Non Scale Victory and Notice to Me in a Few Months

I totally missed my update post last week, and it looks like there won't be one this week. I took my measurements, but I can't find my notebook ever since I "cleaned up" my living and dining rooms. Da well, I wasn't too happy about them anyway. I have noticed that I am hitting a serious plateau, even as I continue to eat well and exercise regularly. I suppose that since I gave up my sugary coffee drink on May 1st that I thought that I would just see the pounds fall off. That has not been the case. And I have been pissed off. I keep plodding along, doing what I do, but I feel myself becoming a bit obsessed and depressed.

I don't want this to be about measuring and beating myself up. Documenting my journey isn't about week to week changes, its about changes over the long haul. I feel sooo much better about myself than I have in years! I feel healthier and stronger. I am much more in tune with my body and my needs. I am empowered.

But I also want to be smaller, with less fat and more muscle. I want to wear sexy dresses and shorts and swimsuits without feeling self-conscious. Yes, I am loving my healthy, strong body. But I want more. To get more, I have to do more. I look at my almost 100% vegetarian diet (I had two baked chicken wings last week and I ain't ashamed) and my regular running practice (17 miles last week and 16 the week before) and I know I am lapping everyone on the couch. But I can do more.

I don't eat the type of meals that I need to eat to fully fuel my activities. I have to be more diligent about getting the diet right in that respect. Its hard, cause I always have to be thinking about food. I need to find a way to make this easier for me, just like getting my workouts in has become easy. Its just routine at this point, and I need my food intake to be the same. This is something that I am working on.

I also need to challenge my body and vary my routines. I know that once my marathon training starts, my routines will be varied, but I decided to start focusing on that now. Each run should have some type of theme. Either its a long, slow run, or a hill workout or fartleks (I did that today...so much fun) or a tempo run. I also need to actually work on building muscle...I gotta get two days of strength training in, even if it is shorter sessions. Those sessions need to include core too. And yoga, I gotta start doing some yoga.

I know what I need to do, and I know that I will see more improvement if I do them. So ain't nothin to it but to do it at this point! See, having it recorded here makes me accountable and gives me something to look back on in a few months. If I don't make these changes, I can look back here and see what I was supposed to be doing. I'm hoping I will make these changes, but if not, this post will be a kick in the butt for me.

But I do have a few NSVs (non scale victories). My underwear is too big, as are a few of my running tights, and some of my work dresses! I can't afford to buy any new clothes right now, but it does feel good to see that I am getting smaller, even if the scale does not show it.

So it is not all doom and gloom. And this is not a diet or a challenge, its a lifestyle. There will be bumps in the road or times of stagnation, but I am still moving forward into having my best body!

Be well,

Mae

Check in: April 28, 2013

This past week went pretty well. I got all of my workouts in, including an extra one (see this post for a race recap). I even did three in one day: an early morning run, a core workout, and a 3-mile walk on Tuesday! My eating was on point, even though I did eat at Chipotle and Noodles and Company. I made healthy choices though!   I even decreased the amount of sugar I put in my morning coffee. Instead of the 6 teaspoons I used to put in my 2 cup serving, I now put 3 teaspoons along with one teaspoon of cream. I can barely taste the difference, but I think that did make a difference in my almost 1-lb weight loss! Normally, I lose about ½ a pound a week, if that. I celebrate every ounce lost though! The one thing I don’t want to do is lose muscle, so I have to make sure I get my protein in after my weight session and get all my nutrients in throughout the week. Here are my stats for this week (I am still working out my tape measuring technique, so the numbers may be inconsistent for a while as I get back used to doing the measurements).

Sunday April 28, 2013

Weight: 169.26

Body fat: 32.9%

Muscle: 32.2%

Waist (belly button): 30 in.

Waist (below belly button…my pooch): 35 in.

Hips: 42 in.

Chest: 37.5 in.

Right thigh: 24.5 in.

Left thigh: 24.5 in.

Neck: 13 in.

Arm: 12.5 in.

Goals for this week

 Exercise: Monday rest; Tuesday run; Wednesday weights; Thursday run; Friday core; Saturday run; Sunday run. I should get between 15-20 miles of running done this week.

Food: Cook meals Monday-Saturday. I am going out for Cinco de Mayo this Sunday, so I need to be conservative for the week AND not overdo it on Sunday…It makes no sense to blow all my hard work on one highly caloric meal. I’ll list the foods I end up cooking for the week.

Weight goals: My goal is to get under 165 by the end of May and under 160 by the first day of summer, June 21, 2013. So I have about nine weeks to lose about 9 lbs…of fat, I don’t want to lose muscle!!! I think I can do it!!!

Stay tuned,

Mae

I'm about that life...

…that running life!!! At least I have been this month, and quite by accident! This month I participated in the Clarksburg 5K, the DC Challenge , and the Crystal City 5K. This is particularly noteworthy as I have long said that I am love to run more than I love to race AND that I don’t like 5K races that much. My disdain for the 5K may stem from my first “adult” race experience, the Hot Chocolate 5K. You can read about the disastrous event here. But, peer pressure is a bitch, and so many of my Black Girls Run! buddies are into racing, so I have been caught up in the fervor. Okay, so I got folks together for the DC Challenge, but that was more of a scavenger hunt than a race… I have a dream to one day do the Amazing Race…and Survivor…and Real Housewives of Atlanta…but I digress. So yes, this month, I have been pinning on bibs and running through the streets in two states and a federal district. I’ll describe the two 5Ks, since the DC Challenge was not a run. It was loads of fun though!!!

This is me before the Clarksburg 5K.

The Clarksburg 5K was crisp, hilly, early morning race in the northern part of Montgomery County, MD. There were probably 15 BGR ladies running in that race, and we had a cheer squad of about five more on the sidelines. I ran with K.,  a vegan supermom. It was her first race, and while she is a strong runner, she needed to get acclimated to running for speed and time. The hills were somewhat of a challenge, but since I do all of my runs on hilly trails, I don’t get too daunted by them. At the last mile, maybe a quarter into the mile, I realized that I had a lot of reserves left and decided to push the pace. Before that, I was not really racing, just running, but I decided to speed up and see if I could finish in under 30 minutes. I ended up finishing in 30:30 (the last ½ mile was straight uphill, yo!) which was the fastest that I had done a 5K in a long time, until…

The Crystal City 5K I basically did on a whim. I had told B. and R. that I was going to run the Friday evening race and then hang out with them in the ritzy Arlington, VA neighborhood, but up until Thursday, I still had not mentally committed (hah) to do the race. I finally signed up and got my mind ready to run on Friday. I had already run that Tuesday, Thursday, and was planning on running that Saturday and Sunday too, so my running cup was, yeah, runneth over (okay, that’s enough puns for this post). 

The Crystal City 5K is actually a series of 5Ks that take place each Friday evening in April. B. had done the first one, and B., R., and I were doing the last one together. I decided to race this one, as it was pretty flat, and see if I could finish in under 30:00. The weather was perfect and the crowd was enormous. For the first few minutes, I was doing way under my ideal pace, but once I was able to push through the crowd I was able to settle into a nice race pace. My race strategy was to do negative splits, which I thought would be easy since the first part of the race was so slow. But during mile two I started to get side stitches…they were very mild, but it kind of freaked me out. When I was a high school runner, I used to get horrible side stitches, which my coaches never helped with (I was not a top runner, so they rarely paid attention to me). Since I started my adult running, I have not really had them, and it has made running much more enjoyable. So to feel them coming on, I was afraid I would not be able to complete the race, so I had a slower 2^nd mile.

By mile three I was feeling better, and, honestly, wanted to be done with the race, so I started increasing my speed. There was another sister there who looked about my age and had short hair like mine who I was leapfrogging with. At one point, she gained on me and held steady, just a few yards ahead. The competitor in me came out, and I knew that my goal was to beat her. My strategy is to let my target run ahead of me, just a bit, so that she acts as a pacer. Once I am comfortable with that pace, I increase my pace, by as much as I can, to make the distance between us a far as possible. I then hold and get comfortable there, but then shortly increase some more. I visualize how demoralizing it must look to see me getting further and further ahead (I got a feeling that she was racing me too, as she kept kind of looking at me throughout the race) and that pushes me to go even faster!

By the last 100 yards, I was so close to the finish line, and who do I see but my girl R. who I have nicknamed Speedy Gonzales (I hope that’s not racist…PC Police give me a pass for that please). I picked it up even more and I turned the corner, passed her, and sprinted to the finish line. I am totally aware that beating R. will probably not happen too often, but she was my motivation for pushing it that last bit. There was a guy at the end yelling, “Finish Strong, Red” (I’m pretty sure he was talking to me) and I ran full speed through that finish line. It felt like cross country all over again. 

My GPS watch and B’s watch said that we ran 3.3 miles, but officially, it was a 5K (3.1). I finished in 28:49 an adult PR (I think I ran 25-26 in high school…I used to feel so slow compared to the 21-22 girls and the 18-19 boys). My pace was 9:17, and I was 917 out of 2,018 runners and 351 out of 1,101 females.

I truly enjoyed myself at that race. I definitely want to do more 5Ks, if just to use a speed exercises. My next goal is to finish a 5K in 28 minutes…that means I have to run at 9:00 pace, which actually means starting fast and getting faster. I think that if I start the race and 9:45-10:00 and then negative split, I can get it. I will practice with that during my speed runs. It’s fun to have goals to focus on during the runs.

After the race, the three of us and one of B’s friends hit Noodles and Company and then Hamburger Hamlet. HH was the official after party spot for the race, and I was able to score a free Budweiser for myself and a $5 hamburger to bring home to my son. I am not supposed to drink until I hit my next weight loss goal of under 165 lbs, but I went ahead and had the beer since it was “free dollars” and I love a free drank! After running a PR, I deserved it!

I don’t have any more races planned until September when I want to run a local half marathon (I still need to sign up for that one). I would not mind doing a few early morning races though…I am going to look for some races to do, at least in May and June. Stay tuned…

Be blessed,

Mae

And so it is...

I’m just going to jump in here…I have been planning and prepping to start this blog for a while, but there will never be a perfect time, so I will start now. I am not beginning this healthy lifestyle journey; rather, I have been in progress for some time now. But I am now ready to take it to the next level, which means careful monitoring and documenting my progress. I have been on my exercise and healthy eating game proper since Jan. 2013 and have lost 10 lbs. It does not seem like much, but there is a remarkable difference in my fitness level. But still, there is so much more I can do, and I think monitoring my work and changes will help me do it.

Weekly, I will post my stats, goals, and the like. My musings will also appear here. My daily workouts will be linked from Daily Mile, in the form of a widget. So, here goes!!!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Weight: 170.0 lbs

Body Fat %: 33.5

Muscle %: 32.5

Water%: 48.6

Waist (belly button): 30 in.

Hips: 42.5 in.

Chest: 36 in.

Thigh: 26 in.

Arm: 12 in.

Neck: 13.5 in.

Goals for the week:

• ·         Do all of my workouts: Monday is core; Tuesday a.m. is run; Tuesday p.m. is walk/run with friend; Wednesday is weights at the gym; Thursday is run; Friday (I will say rest this week); Saturday is run; Sunday is run.
• ·         Prepare all of my meals for the week (Monday-Friday). No restaurant or cafeteria food.
• ·         Monitor and limit my sugar intake.
• ·         Increase my water intake.

Be blessed,

Mae