP me with my fatigue and eating addictions and I'm finally on the mend from those things. Whatever it is, I'm here. And I'm ready.

So this morning I donned my running shoes, charged up my ipod, and got to the gym for the 1st time in a couple of weeks. And today I've been faithfully journaling my food in my favorite food tracker. I even made myself a great big, 10 day countdown, sugar detox page to hang on my refrigerator. (That part has me a little terrified, can I go 10 days without sugar?)

(*gasp*)

My favorite part of this morning was to be able to text my brothers and toot my own horn that I had gotten my work out in already.

See, were in a competition.

We are all on the "chubby" side. Genetics, environment, who knows. But the fact is that all three of us struggle with our weight and have had varying degrees of success over the years. But we've all ended up chubby right now. Why not make it a little interesting. :) So, to whoever loses the most percentage, plus runs these two races... go the spoils. Namely have all your cars detailed cleaned by the other two. (My brothers have a side incentive of whoever wins gets the others motorcycle for a year, but my husband wouldn't let me bet his... Where's the faith, right?)

Let the trash talk begin.

It's nice trash talk, motivational trash talk. But every work out and weigh-in is definitely being trumpeted loudly. (or texted, twittered, emailed, blogged... you know)

So take a good deep breath and smell the change in the air. (Though it might be the stench from my old sneakers so brace yourself. )

Game On.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Crawling out of the chip bag with crumbs on my chin...

...goose in.

So I have 4 stickers on my 1/2 marathon training chart this week! I am so sore! But sore where it counts, namely the thighs. Whew, those things go so wrong when I stop exercising and eating well. Darn genetics!

I ran 3 times this week, 3 miles each, and did one day of Cross-Training by doing the new Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30, now hereby known as just "Ripped". I found the first week routine to be easier than the first week routine in the Shred.

My eating is having a harder time coming back together. I just love salty, crunchy chips! And red wine! And cheese! If I eliminated these three things, life would be good. I am working on it.

I am also intrigued by a book Iceman told me about called Wheat Belly. I am going to try and pick it up and start reading it this week. Basic premise is that I need to cut back on wheat in my diet.

I am very determined to get myself back in shape and make that scale say what it is supposed to say by the 1/2 marathon in March.

Iceman--where is my ticker???

Goose out.