The YOU you!

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I'm feeling good about the day ahead, probably because I have a plan for my eating (well, a loose plan, anyway) and exercise. And a bit of fun in that last night I finally got out the Fitbit that was gifted to me and activated it. I'm not sure I'm a natural "wearable" type in that I don't like having something that I have to keep charged up. But this only needs charging every 5 days so hopefully I can handle that.

My Fitbit Flex

I had my first night of wearing it for sleep. It said I woke up once (when my daughter came in and I had to get her water) and that I was restless 16 times. A quick Google session and that seems pretty average. My sleep efficiency was 93%, which sounds pretty good to me.

So today will be my first full day with step-counting. I'm not going to do anything special to increase my steps, I'm sort of curious how many I get as-is. I have to admit, I could see myself getting a little competitive with my friends. Speaking of, if you want to be my Fitbit friend you can find me at michelle.my.bell at gmail.com. Some of you have already joined me...Hi new Fitbit friends!

I synced it with the WW app so it will give me FitPoints without my having to enter them. I like that, I think. I'm worried seeing FitPoints wrack up for just my everyday activity (ie, non "exercise" movement, which I normally wouldn't count) tempts me to eat more. In general I'm not sure I'll be having a long-term relationship with the Fitbit but I'm definitely going to give it a try.

Moving on to WW...I made it to my meeting yesterday. I was happy to see it packed full of people, which is predictable in January. I sure hope they all stick around. Anyway, my weight was 153.2 pounds. That's down 2.8 pounds from my last weigh-in (12/30) of 156 pounds. As you can see from my WW weight log, I've been doing a bit of bouncing around in the low-to-mid 150's. I'm ready for that to change. I feel very motivated to get back to my WW goal weight of 147 (which will mean 145 on my home scale in the morning).

So, 6.2 pounds to go. As I've said before, although I have a number goal in mind, I know that's not the real goal. The real goal is to get my eating and exercise behaviors back to a more comfortable place. The weight loss is a natural result of that. Putting the number before the behaviors is like putting the cart before the horse - which never works. But, anyway, down 2.8 pounds. I know that didn't happen by accident, so YAY ME!!!

So, I packed snacks for today (an apple and 6oz of Fage (2 smart points), which I already ate, and a string cheese (Sargento light, 1 smart point, and an orange) for later. I know I'll be eating a healthy lunch, though I'm not sure what that is yet, and I plan to go to the gym after work. Done, done and done. 

As has been the case lately (and by lately I mean, oh, the past year or so), the evening tends to be my biggest challenge. Last night I had a Morningstar Chipotle black bean burger over arugula (LOVE arugula!) for dinner (3sp). And then several of the kids' chicken wings (6sp), followed by some of their TJs potato fries, oven baked (4sp), and still later, a small bowl of honey nut cheerios with almond milk (5sp). That put me at 39 sp for the day. WW is currently giving me 30. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

And yet, I feel positive about today. Each day is a fresh start, a new opportunity to make choices that feel good. What's done is done, the only thing I can do is learn, pick up, move on. I have a good plan for today, and fun, active plans this coming weekend. Besides, what I ate last night was not disastrous. Sure, I went over the Smart Points, but that's always going to happen at times.

So, once again, welcome to my new readers. I hope you stick around past the resolution phase and make this the year you find a new way to a new you! Sheesh, I'm getting all slogan-y on myself. Not a new you, because you'll still be you, thank goodness, but a you that you feel better about, that matches how you want to feel, and that basically rocks your world! The YOU you :)

Jumping Spirit

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The week is fully underway here and I am happy to report, I've already gone on a run! Can you tell I'm excited? I ran 3 miles today. I contemplated doing a loop that would put me at 4.5 miles but decided to play it safe. I'm just getting back into running, no need to push myself now. My Garmin agreed with me, telling me my "recovery check" was "fair". After my run on Sunday the watch told me I needed 72 hours to recover, and today's run was only 48 hours later, so it all made sense.

My pace has picked up some since I started back. Last week I ran my midweek run with an 11:35 pace, today it was 10:51. Honestly, though, I'm running by feel rather than putting much  attention on pace. Not worrying about pace makes the whole experience so much better.

So I ran 3 miles and then I went in to do chest/triceps/core. It's been quite a while since I've done a push-up. I don't think I wrote about my weight lifting comeback plan. Basically, I'm doing all my same exercises from before but doing less reps/lower weight. With push-ups, I used to do three sets of push-ups, 20/15/12 reps. Today I did two sets of 10. And those last few were hard, but I did them. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. 

I took a post-workout picture. I think I look drained after having pushed myself. But my spirit is jumping up and down, even if my legs can't.

ps - eating is getting better. The scale isn't going down, but I'm not worried about it. I know how this works, I do my part, and the rest falls into place.

7 Miles on a Sunday

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So I didn't get a second gym workout last week like I'd hoped. My legs were pretty sore and, well, ya know. I had some valid reasons and some lame excuses and together they did me in. No matter, pick up and move on.

I had a sitter lined up for today so I could do my long run. That's a really good way to make it happen. If I fail to plan, I'm planning to fail (to get my long run done). There was rain in the forecast but I've run in the rain before so I knew that wouldn't stop me. I'll take rain over wind any day. Though today I did get a tiny bit of wind it wasn't enough to make me suffer. And no rain, just drizzle.

I did a loop that included a good sized hill, the Palmer hill, one I've written about a lot before because it's so friggin' steep! Here are some stats, the elevation profile and my splits. I'm so glad I did this run today, not just for the training but because it helps with how I feel about the eating.

My mom and M came for dinner on Friday evening. I'd baked a Velvety Spice Cake (from Joy of Cooking cookbook).

My mom brought over ice cream from a shop that makes it local, Apple Pie and Chocolate Grand Marnier...oh snap. Of course I would have been fine if I'd stuck with what I ate that night, but no, I got into the ice cream again last night. I'm not sure how much I ate but it was definitely more than I needed. So the run today helped me feel all is not lost. Oh, and I got up this morning and put the rest of the ice cream down the garbage disposal. Because I like myself more than I like ice cream.

Back to the run. The weather was drizzly and cool, I ran part of it on a trail so I got mud on me, which was kind of fun. I'll close with a few pictures. As far as my overall eating, I'm doing about the same, which is somewhere between fair and meh. But I'm keeping an eye on my weight, doing what I can when I can, and staying positive. Anyway, here are my pics to share. Happy Sunday!!

Muddy shoes and ankles.

Post Run Smile.

I Love Running...so why do I avoid it?

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I'm buzzing through the week here. Well, not really. It's been a long week due to Marek having a mystery body ache illness that kept him home from school for two days. He wanted to stay home again today but I insisted he go. I'll take him to the doctor this afternoon. So I'm feeling out of the loop at work and need to catch up before the holiday weekend is upon me.

As far as this week in food and exercise...it's been a mixed bag. I went for a run and to the gym this week, though only once. I would like to get back to a routine of going three times a week. But for now, once feels like a victory. On Wednesday I ran after work, doing a 4.5 mile loop from my gym. I ran the way I've been running lately, by feel. It had rained briefly earlier in the day but stayed dry while I was out there. I managed to procrastinate long enough for it to be dark, so I had to watch my steps to be sure I didn't trip.

As I was driving to the gym I found myself thinking more procrastination type thoughts, and thoughts that suggested I didn't want to go to the gym or for a run. I caught myself and challenged those thoughts, "You enjoy running, last time you were running you thought about how great it felt, why are you acting like you don't want to do it?" Isn't this the riddle of all time? Exercise feels good, we feel better after doing it, and yet, our brain (at least my brain), still tries to get me to avoid it. I don't get it.

So I focused on the good, positive feeling I have while running, "I am running! I am a rock star! I love this so much, thank goodness I can run." Seriously, those are the types of thoughts I have while running. Not every moment of the run, and almost never while running uphill, but a lot nonetheless. So I used those positive memories to align my resistant brain with the part of my brain that was "making me" go, and the whole thing suddenly felt easier.

I decided to run outside, despite it being chilly and quickly getting dark. I did a loop from my gym that includes a small hill. I felt great. I really do like running. Afterward I sat down with my gym log and made a plan. I'll start doing my old gym routines of legs/shoulders, back/biceps, chest/triceps - mixed with running and the upright bike and core work. I'm aiming to get to three days a week (plus a weekend outing).

So I started with legs/shoulders, doing all the same exercises I normally do but with less or no weights depending on the exercise. I felt pretty good, stiff, definitely nowhere near as strong as I used to be, but good enough overall. I've been sore since then, especially today, but I'm glad I started back. I have to start somewhere.

My eating is still not where I'd like it to be. I ate four little rice pudding cups last night. It could have been worse, I was in the grocery store yesterday and had a package of Chips Ahoy in my hand when I stopped myself, "What are you doing? If you bring these home you'll eat a ton of them and feel sick and so disappointed, why do that?". I put them down and checked out. Whew.

Ok, well, I gotta go. I was hoping to go to the gym again today but now I'm taking Marek to the doctor right after work. At least I have a sitter lined up for Sunday, so my long run will happen. It will likely be in the rain though. It's ok, I can handle it, running in the rain can be fun. And besides, I love running.

A Weekend Well Done

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Ah, Monday. I had such a lovely weekend, laid back and easy going. I did a lot of cooking. On Saturday night I prepared a home-cooked meal for M's birthday. I poached salmon and made a lemon beurre blanc sauce for it, along with roasted red potatoes and a small arugula salad. The sauce was practically pure butter and cream, and very tasty and rich. Sadly I didn't snap a picture of the meal. We had that along with wine, though I had maybe a glass. I'm wanting to cut back on the alcohol intake. As much as I talk about alcohol it's not of big importance to me so it's an easy place to modify.

Sunday morning I got up and made blueberry scones. I love the cream scone recipe in Joy of Cooking. More cream, though. I had two of those for breakfast. Again, no picture. Lunch was rolling around, as was my plan to do a training run. I decided to have a bowl of Kashi GoLean (with almond milk and sprinkled with cinnamon) for lunch. It seemed like a good choice to prep me for the run and balance out the scones.

And then it was time to hit the pavement. I had my new Garmin all ready to go, as well as an ipod nano that Miguel got me for Christmas. The weather was a bit chilly so I wore my Sugoi running jacket.

I had a plan to run 5 or 6 miles depending on how I felt. Given that I've only been running in a very sporadic way, and rarely more than 3 miles, I didn't want to over-commit. I got going and shuffled along easily, running the first mile in 11:51. I haven't been running with music much lately and it was so nice to have those encouraging beats along for the ride.

I got to the 2.5 mile when I had to decide if I would turn around for 5 or run another .5 for a total of 6. I went for the extra .5, knowing I had an AccelGel with me and feeling like I was running easily enough to make the full 6 miles. Just a smidge after mile 3 I ate the AccelGel and stopped briefly at a water fountain along the path. We were running on the Coyote Creek trail, a paved path that goes for miles. Sometimes the surrounds are office buildings and whatnot, but mostly the view is of trees and hills. Just lovely.

I felt the kick from the AccelGel and cruised through miles 4 and 5. For the last mile I decided to see if I could pick up the pace. 

I pushed myself pretty hard and ran it in 10:23, with my heart rate soaring as I finished up, but enjoying the feeling of hard work. I averaged an 11:39 pace overall, not that I'm paying much attention to that sort of thing right now. The new Garmin gave me all sorts of other stats, such as my 5.9 average vertical oscillation (apparently that's good), my 180 steps per minute run cadence (also good), and my 264 millisecond average ground contact time (not so good). I imagine it will be fun to see these improve, assuming they do. Here's a brief explanation of what all those numbers mean.

After the run we went for a hot tub/sauna visit, which felt downright luxurious, and then home to make dinner. I roasted asparagus and zucchini, and sauteed mushrooms, onions and a can of tomatoes - served it all over pasta. Yum! This time I did get a picture.

 


We had cantaloupe for dessert (and a touch of haagen dazs vanilla).

I wish I'd gotten a bit more sleep this weekend, I stayed up late watching the Amy documentary (Amy Winehouse - tragic) and other distractions. I'm also starting the work week feeling a little sore from yesterday's run, a little tired from not quite enough sleep. Still, it was a great weekend filled with peace, food, exercise and relaxation. Gotta love that! Tonight it's early to bed for this little runner!