Was a little annoyed at being traffic
blocked last week on Tuesday on my way home from work and then I had to take
the alternate expressway home instead of my usual interstate, straight
shot. The expressway was great until I hit where the construction was and
it came to a complete stop. Ugh. I finally made it home…almost a
half hour after I normally do. I was so pe-oh’ed by the time I got
home. And it took me a minute to get to sleep, but I sleep I finally
did. And I slept decently according to my FitBit data, so that’s
good.
I’m thinking that if I haven’t reached
my goal weight by the end of July that I will try “carb cycling.” Chris
Powell has a book out about it and he supposedly has his clients on the Extreme
Weight Loss shows follow it and that’s how they’re able to achieve rapid and
massive weight loss. So, I’m planning to buy the book and start thumbing
through it. I’m sure I can do it no problem. I understand the basic
concept and that there are high carb and low carb days that you cycle through
(hence the name “carb cycling”), so I can probably just cook up 2 main lunch
dishes and flip flop between the two. I’ll have to completely cut out
splurge meals on the weekend and eat 100% on plan for as long as I’m doing the
carb cycling. I’m okay with that. August isn’t a month I have a lot
of social plans other than some races during. So I’ll have to plan my
high carb days accordingly to accommodate the races and so I can properly fuel
before and during them.
Read a new mantra in one of the blogs I
follow this week: “we don't train so races won't
hurt, we train so we can cope with the pain.” I like it! It’s so
true. Heck, I kind of like that pain I feel when I’m pushing myself really
hard in a race. Let’s me know I’m giving it my all, or at least close to
my all, and that makes me feel good about the race.
My sleep has been off this week. I’ve just been more tired than usual but then
I have been having more problems falling asleep. Hopefully, when I work 3 doubles next week
and the week after, my sleep will get better.
I just seem to get a better quality of sleep with the time I have to
sleep during when I work double shifts at work.
And I have to take sleeping aids less often.
After a few days of having slight issues with getting up at
my preferred 6am last week, I finally started making it happen again on Sunday.
I have been kicking butt in the gym for sure. July popped onto the scene during the past
week, so that meant I added a third upper AND lower body exercise to each trip
to the gym (if it’s an abs/core day, then still just 2-4 total exercises). I do my best to do 10 reps of whatever weight
I choose, but I have plans to change up how I strength train at the beginning
of August. I plan to go back to my powerlifting
ways, which will mean heavy weight, higher set count, lower reps per set. I will probably pair the powerlifting with
supersetting (in case you don’t know what this is, you do 2 exercises right
after each other…you do the first, then the second without a rest, then you
rest for 1 minute, and repeat…usually you do opposing exercises like bicep
curls and tricep extensions or pulldowns, or the row and chest press/chest flyes,
you get the idea). When I did a version
of this combo years ago I put on muscle crazy fast.
I did my first after work run this past week and it was
pretty great. I will be doing it again
as my work schedule allows. One of my
coworkers/friends said she wanted to join me for a post run work sometime. Yes please!
I love running with others!
Sunday was a crazy busy day for me as it was my only day off
this past weekend. So I had to do a
whole weekend’s worth of stuff in just one day…and run my long run! Eeesh.
I got it mostly done, though. Well,
I got the important stuff done, anyway. I
ran a 13.1 mile run, then in no specific order I went and picked up my packet
for Monday’s Freedom 5000 race, stopped by to talk to my tattoo artist about
getting a new tattoo but he was off work getting his own new tattoo, went to
Dollar Tree and Big Lots in search of colored card stock printer paper to print
my journal entries on for my scrap journal.
I ended up getting $11 worth of stuff at Dollar Tree (but no card stock…ha!)
and at Big Lots I got a very nice cloth drawer storage cart (this was a
semi-planned purchase), some sports bras (also semi-planned), and the card
stock paper! Woohoo! I finished up my sewing project for a friend
on my serger (oh yea, learned how to thread one…it’s easier and easier each
time you do it, by the way). I also made
45 protein pancakes that I’ll be eating for breakfast this week. That’s 9 pancakes a day! They’re not super small either, they’re 3
inches across. I did laundry but did not
put it away. And I didn’t do the
dishes. And I didn’t make my planned
trip to the gym for a second workout either.
Wah wah. Still, a great day. And, it was my only day off, so some down
time was a must. Oh! I also got the second black sheet hung behind
my curtains and the black sheet hung over my bedroom door. This will be really nice when I work OT and
am sleep in the mornings when the sun is up.
I was hoping to get some actual work done on my scrap
journal, instead, all I got done was copy/pasting the entries I want to use
from May to this month into a Word doc and saved it. I haven’t even changed the fonts, sizes or
colors of the entries yet, let alone started printing them out. I should get that done this coming weekend.
This week, in the mail, I
got a couple presents! Granted these are things I bought myself, but
still…you check the mail and there’s packages, don’t tell me that doesn’t feel
like your birthday or Christmas. They’re presents. Especially if
it’s been so long since you ordered said items that you forgot about
them. Woohoo! A surprise in my mailbox! Anyway, these items
aren’t anything I forgot about, but they’re still pretty awesome and I love
them all. First up is my Zen kit from INKnBURN. This is an
incredibly beautiful and versatile singlet and sport skirt. The Zen skirt
can be paired with not only the Zen singlet, but with no less than 2 other
INKnBURN items I have and match fantastically. And, the Zen singlet can
be paired with the Zen skirt (duh) plus, when I get them, will go perfectly
with my Club INB June item which is the Rockstar shorts! Oh and it will
go with the Dragonflower shorts as well. I love being an ambassador for
such a wonderful company that puts out such amazing and beautiful products!
(hit me up if you’d like to know more!)
The other things I received
in my mailbox was the set of 3 medals from the Garmin Marathon that took place
on April 16th. No I did not run the Garmin Marathon, but they had an
overstock (overabundance?) of medals from all 3 events hosted that day, so they
were selling them off at $20 each or all 3 for $40. I opted to get all
3. The marathon medal is the wicked witch, the half medal is Glenda, and
the 10K medal is the wizard’s hot air balloon. On Sunday, I earned my
Glenda medal!
I worked overtime on the
later late shift Monday night. That meant I got off work at 7am instead
of my normal 5:30 or 6am and then I had to stop on the way home to get some
Beano because my protein pancakes I’m eating for breakfast this week are giving
me horrendous toots. (TMI?) So, that meant I didn’t get home and in
bed until after 7:30. Ugh. And up no later than 11:55 so I’d have
time to shower and wolf down said toot-inducing protein pancakes.
Also on the menu this week
is the final servings of the Mexican casserole I ate the week before last for
lunches, a mash up of a small-ish avocado with 1 boiled egg & a can of tuna
with a pinch of sea salt for my snack, and then ending the day with one of the
Sargento Balanced Breaks snacky packs. I love those things. They’re
perfection.
When I worked that overtime
Monday night, I ended up with a mostly horrible migraine. The pain just
wouldn’t stop. I was so nauseous. And it was just making me so
exhausted. I know it was partly because I had been awake since 5:20 Monday
morning. Other than that, I’m really not too sure what triggered it,
unless it was actually initially triggered on Sunday after running 13.1 to the
point where when I finished it was at least 93° out. My back was cramping
pretty badly by the time I got done with that run and I had all sorts of muscle
aches Monday in my upper back, shoulders and neck. Plus, I just thought
of this, my joints felt “off” for a couple days pre-migraine, so maybe the
migraine was a few days in the making before the head pain and nausea started
up? I’m really trying to pay more attention to what may be triggering my
migraines. I plan, while I’m on vacation, to get an eye exam and see if I
might need prescription reading glasses to alleviate eye strain.
