Before and "So Far"

I haven't posted in almost a month, for a variety of reasons. There has been a lot going on and my overall level of free time has diminished. Some brief highlights:

• I registered for the Boston Half Marathon in October, so I've been trying to devote more time to training. This has been far from easy.
• My summer grad school class is taking up a ton of time. My first paper was due last Thursday and my next paper is due next Thursday. After that, I'll just have the final.
• My last day of work is on next Thursday as well. While this will mean a bit more free time, it also means that I'm crazy busy in the meantime, trying to wrap up loose ends, train the new people, etc. 
• I finally got my Little Sister through the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston. She's great! We had our first visit at the Big Sister Picnic on Long Island (one of the Boston Harbor Islands) last weekend. 
• I had my first trip to the Cape, which was amazing. Joe and I had a fabulous time and I'm basically addicted to boating now.

Whew! So being busy is part of the reason I haven't posted. The other part is that I've been struggling with motivation. I haven't been eating very well and haven't been able to train as much as I would like because of working late, reading for class, etc. To try to get back on track I brought raw veggies and rice cakes for lunch today. Before I got the veggies out of the fridge, I seriously considered ordering takeout. That's an absurd notion not only because of the calories, but because I'm flat broke! 

To that end, however, I have discovered the way to make raw veggies and rice cakes taste better. Behold, my Before and After:

"Before" photos

"So Far"

Nothing in this world makes raw vegetables and rice cakes taste better than looking at photos of yourself from when you were 70 pounds heavier! I still have a long way to go on this journey, so rather than before and after maybe I should refer to these as my Before and "So Far" photos.

On the days lately where I've felt fat and unattractive, I've wondered how I even functioned at my previous weight. Then, when I see people who are even heavier than I ever was, I wish I could find a way to motivate and inspire them. Even those who aren't heavier than I used to be, but who could use a bit of motivation, find their way into my heart. No, I can't always make it to the gym and it isn't always possible to eat super healthy, but I do much better than I did in the past. I am much more active than I have ever been and I watch what I eat much more closely now. It's all about the little steps you can take to move on to the big steps. 

This year is the first time I've felt comfortable in a swimsuit. Next summer's goal is a bikini. I have around 20-25 more pounds to lose before I do my true "After" shot, and I know it isn't going to be easy to get there with grad school and finding a part-time job, but I can't let that stop me. 

Boston Half Marathon, here I come!

Training update

It isn't easy to train for a half marathon while working full-time and going to class at night two nights a week, as I've learned this week. Whereas my routine used to consist of working 9-5 (roughly) then going to the gym before meeting up with Joe at 7, now on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have class until 9:45. After class I walk home and it's time for bed!

So far I haven't been able to get myself out of bed early enough to run in the morning (granted, today was the first day I tried to plan on it), but I'm hoping that's what I'll be able to start doing on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. In the meantime, at least I have the stairs at work and walking on my lunch break to get in a little bit of exercise. I'll also plan to do some yoga or strength training at home after class on those nights, but it depends on how exhausted I am after my 13 hour day.

Now for the exciting part! Yesterday at the gym I ran 5K (3.1 miles) in 30:26! It certainly isn't an Olympics qualifying time, but it's a far cry from the 34+ minutes it took me to run my 5K last September. It's so exciting to be able to say that I ran around a 9:48 mile!

I was pushing myself the whole time because I've never gone at that pace before. It certainly wasn't easy, but it was totally worth it.  Now I know that I can do it--and I can do more than that too! This will certainly help me in my training now and in the future.

I'm not making it to the gym tomorrow night either (Joe has a half day and we're going to move some stuff from my office to my apartment once I get off work since my last day is in less than a month), so fingers crossed I can get in a run tomorrow morning!

Requesting good vibes

Yesterday's proposed workout schedule got an extra boost! After I did the stairs at work (4th floor down to the basement, across the basement to the opposite stairwell, up to the 4th floor, down to the 1st, up to the 4th floor, down to the 2nd, up to the 4th floor, down to the 3rd, up to the 4th floor, down to the 1st, across to the opposite stairwell and up to the 4th), I was feeling pretty great. Once I left work (and saw my bus speed away into the distance) I decided to walk to my new apartment.

This was the first time I had walked from work in Mission Hill to my apartment in Brighton. In total it was 3.5 miles. Tacked onto my lunchtime walk around Leverett Pond and I had completed 5 miles of walking and the stair work at that point. I made myself some dinner, relaxed and digested with some TV, and then decided around 8 to go out for a run. It was my first time exploring the neighborhood in that way, so I ended up going both directions from my apartment (first heading off toward the pike, then back down past my apartment and toward Lake St and Rogers Park). I ended up having a pretty decent 2.5 mile run. I stretched out pretty well afterward, but my legs are still a bit sore this morning. Unfortunately it's raining today, so likely no lunchtime walk, but we'll see how things look around noon or so.

While I take this training pretty seriously, there is something of a more serious note I'd like to briefly mention. I have had some medical issues the past few weeks (nothing extreme, but still getting progressively more frightening) so I have a doctor's appointment set up for Friday. I got pretty worked up last night, mostly because I was left to my thoughts without much to do while Joe was out with Sean. Once he got home and called me, I calmed down enough to go to sleep, but woke up still pretty frightened. I don't want to go into detail right now about exactly what's happening because I'm hoping the doctor chalks it up to nothing (or mostly nothing). I'll update on Friday with whatever news I get from the doctor. In the meantime, send good vibes my way.

Summer!

While I've been celebrating the spirit of summer for quite some time (see my two "Summer 2011" facebook albums for proof), today marks the Summer Solstice. What I like about this official start to summer is accountability in my workout and diet routine.

There have certainly been days where I've found myself in shorts and a tank top, and plenty of days worthy of running outside, but now the 4th of July is less than two weeks away and a swimsuit is bound to crop up soon. What really makes me excited is that the swimsuit I bought last summer, which was already the smallest one I had owned to date, is too large! I can still wear it a couple more times when water and/or lots of movement aren't involved, but I'm going to have to buy a new one for a proper fit.

There's also the impending trip to North Carolina that gives me pause. Each time I've visited since I graduated from college, I have been the smallest my parents have ever seen me, progressively losing more weight. They know I've been running a lot and training for races, but I really want to wow them on Labor Day. To that end, I have a goal to lose 10 more pounds before Joe and I fly to NC for the first weekend of September. It frankly shouldn't be that difficult given how much time I spend running, so let's just hope that summer offers the accountability to stick to my healthy habits and not give my body too many carbs (or too much celebratory alcohol).

As tempting as it is to cap off a hot day with an ice cold beer, alcohol is limited to one time a week or less. Beer is strictly limited to the light varieties and other alcohol is mixed with diet coke or seltzer (in the case of wine). I'm also switching to vegan cheese as much as possible (more on this fabulous discovery in another post). This isn't strictly for weight loss reasons--though there are fewer calories in it than what other cheeses offer based on what little research I've done--with my lactose intolerance, it's so nice to be able to have cheesy foods without popping a lactaid every few minutes. It's also time to move back toward fresh fruits and vegetables (especially now that I live so close to a produce stand).

Of course, exercise is going to be the biggest key to all this. Yesterday after work I opted to go for a run outside, rather than going to the gym. This was partly because I wanted to enjoy the nice weather and partly because I just didn't want to sit on the T before starting my exercise. It was a stressful day at work and I wanted to get out my frustrations. I went on a 3-mile run from work to Jamaica Pond and back and it was gorgeous. The next time I go that route, I'll go around Jamaica Pond, rather than skirting in front of it, but it was very humid yesterday and I didn't bring my inhaler on the run.

On my lunch break today I went for a walk around Leverett Pond (which is the smaller pond between where I work and Jamaica Pond) and did two laps. Nothing strenuous, but movement nonetheless. I'm hoping to make that a staple of my routine for the next few weeks that I'm at this job (along with walking the stairs of the building several times around 3pm, which I did yesterday and plan to do today). Tonight after work I'm skipping the gym once again in favor of going for a run outside, though this time I'm going to wait until it cools off a bit and go for a run around my new neighborhood.

As a planner by nature, it feels so great to have all this sorted out and written down. This summer has so many exciting things to offer, continuing to whittle down the number I see on the scale (and my pants size) is another one to add to the list.

Happy Summer!

8K Training

Strangely, I still can't log in to my blog via chrome, so I had to resort to Firefox. I'm sorry, the google blogging service isn't working with the google browser? Fine.

After over a week of not going to the gym because of severe allergies and then a respiratory infection, yesterday was my first day back for what was meant to be more 8K training. One mile into my run, my still inflamed lungs were less than thrilled. Granted, I was doing my first day of training on an incline, which probably wasn't the best idea after having been sick and still coughing all day, but I was surprised I needed to stop so soon. I walked at a brisk pace on an incline for a few more minutes and then moved over to do some strength training. As a side note, I really enjoy the strength training machines at my gym and I like doing the circuit training they have laid out. It's interesting to see which of my muscle groups are significantly stronger than others.

I felt pretty okay while I was showering and changing, but once I got on the train I couldn't stop coughing. By the time I got to Harvard Square, I was scrambling for my inhaler, but couldn't even stop coughing long enough to get any good inhales. At that point my body was convulsing and I thought I was going to vomit. That said, I'm taking a break from the gym today. Instead I'm going to Allston after work to do some vacuuming and to get my Red Sox hat for the game on Monday. Depending how I feel after dinner tonight, I may hop on the elliptical at Joe's. At least that way I won't be dealing with public transportation if I start trying to cough up a lung.

Hopefully on Saturday morning I can go for a run around Charlestown (and do part of the race route), but that all depends what time Joe and I get up. We're planning to go to his brother and sister-in-law's place on Saturday, and maybe also moving the rest of my stuff to the new apartment, so I may be crunched for time. I have 17 days until the race, so I need to use whatever time I have for training. Eek!