Week 8 summary

Well, I've been officially doing this workout routine for two months now. I'd like to say it's helped me lose weight. It hasn't. HAHAHAHAHH!!! BUT, I can tell I'm getting physically stronger. So, I'm really happy about that.

And I'm happy I've made it through two weeks of running (3 days a week). This is a very joyous occasion for me.

So, let's get to the stats, they aren't great, but they are improving somewhat:

Wednesday - 1 mile - 16:11 - this is inaccurate because I was having watch issues, but I'm quite sure I was not faster than a 15-minute mile.

Thursday - weights - my usual 8-pound weights routine (I guess it's actually 16 pounds total? I am not sure how to measure that)

Friday - 1 mile - 15:03 - ooooh, so close to 14. So close, but no dice. My legs were tired and I had to really talk myself into getting out there. The payoff was the weather was amazing! A nice chill in the air.

Saturday - 1 mile - 15:07 - I ran two days in a row because I knew the next day we were going to the New Orleans Zoo. I didn't want to walk at the zoo all day on tired legs. Well, after that 1-mile run Saturday my legs were trashed. And then Sunday we spent about 4 hours at the zoo walking. So needless to say I wasn't surprised I was 3 seconds slower.

Overall I feel like I'm doing ok. I was supposed to start 2 miles - three times a week this week. I felt like I just wasn't ready. A huge part is my fear of getting injured again. I feel like compared to all these people I see on Instagram doing shitloads of cross training, maybe I'm not doing enough.

I'm going to attempt the Hansons Half-Marathon Method (maybe). And they say it's ok to do cross training, but the theory is if you want to get better at something specific, you need to focus on that. I want to be a better runner. Period. I'm not interested in getting toned up (although I want to lose weight), I don't necessarily want to look good in a bikini, I don't want to lift 200 pounds, I'm not trying to win some competition. I just want to be a better runner.

Hansons emphasizes over and over you can't cross train a day and have that as your substitute for a run. If you want to be a better runner, you have to put in the mileage. I agree with that because even though I'm running a very slow mile, I'm beat. But in a good way.

This week certainly had it's challenges. I talked about in the last post my daughter's friend's leukemia diagnosis. For a number of reasons that aren't worth getting into, this has brought back a lot of bad memories from my experience with cancer. I've explained to my daughter what is going on with her friend and what happened to me. I'm just praying and hoping that the treatments will help her BFF. She's a lovely and sweet girl and it's hard to see her beat down by this. Her mom - gah, I just can't imagine how she's holding up so well.

I had a fantastic Mother's Day and through all the challenges of being a mom, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. When I had my cancer, they told me to expect to NOT be able to get pregnant and here I am...the mom of a 6-year-old.

In the grand scheme of things, a pace goal, losing weight, or even doing well in a race is very small. My main goal is to be a good mom.

And because I have zero pics in this post, here is a picture of Krispy Kreme donuts we had on the way to the zoo yesterday. I'll be honest, I like Mary Lee donuts better. LOL!!!!

May The Fourth Be With You!

Next to the day of the Boston Marathon, today is one of my favorite days of the year on social media. Oh, the creativity! If you aren't a Star Wars fan, yeah, today probably sucks for you. My apologies. Today is also my husband's birthday. So it's a celebration yo!

Tonight we have plans to go out to a local diner-type-cafeteria-style place for supper. It's not a place I would pick, but he luvvssss this place so off we will go. I am picking up a cookie cake for him as well. 

I got my run in this morning before work. The weather was AMAZING! I'm drinking coffee right now, can you tell I'm wound up? In all seriousness though, it was in the high 50s, low 60s when I ran. I only look at the weather to see if it will rain and never pay attention to the temps. I walked outside my door and ahhhhhhhhh, so happy.

My Soleus watch (I will write a review about this watch soon) worked great. But when I went to stop and save once I hit a mile, I hit the wrong button. While I was trying to figure it out apparently the time was still ticking and I ended up with a 16-minute mile.

I know I ran faster than that because a few times I glanced at my watch I saw 13 and 14-minute paces. So disappointing, but I am getting stronger (maybe not faster) and didn't want to vomit until right at the end.

Today would be a perfect day for an excuse not to run. When I'm stressed, I want to lay in bed. My daughter's best friend was diagnosed with leukemia yesterday. I love that little girl so much and I know it's a really rough time for her and her family.

She is heading to St. Jude today where I know she will get the best treatment there is. To be diagnosed on your 6th birthday - it's too much to comprehend right now. I had lymphoma 19 years ago and I know the road ahead for her is very long.

Yesterday I signed up for a local children's hospital's half marathon for next March. Which coincidentally is the place where she was diagnosed. I'm very much looking forward to this race. I'm trying to convince my friend to run it with me. She has run a 10k so I know she can do this.

So my "training season" stands like this - summer, base-building. Sept/Oct start a real training plan for the Louisiana Half Marathon in January. Then I'll run the hospital half for fun.

I'll pretend I'm a real runner and say my "A game" race is the first one in January.

Yes, better get to running. In the midst of this week I completely forgot to workout last night with weights.

I hope you have a great week and weekend. I'm looking forward to Mother's Day. We are planning a trip to the New Orleans Zoo if all goes well with the weather.

Week 7 summary

Week 7 went really, really well. I was able to complete three runs! It was only for a total of 3.5 miles, but I don't care. I returned to running!!!! This makes me happy more than I can say.

Monday - the "death" run - I wasn't in too much pain during the run, but for the rest of the day I felt like death. To be expected.

Tuesday - weights - I'm using 8-pound weights for only about 10 minutes.

Wednesday - better with my breathing. I swear I feel like I'm going faster than a 15-minute pace. WTH?

Sorry about the duplicate pictures. I realized after I published this post I already used these two pics.

 Thursday - weights

Friday - completely forgot to do yoga or weights or anything. I had to get my daughter packed for her Girl Scout day camp on Saturday. I volunteered to make snacks for the girls and yeah, working out slipped my mind.

Saturday - this was a tough run because of the headwind. It stormed not too long after this run. And la la la, my monthly friend was with me and that made things worse. Still, I was glad my time wasn't a lot slower.

15:22 - a second slower than the previous run. Also, my phone is completely out of memory so I couldn't take a pic of the watch for posterity sake.

Sunday - REST

I have found over the last week I've slept like a brick. This is really good. I'm currently in a very content and happy state so I find my body likes to try to catch up on sleep when I'm feeling good. I definitely think the workouts are helping and I am not overly stressed about getting the runs in. I'm also happy with a few other things in life so ahhhhhhhhh that makes for good sleep. I'm also listening to my body and if I want to sleep at 8 p.m. I do it.

Saturday and Sunday I got in multiple naps. My daughter was gone Saturday so I took advantage and slept. I also slept for like three hours yesterday. I'm tired yo!

This week's goals are the same:
* Run three days for a mile each day
* Weights/yoga or stretching the other days
* Did a nice grocery shop of healthy foods and am making bone broth this week too
* Aiming for 100 ounces of water each day

Hope you have a great week!

I'm running!

It's mid-week and late afternoon and, whaaaat? I'm posting? Ha!

The title is correct, I'm running. I'm so excited about this. I've run twice this week so far with one more run planned for the weekend.

Now am I running far? Nope. Just one mile. Am I running fast? Nope, although it feels like it. We are talking slower than a 15-minute mile. Boooo. But, I don't care! I'm running!

Monday an average pace of 15:29. I was hoping for a number in the 14s. There are no other workouts that can compare to a run, especially if you are out-of-shape and overweight. Cheers!

My cat loves being in photos.

 
The day was long and tough at work - and I have a desk job! In all seriousness, I definitely felt that run. I had planned to run again Thursday, but when I looked at the weather, the forecast called for storms. (I fully expect the weather to be perfect now that I rearranged and ran today instead).

My shins and thighs were hurting. But not my feet. NOT MY FEET PEOPLE! I do have some usual plantar fascia pangs, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Last night I did a weight workout for 10 minutes. 8-pound weights. I wanted to prepare my arms for today, but nothing too crazy.

So this morning, my cat woke up at 4:30 a.m. so I was nice and awake for when the alarm went off at five. After a semi-heart attack when I realized I left my earbuds at work (found another pair in the drawer which were even better than my old ones) I proceeded to sit in the driveway four times to fix a rock in my shoe.

Off I went, loving it and so happy until I noticed my watch was showing my pace, but not the GPS tracking wasn't working. What? How will I know I hit a mile? Will this run count if I can't take a picture of my pace? I'm being sarcastic of course, but I was ticked I had run a half mile already.

I decided I needed the stats that bad I would just have to go forth a full mile. So I ended with a mile and a half run. But only the full mile counted on the watch.

I improved 8 seconds. Not much more than two days before, but considering I ran longer I was happy.

 As long as I'm seeing progress, I feel like I can do this.

So, we shall see. And I did lose some weight since my last weigh-in. Since starting the Diet Bet a month ago I lost a total of six pounds, but not enough to make my bet. It still was a lot of fun.

Current weight: 170.5.

Week 6 summary

I sort of alluded in my last post how Week 6 went. It was not productive. Between my stomach and some weird neck thing - oy. I wasn't planning on posting today, but I figure, eh, stay consistent.

I did get up this morning at 5 a.m. without issue to go for a run! It was probably more like a jog (to real runners) because my pace was almost 16-minute mile. The weather was amazing, nice and crisp. I started off way, way too fast. I forgot how far one mile really is. By the mid point of the mile I was out of breath, close to vomiting and thinking WHYYYYY didn't I work harder the last couple of weeks with the dvds?

Good news is I ran the entire mile and my plantar fasciitis prone foot felt pretty good.

Do you ever feel like during a run - nope, I'm done. I'm never doing this again. What's the point? That's how I felt. I laid on the bed, tried to catch my breath, took a shower and hit the turning point. Ok, back at it again. (My mind constantly does this back-and-forth thing)

Tomorrow I have weights planned. Wednesday will be yoga. And Thursday - back out for the mile. It's going to be an extremely slow base-building time. I'm almost too embarrassed to say how long my plan is.

Meantime, I did have a good smoothie - unsweetened almond milk, teaspoon of pb, banana and a handful of strawberries from the strawberry patch. Look at that nice natural pink color!

For fun look at my husband on the slip' n slide in our yard. He got out there with our daughter. He was pretty much the cutest guy who has ever lived. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

 

 

Week 5 summary

I'm late this week reporting on last week's summary. Spoiler alert: Wasn't a good week. Spoiler alert for this week: Also hasn't been a good week.

Hahahaha! So I'm the biggest excuse maker and I have two valid excuses for my lack of workouts.

Last week I was STILL dealing with my stomach being off. It hasn't been fun, but I was finally getting better. Saturday was my daughter's birthday party and we had to go to another birthday party. I was on my feet for about six hours wearing very uncomfortable shoes (should have just worn my tennis shoes). My entire body hurt and when I slept that night I apparently hurt my neck.

Can you have a neck virus? I had swollen lymph nodes, but also pain. It was on one side Sunday then spread to the rest of my neck Monday. My nodes went back to normal and by today (Thursday) my neck feels good as new. I did have pain in my sinuses so I have no idea what went wrong.

See, I can find an excuse in everything. It's something I'm trying to change, but obviously it's a work in progress.

My husband has a sinus thing going on and I am hoping beyond hope I don't get what he has.

My Diet Bet ends Monday and I have lost five pounds, which is great, but I needed to lose seven total. Not sure that will happen. I'm OK with it though because I lost five.

My friend told me about this app, "Plant Nanny." It's so adorable. You are the waterer of the plant of your choice. Each time you drink a cup of water, you water the plant. The plant will continue to grow. If you don't water it, this happens:

Gah I had the wrong picture - edited now.
 

If you water the plant correctly you get this (you add for each glass you drink).

I've got my daughter watering the plant and I'm proud to say we are growing this "Devils' Ivy." He's a happy plant today. Must keep it up.

Food has been about the same. Some good meals, some not-so-good. Here is a chicken caesar salad I had at the cheesesteak place we got to weekly. Believe it or not, these are really good! I did not eat all the croutons, but even if I did, still better than ordering a poboy.

A salad I got for lunch. Strawberry salad with pecans. Delish.

So, my plan is to attempt a run on Monday. #neverskipmonday right? I always sigh at the people who post that hashtag on IG because if you follow them, you'll see they do skip Mondays and you know, that's OK if you skip a Monday. That first day of the week is a drag, no?

Anyway, I'll see how that run goes. To be honest, I'm bored out of my mind of the dvds. I'm ready for Phase 2: start running and on the other days it's weight day. I have a plan from my trainer that is fantastic for weights. More about all that later.

As I'm writing this Prince died. He was a BIG part of my childhood. I hope he didn't die from drugs. It's so cliche. We are all in the newsroom saying, "What????????????" Tears.

Week 4 summary

Last week was yet another adventure. I got a stomach bug, which I think may have been from some lime chili jerky I ate. I'll never eat that stuff again I can tell you that.

It basically had me down for the count three days or so. I had to miss a day of work one of the days. Then it seemed to take several more days for my stomach to feel normal. It's still not completely right, but it's getting there.

So here it is, worst workout week ever:

I also seemed to fall off the wagon with food and workouts. Isn't that how it normally goes? I know there are those out there who let nothing stop them. I'm not one of those soldiers. I was also really run down. While I didn't have a lot of vomiting or the other thing, ahem, I was nauseated. Yet, I dropped a couple of more pounds, which was great for my Diet Bet. But, Saturday and Sunday the wheels came off and I ate more than I should have and gained back two pounds.

So here we are today. Beginning Week 5. It's apparent if I'm not disciplining myself to get up daily and exercise, I don't discipline myself with food. Hmmmm, it's not rocket science, but I think part of being human is we just want to be lazy some days. The problem comes when that is every day (like me).

I try to keep my posts about diet/exercise, but I have my daughter's birthday party coming up. I bought this wooden Barbie sign (her party is Barbie theme). I did all kinds of fun stuff to it and it's going to have glitter all over it. 

We are also redoing her room in a Barbie theme (even though she doesn't play with Barbies - long story), so I'll have this ready for her birthday morning. I also made a Disney princess wreath for her room. I'll post the pics when the projects are completed. Just something fun I like to do - projects. Some turn out good, most turn out so-so.

The next two weekends are filled with three birthday parties and one sprinkle, so I'm going to have to reign it in. Onward and upward!