Running hasn't been nearly as consistent as I would like it to be. It is so difficult to make the time to do it! Now that the weather is cooling off, I'm much more excited about getting out there and pounding the pavement. I ran a 5K last weekend at Tinker. My goal was 35 minutes, which for me is pushing it. I started off too fast, and was really tired towards the end of the race. The last stretch (about 1/4 mile) was uphill, too, and of course about that time my iPod went dead. Ugh. But God knew I was about to give up, because here came Ben, to run next to me and encourage me to keep going through that last stretch. I worked up the strength to spring the last portion, and finished in 34:18! I was so happy with that.

I found out a couple weeks ago that I'm not going to be able to get out of drill the weekend of the half marathon, so I will have to find another one to do. I don't know when that will be, but in the mean time, I will keep running and eating right and doing what I need to do to get in shape!

Still enjoying the journey. :-)

Wow!

So the day I said I was going to run, I didn't. I felt really icky that day and for a day or two after, so I didn't run until Sunday. BUT when I went on Sunday, I was determined! I said out loud that my goal was thirty minutes, but in my mind, I set my goal at forty-five. It was drizzling and more cool than hot, which is ideal for me (the cool part, not the drizzly part). So I turned on my iPod and took off. And I met my 'secret' goal...45 minutes! Woo-hoo! I was sooooooooooooooooooo excited that I was able to run that long! I felt like a superhero. Didn't run all last week because my in-laws were here, and I much preferred to spend time with them. I did go run one day, but didn't make it far. It turned into intervals of about five minutes running, five walking...about three sets of that. Better than nothing. But I am really looking forward to going again sometime this week! I'm hoping to at least do the 45 again, but I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to push myself and do an hour. Just have to pick a day with the right kind of weather. For me, that is the secret. Makes me not hate it as much. :-)

I did find out last weekend at drill that I will not be able to do the half marathon in November that I had planned. We have stuff going on that weekend that I cannot miss, so I will have to choose another race. Will probably choose one soon so I don't lose momentum or motivation.

Haven't weighed lately, but I know I'm up a couple pounds, so I'm tightening the diet back up. Loosened it a little bit while the in-laws were here, but it's back to business now. Will post my stats again at the beginning of October, so I have a week or so to get back where I need/want to be.

Okay, that's it for now. Later!

Two Weeks Later...

So I haven't run for the past two and a half weeks. A trip to San Antonio, followed by a trip to Colorado, pretty much put the curtail on my attempts at running. Even for the few days we were home between those trips, I was running around like a maniac trying to get everything ready to go. So today I am going to get my run in...and my goal is thirty minutes! I'm pushing my luck on being ready for the half marathon in time, but I'm NOT giving up! I know I can do it (with a certain Someone's help!)

Weight Loss

I am thrilled...135 this morning! (It's exciting enough to get it's own blog entry.)

Running Day Three

My goal for today was to run 20 minutes without stopping. Today I decided to run on the track at the Guard Base to see exactly how far I was running and what my current pace is. I realized after the first lap that my current pace is about a 12-minute mile instead of a 10-minute mile. I will get faster as I go, though, so that wasn't a big deal. Running for twenty minutes would mean I would run just shy of seven laps. Well, I have just enough OCD that I knew I would have to get to an even number of laps, so I pushed a little further and ran that eighth lap to complete two miles. However, that put me at 24 minutes instead of twenty, and you guessed it, I had to end on an increment of five, so I ran a little further to make it twenty-five minutes total. So I ran just over two miles in that 25 minutes. Not bad for only my third run in a looooooooooooooooong time! The weather was really nice--low seventies--so it was really comfortable when I started out. I really prefer it to be in the fifties or sixties when I run, though, but I know those days aren't too far off, so I will suffer through it in the meantime. :-)

Overall, a great workout, and I am happy to see that I am getting back in shape fairly quickly. The scale has not really been cooperating with me, but I have decided that at least for now, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just going to eat healthy, follow the carb cycling plan, and give it a few weeks before I worry about tweaking anything. Today is a high-carb day, thank goodness, so I have enjoyed whole wheat toast with eggs, a sandwich, and some applesauce so far...whole wheat waffles yet to come!

Missed opportunity (and some other stuff)

So this morning was absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside; perfect morning for a run. Did I run? No. Ben had his USAF PT test this morning, so we went out to the track to help him do his. I could have easily run once we got out to the Guard base, but I didn't even think to bring my stuff. So I'm not sure now when I'm going to have another opportunity to run--I guess tomorrow. Just wanted to get two runs in this week, but it looks like I'm only going to get one in...better make it count!

I weighed this morning, and typically on our scale it bounces around a bit, but once you get the same reading three times in a row, that is your accurate weight. Well, I couldn't get it to give me the same reading three times in a row, despite stepping off and back on at least ten times. I am going to assume the worst and guess that I'm at about 138, which isn't bad considering how I ate on Wednesday, but still sucks because it's quite a bit higher than this time last week. Ugh. That's what I get for not running this week. I also realized that I was eating too many 'healthy fats' on my low and no-carb days (healthy fats being peanut butter, my weakness). So I have cut out PB completely for now, 'til I start to make better progress.

(Pausing for a moment to make my delectable protein shake)

So in the interest of getting the scale to read how I want it to, I'm also going to skip my Friday evening treats tonight (usually junior mints and popcorn), but probably still have them tomorrow evening (so just once this weekend instead of twice). It is so much easier for me to eat properly during the week when I have that to look forward to.

I just took a look at the calendar to see how many runs I have left before the half marathon. If I continue running just twice a week (although I would like it to be three times a week), I will be able to build up to twelve miles, the recommended distance, about a week before the half, which is perfect! If I am able to get three runs a week done, I will be ready even sooner! This is great. I am glad it is all falling in to place, at least so far.

I will be going to San Antonio next week for a Basic Training graduation, so I will probably see if I can figure out what the route is going to be in November and check it out--make sure there isn't anything extreme that I need to prepare for. Liz ran it last year, and I assume she would have mentioned that if there was. I would hope so, anyway!

Okay, that is plenty of update for now--will let you all know how tomorrow's run goes!

Weight / Measurements

Okay, I have been promising to upload my stats on here for a while now, but keep forgetting or letting life get in the way. I remembered this morning, though, so here goes! (Keep in mind I totally went off the diet yesterday because we were celebrating birthday / anniversary--three days later, but still celebrating, anyway).

Weight: 139.2
Waist: 26 1/2 "
Hips: 38 1/2" (that's where all the 'baby fat' went)
R. Thigh: 22"
BF %: 14% (I know it's probably higher than that, but I measure it the same way consistently, so it will still indicate if it's lower next time I measure.)

So when the race comes around, I'd like to have my weight down to 120 (that's really low for me, but I want to get there and then bring it back up to about 126 or so--without the muscle I had last year, that is reasonable). Waist needs to get to 25", and hips, about 35". I don't really care about how many inches my thighs are, because as my body fat drops, those measurements will inevitably go down, too.

Haven't gotten to run yet this week because of various things we've had going on, but I'm running tomorrow for sure, and probably on Sunday, too. Looking forward to it! Tomorrow I'm supposed to run for twenty minutes without stopping--I know I can do it! (or at least that is what I'm telling myself) Praise the Lord for iPods; couldn't make it more than four minutes without it!

Diet

Most of you reading this probably already know this, but maybe some don't, so I'm writing about it, anyway. The best way to lose weight is with diet and exercise. You can lose weight by dieting alone, but NOT by exercising alone. You can run and run and run and never lose a pound if your diet doesn't change. Well, since I am running and running and running and putting all that energy into it, I want my body to change right along with it! Sooooooooo...last week (Thursday, to be exact), I started back on the diet. The good news is that this diet is AWESOME! The bad news is that my b-day / anniversary was yesterday, so I didn't worry too much about the diet then. BUT the scale indicated this morning that I didn't do too much damage, so I ain't skeered.

Here is what I'm doing for those who care to know. I will give you some background first. When people go on a diet, they usually fail within a short period of time. If they are able to stay on the diet for a long period of time, they end up gaining quite a bit of the weight back (or sometimes MORE) when they go off the diet. Why? Because diets are too restrictive. They make something that you wouldn't even normally want seem like the most attractive food / drink on the planet. Therein lies the problem.

After Katie was born, I wanted to lose the baby weight, but since I was breastfeeding, I didn't want to do anything drastic that might affect my milk production. I decided to eat healthy during the week, and then on the weekends, eat pretty much what I wanted. I lost about 35 pounds by doing that (and breastfeeding). Very little exercise, other than picking Katie up, putting Katie down, picking Katie up, putting Katie down...you get the idea. That plan worked pretty well for me 'til recently. My body hit a plateau a few weeks ago, and I have been stuck ever since. So I thought to myself that it might be beneficial to just go low-carb for a while. The problem with going low-carb, though, is that while you do lose weight fairly quickly, it comes right back on after you start eating normally again. Same goes for low-cal, low-fat, low anything. I wanted to find a way to do something that I could maintain long-term, that would help me lose a few more pounds, and that would prevent a plateau.

ENTER CARB CYCLING. The term popped into my head one morning, and I knew I'd heard/read about it while getting ready for my figure comp last year, but I couldn't remember what all was involved with it or exactly how it worked. So I started doing some research. Basically it is something that bodybuilders do to prevent a plateau while they are cutting for a competition. You cycle no-carb days (which aren't actually NO carbs, but less than 20-30), low carb days (one carb for each pound of body weight), and high carb days (where you don't count carbs, but eat healthy carbs, i.e. oatmeal, brown rice, etc. until satiated). The order you do them in doesn't really matter, but you just avoid having two high-carb or no-carb days in a row. It's easy to stick with, because the hardest days are the no-carb days, but knowing that you get carbs the next day makes it much easier to get through!

I don't know why everybody doesn't do this, unless they just don't know about it. You still get to have 'unhealthy' or 'bad' foods occasionally, and you feel great because your body is running efficiently! It's working beautifully for me so far (four days now).

I am now on a 12-week weight-loss challenge with (or against) my Mom, and it ends on Nov. 6th, about a week before the half marathon. So it is all fitting together quite well. I love it when that happens! Looking forward to feeling strong and healthy again.

Also looking forward to my run today. Shooting for twenty minutes without stopping; hopefully it won't be too hot out.

Second Run

Okay, so last week I went for a run after I wrote those other blogs, and realized just how out-of-shape I am. BUT not for long! I ended up only being able to run for ten minutes before I had to stop and walk. However, it was ninety-five degrees outside and the sun was beating down on me. I know I could've gone at least eleven minutes otherwise.

So my goal at this point is to run about five minutes more each time I run. Last weekend was drill, so no running then, and this week up until today has been crazy. Ben came home at lunch-time today, though, so I took off after he got here. I was able to run fifteen without stopping today, so I feel like I'm really making some progress! One more run this week, then I will enjoy turning thirty on Sunday. Maybe I will celebrate by going for a bonus run--or maybe not. :-)

I said I was going to post measurements and what-not on here last week, but forgot. I prefer to do them in the morning when I first get up, but that rarely happens, so I'm going to do it this afternoon instead.

Today, while I was running and trying not to think about how uncomfortable I was, a song came on by TFK (Thousand Foot Krutch) called "Breathe You In". I don't even remember what the lyrics are, but it was just what I needed to hear at that particular moment. I got a little teary thinking about Megan, and about how important it is not to give up when things are difficult, and it gave me the extra push I needed to run a few more minutes. I love when God works it out like that. He gives us just the message we need at just the right time. Happens to me a lot. Thank you, God, for that.

Well, that's it for now...gotta go do those measurements!

Fitness Update Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning I will weigh, measure my body fat, and take body measurements. I will post those as soon as I can, and set a goal for where I would like to be by November.

Running for Megan

My friend Megan was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis this week. She has long suspected that she has MS, but getting a doctor to test her and give her some answers was quite a challenge.

Megan used to go running and was quite active, but her body got to where it wouldn't cooperate. She would love to go for a nice long run during this (somewhat) nice weather, but her body won't let her. My body, on the other hand, desperately wants me to take it for a nice long run, yet I don't. I realized today as I was thinking about her and talking to her that I really take my health for granted. Yes, I eat healthy for the most part, but exercising has been less than consistent since my daughter was born. That changes today.

Another friend, Liz, has asked me to run a half marathon with her this fall. She did her first one last year while I was pregnant; this year I have an opportunity to do one with her. I accepted, wondering how in the world I was going to convince myself to make time to train. Well, now I have a reason. In November, when I run that half marathon, I will be running it for Megan.

This blog (which Megan does not yet know about) will be a journal of my adventures of getting back in shape and preparing for that run. I don't know when I will tell her that I'm doing this, but until then, Shhhhhhhhh...keep it a secret!

Oh, and if you want to check out her blog, it is http://msliveswithme-gan.blogspot.com/. Even if you don't know her, check it out. She is a great writer and you will feel like you're right with her on her journey through life.