bad, bad and bad...

This is gonna be a super depressing blog, so consider yourselves warned... :)  I have had quite a few positive ones lately, so I guess it was due.

First off, no weight loss. I was pleased that when I weighed in Monday this week (3/21) that I didn't gain anything, but bummed that there was no loss.

Secondly, I also finished my thyroid medication and forgot to get the prescription filled :( Bummer. So I missed about 3 days so far this week. I need to get it filled this week for sure. This is the point when I usually stop taking it. i forget to get it refilled, then months later, I have to go back to the doctor and ask for a new prescription because I am suddenly wanting to be healthier. Yikes. I need to get it filled...

Thirdly, Bad eating! I went to a winery on Thursday for a magazine assignment and I ate snacks (too many to actually tell people) on the way up, then a big dinner, complete with a lemon-berry torte for dessert, at the winery restaurant. :(  It was delicious, but so bad for me!

My family and I went skiing this weekend, and I told myself I wasn't going to worry too much about what I ate on the trip. I didn't want to stress about it. I would make the best choices at wherever we were. I definitely didn't stress about it, though I kinda wish I would have. I ate some yummy stuff.

On Friday night, we went through the Chick-Fil-A drive through and I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich combo, kinda healthy other than the waffle fries, and when we drove off, it turns out I got a breaded chicken sandwich...with cheese! I couldn't dare take it back, you know, we were in a hurry to get started on the trip, etc...so I toughed it out and ate it... :) On Saturday, I ate at Pizza Hut for lunch, and it was quite cheesy and delicious. Then for dinner, Uno's and I had fettuccine Alfredo, my favorite. In fairness to myself, I have to say I tried to find something healthy on the menu. I asked our waitress if the codes on the menu (highlighted green and highlighted brown) had anything to do with the nutrition. She proceeded to explain something about pizza and toppings, and I realized she didn't know. So instead of suffering through something not-so-yummy when I'm not even positive it's healthy, I decided to eat something I knew I would love. Bad choice, but it was yummy!

I feel very certain I will be up several pounds when I weigh in in the morning. :( 

My friend Terri texted me this week to say she was off work early the next day and would like to run with me if I went. I was super excited to see her and to exercise so it was going to go great, right? We met at Barboursville Park and we started off running. Within a few minutes, I was struggling. I did about a lap and a half and had to walk. :( 

I don't know what happened. I came up with plenty of excuses though. I decided it could've been because it was hot. The sun was bright and it was early afternoon. Or... because it was gravel when I am used to a treadmill or pavement. Gravel gives with your feet so you have to work harder to lift your legs and to keep stable and balanced.  Or... I started off too fast and exhausted myself too quickly. Pick one, any one. I just couldn't do it. Bummer.

I did try to redeem myself at the end, and we ran a final lap.
Our hotel had an exercise room, so i decided to try it out last night. I ran for 35 minutes on the treadmill and did 20 minutes on the eliptical. It felt great! I needed the exercise after all the crummy eating. I hope it is going to reset my thinking this week.

I'm going to try not to get too upset if I am way over tomorrow when I weigh in. This is going to be a new week with a new attitude.

Some goals this week - First is to set a new goal. My cupcake goal worked well, so I am going to pick a new goal weight for this phase of the weight-loss and then pick a reward for when that is reached.

Secondly - I need to hang up a new pair of goal pants. Since I can wear the ones previously hanging (yay!) I need to replace them for inspiration and motivation.

Thirdly, I need to drink more water. I have been doing terribly with this. Water is important and I drink none.

Lastly, I need to get the prescription filled and take the thyroid medication this week.

I kind of dreaded writing this one, displaying all my bad behaviors this week, but I needed to get it all out there. Thanks for reading and wish me luck for a better week!

Thanks for reading!!
Jen

Goal jeans, 41:02, and a cheerleader

This has been a seriously great week, as far as my goals are concerned... I'm not gonna lie :) 
First off, I will report an exciting 4 1/2 pound weight loss this week when I weighed in on Monday. Yay! That brings me up to a 23-pound loss so far! Still have plenty to go, but that was some major progress for me.

Due to this big week, I decided to try on my "phase-1" goal jeans. These jeans had been hanging on my treadmill for months and months, and then when I finally started using the treadmill, I moved them to the closet door. I wanted to be able to see them and inspire myself to keep working at this. I wanted to be back in those jeans! Ideally, I have a couple of sizes more to go down after those jeans, but this is serious progress.

So, I tried them on today, and..... they worked great! I wore them to church Wednesday!! :)

More big news...I completed my first 5K!!! I was pretty nervous about it, because I hadn't ran that much at once before. I ran 2.7 miles Thursday, but I needed 3.1 to complete the 5K. I was very nervous. I am so glad my friends, Lori and Michelle, did this with me. I doubt I would have done it alone. And a big thanks to my family for their support :)

When the shot was fired, I started jogging, and was passed by a lot of people. But I kept reminding myself, the tortoise and the hare, the tortoise and the hare...

The first mile or so I did pretty well, but for a large part of the time I was jogging alone, which leaves a lot of time for thinking. It's amazing how the things on your mind can affect the way you run. A couple of times I really thought I would just sit down in the grass on the side of the road. But I had to change my thinking. And I prayed a lot. God heard a lot from me the last mile and a half :)

When I was nearing the end, probably the last 1/2 mile, I was running along the street with a lot of space between me and the other runners, and I heard this adorable little girl yelling out from her front door, "Go, girl, go!!" It was just what I needed. My personal little cheerleader on the side of the road. I yelled "Thank you!" and kept going.

That little girl reminded me how important it is to have cheerleaders in our lives. Having someone encourage you and not let you give up when you feel like you can't keep going makes all the difference. I want to be more like that little girl.

I finished the race in 41 minutes and 2 seconds. I finished 121 out of 202. I realize this isn't awesome, or even good really, but it made my day! I wasn't last!

I have to say I really loved having a number! Pinning that 178 on my shirt made it seem a lot more real :)

I can't wait to do it again!!

Thanks for reading!! I'll write again soon :)

Jen

Paula Vega, legs, and Saturday

Three inches of white frosting swirled on top of a golden yellow cupcake, topped with a plump, fresh, enormous blackberry. One bite into the cupcake, and you get the surprise of blackberry filling that is more scrumptious than words can describe. I can only imagine that if we eat in heaven, this is what will be served :)

I lost my 1/2 pound I needed this week to get my cupcake!! That was all I lost, but it was enough. I headed to the Paula Vega Cupcake stand inside of the third & NINTH deli in Huntington this afternoon, right after lunch. Amazing! It was so yummy. Paula even told me that she has a customer who has lost 30 pounds by cupcakes (well, sort of). If that customer eats right and exercises all week, she rewards herself with one cupcake each week :)  I like that idea, but I think one a week is too much for me. I'd better pace myself :) I haven't decided what my next reward will be... Still tossing some ideas around :)

Oh, and an amazing thing happened. I was sitting in church Sunday, and without thinking, I crossed my legs. Comfortably :)  Yay!!

I didn't make up my exercise time last week. So I only ran one day. I was kinda disappointed in myself about that. But I was back at it last night. My cousin texted me to see if I would like some company while I ran, and she came over last night to run with me. I'm so glad she did. I would have found an excuse last night to keep myself from running if she hadn't, I'm sure of it. We ran outside, and I drove afterward to measure the distance. It looks like I ran 2.7 miles! Yay! I didn't time it though, but I don't think it was completely terrible. And I am not miserably sore today. I'm starting to like this!

The real test is Saturday. My first 5k. Lori and Michelle, two great friends from work, have promised to run with me and I am very excited about this. I am hopeful that I will be able to run the whole thing, but if I can't, I'm not going to be bummed about it. I also don't want to be the very last person to cross the finish line. But if I am, that is okay too. I am just excited that I am feeling brave enough to do it.

Thanks so, so, so much for reading! I think that is another important part of this whole thing that has kept me going. If no one was reading this, it would be easy to not care if I had to put disappointing updates. But I want to do a good job so I can post good reports. Thanks so much for inspiring me to keep going :)

Jen

Miracle, a couple of pounds, and advice...

So, Monday was a good day. I weighed in and lost 2 1/2 pounds!! Yay :)  Grand total so far... ready? 18 pounds! And the best part is that it hasn't been completely horrible. Or completely hard. God must be giving me some kind of miracle self-control, because I typically don't have that. I am so close to the cupcake I can almost taste it!! :) 1/2 pound to go (if I'm counting the extra pound to compensate for the cupcake damage).

I haven't done so great this week on exercising, until tonight. My usual schedule is Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays for running, and I was pretty busy Wednesday, so I skipped, with plans of doing it Thursday. Didn't happen. I was feeling all blah and just didn't have it in me. So today I felt like it was a must. If I can do it Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I'll have all three days in this week.

So, today was beautiful. Sunshine, 60 degrees. I decided I had to try it again. Running outside. After the last outside run, I mean disaster, I was apprehensive about trying it again. But I received some very helpful tips from some great friends. Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice and ideas. I tried it. This afternoon, I told Noah I was going to run, and he decided to go with me. He made it for 17 minutes, which I think was fabulous. That was just enough time to make it back to our house. I kept going. I ran for the full 30 minutes of Day 1 of Week 9 of the Couch to 5K program!! I still can't believe it! After the pathetic attempt last time, only making it 3 minutes, I never thought I could do it, but I did!!

After we rested a few minutes, I drove around the neighborhood to see our running mileage. I don't know that this is a really authentic way of checking, but it made me happy, so I'm counting it :)  Noah ran for 1.2 miles in his 17 minutes, and in my 30, I ran 2.2 miles.

I know it had to look pretty slow to anyone who saw us. Noah even said we were running like old ladies. He said his grandmother could probably run faster than me, and he's probably right :)  But I did it. I didn't stop. I didn't walk. I kept going :)

So Sunday is my last day of the Couch to 5K program schedule. Almost completed 9 weeks! I need to spend this week trying to decide the next step. I don't know if I should add more time or try to go faster during that time to increase my distance. Any advice?

Thanks so much for reading!
Jen