Hem and Haw

Is that the right phrase?  I guess Blogger isn't the place to display my lack of knowledge of the English language.

Some things that are on my mind:

-I bought myself a little something for the 50lbs lost achievement.  It was just something little and silly.  A keychain with a doctor who saying on it ("Bowties are cool").  I got it on Friday, put it on my carabiner Saturday, and then found that it was missing this morning.  Efffffffff.....

-While at the church on Sunday, one of the pastors was taking some pics for the FB page.  Usually he just gets the kids, but the teachers were demo-ing a game.  I am in the background, and it is a fuzzy iphone pic, and I am wearing my generic spanx, but I was pretty happy with the pic!  Here it is:

I mean, other than my awkward posture and pants that never fit right, I like it.

-Last week's weight:  235.6
This week's weight:  234.4
Nice!

-I went to the doctor last Friday for a primary care visit.  One of his questions was "Have you ever been in an abusive relationship?"  I said "no".  He followed up "Do you know the signs of an abusive relationship?" I said "Well I should hope so!".  And that launched him into a 10 minute lecture/question session about domestic violence, how it starts, and when to know to get out.  Glad he is concerned?

-  My blood pressure was good, my weight was down from my last visit (7lbs in 2 mos, I think).  He asked me what my plan was to lose weight.  Not if I was trying or anything :)  I told him I am working out 5 days a week and eating better and that I used to weight 290.  He was very happy with that encouraged me to continue. 

-I don't have a lot of weight loss comparison pictures.  Mostly because no one knows I have a blog, so I don't really ask people to take pictures of me for it.  But I do wear this one tank top on the regular to workout.  Sorry that I don't know how to make them side by side, but I hope you can see the difference!  The top one was in June, and the bottom was over Easter.

-My knees have been aching lately.  Trying to find a cause hasn't been very successful.  Boo.  But I did an epsom salt bath today after my BRICK spin/run with Tri fit and then put bengay on them too.

-Still looking to get a bike.  Might ride more this weekend, but Tri Coach Jeff said he might be able to go with me next week.  Trying to decide whether to be independent and get it on my own, or wait for his expert opinion. 


-My pants no longer fit.  But if you have a shape like me, pants that fit well are hard to find.  I have momentary given up on pants and am wearing a lot more dresses/skirts.  I feel more feminine, too.

-This week is a clothes drive for a charity that gives women in need clothes to interview/go to work in if they cannot afford it.  I'm hoping to give a couple pairs of pants along with a suit jacket and skirt.  So glad that they are too big!

-Seriously, I cannot get enough of my lovely niece!  Yesterday I was hoping to blog, but she came to me and asked if we could watch Doctor Who together.  Who am I to deny this sweet face???

SBBC Week 5

Monday:  I wanted to keep with my plan on swimming then beginner spin class just to get the feel for it.  I swam for 65 minutes and then did 35 mins of spin class.  Oh, but there's more!  Tri Coach Jeff said I should run too.  Oy.  So I did.  I only went 15 mins on the treadmill, but I ran.  I hope he's happy! (Insert fake mad face here).  But then...I was STARVING.  Like "my stomach will eat itself before I can make the 20 minute drive home" kind of hungry.  I was going to stop at Subway, but they closed right as I drove up (rude!).  There was an Arby's right next to it, so I stopped and got:  1 side salad with ranch, 1 kid's meal (jr. roast beef sandwich, apple slices, chocolate milk).  The milk was gone in 4 or less swigs and the salad was devoured in the parking lot!  I nixed half the bread from the sandwich, because, if we're being honest, on a "jr" sandwich, there is way to little meat to justify all that bread!  And the apple slices were heavenly.  It left me feeling the exact right amount of full and satisfied.  But at $6.09, I decided it is best to prepare my own food in the future!

Tuesday:  Had a few hours to take off of work, so I went to a mid- morning make up Pilates class (yay alliteration!) that I had missed due to being gone over Easter.  It was weird being in that same class room with different people at a different time of day.  But I survived (and then had Chipotle, yum, but ugh!).  After work I went to yoga.  The instructor cracks me up and I figured out why.  She has ADD moments.  She'll be all serious, then a pause, then "what is that on the ceiling???". haha!  I felt pretty tired after this 2 workout day, but it was a good feeling.

Tasty, but gross looking breakfast smoothie

Wednesday:  I had to work at the church after work, so I couldn't go to Trifit.  I did have a little time, so I did a 25 min trail run at my favorite nature preserve. I was fighting a cold, so it felt pretty hard on my lungs! Even though it is April, a very few number of naturey things had started turning from winter brown to spring green.  Meh.  At least I got to have Froyo for dinner!

Meh.

Yum.

Thursday:  I was going to run my usual greenway route, but my friend wanted to meet for dinner at our favorite place.  How could I say no?  I had bad decision incident that afternoon where I was upset that I had to run a birthday card to a co-worker at another location.  The boss said she HAD to get it on her birthday.  So I was feeling like I had "earned" a treat.  So I stopped at the McD's that's across the street from work.  I was going to order one apple pie, but they're 2 for a dollar.  No big deal, I would put in the fridge.  Oh, and would I like anything to drink?  Yeah, a large coke.  Who the eff am I???  Of course, I shoved both pies and the large coke into my pie hole.  I ordered dinner with my friend, but took the majority of it home.  After dinner, I went straight to the YMCA and hopped on the dreaded treadmill.  It really wasn't that bad.  I walked for 5 mins, ran for 15 mins, took a walk break, ran for 5 mins, another walk break, ran for 6 mins and cooled down.  Total of 40 mins.  The girl next to me, might have been 75-100lbs lighter than me, but I was running longer than she was :)  Made me happy, but I'm sure she was running faster, at least. 

First time I wore this shirt.  V-neck only good for running.  Anything else is too much cleavage!

Friday:  I worked and then went straight to babysit.  Got to hang out with some cute kiddos.  The mom text me the next morning and called me the "baby whisperer" because the 5 m/o girl slept for 11 hours that night!  Perhaps I should raise my prices, lol!  I had a hard time not shoving a million things in my face when babysitting & at home afterwards.

I was more excited than she was, clearly.

Leftover cajun food.  Nom nom nom. (look away my lo carb friends!)

Friday eats:  salmon patty w/ranch.  Veggies galore.

Oh deliciousness!

Saturday:  Saturday morning Pilates, obviously!  I went to work for a couple of hours, then I went to a bike shop.  Not gonna lie, it's totally like looking for a car in the sense of I had no idea what I was doing.  Luckily, the first place I went was soooooo great.  The sales guy was very understanding of my beginner level knowledge.  I rode a couple of bikes around, but knew I wasn't going to make any purchases.  I went to the Y to swim in my fave pool.  It was such a great swim!  Sun was shining in, temp was just right, and at one point, I was the only one in the lap pool for about 20 minutes. That afternoon, I went to 4 more places looking for bikes and might have found the place I will buy from.  I rode bikes for about 20 mins total that day.  Then I watched the new Doctor Who episode with SwimTot :)

Sunday:  Worked at the church!  I was super tired, so I just went home, took a nap and did my taxes so I can actually afford to buy a road bike!  But then I also got a bit of cold feet.  That is such a large amount of money!

SBBC score: 43.3 - amazing!  Highest week yet!!!  I believe the phrase is "like a boss" hehe
Veggies: 4
Water: 5
Weekly weigh in:
Last week:  236.6
This week:  235.6

I was a little hardcore (for me) in the workouts this week, so a pound is good. Probably would have been more if I had had a better week in terms of food!

What has been your best workout week?

Any suggestions on road bike models?

Tell me any "like a boss" moments, I love to hear them! 

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live. -Mark Twain

Ah, that Mark Twain.  He was a clever one, wasn't he?

I have a dilemna and I don't know what to do, so pardon me for a little bit of blog to process my thoughts.

Here are the facts:

I joined a triathlon training group. 

I liked that they were swimming in my favorite pool.

I liked that I didn’t have to look up my own workouts.

I like that I have a coach to tell me what to do.

I do like being pushed out of my comfort zone.

I like exiting my comfort zone at my own speed.

If I were to exit my comfort zone at my own speed, I would probably have dropped out of college almost 10 years ago. 

I am usually pushed out of my comfort zone at a rapid pace, with little warning.

I can adapt to change relatively well.

Often times, the things I don’t necessarily want to do are things that I should do.

My coach wants me to do a triathlon that most of my teammates are doing.

That tri is in 5 weeks.

I am very, very new to biking.

The tri has a bike course that is 2 loops.

The only thing worse than walking my bike up a hill in a triathlon would be walking it up the same hill, twice.

If I am going to do this triathlon, I have to get a bike ASAP.

Shopping for bikes is like shopping for cars. 

That means I don’t know what the heck I am doing.

I did visit 5 places looking for bikes on Saturday.

I rode bikes at 3 places.

I am considering buying from 2 of those 3 options.

I am probably going to spend about half of what I got my car for.

(I bought my car for cheap on Craigslist!)

Still, that is a heck of a lot of money to spend on a bike. 

Am I going to ride enough to warrant the cost of the bike?

I guess that is the real question. 

That and (please forgive me, I rarely use this self-depricating language!!!) "Can I get my fat ass up this hill while on the bike?"

In other news:  Candy crept back in my life this week.  I lost a pound too, but only because I had 433 mins of exercise.  I need to kick candy back to the curb!  Apparently I had bought candy for Easter for my family and I thought I had given it to SwimSis to put in Easter baskets, but I found it in the back of my closet.  Oy. 



Some soul candy.  Love this sweet girl!  She jumped off her bed and onto my back like this :)



SBBC Week 4

Monday: We had 9 inches of snow.  My work got a 2 hour delay.  I reset my alarm for 8:30, but woke up at 6:30am anyway.  Argh.  I had Bruno Mar’s “Lazy Song” floating through my head.  Did not want to go to work!  But I knew that I did not want to stay at home and do nothing.  Life is an adventure, if nothing else, so why not head out into this crazy, late March snow? More unappealing was going to the Y after work, but I did not give myself a choice.  I had swimming on schedule, then I decided to try a beginner spin class (at the urging of my Tri coach Jeff).  I had to miss Wednesday’s workout, which was an hour spin class.  So he told me I REALLY needed to go to a spin class this week. I had never done a spin class before (and had only been on a spin bike during my indoor tri).  I was nervous, but the instructor from the indoor tri was the same instructor as this beginner class.  There were only 4 of us in there, so she was able to ride with us on the floor (instead of the elevated bike up front).  1 word:  ouch.  I thought my legs might collapse under me.  I’ll admit, my legs are weenies.  And I also can do a physical activity at a consistent pace for quite a while (swimming, running).  But you mix up the tempo and do all these different standing/sitting things?  My heart rate got elevated more quickly than it does any other time!  In the end, here were my numbers for the day: 65 mins swimming, 35 mins beginner spin class



My latest dinner obbsession...eggs, spinach and salsa.



Tuesday:  I made it to yoga at work, after work.  It is in the most used conference room we have, which creeps me out a little (I like a clean floor even though I am on a mat!).  I had missed last week due to SwimSis’ birthday.  Apparently they picked Sanskrit “names” out of a bowl and those were their names.  I didn’t know if I was supposed to go through and choose one that I liked or pick one at random, so I chose one at random.  The name:  Aparajita which means “unconquered”. 

Immediate thoughts:

1.       Whaaaaat?  I thought these were supposed to be motivational?

2.       *That’s what she said!*

3.       Huh, okay.  I guess this can be kind of cool.

Not that life or a fitness/weight loss journey can have an end and be “conquered”, but I do like the imagery I have of working my way up a mountain. 

Everyone else had really awesome names, so I am just going along with it :)  It was an hour of yoga for me!

Wednesday:  I had my board meeting and I usually go home and don’t do anything.  It was so nice out, so I did a loop around the adjacent neighborhood once again.  And a minute faster than last time too:  41 minute walk.  Very proud that I got some activity in.



Last week w/long hair!



Thursday:  I did my usual Thursday run (walk/run).  I did the same route at 2 weeks ago.  I went farther and finished faster than last time!  51 mins in total, 35 mins of running.  I went to the bridge that I had previously not gone over, and I huffed and puffed my way over, went a ways, and huffed and puffed my way back!  Felt good to see progress, and I was super excited for my Epsom salt bath, book, etc.

Post-run.  Yay!

View from my parking spot, the main trail runs along the horizon

Post run reward: Book, OJ, and Neti Pot (I have a cold)

Saturday:  I was in the hometown for Easter.  I got my hair chopped off! Eek!  I donated to Locks of Love.  I have to say, it is shorter than I wanted it, but it was this length for several years before, so it’s not that drastic of a change for me.  Sidenote:  Small towns make me happy.  Left my dad’s house, got my hair cut, went grocery shopping and was home in under an hour.  Sooo nice!  But then I was bored for much of the day.  Everyone else went out to put the finishing touches on their Easter outfits (mine was already complete!) and I decided to do a little bit of Just Dance 4.  Before, it has been hard for me to jump around so much, for very long (add to that that I’m pretty uncoordinated).  I want to go for 15 mins, then it seemed easier and I did as many songs as I liked, which ended up being 50 minutes.  I was thrilled!  Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca was my favorite.  Just really fun and funny dance moves. 

New 'do.  In TeenSwimSis' bedroom, if you didn't garner that from the JB calender.

Sunday: Mostly a rest day, but while we were waiting for the ham to finish, I challenged TeenSwimSis to a duel!  I think it was only like 5 mins of dancing to Just Dance 4, but it was just enough to show TeenSwimSis that she isn’t the champ!

The girls!  TeenSwimSis, my grandma, my aunt, SwimTot, SwimSis, and Squinty McGee (me).

Total:  30.7

Water: 4

Freggies: 5

Weigh In:

Last week: 239.6

This week:  236.8

Was not expecting that, but I was excited for a big drop!

Do big drops in weight freak you out?  I usually do something to screw it up the next week, if we are being honest.

Did you try any new activities this week?  I was happy I took the plunge with spin class!