MA-gnificent Time to Train for a Half-Marathon!

I'm BACK! It's been two months, but I'm with it! Now I haven't been off the diet for the whole 2 months, but it was shaky there for a while towards the end with me cheating almost every other weekend. I think my body was NONE too happy with that, but it's all over with now! I bottomed out on the Atkins diet at 226 (keeping in mind I started at 242). So the diet definitely worked in some ways, but definitely not in others. I'll get into that in a little bit.

The GREAT news!

During this time, I was able to finally finish my master's degree!! I am now Lindsay Gustafson, MA. Yayuh! I revised my paper and went in for my final oral exam on November 10 and have been stress-free ever since! Well, I say stress-free, but in reality, the truth still hasn't hit me yet, though I'm slowly discovering it with all the free-time I have. I still feel guilty doing things for fun and not staying home on weekends, but I'm sure all of that will pass!

So what did this do to my diet? Well, I will tell you that the weekend before my oral exam, all diets were out the window. I reverted back to pure study mode which called for lots of sugar/chocolate. LOTS. Like 2 bags of pumpkin-shaped reese's miniatures, combined with several other dessert items....and then dinners that had nothing to do with Atkins. It was fabulous, and very study-conducive, but unbelievably unhealthy....as was the celebratory dinner after the exam. The result: I gained 6lbs. Even worse? I gained inches. Many of the clothes I was just starting to fit back into have since gone back in the "uh-uh" pile. Though I watched what I ate, I didn't restrict myself much.


What you should understand about the Atkins Diet:

Results are there, and they're great, but this is in no way a long-term way of dieting. I never intended to stay on it forever, but just to kick start my weight-loss at a time when I couldn't commit to much exercising. And it worked well for that. The way I went about the diet wasn't the healthiest either. The basics are that in Phase 1 (the only phase I did in the program) you stay under 20 net-carbs a day (subtracting any fiber grams from the carb count). Well, most meat has NO carbs, but vegetables have a few and fruit is just plain off-limits. I'm the kind of person who eats her Lucky Charms saving the marshmallows for last. So for breakfast and lunch, I would generally eat less than 8 carbs so I can have what I wanted when I got home for dinner. But then at dinner, I didn't want to waste all my carbs on dinner food, when I could finally get some Atkins' desserts. So what resulted was a severe lack of vegetables in my diet and even with taking all my vitamins everyday (including a pill for potassium) had several ridiculous cramps in my calf a day. Not a good sign! Of course the Atkins people tell you NOT to skip out on your veggies. They really are trying to help you do the diet as healthily as possible, I just did not follow instructions, and I suspect I'm not the only one!

AND THEN.....

..there was the Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving morning. How long had I known about this? A couple of months. Did I train for it? NOPE. But I finished in 49 minutes and something-something seconds (it's not important). I was only about 3 minutes behind my time for the Princess and the Frog 5K in Disney last March, but I was stopping and taking pictures that whole time, too. Point of the story...I gotta work on it!

Here's a picture of the gang:

That would be my niece, me, April, Scott, Mom, my other niece, and my sister.

Here is a picture of me finishing:


Yep, that's me finishing... right behind MY MOM!!! Nothing wrong with that...but...well...it's my mom!! She can run faster than me!!! It's the first time that I know of in my lifetime that this is the case (injury situations excluded). She was training for the run, so she's become quite sprightly in her jogging capabilities. I'm proud of her. She's even signed up for the HALF-MARATHON in Disney in February! She's going to kick some ass...just hopefully not mine! Haha. I'm kidding of course. In all honesty, if we all finish in whatever order, I'll be happy as a clam as we wallow in our physical misery in the hotel room together afterwards. It's gonna be GREAT!

And so it begins.....AGAIN.....

Thus begins my training for the Princess Half-Marathon on February 27. If you're interested in doing it, too, register HERE. It's already over 70% full, so hurry! According to their online countdown I have 85 days to train. I can do this! Last year I only trained for about 60 days and made it 10 miles. I plan to make it this year and I'm psyched about it! So here's the plan:

Between now and Christmas I'll be running 3 times a week (starting tonight - my legs are STILL sore from the 5K!), and watching what I eat, but not necessarily following a particular diet. After Christmas I'll be all in on a strict diet and (ready for this?) getting used to running outside on the cold hard pavement using the Galloway Method. OUCH! I'll be ready, then, though. I got a great deal at fleetfeet on Black Friday for a really good sports bra. The thing fits like a bullet proof vest. I'll be testing that sucker out tonight! Should be great!

Just last night I made a pumpkin Devil's Food Cake with fat free cool whip. It was excellent for lunch today! I also made a batch of Fiber One banana nut muffins for breakfast for the rest of the week. It's been a while since I've loaded up on fiber without tons of protein to back me up, so the results may be explosive. Dinners are relatively good, also, with lots of options for chicken. I'll just need to watch my carbs and not go overboard now that I can have them again. I'm a sucker for rice and noodles! (but I am using brown rice and whole wheat noodles)

Note the new starting-point picture! I think I'm starting off better than I did about a year ago.

I'm open to training and diet suggestions! Especially if you have any favorite recipes or exercises! Let me know!

Some days, pork rinds just aren't enough....

Alright! I'm starting off Week 3 at 234 lbs (8 lbs lighter than 2 weeks ago!) ready to go in my new apartment inside my new apartment complex with my newly-found motivation to GET THINGS DONE! I'm not sure if it's because my paper is done or because I have completely cleansed and relocated my living space, but I'm in a busy mood, which is great incentive to keep active all afternoon instead of flopping out on the couch when I get home from work and staying there until I roll myself out just to flop back down into bed.

Casualties of the Fat-Life

Another incentive to get moving is noticing, as well as hearing from my parents and boyfriend, how much weight my DOG has gained. Abby Gustafson has unfortunately been a casualty of my weight gain and sedentary life-style. Normally, the routine has been to take her out in the mornings before I leave, and then again right when I get home, and normally one more time before we go to bed. And when we go, it's only for her to poop and pee. I didn't have much time, and I had work to get done all sprawled out on my couch. Abby (a.k.a. Tater) somewhat conformed to this lifestyle and snuggled with me while I worked on stuff and occasionally dropped a tennis ball on my keyboard for me to throw around a little. A couple of times I tried to throw her tennis ball with her outside, but she only grabbed it and ran to the door to go back inside so she could get a treat (story of my life). Well, at this new apartment complex, there are lots more dogs, so when I take Abby out, I will definitely have to have her on a leash, and since I'll have her on a leash, she'll have to stay outside with me. No more running to the door. So I think we'll get a good walk everyday around the new (and very safe) complex. Tater needs to be able to fit into those cute sweaters I bought her last year!

What's Been Going On

As I said before, I've been moving into my new apartment since Tuesday of last week. However, Wednesday and Thursday I did nothing because I was diagnosed with bronchitis, a sinus infection, and an ear infection. I felt like a raccoon (don't they carry a bunch of diseases? or did my mom just lie to keep me from petting them...). Anyways, that slowed my progress somewhat, so this weekend Scott and I got it done big time. By Monday everything from the old apartment was moved over into the new one and now I just have to clean the old apartment up for inspection. Just about everything is in its new home at the new apartment. I have my skinny clothes on standby on the top shelf of my new closet. I've also thrown away tons of stuff (soooo relieving!!) and set some other things aside for a yard sale next weekend. Love love LOVE this organization. I love plugging in a documentary on netflix to listen to while I dig and separate out bins full of junk. It's just HEAVEN!

However, it's all very hard work, too, and my body wants to revert back to rewarding itself with food. So I've had some serious cravings this past week and weekend. The worst was on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon when eating out. Saturday I wanted a beer more than life itself. I settled for a whisky sour and a coconut rum on ice (whisky sour was only 5 carbs and rum has NO carbs...but your body will burn off the alcohol before it gets back to burning fat, so it slows you down just a little). Sunday, Scott and I met up with my parents for lunch at a BBQ place where they had fried EVERYTHING and the most heavenly looking creme pies I've ever seen in my life. I did eat a couple of fried green beans without the breading on it. I really wanted to try the jalapeno dipping sauce....it was delicious by the way.

But this next week will be fine. I've reloaded on my Atkins snacks to sustain me through certain cravings. I used to wonder how the Atkins people could be making money with all their information available for free on their website, and then I realized the snag you with their brands of chocolate and milk. They're the only ones who can make chocolate peanut butter cups taste just like the real thing. However, I should warn y'all, everything else tastes like cardboard, except the peanut butter and chocolate granola bar they have. That one is good, but everything else is incredibly deceiving. The milkshakes aren't bad, but well, I love milk and I know it's not milk, so it's not as fun, but it works for now!

Since we're talking about food, let's just line up some meals from this past week:

DIET

Breakfast - My blender has been packed up all week, so I haven't been up on the protein shakes like I'd like to be. Instead I've been eating those Atkins chocolate covered peanut butter bars with an Atkins milkshake or a handful of pork skins, or a few days I microwaved some bacon.

Lunch - Leftover rotisserie chicken, publix chicken salad with pork skins, hot dogs, and babybel cheese.

Snack - Babybel cheese, Atkins cardboard, or pork skins

Dinner - cheesy hot dogs with chili (no beans), rotisserie chicken, bacon and eggs, egg salad with pork skins.

I didn't eat quite as much last week because of getting sick, but that should HELP, right?

Something else I've been doing, I may have mentioned this before, is drinking flavored teas from Crystal Light. 0 carbs. I've been getting the peach and raspberry flavors. Really good! And they don't need splenda or truvia which Atkins says to add 1 carb for using.

EXERCISE

Taking boxes/bins up and down stairs and hills. That counts, right? Actually, Scott did a WHOLE lot more than I did, but we still worked hard. I also took Abby and her Aunt Katie out for walk a lot last weekend, which was really nice because it was so cool outside. This week I'll be exercising my arms with scrubbing floors and counters and everything else in the old apartment. Hopefully it will help!!


I'm still looking into phase 2 for Atkins. I still need to read more about it before I get to it. I want to have all my bases covered and be prepared when I start. I may start it next weekend!

New Short Term Goal

Looks like the family may get involved in the Huntsville Turkey Trot 5K this year on Thanksgiving Day. I want to be able to do well in it, so we'll see! It will also (hopefully) make me less hungry for Thanksgiving lunch that day (or make me feel like I've burned a lot of fat/calories so I can eat all I want). Haha. I'll try for the former!

Engaged in Weight Loss

What all Happened this Week

Alright! Week 1 is over and as of Sunday night (weigh-in night) I am at 238 lbs, which is about 4 lbs less than last week's 242. It seems like this Atkins stuff is really working! Which is excellent news because not only am I losing weight for the Disney Half-Marathon and 5K in February, I'll also be losing weight in order to look fabulous when I get married. That's right! Scott proposed to me on Saturday. I know not everyone wants to hear the whole sappy story of what happened, but if you do, just scroll down to the very bottom of this post and read. I will take this opportunity, however, to tell everyone that the wedding itself will probably be at least a year from now since we have some loose ends with school and job hunting to figure out. I will keep y'all posted, though, but probably not on this blog.

So what does engagement do to my diet? I'll tell you. It makes me want to GORGE myself. Icing covered sugar cookies never looked so good...and neither did hamburger cookies for that matter! The proposal happened (yes, happened, because it kind of hit me like a softball...wait) as we were about to enter our bible-study leaders' house to watch the Alabama game, and trying to think ahead, we brought avacados and pork skins for me to munch on during the game. The good news is, I was so busy with phone calls and text messages during most of the game that I didn't even have much of a chance to chow down. So it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Also....I FINISHED MY PAPER!!! So now that's out of the way, I can move on some and possibly get more into working out while studying for my orals until I hear back from my professors about this draft. It's possible I may need to brush up on this one since it's a brand new draft, but we'll just have to see! In the mean time, I've got tons to do!


Diet

Trying to keep your net carb in-take below 20 grams is hard work. It's mostly changing your mind-set. Every other diet I've been on has been low-fat and low-calories, but most of those foods are high in carbs! Interesting to think about. It's also hard to change! I tried getting the olive oil mayonnaise, but it turns out, it has 2 carbs whereas regular mayonnaise has 0. So you see how this kind of thing goes. Here are the things I've been living off of this past week.

Breakfast - Protein shake (atkins milkshake with a scoop of protein powder--tastes like chocolate milk!)

Sometimes I eat a half of a cheddarwurst sausage with half a cup of cottage cheese. Though good and filling, it takes up a good bit of my carbs for the day.

Lunch - Egg salad with pork skins, or hot dogs, or summer sausage and cheese squares, or publix chicken salad, and bacon with babybel GOUDA cheese!

Snack - babybel Gouda cheese or pork skins

Dinner - Guacamole, egg salad, pork skins, occasional frozen veggies, rotisserie chicken, cooked chicken, and I invented this cheesy sausage casserole, but I haven't perfected it, so I won't tell you how I did it yet.

LOTS of pork skins for substituting chips or bread. I've been eating so much, I went a bought this big boy:



EXERCISE

Still not any for right now. However, since I've moved in I've toured the fitness center which is nice and includes several new and semi-new pieces of equipment. Mainly a couple of ellypticals! Woohoo! Also an awesome pool that is suspiciously empty a lot of the time (I'm sure it's because it's getting cooler outside) and tennis courts that are kind of covered which is great so I don't have to worry about people seeing my hams jiggle while I play.

So now that the paper is complete (!!) I will have more time to go work out and this will possibly make me feel better about stepping up to Phase 2, but I'll need to read more about it before I actually cross into it.

Now, the engagement story...

Scott has gone to this bible study for several years and since we started dating, I've been going with him when I've been in town. It's lead by this couple, Angie and Ernie, who are so much fun and the people who come are absolutely great to be with. Ernie is a big Alabama fan, and has his whole downstairs man-cave set up with a big screen tv and theater seating. It is fabulous! Scott and I planned to go over for a little bit to watch the game on Saturday. On the way, Scott mentioned how much Angie and Ernie meant to him, especially when he first started going during a hard time in his life. I thought it was sweet to hear him talk about how much he loved and respected them, but I was so much more concerned about how rough I looked with my hair up and skin peeling. Looking back, I feel like a vain jerk, but at least I can say he loves me even when I look like crap! :-)

So we get to the house and he make sure I walk up the stairs to the back deck in front of him, nothing out of the ordinary because he is always a gentleman. We get to the top of the stairs, but before going inside he stopped me and said "You know how I was talking about how much Angie and Ernie meant to me in the car. Well, that's why I wanted to do this here." At that point the adrenaline struck, and I don't remember exactly what he said next, but he asked the only thing a guy could ask a girl when he's on one knee and slipping a ring on her finger. I asked him if he was sure and he said yes so there it is.

My favorite part of the story is what happened afterward. Ernie is a big gun enthusiast and I'm an interested learner. He also has a couple of older rifles which are especially interesting to me. I had seen one, but not the other. Not long after visiting with everyone who was there (some knew and some didn't) Ernie took me aside to show me their Japanese WWII rifle Angie's father acquired while fighting in WWII. So the second thing I held in my engaged hand besides Scott's hand was a Japanese WWII rifle. It was actually a great way to calm the nerves!

Also, not sure if everyone watched the game (once again I didn't see much because I was making phone calls until my phone died), but we almost lost the game, which apparently would've doomed our marriage, but since Bama pulled through, we have to get engaged every Saturday during the season. :-p

Ok, so there's the sappy story. Crazy! Still getting used to wearing something on that finger!

More about the diet and exercise next week!

Princess in Training (PIT)

So here we are again. Signed up and registered for the Disney Princess 5K and Half Marathon in Disney World in February. BUT, this time will be different! WHY?! Because instead of starting only 2 months before the big race, I'm starting NOW. That's right. September 20, 2010 marks the starting point of my road BACK to healthiness and I plan to exceed the previous results.

I bought a scale last night. It's a weight watcher scale which creates a profile for you, and possibly 9 other people (who the hell has 9 other people living with them...or worse, SHARING A BATHROOM?). Anyways, it records and tracks your progress as well as measures your weight, BMI, body fat percentage, and water percentage. Yeah, fancy. Did I want it that fancy? NOPE. It was just the only one in Publix and I didn't want to fight with the crazies at the "friendly" Douglasville neighborhood Wal-Mart. So what did it tell me?! That I'm fat. That's right $25 for an electronic appliance to tell me something I already knew. But seriously. I'm off the charts fat. Ready for it? I'm only going to give you the weight. 242 lbs. Gained it all back (and then some) after a summer of self-loathing during 2 more drafts of my paper which ultimately got me a free ticket to START ALL OVER AGAIN. Yep. Had to start from scratch. That took 2 pints of Ben & Jerry's and a bottle of Merlot 2 nights a week just to stomach the news.

Regardless, it's been an ongoing struggle between keeping in shape and graduate school, and instead of constantly pitting one versus the other, I think I've found a compromise!

So what's the plan?

#1. DIET. This time, just to get the numbers down and ready to run, I'm going on the Atkins diet. Sure, I understand it's not everyone's favorite. You either have a friend that yo-yo dieted with it or you saw on the Biggest Loser that Bob, the trainer, HATES it, or you took a health class which said it's not the best idea. Well, after doing a little research, I've found that understanding how it works is the key. The danger is with people who don't read about the process first and then go out and try to kill themselves without eating carbs for 6 months while overloading on some bacon and gravy. Sure some of them look great, but DAMN. Here's what I've learned:

Phase 1/ Induction of the Atkins Diet requires you to live off of no more than 20 net carbs a day. What are net carbs? That is the gram amount of carbs minus the gram amount of fiber (if I misunderstood this part, someone let me know ASAP, but this is how I understood it). The point of doing this is so that your body will begin the process of Ketosis in which your body burns fat (including your own!) instead of burning primarily carbohydrates for energy. This will be particularly helpful since until I can move out of my current hell-hole apartment in the next month, I really don't have much of a chance to exercise, but that's a whole other story. But here is a list Akins' website provides for foods to eat during this phase. The website also gives you a meal planner with plenty of recipes. It's just a really good source of information altogether.

Phase 1 generally lasts 2 weeks, though you can go longer if you like. Most people burn up to 15 lbs in those two weeks. I personally would like to stay on Phase 1 for several weeks. When I'm ready for Phase 2 and the gradual introduction of carbs back into the diet, I'll be sure to update! Right now I've got the app on my phone and I'm red-ta-go!

My only concern about induction is this "Atkins Flu" I keep hearing about that lasts a couple of days, where your body is switching gears and going into Ketosis. Apparently, you don't feel sick, you just feel really tired for like 2 or 3 days. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but I'll let you know how it goes.

#2. EXERCISE. Ok, let's be honest. I got nuthin' here yet. Here's the dealio. I canceled my gym membership a couple of months ago thinking my job was going to be ending after the first week in October and I wasn't using the facility anyways. Well, SURPRISE! Two weeks ago we learned our jobs are renewed for another year. For me it's another 6 months, because after I graduate in December...and I WILL graduate in December...under the terms I was hired, I have 120 days before they have to let me go. It's a long bureaucratic story. But that's fine! With my degree I'll be able to apply for plenty more jobs and will definitely find something before that deadline. It never hurts to be able to work a job while looking for another one, whether you're in a recession or not.

So why not run around the neighborhood? Well, the neighborhood I moved into last year has since become The 'Hood and it's not all sunshine and daisies anymore...which is really a shame. After 2 shootings in broad daylight this summer at the entrance of the complex, I'm just plain uncomfortable with the idea of running out there anymore. It's really annoying when you can't get into your apartment complex because the police have to finish mapping out the shell casings. Not cool. So the apartment complexes I'm looking at all have pools and FITNESS CENTERS. Yay! So this way, I won't have to pay extra for gym membership, and I won't have to run with a helmet, mace, and a bullet proof vest (I hear they're heavy).

So there is a lot going on, but I know I can make this work and I'm tired of putting this off while I watch my stomach line get bigger and bigger and my pants feel smaller and smaller. I refuse to buy any more fat clothes just because I'm growing out of my current ones! That's just ridiculous. Being this big is just a whole other stress in itself and I don't think ignoring it is really helping me get anything else done. So I'm going to fix it.

Afterthoughts:
I'm trying to think of all the other things that weigh 240 lbs....

-my backpack in high school
-the metal desk in the office at work
-Mark Ingram while holding his Heisman...

Rock Bottom

Ok. So, that craziness is over. The only snacks I have left that I'm whittling away at are some fig newtons, which isn't nearly as bad as some of the other things I've snacked on these past 2 weeks. It's really kind of funny to read back and see that 2 posts ago I was going to be HARDCORE FULL ON DIET and then just the next post was SCREW YOU ALL, I'LL EAT WHAT I WANT WHILE I'M GOING THROUGH HELL.

The good news is that I'm mellowing out some. Is my paper done? Hahahaha NO. It needs to be done this week, and I'll shoot for it, but I've realized the harder I kick my own ass trying to get this work done, the harder it is for me to actually get it done. So my new philosophy is to take care of myself and stay happy and then I'll get more done. So far, it has worked better than just trying to suck it up and push through like I usually do. The ass-kicking resulted in a very NON-productive weekend. But then again, my computer did something weird on Friday night and I thought I'd lost EVERYTHING on my computer (pictures, papers, PAPER). Luckily, Scott knows a genius who spent the rest of the evening fixing everything on my computer. (Someone is getting some really good cookies and a thank you card in a couple of weeks.) I got everything back (it was a corrupted profile, if any of you know what that means) and resumed work on Saturday and a little bit on Sunday. I needed some out time by then. These professors are driving me up a wall with their comments (really, it's only one)!

The end result from this side track is a noticeable gain of weight (at least to me). I feel like I'm losing my jaw line again and can feel some extra rolls, BUT, I don't see any new stretch marks (the old ones are still going away) and my ankles haven't swollen in over a week.

So on Sunday, Scott and I made a deal: No more bad snacks and we'll start walking 2 miles at least 4 days a week. We started yesterday, and it was really nice to just get outside and move around. The area where we walk has a couple of rough hills to walk up, too, and we broke a sweat. It was really great. And after a couple of weeks, we might go for 3 miles and/or start jogging.

Found a couple of AWESOME things food-wise. Publix had a BOGO on Beaters (egg substitute), but only on the flavored ones. The chive and cheese version is FABULOUS on my morning egg mcmuffins. I do have to say, though, that I'm enjoying the egg mcmuffins more on wheat toast instead of the english muffin. Since I eat them in the car, the toast just holds together a lot better. I team that up with a fruit and yogurt shake. I haven't been close to falling asleep at work since I started doing these breakfasts. Fun stuff!

Lunches have been a PBJ sandwich (I know it's not the BEST thing, but everything else makes me gag a little right now-I have a thing about cold cuts right now that I can't figure out) with low fat Triscuits and laughing cow light cheese and a little 100 calorie cake thing. Then half an orange and a healthy granola bar for a snack on my drive home. Sometimes I switch out the PBJ for a healthy hot pocket (it's the Aldi healthy food brand, can't remember the name of it) and then cut out the crackers and cheese. For a while I had 14 fat free Pringles (equals about 100 calories) to eat with my sandwiches. However, fat free Pringles are almost a whopping $1-$1.50 more than the regular ones and it just hurts me to do that, so I haven't gotten them in a while.

There were also a lot of good deals on frozen dinners between BOGO and couponed items. The kind you get in a bag and throw from the freezer into the skillet. SO EASY! I love those. They're not the healthiest thing if you cook them by yourself, because in all honesty, you could eat almost a whole bag, but when you're sharing them it's awesome, because you eat just your half (which isn't HORRIBLE if you watch the nutrition facts) and then throw some veggies with it. YUM!

So here we are, back in line with all this after hitting rock bottom and hating life for a while. I realized it sucks to hate working on the paper with ANY spare time I had as well as hating myself for getting fatter and less active. So why not fix both? I have some spare time when I get home from work that I DO NOT want to work on school work and just want some time to do what I want to do, and now I spend that walking and then eating dinner. Adding a little more structure to my day will help a lot. I'll check back in later and let y'all know how it's going.

ANY FUN IDEAS?
I've been doing this lunch for several weeks now, and I'm starting to get tired of it. Anyone have any new/easy/cheap ideas for lunches at work? I do have yogurt. It'd be awesome if I can keep these meals under $5 (which is why subway is THE BEST).

Lindsay's Not Losing Weight This Week - Don't read this for inspiration

So I've been trying really hard to get my paper done. I really wanted to have it finished by the end of this weekend. Obviously, it didn't happen. It really got the point where I wanted to quit and be done with it. Thankfully, I walked away for a while, thought about what a loser I would feel like if I quit after getting this far, and decided to stick with it. Haven't been able to look at my paper since though. Every time this week I've come close to getting some work on it done, I get a huge mental/emotional block that makes me cuss it and hate it and meltdown as opposed to actually working on it. Very convenient (UGH!). Now, armed with chocolate and whole milk, I'm going to tackle it.

This has absolutely NOTHING to do with losing weight. You got that?! NOTHING! And you know what. If I balloon into a whale in the next few weeks to get this done. I can fix that! I'll even make a deal. If I finish this degree (alive) by the end of this summer (deadline for everything is July 16), I will work out at least every other day from the point of when I'm finished with my work through Christmas. I know others who went through this crap in order to get their degrees know and understand what I'm going through have done the same thing. Basically, I'm not going to give a CRAP about my personal well-being (excluding hygiene, that will be well taken care of) in order to care more and complete the degree.

Another promise. I won't attempt to get another degree until I've reached my goal weight. However, I will say that I may reach my goal weight within the next year. FEAR NOT for it will be a good 20 years AT LEAST before I try this crap again.

I will say that the meals I eat are fairly healthy. I have not been eating out a lot at all and everything for lunch and breakfast is low fat and with plenty of nutrients and low calories. Dinner is a little bit of stretch, but not much. What I'm really about to go completely overboard on is snacks. So I guess that's not too awful bad considering the first time I really started going overboard with all of this, a year ago, I spent a good chunk of time in tons of drive thru's between Atlanta and Carrollton.

In summation:
This is my fat time. Doesn't make it ok for you, but you know your stress limits, not me. I may be a beached whale on my family vacation, but at least those people have to love me anyways. And at least it will be a VACATION. I've forgotten what that's even like. And if my work is finished by then, I'll be working out every other day while I'm there anyways.

For those who were able to diet and exercise during their final, hellacious push through graduate work: I hate and respect you.

I'll get back on and let y'all know the new starting point in several weeks when this is all over. Or I might write before then once I get a better attitude about all of this.

This isn't the end, just the beginning of a new jumping off point!

Square 2

I'm not starting completely back at Square 1 because I have not ballooned (I don't think) and have been eating fairly well (but not fantastic) this past month. So I'd consider myself at Square 2, though I'd like to be back at Square 5.

Like I said, I haven't gone completely overboard. I've had some good weekends filled with Zaxby's and Mexican food, but kept myself fairly roped in during the week. Next time when I go crazy on calories and fat, it will just be one meal instead of the whole weekend. I will miss my poptarts in the morning and little Ben & Jerry's cups of ice cream at lunch, but it's for the greater good, and I think I've found some alternates that will be much better and still taste fabulous.

SCHOOLWORK
I've taken my second written exam (still haven't heard back from that professor) and am currently working on what should be my final revision of my paper. It's going somewhat slow, but I'm trying to tweak it just right so I won't have to do any more revisions (not sure if that's going to fly or not, but I'm trying!). After this paper I'll do an oral exam and will be finished for graduation at the end of July! Can't believe I'm finally this close!

FOOD
So yeah, I binged a little this weekend by going to a Pub Crawl in Raleigh with some family and friends as well as over-indulging in everything else delicious to eat that weekend. It was so worth it, and what better way to kick off a diet?

One BIG help with the food choices and recipes is hungrygirl.com. A friend of mine recommended it last week and I've been glued to the site ever since. My only problem is that all the desserts that look so good require pumpkin, and the 3 local grocery stores I've gone to have not had any. I know there was a shortage, but SOMEbody has to have some SOMEwhere. My next stop is walmart and after that, I just don't know. We'll see, though!

Breakfasts for the most part are going to be smoothies from my knock-off Bullet blender. A little light protein milk (low fat), with half a container of fat-free yogurt, strawberries, bananas, and a little milk/orange juice and I'm set to go! One priority I want to have this time on the strict diet is taking my vitamins. I'm horrible about forgetting to and the Bullet doesn't dice it up very well. I'm looking for a mortar and pestle to grind the pills up with and then put in the shake. THAT would be nice.

Lunches are sandwich, light pringles (only 14 of them), a few pieces of orange, and some pudding with a 100 calorie bag of popcorn to pop for a snack later. Then tonight for dinner I'm trying Hungry Girl's recipe for chicken cordon bleu. Looks really good and only has 3 ingredients! Slap some frozen veggis on the side and that sucker is balanced and good to go! YUM!

I'm also eyeballing Hungry Girl's recipe for some fudge, but once again, the pumpkin shortage is KILLING me!

My friend Rachel has started Weight Watchers online and they are having a pretty good deal on things right now. I'm really considering it and, depending on my budget, may sign up before the end of next week. It's a great idea and she's already lost 8 pounds in just the last 4 weeks! So awesome.


EXERCISE
I need, Need, NEED to get my butt to the gym in the morning. I really like the input y'all had about that earlier. I'm just having a really hard time waking up early during the week. Not sure what the hang-up is, but I'm trying to work through it. In the meantime, I have some workout videos I can do in the afternoons when I get home from work that I may try for now.

TAKING THE STAIRS - I need to remind myself of it. But I've decided to start taking the stairs at work from now on. Every little bit helps!

Can't wait to catch back up and get back on track.

Get back with y'all next week!

Still Hanging On!

I've lost track of weeks, but I figured if I'm not technically on my original plan, it doesn't really matter until I'm back on it again. When I am back on it, y'all will be the first to know.

So here's the deal with school:
I've completed my first written exam in my major field. The next written exam is scheduled for next Monday and is based on fewer books (than the 15 for my major), but I will also have only 2 hours this test instead of 3. I talked with the professor last Friday and we seem to be on the same page as far as themes for questions and that type of deal. So hopefully no surprises there.

However, I'm still in the process of editing my paper, but I haven't received any other comments since I turned it in 2 weeks ago. That could put a damper in my scheduling. I'm trying to have everything done by April 23 (a week from Friday) which will have me finishing the paper this weekend (if I get it back) as well as studying for my last written exam on Monday and then scheduling my Oral Exam for next Thursday (April 22). April 23 is the deadline to turn everything in to the graduate school in order to graduate on May 8. If I miss it by a week, then I graduate on July 31, but at least everything will be done. For now, I'm trying my hardest to hit the deadline for May graduation. If the paper needs more extensive revisions, or if anything else comes up, then I can just move everything back, which won't really matter in any way except the day I dress in a black robe and walk across the stage - and I guess the job thing as well, but I'm hoping to be long gone by September (if I graduate in May) or October (if I graduate in July). I'm already looking for jobs and applying.

What does all of this mean for Weight Loss?

With everything going on, I have to be honest and say Diet and Exercise have not been at the top of my list of things to do. However, I've done a fair job at keeping things balanced.

EXERCISE

I have gone a couple of times to run with my friend Carla. She's good about running regularly, so she totally kicked my ass, but she showed me a good park to go to that's close by. By the way, it's been WONDERFUL running in this weather. I really need to work on my breathing. She was giving me pointers on how to breath in your nose and out your mouth and trying to give me a good count to breath to so I'm not huffing and puffing. I kind of choked and gagged a few times (really embarrassing) and plan to spend some more time on the elliptical in order to work on that. I did go run on the elliptical on Monday. That was excellent. I'm getting to the point where I'm having to talk myself back into coming to the gym again, whereas I couldn't wait before I fell back into this schoolwork slump. I think once schoolwork is done with, it will be much easier. I really need to follow y'all's advice from last time and go early in the morning before work.

DIET

This is the area I've been better about. Yes, I have slipped up and gotten Zaxby's once, a McDonald's chicken biscuit once, and maybe did some shameful things to some publix cookies (like put icing on them---but it was icing half-made with Splenda!), but each one of these taught me a valuable lesson. Zaxby's gives me stomach aches now - yay! And McDonald's just made me feel bloated later, which is something I can hold on to the next time I feel like I want a chicken biscuit. As for the cookies, they just gave me the same sugar rush I always used to get with them. No new lessons there. God I love cookies and icing. But that spree is over with and behind me now.

And then there was Easter candy. I don't want to talk about that, though. Everyone knows it's good and everyone knows I'm a sucker, but like the cookies, I had my fill and have now moved on. The end.

On some good notes, I've found some new yummy treats that are healthy:

The best deal around D-ville is the $1.50 lb of frozen ground turkey at publix. The whole tube is 11 grams of fat and under 500 calories, but you never eat the whole pound, you know? Lately, I've combined the turkey with some Manwich (also a good deal--AND healthy!) and eating some sloppy joes on whole wheat bread and low fat cheese. YUM. Very flavorful for such fewer calories...and cheap! And as for the frozen ground turkey, they also sell frozen ground turkey sausage for $2.00 a pound. This is really good with some egg beaters for breakfast in the mornings or some cheese dip or anything you could possibly want to make lower in fat. Two thumbs up!

Something else I've discovered and proclaimed to everyone on facebook. Starbucks makes frappaccino with Splenda now and they are 100 calories, 3 grams of fat and 12 carbs. Price is the only disappointing side, though they were on sale last week at Kroger. Hail to the Starbucks.

And lastly, Betty Crocker's Warm Delights were brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago. These are those bowls that you mix water in it and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds and you have dessert. They are soooo, good! Come to find out, they also come in a mini-size. So you get your dose of sweet goodness without overdoing it. And the BEST part is: inside the packaging for the minis is a COUPON! SCORE! 75cents off when you buy 2 more. I know this is benefiting the company, but I will gladly do what they say. Those cakes are so yummy and they make me feel like I'm saving money. Basically, I am a slave to Betty Crocker....much like I am Starbucks now that my one reason for staying away is gone.


So that's it! That's what I've been living off of and trying to make the best of things. I don't think I'm gaining weight and if I have, it's not been much. My stretch marks are still going away with lots o' lotion, and some of my pants are still fairly loose on me. What is for certain is that I haven't been losing any weight at all, and I know this is because of my lack of commitment to my diet as well as no consistent workout schedule. On average, I've been working out once a week. That's definitely not good enough, and I plan to do better, but I just have a week or two before all this school work is FINALLY behind me and so I think I can last just a little longer with simply maintaining. But after the requirements are finished for the degree, it is on like DONKEY KONG to get looking good for bathing suit season and my family beach trip. I don't want people to feel compelled to drape nets around me and try and pull me back out to sea while I'm tanning.

I'll try and keep everyone posted on school progress, but between now and next week, it will be a very tight squeeze, so forgive me if I fall behind again these next 2 weeks.

Week 11 - So Far From Heaven

But the journey is all the fun!!

I've been working hard trying to get school work done and I plan to complete the paper (hopefully the final draft) this weekend to hand in on Monday. Then April 8th I have my first written exam covering themes from 15 different books concerning Colonial America and the American Revolution. To me, this is the fun test.

However, some interesting news has come up at work. Apparently, under the terms I was hired, I would have 120 days from the time of my graduation before completing my student hire program and having to move to a permanent position. However, there is no permanent position offered at the Library, so instead, I would just be let go. No one knew this until a month or so ago and just notified my co-worker and I about this on Thursday. So they advised me to put off graduation until the end of the summer so that I would be able to finish the term. Needless to say, it's been a crazy couple of days.

So now I'm debating. If I were to finish in time to graduate in May, the 120 day limit would leave me only one month shy of completing the term, but I would have my degree and immediately start applying for jobs. On the other hand, if I were to postpone graduation I would finish my degree requirements by early may, but would not actually graduate until July 31. I'm not really sure how to put that in a resume I've completed my requirements or if it would hurt my chances of getting another job or not (any advice on this from ANYONE would be extremely helpful!). It would also give me an extra month at my job to keep looking for others and, well, have a paycheck in general.

I'm going back and forth a little, but right now I want to try and get it done in time for May graduation. If it doesn't work out, I'll just fall back on the later graduation.

Now for the real question: what is all of this doing to my quest for a more healthy life? Will I escape the perils of stressfull academia and emerge victorious on the side of righteous chiseldry and clear arteries? Will I stop making up words to make this sound more epic and exciting?

To the last one: Yes. Yes I will.

To the others: I have attempted to take the advice of some of y'all last week. I was really excited to get the advice (and the encouragement always helps, too!). I went to work out early at the gym on Tuesday morning. I got there at 5:20am. They are supposed to open at 5:00am. But for some reason, that morning someone hit the snooze too many times or didn't set their alarm at all because the building was definitely closed when I got there and didn't open for the 10-15 minutes I waited around. There were lots of people outside trying to get in. This messed up my schedule for getting ready and going to work. Since then I've been having a hard time making myself wake up again because I don't want to be stuck in the same situation. I still think it's a good idea and I will still try to start next week off on the same note.

I ran the weekend before on Saturday (because it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day!) and then did nothing else until today, Friday, when I ran 2 miles with my co-worker, Carla, which was a lot of fun. She showed me a little half-mile track at a park just a few miles away. That was really cool. I can't wait to explore that place more. I might need to bring some other fun activities out to play with one day. Or when it gets warmer, just grab a beach towel and book. I bet it's a wonderful feeling to read a book for fun while soaking up some rays. It's been so long, I have a hard time imagining it.

It must also be a good feeling to look good in a bathing suit. How comfortable would that be. The irony is that my paper I've been working on for my professors has been a material culture paper on the history of bathing suits. It's made me jealous from day one! Ahh well. Here's a picture of one really hot bathing suit I came across that I wish I could wear today:




Check out those hot leggings! Heck yeah! They were called the Westchester Water Witches, but were actually a group of women divers in 1880. Men weren't allowed on their area of the beach, but a guy from a magazine was able to catch a glimpse and make a sketch for the National Police Gazette. Unfortunately, The National Police Gazette is not such a reputable magazine, as the name would imply. It was a magazine that men would buy for a tease. This was something that was brought to my attention during my meeting the other week and unfortunately leaves me scrambling trying to find more reputable sources that say the same thing. However, other articles condemned women for wearing other bathing suits that were less scandalous than the ones above. Anyways, enough history before I bore everyone to death. On to other sources....

So exercise hasn't been fantastic, but it hasn't fallen completely by the wayside. I've definitely missed it and love running every chance I get.

The diet has been fairly good. There have only been a couple of transgressions this week. One occurred when I ran out of food. I know I told everyone on facebook I ate a can of tomatoes. I was exaggerating and being a drama queen because I wanted Subway, but couldn't afford it at the moment, so I ended up making spaghetti with veggi maranara sauce and ground turkey meat. Started off as a well-meaning meal, but I'm not that fond of spaghetti, so to make it a little more enticing, I put the noodles and meat in the bowl and then covered them with spaghetti sauce and topped it all with an overly generous portion of fat free mozerella cheese then stuck it in the oven. Baked Spaghetti....so much better than the other kind, but so many carbs.....delcious, well-missed carbs.

The only other bad diet decision I made was my Friday lunch. It was a comfort food sort of deal after finding out this conundrum at work. My co-worker of whose name I will not speak, and I went to the Flying Biscuit at which I got the special, eggs scrambled with link sausage, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, and green peppers with a side of cheesy grits and a biscuit. And I ate it. All of it. In my belly right now as I type this. And it is soooo happy. However, I'm not happy with myself for making that bad decision, but my friend and I made a deal to go running if we were going to indulge in our sins, which we have followed through on.

Now for some good things! Tonight I grabbed some POLENTA to finally try. I blogged about seeing this at the grocery store a while ago, but never tried it! I finally bought it and will keep you posted on how it goes! Also grabbed some 70 calorie swiss miss pudding (better deal than Jello this week at Publix). It's really exciting for some reason. AND, apparently the Cracker Barrel brand of cheese (the love of my life) has a reduced fat cheese in small packages you (or I) can bring to lunch! 130 calories and 4 grams of fat. I'll take it!

Ok, back to work on the paper. The updates might be a little crazy in timing in the next month and a half, but I will do my best to keep everyone posted!

Week 10 - Downhill Slide

Alright. So it's been an up-and-down 2 weeks past the big run and I've been trying my hardest to stay active. This week's blog is titled "Downhill Slide" for 2 reasons.
#1. I'm on the downhill slide with getting my schoolwork done.
#2. I'm sliding backwards downhill in my workout and weightloss plan.

Anyone who wants to be my shrink after reading all this and analyzing and understand exactly what the hell I'm talking about is more than welcome to. Capiche?

The exciting thing is that by April 23, I should have all of my work turned in for me to graduate with my master's in the beginning of May. However, the work includes finishing a draft of an academic article-worthy paper between 20 and 25 pages long (still working on it so I don't know what it will be yet), 2 written exams based on 15 books of information each, and an oral exam based on those original 30 books plus 10 more for my second minor field in history. All of that within 5-6 weeks!! I'm about to go out of my mind! So I have cleared my schedule of all things fun in order to complete this in a timely fashion. There is a backup plan should things fall slightly behind which would just push me graduating at the end of May instead of the beginning, but who the hell wants to put this off??? I just want to be done with it and move on and for once in my life NOT be in school I've never had that feeling and probably won't know what to do with myself when it's all over, but for the love of God, I'm tired of having these things expected of me when I don't even give a CRUD about it anymore. Just tired of the constant stressor in my life. Ready for the job and real life thing.

So yay for being on the downhill side of that!!

HOWEVER, being in the middle of this school crunch has definitely pushed me back into my old habits when my life was consumed by school work. Now I have no time and am willing to just buy food (never as healthy) instead of cook it for myself (don't feel so bad about leftovers). I have learned about myself that I can only handle so many priorities and certain priorities absorb more effort than others. With schoolwork being my #1 priority, diet and exercise have begun to "slide downhill" (see what I did there...all comes back to the title). I have noticed that when I do go and workout a little, it clears my head and sets me straight for doing better schoolwork, but I've always had this mentality of "you shouldn't be doing anything else until this is done," so I feel guilty when I leave schoolwork to go do other things, which means I can't even really enjoy the breaks I do take. Like right now, I'm thinking this will definitely be the shortest blog to date just because there is sooooo much I need to be doing right now.

I did run on Saturday morning on an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day and it was soooo worth it. I also went to a class last monday that was a full body workout step thing (very similar to bodypump that they have at Gold's Gym). And there have been several times I attempted to eat healthy this past week. My weakest points are dinners. Breakfasts and lunches have always been somewhat set, but dinners are the biggest trouble for me. I know I should be able to be satisfied with a microwave dinner and all that, but I think I've just rewarded myself with food for such a long time when I've been working on schoolwork, that I'm quickly falling back into that again. I've kept from buying anything really bad to have around, which has been helpful, because should I want something really bad, I wouldn't be able to have it and my guilt kicks in and keeps me from running out to buy anything else, however, weightwatcher cakes were not meant to be eaten in groups of 3-4 at one sitting. Know what I mean?

So I'm kind of stuck in between not wanting to fall off the deep end after coming this far, but also wondering if letting myself go just a little bit during all this would really kill me if I definitely make up for it when it's all over. I know I shouldn't think like that, but that's what's going on! It's keeping me from going off the deep end with my diet and it's also keeping me working hard at school. So who knows, maybe this is more of a compromise than anything? I hate compromising my health, though.

Such a conundrum! Any words of wisdom or advice would be helpful, especially if you've been through something like this before. I'm tired of craving oreos because I finished another paragraph. Oh those silly habits! Why did I do that to myself?!

Running Like a GIRL!

The Disney Princess 5K and Half-Marathon

So it finally came! Last weekend was the Disney Princess 5K and 1/2 Marathon and it was AWESOME! My mom, sister, and I all had a great time just hanging out together, along with some long lost cousins that were HILARIOUS! Oh yeah, and the runs went really well, too!

First, we got to Disney world on Thursday night which we just kind of hung out and ate at Wolfgang's in Downtown Disney. - Funny story: we get there and mom, Shelly (my sister) and I have all been dieting and working out to get ready for this weekend and we're looking over the menu and trying to decide on what to get. We were debating splitting something and Shelly asked "Do we want something like a salad?" to which mom responded, "NOOOOO." - We shopped some around Downtown Disney and then flaked out at the hotel room and went to bed.

Woke up the next morning in time for the expo where they sold some official merchandise and other fun helpful running stuff.


I got a few things including a running skirt, sweat absorbing visor, princess crown, earbud covers (I'll talk some more about that later), and fog-proof sunglasses. There were lots of fun headbands, skirts, and t-shirts all over the place that said stuff like "will run for beer/wine", "it's not fat, it's fuel", and "run like a mother." I thought that would've been awesome for sis or mom, but alas, they did not get one. The earbud covers I got were for the ear buds I got that came with the new ipod shuffle. The shuffle is about the size of a piece of chewing gum, but has no buttons. Instead, Apple decided to put the controls on the earbud wire. This would be fine if the earbuds would stay in my ear, but they don't. Luckily, at the expo, they sold these silicone covers you put over your earbuds that hold them in your ear and even funnel the sound down your ear canal so you don't have to turn the volume up so loud either. Thank God for those, because without them I wouldn't have been able to listen to any music on either run!

We also picked up our registration packets with our bibs, t-shirts, and free socks among other samples and brochures. And when you run in the half-marathon, you get a purple mesh bag filled with all these things. Well, mom wasn't too happy that she didn't get to have one of those bags and we never heard the end of it. "I don't know. I guess that's something only someone with a purple bag would know." or "Since you have a purple bag I guess you can/know that blah blah blah..." It was so funny! So I let her carry mine around for a little bit:

After the expo we started cruising around Magic Kingdom and eventually met up with Tracy and Susie who are two of the most hysterical people I've ever met in my life! So that spiced things up as well. It was just fantastic all around. We grabbed some dinner at the hotel's food court and tried to go to bed early. Did not happen like we planned because we were so excited that we spent more time getting our stuff set out and ready and trying on everything that it was kinda late before we finally hit the sack. That night were trying to find a way to keep mom's crown on when we came up on the idea of rocket sprouts. We tried it out and thought they were adorable, but mom didn't want them even though Shelly defined the look as "Diesel." So Shelly tried to make them a little more aerodynamic and put the sprouts coming out of the back more so than the top (like real rockets) and that was truly "Diesel," and even though mom didn't wear her hair like that to the race, her nickname stuck. Here is a picture of the awesomeness:






The 5K

The race started at 7:00am (aka butt-crack of dawn), but we had to be there by something like 6:15am when it's still dark and cold outside. So we got up early and froze our asses off waiting for the bus, getting on the bus, walking to the start line, and waiting for the race to begin. Disney did have an awesome DJ blaring some good music so I couldn't help but dance, especially when my tutu made it look like I've got a tail-feather to shake! It was lots of fun and helped warm me up. Mom stepped in and started dancing with me, too, which made it even more fun. We saw some awesome costumes and some crazy people, and it was all just great!

We ran and within the first 1/4 mile my shoe came untied (while I was screwing around trying to get my ipod to play with those STUPID earbud controls) and I had to break from the group. I eventually caught up sometime after the 1 mile and finally around the same time got my ipod to play the right playlist. This was also about the time that we entered Epcot's World Showcase which was where the real fun began! We stopped at different countries to take pictures with the cast members who were associated with that country. For instance, Aladdin and Jasmine were in Morocco, Mary Poppins, Alice, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger were in England, Marie (the girl cat from Aristocats) was in France, Mulan and Mooshu were in China, and so on. It was so cool! Mom kept getting antsy with us when we pulled her off the track to run in and get a picture with us and the characters, but it all turned out great. Tracy beat us all, and Shelly and I finished together after her, and mom was close behind us. It was great! They had photographers throughout the course and at the finish line. (That's my sister in the pink tutu next to me!)

We came back to the hotel room afterwards and stretched, showered, and went back out to walk all over disney world again with some park-hoppers. We spent most of our time at Epcot that day going all around the world (eating lunch on the patio in Italy with some hot Italian waiters) and to Nemo's ride. Then we went on to MGM to catch the Rockn' Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror. I wish I could have seen the picture of my sister and Tracy looking at each screaming when the elevator dropped! Then we grabbed a bite to eat back at the hotel, Shelly and I laid out our clothes, and we went to bed...eventually.

The Half-Marathon

Since this race was significantly longer, it started quite a bit earlier. We had to be in line by 5:15am to start the race by 6:00am. Still dark when we started! It was cold as all get out, too, and since we were running such a long ways, my sister and I minimized the amount of clothes we wore and things we took with us. We wore a trashbag while we waited in our corral and we were the second group to start at 6:07 with with fairy godmother and fireworks at the starting line! To shorten the experience, I'm going to break down the my thought process and mottos mile by mile of the course:

Mile 1 - We're doing it! After a month and half of training, we're doing it! SHIT, it's cold! Ooo a Timberland jacket! Mine now!

Mile 2 - The sun is up! I'm still running! This skirt keeps falling down. Did I lose inches from the 5K yesterday? What's wrong with my calf?

Mile 3 - YES, thank you, Biofreeze. Going to walk a little more. Getting close to Magic Kingdom!

Mile 4 - OMG! We're almost at the castle! I think I'm keeping up. Man, my leg's not making this easy.

Mile 5 - Wow, everyone is waving..and there's Japanese girls drumming and princesses everwhere! I'll have to bring a camera next time!

Mile 6 - Maybe if I pretend to not feel the pain in my leg, it won't hurt so bad. What leg? What leg? What leg?

Mile 7 - THAT leg!!!!!! They said there's a calorie booster at mile 8. Will run for food...

Mile 8 - That was not food and it took everything I had to muscle it down...suck it up. I'm just going to have to walk as fast as I can for the rest of this.

Mile 9 - 2 doses of Biofreeze, please! Dear God, make it stop hurting!

Mile 10 - I think I know who the 8th dwarf is...LIMPY! Have I done a 20 minute mile yet? Aren't you people supposed to pick me up! Take me away!!!!!

And there it ended. They let me make it to the 10 mile marker, loaded me up in a "carriage" (a 12 passenger van) and drove us slow and injured people to the finish line. I was upset at first that I didn't make it the whole way, but after limping over to my sister and crying for a second (amazing how little self-control you have over your emotions after 10 miles) I got over it and talking to my dad and brother helped a lot, too. After thinking about it, 10 miles was a lot and I hadn't been training long and was lugging around a lot of extra weight I didn't burn off in time for this event. Next year will be a COMPLETELY different story! I wish I could do it next month!

Shelly finished strong and got an awesome medal for it! I'm so proud of her! She rocks!

Mom brought us back to health at the hotel and we tried to make our way around the parks for our final day, but none of us were getting anywhere fast! We walked around Epcot a little longer and ate at a buffet in Germany. I had the best beer I've ever had in my life. The smallest size they came in was half a liter. Yummmm.

The next day Shelly left early and mom and I grabbed a quick lunch at downtown Disney and did a little last minute souvenir shopping and left for Douglasville.

I cannot describe the sadness that ensues when you leave a place like Disney World. One day you're having the best time of your life and the next you're back to what is now a dull and boring existence. As the week has gone by and my legs have become less sore and my ankles less swollen, I've slowly gotten over leaving.

There is another run in Disney World in October, the Food and Wine Festival run which I'm trying to strategize how to get there. I think I've become addicted and will be training for the next one! Lots of work to do, but by God I will finish next time!!!

Anyone who wants to join either the next Disney Princess Weekend or the Food and Wine Festival are more than welcome to join me!!!

Week 8.5 Update

Pictures!

As you can see in the picture below, most of what I lost has been around the waist. I also had to pull really hard for the picture so you could actually see the progress. I think I've only lost maybe a couple of inches, but these pants used to be really tight last fall. The day I wore these to work last week, they fell down the whole time which drove me crazy. That's when I wondered if it is time to try on a new pair. Luckily, my laundry was out the next morning and I was forced into wearing the 14's, which surprisingly fit well. Little snug, but nothing gross was showing.

And I would just like to embarrass my dog for a second. I thought it was funny.

I think she was pretty pissed at this point.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week and I can't wait to tell you about the 5k and half-marathon this weekend and post some pictures of all of that!

Week 8 - It's Almost Too Late!!

Almost too late to get ready for the Disney Princess Half-Marathon! It has been a long week, but exciting to be back on the diet and a workout schedule! It also feels great to feel good again after a couple of weeks of disease and disaster. Yay for that! However, I'm only a little over a week away from the 5K and Half-Marathon and with 2 blurry weeks right close to the end, I'm really nervous about being ready for it...

DIET

I don't think I'm behind too bad off from slacking some the previous couple of weeks, but this past week I tightened it back up (with 1 or 2 slip ups). I guess in a moment of weakness back in January I ordered a couple of boxes of Girl Scout cookies and now I'm paying for it. I've been staring down a couple of boxes of tagalongs all week and stored the thin mints in the freezer - out of sight out of mind. I decided I'm going to bring the cookies with me to Disney and will crack into them as a reward. Looking forward to it!

Got a few awesome buys at the grocery store last weekend. With some turkey sausage, fat free sour cream, reduced fat cream cheese and rotel, Scott and I made some White Trash Cheese dip that was delicious! We also learned that pickled jalepenos on top of the cheese dip on a low fat cracker (we got triscuits).

One night for dinner we baked some chicken and potatoes. I dont' know about y'all, but one of the best meals ever is some good barbeque on a baked potato with some sour cream, cheese, and BBQ sauce. YUM! So we cut up the chicken, put it on the potato with a dollop of fat free sour cream, pinch of fat free cheddar cheese, and a small bit of BBQ sauce. DELICIOUS! With a side of brussel sprouts for a little green in the meal.

We also made the devil's food cake with pumpkin and split it for the week. It really came in handy the day I was craving a reese's pie of some sort. Just spooned some peanut butter with the piece of cake and dipped it in some sugar free smuckers fudge and was set for the evening.

And I'm so excited because I hit jackpot on the granola bar aisle. My friend, Carla, at work has been telling me for forever to try these Cinnabon cereal bars, but everytime I went to look for them, they were completely sold out. Well, this time I happened to be there while they were stocking the aisles. So I bought 3 boxes while I was there. They are about 130 calories and 3 or so grams of fat. They taste fantastic and really satisfy the occasional sugar craving, but as a breakfast, it doesn't really stick with you for the whole day. I got hungry a lot quicker than if I had oatmeal. But this is definitely a worthy snack.

I'm also going to sing some praise for the Wanchai Ferry meals. Not a diet food, but for one serving (half the bag) you can have a delicious dose of orange chicken with stir fried veggies and rice in a little over 600 calories. Not the best meal diet-wise, but if you stick with just eating that, it's not too bad. Veggies help. The taste is absolutely delicious, though!

Confessions:
half a box of tagalongs, most of 1 sleeve of thin mints (I shared a lot of them at work, though), 1 can of root beer (could have been worse!), and of course the peanut butter discussed earlier.


EXERCISE

I also got my butt back to the gym because in just 1 week from today my mom, sister and me are going to Disney World for the Princess Half-Marathon and 5K! At first this week I felt really behind because it's been so long since I've done any exercise, but Monday's run went well. I had some wardrobe malfunctions, but pulled it together long enough to get in 2.75 miles without getting winded really. I did sweat like a pig, though.

Since then I've planned to go back to the gym everyday this week. However, I've had a couple of things get in my way. I've been working late all week to make sure I have time saved for my time off next week, putting me getting home around 7:00. This creates a time management problem because my other major project this week has been to get my paper for school finished. I have to get this in so I can get the revisions done on it so I can move on to my written exams and my oral exams which all have to be in by April 23 so I can graduate in May and have this godforsaken degree behind me. Well, it's moving a lot slower than I thought and I've sat at home trying to work on my paper every night since Monday trying to wrap it up only to find it's going to go into the weekend. However, I will absolutely be finishing it this weekend so I can get my last minute runs in next week before the big weekend!!!


MOTIVATION

Ok, so I've gotten lots of comments on facebook about motivation and people needing some to get into shape. Of course, we all know that everyone has their own source of motivation and only certain things will work on certain people. I figure the best I can do to help is to share what mine are and if any of it helps anyone, then AWESOME!

The first motivation for me was when my sister suggested signing up for the half-marathon. That was some time last summer, I think. Plenty of time to get ready, right? Well, we signed up and it's hung over my head for a while without much of a push to hurry and get in shape with classes going on and other stressors in my life at the time. But now that it's this close to time, it has been a major push for me simply because I dont' want to embarrass myself during the race, and by God I want to finish so I can get the goodies at the end.

During that time these stressors added up and I took comfort in more food and not caring about what I ate thinking that I'll take care of my weight eventually, no big deal. Then health problems started adding up. Especially when I started having a heart flutter spell thing that started freaking me out. I think THAT motivated me more than the New Year. Plus the new stretchmarks I was getting on my hips and around my belly button. I mean, good GOD, stretch marks?! I hadn't had those since my last growth spurt back in 1998!

There comes a time when eventually you look at yourself in the mirror and see your body as a grotesquely marshmallowed teletubby and you realize, if this continues it will only get uglier and become harder and harder to fix. You might even grow a geometric antenna out of the top of your head. Kidding, but seriously, it would continue to get worse.

So I kissed my sweet, high-calorie diet goodbye over Christmas and New Year's saw the beginning of a new life with a weight capping at 230 lbs. (give or take) and a pant size of 16. I will never be that weight or size again. In fact, as I go down in weight, it will be a series of weights and sizes I will never be again.

The final motivation was when I joined a gym around mid-January. Something about paying money for resources motivates me to use them more. Though the past couple of weeks were rough, that motivation hasn't passed because just the other day I had to pay more membership fees. A sweet, constant reminder of commitment.

Quick Break Down of Motivation:
1. Half-Marathon (don't want to be embarrassed!)
2. Utter Self-Disgust/Loathing (in a semi-healthy way)
3. Spending Good Money (on fees that cover classes, equipment, and facilities that I am therefore DETERMINED to use)

Hopefully that will encourage someone or at least offer ideas as to ways to get started. I will say, it becomes a lot easier once you start seeing results. Then it becomes addicting!

I haven't weighed in for a while, but last time I checked I'm still hovering around 220 and that was a couple of weeks ago. I promise I'll buy a scale soon to keep better track. As well as a tape measure for keeping up with inches. On a progressive note, I did actually put on a size 14 pair of pants this morning which were tight, but not distasteful, meaning 8 weeks and I've gone down a size! Yay! It will still be a while before the same can be said about shirt size, though there is progress.

I will be posting pictures soon! I'll be sure to show a difference in pants! After that, you won't hear from me until after the Princess Half-Marathon! Just got a call from mom this evening saying our tutu's for the 5K came in! Can't wait!

Week 7 - The Ring of Fire

Crazy story from yesterday. If you want to skip what all I did this weekend (and I assure you it had nothing to do with diet and exercise) and get to the exciting stuff, scroll down to "The Fire" and read on from there.

So last week's cold turned hellacious and on Tuesday morning I finally went to the doctor and was given medicine for a sinus infection. I also got a nice shot in the ass. Hurt like hell, but really felt the affects around 7:00 that evening of some good steroids. I can totally understand why people do that stuff. I got so much more done in those few hours than I did the whole past week. But let's back this up to square one on Friday.

The Weekend (the longest in my life)

Friday I was sick and tired and thought, maybe I can just sleep through this and be done with it. It was also supposed to snow that day (several local schools were already closed for the day) and I didn't want to deal with the traffic and mess since I was planning on going to Alabaster, AL for the weekend. So I called in to work, drove to Alabaster, got there by 7:30 in the morning (local time) and went straight to bed. Slept until lunch time. Ate a little. Went back to sleep and slept until around 5:00. Then we went to bible study and had dinner and played games. I was really honestly starting to feel better, just kind of drained still.

Saturday is kind of a blur. Not sure what time I got up, but I remember feeling tons better. Nose was still running and would get stopped up from time to time, but the sore throat was gone. I was getting annoyed because I kept taking mucinex and drinking tons of water, but wasn't really hacking anything up and my lungs still felt funny. So we followed through with our plans to go out to dinner with some friends from college (including my purple baby!) and then to Montevallo's Homecoming in which the Purple Side WON! PV!! It was beautiful. I had also made plans to meet up with my friend Katie and her husband, Brad, in Birmingham that night. Normally we party fairly hard when we go out with them, but I was thinking on Friday that I wouldn't do anything big and just go home early because I've been dealing with this cold for several days. Well, by the time the group of us got there, I was having a great time with everything going on and since I was feeling better. Ended up making a HUGE mistake and staying out until 5:00am drinking and for a certain amount of time in a smokey bar playing pool with friends. Didn't think much of it at the time, but woke up Sunday in time for 2 nosebleeds and some severe regret. This set me back in my disease and I was back to a sore throat and hacking some stuff up. I figured I had Monday to recover before going to work on Tuesday.

Monday I had off from work for President's Day. However, Montevallo was holding classes and so I rode with Scott on his way to his classes and stopped by the history department to catch up with one of my professors. Dr. Ruth Truss is officially the shit. LOVE her. Bought a couple of things at the bookstore and then Scott and I went back to Alabaster and I went back to sleep. Woke up in time to see it snow at around the time I was planning on driving home. Decided to make it an early morning and drive out when the crazy Alabama snow drivers (like me) were in bed (I wished).

Tuesday I woke up to some serious aching in my chest and a fantastic headache. Thinking it was the NON-DROWSY Walgreens medicine, I thought I could sleep it off and be fine. Woke up later and just wanted to croak. I decided to hit up the doc-in-the box first thing. He was an interesting Asian doctor who told jokes like, "Want to hear a joke? Back when I was growing up we had walkmans we listened to, and those were just the thing. And now we have ipods, which is so funny." Couldn't help but chuckle and quote in my head, "FUNNY! Very amusing!" (Thank you Mel Brooks.)

He said it was a sinus infection, gave me the steroid shot, antibiotics, allegra D (which I substituted for Clariton D at the pharmacy - half the price and the publix pharmacy gave me a $4.00 coupon!), and some fantastic cough syrup.

Quick Summary:

Diet - Mexican food

Exercise - digesting mexican food, walking on bricks at montevallo, cheering the purple side, playing pool, 1 early morning adrenaline rush, some hard-ass sleeping.

How could my life get any better? I'll tell you...

THE FIRE

I woke up Wednesday morning to drive back to Douglasville, drop off some stuff and head to work. The steroids were still working so the drive wasn't too bad. I get to my apartment to find that the front door has been kicked in and left open. I was pissed and like an idiot I walk straight in and turn on a light and start looking around at what might be missing. Future hint for those of you that might be in this position: DON'T DO THAT. Just turn around, walk away, and call the police. Someone might still be in there! I got lucky. I called 911 and they sent the police to the apartment to check it out and for a report and all that good stuff. The guys were really nice and noticed right off the bat that something smelled like smoke. A factor I missed because I haven't had a sense of smell since last Wednesday. As I was filling out a report one of the officers walked around outside and found that the apartments on the other side of me were completely demolished by a fire. Well, one of them was. The other one, adjacent to me, was partially demolished. After noting this, the police concluded (and I agreed) that the fire department kicked down my door to check for damage or any other fire. Would have been nice, had someone left a note. Would have been BETTER if the apartment complex called me to tell me about ANY of this happening.

I called the emergency maintenance pager for someone to fix my door so it would actually shut and lock before I left work. Love how the EMERGENCY maintenance guy took an hour and half to get to my apartment. Called him at 7:30am and he got there after 9:00am (which is the latest I can get to work). On my way to work I made a couple of phone calls. I'm kicking myself now for not calling my sister first since her husband is a fire marshall. But she still came in and helped me out a ton with figuring out what to look for damage-wise in the apartment. Dad also suggested to check for water damage.

Talked to the apartment complex manager who did not know how I got skipped on the phone call list for contacting everyone in the building about the fire. Interesting considering that MY APARTMENT WAS NEXT DOOR. Something else interesting, she had no idea the fire department kicked in my door. The fire took place Monday night around 7:30. She came out and watched. Obviously, she didn't come back for a follow up to the damage because my door was left open for a day and half!!! Unacceptable!!! Luckily nothing was taken. So now she's sending an inspector to the apartment on Thursday to look over the place for further damage. She's also "negotiating" with her district manager/supervisor about possibly relocating me. We'll see how much she can actually do for me. For some reason, she seems a little iffy on that, but I don't plan to be around for the noise and sweaty questionable men outside my apartment and all those people looking to loot the burnt apartments.

So there's been nothing like this week. It's been amazing. Thank God it was shorter than most, but wow. It's been something. Woke up Thursday morning feeling much more perky and ready to take charge of the day. Can't wait for round 2 with the apartment complex.

Here are some pictures:


These are the two apartments that burned. The fired started in the one on the farthest left (if you couldn't tell) and spread through the front door to the bedroom of the neighboring apartment.



This picture shows the partially burned apartment on the lower left and the side of my apartment in the upper right. See the smokey stuff on the side?


And this is the view from my patio.


So yeah, I get it. I'm lucky nothing caught on fire in my apartment and I'm very thankful that the fire department probably did break into my apartment to check and make sure everything was ok. But I feel severly wronged and neglected by my apartment complex and will be making sure wrongs are righted and that this doesn't happen to anyone else. I mean seriously, AT LEAST A PHONE CALL!