Monday, December 31, 2007

December 30, 2007

Workout: Running

distance: 3.534 miles

time: 45:00

program: w 1/4m, j1/2m

speeds: 3.8/3.9/5.3/6.2 (last 1/4m)



Running feels good. I'm going to stick with this program for a while before I try to start increasing speed or time running. I want to feel really comfortable here before I move on. No need to push it - I'm running 2 miles, walking 1.5 miles and thats good.



I can't wait to start cleaning up my eating, too. I was going to start that this week, but its so hard with holidays. I'm not going to go overboard, but I am going to enjoy the cookies that the girls and I made over the weekend.

Friday, December 28, 2007

December 28, 2007

workout: running on the treadmill
time: 35:00
distance: 2.76 miles
speeds: 3.8/5.3/6.0 (last 1/4 mile)
program: W1/4m, J1/2m

I got up late this morning (never heard the alarm) so I didn't get my full run in. I almost went back to bed because I didn't think I had enough time to run at all. I'm glad that I got up and ran anyway. I knew I would feel much better about myself throughout the day if I would get up and run. Not my ideal distance, but better than no distance at all.

My biceps are sore from yesterday - that is a good thing. I'm glad to be back into working out. It was nice to take a break and sleep in and not worry about it, but I'm glad to be back and to be feeling better about my body, too. Its amazing what a difference it makes - physically and psychologically.

Just a few more days before I start back with eating totally healthy. I'm not going to obssess over it and I'm going to treat myself everyday in some way - even if it is just a square of dark chocolate, but I can't go on eating chicken nuggets, french fries and cookies and candy bars forever. I love them, but I can't exist on them:)

Thursday, December 27, 2007

December 27, 2007

Workout: Back/Biceps/Abs

Okay, I didn't do abs. Don't know when I last did abs - I hate them.

Lat Pull downs - 3x12 @ #7
Cybex Rows - 3x12 @ #4
Lying DB hammer curls - 12, 8, 9 @ 14lbs
21's - 3 sets @ 16 lbs (increase to 18)

Felt good to be lifting again. I don't feel like I got that great of a back workout, but I'm sure its just a matter of time before I find the right weight and start feeling it a whole lot more. Someday I will do abs again - I would need to get up a bit earlier to include them. I dawdled about getting out of bed this morning.

I am currently reading the book Feel Good Naked. It is a 10 step plan to feeling fabulous about your body. Its not a diet or a workout, but rather ways to reprogram the thoughts that are associated with the way you look. I've read 2 chapters so far and its pretty good.

Step 1 - Indulge once a week. The author says you should eat 3 healthy and balanced meals each day - based on the food pyramid. Not just a sandwich kind of meals - full meals. And then allow yourself to indulge once a week on whatever you want - the only rule is that it is limited to 500 calories. Plan it. Do it. Eat it naked. She says that most women's bodies are in starvation mode from extreme calorie restriction. We need to eat balanced meals and focus more on the flavors and the actual food, like French people do. Savor the experience of eating - don't just toss things in your mouth absent mindedly.

Step 2 - Drink tons of water. Stop drinking soda and drink water. It is one of the best things you can do for your body.

I'm also going to start a Bible study book this morning based on knowing that I was created beautiful. I'm trying this from all angles:) I don't want to hate my body and my weight anymore - I want to love myself and not feel like I always have work to do to change the way I look.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Getting back on the horse

Workout: Running on the treadmill
time: 45:00
distance: 3.521 miles
program: w 1/4mi, J 1/2mile
speeds: 3.8 / 5.3 / Last 1/4 mile at 6.0

Its been two weeks since I've worked out - right? Or has it been 3??? Two, I believe. At any rate, I've been a total slacker. Getting sick and holidays always throw a huge monkey wrench into my exercise plans. It shouldn't - I should be above that, but this year, I just wasn't. And I've been eating like crap, too. I can't tell how much I've actually gained back as I'm definitely retaining water from my lack of water consumption over the last two weeks... so I'll weigh myself on Monday and use that number as a starting point.

I'm going to spend some time in the next couple of days trying to devise a healthy, do-able daily menu that incorporates WW and BFFM and lean heavier on the WW angle of it all. I haven't decided if I'm going to join WW online or not - I want to for about two weeks as I get things figured out - my necessary points, my activity points, my foods, etc. But I don't want to pay $60 for something that I don't need to use for 3 months - not that I'm going to lose everything that quickly, but that after the first couple of weeks it becomes pretty automatic for me - I eat the same thing and exercise the same way all the time. Maybe I need it to see the tracking of weight loss as a motivator. Hmmm... I'll probably join and reevaluate after a couple of weeks.

It felt good to be running again. If anything good came from taking a break it is the fact that my left leg does not hurt at all - no pain in the calf or the ankle - so the time off was good for healing whatever was going on there. Now its just a matter of not overtraining or over doing it so the pain returns. Running 1/2 mile at a time felt good - I definitely felt like I could keep running and it wasn't torture like I had anticipated. And I feel great now - glad that I got up early, glad that I ran, glad that I sweated this morning. I feel good. Hopefully a day of drinking water will help me feel even better.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

December 20, 2007

Challenge 3

I had bronchitis last week. It was weird - seemed like I had a cold the week before that and it was getting better. I went to the doctor to discuss my cholesterol screening and mentioned the cold to him. I wasn't even going to mention it to him because I was finally feeling better after a week of trying to cough up a lung. But I did mention it because Dave had been there earlier that day and got a script for antibiotics for a sinus infection - I figured just in case it was the same thing, I had better mention it. He gave me a script for a Z-pak and I considered not even filling it, but I did. The next day I felt worse than I had the previous week and every day I got worse until this past Monday when I finally felt better. Yesterday, I think, was the first day that I felt almost 100% - although now I have a head cold:) (up until yesterday I had no head or sinus congestion, just lung expellation).

I haven't worked out in almost 2 weeks - the last time I worked out was last Tuesday. I haven't been eating at the proper times or the proper foods. Luckily we don't have much junk in the house so I haven't been eating too terribly, just not at the right times and when I do eat it has not been ratioed appropriately - like not a protein and a carb together, usually one or the other.

I feel bad that I'm not going to properly complete this challenge, but I think it was about time to start rethinking things - in many ways.

I'm going to start working out again next week and start to re-evaluate and replan everything. I'm seriously thinking that I will go back to weight watchers, but I'm going to make a serious effort at doing it properly and trying to incorporate the principles that I've learned from BFL & BFFM. I want to eat every 2-3 hours and have a protein and carb at every meal, include more veggies and less sweets. I'm going to cut down my workouts so that they're more feasable to becoming a lifestyle thing - there was just no way that I could physically keep up with two a days every day. I was so exhausted at the end of the day that I could barely stay up and I was missing Dave. I want to continue to lift weights and run, but I want to carefully plan out my workouts for the next twelve weeks. I am going to be concentrating more on losing scale weight and clothes sizes. I will probably be looking at it in a 12 week segment or perhaps a little longer than that depending on how much I decide I want to lose.

I'm also going to read the book "How to Feel Good Naked" (or something along those lines) and try to change my mental body image. I think I've been on my way to doing that with this last challenge. I will compare myself to myself. That has been a huge thing for me and has done wonders for me. However, my self-esteem is rooted in my workouts - I can feel that now that I've been off for a week. When I workout I feel better about myself physically.

I also need to get back to drinking water. That is the thing that quickly falls away when I stop doing what I should be doing. I think it is sad to say that I may have to have color squares on a piece of graph paper for the rest of my life so that I can make sure I get enough water everyday. For some reason, if I'm not coloring squares, I'm not drinking enough water - or any at all.

I feel differently this week - its amazing how different I feel without living the way I should be. My skin is dry. My face is full of zits (Dave says it is because I've been fighting an infection - I think its a combination of that, not enough water, eating crap food). My digestive system is wacked out. I feel tired and lethargic in the afternoon. I have less energy. Its time to turn these things around.

Working out starts next week. Dieting starts the following week.

And to Dave's credit, he has gotten up 3 mornings this week without me to workout - this is NEW for him;) He's feeling crappy, too. Its so hard to stick with things when you're sick and then to add the holidays to it... We're going to sit down next week and really figure things out - Menus, groceries, budget, workouts, etc.

Monday, December 10, 2007

C3W9D57

Challenge 3
Beginning Date: October 15, 2007
Ending Date: January 6, 2008

Workout:
Turbulence Training workout 1A
TT HIIT A - 4.08 miles

I'm trying this new workout - Turbulence Training. It is kind of a body weight, weight training, circuit training kind of thing. Everything is done with no rest between exercises. I guess I'll have to explain it a little more at another time. Anyway, I'm going to be doing this instead of weights for the next few weeks to give myself a little change of pace. It was nice this morning - hard, but I'm not sure it kicked my bum like I was hoping it would. We'll see how I feel tomorrow:)

The HIIT was a little more intense than what I normally have been doing (LH intervals at 1 minute intervals). Today I did LH intervals at 45 second intervals. I was getting up near 112 rpm consistently during the high intervals, so that was awesome!

Have to get back into eating clean today. I am coming off of a half-week of not paying attention to what I was eating and when I was eating. I was sick and lacked motivation last week. And the weekend was not so great - I had to make truffles for Dave and I only sampled one of each kind (I made 4 kinds) so I was good with that. I need to get my motivation back - I need to figure out if I need to get my motivation back. Still struggling with thoughts about all of this. Maybe these TT workouts will help.

Friday, December 7, 2007

C3W8D54

Challenge 3
Beginning Date: October 15, 2007
Ending Date: January 6, 2008

Workout: C25k
3mile: 36:00
distance: 4.069
time: 50:00
speeds: 4.0/5.3

Today was the day that I was supposed to run 2 miles straight. I had a rough, rough time with running this morning. I have a cold and it is in my sinuses and my chest. I also have some kind of muscle soreness in my left calf. These combined for a pretty crappy attempt. I stopped for many breaks and needless to say the 2 miles was not run straight through. It really, really sucked - every bit of running sucked this morning. But I'm proud of myself for getting up, changing and not going back to bed like I had wanted to do.

Eating has been less than stellar. Combination of lack of preparation and TOM has lead to not eating every 3 hours and not having the cleanest of meals. I'm not doing too badly, but it hasn't been totally clean.

I hate being slightly sick - I almost wish I was dead and on the couch sick rather than highly functioning, but not quite 100%.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

C3W8D53

Challenge 3
Beginning Date: October 15, 2007
Ending Date: January 6, 2008

Workout: HIIT on the bike and chest/biceps
distance: 8.0 miles
time: 30:20

My workout was good this morning. Somehow I got my minutes mixed up on the bike so thats why I only did 30 minutes instead of the normal 31. I'm not sure where or how I messed it up, so I don't know if I missed a high intensity minute or had one extra. Whatever. It was good.

I also did chest/biceps this morning. I haven't been planning these exercises very well. I have to take some time to look up some better exercises on the machine. I should have done that last weekend, but I didn't. I will try to do it this weekend. I got a good workout in, but I feel unprepared and like I'm not doing the best I could be because of it.

Yesterday was a slightly free day. Nora had a doctor's appointment at 8:40 in Palos Heights and since Dave was out of town, I had to get the girls out the door early. I took them to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast rather than trying to get them all to eat cereal in time. Anyway, I didn't get breakfast before we left and then when we got home I shoveled the driveway so I didn't eat anything until 12:30 - I had two bites of a donut, but other than that, nothing. So I didn't eat on schedule, I didn't eat totally clean, but I don't believe I went over on calories. It isn't ideal, but I'm not beating myself up over it.

I'm really beginning to think about all of this in a longer term way - can this be "for life"? Can I eat like this and workout like this long term? I don't think so. But then what should it look like for me to be healthy? I haven't answered that yet, but I'm thinking about it a lot.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

C3W8D51

Challenge 3
Beginning Date: October 15, 2007
Ending Date: January 6, 2008

Workout: HIIT on the bike
distance: 8.15miles
time: 31:00

I also did triceps and back this morning on the new gym. Actually I did about half and half on the new gym and with free weights. I'm still finding the right weights for the gym, but I think I've found some good exercises. There a few, though, that I need to wait to use the gym until I'm stronger - like bent over lateral rows. I can do them with free weights, but not the gym because the gym starts at 24 lbs and I can't do that much.

I ran yesterday and did legs on the gym. I don't think I got even close to as good of a workout with the gym as I do with free weights, but at some point that may have to be sacrificed in order to save my back, which I'm okay with.

I weighed myself today - 130.0. So I'm still losing even thought I haven't been super strict with staying at 1700 calories per day. I can't wait to see the 120s! My BF was at 9.5 on the calipers - I think that is 20.55%. I have to believe that those readings are off in some way. I mean I believe that my BF is going down consistently every week, but I think if I were TRULY 20.55% body fat I would be seeing some more definition. So I think the numbers are off by a few points. Regardless, it is measuring progress and that is what matters.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

C3W7D48

Challenge 3
Beginning Date: October 15, 2007
Ending Date: January 6, 2008

Workout: steady state on the bike
distance: 7.75 miles
time: 30:00

Not much to report. Didn't feel like getting out of bed this morning, but did it anyway. Will strive for a clean day today with the exception of a free meal tonight after church. Also - need to get all of my water in.