FAT Friday:6/22/12

It has been so hot here this week that I have been running at 5:00 AM. That sounds worse than it is. I am used to early mornings. My daughter got up between 4-5 every morning for a year. We are early morning people. I love working out in the morning. I love to have it done before the rest of the day gets in the way. Unfortunately, it is only during the summer, when Scott isn't working that I have the time. 

I'm linking up with Ginger for her FAT Friday series

You know I like to get to the nitty gritty first.

I am down another pound this week. Honestly, I am lucky to have lost it. I wasn't great this week. I wasn't awful, but I wasn't great. I had a real problem with night time snacking. I always struggle with the desire to have snacks after the kids are finally in bed and I can relax a little. It has nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with wanting to treat myself at the end of a long day. 

In more important news, I am now a three time graduate of the Couch to 5K program. I finished it up a few days ago with a 30 minute run. I am still a little shy of 3 miles so I'll keep working up to 3 miles and then settle in a that distance until I run the    5K in August. Then I'll start working on adding mileage with the Frederick Half Marathon in May as my goal. Hopefully, I'll be carrying around significantly less weight by then. 



Next Week's Suggested Topic:  Summertime=Vacation Time=Overindulging= FUN Possible Derailment!  What summer vacation(s) do you have planned and how to you plan to be proactive in staying (mostly) on the healthy living train?

I was just thinking about my upcoming vacation. In 4 weeks, we will be heading to Virginia Beach where will be staying in a house with my parents and my sister's family. I'm finding that it is a little less stressful to go to the beach fat because I'm not trying to drop as many pounds as possible before hitting the beach in my bathing suit like I would if I were thinner. No, at my weight, a couple of pounds isn't going to be the difference between a bikini and one piece. Let's face it, after 2 kids, one of whom was almost 11 pounds, my stomach is never going to see the light of day again. So I'll just put on my lovely Land's End swimsuit and enjoy playing on the beach with my kids.

But that's not what the question was. It is going to be hard to stay on track. My mom is a wonderful cook but doesn't have low cal repetoire. She is old school Southern. With my sister there, hopefully we can help steer the meals toward the leaner side. Grilling is going to be the way to go, I think. I don't really have a plan yet but I'm working on it. I may have to volunteer to do the grocery shopping (ugh, I HATE grocery shopping) in order to have the right kind of foods on hand. 

I will definitely be going on a few runs while I am there. With so many babysitters on hand, I have no excuses not to work out. My sister is a runner too, so I'm hoping we can go on some bonding runs together. She lives in California so we don't see each other very much. 

Whether, I stay on course or fall off miserably, it is going to be a great, relaxing vacation and I can't wait.

See you next week. 

FAT Friday: Patience is a virtue

This mornings weigh-in showed a 0.4 lb loss. :sigh: Thank god I am not looking for a quick fix, because I would have jumped off the train by now. A loss is a loss but it was still a little disappointing (not enough to ruin my Friday or anything though).  Since I started making a real effort 6 weeks ago, I am down 5.4 pounds. That is less than a pound a week. It is all about the big picture though. At this rate, 6 months from now I can be 30 pounds less than I started.

And really what are my other options other than to have patience.

• I could give up. Guaranteeing no weight loss but probably weight gain. No health benefits. Model bad eating behavior to my children.....Not an option.
• I could drastically cut calories. Sabotage my milk supply so that I couldn't feed Landry, not only denying my child the best food source available for him but also cost my family money by having to buy formula. Also, try to fool myself that hunger is a "sustainable lifestyle"...Not an option.

So I just keep plugging away. I am eating in a calorie range that is comfortable to me. It's not too restrictive and as long as I don't eat junk, I am never hungry (well not for long anyway). I'm keeping my goals in the forefront of my mind and for once they are not (entirely or even primarily) appearance related.

I want to live to 100. For reals. I didn't have my children until my late 30's, if I want to see them become adults and have time with my grandkids, I'm gonna need to stick around a while. I'm finally old enough that I do have to think about the health consequences of being overweight. My mother's family is obese and they have high blood pressure and Type II diabetes. I don't want that crap. I want to be an active parent and a spry senior citizen.

healthawarenessfoundation.org

 Yeah, it's like that.

Speaking of slow and steady. I am on the last week of the C25K program. Two runs to go. I should finish it up on Sunday. I am excited, primarily because that means I can use a different program for measuring my runs. The C25K app measures the warm up and cool down walking and I don't like having that in my time and pace measurements. Also, I am dying to try out Zombies, Run.

I'm planning to run a 5K in August and then set my sites on longer runs. I have my sites set on the Frederick Half-marathon in May. I used to run it every year but due to pregnancies and births, I haven't run since 2008. 

Till next week then, when I will be a 3 time graduate of the Couch to 5K.

Project Kick A$$ June

So May was something of a disappointment in the weight loss department. I think it may have been a bit ambitious for a stress eater to expect big results during the month I returned to work. But one big thing changes in June. My husband, a teacher, begins his summer vacation!!! And the kids are staying home with him.That means no more mornings of trying to get lunches made, bottles prepped, kids fed and dressed and out the door. No more evenings of rushing to wash bottles and diapers and wondering if my daycare provider will judge me if my toddler skips a bath tonight. No, starting next week, I get 8 weeks of only having to get myself out the door in the morning.

That eliminates a lot stress and frees up a lot of time. So, I plan to give June my all towards fitness and weight loss.

Running:
-Finish C25K and up to 3.1 miles. When I get to the last week of the C25K program and am running 30 minutes, at my current pace that will not be 3 miles. I'm pretty slow right now, averaging about an 11.5 minute mile. I'll get faster when the weight comes off but for right now, it is what it is. So I'll keep working to do 3 miles runs.
-Run 45 miles in June.

Eating:
-Eat at or under calorie goal 85% of days.
-Track food 90% of days.
Perfection isn't going to happen.

Push-ups
3x15 every other day in June starting June 4 (I just decided on this today)

Also, I took an official before picture. Sidenote: I love these pajamas. They are Majamas and are nursing pajamas. They are so comfy I truly never, ever want to take them off.

FAT Friday: Goals

I'm linking up with Ginger over at (not)Just Another Mom of Twins for her F.A.T Friday series. 

 First things first.  1.6 gain on the scale this week. I didn't really expect to lose. We were out of town for the weekend. I didn't practice great self control  and I didn't really do great for the rest of the week. But I didn't lose control so I am surprised to have gained.

Additionally, for reasons I haven't figured out, my milk supply has dropped drastically this week. I went from  pumping well over 20 oz in 3 pumps during the day to struggling to get 15 oz and a baby who is getting frustrated at the breast. That basically happened overnight. It is distressing for a number of reasons, including the fact that I'm not benefitting from as many milk making calories.  I'm trying to fix it though and counting calories may have to go on hold until that situation is resolved.

So. May.

                       May 1                                                     June 1

Weight          229                                                         226.2
Waist            38.25                                                      37.75
Most recent run: 1.74 miles in 30 minutes                 2.69 miles in 35 minutes


I am pretty disappointed underwhelmed with my results from the month. I'll admit I have half-assed it, but still at my weight, with breastfeeding and it being the beginning of focused efforts, I thought I would drop more pretty easily. Like I have in the past. In the past though, I guess I have been able to get a lot more exercise in.  How sad is it that I have re-started enough times to know how it should go.

Oh well, June is a new month and I am going to try to really tighten up my eating.

But I did make big strides in running. I'm on week 7 of the C25K program and currently running 25 straight minutes. My fitness is improving even if my weight isn't plummeting.


F.A.T. Friday topic for this week:
Do you set short term and/or long term goals? Are they visual?  Do you "allow" yourself a reward for reaching a goal?  Have you reached a goal recently?  Please share!

Ahh, the answer to this question can be best answered by viewing one of my beloved spread sheets. Spreadsheets are my not so secret lover. 

 So yes, I do set short and long term goals. If you don't have a goal, how do you know what you are working toward? And I do reward myself, though I don't set my reward too far in advance because what I want can change drastically over the course of a few months. As you can see i have my goals broken down into stages. The first stage is to lose the weight, I gained with my second pregnancy, stage to is to lose the remaining weight from my first pregnancy and so on. 

What I don't do is put time limits on my goals. I'll never put a goal of "losing 15 pounds by June 21". Adding a deadline to weight loss goals only adds another way to fail. A way to fail  even if you have succeeded.  If I only lose 13 pounds by June 21, I could easily get down on myself for not meeting my goal even though I should be celebrating losing 13 pounds.  So goals? Yes! Deadlines? No! 

On to June and hoping I can get it together this month. 

Fat Friday: 5/25/12

I was all set to post today about how frustrated I was that I am doing the right things but losing no weight. Because yesterday, the scale showed a big 0 for weight loss this week. I was going to talk about how I kept myself going by thinking about the reasons for eating healthy besides weight.

But this morning the scale was kinder and had me at a total of 1.6 pounds down since last Friday. That's a total of 4.4 for the month of May so far. I might have a chance of reaching my unspoken goal hope of 5 pounds this month.

Honestly, I thought I would lose more. I thought with nursing, toddler chasing, baby hauling and C25King, I could lose more but I am averaging 1-1.5 pounds a week and I have to be happy satisfied with that. And to be perfectly honest, I really wasn't doing everything right this week. I had a couple of days that were well over my calorie goal. I had movie theater popcorn. I had a cupcake. I'm not beating myself up over though the way I would have in the past. I understand my limitations. I'm trying to live a life while dropping pounds. I'm just trying to be the best me I can be on any given day. And some days the best me needs cupcakes....and wine.

Every time I eat now, I ask myself, "Do you want Caroline to see you eating like this?" If the answer is no, I TRY to curtail myself. Sometimes the answer is yes even when it isn't the healthiest choice. Yes, I want her to see me having a treat of a cupcake on our special mommy-daughter shopping day.  It was a special occasion.

I really worry about passing my eating issues onto her. Landry too, but her more so because she is a girl and girls just struggle with this stuff more.  I'm trying to be very conscious of my actions. The other day she was crying because she had hurt herself and as I was comforting her I managed to stop myself from offering food as a means of comfort. It was my first instinct. Food makes you feel better. But I stopped. I offered her more hugs and asked if she wanted to work a puzzle together. That worked. At 2 years old, time with mommy is better than food. I wish it could stay that way forever.

I'm still rolling through the C25K program. I'll be doing W6D2 today during lunch. I am not really getting in much exercise other than that. I would like to but I just can't find the time. I guess if I really wanted to, I would find the time. I'll get there.

This weekend, will be a challenge. We are headed to my brother-in-law's house for the weekend and there is always a feast and good times. I'll try for moderation. That's the best me I can be in that situation.

Fat Friday: Closer than I was yesterday

I am down 3ish pounds since May 1. 

Things are going well. Two and a half weeks of eating well are paying off. Slowly but surely. I'll admit that I hoped to see a big loss the first week or two but it has been more moderate. That's OK. As much as I would love the great motivation that comes from a big loss, it is more important that I am doing the right things. And I am for the most part. I give in here and there but have basically kept the calories under control. I'll be happy though when I lose enough that a day of water retention can't make the scale fluctuate back up to my starting weight.

This weekend will be a challenge, dinner out tonight, a birthday party and dinner/movie with girlfriends on Sunday. I go to the movies so rarely that I will be indulging in some popcorn. It's not an everyday thing. It's barely a once a year thing. Hopefully, I'll be able to pass on the birthday cake (Birthday parties are constant when you have kids.There will always be more cake.)

I'm doing better at exercising than I could have imagined given the lack of free time I have these days.  I have found the time to go during lunch and I am on Week 5 Day 3 of the C25K and I've gotten some walks in. I tried to do yoga in my office today but it is about one foot too small for me to manage it. So I went for a walk instead.

One thing that has helped me this week:
-Planning my food in advance. I log everything in my lunch box plus my planned dinner into MFP in the morning. That let's me know how much wiggle room I have. Planning out my meals when I am not starving is key.

One thing that has hurt me this week:
-Co-workers bringing in delicious Krispy Kremes. I only had one but it's not something I would have sought out to eat had it not been right in front of me for an hour during a meeting. Worse, it put sugar into my system, which led to me wanting more sugar.

Here's hoping for more loss over the next week before the challenge of going out of town for Memorial Day weekend.