Back From A Long Break & Wednesday Weigh-In

I guess I should start by saying I never intended to stop blogging for this long. Oops! Even though I haven't blogged in forever (over 3 months!), I have been reading every one's blog.

I'm ashamed to admit that I have gained 9lbs since April. Sigh.

This week, I have made incredible efforts to get myself back on track with eating healthy as well as exercising.

I joined MyFitnessPal. Does anyone else use this? I think I like this even better than The Daily Plate.

I didn't actually write a Wednesday Weigh-In post, but I did weigh in that day. I am currently at 185.

I have also stopped running, which I miss. I'm mad at myself for slacking off, but the only thing I can do now is get myself back into the swing of things. So, that's what I'm going to do. I did attempt to run a couple days ago, however, I could tell it wasn't as easy as it had been a couple months ago.

Some goals I hope to will achieve by next weigh-in:

• Walk 3 miles at a brisk pace, at least 4 times
• Drink 2.5L of water every day
• Drink 1 cup of green tea every day
• Have my daily calorie intake between 1400-1600 a day
• Increase my veggie and fruit intake

Next Wednesday, depending on how I feel, I will start running again. I do have a couple exercise DVDs that I want to incorporate into my workout regimen. I had my daughter take some pictures of me that I will be posting over the next couple days. As much as I dislike them, they will be wonderful to have as my before pictures.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Week 9: Wednesday Weigh In

Wow! I can't believe it's been a couple weeks since I last blogged. It's amazing how time zooms by, huh?

Well, it is that time again--Wednesday Weigh In. :D

I am down to 176. 

Yay!

Now I have to confess that I've been so busy with school work (and I've been sick the past couple of weeks!) that I haven't ran in forever. I miss it, too. :( I've worked hard the past couple weeks to keep my eating in check, and I think I've done a pretty good great job, no?

I am finally feeling better and will be back to running tomorrow. *happy dance*

In about 2 weeks, I leave for NC. Whoo hoo! I better make these next 2 weeks count... ;)

Updated: Ok, I just realized that I am officially down 25 lbs! :) Now on to losing another 25.

Run: 2 Miles

Today has been fairly busy, and I knew it would be, which is why I decided to get up around 6:30 this morning to get a run in. I only did 2 miles. Better than nothing, right? Well, about halfway through my run, I started to feel sick to my stomach. I didn’t eat before my run and that doesn’t work well for me. I’m not the type of person to eat first thing upon waking up; I need a couple hours of being awake before I can think about food.  I was aiming for around 4 this morning, but that so didn’t happen. I’m considering doing another 2-3 miles later today.

Last night, I almost caved to some yummy temptations. Hubby brought home some McDonalds. I am ashamed to admit this, but in the past I would have eaten 2 McDoubles and half of a large fry. That was in the past. Last night? I only ate 1 burger. Yep, that’s all, just 1 burger. No fries. I know that some are thinking “But you STILL ate McDonalds!” Yeah, I know did, but I didn’t stuff my face! I had already made a plan when he arrived with the burgers that if I was still hungry after the 1 burger, I would fry some shrimp and have a salad. I was full after the burger and didn’t need the shrimp or the salad. To some it may seem to be a silly victory, but it’s MY silly victory and I’ll take it. :)

If my weight this morning is any indicator of what Wednesday’s weigh in will be, I say BRING IT ON. I like the numbers I’m seeing and will do my best to keep my eating in check.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Run: 5 Miles

Thought I would attempt a 5 mile run tonight.

I did.

And I totally completed it! :D

Ok, I walked about a 1/4 of a mile or so after hitting the 3rd mile, but I still ran 4.75 miles! Insert another smiley face here. :)

I'm sure I will be somewhat sore and stiff tomorrow, but I'm glad.

Ok, I'm off to take a much needed shower.

Good night! 

Week 5: Weigh In Wednesday

Quick post because I'm super tired and need to get myself off to dreamland.

I didn't weigh in last week, but did today. I'm happy to announce that I'm down.... 2 lbs! I weighed in at 178. Yay! I'm super proud! I need to lose another 7.2 lbs to reach 30lbs gone. I'm soooo close.

I did run yesterday, but it was only a 2 mile run. I didn't have much time and figured 2 miles was better than no miles. I had the quick thought "Oh, I can just run my 5K later today..." Yeah, no. I'm sure it wouldn't have happened. I haven't decided if I'm going to try to run longer tomorrow or not. I guess it just depends on how I feel when I get ready to run. :D

                                                                    Here's my 2 mile run.

Good night, fellow blogging peeps!

Spring Break: A Week Off

Well, I didn't plan to take spring break week off, it just sort of happened. Oops! Though, I guess no one really plans on taking a break from their weight loss efforts, do they? I didn't weigh in. I didn't run the entire week. And I didn't eat all too great, either. Insert another oops here. D'oh! What's done is done and all I can do now is get myself back in my groove and move forward.

With that being said, I squeezed in a 5K run today. I felt a bit yucky during the run; I'm sure my week of bad eating had everything to do with it. Gah! I was hoping to break into the 170s by the time spring break was over... Uh, yeah, that ain't gonna happen this week. That's my mini goal for next week's weigh in. *crosses all fingers*

So, back to my run today. Before today's run, I was in the yellow level (I talked about the levels here.) Well, I am officially in the ORANGE level today! Booyah! :D (Yes, I know I would have been into the orange level last week had I not taken 7 days off...)


 

I have decided to rewrite my goals and rewards, and I will update the pages at the top soon with it. I am also going to start tracking on The Daily Plate again (starting tomorrow), which I think is now known as LIVESTRONG.

In May, I'm flying out to NC for my sister's graduation. I'm trying to decide on what I will wear and I have fallen in love with this dress:

I would love to buy this, but am not sure how it will look. Hmm... All I can do is try, right? Guess we'll see what happens by then.


Well, I better call it a night. I have 2 classes tomorrow. Ick!

5K Runs: Thursday and Today

I didn't get a chance to update on Thursday because my day was so busy. Anyway, I did run a 5K as per my schedule of every other day AND I did my run today as well. :D  I'm incredible happy with my run today. I beat my run on March 9th (I just realized that this was still before I started uploading pics of my run. I'll try to upload my first couple of runs over spring break.) My March 9th run was completed in 33'39" and my run today was completed in 33'34". Today's was only 5 seconds faster, but I'll take whatever I can get!

My run today

Here's my run from Thursday, March 17th.



I must say that I LOVE how my legs are looking. Really, I've only been running for a short time, but my legs are starting to look amazing. Now just to get rid of my midsection....

Does anyone else have the Nike+ ipod sport kit? I absolutely love mine! It really helps keep me motivated during my runs and I really like the visual elements of the graphs, the goals, and the challenges. I think I'm hooked!

At the top of my graph, there's a bar broken into different colors. Each color represents a level. As an individual increases their miles with each run, they slowly work toward the next level. The yellow level starts at 0-49km (0-30 miles). As of today, I'm only 3K from the next level, which is ORANGE. (My favorite color.) :D Including today's run, I'm now at 46.09km (which is about 28.57 miles!).

 I'll post below what the other levels are according to the Nike+ website.

There are six levels that correspond to total kilometers run:

• Yellow (0-49km, 0-30mi)
• Orange (50-249km, 31-154mi)
• Green (250-999km, 155-620mi)
• Blue (1,000-2,499km, 621-1552mi)
• Purple (2,500-4,999km, 1553-3106mi)
• Black (over 5000km or 3107mi).