I met a woman named Lisa through an online pregnancy and childbirth forum about four years ago when I was pregnant with my oldest son, she was pregnant with her second son. We became friends and since we live fairly close (about 200 miles) we visit whenever we are in the area and for birthday parties. She has watched me start running and always said one day she would start. We both struggled with our weight and depression and some how we both managed to get through our sons’ first years. Well she finally took the plunge and began running about a month ago! Im SO proud! She is doing the same program I began with (couch to 5 K) and she has started eating low fat (20% calories from fat or less). She has lost a fantastic 8 and a half pounds!! She also mentioned that dealing with the kids at the end of the day has become more bareable. I dont think that is something I have mentioned in any of my entries at this blog. When I miss a couple runs or work outs life starts to feel crazy again! Im not entirely sure what it is about the exercise but when I have been working out I can deal with my kids and all of my responsibilities much better. I dont think I could ever go back to not being active at least a few days a week. I dont know how I got through the day before I started running.
Lisa is going to be joining me in Las Vegas on December 2nd to run her first half marathon! A month prior to that she is going to be participating in the Susan G Komen 3 day walk for breast cancer. Im really looking forward to watching her successes this year. You can follow Lisa’s journey in her blog at http://justwhatcan60milesdo.blogspot.com/
Today was a cross training day. 30 minutes on the elliptical which was about 250 calories burned, plus I did some arm toning. I was really tired and this work out was really hard to keep going this evening. Earlier in the day I did some leg work outs so my legs were already tired when I started. I was so relieved when the counter on my elliptical flipped to 30:00 minutes ug! That was definatly a tough one to get through. But Im very glad I did. I now have exactly 5 weeks until my next half marathon. My first half was in December in Las Vegas, I had had a lot of knee and shoe issues so I took it easy and had a fantastic time! My time was 2:52 Im now ten pounds lighter 2 months later and am hoping to be at least another 5 pounds lighter by the time I line up in my corral in Laughlin at my next race. Id LOVE to finish my next half in 2:37- 15 minutes faster. Thats a pretty lofty goal I think, but I know I can do it!
I had a great day today with exercising and eating low fat! I spent an hour on my treadmill today and burned about 450 calories! I ended up walking a total of 15 minutes and running 45 minutes. My heart rate monitor kept me in my fat burning zone and I felt awesome! My feet were hurting mildly but I figured that much be just from the new shoes, as soon as I stopped and took my shoes off my feet felt just fine. I love work outs like these, I feel so fantastic afterward! My oldest son was up most of the night and my youngest woke up only about 2 hours after I finally got to bed so Ive been dragging all day. But now at nearly 8pm I feel like I can take on the world. Exercise rocks! My heartrate monitor said I burned almost 500 calories! Thats awesome! Today I really watched closely to what I was eating. I wanted to keep my calories from fat below 10-15% I think I did pretty good. This is what I ate today:Cereal, banana and skim milk. We were out of cheerios so I snagged the kids cocoa puffs….I totally forgot how GOOD those are. Full of sugar and cocoa…how can you go wrong?! Yep again I know my nomination for mom of the year will not be in the mail!I had a few bites of cottage cheese and strawberries today for snack, I just wasnt digging it, it didnt seem ‘right’ for lunch I had a bagel and skim milk and an apple. My husband brought home these little Easter gummy lifesaver candies and threw one at me when he walked in the door. I swear he is pure evil. I ate a couple but gave most of them to my son. The other day he came home with peeps and mini Cadbury eggs,evil! Did I mention my husband is evil (and thin)?! I took them off of the kitchen counter and shoved them into the cupboard where he keeps all his ’stuff’ I havent eaten any! Now if he brought home a dove truffle egg I might just have to shove it down his throat so I don’t eat it first! Okay…end rant! For dinner I made the family this super yummy high fat looking pizza and I had a Healthy Choice meal. It was their Traditional Turkey Breast it had turkey, gravy, stuffing, mixed veggies and a tart cherry pie filling type desert. It was really tasty but not filling at all. It has 300 calories and 4 grams of fat which is just 12% calories from fat. I think this would be a marvelous lunch if you aren’t super hungry. I ate a banana afterward too.
Tomorrow I have my elliptical cross training for 40 minutes and I need to work on my arms too!
Ive seen these little packages of beans by the rice at the market and I always thought “Hmmmm…looks…’healthy’ (GAG)” But in a moment of temporary insanity I grabbed one of these packages of 15 bean soup. Its low fat after all, might as well give it a whirl, eh?
The prep was pretty easy, Ive made split pea and ham soup before, this wasnt much different. I washed and went through the beans and left them to soak overnight. There was this tiny packaet of ’seasonings’ which was just MSG, dextrose, sugar and smoke flavor. There was also a basic recipe on the back of the package which I pretty much followed.
So I rinsed the beans this afternoon and stuck them in a pot with a quart of water, a can of diced tomatoes a chopped onion and I chucked in a few spices just because its a compulsive thing for me. Since my husband is a meet and potatoe kind of guy I put some ham in it in as well. I trimmed the ham carefully and used the leanest parts I could find, and chucked the rest in a frying pan for him to add to his bowl later. It turned out actually pretty decent. My kids didnt nap today so they were both totally cranky but they actually ate it, my 3 year old cleaned his bowl. This made a LOT, so Im freezing half of the left overs.
So quick ingredient list:
15 bean soup mix with spice packet
1 onion chopped
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
some chopped ham (totally optional)
salt, 1 bullion cube, pepper, garlic and onion powder to taste
Yep that easy!
The bean mix says its 180 calories per serving .5g of fat which is only 2% calories from fat. The onion and tomatoes are pretty much fat free! Just watch the ham its 35-40% calories from fat.
I weighed myself this morning when I first got up around 4:30 I weighed 162.2lbs, I wasnt impressed at all! After breakfast I wieghed again and it said 161lbs. A little better, but I still was not thrilled to see a 6 in there! I havent been cheating at all, eating well, eating low fat and healthy food but I definatly havent been putting in the regular everyday effort of exercise that I should be. Yesterday I did 30 on the elliptical and then did some reps with my wrist weights for my arms and a bit of stretching. The kids have not been sleeping well, which is pretty normal but Ive really been slacking with being tired from being up with them at night. I just have to suck it up! Its hard to get up early before the kids wake up or stay up late after they go to bed and work out, but once I get going its totally worth it. I need to work on my motivation.
I missed my 10 mile run this weekend so Im going to redo this weeks schedual and get my 10 in on Sunday or Monday. Ive decided to kick up things a notch. My limit was 20% calories from fat but Im kicking that down to around 10% for a while to see if I can get things going again, Im also going to be doing some sort of exercise every single day. Whether it be running, training on the elliptical, pilates or lifting weights Ive got to do something every single day. My husband is best man in a wedding on May 17th and I have this gorgeous dress Id love to wear. Its beautiful, but very very tight at the moment. My goal is to fit into it and look hot by the wedding day! I know I can do this!