My Journey to Fit: A Forty-Something's Weight Loss Journey

Friday Mishmash - California Edition

2010-07-30T04:30:00.001-05:00

But first...please allow me to shriek like a little girl:

Far right...Close up...

Sweet Kristina Mastrocola from Woman's World magazine contacted me a while back, asking for my(!!!) opinion on flavored bottled water - and I was thrilled to be able to plug my favorite, VitaCoco. I really do love this stuff - my (currently not working - oh yeah, that's been fun) fridge always has several boxes in it. Ok, on to your regular dose of mish.

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I had a great vacation - I swear, I stepped off the plane and we never stopped moving the entire time! My first night there, we were just sitting around after the delicious, stupendously-healthy dinner that Barbara had prepared (gotta love having a friend who is into the whole eating-right thing), when the subject of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk came up. Theresa was finally tall enough to ride the Giant Dipper for the first time a couple of weeks ago and, of course, loved it. She was ready to go back, and as it was dollar-ride night, off we went...and I rode it! I haven't been on that ride since I was a teenager - on all of my recent visits, there was no way I could have fit on the ride. But things are different now and I am saying yes to a whole lot of living, including riding a rickety old wooden roller coaster! Let me tell you - it was fun and scary! Barbara told me at what point to smile for the autocamera, but I couldn't stop screaming enough to do that.

Also please note deathgrip on front of car, lol.

This roller coaster first opened in 1924 - click here for more fun facts!

We also rode Kite Flight, which mimicked hang gliding over the beach. Pushed my motion-sickness luck with that one and was a little green by the end of the ride. Still, what a fun, spontaneous thing to do on my first night there!

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Barbara has been one of my biggest cheerleaders since I've started losing weight, but on Monday it was my turn to cheer for her as she reached her "free" weight at Weight Watchers - two pounds to goal means that her meetings are now free! Woohoo - looking good, my friend!

Celebrating - she's freeeeeeeee!!!!!

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Fashion Friday should really be called "Dressing Room Friday" because everything featured was from our shopping trips. I promise I'll have a real outfit or two next week, but for now, let's take a peek into a few selections (oh, and sorry for the yellow hue - dressing room lights, what can I say?).

First up - THE DRESS. Barbara brought this into the dressing room - we were trying on almost everything that each other had picked out. I was shocked - shocked! - when this sheath dress fit me! This style never worked on me back in the olden days when I was thin. Not sure what the difference is - maybe the workouts have changed my body shape? Anyway, I loved it.

Donna Ricco silk dress - originally $158; on sale for $47. I can see this going for both summer and winter depending on what I wear with it. Around the collar and waist is pleated black grosgrain ribbon - it just feels like a classic dress to me. Hope I can accessorize enough to do it justice!

Next up we have white jeans - I've been wanting a pair, and loved these. The brand? Not Your Daughter's Jeans. The price? $98. Not This Forty-Something's Jeans, either, lol. But they fit great, and I'm hoping I can find them on a really good sale someday. Btw, Theresa is wearing a skirt as a dress - she's quite the inspired fashionista!

We scored big time at the Ann Taylor Loft sale - I got several cute tops and a pink and cream cardigan, which I can't wait to wear. I also scored a cute white cardigan from Barbara's sister, Sandi! Hopefully the next few weeks of Fashion Friday will be fun with the new clothes.
Here we are in our "twins" outfit. I liked these boyfriend jeans on Barbara (and she bought them) but on me the size 8 was too big and the size 6 too small. Boo. Loved the black tee - I bought it, while Barbara bought in in gray to go with some gorgeous gray pants. I did buy a pair of curvy bootcut jeans (size 6, what was up with that when the boyfriend jeans wouldn't fit?) that were not a dark wash. I had a hard time thinking that they looked ok - all I could see were my hefty thighs. But Sandi was with us on this trip (hi, Sandi!) and she said that I was looking at myself through my "old eyes" - so I took her and Barbara's word, and bought them. Plus they were marked down from $59.50 to $4.88 - even with hemming, I'll still come out ahead! I'll feature those jeans once I get them back from alterations.
I believe Theresa picked out this dress - we all tried it on and I have to say that interestingly enough, we all looked fabulous in it!Had to throw this in here...since I tried on my wedding dress a while back, Barbara had me try on hers as well. I could actually zip it all the way up - too bad we were so busy doing "bridal portrait" poses that we forgot to take a picture of the back!

All right, I'll stop torturing you now...but if you look below, you'll see one more item that I bought - a white Levi's denim jacket which was on sale for $26 - love, love, love it!

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On Sunday evening, Debby came to Santa Cruz and we met up for, what else, some frozen yogurt and good conversation! We fell right into talking - love that about bloggers...we pretty much know each other even when we've never officially met. I had to laugh when one of the first things she said to me was that I was shorter than she imagined...and I was taller than her!

Debby posted a similar picture on her blog a few days ago and I loved that many comments said that we looked like sisters - I always wanted a sister! I have to tell you that she is so pretty, and if we really had grown up together, I would have been jealous of her!

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A few more random California pictures:

Look - a whale (and it's not me!) - Monterey Bay Aquarium
Pedicures! And new flip flops for me...and yes, I *did* match my nail polish to the flip flops!

Recipe for disaster: Orange juice, tequila and sushi. Seen while at the Safeway buying Laughing Cow cheese and more importantly, getting cash back. No ATM fees for me! :)

I'll leave you with the man walking around Natural Bridges with a live bunny on his head. Santa Cruz, what can I say? Gotta love it!

Wharf to Wharf 10K Recap

2010-07-29T05:00:00.001-05:00

Barbara and I - after more than 30 years of friendship, about to run our first race together!

Pre-race picture right near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - I love this area!

I survived the Wharf to Wharf 10K! It was a lot of fun, but definitely not a "running" race - there were just too many people to be able to consistently run, unless you were an elite runner and got to begin at the start of the pack.

We chose the front of the 10-minute-mile pace area to start...after that it was the walkers. What, nobody runs an 11 or 12 minute pace? Or maybe they just ran out of signs. Yeah, that must have been it.

Anyway, due to my experience at the Armadillo Dash of it taking about 30 minutes to get into the park for the start of the race, I was a bit anxious to get to the race early. Barbara indulged me in that, so we arrived around 7:40 am - her husband dropped us off quite close to the starting area (thanks, Dave!). Holy mackerel - there was a ton of people there! I knew that the race was capped at 15,000, and it was full, but wow. That was something to see - just a wall of people all around us.

People in front of us......and people behind us.

While we were waiting for the race to start, gigantic beach balls came tumbling down the street where we all were waiting. Music was being played - it was a party atmosphere for sure! Getting closer to crossing the start line!

Around 8:30 am the race started and we were ~~off!~~ ambling toward the start line - it was pretty funny to see some people try to run...really, that just wasn't happening. I was surprised that just as we crossed under the rainbow of balloons marking the start line that we were actually able to run - now it was getting exciting! Whoops...spoke too soon - exactly half a mile in, the four lanes converged into two AND started to curve and we came to a dead stop. Time for a photo op, right?

Half a mile in - still fresh as daisies!

This was when I realized that we were just going to have to go with whatever the race threw our way...stop, go, climb a hill, whatever.

There was a ton of entertainment all along the way, ranging from:

kilted bagpipers and drummers, to ukulele players,to the Santa Cruz chapter of the San Jose State marching band alumni (I have a soft spot for marching bands what with Sam and Jeff both having been in one)

There were also a lot of bands with ages ranging from kids to some really old people. The course was full of spectators - this felt like the social event of the year!

This is the first time I've run with my camera - we had fun taking pictures along the way:

First water stop - 2.5 miles inI ignored the sign!

There was a really cool peace sign (which I am successfully covering up) next to the "2010" drawn in the sand (the glare plus sunglasses made it difficult to see what you were taking a picture of - we were lucky to get as many good shots as we did).This place used to sell homemade fudge and all kinds of candy when I was a kid...now it's a cafe.

Click on this picture to see the line of runners - it's really amazing!

Loved this shot of the encouraging sign, along with the two runners who had not only finished the race, but picked up their goody bags and were heading back to Santa Cruz!

Then we crossed under the official photo op camera and found Barbara's daughter Theresa and her sister Sandi! We ran over for a quick picture - Theresa was in the middle of making us a sign and was a little disappointed that it wasn't finished...

Quick shot and then it was downhill to the finish line!

Done! We finished in 1:19 (Ricky Bobby time) - not too shabby considering all the stops (forced and voluntary, lol)

After we crossed the finish line, we had to keep going to the beach, where we picked up our goody bags with the OFFICIAL FINISHER'S SHIRT. Now, I have to tell you that this shirt was really promoted on the website - along the lines of how exclusive it was, only runners would get it, etc. So we both opened our bags right away to look at the shirt...and it was the same one as they were selling at Fleet Feet before the race! What the heck??? I tell you, I was getting fired up! I mean, seriously...what happened? Then we realized that in little letters below the logo, the shirt said "Runner 2010" - the other shirts just said "Santa Cruz" - so fine, it was an official shirt. I guess we were both expecting something proclaiming how awesome we were to have run from Santa Cruz to Capitola...hmmm, high expectations, ya think? LOL

The "Official Finisher's Shirt"

We put our shirts on, went and watched the announcement of the race winners (the fastest man, Shadrack Kosgei of Kenya, finished in 27:01!) and then headed back up the hill to find Theresa and Sandi. Our sign was finished, so we got to take some pictures while other runners were still finishing the race behind us!

"Peace Out, Peeps" - the official phrase of our visit, thanks to Theresa. :)Runner's pose!

Our gorgeous sign! Thanks, Theresa - we loved it!

In case you haven't gotten enough of this crazy race, you can click on this YouTube link to see more (and get a sense of what it was like to run with so!many!people!)

It's so funny to me that the last time I visited Barbara, in April 2007, the idea of me walking, much less running, this distance was not even in the outer corners of my mind. I was well over 250 pounds and was living a completely different lifestyle. It's times like these that make me realize just how much I have not only turned my life around, but opened myself up to doing so many more fun things...all because I took that first step on May 14, 2008, toward losing weight and getting fit. Best decision of my life, really.

Monday Quickie

2010-07-26T01:49:00.002-05:00

Super busy still - the Wharf to Wharf was fun and I'll have a full recap, along with lots of pictures, later this week. This vacation has been a blast! Two more fun-filled days await before I have to fly home on Wednesday. Thanks for being patient about my lack of updates...things will be back to normal soon.

Friday Mishmash

2010-07-23T04:30:00.000-05:00

It's our custom on Friday nights to go to our local hamburger joint, split a cheeseburger basket, then run to Sam's Club for fruit, veggies and yogurt (I swear, ours is usually the healthiest cart in the checkout line) and then we go to Red Mango for frozen yogurt. So yeah, we're kind of "regulars" there - think Cheers and Norm but without the beer (tell me I'm not going too far back). They change up the flavors every day, and list them on their Facebook page...imagine my delight when I saw this last Friday:

Red Mango College Station: Today we have Blueberry, Summer Melon, Pomegranate, Madagascar Vanilla, Cocoa, Original, Black Cherry, Cinnamon, Raspberry, and (since it's Friday) a certain customer's favorite, Coconut.

That's me! They know I love the coconut flavor, and the few Fridays that I've been there and there was no coconut...well, they got my sad face. I absolutely love that they indulge me like this!

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I'm in California and missing Paco the Wonder Dog, so I thought I'd share with you one of his many talents - he brings in the newspaper every morning! And sometimes, if the neighbors aren't quick enough, he'll bring us theirs as well!

Paco the Wonder Dog earning his breakfast!

"Are you following me, Mom?"

"Open the door - I have a paper to deliver!"

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The weather is so cool here - it gets down into the low 50's overnight! I went for a run on Thursday morning - my friend Matt drove over to run with me, which was very sweet as I had talked about how nervous I was for the upcoming race on Sunday. People, we ran four miles! By the beach! It was the best run I've had - that cool weather really made a difference, and Matt was a lot of fun to run with. Plus he kept me from being run over by bicyclists on the path - clueless Joe here had no idea that the little "ding" coming from behind meant that a biker was wanting to pass and I should MOVE TO THE RIGHT! There is a huge difference between running in a California beach town as opposed to a park in Texas. Glad I had a guide...thanks, Matt!

After the run, we went out for smoothies (of course!) - while we chose fairly normal flavors, there was one that we wanted to order for the grossness of it, but of course didn't - it was an Avocado smoothie. Ingredients: avocado, milk (could subsitute soy!), sugar and lime juice. You know you are in California when an avocado smoothie is on the menu!

I have a picture of Matt and I that I'll post next week, along with pictures of us as 14-year-olds. And just as I suspected, we haven't changed one bit. *wink*

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Barbara and I have been going ninety-to-nothing since I arrived in California on Tuesday afternoon. It's been a blast, as usual, and I will share many pictures and stories next week when I'm back at my computer - Barbara's computer and Blogger are not getting along very well and the formatting is getting messed up, plus I couldn't move around the pictures I uploaded. So no Fashion Friday this week - but we HAVE been shopping and I've gotten some super cute things - can't wait to show you!

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OK,that's it for this mishmash. Next time you hear from me, I will have run my longest race yet - the Wharf to Wharf 10K on Sunday!

Wednesday Workout Update - Vacation Edition!

2010-07-21T05:58:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Set out for a five mile run. Times I thought about quitting before five miles? Eleventy billion. Times I took an extra rest (aside from the 30 seconds Ricky Bobby let me have every mile)? Three. Times I yelled out loud at Ricky Bobby to hurry up with the miles? Two.

My first three miles were good - 11:51, 11:32, 11:34 - but the last two were 13:30 and 13:27. Geez, I really slowed down! The weather was actually decent - well, the sun stayed behind the clouds, so that was nice. It was still nearly 80 degrees and humid, of course...what would you expect at 6:55 am? Ah, Texas...gotta love it. Hopefully Tuesday's run will be better.

Monday: Linda was kind enough to give me a going away present in the form of a killer workout in cardio today. I was kind enough to only pretend to punch her in the arm when she kept upping the speed on the treadmill. The workout was called The Countdown, and it went like this:

100 calories burned on the treadmill
90 squats
80 lateral pylos
70 butterfly sit ups (since I can't do those at the moment, she substituted two 2-minute plank holds)
60 burpees (made it to 40 and she had me move on so I could wrap this up in 30 minutes)
50 calories burned on the treadmill (this would be where pretend punching occurred!)

I can already see the burpee-bruises forming on my knees - I'll look super cute on my vacation with them, I'm sure! If that weren't enough, Brad had a contest in the gym where we had to "call" the number we thought we could hit on each set. This was a "push" day. Wednesday will be a "pull" day - oh darn, I'll miss it! Anyway, I did ring push ups, leg presses, punch push ups, tricep extensions and this lunge/press using an exercise tube. Between each set we had active recovery with mountain climbers, jumping jacks, some funny cheerleader knee kicks, and squats. I ended up being the winner by one. I know, aim high, right? Anyway, the prize was a t-shirt, but they didn't have my size, so I picked one for Jeff and Brad is going to have "Pit Crew" printed on it, as he's the one who holds everyone's keys, wallets, phones, water, etc. during our races. So that will be a fun surprise for him.

Tuesday: Tuesday's run was not better than Sunday's. For me, I think I was just plain tired - my alarm goes off at 6:00 am on the days I run - combine that with the fact that I don't sleep very well anymore, and eventually something had to give. And on Tuesday, it was that run. We ran about 1.6 miles, chatting all the way, before I had to stop and catch my breath. Jenny woke up all congested and was not feeling great, so she was good with stopping the run. We ended up walking a few laps, where we planned out our August training (we watched a class from A&M run hill repeats and *lightbulb moment* - hey - we need to be doing those, too!). So. Not a stellar run, but as I've learned, they can't all be winners, lol!

Wednesday: I'm in California! Looooong day yesterday and I'm still tired, so I'm going to give myself a break and not run today, although I can run to the beach from Barbara's house, and plan on doing that in the next day or two. Today I will get my exercise by shopping!

Coming Clean

2010-07-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

Last week I finally did it. I let my past life and my current life co-mingle. You see, I’ve done my best to not let old friends know what I had become. Luckily, I didn’t join Facebook until I started losing weight, so my profile picture wasn’t me at my worst. I live 1500 miles away from where I grew up, and whenever I went back to my hometown for a visit, I never got together with any of my old friends, except for Barbara – she’s known me through all of my incarnations. Every visit, she would always offer - “do you want to give so-and-so a call?” And I’d say no. A big reason was because I really wanted to spend the most time I could with Barbara on these all-too-short visits, but I could have spared an hour or two. Except that then my secret would be out…and the shame and embarrassment at what I’d let myself become would be too real. I am quite the expert at pushing feelings into the deep dark recesses of my mind, where they stay just under the surface 99% of the time. That’s what made it possible to get up and face each day – avoidance and denial.

But it changed last week. Reconnecting with my old friend Matt, sharing memories of our childhood – it brought me back to such a good time in my life. And honestly? It felt wrong to not be open with him about my life and what I have been doing the past two-plus years. So I sent him the link to my blog. Admitted my embarrassment that I had let myself go so badly in that email, but strangely enough, felt ok about it. The next morning, I logged onto Facebook to read this email from Matt:

Shelley Thank you Thank you Thank you for sharing your blog/website with me. That is completely amazing. What you have done is unbelievable. You are beautiful. I am totally inspired. I am going to go back and read more of your amazing work. You made me cry and laugh. I love it. Your writing is very real and appealing. I see great things for you in the future. I am so so so so happy that we reconnected. Really looking forward to seeing you in person.

Wow. I was stunned - and a little teary, I'll admit. Who knew honesty could bring about such a neat result?!? I could have very easily pretended to him that I never got fat…this is strangely liberating and I feel like I've broken out of a secret life. So thank YOU, Matt - I'm walking a bit taller and I haven't been able to stop smiling. My world feels a lot bigger now.

Friday Mishmash - and Sof Sole Winner!

2010-07-16T07:10:00.000-05:00

First things first...the winner of the Sof Sole Training Package is:

Tara Kieninger!!!

Congratulations! Email me your mailing address AND shoe size, and I'll pass the info on to Whitney at Sof Sole. Hope you enjoy everything!

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Speaking of running (oh, were we?), I did get up early this morning and went for a quick redemption run - I wanted to do a fast (for me) one mile run just to make sure I really could run at a decent pace, after Wednesday's incredibly slow run. Plus I need to get in the habit of running on Fridays, even though I have to work. Anyway, I did a mile in 11:16 - could I do five miles at that pace? No. But at least I know I still have a little speed in me! Plus I exercised before work - a first for me - woohoo!

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OK, so if you read about my mental vacation that I took in the last post, you will remember that I mentioned looking up an old childhood friend on Facebook. Well I did, and we have reconnected! It's been nearly 30 years since we last saw each other...Matt was my buddy in our sailing club - our family joined when I was 8 years old, and as there were very few girls in the club, and we were the same age, we palled around together for years. Our families, along with many others, camped a lot together - Easter was spent at New Brighton beach, Thanksgiving at Pismo Beach, weeks in the summer were at Pinecrest - we went all over. It was a great way to grow up, and we had a lot of freedom to roam around and swim and sail (many times doing both at once!) and fish and just be kids. Matt is the nicest guy - he's been married for almost as long as I have, has five cute kids and a beautiful wife. We've been emailing like no time has passed (although email wasn't even invented last time I saw him, haha) and have spent the last few days catching up on everything. I've had a big grin on my face all week - what a joy this has been. And the best part? We plan on meeting up sometime next week while I'm in California! We all go way back - my best friend Barbara, whom I will be visiting, used to come sailing with us and knew Matt as well. I'll be sure and get a picture of us and post it alongside one from when we were kids...I'm sure nothing has changed - ha!

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My grocery store finally has some of the new Laughing Cow flavors in stock...sadly, not the bleu cheese, as I've been wanting to try that, but they did have Queso Fresco and Chipotle, so I bought it and took an arty picture:

Ooh, look at that food styling!

My verdict? Too tame (as my Grandmother would say) - not enough kick for me. It was good, but I kept thinking about sprinkling it with some Louisiana Hot Sauce. I didn't - that would have entailed getting up, and as I was eating this for lunch after Wednesday's workout, sitting down was working just fine for me!

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So my flight for California doesn't leave (well, the one with me on it, anyway) until Tuesday, but I've been throwing things into my suitcase all week. Excited? Why yes I am! And apparently the weather is cool out there - imagine that! I'm not packing sweatshirts or anything, though. Why? Because, for the first time in the history of our friendship, Barbara and I are the same size!!! I can borrow her clothes - how amazing is that?!? Plus, I need to leave room in my suitcase ~~in case~~ for when I buy some new clothes. And running gear - they have running stores out there, yo! And bras - of course we will be doing our annual bra shop. This will be so much fun - I can't wait!

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I am by no means a good photographer, and half the time when I get my camera to do something that I want it to, I can't duplicate it. But I did manage to get a neat shot of the flowers that are currently blooming on our Texas Mountain Laurel shrubs:
Look - it's clear in the foreground and soft-focused in the background...almost like I meant to do that! This was the only one of about ten shots that came out that way - naturally, the one I like the best is the most elusive to take!

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And now, it's another exciting installment of Fashion Friday! All I can say is that's it's a good thing I will be doing some shopping soon, because repeats would be on the schedule otherwise. I wanted to wear my Merona Fit skirt to work on Thursday (ok, mainly so I could wear my super cute cork wedge sandals - I love these shoes!), but I've been challenged to come up with tops that work with it. Most of my stuff is a little long and loose, as that hides my strange stomach blob. They don't work with the skirt, and tucking anything in doesn't do my stomach any favors.
I know brown is a little dark for summer, but it's all I have. I threw on the pink and orange necklace (it belonged to my Grandmother and I used to play dress up with it) and then tried on my old orange cardigan.
Way too big - it's a large - one of the first pieces I bought from a "regular" store after I had lost enough weight to shop outside of Lane Bryant. What to do, what to do. It's made of silk, cotton, nyon and spandex - label says to wash on delicate and air dry. Since it's unusable to me at this point, I tossed in the washer on "hot" and then into the dryer. Et voila - it shrunk enough for me to wear!
Granted, it's still too big, but it worked for this outfit. I do love the color so will have to hunt down another orange cardigan one of these days.

Eagle eyes may notice the discrepancy in my hair between the two sweater pictures - I tested out this outfit Wednesday night (good thing, since I was able to remedy the too-big cardigan). Like my non-styled hair? It's my ~~lazy~~ hippie look for the summer...yeah, I'm definitely relaxing my style when I don't have to work.

Have a good weekend!

Wednesday Workout Update

2010-07-14T11:25:00.000-05:00

Sunday: The alarm went off at 6:00 am - remind me again...what the hell am I doing, getting up this early? Running? Whose stupid idea was this?!? I even had to sneak into the park - the gates were still locked at 6:45 am...apparently normal people do not have the need to go to the park so darn early.

Still, Ricky Bobby and I set off at 6:49 am, and ran for 1 hour and five minutes. My goal at this point is distance, not time - although when I had a tenth of a mile left, I sprinted, pretending I was running toward the finish line. Guess what I found out? A tenth of a mile is a long way to sprint, especially at the end of a long run! Which reminds me, I need to download the theme from Rocky for my long runs. How long did I run, you may be wondering...well, after getting this comment "...either that or I dare you to do another 5 this weekend..." on the last WWU post, I took Helen's DARE and ran with it - and I'm proud to say that another five mile run is in the books!

I called Jeff over to keep me company on the last mile...I was dying, mentally. He rode his bike alongside me while I ran, chatting about I don't know what...but it kept me going. At one point he was ahead of me by maybe 10 feet, and I pretended that there was a rope tied from his bike to my waist and he was pulling me, then I remembered how when I was a kid, a boy named Bruce tied one end of a rope to a car's bumper, wrapped the other end around his wrist, and had someone (probably one of his older brothers) tow him while he rode his skateboard. Broke both his arms doing that. Bruce was a daredevil and as a result, seemed like he always had a cast on some part of his body. Then I wondered about his brother Matt - he was my age and we were buddies growing up in our sailing club. I should check him out on Facebook. Matt and Bruce were part of a family of five boys and there was someone for every age in our sailing club - the littlest brother, Chuckie, was pals with my brother. Oh wait, I'm almost at five miles! That was a nice mental vacation!

And that's how I got through the last mile of my five mile run. Whatever works, right?

Newest statue in "my" park - a Revolutionary War patriot...strangely enough, wearing sunglasses ;)

Monday: Although I was a little worried coming into this workout after running five miles (have I mentioned that enough yet?), I did ok. Hit all the machines in cardio, plus some ball slams and mountain climbers. In the gym, we practiced our form - squats were the biggie, with a pvc pipe that Brad had numbered levels next to the cage. The lower your squat, the higher the number of points. We had to hit 300 points. Oh, and we had the bar with weights on our shoulders, just to make it more ~~challenging~~ fun. Jenny went first and knocked out her 300 points in just 12 squats - girlfriend hit 25 every time! I was next - um, I think I hit 25 once or twice, but it was mainly 10's for me...that was a lot of squats! We rotated around the gym doing other isolation exercises until it was time to do the squats again. Of course, Brad added extra weight to the bar, and once again it took me a while to hit not 300 points, but 350 - he upped that as well! All in all, not a bad workout.

Tuesday: Up at the crack of dawn again. Met Jenny at 7 am for our run. We were slower than molasses - don't know what was up with us, other than being a bit sore from Monday's workout. I wore my new Camelbak backpack (bought for the amazing price of $20 - a local store was discontinuing them) filled with VitaCoco coconut/pineapple water. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't bother me to have this on my back while running, and it worked out really well to take sips at every mile. Only thing is that I think I drank too much - I poured in two containers of the coconut water, which was 23 oz. - and I drained the entire thing! That seems like a lot of fluid for a four mile run (notice how I buried that in here...we wanted to do five miles, but it wasn't happening). Runners, what do you think? I had a bit of a stomach-ache right at the end of mile four, but I think that was due to the cup of coffee I drank before we started our run. Is nearly 6 oz. of fluid per mile a lot? Keep in mind that it was 82 degrees and of course, humid as hell.

Wednesday: Spent the entire hour in the gym doing the Filthy Teammate workout...yes, Brad expanded on the standard Filthy Fifty by having us team up to do a combined total of 200 reps per exercise. Plus he threw some new ones in there for us...things that looked deceivingly easy (and fun) but ended up being a killer.

Michelle and I were teammates ("the Chelles") - we did thrusters with a 45 lb. bar, chest presses with 15 lb. dumb bells, calf raises on the leg press with 225 lbs., T-bar rows with 10 lbs., hip pops (where you have a rubber tube around both ankles and pop one leg out to the side), these crazy crunches involving a 6 lbs. weighted ball - hard to describe - it looked simple enough but ended up being a killer, and tricep hops (not really the name but I've blocked it out) - this looked fun when Brad demonstrated it, but holy crap, it was hard! He has this cage contraption that is mostly used for ab work, but in this instance, he put a Bosu ball under it (for us shorties...the tall people didn't need it). You stood on the Bosu ball, put your hands on the bars and jumped up, held yourself in a locked elbow position for one second, and then back down. Up and down...my triceps got a workout and then some! Michelle and I did 100 reps each of every exercise except for the tricep hops - somehow she had gotten ahead of me, so Brad had us split the last 50 - she did 25 of them while I did 50 tricep dips. I can tell you right now that I won't be lifting my arms above my head later on today, and it's not looking good to wash my hair tomorrow morning, lol!

What a crazy workout week...I am going to try and force myself to get up early on Friday morning and go for a quick one mile run in my neighborhood, just to get a speedy mile in. I feel like I need to redeem myself for such a slow run on Tuesday. This would be a first for me - running before I go to work. Hopefully now that I've put it out here, I will actually do it. We'll see. :)

Sof Sole Review and Giveaway!

2010-07-12T05:00:00.002-05:00

Airr (I want to add some extra "rrrr's" and talk like a pirate when I see the name of these) insoles and Coolmax Trainer socks!

I was very excited to get an email recently from Whitney at Sof Sole, offering to send me free products because I am a runner - you know that my ego practically exploded and I couldn't say "yes" fast enough! She sent me a pair of Airr shoe insoles and a three-pack of Coolmax Trainer socks to try out.

The Airr insoles feature air chamber technology in the heels and arch, with a Coolmax cover. I've always wondered about performance insoles but never felt that I really needed them (and therefore didn't want to spend the money), so this was a nice opportunity to give them a try. First, I matched up the insoles from my Brooks running shoes and trimmed the Airrs to fit. Then I tried the shoes on...and boy was that a tight fit - too tight for me. My running shoes are Forrest Gump thick, and I don't think that they are made to have such a cushion-y insole. Next, I tried them in my old Asics workout shoes and hello, that brought those shoes back to life! Having just retired those shoes, I can see being able to wear them again - the extra cushion felt great, and I gave my feet a true pounding with box jumps, burpees and some treadmill time. I'd recommend these, but with a bit of caution - if your shoes are already pretty snug, you may not have room for the insoles (and of course you know that you remove the insert that comes with the shoe before putting in the Airrs, right?).

Onto the socks. These are super soft - in fact, I felt like I was surrounding my feet in cotton batting when I put them on. They do have some cotton in their makeup - 30% - and I was a little concerned about that since I've read that cotton socks are a no-no when it comes to running. Anyway, I gave them a try on a run recently, and while the cotton didn't bother me, they were a little low cut and might have slipped down on my heel a little...all I know is that my shoe rubbed the back of my ankle, and that doesn't normally happen. I took pictures with both the Sof Sole Coolmax Trainers and what I usually wear, which are Thorlo Experia socks. You can see the height difference - again, it could be partly due to my running shoe style.

Coolmax Trainer socks barely start out above the back of my shoe.

Whereas the Thorlo Experias have more room above my shoe, which protected my ankle.

So while I wouldn't run in the Coolmax Trainer socks, I would use them for normal use with sneakers. Keep in mind that this is just my experience with them - your mileage may vary.

Now onto the giveaway: One lucky person will win, courtesy of Sof Sol, their Training Package, which consists of several pairs of socks (Coolmax Trainers and Anti-Friction) and a pair of insoles! To enter, just go to www.sofsole.com and then leave me a comment letting me know which product you would like to try. That's it - easy as pie! Open to U.S. residents only. One entry per person - I'll have random.org draw a winner Thursday night and post it on Friday, interwebs-willing. Good luck!

FCC Disclaimer: Giveaway will be fulfilled by Sof Sole, who sent me socks and insoles to try. Review of said products is all my opinion.

Friday Mishmash - Fashion Friday Frump Edition

2010-07-09T04:30:00.000-05:00

Why did I not know how good a bowl of cereal with fresh fruit is? Where have I been all my life?!? Recently, to branch out from my solitary dinners of turkey burgers and sweet potato fries (I know, where's the green veggies?), I sliced up some fresh strawberries, poured some Fiber One cereal and skim milk over them and wow - taste explosion in my mouth!

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Speaking of green veggies, it counts if you eat more than the daily recommended amount in one day since you don't have any on other days, right? Hypothetically speaking, of course.

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All right, I confess: Jeff has been traveling for months now and my zeal for cooking has died off when he's not home. At least I do make up for it when he is home...and I always eat a ton of fruit, so that's ok, right?

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This post is not all about food, I swear...but has anyone tried Oikos Chocolate Yogurt?
Yum, this is a nice treat! Tart Greek yogurt with chocolate on the bottom that you stir in and then spoon up...this one is finger-swiping good! I like that they come in little 4 oz. containers - makes portion control that much more, well, controlled. At 110 calories and 10 grams of protein, it's a nice after-dinner sweet. Reminds me of Red Mango's cocoa-flavored yogurt. And no, I am not getting anything from Oikos (nor Red Mango) to say this...it's just that good.

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OK, last item about food...remember the whole wheat orzo pasta that I recently bought? Well, I channeled my inner Biz, who comes up with the best recipes at the drop of a hat, and came up with this:

Orzo with Asparagus!

I saw a recipe in Cooking Light that had orzo, veggies and lemon juice, but when I went to go make this, I could not, for the life of me, find the magazine. Three trips around the house - there were not that many places that I could have left it, but that magazine was hidden. So I improvised - and it was good! I should do this more often. I cut up fresh asparagus, steamed it while cooking the orzo - drained everything, tossed with a little olive oil and the juice of a whole lemon, added some sea salt and cracked pepper, and then sprinkled a little parmesean on top. Nice way to combine veggies and carbs - Jeff and I both loved it. Quick and easy - my kind of meal! Oh, later on that evening, I found my Cooking Light - on the table next to my desk. Don't know how I missed it, but it was a happy accident. Here's their version, if you're interested.

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And now, it's time for Fashion Friday - Frump Edition. I had a hard time with my outfit this week...we had a reception on Thursday evening, so I needed to dress up a little more than my normal summertime uniform of Bermudas or Capris and a top. I wanted to wear my recently acquired funky top with my nice jeans, but when I put it on...

Frump happened.

Then I thought to add a sweater - turquoise? Nah.

Lime green? Meh.

I ended up going with no sweater. And felt pretty blah all day.

Driving home, I was thinking about what else was in my closet that would make this top work for me, and I glanced down and saw the off-white color on the sleeve. Eureka! I totally forgot I had this C-U-T-E canvas jacket from Talbots - in off-white! Came home, tried it on, and yes - that is what I should have worn to work! Then I made Jeff come outside and take pictures of me in all of the renditions I tried, for your viewing pleasure.

What I wish I had worn to work on Thursday!

Now, fashionistas, (and I'm talking to each and every one of you...even you, Miz!) - is it always this hard to wear a funky top? Am I too short? The green and blue sweaters are old and too big, but I love those colors and haven't replaced them in smaller sizes yet. Maybe that's why they didn't work? Is the top too big? I want this to work, and I like it with the canvas jacket, but geez, why is it so hard to get dressed?!?

Wednesday Workout Update

2010-07-07T12:18:00.000-05:00

Sunday: I did the July Fourth Fun Run 4K 5K - recap is here in case you missed it.

Monday: Brad had a treat in store for us, in the form of the Filthy Fifty. That's right - 50 reps each of ten exercises, for time. Most of us started with burpees - get those vile things out of the way first. Then it was on to jump pull ups (one foot goes in a gigantic rubber band that was looped around a pull up bar - the rubber band gives you a little boost as these are next-to-impossible, otherwise), kettlebell swings, lunges (50 per leg, oh joy...and our knee had to touch a little pad on the floor for it to count), push ups, butterfly situps (I asked for a substitution to save my sore tailbone and did a two-minute plank hold instead...why does the first minute go by in mere seconds while the next minute lasts FOREVER?), supermans (more ab work), push thrusters with a heavy bar (apparently I didn't extend high enough on several, which Brad saw, so I ~~had~~ got to do extras), ball slams (using the 16 pound medicine ball) and dun dun duh...box jumps. I made it through everything in 38 minutes - and I'm happy to report that no tears were shed during the box jumps - it still wasn't easy, but I handled it better, mentally.

Then we went to the cardio room where I spent some time on the elliptical - and when we were all done and bodies were lying all over the floor, I looked down at my legs to see dirty streaks of sweat going down my calves...this would be from getting my knees a little dirty while doing burpees (sure your knees aren't supposed to really touch the floor...but mine do) and then sweating...I felt like Pig Pen, but in a HOO RA way, which was pretty empowering!

Tuesday: Jenny and I went for a five mile run (she mentions casually, as if it's no big deal). Guess what? It's still a BIG DEAL!!! We ran fiiiiiivvvvveeeee miles!!! And also guess what? It's still pretty hard. But, we did things right this time...we both had hydration (I ran with Vitalyte, which was on clearance at Gander Mountain so I thought I'd give it a try...mixed it up the night before and filled half of my water bottle with it, then froze it, and topped it off this morning), I had on a Bondi Band, hat and carried a damp washcloth to combat the sweat-running-into-eyes issue, we had a Sports Beans break after three miles, ran at a very slow pace, and it all added up to a pretty successful run. I ran out of steam about 4.5 miles, though...it's just an adjustment, running that far, and considering it was 80 degrees with our ever-present humidity when we started (at 7:30 am no less), it's just going to be hard.

I got a little overmistic (new word coined when my speech was falling apart during the last mile) when I was setting Ricky Bobby for the run the night before - I had him set to beep every mile for a one minute walking break for five miles and then changed it to six...a few minutes later, I was all "what the heck are you thinking?" and changed him back to five. The over-optimist, that's me! Next time I'll bring my iTouch so when we stop talking (right around the three mile mark) we can play some tunes to keep us moving. And, as always, the stop at Smoothie King did the trick for getting some carbs (and potassium, thanks to the banana) back in our bodies - plus the iciness of the smoothie was perfect for cooling us off.

Wednesday: I am convinced that Brad and Linda conspired to try and kill us this week...first the Filthy Fifty on Monday, and then Tabata sets in cardio...but not just normal Tabata, oh no...for the first set, I was on the rower. Twenty seconds of all out effort followed by ten seconds of rest, for eight rounds. Then it was on to the spinner bike, where it was forty seconds of all out effort followed by ten seconds of rest. Then, it was the treadmill - with sixty seconds at 6.0, followed by ten seconds of rest. I like to have died, y'all. I am not a sprinter, except when it comes to the finish line in a race...and then you only sprint once, not eight times!

After that, it was off to the gym, where we spent five minutes at each of four stations (Bosu ball crunches, squat jumps, push ups and some weird low bar pull up) doing sets of twenty-five...the goal was to reach 400 total. Color me surprised when I finished at 475 - the most of our group! This never happens...I can only attribute it to the fact that Brad had Jenny doing an extra-special Filthy Fifty (she missed Monday's workout) - why was her workout extra-special? Because she had to wear the 20 lb. weight vest the entire time! I have to give her props and a shout out, because she finished her workout in 38 minutes - the same time it took me to do mine on Monday...only I wasn't wearing the weight vest. Jenny is super-strong!

Really, More Magazine???

2010-07-05T05:00:00.000-05:00

Caution: Rant ahead. Oh, and I'm linking a couple of nude pictures - tastefully done, but still, nekkid women - so click at your discretion.

The June issue of More magazine has me peeved off enough that I'm thinking about canceling my subscription - not that it would do any good. Two articles really set me off: first, in My Body as a Work of Art, there are pictures of nude women, supposedly embracing their body image...and while I am glad there are normal- and large-sized women depicted, they have been airbrushed so much that hell, I'd pose naked if I thought I'd look like that! What really, really got me was one woman who said she "gained 80 pounds and had a traumatic cesarean" - so where is her c-section scar? Where are her stretch marks? Now, I'm sure she had them coming into the photo session, but come on, More magazine...what are you trying to say? By airbrushing out this woman's battle scars, you are erasing the real woman. You might as well have just put a picture of a Barbie doll for all of the impact this article had.

As if this wasn't enough to irritate me, a few pages later I came across an article titled "Showdown at the Biggest Loser Boot Camp" - sounds interesting, right? Well. The woman who wrote the article did not have a weight problem. She came to the Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge, all 5'10" and 145 pounds of her, as a lark. A fun thing to do with her sister and mother - all of whom had normal BMI's and weight. They were obsessed with the television show and decided that going through boot camp would be fun - and hey, they might just lose five or 10 pounds! Not surprisingly, other campers - people who actually needed to lose weight - were a bit ticked off. Now I know everyone has their own journey in life, and if she had the money to spend at Fitness Ridge, I'm sure they were more than happy to take it. But a funny and introspective article about a week there could have been written by someone who actually did have a weight problem, and it would have carried a lot more weight (pardon the pun). As it was, the article More published only served to showed me how out of touch they are with real people.

Do you find yourself becoming more impatient with things like this, or am I becoming a cranky old lady?

Fourth of July Fun Run Recap!

2010-07-04T11:50:00.000-05:00

Woohoo, a Sunday post! Just wanted to do a little recap of the Fourth of July Fun Run that I ran this morning. This was a free, very casual race put on by our local Lion's Club. It was held at one of the parks that I normally run at, so I figured why not get up extra early on Sunday morning and join them? Yeah, I did question that decision when my alarm went off at 6:00 am, but once I got moving I was ok with it. Plus, this was my first race with Ricky Bobby, and I thought it would be a good practice run for the Whart-to-Wharf that I'll be running in three weeks.

Being that this was a run celebrating the Fourth of July, I dressed appropriately:

Picture is a little washed out, but...red shirt, white hat, blue shorts.My creative side came out and I tied some patriotic ribbon to my hat......and my shoes!

Waiting for the start, while the race official (I'm using this term loosely) described the course..."You can run this path for a mile, and then if you run from the first round-about with the Texas flag to the third round-about with the city flag - well, it was the city flag yesterday but today it's the American flag, and then you can run through this pathway..." at one point during his speech, I asked the lady next to me "Is there a finish line?" and she was all "I'm not sure" - so I pretty much decided to follow wherever the people in front of me went. Then the official pulled out a starter pistol from his shorts and BANG!!! we were off! A little overkill for such a small race, but you gotta love Texas, old men, and their chance to shoot a gun any time they can! Action shot right at the beginning of me unsuccessfully ducking a tree branch!

The path I ended up running - I did two laps around the big area and then two around the smaller, shaded area for a total of 3.1 miles - while this was advertised as a 4K, I figured with as loose as the paths were, I could just do my own distance (and no, I didn't end up running from round-about to round-about).Coming in for the finish - and this picture could mean that I'm either way ahead of everyone, or way behind...LOL, what do you think?!? Actually, since I made up my own distance, I was one of the last people to finish, but I covered more miles. AND, my time was normal, for me - 35:38 for a 5K.

Now, I did a few dumb things with this race. Somehow, I got it in my head that a 4K (which is what it was billed as) was going to be easy-peasy for me. Dur, Shelley - it's still almost 2.5 miles! I also was so focused on my outfit that I didn't wear a headband, and sweat was pouring into my eyes...not fun. I didn't bring a damp washcloth like I did last weekend, which would have been nice to blot the sweat AND cool me down a bit.

The other dumb thing I did was that I let myself be intimidated by all the other people around me and I didn't start running with my music - because my iTouch has a speaker, I don't wear headphones (I don't like them anyway), and I was worried that other people might be bothered by hearing my music. Me being me, I hit the wall about half a mile in (it's that solitary running thing), and I had to unstrap it from my arm, get it started, and re-strap it...while running the entire time. Ironically, that was my best mile time at 10:51, so apparently I'm very good at multi-tasking! Once I had the music going it was much better and I didn't think about quitting the rest of the run.

To all of my American readers, Happy Independence Day!!! And to everyone else - have a wonderful Sunday!

Friday Mishmash

2010-07-02T04:30:00.000-05:00

There were a lot of entries for my Nike+ Sportsband! This was the hardest giveaway because I really wish I could have given everyone who entered a Nike+...I'm so excited for all of you runners out there! I narrowed down the entries (not everyone who commented wanted to be entered), listed everyone on an excel spreadsheet so they would be numbered, and then let Random.org do the choosing...and the winner is:

Debby!

Woohoo! Send me an email with your name and address so I can get this in the mail to you. I hope you enjoy it, and, if you ever move on to a Garmin, will pass along the running juju to another newbie!

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Last Sunday we went to our usual Blue Baker for our after run/bike breakfast. Ordered the usual egg/feta/spinach on multi-grain bagel - this time it was made by a guy, not one of our normal two women. Jeff and I both agreed that it was the best bagel ever - we kept saying "my gosh this is good" as we plowed through them. So when I went back to the front of the cafe for a coffee refill, I complimented the guy on his extrodinary bagel sammie skills. He said "oh, I use a decent amount of butter" - WHAT??? Well crap, no wonder they were so good! I guess when we first started going there the women asked if we wanted butter, and we said no, and they remembered us each time (pretty hard to forget a red-faced sweaty mess early in the morning, lol). The guy didn't think to ask us, and we didn't think to tell him. And now that I know, I will have to give the "no butter" order next time. Darn!!!

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So I was on the phone with Helen the other day - yes, THE Helen - and I asked her if she had ever tried Pop Chips. Convo follows:

Shelley: "Have you ever tried Pop Chips?"
Helen: "No - I hear they are like crack."
S: "I've heard that as well, so I only bought a single-serving bag."
H: "Were they good?"
S: "Yes, but strangely enough I wanted chocolate after I finished them."
H: "So they ARE like crack!"
S: "Well, they did lead me into another drug, haha."
H: "Oh, then they are a gateway drug, like marijuana."
S: "Yes - apparently Pop Chips are the mairjuana of snacks."

/end convo. More than two hours of this kind of hilarity, deep thoughts and, at one point (and the reason she called) some major tech support for Ricky Bobby. Helen very awesomely walked me through different settings and screens and now RB is doing exactly what I want him to! Thanks, my friend - you are awesome!

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The other day I attempted to make a pasta side dish from July's Cooking Light magazine. I say attempted, because I read the recipe and went to the grocery store with a vague idea of what I needed...and then got sidetracked when I found these two interesting items:

Whole wheat orzo? Yay! And pearl couscous? No idea what to do with it, but again, it's whole wheat!What the recipe was supposed to look like - Farfelle with Tomatoes, Onions and Spinach

What mine looked like...um, forgot the feta cheese, and I cooked the spinach a bit longer - oh, and I used whole wheat pasta. Paired with a delicious turkey burger (running buddy Jenny's recipe) and topped with half of a 100-calorie guacamole packet and Frank's Hot Sauce. Tasty!

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Barring a ton of rain, I will get to run my first race in over two months on Sunday - it's just a free 4K Fun Run (i.e. no t-shirt or bib ::sad face::), but it's at the park where I normally run on Sundays and hey, it will be fun to run with a bunch of people...I sure hope a bunch of people show up - this is the first time they are doing something like this. So cross your fingers for me that the Alex will have burned himself out by then and the run will happen because I have missed the runner's camaraderie that comes with these events!

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This week's Fashion Friday is kind of a repeat, but I had to wear this shirt because the gorgeous bag that I won in Leslie's giveaway goes so well with it. Leslie recently gave away something like 15 purses that she hand made - I got mine in the mail this week and LOVE IT! Without further ado, I present the bag:

I love the colors! And the size is incredible - I threw a ton of stuff in it today (wallet, sunglasses, keys, flip flops (in case of rain - our parking lot at work floods), umbrella, kitchen sink, lip balm - ok maybe not the kitchen sink but I swear the bag probably could have held it) and it just kept expanding to hold everything and still looked great!

Here's me before work - repeat shirt (ooh, a Calvin Klein! - from TJ Maxx), jeans that used to belong to Barbara (hmmm, wonder what else I can ~~steal~~ borrow from her when I visit later this month?), faux-Birkenstocks (from Target - definitely not as comfy as Birks but much cheaper) and the bag...I know you are not really supposed to match everything so much - maybe we can call this "going together" rather than matching?Close up to show you that even my earrings ~~matched~~ went with the ensemble!

After work - trying to get a shot in better light...mostly failed. Boyfriend sweater is on because it finally did rain and of course I got cold...it was in the low 80's, people! Sweater is from Talbots; flat hair is from rain. Bag is still going strong!

Wednesday Workout Update and New Bike Pictures!

2010-06-30T12:09:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Somehow Ricky Bobby and I got our wires crossed and he wouldn't tell me my mileage as I ran. Boooooo Ricky Bobby! Aw, just kidding - I could never stay mad at you! Anyway, I discovered this as I started running - the screen displaying TIME and PACE was showing, and as I am not versed enough in his tricks, I quickly decided to run for time...I knew that when I was done and uploaded the stats to the Garmin website, I would see my mileage. SO, since I could see the pace, I tried to keep it slow - in the 12 minute range, and run for 40 minutes. Which I did! Weird not knowing how far, though. Long story short, when I got home, I found out that I ran 3.25 miles, so I was happy, as I set out to do a 5K!

Monday: Linda had us doing a countdown workout in cardio, where we each had a machine (I had the treadmill) and we had to burn 30 calories on it, then do 30 push ups, ball slams, bag kicks, ab dolly crunches and box jumps. Then back on the machine to burn 25 calories, and on to the rest...counting down to five. I made it to 20 on the treadmill, so I guess I will be finishing this workout on Wednesday - oh joy, lots more box jumps!

Brad was back from his maternity/paternity leave and put us through the ringer in the gym via a golf workout - every station had a "par" set for it, which meant that if this one was a "two par" then we could only take two breaks during the 50 reps. I did ok - it was mostly arm stuff - except for one station...my arms were burning by the time I got there and was one over par - oops! And it was funny - we did an ab station where you put your arms in these slings hanging from a rack (you have to stand on a chair to do this) and then bend your knees and bring them up to your belly button level - 50 times. I only took one break and thought "this wasn't bad at all" - until I woke up the next morning - oh, my abs had, indeed, gotten a workout!

Tuesday: Who ran five miles today? Why, that would be Jenny and I - that's right...we RAN FIVE FREAKIN' MILES!!! I am so proud of us, you have no idea! It was tough, not gonna lie, but the cool thing was that after we hit four miles and had our one-minute walk break, as soon as we started running again we hit a PR (personal record) for longest distance ran - woohoo! Celebrate the victories every chance you get!!! We ran around the park for several miles and then set off running toward Smoothie King. This was very challenging for us and I am so pleased that we DID IT!

Thanks to Helen's awesome tech support, I was able to set Ricky Bobby to beep after every mile, to give us one minute of "rest" (we slowed to a walk and drank water) and then beep again to start running...plus she helped me set the display so I could see our pace, distance and time - we tried to keep a slower pace since we were running so far. Also thanks to Helen's ~~astonishment admonishment~~ encouragement I brought my hand-held water bottle thingie and a pack of Sports Beans for us to share. In our talk on Monday, she couldn't believe that we weren't bringing water along on our runs, especially in this heat. Plus she gave me some good advice on replenishing carbs after a few miles...because after all, we want to keep running, and being dehydrated and depleted of fuel won't help with that!

So what's the difference between running three miles on Sunday and five miles on Tuesday? Sore legs! Yowza...my legs have not been sore with three mile runs, but this one did me in. I used the Stick and, again on Helen's advice, soaked my legs in a bathtub full of cold water. Apparently ice baths also help, but I couldn't bring myself to do that just yet. I will say that the cold bath did help, and while I was pretty beat for a few hours after the run, I did manage to vacuum my house late in the afternoon, so I'd say that was a pretty good recovery. Then I brought in my mail, and look what came:

It's my bib and info for the 10K I'm doing in California on July 25th!!!

Wednesday: We finished the cardio workout from Monday - it was easier because we started where we left off, so I was in the 20's on my countdown, although the box jumps still took the longest for me to do. I don't think they'll ever be easy for me. In the gym we did more golf "par" stations, among them, 50 push ups on the Indo board, which is quite challenging to stay balanced...I think I broke par on that one because I kept having to reset myself - oh well, I got them done!

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It's June, so that means its time to update my bike pictures. A little history: I started riding my bike as my first form of exercise when I began my diet. It was all I could do to ride three laps around my street - not block, street. Slowly I began to build up my laps, and also my desire for a fun, cute, PINK bike...so about five weeks into my journey, I was able to get this Electra Hawaiian Cruiser, which I still love to this day! Her name is Ipoholo, which means Sweet Ride in Hawaiian. While I still ride her (and Paco still loves to race me), she isn't my sole form of exercise anymore, but she was my start!

June 2010 - 110 pounds lost!

June 2009 - 77 pounds lost!

June 2008 - 16 pounds lost

June 2010 - Jeff's outfit choice (no, I really don't ride my bike in a dress!)

While there doesn't look like a huge difference between June '09 and June '10, I'm pleased - changes are still happening and that is a win in my book.

Nike+ Sportsband Giveaway

2010-06-28T05:00:00.000-05:00

This isn't my normal giveaway, in that usually a company provides something for me to review and an extra for a giveaway...this is for my Nike+ Sportsband!

As most of you know, I've gotten into running. And while I wouldn't exactly call it my passion, I do like it (most of the time) and I really love racing (except when I'm last...or hit the wall at mile .10, lol). Plus, weight has been dropping off my body much easier now that I'm running - woohoo! All in all, it's been really neat to discover that I can, in fact, run. And I am a runner! So much so that I asked for (and received) lots of great running accessories for my birthday earlier this month...and now that I have a Garmin (aka Ricky Bobby), I don't need my Nike+. This was a great tool for me - I could go for a run without having to map it out beforehand (darn near impossible when you run through parks, which is mostly where I run), and it would tell me my mileage as I ran. Plus it gave me an average pace, which was great to keep track of as I got a little faster. And it is accurate, too - when I went for my first run with Ricky Bobby, I wore the Nike+ and it was dead on...very cool.

I don't need it anymore, and in the interest of paying it forward, I'm offering it to another newbie runner. You will receive, from me, my cute pink/light gray Sportsband (complete with ~~dried sweat~~ my newbie running juju), shoe sensor, and the LaceLid that I bought to hold the sensor, as I don't have Nike shoes.

Please enter only if you really would use this...not just to win something. I'm sure I'll have more fun giveaways in the future for that purpose - I know I love to win things, which is why I like to offer them.

To enter, tell me about your running and why you need this - just a couple of sentences. Depending on how many entries I get, I'll probably narrow down my top five or ten and then let the random number generator choose, because I'm sure at that point I will want to pick everyone and obviously that won't be possible.

I'll take entries until Thursday night (July 1) and post the winner on Friday, interwebs-willing. Good luck!

Friday Mishmash

2010-06-25T04:30:00.001-05:00

But first, I want to thank you for all of the perspective on Wednesday's post. I guess sometimes I doubt everything I'm putting out here...but I started this blog as a way to remind myself of all the hard work I've put into losing weight and getting fit, and I truly believe that in order to keep on with my new lifestyle, I have to be able to look back see how far I've come. So I'll keep things pretty much as they are with regard to the WWU. And now, on to the mishmash!

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Sweet potato fries - who knew? Certainly not me...until recently. How weird was it for me to look forward to a dinner of baked sweet potato fries and a black bean chipotle veggie burger? (Answer: very!) Sometimes I still surprise myself with my healthy taste buds.

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The strangest thing happened during my workout on Monday - I was doing bicep curls with an exercise tube, and Linda turned me to face the mirror - she wanted me to see how defined my arm muscles are getting. But as I did the workout, I saw something on my left cheek - like a smudge. When we finally finished the eight sets, I dropped the tube and said out loud "what is on my cheek?" as I moved closer to the mirror. Um, there was no smudge - it was indented. Kathleen said "oh, you have a dimple!" - but where the heck did that come from??? It was a freaky enough that Linda tugged on my cheek (gently) to get it to even out! She said that I must have just lost the last bit of body fat on my face - so weird, because it practically happened right before my eyes! Gah - if I could only get my belly to disappear like that! A couple of hours later it wasn't as noticeable, so it must have been due to a bit of dehydration. On our run the next day I was telling Jenny about it and she said "I see it now!" - which leads me to believe that I may be the first person on earth to have an exercise-induced dimple - LOL.

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Has anybody tried Method laundry detergent? I will admit, I bought it completely for the bottle - I was intrigued by the pump. My verdict? I love it! No messy cap, no spillage - you just pump the detergent directly into the washer (in my case, the pull-out drawer). Don't tell the Method people, but I plan on refilling the bottle with my Tide detergent until I use it all up. Still, very cool product packaging, Method peeps!

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OK, it's getting real now. One month from today is the Wharf-to-Wharf 10K race that I will be running. And while I'll be at the starting line with my best friend, Barbara, she will be walking it due to the knee pain that she gets while running. So that means not only will I be running a race without a buddy, I'll be running a 10K (6.2 miles) - which I have never done! Sure, I ran that distance during the duathlon, but that was two 5K's and I had a 45 minute rest break in between each one. EEK!!! I have one month to step it up and get my running distance up to at least 5 miles without stopping (I figure the excitement of the race will carry me through the other 1.2). I think Ricky Bobby and I will be spending a lot of time together in the next few weeks...

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And now, it's time for another exciting installment of Fashion Friday! (cue soap opera voice over) When we last left her, Shelley had finally bought some cute shoes...what will she wear them with today? Let's eavesdrop as she chooses her outfit...

Hmm, today I want to wear one of my standbys - a print shirt and bermudas. Oh cool - this shirt goes with my new birthday heritage necklace! I'll be daring and pair the shirt with my khaki bermudas so I can wear my new bronze BOC sandals. (Gets dressed, sits down to put on make up, goes to take picture for FF) What the hell??? How can these shorts stretch out so fast? I feel like a fat cow in them. Not going to go through today feeling like that...what else can I wear?

Well, I never thought these capris would fit! Mom gave them to me last October - won't she be surprised to see I'm finally wearing them. I like the color - this feels much better. (Tosses stupid bermudas into Goodwill bag).

It's supposed to rain today and I better throw on a sweater in case the A/C at work decides to freeze me out. Cool, this sweater that I bought months ago on the 70% off rack at Macy's is the perfect color! But huh...I went from feeling great a minute ago to feeling like a fat cow again.That's better - button it up and I'm feeling back to fabulous!

OK, this was a little silly, but I wanted to show how much clothes affect me. For example, I've figured out that printed shirts like this one hide my belly roll. If I were to wear the same style shirt in a solid color (especially a lighter color), I would be miserable because the roll would be so noticeable. And the pants - after pretty much only wearing black pants or jeans for decades, it's a big deal for me to wear khakis. So when I saw how quickly that pair of bermudas stretched out, I knew I couldn't go all day wearing them. (Seriously, Target - what is up with that fabric?). The second pair of capris? I resisted wearing them because the waist is a bit higher than what I've been buying and they really cut into my stomach - belly roll was made worse. But I was getting desperate - the clock was ticking and I was going to be late for work if I didn't get it together quickly. Luckily, the last five pounds that I've lost has made the waistband loose and I didn't have the belly roll issue.

I always thought that once I lost weight, dressing would be a breeze. Not so...I am still dealing with the aftermath of decades of obesity and I think there will always be parts of my body that I will have to work hard to conceal. I'm getting more comfortable with what looks good on me, but it can be a challenge. Still, as long as I don't let it get to me, and go with the attitude of "these clothes aren't working for my body" rather than "my body looks terrible in clothes" I'm ok with trying things until I hit on something that works.

Wednesday Workout Update - Survey Says! Edition

2010-06-23T10:24:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Usual early morning run - I started on the wooded side of the park, and except for running into nine gazillion spider webs (obviously I was the first person of the day on that path), it was pretty pleasant. And that's when it hit me - hey, I'm running in shade! I should keep doing this! So I made a few laps around that path and then I crossed over to the sunny side. Why? Because I am dumb. I got hot really fast - my face started burning up, and I ended up taking a couple of short (less than 30 seconds) walking breaks. I ran 3.1 miles (5K), which was good. Next time I'm going to stay on the shaded side, even though it will get a little boring. Why has it taken me so long to realize this?!?

Monday: Brad was out as he is helping to care for Kara, their newest daughter, Ellie, and their other children. So it was all Linda - and it was tough! We did "anti-Tabata" sets in the cardio room, where we went at 80% for 20 seconds, then all out for 10 seconds...then rested for 30 seconds. Eight times per machine! The craziest was on the treadmill - I ran at a 6.5, then Linda upped it to 7.5 for 10 seconds...after a few rounds of that, she had me at a 7.0 and sprinting at an 8.0! That was really fast for me, but I felt good and I think my running is improving, bit by bit. In the gym, we did more Tabata sets - just regular ones, though, that targeted our arms.

Tuesday: Jenny and I met at our usual park, where I had a plan for this run - to stay in the shade as much as possible, and to run a mile, then walk for 30 seconds, times three miles. I got Ricky Bobby programmed and off we went. The first mile went by pretty quick - we clocked in at a 12:02 pace. The 30 seconds of walking went by like it was nothing, and we were off for our second mile, which we did at an 11:47 pace. During that mile, I also realized that Ricky Bobby was counting down the mileage, which was a great emotional boost when I read "40" and first thought we had only run for four-tenths of a mile when in actuality it was six-tenths - woot!

By the time we finished our next 30 second walk, we were pretty hot, even with the shade (we just kept looping around the park) and we stopped talking, except to encourage each other with "we've got this" and "run to that light post and then check Ricky Bobby" - but you know what? That was our fastest mile of the day! We hit an 11:24 pace for mile three! I have to say that the tiny little walking breaks really rejuvenated us for the next mile. It was a good run, and mentally, we both needed to see that we could go a decent distance again. I'm wondering if next week we should pace ourselves slow for the entire run - like in the 12 minute range - and try to run for four miles...runners out there, what say you? Also, I need to email tech support (aka Helen) and find out if it's possible to do the mile/walk alerts AND a pace alert at the same time.

Wednesday: We were in the gym with Linda for the entire hour with a "destiny" workout, which means that one person holds everyone's fate in their hands - that person had to do 50 burpees while everyone else was either on a machine or doing something fabulous with dumb bells - the machine people couldn't stop until the burpee person was done...talk about pressure! We hit our abs, quads, calves, arms, back - pretty much everything. I did my set of burpees in five minutes, 30 seconds which was pretty good for me. All I can say is that it felt a heck of a lot easier doing them without wearing the 20-lb. weight vest, which is how I did burpees last week!

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And now, a survey. Are you getting bored with these WWU posts? Except for the running, which is fairly new and keeps changing, the workout descriptions are kind of the same week in and week out. Should I stop writing about them? Sometimes I bore myself when I read these posts - unless it was a particularly hard or crazy workout (like tire flipping). What do you think? Should I:

Stop with the WWU already - we get it, you exercise!
Keep writing about running, but not the workouts.
Maybe write about the workouts if they were particularly interesting .
Don't change a thing!

I'm interested to hear what you all think, so please let me know in the comments. But be kind, as I cry easily, and you don't want to see that, do you?

The Scale Means Nothing...

2010-06-21T05:00:00.004-05:00

People, I try. Really I do. I don't weigh myself all that often, and I work very hard at not letting the number on the scale dictate my mood. But then I step on it and get a new low number and become positively giddy, so what does that say about my "it's not about the number on the scale, it's about eating right and being fit" philosophy? Sigh...it's not easy being me.

This puts me at 109 pounds lost!

In the latest podcast of Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone, Carla and Shauna interviewed Stephanie Dolgoff, author of My Formerly Hot Life: Dispatches From Just the Other Side of Young. It was an all around fun and thought-provoking interview, and one thing Stephanie said really struck me. I'm paraphrasing here, but she said "Eating when I'm hungry, stopping when I'm full and exercising a decent amount brings my body to the weight it should be, not necessarily what I want it to be."

I've been thinking about this sentence over and over, and actively trying to practice acceptance at whatever the scale reads, because at this point in my weight-loss journey, it's not all about the number. Sure, I'm thrilled to hit this new low - I mean, c'mon...back when I weighed 256 pounds, this number felt about as unattainable as walking on the moon. But little by little, I'm getting there - wherever "there" might be...currently, I don't really know. I'm eating healthy food for the most part and working out a couple of days a week. I'm trying to increase my running, but it's hard in this Texas heat. I'm a bit mystified as to why I'm on a losing streak - really, I'm not doing anything different - but I guess things are falling into place and for that, I'm grateful.

Now remind me of this next time I write an "I hate my scale!" post. Please. :)

Friday Mishmash - Picture Edition!

2010-06-18T04:30:00.000-05:00

I love this time of year - summer fruit is so abundant and cheap! Currently in my fridge I have cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and grapes...and a couple of bananas on my counter. It's hard to resist when everything is so good right now! A few years ago you would be lucky to find an apple in my fridge - but plenty of junk food would be available. Times have changed and I love it!

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Left: Asics 2150; Right: Asics 2140

I used some of my birthday money and bought a new pair of workout shoes - they are so pretty and clean! Tell me, am I the only person who gets the tops of their workout shoes dirty? I know it's from kicking the bag during cardio...just hope I can hold off on doing that (you listening, Linda?) for a few weeks so I can enjoy the newness of my shoes! I will save my old shoes in case I ever decide to do a mud run...I hear you can actually lose them during one of those races!

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Showing off Ricky Bobby, my new Garmin!

In today's Keeping it Real segment, I bring you this picture as proof that yes, there is flab on my arms. I knew it was there, but unless I hold my arm a certain way, I don't see it. FYI, this is definitely the way to show the extra skin and flab. I will say that I am wearing sleeveless shirts now (as evidenced in the picture) - I feel much better about my arms than I did a year ago, and they are more toned and a tiny bit sculpted, thanks to all of the weight-room work that I've been doing. Also, in re-reading that linked post, I was just fitting into size 12 pants and size large tops - and now, I'm in size 8 (with an occasional size 6, thank you Target) pants and size medium and sometimes small tops - wow, I didn't think I'd changed that much in a year. And this is the reason why I started my blog - so I could look back and see how far I've come, and remember how hard I've worked.

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I had one of those good hair days last Friday - I absolutely LOVED how my hair turned out. Do you think I have been able to duplicate it since? Of course not! I've come close, but no cigar. Really, it's a crap shoot every morning as to what it decides to do. Anyway, I was feeling full of sass when I took this picture - hence the pose. So I'll start Fashion Friday off with it:

Liz Claiborne navy Bermudas (TJ Maxx), top from Ross, bronze flip flops are by Oka Bee bought two years ago (I think). They are cute and are supposed to be comfortable, but that is not the case with me, and I only wear them when I won't be doing a lot of walking. Here's a close up of the shoes:

See how nice and new they look? That's because they rarely get worn - too heavy and they just feel funny. Sad, really.

I thought that was going to be it for Fashion Friday, because I just could not come up with anything good to wear to work on Thursday (which is usually when I do my FF outfit). I kept trying on different options Wednesday evening and nothing was working. I was layering solid-colored t-shirts with jackets, cardigans and belts and I hated everything. I finally realized that what I was hating was my belly - it really shows in light solid colors. Prints? I'm happy. I should (wo)man up and take some pictures of me in those yucky outfits so you can see what I'm talking about...maybe next week when I've recovered from the ugh-i-ness of it all. (Tell me you can relate!) Anyway, on Thursday morning I put on this dress, which I bought over a year ago - another Kick-Ass Kohl's dress (™ Kristen). Thanks to the stretchy fabric, it still fits - very few things that I bought a year ago do, as my size has gotten smaller. I wore it last week to that event, and I remember the knot in the tie bothering me when I leaned back against my chair. I had the sudden inspiration to wrap it back around to the front and tie it there, and wow, did I love the look! I felt positively tiny! Which was a wonderful change from the blobby feeling of the night before - amazing how clothes can make or break you.

Close up so you can sort-of see the tie wrap detailDress with the tie in the back - see how I lose my waist?Side view - tied in back, no waistSide view - tied in front, waist defined!

And now the shoes question - which ones would you have worn?

New Impo sandals - bought last weekend at Macys for the bargain price of $10!Close up - see the cute cork wedge heel? And I loved the silver detail on the black!Dana Buchmann turquoise sandals - bought last year at Kohls (of course!)Rampage wedges(!) bought at Macy's - on sale for $27!

Obviously I felt like I had some cute choices, thanks to my recent shopping spree. You know I went with the black strappy wedges, right? I loved my outfit - felt very tall (for me) and slim. I am very please with how the dress changed, simply by tying the tie differently. I feel like I got a new outfit - for free!

Wednesday Workout Update - Say Yes to the Dress Edition

2010-06-16T11:21:00.003-05:00

Sunday: Went for my first run with Ricky Bobby. He likes to go fast, and I had my best run yet, believe it or not! Sure, it may have been a mental boost to run faster with him, but as we all know, mental is most of the battle, be it diet, exercise, or whatever. I set out to run two miles in 80* heat and humidity - yes, at 7:00 a.m. Instead of fighting the weather, I just decided to accept it, because god knows I can't change it, lol! Yes I was a hot sweaty mess inside of the first five minutes, but it was ok, and the run was good. And you can't beat our after-run(me)/bike ride(Jeff) tradition of hitting Blue Baker for a spinach, egg and feta bagel sandwich and coffee. We sit outside by the fountain - it's a nice way to start our Sunday. If you had told me even six months ago that I would be willingly getting up early on the only day I have to sleep in, and exercising, I'd have laughed in your face...strange how things change!

Jeff didn't mind that Ricky Bobby had breakfast with us!

Ricky Bobby tells me that I ran 2.25 miles in 25:16, with an average pace of 11:14, and my first mile pace at 10:25. Unfortunately, he is acting like a typical man and isn't telling me everything I need to know, like what my second mile time was. I'll get him to spill it - just have to get inside his head!

Monday: Ow my arms. Ow my arms. Ow my arms. They burn! But let me back up - first we did one-minute speed sets in cardio - I started on the bike, where I would pedal like a madwoman for one minute, then leisurely pedal for another minute, then back to being a madwoman. You would think pedaling like crazy for only a minute isn't that hard, but let me tell you that this is when a minute feels like for-ev-er! Did four sets of that, then took a break (ha!) with a two-minute wall sit - then onto the rower for another speed set.

Then we went to the gym where Brad had stations set up with choices - we had to do two sets and they could be one, the other, or one of each. I started off with the rope wrestle - it's where the weight bench back is set at a slant and I stood behind it, resting one arm on it while holding a heavy rope. I dropped my arm down, slowly, as Linda held onto the rope and provided resistance - both on the way down and back up. Ten times per arm, times two. Holy hell that is hard. My arms are burning all the way from my shoulders down to my forearms as I'm typing - this exercise works every muscle in your arm! It was very cool to look down and see my bicep muscle look so big, and I knew that this was "making changes" as Brad likes to put it, on a part of my body that I want to see changes, but ouch, ouch, ouch. Definitely needed to push the protein for muscle repair after this one. After that, I did walking lunges holding 15 pound dumb bells for four minutes (instead of doing negative leg presses...I don't mind the leg press so much, but the negative resistance makes me so freakin' sore for days afterward that I will do anything to get out of them). Finally I did kettlebell rows with a 26 pound kettlebell - you squat and then stand up quickly, pulling the kettlebell to your chin. Two sets of 50 reps. My arms are like limp noodles now. Owie!

Tuesday: Jenny and I met up to go running - she proposed changing things up a bit, so we drove to a different park and ran most of the way to Smoothie King. Why only most of the way? Because we died. It was 80+ degrees and so humid. Both of us agreed that our legs felt fine with the running...it was the upper body that gave us trouble. And while we were disappointed to run even less than the week before (hey, at least we're consistent...consistently going backward, haha!), we finally came to the conclusion that running in this heat and humidity is just going to be hard. And there will be some runs that are not good. So we are going to set out with a certain number in mind for each run - like maybe 3 miles - and if when we reach it, if we feel like we could keep going, we will...otherwise, that will be it for the day - and THAT'S OK (<---caps lock for mine and Jenny's sake).

I looked up training programs for half marathons, and most have you starting twelve weeks from the race - which for us would mean starting the end of August. So we need to look at this summer running as just keeping our bodies used to running. I would still like to be able to run for eight miles without stopping by Labor Day, and I think we can work up to it...but it's not going to be as simple as going out for a run, not with this kind of Texas heat. Ricky Bobby is now telling me what our "splits" are (i.e. pace for each mile ran), thanks to sweet Helen, who took the time to send me a detailed email on how to set him. She has a lot going on in her life right now and the fact that she did this touches me deeply. Thank you, Helen!

Wednesday: I am going to be perfectly honest here and tell you that I did not want to go workout today. There were several reasons - for one, I knew we were going to be finishing Brad's workout from Monday, and I would be facing the "choice" of doing two sets of 30 box jumps on the 18" box (which I can't do - I can't jump that high...I can do the 12" box, but that one was in the cardio room and he wouldn't let me bring it to the gym, no matter how many times I offered) or doing 60 burpees while wearing the 20-lb. weight vest. Ugh ugh ugh. Obviously I was going to have to do the burpees, and we all know how much I hate those. Another reason why I didn't want to go today is that our workouts are getting harder - Brad and Linda are pushing us more and more. Which is the reason I go there - to be pushed - but dang, it's really been tough lately. Sometimes I just don't want to have to work so freaking hard!

So, there you have my attitude going into today's workout. What happened? Well, it was like old home week - Will was there, along with Cameron, who used to train me when I worked out on Tuesday afternoons, and of course Linda and Brad. Brad was doubling up on sessions today - having the Thursday people come in for their workouts because he will be busy tomorrow...his sweet wife, Kara, will be having their new baby! It was a mishmash of people, but it all worked out just fine. Linda took Kathleen, Ashley and I to the gym (poor Jenny was out with a pinched nerve in her neck), where I did 100 twisting crunch-type things - I sat on the weight bench with my feet slipped under a strap, leaned back at an angle, and rested a weighted bar behind my neck while I twisted from side-to-side. That was quite the ab workout! It aggravated my tailbone a bit which is frustrating - it's been sore since January. I have a feeling complete rest from those types of workouts is what will make it heal completely, but obviously I don't do that.

Then it was on to the burpees - Linda strapped the vest on me and off I went. I did them in sets of ten, rest a minute, another set of ten...I was not fast, but I got them done. Blergh. After that, we went to cardio, where the newly-married Will took us to the elementary school that is about 1/4 mile down the street. Now, in the old days that walk alone would have been my workout, but Will had us doing Tabata sprints around the track - we sprinted for 20 seconds, stopped for 10 seconds, and did it over and over for a total of eight times. I am not a sprinter (unless I'm close to to the finish line) so these were tough! After that, he had us do a steady run around the track - it's 300 meters, so that was no problem. Then we walked and jogged back to the gym - boy, I was a sweaty mess by the end of that workout. But you know what? I'm glad I went.

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And now, the Say Yes to the Dress part of this post. Today is mine and Jeff's 26th anniversary! I was curious, now that I am fitting into such small (for me) sizes, whether I could get into my wedding dress. I can't remember exactly what I weighed on my wedding day, but I suspect it was somewhere in the 125 - 130 pound range. And yes, I weigh a lot more than that now, but all of the workouts have changed my shape so much that I couldn't resist. So out of the box came my very 80's-style dress...and I got it on - woohoo!

JC Penney size 7/8 dress - it fits...or does it?Um, yeah...couldn't quite zip it up! But hey - this is the closest I've ever come to fitting back into the dress since the wedding, so I'm happy!

And here we are, moments after being declared husband and wife:

June 16, 1984

No big plans to celebrate- in fact, he's out of town until late Friday night. But, Saturday is the Texas Reds Festival, and I told him I'd buy him a steak (actually we get two free steak tickets because I will work the Artist's Showcase again this year) - who says romance is dead?!? LOL

"You Can't Eat That"

2010-06-14T05:00:00.000-05:00

"You can't eat that" - I was told that not once but twice at a dessert and coffee fundraiser that we went to a week ago.

Boy did this bring back memories...I was transported back to the summer of 1980, standing at a Togo's sandwich shop in Santa Cruz, California. I was there with my boyfriend, Jon, and a bunch of my friends - we routinely drove "over the hill" from Santa Clara, where we lived, to Santa Cruz, for a day at the beach. We always stopped at Togo's to get a sandwich - and let me tell you, those sandwiches were good! Anyway, that particular day has stayed with me because I was very thin - like 105 pounds thin, having just spent several months dieting (down from a starting weight of 120 - oh, the teenage-angst-horror!). I was looking forward to a Togo's sandwich, having deprived myself from them (and a lot of other food) for quite a while. As I stood in line with my friends, looking at the menu board and trying to decide which delicious sandwich to get, Jon said "you aren't going to get anything, are you?" - and I'm sad to say that the 17-year-old pleaser that I was actually said no. I learned that day what real hunger was - I didn't have anything other than a couple of TaBs. We spent all day at the beach...can you imagine not eating anything? Welcome to my life back then.

When Diet Coke was invented, it seemed like manna from heaven compared to TaB!

So I didn't get the sandwich. I decided that I should lose a couple more pounds, for insurance, so that when I did finally eat something like a Togo's sandwich, it would be ok. But it never was, and sadly I spent the first half of my senior year of high school barely eating anything, but getting approval from my all-important boyfriend for being so good about not eating - oh, and for being thin. By the time I finally broke up with him, I weighed 82 pounds. And I don't think my eating was ever normal after that...until recently.

Now, I eat good, clean foods most of the time. I watch my calories, I workout - basically, I do what it takes to maintain a healthy weight (although I wouldn't mind losing ten more pounds, I'm obviously not trying all that hard). When I know there is an "eating occasion" coming up, I plan for it. I knew that the particular event last Monday evening would have cheesecake and pies from a local pie shop and that I might want a piece, so I ate a bit less during the day in anticipation. Once there, however, there were only banana cream pies, which I can pass on, and all sorts of cheesecake - chocolate, strawberry, etc. - but nothing stood out as something that I had to have, so I didn't pick up a dessert. Well, one of my friends noticed that I only had a cup of coffee and said "Oh that's right - you can't eat that" - indicating the pie on his plate. And then a few minutes later, another friend did the same thing! Now, it must be noted that these two men are older, and both did express shock at how I looked (it's been a few months since I've seen one, and close to a year since the other, who didn't recognize me at first). And I didn't respond - what was the point, really? But what I wanted to say was YES I CAN EAT THAT.

I think that the next time this happens, and I'm sure that it will, I won't be giving anyone the benefit of the doubt ("they don't mean anything by that"), or, in this instance, the combination of an old person's pass AND my being stunned that someone would be insensitive. I will firmly, politely and, me being me, nicely, smile and say "sure I can" and enjoy my food, dammit.

Friday Randomness

2010-06-11T05:00:00.000-05:00

Really HEB? You can't just sell fruit on its own merits - you have to suggest sauteing it in butter??? Ahhh, you know you live in Texas when the grocery store wants you to fry your apricots!

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There is a special place in my heart for Woman's Day magazine - after all, they were the first (and so far, the only) magazine to write about me - ME! So when they emailed, asking if I would help publicize their new project, of course I said yes. The Woman's Day SlimDown with Joy Bauer will help selected participants reach their weight loss goals with a diet plan and personalized counseling. They'll also share their experience with Woman's Day readers by blogging on WomansDay.com from August 2010 - January 2011. Click here to enter if you are interested.

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I'm feeling better now. Even went for a bike ride on Thursday evening - everything had dried out from our tremendous rain event (don't you love it when weathermen call it that?) of Wednesday. Check out these pictures of the park where Jenny and I run:

We ran across this bridge on Tuesday...normally the water is no where near this high!That sign sticking up in the center of the picture is a Frisbee (or disc, if you will) golf basket - normally there is a tiny creek with the Frisbee golf baskets throughout the area.

This being Texas, everything is almost back to normal already. I have never seen such extreme weather like we have here...sure keeps you on your toes!

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The other day, Leslie said she was "snail-pacing" her weight-loss. Boy, do I ever understand that! But I have to say, that even though it's been six months since I hit 100 pounds lost, and I've only lost eight pounds since then, I am losing. And as we all know, a slow weight loss is better than no weight loss. Here's something interesting that I found when I went back to read my milestone post, and it ties in with Fashion Friday. Back in November, I posed for a picture with my "100-pound boots" (my reward to myself) in the same dress that I wore to work yesterday. I am only eight pounds lighter, but the dress is much looser on me now. I know I keep saying this, but it's the workouts and the running that is changing my body shape so much.

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And now, it's time for another exciting installment of Fashion Friday! I have to apologize for the poor quality of the pictures - black is a hard color to photograph, especially indoors and into a mirror. One of these days I'll have to figure out a better system for taking the pictures - it's not easy to do self-portraits!

I do love this belt - thank you, everyone, for convincing me to keep it!

Anyway, I'm wearing my basic black dress, with a teal camisole that I realized went with the new/old (heritage?) blue necklace that my mom gave me for my birthday - sweet! I'm also wearing the silver belt that y'all gave me so much advice on. I have to say that it felt a little strange to wear it higher that my "pants waist" but I think it made my waist look better. I think the dress might be a little long, but I'm too cheap to have it hemmed. And I think I could do better in the shoe area - but I don't know what would look good. While I'm in California next month visiting Barbara, we can go shoe shopping - but what do you suggest I look for? I'm kind of clueless when it comes to shoe fashion.

Close up so you can see how perfectly the necklace goes with the camisole - I got lots of compliments on the necklace and it was a good story to tell of how it came about. Thanks again, Mom!

Have a good weekend - I plan on getting to know Ricky Bobby better (shhh, don't tell Jeff!).

Wednesday Workout Update and Woohoo, My Garmin is Here!

2010-06-09T08:22:00.000-05:00

But first (swivel, Julie Chen-style), Jenny is making me post a disclaimer about all of the gross dead animals under my couch: I have two cats and obviously they are bringing in their treasures. And hiding them. Laurie asked "didn't you smell them????" - um, no...but then again, I live in a house full of boys, so there are lots of strange smells around here. (We're just going to pretend that the animal graveyard has been there for at least two years (which is even grosser when you think about that) because that's how long it's been since any son has lived at home.) BTW, if I recall correctly, I think my Grandmother didn't like hearing the word "gross" and she probably would have been really grossed out by this entire paragraph, not to mention the whole dead animals thing.

On to the update!

Sunday: Holy cow, was it ever hot and humid. We were at the park by 7:20 am, and the air was thick - I'm just gonna call it like it was: Hot Fog. Geez, it was bad - 80* plus high humidity...after nearly 18 years of living in Texas, I'm used to heat and humidity, but this was exceptionally bad. I had planned on doing two quick miles - like in the 10 minute range - but no. I slogged through the first half mile, thinking all kinds of oddball thoughts, when I became aware of the fact that I wasn't hearing any music - and that's when I realized that I forgot my iTouch - Doh! I made it through two miles, but it was not at the pace I was aiming for. Oh well - at least I ran, right? And I felt better about not having a good run when Brad (who is training for a triathlon) mentioned on Monday that he had an awful run Sunday morning - an hour earlier than I was out - said he felt like some of his clients who go on and on about "I hate this" "why am I doing this" - lol, I think it was funny for him to reach that point. But really, that's how bad the conditions were.

Monday: Fun times - we did a team workout in cardio - as a group, Linda had us do two miles on the treadmill, 1800 revolutions (not sure if that is the correct term) on the elliptical, 200 push ups, crunches and squats, and 100 tire flips. These workouts are fun because we work together to complete everything, and if one person is stronger on a certain exercise, then they take over that one while everyone else hits the other exercises. The elliptical is new and I'm a bit awkward using it - think it will just take me some time. Shoot, I didn't know how to walk, much less run, on the treadmill when I first started working out! The tire flips were wild - first of all, the tire was wet and dirty, and as you've seen in these pictures, it's not easy to lift up - you are pretty much putting your entire body into it (the bruise on my left thigh is proof). Kathleen and I flipped the tire back and forth - and I wish I brought my camera so I could show you just how filthy we got! My yellow t-shirt was black, as were my hands, arms, legs - I even had dirty sweaty water run into my sock! Now, I'm glad I wasn't going anywhere after this workout (sometimes I have to go into work for a staff meeting - that would have been lovely), but I have to say that getting down and dirty was kind of fun, and I can now see the appeal of those Mud Run obstacle races!

Tuesday: After last week's spectacular four mile run, both Jenny and I were pumped up to get even more miles in - plus we implemented the "will run for food" plan by meeting at the Smoothie King parking lot and then carpooling to the parking lot at the park so we could run back to Smoothie King. However, we didn't plan for Hot Fog - it was 82* and 79% humidity at 7:30 am - which translated into a drippy sweaty energy-zapping run. We made it to Smoothie King (geez, how many times can I write that in one post?) but it wasn't pretty. And it was only three miles - next time we will have to run completely around the park before heading out onto the street to you-know-where. Once we had our post-run refreshments and had a chance to sit down and chat, we realized how funny it was to be disappointed that we only ran three miles - when just a few months ago, we would have LOVED to run three miles! Luckily, it's not always this bad with the heat and humidity, so who knows - we may just have an awesome run next week!

Wednesday: Woke up with a rumbly tummy and cold sweats, so I decided that I had better A) not expose my workout peeps to anything should I have a bug (I am not sick); and B) stay home and not stress my body should it even be thinking about getting sick (I am not sick). Do you think if I keep saying I'm not getting sick it that will make it so? Positive thinking, right?

Garmin update:

Thank you for all of the Garmin input - I ended up ordering the 305 (decided I would probably regret spending over $100 more for something smaller and cuter, but missing some crucial features) and it arrived yesterday (of course, not in time for the morning run, but oh well). I encountered some huge obstacles once I decided on the 305 - namely, that my bank put a block on all online debit card transactions for consumer electronic and pharmaceutical purchases - so not only could I NOT buy my Garmin, I couldn't buy my drugs, either (<---kidding on this one)! Apparently bank card fraud is running rampant at the moment, and this is their way of protecting everyone. And while I appreciate that, I couldn't believe that it was not.possible.at.all to order the Garmin with my debit card - oh, and have I mentioned that they don't even sell them in my town? So that option was out. Luckily, I have a couple of sons with credit cards, so I got Max to make the purchase for me (thanks, Max!) - it feels so clandestine, though! But now my sweet new toy is here and I can't wait to take him out on a run!

I've named him Ricky Bobby - because I wanna go fast (and I love Will Ferrell)!

Ricky Bobby came with a lot of stuff - looks like I have some learnin' ahead!

Things That Keep Me on My Toes...Plus Mini Weekend Wrap up

2010-06-07T05:00:00.000-05:00

I saw a picture on Facebook of an old friend from my San Antonio days. Our families both moved from SA around the same time, only she moved out of state. Last time I saw her in person was about seven or eight years ago - we all had returned to SA for an Eagle Scout ceremony and I was amazed at how thin she was. She never was hugely overweight (especially when standing next to me, lol), but she probably carried 25 extra pounds or so. Well, she had lost all that weight and then some through Weight Watchers and had become a WW leader. Cut to now - not only has she regained those 25 pounds, but many, many more. I saw a picture of her in a bathing suit and let's just say that I recognized those legs - they used to be mine. People, this kind of thing scares me. I don't know what circumstances led her to go from being a WW leader to back to one of us, but wow. It's a good reminder that obesityland still exists and I always, always have to remember that it's a short road trip there.

A woman came into my workplace on Saturday - she used to take art lessons there, and I saw her once a week for about two years. Then her teacher had to stop the lessons for a while. Well, he started back up on Saturday, and when Marilyn came in, I was happy to see her and got up to give her a hug. I had almost reached her when she said "oh my god, I didn't recognize you" - poor woman, must have wondered why this stranger was going in for a hug! This kind of thing - people not recognizing me - unnerves me a bit. Do I really look that different? Maybe it's the new glasses that threw her. I'm still the same person - just with longer hair and a smaller body. Weird.

A woman came into my workplace (sound familiar? different woman) a couple of times last week - she found some jewelry in our gift shop that she loved and I sold it to her - then she found another necklace but wanted it shortened, which led to a discussion about why necklaces are so long. I said that for a lot of people, the shorter lengths are too short - meaning that their necks are large (this was true for me - unless a necklace was at least 18" long I couldn't wear it, and to be truthful, 20" was much more of a comfortable fit for me). She agreed, and said that used to be her problem, but she had lap-band surgery three years ago and had lost nearly 100 pounds. So we discussed weight loss - hers and mine, and then she offered up that she had regained 15 pounds and needed to get them off. Laughingly, she said "it would be easier if Sonic didn't have those two-for-one milkshake deals - I went there three times last week" and I have to say that I was shocked...I can see a high calorie treat once in a while, but that is a sure-fire way to put on the weight that she worked so hard to lose. This was yet another reminder to me that my healthy eating habits are and will continue to be instrumental in not only getting the weight off, but keeping it off.

Interestingly enough (to me, anyway), while I was writing this on Sunday evening, I noticed that Lori posted something along these lines - people who lose weight and then gain it back. Click here for her take on it.

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And now for an abbreviated weekend wrap up, because quite frankly, I'm tired! We moved furniture - a lot of furniture. Long story short is that after ten years in this house, I was ready for something different...and moving furniture around is a cheap change!

We consolidated furniture - went from a living room and a family room to just a family room; moved a gigantic chair into Jeff's office (injury report: one smashed pinky as we crammed the chair through the doorway); moved the big couch from the living room into the family room (grossness report - found a tiny dead bird, a dead snake and a dead lizard underneath the couch...all I can say is that we obviously live like disgusting pigs); moved the dining set into the living room (which was the dining room originally); switched a square coffee table out for an old trunk (rectangle shape works much better); moved an antique chair into my bedroom in the space that used to house my desk; cleaned, disinfected, vacuumed and Swiffered like no one's business; and the piece de resistance (yes that should have accents but I don't know how to do them) is my office! I went from this:

My desk was crammed into a corner of our bedroom - which made for some interesting ~~arguments~~ discussions, as Jeff would want to lay in bed and watch TV before falling asleep...problem was that the TV (and its speaker) was right by my head, which was too loud for me, and as I like to blog at night, the light from my monitor bothered him after the TV was off and he was trying to sleep.

To this:My own office! I have hit the big time, people!Look at all the space! Woohoo!!!

View from the corner - I'm not done decorating, and the Asian things are what I had in the dining room, but it's a start. There is matching gold chair like this one in the space where my desk used to be in my bedroom...now I have a little reading area!

More randomness:

If you noticed that the blinds in my bedrooms are wonky, that's because once a year the string that pulls them up breaks. Thankfully, Hunter-Douglass has a lifetime guarantee, and my "blind guy" comes out, takes them back to his shop and restrings them for free. Then, a year later, it breaks again. I think the issue is that the blinds can't handle their weight - the window is really big (same size as in my office). Too bad we didn't know this when we ordered them ten years ago, but since they are fixed for free, I'm not going to replace them.

Why yes, my Woman's Day article is matted and framed - I figured how often was I going to see my name in a national magazine...might as well save it for posterity!

And I am wearing a sleeveless top in the that picture - it was freaking HOT here on Sunday (like 95* with the heat index in the low 100's) and I gave in. You know what? It felt great - nice and cool! I will have to do this more often, flabby arms be damned!