Weekly Update

I lost 1.2 pounds this week which brings me to a total of 25.2 pounds!!! I am soooo proud of myself. I have lost a total percentage of 12.8% since January 3rd. This week makes 12 weeks of steady exercising and about 10 weeks of eating healthy portion sizes and watching my caloric intake. I have been using loseit.com. I can't remember if I put it on here but it has really helped me watch what I eat. Before I started counting my calories, I just hoped that what I put in my mouth didn't cause the scale to increase. I have no idea how many calories were in some foods that I thought were "healthy".

The weight loss challenge I was doing with my friends ended this week but the results still have not been posted. I really hope that I won because I have worked so hard to get here. I am only 11.6 pounds away from my first goal of losing 30 pounds. Technically once I get to my goal weight, I would have lost  36.8 pounds. I am thinking that I want to lose more than that but I will be happy to get that off first.

Last week was the first full week of my 10K training and its been good so far. I run on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. My run on Sunday was pretty smooth. I ran 3.25 miles in about 35 minutes on the treadmill with no stopping. I feel like I have to emphasis no stopping because on some of my runs, I have to stop. My run on Tuesday was rough because I ran outside my school with a co-worker. I felt like I was running so slow because there were a lot of hills. I am not used to running hills. We ran 2.1 miles and then I went to the gym to walked about 3 more miles. I have started going back to spin class and that's fun. My booty isn't sore anymore so that's a plus! I don't like getting up at 4:30am on Wednesdays but by the time I get home from work, I glad a workout is one less thing on my to-do-list. We are still trying to figure out which 10K we are going to run but it looks like I might have to run this one by myself because one race doesn't allow jogging strollers and the other one is not sure if they allow them or not and both weekends we will have Amaya. I will update on later on with my goals for April and a montly re-cap...

Non-Scale Victories

So remember the GAP black and white pants that I said I wanted to wear before the school year ended in June? Umm, yeah well I wore those pants on Monday, March 28th!! I had been trying them on every so often since setting that goal and I put them on on Monday and they fit! Actually, they were a little loose in the crotch area and in the waist but I was just so happy I could wear them again. I haven't worn them comfortably since buying them in October of '09. So its nice to see results on the scale but even nicer when your clothes fit loosely even if your husband tells you that you need to go to Goodwill. I thought he meant to donate clothes that were too big but he said that's where I can pick up my new wardrobe as well! He's too funny!!!

Weekly Update

Considering all that I ate this weekend:
Fri.
-glass of Riesling
-Crab Linguine
-2 RL biscuits
-2 Fried butterfly shrimp


Sat.
-Cookies-n-Cream cupcake
-chips
-pizza w/pasta


Sun.
-Blood Orange martini
-countless tortilla chips
-guacamole
-fajitas


and whole bunch of other stuff that I didn't even track, I lost .8 pounds this week!!! I was thrilled and just either wanted to maintain or lose even the slightest amount of weight. I was very pleased! I am up to 24 pounds and counting!!! Whoo-hoo!!! I said that when I hit 20 pounds, I was going to pick out my two-piece to hang up on my mirror for motivation. I went to my favorite store and wasn't pleased with their selection or my body. I remember last time I did this, I didn't even try it on, I just bought it and hung it up which is what I think I will do. On another note, I now weigh what I weighed when I started boot camp in April 2009 which was one of my goals-can't remember if I shared that one or not. So next week is the last week of the weight-loss challenge that I have been doing with my friends. As of last week, I was in the lead but you never know how everyone else did. I hope I win cause Momma could use a new pair of shoes or swim suit! I will be sure to post the results at the end of next week.Wish me luck!

Weekend & Race Re-cap

In short, the Scope It Out 5K was amazing for many different reasons. We arrived in D.C. around noon on Saturday. We had to pick up our bibs and d-tags at City Sports in Dupont Circle by 1PM. We got that taken care of and wanted to get lunch since we couldn't check in to our hotel until 3PM. I had been wanting to try this cupcake place called Hello Cupcake and turns out we parked right across the street from it! I was so happy and who cares that we hadn't eaten lunch then. :-) I got the Cookies-n-Cream cupcake and D got the 24 Carrot cupcake. I had a little bite of his and both were very delicious, especially the Cookies-n-Cream. So after our cupcake stop, we continued to walk around the circle looking for lunch. We ate at a place called Potbelly's because D saw a sign that said lunch special-he is all about a good deal! They had the "Skinny" sandwiches and small bowls of soup. I got the Tuna skinny and D got the T-K-Y (turkey) skinny. Both sandwiches were very good. We also split a small bag of kettle BBQ chips. We had plenty of time to kill afterwards so we went in a couple of shops and even sat down on the benches in the circle and just talked. Once our parking meter was up, we headed back towards Arlington. We still had about an hour to kill so we hit up Marshall's. D wanted to get a new shirt and tie and I wanted to get a short sleeve shirt for the race. We finished up our shopping and headed to the hotel.

We got checked in and got our bags out of the car. I had brought a light jacket and a heavy jacket but I wanted to bring both so I told D to grab it out of the car because I wanted to wear the heavy one to the concert (remember his birthday present was tickets to the Kem concert). That's when he told me that he didn't bring clothes for the concert!!!!!!!! He had on track pants and a UGA sweatshirt so he couldn't wear that to the concert. We both were in disbelief! I was cracking up because if you know us, I would definitely be the one to forget my clothes when traveling away from home-not D. So we headed back to Marshall's. I had planned to take a nap but this trip cut my nap time out. I also got a different shirt to wear to the concert so it was a trip that was well worth it. We also got pasta for dinner before the concert. The concert was great! We both enjoyed ourselves. We got back to the hotel about 11 and got our stuff ready for the next morning. We wanted to be up by 6:30 and at the train station by 7:30.

Sunday morning we got up and got dressed. We ate a light breakfast (half of a banana, half of a bagel with peanut butter). We walked to the train station, actually we lightly jogged because it was so cold! We got to the race site and we are walking to where the vendors are and I hear someone call my name! I turn around and its my Aunt Valerie!!!!!!!! I was so, so, so, surprised!!!

I had talked to her on Saturday and she said that she wished she could be there. Back story: my aunt was diagnosed with colon cancer May 2010. This was a race for colon cancer research so of course she was my motivation for running this race. I felt like I had a vested interest and knew that it would help me throughout the race. So we spent a few minutes taking pictures and video. Shortly before 8AM we headed towards the start. The race was nothing like I imagined. I had no idea what to expect so that's kind of a good thing. D and I started off and pretty much stayed in the middle. The weather was cold at the beginning but very shortly we both started to warm up. I just remember hearing the footsteps of all the runners and I felt exhilarated. D and I pretty much kept the same pace although, I took the lead for the most part. :-) I had my iPod and I don't even remember listening to the music other than the first song. I felt a little fatigued probably between 2.25-2.50 miles. D kept saying "almost there baby" He was a great partner. When we got to the part of the course that I could see the finish line sign, I got chills. I saw the first (last) mile marker which was mm 3, I knew the end was in sight. Lots of people were on the side line cheering and saying "sprint to the end"! I started to sprint and it felt great! I told D to speed up but he slowed down because the paparazzi (my aunt) was taking pictures of me crossing the finish line. I finished in 32:57 which is the fastest I've ran 3.1 in all of my training. I also finished under my goal of 35:00 minutes. I ran about a 10:37 mph pace which was also amazing! I know the sprint at the end added to this! Oh yeah-I RAN THE ENTIRE THING!!! That was very important to me and I did it-thank Jesus!!! He will grant you the desires of your heart. D finished right behind me! We took more pictures and got water and fruit and granola bars to eat. We headed back to the train and made plans with my aunt and her friend Ms. Marion for lunch. We went to Chevy's Mexican Cantina and ate yummy food! I also got a blood orange margarita-one of my first drinks since starting on my plan. This race was a great one for my first race and now I am addicted to running more. I will go into more detail when I share my April goals next week!

Weekly Update

This week was an amazing week in the exercise and weight loss department. I decided to switch things up at the gym. On Sunday, we got back early enough for me to hit the gym for my hour walk. I love reading my NOOK while walking because it makes the time go by so much faster. I find myself walking more just so I can finish reading a chapter in the book. Monday was kind of a rough day on the treadmill. I had to wait for one because the gym was packed. So instead of standing and waiting, I decided to get on the Stairmaster. Holy moly! I was on that thing for 15 minutes and I was dripping with sweat within the first five minutes! It was a great workout! The girl beside me said she could tell a difference since using the machine. Tuesday I ran the last "long" run before the race. I ran 3.1 miles in just under 35 minutes. I kept wanting to speed up but I kept my pace consistent at 5.5 mph. This morning I woke up and went to spin class. I decided to do this because I am not working out on Friday or Saturday due to the race and I wanted to get my workouts in. My butt is killing me even though I wore padded bike shorts! 

Needless to say, I was VERY surprised when I hopped on the scale and saw I lost 4.8 pounds!!!!!!!!!!! I mean what??! I was thinking it had to be a mistake. I hopped out and cleared the scale out and got back on. It said the exact same thing; I had lost 4.8 pounds. I can only attribute it to working out only 5 days last week and switching up my cardio exercises. 

 I am proud to say since January 4th, I have lost 23.2 pounds!!!! I met my March goal of losing 10% of my total body weight from my first weigh-in. 

The big race is on Sunday! I got emotional on my run yesterday (Tuesday) because I cannot believe I have made it this far! I was never a runner before and all I can remember is running 1 mile and then quitting to walk or get off the treadmill. I thought I was doing something with that one mile. Now, I can run 3.1 miles without stopping. Check me out! And I can do this more than once a week. I was reflecting on how I was doubting my weight loss this morning and I realized that I asked God for this and He is doing what He said He would! How dare I doubt Him!?!? He has definitely made all of this possible. When I felt like giving up, I just called on Him, literally! So I am just going to sit back and watch God do His thing in me and through me! I can't wait to see the end results! This Friday is my hubs birthday!!! So we will actually be spending the weekend in DC. We plan on going up on Saturday morning to pick up our race packets and hang out. We are going to a concert on Saturday night. We will be going back to the hotel as soon as that's over to get a good night's rest. I plan on sleeping late on Saturday morning because I know it will be a long night and an early Sunday morning. I still have to figure out train routes and all that good stuff before Sunday. I am both nervous and excited!!! I will be back with a race re-cap.

Weekly Update

So this week I lost another pound. I don't know what's going on! I have been running my butt off and its slowly coming off. I am a little discouraged because with the amount of calories I eat, I should be losing at least 2 pounds per week. I am glad that I didn't set my weight loss goal for the month any higher because its taking me a while to get to 10%. I am this close coming in at 9.53%. I want to go try on bikini's when I lose the 10%. The beginning of Lent came and went and I decided not to give up anything health related because I have already cut back so much! We shall see how things go next week. I can't believe this is my eighth week of training for the 5K. I have come so far and am glad to be doing the extra week of training since I started a week earlier than the program.


We are going out of town this weekend so I had to move my workouts around. I usually work out 6 days a week and this week I will only get to work out 5 days a week but I got all my running in. I am a little concerned about eating since I won't get to work out on Saturday. Who knows what time we will get back on Sunday but I am hoping to be able to get my long walk in before the day is over. I will check back in next week!

Weekly and Monthly Update

So since last week, I lost 1.0 pound. I am happy with that considering that I lost 4.4 lbs. the week before. I also have to take into consideration that I ate "out" Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of this week. I was in Richmond for a testing panel. I had loads of fun and lots of good things to eat. I was tempted but I stayed on the straight and narrow. The hotel also had a nice gym with treadmills, an elliptical, medicine balls, and free weights. I woke up bright and early on Monday to hit the treadmill. There were only two so I wanted to make sure that I got on one in the morning since I had plans to hit the malls when we were finished for the day. Monday was my day to walk/run. I ran the first two sets of 10 minutes at 5.8 mph and the last set at 5.5 mph and walked 5 minutes nin between each run. I did this for a total of three times and ended up running for a total of 30 minutes and boy was I drenched!!! Even my booty was sweating :-). It was so hot in that room and it had poor circulation. When I was near the end, a hotel employee came in and turn the air on. I had a hard time running the last 10 minutes but I made it! On Tuesday, I got up at 5AM since I couldn't sleep. Silly me took non-droswy nasal congestant medicine right before I went to bed so I was up at almost every hour. I ran 3 miles in 33:33 at 5.6 mph. Pretty good...I was drenched with sweat after this run too but it makes me feel like I actually earned my workout.

I ended the month of February with a dinner at Longhorn since we were on our own for dinner. I had the salmon and I was just a little disappointed. The next day the hotel served grilled salmon with fruit salsa and it was delicious. I was supposed to be able to go back to eating chicken and other meats on this day but I really did not have a strong desire. I still really don't but since D has made it clear that he needs meat(!), I cooked whole wheat pizza (from Trader Joe's) with veggies and turkey pepperoni on his side. The next day, I made chicken tortilla soup. I was expecting this to be the best soup I had ever had since it got GREAT reviews but it was just okay. The guacamole I made definitely added to the soup.

For the month of February, I reached my goal of losing 5 more pounds. Since January 3rd, I have lost 17.4 pounds to date. That averages out to be about 2 pounds per week which is healthy and recommended by trainers and health professionals. I am happy with the results so far.

Here are my goals for March:
Goal 1: Lose 10% of my beginning weight by March 30th. I am only 2.3 pounds away from this goal and I think I will reach this goal before the end of the month but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself.

Goal 2: RUN the entire 5K on March 20th. I have recently run three miles in 33:33 minutes on the treadmill. The weather here still has not been that great but I am hoping to get some outdoor runs in next week at least on Saturday and the following week. I am curious to see how fast(?) I can run outside. I know that some people run/walk but I really, really, really want to run the entire race.

Goal 3:  Continue my race training. Once the 5K is over, I am immediately beginning training for a 10K. I actually am scheduled to start this program on Monday, March 21st. I need to find a 10K to run. I have my eye on one in May but I will just have to see how the 5K goes before I commit to another race even though I am definitely sticking with the training seeing how I have lost almost 20 pounds just training for a 5K and I am so happy with the results thus far even though I feel like I still have a long way to go. People are definitely noticing a difference and it makes me smile!!!

So let's get it!

Oh, I also have to think of something to give up for Lent...I don't have many ideas since I don't want to do chocolate because I don't eat that much of it now and I've already given up meat before. I might have to get really creative this year!