Memorial Day 5K and Outback :)

It's been waaaayyy too long since I last posted anything. I can blame it on a couple of things... I have been really busy (but I was busy when I was posting regularly too, so it's not a good excuse)... and I have a hard time writing a peppy blog when I am crabby, and I had a few crabby days. I also am ashamed to admit it, but I had a couple of bad weigh-ins at home and some not-so-stellar exercise weeks, along with more-than-average bad eating days (hence the bad weigh-ins), and I became uninspired. However, things have picked up and I have made a little progress.

I'm not even sure where to start on pounds gained and lost, so I will go straight for the grand total of weight loss since the beginning of the year... Here it comes.... 35.5 pounds! I'm so excited about this. This was precisely my Memorial Day goal. Some may consider it cheating, but I did wait to weigh myself after I ran today's 5K and then walked in the parade. I was a half of a pound away from the goal, so I promptly stripped the sweat-soaked T-shirt and sports bra off, along with every hair clippy in my head (sorry for the graphic image, haha) Once everything removable was removed, my weight was exactly what I had hoped. I'm counting it :) 

Like a said a minute ago, I ran a 5K today. The Veteran's Memorial Day 5K in Ironton. Shawn, Noah and I ran it together. It was the first one for Shawn and Noah and my third. Because I have already done this before, and Shawn hadn't, I told him I would stay back with Noah and that he should go on. That was clearly not necessary! Noah ditched me after about a mile and a half. I am still amazed. Just last Saturday, Noah practiced with me at his maw-maw's house and we both circled her neighborhood enough times to equal 3.1 miles. He did great, but stayed right with me. A few times I waited on him to catch his breath or tie his shoes, so naturally I assumed he would be slower than me. If we would have bet on this I would think I have been hustled! :)  He was awesome. I can't believe it, but he ran the whole thing in 33:29! Shawn did great as well, finishing at 29 minutes - this after he couldn't even finish it a few nights ago in our neighborhood. My time, while not nearly as impressive as either of theirs, was 36:53! I'm very happy about this!! My goal each race - other than just finishing it alive - is to beat my last time, and so far, that's what I have done. Yay!

Eating out at restaurants and trying to stay healthy is difficult, I have decided. We had a great time this weekend with family from out of town, and had dinner Sunday at Outback. I decided to peruse the menu Saturday night to make sure I knew what healthy item I could order. I am so glad I did! I would have chosen

grilled chicken on the barbie and a house salad, which sounds very healthy. When I calculated the nutritional information on the restaurants website (which is super cool that you can do that), those two little seemingly healthful foods would have had 43.5 grams of fat!

So, I looked at side options and ways to cut some fat grams. Apparently they put butter on EVERYTHING in Australia... or at least at Outback in Barboursville. I do love me some butter. In fact, I remember my mom saying I used to eat butter sandwiches for snacks at my grandmother's house. (Could explain the high cholesterol these days, huh? :)  Anyway, when you take the butter off the chicken, it went from 20 grams of fat to just 8. I ended up ordering the 6 oz. Outback special, no butter, with fresh vegetables, minus butter, and a baked potato with only sour cream and chives on the side. According to the nutrition tool on the website, the entire meal was only 18.6 fat grams. Much better. Oh, and technically, it was fewer than that because I had a lot of sour cream left on the side :) Yay :)

Thanks for reading, and I will hopefully be posting again soon! :)

Jen

Back on track, 5K, and goal pants :)

Better week :)  I weighed in Monday, losing the pound and a half I had gained the previous week! Yay. I feel a little back on track. My eating habits have been much better this week. I'm pleased. I'm hoping for good results Monday morning :)

My thyroid medicine is a different story. As usual, I finished my month's refill, and forgot to call in a new refill. :(  I will do this though. I will get back in the habit.

Now, for the best news. I ran in another 5K! My second one ever! I was so hoping to beat my last time, but I was concerned I might not, because the last few weeks, my running sessions have dropped dramatically. First I was busy, then didn't feel so great, then I would get these weird head pains that would pop up right when I thought about running... strange, huh? :)  I had lots of excuses, and then finally, I'll admit it, I was just lazy. Even the idea of running was  exhausting. But I haven't given up.

So I went to the 5K with my friend Christy, and I'm so glad I did. I met her in Hurricane bright and early Saturday at 7:30 a.m., and we left from there to go to the state capitol, where there was a ton of people! We lined up at 8:50 and shortly after 9:00, we were off...  It was great! Well, after it was over it was great :) 

The view was great! Right beside the water, and the ground was flat. But it was still hard. I'm not sure why, but I guess I assumed it would be so much easier this time, since I have been running longer than when I tried the last 5K.  I had all sorts of mental excuses as to why I couldn't go faster... too many layers on making me sweaty, not bringing my iPod to have something distracting me, and that super heavy 10-ounce bottle of water that they handed me and I couldn't finish, but couldn't stand to toss on the ground with the hundreds of others. It was like running with a weight. :)

I did okay though. I was concerned about 3/4 of the way through, when I felt a little dizzy... I thought of how embarrassing it would be if I just collapsed on the road, not making it to the finish line. How could I blog about that??! That would have been humiliating. But, thankfully, I didn't. I kept going.

I tried to keep track of my time with my stopwatch feature on my phone, and restricted myself to only looking at it at the halfway point, and then near the end. My halfway time was pretty good, then when I got close to the end, I glanced down and saw that it was something like 26 seconds. I was worried for a minute that I had gone longer than an hour and it might have rolled over... Yikes! But fortunately, I must have pushed the clear button or something.

All in all, I am happy with how I did. I was concerned during the race when I was passed by a sleeping baby. By the time the sixth sleeping baby passed, I was traumatized to the point that I had to laugh about it. I started looking around at the few people still running, and didn't see any numbers on their shirts. So everyone around me were the non-timed runners or walkers. Not a good sign. :)  

Turns out, I finished the race in 38 minutes and 26 seconds!! I even finished before 62 other timed runners! Never mind that I came in 688th place, being beaten by 92 percent of them...  I beat 8 percent of the other timed runners :)  Yay!! (How's that for an optimistic glass of 8 percent full? :) 

Seriously, though, I was really proud of myself and it totally made my day. I think it inspired me to run more. I even ran tonight after church. I'm sore, but it's worth it :)

On a side note, I have picked out new goal pants!! I went through the archives, i.e., bottom drawer, and chose a pair of black pants that I hope to be in, comfortably, eventually :)

I also set a new, short-term goal, of losing 6 1/2 pounds by Memorial Day. We'll see if it happens. Not a big deal if it doesn't, but it would be great :)

Thanks so much for reading! I weigh in again tomorrow. Wish me luck!! :)

Jen