Oh…did I tell you? 1000km!

That’s right! According to my Nike+ app I’ve run over 1000km since September 2011. Woohoo me!

I’ve run a bit more since I started the Couch to 5K back in January of 2011, but oh yeah here I am. These silly internet pics/awards totally do it for me. I love em all. I love my 5lb and bravo stickers at WW, all of it. I’m such a kid sometimes. Whatever, it gets me out the door am I right?

Exercise Log: January 2012!

I’m back on track with my exercise logs! Yay! I didn’t quite hit my goal of 1200 minutes for January – I was 130 minutes shy because the last weekend I completely didn’t do any activity…oops!

I entered a new challenge on WW forums for February  – Fast Forward in February – and my goals are to lose 4lbs and get in 1000 minutes for the month.  4lbs only because I think right now if I was to lose 1lb a week I’d be very happy. Hopefully I can keep it steady and avoid a bit gain this month. 1000 minutes because I have to go out of province for work for 4 days so I think that will set me back a bit and plus there’s only 29 days this month! 😉

So, here is my exercise log for January 2012. I’ve already started the one for February. The key, for me, is to log it in when I get home, no waiting around and doing it at the end of the week! As usual – click to see a bigger picture!

 

How I Exercise & How I Got Started

I had a great question asked in my Weigh-in Week 89 post from Charity – welcome back Charity, so happy to see you blogging again!  She asked me if I had any tips on the fitness side and how I got started. Well, I don’t know if I have any tips per se, but I can definitely share how I got started. Watch out – this is a wordy one! Click on any of the links to read the original post about my adventures in exercise.

Now, of course, I have to do the requisite disclaimer – I am not a doctor in any way, shape, or form so please listen to your doctor and your body when starting your own fitness program. What worked for me may not be right or work for you!

As a quick reminder and for all my new readers (welcome!!!) I re-started my weight loss journey in May of 2010, but I didn’t really get started and serious until about August 2010. I knew that I wanted to incorporate exercise and activity in my life, but I also knew I wanted to be realistic about it. If I over did it from the start then it would be a bust and eventually I’d tire of it. So I started by walking home from work. Yup. That’s all. Now, I live in a major urban city where walking is the norm and a very convenient way to get around. My walk from work took me 1 hour when I started in August and took me up and over a Mount Royal in downtown Montreal (not like the Rockies or anything, but still a big hill). I did that 3 times a week (because I was working part-time at this particular office) and I also started doing a video workout at home on the weekends. The video was a free one I’d received from Weight Watchers a LONG time ago and was about 30mins long. You can read my first post all about this here! I’d say it was very similar to the Walk Away the Pounds videos I’m about to mention 😉

I also started to do more videos at home. I am huge fan of the Walk Away the Pounds videos by Leslie Sansone. They’re great for those of us who have more weight to lose because walking is realatively easy on the joints. I bought the 1, 2, and 3 mile walks. I’ve also, since, gotten the 5 mile walk and in fact still do it at home from time to time. Be forewarned the 5 mile includes some jogging throughout.

To motivate myself on the WW forums I started joining monthly challenges that included how many minutes of activity I would try to get in in one month. I started with 600 minutes a month and now sit comfortably at 1200 minutes a month (or about 20 hrs so approx. 5 hours a week). I also made a pact with myself that I would only count activity that was above and beyond my day-to-day activities as exercise. If I walk to meet a friend for 15mins that is NOT exercise, that is my life. If I do a video for 30mins at home though, that counted. I still take part in the monthly challenges and keep track of my results here if you’d like to check them out.

I also keep track of all my exercise on an excel spreadsheet. This way I can see how my pace changes with different runs and keep track of the weights I’m using. It’s great to be able to go back and find out how far I’ve come. The excel spreadsheet I use is SUPER simple. You can find it here at this post.  Sheryl Yvette (aka Bitchcakes) also has one you can download to use. It’s in her right-hand sidebar.

When I got down to 200lbs I had made a pact with myself that I would start to run. My brother is a runner which is how I got into it. I also wanted something I could do that didn’t require a gym. Well lo and behold I decide to start running January…in Montreal…so off to the gym (d’oh!) I go because there is no way I am going to run outside in -20C temperatures! I taught myself doing to the Couch to 5K program. You can read about my beginnings in running here!  I followed the metric version of the C25K right here.

Since I mention above I am a fan of only committing to how much I could do realistically, I chose to follow the program only twice a week. I still did all the sessions, but it took me longer. I finally switched to three times a week in the last couple weeks because I had entered a 5K race in April 2011 as my motivation! Woohoo! I ran the race, no chickening out for this one. I had to walk twice, because I ran too fast at the get-go. It was my first race and I had no idea how much adrenaline would kick in and how exciting it would be. My time was 35:40. So proud of myself!

From this point on I was hooked on running and continued to run. To give myself another goal, because I work best when I have a clear and attainable goal to aim for, I signed up for a 10K at the end of September. I found a training program that fit my abilities on a UK site right here. Since I could already run for 30mins straight, I picked it up in week three and did in fact train 3x a week. My time was 1:07:46! And I didn’t walk once! Woohoo! I have been running regularly since the 10K and have done a couple 10Ks on the weekends since.

In October 2011 I decided to focus more on my weight training. I had been doing the same routine for about a year at this point and it wasn’t anything particularly smart – I just used the machines I knew how to use properly and did arm and leg exercises. Well in October a friend of mine who is a personal trainer made me a full body program to switch it up.  I usually do it two days a week, or at least one if I can’t make it twice.

Nowadays my ideal workout schedule that I’ve spent a year and a half building up to (and losing over 90lbs to have the endurance and strength) is that I run three days a week – Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday. Short runs (approx 20-30mins) on weekdays and long runs (7.5K +) on weekends. I also do weights twice a week, full body workout.

However December threw this all askew and the current winter months aren’t helping much because I have to go inside to run (I am still NOT ready to run outside in -20C (-4F) temperatures! So I try to work out as much as I can and right now it’s at about 2 runs a week and 2 weight training sessions.  I still walk as much as I can – walking is fantastic for you regardless of weight. I used to do a long 7K walk once a week in better temperatures, but I haven’t done that in a few weeks. I have been breaking out the videos though, I still do the Walk Away the Pounds 5 Mile one. It’s a great work out and now I can put even more energy into to get more out of it 🙂

I will continue to say, when it comes to activity find something you like. If you enjoy classes or sports then take the classes or sign up for a team at your local community centre. It doesn’t really matter what yoy do as long as you’re moving and challenging your body! Doing what you like doesn’t make it feel like exercise and probably means you’ll keep at it longer. I, for instance HATE, absolutely HATE the stairmaster. You will never find me on one. But I love running and now I have plans to enter a half-marathon in September 2012.

If you have a lot of weight to lose then definitely talk to your doctor and start small. Aquafit is great as it lessens the impact on the joints and walking is always good as you can increase pace or stride length as you get stronger and build endurance.

I even have a list of things I’d like to start doing again – like cycling. You couldn’t get me off my bike when I was kid, I’d like to re-capture that.  I’d love to get back into swimming also. Body issues in my teens took me away from that one – time to conquer that voice in my head! I also want to start hiking in the summer, or even get back into tennis, or  ice skate again and maybe even take up more winter sports – like learning how to ski. So much to do, and I’m no longer afraid. No longer afraid of being the biggest one there, or people staring at me, or not being able to because of my size. Nope, now I’m excited by the prospects and the future…

So, that’s it, that’s all. That’s my exercise.

Tell me, what do you do for activity and exercise?

145KM in 8 weeks!

Yippee! Eight weeks ago I made a running goal on my Nike+ ipod app. My goal was to run145KM in 8 weeks. Today I officially hit that goal!

That’s only a little bit more than 18km a week – should have been fairly easy to accomplish with my 3 runs/week. But then the holidays happened and I got side-tracked and wasn’t running as often. Well this past week I’ve been on vacation and I caught up on my running so I made my goal!

I am also only 300m away from getting from the orange level to the green level – which means I’ll have run over 250KM since about October! I wish I’d made a point of knowing how far I was away from the green level…I totally could have run another 300 metres this evening!

But that’s okay – I feel great for having reached my goal 😀

I also reached an informal goal – I ran the most this week EVER! I ran 30KM in just one week and I ran 5 times this week! WOW! I’m going to take two days break right now due to work, which is probably best to help me recoup.

And some great news…I am back on track and I started keeping my January exercise log once again! I completely let this lapse from about mid-October, but I’m back and it feels good to be tracking my workouts so I can see my progress. This means I’ll be posting it once again at the end of the month. It’s been a great month so far for activity.

Hope you’re all doing well in your exercise and activity as well! Have you tried something new this month or set yourself a new goal?

Weigh-in Week 76: Catch up time

This is the post where I finally catch up on the things I’ve been letting slide – like my measurements and September’s activity log. This is also the post where I tell you I gained 0.1lbs at weigh-in today. Now, I must say I’m not discouraged by it as I would normally be. For a  variety of reasons: 1. My big Thanksgiving dinner was last night – so that’s not the best timing and 2. okay really? 0.1lb is nothing…seriously that’s 45 grams. I’m thinking this one more of a stay-the-same kinda week and that’s okay by me for a holiday weekend.

Here’s where we start seeing a difference though. I measured myself yesterday (Monday) morning and I’m seeing some progress! Woohoo. It’s all still minor, but it’s moving in the right direction (click to see a larger version):

In total I’ve lost 37.5 inches since I started keeping track last September! Clothes are fitting better and sitting better. I’m still working on my gut, I’ve got the rolls and I’m not convinced they are going away, but I am trying to minimize. I’m also hoping my calves will keep going down. Even to get down to a 15″ calf would be amazing as I *might* have a chance with some knee-high boots…a girl can dream.

I’m now sitting almost comfortably at a size 10 in most stores. Sometimes a size 11. And I’m at a medium or small in stores like Old Navy, Gap, and Reitman’s, but I’m still a large or extra large in Simon’s (the Quebec deparment store I love). I tried on a dress a month ago at Jacob and I was a medium! I couldn’t believe it. I’m feeling fairly comfortable that now I can shop at most *regular* sized stores and usually find something. I’ll be honest – I’m kinda amazed at how much cheaper the clothes are (in price not quality).

I’ve  mentioned before but my September activity challenged ended in a bust because of my injury post-race. But I’m happy to report that with some taking it easy and targeted stretching I’m feeling much better! I’ve now run four times since and no return of the tightness or pain. I even did an hour long run on Sunday and still felt great afterwards 🙂

Speaking of September Challenges here are our final stats for September for Bubblymel and I!

Bubblymel: -2.3/2 kg &  516.5/960 minutes of activity

Me: -1/5lbs & 1085/1200 minutes of activity

Here is the detailed breakdown of my September Activity(Click for a bigger picture):

I’m thinking it’s showing me too much reliance on just running. I need to get back to the gym more often to keep working different muscles!

I’ve entered a new challenge for October called ROCKTOBER! My goals are 4lbs and 1200 minutes once again. Let me know if you want to join me and I’ll be better at posting updates (except of course we are about halfway through the month…ah, that’s okay, there’s always time!)

So I’ve been trying to upload a picture of the pumpkin pie I made this year, but it seems my phone and my computer are having none of it. So it’ll just be a post by itself later this week. Pie. Indeed. 😀

Weigh-in Week 59: I’m overweight!

Yippee! Yahoo!  I have officially crossed over into “overweight” territory from the land of “obese” according to my bmi which now sits at 29.8. I weighed in today and I was down 2.1lbs for a new weight of 173.9 and a total of 77.7lbs lost!

I have been away for work for the past week and a half. At my last weigh-in I was down 0.1 lbs and I completely thought I would have gained for this week. I didn’t track for 4 days. I nibbled. A lot. I had access to pastries, and crackers, and cheese. Oh my. I did manage to get in 4 runs over the week and half, but no proper gym session with weight training. I tried to get back on track on Sunday and Monday – and I think I did to a certain extent. I say I think because at least in my head it didn’t feel like I had a good handle on my eating. And so I prepared myself psychologically for a gain. Now I don’t think I did a very good job of it as I actually contemplated not going to weigh-in. Yup. But I went and I was pleasantly surprised.

This also marks a great milestone for me (drum roll please!)….I’ve officially reached my mini goal #3 🙂  Woohoo! (you can see them in the right hand column). I don’t know what my reward will be, I wasn’t expecting this to happen so soon. Ack! I’ll have to think it through. I have been meaning to take a vacation in July when I get back…perhaps there’s something in that!

Something else amazing that happened? I got the Weight Watchers 5K charm for my keychain 🙂  It was only for those participating in this weekend’s 5K walk, but since I was out of town AND I’d previously run an official 5K race I got to have one. As you probably well know by now, I love charms and stickers. Here’s what it looks like:

I’ve added it to my keychain already. I hope it lasts though. This one’s made of plastic unlike the others which are metal. Probably has to do with the fact that they had so many to give out for this challenge.

I’m home for two weeks before my biggest challenge of going to the States for work for 3 weeks. Twelve hour work days again (who says people in the arts don’t work hard! I haven’t had a day off since May!!) and also completely different food and no real access to cooking my food myself. I worry about having to eat out all the time and no time to exercise. I worry about the larger portions.  I think I’ll have to be even more diligent about portion sizes and this will be  a true test of my ability to manage my eating in the face of temptation.

Any suggestions on how to face temptation when traveling for work or on vacation?

Food Log: Thursday April 7

Yay! I officially finished the last session of the Couch to 5K program! This past week I ran 5K three times 🙂

It took me longer to complete since I started at 2 days per week rather than 3 so I did it over 14 weeks instead of 9.  My race is still a little over a week away and I’m planning on getting in at least 3 more runs, prefereably 4. I will also run outside at least once so I can get a feel of what to expect.

 

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Morning
1  cup(s) fat-free skim milk	2
Oatmeal Breakfast	4
Subtotal	6
Midday
1  piece(s) rugalach	3
Hors d’oeurves – Quick-added food	3
1/2 fillet(s) cooked fillet of sole	2
1  cup(s) grapes	0
1  large banana(s)	0
1  small apple(s)	0
1/2 cup(s) cooked carrots	0
1  tsp regular butter	1
1  tsp olive oil	1
1  Tbsp dried bread crumbs	1
Subtotal	11
Evening
1  medium whole wheat tortilla(s)	2
3  slice(s) turkey breast lunch meat (3-1/2 square)	1
1/2 breast(s) cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast	3
11  oz uncooked potato(es)	6
1  cup(s) pineapple	0
1  cup(s) tomato(es)	0
Subtotal	12
Anytime
No entries for this meal time.
Subtotal	0
Food PointsPlus values total used	29
Food PointsPlus values remaining	0
Exercise
55 min weight training, universal machine, vigorous effort	5
10 min walking, treadmill ( > 3.0 mph and < 5.0 mph )	1
40 min jogging	9
Activity PointsPlus values earned	15

Notes Water: 12

Food Log: Tuesday April 5

There’s something about knowing I’m going to have to post this online that makes me want to stay within my daily points and get my exercise in. Argh. I need to find this within myself – I don’t know why I lost it.

Running update: ran 5K for a second time. I was more tired so it took about 38.5minutes (not keeping exact track, just general by the treadmill)

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Morning
1  cup(s) fat-free skim milk	2
Oatmeal Breakfast	4
Subtotal	6
Midday
1  large banana(s)	0
1  serving(s) Shrimp – 100g	1
1  cup(s) cooked whole wheat pasta	4
1  Tbsp regular butter	3
1  cup(s) grapes	0
1  serving(s) Skinny Vanilla Latte – Grande	3
1  small apple(s)	0
Subtotal	11
Evening
150  gm edamame (in pods)	3
1  serving(s) Salmon	3
1/2 cup(s) cooked brown rice	3
1/2 cup(s) watermelon	0
1  tsp regular butter	1
1  small mango(es)	0
Subtotal	10
Anytime
No entries for this meal time.
Subtotal	0
Food PointsPlus values total used	27
Food PointsPlus values remaining	2
Exercise
40 min jogging	9
50 min weight training, universal machine, vigorous effort	4
10 min walking, treadmill ( > 3.0 mph and < 5.0 mph )	1
Activity PointsPlus values earned	14

Notes Water: 14 cups

Weigh-in Week 49: I’m unimpressed with myself

Seriously. Unimpressed. I’m up 0.4lbs this week for a new weight of 184.6lbs with a total of 67lbs lost so far.

Blargh. I don’t know why this up and down. I mean I know, but I don’t know why I’m letting myself do this to myself. I’ll be honest – I’ve let weight loss slip down on my priorities list. Which in turn means I’ve let myself slip on my priorities list. Work has been hectic and I’m STILL using my apartment as an excuse. Really?! Who does that? I do. Over a month later and I’m still blaming my apartment not being completely set up as a reason for my not exercising at home. I’m lame and I fully admit it.  Also – who turns down a SECOND cannoli? Apparently not me this week. Not me.

So what’s a girl to do? How do I get my motivation back? I’m not sure, but I do know there are things that have helped in the past and that’s all I can do at the moment. Surprisingly, or at least thankfully, I haven’t given up on my running. I’m still in training and my race approaches. Although to be fair I contribute this to my overwhelming dislike of losing. And by that I mean my mean-ass competitive streak.

So here goes the plan:

1. I will once again post my daily food log (sorry to those who aren’t keen on it, but it helps me so off I go). There is something about having to be accountable on a daily basis to others that spurs me to do well and focus on healthy eating.

2. I will not let that lettuce in my fridge go to waste and will make some amazing salads with it.

3. I will run 3x this week – striving for a full 5K each time. Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.

4. I will exercise at home at least twice. Ideally Wednesday and Saturday.

5. I will stick to foods I know the PointsPlus values of – too much guesstimating going on.

6. I will be honest when I weigh/portion out my food. This morning’s oatmeal definitely had a rounded top rather than flat with the measuring cup.

7. I will drink at least 12 cups of water each day.

On the plus side this week I bought two pairs of pants in a size 12! Woohoo!

Have a great week 🙂

Accountable in April & a 5K!

April is among us (but really I couldn’t tell by the weather!) and this means a new exercise challenge for me and the end of March’s. All in all I put in a pretty poor showing at the March challenge  – March Meltdown – with only 7/8 lbs lost and 1150/1200 activity minutes. I’m more upset by not reaching my activity goal than anything else. Mostly because I think it was due to shear and simple laziness on my part. I won’t let April go down the same route.

April’s challenge on the WW forum boards is called Accountable in April. I’ve decided to lower my weight loss goal for the month to 6lbs (rather than 8lbs) but keep my activity the same at 1200 minutes. I think 6 is a more realistic goal for me nowadays. I just can’t assume I’ll lose at least 2lbs a week anymore. I have less to lose compared to a few months ago so I can’t expect to be losing at the same rate and also I get upset at myself when my loss is less than 2 and that’s just ridiculous – I should be celebrating all losses!

So that said, here’s a graph of my March activity. It wasn’t too bad, but I notice that I wasn’t gettin nearly enough in beyond my gym days. That’s something I’d like to work on for April – to get back into the habit of working out more often.

But the super exciting news from the weekend is that I RAN 5K!  That’s right. I have officially finished session 1 of week 9 of the Couch to 5K program 😀

I can’t believe I did it. All the way to the gym yesterday afternoon I kept thinking it wasn’t going to happen – that I wouldn’t be able to finish. But I did! I pushed through and you know what? In the end, it wasn’t that difficult. I had my breathing under control and I focused on pulling power from my quads and hamstrings rather than thinking about my calves or my feet.  Whenever I think about my calves or feet they end up  getting sore and the voice in my head telling me how much easier it would just to stop gets louder.

It took me about 38 minutes to run on a treadmill. Here’s a photo of the machine!

In total it took me 50 minutes (5 minute warm-up and 7 minute cool down) for a total of 6.1K (0.4K during the warm up and 0.7K during the cool down). Oh, don’t worry about the heart-rate – I don’t use it when I run so all the buttons stay lit up.

I am thrilled with myself. I now have 14 days/2 weeks to prepare myself for my race on Sunday April 17. The plan is to finish off the Couch to 5K program by running 2 more times and also to try running outside so I can get a feel for how different it is. This is best motivation ever!