Upping my mileage!!!

This week I am house sitting for my good friend Karey and since she has a dog (Tut) who likes to run, I am determined to up my mileage again this week! This morning I ran 5 miles instead of going to bootcamp, and I think that it was well worth it... My personal record currently for running on my own (meaning Karey not having to drag me) is 8 miles which I did on Friday and I'm SOOOO excited! I am trying to get to the point where I can run 9.5 miles for a relay marathon in January for a friend and her daughter... My personal trainer said that if I can get up to 11 miles regularly then 9.5 should be no big deal... So that's the goal!

Things I've invested in to help with my running include:
-amphipod running belt with water bottles and a pocket for my ipod.
-my running shoes from fleet feet
-gloves for running early in the morning
-a hat made by Cuddles and Curses with a brim (some kind of crocheted or knitted masterpiece)
-long sleeve running shirt

I also am going to be trying GU energy gel this week. The nice people at Fleet Feet said that if I am running long distances then having an energy gel at the 45 minute mark would help keep my energy up and fix up some muscles... or something like that.

Results: I am officially down 45 pounds, to 170 and under! Also I bought my first pair of size 10 jeans a couple of weeks ago and am well on my way to be solidly the next size down!

Real Results: greater confidence and I feel AMAAAAAZING!!!

The MapMyRun app on my new phone is AMAZING!!!!!

I promise not to turn this blog into a soapbox or an app review blog, but I just HAVE to gush about this new app I started using this week!!! I am SOOOOO excited! It's called Imapmyruns (with various capital letters in there), and if you have it on your phone and turns on the GPS it can track you while you run! I love it! I was able to find out that my 'usual' five mile run was actually 5.2, and when I decided I wanted to up my mileage, I ran all around this end of my city and was able to track it and come home right at the right distance so I wouldn't wear myself out by overdoing it... I'm upping my mileage so I can do a relay marathon in January, so I need to be able to do at least 11 miles in one shot pretty regularly, including hills, trail running and weather. I'm looking into good running jackets and learning more about GU and other energy maintainers for the avid runner...

Also, I forgot to post the pictures from the wedding, but the few that I have don't show the whole dress anyways... I'll try to get one on here soon, since it's on facebook currently anyways and most anyone who reads this knows about it due to facebook anyways...

Wish me luck!

Getting Back On Track: Fall 2011

Well it's back to school and back to work(ing out) but for some reason I'm not as motivated as I was back in June before I left for camp. I am trying though, so here goes the update.

A friend asked me ro clarify what kind of protein powder i use, so for the record, it's called protein plus (with a plus sign for the plus) and it is made by the same company that does Muscle milk but it is found at Costco and is a pure milk protein powder. I get it in the 3 pound container. Chocolate of course!!!

In other news, I totally wore my bikini ALL the time in Colombia, and then even wore it floating on the river last weekend at my friend's bachelorette party.

On that subject, i had to have my bridesmaid dress tailored to fit properly because i have shrunk so much since they ordered the dresses. I will post pictures after this weekend but the punchline is that my seamstress had to take out about four inches all the way down!!!

Thats it for now, thanks for listening!

Primary Goal Achieved!!!! Sense of Accomplishment= AWESOME!!!!!!

The other day, I achieved my primary goal of losing 40 pounds to get my weight down to 175! That is what my weight was when I first moved to Chico over three years ago, and now the new goal is to get down to 165. I'm a size 12, and I recently upped my daily minimum morning run from three miles to four.

LIFE IS AWESOME!!!!!

I recently got a new bike and on the first night riding it I had to brake quickly to pick up a dropped flashlight and managed to flip over the handlebars, sending my silver dolphin cuff bracelet flying where it will probably never be found again... My new replacement bracelet says "Dreams become reality one choice at a time" and I feel like this is especially true in my life these days, so I love it. I dreamed of being healthier, but had no chance of reaching any goal until I started choosing healtheir options like walking to school instead of being dropped off and having a chicken salad instead of a hamburger...

In any case I wanted to take today to comment on a few realizations that have hit me in regards to my healthierness...

The first one is that I have been blowing through sizes as I'm shrinking and I recently offered to pass some of my clothing to my mom and sisters now that they are too big for me. The fact is that when I was gainning weight I passed my too small clothes to my mom and sisters, and now I'm doing the same thing in reverse... I feel a sense of accomplishment knowing it took me three years to gain almost 50 pounds but that I've lost 40 pounds since deciding to get healthier in December.

My other realization happened last night when I was doing the p90x video with my friend Karey. We were doing squats for leg exercises and I was holding the 25 lb kettlebell as extra weight. I suddenly turned to Karey and told her that I just realizes that I used to have that much extra weight on my body, and she pointed out that it was that weight PLUS an additional 10 pounder AND a 5 pounder... How did I have the energy for anything? Last night I was also able to do a few sort of pull-ups on the pull-up bar, which is something I could never imagine doing a year ago...

So I guess my main comment about my successes for my friends and family to know is that moderation is key in all things! I don't believe in DIETING persay just because I've found that it usually means some kind of extreme, and doesn't teach me good eating habits that will last forever... If I cut out all carbs (Atkins?) then I suddenly eye every piece of french bread or plate of pasta like I can't resist it to save my life... If I was to give up meat (vegetarian) I would have to go to a lot of trouble to find protein substitutes, not to mention that as a poor college student that's not really affordable sometimes.

Also on the subject of moderation is the concept of not over-doing exercise... I just mean, if it starts to hurt, don't keep going, and find something else to do. For example, when Karey and I do her p90x video, there is one move that requires you to balance on your hip bone. It's uncomfortable, and even though I'm sure the exercise would be awesome for my slowly developing ab muscles, I won't do it just in case it might cause an injury in not doing it correctly...

In other news, most of my friends know this already, but today I went to the WREC center (college gym) pool in my new bikini, swam a bit and then sat in the sun for an hour reading and getting darker... I haven't worn a bikini since elementary school, so this was a huge accomplishment! Now that I've survived it one day, I plan to make it a regular visit until my Colombia trip!

A Look at the Changes Over the Years

I've decided to show a few photos of kind of before and after... 

I'm so excited that I reached a size 12 this week!

One comment about my exercising, today I made the choice to stop running at three miles instead of going all the way to the four I had planned... My calves were killing me and so even though I was on the far side of my loop and a mile from home and it was about to rain, I decided to walk home. And hopefully if anyone else is taking up exercising they will remember the wisdom of listening to their body and not risking an injury, which would prevent further exercising, you know?

This is me at my 21st birthday... Just 2.5 years ago...

At my friend Annie's 21st birthday around 2 years ago or sooner... I'm so awful with dates!

A weekend camp (it was suddenly hailing, thus the strange expression) around a year ago...

Me just a month or so ago, a few sizes down and loving it...

Me TODAY!!! I can't even believe the difference!!!

So far, so awesome!

Hey Everyone!

If you know me well, then you already know most of what I'm posting about here... But I've decided that I'd like to share more in depth information about exactly how I'm going about my 'healthierness plan' so that people can see that it's not as hard as they might think it is...

The short back-story is that I think I've pretty much always been more of a non-active, sort of 'plump'  person. Yeah I work summer camp every year and all, but I've never been 'athletic', and have ALWAYS hated running, so when I gained 50 pounds after moving to Chico, I didn't know what to do about it. I blame my office job and going back to college for the sudden weight gain, but didn't really decide to do anything about it until just last semester.

My friend MeShell is getting married this coming September and we had a dress trying on gathering in January, which I attended, but the shop didn't have a single dress in my size.  It had already occurred to me that my weight was getting out of control, but I was dressing myself well so I hadn't done anything about it. After that day of watching the other girls try on dresses and smiling sadly, I really decided to buckle down and see what I could do.

I started tracking my foods on an ipod touch app called MyNetDiary around the beginning of December. I put in my current weight and my goal weight and it helped me figure out how many calories I should eat each day, plus it took into account my activity level and could calculate also based on how much I would like to lose each week. It also limited me to 2 pounds a week of loss since that is the healthy way of doing weight loss. I actually really appreciate the limitation, because if not I might have expected it to go faster and then would have lost weight in a more unhealthy way and perhaps gainned it back even faster...

January 3rd I started going to the gym in the morning before work. I worked 3 hours a day Monday through Friday as an Instructional Assistant for the school district working with children with disabilities.  The shift I worked was 8:15-11:15 am, which made finding time to go to the gym tricky. Of course anyone who knows me also knows that I was also working as a tutor for Chico State, babysitting for two different families each week, and taking 4 classes... Oh, and working as an office assistant three hours a week for a professor... I was a busy girl this semester.

In any case, I started going to the gym and walking on the treadmill doing my POWERWALKING like I learned at Las Positas in my powerwalking class. I would walk for 30 minutes to an hour but it was boring and I could only buy so many movies on itunes to occupy my mind while I walked. I got my sister to join me sometimes and we would talk while walking (she would run sometimes), but still. At some point I started trying out the elliptical machine for 30 minutes after 30 minutes of walking and I liked that, but again, it was kind of boring.

After a while, I noticed the spin class (stationary bikes in a group class with lots of cool music) and gave it a try. The first day killed me, but I actually blame the bike not being set up correctly. The cool thing was that I tried one teacher and then tried a different teacher. The second teacher was much harder than the other, and I decided she was too hard for me to take her class. But a few weeks in of going to the first teacher's class, I decided she was actually too easy by then, so I switched. The great thing about spin class was that the teacher decided what exactly we did, and I did what I could to keep up. In the end, it just meant I was going as hard as I could for as long as I could. I couldn't 'sprint' as long as some of the other students, but I would do what I could, and as long as my heart rate was up, it was working.

And then recently I took up running. No, seriously, I took up running. I couldn't believe it either, that I was even considering it. But I got switched to working with kindergarteners with disabilities and they could run away from me because I just couldn't run, so I needed to be able to catch them if necessary. [NOTE: I invested in running shoes. I wouldn't have been able to do the following without them.] At first I was lucky if I could run a quarter of a mile without stopping. My longest run at first was a mile with quarter mile spurts and walking in between... I extended the lengths of running and shortened the breaks, and eventually worked up to two miles on the track at the Wrec Center (the university gym). Around that time, I started doing some running around my neighborhood as well, and definitely started paying more attention to my times. Recently I got a belt to put my ipod in, got a digital watch to keep my time, and attended a trail run through the local Fleet Feet and can't wait to use my new trail shoes at camp! (don't tell the campers that one of their cooks is going to be RUNNING AT CAMP!!! (major rule breaking here!))  I'm up to five miles running at a time and I start with the first mile straight and then walk about a block after every half mile to make sure I don't get hurt.

As for supplements, I'm not taking any big ones. My friend Karey recommended a protein shake mix that is literally just the powder mixed in water (drink at least 8 oz of water right after too!).  I take a half scoop of it before my thirty minutes (minimum) of cardio work out, and another half scoop after. I don't take any of the premade shake mixes that are sold in stores, since two actual personal trainers from the Wrec Center told me that those have a lot of extras that up the calories and flavor, but do less than the powder stuff that I have... I also recently started adding some pediatric electrolyte liquid to my water after a run to help re-hydrate myself. Karey pointed out that with all the running I'm doing, chances are I'm not drinking enough water and I don't want to hurt myself.  I know it's technically for kids, but when I mix it with water and add some low-calorie flavored drink, it is better for me (by a lot) than gatorade (or other similar drinks) so it works.

So the results... I am going to be honest here about this. I think people need to know that it wasn't as much effort as you'd think... Yes, it takes determination, but it is doable. And the main key is to not push yourself over what abilities you have. You can't stay on the healthierness plan if you are hurt or whatever. And I certainly didn't want to give up due to an injury.

Yeah the results then. Yeah I'm not actually stalling. Because I'm super stoked! I started probably around 220, but was closer to 215 by the time I started weighing myself regularly and consistently.  I weigh myself every morning and even though that's not recommended, it helps me personally to see where I'm at and I like getting the regular knowledge that what I've done helped or hindered... I did have to learn en route that sometimes weight gain isn't a negative thing. Sometimes it's muscle. And even if I do have a 'bad' or 'cheat' day, I just need to get back on track the next day, and not stress myself out about it.

I also started as a size 18-20. I got all my clothes at either Old Navy (plus sizes) or Lane Bryant (a store that specializes for sizes 14 and up), and I was proud of myself for dressing my body well, but I am super excited to say that as of today I am down to a SIZE 12 in pants and down close to 40 pounds!!!!!!! My primary goal was to get down to 175 (the last decent weight I remembered before Chico), but my new goal is to get to 165. It's about 13 pounds away, and I couldn't be happier!