Whelp...it wasn't pretty

So last week I mentioned I was going to sign myself up for a 5k this past Saturday.  By Thursday of last week, my sort-of cold had turned into a full blown hacking cough, complete with drippy nose and sore throat (just in time for my "week of perfection", great!). 

I decided to play Saturday by ear; I ended up taking a sick day on Friday to stay home and rest all day, and didn't exercise at all (is it weird that this made me feel guilty!?).  I woke up from my NyQuil coma on Saturday feeling a bit refreshed, and felt like I was well enough to give this 5k a go.

I got there early to sign up (I was afraid to sign up earlier given my cold situation).  It was a gorgeous fall day, and actually much warmer than I anticipated.

 

I was lined up pretty early, so I had a volunteer snap a picture of me before the start.

 



 

The race started at 10am, and I found myself a little too close to the front of the pack; I'm a slow runner, so I typically like to hang towards the back so I don't get in the way of the more serious runners.  I started off strong, but I realized very quickly that I was going too fast to keep up with the stronger runners; after only about a minute I hit a hill and my pace slowed down quite a bit, to the point where I felt like everyone participating in the race had passed me.  I could see a few people running ahead, but I was basically alone!

 

Yeah remember how I said I felt well enough to run? Well my mucous coated lungs disagreed, and this freakin' hill was not helping.  And there was no end in sight.  Every time I looked up there was more and more hill.  I pushed as far as I could, but eventually I felt that if I didn't stop to walk I was probably going to pass out from lack of air, and this damn hill wasn't going anywhere.  So I walked.  And it made it that much harder to start running again.  Turns out the first 2.5 miles of this effing race were UPHILL.  Who the hell does that? And who the hell would've thought a reservoir run would be UP FREAKIN HILL? I was expecting a flat run around the water, not this shit! 

 

So yes, I walked.  I ran when I could, but I felt like it just wasn't worth it to push myself to the point of passing out when I knew my lungs were not at full capacity.  I managed to run the last half mile or so (mostly because it started going downhill at this point!) and according to my runkeeper, I pushed myself to finish with a pace close to a 9 min mile (what!?!), but all that walking cost me, and my official time wasn't pretty.  Here's the stats from my run keeper app:

(PS, 3.4 miles!? I don't know why, but I sort of believe my app, there was a lot of winding trails we ran through and it felt wayyy longer than the 3.1 I've done at home!)

My official time on active.com is 41:43, 13:26 pace, finished 65 out of 93 total, and 12th out of 18 in my age group.  I'm not exactly proud of this time or pace, but I am really proud that I pushed myself to do this even though I wasn't feeling 100%.  In the past, an illness like this would have given me an excuse to lay on the couch for weeks on end because I'd be "too sick" to exercise, and I'd be stuffing my face with comfort foods because I felt sorry for myself.  Not this time though! I'm hoping to run another 5k in a few weeks or so when my lungs are back to normal, but I'm going to be careful about my runs this week to make sure my lungs have enough time to heal.

How'd your weekend go?
xoxo
-K

 

Quickie

Just wanted to pop in quickly to share a few small pieces of (what I find) exciting news.

First, for the past 2 days in a row, I’ve had 2 separate people tell me that can tell I’m losing weight.  One was my husband (ok, maybe he doesn’t count as much) and the other was my co-worker, a guy in his early 40s that is not the most observant person I’ve ever met, so needless to say I was excited!

Sure maybe that co-worker noticed because he's part of the exercise challenge at work, but I'll take it!  We’re officially halfway through that challenge at work, and looking back at my chart, I realized that I got in at least 30 minutes of exercise for 33 of the last 35 days; I’m pretty proud of that!

 

Last, but not least, I’ve been asked to do a guest blog! Stephanie, over at www.wannabe-mama.blogspot.com is going through a similar journey, and wants me to share my story and why I want to lose weight BEFORE having a baby.  I’m going to have to take some time with this one, it’s an important story to share and I want to make sure I do it justice.  I’ll keep you posted!

xoxo

-K

Manic Mondays

It’s Monday, and it’s sort of rainy and gross, and I have this cold that I’ve been fighting off for a week, so needless to say today could have started off really badly.  To top it all off, I woke up with some serious hip pain this morning (I’ll get to that later), and didn’t feel like it was the smart thing to do to get up and run. So what did I do? I asked my hubs if he’d like to go for a long walk with me instead, and he obliged.  I got in a 40 min brisk walk before work, and I feel better for doing that, so I’ll call that a victory.

Friday night I had to babysit my niece for a few hours (side note, CUTEST. BABY. EVER….not my kid so I won’t plaster her pictures all over the internet but she’s so adorable I could eat her up!) before going to the in-laws for a family party.  We had to grab dinner on the way up to my sister’s house, and I only had a few minutes.  Instead of choosing something bad (read: McDonalds), I made my husband go to Subway.  I got myself a 6” turkey breast sandwich on wheat with baked chips and a diet coke, and I skipped the cookies so I stayed within my calories.  Not great for my sodium intake, but still a reason to celebrate small changes.

At the in-laws, we got there just in time for dessert…a giant, delicious looking Tiramisu cake, homemade by his aunt (they’re Italian).  This shit looked delicious, as in, what’s everyone else having for dessert because I’m eating that whole damn thing myself delicious.  I stared at it while everyone chatted and made coffee, and thought to myself, if I say “I can’t”, I’ll be force fed this cake.  So I took another angle, which I read recently in an article, and when I was offered a piece I said, “No thank you, I don’t WANT any”.  Amazing what a simple change in vocabulary can do.  No one gave me a hard time, no one really even noticed.  Another reason to celebrate if I do say so myself!

Saturday was good for the most part; there was a huge marathon in town, so my regular bootcamp class got canceled; I wanted to still get in a good hour long workout, so I did my advanced turbo jam dvd (cardio Kickboxing).  48 minutes later, and I’m still sore today.  Eff.  When will I stop being sore!?  Saturday night was a bit of a fail...  My hubs came home from tailgating all day, I had just gotten home from target and realized I had nothing in the house to cook.  He offered to buy me dinner, and I let him order us pizza.  I had 4 slices (the new England, square style slices, but still).

Sunday I was determined to get back on track.  Had a healthy breakfast before my shift at the diner, skipped my free meal since I knew it would be loaded with grease, and waited until I came home to have a sandwich for lunch.  Right after that, I started chatting with some (AWESOME) friends, and the subject of Onederland came up, and how freakin close I am now.  I got pretty motivated and decided at that moment that today was the day I was going to go out and run the full 5K distance of 3.1 without walking.  Guess what… I did it!

I felt pretty awesome that I managed to go the whole time, but about 2 miles in my hip started giving me some trouble.  I went to bed last night really sore, and woke up this morning feeling even worse.  I’m hoping that taking it easy today will help, because I really REALLY want to run again tomorrow to make sure my number on Wednesday reflects my hard work this week!

I’ve been holding back from signing up for that 5K I mentioned previously, which is this coming Saturday; partly because my cousin backed out on me, and partly because I was honestly afraid I’d fail and not make it.  I proved myself wrong yesterday, so I’m going to sign up today.  I deserve this, and I have to push myself to do these things or I will never change. 

Sorry for the long post today, I just wanted to give my journey a little credit here.  I’m not perfect by any means, but I am making lifestyle changes here, and my everyday choices are turning into healthier ones.  I’m so happy I decided to start blogging about this…looking back at my first month or so I was going crazy on the weekends, and now I realized after one cheat meal it’s time to get back on the wagon.  Baby steps will turn into something big for me,  I can just feel it.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, my Monday Morning outfit (sorry again for blurry camera phone image, I'm always running late in the mornings!):

Take that Monday!

xoxo
-K

Shit's about to get real up in here

Ok so I’m just going to throw it out there that I’m getting sick and tired of drama for the sake of drama.  I read a lot of other weight loss blogs because I find them super inspiring and motivational, but there are certain ones that seem to have let the popularity get to them.  When I start seeing sponsorship for McDonalds on your page, I’m done, sorry.  I know everyone’s gotta make a living, but really? You’re blogging about weight loss, you should be aware of the sponsors you take on.  I’m over the “look at me I’m skinny now” attitude, I’m over the “I’m a motivational figure” ego, and I’m over the ridiculous new outfits every week.  I’m over it. 

There I said it.

 I spend my spare time reading about other people’s journeys, their ups and downs of weight loss, because I think it helps keep me present in what I’m trying to do.  It keeps me motivated and determined to keep this lifestyle change that I started, it reminds me that no one is perfect and that we all make mistakes, and that we need to just stay focused on the ultimate goal of a healthier way of life.  I don’t need to be reminded that my husband might think I “let myself go” or told that maybe if I just got on my knees my marriage would be better.  I’m just straight out disappointed with what this has turned into, and I’m sick of the drama surrounding it, so I’m done.

I love blogs that tell it like it is.  I love to read about other women’s experiences and feelings, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I don’t even mind reading about how your sex life is affected by your journey, but when the whole tone of the blog changes over the course of a month or 2, something’s gotta give.  I’m sure I’m not the only one out there feeling this way, but I just thought I’d make it known why there’s one less follower out there.

I’ve already spent too much time and energy on this…so I'll end it with this: I’m more determined than ever to make this change happen, so here’s to a healthy, happy weekend!

Manic Mondays: Weekend Recap

Good morning lovelies! I hope you all had a good weekend! Mine was boring, but busy at the same time.  I had made a commitment to cook all 3 weekend dinners at home this time around, since I’m pretty sure that all our eating out is my biggest issue when it comes to seeing the scale move.  I usually make good choices when I go out by ordering salads and grilled chicken, but you really never can be too sure when it comes to the calorie estimate, and ultimately it’s calories in, calories out, right?

My mini-challenge went well, (see images below for dinner from Fri and Sat).

I was exhausted last night so I did leftovers from Saturday, but that’s still better than eating out!

Saturday was a big day for me…I’ve been kicking around the idea of going back to bootcamp, the same one I went to 2-3 times a week when getting in shape for my wedding.  I’ve been terrified to go back, mostly because I know how far I’ve let myself slip and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep up.  Lucky for me they started doing a weekly “Beginner Bootcamp”, so I figured that was a great place to start.  An hour later I was ready to die, and 2 days later I still can’t sit on a toilet seat without yelping in pain, but it felt awesome to be back, and I don’t intend on stopping this time!  I spent the rest of the day Saturday cleaning the heck out of my house, then hubs got home from work (Yes he occasionally works Saturdays) so I cooked us dinner, then we went to see a movie (NSV here…I didn’t have ANY popcorn! I can’t remember the last time I went to a movie and didn’t eat a ridiculous amount of popcorn, so this is a proud moment).  We saw Trouble with the Curve; I really liked it and I LOVE me some JT, so it was a good night. 

 

Sunday I was up early thinking about going for a run before my morning shift at the Diner I waitress at, but my legs were so sore I couldn’t do it.  The restaurant was SUPER busy, there was some crazy soccer tournament in town so every freakin’ kid in the tri-state area and his/her angry soccer mom came in at the same time.  Needless to say it was an exhausting day, so I was ready to call it my rest day and be done with it.  But then I got home, checked in with my awesome FB group, and all those ladies were kickin some major ass all weekend, so I decided to push through and hopped on my stationary bike.  I turned on a DVR’d episode of Parenthood, and before I knew it I had done 50 minutes on the bike!  The rest of the day was boring, I grocery shopped, made/heated up dinner, and did some laundry.. and I also cleaned out my closet. 

 

I’ve got a few size 18s that I reluctantly bought last fall because I got so huge I couldn’t fit into any of my pants.  Those 18s are officially falling off me now, to the point where they just look awful if I wear them, so I decided to purge them and any other “fat” clothes I had out of my closet for good.  No hanging on “just in case” anymore, they’re out of my life and I’m never going back! I have some old 14s that I tried on last night, most of which fit me very well, but there are a few that are a little tight on my thighs, so those will hang out in the front for motivation.  It’s weird how sizes vary; I have a few size 12s that I can fit into now (those were my “skinny” jeans that I managed to squeeze into on my birthday), so it’s hard to gauge exactly where I’m at.  I may end up taking measurements on Wednesday as part of my weigh in if I have time, but we’ll see.

How did your weekend go? Any proud moments to report?

xoxo
-K

Manic Mondays: Weekend Recap

Ok people weekend recap time…Clifnotes version? I ate like a fat kid at a buffet L

Ok maybe it wasn’t THAT bad, but it still wasn’t that good either! It started on Friday night with happy hour festivities.  My plan to eat salad and grilled chicken went right out the window as soon as I had a beer in my hand.  I had chips (which I counted out a serving of onto my plate instead of eating mindlessly right from the bag, thankyouverymuch), I had a homemade soft pretzel that one of my girlfriends made (sooo good, and how could I say no to a home baked pretzel!?), and then I had pizza.  Oh and I had 5 beers! (But, they were Miller 64s, so it really wasn’t too bad calorie wise, just lowered my inhibitions for eating!)  I was pretty proud of myself on a very small level though, because I did track EVERYthing I put in my mouth that night, and while it wasn’t a number to write home about, an 1800 calorie net for the day isn’t the end of the world).

 

And then came Saturday..and the Sox/Baltimore game.  I did good with my “plan” for the most part, up until the end of the game.  We stopped at DD on the way up…black coffee and an veggie egg white flatbread for me, kept me under 300 calories for breakfast.  Then we stopped at a pizza joint before going into the game: everyone got pizza and a pitcher of beer.  Lame ass me got a salad and a bottle of water (I just had pizza and beer the night before!!)  We got to the game, and I still didn’t drink or eat anything else, but my sister lives in Boston and offered to meet us up for a drink after the game.  She ended up getting to the bar before the game was over (it went to 12 innings with an Orioles win, go O’s!), so I left right after the 11^th inning to meet up with her and watch the rest of the game in the bar.  When I got there, she already had a beer waiting for me: Pumpkin Beer with a rim of Cinnamon and Sugar, YUM!!

 

 

I’m such a sucker for anything pumpkin this time of year, and she was buying, so who was I to turn down a FREE beer!?  She bought me another beer before the rest of the gang even got there, then we sat for dinner (and another beer!).  I had already done a salad for lunch, so I really wasn’t feeling another one for dinner.  I tried to be healthy by picking a Grilled Chicken Sandwich (but it came with bacon and avocado too!) and instead of regular fries I got sweet potato (I like to pretend those are healthy for me).  All in all, I have no idea how many calories I took in that day, because I stopped tracking after breakfast, which is not good at all.  The only saving grace I had that day was the fact that we parked really far away from Fenway, so we had like a 25 minute walk both ways.  Here's a few more pics from the game for your viewing pleasure:

 

 

 

Sunday wasn’t AS bad, but since I waitress at a breakfast diner, I’m around awesome food all morning that I really shouldn’t eat.  I had a bagel with cream cheese first thing in the morning (7:30 am) which keeps me pretty full until I’m done with my shift at 1pm.  We get free food at the end of our shift, and yesterday they had PUMPKIN PANKCAKES on special (See my previous comment about ANYTHING pumpkin this time of year!)  So I ordered that for breakfast, only ate 1 pancake and brought the rest home to the hubs (yay for self control!).  I did ok the rest of the day, then capped the weekend off with a pint of B&J’s Greek Fro-Yo…another food item I like to tell myself is “healthy” even though a pint of anything is not even close to healthy (But it’s fro-yo!! AND it’s GREEK!  Anyone? No? I digress).

 So there you have it, I fell off the wagon this weekend (well maybe my feet are just dragging off the side a little).  I did still go for a run yesterday (after being on my feet from 8 to 2!) and I continued to track my calories on MFP most of the weekend.  In the past, Friday night would have been A LOT more disastrous, and it would have meant and all on gorge-fest for the next 2 days, along with no exercise since I wouldn't see the point (I had already made the day a waste with eating, why bother!?).  I have to take pride in small victories here, because although I wasn’t perfect, I did exercise some self-control, and was a lot better than I have been on similar weekends in the past.  Now I have to deal with tonight, where we’re going up to The Big E after work…for those of you non-New Englanders out there, this is THE fall fair to go to in this area, and has the best damn food around.  They have things like fried Oreos and Crazy Burgers (um yeah, that’s a bacon cheeseburger with a Krispy Kreme donut for a bun!), so you can see where I’m headed with this one.  I’m going to try to keep in mind something I read recently about dessert…the last bite tastes the same as the first…slow down, split it with someone else, and let them take on most of the calories while you have just a taste.  We’ll see how that goes, but here’s hoping!

 

How did your weekend go? Any small victories to share?

TGIF

Good morning loyal readers! (All six of you J)  So the weekend is upon us once again, and I’m going to start with a small recount from my morning that some of you may already have read..I’ve been getting up at 6AM Mon-Fri for the past 2 weeks to get a run in before work.  This morning, I just wasn’t feeling it…the days are getting shorter with Fall right around the corner, which means it’s now pitch black at 6 when I wake up…and cold too…and my bed looked so warm and cozy…but just when I was about to give up and crawl back into bed, hubs offered to go for a long walk with me instead (he can’t run since he had his meniscus removed from his knee last year).  We went for a 40 min walk that kept up a 4.0 mph pace, I was so proud of us, and so thankful for my hubby for keeping me moving! 

 

Ok enough sappy shit for the day…now for the weekend.  So tonight, we’re having some friends over to have a fire in the back yard with some drinks and pizza. This does not spell good news for my diet!  I have a plan though; I have some salad in my fridge, I grilled an extra piece of chicken last night, so I’ll eat that right when I get home (before the beer and pizza).  If I’m careful about my calories today, I can afford to have one or two slices of pizza (hopefully just 1) and a few drinks.  We’ll see, but so far having a plan has worked out well!

 

Tomorrow, we’re driving up to Boston to go to the Sox/Baltimore game (hubs is a big Baltimore fan). 

 

Here's us a few years ago at a game in Baltimore

 

 

We’re planning on getting lunch before the game, so the plan there is to get something healthy (I’m thinking salad with grilled chicken), and no alcohol…must stay motivated!! I keep thinking about my skinny jeans that I want to fit into for my 30^th next Saturday, so I can’t give up now! (I should clarify that my skinny jeans are not the “style” skinny but rather the “milestone” skinny where I haven’t been able to fit into them in a long time…and fitting into them makes me feel like I’m making progress!)

 

So what about you ladies? What’s on tap for the weekend? Don’t forget to log you calories every day, even if it means you’re over..it all starts with accountability!  Have a good weekend all!