I decided to start a little segment reviewing my workouts for the week and setting goals for the next week. the point being to have it all in one place so that I can see what I’ve done and use that info to move forward. Additionally, I can’t wait to look back a year from now and see how far I’ve come.
Sunday: Run 3.5 miles, 43 minutes
Friday:3.11, 36 minutes (I’ve decided to do a monthly baseline 5K to measure improvement)
Total Miles: 6.61
I didn’t get the runs in this week that I was hoping for. My heel was torn up badly from my new shoes. I’ve let heal for a few days and gotten some new socks so I am praying I won’t have that problem again.
Goals for next week:
Run 13 miles
One non-running workout (I’m a one trick pony right now)
August Review
I don’t believe any progress was made on the scale this month. I haven’t weighed myself because I don’t want to see it. My 2 y/o brought the scale in the bathroom this morning (from its hiding place in the closet) and thought we should “play” on it. If only it brought me as much joy as it brings her.
I did run 35 miles (10 shy of my 45 mile goal) and ran a 5K with no walk breaks so it wasn’t a bad month all in all.
Onto September:
Goals:
Run 50 miles
1 non-running workout per week
Just say no to sugar
Challenges expected:
The Great Frederick Fair
Pumpkin spice flavored anything everything
Same runner (me), 5 years, 2 kids and 70 pounds of difference. I may not ever get that thin again (it required a lot time and dedication as it was not my body’s happy weight but I can’t continue to look like the second picture. I CAN NOT! Plus I really want to have that much pep in my step while running again.
Lately, I have a had a solitary lunch obsession and it is this.
Tex-Mex Quinoa and Black Beans
It is so simple and tasty, I just can’t get enough. The best part is you can really customize it to your taste. It started out as a filling for stuffed peppers, and just evolved from there.
2 cups water
1 cup dry quinoa (that’s keen-wah, in case you didn’t know)
1 can black beans
1 can diced green chiles
1/2 cup green tomatillo salsa
1 cup grated Mexican Cheese blend
salt and pepper
Bring the water and quinoa to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Fluff the quinoa with a fork and add beans (I like to rinse them first), chilis, salsa and cheese*.
Mix
Salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy
I make 3 lunch servings out of this recipe. I eat is as a stand-alone meal. Obviously, it could be used as side with a smaller serving size.
Seriously, could that be easier? No! And quinoa is like a super food so you get the amazing combo of tasty and good for you. What more could you ask for?
*You can add as much or as little cheese as you desire. Less makes it healthier and lower cal. More makes it delicious, but fattening.
Yesterday, during lunch I went for a run. During that time, I was in a helicopter crash but I survived. Unfortunately for me, we crashed down in zombie territory and I was forced to run for my life. Luckily, I had radio communication from the nearby town and they were able to guide me and have me pick up some crucial supplies on the way. The zombies were hot on my tail the whole time.
It was all great fun!
I completed Mission 1 of the Zombies, Run game/iPhone app. And I have a new running love.
There is a video on the website that describes the game much better than I can.
https://www.zombiesrungame.com/
When the zombies get close you can hear them growl, a sound that I found ridiculously unnerving and caused me to pick up the pace to escape them. It was excellent fartlek training. That is great for me because I tend to be a lazy runner and am hesitant to really push myself. Clearly, I’m going to have to though because I think the zombies got a little too close.
I can’t wait to go out today for my next mission.
Bender. That is really the only word I can come up with to describe my eating lately. I just can’t seem to stop myself.
Sugar is the problem. Sugar is my meth and right now I am deep in it. I have been eating, candy, donuts, brownie, cake, you name it. If it is sugary, I’ve been mainlining it. I am disgusted with myself. How can a person who knows so much about healthy eating, eat such crap? How can a person who is adamantly against refined/processed foods, be loading up her body with them like a god damned junkie.
It has to stop. It stops now. I’m putting it out there for the world- as of this moment I am going cold turkey off all refined sugar.
Fat Mom hath spoken. It shall be done.
10:22AM EDT August 23, 2012
Follow my diary on My Fitness Pal (see link on the sidebar) to hold me accountable.
St Jude 5K
August 18, 2012
Frederick, MD
I meant to pick up my packet on Friday afternoon so that I could sleep in a little on Saturday morning. But it started storming on Friday and I didn’t feel like dragging the littles out in the rain, so I planned to get up early (and let’s face, sleeping in was a long shot anyway). The alarm went off at 5:30 and I got up and started prepping for a 6:30 departure. Packet pick-up was from 6:30-7:45, the race was less than 10 minute from my house, but anyone who knows me knows that I had to get there early. It’s just how I roll. Less than 2 minutes after we arrived I had my packet in hand and we were left with more than an hour to kill. If you need to kill time with a 2 year-old in tow though, Baker Park is the place to do it.
Best dressed runner in the field.
Before we left the house, I told my daughter that I was going to run in a race and the she, Daddy and Landry would cheer for me by yelling, “Go, Mommy!” She immediately corrected me and told me that she was also running in the race and the Daddy and Landry would yell, “Go, Mommy! Go, Caroline!” Ummmm, welll umm we’ll see. And so I left it at that assuming she would forget about it.But anyone who knows 2 year-olds is probably laughing now. Because she , of course, didn’t forget and kept insisting that she was going to run. I looked around, lots of people would be walking, lots of strollers, lots of kids running and decided what the heck. We took our place at the very back of the pack and sent our cheering squad, Scott and Landry, up a couple of blocks to wait on us.
The race started and Caroline was a natural. She took off and loved every second of her first race. That lasted only a few blocks until I dropped her off at with her Daddy, but it was absolutely the highlight of the race for me. She loves to run and I would be so happy if she would grow up loving to race.
The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. The course was flat and wove around the park and through the surrounding neighborhoods. As usual, in Frederick, there was no crowd support. This is sadly, not a town that supports running. The residents balk at being inconvenienced by races. One letter to the editor after the Frederick Marathon a few years ago referred to “being held hostage by running terrorists.” It’s like that. So no cheering outside of the race start/finish area. There were also no water stops. Not really necessary in a 5K but it was the middle of August, so it wouldn’t have been unwelcome. Not a big deal though, there was plenty of water and gatorade at the finish, as well as the standard post-race offerings.
My cheering squad
All in all it was a very nice race. Nicely run and organized. I will run again next year if it is held.
Today for lunch I ate crap and I didn’t run like I had planned to (I fell victim to the lure of a social lunch). This afternoon I feel gross, slightly ill and like I will crash face first asleep onto my desk at any minute.
This is not a coincidence.
Tomorrow morning I will be getting up bright and early to run my first 5K in over a year. In the spring of 2011, after a year of living in the new mother fog, I finally got my act together and managed to drop about 20 pounds that I had gained when I was pregnant with my daughter. In doing so, I went through the Couch-to-5K program* and capped it with a local 5K in May. Two weeks later I had a positive pregnancy test and here we are today, having recently completed the C25K program once again.
I am really looking forward to it. I love races. Not that I would ever have a chance it hell of finishing anywhere near the front of the pack, but the atmosphere, community and challenge are just so great at a race. Even Especially at a small local race such as this. My running fever is already sparked but this will really turn up the flame. I better start figuring out how to pay for race entries.
There are two things I really love about this race.
1. It benefits St. Jude, on of my favorite causes. I’m lucky that no one in my family or friends has ever needed St.Jude’s services but it is wonderful to know that if we ever do they are there and that we would never be turned away because inability to pay. I am happy to fork over the race fee for this cause.
2. It’s a family event. Strollers and dogs are allowed, though I will not be running with either. My family will be there supporting me, I just chose not to run pushing 50lbs of kids while be yelled at by a two year old. There will also be lots of walkers, which means no chance of me finishing last.
I only have one goal for this race That is to run the whole thing. Run as in no stopping to walk. It shouldn’t be a problem, I have run that far without stopping a couple of times already this week. Not that there is any shame in walking. I have never run a race further than 10K without incorporating some walking. Walking is awesome. I just have a goal for myself and I want to show that be bigger doesn’t mean you have to do less. Overweight people can run. We don’t have to do it halfway. I may not be running as fast as I would it I were lighter but I will be running.
I’ll be back tomorrow with the report!
*This is not my first foray into running. Back before I had kids I ran all the time. Lots of 5Ks, 10ks, half-marathons and even a marathon under my belt. I just let myself give it up when I was pregnant.
Yesterday was the middle of the month. I decided that I had been working hard in August and I would take some measurement and weigh myself to see how this month of real focus was going. The results were depressing. Less than a pound lost and no noticeable difference in measurements. I felt fatter than I had 10 minutes before when I was convinced I was going to see some changes.
I might have consoled myself with a less than stellar lunch but I had finally (after being back-ordered for too long) gotten my new running shoes and I was eager to try them out during a lunch time run. I put in 3 miles and then came back in and put my work clothes back on. Do these feel loser? No, they couldn’t possibly. A few minutes later still red faced and ready to break into a sweat at any moment, I hopped into the elevator. The elevator with mirrored walls. Halfway through the ride, I caught myself thinking, “wow, i look pretty good. I look thinner”
How does that work? I don’t know, but there is something about running. Something about it makes you see yourself differently. My body hadn’t changed from morning to afternoon, but I went running and suddenly I felt thinner, more attractive, fitter.
That’s what running does. It makes you feel better. It makes you see yourself differently. It makes you like yourself better. That’s why I’ll keep running even when the scale doesn’t budge. Even if it never does*.
* But I really, really hope it does…and soon.
** And then I tried to find free images of plus sized runners on the internet and got nothing. Disappointing. We are out there. We will not be ignored!!
Frustration: Cutting calories, regaining running form, putting in hard work for 3 months and having a total loss of 6 pounds.
Frustration: Really focusing on food and running as much as possible in the month of August only to step on the scale mid-way through the month and seeing a loss of a whopping 0.8 pounds (that’s ZERO point eight).
Frustration: Dropping $145 on new running shoes only to have heel, ankle and knee pain on their first outing.
So yes, friends, I’m frustrated. The lack of weight loss is baffling to me. I, like so many who struggle with their weight, could write a book on nutrition and exercise (my problems are emotional not from lack of knowledge). So I know how to count calories, measure foods, good foods versus bad foods (yes to protein! no to refined carbs!). I know that it’s the calories you eat that really make or break weight loss, much more than exercise. So I’m just vexed at to why my diet of 1500 net calories, most of which are coming from clean foods is not resulting in dropped pounds. I blame breastfeeding. It’s the only thing I can think of right now.
I will keep on doing it though. What choice do I have?
It’s not all bad news though.
My running is going great. My endurance gets better every run. My motivation is strong and I am just in love with running again.
And I’m calling myself a runner again. Even if my body isn’t where I want it to be. I am a runner. I am part of the running community. I get excited when a Road Runner Sports catalog shows up in the mail. I’m lusting over lululemon bags and clothes. I think about running. A lot. And I love it. Now if my body would just get the message and shrink down to a size where I could fit into the workout clothes I am coveting.
The aforementioned shoes? Well, we’re just going to hope the pains were a fluke, because I’m not getting another new pair of shoes until these are done.
More good news, they are opening a new Sport and Health Fitness Center down the street from my house. My teacher husband gets a significant membership discount which combined with the fitness center membership reimbursement I get from my job, means we can get a family membership for a low, low price. I’m so excited. All of the gyms I’ve belonged to before had childcare as an afterthought. Just a small room with a few toys and an uninterested babysitter. I didn’t really care because I didn’t have kids. Now I do and I would feel guilty dropping them off in one of those places. But the Kidz Zone at S&H looks awesome and I know that my littles are going to get excited when I tell them we are going to the gym. That matters, a LOT.
So there you have it, weight loss is for crap but hooray for exercise!!
I kind of started this blog and then dropped off the face of the earth. That happens when you have a job and two small insomniac children. Internet time for mommy gets punted.
fat mom gets fit 