Ton of Fun- Week Three

Okay so I am always honest on here so here goes. I gained weight this week. I can think of a million excuses, but really I just didn't try this week. It sucks that I even have to try so hard, that I have to think about it all the time, that I have to plan and worry about every food decision I make. For the rest of my life.

I had really good intentions going into the week, but I got cocky with my weight loss last week. Why do we all do this? Have a great week and figure you can cheat a little here and there and that it wont matter, but it always does matter! I started off indulging in some sweet treats that I justified having because it was my birthday weekend. We had a tailgating event and a short camping trip over the weekend, and I know I could have avoided the multiple sodas and the larger portions I ate. One saving grace was that since my Mom knows about the weight loss challenge, she avoided making me any sort of birthday dessert on Sunday, thanks Mom!

I had off on Monday so I was out of my food and exercise routine. I had the whole day and didn't do anything to help my progress, except for juice. I did make my juice for Tuesday and Wednesday morning. So by Tuesday I felt like too much damage had already been done, I knew the scale wasn't going down, I wasn't even sure at that point if it would read what it read last week. I did manage to get to the Tuesday night Cobb's Hill run. Molly and Rob went with me and I did see some improvement over the previous week and I did a tiny bit extra too! But after the run I got treated to a birthday milkshake. For the record I did get a small, but it didn't help matters.

Wednesday morning, bored with my juicing recipe and already knowing I wasn't succeeding for the week, I stopped at Dunkin'. Instead of playing it safe(r) and just getting my latte, I got a bagel with low fat cream cheese too. Ugh. I did okay during the school day and made it to my weekly spinning class where I rocked it! I try to be conservative with eating on Wednesdays, knowing that weigh-in day is Thursday. I made a Boca burger and a rice side dish. I knew the rice side dish was a mistake while I was making it because I knew I wouldn't be able to eat just a small portion. Sabotaging myself I ate the whole package. Ugh again. I sort of had the mindset that I knew I was going to be up at the weigh in, so why bother. I should have switched my frame of mind and said that every choice I make can either make it worse, or make it better. I should have just made it better. I will probably make this mistake again in my life. I'm human.

So I wasn't excited about weighing in, I was actually thinking about postponing it until Friday, but I  thought that would just make it worse. So I faced the scale, and was up just like I thought, but still down over all so it isn't life altering. Lessons learned in week three? Don't get cocky, if you are down you can easily go back up again. Use every bad decision as a stepping stone to a great choice. Hopefully I can remember these lessons during week four. Here goes nuttin'!

Ton of Fun- Week Two

How has it already been a week since I last posted?! I have every intention of doing a post on my experience thus far with our juicer, but every time I am done and washing the juicer, I remember that I wanted to take photos of the process. Hopefully now my post can live up to the hype, whenever it gets done. But anywho, we are really here to discuss week two on the ToF weight loss challenge. To find out how week one went, click here.

Week one wasn't perfect and I really wanted to try to make more changes for week two, since I am sort of getting into a good groove. I have officially logged in and tracked for 13 days in a row on My Fitness Pal, if you haven't downloaded this free app what are you waiting for? Go ahead, check it out, I'll wait. Also, you can just go to the website if you don't have access to apps. There are some extra bonus features there that you can't get on the app.

So back to trying some new things for week two... I figured since I polished off a half gallon of ice cream during week one, maybe I should just not buy the ice cream in the first place, that way I am not tempted. Mission accomplished! I also decided to be more diligent about juicing, since I am using it as my breakfast to avoid the Dunkin' drive thru. On Saturday, Rob and I went to the farmers market in Fairport to get some veggies for dinner and to use for juicing experimentation. Week one I had only juiced with fruits and my sugar intake was really high. I also decided instead of juicing every night for the next morning, to make a double batches instead. I went four days in a row with no trips to Dunkin'! I hope they don't forget my usual.

Yes, I have too much time on my hands.

As far as my weekly exercise I really slacked off over the weekend so I hit the ground running Monday. Instead of yoga I went to the gym and did 45 minutes of hard cardio. On Tuesday I returned to my former Tuesday tradition of the Cobb's Hill run and I brought Rob. This was very eye opening. Cobb's Hill is always pretty challenging, but during half marathon training I got pretty good at it and even enjoyed it occasionally. Well on Tuesday I couldn't make it up the hill without a walk break. I figured this is a good gauge of starting over and it can only get better from here. Wednesday was my usual spin class, we had a sub, but she was pretty good.

4.6 pounds lost so far! 

Must be all the changes I made helped because according to the FF scale I lost over 3 pounds!!! Way better results compared to week one. I think I have found my groove for sure. How did I celebrate? My favorite Half Moon salad and I splurged and got a Mountain Dew. I really like to live on the wild side.

Looking ahead to week three I hope I can continue to stay in the groove with these changes and make healthy choices overall. It might be hard since my birthday is coming up and I am a fan of sweets, maybe I'll make a special birthday cake juice...carrots, pineapple, mango and some sprinkles? Maybe I'll just stick a candle in it!

Rollin' with my Homies

Week two is off to a very chilly start! Thanks to the MLK holiday I had Monday off and spent the morning hanging out in the Lego store with my nephew. I spent the afternoon on the couch watching the inauguration and soaking in my rest day. In addition to laying around and being lazy I decided to have a little stretch-fest. 

Our various torture devices.
"Big Nasty" is Rob's roller in the background,
mine is the cute, petite orange one!

Since half marathon training a year ago, my hips tend to get achy and stiff when my miles increase. Dr. Tristan Burton at Focused Health Chiropractic in Brighton became my go to guy for massage, stretching, cracking, overall support and good advice. Dr. Burton worked with me through the late summer and early fall to get me through my back to back half marathons last year. When I made the decision to commit to marathon training I knew Dr. Burton would be along for the ride. I met with him last week and reviewed my training plan. I was feeling guilty that I met with him to talk strategy, even though I was feeling pretty decent. I was relieved when he said he would rather see me when I am doing good to do preventative work, instead of work when it is too late. Phew, he didn't think I was some crazy ART(Active Release Technique) groupie! He recommended some stretches and strength training exercises and worked on my right hip. The next day when I ran, my left hip really started to bug me and it has remained tight and stiff over the last week. I have been really good about stretching after my runs, and have even lengthened the amount of time I stretch, but I think it needs professional help. Good thing I'll be seeing Dr. Burton next week!

Get those doggies rollin'...

Now I'll leave you with a little photo montage 

of tonight's CHILLY run!

If I commit to people on FB, then I can't back out!

Chilly, don't worry I only photograph while in Park!

Pretty (cold) in Pink
Molly (She's back from the plague), Laura & Me

HOT chocolate with caramel. Yummm.

Tuesday Rendezvous

"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb." 

-Nelson Mandela

My typical Tuesday night is spent at my home away from home: Fleet Feet Brighton & Cobb's Hill.

I promise I'll try to get better blog photographs.
I only have a degree in photography!

Tuesday marked my first official training run towards the marathon. One down, a million more to go! The official run from FF Brighton on Tuesday night is hill repeats. I had 3 miles on my schedule and I knew the route was going to be at least 3.5, hey call me an overachiever. I was joined by Katie and Laura and a ton of other Winter Warriors gettin' their run on. We left after the big crowd because I was too impatient to wait in the long line for the bathroom and I thought if we waited it would be clear. Well the line was shorter, but other people had the same plan I did. Is it weird to take photos of people in line for the potty? Yea thought so. The three of us headed out and I picked up the pace until the first main intersection. I felt like I was flying and was feeling great! I continued to cruise right along Monroe with clear sidewalks free of ice and snow. 

Once I got to the base of Cobb's Hill I had some thinking to do. You see my trusty Garmin failed me last Tuesday. Last week I decided I would do a tempo run up and around the hill and then do one repeat at tempo pace as well. Well I did and I was haulin', great run, felt like Ryan Hall. Until I was about a quarter of a mile from the store (the finish) and realized my Garmin had stopped at 19 minutes. NOOOOOOOOO! Fast forward to this week and I had some retaliation to do, take that Garmin. I decided I would do one trip around at tempo pace and skip the extra repeat. My pace was great going up and around the hill, much faster then normal and on the way down I swear there was smoke coming from my sneaks. Katie even said she couldn't catch up with me, score! We took it a bit easier heading back to the store and compared results at the finish. When I checked my average pace for the run I was right around 12 minutes. What the heck, I am always around 12 minutes. Something must be wrong, I swear I was bookin'. Next time I am putting it on my other wrist, maybe it's faster. 

I finished my Tuesday night rendezvous with a trip to Half Moon for a yummy salad. Once I got home I took a nice hot shower and surfed the web. I cannot believe how many of you have checked out my blog. I am so glad you are enjoying it so far. I can only take credit for about 100 of those visits on the stalker counter :) 

Do you wear a GPS for running?

Ever feel like it isn't accurate?

Ever try running naked? (w/out GPS people!)

P.S. Did you know you could Google "Hill Quote" and you actually get a bunch of quotes with the word hill in it? What did people do before the internet!