Home again, home again!

I'm just back from two weeks of business travel.  Traveling really is a big challenge for me.  I struggle with eating well and getting exercise.  I did fairly well on the eating this trip but did indulge a little more than I normally would.  Can I just say that gelato kept following me around?  It seriously was not my fault but it just kept jumping in my mouth!!  I was up 6# this morning when I weighed in but today I've been drinking lots of water and I'll see what it looks like tomorrow.  I tend to retain water when I fly so I don't think my gain should be too much - even with the evil gelato dogging my every step!

I did pretty good in the activity area as well.  Luckily I was in DC and walking everywhere is a necessity.  I easily got my 10,000 steps in almost everyday.  My hubby went with me on this trip and every evening after work we walked all over the place.  I made a rookie mistake early in the trip and thought we would only be walking a little bit and wore some flip-flops.  Holy blisters Batman!!  Luckily my knight in shining armor picked up some moleskin for me at the drugstore and I was able to get through a few days of owies without too much trouble.  Although...speaking of shoes...those women in DC are beasts!!  I have never seen so many stilettos walking at top speed on city sidewalks as I have there.  I'm no stranger to high heel shoes but I don't think I could navigate the subways, escalators, stairs, cobblestone/paver streets, and miscellaneous metal grates like those women.  They have my respect in spades!!

I didn't do any extra exercise though and I had really planned to use the treadmill in the hotel to get back on my C25K program.  Speaking of C25K...I am soooooo behind on this program!  I'm struggling with several things.  First and foremost was the weather before I went away on travel.  It seems as though it does nothing but rain anymore!  I am a seriously fair weather runner - I don't want to run when it's too cold, I don't want to run when it's too hot, snow?  absolutely not!!! and rain is a definite mood buster as well.  I've either got to push through this wimpyness I have developed or get a treadmill.  I'm just so afraid I will get one and somehow get it shoehorned into my tiny house and it will become an oversized coat rack.  I hate, hate, hate wasting money and I want to make extra sure that this is something I will use.  My second issue is that I am having a lot of toe pain in my running shoes.  I think that maybe my shoes are too small for me.  I've even started lacing them differently to see if that will help.  The new lacing does keep them tied tighter which is a great thing but my toes still end up shoved into the end of the shoe all the time.  I guess it's time to go over to the running store and get real shoes that are fit correctly.  Sounds like a lot of money getting ready to go out the door and that makes me crazy!!

The plan for this week is to get some exercise in and to rid my body of the gluten and sugar that I've been consuming for the last two weeks.  I also need to catch up on things around the house so I don't feel so disjointed.  Time to make a list!!

And...oh, yeah, I had a birthday while we were gone!  Even though I had to work and we weren't home my hubby made my day extra special.  He picked up a piece of cheesecake that he had decorated with some neat glittered icing gel - he's so awesomely creative - waiting for me when I got back to the hotel.  He had also scoured the town and picked up a nice button down shirt and a gorgeous tie so that we could go out for a nice dinner - that was a huge surprise!  Off we went to start our fun birthday evening - first we had drinks at The Willard Hotel and then dinner at the National Press Club.  Both places that have a lot of history and are places that I've really wanted to visit.  The drinks were awesome (I have learned that I don't like mint juleps and it's always good to learn new things) and the dinner was, well, just strange.  Not what I was expecting and not a place that I would visit again.  It wasn't bad, it was just, well, strange.  Unless you are a huge journalism geek I would skip it.  It was sort of hidden away and we were surrounded by people who all had "travel vouchers" so they didn't really have to pay for anything.  Not sure what that was all about and it just added to whole strangeness of the whole meal.  Even when we left our waiter shook our hands - never had that happen before.  Very memorable!!

When we got home I was exhausted and stressed out by the stormy drive we had back from the airport and I was surprised by a bouquet of beautiful flowers sitting on my kitchen table.  That son of mine is a keeper too!!  Next year is one of those scary ones that has a 0 at the end and I have some goals I want to meet by then.  I want to reach my goal weight, I want to run an entire 5K, and I want to finally finish reading Game of Thrones.  I swear that book series is like that pile of never-ending laundry.  I read and read and read and the darn percent read in the bottom corner of my iPad never changes!!  I should have never bought the bundled series for the iPad!!

Well...the hubby is starting dinner - steaks on the grill!  I'm in charge of the veggies so I need to get working on those.  I sure love that guy!!!

C25K Week 4 Day 2

Hi all! Sorry this post is so late. I actually completed this day's training on March 31st and then we immediately went out of town to visit family.  I was yet again shocked that I was able to run for such a long continuous time!  I am very nervous about week 5 to come but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.  I'm really starting to understand the truth in the theory that reaching physical goals has a huge mental aspect to them.  I've missed a couple weeks of training but hopefully week 4 day 3 will go smoothly.  I plan to run again on Thursday and then tackle day 1 of week 5 on Saturday.

We had a great time on our little getaway but unfortunately it rained buckets every day and it was not safe to be running around so I didn't get any training in while we were gone.  I was very careful with food while I was gone and I'm really proud of myself for only gaining a pound the whole time.  That was eating what was served but within reason.  As an example one night we had pizza and I chose just to eat the top since I knew that if I ate that crust no matter how wonderfully delicious it would be I would definitely pay for it later.

I did share with family that I had been running and unfortunately they weren't exactly supportive.  I know they love me and are just worried that I will ruin my body with running.  They know someone who was a runner that said that if they would have known the damage they were doing, they never would have started.  I've done quite a bit of research on the topic of safe running and I don't plan on becoming a world class marathoner and pushing my body beyond what it should be doing or is ready for.  I think I'm smart about my running and listen to my body very closely.  I don't have a huge stride nor do I hit my footpads very hard.  I joke with my husband that I'm more of a stumbler than a runner.  I'm really slow too - he keeps up with me just by picking up his walking pace a little bit.  I just took the comment in stride and changed the subject.  That's really all you can do I guess.

We've been back home for a little bit now and I'm struggling to get completely back into the swing of things.  I was able to get that pound off that I gained on vacation and send another of it's friends packing as well.  Yeah me!  While I haven't been working out as much as I should probably be, I haven't been completely sedentary either.  I'm still going to my weekly dance classes and we had a performance on Saturday.  The performance was great fun and we ended up dancing with other groups at the event as well.  I was probably dancing for a good two hours altogether.  I was tired and sore later that day but it felt so good.  I need to remind myself how good it feels to be active when I get home from work and just want to collapse on the couch with a glass of wine!!  Yep...it's that mental thing again!

Holy Cow!!!

I DID IT!!!  I completed C25K Week 4 Day 1 the very first time out!  To say I'm shocked is an understatement.  Knowing I would be doing two 3 minute runs and two 5 minute runs in this workout was really daunting.  Then when I got started and realized that my recovery would only be 90 seconds and 2.5 minutes, respectively, I was really worried.  Of course, I looked down and gave my running partner, Peanut, the pep talk he needed!  It wasn't easy but it also wasn't so bad that I thought I was going to collapse either.  I think I might make it through week 4 without a repeater!  Woohoo!!!

Peanut, however, might be reaching the end of his physical abilities and after this week I don't think he will be able to be my running partner anymore.  He struggled with this run and was not keeping up very well.  But...he's cute and adorable so maybe I'll add in some evening pleasure walks for him.

Healthy eating is going well but the scale is not showing it so I'm just hoping that since I've been more consistent with my activity these past few weeks that it's just a little stall while my body puts on some muscle and gets used to what's going on.  Next week is measurements week so we'll see if that shows some changes.  I can't say I feel any difference in my clothes but I don't wear really tight things anyway so small changes won't be really noticeable.

I also think I might take a big huge leap on this blog next week and actually post my measurements - scary!!  I've been reading a bunch of health blogs recently and the ones that really speak to me are the ones that I can relate to personally.  Ones where I can see that the blogger is or was my size and still had a body that was strong and capable.  Those really inspire me and maybe someone will stumble on my blog and need some inspiration too!  I know it sounds so cliche but if I can do this, other women like me can!!  Seriously...before I started losing weight and exercising regularly just going from one floor of my tri-level house to the other would get me winded.

I also need to find some time to update my blog design and put some links to those blogs in a gadget on the sidebar.  Where do all those hours go?!?

Today I am getting a pedicure and going to a dance rehearsal for a flash mob I'm a part of in May (more on that later!) so I better get my fingers off this computer and feed my awesome hubby before he has to go out for the day and then I need to go get cleaned up for my day.

Thanks ever so much for reading this little ole blog and sending up encouraging thoughts for me!  I'm reaching goals and doing things I never thought I'd be able to do and knowing there are people out there cheering me on is so uplifting!!

Updates

I'm doing really well with C25K! I did week 3 day 1 on Saturday and I nearly cried when I heard the voice say that we were going to run 3 minutes without stopping!!  I had my little dog Peanut with me and I just said out loud to him that we WERE going to do this.  I checked my Garmin to see what my elapsed time was so far so I could keep myself motivated.  I waited until I was really tired to look at it again and when I saw I only had a minute left of the run I knew I could do it.  Then when the 2nd 3 minute run came up I knew I could do it because I'd done it already!

On Monday the hubby and I went for a 5k hike on a local trail.  We hiked up 1.6 miles with an elevation gain of 315 feet and then hiked back down again.  I felt like I was incredibly slow on this hike but really my pace wasn't all that much slower than when I'm doing C25K.  My knees get upset when I go uphill.  I'm hoping as I take off more weight that they will not punish me so much.

When I woke up this morning I felt like I had been hit by a truck.  I'm thinking it was the combination of the hike yesterday and the fact that I had two slices of whole wheat bread for lunch before our hike.  I'm really starting to think that gluten attacks my joints in a horrible way.  I wasn't sure I would be able to run today but I pushed through and did it!  It definitely wasn't my fastest run but I made it through the whole program including the two 3 minute runs!!  It was a challenge on the track today because the middle school track team was doing sprints at the same time.  Peanut did pretty good and wasn't too distracted by all the kids which really surprised me.  I put aside my self consciousness and did my workout.  I just kept telling myself that what those kids thought of me did not matter.  I was quite proud of myself for getting out there and I wasn't going to let anything take that away from me!

Eating has been going really well except for the bread thing on Monday.  I tried a new recipe last night that wasn't a home run but it was edible.  It was Garlic Lover's Stew from Kalyn's Kitchen.  Usually her recipes end up as keepers but this one was too salty and too garlicky for our tastes.  I rescued the stew meat from the concoction and threw out all the rest.  I'm going to use the stew meat in a curry of some type later this week.  Here's a link to the recipe if you want to try it - like I said it wasn't bad but it just wasn't suited to our taste preference:  http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2008/02/crockpot-beef-stew-recipe-with-olives.html

Tomorrow is Curves and dance class and then the last day of week 3 is on Thursday.  Saturday I move to week 4 and I've heard it's a push to get through it.  I'll just keep telling myself I can do it and put forth all the effort I have.  That's the only thing I can do unless Fiona the Fitness Fairy visits by then and magically makes me a world class runner!  I think maybe I'll have better luck keeping up my positive self talk.

Still Running!

Well...I made a plan and I put it in my planner like I said I would!  Lo and behold I'm two days into the week and I've fulfilled both of my plans for these days!!!  I went to Curves yesterday and I ran C25K week 2 day 1 today.  I'm not going to lie and say it was easy - that I was high on the motivation of new goals written in my awesome new planner that my amazing hubby bought me for my birthday (that's over two months away - but who's counting?).  Nope...it was hard but I did it and I feel great inside...deeeeeep inside because right now everything below my neck is screaming.

Tomorrow - Curves and dance class - wish me luck!

Back to Running!

Today I finally got back out there.  I redid week 1 day 3 of C25K and the really hard part was dodging all the snow/ice piles and mud puddles.  I actually was surprised that it wasn't harder to get back into it since I haven't run in a couple weeks.  I need to set up a workout plan and actually stick to it so I don't have to do this back and forth on the training plan.  I would really like to commit to doing Curves on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then C25K on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  I wrote it in my planner so hopefully I will keep up with it.  I know all the experts say to make an appointment with yourself to do these things but gosh, is that a hard thing to follow through on.

On the food front things are going great!  I'm trying new recipes and the majority of them are coming out well.  We've even found a few that we are going to add into our regular rotation.  It makes it so much easier for meal planning when I have a good amount of regular dishes.  I hate making the same things week in and week out so this way I can work up to several weeks where I don't have to repeat anything.  I really need to start posting my menu plans here.  I'll put that in my planner! lol

Successful Business Trip

This week I had to go to DC on business and I was bound and determined to stay on program and not come back with a gain.  I did really well and actually ended up losing 2#!!  I took cheese sticks, nuts, and protein bars with me to have for breakfast and I made a commitment to have salads for my lunches.  For dinners I made sure I ordered things that fit within my program and even tried out a gluten free pizza one night.  All my meals were really tasty and I never really felt like I was missing anything.  The exception to that was the birthday cake that a co-worker was presented with.  It smelled amazing but I just kept thinking about the goals I have and how I really want to be successful at this endeavor.

Unfortunately I did not get any C25K training done while I was gone so I think I'm going to have to repeat week 1 before going on to week 2.  I just wish the weather would clear up so I could get back to the track.  I really prefer running there for several reasons.  One is that it doesn't seem to hurt my legs quite so much to run on the dirt but probably the main reason is that I don't feel that self conscious when I'm running there.  I know I shouldn't worry so much what people think of me running but anything that makes it easier for me to get out there and do it I consider a good thing!