Tuesday

When I got up this morning, I headed up to the track and it was crazy warm. It was already 77 at 6 am. The sky was very cool looking - to the East was beautiful with lots of pink, to the West dark and ominous.

(dark and ominous didn't photo so well)

Ever hear that saying of Red Skies in the Morning, Sailors take Warning? The phrase certain felt appropriate this morning. I decided that the skies, coupled with my early morning meeting, meant that I should shorten my workout. I set a target of 1 1/4 miles and decided to start running from the beginning, like I did yesterday. It felt good. I probably could have gone farther, but again the skies and the meeting had me confident in my decision to stop after 5 laps.

Eating was good yesterday. We even had fast food (I fed the family for $2.56) - Arby's Roast Beef and 1/2 a value curly fries - only came in at about 560 calories, including the Arby's and Horsey Sauce. I had some cheese as a snack, because I was just shy of my daily calorie target and about 10 g shy of the protein target. I finished the day just within all targets and 2 g shy on protein.

the Weekend

Well, Friday was a crazy sort of day. I got a late start (I actually was up on time, but it was supposed to have been raining, so I came down and logged on to check the weather and suddenly, it was 6 am and I was still sitting in my kitchen), so I had a very short run at the track. I was only up at the track for 4 laps and ran half of them. A busy day and a late dinner made for a strange eating day. I had a lunch meeting with ice cream for dessert - it was so yummy, I had toppings and everything. I had that heavy feeling after eating it, but it tasted so good when I was eating it. As a result, I wound up exceeding my calorie target for the day but managed to be within all of the other targets.

Saturday was another busy day. I had planned to allow myself to sleep in, which I did. I knew that I had to be on the road by 9:20 and didn't want to be running behind. It was good to have a break. Eating was a challenge again (story of my life!) with a birthday party (they had barbeque pork from Old Carolina Barbeque) followed by dinner out with a friend whose family is relocating to the area. I exceeded my calorie target, but not by as much as Friday.

The bad thing is that based on the scale holding steady for the past couple of days, my body was in a 'recovery' sort of mode and if I had been on target instead of over, I would have lost weight - I guess I should see the positive of not gaining, but am bummed over not losing.

Sunday morning, time was tight but I found 1/2 hour to get up to the track. I ran 1 1/4 miles and then headed home. I quickly fit in my ab workout from yesterday (will do today's tonight). Today we have (hopefully) two baseball games, a birthday party and Bible study this evening. Plus, I have to make a snack to share at the Bible study and two dozen cookies for my daughter for Safety Town tomorrow. Whew!

Well, I am off to have another busy day. Enjoy!

Monday

Why do we run around the track counter-clockwise? I can tell you that after months of doing that, running clockwise feels very strange. It's like being on a new track - I noticed things that I had never seen before, and I struggled to motivate myself based on track markings. When I walk/run in the neighborhood, I make a concerted effort to balance the number of cul-de-sacs that I turn to the left and to the right, but at the track, it is always the same and I worried that I was doing my body a disservice by always stressing the same joints as I rounded curves.

I got a late start this morning, as I had to fold a load of laundry to find my exercise clothes. I had intended to do it last night, but headed off to bed because I wasn't feeling well. I am proud to say that I was able to complete a 1 1/4 mile run while I was there. That simply was all the time that I had, or I think I could have run further. It was so refreshing to have the temperatures be under 60 this morning, although still very humid, it sure beat the mid-70s that I had been running in. I felt really good after the run.

Eating was good yesterday. I was at the lower end of my target for calories and at or just below the target for Protein, Carbs and Fat. I was planning to have a small snack, but when I started not feeling well, I headed to bed without a snack. I was worried that I would be hungry when I woke up, but I was not.

Yesterday's 30 Day Ab Challenge was a recovery day, so that was a nice break. I will of course, do Day 9 tonight. Also, tonight I am planning to go to Zumba with my friend. I can't wait to exercise with someone and to get in a bonus workout.

Sunday

What a day! Yesterday was ridiculously hot. We were outside briefly, while we ran errands and it was amazing how that wall of heat just hit you.

We went out to dinner with some new friends. My husband went to college with a woman that is moving to the area because of her husband's new job. They arrived in town yesterday to start exploring and house hunting, but he starts work on Monday. We met at the Melting Pot. It was a great evening of visiting, eating and a bit of wine drinking. As we walked back to the car, in a much cooled down temperature, my husband commented that he didn't think you ate as much food there as you normally would. I think that the fact that you eat over a 2 hour plus timeframe allows your body to feel full sooner. I did my best to be conscientious about what I chose. With the cheese fondue course, I stuck with broccoli, cauliflower and apples for dipping in the cheese. I know that the cheese may not have been healthy, but by choosing fruits and veggies over bread, I reduced total calories in that course. For the salad course, I did the dressing on the side and used very little of it. They have these Parmesan encrusted pine nuts that they put on their Ceasar salad and they were wonderful! For the main course, we used vegetable broth for cooking - again a healthier option than oil or wine. I focused on the shrimp and only had a couple pieces of the filet and chicken. I had mostly broccoli and just one potato. Dessert - well, it was dessert and I allowed myself to indulge. I sent them an e-mail asking for nutritional data, but based on a chart that I found online - the cheese fondue was around 300 calories, the salad around 154 (plus a bit of dressing), the protein prepared in the broth was around 335, and the dessert about 400 calories. I certainly went over...but it could have been worse!

This morning I struggled for motivation, but I knew that I had splurged last night and the scale didn't show it, so if I moved, I could recover and be on the road to losing again. I got going and surprisingly, I was able to push myself to do 5 consecutive laps - 1 1/4 miles. Then, I was only going to do one more lap, but pushed myself to do 3 consecutive laps. So, I wound up running over 8 laps of the 10 lap workout at the track. I was very proud of myself. When I walked in the door, my daughter reminded me that I had promised we could mop again soon. So, I got the opportunity to fit in a quick vacuum and mop. Then, I did Day 7 of the 30 Day Ab Challenge that I had skipped the night before. All of this before 9 am!

Today should be an easier day for eating. There are no social plans or crazy schedules. It will be good to get my body back to normal intake. There have been enough things - 4 picnics, 1 night out and friends visiting this last week to leave my body unsure of what 'normal' should be. I am sure that I will find my belly growling at strange times, since I haven't had a normal schedule of eating in a few days. I will be strong and ignore it if I know that I have eaten well.

Happy 4th of July!

So, normally, I like to think - it's a holiday, I can take a workout holiday - but not today. Despite it being a holiday, I decided to get up and go for my run. Granted, I allowed myself to sleep in over an hour, which felt great, but the point is I went and ran. It was 73 and 86% humidity when I checked. The sun was higher in the sky. I was very surprised to arrive at the track and see a bunch of cars parked at the school. I guess one of the teams meets for the weight room, sprints, etc. in the morning. I think I see the first few arrive normally when I am at the track, but today since I was an hour later than normal, they were in the thick of their workout. There were a few others at the track as well. I like having a little bit of company, gives me incentives and allows me to push myself on different guideposts.

As usual, I walked the first lap and then started into my run. I wasn't even 1/2 way around that first lap when I started thinking, I'm not going to be able to go 5 1/4 laps like I did yesterday. I'll be lucky to finish 1 I thought, but at each turn, I had another milestone that kept me moving towards the next. As I entered the second lap, I was close to passing a woman that was walking at the track. Then, RunKeeper gave me a 5 minute update. Then, I was half way through my goal of 5. Then, I finished 3 laps. Then, I got another five minute update. Then, I finished 4 laps and told myself the rest is gravy, if I do it, I do it; if not, I still ran a mile. As I was approaching the 3/4 point on that lap, I thought about stopping, but realized that was 1/2 lap shorter than the day before. Then, I was thinking, I will get a five minute update shortly. Next thing I knew, I completed the save 5 1/4 laps as yesterday. Then, I thought I might just walk out the last lap and head home. As I was reaching the end of the lap, the guy next to me passed me and I decided to run and see how we paced. He was faster, but I finished the lap and that was what mattered. I did walk home though. The sun was making that 86% humidity feel very sticky.

I did pretty well with eating yesterday. A lunch time tornado warning resulted in a later than normal lunch, but I was able to resist the temptation to get something not as good for me simply because I was feeling famished. I did well at the two picnics, generally avoiding chips and sweets. At the first picnic, we started out with a kickball game - a good active way to avoid picking at the food. They had pulled pork, which I enjoyed without a bun. I had a couple of chips with it. The brownies I had brought were already long gone by the time we went through the line. At the second picnic, I did pretty well. I stayed away from the food for a good while and then had a bowl of chips with some cheese dip and some wine. Based on my estimates, I was well within target and even had some room for error on my estimates of portion.

After our picnics, I did come home and complete the 30 Day Ab Challenge. I did sort of okay on the two exercises, but the metabolic exercise was too hard for me and I simply couldn't complete it.

Of course, the scale didn't respond to a good day. The good news is that the evening weight is moving down, so again, one of these mornings the scale will just respond.

Today, we are hosting a picnic, so I will just have to make sure that I have a good balance of food that allows me to indulge wisely. We are picnicking at lunch, which gives me some flexibility to eat a lighter dinner, if necessary.

I'm On a Roll

WooHoo! I was a little nervous about running today. Not only was it 70 degrees and 70% humidity at 5:30 am when I checked before going out for a run, but my sides were very tender from having completed the first two days of the 30 Day Ab Challenge. Even as I was walking up, I could feel the heaviness of the air and felt a bit like I was walking with a stitch in my side like you get when you over exert. I decided, as I frequently seem to do, that I would just do what I could. My first goal was one lap. My second goal was to get a five minute update from RunKeeper. My next goal was to make it until that next five minute update. Then, it was to complete one mile. Then, it was to give it all and see how far I could get on the fifth lap. Then, it was to get that next five minute update. In the end, not only did I do the 5 laps to match yesterday, I went an extra 1/4 of a lap. I was very happy. I slowed down and took this picture of the sunrise:

Then, I ran one more lap for good measure and headed home from my workout. I decided that I needed to water and rake my garden, so I spent a few minutes tending to my garden before coming inside.

I seem to be stuck again. I went a little beyond on Saturday and can't seem to fully recover. The biggest challenge is that again tonight, I will face challenge. We were invited to two picnics and I ran into one host at the grocery store buying a case of wine. I am just going to have to make sure that I plan today for an evening with more calories than normal. I'm not yet sure how I will do this. If it weren't supposed to be so warm, I would consider an extra walk at lunch time. I will have to see what I can do.

Monday

Well, Saturday on the run and a friend's engagement party had me well over consumed for the day. So, no activity and eating beyond my calorie target, quickly negated the fact that I had exceeded the 10# mark. I was a little disappointed with myself. I did really well, for the most part. I shouldn't have had the extra piece of pizza at lunch - I had packed a lunch that I knew fit into my calorie target, but after eating it, I foolishly accepted a piece of pizza. It was tasty, but I had already eaten lunch. Then, at my friends party, I stayed with the fresh cut veggies for the most part, but at one point I dipped them in the cheese dip and they had that veggie pizza made on a crescent roll with cream cheese. I couldn't resist.

Sunday was a little bit better. I didn't start my day with activity. I ate reasonably well, having a light lunch in anticipation of making homemade pizza for dinner. I even splurged on some Sierra Mist - why I ask myself. I was able to stay on target for the day. In the evening, I did Day 1 of the 30 Day Ab Challenge. The exercises were hard, I wasn't able to complete the number of reps that they wanted us to, but gave it my all. I did do 1000 jumps, sans jump rope. I had to break it up into 100 - 150 jumps at a time, but I did it. I can't wait to see what Day 2 has in store for me.

Today, I got up late and decided that I might just walk today. Well, when I got to the track, I was alone. I don't know what that has to do with anything, it is more so a statement of fact, I suppose. Anyway, after the first lap, I decided that I should probably make the most of the time that I have at the track and run some. After the first lap, I felt like I had to push myself to complete the second run lap. Next thing I knew, I was negotiating with myself to finish the fifth run lap. I ran 1 1/4 miles straight! So, I was at the track for 6+ laps and ran 5+ of them. Woo Hoo! It felt awesome. Of course, knowing that once the lap was done, I would head home made it easier to convince myself. I hope I can repeat it when I know that I will be walking a lap and then returning to running.