Busy Week Took a Nose Dive

Oh last week was a little nuts!  Here was a run down of my schedule:

Monday:  At work 7:45-5:15, Swim 6-7, Run 8-8:45
Tuesday:  At work 7:45-5:25, Yoga 5:30-6:30, Bike 8-8:45
Wednesday: Swim 6:05-7:10, at work 7:45-5:30, childcare @ church 6:30-8:45
Thursday: Spin 5:45-6:30, at work &7:30-5:15, babysit 6-11.
Friday:  At work 7:45-5:30, veg the heck out.
Saturday: Pilates 8-9, at work 9:15-1, grocery shop, food prep, veg out, babysit 5-12.
Sunday:  Childcare @ church 9:30-1, grocery shop, lots more food prep, veg the heck out.
*I am at work that much, but I don't really work the whole time.  I am not very good at my job, plus I am a terrible procrastinator.  I am still wrapping up 2012 things at work.  Wish I wasn't!

So going into my week, I knew I would have to get some morning workouts in to make things happen.  On Tuesday, I went to Walgreens to get a salad, picked up some pineapple, and saw a box of candy on clearance.  Yes, I am a recovering candy addict, but I thought I could handle this little box of sour candies.  And it went well.  A serving size was 23 (!?!), but I gave myself 10 everyday at work for lunch and I still have many left.   I had my usual froyo dinner (first Wednesday of the month when I work at the church) and I had some candy on that too.  Then I get to where I am babysitting on Thursday.  I heard "feed him xyz, and have whatever you like".  I only babysit for these people 2-3 times a year, so I am not at their house often, but I know the mom has a sweet tooth (and she's SO thin too!).  They have tons of boxes of girl scout cookies year round!  So I am nosing around and I find a giant bag of delicious trail mix.  Crap.  And then I see a reese's pb cup bag peaking out of the cupboard, so I open it up and there's almost every candy they sell at the movie theater in there (didn't see any snocaps!).  Out of a 48oz bag of M&Ms, they aren't going to miss a handful. That mindset just kept rolling and I had SO MUCH CANDY.  I didn't even put a dent in their stash, but holy crap did I feel awful.  My body was yelling at me to stop, but my tastebuds were in cahoots with my hand and my mouth.  Just hand to mouth over and over and over. 

I didn't eat all I had taken, so I put a small amount in my purse.  I ate some of that on Friday and Saturday too.  Then SwimSis and Coach had friends stay the weekend and they left a bunch of candy, so I just ate waaaaaaay too many candies while I did my food prep just because they were there.  And now I feel awful again.  I am so glad I weighed in Thursday morning because I'm sure I undid all of my hardwork plus the last week's work.  Going to have to go back to the self-imposed candy ban.  I really enjoy life a lot more when I'm not battling myself over where my next candy fix will come from.  Seems funny to think of how easy life is that way.  Over Easter I just left all the candy I got behind at my dad's and things were great that way.

Last week's weight: 230.0
This week (on Thurs): 228.6
Sunday night guess: 233 or more?!?

Ah, a new week, new resolve.  Gotta stay on my toes and watch out for those awful old habits!!!

What Diet Are You On???

In the past month, I have been asked this question twice while preparing a meal for myself.  Once was Coach's mom while I made grilled fish and vegetables for dinner. I had that in the fridge and it just sounded good!  The next was last week when I was taking my food to the fridge for the week while at work.  It really was a random assortment.  Chicken, my vegetable soup, spinach, salsa, bacon.  haha!  This older lady that I work with often talks about the latest diet that she's trying.  She told me that this time she was doing South Beach again.  It just slightly annoys me...does this girl have to be on a diet to be eating healthy-ish???

Well, a couple of posts ago, I said I had to kick this thing into high gear because I was tired of sitting at 233.  Here is what I have been up to on the exercise front:

Thursday:  1 hr spin class, 30 min run
Friday:  Walking around the art museum after dinner.
Saturday:  1 hr Pilates class (hadn't been in 2 weeks - was greeted with "Oh my God, it's Melissa!!!"), 3.2 mile run.  (almost got bit by a dog - eek!)
Sunday:  3.5 mile bike ride
Monday:  1 hr swim
Tuesday:  1 hr yoga
Wednesday:  1 hr bike ride
Thursday:  1 hr swim at the outdoor pool.  They didn't have the flags up, so I ran into the wall while doing backstroke = embarrassing!!!
Saturday:  1 hr Pilates
Monday:  1 hour swim, 2.2 mile run/walk (with SwimTot in tow - she's "training" for 1 mile fun run later this month!)



Post 3.2 mile run.  Going back to track down the lemonade stand I saw and had no $ for while running.





Enjoyed a few hours of sun bathing on Memorial Day - glorious!




Last Friday I clocked in at 230.0!  I was hoping to see at least 229.9, but that was close enough :)

This makes 50 pounds lost since last year!!!  HOLLA!

I feel like 220s make me feel like I can actually get below 200.   At 280 last year, it was just too far of a goal in my mind. 

In other (more depressing) news, work is annoying.  My one co-worker is on maternity leave (had her baby 10 days late!) and a different co-worker is overseeing my work on a certain project and she's  SUCH a micromanager/tattletale/does the work for me.  It's super annoying when I go to update something and she's already done it.  B, I can do it myself and I can do it my way!!!

And the last sad thing, Matt Smith is leaving Doctor Who.  I'm sulking until further notice!

In "Things That Make Me Happy" category, we have and always will have my dearest neice, SwimTot.  Hmmm...should I change that to SwimKid?  She is soooo growing up!  We've been spending the evenings together outside from when I get home from the Y till the sun goes down!



Will always be my favorite kid!



Teeny Apt Yard, but perfect set up for this girl!

Any good news to keep me upbeat? :)

At what point in your weight loss journey were you like "I CAN do this!"?

NSVs!

Oh, I'd say it's time for another round of non-scale victory touting :)  Hang onto your hats!

-I have a ring that fits!!!

I'm special.

I bought this ring a few years ago.  You know, one of those things that will fit once you lose a couple more pounds? lol I found it a couple of months ago and found that it fit my ring finger, holla!  I was wearing it very regularly, but then it got lost in the depths of my purse for a month or two and i just recently found it.

And that other wonderful thing on my hand is the result of a fight with the oven.  The oven won.  You're welcome for the amazing face behind the hand. 

-I had to use the drawstrings on my shorts.  I've had this pair of adidas shorts for a couple of years and I've always just relied on the elastic to do it's job.  Well, before my 5K in Cleveland, I had a feeling that it would be much, much better if I tied the drawstring and I could and my pants stayed up.  :)

-Cycling is getting easier.  Now, when I say easier, it is still HARD, but not as hard as the time before.  Tri Coach Jeff gave me a little more freedom today at the state park and I thought I did well despite being last, again!  Instead of only doing half a loop that we did a couple of weeks ago, I did the entire loop and we then headed to a different loop, much hillier, and did that too.  Boy, was I tired, but happy!

-My vitals/other important numbers have been really pretty good when I have visited the doctor or given blood.  Today I gave blood and my iron was low on the first draw (11.1) but on the second I got 13.3, holla!  They say your iron is lower during TOM, which it was, but I had been eating spinach and/or some red meat every day this past week.  Last time I gave blood, I had to take those awful iron supplements.  I was very excited I got a high iron number w/o having to take those!

-I can cross my legs.  Like really.  Not resting my ankle on my other knee.  Knee on top of knee!

-I spent the long weekend by myself (by choice, and it was amazing!) and did not go crazy with food.  Looking back, I actually surprised myself.  I spent so much time in the kitchen cooking, I didn't even sit down and lounge very much or have time to think about bad for me things.  Compare that to MLK day and me and those cookies did not go over well.  I didn't even think about making cookies even though they were right there in the cupboard.  I made a 7 layer salad and vegetable soup, plus some extra bacon for the week.  Soooo much chopping and peeling!  Plus I screwed up and burnt the first batch of bacon to the cookie sheet...oops!

-I usually wear a tank top under any workout shirt, but this past week I have been brave enough to go w/o.  That is huge because I wear an undershirt 98% of the time!  Today I couldn't find said tank top and thought about throwing a tshirt on vs tech shirt, but that tshirt would have been too dang hot!

What has been a NSV for you this week?

Do you get excited over the little things in life too? 

Getting Back On Track

Since Cleveland, life has been a little nuts.  Last week I skipped swimming in order to spin because I had “tweaked” my shoulder.  Yeah, I was just stupid.  My shoulder was sore and so I kept rotating it while driving home.  Then I felt a sharp stab of pain.  Good one Melissa!  It took a couple of days for it to feel back to normal.  I had yoga last Tuesday where I was one of two people.  I really like the instructor.  Wednesday was a bike ride around State Park that is close to my Y.  It is quite hilly.  I asked Tri Coach Jeff “how much is this going to hurt me?”. Haha I can be a weenie.  So immediately, I was lagging behind the group.  Pedaling felt hard, so I started to play with the gears.  Once we were ¾ of the way through the park, Tri Coach Jeff told me what I was doing wrong.  Haha well thanks.  There is traffic in the park, but it is minimal and drivers know there are a lot of bikers there, so it is really safe.   Then, we got to the other end of the park and went out on the road.  You know, the one that is hilly, with twists and turns, numerous potholes and speeding traffic?  Okay, the speeding traffic is just me because when I’m on the bike, everything is fast!  So everyone else is going ahead and there’s me and ole Tri Coach Jeff approaching (what felt to be) this massive hill.  He’s in front of me, telling me about gears, etc and when it gets too hard to pedal, just come up out of the saddle. 

Oh yes, silly me.  Stand up on the bike, which I am already wobbly on, and pedal, while trying to stay on the side of the road and avoid potholes.  Duh.  

 Basically, what Ty said:  "Going uphill is hard, and going downhill is terrifying. I don't trust the bike to not fall apart if I hit a bump. Or I could go flying over the handlebars and end up with a c-spine injury and quadriplegic."

 Oh em gee, it was NOT pretty!  I hadn’t even tried riding “out of the saddle” on flat land with no cars around.  I was not about to try it, so I just kept my legs moving and pedaling along!  Once we got around a few curves and to a side street, we stopped for a breather, I needed one!  We saw my teammates heading back in the other direction and they were going to do 2 full laps on this street, whereas I did ½ a lap!  I was so happy when we got back in the park.  I rode around a little while waiting for everyone else then we headed toward the front entrance.  It had been an hour (our regular time slot), so Tri Coach Jeff suggested we head back.  Everyone else said things like “well, we wanted to get a few more miles in”.  But I was exhausted, so I said “welp, I’m leaving!”.  Being the cycling weakling, he headed back with me.  I feel like I apologized a million times for being slow, but he was very reassuring.  When we got back, I found a slight hill on the far end of the parking lot and rode out of the saddle many times so I could get the feel of it.  When I went home, I practiced there too!  I got 7 miles in at the park and maybe a couple more at home.  Bad news:  I haven’t been on the bike since! 

A friend of mine was in town from Detroit last weekend.  I am close with her family (I call her mom “mom”), so I hung out there from Friday-Sunday.  She is a pretty active person and we love going on walks (to sort out the world’s problems!), so I thought it was weird when everyone (from 11-82 years old!) were just playing on their smartphones/tablets instead of being outside.  The next day, I found out that my friend had just come off a 30 hour on call shift the day before and then had driven straight to her mom’s!  Saturday we went to one of those indoor trampoline places.  I was a wee bit nervous and may have looked for a weight limit on their website!  But we went and everything was fine and I had SO MUCH FUN!  There were regular trampolines, basketball type ones, dodgeball, and an area where you could jump into a foam pit.  I skipped the foam pit because I could tell other adults were having a hard time getting out, but I loved the dodgeball!  We had 60 minutes of jump time and probably used about 45 mins of that actively jumping.  The only times I wasn’t jumping was when I was waiting a 30-45 seconds for a turn at jumping/shooting in basketball.  It was great!  Later that day, my friend and I got our walk on and probably walked 2 miles before it started to rain.  And no, we didn’t get the world’s problems solved L

This week was swimming on Monday, I hadn’t swam since I was in Cleveland!  It started off pretty rough (I was sore/tired during the warm up!), but I rocked the rest!  We did 10 x 50 yards fast w/20 seconds rest in between, trying to maintain the same pace throughout.  Those went down just fine.  We rested for a minute or two and Tri Coach Jeff said we were going to do 5 x 100 yards w/20 seconds rest.  I stepped up to the challenge and was so tired and gasping for breath at every rest, but it felt AMAZING! I could tell on the last 2 or 3 that my heart rate was getting pretty high and my body was reacting in the way it does to the over exertion.  If I was on my own feet, I probably wouldn't have made it.  But I was in the water and there's no where/no how for my knees to lock up or for me to stumble.  In short: I really, really love swimming.  I do, I do I do-ooh.   My teammate K said “ugh, why are you so good at swimming?”  I said “why are you so good at biking?”.  She then said we should do a tri relay and add our teammate K2 as the runner.  I totally would, but I didn’t say any more about it!  

Tuesday I babysat my friend's bay-bay and her friend's bay bay.  6 month old and 3 month old.  Yes, it was as terrible as you think at times.  They are just too funny.  When I got home, I knew I needed to do some activity, but I did not want to run or ride my bike.  Instead, I walked to the store to get some tea (and a bottled water).  1/2 hour of walking complete!  Wednesday was the same with babysitting, but I got home after 10:30, so I just called it a rest day.

I noticed that I have been messing around with the same pound (or 3 if you count Cleveland!) for the past month.  Now while I'm much more into the fitness aspect of this journey, I know it would be a lot easier for me to bike and run, etc if I was lighter.  In comparison, last year during this time, I was losing 5 lbs per month.  Some might call it a plateau, but I call it needing to get my head out of my @$$!  I'm also wondering if it has anything to do with me cutting back on swimming.

In order to do so, I zeroed in on that hardcore spin class I like.  It was a different instructor (only played 80's "underground" music - her words.  None of us were old enough to know it.  But OMG her shoulders and arms were AMAZING.  I want to be ripped like that!) and she was easier than the prego lady, but still pretty hard.  I was sweating like crazy and very tired, but I still had some gas in the tank so I headed over to the treadmill for a run.  I walked a min, ran 10, walked 2 mins, ran 5, walked 1, ran 5, walked 2 for cooldown.  I definitely was feeling the brick sensation on the first part of the run, but my legs warmed up to the idea!

Post-brick sweaty mess.  I'm not one of those bloggers who takes cute after workout pics! :)

Last week, I felt SOOOO hungry all week.  Maybe it was from eating so much in Cleveland.  But I also needed a break from my frozen breakfast sandwich kick.  I got a free box of cereal from a co-worker (strawberry shredded wheat).  So I started my days with that.  One day, I ate my lunch at 11:15am (it's usually 1pm!) and then next day I was starving again before 10am!  It was ridiculous.  This week, I focused on protein for breakfast and let me tell ya, this week has been delicious!  My meals aren't the most nutritious, but they help me make it through!

2 pieces of bacon, 2 eggs with spinach/red pepper hummus (recipe coming soon?).  I haven't even been hungry for the banana!

Lunch - Milk (leftover from cereal), carrots, veggie straws dipped in hummus, bologna, spinach, mayo on a sandwich thin.

Dessert - 4 Dutch Honey Wafers (they were on clearance)

Do you feel like Ty or myself while biking?  

What meals are delicious and keep you satisfied