CDCC Update Week 11

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We all met up at my Aunt's house for a lovely meal and fellowship.  I ate one plate of all the things I wanted and I didn't feel guilty about it.  I did not go back for seconds and I had a small slice of the two pieces.  The guys played a game of risk and there was a puzzle to work on too. We ended the day with a little more time at my moms house.

Friday we slept in and then decided to go do a little shopping.  We didn't leave the house until about 9am so by the time we got to the store it was pretty normal.  No craziness to be had.  We went to Big Lots where we found some packs of batteries for $5 with a $5 mail in rebate so they are going to be free.  Woohoo.  We also found a blow up penguin to go on the lawn for Christmas.  Then we went to Target.  Target was a little busier than normal and there were quite  few people in the electronics section and 2-day bin areas, but other than that nothing special.  We ate some lunch and the rest of the day was lounging around.

But, by the end of the day I started to feel a little off. TMI the rest of this paragraph.  By about 9pm I was sick with flu like symptoms.  I was like that until about 6am. (on and off)  Two times during that time I felt as if I was going to pass out.  It was no fun at all.  I spent all of Saturday on the couch just feeling blah.  Saturday night my son was sick.  It passed pretty quickly in comparison to mine and wasn't as severe, but man it was no fun.


So, after reading that last paragraph you will know why my weight is what it is.

Last week: 224.2
This week: 220.6
Loss this week: 3.6 pounds

I really like seeing the lower number, but to bad it had to come at the price of me feeling bad.  I'm not sure if all of it will keep this week, but we will see.

I haven't tried on my CDCC skirt or shirt yet, but I don't plan on doing it until the end of the challenge.  My water intake hasn't been the greatest the last couple of days.  I did read a little more in my book and I left comments on everyone's blog this past week.

I hope we all finish these last few weeks of the challenge strong because even when the challenge is over we still have work to do and have to keep striving to reach our goals.  Have a great week everyone.

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving

First, I’d like to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.  I’m looking forward to spending time with my extended family.  We are all meeting up at my aunt’s house for Turkey and the fixings.  Yummy!  My plan of attack for the meal would be to eat a few bites of all my favorites, but not go overboard.  That way I will get to taste it all, but not feel like I missed out on Thanksgiving foods.  I’ll eat one roll instead of three. Haha

I had pasta three days in a row this week and the number on the scale is showing it.  Saturday night we were at a friend’s and that is what they served and then I made some on Sunday night for the kids and I which turned into leftovers for me the next day.  I now realize that wasn’t such a good idea.  So if I’m still up by Sunday it wasn’t all from the turkey on Thursday.  Live and learn.

As far as exercise goes I did a run/walk on Tuesday morning.  I really didn’t want to do it, but I forced myself to.  Well it’s not really that I didn’t want to do it as much as I didn’t want to get up early in the cold and do it.  I was glad I did it afterwards.  My husband and I are going to start a new Thanksgiving tradition this year which is going for a run or walk the morning of Thanksgiving.  This means that I will be doing another run/walk tomorrow morning and I’m actually excited about that.

I read a little more in my CDCC book, but I’m still behind.  No worries though, most of it seems to be stuff I already know, but it reinforces it in my brain.

I hope all of you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving and remember to be thankful for the things you have, your health, and the people around you.

CDCC Update Week 10

Well hello everyone.  I hope you all had a great weekend.  I had a lovely time with my husband at a Church friends home last night and today was Church and lazy time.  It was nice to relax today.

Last week: 224.8
Today: 224.2
Loss of .6 pounds

Slow and steady for me.  I have a feeling I'm going to have to watch myself this week so that on Thursday I can indulge a little.  But I won't go overboard.

I'm not doing the greatest with my water during the weekend, but pretty good during the week.  I didn't catch up with my book yet, but I promise I'll read more this week.  Have a great week everyone.

Week Update

I got up this morning and did my second run of the week.  The first one was on Tuesday and involved warm up/cool down, 10 minute fast walk and (8) 1 minute intervals with 1 minute of walking in between.  This one minute intervals were at a faster pace than my jog.  I guess I would consider them sprints.  I wanted to work on running faster and thought that this might help.  Today I wanted to work on jogging for a longer amount of time so I started out with a 5 minute warm up walk, then a 10 minute fast walk and then I ran up the block and back which turned out to be a 13 minute jog.  I walked for 2 minutes to regain my breath and then did another 5-1/2 minute jog before a 5 minute cool down.  As I was jogging today I realized that maybe I should just work on jogging for longer amounts of time and not worry so much about my speed.  I think the speed aspect can be worked on when I lose a lot of my excess weight.  I have to believe that it will be easier to run when I weigh less.  So I’m not giving up on the sprints, but I am going to try and focus more on endurance.  I know you must all miss my lovely face(hehe) so I took this after my jog this morning.

I look a little pained here, I was just trying to take my own picture.

I commented on quite a few CDCC challenge blogs this week and can see some are struggling.  I know the appeal of the challenge isn’t there like it was in the beginning, but just remember why you wanted to do the challenge in the first place.  Remember that outfit you wanted to fit into or look better in.  Thanksgiving is next week and I know that is a really hard time with all the food around, but don’t feel like you need to deprive yourself.  Instead eat smaller portions of those yummy Thanksgiving foods.  Exercise in the morning or evening to help combat the extra calories.  This healthier lifestyle has really made me want to get up on Thanksgiving morning and workout before I go to my family’s house and eat.  

The Shrinkvivor challenge ended yesterday.  Today will be the crowning of the Ultimate Shrinkvivor and Exiled Shrinkvivor.  I lost 9.8 pounds during the 7-week challenge and I feel pretty good about that.  There was room for improvement, but I didn’t give up and I’m not giving up on the CDCC challenge either.    I want to be thinner next year when I go on vacation to a tropical local and want to be able to wear shorts.  Keep working towards your goals ladies!

CDCC Update Week 9

Short and sweet tonight.  I'm not really in the mood to blog tonight.

Last week: 225.6
Today's weight: 224.8
Loss: .8

I'm really happy with that considering earlier in the week I was briefly at 229.  I will get back on the horse this week and hopefully next week it will be a bigger number.

I went to the birthday party yesterday and only had one bite of cake.  It really wasn't that good so it was easy not to eat it. haha

I hope everyone has a great week and I'll try to comment on more of you this week.  I do read everyone's posts, but most of the time it's on my phone and it just takes forever to do any commenting from my phone.

What a ehh eating week.

I haven’t been doing so great on the eating front this week.  It actually all started down the bumpy road last Friday night.  I got a call from my husband who (was supposed to be working) that he was having an ambulance come and get him because he had chocked on some food and thrown up some blood and felt pain in his chest.  He has a problem with chocking on his food and has never had blood before.  He was 3 hours from home at that time and so my brother came to watch my kids and my mother and I set off for the hospital 3 hours away.  It turned out to be nothing in the doctors eyes. They just think he had a bad case of heart burn or maybe an ulcer forming or something.  He is going to get a camera put down his throat to look for abnormalities or a narrowing of his esophagus.  But anyway, the reason that started a slippery slope is due to late night driving and a piece of cheesecake.  Then our 5k and 10k race was on Sunday and I had extra carbs after the race.  Then, my birthday was on Monday and I ate way too much.  My dads birthday was on Tuesday so that led to a bigger than normal dinner. I haven’t gone completely overboard all week, but I have allowed myself extra pieces of Halloween candy.    I need to buckle back down.

I have done two runs so far this week.  They haven’t been the greatest runs though.  My legs just feel heavy.  I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I’m back towards the beginning of my running 3 months ago.  I think I might start back over somewhere near the beginning of the program and work on my breathing and trying to run faster.  Maybe I just need a refresher to get me going again.  I don’t find joy in running right now but I do it for the exercise.  I plan to get in another run on Sunday.

Tomorrow is a birthday party for a 3 year old little girl. I will control myself and only have a tiny piece of cake!

CDCC Update Week 8 and 5k Race Recap

Hello everyone.  Here are my stats:

CDCC start weight: 235.8
Last week weight: 226.4
This week weight: 225.6
Loss this week: .8
Loss so far during CDCC challenge: 10.2 pounds

I'm pretty proud of that.  I hope this next week will be good.  I have indulged a little in the last few days and tomorrow is my birthday so I'll have to step up the exercise some this week.

Speaking of exercise, today was my first official 5k.  It was a nice cold run at about 50 degrees with rain threatening to pour on us.  The first half of the course involved going up a slowly increasing hill which means there was lots of walking for me.   I certainly didn't expect hills and I came along side another racer and she said all she needed to do was finish and I said I just hoped to finish in 45 minutes.  She said that was her goal too.  The second half of the course was getting to go down a gradual downhill.  Yeah for downhill.  That is also where our only water stop was.  The water was super cold and refreshing after doing the hills.  I did a lot of run/walk intervals the rest of the way back. The final sprint section of the finish line was back uphill though so that made for a slower sprint to the finish line. I finished in 42.11.

That is a better time then my Run the Hood Virtual 5k on 10/22 which I completed with a time of 45:42.  It felt good to run with other people. My husband ran his first 10k today and finished with a time of 48:57.  His best 10k time on his own was 52 minutes so he really pushed himself today.

My parents were at the finish line with my kids and even got a video of me coming in to finish the race.  It was really nice to have someone waiting for me.  The rain didn't start up until after we had both finished our races and they were doing the 1st-3rd place trophies for the 5k when decided there was no way either of us got a medal so we left.  You see, they hadn't put up the official race times for the 10k yet so when they finally showed up online this afternoon we found out my husband finished 1st in his age division.  There ended up only being 3 people in his division.  I really hope they mail him the trophy or call him up and see if he wants to come get it.  That would be really cool to have.

I don't really have much else to say since I just did a good update on my book and all.  So have a great week everyone and make good choices.

What have I been up to?

I’ve been pretty absent from this blog in the last couple of weeks.  I guess I just kind of lost the blogging mojo recently.   I haven’t been running as much due to the darkness in the mornings.  That should all change with the time change this weekend.  It should be lighter in the mornings so I can get back to running before work.  My run this past Sunday was pretty good.  I did 35 minutes total and 25 of that was straight running.  Then on Wednesday I did a run after work and it was absolutely awful.  It was like I was back to the begging learning how to run.  I was tired and can honestly say I am a morning runner instead of an evening runner.  I have my first official 5k on Sunday and now the forecast says that it could be raining.  As of right now it says rain likely after 11am which would be a dry race since it starts at 8am, but there is still a few days to go. I am praying that if there is going to be rain on Sunday that it waits until the afternoon/evening to arrive.  I really don’t want to run in the rain.

I have been doing pretty good with my food intake and staying away from most of the Halloween candy.  I have allowed myself one piece after dinner.  I have really wanted more than that, but so far I’m staying in control.  I’m still trying to drink more water.   I just took a few sips as I wrote that sentence.  :-)

I’m a little behind in my book, but some recent ideas are as follows:

Day 33 - Fullness Scale 

0= neutral, not hungry, not full,

+1= satisfied, comfortable, just right

+2= too full – a little uncomfortable

+3= stuffed, miserable

Try to recognize the cues your body is giving you when you are at the +1 and stop eating.  If you get to the +2 remember how you feel for next time and then stop eating before that.  If you learn to recognize the feelings of fullness you will be able to stop overeating.

Day 35 The Eating Pause

When you pause in your eating by taking a deep breath you’re usually at the exact point where you feel satisfied or comfortable.  Stop eating then and don’t go back for more food.  You are probably already at the point of fullness.  If in 20 minutes you are still hungry then go back for more.

Day 41 – Motivation is a Choice

You create motivation through your thoughts and your attitude. You can access it if you want to.  NO one can force you to stay motivated.  You need to work on it and do and say things that will keep you motivated.

Day 43 – Choose To, Not Have To

You need to change your words from have to, to choose to.  I choose to lose weight, I choose to exercise, I choose to clean the house, I choose to eat healthier.  By saying I choose to instead of I have to you are tricking your brain into believing it’s what you want to do and aren’t forcing yourself to do.

And one final one for today:

Day 44 – It’s Not The Right Time

It’s easy to use the phrase it’s not the right time to lose weight or exercise more or eat healthier.  It’s easy to say I’m too busy or I’m going through this in my life right now, but the reality is that there is probably never going to be a right time.  You have to MAKE the time to do it.  How important is it to you to be healthier and feel better?  You will always have things going on in your life, but if you really want to lose weight and eat better than you just need to make the time to do it. 

If Jo at A Well Kept Life can keep at it and stay positive while trying to be there for her brother with a spinal cord injury then do you really have an excuse why you can’t make better food choices while dealing with your own obstacles?  If you work a lot or have to run the kids around to their activities and regularly eat out, just pick the healthiest option available.  Don’t allow yourself to provide excuses for why you can’t do it.  Find ways you can make it happen and achieve your goals.

I’ll be back Sunday with a race recap and CDCC update. 

P.s for those interested,  I’m still in the Shrinkvivor challenge, but since I’m on Exile Island I just didn’t feel like doing an update post.  I did however win the Body Glide giveaway this week  WooHoo for me.