What's 80 Days from Today?

Christmas! Why is it that I am already starting to count down to Christmas? I counted today. There are 80 shopping days, 12 weeks and six paychecks until the fated Holiday. I must start shopping now because I usually wait until the last minute and I'm just so stressed. I am so stressed I am uninspired  to find great ideas for gifts.

I started thinking about how far away Christmas was because I want to set a new goal for myself every week leading up to the Holiday. I am almost to the end of goal week 2. I did fudge up a bit on Monday when I went through the Culvers drive thru after a stressful day at work. Without thinking, I ordered a snack pack which a Diet Coke! I briefly had an "oh fudge!" moment while I was sucking on the straw. I drank it, all of the small soda and I haven't had one since. I also still have had breakfast at home every day. I almost slipped up this morning . It has been a tradition, in the past, for when I have an early morning doctors appointment, I would usually pick something up on my way to work. I almost stopped at Panera. I even went out of my way to get there and I made myself keep driving.

I'm pretty proud of myself. Next week's goal will be announced on Sunday. I'm worried about this one.

By the way, I lost 3 lbs from last week!

I Love Your Shirt

Today I ran the Verona Hometown Days 25th Annual 5k. All the proceeds from this small race benefited the high school's girls and boys cross country running teams. It really was a small race. I don't think there were more than 100-150 participants between the 5k and the 10k races. Most of the runners were students from the cross country teams. My friend Michelle was going to do the race with me but with a four month old, life is a bit unpredictable. I ended up at the race by myself, although I did have my Prior Fat Pack members there in spirit.

The weather was gorgeous this morning and even a little bit cold. After the EF 1 tornado that came through town on Wednesday, we welcomed the calm and cool weather. I made sure to wear my PriorFatGirl tee shirt. I was a bit overdressed with that and a long sleeve cotton shirt under it. It was really chilly this morning, really! My hubby was there to start me off at the starting line. We had friends in town for a wedding and he had to go back to the house to see them off for their 10 hour drive home.

While I was in the process of getting to the starting line, I had a woman tap me on the back and say she really liked my shirt. I thanked her. Later, she was the first woman to finish the 10k race. I had two more women pass me on the route that liked the shirt. Both of them, I stepped up my pace to keep up with them and tell them about the PFP. Both women were older than me. One of them, this was her first 5k in a number of years. She was running so fast! The other, she was an avid runner before she got married. After her wedding, she got sedentary and gained 50 lbs. Now she's trying to work the weight off through running. Both of these women, strangers to me, were cheering me on as I passed the finish line. One of them came over to me to ask me what my time was, and she cheered me when I told her I had set a new personal best.

New personal best! I am taking off 15 secs for fumbling with my watch at the end of the race.

I just love the comments and compliments I get from people just for wearing that t-shirt! I am waiting for the day when someone says, "I read that blog". I like being a little bit of inspiration for someone.

Ps: I got on the scale after many weeks of not getting on it. I lost 2 lbs. I feel good about that.

A Good Holiday and A Good Weight Loss

Happy New Year!

My mom called me today and told me, once again, that she and my sister were wondering where my blog entries have gone. I did promise on Monday that I would wonder about my losing weight over the Christmas weekend and having no idea how I did it. I’ll also fill you in on some of the great, and healthy, gifts I got from my family.

So I lost 2 lbs over Christmas, and I wasn’t trying. I did stay away from the sweets and Christmas cookies until just a couple days before hand. There were no holiday parties to attend this year so there was no unneeded drinking or high calorie foods to tempt me. Working out has been utterly nonexistent since I got sick in the beginning of December. Now that I’m feeling better, finally, that has changed and I’ve gotten back on the wagon. My mom claims the reason for my weight loss last week is because I received the Just Dance Wii game from my sister.

Christmas was good to me this year. It was wonderful to have my Dad, Mom and sister make the trip to Madison in the snow this year. I am blessed to have them and blessed to have their support. It was also nice not to have the large crowd of family, although I did miss parts of it. Christmas Eve was quiet and we opted for mass the next day. Dad made some awesome chili, which now fills my fridge and freezer. The five of us gathered around our tree to open gifts. It was odd to me that Pat and I were opening lots of gifts and my parents and sister were just opening the few gifts we got for them. It was early to bed to make sure we were up at 5am so that showers could be taken before 7am mass. A couple of us took an after mass nap before venturing to the movie theatre to see True Grit. The movie was packed and a pretty good flick. For dinner, I made my first ham, squash and salad. After dinner, there was another round or two of showing my parents the Wii that we got last year from Pat’s parents. It’s always bitter sweet when guests leave. It’s nice to have them around and our house really felt like a home when they were here.

There are a couple of gifts I’ve been using in the past week since Christmas. My sister picked up the Just Dance and The Biggest Loser Wii games for me. Neither require the balance board, which is good, ‘cause we don’t have one and we don’t plan on buying one in the near future. Boy, I tried out that Biggest Loser game a couple of days ago and my thighs still hurt when I stand up. I have a lot of work to do! Pat bought me a stationary trainer for my bike. I was surprised that he got it for me. It was something I had been wanting and it was something that I probably needed to get my butt toughened up for biking in the spring and summer. I’ve used it three times and I am impressed. I do need to get a new computer for tracking my distances and speed. My goal is to go 20 miles each time on in it. It’s a nice little trainer but I just have to make sure I get a bunch of use out of it.

I feel like I’m starting to ramble on a bit about odds and ends. Since I have no internet at home, which I will get more into in my next entry tomorrow, I plan on getting back on the wagon of updating this more often. I’ve been actually making lists of ideas for entries so that I remember them. So there will be upcoming blogs about registering for Iron Girl, I’ll give a recap of my high school reunion AND (if I’m brave enough) I will post a video of my goals for 2011.

Oh and I’m starting a race count down :)

Days ‘till race day: 267

7lbs Down and a Workout Partner

It sounds so small when I say it that way. I lost 7 lbs in 5 weeks. That's just a little over 1lb a week. In a year, that would be 52 lbs. I dont think that's too bad of an accomplishment.

Yesterday I posted about what I was going to do about working out after it got dark. I think that was yesterday. A friend of mine decided that she was going to train for a marathon. So I am going to try to train with her.  I told her I'm a horrible runner and that I can't even run 1/4 mile right now. It's horrible. I don't really know if I am going to be able to run the 5k on Thanksgiving. Anyway, Kinsey lives and works in Verona so I can walk/run down the lit streets in Verona with her. Yippie for a partner.

Hills

I did a two mile walk with Pat before dinner tonight. While we were walking it, it didn't really feel like we were walking it all that fast...but then there were the hills. Gmaps doesn't account for the hills. At the entrance to our neighborhood, there is a nasty hill and that nasty hill always comes up at the beginning and the end of the workout. My calves were killing me on the way up the hill. Pat offered to go get the car (jokingly) to pick me up. I love running down the hills, it makes running seem so easy when I have gravity working with me.

I know my body is going to hurt in the morning because of these nasty hills. But the pain is going to be a good pain...I think. I did do some stretching after tonight's workout. I know I have pain issues when I don't stretch. But tomorrow, I might have pain even with the stretching.

I'm really trying to take advantage of the sunlight after work while I still have it. It really is an outside motivator to get myself to exercise. My neighborhood is really dark so I wont be able to work out in the winter. I love exercising outside in the winter. (I know I'm weird) I was thinking I might be working out in Verona, since the streets are lit, and then I'll be heading home after that to make dinner. It's just a thought. While it's still light outside after work, I will be taking advantage of it.

I had weigh in this morning. Just like I had predicted, I did gain some weight. I weighed in this morning at 223lbs. So its only a gain of 0.6lbs.

Weekly Weigh In

I weighed myself this morning. I am down 6 lbs to 222.2lbs. More to post tonight when I get home.

Biggest Loser

It's not too often that tv shows make me cry but the Biggest Loser so far this season has been hard. I noticed the majority of the contestants this year are between the ages of 23 and 31, my age group. This scares me but inspires me at the same time. I'm really rooting on Jesse. He is a Minnesota boy that went to same college my husband did, although my husband did not know him.

I walked over my lunch period today. I needed to run to Walgreens to pick up some pills that I had renewed. The walk to Walgreens and back is under a mile so I walked into the neighborhood a bit then to Walgreens for a total of 1.14 miles. After that, I ate my portion controlled lunch and read the newspaper.

I was starving by the time I left work, I grabbed an apple out of the fridge at work to eat on my way home from work. Once home, I ate half a whole wheat bagel and then put on my work out clothes. I turned on the tunes and walked 1.4 miles more. I enjoy walking during work. I noticed that during my lunch break I would eat over the whole hour pretty much. The snacking was getting out of control. So now when I feel the need to snack, I put on my shoes and walk. If I dont walk during that time, I'm actually starting to feel like I'm missing out on something. I'm glad there is going to be nice weather over the next week or so.

My legs hurt today. I'm not sure if its the brand new shoes or what. Its probably a combination of new shoes and me being fricking out of shape.

I got on the scale this morning. I weighed in at 228lbs. This is next to the highest I've ever been and that was 1 1/2 years ago. No more. Ive lost weight before and I know how to do it. I just have to do it again.