My Path to Outer Skinniness

I finally got around to loading my run from my iPod. I went on a run last night - if you can call it that - and felt a bit lethargic and defeated. I went to the track by what used to be the YMCA (after driving around for about 20 minutes trying to figure out where to go and to find parking). First of all, I went into  my run expecting to get through it easily. I guess I'm not as over my cold as I wish I was because it was so hard! My throat burned - even with my inhaler - my legs burned, I kept getting shin splints and my calves were seizing up. Besides that it was super humid and I was sweating really bad, and  there were old ladies passing me, and a lady pushing a baby stroller. It was a bit humiliating and miserable. I'm going running again tomorrow night. I really hope I can get through the week 3 run. I was hoping I could move on to week 4, but I want to get through week 3 one more time first. In the meantime, I'm sitting here drowning my sorrows in a vegan brownie...

Normally I don't like to post more than once a day. But today is worth posting about. This is the dress that doesn't fit now :( Tonight was date night. Paul and I haven't been out alone together in a long time and I wanted us to get to spend an evening doing something nice. I have this dress that I bought several months back (I got a fantastic deal on it! $90 dress for about $10!) and I wanted to wear it. So I tried it on and it just wouldn't fit right. I then realized that it was probably a bit too big and I was sad because I have yet to wear it, but excited that I might actually be a size down finally! We're both sick so we decided to keep the evening low key. (Sorry dancing friends!) The initial plan was dinner and a movie. We looked up movie times and a place to eat. We got to the place to eat and it was closed for a private party. So we figured we'd try to go to the earlier showing of the movie and get dinner after. I thought we had time before the m...

I decided to finally press my luck and run today. I'm not totally recovered, but I can breath through my nose and my throat doesn't hurt anymore. Running produced a lot of coughing and sniffling, and my lungs hurt so bad! It was like asthma on steroids. At least I know that when I am back to normal I'll be able to make it through my run easily and probably will be able to do the first run of week 4 after one more go through week 3. I actually like week 3. There's only 4 run intervals, they're just longer than week 1 and 2. It gives you a bit more time to recover and it's halfway over before you're even thinking about wanting it to be over. Hopefully I can get through the next couple weeks without taking any 2 day breaks between runs. It's hard to keep a routine when my schedule's so erratic! But if I want to not cry my way through the run like hell, I need to push myself!

As you may or may not know from my facebook stati (my choice pluralization of status) I am fighting off a cold. It's not really all that bad I suppose. I have definitely had worse. But I have learned to baby myself when I am ill. I have missed far too many classes and did poorly where I would have done well had I adopted this philosophy earlier on in life. Pushing yourself to maintain your normalcy when you are sick is just prolonging the problem. So it is with this attitude that I contemplate my running routine. This cold is not that bad. My throats a bit sore and I sound like a man. My nose is a bit runny, but I can breathe. So I have to decide if it's better to wait it out a day or two (I believe I will feel better by then) or to try to run while I'm still sick. I've heard different philosophies on this. One is that it's okay to exercise if your illness doesn't affect the neck down. I've done this before and ended up being ill from the neck down later...

This day, although still near the beginning, is a great day! "But Bethany, why would you say that?" you might ask me. First of all, it's my mom's birthday and I'm a good daughter so I make that a priority. Secondly today is the one and only day that I will have run w3d1 of C25K for the first time. Many things went through my head followed with the thoughts "oh, I should write that in my blog later!" And it is because of these things that I am writing this post today. So here is the list of problems and the list of solutions. Problem #1: My headphones have been driving me nuts because they fall out every time I start to run. Solution: I wore a thermal headband over my ears. This kept them in, but made my head hot. I will probably have to find a new solution next summer when it gets warm again. Problem #2: My feet hurt like hell when I run!!! Solution: I can't fix this. I've gone through months of chiropractic treatments, lost weight, an...

Today is a good day for being on a diet. Why? Because I did really well today, and I didn't even realize it until now. I just calculated my calories for the day thinking that I probably was really near my limit and was pleasantly surprised to find that I'm still a couple hundred calories under my limit for the day. This is awesome considering I have such a hard time staying in my limits without tracking. By the way, polenta is an awesome substitute for pasta. I like it best when it's broiled on each side so it's kind of crispy on the outside. I've been running into something I haven't really experienced before. When I eat something that is blatantly bad for me, I get horrible stomach cramps and pain. Sunday night I decided to have a quesadilla for dinner because I was stuck at work instead of out celebrating with my dragon boat team. Paul had to bring me pepto bismol because my stomach hurt so badly. Today I had a bubble tea - which isn't really all that...

Well, after a bit of procrastinating I got my butt out of bed this morning and got out the door! I decided to try to run week 2 of the c25k program just to see if I could. I actually managed to make it through the entire workout! The whole concept of mental training has really made a difference. I think when you spend time around people that understand this and that you respect it helps to adopt their strategies. The trail I like to run, Fanno Creek Trail, is under construction. I had only been walking/running about 6 minutes and I got the the "end" of the trail. I was a bit bummed and when I turned around I caught myself thinking that I should just go back home. I caught myself thinking this sort of thing several times. But I'm learning how to stop this train of thought and to just keep pushing. There is so much you can do if you can learn this skill! I'm going to do the week 2 run one more time and then move on to week 3. I've never done week 3. I've alw...

Whenever I go on a diet I'm always happy when I get the results. Eventually the drive starts to wane and then I'm always surprised that I don't continue to lose weight when I stop doing the grunt work. I'm bitter in fact. Bitter that you can really never back down from working hard for what you want. That fact was really driven home the last couple days. I've only been tracking my calories..two days maybe? As soon as I make sure that I'm staying within my range (even if it's at the maximum of that range) I lose another pound. On one hand, I should be happy. One whole pound in two days! On the other hand, I'm kind of irritated that the solution to my weight problem is really very simple and yet so difficult. I can't come up with a different approach or a more creative solution. I can't figure out a way to not do the work to get the results. There is one solution to my one problem and it will always be the same. Eat less - track what I eat to mak...

This soup tastes just like German potato salad, but it's soup! Makes 4 Servings Hillshire Farms Turkey Kielbasa, cut into discs 1 Onion, chopped ½ Cabbage, chopped 6 potatoes (whatever kind floats your boat, I used red), cut into ½“ cubes water salt pepper vinegar sugar (splenda) Calories: 335.5, Fat: 8.75g, Carbs: 37.5, Protein: 22.75 Fill large saucepan or small pot halfway with water. Salt and bring to a boil. While the water is heating up, in a separate stockpot sauté onions with a bit of olive oil, pinch of salt and some pepper. When onions are transparent, add cabbage and sausage. Add a few pinches of sugar and a few splashes of vinegar to taste. Add a bit of water to keep it from burning. Turn burner down to low to keep warm. When the water in the first pot is boiling, add chopped potatoes. Boil until tender. When potatoes are done pour all contents into second pot. Add water, salt, and pepper to taste (if you like more broth, add more water). Let it all simmer togethe...

So...the girl with the good character. Yeah, she's been missing for a few days. Several days actually. I haven't tracked my calories for probably a week. The good news is that I haven't really destroyed my progress yet. The bad news is that I'm not actively working toward my goals, and I still haven't met them yet. So here's the shake. Tomorrow's Thursday - weigh-in day. It's also the first day of my week for tracking. I'm going to start over tomorrow. Christy called me out of my lackadaisical attitude toward my couch to 5k efforts and challenge me to get my butt into shape in six weeks for a 5k run. Given it's a run where you dress up in an Alice in Wonderland theme, but it's a run all the same. I think I need to do it. So now I have two new goals. Track calories for a week straight and train for a 5k over the next 6 weeks. Anyone else want to join me?

Today I did something brave. Today I sat in the second row during dragon boat practice with a near full boat and our regular coach running practice (I've done it before with about half as many people on board and the captain or one of the leads running practice). It was rather difficult. First of all, the rest of the boat depends on you to keep the timing. If you get off, everyone else does too. Second of all, I was close enough for the coach to actually see my mistakes immediately and close enough that I could hear him tell me what they were. I really had to push myself. Initially I resented all the feedback. I had the coach telling me to fix one thing like the front of the stroke, and then I'd start to slip on another thing like timing and have someone behind me yelling to watch the timing. I realized about halfway in that it was exactly this feedback that was going to make me better. Even though it was a bit overwhelming, I was focused and working hard the entire time. At...

Well, I'm up two pounds. 177. It's better than I expected considering how bad I did with my food choices over the last week. I've lost my steam for tracking. I've done a fairly good job at watching myself. I've been eating more fish, I've been taking my vitamins, and drinking more water. I'm trying! But I'm not absolutely certain that I'm staying within calorie limits that will lead to  my success because I'm not writing it down. I reach this point every time I'm on a diet. The point where I don't want to keep doing the same thing that's been working for me anymore..but I'll keep doing most of it. This is when I need to fight through my apathy and really get serious about my progress. This is when it gets hard. And it's important to push through it because if I don't I'll just be back where I've always been. I'm going to start by writing down what I ate today. Character is built by the quality and fervor ...