Eating Locally - Buffalo and Greens

I'm sorry I've been terrible about eating locally.  I've been able to get to the market frequently, but the challenge has had to sit on the side lines since a) $30 is a lot for 1 dinner and b) I'm tired on Sunday nights.  We've been doing Thai takeout (mmmm veggie curry = low calorie delicious), or this Sunday, Chadd was the man of the year and made me a beautiful Chilean sea bass filet with tomatoes, olives, potatoes and broccoli after my crazy intense training over the weekend.  He went so far as to pick a low calorie recipe.  Love that wonderful man of mine.

BUT.  Last weekend, I did manage to stop by the market after class.  I picked up two buffalo steaks--one for Chadd (a ribeye) and one tiny one for me (a petite filet).  The guy told me that because buffalo has less fat, that I should cook it for a shorter time, but I should season it just like a steak.  Total was about $16

I also picked up a big basket of mixed greens, which came with the suggestion to heat some olive oil with garlic, dump the greens in, cover and steam for about 3 minutes on the stove.  I mixed in a little goat cheese afterwards and now that I think about it, I definitely should have added some pine nuts which are floating around in my spice cabinet.  Greens = $5

I melted some butter (1 tbsp) and cooked Chadd's steak first on high heat to seal in the juices, I let it cook for about a minute and a half on each side, then I tossed my steak in and probably did four minutes total--2 on each side.

The result?

Greens with goat cheese: 190
Buffalo steak (1/4 pound): 165 (holy lean mean!)
Total: 355

I recommend the buffalo--find it at your local farmer's market if you're lucky enough!  DC folks, Cibola Farms is our local supplier at Dupont's Farmers Market.

Frozen Food Review (3)

A few days late, but nevertheless, a third frozen food review for you on my quest to find something beyond a lean cuisine pizza.

Kashi Pesto Pasta Primavera

The Skinny:

Calories: 290
Fat: 11g
Carbs: 37g
Protein: 11g

Taste:
Surprisingly fresh.  It really did taste like I'd just cooked it myself--the peas in the pasta were crunchy instead of mushy.  I was very very pleased with how flavorful the meal was.  Pesto was salty without being processed, the veggies were crisp, and the pasta had life instead of being, well, again mush.

Rating:
Presentation (1-10): 9.  Top of the charts, but something green over brown pasta is never stunning to look at.  The veggies were different colors though (they retained their color) and the food had texture.  I wasn't going...eww when I opened the package.
Taste (1-60): 53 Not quite as good as the Amy's tamale, which was a tough act to follow.  The pasta was great, but I needed more variety.  The food tasted fresh and clean, though, so a 55 is almost unfair.
Satiety (1-15): 8.5 Needed just a few more bites...then again, that's why it's 290 calories and not 310.
Nutritional Balance (1-15): 13, same as the tamale.  Less food, less calories.  I liked the protein appearance and I expected a high carb count there for the pasta.

Total (out of 100): 83.5

Would I buy it again? Yup.  It's steep ($4.75), but it's fresh, and a nice pasta option (especially over the Lean Cuisine ravioli). Just make sure to bring extra fruit and veggies, it'll leave you hungry.

Live Blogging: Confessions of a Reality Show Loser

I'm sitting down after a day of feeling kinda cruddy (I might be getting sick) and what do I find on tv?

Confessions of a Reality Show Loser

It's the Discovery health special on the guy from Season 3 Biggest Loser who lost over 200 pounds, won the show, then came home and gained almost all of it back.  From 407 to like 179, back to 386.

I wish I had been watching the show (BL) back then because I feel like as I've watched the show, they've added more and more emotional therapy to the whole approach.  Jillian is especially talented at pinpointing someone's emotional issues--or maybe she's fed the lines, if you want to be one of those people who is skeptical of the show.  Regardless, I feel like BL began to go "it's more than weightloss, it's a lifestyle change."

The show recaps his weight loss journey the first time around, his rise to fame (Milk ads, first class air fare, etc.) and then catches up with him almost back at 400 lbs.  His wife is in tears, almost pleading with him not to get on the scale.  Honestly, my first thought?  Enabler.  She comes in and tells him that she's gained 4 pounds that week and it sounds like she's bragging, then she says "well, if I gained that, you must have gained 10 pounds."

I want to take a moment here to say that the last thing you do to someone on a weight loss journey, from 5 to 200 pounds, no matter what that number, is be negative.  Just...don't.  Do us all a favor and don't.  Positivity sheds pounds (proven) while stress and negativity can keep them packed on (true.  proven.)

He says he realized that he didn't know what to do after the show, that suddenly cameras weren't on him and he wasn't accountable to the tv show or the big scale.  Biggest problem for this biggest loser?  He didn't do it for the right reason.  It also seems like once he gotten done, he'd so invested himself in weight loss for winning versus weight loss for health that afterwards, he didn't have a purpose (beyond spending his winnings check almost over night and selling his deli because he was busy with his 15 minutes of fame).

Then his wife starts.  "You don't want to be bitter about oh I lost all this weight, I was a celebrity and now they don't care about me, but that's really what happened."  No, honey.  Your husband lost the weight without learning the lesson and now he wants to blame everyone else but himself.  Right now, who has been blamed?
- The wife
- The mom
- The new job
- The show

Missing from the list?  Him.

So what's he do?  Go on Oprah.

And Larry King.

He says that he doesn't know how to maintain nutrition afterwards.  I duno, buy a book?  He literally says "I don't want to have steamed veggies and a chicken breast.  It has to taste good."  Oh holy moly.  There are only about a billion cookbooks that give you low calorie, low fat, amazingly delicious recipes.  I don't think I've had a plain chicken breast and steamed veggies...ever. 

More than halfway through the show, he is just now saying (or the show has been edited to say) that he's wondering if he tied the whole thing to fame and when the world moved on, he was angry.  News flash:  there was a Biggest Loser season 1 and 2 before you and there have been 6 more after you.  You aren't Oprah.

Then after all the hating on the biggest loser and how they don't stay in touch...there's the news that that isn't exactly true.  They called and invited him to come to a thanksgiving special.  But he doesn't know if he wants to go because then he won't be putting biggest loser in the past...okay.  So which is it?

I guess what I'm getting at through this whole thing is that we make weight loss very emotional, and it is, but its time for us all to buck up, shut up, and tackle it instead of whining about it. 

I will say that he's lost 30 pounds in 2 months as of about 50 minutes into the show and he's decided to go back to the Biggest Loser for their special.  Of course, now his wife is on and on about how the show is being mean for putting him on the special. IT WAS HIS CHOICE. Can't we just own up to this? They're quibbling over 25 pounds. HE PUT IT ALLLL BACK ON. She says the show starts out.  And his wife goes "YOU ONLY GAINED 75% OF IT BACK" Cry me a river. 

For all my bitching, I have to say that I always do feel happy for this guy...who maybe never should have been on the show.  Maybe he had to learn it on his own.  He's down 40 pounds now, and to be honest, I think if he feels more accomplished about it this time because he did it and it wasn't a miracle of the show, he'll find that he can maintain it.  Biggest Loser does showcase nearly impossible weight loss for the generic public.  As I've said a trillion times.  It happens 2 pounds a week, at max, safely.  Yes, men do lose a lot that first week and when you're making drastic changes, you will sometimes have a big number week...but that in no way means that 12 pounds a week, or 5 or 8 or whatever, is common or sustainable.  Weight loss isn't an over the night, in a month, sometimes, even in a year, type of thing.  It's commitment to yourself and to health.

And...scene.

How to Beat the Common Cold

If you're at all like me, you're probably feeling one of two things this time of year: joy at the steadily increasing temperatures...and swollen sinuses.

You name it and I'm probably allergic to it...and it's probably always within a 3 ft. radius of me.  The beautiful Washington, DC Cherry Blossoms are actually harbingers of evil to me and my outdoor running.  That Cherry Blossom 10 Miler I've been so excited about?  Yeah, I'm bringing my inhaler and doing a double snort of afrin before I walk outside. 

Nothing like nature to ruin a good outside run.

So last Wednesday, late evening, I started to get those tale tell signs of an on-coming cold.  I am the disinfectant queen.  Anyone who was sick at my office (which was everyone) was asked to stay at the door of my cube while I rinsed off with my massive bottle of disinfectant.  I guess everyone has their breaking point because Wednesday, after living for 2 weeks around the infected, I started to get a scratchy throat.  Then the nasal swelling...

Thursday was tough cookies.  I had an important meeting that morning, then afterwords, it was like being hit in the head with a frying pan.  But, as of Saturday afternoon, I was feeling right as rain.  I have the secret to beating the common cold and/or allergies.

1) Buy a neti pot.  You can find one for like 10 bucks at CVS.  I know it looks weird, but trust me on this one.  Using a nasal cleanser (that isn't a drug) is amazingly helpful.  You get rid of the junk in your sinuses, keep the from getting dried out, and generally reduce swelling.  Apparently the Chicago Tribune did an article on their healing power:  http://www.neti-pot.com/chicago-tribune-article-on-nasal-cleansing.cfm

I try to avoid nasal sprays because I know people who have lost a good part of their sense of smell because of them.  Avoid!  My doctor gave me some other oral medication (which I only use during serious allergy season) so I didn't have to use a spray...however...

2) Get the Afrin, don't use it longer than 4 days.  Afrin is ridiculous.  It's like snorting draino.  Then all of a sudden, boom you can breathe.  I have no idea what causes it or why, but it happens.  The only problem is that it's highly addictive.  Not like shoot it into my veins addicting, but wow I can't breathe without it addicting.  4 days is my max.  I use it 2x a day, one spray each side, right after the neti pot.

3) Sudafed in the morning.  While when I'm sick I can sleep through anything, I never want to take the chance, so I avoid sudafed at night, but in the morning, it goes a long way to keeping things dry.

And bingo.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the tri workshop on Sunday.  Our car is...well, broken.  The shop won't have it back to us until tomorrow, likely, so getting to Fairfax wasn't an option.

As a heads up, we'll still have Tuesday links tomorrow and likely another post that afternoon about my project with NYC J, but then I'll be on my way to CO to see my brother and spend time trying not to kill myself on the slopes of Copper Mountain!

6 Mile Monday

I took myself out for a beautiful 6 mile run up to the National Zoo, across to the Cathedral, down Wisconsin to Georgetown, then back to Dupont. 

It's the first day (aside from Sunday) of real DST.  I cannot stand the whole losing an hour of sleep and how I kept waking up through the night, worrying about if I was going to wake up at the right hour.   Come Sunday night though, I had one amazing night of sleep... I fell asleep to Chadd playing Mass Effect...for whatever reason, the soundtrack to that game literally puts me to sleep in about 30 seconds.  I have been mid-sentence and passed out.  This song specifically must hit me just right.  Chadd's actually been known to turn this on so I'll fall asleep.  So I slept well last night and woke up energetic (...ha.) or with enough energy to get through my day.

Tonight, I got home from work, encouraged by the (sort of) sun and a recent exploration of mapmyrun.com to go out for a six mile run.  The route looked like this:



And MAN did it feel good. (Even the massive hills). 

You know that one thing you really like to do where you don't actually have any idea how long it takes?  How you can look up and all of a sudden it's over?  That was my run tonight.  There are nights, yes, where man, it's brutal, but the nights when there's a good run (always outside, always more than 4 miles) when all of a sudden, it's time to finish up--those are the best.  It was gently misting, keeping most people inside, so it was basically a bunch of runners outside with a few straggling commuters.

For me, a long run is the equivalent of a hot bath and a a massage.  It's a total mind eraser.  It is definitely one of my favorite things about being a runner--finding that one thing that unlocks who you are.  I won't ever be an olympic marathoner, but that's okay...because that's the nice thing about being a runner--you don't have to be "good" because "good" is relative.  EVERYONE can work on improving their PR's

I encourage you to figure out what it is that gives you the same feeling (though the endrophin high is usually something reserved for runners) , but what is it that is your escape?  Cooking?  Walking?  Writing?  Art?  Take a little time this week for yourself to enjoy that with your extra hour of daylight!

Best part of my night?  Not feeling guilty about inhaling my dinner.

Tuesday Linkage!

Fun stuff today!  I came up with a system of collecting links through the week (a handy old school internet browser tool called "Bookmarks"....)

So we have a ton of links, which will hopefully give you all something to do while I'm gone until next Tuesday.  Again, just to rub it in, I'm going to Copper Mountain in Colorado.  I'll be TRYING NEW THINGS and learning to snowboard for real this time.  I already have plans to have an all day lesson this Thursday.  My bro assures me that it's basically the best place to learn ever.  If  I come back in a neck brace, we'll talk.

Here are your Tuesday links!

1) Mindfulness May Change Your Health: In keeping with my belief that Yoga is good for you, here's a little bit on mindfulness.  If you really take the new-age stuff out of it, being aware of your body (mindfulness) and being aware of how you eat (mindful eating) really make sense.  Common  sense at that.  Your body talks to you a lot more than you're aware of.

2) Marathoning + Grammar = I Win!:  It's just funny.  That's all you need to know.

3) Learn the Right Way to Tie Your Shoes: It's interesting how something so small can change the way your shoes fit. 

4) Today's Training Tip: Don't Worry, Be Happy:  While it applies to how runners often times stress over the thing that actually destresses them the most (...running), it's all about perspective. Read the article (it's quick!) and apply it to whatever it is that you love to do that stresses you out.  Then, re-enjoy!

5) The Runner's Pantry List: It's not just for runners.  When you're doing your spring cleaning and chucking whatever that weird sauce you thought might be good with asian noodles out of your pantry, refresh by checking through these basics.  Not to mention, it'll make cooking a LOT easier.  My staple foods?
- Tomatoes
- Lettuce
- Onions
- Apples
- Strawberries
- Bell Peppers
- Mushrooms
- Cheddar Cheese
- Diet Peach Snapple Tea (weakness)
- Fresh herbs on overload (I ALWAYS seem to need them...particularly thyme and parsley)
- Plus Pasta
- Chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
- Quinoa
- Sparkly water
- 0% Fayge Greek Yogurt
- Pirate's Booty Popcorn
- 100 Calorie packs of almost anything

6) Mark Bittman's 8 Rules For Healthy Eating: The first five of these rules, I said to myself "this summarizes my blog...oh wait, no this one does too."  The last three, while I agree with them, don't really apply to my life.  I try to get the right nutrients, I love beef, and energy bars? Who'd rather eat one of those?? Blech.  The first five, amen brother, amen.  Read the article, but in summary:
- Eat whatever you want...in moderation
- Plants first (fill up on low cal, nutrient rich, fruit and veggies)
- Start shopping and start cooking: KNOW WHAT GOES INTO YOUR FOOD
- Buy and Make Extra: I am the queen of reheats and left overs.  Avoid office lunches.  Hidden calories galore.

7) Free Jillian Michaels Mini Workouts: I have a serious girl crush on Jillian.  And a trainer crush.  I recommend downloading and watching (and doing).

And that's it for me today--I'm saving some of my links for next week since I won't be collecting them throughout this one.  Stay active while I'm gone!
Also, do me a little favor and shoot my blog out to your friends, family, coworkers, gym buddies, whoever.  Or...follow me on Twitter.  It's good to know how many people out there are reading!

Tuesday Links...a bit late and Colorado--Why You Should Never Quit

Okay, here are the weekly links entirely too late for my taste or reputation as a good blogger.

Fun and Effective Group Youth Programming Strategies: For my friends out there with children.  I really think that fitness should start young.  I'm not really talking about starting 5 year olds with weight lifting, but every child should be playing sports, running around with their friends, and burning off excess energy with active play.  This article, from the perspective of the fitness professional, talks about strategies for keeping kids moving in a fun, game oriented way.

How I Went from New York Chic to Fitness Professional: Cute article on one woman's wardrobe change from corporate life to a fitness professional.  One day, my friends, one day!

Mileage Inflation: Sigh.  Not so long ago, running a marathon was a big deal.  Now, it seems like everyone does it....

Why Core Strength Workouts Work: LOVE this article.  You can just ask my participant, Manny (Thanks again!) who sent this in what I say in class...every...week. It's not just about your abs.  It's about your entire "pillar."  I call it your core and then break it down--your butt, your quads, your hams, your abs, your lower back, it's all your core and it's what keeps you upright, healthy, and aligned.  Trust me on this one (and the author of the article)...core training is amazing for you.  Make time for it!


In other news!  I am back from Colorado where I learned to snowboard.  This is a little story about what it means to have mind over matter.

I tried to snowboard about a year ago and ate it pretty hard (on my tailbone) and have been pretty gun shy about going back out there after that experience.  After a few false starts on getting out to the east coast slopes this year, we packed our bags and flew to Denver to see my brother.  We picked him up, rented our gear at an awesome place called Christy Rental (I guess they're everywhere in Colorado) and headed to Frisco.

This is the type of thing you see on the drive out there:

Now, you tell me why I shouldn't start packing my bags.

So anyway, we got out there and then next morning headed to Copper Mountain.  Will and Chadd dropped me off at the Ski/Board school and waved goodbye. I was a fit of nervousness.  The first half of the day aws extrodinarily frustrating.  I basically had an epic meltdown at lunch and cried.  Talk about losing my mind. Everyone says it takes three days to learn how to snowboard, or at least feel comfortable enough to get yourself up and down a mountain.  Let me tell you, I had originally felt a lot better after just one hour of a lesson on the East Coast than I did out there.

But when I got back from lunch, my snowboard instructor, Phil, said that he thought it would be a good idea to get me up on the mountain.  I'd probably have more luck up there.  I told him that I appreciated his faith in my ability, but there was no way that was going to go well, but I might as well go...otherwise I'd be stuck down there all day.

So, off we went.  Amazingly, my first time off a ski lift, I didn't eat it.  I fell later, but I didn't totally crash.  The first...quarter of the way down the mountain, I was a falling disaster.  Then, with the help of my speakers on my iPhone, it all clicked.  Phil had said over and over again "stop thinking and just relax." Let me tell you, to someone who is used to teaching, who knows what things should feel like and how to explain them, this made zippo sense to me.  But one of my favorite songs came on and that was the end of that.  All of a sudden, I was crashing at Phil's feet, scrambling up, then slowly edging my way down, then crashing. 

The second day, I was elated to go back and even more so when I realized that it would be just me, Phil, and Chuck (a first time snowboarder and multi marathoner and Ironman).  It was like my dream day.  I had near private intruction, I was feeling pretty good being strapped into a board, and MAN was I loving the fresh powder.  Falling was more like...falling into fluffy.  I did have a load of trouble with the ski lift, mostly falling the second I tried to get off. They did have to stop the lift at least once for me, but I made it up Kokomo, down a little to get on to the Lumberjack lift and up we went.  At least twice down from there.  Chuck, my co lesson taker, got it a lot faster than I did. Thankfully, I had a wonderful instructor.  I really value when I meet someone who teaches well.  It reminds me that I need to be equally as dedicated to my clients and my participants.  Phil helped me start to get my toe side turn (which is a hell of a lot harder than my heel side) and while I was more apt to stay on my heel side and ride switch (less dominant foot forward) every other zig zag, I felt like at the end of the day, I was prepared to get back on that mountain the next day all by myself. And I did!  I made it down the run without falling once the last time on the second day.

Thanks, Phil!!

Let me tell you, though, Saturday morning, I'd strained my neck so badly that rolling over, I had to wrap a pillow around my head to stabilize my neck.  Chadd had to lift me out of bed.  Once I warmed up, I was still sore, but nothing I couldn't handle, thank you BodyPump training.

We spent a half day on the slopes on Saturday where I managed to fall off the lift chair at the end and get whacked in the back of the head with it (glad I had a helmet).  Will went down the mountain with me the last time and once we were done, I honestly felt like I was dragging my heels away from the slopes.

It took a lot of guts and a lot of humility to learn to snowboard.  No one looks good doing it their first trip.  4 year olds were flying by me while I was doing the "floating leaf" down the mountain.

All in all though, I would go back any day of the week and one day, I'll be going down bigger and better slopes.  Try something that scares you, you might wind up loving it, listening to Tim McGraw's "Telluride" and dreaming of moving to the Rockies.

R2R 10k: Hold Back, Stay Steady, Finish Strong

I have been a terrible blogger, but I'm going to make a better effort to stay on top of it. 

So!  This weekend, I ran the Run to Register 10k for the Marine Corps Marathon out in Quantico and had a fantastic time.

My good friend, who I've previously called WB for Work Buddy came into town to do the race with me. We stayed close to Quantico Friday night because the last thing we wanted to do was drive an hour+ from the city down to the base. 

We got up early, headed over to base and walked out of the car into cool, crisp air.  The base was alive with a bunch of talkative runners, pacing around, warming up.  After a last minute bathroom break for me,we lined up under the familiar Marine Corps Marathon arches (my stomach dropped seeing them, remembering my anxiety at the marathon) and off we went. 

The course was a simple out and back, down a gently sloping (rises and falls, though nothing too steep).  Quantico really is beautiful, we were going down one road that stays along side a lake and a bunch of trees.  I felt amazing a few miles in, approaching the halfway (3.1), I felt amazing. 

I've noticed that I often times come out of the gate WAY too fast (aka, the Turkey Trot with my brother where I nearly puked all over everyone because I was trying to hold is 7:28 pace....HA).  This time, I stayed with my friend, stayed with the crowd, and as it opened up, I slowly let myself adjust to about an 8m/m pace.  That's a pretty decent and safe pace for a 5k for me, maybe even fine for 4-5 miles, but to stay with it for 6.2 was going to be a little challenging.  But it's amazing what checking your speed at the starting line can do.  Conserving energy, I was faster for longer.  I saw WB as I started back from the halfway and checked my watch.

I couldn't tell you now what it said, but I remember trying to do math for a couple of minutes, checking and rechecking to make sure I'd calculated it correctly.  I couldn't possibly be holding this time, this long...could I?

But I went with it, enjoying the scenary, feeling confident and breezy.  I turned the corner to come into the track and checked my watch.  In my bad calculations, I had hit 51 minutes and was about to turn possibly beat a 53, which, while I didn't "really" have a goal, I knew I wanted something below an hour and that it was possible I could pull out something under 55.  After rounding the bend in the track, I saw the official clock: 49:1something.  Two words went through my mind: HOLY SH*T and I booked it.  I'd already tried to put on the after burners coming down the hill onto the track but lost it somewhere in the middle.  Refiring was really difficult, but I crossed the line in what I swear was some blur of numbers around a 49:3something. 

Alas, my official time (which apparently was clock AND chip time...even though I started probably a solid minute after the clock time?) was 50.00.00.  A new 10K PR. Some smooth even numbers there, my friends.

I felt officially accomplished and spent the rest of the day, stuffing my face with Mexican food with WB (who also ran a solid race, crushing his PR by 15 minutes--major props to him!) and spending time with Chadd.

Here we are, WB and I, post race:

Best part of the race?  When we finished, we were handed a card with an access code on it for a guaranteed entry to the Marine Corps Marathon this year--the 35th.  I ran the 31st in 2006 with a 4:22:34...and am looking to crush the 4 hour mark this year, which is just a little over a 9 minute mile.  I'd be in line for a 3:45 if I held a solid 8:30.  We'll see how training goes!

I've got a weekend off, then the Cherry Blossom 10 mile!  If I can hold an 8:15 pace, I'll be thrilled, an 8:30, pretty happy, and anything lower, acceptable. 

A little shout out to all of you--thank you so much for the gchat messages/emails/facebook messages, etc. letting me know you read the blog and your congrats on my race--y'all are the best and you give me warm fuzzies. 

Coming up this afternoon: Abs/Core Arsenal--a few moves for beginners to experts to pay some special attention to your core!

Abs/Core Cheat Sheet: The 6 Moves Everyone Can (and Should) Do

Oops.  Ran out of time yesterday to finish this post. Abs.  Blah blah blah summer body blah blah. Whatever.

Summer bodies come and go, but a good posture is forever.  No, I'm not channeling your ballet instructor from years ago, I'm telling you how to avoid being a little old hunched over man/woman.

I think we all know why abs are important, but I want to reiterate what the article from last Tuesday's links said: Core Strength (not just your abs) is the key to fitness success, pain relief in back/neck/shoulders, etc., and will make you all around stronger and leaner.  Develop your core correctly (make sure you include lower back work, obliques, quads, and glutes) and you'll be one more step away from avoiding your back creeping up on you in your golden years.

Whether your new to core work or an old pro, here are my standbys that I almost always make my classes do:

1. Rope Pull:

• Lie on your back, feet on the ground.
• Imagine that someone tied a rope around your chest and tied it to a beam in the ceiling.
• Grab the imaginary rope and "pull" yourself up the rope, hand over hand.
• Your shoulders should be coming off the ground.
• Tip: If your neck gets tired/starts to hurt, put one hands behind your head to support your neck.
• Tip: Make sure your chin is lifted off your chest (think about having about the space of a tennis ball between your chin and your chest).
• Beginners: 2 sets of 30 seconds with a 30 second break between sets
• Intermediate: 4 sets of 30 seconds, 15 second break between sets
• Advanced: 6 sets of 30 seconds, 10 second break between sets
• Challenge move (try this after you can go a full minute pulling yourself up without a break): lift feet off the ground so your knees are bent, shins are facing the ceiling (90 degree angle between your body and your thighs, 90 degree angle at your knees).
• Advanced challenge: legs straight up in the air.

2) Lower back lift:

• Start lying on your back, put your hands to your sides on the floor to balance yourself, feet flat on the ground. 
• Squeeze your glutes and lift your hips up to the ceiling. Your body should be in a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.
• Tip: If you need more support, hold your lower back up, gently, with your hands.
• Beginner: Hold for 30 seconds, lower and rest for 30 seconds.
• Intermediate: Hold for 1 minute
• Advanced: Hold for 30 seconds with one leg extended, foot off the ground.  Switch legs.  
• Challenge move: Hold your hands up towards the ceiling, this will require balance and stability, keys to core training.
• Bonus Move: Do single glute squeezes, touching the ground with your glutes, then squeezing your glutes, lifting your hips up. Try to do 20.

3) Bicycle and Modified Bicycle:

• Still lying on the ground, hands behind your head, chin lifted off your chest.
• Twist your core so one elbow moves towards the opposite knee.
• The opposite leg should extend fully. Switch sides.
• Beginner: 10 on either side
• Intermediate: 20 on either side
• Advanced: 40 on either side
• Modified Bicycle/Challenge Move: Elbow to knee, opposite leg fully extends. The leg that is fully extended remains straight, lower it down to tap your heel on the ground, then back up. Switch sides.

4) Modified Sit-Up:

• Instead of having your hands behind your head as you would with a normal sit up, put your arms straight out in front of you.
• Count to two as you sit-up, then slide back down, to the count of 2.
• Make sure you keep your chin off of your chest and sit up with your chest leading--it should feel like that same rope from the first exercise is around your chest and pulling you up towards the ceiling, then down.
• This doesn't have to be a full sit up, just shoulder blades up off the ground.
• Beginner: 20
• Intermediate: 30
• Advanced/Challenge move: Hold a light weight or a ball in your hands.  

5) Invisible Chair:

• Sit up with your heels on the ground (your knees will be a little more than a 90 degree angle), back straight.
• Hold your arms out in front of you.
• You will likely feel this in your quads and your lower back.
• Beginner: Hold this position for 30 seconds, rest, then another 30 seconds.
• Intermediate: Lift feet off the ground and hold your knees for balance. Hold for 30 seconds, rest, then another 30 seconds holding.
• Advanced: Lift feet off the ground and hold your hands out in front of you, not touching your knees.  2 sets of 30 seconds.

6) Plank and Walking Plank:

• Start on your hands and knees, hands should be directly under your shoulders, knees under your hips.
• Come onto your toes, into plank position. Your body should be in a straight line from the back for your neck to your heels. 
• Hold this position without your stomach dropping (making dip in your back) or your butt rising (causing an arch in your back) for 30 seconds.
• Beginner: If you can't do a full plank, you can start on your knees. Just make sure you keep that straight line from the back of your knees up to the base of your neck.
• Intermediate/Advanced: Just hold it for longer! Other options include holding your plank while on your elbows/forearms instead of your hands.
• Challenge Move: Walking Plank: Start in a full plank (on your hands), then shift 1 arm at a time down to a plank on your forearms/elbows.  Go back to your hands.  Continue for 30 seconds.

There ya have it. 6 moves that ANYONE can do.  Your challenge?  Do this routine (any level, mix it up if you need to!) 3 times before next Wednesday.  Questions, comments, concerns?  See me after class :-)

A New Start!

Alright, I feel like I've been doing a lot of apologizing lately for being a bad blogger.  So one more final apology for neglecting the blog.  I've even been building up a ton of Tuesday links!

I said a few weeks ago that I might have big news to share, and I finally do and can finally share it.

Last Friday I gave my two weeks to my current employer because I received an offer from a PR firm in Northern Virginia who works with a wide array of clients, but really have a niche with the health/fitness/life sciences, medical, bio-tech folks. 

This is a big change in my life--I'm going from a big, international, very structured consulting firm to a small, informal PR firm.  I couldn't be more excited about it--my background is in public relations and clearly I have a love of all things health and fitness.  My new bosses joked about me leading Friday morning yoga, which I would never put my coworkers through...

Regardless.  I can't tell you what I'll be doing, because I'm not sure myself.  What I can tell you is that it will be different and it will be a step closer to what I love to do.

Tomorrow I promise, an actual health and fitness post!

My Second RD Appt and the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run

I met with my Registered Dietician (RD) last Thursday after many a rescheduled appointment.

I have to say, if you've never sat down with an R.D., stop what you're doing, stop reading this blog, and go make an appointment. Get 4 sessions, and trust me.

The last time I met with my RD, I had brought her a food diary from about a week to two weeks of eating.  I'm fairly meticulous with writing down what I eat, so that was the easy part.  We talked about my goals, my life style, and some general rules, then she asked me to write down the emotional feelings I had every time I ate until our next meeting.

While that went out the window when I got busy, I did make note of my emotions while eating enough that this picture became clear:

- I woke up not hungry (even before and after a morning workout), got the office and wanted a cup of coffee, no food.  Halfway into my coffee, I wanted to eat my desk and the hunger came out of no where.
- I ate again around 10:30 because I was starting to get the munchies.  Usually a piece of fruit cured this.
- Since my team tends to eat together at noon, I was never hungry at the beginning of lunch.  The hunger picked up halfway through lunch, then I finished ready for a food coma nap.
- 3:30 I get bored and want to snack.  Has to be a slow to eat food--popcorn, grapes, anything that requires time to eat.
- Not hungry when I get home and especially not hungry after I workout.  At all.  I have to force myself to eat after a workout.  But about an hour after my workout, again I am ready to destroy an entire pizza.

My RD and I went through discussing that pattern and it basically followed exactly what she suspected/had seen in my food log:

I'm not eating enough.  Hi, shocker!  I'm a really big proponent of calories in, calories out for weight loss and while it still holds through, I'm highly active and not fueling my body to that level. Am I starving myself?  No, but is my body going "eh, let's not burn off that fat, we're a little worried about our caloric intake?" in a word, yes.  It sounds a lot more like a bad thing than it actually is. 

Think about your body as a car.  Let's say that the gas tank can fuel for the energy needed for exactly 1 day, plus a little bit of top-off fuel.  When you wake up in the morning (start your car) without eating breakfast, you're essentially running on fumes till you hit the gas station (first meal).  If you're like me and try to get in a few morning workouts, you're running on fumes, then pushing your car to the gas station if you fail to eat before hand.

Of course, you want to fill up the gas tank all the way (stuffing yourself).  Same thing happens if you decide to put in more miles in a day than your gas tank can hold (second workout) and you wind up filling up again before you take your car home and putting it in the garage.

Essentially, I burn on fumes, over load on food, get really tired, burn all my food off again, then eat a ton or not at all, then pass out and repeat.  My consumption looked more like a tiny hill followed by a valley, then a big hill, a steep valley, a little hill, then a huge hill, then right back down and repeat.

My R.D. says that I need to fuel before and after my workouts and definitely eat a breakfast and fuel through my day.

I don't have the papers in front of me, but she outlined the amount of stuff I need to be getting in these food groups:
- Grains
- Protein
- Dairy
- Fruits
- Vegetables

It's a LOT of food.  I know she was thinking that I'd be mentally tabbing up the calories from a sample meal, so she said something that I guess I knew in the back of my mind, but hadn't actually fleshed out into full thought.

I might have been eating the right amount of calories, but the nutrients? Who knows. I mean, what do you REALLY get out of a 100 calorie pack of chocolate pretzels?  Probably not much.  So we turned the attention to what kind of calories I was actually eating.  Cutting out a lot of prepackaged frozen junk and turning to "whole" foods.

While I'll be eating a lot more food, I'll probably be eating the right amount of calories, with all the nutrients.  I added milk back into my diet, which hasn't been there in years.  My stomach and I are still trying to decide how this is going to work out, but it has been nice to induldge in a big frothy glass of milk, especially post workout for the perfect blend of carbs and protein (and it cuts off that huge hunger pang I have about an hour post workout).

I'll post the sample menu that my RD gave me when I get home.

We also talked about setting SMART goals.  I think I've talked about smart goals, so I won't go there again, but if you're interested, just google it.  We  wound up setting two SMART goals for me with three supporting goals.

I'll post those, too, when I get home so I make sure I have them down right. 

So far, so good. I'm on 5 of eating more like the way we discussed and I feel really full all the time and I have energy.  Double win.

In totally different news,

The Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run was this weekend.  This was my second 10 Miler, my first one, I came in with like a 1:26 something because I was running with my friend, Maureen, from work and she pushed the hell out of me. This year, by total accident, I ran into her among 15,000 people.  We wound up running together again, all the time pushing the other by total accident.  We each thought we were slowing up the other, so we kept pushing and pushing and pushing.  Before I knew it, we'd crossed 4, just after mile 5, I saw Chadd where I handed off my jacket, then 6, then 7 (oh man, just a 5k left), then suddenly 8 and we only had about 17 minutes left to endure.  Then 9 went by and holy moly there was a hill.  Maureen put the pedal to the medal, and amazingly, my legs kept up with her.  We crested the hill to see the arches were not exactly right around the bend.  Falling back a bit, we tried to pick up the pace again and flew through the finish line. 

Time: 1:21:29; Pace: 8:09

And just like that, another PR this year. 

I can tell you that one of the most beautiful sounds to me in the world is the sound of silence and a thousand runners shoes hitting the pavement all around you.

First Day, New Changes

Today is the day to start new things.  At least in my world.

I got up this morning at quarter of 7 (despite a raging headache an a sleepless night...I guess that's what nerves do to you), my coffee had already brewed.  I had a banana and a piece of amazing homemade bread that my awesome dad made for me while I was at home, and walked around the apartment getting ready.

Today is my first day at my new job.  Technically, office hours are 8:30 to 6, but since I have to leave early sometimes to teach, I've decided to start getting here around 8.  I enjoyed my car ride over (though I'll likely hate the metro ride home since Chadd needs the car to get home), and I've been here for about 20 minutes so far.  

I actually have an office (with a door) and a big desk all to my own, a huge window at my back that overlooks the courtyard.  Life is feeling pretty good, to be honest.

I've decided that this is the time to make some big changes (though they're really not big in the scheme of things).  I'm going to get up an hour or so before I have to leave for the office (I only hit snooze 2x this morning as opposed to the typical 5-8 times), I will eat breakfast (especially since my RD is strongly urging me to do that), and I will take time to get ready the night before work so I'm not frantic the morning of.

Essentially, I'm going to start taking care of myself, pacing myself, and making this a lifestyle, not just another hellish project to get through.  Of course, that would be well and good if I had actually gone to bed early last night and slept well.  I stayed up way too late cooking (made lemon angel food cupcakes for my office...I know, suck up to the extreme, but they're only 140 calories!) and trying to relieve stress.  Then I tossed and turned all night.  I'm not actually sure I ever got deep sleep.  I wasn't too irritated since I was basically expecting to not sleep well.  I actually had a nightmare that I'd get to work and have nothing to do.  

Two hours later, my day feels slow mostly because I'm not usually at the office until 9 and adding another hour to my morning makes it seem like it's taking forever.  But at 8:30, my boss came in, seemed pleased to see me here already, then we all (three of us, 2 others on the phone) had a meeting, then we shot the breeze for a bit and 10am comes around and I have some reading material and a small task that will take me about a half day as soon as I have the info (likely this afternoon).

So far, so good.  I like where I am and if I hadn't had so much coffee this morning, I'd probably be 100% on top of the world.  

In other news....

My parents got me the most amazing cookbook when I was home.  It's the new Cooking Light Cooking Through the Seasons cookbook:

I tried three (yes, three) recipes last night.  And judging from how good they all are, I'm going to go ahead and say this cookbook is a must have in any kitchen.  

I'm having the Fresh Pea and Mint Soup for lunch with a small side salad and, later, for a snack, the Garlicky Lima Bean Spread (don't judge the limas, they're pretty good when ground into a paste and infused with garlic) and then, of course, the Lemon Angel Food Cupcakes which have so far passed the office taste test and made it into the email welcoming me to the firm.

It's a good day.  

Tuesday Links!

I'm back!  I have links for you!

15 Things You Wouldn't Want to See While Running a Marathon:  This is true.  So very very true.

How to Run Injury Free: On a more serious note, this is a great article about common running mistake (training too much, training too little, speed work mistakes, ignoring injuries) that if you've ever started to hurt while starting a running program, you're likely to find your mistake in this article.

Weekend Calories May be Wrecking Your Diet: SOOOO true.  I duno about you guys, but I'm a big fan of my wine on the weekends.  I've decided to be strong and go without alcohol Sunday-Thursday because it's useless calories.  This, of course, is likely to be negotiated through happy hours...but I digress.  Weekend calories.  We have time for breakfast, we have time to sit and talk over a nice dinner (appetizers, dinner, dessert, drinks), we get bored on Sunday afternoon and snack...the only things I don't like on their list are the "get up the same time you do during the week" bit because I'm a major catch-up sleeper and the one about weighing yourself frequently.  It's my personal belief that you can't really see weight loss over the course of a couple days, a week is about the right time to measure weight loss/gain since we can go between +/- 3 pounds in a day.

Weight Loss Quiz: Very very very interesting.  I didn't do terribly, but the nutrition questions were hit or miss on my answers.  The only question I disagree with is if it matters what time you finish eating dinner.  I don't think it matters, it just matters that you're not eating more than you normally would.  Calories in calories out.  What was your score?

I don't have recipes for this week, but I do have a link for you to this amazing cookbook:
Cooking Light: Cooking Through the Seasons

all I can say is that it's the most amazing cookbook ever.  Last night (and today's lunch) was the cavatappi pasta with arugula (subbed watercress since I got that at the market) pesto and cherry tomatoes.  Hello amazing.  The four recipes I've made out of this book in the past few days have been 100% amazing.

And that's it!  Enjoy you're Tuesday.  Update on my new job tomorrow.  Hint: it's pretty awesome.

Old Habits, New Ways of Life

I had some awesome ideas on what to blog about today, but go figure, they literally flew out of my head.  So instead, I'm going to talk a little bit about how I'm trying to stay healthy with my new life.

When I joined my last job, I was more focused on the fact that I was working my first full time job and that I wanted to make a good impression.  My focus was entirely on my career, which was the right mindset...but it blew up in my face because I neglected everything else.

Over the course of two years, no joke, I gained nearly 20 pounds.  I can't even tell you how hard it is to write that.  We've all read those magazine articles about how if you do x (ex: drink a whole milk chai latte) x times a week (how about 3 times) over the course of x years (let's say 2), you will gain x pounds (how about 20?).  My downfall was not chai lattes (at least not totally), it was the general lifestyle where I didn't focus on the pizza, the happy hours, the venti coffee drinks...and then I woke up one morning (when I started this blog) and asked myself "what have you done?"  I lost 8 pounds.  Then I celebrated and crapped out.  Gained the 8 back, plus 1.

About the time that I began to realize I couldn't be happy and stay in my previous job, I also began to realize that I couldn't continue to treat myself the way I was treating myself.

You've read the story of how I managed to get through those months before I joined my new company, so now you know it's possible, but I was really worried about the transition.  As unhappy as I was, I had a schedule I knew how to maintain, but I also had horrible habits.

If I didn't get up to go to the gym, I was usually up about 15 minutes before I had to walk out the door.  I was hitting the right caloric intake, but at the risk of of getting the wrong nutrition.  How do you make a day's worth of food in 5 minutes?  Easy!  You throw a lean cuisine, a 100 calorie pack, and some other processed stuff into a bag and off you go.

I promised myself when I started this job that I would live my life in a way that I was enjoying it.  Every minute of it.

I have promised myself to do the following:
- Make a meal plan every weekend that does not involved processed food
- Wake up an hour before I have to leave
- Eat breakfast EVERY morning
- Make my lunch every day or have a plan if I have a client lunch meeting
- Make a gym schedule and stick to it (schedule must be flexible)
- Enjoy every meal that I eat (because calories suck if they taste bad)

I know it's only day three, but I've gotten up consistently an hour before I had to leave for work, gotten to work early for 30 minutes alone to have coffee and watch the news.  I made a menu plan, cooked on Sunday, and have stuck with it.  My gym schedule hit a bump tonight, but because it was flexible, I'm going tomorrow night and taking tonight to relax.

I have 8 pounds to go--I added two pounds to my goal weight loss, otherwise, I am proud to say that I've maintained my weightloss for the past two months and that as soon as I sign up for my trainer, I'll be back on track with all systems go to burn off 8 pounds by the middle of June.

I think the bottom line of this meandering post is this: if you're unhappy with where you are, nothing says you cannot change that.  I know that I need milestones to help me change things, but think about what it is that you're dissatisfied with.  Do you rush in the morning?  Skip the gym?  Rely on take out?  Make an action plan and change it, because from where I'm sitting, and maybe it's the new job talking (it's so awesome, btw, I love being there), but changing something that makes you unhappy, as small as it may be, magnifies in how happy it makes you when you change it.

Cooking Locally: Spare Ribs and Ramps

What a weekend...

Chadd and I did the Run Amuck 5k up in Rockville...absolutely hilarious.  We also found out that Chadd is a superior trail runner than I am (though I think I'd probably win in longer distances) and that wading through lake mud makes your quads sore.  We did finish 43, which, in our opinion, is pretty damn good out of about 370 teams of two.  Our time was somewhere around 33 minutes.  While that would be embarrassing for a 4k, I think it's pretty good for a 5k with obstacles and mud pits.

Some gentleman walking around the race took our picture for us since I was brilliant and left my phone in the car, and with that, my camera.  So I'm hoping that he'll email us our picture so I can show you what happens when you run a 5k through trails, wade through lakes, and finish the race crawling in a pit of mud.  Seriously.

I spent Sunday mostly cleaning and cooking, which brings me to this month's/quarter's whatever's Cooking Locally!

For just over $16, I picked up a little more than 2 pounds of pork spare ribs from one of the pork vendors.  I grabbed asparagus from another farm (4.50) where I'd also grabbed Ramps ($5) the week before.  I picked up a handful of small yukon gold potatoes ($2.50) and I was set.

I called my dad to get his expertise on the ribs.  He suggested a dry rub, and normally I'd have just put one together, but then I remembered that we have packets of spice rubs I picked up from a little spice/tea shop in Florida (there's another one here in Alexandria, apparently).  I brushed the ribs with a little olive oil, then slathered the rub on pretty thick on both sides.

After that, I tossed them (racked) in the over at about 175 for the next two hours.  I made the mistake of thinking they were done at this point (they weren't) and went on much later in the evening to throw them into a 450 over (which surprisingly made them come out perfectly) for about 15 minutes while I was finishing up the potato and ramp au gratin (2 c. potatoes, bunch of chopped ramps, layered, 1 c. milk, bread crumbs on top, your choice cheese on top, bake covered for 20 min. in 450, uncovered another 15).

Dinner wound up looking like this:

And was it ever delicious.  Chadd gave it a 4.5 out of 5, mostly because he likes the potatoes done a different way, but we both agreed the ramps were pretty good and a nice touch to the dish.  I was also pretty happy with the caloric value (somewhere around 450 for me) since ribs require so much time to eat, I get full on them quickly and don't eat too much meat, everything else was pretty healthy, especially since I used 1% milk for the potatoes instead of cream, and no butter.

I also whipped up a frittata of leeks, potatoes, and spinach, which, since I fell asleep prior to my bed time last night, failed to cut for my lunch today.  But there will be a review.  That recipe came from the cookbook I hailed as awesome last week, so I have no doubt it's going to be awesome.

My bosses aren't in today, but that doesn't mean I'm at a loss for work.  I can't believe it's already noon and I'm going to lose most of my afternoon and productive working time to a conference call. 

I've got a lot of links saved up for tomorrow--get excited!

Tuesday Links!

Woohoo!  Tuesday Link Day!  I've got a lot of awesome stuff since I signed up for the SmartBrief nutritionist email blast.  Here ya go!

1) Gut Check time: Interesting, you can't spot train (lose weight in a determined place) but you CAN spot gain.  This article references studies showing that beer is literally the cause of that beer belly (beer more than wine!).  There's a bunch of common sense stuff in here--you know, don't eat the bar food, if you must drink, drink light beer, blah blah.  I was just interested to see that the beer belly is aptly named!  Who knew!

2) Your Chance to Tell the FDA What you Think of Food Labels: Ever wanted to influence public policy?  Well, now is your chance.  You have the opportunity to weigh in on new regulations for food packaging, including health labels, etc. on the front of food packages.  This article also links to another article which argues against labeling food in the front.  All of it, worth a read.

3) Food Deserts: Yes, deserts.  Now, I have to say, I have mixed feelings on this article because part of me sees the economics of the whole thing. Okay, I lied, my whole brain sees the economics of the whole thing.  This is a case of chicken and egg.  Who changed the demand?  The consumer.  If beautiful produce is rotting in the stands, you bet that the stockers are gonna go "send the best produce to places where it'll be purchased."  And to be frank with you, all of this talk about inner cities, I'm not seeing prejudice within the cities--I live in a big city and to be frank with you, I get crap produce even though I live in a wealthy neighborhood...which is why I go to the farmer's market.  It's not planned to be mean to poor people, it's part of the supply chain issue here.  It takes longer to get into a city with traffic, parking issues, and weird delivery schedules.  Not to mention, fresh produce goes bad in poor areas because, let's be frank here, ever been to a grocery in a slum?  Yes, they're gross and stuff goes bad when it's not kept in a clean area.  Hell, in the Safeway in the Watergate there used to be rats.  THE WATERGATE!  Oh city life, how I love thee.

Back to delivering the food...The harder it is to do something (i.e. deliver to the safeway outside my apartment) the more expensive it will be (ridiculously priced tomatoes) versus if it's easier (a massive backlot and loading dock behind the Albertson's by my parent's house in the 'burbs in Florida) it becomes cheaper.  Also, talk about taxes in the city.  HOLY MOLY.  Just go across the bridge into Virginia and watch your prices drop like bricks in the ocean.  If city planners made it easier for food to be delivered to grocery stores, I'm gonna bet prices are going to drop.  Okay, done rant.

4) Childhood Obesity and Diabetes: This is a great article for parents...and everyone else.  The examples that the doctor puts out for substitutes are great.

5) Fibromyalgia: No Thanks: Okay, maybe that isn't the title of the article.  But doesn't extreme muscle and joint pain sound like a drag?  Thought so.  Excess weight and lack of activity can nudge you that much closer to it.  Avoid.

6) Living by the Food Pyramid: Interesting, look at all those politics surrounding food!  Curse you lobbyists!  (terrifying, isn't it?) regardless.  An interesting history on the food pyramid and a link for a food "pedia" that gives you calorie counts of what you're ingesting.

Today got a bit out of hand at work, so I didn't get to share with you my Marathon Kickoff, but I will tomorrow.

Marathon Training, and how

I sat down at my computer yesterday with a little time on my hands in the afternoon to look over a few running schedules for marathon prepping.  I have Jeff Galloway's book at home, but since I forgot to pick it up and bring it in with me, I decided to do some online research and I found a program that I think I'm going to try out.  It was listed online through the Houston Chronicle and can be found here at this link:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/run/971175.html

Anyway, since I've done one before and would like to consider myself in fairly decent enough shape, I figured I'd give their intermediate schedule a shot and modify it as I went a long due to teaching etc.

My class schedule is as such:
- Tuesday PM: Step Class
- Every other Thursday PM: Body Pump
- Ever other Saturday AM: Body Pump
- Sunday AM: 20-20-20

With three days taken up a week with training, I'm in kind of a pickle, especially since there will be weekends (every other weekend, in fact) where I'll be teaching twice, which wouldn't be an issue if I didn't also have to throw a long run in there, which can take up to 4 hours.

As I was charting out my modified running schedule, I started to realize that, uhoh.  I'm exactly 26 weeks away from the marathon.  Which, truth be told, is quite a lot of time (that's half a year, for those of you, who, like me, went "that's so soon!"), but since I have a serious goal this marathon, I need to be diligent.

My last/first/only marathon, I told Chadd that I wanted to run it in under 4:30 and he promised he'd take me to dinner wherever I wanted to go if I did it.  It was really a friendly competition, he later told me that he'd have taken me out to dinner no matter what considering that I'd just run a marathon.  The funny thing was that I really held on to that bet with him through the race, truly believing that I had to get a 4:30 (though through no reflect of who he is, had I actually been in a sane state of mind I'd have realized he was playing along).

I crossed the line at 4:22:34 and have never had such a strange surge of emotions go through me, exhaustion, elation, pride, extreme and momentary sadness, pain, confusion, clarity...and then I just sat my butt down and waited for someone to find me.

This time is going to be a bit different.  First of all, this isn't my first race (can you believe I did a marathon as my first race?  Talk about ambitious.  Thank God I didn't die...) and second, I've got a solid running history now.  I know what I can do, and I think I can do a sub 4.  If I literally came in at 4:00:00, I'd be okay with it, but a 3:59:59 would make me elated.

This puts me at needing to maintain just a little under a nine minute mile, meaning I need to train to stay at 9 and hope that race day, I get a speed surge.

But as I was writing out this program, realizing that it was 26 weeks away, and that my program literally started this week, I started to build a mental wall.  It doesn't help that I'm not really trained up for my half a week from this weekend...whatever.  4 miles should no longer scare me.  But I psyched myself out really badly for that run, had a miserable time, and barely made it home for just under 5 miles.

Tonight, after my appointment with my R.D., I have to go pull a solid 5, which means it's likely I won't be home until 8:30 tonight.  Must remain positive...and excited.  Here is, so far, the plan for the first 9 weeks of my plan, starting this week:

So.  Now to get to it...

Body Pump Launch

Yes yes, it's 12:30 and I should be asleep.  But I have to share something that I totally forgot to talk about today.

Last night (tuesday night) we launched Body Pump (by Les Mills) at the Y and literally had to turn people away because we maxed out our class!  40 people!  I cannot tell you how amazing it is to have a full, energy-driven, group of people take your class.

A big shout-out goes to my amazing instructor friends for all the work they've done, the times we've shared sweating, maybe bleeding, crying, and laughing over the past two months getting ready for this.

National Capitol YMCA BodyPump Crew!

I also want to take this moment to brag.  Observe:

Yes, that is my right leg and no, my quads are not photo shopped.  I haven't had my runner's legs since...2006.  Want runner's legs too?  Easy.  Come to BodyPump!  (No joke, this is the most awesome workout I've ever taught) I'm teaching a week from this Thursday with Steph.  I'm going to try to put together a foam rolling class afterwards, but it might just be abs and stretch for now.

For my 20-20-20 class: FJ is going to be teaching my class this Sunday since I'll be in New York seeing my best friend from high school.  

Update! I AM alive!

First of all.  I am so so so sorry.

I know I've been neglecting the blog for about a month.  It's been busy here, to say the least.  I love my new job and have done a fairly decent job of staying healthy and keeping my work outs in line instead of ditching them like I did with my last job when things got busy.

I have a status update on my own fitness journey:
- I haven't stepped on the scale in over a month (mostly at the recommendation of my dietician who agrees with me and suggested I live by my own words that weight is the least accurate representation of your health)
- I fit into a size 2 levi jeans (ah!)
- I feel fantastic enough to not worry about the actual number on the scale
- Chadd and I are going to the beach with his family at the end of July (which has inspired me to whip my butt back into shape eating right)

I'm at that magical point in my life where I am 95% confident with how I look.  I am still struggling (as I think I always will) with looking like a hard body runner's world model...because that's just not how it ever will be.  I will always have a little softness because, well, women are supposed to.  That's just how we're built.

Better milestones are shaving time off my races, having better endurance, and being able to eat an extra cheeseburger per week.

I concluded my sessions with my dietician the other week.  She showed me how far we'd come--from me obsessively logging calories and having honest to goodness bad moods over going a few calories over my allotted calorie intake, measuring progress really only by weight loss, etc.  I feel like I graduated from the school of learning to eat better.  Now, I just need to enroll in the school of better time management.

I'm finding myself continuing to eat well, but I'm doing it by walking across the street to get a lean veggie curry dish from the Thai restaurant, or stopping by trader joe's for a salad, when I really need to be saving the money and just making food at home.

Currently, to keep myself at a place where I am comfortable/happy/confident, I need to do the following:
- 1 hour session with my personal trainer on Monday (extremely painful, extremely beneficial)
- 1 hour yoga on Tuesday morning, teach 1 hour step class on Tuesdays
- 1 hour workout on my own (usually running) or rest Wednesday
- 1 hour Body Pump class on Thursday
- Rest on Friday
- 1 hour Body Pump class on Saturday
- 1 hour 20-20-20 class on Sunday

At best, I get three days off if I'm not teaching a Thursday or a Saturday (usually I do one or the other).

The problem here is that I don't have a lot of time for running.  It's already June which means I should be warming up my marathon training this month.  My plan for my modified schedule looks like this:

Monday: AM: 5 mile run; PM: 1 hr. training session
Tuesday: AM: Yoga; PM: Teach Step
Wednesday: AM or PM: 5 mile run
Thursday: PM: Body Pump or 6 mile run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Body Pump or Long Run
Sunday: 20-20-20 and Long Run (if Long Run wasn't done on Saturday)

It looks like a lot, but just like some people like to come home from work and read, or go for a walk, or go out for drinks, I really do enjoy going to the gym, coming home to feeling physically relaxed, making dinner, popping on the tv, and chilling out.

When Chadd changes jobs, we'll likely move a few of those workouts to the morning so that we can spend time together in the evening.  I have four more sessions with Kimina (my awesome awesome awesome trainer), once those are over, I'll probably use that time for more running, then sign up again for another 8 sessions closer to the marathon.

New feature to blog will be food planning.  Probably will appear this weekend!

In the mean time, where are you with your fitness goals?

Back, like for realz

Okay.  This time, I swear, I really am back.  Thanks, Anna for the push!

Things have been busy at work (what's new?) but still great.  Fitness has actually maintained its place in my life with teaching so much, training with my amazing trainer for 2 months, and trying to spend as much time with K (especially at the gym) as possible before she leaves for Boston this week (sad!)

I recently got some irritating news regarding my ability to workout, though.

In December, I noticed a lump a little lower than my left hipbone.  Don't freak, it's not a big deal.  At first, I thought it was a muscular thing--just something from running, etc.  It would go away if I pushed on it...knot in my muscle, I figured.

Turns out, it's a hernia.  Likely congenital--so I was born with it--and easily repaired.  Since it's not painful or pressurized, that's good news...but because of the marathon coming up, I don't have time for recovery...until after.  My surgeon told me I can't teach BodyPump until after I have the surgery and recover.  I can lift upper body OR lower body, but no compound movements with very heavy weights--think of all those "oh I got a hernia by lifting a heavy box incorrectly."

So...there.

Epic suck.

The good news, however, is that I will now have time for running...which is especially important, because in even better news, I have a full team for the Ragnar Relay!  12 people, most of us strangers, embarking on a 193 mile relay race over the course of two days.  I cannot wait.

I also have the Marine Corps rapidly approaching (end of October)...so I suppose it's good that I now have more time to run.

I found my old Jeff Galloway marathon book, which is a pretty good resource, so, that starts this week and since Chadd's out of town this coming weekend, I'll start my long runs as well.

Having to change a fitness routine that was working so well for me is epicly frustrating...I'm sure running will keep me in shape, but I really don't like having to play gentle.

So...I'm getting back on wearing my BodyBugg every day (I've been doing every other week) and keeping a better monitor on my food intake.  No use letting everything slide for a stupid hernia...just need to be more flexible.

So.  There's that.  I promise to post every day, even if it's just a "so today I ran 5 miles and now I'm tired.  The end."

Thanks to my loyal readers (especially Anna!)

Weekend of Car Problems

Hello from hot and humid DC...I had intended to spend this Saturday morning getting up early and getting out for my first long run...but in case you weren't aware, we're in the middle of a sever heat wave.  It literally says on the weather map "oppressive" across the DC area.  I didn't even know that was a category...

Anyway, it doesn't matter anyway because I had to take the car to the dealership at 7:30 for repairs (sigh.  $$$$$) and I'm still there right now.  It's only been an hour, but it feels like some sort of time warp.  And place warp.

I'm not kidding, the guy to my right is drawing some sort of psychadelic butterfly woman with a rainbow background.  Not like doodling, either, like full on massive sheet of paper with pastels.  Sooner I can go home, the better.  There are at least three other people in the room with me who are conversing with the tv.  Not in a crazy kind of way, but in the way that they're literally having a conversation with the today show.  Example: TV: "If you have an allergy to wheat gluten...it can cause *list symptoms" Person: Mmmmmhmm, sure nuff!

I'm in a real conundrum.  I took about a week off of working out.  Mostly because this week was hell on wheels at work.  Don't get me wrong, unlike my last job, I actually enjoy my work and so it hasn't been horrible, but it's taken a toll on my exercise and sleep time.

But that's not the conundrum.  The real reason I've taken a week off is because I really hate running on a treadmill.  Really hate it, but it's been too hot to go outside unless I'm up really early, and I've been too tired to do that.

I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to motivate myself to get up and get out there.  I have a marathon AND a Ragnar relay breathing down my neck, so I really don't have a negotiable way out.

Since Chadd's out of town this weekend, I have plenty of time to plan.  What do I do well?  I plan.

If I ever get to leave the dealership, then I'm going to go home and after some fun time with my weightloss buddy, start doing some planning.  I'm going to come up with my meal plans again, I always prefer to do that because it takes all the last minute what to eat guess work out of my nights, especially when making a quesadilla sounds like the only option.

I'm also going to brainstorm things to do instead of running ... maybe it's that I have to go and spend an hour on the bike or cross trainer (x-train), maybe it's that I go swimming at the Y (in this heat? yes please...), or a walk.  It's still hot outside, but I could probably manage walking (knowing that I'll likely jog)

So.  That was written a while ago, in between then and now, I stopped by the diner next door for food, then walked the mile to Ikea to look for a new solution for our desk (we're getting rid of it, since we never use it...) but we need something to put all the stuff in that was in the desk.

Can I just tell you....it's ridiculously hot outside.  I literally was sweating through my shirt walking the mile back from Ikea.  I'm sure I looked like a crazy homeless person, walking down the highway, but whatever, better than sitting here in the mechanic's...which is playing some terrible 3-d animated kid's show about dogs that race car.

Okay.  Thank God.  I'm writing this at 10:45 at night...the car is almost repaired (a long story that isn't worth getting into) and my weightloss buddy and I had a great day at Joann fabrics, crafting, eating pizza, and chatting.

Hopefully I'll actually get my food/workout plans together tomorrow.  I'll share them soon, whether it's tomorrow or the day after...or the day after that!

Plans plans plans

Quick update...plans for the week!
Food:

Monday:

-       Breakfast: Cereal, peach

-       Snack: Yogurt

-       Lunch: Amy’s meal, carrots, 100 cal pack

-       Snack: Banana

-       Dinner: Big salad, chicken

Tuesday:

-       Breakfast: Cereal, peach

-       Snack: Yogurt

-       Lunch: Salad, cheese, triscuits, 100 cal pack

-       Snack: Popcorn

-       Dinner: “grilled” veggies, chicken, rice

Wednesday:

-       Breakfast: Cereal, applesauce

-       Snack: Yogurt

-       Lunch: “grilled veggies” and rice leftovers, 100 cal pack

-       Snack: Popcorn

-       Dinner: Pita thingys

Thursday:

-       Breakfast: Cereal, banana

-       Snack: Yogurt

-       Lunch: Pita, 100 cal pack

-       Snack: Veggies

-       Dinner: Whatever will wants

wiWill comes into town on Thursday night, hence the wild card.  

Working out:

Monday: 20 minute run, 20-30 minute full body weights

Tuesday: Step

Wednesday: 40-50 minute run (my beginning runner's group will meet for this first time this night, so I'll likely have a very light workout here)

RThursday: 40-50 minute run

Friday: Off

Saturday: 8 mile run

Sunday: 20-20-20

More later!

as

False Starts

It is so hard to get started back on a routine, isn't it?

I did a lot of great planning this weekend (see last post).  I went to the grocery and did a power sweep through the store--bought lots of fresh veggies, stuff for healthy lunches, and good filling snacks.  I made a running plan that I'm comfortable with...then last night, the sneaky Sunday night time warp happened.

It's that weird time vortex where one second, it's 9:30 and you're excited that you're going to go to bed before 11, then something happens (I called my mom because I thought I had SO much time to kill before 10:30...) then I looked up at it was 10:30.  No big deal, takes me 10 minutes to get ready for bed...I'd still make my mark of before 11.

I was certainly IN bed before 11, but somehow I wasted like 2 hours on the internets and all of a sudden, past midnight.

I knew then that my 6:30 gym time was just not gonna happen.  Didn't help that one of the cats is on steroids, and they make him thirsty...and because of course he's the special one and of course, he only drinks water out of the running faucet...so I was woken up twice through the night because he was thirsty.  Poor kitty.  

So, my gym time didn't happen this morning.  It's okay because, unlike most of my days, I actually have time for the gym tonight.

20 minutes on the dreadmill, then 20-30 minutes of weights.  

I did a few good things though--my bodybugg subscription recently expired, so I renewed it for 6 months.  I'm getting back on this daily, even though I need to be careful of obsessively calorie counting, because with training, I need to keep an eye on my intake and on food trends that might show up in my training/recovery.

I also packed a healthy lunch last night (turkey breast, pita sandwich, carrots, and a beautiful peach from the market) that was ready to go when I woke up late this morning (typical.)  It seriously takes 5 minutes to make lunch the night before, I need to make a commitment to just do this.

The thing I don't want to do?  Get on the scale.  

It's such a headgame because I recognize I've gained a little weight back (I'd guess about 5 pounds), but somehow, I feel like if I don't step on that scale it won't be true?  Go figure.  

I should take my own advice: "don't obsess on the number because it's one of the least accurate representation of how healthy you are when you're a fairly healthy weight to begin with...and because it can always always change...it just takes time."

So here's to taking time...