80 Days is Too Long

Back on April 2, I mentioned starting an 80-Day Challenge for myself, but I've discovered that my own challenge was too long and broad, especially in the context of my current life, which has been so busy! So, I've decided to reset my challenge, as well as my weight loss goals, and shoot for 2.5 pounds AT A TIME! 2.5 pounds at a time is a little bit of a stretch (especially since I've been losing and regaining the same 2.5 pounds for a few weeks now!), but a doable goal. I won't feel progress immediately, but I should start seeing progress on the scales soon. Having short-term goals will help me tackle the proverbial elephant, one bite at a time.


Image from http://flog.cookingforceliacscolitiscrohnsandibs.com/scd-facts/how-to-eat-an-elephant/

Another Monday Run

This morning, I cranked out a run in slightly cooler temperatures, which felt great! My pace was better than both of last week's mid-week runs, but it's still slower than the sub-20:00 runs I was doing before that. Part of it may be that I'm running for a [slightly] longer amount of time, part of it may be a lack of sleep lately. I can definitely work on the sleep...except that I'm starting graduate school next week! I'll do what I can in that area, though.

2.31 miles in 47:01 (30-sec/30-sec run/walk ratio)

I've also reset my weight loss goal on Fitday.com (where I have the most weigh-in data), and have decided to make weight loss goals for a week at a time. I've been setting long-term weight loss goals this year, and have mostly floundered. Now I have a weight loss goal for the next week, and a new target weight for next Monday, 8/22.I'll post how that goes.

Anyone Tried MyFitnessPal?

I've just recently discovered MyFitnessPal, an online weight loss/food journal/exercise website, and decided to register this morning. It reminds me a bit of FatSecret, but with a much better name (especially considering my interest in fitness and running)! :-) It has an iPhone/iTouch app that I've downloaded, but haven't started using yet.

I've signed up for several websites of this kind, and I keep looking for just the right fit to keep me motivated. It's interesting to see what's out there, for sure. Maybe MyFitnessPal will carry me through! If you happen to use MyFitnessPal, I'd love to know what you think about it, and whether or not it's worked for you. My "handle" there is lllooper.

Taking a Rest Day

I decided not to head to the gym before work this morning, since my legs are feeling especially tired. I'm missing the feeling of accomplishment after a morning workout, but I'm listening to the legs in hopes of staying injury-free this training season.

Meanwhile, the weight seems to be dropping again. After a quick 6 pound drop a few weeks ago, I've been playing with those last three pounds recently. *rolling eyes*  Two things I've realized this morning: 1) limiting cheese (and the foods I want to put cheese on) helps, and 2) I can't keep peanut butter (regular, reduced fat, reduced sugar, doesn't matter) in the house.

New Weapons in the Weight Loss War

I ordered a new bathroom scale from Amazon.com a little while back, and have had it at home for a week or so, but I finally put the batteries in it this morning. It seems to be a nice scale, and it weighed me a little less than the old scale did, so it's my new best friend! :) It is nice to have a fresh, new machine to step on, and I like that the display is backlit. The bathroom scale I ordered is here.

Meanwhile, I'm trying out a new diet website called FatSecret.com. I heard about it last weekend from Jeff Galloway, so I decided to check it out. It's a food, exercise, and weight tracking website that also has an iPhone/iTouch app. Although I use bits and pieces of other similar websites, I'm enjoying the newness of FatSecret.com. It's fun and motivating to see the numbers in a slightly different context.

The good news is that I'm down 6 pounds, the most success I've had in a while. (A little bit of that is the new scale, but most of it is from effort.) Things that have made a difference so far this week: more exercise, packing my lunch for work, and staying away from the Peanut M&Ms, a new temptation at work.

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

More Water Aerobics

George and I did a water aerobics class last night at Gold's Gym, and Kathryn from our Galloway running group joined us! It was another pretty good sized class, not like two weeks ago when I was the only one. I enjoyed knowing one more person in the class, and Kathryn had a nice time chatting in the sauna for a few minutes afterward. I tried the heavier water weights during the class last night, and I can feel it this morning! Not too bad, but I can tell I had a good upper body workout last night. I need more of those, since upper body strength is a weakness of mine right now.

Meanwhile, I've finally started having some success with my latest Weight Watchers venture, down 6.8 pounds on my own scale. I continue to be consistent about weighing myself daily, even when I've gone over the points allowance. I'm not enjoying tracking what I eat and drink, but I think it's helping me be more aware of what I eat, which is a good exercise right now.

Elliptical Love

I arrived at the gym a little later than I'd planned, feeling tired and uninspired, tempted to go back home and take  rest day. But since George was working out in the pool, I decided to head upstairs to the cardio machines and get moving on the elliptical machine. Once I started moving, I felt sooo much better! And I'd forgotten what a great workout the elliptical machine can be! I ended up doing 3.15 miles in 45 minutes on the elliptical, and followed it with some stretching, dumbbells, and ab crunches. I felt good AND tired when I got home!

I feel a lot better about my training looking forward, now that I've rediscovered the elliptical machine. I think that, as someone who wants to return to running, the elliptical may be a better workout for me than the bike on most days. I love how my weekly total mileage can hike up with bike miles, but it's not always about the high numbers, right?

New Year, New Plan

Umstead Entrance on Hwy 70

I had a great walk this morning in one of the state parks in our area, William B. Umstead State Park, a place the locals call "Umstead" for short. I was a gal on a mission, with a new training plan in hand, but didn't expect to find myself hiking in a state park this morning. I was on my way to walk on the Raleigh Greenway system, and was passing by Umstead on the way when I remembered that I had my camera and decided to pull into the park and see if there was still any snow around for some shots. I found myself going further and further into Umstead, then I decided to park and walk around for just a few more pictures. Then I decided to turn on my Garmin Forerunner 205 and get some of my mileage out of the way while I was there taking pictures. Oops! 3.17 miles later, I had my mileage done for the day, and nearly 100 pictures in my digital camera! While I'm including three of my favorite shots in this post, the rest of my Umstead pictures are here.

Sycamore Trail

I had forgotten how pretty winter can be in the woods of North Carolina. It's a beauty that didn't really come through in the pictures like I'd hoped, and while most of the snow had melted, the scenery and atmosphere still reminded me of Robert Frost's poetry (though I can hardly compare our snow to New England's!). One of  my most delightful finds this morning was a small, well-kept cemetery on the edge (I think!) of the park. Since I'm a taphophile, I was so glad I had my camera with me, and stopped my Garmin to slow down and take some pictures there. My photos of the cemetery are here.

Wild Ferns Along the Sycamore Trail

Oh, I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I had a new training plan! Earlier in the Christmas break, I checked out Hal Higdon's website when I googled "half marathon walk plan," and discovered that the website had just the sort of plan I was looking for, something with structure that I could tweak. His half marathon walk program is twelve weeks long, and provides for long walks of varying intensity and mileage on the weekend, and five other days of walking (by minutes rather than miles) during the week. While I'm still waiting on my orthotics casting appointment, I'm going to do more crosstraining than walking during the week, mostly saving the walking for the weekend. Also, Higdon's plan doesn't include any speedwork, which I plan to do at least once a week (probably on the stationary bike, at least for now). I really miss working with a running coach, but it feels great to have a plan and to be able to tweak it for my needs and fitness level.

So, according to Higdon's half marathon walking plan, I had 3 easy miles on tap for this weekend, and thanks to my walk with the camera on the Sycamore Trail of Umstead Park, I covered 3.17 miles in 90 minutes, covering 3.644 feet of ascent (according to the Garmin), which is a lot more than I'm used to! Even though my average pace per mile was 28:23 min, I know I can normally go faster without my camera. This was the longest distance I've covered on foot since the Outer Banks Half Marathon, so it was a good start, I think. My right foot is a little sore around the toes this evening, but not as bad as I expected. I've been icing the area with a frozen water bottle.

In other news, I still need to find the right ticket for weight management, as I am up 1.4 pounds from January 1, 2010! There, I admitted it. Wrong direction! Stay tuned!

Back in the Gym

It felt great to get back into the gym this morning, eventhough it was only for about half an hour. 20 minutes on the bike and a few minutes of strength training were good for the mind as well as the body. While I've got a busy week ahead, I'm shooting for 10 miles of cardio this week, and hope to do at least one more strength training session.

I'm also happy to report that my weight is down a little from yesterday. Glad to see the upward trend going in the opposite direction now!

Friday Cardio

I'm feeling the occasional twinge in my right hip this morning, so I decided to take a break from trying to run again today. I walked 3.42 miles (60 min) on the treadmill, then rode 1.80 miles (10 min) on the recumbent bike. Still aware of my right hip after the workout, will be glad when I'm back to normal and not thinking about it.

Meanwhile, I'm back to recording my weight on Fitday.com, and am enjoying that, especially with some weightloss success this week. I'm eager to keep that going, and am trying to come up with some motivational mantras. One I came up with this week was, "Eat like a marathoner!" Well, sometimes I could imagine marathoners eating a good bit, but....eating healthfully, for sure. Tweaking that, I could saw, "Weigh like a marathoner," but that will take a while. I need something more immediate to inspire me.

Weightloss mantra ideas welcome here.

Crosstraining at the Gym

I'd planned to start on the treadmill at the gym this morning, but three of them were in use and two of them were broken! Arrgghh! So, I spent 21 minutes (4.12 miles) on the recumbent bike. My timing for getting on a treadmill was off, so I got on the elliptical machine for 12 minutes (1.03 miles), before finally getting on the treadmill for 25 minutes (2.05 miles)!

I also took two walk breaks at work today, so I feel like I really crosstrained today!

On BuckeyeOutdoors.com, I signed up for a weight loss challenge to lose 10 lbs. between now and Christmas Day! Yikes! This challenge feature is new on BuckeyeOutdoors.com, one of the best online workout trackers around in my opinion, so I can't wait to see how it works. It's got me motivated to see my little weight scale move (and not be last in the group!). I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Keep On Keepin' On

I made it back to the gym this morning, though I was pretty tired after yesterday's long day. I warmed up with 25:01 minutes (4.32 miles) on the recumbent bike, then 15 minutes (1.25 miles) on the elliptical machine.

While I was getting on the elliptical machine, the lady on the machine next time me tapped me on the arm and asked how much weight I'd lost. I told her, and she said she could tell it in my face, just since she'd been coming to the gym, and that I'd inspired her to get off her duff. Okay, I'm still tired from Sunday's race, but I couldn't help but pick up the pace a bit on the elliptical machine! That was really nice!

After that, I got on the treadmill, which I hadn't really planned to, and ran 1.76 miles in 22 minutes. Now I'm ready for a nap! But, it's off to work I go!

Elliptical Workout

This morning I did the elliptical for 45:07 minutes, doing the Gluteal #2 programmed workout that had me doing a variety of crossramps, plus forward and backward. I ended up going 3.5 miles, a little faster than normal for me on the elliptical. I listened to music the whole time this morning, instead of listening to podcasts, and I bet that helped. (I have a workout playlist that's pretty good.)

I know I intended on taking it easy in the gym this morning, but it didn't quite work out that way! Part of it, I think, is that I read in my Galloway book last night that, if following this program, you probably won't lose weight training for your first marathon, because of the reduced mileage. To be frank, I didn't like the sound of that! One of the several reasons I exercise is to lose weight. So.....I can either go against the training plan and run more miles during the week, or I can do the miles some other way, via elliptical, bike, or walking. I certainly don't want to go overboard and get injured again. That would stink! :-P But I need to come up with some sort of plan.

Take 20 Challenge

I've decided to give myself a challenge to jumpstart my at-home dieting efforts, and make it public! (Yikes!) I'm going to lose 20 lbs. in 20 weeks, starting March 1. I decided to make the start date on Saturday, in case anyone wants to join me between now and then. I'm hoping to lose more, but that will be the minimum. I've created a Yahoo group for it, thinking that that sort of forum may help some people, but I'll be posting my progress here.

The name of the Yahoo group is Take 20 Challenge, and the URL is http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/take20challenge/ New members to the group will need moderator (that's me) approval, so just type a few words about your weight loss desires/efforts. (Just want to keep spammers out.)

Taking it up a notch

This morning, I did 10 minutes on the treadmill, then a hard 65 minutes on the elliptical. I burned 706.9 calories and went 4.80 miles. I'm feeling a little tired now and wishing I could take a 30-minute nap, but work calls!

Several people have mentioned my weight loss this week, most of whom told me I look pretty. It's made me wonder, did I not look pretty before? Surely part of it is that I feel and look healthier, and I carry myself differently. One co-worker told me about another acquaintance of hers who lost a lot of weight and how her face looked very different. She finally figured out that one of the nicely different things was that she could see this person's eyes better. I thought that was an interesting observation.

Weight Milestone

I've lost 50.2 lbs on the Rice Diet! I'm psyched to have made this mini-goal before my birthday on Monday. :)

I did the cross-country trail before breakfast this morning. I jogged a little more of it then last time, including a half mile stretch without stopping, and a couple of hills. I finished about 3 minutes faster than the last time I did the trail and watched the clock. I've come to appreciate every little bit of progress!

Extra workout

Last night I did an extra workout at the Fitness Center, 15 minutes of cardio, then 20 minutes of strength training. It felt good to have the variety. I was back in the gym this morning for another hour of cardio.

It appears that I have falling arches, according to the New Balance shoe salesman, and the Rice Diet doctor tends to agree. The doctor suggests over-the-counter arch supports for now, to see if they work. I had this same problem in college, when I ran a lot.

Even with the extra workout last night, my weight was the same this morning. Three days in a row, it's been the same! I asked the doctor about it, and he said not to fret about it. My blood sugars are looking good, and the doctor even suggested taking my bedtime dose down to 4 units, as well as all three pre-meal doses. (My morning dose had been 5 units for a while, with 4 units before the other meals.) I'll have more bloodwork done next week to see how my A1c and lipids are doing.

Another reason to keep on keepin' on

Last week, I read an article on the internet about new guideline for exercise and reducing risks of cancer. The lastest research says we shoud do "dedicated" exercise (not just the usual day-to-day activity) for at least 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week. 45-60 minutes is even better, the article says. It also mentions diet and weight. I'm certainly eating the right foods these days, but still have a long way to go with the weight. Here's the article URL.

Today starts my 3rd month on the Rice Diet. Wow. It's amazing how much better I feel!