A little discouraged

Well we are at Thursday. On one side of my brain I am thinking "WOWZA, another week gone by" and on the other side I am thinking "Seriously it is NOT Friday yet?"

This week was nothing too special.
It was our first full week of school for the month of January.
I got to bed on time every night this week.
I ate really healthy.
I exercised 2 times after school.

Now all that said I got on the scale this morning. I have to weigh in once a month to keep my status as a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers. I am still right at the barrier. I have had two pretty great weeks. Exercise, portion control, fruits, veggies, the correct amount of sleep, and less TV time were all in place. So honestly I am a bit disappointed. Why has the scale not moved?

I guess my disappointment has taken away my want to write. I will still go to Weight Watchers. I only have 4 days left in January. I am in a slump with keeping up with my goals, if nothing is going to come of them.....

Oh weekend.....

The weekend got the better of me. Well not as much as it could have. Maybe I am putting too many goals into play too soon.

Saturday: Up early, and ran 7 miles with Get Fit Atlanta in Buckhead. It was a super hilly seven miles. But we took it easy, slow, and steady. I finished feeling pretty great. It was really cold though. Then Jacob and I went to Waffle House. We had about 45 minutes to kill before our counseling appointment. So normally I get cheesy eggs, and grits. But I choose a veggie omelet, with egg whites only. I did have some hash browns... Counseling was great, and then home to shower, and get a mani/pedi. I met back up with Jacob to go dress shopping for Shane and Diana's wedding. It was a success and I found my bridesmaid dress. Then Jacob and I went to this pizza place called Harry's and shared a cheese, pepperoni, and onion calzone. We went and saw the movie No Strings Attached. I only ate like 1/3 of the popcorn bag.

So overall on my goals:
I didn't turn the TV on once (YAY)
I exercised!
I DID NOT cook at home. Unless you count the bagel I toasted...and I don't.
I made some good choices for food. Could have been way better. I figure this was my big downfall for Saturday.

Sunday: Woke up and went to church to do UpStreet. Ate a bagel (no cream cheese) and 1/5 of a muffin. Went to 11 o'clock church. SO GREAT! I love my church! Jacob and I went to our FAVORITE mexican resteraunt La Parrilla for lunch. I ate a cheese, ground beef quessidilla. I know there are a million different, and healthier choice I could have made. And let's just say I put a HUGE dent in the chips and salsa. I got home and took a nap. Then I did some small cleaning around the house. Jacob helped set up the bike trainer and I put in 45 minutes on the bike trainer. I turned on the TV for the first time while in the trainer. I mean I really don't think I could make it on the trainer and not have something to distract me. And that brings us to right now.....trying to decide what to eat for dinner. I am thinking in the healthy range....

Overall on my goals:
TV was on for 1 hour. Pretty sweet!
I exercised!
DID NOT cook at home (yet) and really dinner will probably be a microwaved lean cuisine, as Jacob is at a church group tonight.
I DID NOT make good choices for food. I could have done a lot better. But seriously Mexican food is my weakness....must work on that.

So this weekend I think overall I did pretty well. I am loving this new no TV world. I am so much more productive. Weekends are hard to cook at home, because we are out and about all over metro Atlanta. But to no excuse. Something to work on for sure. I did get exercise in, and I was pretty close to keeping my portions under control.

So here is to a new week, and another week of making great choices!

I rocked this week!

The T.V stayed off.
I read a lot more than normal.
I ate really, really healthy.
I swam on Wednesday.
I worked out with a trainer on Thursday.
Today is Friday.

I rocked!

Back in Gear

This shouldn't be too long this time around. I am tired. My first day back to work was, eventful. Lots to catch up on, and get the kids back in the mode of when I talk you shut your mouth. A rough start, so a bit exhausted. Oh and 4:45 a.m. is pretty early in the morning.

I just need to get a few things out so I feel like I am a bit more accountable. The sit-in-front-of-the-tv-mindlessly is getting kicked out of my life. I have an entire other blog on this topic, so not much more to say. I got a little too used to the TV just being on while I was home on break and with no Masters work to keep up on....it got a bit out of control.

Jacob and I are using Googlecalendar (I know...welcome to year 2007). We have both found we are much more productive when we really schedule out our days. So t.v. watching is being scheduled from now on. Yup. That is right. Also being placed on the schedule are items such as reading, cleaning, and cooking. I have found when you get so specific it is so much easier to do it. When I know there is time in my schedule to cook dinner, I am so much less likely to think I need swing past a drive thru, or order pick up. I am also loving getting through my books so much faster, because I have set aside time for it! This is day 2....

Also workouts are being placed on my schedule. I know...I just finished the marathon, but hello I didn't die. My legs were done being sore on the Tuesday after the race, so I am up and ready to go. I won't go out doing like 20 miles, just getting out there. My mouth thingy, well lets just say I read through the post-op pamphlet in detail and it said nothing strenuous 24 hours after.... I won't go crazy. Triathlon season will be here before I can believe it, so tomorrow I am back to Wednesday Night Swim. I also have a group run, and bike on the schedule.

I will get my life back in gear....

Stripped of the Right...

Not the best name for a post on MLK Jr. Day, but that is how I am feeling. It all kind of started when Jacob and I returned from Florida, to a literally iced over Atlanta. It took way longer than it ever should have to get from the south side of Atlanta to our house. Not to mention there was SO SO SO much ice on our neighborhood roads, and driveway we had to park my car in the yard, and we couldn't get Jacob's car out until Saturday.

So school had been closed Monday, and Tuesday, so I didn't even have to make sub plans...don't get me started on that. School was canceled Wed-Fri. We had one car. We live in a neighborhood that was iced over. Our neighborhood also has a large hill that had two tire tracks from the people in our cul-de-sac neighborhood trying to get out the only road to the rest of the world. Needless to say we didn't get out a whole lot Wed, or Thursday.

BEFORE YOU EVEN START...all of you who will say, Amanda, you grew up in Michigan, what's the matter with you? Did you forget your upbringings? NO! I not so fondly remember most of the 24 years spent in what I call the arctic tundra now. I can still drive in cold weather, and even snow. But even all of you who have lived many more years than myself in cold weather states can not safely drive on 3-4 inches of ice. There were not spots of snow that your tires could get a grip. I know most people can not visualize this, but it was real. Ice...Ice...Ice...and Ice. We have 10 pieces of equipment for all of Atlanta. Seriously. We do not have salt. They went to Marietta, GA to the gravel pits and spread gravel. Yes. Gravel. With stones. But it worked I guess. It took 5 days to get the highways up and running, and our neighborhood hill is still covered on one side.

Off that side track. At first I was enjoying the time off. It was like the vacation every one needs from their vacations. I got unpacked, caught up on laundry, organized some school stuff, and did some cleaning. Then Thursday. It was the right I was stripped of. I couldn't go out. If you could go out there was few things open to go to. So stuck in the house. Now I was fortunate. It was only my second day...most people had been in Atlanta the whole time...that would have been day 4 for them. I am sorry for those.

Then Friday came with another day off. I had nothing left to do. Started to literally have a small break down. Now I had just run a marathon, and was suppose to be on "recovery" So I was stripped of the right to workout. But I went out anyway. I ventured out (because of my northern skills) and made it to the gym. Did just 45 minutes, but it was really about getting out of the house.

Each day that passed a little more ice melted, and the roads got a little better. Then we got to today. Monday. I had already scheduled the grafting of the right side of my mouth, quite a while ago. With the grafting being done today it means I am not suppose to do anything strenuous for 10 days. So again....stripped of the right to workout.

How many times did I find excuses not to work out, and now that I am being told I can't I am itching so bad to get out there, and just walk. The surgery took place this morning, and I am a bit sore. But I know tomorrow I will be back to school (thank goodness) and back to regular life. I will want to work out. But right now.....that right has been taken away.

I ran farther than I drive to work!

My first marathon is done! I really can't believe it. We had a fabulous few days in Florida. All of the pics can be found here and here. There are two separate albums, just because of how many pictures we took. But the above picture was taken the day after the race. We felt pretty good. Sore, but amazed at our accomplishment.

RACE REPORT!!

The night before we went to the pasta buffet that the resort was putting on. We ate lots of pasta, veggies, and fruit. Lots of water. We went back to our room at 8 p.m. and got out all of our race stuff ready. We set our phone alarms, and got a wake up call for 3 a.m. We were in bed by 8:45.

We got up at 2:45 a.m. I kept waking up during the night freaking out that I had overslept. But when I woke up from the alarm, I felt really refreshed. Everyone got up with us, and we met a teacher friend Terry downstairs to catch the shuttle. We ate a banana, a bagel with peanut butter, some water, and a power bar. We were on the shuttle by 3:30 and off we went. We were dropped off, and we hung out for a little bit. Then Jacob, Terry, and I went through the runner fence, and we were off to the start. We had to walk about 20 minutes to the start. Jacob and I made it to our corral E at 5 a.m. It was super cold, and we just had to stand there. Run Disney had entertainment so we had something to listen to. Finally at 5:25 we sang the National Anthem and the wheelchair racers were off. At the beginning of each corral they shot off fireworks, which was awesome. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald were all at the start line to wave us off. We went under the start banner a little before 6 a.m.

Because we had trained with a marathon training group Get Fit Atlanta, we run with a lot of people who are marathoners, and are quite good at it. Most of them are totally willing to give free advice and I am happy to listen and take it all in. One of those big pieces of advice was to make sure to pace very carefully at the beginning. So adrenaline was very high, but we took it slow to begin. We each had to visit the bushes....I will leave it at that. The first 4 miles took us into Epcot, and around the big ball they have in there. It was so dark. We made a loop around the ball, and then came back around where the start was. It was here we got to see my mom, step dad, sister, and her fiance. They had fuel ready for us, and we took off our sleeves. It was great to see them. We were feeling really great at that point.

It started getting light around mile 6. We ran to Magic Kingdom next. Mile 10 we rounded a corner and finally saw Cinderella's Castle. It was so cool to be running through the parks literally. We saw the family again, and it was hugs all around. If you have the chance to go and be a spectator please do. The strength it gives you seeing people you know is something I can't explain. We got some more fuel and off we went again. Run Disney had water stops pretty close to every mile. At each water stop we would grab some water, walk the 40 seconds to drink some, and then pick back up our jog. We had fueled twice, by mile 10. We would fuel when we saw a water stop, drink the water, and move on. Jacob had to visit the restroom quite a few times, but he said he would rather stop to use the restroom than be under hydrated.

After mile 12 we actually started feeling hungry. That is when we started fueling a lot more often. We had brought plenty with us, so that wasn't a problem. Cliff Bars was a sponsor and they had bananas around mile 16. I didn't really train with cliff bars, so I didn't dare try any with so many miles left to run. We went into Animal Kingdom. We ran through the back to the front. During mile 17 we saw our cheering squad for the last time. We took the last of the fuel with us, and got our sunglasses. Duane asked me how I was doing. I was honest, it was at this point my joints were really starting to act up. When we would stop for water it was really hard to get back into a jog. Jacob was really sore at this point. This crazy muscle in his leg was starting to bulge out, so lots and lots of BioFreeze. It was mile 18 that I felt was a turn. I felt at that point it was like I can do this, and I will make it. It was totally attainable.


Miles 18 - 22 were our slowest. We were both kind of over it. Runners talk about hitting a wall. Jacob hit his wall early mile 18, and I hit mine at mile 21. I didn't get as bad as I thought I would. Part of the trouble was that we were running on roads in between parks, so much less to keep us entertained. Run Disney did a great job that at least every half mile there was some sort of character out there, and a lot of music. But it was just out on the road, and you have time to think about how bad your lower back is aching. How your hips are so sore. How my knees really felt like there was no cartilage left, and the dull pain was over taking my mind. These miles were also hard because others were falling all around us. People were slowing down, they were crying out in pain. Runners were limping, and practically falling around us. I saw my other teacher friend Amanda along mile 20. It was great to get a hug, a quick picture, and some encouraging words. When we got to Hollywood Studios it was a relief. It came at a time I really needed some distractions. We continued fueling, and stopping for water. We realized jogging slowly felt better than walking, so for most of these 5 miles we jogged at a slower pace, but still walked very little.

We made it to mile 23 in Hollywood Studios and it was glorious! 3 more miles, and it felt amazing. Mile 24 and 25 were the longest miles I have ever ran. I was so sore, and tired, but it became the mind set of one foot in front of the other. Right before we went into the back of Epcot for our last mile, we went around this riverwalk area, that I didn't even know existed in Disney World. I have been going there since I was two, so it was pretty cool to find something new. It also kept me entertained with something to look at. Mile 26 was a feeling I can't describe right now. It is amazing, like a high, like a feeling of accomplishment. I knew I had to finish strong and I made my muscles do what I would have thought was impossible a few years ago.

And then the end! We rounded a corner and had two tenths of a mile left. There were people cheering all over, and the roar of yelling, cheering, people shouting was overwhelming. We saw our family, and heard them shouting. It was a great feeling! I thought I would cry as I crossed the finish line, but I was past tearing up. Jacob and I grabbed hands held them high and crossed the finish line. 5 hours and 48 minutes after we had crossed the start line.

We crossed the finish line, and received the thermal blanket. Next up was the medic tent. People had their ankles, and knees taped with ice, but we choose to keep on moving. We received our medals, and then we found our chEAR Squad. We grabbed a few Cliff Bars, and muffins, and met the family at the family meeting area. We had finished. It was a high that I can not describe.

So there you have it. We took our time, took a slower pace than we are used do, took time to take pictures, and had a great time! We did that and ran 26.2 miles in under 6 hours. It was a great race, I would highly recommend it. It was well run, the spectator resources were amazing, and everything ran smoothly. They have a half marathon, and then the full. They also have a race called the Goofy. Which is the half marathon on Saturday, and then you run the full marathon on Sunday. Honestly I am seriously thinking about that for next year! I feel like I can do anything. Many new goals for my fitness level this year. What a great way to start 2011!