A Whole Lotta Fun!

Yesterday, Wednesday, was full of good times.  I spent the morning home with the kids and then we all went out to run some errands, including getting my son's hair cut. That was fun.  Not.  After all the errands I took the kids to a local burger restaurant for lunch.  I ordered them corn dogs and sweet potato fries but struggled to find something decent for myself on the menu.  In the end I ordered a BBQ chicken salad with no cheese, no croutons, no bacon, no ranch dressing - no, no, no.  I was left with lettuce, tomato, grated carrots and sliced chicken breast coated in bbq sauce.  It actually wasn't bad.  And I had a few sweet potato fries and maybe a bite of corn dog.  I was trying to keep the calorie count low because of my dinner plans.  Oh, and I had probably a 1/2 cup of soft serve ice cream.  Miguel ended up meeting us for lunch so that was nice.  When the kids went down for their naps I did little household stuff.  It was a day off from the gym so no exercise for me.  Other than holding my screaming kid during a haircut.  Ugh.

But dinner - now that's where the fun comes in.  I went to dinner with some very awesome fellow mom friends.  We went to a nice restaurant in Larkspur.  I had a few pieces of fried calamari/onion strings for an appetizer.  I also ate bread and butter.  And then a beet salad with goat cheese.  Yum!  Oh, did I mention I was drinking?  In the end I'd had 3 vodka sodas.  For my main course I had roasted trout resting on a lovely bed of creamy, buttery risotto.  And don't think after all that I was too full for dessert.  I had the molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.  Oh, and I had a profiterole filled with vanilla ice cream with melted chocolate on top.  And decaf with cream and sugar.  A totally unrestrained meal.  And when I step on the scale in the morning and I am up 1-3 pounds, well, there will be no mystery as to why.  I am 100% ok with that.  Of course I'd rather this be a magical world where I can eat like that and still see a loss on the scale but I know full well life does not work that way. 

The thing that made it so fun, besides the yummy food, was the great company.  And probably the vodka.  I had such a good time.  Lots of laughter and commiserating.  I wish I had more evenings out like that.  Maybe one day, when my kids are older, there will be time for dining again.  For now, probably best that there's not because a good restaurant is always an excuse to eat, ahem, well.  Anyway, I logged my entire meal and the tracker said it was 70 points.  More than two days' worth of food.  I wish I could just not eat for two days to balance things out but we all know it doesn't work that way.  Oh well, it was worth it.

The Challenge is Underway

Yesterday (Monday), the George Foreman Grill Weight Loss Challenge officially got underway.  I've been using the grill a lot more than I expected and that night I found what will probably be a new obsession for a while...eggplant.  I sliced some japanese eggplant the long way, brushed on some olive oil and salt/pepper and grilled it for 5-10 minutes.  Yummy, creamy goodness.  I love eggplant.  I've been grilling all sorts of vegetables - portobello mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini - you name it, I'm grilling it.  And I want to try grilling a banana soon.  Maybe drizzle a tablespoon of caramel sauce over it.  Doesn't that sound good? 

In my last post I forgot to mention my weigh-in on Friday.  Which is crazy because I was down 5 pounds from the week prior!  That's crazy.  I know some of it was a TTOTM correction and some was getting back on track after camping, etc.  I'm already up a couple pounds over that weight but I'm hoping to get it back down by Friday.  We'll see, I'm not going to go nuts trying.  I have a dinner out with some mom friends tomorrow night.  We're headed to a good restaurant so I'm not going to have grilled chicken breast just to try and hit a certain number by Friday.

On an unrelated (to food anyway) note, I've been seriously needing some new bras.  Macy's was having a bra sale, tons of $9.99 racks.  Lucky me!  I got four new ones, 2 in size 36c and 2 in 38c.  They are SO comfortable and cute!  Bra shopping used to be just a notch above swimsuit shopping but this time it wasn't so bad.  It helps that I'm happier with the way I look.

A quick gym run-down for this week so far.  I skipped Sunday to recover but went yesterday.  I was a little nervous about running but I gave it a try.  I went slow at first, 5.0 - then I upped it to 5.5 and things were going well.  After a mile I increased to 6.0 and had to work for it.  I was tempted to up it to 6.3 for a minute or two but decided not to push my luck with my calf.  After the run I did back/biceps/core for strength training.  I've been doing my regular stretching but added in some foam rolling of my calfs (and IT band, ouch!).  Between the compression socks, the tape, the foam rolling - so far my calf is doing well.

Today I hit the gym again.  I noticed a spin class was starting up 30 minutes after I got there.  So I did weights first, which was unusual but worked fine.  I did chest/triceps/core and then went to the spin class.  I could only stay for 30 minutes but it was a kick-butt 30 minutes!  I was working hard and it was a fun change.  I cooled down and then went to stretch and foam roll.  Ah the foam roller.  Fun stuff I tell ya.

Miguel was out tonight so I grilled turkey burgers and baked sweet potato fries for the kids (Alexia makes some good fries).  I had a grilled chicken breast and stir-fried zucchini.  And ended up eating some fries too.  I was happy with my meal.  I dipped the chicken breast in Annie's honey mustard, yum!   Whoa, it's after 11pm.  I'm headed to bed.  I hope the kids sleep past 7am tomorrow. 

Tri for Fun Pleasanton 2012

I had a plan to rest all week to let my calf heal but by Wednesday evening I was itching to burn some energy at the gym.  Miguel and I worked out that I would go after dinner.  I decided that I could ride the bike without giving my calf much grief and that as long as I didn't do leg exercises I should be fine.  Add to that, it's a recovery/taper week anyway so I'm doing an easier level on the bike.  It felt good to be exercising as I pedaled away on the upright bike.  After the bike I did chest/triceps/core work for weight training.  The core work felt harder than usual for some reason.  I finished with a lot of stretching.  Oh, and foam rolled my calf as much as I could handle.  I left feeling good.

I took another day off from exercise on Thursday, just to be on the safe side and because life was plenty hectic toward the end of the week.  My calf still hurt when I woke up in the morning but a day later, on Friday morning, when I stepped out of bed - no pain!  That was a good sign for Saturday's triathlon. I decided to go to the gym because I just felt like I needed to do something.  I rode the upright bike again and then did back/biceps/core work for strength training.  As I was finishing up I saw a stability ball class had just started so I decided to join in.  It was interesting and added a nice challenge, and stress relief, to my workout.  After that I went for some stretching, and more rolling calf of course.

I went to bed way too late Friday night and I think I ended up with around 5 hours sleep.  Up at 4:15am to load up the car and have some breakfast before hitting the road at 5am with my fellow mom and race buddy Laurie.  This is my fourth time doing this event so I knew what to expect.  I was nervous for the run though, not sure how my calf would react since I hadn't run all week.  Anyway, Laurie and I prepped our stuff at the bike racks and then headed over to the start.

We'd had a small wager on the race, whoever was faster would buy breakfast afterward.  Laurie said she'd wait 10 seconds before taking off to avoid getting bumped by other swimmers.  I suggested she wait 30 seconds to give me more of a head start!  She's a speedy runner so I needed all the help I could get.

We took off and the swim was good.  I felt good about my pace and was hardly getting bumped at all.  It's over so fast being only 400 meters and I was up and out of the water.

I got to transition and there was Laurie - hey, she must have passed me in the water!  So much for my head start.  We were getting ready for the bike when Laurie realized she'd lost a sock somewhere along the way!  She did the rest of the tri with only one sock on.  She was out of transition before me, I took too long putting on my bike gloves.  I caught and passed her on the bike but of course I never knew how far behind she was. I had an AccelGel after a couple miles.

I got back to transition and changed and left on the run before she came in.  The run felt hard almost from the beginning but it wasn't my calf.  It was strange because I couldn't put my finger on why it felt hard, maybe it was the heat.  We started at 7:20am (5th wave) so this must have been only around 8:30 but the sun was already beating down.  Projected high in Pleasanton on Saturday was 101 degrees!  I had another AccelGel hoping it would give me a kick in the pants but it didn't do much.  I was also struggling just a bit with some stomach cramps.

I knew Laurie was out there somewhere so I tried to use that to make myself keep running.  The hills were killing me though so I walked most of them.  I was probably about a 1/3 mile from the finish when Laurie goes running past me in a group of women. I tapped her, she didn't realize she was passing me.  We had a quick exchange and then she said, "let's have a photo finish."  Awww, fun!  She would have won our little bet, of course.  If she'd run off, I certainly didn't have enough gas in the tank to give chase.

Even keeping up on that last 1/3 of mile was killing me!  And then she says, "let's sprint to the finish."  I am sprinting, I pant.  But when the finish line came into view we kicked up the pace and crossed the finish line running hard!

I was glad to be done.  1 hour, 27 minutes.  That's my best time ever.  Prior to this my fastest time was the first time I did it, 1 hour, 35 minutes.  I was about 10 pounds heavier than I am now, maybe that was the difference.  I know I can do better though, especially if I could get my running pace up.

Post-race with Laurie.

I got in line to see a sports chiropractor (I didn't even know such a thing existed) to see what he could maybe do for my calf.  Ouch!  He did some deep tissue massage right into the muscle and it hurt like hell!  Though you can't tell by the smile I managed for this picture.

After the painful massage he taped it up with RockTAPE.  He said this would support the muscle while it continues to heal.  I sure hope it's doing something because we're in the middle of a heat spell and I look darned silly with this stuff on my leg in shorts.  Not that I care all that much really.

RockTAPEd calf.

We went out for breakfast after and I got a bacon, avocado, mushroom and cheese omelet with home fries, toast and a slice of french toast.  Whoa!  That's more calories than I burned I'm sure.  The kids and Miguel met us at the restaurant so that was fun.  Then back home for a nap with the kids.  On the diet front I ended up being full the rest of the day.  I only ate fruit and an lime lollipop for dinner.

Today, Sunday, I feel good.  I kind of wanted to go to the gym but I cooled my jets and took the day off today.  It was another hot day, got to spend a lot of it with my mom too, which was nice.  But I'm SO tired so I'm off to bed.  Oh, on a final note, the George Foreman grill challenge officially starts tomorrow.  I have been loving that grill!  I grilled a bunch of veggies on it tonight, including eggplant.  If I have finally found a way to cook eggplant at home that I like I may go on a serious eggplant binge.  Love it!