Happy Thoughts and Green Armpits

So I washed off the funk of weigh-in day with my next 5k.  We did the Color Run in Richmond and had a ball.  Not only did we get to get messy, (My armpits are still green and I'm still digging purple out of my ears.)  but it was our best 5k yet!  There were a few little victories had:

1. Ran 2 miles, no stoppage.
2. Only stopped (and was walking briskly) for a brief moment on a hill but got back to it immediately.      

3. PR!! We did the race in just over 40 minutes!  Big deal for these girls!

Yesterday's race makes me feel better about jumping to 8k and 10k soon.  We are going to do a zombie run next month and then I'll be starting to train for a longer distances.   Wait. Who am I?

Jaime and I all clean pre-race.

3 miles later...

Duck face. Yes, evidently I'm a 12 year old!

Back to the blog: The case of the bad time manager

Oh. My. Stars.

It's been too long since I've posted! I've meant well all along, taking notes and making notes but man life has smacked me in the face hard-core.  By the time I'm home from work and/or the gym and I finish school work, I'm toast.  Dry, crusty, tired toast.  I'm going to pencil in more time to blog - because it helps me stay accountable and some you actually enjoy reading it, though I don't know why!

Me and Jaime at our latest 5k in June.

First, it's my 9 month mark of starting this crazy business, and my 6 month gym anniversary.  I didn't think I'd ever be typing that. That said, doing this and walking through those gym doors are the best decisions I've ever made, next to marrying my sweet husband.  I had another little victory in June with completing another 5k.  It was tough because it was very hilly and it was 200 degrees out that day.  Thank God for Jaime who made me shuffle my feet.

So let's start with the latest "breakthrough" moment. Jason and I went to a beautiful wedding yesterday and had an absolute ball!  What's the big deal?  I've been to very, very few weddings since my own.  A year or two ago I would have tried like hell to find something else to do (sending a gift, of course), or prayed for diarrhea so we wouldn't have to go.  Why? Shopping for dress clothes is horrible and should be outlawed! It got really old trying to find dresses in size 26, etc. as most them fell in to two categories:   moo-moo and great-grandmother-of -the-bride.  Who wants to wear those? And also, God forbid someone might snap a photo. Ew.

So lately I feel better, and am wearing a size 20 and even a smaller shoe size oddly enough.  I was able to find a cute dress and heels (yes, Lord, heels!) and I didn't feel like a big weirdo.  We had a great time with friends, and happily got over this little past hurdle.  Any night that ends with you walking with your shoes in your hands was a good one.

Me and the Mr. at the wedding 7/5.

I hope I'll be breaking the size barrier soon, and getting down to the 'teens.  I've got to step up a little bit to get back on the pace at which I was a few weeks ago.  Vacation was great - I managed to eat fairly well, exercise, and when I came back I had lost a few pounds.  Woohoo! That was mid-June.  I've had both up and down weeks since then but I'm still moving in the right direction.  I am starting to flirt with a big number - 50 pounds. (Did I say that out loud?)  I may actually be there by the end of the summer. I have about 12-ish pounds to go.  My team JAG girls are doing well too, and as a team we've lost almost 100 pounds between the three of us.

Training is still great. My trainer is still great because I'm a pain in the ass and he puts up with me. I'm being challenged a bit more and I'm hanging in there.  I love it. I may be a little addicted. And I know I'll keep getting better.  Where I need work, again, is with food.  I haven't been following my food plans as closely lately and it directly affects the scale.  Working on that....starting....now.

Kitchen sink post...

Still here. 
Still alive. 
Still working hard. 
Still studying. 
Still training and loving it. 
Still trying not to eat everything in the house and not loving that.  

Hold on to your hat, Jack! This is what I call the kitchen sink post. I'm going to dump the past couple of weeks on you here without writing 20 pages of things you all don't want to read:

Still here.

I'm still here! I haven't forgotten y'all.  My time management of late has been difficult; especially when I go from work to home to the gym to home for schoolwork and husband time and then I'm exhausted.  I am one tired girl, but I'm happy to be here.  I've been feeling great aside from the occasional headache and achy knee. We had a nice Easter with family which included my mother-in-law's lasagna,  a little mini hike up the mountain and my mom's Banana Pudding (which she modified just for me using fat free and sugar free stuff). It was still pretty damn good!  

WW and the team JAG girls are still working hard! I had an up week last week, but only .8 pounds so I'm ok with that for now. We are still down over 70 lbs as a group! 

Still alive.

Me, Jaime, and Cav-Man

Well - the 5k came and went this weekend and we survived! Jaime (the J in team JAG) and I had a great time and finished in just over 49 minutes, which is great! It was my first one ever, and her first in a very long time.  What a great experience! -And we have a little cheering section at the end too. I felt good afterward and even went to the gym for training - nothing crazy. I felt only a little sore this morning. I'm ready to do it again! 
...and I am. 
I'd love for y'all to join in. Here's the info on my next one - http://www.4thewounded5k.com.  It's for the Wounded Warrior Project on 6/1/13 and my team name is Team Truffle Shuffle. You can run or walk it - so come on!

Still training.

I'm still training and seeing some results. 
-And I still love it. Again, I'll ask as I have 80 times - Who am I???  Big A has me bumping up to an hour 3x per week now! (Just getting started with that) so it'll be interesting to see what I can do! It's kind of sad though, now, at the gym. All of those motivated people who were there in January are nowhere to be found.  Where are you people? Next door at the Dunkin' Donuts? Seriously though, that's kind of sad.  Not only are they cheating themselves out of some good choices, they're wasting their money. I hope they come back - it's so interesting to people-watch and see how people are changing physically. Thankfully, though, there is a crew of folks I always see and they are fun and are in to it. -Good motivator!

Well - as my husband would say, I'm so tired I'm about to start blowing bubbles. See y'all next time, and until then just ponder - WWOEWD?  What would One Eyed Willy Do?

Still a loser!

Thankfully, I (and my WW girls) have finished February with a bang! - And a little dance move with a flourish.  I was down 2 lbs tonight!  That brings our Team JAG total to 63 lbs between the three of us! I'm so proud of us.  I know we drive the others crazy with our squirming around and giggling, but we can't help it. We're 15 year-olds in 30-something bodies.

I've also started to channel my inner Forrest Gump.  I started to bump up my gym cardio and have begun a 7 week 5k training program.  My first mile time was around 20 minutes.  I decided to hit the street on Monday and see what I could do with the Map My Run app outside.  I couldn't believe my time!  I did a pretty consistent walk 1:00, run 1:00 pattern for a little over a mile (I went 1.52 total by the time it was all over) and my mile times was 16:50!!!! Maybe I was pushing more. Maybe I had more to keep me distracted; like the construction dudes that wouldn't get out of my way that I almost had to hurdle or the poor lady walking 4 dogs that almost took me out.  It was hard and also fun! Again, WHO am I?? I followed that up by Big A time Tuesday - which was TOUGH, and the gym on my own again tonight.  I did 1.5 miles again at the run/walk interval and as best I can tell my mile time was about 18:00.  I know I may not be able to run the whole 5K in April, but I'm going to give it my best shot.  And 5k buddy is too!

I've kind-of thrown another goal in the ring for myself. If you'll remember we're up to:

Weight loss (Duh)
Bike around the lake
Zip the North Face jacket (Done!)
Fit into the XL Redskins shirt
and....

Go on a hike. In Washington state.  (And hopefully somewhere around here before that).  Laugh if you must but I do have a "bucket list" It's full of tons of things big and small, do-able and probably never do-able, quirky and fairly normal.  One day I'll share the whole thing with you all but today - Washington. Dave Matthews Band. The Gorge Amphitheater.  Being a 'townie' from central Virginia, I came up with DMB and am still a huge fan.  I've been to tons of shows but one show (a weekend of shows, actually) has always been near the top of my list.  Labor Day Weekend at The Gorge.  DMB Friday - Sunday with a beautiful back drop of mountains and the Columbia River.  It's never been feasible before. We haven't had the cash, or our schedules couldn't work. But finally, thanks to my husband, we are making it a reality! I could not be more excited! In between all of the music we will find a place and make that hike!! -To some place high and pretty.  I can't wait.  And I'm sorry now if I mention it 800 more times before then.  If I continue working hard I should feel strong enough to do it. And Jason is working too! We're going to do it together.

The Gorge Amphitheater

Numbers don't lie.

1
So another week down and I'm happy to say I'm a loser again!  I was down another pound last night at our WW weigh-in.  YAY! All of Team JAG was down again!

12
I've been attending WW now for 12 weeks. And I haven't missed a week of weighing in.

40 and 15

Lateral Pull Down

The number of pounds I 'pulled' on the lateral pulldown tonight at the gym. -3 sets of 15. -Big accomplishment for me! Of course, the guy who was on before me was flying 100 pounds up and down like it was nothing! I'm proud though! I did 15 knees-down (AKA 'girl') push ups as well during Big A time tonight.  Another good accomplishment for me. I'll keep building up and will be doing more and more hopefully.



47/43
Well, can you guess this one? I'll give you a hint. It's a ratio and a percentage; 47 and 43%.  It's what's written on my fat club membership card.  It's my BMI and my body fat percentage.  (Body Mass Index, and the percentage of your body that is straight up fat.)  My body is made up of 43% fat! That's about half! This is a number I needed but did not want to know.  But the time had to come, and Big A measured me up and used the little machine and that's what we're left with. 47 and 43%.  A healthy woman of my age and height should have a BMI around 24.  I'm almost twice that! Wow. And, by the way, a BMI over 30 is considered "obesity".  I'm such a stellar student, that I seem to have skipped that step and jumped right to "morbidly obese".  A BMI that high, combined with the fact that I am currently still 100% over my medically ideal body weight buts me in that class. We're getting out of there stat!  That may be the second wake up call I need to keep me going for a while.  So basically right now I have as much fat as I do skin, bones and organs. Not cool, body. Not cool.  He also measured me (which I didn't look at) and we'll re-visit all of these numbers periodically.  I'm going to push that number down!

5
5K suckassss! To add a little variety to my new routines I signed up for a 5k race today. BOOM!  I know it's a lofty challenge, but I've got a 5k buddy and we're going to try it. It is a walk/run so there's little pressure.  I know I can do the 3.2 mile distance.  My hope is that I can run some of it. I have about 8 weeks until the race and I'll be adding some jogging to my cardio workouts in between training sessions.   It's for the UVA Medical Center Pediatric Oncology Department which is a great cause.  If kids can fight cancer, I can shuffle my butt around UVA Grounds.  -And the more the merrier. Feel free to join us!  (Here's the info if you're interested - http://www.hoosheal.com/Race.aspx )




We have a long weekend ahead.  We're having all new windows installed tomorrow, thank you God! Our power bills for our tiny house have rivaled that of ones 10x our size. ( I'll be thankful to save some money (that we'll promptly give to the gym) and be a little more energy efficient.)  And we both have lots of homework to do for school.  I'm almost finished with my first graduate class and I couldn't be more excited! Plus Jason hit the under-a-year mark until he graduates.  Hard work and fun times ahead for Team Cavanaugh!

Well I'm about to start drooling on my laptop. 'Night y'all.