Jogging, jogging and more jogging

Ok, so I've been jogging, we won't call it running just yet! But I WILL get there! It's getting some easier, but I wouldn't call it easy by any stretch of the means! :) The first 4-5 jogs I was extremely sore, like taking ibuprofen like candy sore! My lower body is pretty fit, from coaching baseball, and playing softball, however jogging for a mile at a time must just work different muscles.
I've jogged about 12-13 miles this month, that is huge for me! I have also seen some definition in my thighs, the outside of my thighs, my problem area is the inside of my thighs, so boo on that one.

I haven't seen any weight loss, but clothes are fitting better, so I must be losing inches versus pounds. I'm still tracking everything in MFP, and I'm shooting for losing another 30 lbs like I did in the past! I've only gained back 17 of those, sheesh!

I've signed up to run jog this 5K, excited for sure!

picture from FS website

 

 

Melanie is going to jog this with me! I'm super excited to have a friend to jog with! That being said, when the Black Cat Chase 5K comes up, I'm hoping to run the entire thing and beat my time, so not going to hang with any friends on that race, so maybe we can all meet for Pizza afterwards downtown, the last two races I did for fun, not for time, so I enjoyed jogging with a friend, neither held me back, but I just want to be on my own, and by that time, I should be able to do a 10-11 min mile pace!

I've also signed up to do a Tough Mudder in Sept! Black Cat is in Oct. My Aug. race I had to cancel because the hubs work is having a pool party family fun night, and I don't want to miss that. Although I'm sad to miss the Midsummer's night run, I love to run at night, but oh well, maybe next year!

 

The Tiki Trot is on a cross country track, all grass, no pavement, so I think it will be a much tougher run for me, but again I'm not worried about time on this one! It's a family event, with free swimming afterwards, so I'm super stoked this will be the first run with my boys and hubs there to cheer me on. I really wanted them to come to the BC race last year, but it was cold and pouring down rain, they wouldn't have had fun at all, they are excited to come watch me! :)

 

 

I hope that I can report back a time of sub 44 mins. for the TT 5K this weekend, wish me luck!





Learning to become a RUNNER!

I have always wanted to be a runner! I mean always, even back in high school in my thinner days. I loved to run. I would run half mile or so every night. A big thanks to my dad who would follow me and pick me up, because I hated to run back the same direction. Gosh that man really loved me! ;)

I tried couch to 5k and it was just ok. I had a free trial version and when it was up I didn't purchase it. I had gotten to week 4 and that was it. The problem I had with it was when it was time to jog I would jog so fast that I would tire before it was time to walk again. So I read a blog about a runner and she said she jogged a very slow jog, which would be a fast walk to some! For as long as she could, and then built up her time not speed. After you get the distance built up you can work on speed. So that is my plan and guess what?........I'm up to jogging 22 mins without stopping. At first I thought the people at the gym were probably wanting to laugh at how slow I was jogging, but if the end result is me getting to jog a full 5k without stopping I will be thrilled.
I've had good/bad days on my diet as far as food goes. We had moms bday and a good day at work. We had a date night to Mexican and a lunch date to pizza inn. So pantry is stoked and ready for hopefully a good weekend.

Oh and our computer crashed. So the new one just got setup. I will be back to posting pictures hopefully by the weekend

The weigh-in

I was super stoked to weigh-in on Monday, I got to work super late and decided to heat the the doctor's office within my building to weigh in before I headed upstairs!
And when I stepped on that scale.................................ZERO weightlosss!!! I was shocked to say the least and disappointed.
I mean I had dodged fair food, and fast food, and eating out, and 2-12 hour EMT classes where everyone was going out with the other students for lunch, while I ran out and grabbed a salad!

So I contacted my trainer and asked what was up with that, I had tracked every morsel I put in my mouth! He said, that since I had just been dieting and took a break, it's gonna take my body a lil longer this time to drop the weight! Fine with me, I will win this fight against fat! ha! I'm strong-willed like that!

I don't pay for a personal trainer, but there is one in my family, so I drive him batty, ask him lots of questions when i'm fighting the scale! :-)

I went to the gym tonight, then came home and walked the neighborhood with the boys, so that they could get their exercise too, it was a great night!

I'm meeting Crane in the morning at the gym, so we can burn some cals before our day officially starts! I'm so glad she has teamed up with me to kick that scales butt! Her hubs promised her a trip to Hawaii, I'm slightly jealous, no trips planned for me, but I can change that very quickly! I'm anxious to see where we are by the end of August.

I'm also considering signning up to run a half marathon! One part of my brain is like, "seriously?? you can't be serious about this?" then the other part, has me super stoked! I'm thinking Spring of 2014, I won't be ready to run one by fall, I would like to have lost 35+ pounds before I run one, I don't care if I have to walk some of it, I'm just motivated to do it!

Update on eating healthy

Soooo.................I wanted to do an update on some foods I ate last week that has helped me to stay on track with eating 1300 cals per day! I logged in all my info into MFP app, and it calculates how many cals I need to eat to lose 2 lbs per week, so 1300 is the magic number for me!

I did great all week, cheated one day and ate about 1900, but the next day I was under by 400, so I think it nearly equaled out! I went to the gym twice last week, played a softball game, and walked the neighborhood. I thought for sure I would lose another 2 lbs this past week, but guess what???????? I didn't lose a single solitary ounce! I lost 8 lbs last week, so I guess my body wasn't ready to let go of anymore weight!

This past week was the Fair week, I typically will grab fair food........but not this time, wasn't going to let that ruin the great week I just had! Sometimes I eat great all week long, to only ruin it over the weekend, would lose 2 lbs Mon-fri, then weigh again on Monday, only to gain those two pounds back, viscious cycle for sure, I hope I'm not the only one that has done that over and over again!

Some of my items I love to eat are the cinnamon and raisin bagel thins, with fat free raspberry cream cheese spread, it's great and is very filling and only 150 calories, I typically pair that with apples, or grapes, for my mid-morning break along with a 12 minute walk, I'd guess we are walking a 1/4 to half mile on our breaks....keep in mind dress clothes, and sandals, so it's by no means a fast walk, just moving some!
My other breakfast go to is a tablespoon of peanut butter on 5 ritz crackers with 5 tops, so 10 crackers total, that puts my total cals around 255, still not horrible! I use to call that my cheat meal, but doesn't have to be if I measure out the peanut butter.

Breakfast is my hardest meal, because I'm a vegetarian. But I have a few "go to" items that I like!

2 of my other favorites are these:

They look very similiar the first photo is a taco salad! I used 11 chips for 140 cals, 1/4 cup of black beans, I'm guessing around 70 calories and sour cream that was 40 calories, for a total of 250 cals, I'm totally aware the salsa has a few cals in it, but not enough to count for me! I also had cayenne pepper to mine, because the hotter the better! :-)

The second photo is a grilled cheese sandwich, with a ton of lettuce, tomato, and onion! That was 2 pieces of 35 bread and 2 pieces of cheese for a grand total of 190 calories, very filling, I also added ketchup and mustard to it, once it was made sandwich style it was just too big to grab and eat!

It's hard to document everything you ate and eat so healthy to not see the scale drop, however when I lost the prior 30 lbs, that was typical for me, I wouldn't lose a pound for 4 straight days, then on the 5th day, I'd drop 2-3 pounds, it's kind of odd to me how that works, but I will take it, so that's what I'm hoping happens on Monday when I weigh in!

This week was great! Today I had my EMT refresher course and since I'm not in my own environment and I can't control lunches and breaks I thought I would do terrible, but I didn't! Thanks to Ali Ray and J for buying my lunch at the good Ol' Mcdees, I ate the Southwest Salad! It was yummy and a nice break away to have adult conversation! On a side note, I felt like an idiot in class................it's so hard to remember all of that medical jive when you don't do it everyday! I remembered all my skills, but textbook was different, the instructor wanted us to take a test on all the bones in the body and label the skeleton, I didn't review a thing because I didn't know we were testing on anything, I only missed 4 which isn't bad I didn't think, but i'm the oldest in the class, with a bunch of younger students! I don't like this getting old stuff! ha!

I hope I can report back in on Monday with great news from the scale!

WEIGHTLOSS

The lovely topic, I deal with daily :)

So after eating bad for Father's Day, my bday, and vacation and feeling like poo, I decided I have had enough! It was time to get back to my heathly eating habits, not to mention that I gained 23 lbs since Fall, ridiculous for sure!

I was using the excuse of the holidays and my dad being sick, I was out of a routine, and it just wasn't working for me, I'd try to do good, but after sitting in the ER with him for 6+ hours, I'd grab a snickers from the vending machine, or whatever!

On Sunday I went to the grocery to prepare for the week ahead, I did great, I took lots of roasted veggies for snacks, lots of cut up fruits, and had a great week!

THE RESULTS..........................I lost 8 lbs as of Friday! Friday was also another hard day, it was Relay for Life, the place is loaded full of food booths, I did grab a bean burrito on the way there because they are good, and filling, usually one does the trick! Once I got to Relay I had 2 brownies, and got a small fry on the way home, that dinner cost me about 900 calories! I did exercise alot that day, so I had Friday as my cheat day.

Today I've done great, so great that I had 400 cals left once I finished logging my food into MFP, (my fitness pal app) It said I ate too few cals today but for some reason I'm stuffed. After it said that I ate a handful of strawberries and blueberries and now I'm miserable! being under 400 cals today, just balances out yesterday!

I found a great BEFORE picture I thought I'd post, the first picture I was at my heaviest!

The second picture I had lost about 25 lbs! These pictures are 4 years apart!

I would like to lose around 50 lbs total from my heaviest! We shall see, I will keep you all posted!

I'm hoping to share some great recipes and ofcourse do a Recap of Relay this week!

Happy Father's Day

Today has been great, fun, sweet, sad, teary, and happy all in the same day! Shew-wee what a roller coaster of emotions today!

I didn't want to dwell on not having my dad today, I wanted to reflect on the great memories we made together, and there are so many, from nicknames, to wrestling, to running every night together, to our meal times, fishing trips, camping trips, wedding fun, vacations, and etc.

I also didn't want it to be a super sad day, because I have a wonderful husband who is a great dad to our boys! He loves them, plays with them, and is a role model for them!
We celebrated last night with a cookout, here was our menu: ribs, brats, corn on the cob, baked beans, beer cheese, salad, rolls, chips/dip, and strawberry shortcakes, we were miserably full!

Today I went to the cemetery with my mom, and boys, we put some Father's Day balloons on dad's grave, we are awaiting his stone to get here, it's going to be so beautiful, can't wait until it gets here! :)

Here is one of my favorite pics of my hubs and my dad, I just love it!

They are posed the same, smiling the same! This was at dad's bday last year, crazy how in one year things can change, he died 363 days from the day this pic was taken!

We also celebrated with Papaw (my FIL) last night, they came for our cookout! Here is a pic of Papaw!

I hope all 3 of these men know how much they are role models to our children, and how they are watching their every move, and how they are looking for love from them all!

My boys still talk about Poc everyday and it makes me smile, they love him, and miss him, and look up in the clouds to find him, I honestly thought my youngest would soon forget him, but not a chance!

I found some old home videos on VHS from 1994, and 1995, and I can't wait to have them put on a DVD, tomorrow I'm dropping them off and can't wait to get them back! Will be a fun popcorn/movie night!

Brandon.......you are the best father and we love you! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!



My Birthday

I had an awesome Birthday! Thanks to all my friends and family!

I went to work and found a gift card left by my secret sister for me, and Crane gave me a "friends" tumbler, family gave me money, and friends bought me lunch! And one of my besties (you know the one, that was in the big blue sea) showed up today with Margaritas and we grilled out! Such a fun time, even in the rain!

Thanks to the ones that could meet up and have lunch on Friday, you girls mean the world to me! We went to Pizza Inn, and it might be our favorite place to eat! :) It was nice to get out of the office for a bit!

Another big present was our new LR furniture was delivered, set up and ready when I got home! And ofcourse I told the hubs no presents since I had my shopping spree at Bed, Bath, and beyond!

Here are my presents from my friends:

Yes, that is our old couch in my kitchen, we were going to deliver it to the new owner and we have just had too much rain to do so! We didn't want to move it twice, so it's there for now, and the kiddos think it's their new jungle gym! SHEESH! :)
And you might notice the Margarita is half gone, Ali Ray and I might have drink half of that tonight, ha ha ha!
Good times for sure!

And speaking of couches, here is our new LR furniture:

I love it, it's nice, the loveseat is a rocker/recliner on each end! They are super plush, these bad boys took 7 weeks to come in, glad they are here now!

Oh and totally can't forget EE's team won their first game tonight! That was a great Bday present, I know Poc was sooooo proud of our boy tonight, he caught one in the air, then threw out the runner for a double play, he roped two line drives down the third base line, and went 2-3 at bat! That boy loves him so baseball, and so does his momma! It's in our blood, no doubt about it! :) He hit the other time at bat, and it went right out in front of home plate, I think it stunned him, he hesitated to run, he normally hits very long balls, so I think it kind of shocked him, if he had taken off running, he would have been safe, he was out by a hair!

He plays 3 nights next week, and we are stoked, and it's already time to sign up for fall ball, I'm riding the fence on coaching! I really don't want to, but I help so much (because I want to) that I feel like I might as well coach, we shall see how it goes!

I think that sums up a fantastic Bday week! I'm so blessed with all my friends and family!