Can You Stand The Rain?

I. Can. Not. Stop. Singing. That. Song.  (Sunnnnny days, everybody loves them. Cannnn youuu staaand the rainnnn?)  It's mostly because it was in a movie preview (Oohh Taye Diggs, I can't wait until Christmas time. We'll be reunited soon.)  I saw this weekend but it also  rolls right in to this week's blog post.

So last Wednesday we weighed in at WW - up 0.4 lbs. Really? 0.4? Grr. That's ok.  We'll get that straightened out this week I hope.  After that buzz kill I really was ready for our Downtown Mile run with Jaime and my friend Amanda. As the day went on, other hurdles (other than that blasted 0.4) kept popping up.  Stupid me let lunch time get away from me so I opted for a protein smoothie and a banana for lunch  before heading downtown after work.  Big mistake. Big. Huge!   Let's just say the natives got restless in my digestive tract.  It was game on with every bathroom I crossed (and I have a HUGE public bathroom phobia. Ugh. Ew.) for the next hour and a half.  As we trekked up to the park for our race start we hit another hurdle- a giant, close-by, lightning strike followed by a hellacious thunder storm! That lightning strike really did almost make me poop my pants!

Post race wet t-shirt girls- Amanda, Me, Jaime.
Note that my boobs kept the rest of my shirt dry.
Who needs an umbrella?

As the storm went on, the thunder and lightning calmed down. The rain did not.  -But the race must go on, so off we went for our best mile time try in the pouring rain.  I might add, here, that our friend Missy (bless her heart) was waiting on top of a roof bar in the weather so she could video us running by! She showed up with cute flat ironed hair and everything, and we repaid her with a thunder storm and a soaked cell phone.  Some friends we are, huh.

We ran in the rain. Jaime kept me going along, only stopping for a few little shuffles, and were able to finish in 13 minutes! Big deal for these girls and we weren't last! It was a blast and I'm proud of our time considering I was basically praying not to poop my pants for the second half of the mile.  I know. TMI, but you'll all get over it.   After the race in our soaking wet running clothes we had a great dinner with dear friends, old and new and it was just an awesome night! {I recommend The Whiskey Jar if you're in downtown Charlottesville!} I really appreciate the support these girls give me and my other friends on the new lifestyle train with me.

Leroy Jenkins too proud of
his self after blocking my run.

I haven't had Big A training hour at the gym since last Tuesday. He's on a much needed family vacation until later this week and I've been trying to keep up the good work in his absence.  We'll see what happens we he gets his paws on me this Friday.  I've been doing mostly cardio - walking, running intervals, inclines on the treadmill, etc. and keeping up with our 100 squat challenge.  It's my off-day for that today but I'll be on 85 tomorrow! I'm almost there.  I'm not sure what we do after 100. I guess we'll see.  I had a great day out today -  2.92 miles in 47 minutes doing 30-60 intervals; running as fast a possible for 30 seconds and then walking for 60 seconds.  It was such a perfect evening for it with the lack of overkill Virginia humidity.  It was much better than my outing yesterday, which ended after about 1 mile and 1/2 with my dog lying down in protest in the middle of the street until I picked him up.  He's such a mess and he was too proud of himself.

What's on tap for the next week?  

• Back to beast mode training.
• More running outside. 
• More deep breaths as our busy season at work gets going. All of our student-athletes are coming back to school and we're gearing up for fall sports; starting with our football team which reports for training camp this weekend.  Fall fun is fast approaching!
• Hopefully I'll be a loser rather than a 0.4 gainer.
• A yard sale at my momma's house - because I can actually get rid of some clothes that are too big, rather than too small!
• I'm going to listen to this over and over: 

Back on the horse.

I took two weeks off from the blog world and I'm back now! I was just waiting to get all test results back so I could update everyone on everything at the same time.  The surgery went really well and I spent my recovery days resting and watching WAYYY too much tv; mostly Duck Dynasty, Big Bang Theory and Girls.  Imagine my pain-medicine filled dreams after watching those all day?? Uncle Si and Sheldon Cooper built a beaver-dam-destroying-robot-
boat...

I had my final post-op exam yesterday and got a 97% clean bill of lady health.  I had more lesions and polyps than my OB had initially seen but she was able to take care of them all and send them off for pathology testing.  Thankfully, everything came back negative:  no cancerous cells and no real abnormalities in the tissue.  Now the only thing we'll still be addressing (hopefully) is the hormonal side of things that have me covered in zits and looking like a 7th-grader before the first school dance.  I've healed well and just have to follow up for some final labs in 90 days.  I really appreciate that so many people took time to check on me that week. It really touched me.  It's funny who you hear from when things like this pop up; and even more peculiar who you don't hear from.

So just a couple days post-op I took by self back to the gym with Big A.  I couldn't really lift so we did a makeshift spin class on the bike which was a lot of fun and got us a lot of strange looks from the people around.  It was just what I needed even though I was absolutely spent the next day! I've slowly worked my way back in and I'm back to my routine now...with one change...this girl is starting to do 3 training sessions per week now! I'm trying to get down to the XL by the end of the summer! In addition to the Redskins shirt, I ordered my jacket (specifically for the Washington trip) in an XL.  There's work to do!! My butt and legs have gotten memo but my gut has not!

Let's talk about the pounds then shall we?  

So my sweet husband drove me (in my cloudy state) all the way to my WW meeting the day after my procedure to I could see my team JAG girls and weigh in.  I was up 1 pound. :(  I wasn't destroyed or anything b/c I was still swollen, etc. No biggie. It was just important that I was there even though it was only for 2 minutes.  The following week (last Wednesday) I lost 1.6 pounds! And......this Wednesday I had a loss of 4.2 pounds!! I was so excited! I won't have a week like that every time, but that really helped motivate me. The team JAG girls have lost well over 70 pounds total now! That brings my current weight to 260 even. (When I posted my first blog in October, 2012, I was at 287 pounds.)  I have some ups and downs in there; and I calculated last night that I have lost 23 since starting with my trainer.

What's next?
I still plan to participate in the 5k here in a couple of weeks with my friend.  (You can sign up too - www.hoosheal.com)  I can easily cover the 3.2 mile distance now at a slow pace.  This first one, though, may be more walking that running.  I'll keep building up and doing more though and eventually I'll be able to run a whole race!

I started two to grad. classes last week - taking two together is insane, but I'm maintaining.  My social life will suffer but that's ok. At this point, as long as I get in husband time, homework time, and gym time each week I'll be ok.  Hopefully my friends and family understand - and I think they do. I know many of them want this for me as much as I want it for myself, which is awesome!

Other bits and pieces
Basketball season ended for the year when my Hoos lost in the NIT round of 16 Wednesday night.  I'm totally bummed but I know both our men's and women's teams have so much potential! The good thing is that an end to basketball means two things: more baseball!! and spring football!! Speaking of football...REALLY Dallas?? I'm now convinced that Jerry Jones has finally lost his damn mind. Six more years for Tony Romo at $108 million? "He's a franchise quarterback!" people say. He's going to dump your franchise in the pooper I say.  I can't believe I'm saying this - but Dallas' fans deserve better.   Now...Hail to the Redskins!

Lust on a bun

Today is the home opener for UVA Baseball.  Who cares? Well me, let me tell you.  This would normally start my 3-4 times per week of...well...eating just a little hot dog in some tin foil in addition to everything else I'd eat in a normal day. -But at the ballpark it's a Hoo Dog.  And for some reason that makes it different.  So here I sit lusting after a shriveled up log of what we think of as meat on a slightly soggy bun that is gone in 2-3 bites on a good day.  At any other place during any other time of the year I would never touch it. But it's Baseball season.  And I'm lusting after it.  What's to keep me from inhaling 1 or 4?

Yeah..so...this

       

This day in history...

I arrived y'all! It's my 14th 21st birthday. -Good food day though I did let loose a little with dinner but still ok overall.  Good news - down 2 pounds.

Bad news - all of the healthier foods and greens I've had this week have caught up with my digestive system. I'll leave it at that.

I probably won't post again until Sunday night. So wish me luck this weekend - home football game and tailgating with some of my favorite people and a birthday dinner. Whew! Somebody smack me if I pick up the ham biscuits! :)  Until Sunday - yay me and Go 'hoos!

Fallout of the diet decision

Well - I knew I'd make waves for finally trying to get healthy. I figured it would snow today and the closest McDonald's would observe a day of mourning.
It was worse:  In reaction to my announcement, our new Virginia Football practice facility burst in to flames this afternoon. Clearly, the tailgate food gods are not happy about this. :(

Jokes, aside. What a sad day at work! Thankfully no one was injured that we know of and the local fire folks are still working to get it completely out.  May take a bit.  Wahoowa.