Quick post!

Hey guys! 2014 is already flying by!

The year started off rough when I stepped on the scale, saw a number higher than I liked, got pissed about it and decided to eat 3 huge sugar cookies with frosting.  Uh....   I've always said that if things like the scale start to effect my mental health, then I will drop it on the spot.  My mental/emotional/spiritual well being is always my priority.  So I stopped weighing myself daily, have been exercising regularly, and eating better.  I have no idea what my weight is, but life is great right now!

I had a bday and it was a blast!  I got in a morning swim with a special workout written by the tri group swim coach.  My arms and legs were very tired from weights the evening before, but i managed to eek out a 2900 yd workout in an hour and five minutes.  I then headed on over to the church for a prayer and worship service - life altering.  So, so, so good! 

I then got lunch, got a mani/pedi with my bestie, then we had some afternoon refreshments and a local watering hole (haha!) and hung out till we went to dinner with my family.  I recieved some great presents like some of my alma mater's apparel and a mug, and a smart phone!  Welcome to the 21st century, Melissa! lol

Things are getting set up for this next season to tri training group, so we shall see what that holds!  I have been having a blast running on the treadmill (okay that part not so much) and lifting weights at the Y right across the street from my work.  There's no excuse when you can see the Y from your office window.   I've been using some free weights and some intimidating things like the 45 degree leg press!

I've been working on a 30 before 30 list that I will definitely share when it is complete - any suggestions?  I only have about 23 right now! 

Also, I made up a preliminary triathlon/race schedule the other day and my first tri is an indoor tri on Feb 1.  Woot!  I am looking forward to doing some open water swim races as well.  It is obvious that I love swimming, but 400 yards during a triathlon doesn't really cut it.  I'm looking at a 5k swim or two this year.  I was looking into one in Chicago in Sept but I have a wedding to go to a couple of states away that day...bummer!

2014 is looking bright and shiny...all I have to do is keep my head up and stay injury free! :)

2013 Goals Revisited

What a year!  I am getting lots of praise from those around me and it feels great.  As one of my best friend's mom said the other day "Look who came to visit!  Half a Melissa!" haha!

One gesture I'm sticking to comes from a sermon last Sunday where the pastor was talking about relationships and said something to the effect of "Praise people for how far they have come, don't berate them on how far they have to go".  

Definitely lost a chin or two in 2013!

Fitness:
1. Lose as much or more weight as I lost in 2012 (34lbs)

I only had 3 pounds to lose with a month to go, but I know that is not going to happen.  I'm 100% fine with it...more on that later!

2.  Swim twice a week, at least one morning a week.
Ha!  Once in the morning!  I'm pretty sure I became even less of a morning person in 2013!  But generally I swam once a week, twice if I was lucky.

3.  Strength train once the Y thins out (after new year's resolution-ers don't come as often)
I was dragging my feet big time on this!  I started strength training in late November, but I have a good routine now!

4.  Strength train at home in the meantime (as much as one can with light weights)
This probably happened once!

5.  Do a race longer than a 5K.
 I jumped from a 5K straight into a half marathon this year!

6.  Swim in an open water race.
Yes!  In place of a triathlon.  Recap here.

7.  Run a race/just plain run downtown
I walked a 5K downtown for a work related event.   It was so uneventful that I didn't blog about it, but I'm counting it because I got to enjoy the downtown area!

8.  Get a bike
BOOM!

9.  Ride said bike
Eventually!

10.  Ride bike w/o fear of falling off/losing control  
It was longer than I expected, if we're being honest!

11.  Do a triathlon, even if it is just by myself at the Y.
I completed an indoor tri in late January/early February, then went on to do several more this summer!  Recaps:  Indoor tri.  First Triathlon.  Second Triathlon.  Third Triathlon. 

12.  Try some new, more hardcore workouts
Still trying to get into different workouts, but spinning was a big one...running on the treadmill (I had a treadmill fear), BRICK workouts for sure!   Let's see what I can get to in 2014! 

Financial:
 Pay off credit cards – Yes!  Paid both of them off by May.
 
Get student loans under XX,XXX – Sure did.  But I’m slowly realizing how long it is going to take to pay these off, I will up the ante in 2014!
 
Accumulate X,XXX in savings. – I only accumulated about half of what I wanted to, but it might be enough to pay off another debt or go towards a new car in the future.
 
Only eating out once a week unless special occassion or asked by friend – First half of the year – this was great.  Second half, not so much.  
 
All money from church job goes toward debt – Except for a month or two, this one was right on.
 
No buying things on whims/bc they are on sale.  – Surprised myself and did pretty well on this.
 
Only buy if you really need them – Hehe…easier said than done!
 
All  purchases from CVS stay below $10 unless they are a need – I sorta stopped couponing at CVS, so this is not really all that applicable.
 
Keeping avg groc budget to $50 – I started shopping at Aldi, so this has been no problem!

Emotional/Spiritual
Keep doing things like working out/going on walks/run outdoors. (Things that make me happy) – Yes and no.  What makes me happy in terms of exercise is continually changing.  I just have to keep doing what I love!

Do something special every week that makes me happy (take time to watch a sunset, volunteer, get my nails done, read a book, etc)  - Not every week, but yes I did take more time for me (instead of mind numbingly reading through my FB news feed!)

Find a church to go to, go regularly and get involved. – I’m going to the church I have previously worked at and starting to get involved – yay!

Have quiet time w/the Lord. – I am very proud of this accomplishment.  Right now its only like 5-10 minutes a day. But I am getting there!

Count your blessings. – Not enough!

Don't be so introverted, keep in contact with family/friends. – The more you do it, the easier it is.  This past month or two has been a lot better on this.

Make new friends by trying new activities. – Yes!  Through my tri group and my small group at church I have been meeting people.  Go introverted me

Back to goal #1 all the way up there.  Even though it took me from early July to late November to lose 10 pounds, I am definitely okay with that!  As I've said many times before on this blog, my focus is the to be healthy and increase my fitness level.  In that span of early July to late November, I completed 3 triathlons, a 3K open water swim, a 20 mile bike ride, 39 mile bike ride, and a half marathon.  What a kickass year!  Last year at this time I would have NEVER thought I would complete all of those things, let alone in a span of a few months.  

So, thank you, 2013.  You showed me what strength and determination really are and that even if you are the slowest one in your training group, you are still swimming laps, riding circles, and running marathons around the people who are sitting on the couch.  2014 - let's do this! 

Holiday Food Temptation Fails & Successes

I meant to post this the week before Christmas...whoops!!!

 

Last week was AWFUL food-wise.  For starters, I fell head first into a tub of $15 cookie dough that I had no business ordering in the first place (from a co-worker’s daughter’s school fundraiser).  Then there were holiday treats all over the place at work, not to mention two work holiday celebrations last week.  One was lunch at a pub.  I, like a dummy, ordered fish and chips.  The second I ate whatever was there.  Nibble, nibble, nibble.  And last week, I felt so run down too.  I got 8 hours of sleep a night, but felt exhausted everyday.  Melissa…could it be the crap you are putting into your body?!?  Duhhhhhhh!

This week had to change things!  I vowed not to eat any sweet treats or other nonsense set out at work.  How my office is set up, the majority of the treats set out for anyone is next to my cubicle.  When we got the deliveries of popcorn, chocolate covered pretzels, candies, chocolates, and nuts, I became a thief.  And I don’t even care!  If I am the one that has to sit with all of that in my line of (peripheral) vision, then I should be the sole heir to the entire (5oz) fortune of pistachios.  When no one was around, I snuck them over to my desk and popped them in my drawer!  This proved to be a wise decision.

My boss had gone to a cookie swap party and came in with this giant monstrosity.

I got a whiff of the deliciousness every time someone put the lid back on.  :/

Then on Tuesday, my coworker made cookies before work that morning and they were still warm.  This is the lady that believes in extra butter and sugar in nearly everything and her cookies are the size of your hand.  Still, I resisted.

On Wednesday, a coworker’s mother has been in town for the holidays and decided to bake.  There were 4 giant trays filled with at least 6 different things.  It legit smelled like a bakery in here.   

I have stayed away from all of it and feel pretty good about that.  No new stuff has arrived (yet) for today.  Tomorrow we are having a holiday brunch, of which, I hope to be smart about.  I will not get xyz just because my friend made it (and I know I don’t really like it!).  I will sit down and enjoy my food rather than shoveling it in! 

The comments have been rather funny.  I hear some people say “oh, I’ll just eat whatever I want and worry about it after the first of the year”.  I feel sad for those people.  The co-worker who made the cookies said “I don’t trust anyone who loses weight during the holidays!”  Her food is the most delicious I have ever had (because of the extra butter and sugar that often finds its way into her food), so if I were eating her cooking, I would probably say the same thing too.  

Other things have made me more hopeful.  Some people just walk by and get a “look” before leaving and going back to their healthy food at their desk.  And more come by, check out what food there is, and say “It looks good, but not that good”.  We have a “maintain, don’t gain” program run through our HR dept which is a really good thing and is keeping a good amount of people accountable.  There is no prize, just accountability to yourself and others.   I kind of like that.  Weeds out the people who really care from the riff raff.  Anyone knows I do anything for the possibility of a prize.  Guess I’m the riff raff!

(PS I won a week’s worth of meals from Diet to Go from Double Chin Diary’s blog.  Holla!)

Thanksgiving NSV

Yes, I should have posted this sooner, but that is okay!  I really needed to get that last blog post done because my tri team consultant had been pressuring me to write it.  Well, I did and posted it on my tri team's fb page and no one said shit! haha at least with a blog I'm doing this for myself and not for other people, but anyway...

Thanksgiving was both good and bad.  Good food, not too much though.  Bad (aka really delicious) desserts were left, but for the good, I got some other people to take some home.  Good was getting up at 5:25am to go to hot yoga, then putting in 2 - 22 min sessions on the bike trainer in the evening.  Bad was getting $100 stolen from me by my brother in law's brother.  Asshat.

But the best?  The day after Thanksgiving!  I got on the scale to see:

215!

Yay for 215

Why yes, that is the weight I have on my driver's license!  That number has been a lie for soooo very long!  I was giddy, and still am, to be honest!  Hoping to lie about my weight by being under 215 soon!  Reminds me of this post from September of last year.  I wonder what my face would look like in another license pic now! 

Another   NSV happened when I was home last weekend for my friend's wedding.  I thought, I might have my silver heels in my little sister's closet still, so I was head first in this closet full of crap and found the coat I bought my freshman year of college.  It is a very nice pea coat and I felt like I paid a million dollars for it (it was $100).  It is an 18/20 (I went into college as size 16 - ha!gained that freshman 15 pretty fast!).  I pulled it out and tried it on.  It fits perfectly!  Near my senior year, I always used to wear a hoodie with it because it would no longer button, far from it in fact.  I tossed it on TeenSwimSis's bed thinking maybe she would wear it, but when I came back a day later, she had tossed it on the floor.  I had really been wanting a new winter coat, but couldn't stomach the cost, so I was glad to have found this one.  It really is a lot warmer than my other coats/jackets.  Hooray for fitting into it again 10 years later

Wedding hair and makeup

Rehearsal dinner hair and makeup - and weird smile! :)

I'm so excited it is December!  I'm looking forward to spending time with family and friends and being choosey about what sweets I eat!  I have already been looking at 2014 races.  I would like to do more open water swims, a couple sprint tris, and I'm hoping to make my first Olympic triathlon a reality!  I want to do some around my area, but maybe travel for a couple too.  Definitely ones around my hometown, even though I HATE the idea of racing in front of people I know, I would love to race with some of my family members in that area.  But what is up next?  Getting my USAT (triathlon) membership!  Woah, when I set goals at the beginning of last year, I NEVER thought I would do more than one triathlon, let alone get a USAT membership!

How have you surprised yourself?   Oh, I forgot to mention, I CAN do a half plow now!  That pose haunted me in yoga last year!

Anything exciting on the horizon?