Lost!

I lost 4.2 pounds over the past week! Husband and I are back at Weight Watchers. I am loving their new overhauled plan. It makes so much more sense.

I managed to lose weight AND do the following things: eat at Wendy's not once, but twice - and one of those times I had a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger with cheese and mayo; eat at Olive Garden (soup, salad, one breadstick), eat a Mexican lunch delivered by wonderful moms at school, and eat all the fruit I wanted to eat.

One of the reasons I have always loved WW is for the fact that nothing is off limits. It teaches you to mindfully eat. Sometimes I get irritated that I have to "mindfully" eat, but then I have to realize I wouldn't be in this situation if I'd have paid attention to the food going in.

Anyhow, I was super excited to have such a big loss at my first weigh-in. Talk about great motivation!

I also didn't let excuses get in the way, and I exercised every day this week. Last night was 31 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes of arm weights.

Besides being tired, I'm feeling pretty good this morning!

Inside vs. Outside

Distance: 1.863
Time: 31 min.
Running segment pace: 5.1 mph

I ran on the treadmill tonight. I must have been tired because I felt like it was such an effort the entire time. The exercise felt good, but it was just an effort.

That got me thinking about a trend I have noticed. When I run outside, I tend to average about 11:30 miles. However, I can set the treadmill to run 12 minutes miles, and I feel like I am dying! Why is that? I have two theories.

1. The treadmill is boring. Mine isn't even set up near my tv. I have my music and my Christmas decorations to gaze upon while I huff and puff. The boredom must make my effort feel exaggerated.

2. When I'm outside, my 11:30 pace is an average. Therefore, I can slow down or speed up according to what my body is able to do. On the treadmill, I just run at that one pace. My body isn't really used to doing that.

Those are the thoughts I had tonight as I logged my mile point eight.

Not even going to attempt to upload a photo tonight. Don't have it in me.

Monday

Elliptical 30 minutes

Sometimes I hate having to name blog posts. I don't want to sound too cliche or corny, but I also want to convey the "feeling" for the day! Well, today's feeling was "Monday."

It was just a long day. Getting back into the working/teaching groove can sometimes be challenging.

My class led a prayer service this morning for the founder of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, Blessed Carmen Salles. Since our school is a Sisters of the Immaculate Conception school, this is a pretty important day. It was a beautiful prayer service.

Then it was a 1/2 day followed by a two hour staff meeting. As soon as the meeting was done, however, I grabbed Child #1 and zipped home to get his homework done. He cooperated with me because I told him if he messed around, we'd go get his brother, and then he'd have to do his homework amidst the chaos that is Hudson.

While Evan finished his homework, I cleaned the kitchen from yesterday and started some laundry. We picked up the Little Child and headed home to make dinner.

Baths, dinner, snuggle time. Then I had to spend an hour working on time cards for payroll. Ugh.

I so badly wanted to say forget working out. But once I use excuses for one night, I can justify them any other night. Even though it was after 8 p.m, I got my workout clothes on and got on the elliptical for 30 minutes.

I'm just about ready for bed, but popcorn sounds like a good snack first! Either that or a hot bath. I'm cold.

I was going to post a gross sweaty picture of me, but I couldn't get it to download to my computer. Stupid thing. The computer, not the phone.

Maybe another day.

Exertion?

Distance: 1.97 miles
Time: 30 min.
Avg. Pace: 15:14/mile (includes walk breaks)

You know that Rate of Perceived Exertion? I think it's crap. And the reason I think it's crap is because whenever I run, I exert myself for 30 seconds and think that is about all I can do.

I tried this method earlier today. I want Sunday to be my "long" run day. Rather than following any prescribed times, I decided to just run until I felt tired. The first "run" lasted two minutes. Then it went downhill from there. I just don't trust my body to be able to keep going according to how I feel. I feel tired. I feel like I want to stop. I feel like crap...just like the whole exertion thing.

After about two rounds of running and walking, I realized that plan was not for me. So I decided alternating between running a 1/10 of a mile and walking half that distance. I was definitely getting more and more tired by the end of this pattern, but I kept going, because I told myself, "I can do anything for 1/10 of a mile."

I ended up running for 12 minutes and walking 18. Doesn't sound like much. However, it's up from running 9 and walking 22. I must remember this is a process.

One last note for today. It started raining, so I jumped on the treadmill. Less than five minutes into my run, the kids were making me furious getting into things, playing the piano, bugging me, etc. I jumped off the treadmill and told Husband I would rather deal with rain than with those two crazy boys for the next 30 minutes. I run/exercise to de-stress, not get more agitated than before! Sure enough, I came back feeling much better, and luckily the weather held out pretty well. Only minor sprinkles.

New Week

Distance: 2.44 miles
Time: 39 min.

My mileage ended up being a bit more than I intended this morning due to a bathroom emergency. I was three minutes into my warm up walk when IT hit. And you know what I mean when I say IT. Cripes.

I considered trying to ignore it, but since I was only three minutes from home, I figured I might as well turn around, walk home, use the bathroom, and then get my run in. So that's what I did.

It worked out well. I felt fairly strong during my run Part 2. I know I would have been miserable if I'd kept going.

I also worked out my arms this morning. Husband is putting up the Christmas lights. The boys were outside riding bikes and kicking a soccer ball. I grabbed my 5 pound weights and did various arm exercises outside.

I have to say, it's been a nice morning.

Thanksgiving Run

Distance: 1.94 miles
Time: 31 min.

Last year I competed in my first ever Turkey Trot. We didn't do that this year due to the fact that my running has dwindled down to nothing. Hope to change that. This year we slept in until all of 7 a.m, cleaned the house, and watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I headed out to do a quick run at 10:30. It's the first outdoor run I've done in quite a while.

Tomorrow is my rest day, and we'll be having a second Thanksgiving with Husband's side of the family.

My family joined us for the holiday today. We've been having fun laughing and playing games.

Happy Thanksgiving!


May you all sleep as peacefully as my little guy tonight!

Day Before

Distance: 1.85 miles
Time: 31 min.

I am so unoriginal. I named my post for today on my other blog with the same title as this one.

I figured I had better exercise today because it was either that or I was going to come unglued on a particular 3-year-old who lives in my house. Let's just say that he was good at helping me bake, but also good at destroying some of the finished product. Grrrrrrrr!

I bake a special bread each year at Christmas, but I decided to make it for Thanksgiving this year. I'll do it again at Christmas as well, but I was having a craving for it.


It tastes even better than it looks!

Anyhow, once we were done, Hudson decided to play in the sink and managed to get water all over two of the loaves. We'll see later if they dried out.

The monkey also managed to spoil his dad's surprise of us getting him a cake. I never should have told him we were going to buy his dad a birthday cake. I didn't even consider the fact that he might blab it to his dad.

The joy of children.


And here I am in all my baking glory.

Happy Day Before!