Fell off the running wagon - but climbing back on!

Following my week out of town, last week, I've fallen off the running wagon.  I also stopped tracking my food.  I ate 5 peanut butter oreos tonight.  Dang it.  It happens so easily.  I didn't want to lose weight and get stronger bad enough to outweigh all the things that get in the way and always will.

But, as I think about how I feel, not sleeping as well as I was when I was running, missing the feeling of balance and perspective over the stress in life, and missing out on the other positive effects of losing weight, I'm hopping back on.  Doesn't matter that I fell off, what matters is doing good most of the time and not beating myself up for slacking off there for a bit.  I still have 3 months until the next race - so I've got plenty of time to train and prepare.  I also know I need to enjoy running at work during lunch while its still cold out.  Goodness knows the spring and summer around here is so hot - its going to be gross to come back to work and feel 'fresh!' because I'll be all stinky and sweaty!  Got to get it in now!

Hope you all are doing wonderfully!  Have an awesome weekend!

Not going to let work get in the way of my work out!

I'm struggling to keep running despite my work schedule.  Its been freezing cold and I've not gone out in it to run at work during lunch as much as I'd planned.  Last week it went so well when I went for runs during my lunch break.  Tomorrow I leave on a business trip through Friday that will bring early mornings and late networking dinners.  Do I get up extra early to run?  Will that make me feel better and also look better?  I think so.  I really do.

My carry on is already full of planned outfits and alternate outfits.  I went shopping on Sunday to prepare for this important week of meetings and meeting everyone in the corporate office.  Not great results as these 10lbs have made such a huge difference in how my 14's fit.  They still fit, but they're tight in all the uncomfortable and self conscious places.  My gut and my butt mostly.

That's motivation enough for me to get it together!  I'm going to wear my workout gear tomorrow and find a way to work out.  I've gotta keep moving, keep running, keep tracking my food!

I tried making Israeli couscous this weekend.  Wow and yum!  I've been eating plain greek yogurt and some homemade chocolate fondue sauce I got the recipe for out of this month's issue of Cooking Light.  It definitely takes care of my sweet tooth for a lot less calories than eating chocolate kisses or other chocolate items.

I'm definitely getting the water in.  I'm eating soup and sandwiches religiously for lunch.  Greek yogurt almost every morning for breakfast.  Just gotta get the need for sweets and overeating when I get home under control.

How are YOU doing?  How are you keeping it going?  Hope you all have a wonderful week!

No lions, but fish and whales........oh my!

My daughter with a big bunch of fish!

Skip to the last few seconds of the video - you'll see fins right at the end.

I'm sorry this video may make some of you seasick, it was very choppy and trying to balance myself on the waves while taking a video with a cell phone proved difficult for me.  They are little off in the distance - you don't see much - but they are very cool.  And don't make it full screen - it really will make you sea sick!

Well the fishing was fun yesterday - because of 3 things:

1. My kids had a blast
2. The bloody mary's were especially nice when consumed on the ocean
3. We saw WHALES!

I've seen whales washed up on shore here before, but have never ever seen one swimming among the boats only a mile off shore.  We saw four - they swam two together - and it was so cool to see their tail fins come up out of the water and see spouts of water blow up into the air.  SO much fun.  It didn't matter that we didn't catch any fish!  We came in and looked at all the fish that came in - that's what is up in that truck up there.  They take all the fish that are caught in the r*o*ckfish sh*ootout and the donate them to the food bank and local homeless shelter.  That's where all those huge r*o*ck fish were headed.  We then had an amazing dinner of fresh oysters, clams, crab, shrimp at one of my favorite hangouts.  We drank bloody mary's and made orange c*rush's while the whales swam all around for hours.

On the workout front - my core was so sore from all the rocking and rolling in the boat - that I ended up  not running my long run.  Not going to beat myself up, just going to pick up where I left off!

I got my new lululemon jacket and gymbag in the mail on Friday.  What a nice surprise!  If you guys haven't tried their work out clothes yet - I suggest you do.  They've transformed my running and made it so much more comfortable for me.

Have a wonderful week!

Running at work is the key for me

So this week, I've unexpectedly had to work until 730 pm three times.  That means all my runs I'd planned for after work would not have happened had I not.... packed my stuff and ran on a lunch break!!  Yep - I've discovered the key to getting my runs in.  Now I'm only going to pull off the short runs - the 35-45 min runs - but hey - that's better than getting off track!!

I also have gained a ton of water weight b/c I've really been doing a great job drinking 64 oz of water per day.  I thought it was dry winter air that was causing my chapped lips and dry legs.  Nope, its being dehydrated.  That of course means an increase on the scale, but I don't care.  Clearly I needed it.  So I'm officially now at a 12lb gain, I was at 190 2 weeks ago and now weigh 194.  I'm ok with that b/c I know it will come off soon enough.  I need hydration to flush out the fat I'm burning off!

I do feel much more in control and less stressed I know because of the endorphins and the stress relief of running.  My back and legs are sore - but that's understandable.  I hate that my upper back and lower back get so sore for me from running.  I know its because I have a weak core.

I pulled off all my running workouts this week. Yeee haw!!!!  Tomorrow is a 70 min run.  OMG.  That's going to be hard.  Today I ran 50 but needed quite a few 60-120 sec breaks to make it through it.  I CAN'T WAIT until I get back to that place where I can run CONTINUOUSLY!  Its such an awesome feeling!!!

As far as eating - I'm tracking my food and am netting 1200 calories per day (cals from food AFTER I subtract my 300-350 calorie burn from 3-3.5mi running).  Its hard, I'm hungry, and I want chocolate hershey kisses.  I'm surprised at feeling hungry again.  I've been eating so much, I swear, I've not had that sensation in a while.  I don't feel hungry often - its actually late at night and early in the a.m.  I know as I detox from overeating this will change and adjust.  I just have to be diligent at making sure I eat breakfast and keep the protein above the 60g range.

I'm going fishing tomorrow in the beautiful salty ocean tomorrow!  Can't wait!  We're going to have mimosa's on the boat and try not to freeze!  Its supposed to get up to 64 degrees tomorrow - its going to be awesome!!  Then after, I've GOT to muster up the LONG RUN.  I can do it!

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend!  Make the most of it my friends!!

On one of my favorite running slogans....

Today is my official 'rest' day, so no running today.  But I've really enjoyed upgrading my Nike Plus app - that Amy W recommended.  Its awesome!  What I like the best is the mapping and accuracy in your pace.  Its fun to look at and makes you feel accomplished.  You can even replay your run and it shows you the path you took on a google map.  I promise its much cooler than I've described.

I went back to work today and its going to be hard to keep my running schedule while working.  I went into my WORK outlook calendar and scheduled all of my runs from my running program I followed when I had the running coach.  Its a great program that built my endurance and also makes sure you have rest days placed strategically 2x per week after the most strenuous runs.  I feel like having it there - in the calendar I look at all day long.  Because the plan changes what you're supposed to do daily - its also hard to know what and how long to plan to be gone from home.

I also went to the grocery store and planned out and purchased my breakfasts and lunches for the week.  I bought stuff for turkey sandwiches, tuna sandwiches and some hearty soups.  I bought Greek yogurt, some  Green Giant vegetable steamers, and Parmesan Pepperidge Farm goldfish (55 for 140 cals).

I've tracked my food on myplate.com consistently for the last 3 days.  They upgraded their free mobile app on New Years day and its a lot easier to use than it was in the past.  I like using the free myplate.com on my computer also b/c its so detailed and provides really great reporting that I just love.  I've used it for about 3 years now and really like using it.

Today was a slow day but I know things are going to get crazy.  I've got to figure out how to work in some runs at work during the day.  Maybe for my short runs because I can't work all day, then come home and be gone again.  Getting up 3 hours early isn't an option either.  So I'm going to pack my stuff, get dressed at work and try to run my short runs on my lunch break.  

Ok, tomorrow.  Full work day, full running day!

I'm telling you and reminding myself

Its all fun and games until the next day comes...

   Mr. Coconuts and I went out last night with friends (that's not him up there btw - its a friend of mine) and didn't go to bed until 4am this morning.  Really?  That's just stupid.  It included an open bar (which I know caused all the problems), some terrible meatballs,  a lot of dancing to "I'm sexy and I know it", a group of us going into (breaking into?) a friend's house at 2am (hey they left their front door open), and late night Taco Bell run.  Did you guys know Taco Bell stayed open even later last night?  Good thing because there was a line at 3am.  Ok, enough of that.  Bad choices last night for sure - but it was a lot of fun.  The kind of fun you only need to have once a year.  I'm good with that.

This my new running top from lululemon.  Makes running in the cold much nicer.   See the built in hand warmers?

I ran again this evening around 5pm.  I'd finished making dinner and it just needed time to simmer on the stove.  I made a wonderful vegetable soup using the leftover Christmas ham bone.  But more on that later.  What I really want to tell any of you who are just starting to run and think that its horrible, that this part really does end.  If you stick with it, and go easy on yourself, don't beat yourself up or think the negative thoughts "this hurts" "I can't go any further" "I want to stop" "I'm too heavy to do this" "My <leg, butt, knee, ankle, foot, lungs, ribs, nose, whatever> hurts" or even "I can't go for 20 more minutes."

I was thinking and feeling all those things tonight.  And when I really needed to stop, I did.  I don't want a negative emotion or thought tied to my running.  But the key is that I stopped for no more than 60-120 seconds.  When I had a running coach last year - that's what really stuck with me and made me turn the corner.  The coach said, you need to enjoy running.  With time and consistency, the miles will come.  And he was right.  I know that this place where it really hurts a lot and I just don't want to go any further is only temporary.  I remember being able to run for 8 miles and feel like I could just keep going.  My lungs didn't hurt, my legs weren't fatigued.  

When I do feel negative, and my legs hurt, and my lungs hurt, and I feel weak, I give myself some slack.  I remember that this is only temporary and I stop.  But I make sure to only rest 30 seconds or 60 seconds (his advice).  And then I go again.  Going easy on myself means I don't have those negative thoughts in my head.  Instead, I enjoy the run, I'm kind to myself, and I find the voice in my head being positive and strong.  Not negative and degrading telling me what a failure I must be.  It allows me to appreciate all that oxygen getting pushed into all those cells in my body that is making me healthier.  Sometimes I visualize tiny little champagne bubbles of oxygen coursing through my veins and getting to the parts of me that have been asleep and not touched by fresh new oxygen in a while.  That's weird huh?  I purposefully visualize positive things and instead of thinking about how far I still have to go, I acknowledge how far I've gone already.  It really does make me feel better!

And again, I know this place, where I want to give up - now I know its only temporary.  And it motivates me to keep going to get to that place where I could feel like I could run forever.  My legs could carry me just fine.  I always thought that running always felt negative and really hard.  I'm here to tell you it doesn't.  Its SO powerful and makes me feel so POWERFUL.  I can't wait to run for a long time, and sweat a good  sweat, get those endorphins flowing and torch some calories!

If you feel suck-y right now about exercise or even running.  Just remember, that this is only temporary.  As long as you stick to a plan and are consistent - it actually gets easier and even empowering!

And below is the dinner I made.  My gosh it was awesome and healthy!  I used the ham bone from the Christmas ham, added 2 cans of drained (less sodium that way) Canneli beans, kale, small diced potatoes, carrots, celery onion, a little white wine, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.  A few tiny bits of the ham fell off the bone - but it wasn't a ton in there to make it really bad for you - just enough to make it savory!  Its amazing how something so simple can taste SO great.   We, of course, sang "Boom Boom Pow" while we ate our black eyed peas that I made on the side.   I'm hoping it gives us double good luck this year....