Weigh-in Week 178: So I ran my third 10K

Yuppers. I did it. Last Sunday. I also weighed-in last Tuesday. Let’s get that business out of the way shall we? Well it’s not good news. I was up 1.2lbs for a new weight of 162.1lbs and a total loss of 89.5lbs. Things are going from bad to worse it would seem. I’m not on track and to be honest the way this week has been going it’s not going to be a good one either. Le Sigh. I’m not sure how to turn this around just yet. I know I will, but I hope my head gets in the game sooner then later.

Let’s talk about this race of mine though. I ran it. Officially my third 10K race in three years. This year I ran it in 1:02:04. A whopping 6 seconds faster then my time last year! OOph! Not at all what I had hoped for. My goal is to get in under an hour. Wasn’t even close this year. I do wonder often about last year’s time as it was at a different 10K event. I wonder because my ipod said I’d only run 9.6km, not 10. This year it clocked it at 10km. So I wonder if perhaps I am in fact faster then I thought I was, but that last year’s time is inaccurate? Who knows. Maybe I’m just trying to make myself feel better about the whole thing.

To be honest the race put me into a bit of a funk and I didn’t run for a week. I went out for my first run since the race yesterday afternoon. It was an ok run. The kind of run I have having not run for a week. I think I’ll sign up for the 10K again for next year so I can try to get the time I seek. I guess the real reason I’m disappointed in my time is that I know if I hadn’t gained back this 10lbs my time would be faster. This is a fact – the less you weigh the faster your times. So that’s at the root of it all. I’m disappointed with myself.

Well, at least I ran it and for all intents and purposes I ran it in less time than last year. Here are photos of the day:

 

Tons of people at the race. Between all the events (1K, 5K, 10K, Half, and Marathon) 32,000 people ran through the streets of Montreal on Sunday, September 22nd!

 

 

It was hard to find my friends in the crowd and it was so cold and rainy!

 

 

The finish line was at a park – a wet, rainy, muddy park!

 

 

But I did it and I got my medal!

 

 

The muddy shoes prove it all 😉

Weigh-In Week 162: That Happened

Ouch. Well that happened at weigh-in. I was up 5.4lbs! New weight is 158.6lbs for a total loss of 93lbs.  Argh. How discouraging. I have to say I was surprised by the huge gain – my belt and clothes don’t feel tight, my rings are still loose and I exercised more this past week that I have in months. I did eat before weigh-in which I don’t normally do so I’m sure that contributed to it somewhat, but I’m not sure where I went so terribly off.

I’m really focusing on my night time eating this week. I need to get it under control. I’ve had some luck with it and I’ve been feeling in control since Tuesday – I hope to continue this week and I’m hoping for a good loss this week. I think this post is going to be short, I’m feeling discouraged and even though I ate well today, I feel bloated and uncomfortable. I did go out for a run tonight and that felt wonderful – it was a surprisingly easy run. I ran well at a nice consistent pace of 6min/km for a 30min 5k. It was cool out without too much wind. I’m happy I went out. Sometimes it’s just too easy to come home and stay home…

Weigh-in Week 161: I’ll take it!

Well I am down 0.3lbs. My new weight is 153.2lbs and a total loss of 98.4lbs. Well I will take it. It could have been a gain! I did better this week. My goal is to do even better this week. I’m feeling more in control.

I’m  also out and running more these days. The weather has been off and on these days, so I’m taking advantage when I can. I haven’t run over 60km in one month in a while, but I did it this May! And I  might even be able to get one more in if the weather and my work cooperates this week. I’m also starting to think about my 10K race at the end of September…I’ve been sticking to 5K runs lately so I think I need to slowly get back into the habit of my long weekend runs and work my way back up to 10K. In fact I’d love to be able to run more than a 10K before the race. I’ve always stopped at the 10K mark…perhaps its time for a change and getting back to pushing myself!

Weigh-In Week 157: Race Weekend!

Weighed-in yesterday and I was down 0.9lbs. Yahoo! New weight is 152.0lbs for a total loss of 99.6lbs. Happy for the loss, it could have been larger, but I ended up working out a lot this past weekend and I find those weeks I don’t lose as much – perhaps water retention.

This weekend we have incredible weather here and it was a glorious weekend for bootcamps in the park (led by a friend of mine) and my 5K race!! I’ve done this race now 3 years in a row and this is the first year we had gorgeous weather. It was wonderful and made for a great run!

Do you recall my goal of getting in under 30mins?? Well I did it! I ran the 5K in 27:50. WOOHOO!!! I am thrilled 🙂

And check out what the receptionist at WW gave me – three 5K charms! One for every year I’ve run the race. I can’t believe how far I’ve come over the last 3 years. Never before would I have thought I’d be this person. This person who runs races, who goes to bootcamp on the weekend, who craves to move and be active. I’m amazed. My life has changed so much. Sometimes I get caught up in how far I still have to go, how long it’s going to take me and I forget how far I’ve come.

Check out my morning at the race. I had such an amazing time!

Has summer arrived for you yet? Are you out and about these days?

Weigh-In Week 156: And the Game Continues

Well, well, well…I am up 2.9lbs for a new weight of 152.9lbs and a total loss of 98.7lbs. Wait, haven’t we seen this before?? Hmmm…I think so – about 4 weeks ago, and before that 8 weeks ago, and before that…well you get it don’t you. That’s right. The pattern continues.

I guess I could say I’m annoyed or frustrated, but to be honest, I’m also pretty proud of myself for still weighing-in each Tuesday before work and even though it’s still up and down…at least with all my current challenges, it’s not all up up up. My plan this week to eat mindfully and cleanly. I found out that at work the caterer always has some plain grilled chicken breasts available. Yes! This is an ultimate win for me. Seriously I could eat chicken every day.

On another win for me this week non-scale related is new running shoes! I ordered them a couple weeks ago and they finally arrived!! For the record I wear New Balance 860s with Sole Moldable insoles. I have low arches so these offer support, stability, and fit my foot. With the insoles you put them in the oven to heat them up and then put them in your shoes and stand in them for a bit. They cool and harden to the shape of you foot. I find regular arches to be too high and painful for me and I have found this combination works best for me.

Check them out just out of the box:

Look how clean they look next to my year-old ones!

I can’t wait to try them out! I don’t usually have to break them in much so we’ll see how I’m doing with them this week and then I’ll decide if I want to wear the new ones for the race on Sunday – oh yeah, I mentioned I have a race coming up right? My yearly 5K that I’m hoping to run in under 30mins. It’s already been a long week for me and it’s only Tuesday….I have to say I’m looking forward to the weekend. I will do a pre-race post for Saturday and hopefully a post-race post as well.  Off to bed I go as have a long day ahead…

Weigh-In Week 155: Boston.

There are no words. My sympathies. My support. My shock.

I think for me, what truly gets to me, is that not only is it at attack on innocent bystanders but that it is an attack at people at their weakest. To have run a marathon you have put your body and your mind though one of the most arduous tasks possible. The ability to think clearly, to have your body respond to bring you to safety is even more difficult at this time.

For all the runners out there who enter races. I urge you to run without fear. I have a race coming up in 2 weeks time and I will run. I will not slink away scared.

***

On another note, I did weigh-in yesterday. I was down 0.8lbs for a new weight of 150.0lbs and a total loss of 101.6lbs. Yahoo! So far April has been a month of losing. Here’s hoping it continues. I think I’m doing better with my eating, but still the late night eating is not 100% under control. I need to find some strategies or some snacks I can eat at home late night that will satisfy me, but not fill me up too much and also cause me to go over my points for the day. It’s a challenge. But then again aren’t they all.

I apologize for my short posts of late. Work has left me with little time, and what time I have is often spent running errands and other life-stuff. I hope to be able to most more soon as I get into a new rhythm and schedule at work.

I didn’t weigh in for Week 152

I won’t lie. I didn’t weigh in last Tuesday. But to be honest it was because I had to take care of some car issues that took much longer than anticipated (don’t they always) and so I couldn’t get to the centre before work. I was going to weigh-in on Thursday morning, but it just didn’t feel right. I’ve been stressed over the car, work is getting super busy, and sleep hasn’t been relaxed lately.

I don’t know how Tuesday’s weigh-in will go to be honest. I’m trying to track all my food accurately, but it’s difficult. I’ve had a few nights of losing control with late-night eating. I’m working on this first. I need to take control again and not let the food control me. I’m happy to announce that last night, after a lovely night out with some girlfriends that took us to a music improv show (where musicians jam together with a jazz/reggae/funk and a party I got home at 3am and resisted grabbing something from the kitchen! I was tired and really I jsut wanted to sleep, but I still went to the fridge. I stood there with the door open. I actually spoke out loud to myself and told myself to leave and just go to bed…and I did it. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but given the last month I’ve had this was a huge accomplishment. I can do it. I can get back on track.

I want to stop eating uncontrollably at night so that I can enjoy the treats and special meals during the day. Seriously. And this week had plenty of both. Firstly, we had cupcakes at work. Look at how adorable they were – I had one that looked like a chick because it was cute and it had coconut!

And then my friends and I went to a Cabane a Sucre – a Sugar Shack – which if you don’t know what that is, is a visit to the maple tree farms where they tap the maple sap to make syrup. It consists of having a huge meal, pretty much smothered in maple syrup and maple taffy, and all sorts of deliciousness. I  think I ate pretty well and didn’t go over board, but no matter how you slice it, it’s not really health food.  All in all, I think the day was not bad. I have been able to get out running all long-weekend long so that’s been nice. The body feels good and the mind feels great.

I’ve been giving it lots of thought the last little while, and I’m starting to consider seeing someone about the night-time eating. I don’t know if it actually qualifies as disordered eating, but I can say that I think I’m at a point where I need some outside help. I think I’ll start doing some research into this and see what’s available to me in my city.

 

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?

REASON FOR LOSING WEIGHT 4: For my body to be a machine

So I’ve mentioned that I work in theatre, and so I work with actors. The type of work I do and that I enjoy seeing falls under the moniker “physical theatre”. It is not dance, but rather theatre where the body takes precedence over the words and text. As I was working on shows I realized that I felt hypocritical to ask my actors to do things with their body that I couldn’t even begin to attempt.

Now, yes, they are trained differently than I am and use their bodies as their primary mode of communication on stage, but still. It just didn’t sit right with me. When I was overweight I tried to take a 2-day workshop and after the first day that I just couldn’t do it. I wasn’t comfortable playing with my body and using it. Now I don’t have to do this on stage in front of an audience, but I thought I should be able to do it in the comfortable setting of a workshop. It felt horrible. I felt like a hypocrite. By no means should a director necessarily be able to do what an actor does, I felt like I couldn’t even come close. Like I didn’t know what was possible for the human body to do or what its limits were because my own limits were so much more due to my size.

And I have changed that – I feel like I can take a workshop now and move and not be afraid to move. I don’t get out of breath as easily and I can actually do the movements – perhaps not as well as an actor can, but I no longer feel like a hypocrite.

That is what I mean by my body being a machine – human bodies are remarkable things and when our muscles and bones etc all work together it can create beautiful pictures. I wanted my body to be able to move and to respond. I wanted a body that I could work and with work it could do new and exciting things. I want a body that is not encumbered by fat, but rather can be used to its full potential. I think that’s why I like training for my races so much. After each training session or race I can do new and wonderful things with my body. My body changes, gets better, faster, more limber. My body does what I believe it was meant to do – it moves.

My Weekend.

Feeling pretty good this weekend in my outfit. Disregard the SUPER dirty mirror – it’s not mine, I swear! (and this one was the cleaner of the 2 I had to choose from).  Totally found high boots wide enough from my crazy calves at Payless.

Indian food. ’nuff said.

Tried a new recipe. Rice & Bean Casserole right here. But I added shrimp and subbed leeks for green onions and portabello mushrooms for the canned mushrooms. Delicious and filling! Mine ended up being 5 points per cup without the cheese.

I got flowers for opening night (they go with that outfit above). Joy.

Back to running after a week-long break due to above mentioned opening night. Feels great and super happy with my pace.