Getting it done! No excuses.

[awesomesue]

I have been keeping a pen and paper log but I decided I wanted to post here to help with accountability.

 

Right now I am working on being healthy and running my first half marathon.  I have RA among other fun things but currently it is all under control.  Better yet, the healthier I am the better I can handle those times when things are not in my control.  LOL

 

My longest run has been 7 miles but I backed off training.   This week I will see where I am at distance wise.  I have been running for almost a year.  I will be doing a half in October...wish me luck!

 

Current measurements (inches):

 

Neck:  16 1/4

shoulders 18 3/4

chest 44 1/4

biceps 12

waist 43 1/2

hips 47 1/2

thigh 25 3/8

 

Weight

198.4 lbs 

 

 

[awesomesue]

So in the past 3 days I had 2 runs (2 mi and 4 mi), walked a total of 10 miles, stretched 2 days (15-20 minutes of total body stretching before bed), and did 5 rounds of the Konami Code workout.

 

A bit of popping and creaking today but it is all good.

[awesomesue]

This week I did the following:

 

Stretched 4 times

Strength trained 2 x...body weight exercises

Worked on planks for 5 minutes a time 4 different days...really need to do daily since I would love to be able to do a handstand.

Ran 3x for 2.5, 2.75, and then 5 miles...want to and need to run more than 3x a week.

 

Signed up on myfitnesspal to help track food for now.

[awesomesue]

Here is my starting point and my amazing dog.  He is the faithful sidekick on many runs but not enough of them according to him.

 

I definitely need to work on posting to this log weekly.  I long term goals are just being healthier in general.  I also want to work towards a doing a tough mudder, a triathalon, and an ultra marathon.  

[awesomesue]

Week of July 28th:

 

3 level 1 body weight workouts

stretched 4 nights

Ran a total of 13 miles

walked several miles (over 10)

Biked to and from work 3 days.

 

Struggling with not getting up early to do things but just starting them when I get up early.  Afraid to fail and succeed at the same time.  Mental stuff is the hardest for sure.  Eating has been up and down.  When I have more than one not so healthy meal in a row I end up feeling drained physically and find it harder to workout.  Still tracking what I eat even though I do not always look forward to it but then again I have learned a lot too.

[awesomesue]

Okay I have not been posting here.  I think with the start of the 6 week challenges for 2015 if nothing else I want to update this log weekly.  For the current challenge I am working on the following:
1.  Taking more time to eat and not eating past the point of being satisfied.  I do not like that I ate too much feeling.  Yuck.  Plus I am working on not nibbling/sampling when I get home or am cooking.
2.  Getting miles in be it walking, running, biking, and even swimming.
3.  Strength training 3-4 days a week.  Basically every other day and no excuses.  
 
Challenge 1 of 2015: My Basics

I would love to be able to run an ultra distance (50K) by the end of the year, do a 100 mi bike ride, and nail a handstand not against the wall and feel steady holding it.  Those are my epic quests for the year and I will reach them. 
 
It is Saturday day 6 and I have done good.  I had three challenges for eating already and won those battles.  The first was surviving a potluck.  The second was our amazing homemade pizza night, and the third eating all weekend at home and not nibbling, sampling too much, or any of that stuff I am trying to break habit wise.  I have 3 workouts in and one more for tomorrow for strength training.  Distance is at 15.7 miles so far.  Still 2 days left to add miles.  

 

Also started of the year with doing a challenge with Nianne.  Awesome.  She is pretty cool and has the best writing style for her challenge posts.  Helping motivate each other and giving us each something to train for so we can reach our goals.  We are tackling walking/running distance, practice streak (for me handstands), push up pvp, plank pvp, and diet streak.  So far we are rocking it.  She can hold a plank amazingly long.  Wow what a goal for me.  We are close on push ups.  Still she set a high bar for sure.  

 

The biggest think I learned from trying challenges last year and fantastic fails is that I do best when I have a specific goal to train for since I find it hard to just be working toward the nebulous be healthy goal.  That is my ultimate goal...be as healthy as possible for me.  I can define it but yet it feels so hard to wrap my head around.  While working toward a specific goal I have seen that I will pull several things together which all benefit the ultimate goal.

[awesomesue]

Week 1 of my challenge has been successful.  Score one for me!  

 

BUT.....

 

I had been struggling with eating too fast, too much, and tasting/nibbling mindlessly.  Met some challenges head on this week however yesterday in the afternoon I ran head long into an unexpected challenge.  Massive financial stress.  Just lead to eating over the sink, quickly, and mindlessly although I was aware of what I should do and could do but felt powerless to stop it.  Now that is one to learn from and I have to think through how I handle these situations.  There is always something to learn from and new things to learn.  Stumbled over a rock in the road but I plan on kicking it out of the way.  

[awesomesue]

Going to work on running consistency (I have missed it).  Starting with some MAF for 4 months and time based training.  After that I will evaluate where I am at and start adding distance goals perhaps and hills with tempo or fartlek runs once to twice a week keep long runs MAF.  From there evaluate again how I am doing fitness wise and really start distance work with back to back long to med. runs.

 

Right now 20-30 minute runs 3-4 days a week.  Work up to 1 hour runs 3-4 days a week consistently.

 

MAF was frustrating.  I ended up walking fast to an easy trot.  Anything more took me out of MAF.  wowza...

[awesomesue]

Week 2 of the challenge was another win and week 3 is right on target.  Eating slower is coming easier although I have had temptations to let go my priorities.  To find excuses to not care but so far so awesome.  Instead of feeling like I am trying to eat slower I notice when I am eating too fast and slowing down is easy.  Resisting the nibbles and over tasting.  Putting away food today I was tempted to eat a couple bites of deliciousness out of the skillet.  Very very tempted!  It was hard not to but I did it.  I was not hungry so no...not gonna do it!  Exercising (strength work) has gone great.  Still not putting in as many miles as I know I am able for that fun goal.  I think that since it is more of a fun goal I have had trouble pushing myself.  Still I am doing better than I had the past few weeks leading up to this challenge.  I am slipping up on my challenge with Nianne.  Definitely made progress with push ups and planks.  However last night I outright forgot to do work towards doing a solid handstand.  I have been under loads of stress lately.  I was tired last night from my run home and after playing Clue with kiddo I fell asleep watching LOTR completely forgetting my handstand work.  Wow.

[awesomesue]

Week 3 was a overall win.  I discovered in running MAF pace my running effort previously had been all over the place and inconsistent at best.  I can do this pace and not feel sore and exhausted after the run.  It has been a struggle with eating but I have been doing good.  I mean great!  Resisting old habits and seeing the new ones feel like the norm and old habits feeling more awkward.  Definite win.  Strength work has remained consistent and I feel amazing.  So I feel more confident and looking forward to week 4.  Feeling confidence is a bit scary but a good scary.  Mostly because feeling more confident implies there is something to loose.  But I know rationally that just because it could be a big lose does not mean I have to lose that confidence.  I can learn and continue to build more confidence.  It is always scary to make mistakes but I love how much I have learned and that has helped build a stronger base in being confident.

[awesomesue]

Week 4 of the challenge has gone well.  Met all my goals.  Forced to rest but that is okay.  Joints burning and hurting today (Sunday).  Stupid RA.  Still with that I definitely feel the temptation to fall into old habits.  Not an option.  Nope, not gonna happen.  No excuses.

 

Started tracking again on MFP.  Not loosing weight and I know although my food quantity has improved what I am choose to eat not so much.  I can not blame it on the fact that a fair amount comes from a food pantry.  It is how I choose to prepare what we do have and we still get some fresh produce.  I need to work on balancing the processed crud with the fresh.  Takes more work but used to putting in the effort even if I have not felt like it lately.  Need to make the best out of what we have and I can do that.  Tracking it simply helps make me think about my choices and get creative with balancing it all out.

[awesomesue]

Okay copied from the challenge wrap-up thread since it summed it up. 

 

For the first time ever I met all my goals.  I found out that I can eat slowly and not over eat.  I found out that as a result I do not have to be tempted by junk and give into to the old urges of eating way too much just because it was there.  Broke the nibbling/grazing habit when I get home and tasting my food way too much while cooking.  You should not be eating almost a full portion of food in the name of "tasting" while cooking.  Just saying.  I received a lot of good advice and encouragement early on that helped me prior to a potluck and at the start of my challenge with other situations that left me nervous.  I made all my strength workouts and am much stronger.  Despite battling a flare up I was able to do it.  My fun goal of doing whatever distance was not so productive.  I could have done more but having a fun goal with no real goal set is not how I work.  Then again the point was do whatever for fun which did help get me moving more.  I also found out pouting because my bike needs fixed is not so useful.    We have an exercise bike and I can do miles on it.  The no excuses thing has and is working.  It does not mean that sometimes I will have to miss a workout for example but at the same time I am able to find modifications more often then needing to miss it.  I can find creative ways to work it in.  It does mean that there is no reason to eat too fast or too much.   It allows me to live up to what I know I am capable of if that makes any sense.  Strange when you are afraid to be comfortable in being yourself in embracing those things that make you different.  In appreciating them you are able to accomplish more since you understand how you work and allow yourself to work within that frame.  This challenge was proof of that for me.  

[awesomesue]

Holy Moly Batman I have been laxed here.  No more.

 

I realized I got so caught up in epics I would sacrifice my base fitness and making improvements just to get things done towards the side goals and not the big one.  Ouch.  Lesson learned.

 

Starting again with this challenge to build it back up.  Anyway I was not pleased with some measurements I took.  Well I just looked at my old ones and was happy to see there were improvements!  I mean that is AWESOME!!!  So despite a black slide of sorts I still have improvements.  Wowza.  

I feel like I should be farther along but I am seriously good knowing I did make progress that I had not fully appreciated/realized.

 

Feeling pretty good.

 

I am also super proud of tricks I have worked on to enjoy more vegetables and eat better in general.  Just another win since last year.

[awesomesue]

Heading into the weekend of week 1.  I have lost 4 pounds in 10 days and enjoying the strength work.

 

Last night we ordered pizza from not the place we love when we do order.  We normally make it ourselves and it always tastes better and is satisfying.  Less crust, better flavors, no added salt to cover the lack of real ingredients and flavor, and we do not skimp on the protein.  This place left me up and typing here.  Stomach upset and their food is soooooooooooooooo salty.  Not worth it.  The food also lacks that certain sense of satisfaction so it is easier to overeat because you do not feel satisfied.  

 

Looks like I will hit my weekly bench marks and then some so that feels good.  Just enjoying getting it done.  Been feeling more confident overall and a little bit proud of myself.  Nice for a change.

[awesomesue]

Went to the grocery yesterday.  I was disheartened to see how much crap foods where on sale for while better options were either not on sale or for that much.  

 

Planned dinners for the next two weeks and a grocery list.  Husband and I went over it and marked what store to get each item and what we had coupons for.  We have 3 stores close to each other.  We will spend more on our protein from Lucky's though because it is local and not full of crud.  Better quality.  Most of our fresh produce comes from there as well.  It was more work to plan, search weekly adds, and add coupons to cards and all that but I feel we are able to get even more good foods at a reasonable price.  It also helped with the meal planning.

 

Physically speaking the strength work and running/biking has felt great.  Amazing how in such a short time you can begin to feel results.  It is just a matter of consistency.

 

Playing with cold showers.  Not enjoying the cold water on my back at all.  I thought it would be my feet that would be hard and my front.  LOL But I am enjoying the mental discipline of getting myself to do it.  I also enjoy how pumped (or is it relief???) I feel when it is done.  

[awesomesue]

Week 2 down of this next challenge.  Been doing good all around.  Pretty demanding of myself.  tomorrow I am not gong to worry about food (eating optimally for me) since we have loads of family over for Andrews birthday.  Salisbury steak, mashed po's, green beans, chocolate covered bacon, avacodo deviled eggs, and use the potato peels to make tasty crispies.  Hate wasting the skins.  Of course kiddo is making a homemade chocolate cake with a butter cream icing.  I am going to drink some veg soup with breakfast keeping it to simple healthy foods until everyone comes over for the afternoon.  

 

Despite stress and crud going on this weekend I managed to keep moving and exercising.  hormones are all whacko too.  I also did not go into emotional eating.  I wanted to out of habit but I did not want to so I didn't.  I do not feel like I need to do that anymore.

[awesomesue]

Been doing better with stress and managing changes around the house lately.  After last weekend and feeling overwhelmed something fell into place and yeah feeling better.

 

I need to make sure I can take some kind of measure mid challenge.  Something other than did it or not but something that can measure an improvement.  Massive help mentally to see something improve even a little.  

 

Trying to do burpees for 10 minutes followed by a couple minutes rest and then get ups for 10 minutes is NOT FUN!  Great measures for sure but NOT FUN.  Maybe they should be spaced a bit more apart than a couple minutes.  LOL

 

I am determined to:

• improve my health
• manage stress
• do an ultra so I guess that means improve my endurance...LOL
• get stronger
• drop weight/% body fat to something healthy that allows me to be strong and go long
• be a success story on NF

[awesomesue]

Okay this post (mostly the quotes toward the bottom) says it all.

 

For the past couple weeks it seems at some point someone is sick or gets sick.  We are definitely adjusting to our new schedule still and getting ourselves used to all the changes.  Stress, even from good things, can wreak havoc with your body.  Throw in changing weather and so on and yeah I am feeling cruddy today.

[awesomesue]

I think I am in love with running on trails.  Completely enjoy it.  I look forward to seeing improvements as I get better.  I am definitely trying to figure out how to do more.  

[awesomesue]

Starting in two days (October 18th) I will embark on 47 Days of Awesome that will culminate in my 47th birthday.  

 

For 47 days I will:

• have a vegetable with 2 out of 3 meals a day every day (if I miss a day I can make it up by doing veggies with all 3 meals)
• move every day (walk, run, hike, bike, strength work, swim....one of these a day)
• calm my mind through some activity such as 15 minutes of calm gentle stretching, meditation, focused breathing, chi gong, yoga
• read at least 3 books
• try something new each week...be it an activity, food, new trail to run...it just has to be new to me (I believe that is 7 weeks away)

I am going to be good to myself.  If I miss something one day I can make it up in the next couple days for the daily items.

 

No I am not nuts.  I will make sure this is part of my challenge.  I already do most of them most every day.  I do not always do 2 meals a day with veggies but I need to.   I move daily and I want to keep it up.  I have been lax with stretching/meditation so I am upping that game.  I need to keep playing.  Lately I have been riding a different way home everyday on my bike.  Never the same way twice.  It has been fun finding new streets to explore.  I want to keep that sense of exploration up.

[awesomesue]

Well today is it...the count down to my 47th birthday!  I have thought more about that wonky idea I had for 47 days of awesome to celebrate my birthday and I am pretty dang excited.  I started out having a vegetable with breakfast.    I had pumpkin and it was good.  Already planning on spinach balls with dinner.  I just started a book and I am merely 20 pages into it so I am figured it was okay to start with that book.    With the 47 days of AWESOME (I really love how that sounds) I have already got my next NF challenge sorted.  Everything compliments each other.  

 

For this current NF challenge I am feeling pretty good.  I may not make it to Rivendell but that just a fun goal and well I have done pretty good if you ask me.  

 

Feels like an early birthday gift to myself to even try.  If I do not hit all of them for some reason I am just excited to be doing it.  Granted if I miss a day all is okay because if I am able to make it up the next day I will call it good.  The only exception is moving daily.  Walk, run, bike, hike, or strength I can do every day.  No excuses.

 

Pretty good at eating veggies for 2 meals most days but I have times I miss it.  I am striving to do this one.  I can make up a meal if I do it the next day.  No reason why I can not eat a veg every meal.

 

Lets face it...trying new things is fun so that was an easy one to add.  I have so many books I want to read so why not.  I am also such a worrier.  I need to work on calming so again I think 15 a day is reasonable to work towards.  Some days I may get 5 but if I can make up the time on the next day that will be good.  To be honest I want to hit all the goals but coming close is better than not trying from fear of failing.  Right now I feel like a win already just because I am trying.

[awesomesue]

2 meals with veg (only ate two meals today)

Trail run

15 minutes combo of stretching and meditation

Read some.

 

...Day 1 of 47....

[awesomesue]

Day 2

Veg with all 3 meals!  Added 1/2 cup pumpkin puree to oatmeal (about 1/4 cup before it was cooked of oats), broc soup, and making roasted carrots with dinner.

Meditated for 15 minutes.  Found this site and like the stuff....http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22   it is not annoying in anyway.  I normally do not like guided work but this is good.  Never really done guided stuff so this is new to me.  To also up the try something new each week (I am hesitant to count guided meditation because I have practiced meditation before and it is part of another goal) I signed up for duolingo.  Thought I would work on a language.  Been years.  I took so much Spanish in the past I could not take it in college.  In college I did Italian through completion though I remember so little.  For fun I took one term of Swedish.  Wanted more but it never fit my schedule since so few classes were offered.  I am taking Dutch.  It looked fun.  Doing it for 5 minutes a day to keep it simple.  Already had fun with it.

[Elastigirl]

Love the idea of learning Dutch just for fun. Popped in to say hello, I recently celebrated my 50th birthday, and I feel healthier and more energetic than I have in 10 years.

[awesomesue]

Love the idea of learning Dutch just for fun. Popped in to say hello, I recently celebrated my 50th birthday, and I feel healthier and more energetic than I have in 10 years.

Thanks!  Best part of working on Dutch is kiddo picked up working on German.  I hope to go into 50 feeling even better than I do now which is massively better than I was a couple years ago.  

 

Weight is not coming off but being home today has given me time to really think it all through.  Quiet times are great for being honest with yourself.  I eat so much better than I did before and I have so many activities that leave me excited and happy (running, biking, strength and so on).  However I need to tighten up some things up regarding food (thus the veg with 2 meals a day goal as a way to help that) and I need to admit my hormones are changing thus food is even more important.  I also have been improving strength but I when from doing 16# push presses and tried 30# because I had a feeling.  Yep that feeling was right.  Even though I have upped the weight I am not pushing what I am capable of doing.  It was hard but I maintained good form and frankly enjoyed the challenge.  If I am getting through it and not feeling like there is much of a challenge besides doing it then I need to stop and add weight.  Crazy to have such a jump other than underestimating my ability.  

 

Okay going to read, bike, and enjoy 15 minutes of meditation and stretching.  

 

Todays food has me eating veggies with all 3 meals.  I feel amazing.