The Skinny on Me

Chocolate, You Can’t Stop Me Now! (Mini Goals)

What up, Fitblrs? I apologize in advance if I start to sound at all glum or down in this post. I’ve been trying to keep my good ‘ole happy-go-lucky self out and about these days (especially when blogging), but sometimes you can’t always fake it till you make it.

In a somewhat shocking turn of events, I managed to lose 1.8 pounds this week. To be honest, I felt that I would at least lose something, but not that much. Why? Well, in addition to my tendencies to drink more than I should, chow down on yummy sweet potato fries and mac n’ cheese grilled cheese sandwhiches (really good) and giving in to the occasional urges to skip running that day, I also was a bit down in the dumps this week. Being the emotional eater that I am, that meant dragging out the peanut butter and chocolate chip morsels left over from my roommates cooking adventures. Never a good combo.

Word to the wise, don’t keep that shit around the house. Hopefully my roommate doesn’t need anymore, cause I’m tempted to throw that stuff out (the chocolate chip morsels at least).

At this point, I’m a mere two-tenths of a pound away from being out of the 170s. Only .2 lbs! Because of this so close, yet so far dilemma I find myself in, I know I can do better. There’s a reason I’ve been pushing myself so hard the last few weeks, and I can’t lose sight of it now.

My goals for this week:

Finish Week 8 of C25k: 1 run down, 2 to go!
Sign up for the Polar Dash 5k (January 14)
Throw out that damn bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels
Have fun (but no too much fun!)
If (not when, but if) I fall of track, get back on it right away.
Exercise video it up (as much as I love running, that’s not what it’s all about)
Start the month-long push up challenge (see next post)

Santa Hustle 5k -- Dec. 3 →

Run and dress up as Santa … I think, yes!

In September, I ran over 30 miles. In October, I barely ran five. It’s eight days into November, and I am already at 10+ miles! Taking November by storm? I think yes!

How much have you run so far this month?

Call me crazy, but …

I’m thinking about signing up for my first 5k. It’s on New Year’s Day. In Chicago. How I plan to survive the cold while not slipping on ice is beyond me. But I’ma gonna try.

27th Annual New Year’s Day 5k Run/Walk

This may mean I need to a) not slack off on my running like I have been and b) stock up on cold weather running gear (which I’ve been meaning to do anyway).

Lucky for me, New Year’s Day is about nine weeks away, so I have just enough time to kick major couch to 5k ass. #justsayin

Wish me luck?

Doing Better

Last night, I started reading @EnoughFluff’s weight loss journey from the beginning. It’s truly inspiring.

After last night’s low points, I told the world enough is enough. I wrote my blog post (read: “I’m Not OK”), and I vowed to do better, because I deserve better.

And guess what… *drumroll, please* ….

I did it! I did better. This morning, when my alarm went off, I didn’t hit snooze twice like I’ve been doing. I got up, checked my email for a few minutes, and got ready to hit the pavement.

That’s right, folks. It was still dark out, and it was hella chilly, but I ran. Just as I’m starting over on my weight-loss journey, I decided to start from the beginning with Couch to 5K (c25k).

I initially started the program last summer; after I finished it, I planned/started to do the Bridge to 10k extension. That didn’t really happen. For starters, this was around the time I moved to Tenn. last October. After I moved, I tried keeping it up, before it just got so gosh darn chilly.

Fast forward to 2011 when I would occasionally pick it back up throughout the year, most recently being about a month ago. Each time I pick it up though, I started around weeks 4, 5 or 6 (AKA the killer weeks). At this point, it’s harder and I feel like I see less progress. Basically, it’s a huge motivation killer.

So, I’m starting at the beginning. Now, November 1st. Brilliant on my part, cause it’s cold now, and it’s only going to get colder from here until February/March, but I’m doing it anyway (so wish me luck!). And as much as I would hate to, I know I can always move the running inside and join a gym (I feel guilty about joining/working out at gyms because my pupster has to stay at home).

Woohoozle! So this morning, I grudgingly got out of bed and proceeded with my plan to start running again after the week off. Even though it was just 7am, it was still quite difficult.

Since I finished the couch to 5k plan, I had to find the plan that would bring me to being able to run in a 10k. After googling it a little, I noticed that the hard core plans all involved something like one long run a week with interval training throughout the week. Alot of which, the interval training mumbo jumbo, I don’t have any idea of what they are saying, nor a practical way to track it. SO… i kept looking. And, alas, I found what I was looking for. The bridge to 10k. Aka, the sibling running plan to c25k.

It involves the following during a six week period and is meant for graduates of the c25k plan:

Week 1: Warm up 5 + Run 10, Walk 1 (repeat run 4x) + Cool Down 5 = 53 minutes
Week 2: WU 5 + Run 15, Walk 1 (repeat run 3x) + CD 5 = 57 minutes
Week 3: WU 5 + Run 17, Walk 1 (repeat run 3x) + CD 5 = 63 minutes
Week 4: WU 5 + Run 18, Walk 1 (repeat run 3x) + CD 5 = 66 minutes
Week 5a: WU5 + Run 22, Walk 1 (repeat run 2x) + CD5 = 55min
Week 5b: WU5 + Run 25, Walk 1 (repeat run 2x) + CD5 = 61min
Week 5c: WU5 + Run 30, Walk 1 (repeat run 2x) + CD5 = 71 min
Week6: WU5 + run 60 + CD5 = 70 min

Oh boy.

But, as you can see, I did it, week 1 day 1 at least! There were some points that I walked rather than ran during the ten minute segments of running, but I’m confident that I can do it without walking during the running times next time.

Wish me luck!

I managed to roll my ass out of bed and take the pup for a run this morning. I’m tired now. Google maps said the route I ran was actually 2.5 miles (like it was supposed to be rather than the 2.38 miles this thing says).

At least I did it. Still don’t feel as rocketed about it as I should.

On a different note, I’m thinking about auditioning for If I Can Dream. I know photography isn’t an option, but it never hurts to try? Would you vote for me?

Even though I still don’t really feel like it… here’s my run for tomorrow. Wish me luck. Hopefully going to bed now will make me motivated in the morning and hopefully i dont wake up at 3 am again and think its almost 530… that sucked.

Peace.

Sheer amazingness →

Um. baller if I do say so myself. Instead of bread crumbs we used oats, but they didn’t solidfy the mixture as well so I seriously had to add like two-three times the amount of oats called for. Plus, two tablespoons of corn meal.

They were still a bit goopy, but I kinda made makeshift patties and then plopped them on to the grill (we had a space covered with alumninum foil to prevent the burgers from falling through the grate.

As always, I kinda went a bit overboard with the fruit. But it was tasty. In addition to my grapes and raspberries, my friend made a fruit salad. End result: Delicious fruit salad + tasty sweet potato fries + AMAZING black bean burgers = PURE/SHEER AWESOMENESS!

However, my run today, not so awesome. It was quite shitty say the least. I tried running up this street that’s on a big hill and despite starting at the final fourth of the road, I failed. Apparently running in the flat lands has had zero effect on my running in this hills.

After my horrible start, I managed to run the next 10 or so minutes nonstop, downhill. Once I had to make my way back uphill again, it started sucking again. So, I walked and ran. I didn’t run 20 min/2 mi. Tomorrow though, tomorrow I will— in the flatlands.

I have a horrible headache and I am extremely tired.

Goodnight

Post-celebration dinner celebration!

In order to rejoice the fact that a) I got a job at the company I intern for and b) I gave my two weeks to the company that was the bane of my existence, I opted for a family dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Zinburger.

They specialize in all things burgers, fries and shakes (yes shakes). I got the turkey burger and then one glass of wine so I was good. But then we split an order each of truffle fries, zucchini fries and sweet potato fries between the five of us. And then, I decided to tae celebration to the next level and order a creme brulee shake (of which I only drank half before pawning it off my brother).

Anyway. I felt somewhat disgusting a gross after all this and decided to take a very long walk. I wanted to run but a) I didn’t have on the right bra, b) I was still planning on going out at that point and c) I honestly felt too full to run. So I ran a little but mostly walked the 2.39mi.

Fast forward to this morning when my alarm went off oh so nicely at 545 am… where I sat in bed (or should I say on my couch) contemplating getting up to run. I knew it would be nice out cause it had rained overnight and it would only really be about 30 min of my life and i would feel (tired but) so good about myself. And then I remembered that our water wasn’t working. So that thought trumped the other, cause who wants to a) go for a run and not take a shower after b) not take a proper bathroom break before running and c) …. im sure there was a c, i just don’t remember.

So I decided to sleep in, which, as you can see, turned out to be very rewarding as it is now 8AM. I am planning on just running my non-stop 2mi run on the treadmill or something and then taking lex for a run/walk tonight at my moms. I want to walk down the hill, over to the next road and then run all the way up the long hill and then walk back to my moms house. It won’t take that long, but the hill part will be exhausting.

Who knows if that will happen though cause I don’t seem to have much motivation to run. Like I want to but then when I start to think about it, I’m like eh…

Oh so the post-celebration celebration… you’re probably wondering about that. I got on the scale today, expecting to weigh super mucho from last night’s celebration AND I MANAGED TO LOOSE WEIGHT!! I am back at my freaking stupid 166.6 devil number, but at least it’s less than freaking yesterday!

WOOOOHOOOOOO