Weigh-In Wednesday

160!

Down a pound!  I'm pretty excited to see pounds coming off!  It shows me what a little hard work and determination will do!

I've contemplated taking weigh-in Wednesday off of my blog list.  The reason for this is that I am determined not to focus solely on my weight.  I mean, yes, I still have a few pounds to lose, but right now I would like to focus on my running.  But then I thought about how my weekly weigh-in really keeps me accountable, not only to myself, but to all of my readers (who probably don't care what I weigh, but too bad).  Also, this is a complete healthy living transition for me, so taking off one aspect of that (weighing in) would take away from my story.

With that long-winded story, my final decision was to keep my weekly weigh-ins, as well as talk about running, food (something I could talk about for hours), etc.  I am not solely a runner, and though I'm striving to become a marathoner, I still have other lifestyle issues that come into play, so they need to be addressed.

I got in my 5 miles last night!  Longest run I've had in a few weeks.  (I've planned several long runs in the last few weeks that magically didn't happen...)

I'm going to get in a few miles tonight and then stop on the running front until Saturday.  I will be getting in some Jillian Shred tomorrow and possibly Friday.  I haven't had a date with her in several days and I think she's starting to miss me!

And finally, not to be sappy or anything, I just wanted to thank those of you who actually read my blog.  I started it not really knowing what to expect.  Really I didn't expect anything at all...I didn't think anyone would actually read my story, but I'm getting more and more readers every week!  It amazes me (and makes me think that I should try to write about something more interesting)!  Thanks for all of your support!

Suck It Up

I'm feeling pretty good today.  I thought was paranoid that I was going to get sick because Dustin has a full-fledged cold going on right now!  While I'm still not sure that it is behind me, I'm feeling good today and plan to get a good long run in today.  At this point in time, I'll take 5 miles as a long run.  I need to do something because I haven't worked out in a few days!  Yuck!  I have been eating pretty good, though, getting my veggies in.

In other exciting news, my friend Ashley has decided to run the half with me!!!  I cannot even tell you how excited I am that I'm not alone (not that you guys don't help me) in this process.  She is a much better runner than me and will probably eat my dust, but I'm fine with that.  Right now I don't think I'm going to set any specific time goals because I think I need to focus on FINISHING!

I'm a little nervous about my 5k on Saturday.  I was contemplating bowing out, but don't worry, I won't let myself do that!  I just know that I haven't trained as hard as I should have, so not doing it would be the easiest way to show that I didn't train.  I would be supremely PISSED OFF at myself if I did that, though.  It's only 3.1 miles, I can suck it up and push through it.  I might not go super fast, but I never expected myself to in the first place.  I think this will be a good test for me.

Hope everyone has a terrific Tuesday!  Biggest Loser is on tonight!

The Weekend

I had a great weekend!  I went out on Friday night for dinner/drinks/dancing with friends for a birthday.  I probably had a little too much fun, but that's ok.  Dustin and I woke up on Saturday feeling less than perfect (well, me at least), but we had a good day at home getting some stuff done.  I probably should have done more, but my alcohol-induced headache wasn't so fun.

I was thankful that I got my drinking out of the way on Friday night (wow, I sound like an alcoholic!) because even though I wasn't on top of my game on Saturday, I still had all day Sunday to get stuff done.  I cleaned the house and my parents came to visit, and then we went for a hike!  I love living next to a giant mountain!  Except for the fact that I can't hike on my own because I'm completely afraid of cougars and bobcats attacking me.  Minor details though.

After we got back in, I was trying to figure out what to have for dinner.  When you live 30 miles out of town, you really have to plan or at least stock up on food for dinners.  Well, I definitely had nothing planned, so I grabbed some chicken out of the freezer to defrost.  Still unsure what to make, our saving grace, aka Dustin's parents, called an invited us over (as in across the driveway) for dinner!  I love it when that happens, because it usually lands on a day that I have no clue what to make!

Dinner was great, and some family friends ended up showing up, so we talked and had a good time together.  Then Dustin and I got in the hot tub for awhile, then gathered up our dog and headed home for the night.  All was great until this morning, when....

Dustin woke up with a horrible sore throat!  So, needless to say, I'm either having sympathy pains or I'm so paranoid of getting sick that I feel like I'm getting sick, or I REALLY AM GETTING SICK, because my throat almost kinda hurts!  No!  I've got my 5k on Saturday, so I'm really hoping that it's all in my head and that I'll be fine.  Until then, I'm going to stay away from Dustin (no kissing allowed), get my workouts in, eat good, and get mentally ready for this race.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Mental Toughness

I'm having a little trouble keeping my thoughts in the right place today.  I need to get a workout in, but I can already tell it's going to be a struggle to get to the gym.  Mentally, anyway.  I'm up to the challenge, though, and one thing I'm going to need for my half-marathon is mental toughness.  So with that:

"Caitlin, get your ASS to the gym tonight!"

Yep, just what I needed!

Weigh-In Wednesday

Today's result:  161!!!!  It was so close to 160 (I still have a scale that isn't digital...) that I almost decided to put it down, but I'm going with 161 just to be safe.  That's a 3 pound loss from last week, and 1 pound lighter than I've gone on this whole journey!

I think Jillian is paying off!  Even though I've missed skipped a couple days of it, it is really making me stronger.  I've also gotten in a few runs lately and my eating habits have been pretty good.  So maybe they were right when they said (I don't know who "they" is by the way) that eating good and working out is the way to go for this whole weight loss thing.  Huh.

It's now time to get off celebration cruise and buckle down for another week.  I made Rolo cookies last night for some unknown reason and I'm trying to not eat them all.  Hopefully Dustin will have eaten every last one of them by the time I get home.  Either that or I will need to sleep while running on the treadmill tonight.  One way or the other....

I got up and Shredded this morning.  I think I'm ready to move up to Level 2 because even though I still sweat and get my heartrate going for level 1, it's much easier than last week.  Time to shock my body again!  Going to get a few miles in tonight too!  I got in 2.5 miles during lunch yesterday.  I'm going to meet my mileage goal this month for once!

My stomach is making some weird noises right about now.  I have headphones on with music playing and I can still hear it.  It's not upset but it seems like there is some serious digestion going on!

*Please excuse my exclamation point usage in this post!  I get a little outta control sometimes!

March Goals

Here they are, let's see how many of them I can meet!  I was searching my previous posts so I could compare my February goals to what I actually accomplished, but lo and behold, I never actually wrote any down...funny how that seems to happen sometimes!  Not this month, though!

1. Run (walk) 60+ miles.  I'm really going to have to kick it in gear for this one, but if I just follow my training plans, I should be able to get it done!
2. Finish the 30 Day Shred.  So, I'm not going to get it done in 30 days exactly.  I'm fine with that, because I want to first and foremost get my mileage in.  I'm seven days in already, so that means I've got 23 days in March to get it done!
3. Rock my 5k!  Ok, so by rocking it I really mean just running the whole thing without walking.  And possibly getting a sub 30 minute time.  That, my friends, is rocking it in my book, at least at this point in my life!
4. Lose 5 pounds.  This will get me below the 160 mark!  I'm not really worried about this one too much, but I've got to get it written down because I think I can hit this goal pretty easily this month. (See weigh-in tomorrow).
5. Paint the dining room!  Obviously not a health-like goal.  Well, yes it is--for my SANITY!
6. Get my taxes done!  Also a sanity goal.  Plus I'll be getting a refund!!!  Can we say wedding money?

Ok, I could put more, but those are six things I want/need to get done in March.  The first two are going to be the hardest for me, so wish me luck!

Weekend Mashup

Hello!!!  It's been a few days since I've posted, so bear with me on this one.  I have a lot to say.

To start, I'll recap the weekend.  On Friday when I got off work, I headed straight to the gym (read: 20 yards from my office) and put in 2 miles on the treadmill.  It wasn't quite the long run I was hoping for, but my legs were shot and I still had to go home and Shred.  So once it was out of the way, I made a break for home....once I got there I crawled into bed and turned on my electric blanket because I was freezing!  Dustin was away this weekend, so I came home to a cold house and didn't feel like walking my lazy ass out to get wood for the stove.

After about half an hour of reading in bed (I'm reading My Sister's Keeper) I finally talked myself into doing the Shred.  This was quite the NSV for me, because on any other day I probably would have talked myself into staying in bed and not finishing my workout.  By the time I got done with Jillian, I was toast.  I ate a small meal and then did what anyone would do on a Friday night....headed back to bed!  It was pretty nice--I watched Gilmore Girls (which I don't get to watch when Dustin is home) and fell asleep!

Saturday I woke up early to get ready to go to Bend with my parents.  Why is it that I can wake up at 5:30 easily on Saturdays and Sundays, but when the weekdays roll around, I can't hardly get my ass up by 6?  Anyway, I had a great day with my parents, although my eating left something to be desired.  I guess you could say that eating ice cream for dinner was not the most nutritionally enticing dinner I could have imagined.  I did not, however, overeat--I just didn't make healthy choices.

Sunday I woke up to my dog whining to go outside.  Time: 6:30.  I just can't do it.  Sleeping in is a thing of the past for me!  I attempted to crawl out of bed, but it was FREEZING in the bedroom.  Even though I didn't build a fire, we still have a monitor in our room, so I knew it could only mean one thing...we were out of monitor fuel.  Damn it, now it's cold everywhere in the house.  Except for the bathroom, because we have a mini heater in there.

I got up and found some blankets and chilled out in front of the tv with some hot coffee and breakfast.  I had the makings of a pretty lazy day, but I took one look at our house and decided it needed to be cleaned...badly!  So I got up and worked on it for a few hours (barely made a dent in it) and then decided to head outside.  It was warmer outside than it was in our house!!!  I quickly went in and changed into my workout clothes and headed down the road for a run.

Our driveway has a fork in it and you can either go the long way or the short way to get out (each has their pros and cons).  I took the short way and still ended up running 4 miles.  It felt so good to get out in the sunshine.  My dog went with me and she spent the whole time searching for squirrels (FYI, she caught her first squirrel that morning and was super proud of it!)  After I got back in I Shredded and had a snack.  Dustin came home not long after and we vegged on the couch for awhile before hitting up the hot tub.   After, we ate dinner with his fam and went and watched the hockey game that we DVR'd.

All-in-all....a great weekend.  If you didn't notice, I didn't mention anything about Shredding on Saturday.  It didn't happen.  I should have got up a little earlier to get it done before leaving for Bend, but I didn't.  I don't regret it though, because my legs were pretty sore and I really think I needed the break.  I got right back to it on Sunday and I plan on doing it all this week.

February recap:

Miles ran: 34.5
~I definitely didn't meet my goal of 66 miles.  I could have and should have got more runs in, but I'm still satisfied with my efforts and feel like I'm getting in pretty good shape.  I can see results, so that is a great feeling!

Ending weight: 164
~I had some ups and downs, but since my weigh-ins are on Wednesdays, I'm not going to weigh myself until then (ok, that's a big fat lie, because I got on this morning; however, I'm not going to tell you guys until my real weigh-in day).

February: SUCCESS
I'll post my March goals in another post.  This one was just getting too long!