I won!

Ok, I didn't actually "win," technically, but I had a great time! I'm telling you, these relay races are where it's at. So much fun. I had a few people in my van that I didn't know very well, but we sure know each other now. 24 hours together in a stinky van will do that for you.

My first leg was 6.5 miles and started at I think 2:30ish in the afternoon. The weather was misty and cool. It's a really good thing the race was so well marked because I only saw 3 other runners the entire time. I was hitting solid 7:30 min milesthe whole way until I got stopped at two stoplights in a row for several minutes about a mile from the finish. So irritating!

Anyway, My 2nd leg was 5.5 miles through farmland at 11:30 at night. It smelled like poop out there, but no stoplights so that was good. I passed several more people on this leg, but couldn't make it past the chick in front of me. I stayed with her for the first 3 or 4 miles though at between a 7:15 and 7:30 pace, but then had to let her go. I finished at an average 7:38 per mile.

Yeah, so the last leg I was out of energy AND there was an out and back portion, which is just mentally demoralizing. Luckily it was only 3.5 miles. The people who thought it was 6 were mistaken. I slowed to maybe an 8:15 on this one and it was clear that I'd spent everything on the first two legs. This picture is of me just finishing the third leg. I'm a lot happier than I look in the picture.

In conclusion, everyone should run a relay race. This was my 5th one. I've done Hood to Coast in Oregon 4 times and this was my first time doing a Ragnar relay. They're all over the place.  It was much less crowded and better marked and just a fantastic time. I can't wait for next year.

Now I

Race day

Just a quick check in from the van. We're driving up to the start of the relay. Yesterday I had my leg switched from one of the easiest to one of the hardest. Yikes! It only adds three miles total, but my elevation gains are more extreme. About now I'm thinking I should have trained a bit more. Im still hoping to average an 8 min mile but we'll see.

It's raining and i forgot to bring a hat but that's ok. I was worried it would be too hot.

It will all be over in about 28 hours. Woohoo!!!

Sleeping (or not) and Reading

I opted out of running yesterday because I was sleepy. I took a nap during my lunch break instead. As a result I had a hard time sleeping last night so I ended up getting just a little more than 4 hours of shut-eye. Not cool! I ended the day at about 1400 calories and 105 grams of protein and zero beers even though I considered it.

Today I'll go for a short jog - maybe 20 minutes - and do my lower body strength training. I also plan on drinking lots of coffee. I love coffee so this won't be a problem. I have a work function tonight and I have no idea what will be served, but I'm planning on staying away from the inevitable free booze. I've packed a healthy lunch and snacks so I'll be able to arrive not starving.

My main goal for the next two days is to sleep at night. Friday is the relay race so I'll maybe get 3 hours of sleep that night in between running and riding around in a van. I don't know why this sort of thing is so much fun, but it is.

I'm reading an interesting book right now called Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. It's not a diet book. It's also not a "this isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle" book. It's about the history of nutrition science and the political and social forces that made the low-calorie, low-cholesterol, low-fat hypothesis become the most mainstream opinion about how to lose weight and avoid heart disease. It's a slow read, but fascinating. I recommend it. I was able to check a copy out of the library.

Zombies, Run!

Hahahahahaha! Hooooo boy, hahaha!

I finally had a chance to try this app out yesterday. It is hilarious. It syncs up with your playlist and interrupts in between songs with these "radio transmissions" from the base that instruct you to run around and pick up supplies and warn you about the zombies that are after you. Yesterday was unbearably hot. I picked up 7 first aid kits and a file that may or may not contain valuable information from the Center for Disease Control. I also almost got eaten by the radio controller's girlfriend-turned-zombie.

I've started doing something that I used to be opposed to: eating "energy" bars. I've picked some that were on the cheap side at $1 per bar. They're actually pretty tasty, although not as tasty as the packaging seems to want to make you think they are. At 280 calories and 20 grams of protein they're super filling. Days when I eat them I don't even want more than 1500 calories for the day.

I'm struggling to get all my protein in. I don't know how people do it and still keep their calories low.  The stretch goal every day is 120-130 grams. Yesterday I ended up at 90 grams, 1300 calories. That was with eating a tin of sardines right before bed. I just wasn't that hungry. The sardines were delicious, by the way.

For weight training, I'm ditching the low-weights/high-reps philosophy in favor of, well, the opposite. I'm picking weights that are heavy enough that I'm at exhaustion by the end of the 2nd set. We'll see what happens. It feels more satisfying to me. I'm not concerned with bulking up. I want to look like I can kick some ass though.

Ok, starting now...really this time

Lots to share.

My mom invited me last minute up to her place this weekend because my sister and her 4 kids and my brother's 2 kids were going to be there. I switched up my plans so I could make it because this is the only chance I have all year of seeing them. We had a blast. Exercise consisted of hiking with kids and throwing lots of rocks into the ocean. Moderate wave chasing. Food consisted of my mother's excellent cooking. Steak, salmon, many types of salad, breadsticks, potatoes, raspberry shortcake, etc. Yum! This morning I was up 3 glorious pounds all around my waist.

This weekend coming up I'll be running a relay race with a company team. It will be a total of 15 miles so I need to arrange my week so my legs will be fresh on Friday. I'll lift weights and run a quick 4 miles today and Wednesday and then try for between 7 and 8 miles Tuesday and then nothing Thursday. I'll get in a total of 15 miles during the race on Friday and Saturday and then consume a million calories worth of free pizza and beer on Saturday night.

No, that's not true. I hereby commit to consuming a reasonable number of free pizza and beer calories on Saturday night. The abs diet gives you a cheat meal once a week so that's going to be it, but I'm not going to lose my mind or anything.

I'm loving doing the workouts in the body sculpting for women book. I'm lifting heavier weights than before and I'm definitely feeling sore afterwards, but it doesn't take much time to do. I'm dedicating only my lunch hour to workout out during the week. That's it. Except for last Thursday when I went to bar class again. It was fun, but not as fun as the first time. I think the instructor was new. I rock the pushups, but can't do anything with my legs for more than a minute.

I'm still getting up around 5:30 in the morning, but instead of lifting weights I'm writing. It's been great to have a set time every day to stretch my creativity muscles. It's not something I've done regularly since before I went back to work. I love not having my entire day revolve around exercise.

But speaking of work...I got a promotion! They just told me last Thursday. I'll be taking on some extra responsibilities and working more closely with the sales department. I'm very excited about it. And more money! Hooray! I'm not sure how much yet, but I should find out soon. Plus, I get a new boss who is someone actually interested in my professional development. All around a great opportunity.

Basically everything is great and I feel like I'm in a really good place emotionally despite a couple of weekends of not perfect eating and a couple extra pounds.

Tag-o-Rama

Vanessa over at Short, Silly Vegan tagged me to list 11 random facts about myself, answer a 11 questions, and spread the love. Thanks, for the love, Vanessa!

It has taken me all week to do this because I've been crazy busy (in a very good way). I'm half-assing this list because that's all the time I have before I leave to visit my mom for the weekend. Better late than never and better half-assed than full-assed?

Here it goes, half the fun facts about myself:

• I was the captain of the drill team in high school
• I'm afraid of dogs
• I don't like getting professional pedicures because they feel uncomfortable
• My favorite food is salmon
• I have a bazillion freckles

Half the questions from Veronica:

1. Favorite Season?
Fall. I love sweaters, cool weather, and comfort food.
3. Favorite book?
It's impossible to pick just one, but a book I really liked recently was The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
5. Cats, dogs, or both?
Neither! I currently own a hamster and even that's a bit much. I don't hate animals or anything, I just already have children and don't need another life form to take care of.
7. Do you have a big family?
Boy howdy, do I ever! I have nine brothers and sisters. It's a step-family, but still.
9. Do you have a nickname?
Mom
11. Do you take pictures of your food even when you don't share it on your blog?
Sometimes if I'm going to text it to someone to make them jealous, but not just for the heck of it.

Alright, here's some new questions. If you're running out of ideas for stuff to blog about consider yourself tagged.

1. Describe your first boyfriend.
2. If you were given $15,000 out of the blue, no strings attached, what would you do with it?
3. If you could be the best in the world at anything, what would it be?
4. What's the best gift you ever gave someone?
5. Mountains or beaches?

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Day 2: The new plan which is a combo of things I've read and stuff I'm making up

I had a tough time getting to 1200 calories yesterday. I think I was really stuffed still from eating everything in California. I had plans to have salmon for dinner, but by nighttime I just wasn't interested in chewing. I made myself a smoothie with berries, almond milk, and vanilla protein powder and called it a day.

The workout from the body sculpting book yesterday was good. I'm not sore today or anything. It recommends a series of moves that you do in supersets and you do the whole thing twice with 90 second rests in between supersets. It was nice having a workout I could do at the gym because they have different weights so I could use the 15s for my squats and dead lifts and lat rows. Weights are expensive!

I warmed up with a 10 minute jog on the treadmill, did the weight workout, did some abs, then did all of the moves from the workout one more time and hopped on the elliptical for 10 minutes. Today I'll only run with some friends for about an hour. No weights.

The high protein portion of my plan was just ok. I didn't consume any bread products, but found my salt intake was really high. Beef jerky! I read that for muscle building you should aim for a gram of protein for every pound of body fat. There is no way. I got to 90 grams of protein yesterday and that was a chore. I would have had 126 if I'd had the salmon.

I'm having potatoes tonight with my dinner because I hate wasting food and I already have them. Also, I believe potatoes are good for you. Also salmon burgers, but I'll forego the bun. There's panko in the recipe which is bread, but I'm running today and aiming for a higher calorie amount to try out this calorie cycling theory.

I'm already feeling less pregnant than I did yesterday, but not all the way back to pre-vacation form. Moving in the right direction though.

Vacation from Everything!

I did some pushups and crunches while I was on vacation, but not everyday. I didn't run at all. I ate as much as I wanted of whatever I wanted. It was a great trip and I don't regret a thing.

However, I look 4-months pregnant.

The good news is that unlike actually being 4-months pregnant, I should return to normal after a week of good eating and exercise.

I'm kicking off a new program today where I'm going to be following the Abs Diet and doing the workouts in this book:

The subtitle on it is something about the pathway to physical perfection. Sounds good!. Really it's just a basic weightlifting program and then you're supposed to eat a moderate/low calorie diet of actual food. I think it will be fun and different for me because it's not a video so I can do it in the middle of the day. There's a 6-day per week option, but I'm doing the 3-day per week plan for the first 6 weeks and then I'll switch it up. This will let me get some running in with friends and train for my last race of the summer (2 weeks to go!).

The Abs diet has you eating 6 small meals including protein and carbs. There are a bunch of "superfoods" you're supposed to incorporate as often as possible. They're all pretty normal foods so I don't think this will be hard.

I'm also trying to do a bit of a kickstart this week to recover from last week's indulgences. It's based on Jillian's kickstart diet in Body revolution. I'll have lots of Greek yogurt for breakfasts, protein, vegetables, and no refined grain-type carbs.

My goal in all this is to actually cut down on my exercise time so I can have more time in the morning for writing. I got up this morning at 5:30 and worked on a story I've been tinkering with for a while. It was super slow going. I'm really out of the habit - but not for long!

O Motivation, Where Art Thou?

I'm not sure how this happened, but my motivation completely tanked during the last couple of days. It's bad because tomorrow I'm leaving for a family reunion in California which means the beginning of the week is my big opportunity to be in control of what I eat and how (if) I exercise .

I did Bob's Totally Ripped Core on Saturday and was sore all day Sunday. I skipped the workout Monday morning and spent the whole day until 3pm telling myself it would be ok to skip running too. Taking vacation always means more work before and after, so I worked through normal lunchtime. I was making up fitness tips for myself like "take a week off every now and then to give your body time to absorb all your good work." I was believeing these fake fitness tips.

What happened at 3pm, you ask? Josh got up to go for a run. That's right. I'm usually the one making him feel like he should exercise. This time he returned the favor. We did a moderate 4 miles. The first 3 felt like I had 50 lb weights attached to each leg. Does that mean I burned extra calories? Yeah, probably not.

This morning I woke up on my own at about 5:30 and figured I may as well workout as a gift to my future self even though I wasn't feeling it. My future self is grateful. I popped in No More Trouble Zones for the first time in maybe 5 months and it was good. It's about 45 minutes of just strength training. No cardio intervals. It was perfect for how I was feeling and really challenging although I can do all the moves now including the entire plank circuit twice without a break. Jillian comes through for me again.

I have plans to run with a faster friend this afternoon so that will be a good final push before my vacation. I won't have access to weights or anything, but I can get in some pushups and tricep dips and crunches while I'm there and I'm sure at least some walks if not a couple of runs. If I'm super on top of things I'll do Bob's yoga DVD tomorrow morning before I head to the airport. I'll be back on Sunday afternoon.

In other news, I've decided I need a motorcycle. I just finished reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed about her months-long hike on the Pacific Crest Trail and I realized I need to go on an adventure and try something new. I've researched motorcycle safety and licensing classes and the first one I have time for is the first weekend of September. I figure I'll get a year of practice under my belt and then go have some adventures next summer. I've been obsessed with this idea for two days.

Running, eating

I was able to get in a quickie 3 miler after work and before banjo yesterday so I acheived my goal of 3 runs this week. That run, plus my 7.5 mile run today puts me (barely) over the 100 mile mark for June. Total mileage is 100.5 miles.

My running schedule will still be heavy through July. The third weekend I'm doing yet another race. Have you heard of the Ragnar relay? My work has a couple of teams and I'm on one. It's one of those 200-ish mile races that goes all night long. I have 3 different legs in the race for a total of about 15 miles, but each individual portion is around 5 miles long.

I'm thinking of cutting out the dairy because someone suggested it might help some digestion issues and I thought it was worth a shot. Today I had milk in my americano and a slice of cheese while I was making burgers for the kids.

Speaking of burgers, I made the burgers from the abs diet tonight. Yum! You mush up the burger with oatmeal and spinach and onion. They were a huge hit with the kids and I liked it a lot too.

Presidents, Vampires and Beer

Josh got out of the national guard in January and immediately stopped shaving and getting haircuts. He trims his beard so he still looks as neat as you can when your hair is thick and dark and wavy. He straight up looks like sexy Abraham Lincoln.

So of course when we saw the preview for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter we started counting down the days. We read the book. He bought a stovepipe hat and made an axe out of cardboard. Last night we went to see the movie and he dressed up and it was really, really fun. The love story was dumb (and not part of the book) but the action scenes were crazy ridiculous exciting.

We like to watch movies at an adults-only place that serves alcohol and bar food. I planned ahead so I wouldn't have to eat dinner there, but I went ahead and had two beers. I worked it so I still came in under 1600 calories for the day.This is a deviation from my alcohol only on weekends rule, but it was something we've been looking forward to for a long time so I made the decision to go with it and abstain from booze one of the weekend days instead.

On Saturday there's another event that's been long anticipated and that involves beer. We won a tugboat pub crawl with some friends at a raffle several months ago and finally were able to schedule it for Saturday night. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it. There's still part of me that realizes that this is why my gut won't go away, but there's another part of me that doesn't want to completely distance myself from society and figures that the occasional splurge makes it easier to eat well on the other days.

Workouts: This morning I did workout 4 from Ripped in 30 with Josh. I haven't run since Monday and I won't run today because I just realized I have a meeting all afternoon long. I'm bummed because it's still sunny outside and I'd like to be able to enjoy it, but it's ok. I'll try to get another 7.5 miles in tomorrow and call it good for the week.

Food: I bought the Abs Diet cookbook yesterday. I haven't made anything from it yet but the pictures look great. I read the Abs Diet for Women recently and it sounds really do-able. One of the powerfoods is peanut butter so I threw some in my morning shake. I usually just have milk, half a banana, a scoop of vanilla whey protein and ice. I don't know if the peanut butter should get all the credit, but I feel less hungry this morning so far.

Yoga! and Sunshine! and Goal Reevaluation!

This morning I got up and did Bob Harper's Yoga for the Warrior. I haven't done yoga in ages and it shows. I don't think I've mentioned this, but I'm not super good about following workout dvds through once the stretching part starts. I get bored and have this idea that I can "shake it out" while I'm doing my other morning activities.

Worse than this, I never stretch after running. I basically run for an hour and then go straight to my desk and sit. Bad! I hope you're all better about stretching than I am.

Back to the dvd. This was my first time through it and I enjoyed it very much. It's a basic power yoga workout. Nothing crazy. Just what I expect from a yoga class and exactly what I was looking for. The whole workout is about an hour long. The music is more "pump you up" than "find your happy place" and Bob is his usual energetic self instead of getting all whackadoo yogi on you. I like that a lot.

I have to mention the sunshine. We've been having crappy weather for about a week so I was so happy to see sunshine out my window this morning. On clear days my commute to work involves a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier almost the whole way. I had to wear my sunglasses. It was glorious.

PS. To Meghan: what kind of activities are you interested in when you come to Seattle? There's a ton of stuff to do here. Music? Parks? Museums? Will you have a car or are you sticking to downtown? Will you have a babysitter at all or do these all need to be kid friendly activities?

Now onto goals. I got my race pictures emailed to me yesterday. The ones the professional race photographers take and then try to sell you. They've gotten good at keeping you from just copying the sample off their site or I'd show you one. Anyway, ladies, I look pretty good. They're race pictures, so I'm making crazy faces and sometimes it looks like my leg is cut off at the knee, but my arms are toned, my hips are slim, and my legs are muscular.

I still feel like my gut is a problem area, but it's coming along as far as muscle tone under the flab. I could also stand to lose a bit of fat on my arms. Overall, though, I'm feeling good.

On any given day I weight between 130 and 133 pounds and my body fat percentage is about 22% according to my scale. This hasn't changed for a few months. It's a healthy weight and a healthy body fat percentage, I realize, but I'd really love to not have my belly folding over my jeans when I sit. I want to get my body fat percentage down to 20%.

I also want to not have every minute of my day consumed by exercise and food preparation/obsession. I have other interests that I want to pursue. I also want to get a decent amount of sleep each night. At least 7 hours.

So what to do? I'm rededicated to my one dessert a week goal. I'm looking into the calorie cycling idea that Cheryl mentioned a couple of days ago. Other than that, I don't know. More protein and less carbs? More or less cardio? More or fewer calories? Strength train 5 days a week moderately or harder three times? I'm coming across a lot of conflicting information and I'm not sure what to do.

All talk

Poor me! Jillian isn't challenging anymore! I need something new and longer and more difficult! Boohoo!

That was me yesterday. I got up early today and popped in Bob's Pure Burn Super Strength. I didn't get up early enough. I made it through half. The workout is over 60 minutes long. Also, It's flippin hard. I do plan on finishing it up tonight so thats something, but I feel like a bit of a wuss. A wuss on a mission, but still...

The workout is definitely different than Jillian. Bob has you do everything a bazillion times. There's a lot of moaning and groaning from the background exercises and some weird camera tricks that are a bit annoying. You know how when you first learned PowerPoint and used some kind of effect to move between every slide? It kind of reminds me of that. The workout is great though and I like bob.

I landed at 1531 calories according to myfitnesspal yesterday. It was fine because I was really busy all day. I'm hungry now, but that's ok because I get to eat now.

Do you early morning exercises eat before? I hear it helps your body burn fat instead of muscle, but it requires me waking up earlier so I don't.

Something New

Thank you so much for the woohoos about my race! I'm so excited about it and it's nice to be able to share my accomplishment with people who are rooting for me.

I am still really sore in the quads today but I got out there with a friend during lunch and we ran 7.5 miles at about an 8:40 average pace. It hurt, but we hadn't chatted in a while so it went by fast and we got all caught up on the office gossip and each other's lives.

Workout 4 of Ripped in 30 was this morning. It's sort of day 29. Which means tomorrow is sort of day 30. I don't really want to do Jillian tomorrow. I'm kind of getting tired of her, to be honest. It was so fun going to the Bar Method class on Thursday that it's put me in the mood to do something different. The only reason I didn't move right on to one of my 60 minute DVDs this morning is that I wanted to sleep in and Jillian's workouts are so nice and short! This is why I will never give her up entirely.

I measured myself this weekend and my stats for Ripped in 30 are...
...drumroll...
Exactly the same as the beginning!

That's right. I've lost no pounds and no inches. Nothing. There was that one week where I ate really well and had one dessert, and then there was last week which involved considerably more sugar. Oops. This week will be another one dessert only week. It's funner that way.

One positive change though is that I have prepared more meals at home. I went out to eat once with a girlfriend in the last 3 weeks. We went to a wine bar and I had chopped salad and wine and salted caramels.

Anyway, back to cutting back on my calories. I'll be going for 1500 this week and see how that goes. I refuse to be miserable and starving, but I know there are times when I can make better choices. I've actually got another race coming up in a few weeks so I have to keep my mileage up which will make me hungry, but there are things I can eat to fuel myself that aren't peanut butter cups. I just need to have them easily accessible all the time.

PR in the 1/2 marathon!

I'm so happy about my race yesterday. I beat my previous PR by about 7 minutes. My finishing time was 1:46:15. Even though the race started out with a moderate downhill and ended on the uphill I actually sped up consistently.

Here are my splits:
1st 5k - 8:15 pace
2nd 5k - 8:10 pace
10 mile - 8:04 pace
Last 5k - 7:58 pace
Overall average pace - 8:07

When I first started running I thought anything under 2 hours for a half marathon was unrealistic. I couldn't imagine running a single mile at an 8 minute pace. I'm not one of those special people who it seems are born with the magical athleticism gene.

I'm very proud of myself and also very sore today. It's all worth it though.

Motivated

The Bar Method class was in-freaking-credible! It was so different and really fun. I was expecting a pilates type class, but this was way more interesting.

We started off doing upper body. I usually will use 5, 8 and 10 pound weights for my Jillian workouts. For this class I used 3s and 4s and it was plenty. The movements are teensy tiny, but you burn! I was really proud of myself for doing all 25 pushups on my toes, but that's where my studliness ended. My legs were shaking uncontrollably through the whole leg part of the workout. I'm talking huge heaving shakes. It was crazy.

I used to think I was pretty strong, now I realize I'm just well adapted to the stuff I do all the time. It's so motivating to be challenged in a new way. I want to go back as soon as possible. The good and bad news is that I won't actually be available until two weeks from now. Bad because I want to go right now but good because the classes are expensive. They run it like a yoga studio where you can buy packages of classes to lower the per class rate. Just doing one class at a time will put you out $24 each time. Buying 10 classes just gets the price down to $21 per class so I think I'm going to pay the full price and see how it goes.

Here's a little motivation for you going into the weekend. Watch it through to the end. This chick's transformation is amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In6FszP-o1M&feature=youtu.be

Day 25: Sort of

Do I still get to count it as day 25 if I'm not actually doing the workout today? Tonight I'm going to try a Bar Method class with a friend. I've been wanting to hang out with her for a long time and it's finally workout out for us schedule-wise. She said it's definitely a workout class, not a ballet class. There are weights involved so I decided it would be smarter to ditch Jillian this morning.
The whole week has been pretty off plan. I've only done workout 4 of Ripped in 30 twice. Tomorrow I'll be doing Body Rev workout 2. Monday was Body Rev workout 1. Then this Bar Method class tonight. Technically the 30 days extends through Tuesday or something next week so I'll get a couple more chances at workout 4 before I'm done with this program.

Basically, I'm sliding into Phase 5. For me, the next "program" is going to be no program. I want to still do strength training 4-5 times per week. I've got a couple of Bob Harper DVDs I want to do more often. There's that Totally Ripped Core one I've done a couple of times now that I like and then a straight up weight lifting one and a yoga one. I just don't want to be tied to one set of DVDs for a bit.

This is the danger zone for me, but I think I can do it. Mostly because I'm in love with my muscles and it would suck to have to start over if I lost them.

Day 24: Sleepyhead

That's me hamming it up for the cameras at the race last weekend. It's hard to ham it up and look out for rocks at the same time. Haha.

I had an awful time sleeping last night. I think I got about 4 hours total. The doors in my apartment creak really loudly so when my older son got up to pee at 2am it woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep.

I still got up and did my workout this morning. It's still a good one. Hard to believe "phase 4" is almost over for me already.

I meant to run yesterday but decided to play basketball with my kids instead. Usually I get my run in during my lunch break at work, but I took the day off yesterday so that wasn't an option. I was going to take them to the gym and hit the treadmill for 30 minutes, but some things are more important that burning an extra 300 calories or so.

I was hoping to get in a longer run today, but I'm going to cut it short because of the crappy sleep. I'll go longer tomorrow instead. I have another half marathon to run this Saturday. This time I'll be on my own so no excuses if my time isn't so good. My best half marathon time is around 1:50. I'm hoping to match that or beat it.

I feel like such a slob today. Must sleep early tonight!

Day 23: workout 4 of ripped in 30

I really like this workout. It's my favorite of the four. I've read elsewhere that people think its not as tough as workout 3, but it was for me. I felt like I got a good full body workout too instead of just having a couple of areas hit the hardest. There are more plank moves again and the abs get hit harder. Yay!

I did this for the first time this morning because yesterday I was at Josh's place so we did Body Revolution workout 1 together. It was such a good experience to go back to the beginning. Kelly's right. It's not an easy workout. There's a lot to be gained by "going back to the beginning" but with heavier weights, pushups on the toes, add some plyo...Im feeling it in my shoulders today in a way I haven't so much with Ripped in 30.

My brownie plan backfired. I was dumb and gave the ex advanced warning that I was trying to do something nice for him for father's day. He basically told me to respect his boundaries and knock it off. I should've expected this, so my bad. Again.

This led to a brew of emotions which ended in me realizing I need to stop trying to make him like me. We're not going to be friends like he said originally. What did I expect? He didn't like me that much when we were married either. I was hoping that things would settle down with time, but I should've known better.

I feel liberated except for that now I have half a pan of brownies staring at me.

I took today off work to go volunteer at kindergarten field day. It was insanity. My youngest has a dr appt this afternoon so I just took him out I school and we'll head out in an hour. Nice to have some one on one time. Here's him posing for the camera at school. He cracks me up.

Day 22: Race Report and Dessert Report

This is a bad picture of a yummy dessert. Dark chocolate brownie with chocolate chips and vanilla bean ice cream. It was very rich and very delicous. I'm saving the rest of the brownies to give to the kids in their lunches this week and I'll pack a couple of extra in there on the day they go to their dad's house as a little Father's Day present. He's a good dad and he loves chocolate so I think he'll like these. Bonus: it will get them out of my apartment. Double bonus: I'll gesome nice ex-wife points.

Alrighty then, the race report. I had a blast. It was so fun. The day started off overcast and a little drizzly, which was perfect for running. Our group had 5 women in it. The one who organized this whole trip was running the 50 mile race that started at 6am. I got up to see her off and then went back to sleep for a bit. The half marathon and 10k both started at 9, so I had plenty of time to pack up and eat and everything ahead of time.

I expected that we would be going slow, but I don't think I really grasped the concept until we were at the start line and my friend said "so, we're going to be walking the hills, right?" You guys, this race was ALL HILLS! The first 3 miles you climb about 1000 feet and then after that it's rolling hills until the final downhill.

I was able to get her to run for about 5 minutes and then we walked the majority of the race. The views were breathtakingly gorgeous. It was absolutely lovely. I enjoyed every minute of it and I can't wait to do another trail run. My friend did a lot of complaining abou the hills, but at the end she said she loved it too.

My plan was to finish the race and then get a ride up to one of the aid stations so I could run with my 50 mile friend for the last couple of miles. Unfortunately, she fell at mile 21 and hit her knee pretty hard on a rock so she had to drop out. That sucked, but it meant I could go home earlier and I made it in time to go to a party with Josh so all was not lost.

I just checked out the official finishing times for the race. I was last in my age group at 3 hours 11 minutes. Hahahahaha! That's so awful. It's funnier because the girl I sit across from at work ran a different half marathon this weekend and finished first for women at 1 hour 25 minutes.We're setting records all over the place here.

My legs aren't too sore this morning, but my shoulders are. I was dumb and skipped the sunscreen since it was so cloudy when the race started. I got burned pretty bad. Oops. Really, wearing sunscreen would be the only thing I'd change if I were to go back and do it again. Trail run=fun!!!

Day 19: I do what I want!

I like Ripped in 30 just fine. The workouts are short and doable. But I like Body Revolution more. I prefer the extra length - that one extra circuit makes a difference for me as far as feeling like I'm getting a thorough workout. It's also still extremely mentally difficult for me to do the same workout 5 days in a row with Ripped in 30. Even with workouts 2 and 3, which I enjoyed more than 1, by Friday I'm just not excited to do it again.

Today was supposed to be my 5th round of workout 3 but I did workout 2 instead. Personally, I think the intensity is similar even though I've read that others think 3 is harder. You do more plank moves in 2 so I feel my abs get a better workout, but workout 3 has some intense cardio segments and hits the quads and triceps hard. It was good to switch it up a little.

Josh exercised with me again this morning. He says he's doing it just so he can make the blog. I actually didn't mention to him that I was keeping a blog until a couple of weeks ago. Haha. This public journal of my body image goals where I post half nekkid pictures of myself is PRIVATE, dammit. I'm a loon.

Last night, as I expected, was my first food temptation of the week. We ate a home cooked meal of grilled salmon, cucumbers and hummus, and black beans. Josh offered me a beer which I declined. It gave me a good opportunity to explain my no booze on work nights goal. Then he offered me a cookie after dinner which I also refused. He knows about my one dessert a week plan so I don't know what that was all about. I wasn't hungry. It wasn't that big of a deal.

Yesterday I ran 7.5 miles in about 62 minutes. I've decided to not run today. Tomorrow's my half marathon. I could probably do a couple miles to shake it out today, but I didn't want to pack the extra clothes. Me and five other gals are leaving right after work and driving up to camp at the race site. It's a trail run. I've never done one of those before. I'm super excited. I don't know how cell phone receptin is up there but I"ll be sure to post either tomorrow or Sunday will a race report.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Day 18: Breaking the Cycle

I've been gaining and losing about 2 pounds every week. Last Wednesday, for example, I was 130.8 lbs. By Sunday I was back up at 133.2 lbs. Today I'm 131.2 lbs. There's a reason this happens and it's lifestyle related. I have my kids with me early on in every week and every other weekend. That means that early in the week I eat at home and plan things pretty well.

Later in the week and every other weekend I spend a lot of time with my boyfriend. He likes to eat out and it's an easier option so I go along. I've found some good lowish-cal dinner options at our most frequent restaurants, but I fill up on chips and salsa (and margaritas). It adds up.

This is changing this week. Josh is three days into his new health kick and I think this is going to be great for both of us. Yesterday he suggested we start eating out less. Umm...ok!!! This morning he woke up early and did Workout 3 with me and liked it. A bigger surprise: I liked it too! I assumed I would hate having someone work out out with me. Especially since Jillian is so cheesy. I guess I was nervous about getting made fun of or looking stupid. Josh isn't like that, but I'm self-conscious.

Josh likes Jillian for a lot of the same reasons I do. Yeah, she's cheesy, but she's also funny about it. He loves that the workouts are short enough that even a non-morning person can do them without ruining the day. It's been fun hearing his opinion of the backup team - he thinks David is a crack up because he's so huge and observed that Jillian talks to all the men like they're puppy dogs. He's also a big fan of the fact that she's finally out of the closet. I think that's great too. He's even been talking to co-workers about the Jillian plan he's on. I love this man.

I have high hopes that this is going to last. We'll see on Sunday if my weight goes back up or not. So far this week I've been on point with the food goals - no sugary foods and no booze. I have no doubts I'll be able to keep it up thanks to the planned splurge I have for Sunday. It's going to be so worth it.

Day 17: What an ab hold

There's a move in workout 3 called an ab hold. When Jillian announces it I hear the word asshole every time.

This amuses me very much, of course, but I'm not a fan of the move. You sit with your legs straight out and then lift your bum off the ground with your arms. Jillian insists this is a killer ab move. I don't feel it.

Instead I'm hunched up and forced to look at my gut in its most unflattering position. All the fat is right there in front of me and for those 30 seconds I have to deal with the evidence that exercise alone is not enough to achieve a six pack.

So here's what I'm going to do. In addition to one dessert a week I'm also off alcohol on work nights. Probably a good idea anyway. I'm tired of this extra blob.

Also it's raining, I'm feeling bloated, and i hate all my clothes and I wish my period would just freaking start already so I could get back to normal.

Also I'm looking forward to coffee very soon. It solves many problems.

Day 16: Surprise!

My boyfriend started Body Revolution today. He's talked about wanting to tone up for a long time and he's been complimenting me constantly about my own muscle tone, but I didn't expect that he'd actually want to do the workouts I've been doing. Mostly because he hates mornings.

Yesterday I got Phase 1 back from the girl who I leant it to - it was easy, she hadn't even brought it home - and this morning I get a text with this picture of Jillian Michaels projected onto the boyfriend's wall. You may remember I do my workouts using a tiny travel size tv. He doesn't have a normal tv either. He uses a projector. Quite the opposite effect. His opinion  is that Jillian was annoying at first but he really liked her by about halfway through. Also, his soup cans aren't going to be enough weight. Also, he wants to take a nap now.

Hahahahaha to that! I did Ripped in 30 Workout 3 last night AND this morning, made breakfast for three, packed lunches, did dishes and got us all out the door in pretty good time. Naps are for the weak. (Totally kidding, naps are glorious.)

Now I will talk about Workout 3. Maybe it was the incredible build up about how freaking unreasonable this was going to be, but I didn't think it was that bad. It was hard, but not complicated. There's nothing here crazier than the moves we've already done in Body Revolution. What makes it tricky is that she really hits the same muscles for a lot of moves in a row. The first cicruit burns my quads. The third kills my triceps. I actually had to stop and give myself breaks a couple of times, especially during the last circuits of tricep dips with one leg raised and then the jumping lunges. Room for improvement. It still feels like an incredibly quick workout. I'll be very happy doing this three more times.

My quartet got asked to play for a company party this Friday afternoon. Still no money yet, but I think it will be lots of fun and who knows? Maybe someone there will think of us next time they need background music for something.

One more thing for today: I finally looked through that book about being disappointed in your grown kids that I found on my mom's kindle. It actually had some great advice. It basically said that the days when you were in charge of your children's lives are over. Get a hobby. Love it!

Day 15: Goal Setting

I hereby commit to one completely awesome delicious dessert once per week. These desserts are going to be so great that my sweet tooth will be satisfied for the rest of the week and no other treats will be necessary or desired. I'm really going to enjoy this. I've actually done this challenge before years ago and I lasted about 3 months before I got back into my candy-for-lunch rut. Look forward to food photos.

Today's run was with the gal I'm running the 1/2 marathon with on Saturday. It was a nice, easy 10-minute-mile pace for 4.8 miles, which felt great since it's all of a sudden warm again here. I don't do well in the heat usually. The race is going to be in a part of the state that's about 10 degrees hotter than here. Yikes. Workout 3 of Ripped in 30 will be later tonight so I won't be reporting on it until tomorrow. I've heard it's insaaaaane. I can't wait.

My quartet rocked the wedding yesterday. The acoustics of the venue get some of the credit, but we played really well. I was surprised that I actually got nervous as everyone was walking down the aisle because that's when everyone is actually listening. I play 1st violin so I'm the one who has to set the pace, start the group, and finish us together. It went perfectly and I had a BLAST! I hope we get to do it again soon.

I'm on track to hit my calorie goal for today after kind of a dietary freak out yesterday. Turns out it's not enough to make fun of the pop tarts. You must also get the pop tarts out of your cupboard and into the trash. Whoops. See, if I'd had a planned brownie sundae to look forward to later that evening I'm sure I would have left the pop tarts alone. Thank goodness that's over!

I'm hoping to figure out how I can create a reward system for healthy eating that includes me feeling justified in purchasing the Les Mills Bodypump system. It's hella expensive, but Meghan's making it look good.  To be continued...

Day14: Rolling with the punches

I have to report some missed workouts this week. I did Jillian 4 times instead of 5. I could have done it today, but I wanted to do Bob's Totally Ripped Core instead so I did. I also had a goal of getting in 5 runs last week and just got the 3.

I realize that's a good amount of exercise and I'm satisfied, but I think my weekly goal planning abilities could use some tweaking.

The first half marathon if the month is this Saturday. I'd like to do a longish 7-8 mile run tomorrow, and then fit in two other shorter 4-5 milers during the week before the 13.1 on Saturday.

I still want to do my early morning strength training and Jillian is so great for that because it's short. I'm undecided whether I'll do workout 3 of Ripped in 30 all five days this week or throw in some Bob for variety one of those days. It probably will depend on how well I sleep and if I think it's worth it to get up an extra half hour earlier one day.

The wedding I'm playing at is this afternoon. The other violinist is picking me up in an hour. I think it will be fun. The rehearsal was last night and everything went well. So fun to be playing for people again!

Day 12: Sugar Wars

I just got back from my 10 mile run and it was goooood! I started off with two girls. One of them is the girl I leant the first phase of Body Revolution to and then she never used it. She's runs slower than I'm used to but it was fun because she's hilarious. We averaged between a 10:15 and 10:30 mile for the first 3.5 mile loop. After that, the other girl and I picked it up to about 8:30 for the next loop. We had the best conversation. I don't know her as well, but I think she's such a cool chick. That loop ended at 9 miles total including the first loop. I was considering just calling it a day and heading back in, but she encouraged me to finish out my 10 miles so I did a quick out and back by myself. That mile was about 7:40 so I finished strong.

I had to sleep last night because I've been exhausted the last couple of days. So no Rippid in 30 this morning by design. I'm going to do it tomorrow which will get me to my 5 times this week, but I kinda wanted to do Totally Ripped Core again this weekend and still have a rest day. I'll decide at the last minute if I do both or just one.

Yesterday I broke my no sugar streak (3 days in a row!) because the kids at my son's school handed cookies out to the parents who came to Volunteer Appreciation Day. I had 3. They were homemade chocolate chip and they were delicious. I went out last night and had a mojito. I read somewhere that it's a good low cal option at a bar, but it's just not as delicious as beer or a margarita. I was over 1800 calories for the day with the cookies and the mojito so that's too bad, but I'm not upset about it because I've been doing really well the rest of the week.

I'm trying to decide how I'm going to do this no sugar challenge. I could either see how long I can keep a streak going with no treats at all or I could just plan on one serving of something sweet per week. One thing I know about myself is that eating anything sweet makes me immediately crave more sweet things to the point where I can barely contain myself so staying away altogether seems smart, but there are those special occasions where sharing a treat with friends is fun and I don't want to be the sort of person who fears food. Maybe I can see how long I can keep a one serving of sweets per week plan going.

And with that in mind, here's something awesome that the 2nd runner girl sent me that is totally related and made my day: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/10/god-of-cake.html

Day 11: Busting Out the Garmin

I used a Garmin on my run yesterday just out of curiosity. These are the watches that tell you how fast and how far you're going. Mine estimates calories burned too but I never believe those things.

Anyway, turns out I haven't lost as much speed as I thought. The loop I went on was almost exactly 7.5 miles and we finished it in almost exactly an hour. That's an average 8 min mile! I didn't even feel like I was going all out or pushing it too hard. I'm very happy about this.

On the flip side, I won't be running today. I found out there's a volunteer appreciation thing in my son's class and he's in a skit so I'm using my lunch break to go see that instead. I could've gotten up even earlier to run this morning, but I had trouble sleeping last night. Exercise is important, but not as important as kids and sleep.

I did do my Ripped in 30 workout this morning, of course. I had more trouble on the first cardio segment than yesterday. This is plank jacks then mountain climbers. It's a hard combo. I felt a little more with it later on and upped my weights from 8 to 10 for the last strength portion. Abs felt easy.

Food yesterday was great. I came in just barely under 1800 cals. No candy, no booze. This is 3 days in a row and I can feel a big difference, especially in my waist. I hopped on the scale out of curiosity and its moving in the right direction. More on that this weekend.

I hope to keep up the no candy thing through the work week at least but I'm going out tonight so I may have a beer. Don't know yet. I should probably make a plan for that.

Day 10: Happy National Running Day!

I didn't end up running yesterday at all. My kids weren't interested in going with me to the gym and I didn't want to push it. I'm completely at peace with this. I wanted to run 5 days this week and I can still accomplish that.

Last night I did the Bob Harper Totally Ripped Core 10 minute workout. It was all standing moves. I felt like it was a nice quickie. In the first move you hold a weight above your head and then crunch to the opposite side and back up. I feel it a lot in my lower back muscles. It makes me wonder if my back is super weak or what.

Getting out of bed this morning to exercise was a major challenge, but I did it. It's hard to justify lying there in bed when you're already awake and the workout is so short. Remember how bored I was with workout 1 by Wednesday last week? I'm not bored yet this week. I wouldn't expect this from doing the same thing every day with no rest, but I actually have felt stronger each time I do workout 2. There's plenty of room for improvement still, which keeps me motivated.

Food - another 100% day yesterday. I made it to 1800 calories but didn't go over. I was really hungry in the morning so I ate my healthy snacks and by the afternoon I wasn't hungry anymore. No candy or other junk food all day. Still not craving it so that's excellent.

One beverage mistake to report though - I thought it would be nice and relaxing to drink a mug of tea and read a book before going to sleep. I ended up staying up too late to finish a chapter and then waking up twice to pee! Not cool. I'm tired.

My son made it to the baseball championships so I'm going straight home after the game and putting myself to bed.

Day 9: Mommy Issues

I'll start off with the workout this morning. What a difference a good night sleep and not eating grapefruit right before makes. I felt really strong. I still have to go to my knees at the end of some of the plank moves, but I made it way longer than yesterday.

Yesterday's run was also really good. A friend convinced me to go 5.5 miles with her instead of the 3.8 mile loop I was planning. It was good to catch up and the run felt just right.

Food was 100%. No candy or junk at all. I didn't really crave it so it wasn't hard. Myfitnesspal only had me at about 1500 calories but I felt like I was eating all day and I didn't want to eat an extra 300 just because.

Now the mama drama.

My mom gave me her old kindle because the battery died and she just bought a new kindle altogether. I replaced the battery and set everything up yesterday. I still have access to her library. The last book in her library is "What to do when your grown children disappoint you."

I know it sounds awful, but I had to laugh. I mean, this is obviously a tool she's used to deal with me. I've made a lot of decisions that she doesn't understand at all. I can't feel too bad about it though because really she has done a fantastic job of dealing with this child who disappoints her. I never doubt that she cares about me. She never harrasses me. She makes an effort to meet me halfway and have a relationship with me. It's really the best possible scenario. Still, kind of a shock to see it right there and know it's about me. I have three sisters, but they're all meeting expectations as far as still going to her church and not being divorced and not wanting a job outside the home.

Back to talking about workouts. It's pouring down rain so traffic was awful this morning and I was late to work. That means I'll have to work through lunch today and not do the long run I was planning on. My backup plan is to take the kids to the gym tonight and bang out a quick interval workout on the treadmill and then run long tomorrow.

Day 8: Ripped in 30 workout #2

Usually I do my Jillian DVD first thing in the morning. Today I was feeling off when I woke up. I had a hard time sleeping and when my alarm went off I was in the middle of a frustrating dream where I was trying to play music with the guitarist from Frank Sullivan and Dirty Kitchen (YouTube it, they're great) but my strings kept slipping or I'd lose my picks or something. Argh!

Also, I was hungry. So I ate first. I ate a grapefruit then went right into my workout. Please learn from my mistake. Grapefruit doesn't feel good in your throat while you're trying to exercise.

On to the workout. Much better and tougher than last week. Scorpion pushups are back from week 7 of BR. I like those. This workout hits the abs harder. Lots of plank variations. The first cardio segment is tough because it's all bouncing around in plank.

There was a move I didn't get because you're supposed to sit with your legs out front and palms on the ground and then lift yourself. My arms must be short because that wasn't happening. I made the move work somehow but it was odd.

I'm looking forward to doing this workout again tomorrow after a good nights rest.

Day 7: mixed results

Today's a rest day. My back muscles and obliques are the most sore from Bob's core workout yesterday, but overall I feel good.

This morning I got up and checked out my abs in the mirror first thing. I do this every day since I started noticing more definition during Body Revolution phase 2 because even though they aren't perfect i'm still surprised they've come this far. Today they looked their best yet. I couldn't believe it. I flattered myself that i must have really crushed it with Bob.

Next stop was the bathroom where I stepped in the scale and my vanity was checked big time. Up 1.5 pounds from last week. Yep. A pound and a half. Boo. I know it could be water weight and it's just a number, but my pants also felt tighter yesterday so it bothers me.

I'm still not ditching my 1800 calories per day goal just yet. I feel less like a crazy person at this number and being sane is a value of mine. I have room for improvement though. This week I'll abstain from sugary treats altogether during the week and see how that goes. I'm talking to you, candy bowl at work!

I'll also add in another cardio day on Wednesday and I want to up my friday run to 10 miles. Ripped in 30 workout #2 five days next week plus Bob's core workout on the weekend and the short version twice.

This seems like a lot, but it's worth a shot for one week. I'll reevaluate next Sunday.

Day 6: my idea of variety

First of all I want to say that I feel great today. I was concerned that jumping back up to 25 running miles in a week would be hard on my body but my hamstrings aren't even sore anymore today. I think having an "easy" week with Jillian may have been a good idea after all.

Still, I wasn't about to do the same workout again today. So I decided to shake it up entirely with...Bob Harper. Haha. Yeah, I loved The Biggest Loser when I used to watch it. I think Bob's adorable. I want to be his friend.

The workout I chose for today was Totally Ripped Core. Oh man! It is incredible! I know people say he's the nice one, but what really stuck out to me with this workout is that he's the calm one (slow movement, holding positions, very high repetitions) while Jillian's the that keeps it changing all the time. Bob's still high energy, but its a different feel for sure. Both are good.

This DVD has two workouts on it. I did the 50 minute one today. Loved it. I will definitely be sore tomorrow in my abs and probably buns too. I'm thinking I'll add in the 10 minute quick bonus workout on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I'm going to hit the showers, make a quick lunch and take my kids to the roller rink for some active fun time.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Day 5: I Crave Variety!

The Ripped in 30 program says you should do the workouts 5 or 6 times per week. Ladies, I'm shooting for 5. I am so sick of doing the same workout every day. Week 1 is way too easy and short. It's good since I'm getting some strength training in without having it impact my running and it's been good to maintain my morning workout routine. I've heard that it's beneficial to have an "easy" week every now and then so maybe this will be good in the long run.

However, this morning when I was doing circuit two (the one where I wish I owned heavier weights because it doesn't do anything for me), I felt like I was wasting time. I know you don't have to be super sore all the time to know you're getting a good workout, but I do want to feel the burn more than I did. Circuits one and three are definitely more challenging, but they're so short!

A friend at work is doing 30 Day Shred and she said the same thing about phase 1 in that program. She switched over to phase 2 after two days. I could have done that too, I know, but it's part of my disease. I call it BRiOCD - Body Revolution induced Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I want to do the program and I'm going to do the program, dagnabit! Just the workout part of the program though. My OCD has a limit and that limit is 1200 calories per day.

Luckily there's that 5 or 6 days loophole. I'm still going to work out tomorrow, but I'll pick something else. I went on an Amazon shopping spree a couple of weeks ago and stocked up on some workout DVDs so I'll let you know tomorrow which one I do. Today will be a longer run again. Hopefully between 7 and 8 miles.

I switched it up this week with my CSA delivery. You might remember I've been getting a box of veggies delivered from a local farm once per month. It's been great, but I had a little more than I could eat in a week and I was stopping by the store a lot for fruit. I switched it up this week and got the family box. It's still a lot of produce for household of one adult and two children, but I think it will be perfect.

My first delivery arrived yesterday and included raspberries. It came in handy this morning when I was in a huge rush and needed to pack a quick breakfast - greek yogurt with a splash of vanilla extract and all the raspberries. YUM! I also threw a bunch of carrots and radishes in my lunchbox with the hummus I made yesterday so my snack is covered. So convenient. I've also started getting a dozen eggs every other week. It's my dream in life to only have to go to the store for meat, dairy and baking supplies.

Day 4: The cure for binge eating--eat more!

Yesterday, Myfitpal calculated my calories at 1660 including the beer I had after dinner. I don't know how accurate that is. I hear people normally underestimate their calorie consumption and I have to guess about some things--a serving of salmon is the size of a deck of cards?

I figure that ending up around 1660 maybe means I'm really at 1800. I have no idea and I'm just not into it enough to weigh all my food.

But I have to say, I'm loving an 1800 calorie per day goal. I know I'm only 3 days in, but I've been eating 3 small meals and two small snacks and having a treat every day. I don't feel like I'm fighting with myself anymore.

Time will tell, but I'm hoping this is the cure for binge eating.

Ripped in 30 day 4 this morning. One thing that's nice about this program is that everything's on the same DVD. Body Revolution (and those other 90 day programs) could be more earth-friendly by putting things together like this.

I've memorized this workout. I can do it one more time but that's it. Time to move on! I'm amazed at how Jillian can keep talking for so long. I'd run out of stuff to say.

Easy 4 mile run later today. My hamstrings are still sore, but they always are when I'm running.

Banjo lesson tonight! I think I'll get a new song tonight. Yeehaw!

Day 3: Another Mother Runner podcast

I love podcasts. I listen to them when I'm cleaning, cooking, doing more repetitive work tasks, running...you name it. I always get excited when I find a new one to listen to. Yesterday I started listening to Another Mother Runner podcast and I think you all would like it as much as I do. It's a couple of running moms talking about running and life and how running fits in to a mom's life.

They're also frequent contributers to Runner's World and other health magazines so they aren't just making stuff up. They interview experts for a living. They've also written a couple of books. I've read the first one and I enjoyed it. It's called "Run Like a Mother" in case you're interested.

Speaking of running, it may be time for me to dust off the old Garmin. Remember how yesterday I wanted to run between 7 and 8? I did the first part of my run with a friend and then tacked on an extra loop that I guessed would get me the distance. When I mapped the run later I found that it was 8.3 miles. Not too bad. My hamstrings are aching today though.

I did Ripped in 30 this morning. I'm already looking forward to switching up to Workout 2 next week. Week 1 is pretty basic. I find myself wishing I owned heavier weights during the 2nd circuit. I have to keep reminding myself that it's not bad to take it a little easier with the weights this week since I'm ramping my mileage back up so quickly. No run planned for today. It's a running rest day.

Lastly, you know how I was making fun of pop tarts yesterday for their "made with whole grains" label? Well, I need to backtrack just a bit. I've been craving ice cream sandwiches for weeks. I had some calories leftover at the end of the day yesterday so I figured I'd get one. I bought the "skinny cow" brand at the grocery store. The packaging has a slender cow with a measuring tape around it's waist and calls out that they're only 150 calories and 2 grams of fat.

You guys, these are not a health food. Do you know how many calories are in regular ice cream sandwiches? They range from 160 to 180. About the same as in one pop tart.

You know how much guilt I had about eating one? None. I aimed for 1800 calories yesterday. Myfitnesspal had me around 1670 including the ice cream sandwich. I think I'll be fine.

Day 2: fresh start

Bathroom is clean, floor is vacuumed, closets are picked through and donation items are in the car ready for drop off. Laundry...well, that's a never ending project but I'm mostly caught up. One load in the dryer.

Yesterday I got 4.5 miles on the treadmill. I kept the pace slowish and messed with the incline buttons a bit. I went up half a percent grade every mile. It kept me interested. My hamstrings are sore today.

So, day 2 of Ripped in 30 this morning. The warmup still seems long, but the rest felt even faster. It's definitely easier than the end of Body Revolution, but a week of easier moves may be beneficial. Who knows? I'm concerned about working all the same muscles every day. I thought a day of rest in between was ideal. I'm still going to go for it and see what happens.

You may have noticed I gained 2 pounds between the time I bought my scale and my final weigh in. There are a couple of reasons. One is candy. The candy bowl at work and all the treats everyone brings in have gotten the better of me these last two weeks. Also I was doing a lot less cardio.

These are both solvable problems. Ive decided to add in my extra calories by having a mid-morning snack. So this morning I had a protein shake with banana after my workout. In an hour or so I'll heat up a banana blueberry muffin at work. Lunch is leftover salmon and veggies. Afternoon snack will be apples and cinnamon with cheese. I think it will be plenty.

As for cardio, these races are motivational. I'm planning on a slow 7 miles during my lunch break today. I'll take tomorrow off running and then run again Thursday and Friday.

Lastly, my neighbor's friend works for whatever brand makes pop tarts so she brought three packs of these over. I'm going to trash them next time the kids are with their dad, but the packaging made me laugh. Look! They're made with whole grain!

Day 1: Ripped in 30 begins!

Just finished workout 1 of Ripped in 30 and I think this is going to be good for where I am and what my goals are for the next 30 days--getting back in running shape for my half marathons and maintaining my new muscle tone.

I was concerned at first because the warmup is slow and goes on for a while, but on regular work days when I'm doing this at 5:30 am I'm sure I'll appreciate it.

There are three circuits of 3 minutes strength, 2 minutes cardio, and 1 minute abs. The pace felt quicker than in Body Revolution because you're not going back and doing the strength moves again after the cardio interval. Also, there are only 3 circuits so I was surprised when the workout was already over after the third one.

I used all three sets of my weights: 10s, 8s, and 5s. I used the heaviest I could handle for each move and did the advanced version whenever possible. There was sweat involved.

My only complaint really is that fast feet are back. I will never understand the purpose of this move. I don't feel anything except for my butt jiggling!

Anyway, it's Memorial Day here in the US so no work or school! Hooray! I'll take the kiddos to the gym and get my 4 miles in on the treadmill layer today. I took them to a music festival downtown yesterday so I promised today would be a hang out at home day. It will be good for me to get organized and clean the place so I can feel like I'm getting a fresh start.

For meals I've been going through that binder of magazine recipes that I made a few months ago and picking recipes I want to try. Last night was salmon with citrus salsa and a side of sautéed yellow squash. Yum!

Today I'll try a lower cal version of chocolate chip cookies and a burger recipe from another magazine. I love food.

Pictures and measurements

Here's what we've all been waiting for. After Body Revolution numbers and pictures! For reference, I'm about 5'7".

Weight: 132.2
Body fat: 22.3%
Bust: 34 inches
Waist: 28.5 inches
Hips: 34.5 inches
Thigh: 21 inches
Calf: 14 inches
Bicep: 10 inches

I hope I measured correctly. I figure it will be good enough if I'm consistent.

Here are some pictures from this morning. "After" pictures for Body Revolution and "before" pictures for Ripped in 30.

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution DAY 90!!!!

I did it! Cardio 3 today and I'm done with my 90 day commitment. I'm proud to say I did all of the workouts. Some days I had to double up because other days I skipped, but for the most part I was on schedule. I want to keep up my early morning workout schedule for sure.

Food, well, that was another story. I tried my best to use the recipes and stay within the calorie allowance for the first and second months. This led to binging. I've never been a binge eater so this was weird. It took me until recently to accept the fact that even 1400 calories just isn't workable for me. So lesson learned. Ill try 1800 starting Monday.

Food victories included not feeling obligated to drink every time my friends do and packing my lunch and snacks for work. Planning ahead has been a great habit that I will be keeping up.

I'll be posting measurements tomorrow morning. I can tell you now though that my weight hasn't changed since the first month when I dropped about five pounds. Also since I got a better scale a month ago and didn't measure 90 days ago this won't be a great indication of how well Body Revolution works. That's pretty lame, but it is what it is.

Final thoughts on BR: I'm happy with it. It didn't give me "extreme weight loss" but I don't have a lot to lose. I did gain some nice definition in my arms though, and although I don't have my six pack, there's more muscle under that fat. I think adding calories and cardio for my "phase 4" is going to help a lot.

Thanks to those who followed me through this far. I intend to keep blogging through Ripped in 30 and beyond and I'll be following you all still to see you through your strong finishes.

Cheers!

Day 89!!: EIGHTY-NINE!!!!!!!!!!

Last time workout 12. I did 16 wheel pushups per circuit. Loved every minute of it. This one and workout 7 may be my favorites in the series. I'll definitely be coming back to this in the future. This leaves one more Cardio 3 tomorrow and I'm DONE.

Well, sort of. I'll be done with the official Body Revolution, but I'm not done with working out and I'm not done with Jillian. I'm calling next month "Phase 4." I'm going to have to ramp up the running again because I have 2 half marathons coming up at the end of June. I'm not willing to give up any of the muscles I've gained and I'm not willing to wake up more than half an hour early every day for workouts like I've been doing for the last 3 months. So here's what I've got coming up:

Yup, I'm pretty sure Meghan guessed this one in advance. Jillian talked about it in her podcast as something tougher than Body Revolution so it seemed like a good next step. More 30 minute workouts, but the difference is that you have the same workout every single day (5 or 6 days) in a week and then you move to a different workout the next week.

I'll also be getting 3-4 runs in a week. Two easy 4-5 milers and two harder 7-10 milers. And upping my calories to 1800. I'm going to sit myself down this weekend and draw out a plan for the week. I'm very excited about phase 4 because I'll be switching it up, but not too much.Also, I'll have measurements to go by. That will be new for me.

I went roller skating last night and a place that does adults only nights on Thursdays. One of the friends I went with is so good. Actually most of the people who show up are really good. I just go around in circles and try to not fall down. It's amazing how fun that can be.

In other excellent news for today - my quartet just landed a couple of gigs. We've been practicing for a couple of months, but hadn't really set anything up officially. We had a nibble from a group my mom volunteers for but it was in the middle of the day in the middle of the week and we all work, obviously. Anyway, the first is for a wedding in a couple of weeks. No money, but it will be great experience. The second is for my company holiday party and we will get paid. I don't know how much and it's really far off, but I'm so excited!

Day 88!!: EIGHTY-EIGHT!!!!!

I had to drive home during my lunch break to get my workout in today, but I did it and I liked it. Workout 11 is challenging. My triceps are stressed to their max at a few points. Chataranga - HELLO! By the end I feel like a full fledged stud muffin.

The field trip yesterday was exhausting. Those kids are so full of energy. I didn't really even do anything that active, but watching them wiped me out. It was fun though and I know my son loved having me there so I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I was pretty shocked by some of the lunches these kids were packing though. One kid literally had cheetos, a ding dong, and some candy that looked like breadsticks dipped in chocolate. Another girl had a bag of pepperoni and a diet soda. And then there was a lunchable that was tortilla chips with a side of fake cheese. What the hell? Just because it has "lunch" in the title doesn't mean it's food.

This probably sounds incredibly self-righteous. I'm not actually one of those moms who deprives her kids of treats. It just seems like the bare minimum to make sure they're coming to school with an actual lunch, whether it's homemade or from the cafeteria.

I guess I'm just surprised that not everyone is as incredibly anal about their kids food as I am.

In conclusion, it's much easier for me to control my children's diet than my own and also I DID WORKOUT 11!!!

Day 87: EIGHTY-SEVEN!!!

Cardio 3 this morning. Only 1 more time with this one. You may remember I started it a week ahead of schedule because I got bored with cardio 2 which I started early because I got bored with cardio 1.

Well, it bores me now. Not jillian's fault. I just need to change it up. The strategy of turning the volume down and listening to a podcast instead really helps me get through for now. I've decided that having a cardio DVD is important for those weekends when I'm housebound so I just need a new one.

I'm taking the day off from work to chaperone a third grade field trip. It's going to be so fun. Since I have a day job I can't go into the classrooms a bunch like other moms. Field trips are where I make my appearance. This year only 5 parents could come along so it was lucky I got picked.

As for podcasts, I've been listening to the fit 2 fat podcast that Jessica recommended (thanks!). These guys make sense. I'm going to up my calorie allotment to 1800. The trick is going to be having enough healthful food on hand so I'm not snacking on peanut mnms for the last 300 cals.

Anyway, that's a preview of what's coming ahead for me. More later. Have a great day!

Day 86!: wheeeee!!!!

Day 86! I'm not sure I've ever done anything for 86 days.

Workout 12 today. I babied the knee a little on the single leg squat jump things. It was twinging a little but not too bad. I'll be running this afternoon so I'll really see what's up then.

Did you see that our girl Jillian is on the cover of Women's Health magazine? The article is super short but she gives an abs routine that's a sneak peek into her next DVD release which comes out in September and is all about abs! I want it!

I have her 6-week 6-pack and I don't think it's that great. Hopefully this one will be more hard core. Get it? Hard CORE. I crack myself up.

Anyway, funny tidbit...the mag cover in the store is different than the one I got in the mail with my subscription. Can you tell the difference? I laughed when I opened my mailbox.

Here's a pic of the one I got.

Day 85!: woah weekend!

I had such a fun weekend. I decided to be lax on the diet and just enjoy myself. I think it went just fine. I was so busy that I didn't have time to snack. I overdid it on the wine Friday night but i was dry for the rest of the weekend.

The coolest part of the weekend was Saturday when the people camping next to us leant me a fiddle. I've played classical violin since I was a kid but I've never tries to jam with it before. It was tons easier than the banjo. There were a couple guys who knew a bunch of old timey tunes and the rest of us picked it up and went to town. Loved it!

Today was workout 11. My right knee was bothering me a bit in the lunging static jump squats so I didn't jump and it was ok. The chataranga hold continues to burn me up. My favorite move is the Russian twists. My spine cracks all the time. It feels good.

I visited the candy bowl at work today. It's out of my system now though.

Last piece of news is that I bought a measuring tape. I'm planning on taking measurements Sunday for the first time ever. I'm kinda looking forward to it.

Day 82: procrastinating

I have a planned day off work today because I'm leaving for a camping trip/bluegrass festival in a couple of hours.

I did workout 12 earlier this morning. Fourteen wheel pushups per circuit! Then I got the kids all set and off to school, and now I'm procrastinating doing cardio 3. I obviously won't be doing it this weekend so it's now or never. Im not feeling it.

I actually wouldn't mind going back to sleep for an hour.

I haven't had any coffee yet today though. Maybe that's my problem.
*****

Ok, I just did cardio 3. First I checked Facebook and your blogs. Then I made a pot of coffee and didn't drink it. Then I shut my brain off and just turned the stupid DVD player on. Then I found a podcast to listen to and turned the volume up on that and down on Jillian.

Near the end of circuit 1 I was considering turning it off and was thinking maybe half of cardio 3 today and half on Monday could count. Then I realized that I didn't want to go through this again. I focused and blasted it out.

I'm dripping in sweat and headed for the shower. I have coffee waiting for me when I'm out and no more Jillian till Monday! One week to go!

Day 81: home with a sick kid

He doesn't look sick, does he? My youngest threw up last night. I think he's fine now but I'm staying home with him today. This means two things.

1. I got to sleep in until 7am before getting up for workout 11.

2. I will be playing monopoly all day long.

I was able to find some before pictures from last November when I just started lifting weights so I'll post those in 9 days. Honestly, I'm not sure you'll be able to see much of a difference. I think there's a difference, but it's subtle. I really should've taken measurements.

The Jillian Michaels podcast was interesting this week. She talked a little about body revolution at the end and said its not really for the person looking to lose 10 pounds. She said taking someone who's basically fit down to 1200 calories would mess up their metabolism. Now you tell me!

I hit 1200 calories on some days, but not often. If I do it more than 3 days in a row it leads to overeating by the fourth day. 1500 calories seems to be doable but I'm not losing any weight. I don't know what the best thing to do is.

Even if BR wasn't meant for someone like me, I think it's been worth it. I've definitely gotten into the habit of working out in the mornings. I'm planning on keeping that up when this is over.

I ordered a couple of new DVDs to use next. One based on Jillian's recommendation from her podcast. I'll let you know what it is on day 91.

Day 80: so confused

You know when you get messed up about what day it is? Yesterday I thought it was Monday for half the day. This morning when I woke up I was sure it was Tuesday until I saw disc 12 in the DVD player from yesterday. Kind of disappointing since I was looking forward to doing workout 12, but at least we're closer to the weekend.

Thank you, Jillian Michaels Body Revolution. You are better than a calendar.

I did cardio 3 so I'm down to only 3 more times on this disc. It went by fast today. It wasn't till the 2nd circuit that I felt I was really awake. I'm thinking of adding weights next week like I've seen some people are doing.

Last night was wonderful. I had it all to myself. I went to the mall for some power shopping. I got a couple of shorts and shirts. You guys, it was fun trying on clothes. I don't know what it is about those dressing room mirrors, but my abs looked ripped! Yay!

Then I got my hair cut. That always feels good. Then I bought some groceries and went home.

I made myself salmon and broccoli, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed, put laundry away, washed sheets, and rearranged the furniture in the living room so now the window is the focal point instead of the fireplace.

New clothes, new hair, new living room. Happy WEDNESDAY!!!!!!

2nd place - a learning opportunity

I just found out that I didn't get the job. The manager said that there were some heated discussions about it and I was a close 2nd. None of the other candidates came close to me and the chick who got it (the one who I freaked out about when I found out she was applying). What it came down to was that they've worked with her before and her experience was a little more relevant than mine.

It was a positive discussion and he seemed sincere when he said he hopes I'll apply if anything else opens up in the department, so that was good. I know I made a good impression. Something may open up for me down the line.

I don't have any overwhelming urge to pig out right now, but I definitely am struggling with feelings of "what's the point?" What does it matter in the long run if I weigh 5 pounds less than I do now? Will I be a better person? Will it get me a raise? Will I suddently be good at everything all the time? Will people like me more? No.

I'm realizing that this feeling is my unhealthy choices trigger. Here's the answer I'm coming up with. Five pounds less won't change my abilities or my character one lick. But "treating" myself with lots of unhealthy food will have immediate consequences and they won't be fun. They won't make me feel better about myself and they won't solve my problems. Quite the opposite.

One thing I really enjoy about being me is my resillience. I bounce back from stuff like this. Folks, this job would have been at least a 10k per year raise for me so I'm not going to pretend I'm not upset and I think that's ok to be upset for a little bit, but I'm going to be just fine.

I need to ask my supervisor formally for a pay grade increase. I believe I have lots of evidence to show I deserve it.

I'm going to get a haircut tonight and that will feel great. It's been about 6 months. I'm also going to make myself something delicious for dinner. Maybe salmon and asparagus? Also I need to buy that consolation outfit I promised myself. I'm thinking shorts and a tank top. Something to wear when I'm not at work that will show off my arms.

Thanks for listening. I'm already feeling better.