I Get It!!

I finally understand why people run! Why it is that runners get so strange about missing a run, why they spend so much money on that expensive gear, why they go out in the rain and snow and whatever. Why they run.

It feels good!

Whoa. It was super cool this evening. I ran more than I have ever before. I discovered a stride - one that uses my whole foot, kind of a rolling motion - that just works. It was completely amazing. I got totally nasty sweaty, but instead of feeling nasty it felt like an accomplishment, in a strange sort of way. And I could breathe. Most of the time. Except that since I was doing so well I pushed it, so then I couldn't breathe. But as soon as that passed, I'd run until it happened again. And I was running more than before too; instead of running 1 walking 2 and not even that, I was running 1 walking 1 a good bit of the time. It was so cool!

Also, I weighed myself and got out the old measuring tape this morning. Good news there too: I'm down 3 pounds. One more and I get a new badge. I'm hopeful that I'll have it before the week is out. Most of my measurements are also improved over last week.

Oh, and I need a shower. Man, am I stinky. Andy says the sweat smells worse at first, and once your body cleans itself out with the heavy sweating it gets better. I sure hope so!

Ah, Yes. Checking In.

There's supposed to be a check in. I'm not real sure that I want to do that this week, as I'm feeling more than a little frustrated with the whole thing. But I suppose that I should to the weighing and measuring so that I can have yet another "starting point." I am resolved. Running. Yoga. Calorie counting for the next 2 weeks, faithfully, and intermittently after that.

So. After checking my numbers I find that I'm not as bad off on the weight as I thought I would be, but the measurements are definitely telling me that I need to sit up and pay attention. We'll see if I can't be doing better by next week. Though it's not as bad as I expected it would be. I don't think that I'll call it "starting over" after all.

Getting Out There

I'm starting to run again. It's nice to be back out there. I've basically lost all the ground I gained, as far as ability to run, in the year since I've last run. But I'm going to get it back. Today was the second run, actually. I went earlier in the week with Maulbeere. Next week I'm planning to go out 3 times, plus to a walk or yoga on the off days. I went about 1.5 miles; Runner's World has this awesome tool that will tell you how far you went. Runner's World also reminded me that the last time I tried running I managed to move 28 miles, all total. Which is a pretty good accomplishment. I'm looking to make that "total miles I've run" number get a lot bigger!

Gathering Momentum

I picked up running again, to go with my efforts at putting more veggies and less sweets in my mouth. So far, it's going really well. Today was Day 3 of that Runner's World training program. I haven't had to repeat a day to get it yet: first try all the way! I'm feeling pretty good about that, let me tell you! I think that the furthest I've been into that program is Day 8 or so, so I'm going to start out with a modest goal: Make it to day 10. Someday, I want to run a 5k, but I'm not worrying about that right now. Right now I'm working through the issues that keep me sabotaging myself. Like fear of miscarriage and gluttony. Things that happen in my head that keep the food going in the mouth or the feet off the treadmill.

I'm coming to the conclusion that weight loss isn't really so much about calories (though those ARE important) as it is about psychology or something like that. How many times have I started to loose, been making good progress, then let it all slip away and ended up heavier than when I started?? That's not a problem with my ability to loose weight: the weight loss was working. That's a problem with the things that happen between my ears. So I'm trying spending more time on my knees, asking for clarity and help. It worked yesterday. I managed not to eat more than I should.

I'm setting smaller goals: just this week. I want to loose 2 pounds this week. I'm doing that by drinking water and running. Next week will take care of itself when it gets here. I have to Pay Attention or I find myself with a fistful of M&Ms or something and then another and another... But yesterday I made it. I resisted the temptation to sabotage. And I'm not doing too badly today, though I really need to find my water.

Movement

I remember now why it is that I like calorie counting! I'm already down 1 pound. I did a run this morning as well. Feeling more upbeat about loosing weight than I have in a very long time.

Weight: 201 (-1)
Over Bust:38 1/2"
Bust:42"
Waist:36"
Hips:46"

Run: 1.87 miles/34:25
20 Crunches on the balance ball

Starting Again

It's been so long since I did any serious running or other exercise on any kind of regular basis that I'm going to just start new. So today Andy and I did the 100 pushups challenge. Day 1 isn't so bad. I'm off to start on Day 1 of the running program that I was doing before: Run 1 Walk 2.

I weighed myself yesterday and I'm 200 pounds.

These are my current measurements:

Over bust: 38 3/4
Bust: 43
Waist: 37 1/4
Hips: 44 1/2

And here's the link to the running program, so that I can find it again: my printed copy has disappeared.

How is everyone else doing?

Getting Back on Track

I've been working on getting back on track for a while now, and this morning I actually managed to get onto the treadmill and go run for 1/2 hour. It went surprisingly well, considering that I haven't done any running since the last time I blogged it. It wasn't bad at all.

Invitation?

So I was chatting with Carolyn last night and she was saying that she's pretty interested in joining our blog... does she need an invitation like we did for the Round Robin or can she just show up and post? 

Last night was Dave's second night working at the fair for his dad and that means I was all by myself. I thought I had a pretty good and productive night. I went straight from work to his mom's house and changed into my running stuff and went and hit the pavement! It took me a long time to actually get out of the house and do it since it was the first time I was running while the sun was up and it was crazy hot for that kind of thing. But I stretched and drank some water and I did it! :) 

I'm starting to work on a scrapbook for Dave of his mission and I got that going a bit more last night too. Organizing pictures and such. I know this is a bit off subject, but does anyone have good scrapbook ideas or tips? I found a bunch of nice layouts online and I have some good ideas, but it's all making me realize I don't have the tools and things I need. I think this may be a bigger project than I thought at first. :) 

Keep on keepin' on

So, I haven't exactly been doing very well on the whole eating healthy thing. Bleh. Though, I am working on getting that back under control. And I did buy salad this past weekend and have been eating that for lunch again, which should count for something, right? :)

I may be too scared to get back on the scale to see how I'm actually doing right now, but today, despite my dietary slackings, I ran a mile in 12:54. Woot! I've decided that Rit's program of walking a minute, running a minute - even when the running is at a slower pace - burns through a mile quicker than what I had been doing before. (walking a while, running fast for maybe a minute, then walking another while to recover) Thanks for posting that program Rit!

It's been awfully quiet ladies... where my girls at?

Accomplished: Day 8 minus 2

I did another day. Well, my 1st of 2 steps to get to accomplishing Day 8. The "official" program is a bit ambitious for me. But I'm pleased. Even though I'm not loosing weight yet (still), I am loosing inches nicely. And I'm excited about that. It's definitely a step in the right direction. I set up a route and then I have measured distance in my Runner's World exercise journal. Then I run it with my stopwatch and see how I do. I'm getting better: the route I ran today I had a little bit of extra time at the end of the day's run. I finished 6 seconds before my 30 minutes, which is exciting to me because last time I actually made it through this route I had to tack a few seconds on to get to the end of the block. So there's been some improvement. Probably mostly improvement in my ability to breathe as that's typically the limiting factor.

It's good that I made myself go today too, because after Thursday when I actually decreased my pace to 12:54 - about 3 minutes faster than the run before it - although I was running faster (The jogging stroller was pulling me along I think. I'm always faster pushing it.) I was so incredibly frustrated by not finishing the 30 minutes I usually do that there was a good chance that I would sabotage myself and just fall off the wagon. I could feel the nagging "it doesn't work anyway" at the back of my mind. So it's good that I went today. Now I can get my momentum back and keep loosing inches. Someday my body will have no choice but to unload some pounds!

Oh Boy

Ugh. It did not go well today. I ended up cutting the run short & coming home early. Couldn't breathe. Maybe because it was so humid? Also, my antibiotic is doing some unpleasant things to me, and that could be contributing. Whatever, it didn't go well. Very disheartening. This week is turning out to be a very difficult week for the exercise: I was going to run yesterday, before I went to the dentist, but I messed up when I set my alarm and I didn't have time. So I did it today. But now I feel like shoe scrapings, and if I want to get my 3 runs in this week like I've been doing I have to have another bash at it tomorrow.

Here are the measurments I said I'd do 2 days ago. It's been that kind of week.

Bust: 44 1/2 (up 1/2", but it's a different bra that makes me feel a bit like Madonna. I retired it, but when I started running I needed more than 2, and the new one hasn't come in yet....)
Waist: 36 3/4 (down 1 3/4"!!!)
Belly: 45 1/2" (down 1 1/2"!!!)
Hips: 45" (down 1/2"!!!)

OK, I feel much better about life now that I've taken those; my weight is actually UP a pound at 201 this week, and it's been driving me crazy. But those measurements are very reassuring: There IS actually progress for all the work that I've been doing! Maybe one of these days I'll get to go get myself one of those non-food rewards we talked about a while back! I'd almost given up on getting there because I've been so stuck at the same place, even with running. This is very encouraging.

Day 8-Minus-2

It's day 8-2 because I figure that there are at least 2 steps between where I'm at and where I need to be in order to pull of Day 8's "run 2 walk 1." Today what I set out to do - and did - was run 2 walk 1, run 2 walk 2, 5 times, for the usual total of 30 minutes. It was hard work. But I did it. I plan to do it again on Wednesday. Well, maybe. That's the day that I'm getting more work done on my root canal & I typically don't feel great after doing that. Plus I'm going to the zoo with Monkey. We'll have to see. If I get up nice & early & go before all the excitement it can still be done. (By nice & early I mean around 8.)

I got a new toy the other day: a stopwatch. It's pretty fun. Monkey loves it. It beeps. I like that I can now keep better track of my times. I decided to stop counting my warm-ups in my pace, and only count the part where I'm actually running. Or working on running anyway. As a result, my pace today was just over a 15 minute mile! Not bad: I'm almost as good as I was in 4th grade, only this time it's not killing me. No asthma-type attacks. It doesn't hurt. (Which is not to say that it's not WORK. It's kind of like giving birth that way.) Also, we're have a possible opportunity to buy a used treadmill. Depends on the cost. I wonder if I can do some sort of trade for part of the price: I'll bring you bread, you give me the equipment you're getting rid of because you never use it anyway. I'm sure there'd have to be some money exchanged, but that might bring it down into a range that we can do right now.

Tomorrow I plan to weigh-in and check my measurements. Anyone with me?

Working Hard: Day 8, Attempt 1

This was hard today: it was hot and pushing myself to run longer stretches is not easy. The program for today said that I should run 2 walk 1. I never really thought that was a realistic goal for doing in a single day, at least for me and my ability to breathe while I run. Here's what I actually did:

3 min warm-up.
1) Run 2 walk 1.
2) Run 2 walk 1.
3)Run 2 walk 1
4)Walk 2.
5)Run 2 walk 2.
6)Run 1 walk 2.
7)Run 1 walk 2.
8) Run 1 walk 2.
9) Run 1 walk 2.
10) Run 1 walk home.

The 9th and 10th sets were really hard to start, but once I got going they weren't so bad. My pace worked out to about the same as it has been, but I'm ok with that for a couple of reasons. First, it's HOT. And humid. Ugh. Also, I ended the 10th set just a bit further away from home than I thought I was, so walking home for my cool down took longer than usual. So I'm pretty happy with how things went today.

Also, I found a feather and brought it home to show Monkey.

Hooray for Friday :)

Ah, Friday. For no real reason, except that I get to sleep in tomorrow, I love Fridays :)

Today I set a new record for myself on the treadmill (and i think treadmill running has to be different and not directly compatible with real-life-outside-running): a mile in 13:11. Wohoo! And I jumped rope last night for 20 mins while watching tv ('til I was sweating enough to gross myself out and then stopped so as not to irrevocably smell up my little apartment)

Well, my dress is in! Tomorrow evening I'm going in to be fitted.. here is the real test of all this hard work.. what kind of alterations will be needed?? When considering that aspect of things, almost I don't want to loose any more weight - otherwise the dress won't fit! Hehehe... but then my brain kicks in and I remember that losing weight is GOOD and healthy and right and taking a dress in is ever so much easier (and better on the ego) than letting it out.

Accomplished; Day 6

I did it! I did the first week of the Learn to Run program! And I did days 5 and 6 the first time I tried them! I'm feeling pretty good about that. And it definitely made a difference to be out earlier. Although the temp was rising quickly in the 30 minutes that I was out: it was 87F when I got back. That's HOT.

EA - Session 2

Hello. You know my name. :) And I am so very happy to report that I have a much better week going than last week. Last week I exercised once (Saturday) and I ate a whole bunch of junk food. This week, I have gone running twice and my junk food intake is much less. Yes. Even with the junk only day yesterday. Dave and I just got back from a 40 minute run around the neighborhood. Still sticking to Rits's running program, but we got in a warmup today. I count that too. I'm outside and I'm moving. So - dang it! - it counts. :) And our time was somewhere just below 16:00 for a mile! We knocked off over 20 seconds! YEA!!! Of course that doesn't include the warmup, but that's ok. WE IMPROVED!

Accomplished: Day 5

Hot. Humid. Didn't want to go. Went anyway because Kate posted that there's only 11 weeks to the wedding and that means I need to loose 2.27 pounds a week between now and then to be at my first goal by her wedding. Not only did I go, but I pushed the Monkey in the stroller (he's 31 pounds, plus whatever the stroller adds), and I still made it through Day 5. I'm feeling pretty good about my workout today!

Good Morning Y'All!

So Rits made the comment that the rest of us aren't blogging, so I thought I'd start this EA session. (exercisers anonymous) Hello. My name is Emma. And I haven't exercised for 2 days. And before that, well. Let's just say it was a little while. 

But. Saturday I tried the running thing Rits is doing. I don't think I followed the format very well. Due to the lack of light - thus not being able to see my watch - and the lack of a stopwatch, I just kinda did a couple of sets of running for what seemed like a minute... ish. And then walk till I felt like I could go again. And I think overall it went pretty well! I ran/jogged 4 times, pushed pretty hard, worked hard, and didn't die! :) I like that last part the most. Dave and I went for 25 minutes without doing a warm up and we went about a mile and a half. So I think that works out to about a 16:20 mile. That's not too bad right? I don't remember what Rits was getting. Seems close...? So we'll call it good and start at Day 1 again tonight to try to get on schedule it being Monday and all. 

Progress Report:

Exercise in the last week - 1

Pounds lost - 4

Inches lost - Gotta find that measuring tape

New Goal - fit into a new temple dress by Nov. 6th. I went looking this weekend for a new one since mine is getting big and I found a really pretty one that's a size large and I almost fit. So I want to buy it before Kate's wedding. 

Accomplished: Day 3

I guess that 2 days of rest (I didn't exercise on Saturday) plus leaving Monkey at home was exactly what I needed: I did day 3 today, and I improved my pace by about 30 seconds! I love having little bitty goals and seeing little bits of progress like this. I knew when I was just over 1/2 way through my run that I was going to be improving my pace because I was hitting landmarks just a little early. That had the effect of making me want to keep it up, work a bit harder, because I didn't want to spoil it. And it worked! Makes me wonder what would have happened if today had not been 80 degrees: it was mid-60s when I was starting, and it's harder to run in the heat. Although there was a nice breeze most of the time and that helped a lot.

So what about the rest of you girls? I nobody else is posting anymore! Where are you at? You oughta post even if you're not doing as well as you like. You guys were so nice to me when I was loosing ground rather than loosing weight. I'd like the chance to cheer you through a tough spot!

Almost Day 3

Looks like I'll be giving Day 3 another go on Monday. I'm OK with that though. It's substantially warmer today than it was on Wednesday. And I was pushing a jogging stroller with a strapping boy in it this time, which I haven't been before. Even with that, I still did 9 of 10 sets. I did take several 3 minute walks (today's pattern was run 1 walk 2), but I don't feel at all bad about it. I have sweat rolling down my back and I've definitely worked. My pace was 17:06 - a little slower than last time, but still substantially faster than the first day. Plus, the various stats that I've got on my workout list are starting to add up, and it's fun to see how long/far I've run over the various time periods they track for me. Computers can be so cool.