Minyla

Hey! I'm back, even though I'm late to the party and cut out early last go round... Even when I don't have the time/mental capacity to post, I have been trying to stick to my goals. I'm going to work on being around here to participate, but know that I am thinking about y'all! So, challenge 2 for me. The goals are pretty much the same, but I am going to get more serious. Two goals, which isn't much, but if I can keep up with them it will be HUGE. 1. Keep up a reasonable C25k schedule. I'm going to run my first 5k at the end of April, and I just did week 4 of the program for the first time last night. To be done on time, I have to keep up the training consistently from here on out. I will do this. I'm not saying "X times a week," because my situation requires that I give myself some flexibility. But three days is the most I should ever let go between runs. 2. Cook my tail off. When I'm cooking, I'm eating waaaaayyyy better, and I lose weight more easily. Cooking improves my diet for dinner and lunch (hooray for leftovers!), but it's easy to lose momentum (hmm, just like with running...), and it's time-consuming. I'm resolving to do more planning and more shopping and more cooking. Eating out is fine, but it shouldn't be our default position. My goal is to plan meals for every week in advance, and to not let excuses get in the way of following through on those plans. Life goals: My life goals are work-related. One for my next job (whatever that turns out to be) and one for this job. I'm going to start seriously applying for my next job, work on establishing a complete "master resume" so that I don't have to keep hunting for old info whenever I need to reorient my application, and work on knocking out a good default resume for research assistant positions. For this job, I'm starting my last major project during this challenge, and my goal is to make actual, demonstrable progress on it before this challenge is over. Due to the cyclic nature of my workload, I often get into "mental break" mode at the beginning of a project cycle, and I want to avoid that this time around. If I knock out this project quickly, I will have more time and energy to devote to other things. About me: I'm a relatively new attorney with a wonderful husband and two cats. I commute an hour each way to work, which cuts into my free time substantially. I'm horribly lazy when I let myself be. In the last year, I've gone from 285 pounds to 212, and my goal is 165. I love trivia, puzzles, television, board games, cooking, crafts, and playing WoW with my aforementioned wonderful husband.

It *does* sound delish! Hope everything is still going well!

Wow, that really is impressive! Week four is my monster-under-the-bed. I've never actually seen him, but I know he's there, and I'm scared to death of him. Good job getting through it! I'll be Week 5 will be a breeze now!

Today, I'm feeling like I'm failing ateverything. I'm unable to keep myself focused at work, so I'm WAAAAAAYYYYY behind where I need to be on this project (and more keep popping up). I haven't run since last Friday -- we brought all of our gear with us on our long weekend trip, but didn't get it out at all. This morning, we got up to run, but we started late, and by the time we realized the c25k app hadn't been running correctly, there wasn't time for any running. So I walked for 15 minutes today, that's it. I had Monday off, and Monday night we were exhausted, so I didn't bother putting together a lunch for yesterday-- I figured since I still had 3 days, no problems. Well, today is my coworker's birthday, and she wants to go out for lunch. I won't get into our office details, but trust me when I say I'm the only person she has to go out with, and it's her birthday. So I'm definitely taking her out to lunch (being there for my friends and family is more important to me than any of my personal goals -- fortunately, they don't too often conflict ). So, since there are only two days left after today, I will fail my lunch goal, and unless we run tomorrow and Friday, I will fail the c25k goal. Just because my morning wasn't disappointing enough, I also stuck my mascara brush in my eye (hard), and it still hurts, lol... Well, I guess all I can do is keep going. It's just a shitty feeling, you know? My frustration did help motivate me to contact one of my professors, though, so at least I am making progress toward my non-fitness goal. And I will almost certainly go to my class tomorrow night, so there's that. Also bothering me is the fact that we've done nothing but eat out since last Friday, and even though we try to eat good things, it doesn't take long before I just feel gross. All of the stress and busyness of the week hasn't left me any time to shop or cook yet, though. Hopefully tonight. I'm not sure I can take another night out. Bleh, okay. Enough whining. I hope everyone is having a great week, and a better day than I am. I'm reading everyone's updates, but I really need to knock out a LOT of progress on this project, so I may not be commenting on anyone's threads for a day or two. We'll see.

C25k this morning. Holyhell, it's COLD out there!! It's supposed to warm up this weekend, so hopefully we can get out on Sunday and run wherever we are. Have a great weekend, all!

Boo sickness... hope you feel better soon!

I feel like this is a good time to mention that I'm an attorney (my lawyer-sense was tingling-- it's the same feeling we get when ambulances pass by...). Seriously, though, have fun at the Melting Pot! I'm totally jealous!

So still here. C25k is just not happening this week, mostly because of the extreme cold, but also a little because I'm lazy. Boo to both. In fairness to me, my cold weather running gear is really only appropriate down to about 10 or 15 degrees, and it's been well below that in the mornings. When the windchill is more than 10 degrees below zero, I'm not going out to run. The fact that I wouldn't have gotten up anyway is all that bothers me. Otherwise, it's been a good week, goals-wise. I brought my third lunch today (I only missed yesterday because I left my delicious lunch on the counter when I walked out the door), so I can check that goal off. Actually, I realized that for a variety of reasons that mostly have to do with being a government employee, I won't actually have a full week of work at all during the challenge. So instead of 3/5, I need to bring my lunch 3/4 days. And so far, so good! Also, I went to my class tonight. I have already started to look forward to it a little, although I think it got about as physically demanding today as it's probably going to-- and that it isn't very demanding. Zul and I have started talking again about some alternative fitness arrangements, though, and someday soon it may be time to actually follow through on that. Well, I hope everyone has a fantastic week. We're traveling over this weekend (a four day weekend for me, yay!), so I probably won't be around again until sometime next week. But I will be reading everyone's updates as they come via email! Ciao!

If you're eating dairy, cottage cheese and greek yogurt are also good sources of protein. Quinoa is another possibility (if you eat grains) -- not as high protein as the sources you've mentioned, but a good additional source.

It was delicious! I had never eaten beets before the first time I made this soup, but I really love the flavor, and it's super easy to make. You cut four beets into six wedges each (trim and scrub/peel them first) and microwave them with two cups of water or stock until they are tender, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, cook one onion and one stalk of celery in a dash of olive oil covered until they are translucent, about 12 minutes. Add the beets and water to the onion and celery, and add another cup of water or stock. Simmer for about 5 minutes, then add ginger (peeled and minced- I use a garlic press- or powdered) and five spice powder. Then put it all in the blender, and blend until smooth. A dollop of plain yogurt on top really makes it outstanding, but it's pretty good on it's own, too. Plus, it's gorgeous!

I've used a similar strategy with c25k. I usually run each week until I feel comfortable enough with it that I no longer wonder mid-way through if I'm going to be able to finish. This often took much longer than a week, though, largely because I let more than a week (or even two) go by between runs. However, since we are signing up for a 5k in April, I'm going to really try to stick to the schedule. Fortunately, starting to do it now means there's some wiggle room for snow, cold, scheduling, and repetition of a week if necessary. I remember reading on the CoolRunning c25k forum that the general recommendation is to keep going until you can't get through one, then fall back and repeat until you can. I keep hoping that if I actually manage to do it three times a week, it will suddenly get easier and I will magically be able to run a 5k at the end...

Yeah, I was going to suggest a shoe check as well. Was it the impact that was bothering you? Or did it feel like it took more effort? We've been assuming the first, but it occurred to me that the second is a possibility, too. We did our run yesterday on packed snow, but I'm used to pavement/cement (my marathon-running friend tells me that cement/concrete sidewalks are about the worst thing to run on for impact- blacktop is preferable). I know I went slower on the snow that I do on dry sidewalk, because the ground was more uneven and more slippery. Is it possible you were exerting yourself more without thinking about it because you were running on even, paved ground rather than on the trail? ETA: @Faline, there are a lot of shorter races that take place on trails, at least around here. The nicer parks usually sponsor at least one during the year -- contact your local running clubs (which may take a little creative googling to find) to find out where they are and when!

Way to go!!

:blush: Thanks! Friday's lunch was delicious leftover salmon and bulgur...yum! So A for lunch for the week (I personally cooked my own lunch 4/5 days, although only 2/3 days I was in the office). C for running, thanks to the snow, although I'm tempted to bump it to a C+ since we went out this afternoon and knocked out a run on top of four inches of uncleared snow that fell yesterday (Dear Snow: Nobody likes a showoff. You've made your point.). Since we started on a Monday, Sunday is still part of last week, right? Oh well. The good news is that we ran today, and I'm making enough Super Bowl fare (barbecue steak and blue cheese salad, five spice beet soup) to provide at least lunch tomorrow. The law school judging I was supposed to do last Wednesday has been bumped to tomorrow, though, so I may have to start thinking about what I can toss together quickly tomorrow night or Tuesday morning for lunch, if I can't stretch the leftovers into two lunches. Hmmm.

I've been mulling this over, but my FAVORITE veggie dish right now is a roasted broccoli that's almost exactly like your recipe! Btw, if you like spice, I'd suggest adding just a little crushed red pepper...

Spinach in a box (rather than a bag) lasts longer in my experience, too. Those salad bags just seem to encourage funk. The result for me is that I tend to stick to heartier veggies, and buy my salads out. The omelet cupcakes are definitely intriguing-- I may be trying those in the near future (although I will likely find a different name for them, LOL). Thanks for the tips!

Hey, how was the AM workout today?

No kidding. This snow really needs to melt and go away for good. I was reading a running article earlier and it had a photo of the featured runners out on some sunny trail somewhere wearing shorts, and all I could think was "I can't WAIT for Spring to be here so that can be ME (well, probably with pants and not shorts, but w/e)." Actually, I think that's a pretty solid mental victory for me in and of itself -- the fact that what I want to do is get out and run... I think the class will be fun. I'd love to be doing a zumba class, I've gone to my mother-in-law's zumba class a few times when we visit them, but I just haven't found one that fits my schedule. The community college where I'm taking cardio salsa has a zumba class right before my class, but I can't possibly get there by 5:30 consistently (or even most of the time). I live in a college town, and it seems to me that most of the fitness classes (except the community college) are scheduled around students, so they meet in the early afternoon or late morning. Since I work out of town (and the town that I work in doesn't have anything), it means that most classes don't work well for me at all. It's a real bummer. I definitely recommend Zumba for cardio, though -- I really enjoy it when I get to go.

I *really* wish I had some free time to spend with Photoshop, because this image needs to be made. Seriously. Great job so far, Wer!! Keep up the good work!!

Seems you already made your choice, but in case others are interested, I use FatSecret and like it a lot. When I was looking around for a good calorie counter about a year ago, FS had the most comprehensive food database of anything I tried. It was so nice to not have to manually enter so much because other members had already put it in the db.

I can definitely see how keeping your calories high enough while eating Paleo would be hard. Are cooking oils or fats allowed? You can slip in extra calories with olive oil and butter... also, nuts maybe? Those are nice and calorie dense. And Gem's suggestion of cottage cheese is a great one-- also really protein packed-- if you do dairy and can stomach cottage cheese (I've got the first but not the second, LOL). That cruise sounds AWESOME! Also, I am super jealous that you're escaping the crappy weather that is plaguing...everywhere. Have a great time!!

Haha, I just got home! Actually, I got a pretty solid burst of energy this afternoon (even finished my draft of the project I've been working on, which means I'm really only one day behind where I wanted to be (though about a week behind where I really need to be)), and that "just enough time to get comfy" BS was really "just enough time to change, reheat dinner, scarf it down, speed off to class, and still rock in a minute or two late!" LOL. So I may have to give some thought to my routine for Thursdays, especially where dinner is concerned. If I were just now having dinner, I'd be up all night, but if I have to do anything more than nuke my dinner, I might not have time. The class itself went well. It's pretty small, but I am neither the youngest nor the oldest nor the most of out shape, though I may be the heaviest... Eh, can't win em all. I'd say it's definitely more salsa than cardio, which is a little disappointing (I'd love for it to be more Zumba-esque), but at least this means I can count it as a dance class for my OMFG skill without having to fudge it at all. Also, since it was just the first class, we really just did basic steps, so later on it may be more challenging. In this class, we went really slow, and kept going back and stopping. Part of the problem is that there was one older lady who was having some trouble doing all the steps, and three young women in the back who don't speak much English-- actually, it seems that one of them doesn't speak much English and the other two don't speak any English. So the one has to try and translate for the other two, while our instructor (a heavyset woman in about her 50s) plays charades for their benefit (unnecessarily, I might add-- they could follow our basic steps tonight pretty easily). It was all pretty hilarious, actually. I felt bad, but I don't speak any Spanish, either. Maybe now is a good time to learn some! As it was, it was really just enough to get my heart rate up like a brisk walk, and only for about the last 10 minutes. It did feel like a good basic workout for my hips and legs, though, so that's good.

I use the Nike+ for tracking my runs with my iPod. It's a little pricey, but it has definitely encouraged me to get out and walk/run more than I might have otherwise. To do the c25k, I either use one of the blank mp3s, overlaid with my own music, or we just carry a phone with the c25k app on it, too. A little clunky sometimes, but nice. As for a name, I was thinking of something dealing with c25k, too. Maybe c2awesome or something silly like that? I also looked up a list of running slogans, and there are some good ones here. I like several of them, but I think my favorites are: Pain is temporary. Pride is forever.Running a lot. It works.Run, Eat, Sleep, Repeat.Run like you stole something.Slow and steady will win the race, except in a real race.And my definite favorite: Trample the weak, hurdle the dead.

Bleh... stayed up too late last night, wish I could take a nap over my lunch break, but I'm so far behind thanks to the snowdays that all I can really afford to do is make a few quick posts here. I'll be honest: I am dreading my cardio salsa class tonight. I have no idea what to expect or what to bring, I'm nervous about it anyway (will I be the biggest/oldest/youngest/most out of shape/only newbie?), and I'll be home for about an hour before I go, leaving me time to settle in and really start to feel exhausted. I need to keep repeating what I put in my goal post: I will not skip it, no matter how tired I feel. I will not skip it, no matter how tired I feel. I will not skip it, no matter how tired I feel. But... we'll see. :/ In other news, all of the cooking I was able to do while snowed in means that I'm all set for homemade meals for the rest of the week. Today's lunch of leftover roasted broccoli, pine nuts, and deli ham was quite tasty. [ATTACH=CONFIG]172[/ATTACH] I think "downright delicious" could have been achieved with a little parmesan or feta cheese, but this was pretty good on it's own. This officially makes three days of cooked lunch, which means I have accomplished at least one of my goals this week! Yay!

Haha...yeah, this is me. I feel like my evenings are so rushed and short already that I end up lulling myself into staying up "just a little bit" later more often than I should. Since I can't just sleep in (darn job), I wind up tired, cranky, unmotivated, and unhappy. Boo. I'll be more than happy to keep on you about getting to bed-- it's been a while since I did some real "pot calling the kettle black". ETA: Also, I can't wait to read your blog posts! (hint, hint)