Weekly Recap

• Saturday: spent a few hours at the renaissance festival with my best friends in Texas.  Hit over 9K steps by the time we left.  After I got back home, I went grocery shopping for meal prep, which happens on Sunday.  After grocery shopping, I WENT TO THE GYM!  This was going to be a non-structured exercise day.  And I didn’t need the elliptical to get to my step goal as I hit 10K while I was in the first store, but I still did the elliptical for 30 minutes.  My strength training for this day was slow reps on the seated row, leg curl and leg extension machines.  I feel really accomplished and totally proud of myself that I worked out even though I had given myself a pass to not do a workout on this day.  I felt great afterward.

• Sunday: went to Ladybird Lake hike & bike trail with the intention of running 10-13.1 miles.  I would do the 10 mile loop and at mile 9 I would decide if I felt good enough and if the weather was cooperating for me to run the 3.1 mile loop.  Well.  The weather was NOT cooperating and I barely made it through the 10 mile loop, so I didn’t do the 3.1 loop.  But, 10 miles is nothing to sneeze at so I’m not disappointed at all.  I’m going for my May C goal, which is at least 80 miles.  After my 10 miles, I’m at 59.2.  So, just another 20.8 miles to go!  I can do this!

In addition, I also decided to see if I could get green for the first time on the 250 steps per hour for 13 hours.  So, once an hour, I took a short walk of about 300 steps outside my apartment and got ‘er done!

I participate in a lot of weekend warrior and workweek step challenges on FitBit.  If I run long that weekend or a lot during the week, I usually win them.  I won this week’s weekend warrior!

• Monday: after an appointment with my ortho doc, I picked up my new work uniform pants that I’m hoping to be able to wear COMFORTABLY by the end of June (obviously…PREFERABLY sooner if possible).  Then back home where I did the 2^nd workout in the Cize program titled “You Got This.” 

Then I did some pushups.  I’m seriously trying to do the #22for22 challenge again, but I keep forgetting and then I’ve been working a lot of overtime, which doesn’t help me remember.

I also wanted to bump up that 13 hour step goal and see if I could make it happen to get 14 out of 14 hours of at least 250 steps per hour.  So, once an hour, I walked in circles around the property room at work and made it happen!

• Tuesday: no workout or run this day because I picked up overtime on the night shift.

• Wednesday: no workout or run again as I picked up more overtime on the night shift.  I did earn a new FitBit badge on this day, so that’s pretty awesome!

• Thursday: knocked out a 10K on the treadmill to earn my Mother of Dragons 10K virtual race medal.  Finished it off with a .23 mile cool down walk for a total of 6.43 miles.  Then I did the seated chest flye machine with 25#, 3 sets 10 reps, and the calf raise machine with slow/fast at 172# for 10/20-10/20-18/20 (got lost in counting that final set and wasn’t paying attention…haha).  A great workout!

• Friday: I didn’t pick up overtime at work Thursday night and I was going to run after work with a coworker but, sadly, his wife was not comfortable with him running after work with a female coworker so I was on my own to run this day (maybe I’ll meet her and be friends with her and then she’ll be okay with it…I really like running with other people and like the idea of logging miles after work).  So, before work, I ran outside for 4 miles and clipped along at a 10:02 pace!  Boom!  The temp and humidity was perfect.  It had poured down rain most of the night before, so it was still cloudy and cool-ish. 

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On the way to the renaissance festival Saturday morning, we stopped at Whataburger and I got the jalapeno cheddar biscuit with sausage, egg and cheese.  While at the renaissance festival, I ate about ¾ of a funnel cake.  I got full at that point and instead of forcing myself to finish it, which I did feel the urge to do, I stopped and gave the rest to my friend!  When we left, we went to Applebee’s and I got the pepper crusted sirloin steak with whole grains.  It was sooooo good!  And so filling too!  Post-workout, Saturday evening, I was a smidge hungry, so I had 2 caramel corn rice cakes.  These are great because they only have 50 calories each!  They are now my go to snack for when I don’t want to sit down and eat a meal but I’m hungry.  They’re really great when I’m working a double shift.  I’ll let myself have 3 on the night shift, spaced out about 1.5 hours apart.  Really helps keep the hungries at bay.

This week was pretty on point with continuing to lose weight.  I finally got the last 3 uniform pants from my new uniform order that I went back at the beginning of December to get fitted for on Monday.  It didn’t really bother me too much that it took them so long to fill my order as I have not been small enough to fit in the pants since January.  I still don’t fully fit in them, but I can at least get them fastened without a shoe horn and lots of sucking in.  I thought that they were comfortable enough to wear to work when I weighed in at 174.4 on Wednesday (10 pounds above what I weighed when I got fitted for the uniforms in December), so I wore them to work.  Bad idea.  I was so freaking uncomfortable.  The waistband cut into my hip bones and they were super tight around the thighs.  The shirt was fine, it was the pants that were the problem.  So, Thursday, it was back to my “fat pants” uniform for another week.  So, my hope is that, by the end of next week (or the week after), I can COMFORTABLY wear my new uniforms.

I decided last week when I ran on the treadmill last Thursday that maybe, just maybe, the treadmill isn’t the enemy I have always made it out to be since I switched to running outside over 3 years ago.  The experience wasn’t bad at all.  I know that was partly because I had access to my friend’s Netflix account and could distract myself sufficiently from the boredom of the gym environment whilst I was striding away on the hamster contraption.  So, I have gone shopping on Amazon and found the treadmill I want and will start stashing money away until I have the $1000 I need to buy it.  It’s a Nordic Track and has a touch screen and is iFit ready.  If I wanted to use that feature, I’d have to purchase to download the different programs, which could be potentially very helpful in training for certain races.  But it’s not necessary.  Treadmill running over the summer will be beneficial to me in 2 major ways.  1) It’s really freaking hot in summer in Texas and I don’t like getting up at 5am to run before the sun comes up, and 2) it’ll help me pick up the pace again, which can help me start hitting more PRs…and maybe qualify for Boston at one of my races in 2017!!!

Alrighty!  As I mentioned, my weigh ins this week were on point and going in a downward direction for the most part.  Overall, it was a fantastic week and I can’t believe I have lost as much weight as I have over the past 4 weeks without much preserved effort.  Like last fall, it just feels so easy, so natural.  Everything is just falling into place for me.  I know it’s the new medication and I’m so grateful that my doctor finally listened to me and changed my medication.  It’s like I’m a whole new person.  Seriously. 

I lost another 2.8 pounds this week, for a total of 12.8 since May 1st!  I am so happy and proud of myself for sticking with it.  On one hand, it's been really easy since my new medication helps me to not obsess or be anxious over food, so I'm not eating food I don't need.  The medication also helps me to not procrastinate and give into a lack of motivation.  I express my "I don't wanna" but then do it anyway.  I love it.  And then, on the other hand, it's difficult because my brain is still adjusting and part of it still wants to binge and thinks about food and is constantly asking others "whatcha eatin'?"  Or I'll ask someone, "hey, where's my (insert unhealthy food here)?" when I see they've gone to some fast food place for their lunch.  I then quickly follow up with, "I don't actually want it."  Which is true.  I don't actually want it.  I only asked that out of reflex and habit.  Hopefully that habit of asking that will go away.  I'm happy that I'm not eating fast food unless it's planned, like when we went to the renaissance festival.  And you know what?  When I plugged it into MyFitnessPal, I wished I had made a different decision.  And that, my friends, is what we call "progress."