1. I haven’t abandoned the notion completely, but have discovered that I seem to care more about the comfort and well-being of my daughter than I do my desire to run a 5K in less than 30 minutes.  I was getting my “training” in at the YMCA while my two-year old stayed in the child care room.  However, she was not adjusting well to being without me.  I think she was being “overstimulated” in that environment.  Whatever the reason, I wussed out and “rescued” her.  I keep telling myself that it is not an excuse to forego the 5K goal, but I haven’t even substituted running on the treadmill at home after she is in bed at night or while she is napping in the afternoon.  More on that in the coming weeks… as I really don’t intend to let this one get away — I just haven’t been diligent in the recent past.
2. I find it interesting that as soon as I began concentrating most heavily on the sodium column in my “Daily Plate” (livestrong.com) web app that the weight just happened to fall off.  The last 1.5 weeks have been very easy to lose weight!  Sure, perhaps it is mostly water weight (in that I am not retaining) but heck, it feels great nonetheless!
3. My new favorite snack is frozen blueberries!  Eating them frozen means I have to eat them more slowly.  They are like eating a dessert!  They are high in fiber and low in both calories and sodium.
4. I had two family parties last week and two additional opportunities to eat from a dinner buffet.  At Pizza Hut, I had the equivalent of one slice of pizza (it was actually two microscopic slices because they are cut smaller for the pizzas placed on the buffet) and lots and lots of salad.  The downside?  The little packet of dressing I spread across two huge mounds of salad greens actually contained 770 mg of sodium.  Yikes!  Who knew something that contained so few calories (only 20) would be so high in sodium?  Anyway, the second buffet opportunity was at a place called Machine Shed.  It is kind of like Cracker Barrel.  My siblings and I took my Dad there to celebrate his birthday.  Although the buffet looked fantasticly yummy, I decided on something much more reasonable.  My brunch still came to 770 calories, but it was so well-rounded carb/protein/fat -wise that I was pleased with my choices and it was more than enough food.  My plate was clean at the end of the meal but I didn’t have to eat much for the rest of the day and I certainly saved myself the hefty buffet price and the desire to sample everything under the sky.  One of the family events was a pig roast and potluck picnic.  Although there were dozens of favorite family recipes in attendance, I concentrated more on the “family” part than I did the food part.  It was a beautiful day and I ate well in moderation.  I’m so proud of myself.  At the pig roast, I did not feel like a pig! 

It was kind of important to me to show my progress in the same clothes because I thought it would more accurately show an “apples to apples” comparison.  However, a few of you pointed out that you’d like to see other photos as well, so here’s one also that shows me at 178 pounds:

Thumbs up with the Fonz!

John Hawk's Pub

My husband turned 40 over the weekend and we went downtown (Milwaukee) to celebrate sans kids.  It was a great time.  We walked through Juneau Park and in Veterans Park along the lakefront.  We also walked along the Milwaukee River (where I had my picture taken with Fonzie) and then we went to John Hawk’s Pub and ate outside.  Most people with weight loss blogs tend to take pictures of their food, but I never think to do that, so I’ll have to describe it instead!  If you follow the link above for the pub, you can find the sandwiches on their menu.  I had the grilled chicken breast with BBQ sauce and substituted raw veggies for the french fries.  I calculated that my lunch came in at under 500 calories, but even so, I probably burned most of that off with all the walking we did beforehand!

 

McDonald's Play Land

There were plenty of other opportunities to be bad this past week too, but I was very good!  My youngest daughter has recently discovered “the tubes” at McDonalds and asks to go there all the time.  Although I don’t want to make a habit of going to McDonalds, I do admit that someone with an FFA (my own made-up acronym) – a Fast Food Addiction — can fairly easily find healthier options on the menu.  But, the last couple of times we went to play on the equipment, I just ordered a Diet Coke and sat back and relaxed while my two older kids helped Sarah navigate the plastic jungle.

 

Fishing Birthday Cake

I mentioned that my husband and son both had birthdays this past week.  We had cake on three separate occasions, as there were multiple parties and gatherings in their honor.  My son is really into fishing right now so our resident cake decorator made them this cute cake with white chocolate fish (made from a candy mold) on top.  He loved it.  I had such a small sliver of the cake that I barely could taste it, however, I think my self-imposed restriction paid off because I lost weight last week!  Here’s a photo of my entire family from one of the other gatherings, with the cake in the foreground of course!  I’m smiling because I love my family, because I now love having my picture taken, and because again I chose to have such a small piece of cake!

We also went to the Bristol Renaissance Fair and had plenty of other opportunities to gorge on food.  But, once again, I refrained from letting the food part be a major factor in the day’s activities.  Some people like going to fairs just to eat certain kinds of foods that they wouldn’t get at other times.  In a way, I guess I am like that, but I am super-conscious of what I’m eating and how it can affect my goals, so I try to limit that whenever I can.  At the fair, I ate a Pork BBQ sandwich and that’s it!
 

Despite birthdays for both my son and my husband last week, I ate VERY sensibly.  I am so proud of myself.  I will write more later, show some pictures from our fun weekend and also update my Progress Photos page with a new picture in my infamous blue shirt.

Until then…

I gained a pound, according to the scale, so this week’s official number is 181.  <sigh>

However, I wore my “college jeans” yesterday and not only was there no “muffin top” spilling out over the waistband but they were also a bit loose!  I looked pretty good yesterday, if I do say so myself, so it was a good day to be around friends I hadn’t seen in a while. 

After three hard runs last week, I was kind of hoping for a weight loss, so the extra pound is a bit disappointing.  I won’t give up though.  In fact, I’m back to the Y right after I post this entry to try to improve on my time of 44 minutes.  I have a feeling that as the after-effects of exercise-change-in-routine kick in, the pound will come off, and hopefully more.  I did behave myself eating-wise this past week.    There was one day where I consumed 1540 calories (I decided to partake of a Friday night fish fry which is something I haven’t done in almost a year I’d guess) but other than that my second highest was 1382 and all other five days were under 1300 calories.

I hope I’m not at a plateau — it does seem like I have been gaining and losing the same pound for about three weeks now.  I need to see continued downward trends because there are only 4.5 months left in the year! 

As a side note, a milestone did come and go recently and unless my memory escapes me, I haven’t commented… the one year anniversary of this weight loss journey just passed.  I have been at this diet for a year and managed to lose 88 pounds.  So, although 100 pounds can come off in a shorter amount of time, if someone asks me how long it took me, I’ll have to report that it took me longer than a year.  That day will come! 

The good news?  My muscle aches have subsided some!  I think this is going to be doable in the long term. 

As I drove by the McDonald’s on the way home this afternoon, I noticed that my local restaurant had the new angus snack wraps advertised.  Knowing how comparatively healthy the grilled chicken snack wraps are, I thought I’d check the McDonald’s website for nutrition information on the new snack wraps.  It wasn’t available, so I used the Contact Us link to place an inquiry directly with McDonalds.  So far, I’ve received an auto-response telling me that my question was routed to the appropriate group and that I would receive an answer soon.  Hmm.

I did a little more searching online and saw references to the fact that the angus wraps were simply all of the ingredients from the full sandwiches but cut in half, minus the bun and plus the tortilla.  That said, I think what I consumed was 390 calories.  Not bad for something so delicious!  After I added a side salad with lo-cal dressing and some Apple Dippers (minus the caramel dip) I was still under 500 calories for the meal.  I won’t indulge often, but when I do, I think that makes a nice choice!

Yesterday I ached a little.  After Monday’s 45 minute jog/run, I felt pretty good, but yesterday my muscles reminded me that they had not been used like that in a while.  This morning when I woke up I hurt even worse.  I was recalling all of the times I began a new activity only to shortly thereafter abandon the notion because of muscle strain and pain.  This is why people give up exercise plans so soon after beginning them!  One of the reasons anyway…

But, I wasn’t going to let myself get off that easily.  I didn’t want to give up, so I went to the YMCA again today to run on the track.  I told myself that I would go every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so I didn’t want to let myself down.  I went.  I walked the first three laps around the track, feeling the dull pain with every step.  Then I ran a couple.  Then I alternated walking and jogging for the rest of the entire 45 minutes.  I didn’t die!

In fact, I beat Monday’s success of 34 toothpicks by one.  At the end of the 45 minutes I had tossed a toothpick on the ledge 35 times, for a total of 3.04 miles.  I calculated that I will need to complete just one more lap (36 total) in order to complete the 5K distance.  I anticipate getting to that point by next week, if not on Friday!  So much for taking two months to complete that goal!

That assumed, I think I am going to just carry 36 toothpicks with me and work on improving my time.  My first 5K will likely come in at about 45 minutes, so I will spend the remainder of my goal’s two months trying to get that number closer to the 30 minutes that sounds a little more standard.  That way, I won’t necessarily have to always allot 45 minutes to my exercise plan.  Eventually, I’ll only have to spend 40, then 35, then 30 minutes reaching the 5K distance — and that will leave more of my hour (the hour that Sarah is in the child care room) for stretching or lifting weights or hangin’ out at the bubbler!

Almost 3 miles!

My first experience with working towards my new goal was awesome!  I’m already wondering if my goal wasn’t big enough.  I think the 5K portion is right on target, and the two weeks is doable.  I’m wondering if the 45 minutes part of my goal is too lax?  Anyway, long story short, at the end of my 45 minutes I counted 34 toothpicks.  At 11.5 laps per mile, that is roughly 2.96 miles that I completed in the 45 minute timeframe I allowed myself.  That’s almost a 5K distance and that was the goal I thought would need two months to achieve!  Before going, I asked my husband what he thought I should be “happy with” for a first time out.  He said two miles minimum.  When I saw that my results were nearly 3 miles, I was very happy!

Admittedly, I am a total newbie at running.  In fact, I am a terrible runner, or so I thought.  My pace is slow and my gait is awkward.  As I mentioned earlier this year, I don’t even think my form is correct!  But, with practice, I plan to get better.  For those that are more experienced runners, can you offer your opinion on what a good distance would be to aim for if you were a brand new runner that wanted to set a realistic goal for a 45 minute time period?  4 miles maybe?

I just now did a little web research and see that with a little practice I should be able to get my 5K time to under 30 minutes.  If you run, what is your best time for a 5K distance?

I plan on using the indoor running track at our local YMCA three days per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  I have arranged to drop off Sarah at the Child Care playroom for a one hour time slot on each of those days.  (This will be good for her, too, as up to this point she has never been in the care of someone other than me or my husband.  She is going to benefit from the socializing time with other toddlers!)  With the one hour that I will have available to me, I can spend ten minutes stretching (I hope that’s enough) and a few minutes cooling down afterwards.

In the 45 minutes reserved for exercise, I will begin with a warmup walking lap or two around the track.  I will be wearing my MP3 player with energizing upbeat music and I will be carrying a stash of toothpicks in my hand.  Each time I complete a lap, I will place a toothpick on the ledge at the edge of the track.  At first, I don’t care how much of the 45 minutes I spend jogging/running versus walking, but I am going to try to jog/run as much of it as I can.  It’s just important to me to be active for the full 45 minutes.  Then, when the 45 minutes are up, I will count my toothpicks pile on the ledge to see how far I went.   The equivalent to one mile, I was told, is 11.5 times around the track in the center lane.

So, that is the plan!  Stay tuned for a report on how my first run went yesterday!

Well, yesterday that same friend invited me to participate in a duathlon — run two miles, bike 20 and run two more.  It is so close to my home and would be so convenient!  The trouble is — I don’t own a bike and it’s next month.  I don’t think my body would be ready by then, even if I was equipped.  I’m so disappointed though.  I would love to do this, and the two mile portion seems less daunting than a 5K, even though I’d have to do it twice with a bike ride in between!

So, long story short, I need a plan!  My husband and I were talking recently about how I am finding success in weight loss because I took the time to plan and make a goal that was definite and concrete.  Blogging about it made me accountable, and the fact that I disclosed my prior weight to about 60 people in last year’s Christmas letter gave me all the motivation I needed not to screw up.  With the 100 pounds goal completion in sight, I think I’d like to layer another big goal on top of that.  (Normally, I wait until one major goal is accomplished before starting another one, as I think I’ll have better luck meeting it if it has my full attention.)  Abandoning the norm, here goes:

I want to be able to run a 5K distance in 45 minutes or less by two months from today.  Ironically, two months from today will be my 17th wedding anniversary, I’ve just realized.  What a nice gift to be able to give myself — the completion of a goal and the sense of satisfaction it will bring.

I will expand on my plan in my next post.  I do already have those things ironed out, but a screaming toddler in the background is preventing me from getting them typed out right now.