Wednesday Weigh in Week 10

I just looked at that...10 weeks!! Longest I have done this weight loss stuff and seriously been committed to it. :) Whew.

Leap Day!! Happy Birthday to my cousin A :) She turns 3 today...eeer 12! Boy I am getting old!

Anways..I know you want the picture....

1.2 pounds this week.

Not too bad all things considered. Brings my February total to 5.4 pounds. and my year total to 19.2!

Would I have liked to have done better this month? Well yeah. But 2 months in sitting at 19.2 when my goal was 20 leaves me a pretty happy girl. I am still on track to meet my goal and tomorrow is March! Time to get some new goals for the month before I blink and it's April!

Happy Leap Day!

Couch to 5K easy run?

I think somewhere I have crossed a line. I have gone from Oh I could never be a runner to Oh that was an easy 12 minute run. 

Um Hello?!?!?!?! Really?

I started week 6 of Couch to 5K today. A 5 minute warm up, 12 minute run, 3 minute walk, 12 minute run, and a 5 minute cool down.

I winced a bit right before the voice told me to start running and said a quick little Jesus Help me prayer. And took off. And I kept going, and going and going ;). And by the time he told me to stop I had run for 12 minutes. I wasn't breathing incredibly hard and it felt good. And I walked for 3 minutes turned around and started over. It was kinda crazy good.

I don't know what has come over me LOL!

I get to do this two more times this week and next week the 12 minute run increases to 3 times. We shall see how easy it becomes then. And the next week is the week I start to run 30 minutes at a time!

But at this point I am not really all that worried. I feel like I have looked the fear of running in the face and told it who was boss. (That would be me, by the way) I am no longer really afraid of running for weight loss, I actually enjoy it a little bit now. I am going to have to come up with some amazing playlist for when I just want to start running without the c25k program telling me when and when not to run. I mean by no means is my 5k going to get done in 30 minutes right now. But in 37 minutes I had done 2 miles and that's pretty stinking good for me!

I texted my friend after my run and told her of my "easy" 12 minutes runs.

It's official. I am a runner...

What's your choice?

Why does choosing have to be so hard sometimes. I think a lot of life is just based on making choices. Like I could really choose to eat bread, cheese, or milk at any time in my life right now. And let me tell you life would be so much easier!! I seriously had some goldfish crackers staring me down in the face today. But I chose not to eat them. That's not taking me where I want to be. At some point in my life will I be able to eat those foods again? I hope so! I really do. I miss just grabbing a cheese stick because it's easy. Or gosh eating some ice cream. Or having a hamburger with a bun and ketchup. But I have to keep looking at the food that I eat and thinking if it is causing me more harm than good to my body. Because I am not going to put it into my body if it is doing that. You know?

But it really just makes for a lot more preparation. And sometimes that's just so hard! Like I didn't really have time yesterday to cook some chicken for my lunches at school. So I went to the deli, thinking I might save some time and money. Well the thick slices of chicken that I got ended up still being 12.00 which was more than the chicken breast that I could have bought to cook. Now the chicken isn't bad. But I still came home after a full day of church last night and had to cut up the chicken into cubes for my salad and cook my noodles to go into my salad.

The silly thing is, I do really well on a restrictive diet. At least on this one I have. Now have I had frozen yogurt a couple of times and some fritos and gluten free tortilla chips?Yeah. mashed potatoes, and french fries? You betcha. So I'm not necessarily cutting everything out like I probably should be. But I can tell when those foods are affecting my body. So I kinda have this sense of I must be doing something right!

So I ended up paying for my running two days in a row last week! LOL! My upper legs were so stiff and sore the next two days and I still haven't worked out at all since Friday. Today I had an excuse, I got my haircut for the wedding :) SHORT! And I love it! But I did it in place of a workout. Somehow I have to get my workouts to more than just the 3 days of running that I am doing. To lose 100 more pounds it's going to take a little more effort. And me telling people no, that I can't do things because I have to go workout. A little bit more than half hour a day. So I am kinda gearing myself up for that. I am going to hit it pretty hard after the wedding. I am so close to being on track for an average of 10 pounds a month. I just need to hit it a little harder, and I will have more success at it :0)

Switching it up

So today was a little different. My teacher's daughter was still sick so she didn't come in today, so it was just the other Para and I. We managed to get a lot done in the four hours I was there I thought :) That was nice. And then I came home and thought I was going to relax before the hockey game I was going to tonight.

Until I looked at the weather for tomorrow. We are under a strong wind advisory. Again. And outside it looked like this:

Bright and Sunny! So I decided to do a big no-no in the C25K world. I ran two days in a row. I really didn't want to be trying to run in 20mph wind gusts tomorrow. It makes breathing kind of hard ;) So I did it today. And now that the time that I am running gets longer, the intervals get shorter so it seems shorter to me? I don't know. I am coming up to the part of the program where I didn't make it before. I don't remember last year at what point I just gave up on the program and started running miles instead. I am determined to see this time through though. Could I go out and run for 30 minutes straight right now? Eh maybe. I just finished 8 minutes. And Tuesday starts two weeks of running 12 minutes at a time. So in 3 weeks I will be running for half an hour. That's good LOL! I can wait that long.

I am however going to lose my track to the lovely spring sports that start next week. :( I usually run right after school because it's just easy to go straight there. And they are going to be practicing right after school as well as meets on Thursdays. So I gotta find a new place. I really don't like running on the street. I had some dogs come at me once last year and I would rather try to stay away from neighborhoods because of that. So I am probably going to have to head down to the park to start doing it. Luckily it's staying lighter longer now, so I am able to be outside to do it!

Once again..

It was one of those days. I'm so glad it's "Friday" and the kids don't come tomorrow. I mean we only had them 3 days this week and two out of three were just crazy! But we seriously are on the downward stretch of school. June will be here before we know it and these next 3ish months will fly by.

So it was FINALLY nice enough to go outside for my run today :) So back to the track I went. I don't know what I am gonna do when the kids start track and take over the track after school. :) I kinda view it as a safe place to run, even if I am running around in circles. It's by a main road and it's not blocked and people can see me. Not like I am running between parks and you have no idea who is around. I know, crazy weird thoughts. But I think those things when I run by myself ya know?

Running outside is much easier than running on the treadmill. Except now I really need to figure out my running stride so I can enter it into my fitbit. Because once again today I crossed two miles as I was finishing up week 5 day 2 (although this day on the app was messed up), but when I got home my fitbit had recorded 2.65 miles. And that was before it fell off of my pants and sat on the ground for almost a whole lap around the track. I was slightly irritated. But very glad that I was at least in an enclosed area and I knew I would be able to find it. Those things cost 100.00 and I really don't have the money to buy a new one. I need new shoes first!

So at any rate the fitbit says my pace was around a 16 minute mile when in reality it was closer to a 20 minute mile which is normal for me. So I ended up running slower today than last week when I did it in the 37 minutes. It's just kind of weird to be running at different paces? You think I would run the same all the time right? I don't know. Just seems weird to me.

I did notice however, that after my run when I was stretching, it was much easier to lift my leg up behind me. I was pretty much touching my behind with the top of my shoe. Which was surprising to me that I could do that. I have been kind of watching my body change, and I think after an almost 20 pound loss, I can say that I am noticing some differences. Which is a big motivator to keep going for sure.

Wednesday Weigh in Week 9

Whew! This week I feel like my body doesn't hate me! Which is a good thing. I was kind of getting a little bit worried. But this week it was 2.6 pounds instead of .08 and that made me happy. :)

Which brings my total of 9 weeks to 18 pounds! Which averages to 2 pounds a week, which is what I wanted to lose. So that actually makes me completely happy to know that no! I am not behind. I am right on track :) I mean like every person I would like to lose more. But I have learned that I don't want to go all Biggest Loser and lose crazy amounts of weight each week. It would not be healthy for me.

This has been a very quick two months. It's gone by much quicker than I thought it would. But doesn't it always? And the cold/rain/snow/wind that we have gotten this week is driving me crazy. I am wanting to get outside to do my runs. And I am waiting for that day when one day a week turns into two days and then three days a week :) I can run in the cold, and the rain, and sometimes the wind. Snow is not something I want to run in. But I have a bike I can cross train on :)

Anyways. I feel much better about the weight loss this week. I am just happy it didn't shoot back up horribly. I mean it did go up .4 but that is not horrible. At least the main number stayed the same ;) I am doing really well exercising the 3 days a week that I am doing C25K but have been lacking the other two that I want to do. I have to figure out how to get that bumped up. But overall I am happy.

Oh! Did I say yesterday that my runs were 8 minutes with a 2 minute walk? Um yeah. I ran for 24 minutes yesterday and walked 6. Plus warm up/cool down. I still walk at a slower pace on the treadmill, and I don't know if I had the fitbit placed wrong or what. But they both said I did less than 2 miles which bums me out. For sure if I was out on the track I would have hit 2 miles.

But I still did it :)

Can I just scream now?

Ever have one of those days? Yeah. One of THOSE days. That just make you question your sanity or want to rip your hair out?

Well that would have been today :)

But I made it through. And the thought that crossed my mind hasn't really crossed my mind before. "Boy I can't wait to go running"

Yeah. I might be getting hooked ;)  Except that I would have loved to go running outside, but with the oh 40ish mph wind gusts we were having at the time I wasn't going to attempt it. I am praying for better weather on Thursday so I can do that. After walking outside at 5:30 today and realizing it was still light enough for me to have finished running outside that was good enough for me. Now this rain and wind and what the heck snow yesterday needs to go away so I can be outside. For real.

Whew, I just looked at the weather channel for the rest of the week, and if they are right I will be making it outside :) Better find my outside running stuff!

Well I am going to go get ready for bed since it's weigh in day tomorrow :) Wednesday just keeps coming fast I tell you what. It just better be a better number than last week or I need to seriously start re-evaluating things. I don't like lose 3 pounds during the week EXCEPT on the official weigh in day and then go up to only .08. Nope. That doesn't make me a happy girl at all :(

Couch to 5k week 4

Eeeeek! Ok you have no idea how excited I am about my run this morning. So good in fact that I am going to tell you. :) The only bummer of a thing was it was blowing wind about 15-20 miles an hour at times. I mean for real weather?!? Last week it was raining, this week it was windy..next week it better be sunny! Because I don't want to keep wearing all these layers LOL!

Back to the run...

I tend to hit the track on Saturdays so I don't have to invade my grandparents house so early. Well today it wasn't super early, it was close to 9:30. I did let myself sleep in a little today. I got up at 7:00..because well you know, that's sleeping in ;) I had been checking the weather and it said it was going to start being windy around 10-11, so I thought I was going to be safe going early but it was windy when I got up.So week 4 is walk for 5 minutes, run for 4, walk for one (repeat 5 times) and then walk for 5 to cool down. I can generally walk around the track once in 5 minutes, and I have noticed the last couple of times I can go a little farther. So I basically get half a mile done just by warming up and cooling down :)

So at any rate today I crossed two miles right as it was telling me I was done for the day! Meaning as I was running the four minutes I came pretty darn close to running around the track once. I actually did it the first time through, but the next four times I slowed down just a bit. But still today I went from running a 20 minute mile to running an 18 minute mile according to sparkpeople :) Which makes me a happy girl. Now I want to see what it is next week when I am running for 8 minutes at a time!

I still have to figure out my fitbit and my stride though. I know that I did 2 miles at the track because I went around 8 times. And when I got home to check out what the fitbit said I did it said I did two and a half. At a pace of a 14ish minute mile.Which would be all exciting, but I didn't do that LOL!

67 to go

Sometimes looking at the long term picture can be really hard don't you think? It just gets me thinking sometimes about how we fear things and don't do them. Sometimes it's because you think the effort to put into it is too great. That has so much to do with weight loss.

Like here's the deal. I am only 5'1. And at my highest I weighed 250 pounds. Making me severely obese. And to get to just an overweight BMI I would have to weigh 158 pounds. That's an almost 100 pound weight loss right there! And then to keep going to a healthy BMI I would have to get down to 132 pounds to be considered a "normal" BMI.

A 92 pound weight loss to still be considered overweight is kind of a daunting task. To do all that hard work and still be overweight. That's why it is so hard to look at the big picture sometimes. I mean it can make a task seem almost impossible. I know when I restarted this journey I was at 240, giving me a 10 pound advantage already ;) But to think right now I still have 26 pounds to go before I am under 200 pounds is kind of a challenging thought. That is most definitely my first goal.

Right now I'm just spouting out thoughts. I'm not really discouraged too much by all of this. I firmly believe that this is my year and I will be meeting my goals. I just need to make sure I am keeping some small goals in mind so the task doesn't seem so daunting to me. I know that if I average 10 pounds a month that I will lose the 120 pounds that I want to. I mean technically as long as I keep losing I am happy, and I believe that by the end of December this year that I will have lost at least 100 pounds.

And I greatly look forward to that day :)

Is it Friday yet?

This is what I have been asking myself and the other teachers in my room ALL week. I don't know if the kids knew that next week is a 3 day week for them or what. But we had some, um, lively days this week. Either that or all 3 of us were just tired and ready for OUR 3 day weekend :)

I didn't weigh myself this morning. Probably just because I was so irritated from yesterday and knew I didn't go to bed early again, and hardly had any water, and I just didn't want to be irritated again. So I skipped it this morning. I need to start getting back to bed earlier! This going to bed at 11 is killing me! I am just exhausted. And of course here it is 9:15, but I am hopefully not too far off. :) I only have to work for 4 hours tomorrow, so that's good.

I did day 2 of c25k today. 4 minutes is a long time to run on the treadmill I must say. But I made it through. I have decided that I need to quit being afraid of the running. I have been doing this for a month now. Well after Saturday's run. I shouldn't be scared of running for 8 minutes at a time next week. So far I have made it through this time without having to redo any weeks. I can do it. Now granted I might have to start doing all my running outside because I don't know if I can run on the treadmill for that long LOL, but if that is what I have to do then I will do it. It really just needs to start warming up around here. We had brief little snowflakes today. I am definitely ready for spring. But seriously? Monday was sunny, Tuesday was cloudy, Wednesday was sunny, and today it was cloudy and freezing! What the heck weather. Don't you know Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are my running days? Work with me here!

Wednesday Weigh In week 8

All right. Now I am irritated. I know why people say not to judge the scale for your weight loss. And to use other things like measurements and how your clothes feel and all that stuff. But what bugs me is how two days ago I can weigh 223 and then on my official weigh in day this number pops up.

.08 pounds. again. What the heck? How did I magically gain two pounds in two days. I surely did not eat 7,000 calories. It is true how everything around you reflects on the scale. I haven't been getting enough sleep, I haven't been taking my vitamins, haven't been getting my water all the way in. And probably have had a higher salt intake. But for real. It would be an interesting experiment one month to take a picture every day just to see the results of how your body holds on to or lets go of weight. Because I surely don't complain when my body drops two pounds overnight. But C'mon! work with me a little on the official weigh in day body! geez!

I have to remember to start stretching my upper back more after my runs. My legs have been pretty much fine. I stretch them out pretty good, but right between my shoulder blades has been bothering me for a little over a week now. Any good suggestions?

Just another day

It's kinda funny to watch on facebook the status updates on Valentine's Day. Some people LOVE it, some people HATE it, and some people get spoiled, while other people don't. I mean hey. Preschool kids are awesome either way :) You still get hugs and cute little kid valentine's right? Right.

But back to facebook. My status was updated with a hot date that I had after school. Oh you know. Here He is!

Yep. My hot date was with the treadmill. I had to start week 4 today of Couch to 5k. And well that doesn't stop for Valentine's Day. And neither do I apparently. run 4 minutes walk 1 5 times. Oh I have a love/hate relationship with the treadmill. I love that it's inside and that I can run on it, but hate that I just feel like I am running in place. blah. So I needed a little motivation. And I needed to breathe. So I went upstairs to the kitchen and got this.

I decided since I had to run for so long that I needed something to focus on so I could concentrate on my breathing. That made it go much easier :) Except I kept looking down to see how much longer I had to run. I don't get to do that when I run outside, my phone stays in my pocket.

I do have to say I am getting a little anxious for Katie's garmin to get here so I can try it out. I think it's pretty neat of her to send it across the country for her readers to try it out. I just wish I knew how many people were in front of me so I know how long I get to wait :) If I could spoil myself with an expensive toy that would surely be it :)

Weigh in day is tomorrow. This morning I had magically gained a pound. Must have been too much salt yesterday? That's what I get I guess for saying that I was expecting a good weight loss this week ;)

One teaspoon

Darn, I really felt like crud today. I think I was just super worn out from the weekend! I feel run down for sure. I am just ready for bed! I am seriously thinking about just taking a bath and going to bed.

Today was Chana's actual birthday. So she had some ice cream after dinner. It was one of those little pints of ice cream that are really only for one. So I just took one teaspoon of ice cream as a treat. I have to say that is one of the things I miss the most would be ice cream. I thought only having a teaspoon might be ok.

Other than that today was a little crazy with the kids. I think they must have known I was exhausted because both classes came in a little wild. But we made it through the day and we only have 3 more days this week and then next week is a 3 day with the kids work week because we have Monday off for President's Day!

I am thinking Wednesday is going to be a good weigh in day! I am just going to say that. As long as I don't mess anything up the next two days I should be good :) 

A celebrating weekend!

Yes. I should be in bed. Yes I am exhausted. But I figured I should say something at least real quick ;)

This weekend I had the bridal shower at my house and then tonight we celebrated my sister's birthday with dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then cake and ice cream at the Grandparent's house. The shower was great! We had a lot of people show up, they ate the food and gave her great presents. Well except the cupcakes that are still sitting on my table. Those I think my sister are taking to work. I ended up at the very end only grabbing a handful of gluten free tortilla chips that my friend had brought. So I did really good eating wise at the party. After everyone left and we ate dinner my friend and I (who is other maid of honor) literally sat on the couch for almost 3 hours just talking and playing games on our I-phones. We are great friends! :)

Then this morning I ended up covering for another friend on the worship team who ended up being sick. So I ended up at church early even though I thought I was gonna stay home LOL! I guess that's the way it goes. Church was awesome.

Then for dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse. Now it just opened up a few months ago, so it's all the rage right now. I just wasn't impressed. For one thing. I am not a steak or rib eater. Ok? I really just don't like eating meat off the bone. Never have. And it was honestly expensive. I don't pay that much for dinner. Anything over 10.00 and you can just bet I won't buy it. Unless I am at Olive Garden. Which I don't foresee in my future right now after going gluten free. Back to the Roadhouse. I don't know if it was just because I was with people all weekend long? But by 5:00 and they dimmed all the lights so you couldn't see and then they were BLARING country music and the waitresses were line dancing and people were screaming happy birthday songs to people and trying to find something on the menu that I could actually eat. Well I just wasn't very happy. It was hard to even talk around the table, the music was so loud. I ended up with a side of fries and a small bowl of chili, which wasn't all that great to me. Hey. At least the fries were good :) I guess I'm still a cheap date. My meal ended up being 6.00. Woo! Happy Birthday Chana.

Then off we went to the Grandparent's house. I basically stayed out of the kitchen. Would I love cake and ice cream right now? Oh yes I would! But what I would not want is all the sugar cravings to come back after so long of cutting it way back. So I said no.

I am telling you that this is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. It's not that I just don't want it. But it affects me differently. I really have been looking at it like I am allergic to sugar. It just does bad things to me. And I can't do it anymore. That's not saying I don't miss it. I just have a better reason to say no.

oh I forgot to add that I did go for my run yesterday. And it was sort of raining. kind of more like spitting. ;) I am still amazed that I can run for as long as I am. This week I jump to 4 minutes at a time. So I am kind of excited for saturday to see if I can make it around the track in 4 minutes. That would be awesome!

Almost there

Whew. I can't believe that I am still up for one thing. Today I had to kick it into high cleaning gear because of the bridal shower tomorrow. It amazes me the things we can choose to focus on or not. Having a clean house has never been our strong point. I always have the highest intentions of getting it cleaned and organized and keeping it that way. Has that happened? Um nope. We joke that anything that has a flat surface deserves to have piles of stuff on it. We even have a counter from Hell in the kitchen. No joke. It was almost piled to the cupboard above it earlier this week. It usually has stuff that needs to go down to the basement on it.

So. Since I am such a last minute person, today was the day to clean the house. I mean like dust and vacuum and OMG mop the kitchen floor. I have dusted and swept and vacuumed and moped almost our entire main level of the house today. I am actually waiting for the kitchen to dry before I go put things away in there. I seriously can't remember the last time the kitchen was mopped. Yep. We are that bad good!

I didn't get an actual official workout today. I came home for work and did our monthly grocery shopping with my sister. AKA: Spend 2 hours in Walmart buying groceries for the month and then having to come home and put it all away. I think that is the worst part about grocery shopping. I hate putting it all away. I mean it literally takes me almost 45 minutes just to do that! And then almost immediately I started cleaning. Ok. I admit. I didn't clean the laundry room. But nobody needs to be going in there anyway right ;) I cleaned the living room, dining room, and kitchen tonight. It took me about 3.5 hours And I haven't even cleaned the half bath yet down on this level. I figure I will have to do that tomorrow along with my living room and then finish getting the decorations and games and food done. I really am only about half done. :(

But.

I have every intention of getting up and going for my run tomorrow. It looks like I will be doing it in the rain! I have decided that two days on a treadmill are entirely enough for me. And since I really don't want to be invading the Grandparent's house by 8:30ish tomorrow morning; I will be heading outside. And it has been cloudy and raining off and on all week. Really? Where is the sunshine? I am ready for it. C'mon Spring. Come back to the desert! Ok what the heck? I just checked the weather forecast for tomorrow. Rainy in the morning and a high of 50? For real? Too bad I have to go run in the morning since the Bridal Shower is at 3! Oh well.

Less than a month now until the wedding. I'm not losing the weight as fast as I would like to right now. But I am still losing, so that's at least a plus. I would love to be able to lose a good 20 pounds by then. But I just know realistically that's not going to happen. But 10 would be awesome too! And that might be achievable. Who knows. As long as I get consistent in my workouts besides the C25K, I should be able to do it.

Wednesday Weigh In week 7

What the heck happened last week? Did I get in trouble for saying I should be losing weight every week because of what I am doing? I don't really know.

.08 pound

That's what I lost this week. Now I will absolutely take it. It is one small step closer to where I want to be. Now does it help get me to my goal? Yes. Would I have liked to have lost more? Yes. Duh.

There are lots of titles I could have titled this blog with. Step away from the cashews. Dude, where's my water. Step away from the carbs. Did they have any part in why I didn't lose that much? Yeah for a lot this weekend I couldn't get all my water in. And dang those cashews from Costco that I can just grab a handful of. C'mon they are protein! And saltiness. And I had a lot of potatoes and beans last week. And I am supposed to be avoiding those right now, as well as the cashews actually.

Or I could look at it and say, Hey I worked out more this week. Am I developing muscles? Is that why I didn't lose a whole lot? Because if that's the reason, I'll take it ;) I am all for more muscles that burn away my fat more easily.

At any rate, I am pressing on. I mean for real. In little over a month I have lost about 15 pounds. And that I am still extremely happy and proud of. I am still moving forward, eating better and working out more. So I am in a much better place than I was 2 months ago. And that is something to be proud of

Superbowl Sunday

Whoa, this is going to be a crazy week, I would just like to say that right now. I have a TON to do to get ready for the bridal shower at my house on Saturday. So most likely posting this week is going to be short and sweet. Or just short. But whatever the case may be, I will still make attempts to come in and update.

So yesterday was the Superbowl. The day where most everyone overeats. So if you count the 4-5 gluten free cookies that I made as overeating, then I suppose I did ;) So nope. I brought my own food to my meeting after church that also included some dinner for later with the game. But I also went to Winco and got that gluten free cake mix again and made sugar cookies with it. The group I made them for last time loved them, so this time I made them into snickerdoodles. ohmygosh. They were awesome! I added extra liquid to them so they wouldn't be so crumbly and it worked like a charm. 2 tsp of vanilla instead of one and 2 tsp water. Boom. Pretty dang good cookies :) I had to leave them there though. They tried to get me to bring them home. And I knew if I did that, I would have eaten the rest of them because I can. That's the thing about overeating. I can't stop at just one. I have to consume them until they are gone. So, I left the temptation at the party. I also ended up throwing some of my dinner away because I just wasn't hungry. That was a little weird but ok.

And I did notice that my stomach did hurt a little bit this morning when I woke up. But it could have been the fact that I have had a lot of beans in the last couple of days. I will continue to monitor it though. But I think I have done pretty well today. I almost have all my water in for the day.

And

I finally worked out on the bike this afternoon. oh geez. Why the heck did I attempt 30 minutes on the bike when I haven't done it in about 2 years. I thought I was going to die! Or my butt was gonna fall off...one of the two. I decided very quickly that I can't do any of the trainings yet, until I get myself more used to it. I can pedal and go and set my own levels...but I am nowhere near ready to be at a resistance 10 for crying out loud. I can barely pedal the bike LOL!. I know it will be good for me. But yeah. I probably should have started with 15 minutes instead. 6.5 miles in 30 minutes though? not too shabby :) I just need to adjust the seat a bit more and we will go from there.

But tomorrow starts week 3 of Couch to 5k. I am back up to 3 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking. Whew. This time around I guess since I know what to expect, I am not freaking out about it too much. Last time I kept redo-ing the weeks. I guess it's a different concept when you know how far you can push your body. When I did it last year I just kept thinking I was going to die. And I was afraid to push myself into it. Now I know I can do it. So there really isn't a reason for me to redo the weeks. Now I might be changing that statement when it comes to jumping from the 4 minute run to the 8 minute run. But I also remember last time getting irritated with the program to where I just quit the program and started running miles until I got up to 3 miles. I kinda want to see it through this time. And if I do it in 8 weeks that would be kinda cool not to have to redo weeks :)

What else are Saturday's for?

I always have the best intentions of updating the blog early..but that doesn't seem to happen too often :) Except on Wednesdays when I am just so excited to show you my picture of the scale!

Today I had every good intention of cleaning my house for the bridal shower that I am having here next weekend for my friend whose wedding I am in. Ok. Well really the MAIN goal was to get the Christmas Tree out of the living room! Yeah. We have become one of those people. Who leave the tree up forever. I mean really. We are just really good at pushing things off till the last minute. Like how much time do I have until I absolutely have to do this? kind of people. So since we didn't want a tree in the living room next Saturday, today was the day. And I am happy to report that it is now downstairs in the storage room with the rest of the Christmas decorations. And the rest of the house is still a mess. Don't you hate that? I got parts of each room cleaned that I needed to. So I guess I can't say it was an utter failure? Just that I would have liked to have gotten more done than I did.

Because.

I had to do my Couch to 5K training. Happy to say I finished up week 2 today. And I ran outside at the track at the middle school. And it was cold! I think it was around 32 degrees? I started off cold. I only wore one layer. I knew I was going to warm up soon enough. So I got started. I began to realize that I am starting to get farther when I run. Now this in fact might be only in my little head, BUT, nonetheless I can make it walking around the track in 5 minutes. So when I made it about 3/4 of the way around the track jogging I got a little inwardly excited. And last time I ran at the track. I did 1.5 miles. This time I added a 5 minute run/walk session and finished 1.75 miles. I actually just went around the track one more time and finished off the two miles. My fitbit said that I did 2.5 miles. I played around with it today to try to set my stride. So hopefully next weekend when I run at the track it will be a little more accurate? I might have to do some more playing with it. I was really excited when I looked at it today and it told me I did 2.5 miles in 40 minutes. It came out to an almost 16 minute mile. But I knew it wasn't true since I had counted the laps at the track for 2 miles. But still. I did good :)

I am already trying to find ways to be running outside more. I think it's going to be staying lighter enough for me to actually go and run at the track right after work. Part of me feels bad because I told my grandparents I would be coming and using their treadmill. But the other part of me wants to be outside! I run faster. I was able to do 2 miles in 40 minutes. Now I know that doesn't seem like a big accomplishment to some. But it is to me. Since having my knee surgery a couple years ago, I haven't quite been able to get back to a 20 minute mile. I look forward to shaving some more time off my mile. And I know it will happen as I lose more weight.

I never thought I would be one to like, let alone secretly love running. I already had fleeting thoughts the other day on a day I wasn't scheduled to run that I should go for a run because the weather was nice :)


What's your favorite thing to do on a Saturday?

cravings

Ok let's be real here. I have been at this for over a month. Good news! I lost 14 pounds! Bad news. I now would like to eat everything that I haven't eaten in the past month. You know. bread. ritz crackers. CHEESE. milk (more than the little bit in my coffee in the morning). Ice cream. pretzels. Bagels. Desserts. More than one coffee a day. Adjusting to life without those has been pretty good until this last week or so. I don't know if it's because I did have some more carb-y stuff on my birthday which led to my body thinking it needed it all or what? I want it ALL. And I want it now! LOL! I just know that even peanut butter is getting boring to me. And finding a sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, yeast free dessert is hard. The gluten free cookies I made were quite yummy, but they did have sugar in them. So it's not something I want to incorperate a lot into my diet until I feel like the candida is gone.

So far I haven't really seen much improvement on my toenails. Which I wasn't really expecting to see right away because toenails grow out really slow. I was kind of hoping some miracle would happen and by next month my toenails would look amazing again in time for the wedding that I am in. We are wearing flip flops. In March. Sadly I think I will be getting a manicure when everyone else gets a pedicure. I am not ready for someone to be touching my feet yet. It's just not fair to them I don't believe.

Just some minor complaining :) I mean really all in all, it's not that bad. It's just relearning to eat a completely different way. Which can be hard. But in the end after I have lost all my weight it will be worth it :)

Wednesday Weigh In week 6

Alright. Today I was a little worried about this weigh in. Just for stupid reasons. But I mean at this point there is no way that I am over-eating. I try to keep my salt down and I mostly get my water in. There shouldn't be any reason that I don't lose weight every week. But yeah. That never stops your mind from playing little tricks on you. But success again :0)

1.8 pounds lost.

This makes a total of..................14 pounds for the month of January!!!!! Now should I expect to lose 14 pounds every month? Probably not. I started off the month with a bang of 5 pounds in one week. I don't really expect that to happen again, nor do I know if I want it too. I want to make sure I am doing this the right way and not losing too much to quickly. As much as I would love to lose 3 pounds every week, I am perfectly ok with 1-2 pounds. As long as the number doesn't go back up. Or stay the same really. But this number encourages me to keep going the rest of this journey and to not give up :)