Goals for January

Well..I have some goals

I did this two ways...just every day goals..things I will actually be able to accomplish ;) And then I made the workout calendar. Haha..That one might get some tinkering done with. And well you can see that on my Birthday not only will I be at college, I will then be going to the gym for a lovely session of C25K which I seem to be eternally starting over. Dag nab it. I am surely to get my 250 pounds of self into a runner. And it will surely help me in getting ready for Bloomsday. Yes I said that word. The biggest 12k fun run in the state if not in the US? I'd have to check on that. I made a verbal commitment to do it this year with two of my cousin's on my Dad's side. Now that being the beginning of the month I would like to think about moving out in, and the month before I want to be in California for two weeks for a class at a church I don't know if it will happen. But I am going to train for it. Especially if I get to do it with them :0) And it's less than 20.00 to register for, so I'm sure I will be ok...

So here they are :0) My goals

 

~Dairy Free/Gluten Free (1 milk coffee a week)

~Try 2 new foods this month to be determined

~Complete workout sheet

~Register for Bloomsday (May 4th)

~Research School of Worship for July at Bethel

~Make bed every day

~Get CD’s transferred to external hard drive by end of month

~Set aside time to read Bible, pray, worship daily
~Take care of my feet every day, whether its washing or soaking or putting a treatment on. Get these toes cleared up in 2014!!

~Stay off of the scale

So some of these are easy peasy. Like Registering for Bloomsday and making my bed. I mean really how hard is it to straighten out my comforter and make it look nice. Pretty hard apparently. I can't ever seem to do it. Unless I know someone that doesn't live in my house is going to be coming in my room. Then I make sure to do it. I'm really just lazy. That's all there is to it. 

And yes. For now I'm planning on treating myself to Dutch Bros Coffee the night of my college class. I will see how it starts affecting my stomach and go from there. I can't be running out of the class every week to go to the bathroom..so we shall see. 

I need to be serious about dairy free. I need to be serious about gluten free. My body is just so bloated. And I'm wondering if this eternal headache isn't from food and not the stagnant air warning that we are having. Those two right there are going to be the hardest goals to accomplish. I know that for sure.

I figured 2 new foods a month would be good to try. This is another thing I'm pretty leery about. But if I have to cut the majority of what I eat out of my life I'm gonna have to be adding stuff into it. So it's just going to have to happen whether I want it to or not. 

I just need to have a deadline for getting my cd's transferred to my hard drive. Ok. I have over 300 cd's that just take up room in my room. It's time for them to go digital and disappear. Well most of them. Some of them I'm going to keep (like the Christmas ones for sure) but the others unless they are signed or special things I'm planning on getting rid of. I don't even have a cd player anymore unless you count my computer. So the reasoning for me to keep them is really gone. It's really kinda sad. I was a die-hard CD girl. I didn't like going digital. I love opening the covers and seeing the lyrics and reading them cover to cover. But they just aren't the same anymore..and they are cheaper online. So I have caved. Plus I just don't have room to store over 300 cd's that I don't listen to anymore. Some people collect movies. I collected CD's :) I'm not much of a movie girl. I probably own less than 25 movies. And that might be generous. ;)

And to be honest, I haven't had success in the last couple of years at establishing a quiet time with the Lord routine. And I so desperately need to get a routine back. And this is the year it will happen :0)

So there you have it. My goals for January. I think at this point I'm only going to take it one month at a time. I can set my mind to do anything for 4 weeks. And that will keep it fresh and exciting. And it will keep me having to come up with more things to plan for. So yeah. There it is :0)

 

Wednesday Weigh in Week 57

I'm pretty sure our bodies are just weird. Just the way they choose to either hang onto weight or to let it go. This week I didn't do a whole lot and lost 1.6 pounds. Alrighty. Haha. I will take it.

Our weather is just getting crazy around here. It's been super cold, and lots of stagnant air warnings. I'm really glad we didn't have school the last two days. And then today of all day starts the freezing rain and wanna be snow. Now I'm all for winter, but I want it generally on my terms. I want a white Christmas, and snow on Christmas break when I have to drive in it. Then it can warm up. But I don't want any more snow by the time my birthday comes around. Yep. Coming up on Monday, I will be hitting 32. Yikes. 31 wasn't all that kind to me. I'm hoping 32 is gonna go a whole heck of a lot better. But generally by February, I'm itching for spring. And no school cancellations because we want that 4 day weekend in May. Thankyouverymuch winter.

:) I don't have a whole lot to report this week. It was a bit of an emotional weekend, but I think I did alright with not eating myself out of sight. There was a Dairy Queen night involved, and a coffee. But sometimes you just have to give in a little you know?

Happy New Year to me? Getting ready to register for my 12k. And gotta get training for that. I'm hoping to run more of it than walk. Which means I've got to start hitting some hills. I remember whenever I get there that it's got way more hills than I remember. And it's pretty dang crowded, so I don't know how much running I will actually get to do. My time last year was 2:30ish and I would love to be able to do it in 2 hours, but that would be a throw up goal ;) So I'm thinking 2:15 would be nice. If I could stick between a 16-18 minute pace that would be good for sure! I just have to get my *ahem* running buddy on track with me ;)

Happy New Year!

2013. Wow. I for one am incredibly ready for a new year! I am ready for a fresh start for sure. The tale end of last year was just a tough one. And while I learned a lot about myself, I didn't quite accomplish my goals. It makes me rather hesitant to make goals for 2013, but I know if I don't have a goal that I won't accomplish much. I had a goal of losing 100 pounds last year and I lost 12. And I'm not going to let it take 10 more years to lose the 100+ pounds that I want to lose. So I know for sure the goal this year is to lose more than 12 pounds and keep it off :0) I know that I want to have some fitness and food goals this year. But I haven't figured out what. I know food wise my main goal this year is to actually quit eating all the foods that I am allergic to.Which sounds so easy to SAY. But not so easy to do. Cause gosh dang it. I really wanted an ice cream sundae at dinner tonight for my dessert. This no milk thing is for the birds. Or eggs. I have pretty much accepted the peanuts. Luckily I won't be going into shock if I eat them on accident. Well maybe after not eating them for almost 6 months I might. But I'm just not going to go down that route. I did have a few episodes of my throat closing up last year, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was.

So I had an idea of having a goal of running a 5k every month. But then I thought that was a little silly because after I get trained for Bloomsday I will be running more than that every time I go running. I'm still toying around with the idea. It would be interesting to see my time change over the year as I get faster. I might still do that.

I know I want to do Bloomsday in May. That's a 12k. And that's really all I have planned for this year. If something else presents itself this year that would be great :)

And I'm pretty sure I am ready for slightly warmer weather ;) Running when it's 34 and slightly snowing just isn't a whole lot of fun. But at least I still made it out there to run. Not that we are just getting into winter or anything, but I hope it stays a bit warmer for my runs. None of this 20 degree high stuff!

OH! I got a pedicure today. First time in almost a year. They hurt, but I think they might help. I might have to start doing them more often :( As much as I don't really have the money for them, I think they are going to be helpful to my feet during this whole training thing :)

Really rambling today..Not so direct with my goals, but I am going to give it some thought before I settle on them I think :0)

Wednesday Weigh in Week 53

Alrighty Steph. There ya go, Week 53 ;)

Well Christmas is over and done with. Man the day after Christmas sometimes seems like a major letdown! You have this giant build up to Christmas and deadlines and making sure all the presents are bought (or at my house made) and wrapped and food is made and then it happens. And then you wake up the day after Christmas. And you eat all your Christmas candy to "get rid of it" because January 1st is coming you know, and there is a New Year's resolution just waiting to be made and broken. I mean I literally have consumed way more amounts of sugar today than a person should. Well actually I have consumed way more in the past 3 days. No wonder I have a headache right now. This sugar coma is going to be a doozy to get rid of.

But I did manage to get up this morning and weigh myself before the boys got out of bed. I *only* gained .6 pounds last week. Which brings my year end total to 12 pounds.

12 pounds.

That's not exactly Finishing What I Start. But I am fully aware of my actions and I am not really making any excuses for them. I didn't workout like I should have and I didn't eat like I should have. And there you go. I didn't lose weight. Although ironically enough 12 pounds is 10% of what I really wanted to lose.

I did learn a lot about myself this year though.

I learned I do really good with deadlines and goals. I had a goal to lose weight by a friend's wedding in March and I did that. But once the wedding came and I "cheated" on my eating, I never did get back eating right the rest of the year. And once again, I will be losing weight for a wedding. Though I'm not in it, I am attending it ;) And that's still the same.

I learned that I am a HUGE stress eater. When I don't know how to control things and circumstances come up that there is nothing I can do about them, I will eat. And eat. And eat. I will eat to deal with things too. Food has always been my turn to comfort. It's always been there. Even in secret. I ate due to circumstances that were beyond my control and the food was the only thing I could control. It's like I punish myself with food. It seems like it would be a reward. But a lot of times it was just how much food can I shove in my mouth before I forget about my problems...

I learned that I am allergic to a lot of foods. Which is horrifying. Because it's all foods that I love. So all this food I love is hurting my body and I still continue to eat it. Because I can't seem to give it up. Well the peanuts I  gave up immediately. I haven't had peanut butter anything since July of this year. That number was so off the charts scary I have no idea how I wasn't sick from it. But giving up milk, cheese, and ice cream and eggs is like a big sad thing. I have to learn how to say No and stick with it. And I just might see my body change.

BUT.

I also learned that I am a lot stronger than I thought. I started the Couch to 5k not once, but twice this year. The first time I did it all the way completely without missing a day. The second time I actually skipped the last two weeks almost and just got straight to running for 30 minutes. When I was really doing well I was running consistently 3 times a week. And that's good for me! Just changing and running right after work was a really good time for me. Except now. LOL. Now I get off work at 3:30 and it's getting dark by 4:15. Not enough time to get my runs in :/
 I actually enjoy the plan I made for my Bloomsday training, I just need to get back to it and stick to it. (Which I will be doing as soon as I get my gym cleaned up. It turned into extra craft room this year and has sawdust all over it because we were cutting wood inside because it was too windy outside. Now there is a layer of sawdust everywhere :/)

I learned that I kinda sorta like to run. It's definitely good me time. I have learned however that living in the desert it's hard to find a good time to run that I'm not running in 90+ weather. I had very good intentions over the summer, but I can't get up and go in the mornings when I have the boys and my mom is already at work. So we might have to work something out this summer. We will see. Spring and Fall running was amazing. Haven't made it out a whole lot this winter, but now that I have my new Garmin, I will be getting out there more. Nothing like a new toy to get you re-motivated. As well as signing up for Bloomsday. I gotta talk to my buddies and make sure it's still a go. I know none of us have been following the plan hardly at all. But there is still 5 months to go, and I know I will be ready by then :)

So the goal over the next few days is to not continue to beat myself up mentally over not completing my goal. I am lighter slightly than I was last year. And that's good. I just need some determination to stick around and the willpower to accomplish what I want to. January is the time of year where I get all hard core about this. And then I usually taper off about March. So the goal is to make it through to April :) And beyond. The magic number every month is 9 LOL! 9 pounds a month. Seems so easy peasy on paper. I just need it to be easy peasy in life. I will of course be coming up with some new goals. I know I am going to have to make eating goals and working out goals every month to make this work for the next year. But I am a goal maker for sure. I just need to be a goal finisher..

Finishing the goal. Finishing what I start. Still happening.

<3

Wednesday weigh in week 46

Well I realized I got buy and didn't recap my Bloomsday training last week. I actually skipped a workout. I ended up being sick that day and wanted to run but eventually decided against it. I took a total extra day of rest. I am hopefully getting back to feeling like a normal person. Except for when I stay up until 1:00 am on election day and get up 4 hours later :/ (I am EXHAUSTED right now..short post). I have a feeling I am going to switch up next week a little bit and trade my running day and cross training day. Monday is a holiday, so I don't have work. And I can go run that day and then cross train on Tuesday and it will be good :0) Which is what I ended up doing today. I was just so beat from only getting 4 hours of sleep and being on my feet all day that I decided to rest my legs and I will cross train on Friday which was supposed to be my rest day. :-) I'm glad I can be flexible and not beat myself up when I do things like that. Whew. So that's the current update on Bloomsday!

And I don't know where the ___ 3 pounds came on from, but it did. Not really liking a 3 pound gain right now. All I can say is my stomach feels like it is full of air, and has for a couple of days. So I guess I'm not surprised, but definitely irritated. Things will be changing in my food and they will be changing quite soon. I'm thinking I pretty much have to cut out all dairy and wheat/gluten again. I've been lax in those areas. And I'm pretty sure that's the cause of it. So I need to get back to serious over here. Which is probably gonna mean no more coffee again. I just have quite the love/hate relationship with coffee. I love it, well I love it with milk and syrup..but that's the problem. I don't love it with almond milk, or coconut milk. And I'm just scared to try soy milk. So I guess it means it will have to go bye bye again. Or at least move to a social thing. Where I could have it once in a while while I'm out with a friend. But not every day like I have been. Plus it's just an added money cost that I simply don't have right now. Crazy as it seems, I should spend the money that I spend on coffee every month and spend it on real foods ;) or Vitamins even ;) What a thought! I think I'm gonna phase it out by an every other day thing for right now. I only have a few grounds left. So yeah. Maybe someday I won't be allergic to milk anymore and I will be able to enjoy coffee again. But definitely decaf. If I start drinking it again it will have to be decaf. Whole other topic LOL!

oh yeah..I said short post huh? :0)

Wednesday Weigh in Week 45

Boy am I ever ready to put October behind me! Here's to November. Hoping for better results! Being sick wasn't too kind to me last week. I did manage to do all my workouts for my Bloomsday training, but I hit a wall on Monday. I came home slightly feverish, did my cross-training workout on the bike. I mean I didn't try to go too hard because I knew I wasn't feeling good. I went about 12 mph on there for half an hour. But right before bed my head started hurting, and when I woke up on Tuesday it was still hurting! So needless to say I made the decision to go to work AND not work out on Tuesday due a huge headache and way too much caffeine :( I really went back and forth on it. Because I knew if I missed just ONE workout that I would just want to quit and give up. I mean yeah. I worked all day today and then came home and went trick or treating with the boys. And you better bet I dang well counted that for my cross training tonight! I am stiff and sore LOL! But I will be back at it tomorrow. I haven't decided if I'm gonna try to do my week two runs 3 days in a row or just bag the first run. I'm pretty early into it, so I think it will be ok.

My brother's costumes were a big hit this year :) My engineer of a sister made them into Lego's. Think Indiana Jones and a robot Lego :) Everyone loved them and complimented them on them. :) They were much better than all the scary costumes I kept seeing. I have to say Halloween is my LEAST favorite holiday. I don't quite like the idea of sugaring up children like that, or necessarily agree with the Holiday.  I know I'm gonna have a bunch of cranky pre-schoolers tomorrow that's for sure. I just wish it were Friday already haha! But I guess tomorrow is close enough :) My pre-schoolers don't come on Friday, so we like to think of Thursday's as Friday in my class :0)

Sometimes I feel like it's hard having goals in weight loss because I never feel like I accomplish them. So I didn't lose two pounds this week :( So does that mean I'm not going to get to 199 by the end of the year? I don't know? It's just so hard to focus and be so determined during the holidays. I feel like Halloween kicks that off and now it's like downhill to the end of the year! I mean I have 8 weeks. At that point I will have to lose 3 pounds a week to meet that goal. It just doesn't feel attainable :( But I keep going. Even if I get back down to 210 or 205 even that's still a 35 pound loss for the year. And that's still a good thing :0)

Bloomsday Training week one recap

Hey I'm just telling you right now. Knowing I was gonna come on here and post this did make me sure that I was gonna get those workouts in no matter what. And considering I stayed home from work two days this week, I still managed to work out. Well one day I considered grocery shopping my cardio for the day. But hey! I was sick! I mean it's no good when your mom takes one look at you and gives you this pathetic look and then hugs you. Yes. I looked like death warmed over. Haha. I'm still not 100% better here. *insert angry face. I'm sick of being sick*. BUT, I am hopefully on my way.

So it's pouring right now. And is supposed to be most of the week. Which means I will be running in the rain most likely on Tuesday. Oh joy. :) At least my Monday and Wednesday stuff is going to be indoors. Because trick or treating does not count as cardio. Cruising around Walmart for an hour-ish does...but slow waltzing around the neighborhood just shouldn't ;)

I have at least figured out A) I'm allergic to people ;), or B) I need to quit eating all this food I'm allergic to! I'm fairly certain this "cold" at this point is just a reaction to the food I've been eating. My love affair with cheese and wheat is just a hard one to give up :( And every time I thought I was getting better I would get around people and all the sudden BAM! I was totally wiped out again. Like right now it's 8:30 and I have already taken nyquill for the night and am gonna shut it down right after I'm done here and head back to bed. And this is after an hour nap after church. I cannot get lazy right now!

Oh, and I tried yoga today for the first time. It was....interesting :) I'm a little leery of all the meditation and energy. But the video I picked, there was only one move that I couldn't do and the rest of it basically was just stretching. :) Which was perfect for what I wanted today. It was a little creepy when he said and now do you feel like one leg is longer than the other one? And it did! It was weird! But I didn't fall asleep and I'm well stretched, needless to say.

Off to bed I go! Happy almost Monday!

Wednesday Weigh in Week 44

My oh my. Are we getting closer to the end of the year or what? My calendar tells me I only have 10 more weigh ins to go until the end of the year. My new goal is simple. To be under 200 pounds by then. I mean as long as I can manage 2 pounds a week I am basically there. If I have two 3 pound weeks I am golden :) This is where my last minute-ness starts to kick in and tell me to get moving. But I am moving :)

See? I manged to lose another pound :) I really don't know how? I'm thinking the apple cider vinegar pills might be helping. But at any rate! I'm taking it. So I have 23 pounds to go before the end of the year. That's a good mini goal.

I'm pretty sure when I came up with this Bloomsday goal that I wasn't thinking I would get sick right away. But here I am still sick :( I stayed home from work again today since I woke up hacking up my lung :( Needless to say the couch and my bed have been my friend today. As well as my neti pot. I think this sickness is the first time that I've actually seen liquid snot coming out of my nose. I mean it's quite amazing! TMI I know. But I'm certain it has helped me avoid a full on sinus infection. I don't quite know what's up with this cough. But it's gonna have to go!

Yesterday I started my Couch to 5k over. I was so sure I was going to be running in full on rain but by the time school ended it had cleared up a bit. It was still cold!! But rain clouds on one side of me and sunshine on the other. I had some sprinkles going on but I finished Day one! I surprisingly don't feel as out of shape as I was expecting to be. I think I'm gonna pick up pretty easily on it again. And hopefully fall into a good rhythm. I am however going to have to seriously be looking at ways to strengthen my knee. I never did do a good job at my physical therapy after my surgery when I tore my ACL/Meniscus. I don't have my full range of motion back. I don't know if it's possible. But I want to try. I need to feel like I can trust my knee and not think it's going to give out on me at any given time during my run. Any suggestions would be welcomed :0)

Today I cheated just a little in my workout. I know 3 days in and I think I'm cheating. I totally counted walking around Walmart doing my grocery shopping as my cardio for the day. But hey. I'm sick. And that was an outing! I walked around the store for almost an hour and had to put things in and take things out of the cart and car. Good grief! And then I did an arm workout video that I found on Sparkpeople's youtube page. I like that I can find a short (9 minutes!) video to watch to help me start toning up my arms. I'm not very consistent at strength training like I should. But that is one of the goals for this training plan is to add in strength. And it will probably increase as I go. I am actually weirdly looking forward to doing some yoga as one of my training days. I think it's going to help me gain some flexibility and take away some stress. And I know I'm not going to be able to do everything right away, but it will increase. And I'm only going to be doing it once a week anyway. So I am gonna start with a 20 minute thing I found on youtube. I'm impressed that Youtube has all these videos! Haha..it makes it easier to try things before purchasing them for sure!

But I have worked out for 3 days in a row! And that is helping me get back into the routine of things!!

Bloomsday Training week 1

Hmm. I wish I knew a whole lot more about blogs and I could creatively show you my new training plan for Bloomsday next year.

See I was chatting with a friend. And we were talking about a local 5k that was coming up next month, and did we want to train for it and do it. Well right now the cost of races really stops me from doing anything. I'm just broke. constantly. Ok? And we jokingly were talking about the 12k race that we have done before(Bloomsday), and saving our money for entering that one. It's pretty much a 7.46 miles fun run with a t-shirt. It kinda blows my mind sometimes to think that I have done it 4 times. What can I say besides I'm a glutton for punishment? I mean it literally takes about 2.5 hours for us to WALK it. And that's not including potty breaks.

But back to the story. I was saying that we pretty much had 30 weeks(when we were talking about it) to train for it. And well yeah, that's over half a year away. I was all gung-ho and she was hesitant. I talked about how we could start our C25K training over and then we could even train for a half marathon and then only doing 7.46 miles of that would seem like a snap! See? I can be really convincing :0)

She told me I was crazy.

I told her she could do it. And she doesn't give herself enough credit. And we could have a friend come up with a plan for us.

Ok. Let's try.

All the while I didn't know she was having this internal battle about the whole process. See she and I are very much alike. This whole year I've been trying to Finish what I start. I can do the race. Heck I've done it 4 years. But it's the whole training, and figuring out a plan, and actually sticking to it for the next 28 weeks that we can never seem to accomplish. We talk the talk, but we don't walk the walk. And so this time around it's the training and finishing the training that's going to seem like more of a success then actually finishing the race.

So I emailed a friend, and she came up with a 10 week plan for us, that was 10 weeks out from the race. So I ended up making a 28 week one to finish off getting us to that 10 week part. Starting over with C25k training and keeping up the momentum. We recruited another friend to join us, and another one following the plan in a another state and we have a plan!

So now it's game day! And of course. I'm sick. I mean it never fails does it? I come up with this amazing plan, and then I go and get sick. But since it's not in my chest yet, I still plan on doing a Walk away the pounds video here in a little while just to get me started. Man. I always say video. I started doing these when they were videos :-) Now they are DVD's but I will forever be calling them videos!

In essence the plan is to cross train and strength train on Mondays/Wednesdays; C25K (and eventually run) on Tuesdays/Thursdays/Saturdays; Stretching on Sundays; and have a complete rest day on Fridays. And then after the C25k training is done, we are going to incorporate hills on Thursdays because there is a lot of hills in this race. I thought this was genius thinking to do it the day before a complete rest day :0)

So here is a picture of the plan! It looks daunting. And yes. I did thumb tack it to my door so my entire family could see what I'm going to be doing for the next 28 weeks. I plan on highlighting or crossing off the days I have done to see what I do. I'm kind of excited!

28 weeks to go!