I need a new fitness plan. After thinking on it for quite a while, I came up with the one linked here. I’m testing in with my sit ups, pushups, and squats tonight and will kick that training off on Saturday. I’m running up until then and am logging as of this week. In case you’re interested, you can check it out, but don’t feel like you need to. 🙂
Category: Fitness and Health
THIS Moment in Time – Hardest Four Miles of my Life
I’ve run every morning this week following a 6 miler on Saturday and a rest on Sunday. My body is shot. 19 miles in four days isn’t that much of a cumulative distance, but I usually take a rest after two days of running no matter how far (or not so far) I run in those two days. Four days in a row is tough on me, but the weather has been ridiculously beautiful! So I power on… and take breaks… at the park. You know, the park that is perfectly safe and requires none of my attention. 😁
Fitness Check-In
My goodness, it’s been FOREVER since I’ve checked in here on my fitness. I was doing another 10 weeks of fitness challenge with myself, but quit after writing this post because, well… it was very eye-opening and I thought it was time for a break on weekly logging of stats. I didn’t even announce my departure from Fitness Staturdays – I just departed.
And it’s felt good.
But it is time to ramp things up again because my half marathon is next weekend and honestly, I’m ready for a change of pace. Running on a schedule is no fun at all and this time around (I’ve run 3-4 20K’s or half marathons in the past – I can’t remember), I told myself that I will not be doing this again. I had a pretty serious foot injury that should have side-lined me for at least 6 weeks, but a solid week of no running got me ready to run again (my doctor agreed it was OK). The injury (a ruptured plantar fascia in my left arch, meaning that it is forever severed and will never heal back together) should have been way more painful than it was, but my family’s insane pain threshold has been passed onto me and I healed up as quickly as I healed from my C-sections – so I’m out running again. BUT, the same thing could happen to my right foot, and that arch is burning a bit here and there, so I’m pretty nervous about the race. I’m doing a trial long run this weekend (10-11 miles) to see if I can do it without upsetting my arches, and I’m staying close to home. The longest I’ve run so far is 9 miles (which is when I ruptured it) so I know I can squeak out 13.1, but I’m not sure I want to. I’m not sure that I want to risk a similar, or worse, injury. It is more important to keep running for the rest of my life than to cross a particular finish line and have an injury that could side-line me for weeks to forever.
So I’m not sure.
Anyway, back to the point of this post – I’ve been running 20-30 miles a week both indoors and outdoors and it feels great, but I need a change. I need to get back out to the garage to do some kickboxing, I need to do INSA.NI.TY again, and I need to get back to ab and strength work. I’ve gotten a bit soft. Before you go on and say, “no you haven’t – etc. etc.” check out my stats from the last time I checked in:
- Weight: 137.8 Pounds
- Body Fat %: 21.9%
- BMI: 21.9
- Workout Days (goal is 6 days): 6 Days
- Time Spent Being Active: 4 Hours 42 Minutes
- Miles Run: 21.3 Miles
And compare them to now:
- Weight: 144.4 Pounds
- Difference of 6.6 pounds
- Body Fat %: 23.3%
- Difference of 1.4%
- BMI: 22.6
- Difference of 1.7
- Workout Days (goal is 6 days): 5 Days
- Time Spent Being Active: 6 Hours 2 Minutes
- A good increase, but it was a good week!
- Miles Run: 20.2 Miles (and includes 4 miles of walking)
This isn’t horrible by any stretch, but see what I mean? A little soft. It turns out that my younger son was a pretty serious little cardio machine and I didn’t even realize it. I plugged 200 calories a day into MFP for nursing, and I’m thinking it was much higher. I believe that 5 of the added 6.6 pounds is from weaning – that kid was keeping me trimmed down. Not counting his calorie usage correctly means that I shorted myself probably 100-150 calories a day, which explains why I dropped more than 1.5 pounds a week back then and was starting to look a little gaunt in the face (I can admit it).
So – once this race is or isn’t done, 😉 I’m going to take a week to figure out what I want to be doing. I REALLY love running, especially outside, but I need to get my strength up and my abs toned again. Man alive, I loved my abs back in January. Unfortunately, those aren’t easy to maintain (well, they actually are if I just do ab work while my husband reads books to our son each night). I have a feeling that on the days I don’t run (I skip to rest my shins – if they didn’t hurt, I’d run every day), I think I’ll do some kickboxing since my son is OUT OF MY ROOM FOR NAPS and the bag in the garage won’t wake him now.
I’m not at all bothered by my current stats – I’ve never maintained 140-145 pounds in my life and I’ve maintained it since before Thanksgiving, so that’s awesome – but I need to mix things up a bit. And I need to stop eating sweets. Now that my period is back, I have a serious sweet tooth. Who knew?
I’ll check in with starting stats in a couple of weeks!
Fat Girl – A Confession
I have been MIA lately, and for lots of reasons. We are so busy… so busy with life, so busy weaning (that went so well, I can’t believe it!), so busy making career/life decisions, so busy getting out on dates every weekend, so busy trying to purge the house of un-needed things (I am a FB swap-group selling goddess (this is the only thing I’ve ever been a goddess of) and have made over $2,000 so far and still have over $1,000 worth of things to sell), so busy just trying to keep up. Because of our “case of the busy’s,” I have moved more into a maintenance mode with fitness which is nice, but also scary for me.
Weaning and going on a new birth control pill caused a little correction in my weight. A 3-5 pound correction. I knew this was coming, but I honestly thought that if I kept working out, it wouldn’t really happen. But it did. Turns out, my younger son was burning a lot more of my calories than we ever imagined and he was, all by himself, a very effective little cardio machine! After two weeks of a steady climb, my body is back to burning fat and knowing what to do, so I’ve relaxed.
But I was tense. So very tense.
This all leads me to something that is very sad and hard for me to admit. No matter how thin I get, no matter how fit and strong I get, no matter how good I look in my clothes… I will always view myself as a fat girl. I weigh less now than I did my freshman year of HIGH SCHOOL, but I still look in the mirror and think, “careful or you’ll get fat.” I check my face daily for possible visible gain. Isn’t that pathetic? I have always had body image issues and it appears that those are going to continue no matter how thin I get, and that makes me a little sad.
I skipped my workout today. It took everything in me to skip it because, well, I don’t want to get fat. I know that one skipped workout isn’t going to make me fat, and I know I ate pretty well knowing that I may not have time to workout, but I still battle those little demons in my head that say, “don’t slip. Don’t get fat. I bet you’ll weigh a pound more tomorrow.” My husband is on the road and I called him to chat so that I would not go run on the treadmill. I think it’s healthy to skip it – I don’t have to run 6 miles every freaking day. But what I think, and what I really think don’t agree with one another. My shins hurt, I plan to hit up an intense 10:20 class tomorrow morning and hopefully run at nap time, and I still felt the urge to just go run out of fear of getting fat.
This is pathetic. But it is my reality.
I was raised by a woman who was pencil-thin her entire life until she quit smoking (I honestly believe she was anorexic on top of smoking – she even admits “preferring the anorexic look”) and a man whose family was so obsessed with weight, that I’d have mini-panic attacks before heading down to visit them if I’d gained a pound since the last time I saw them. I loved my grandma, but that woman could sense any weight gain or loss of 0.5 pounds or more in a New York minute. The first topic of conversation was always about how you looked, and you always hoped you looked good enough (I’m rolling my eyes writing that). It’s no wonder I have body image issues. My dad always told me I was “built like a house” while I was growing up and my mom liked to go on and on about how thin she used to be before she quit smoking. That same woman was quick to tell us girls when to take it easy on the food because, “you came back from your freshman year a very big girl” (and enter my first real game of starving myself to get back to where I was before college). Nothing was ever good enough, except, of course, when my older sister was really starving herself and looked how my mom and everyone else wanted her to look (frail). Jesus.
So here I am, hovering at 140 pounds at 5’7 with a super healthy BMI and a body fat percentage of 21.5% and abs that show without flexing them. But I still feel fat. I still can’t believe I wear a size 6/8 jeans and have a 27.5 inch waist – I swore to a sales lady at a boutique two weeks ago that I couldn’t go down a size because, “I am no 27” (but alas, I am). My first reaction looking in the mirror is still, “you look fatter than yesterday” before relenting and thinking, “no, you’re looking good.” Hell, I took this picture of myself on date night two weeks ago because I couldn’t believe it was me staring back at me from the mirror, in those 27 jeans and medium top that was too big in the shoulders (but they didn’t have a small).
I took the picture to remind myself that these actions, these thoughts are pathetic. That no matter how I see myself, others see me this way – thin, strong, healthy, fit. I’m trying so hard to not think of myself as a fat girl, but it’s not working. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there. That makes me sad. And it makes me grateful that I don’t have daughters to screw up with these issues. In my branch of the family tree, it stops here.
Fitness Stat-urday 2015 – Weeks 3 and 4
Starting Statistics on 01/03/2015
- Weight: 144.4 Pounds (I gained 2 pounds between my holiday challenge and weigh-in, good gawd!)
- Body Fat %: 22.9% (I gained here too – oops!)
- BMI: 22.6
Goals for the Next 10 Weeks (Ending 03/13/2015)
- Weight: 135 Pounds
- Body Fat %: <21%
- BMI: 21.1
- Total Miles Each Week (Average): 25-30
Week 3 Ending 01/23/2015
- Week 3 Statistics
- Weight: 137.8 Pounds
- Pounds Lost or Gained: 0 Pounds lost
- Body Fat %: 21.9%
- Body Fat % Lost or Gained: 0.0% Lost
- BMI: 21.9
- Workout Days (goal is 6 days): 6 Days
- Time Spent Being Active: 4 Hours 42 Minutes
- Miles Run: 21.3 Miles
- Food:
- Saturday – Humus, carrots, smoked chicken
- Sunday– Chicken 🍗 and avocado sandwich
- Monday – Butternut squash soup 🍲
- Tuesday – Spinach salad
- Wednesday – Curry burgers
- Thursday – Spinach salad
- Friday – Free night – Mexican!
- Exercise:
- Saturday – Treadmill walking (21 minutes), ab work (13 minutes)
- Sunday– Running outside!!!! (60 minutes)
- Monday – Treadmill running (50 minutes), walking (10 minutes)
- Tuesday – Treadmill running (43 minutes), walking (7 minutes)
- Wednesday – Ab work (13 minutes)
- Thursday – Rest
- Friday – treadmill running (60 minutes), walking (5 minutes)
- Notes:
- I’m likely not weighing in this week since I’ll be out of town starting EARLY Thursday morning. I could use Thursday’s weight, but that’s 2 days and 2 workouts early… And I like using my scale.
- The weekend was hard on my body. Ha!
- We are having tremendous weather here, allowing me to run a bit outside and just feel motivated to keep on keeping on.
- I finished the week strong with a long treadmill run in Friday while on vacation. I ate reasonably well so felt good about that as well!
- 138.4 pounds on Thursday when I left and 21.8% body fat… But those aren’t official numbers
Week 4 Ending 01/30/2015
- Week 4 Statistics
- Weight: 137.8 Pounds
- Pounds Lost or Gained: 0 Pounds lost
- Body Fat %: 21.3%
- Body Fat % Lost or Gained: 0.6% Lost
- BMI: 21.6
- Workout Days (goal is 6 days): 5 Days
- Time Spent Being Active: 4 Hours 53 Minutes
- Miles Run: 21.19 Miles
- Food:
- Saturday – Tijuana train wreck
- Sunday– Chicken and avocado sandwich
- Monday – Meatballs
- Tuesday – Meatballs (again!)
- Wednesday – Butternut squash soup 🍲
- Thursday – Greek chicken
- Friday – Date night!
- Exercise:
- Saturday – Treadmill running (55 minutes), walking (5 minutes)
- Sunday– Treadmill running (51 minutes), walking (5 minutes)
- Monday – None – rest day
- Tuesday – None – umm….
- Wednesday – INS.ANI.TY (52 minutes)
- Thursday – Treadmill running (54 minutes), walking (6 minutes)
- Friday – Treadmill running (61 minutes)
- Notes:
- I was forced to do INS.ANI.TY on Wednesday because the treadmill appeared to be broken after a power surge in the house. My husband fixed it when he got home, but it was a nice reminder that I like that workout and should be doing it more often!
- Back to 137.8 on Thursday before saturday weigh-in. We have date night tonight (Friday) so I’ll use today’s stats.
- I’m thrilled with my body fat %. I saw 21.1% for two days, so that’s promising!
- I’m confident I’ll hit my goals this session. I’d like to exceed them. 6 weeks to go!
Fitness Stat-urday 2015 – Week 2
Starting Statistics on 01/03/2015
- Weight: 144.4 Pounds (I gained 2 pounds between my holiday challenge and weigh-in, good gawd!)
- Body Fat %: 22.9% (I gained here too – oops!)
- BMI: 22.6
Goals for the Next 10 Weeks (Ending 03/13/2015)
- Weight: 135 Pounds
- Body Fat %: <21%
- BMI: 21.1
- Total Miles Each Week (Average): 25-30
Week Ending 01/16/2015
- Week 2 Statistics
- Weight: 137.8 Pounds
- Pounds Lost or Gained: 1.8 Pounds lost
- Body Fat %: 21.9%
- Body Fat % Lost or Gained: 0.3% Lost
- BMI: 21.6
- Workout Days (goal is 6 days): 6 Days
- Time Spent Being Active: 5 Hours 47 Minutes
- Miles Run: 27.65 Miles
- Food:
- Saturday – Chinese food
- Sunday– apricot chicken, mushrooms, sprouts
- Monday – Panera
- Tuesday – leftover apricot chicken, spinach salad
- Wednesday – Smoked meat and green beans
- Thursday – Spinach salad
- Friday – Date night – free night!
- Exercise:
- Saturday – Treadmill running (60 minutes), walking (15 minutes)
- Sunday– None – rest say
- Monday – Treadmill running (50 minutes) walking (14 minutes)
- Tuesday – Treadmill running (60 minutes)
- Wednesday – Treadmill running (51 minutes), walking (14 minutes)
- Thursday – Strength class (50 minutes), treadmill walking (23 minutes)
- Friday – Treadmill running (50 minutes), walking (10 minutes)
- Notes:
- What a week! I dropped my weekly (sometimes twice weekly) pizza for an awesome bacon salad, and that seems to have made a difference. We’ve also been eating more spinach salads at home for dinner
- It felt great to lift weights again. It’s been too long!
- I’ve met my mileage goal both weeks so far, and it’s been quite easy. Running has become my lazy workout and I need to get back to IN.SANITY next week
- This weekend is going to bring me a couple of outdoor runs. I’m so excited!
- Safely in the 130’s is so close, I can taste it (137.8 this morning, and safe is 136 or less)!
Found!
My husband has gotten on the purging bandwagon with me (8 garbage bags so far, with a basement full of tubs just waiting for me!) and removed his final items from our son’s closet this morning. He shouted that he had a surprise for me, then came into the bedroom, like my prince in shining armor, and presented me with these!
My jeans! The ones I bought when I was 144 pounds (for like, a minute!) that I said I needed to lose 4 more pounds for, but never did. The jeans I thought I donated last year because I swore I’d never be that small again. The jeans I’ve regretted “donating” since dropping weight these last 7 months.
And… They fit… Perfectly! They may be 6-7 years old, but they’re perfect right now!
(It turns out I kept all of my small skirts too, and I think that’s because I ran out of steam last year while purging. Dumb luck…)
Fitness Stat-urday 2015 – Week 1
Starting Statistics on 01/03/2015
- Weight: 144.4 Pounds (I gained 2 pounds between my holiday challenge and weigh-in, good gawd!)
- Body Fat %: 22.9% (I gained here too – oops!)
- BMI: 22.6
Goals for the Next 10 Weeks (Ending 03/13/2015)
- Weight: 135 Pounds
- Body Fat %: <21%
- BMI: 21.1
- Total Miles Each Week (Average): 25-30
Week Ending 01/09/2015
- Week 1 Statistics
- Weight: 139.6 Pounds
- Pounds Lost or Gained: 4.8 Pounds lost
- Body Fat %: 22.2%
- Body Fat % Lost or Gained: 0.7% Lost
- BMI: 21.9
- Workout Days (goal is 6 days): 6 Days
- Time Spent Being Active: 5 Hours 23 Minutes
- Miles Run: 26.00 Miles
- Food:
- Saturday – Free night of pizza, cupcakes, oh yeah!
- Sunday– Greek chicken and carrots
- Monday – Pork and apple sliders with mashed sweet potatoes
- Tuesday – Chicken non-tortilla soup
- Wednesday – Srirachi maple shrimp with bacon and pineapples, carrots
- Thursday – Leftover chicken non-tortilla soup
- Friday – Date night!
- Exercise:
- Saturday – Treadmill running (60 minutes)
- Sunday– None – Rest day
- Monday – Abdominal work (13 minutes)
- Tuesday – Treadmill running (37 minutes), abdominal work (13 minutes)
- Wednesday – Treadmill running (45 minutes), treadmill walking (6 minutes) abdominal work (13 minutes)
- Thursday – Treadmill running (53 minutes), walking (7 minutes), abs (13 minutes)
- Friday – Treadmill running (60 minutes), abs (13 minutes)
- Notes:
- Quick gain is a quick loss! I’m shaping up to be around 141 by the end of this week.
- I’m doing lots of ab work every night as my husband reads to our son, and that’s working out nicely. I’m sore, but it’s necessary!
- 140.6 on Thursday morning! Holiday pudge is gone!
- We have date night tonight (Friday), so I’m stealing next week’s free night for tonight’s dinner. I weighed in on Friday because I never weigh in after a free night!
Perspective… It’s Priceless
I am cleaning out my closet, getting ready to donate all of my “fat clothes.” Last year this time, I did the same thing but with my “skinny clothes” because I thought I’d never be that thin again. I was sort of right… I’m thinner now than most of those clothes would accommodate. But God, I wish I’d kept a few if those things, including a pair of jeans, tags still on, that I swore were impossible since I’d now had kids. Dammit. But I digress…
So I opened my bra drawer and found heaps of 38D and 38DD bras… Bras I wore while I was doing IF treatments, pregnant, nursing, and just, well, bigger. I was, in a word, stunned. I took one out to show my husband and asked, “really? They were THIS big?”. He was not surprised and just said, “yeah, they were.”
I’ve been a tiny bit relaxed about food this past week, but started a new challenge today. I needed some motivation, perspective, to get it together again. I got that today.
Here is my old bra (38DD) eating my new 34C for lunch. Geesh!
Happy Healthy Holidays – Final Check-in Weeks 4 and 5
Things didn’t end up how I wanted, but I ended up weighing less than when I started, so that’s a good thing! I will admit right here and now – the holidays put me in a “who cares” mental space, which is not good, but I know is normal. I’m already back at it, but the lingering bad foods in the house are just killing me. We have one final thing (triple chocolate cake and ice cream) which will be gone tonight.
My Australian friend was here during this challenge which got me off track, as did having my husband home from work between Christmas and New Years. Having him here was the biggest challenge as there were more enticing things to do. Yes, I chose fun over fitness! The good thing, though, is that we all (Australian included) decided to kick off a group challenge on 1/4 (tomorrow) and have recruited others to take part – so it’s turned into a Team USA versus Team AUS thing, which is fun!
New challenge kicks off tomorrow and it will be 10 weeks – INTENSE! I’m not going to set any crazy goals, but have already decided that the end weight goal is 133 pounds. That will motivate me, which I need!
Starting Statistics on 11/26/2014
- Weight: 144.4 Pounds (lost 0.2 pounds between last check (11/22/2014) and today)
- Body Fat %: 22.4% (lost 0.4% between last check (11/22/2014) and today)
- BMI: 22.6
Goals for the 5 Weeks (Ending 12/31/2014)
- Weight: (Weight – 3.5 pounds) 140.8 Pounds
- Ended up at 142.2 pounds after a holiday gain after week 4 wrapped up
- Total lost: 2.2 pounds
- Body Fat %: (Current – 0.5%) 21.9%
- Ended up at 22.3% after reaching my goal in week 4
- Total lost: 0.1%
- BMI: 22.0
- Ended up at 22.3
- Workout Days (in 36 days): 32 Days (26)
- Ended up working out 26 days, missing my goal by 6 days (yeah, I got a little relaxed)
- Strength Workouts: 10 workouts (2 a week)
- Abysmal! Ended up only doing 3 strength workouts
- Trips to the YMCA: 15 days (3 a week)
- Ended up going to the YMCA 10 days in the 5 weeks, which is pretty good
Week Ending 12/23/2014
- Week 4 Statistics
- Weight: 140.2 Pounds
- Pounds Lost or Gained: 2 Pounds lost
- Body Fat %: 21.9%
- Body Fat % Lost or Gained: 0.3% Gained
- BMI: 21.9
- Workout Days (goal is 7 days): 6 Days
- Strength Days this Week: 1 Day
- Trips to the YMCA: 4 Days
- Time Spent Being Active: 5 Hours 34 Minutes
- Average Number of Steps Per Day: 14,602 Steps
- Miles Run: 25.61 Miles
- Food:
- Wednesday – Smoked meats, green beans, creamed corn
- Thursday – Butternut squash soup, smoked chicken
- Friday – Steak tacos
- Saturday – Turkey pepperoni pizza
- Sunday – Pepper filets, green beans
- Monday – Sushi and honey walnut shrimp
- Tuesday – Christmas dinner! Pomegranate chicken, mashed cauliflower, carrots
- Exercise/Activity:
- Wednesday – None – 10,000 Steps
- Thursday – Treadmill running (21 minutes), power incline walking (44 minutes) – 14,800 Steps
- Friday – Treadmill running (25 minutes), power incline walking (40 minutes) – 16,100 Steps
- Saturday – Treadmill walking (25 minutes) – 11,994 Steps
- Sunday – Bodypump (40 minutes) – 9,000 Steps
- Monday – Treadmill running (61 minutes), walking (4 minutes) – 18,065 Steps
- Tuesday – Treadmill running (57 minutes), walking (18 minutes) – 22,255 Steps
- Notes and findings:
- Gotta hit it hard this week – make up for last week and hitting 141 pounds easily and then losing that improvement later in the week with sickness
- Focus this week needs to be on strength training
- On Thursday, I was 140.2 pounds and 21.9% body fat. If this sticks, I have met my goals for this period and I’ll revisit them for the final week
- It all went to hell on the eve of Christmas Eve – used stats from Tuesday morning
Week Ending 12/31/2014
Week 5 Statistics
- Weight: 142.2 Pounds
- Pounds Lost or Gained: 2 Pounds gained
- Body Fat %: 22.3%
- Body Fat % Lost or Gained: 0.4% Gained
- BMI: 22.3
- Workout Days (goal is 7 days): 5 Days
- Strength Days this Week: 0 Days
- Trips to the YMCA: 2 Days
- Time Spent Being Active: 5 Hours 12 Minutes
- Average Number of Steps Per Day: 14,421 Steps
- Miles Run: 25.2 Miles
- Food:
- Wednesday – Christmas eve dinner of petite pepper filets, chicken picatta, roasted carrots, maple buttered Brussels sprouts, mashed sweet potatoes, apple pie, and cheese fondue. Yep!
- Thursday – A horrible Christmas dinner of 80’s food. Enough said!
- Friday – Artichoke heart pizza
- Saturday – Frozen pizza doctored up!
- Sunday – Christmas eve leftovers
- Monday – Pizza, baked chicken
- Tuesday – Date night!
- Exercise/Activity:
- Wednesday – Treadmill walking (60 minutes) – 16,648 Steps
- Thursday – None- 6,510 Steps
- Friday – None- 7,079 Steps
- Saturday – Treadmill running (60 minutes) – 19,006 Steps
- Sunday – Treadmill running (60 minutes) – 17,283 Steps
- Monday – Treadmill running (60 minutes), ab work (12 minutes) – 20,000 Steps
- Tuesday – Treadmill running (60 minutes) – ? Steps
- Notes and findings:
- Our Christmas dinner on the 23rd started a really bad downward spiral, and I’m fighting to get back to 140.x pounds. It’s going to be a stretch
- I ate way too much gourmet popcorn – way too much
- Too many sugar cookies
- Too many big meals
- But…. it’s the holidays! I need to enjoy!
- Goals not met, but I ended up 2.2 pounds less than when I started which is really good for the holidays! And my body fat was down 0.1% which is better than a gain!
- Overall, I’m happy with this little challenge of mine. It kept me on track over the hardest weeks of the year!
ever-changing evermore 