Summer ~ My Favorite Season

It's not quite been a week, but I had a weigh in today.  I posted a 2 pound weigh loss, new number 166.2.  Today I am three pounds more than my husband and one pound away from 100 pound drop from Febuary of 2011!  I was a little late to my consultation, I was exercising and wanted to get it done before my appointment.  Today we just reviewed what I was doing and what I had eaten last week.  I have to admit that I did not really "stay on plan" this week.  I skipped some of my snacks, like the pretzels and popcorn and had watermelon, grapes, and cherries instead.  I love summer and all the fresh fruits and vegetables!  The sun, the warmth and being able to go outside!  I was cautioned to watch my fruit intake because of the natural sugars.  Yes they are good for you, but like anything too much of a good thing is not good.  I did get my protein up, but my carbs were a little too high and of course my sugars were a lot over for the weekly average.  My proteins are still on the low side, but as I told my consultant, I'm afraid to eat very much.  I just don't want the calories!  So, I will need to add another serving of protien somewhere in my week to see if that helps.  I am going to continue on with my 1200 calorie plan and remain on five days, with two days off for one more week.  I think after this week I will drop another breakfast and see how that goes.  I'm hopeful that I will be at least at my 100 pound mark and would be over joyed if I were at my husbands weight!  I'll keep on doing what I'm doing and see how I do.  I hope to be under the 160 mark by my husband's birthday, would love to be there by mine, but that's just NOT doable.  One can dream, right?                                                                                                                                             

With my exercising I have started to add milage slowly to my runs along with time.  I'm not really worrying about speed, not yet anyway.  I haven't figured out how fast I need to go to finish 13.1 miles in 2 and one half hours.  I don't want to scare myself just yet.  Yesterday I did get in 7.5 miles and I had planned on doing my abs, arms and core balance workout following that.  But after finishing my run, I was sweaty, light-headed and just plain worn out!  I got that feeling again like I was going to pass out.  I didn't drink enough while I was running.  I have started to drink sips of water every 15 minutes while I'm running, but yesterday I forgot my water bottle and didn't want to stop to get it.  I didn't think it would make that much of a difference.  Okay, so I won't do that again.  When I was done last night I kept wondering, if after 7.5 miles I feel this crappy, how the heck am I going to get 13 miles done?  I think next week is a down week, haven't really checked yet, but I sure hope so.   But that 8 mile mark is just around the corner.  I also added a core balance workout to my schedule this week, trying to get my core into shape a little.  I got in my 10,000 steps all but one day and I only missed that one day by about 500 steps.                                                                           

So that was my week, I am happy with the loss.  I did go out and get a new outfit, but I'm sorry to report that I'm still buying them a size too large.  I guess when I'm shopping I don't think that I'm small enough to fit in that next size down.  And I don't even want to try it on to be disappointed.  I also bought one new bra.  I just can't see spending money on clothes that I don't want to fit into by the end of the summer.  I keep thinking about what I read on my "adopted daughter's" blog. I look in the mirror and I still see that 265 pound woman standing in front of me. I don't see a runner or a smaller person.  I guess that is the next thing that I will need to work on.  It's funny how the mirror seems to be like a "funhouse mirror" at times.  My consultant did tell me that they have to retake my "half way" photo, because they can't see a diffence in my body.  Why?  Because I'm wearing a very large t-shirt.  So I have to wear something that fits for my next appointment!   It was a short week this time, so til next week, keep moving! ~ Darcy                                                                  

Enjoy your holiday!  Celebrate, but don't over do it!

Little Wins Feel So Good

I stumbled across this photo today and it just felt like it was speaking to me.  Today was weigh in day and I'm so happy to be able to say I was less than 170!  Today's number is 168.2, that is a 4.8 pound drop from last week!  Took me long enough to get under the 170 mark.  But I'm also happy because my scale asked me today who I was.  Let me explain, I have a Wiithings electric scale, that sends data to an account on line.  It tracks my husbands weight and my weight on seperate graphs.  Well, it will track any person that steps on the scale, but today it was flashing at me when I got on this morning, left foot for Darcy, right foot for Ahtesham.  It didn't know where to file the data.  I'm five pounds heavier than my husband today, yes I'm smiling!  Now that's my new goal.  I find it easier to reach my final goal by breaking it down into smaller ones, like getting to the 200 pound mark, then 175, then the 170 and so on.  So now it will to get under my husband's weight.  So my weigh in went well today.  We did measurements I've lost another 5.5 inches bringing the total to 19.5 inches and a total of 39 pounds lost since starting JC.  We also looked at my food break down.  I am averaging a little more than 1200 calories, it's about 1345 for my daily count.  But we figure that it's probably still a little to low for the amount of exercise I'm doing.  We also looked at the macronutrient breakdown and discovered I'm not eating enough protien.  Don't know how that happened, but I do know I've been craving a big juicy hamburger or steak, so that explains that!  I firmly believe your body will tell you what it needs if you listen to it.  So we are going to continue on the 1200 calorie menu, but I will add extra protein and calories if I need it.  The only down point today was the vitamins.  I'm going to run out of the vitamins that they sell this week so I wanted to order more.  The store was out and they don't know when they will be getting more.  My consultant said they were redesigning the packages.  So I will go back to my One a day vitamin and stop paying for that.  I also will continue on only 5 days a week with two on my own, so the cost is finally coming down to something that I think I will be able to keep up with for a few more months.  I have to weigh in a little earlier next week, so I am going to try to be very mindful of what I am eating this week!  I want to stay under that 170 mark.  I finally broke down and rewarded myself with a pedicure after my appointment.  Some how I just couldn't bring myself to give myself a treat with my last few milestones, so this week I just said what the heck and did it.  My feet feel so much better, I'm glad I did it.                                                       

My running /exercise went well also this week.  I happy with the milage I've been putting in the past few weeks and I've not really been tired or sore.  Yes there were days when I really just wanted to sleep, but never just totally exhusted.  So this is an easy week and next week my long run should be at 7.5 miles.  I can't wait to push myself and prove that I can go the distance!  I may not understand everything about myself yet, but I'm working on it.  My consultant asked me a question today that I've been thinking all day about: "So, what have you learned about yourself and how will you change this time?"  This is the question for the week.  My first answer was, I need to control my eating and not think "Oh, I can work this off later."  Yes, I've learned this, but I know I have so much more to learn.  I know I like the feeling when I finish a run.....til next time, keep moving! ~ Darcy

Frustration!

It's been a week already.  Just returned from my weekly weigh in.  My new number 173, that's a four pound drop from last week.  Am I happy?  No!  I'm frustrated!  As I sit here feeling so deflated, I ask myself why?  I guess the answer would have to be I'm tired of being in the 170 range.  Three weeks ago I was so close to 169 I could almost touch it.  I feel like I've been in the "70's" forever.  Now I realize that it's probably only been around a month, but I felt for sure this week I would at least be at the 171 number again.  Just being childish a little today I guess.  I also had to meet with someone new again at the center today.  To explain, I'm a creature of habit, I find comfort in routine and knowing what is coming.  I am still not "comfortable" with my new consultant and then today they throw someone new at me.  Yes, I know that things happen and they can't guarantee that I will see the same person always, but when I look back at the past month of the ups and downs it just seems to me that it has been the same time as my weight ups and downs.  I'm wondering now if that as a little something to do with it.  I want routine, I want to feel comfortable again.  I want that feeling of I belong and of the person talking to me knowing what I won't eat and what I do for exercise.  I'm not difficult, I just want someone that knows me and that I feel "at home" with.    Okay, that's off my chest, now I can move on.  So with seeing someone new today, I basically weighed in and ordered my food for the week.  I also made an appointment for next week.  I am going to reach my goal, changes or not!  I'm still doing two days on my own.  Today is my second free day this week, I'm not sure what I want for dinner.  Even food today has lost it's appeal, nothing sounds like "oh my gosh" I want that for dinner.  I'm thinking about a post I saw on Facebook, "You're not a dog, don't treat yourself with food!"  Is food still the enemy?   Sometimes I think this would be so much easier if I could just go cold turkey and not ever eat again.  It worked with me and alcohol, why not food?  I'm kidding of course, but I think I see something forming in the future.                                                                                          

Now on the running part of things this week I did get in my seven days of running and I also did my abs and arms twice this week!  Yeah me!  But I'm not happy with the fact that so far my longest run was 5.9 miles.  I need and want it to be 6.5 miles.  Today's run was supposed to be over 6 miles, but my body fought with me.  I finally gave in and stopped at 3.75 miles, my shortest run.  Today just felt like such a struggle while I was running.  Nothing was comfortable, my Gymboss kept sliding down, my Nano was rubbing my arm raw, my BodyMedia was rubbing on the other arm, and a new not pain but discomfort my left buttocks.  So nothing felt "right" today and I just let the body win this one.  Am seriously thinking about running the Prairie Fire half marathon in October of this year and I want to finish it right.  I am looking at shooting for a finish in 2 and a half hours.  This is a little less than double my 10K time.  Is this a doable time?  Not if my body wins all the wars.......

So that's this week's weigh in.  So maybe tomorrow I can run at least 6 miles and make my inner athlete happy.  And maybe next week I can finally break through the 170 barrier, that's what I shooting for!  Til next time, keep moving! ~ Darcy

Now What?

Well, I went in for my weekly meeting today.  Just as I had feared I was up.  My new number 177 pounds, yuck!  Up 3.6 pounds, with last week that makes it a total of 5 pounds gained.  I'm not really sure what exactly I did wrong, but I know a number of small things that I did wrong.  I have to remind myself that I am still learning and that as long as I learned something from this week it is not a totally bad week.  Did I learn anything?  Well, I need to track my foods every day, EVERY DAY.  Even if I can't put exactly what I ate into the phone or program, but something close!  From here on out I will do my darnest to do this.  Also that I need to get some type of movement in everyday, at least 30 minutes daily.  If I'm too tired to run, well then walk, but do something!  I also learned from last Saturday's run, that I need to add a core workout to my routine.  It won't help me with loosing weight, won't make me run faster, but my lower back hurt about three hours after the run.  So I am going to add a core workout to my schedule.  So that's what I've learned from my past week.  I was also so hungry on Tuesday!  Meaning like I wanted chocolate, french fries, hamburgers, and lots of it.  I was craving mostly junk foods, but I really had to fight with myself not to go to overboard.  I'm wondering was this a side effect of my race on Saturday?  I will have to research that.  My consultant and I talked about water retention and what my plans were now that I've completed my race.  We are going to keep me at 1200 calories a day for now, with allowances for the days when I am extra busy.  We are also going to keep me on two days on my own because I need to learn how to eat foods that are not planned for me.  I love having my foods planned out for me, it's easy, but let's face it.  I can't be on the JC program forever.  My wallet nor my taste buds could stand that.  So I must learn how to eat and make good choices all by myself.  I'm planning on working hard this week to get those few extra pounds off and get under the 170 mark.                                                                    

As for what's next on the fitness side of my life?  I believe that I have finally decided to run a half-marathon.  I would like to do the Prairie Fire Run in October.  I had an easy week this week, so next week I plan to kick it into gear again.  I want to finish the half in about 2 hours and 30 minutes and while it was so much fun to run with Christina, I also plan on doing this run by myself.  I can't lean on her forever either!  I need to see when is the last day I can register at a decent cost, figure out how to work training for the marathon and working in to my schedule.  So maybe by my next post I will have formulated a basic plan and I can give some details on that.  I am surprised by how long it took me to "recover" from the race on Saturday.  I hadn't planned on taking Tuesday off, but I just could not talk myself into running or even walking that day.  We did look at my run on the BodyMedia program today and it was about an hour of intense exercise.  With that if I get to travel back home to run in the Prairie Fire, I also want to be under 159 pounds by October.  That would mean that I would have to lose about 1.2 pounds a week, which is doable.  So there are some of my goal for the future. 

    I also need to get some classes done for my nursing career in the next couple of months so my life is again going to be full.  I think I like it that way.  So I plan to try to get some yoga in at least once a week.  I'm really looking forward to have a routine again after the last month of chaos.  So with that I guess I should sign off for this week and get busy studying and cleaning up at little.  Till next week, keep moving everyone! ~ Darcy

Kansas Health Foundation Riverrun!

I want to first start out with my weekly weigh in.  I went in on Thursday morning before we left town for Wichita.  My weigh in was not good, I posted a 1.4 pound weight gain and Ericka did not come in for her last day of work so I was handed of to someone I had not ever been seen by.  Changes are difficult, I am not comfortable with this new consultant, but I will give her a chance.  So my number for this week is 173.4.  I did get food for this week and I am still doing two days on my own.  This week I will do three day while I am traveling on my own, two days from the end of last week and one of this week's days on my own.  Today (Monday) I got back on plan.  I did jump on the scale and it was not a pretty sight.  I did my best to try and keep a record of what I ate and to control the sizes of my servings, but I don't think I did as well as I could have.  I will go into the center on Friday for another weigh in and if I post a no loss, no gain for this week, I will be happy.  So as of today I am back on track and I still have one more day to do on my own.  I think I need to plan my days off the program a little bit more, but I can work on that.  I was dropped down to a 1200 calorie plan again for this week and will probably stay there for a couple weeks.  So enough about the program, weight, and food.                                                                                                                                   

This week I went home for my second attempt at a 10K race.  One of my New Year's goals was to run a race with my cousin.  We got together and decided to run the River Run in Wichita, this is a yearly race, run during the Riverfest in the spring.  Years ago I had done the "fun run", (a mile run) and I wanted to run the real race back then, but knew I could never finish, because I had not trained.  I was going to the gym back then, but mostly doing step classes and bike classes.   So this was my chance, I had tried a 10K in July of 2011 but did not finish.  I stopped at mile 5 with heat exhaustion.  Chris said she would pace me and would make sure I finished.  I have trained at a 2 to 1 ratio and that Saturday morning Chris ran me at a 4 to 1 ratio.  My pace was just a little faster, but not by much.  All I can say is that I finished and I finished with a PR and a baseline for future races.  I am so totally happy with my time and with the 4 to 1 ratio.  My cousin proved to me in many ways this past weekend that I am stronger than I think I am and I am thinner than I think I am.  Now don't get me wrong, it was not all a walk in the garden and I'm not saying I didn't struggle a little bit.  But I didn't struggle as much as I thought I would and mile 5 and 6 were not as bad as I had imagined them to be.  So I want to again give a great big THANK YOU to my cousin for pushing me so hard on Saturday and not letting me wimp out when I wanted to!  I was fun!                     

So what's next?  Well, I'm going to take this week to get serious again about my JC program and get under my weight into the 160 range.  AND I'm seriously thinking I want to run a 1/2 marathon, so I will begin to see what I will have to do to work it into my schedule and how I can work the training into my schedule.  I think I do better when I have a goal to plan and reach for.  So that's this week and yes I'm happy with my time and so proud of the fact that I finished!!!!  I want to do it again!  Till next time,  keep moving! ~ Darcy