CICO June 26 - July 2

Monday, June 27, 2011

06/26
SP Report
Eaten 1,952
BMR* 2,082
Exercise 742
Total Burned 2,824
Differential -872

BB Report
Calories Burned 3228
Calories Consumed 1974
Calorie Balance 1254

06/27
SP Report
Eaten 2,191 (we're bordering on ridiculous here!)
BMR* 2,082
Exercise 771
Total Burned 2,853
Differential -662

BB Report
Calories Burned 2765
Calories Consumed 2220
Calorie Balance 545

06/28
SP Report
Eaten 1,950
BMR* 2,082
Exercise 475
Total Burned 2,557
Differential -607

BB Report
Calories Burned 2663
Calories Consumed 1973
Calories Balance 640

06/29
SP Report
Eaten 1,874
BMR* 2,082
Exercise 800
Total Burned 2,882
Differential -1,008

BB Report

~*~
Kash, so far BB it usually putting my calories burned 200-600 calories HIGHER than SP. It's been interesting to see, and I think that descrepency is what is giving me 'free rein' in my mind at least to eat so much over my range! Grrrr. Time to get back on track.

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I've been bitten by the Bugg!..

Thursday, June 23, 2011

So my status on Wednesday was that I didn’t get my run in on Tuesday, but I DID get a BodyBugg! Yay me!

First things first – I bought it off Craigslist for 40% off the price of a new one. It IS expensive in one way, yes, but.. I’m worth it! I am, really! Yes, I have to pay for the subscription to the tracking site, or purchase a digital display – I went for the web subscription – to reap the benefits of the data it collects. I’ve been pining for one of these puppies for a while now, but opted to get a Garmin several months ago because I wanted to focus on improving my running, and I have. I’m still a work in progress where running is concerned, but now I feel comfortable branching out to another gadget.

I’m a geek, what can I say? I love new toys! LOL

So I got the Bugg on Tuesday, and activated it on Wednesday and slapped that sucker on my left arm. It’s comfy, mostly unnoticeable really. You put it on and you forget about it. I like that in a gadget!

Here’s a screenshot of my feedback from the website for my very first day:


I compared this data with the data from SP’s Reports, Daily Calorie Differential, and while there’s some discrepancy between the two, it’s not huge:


Now, if you look at the BodyBugg site screenshot, you can see little peaks of activities on the graph. I slid the Bugg on around 8:30 and went about my day from there. The smaller spikes until 12:30 were the times I got up from my desk and walked around our floor. This, to me, is proof that while I may look like a dolt walking in a circle for a few minutes, it’s worth it because it does increase, even slightly, my calorie burn for the day. Much moreso than just sitting on my rumpus all day!

From 12:30 to 1, I walked with my coworker. Nice peaks there!

Again, a few more walks around the floor until quitting time at 4:00. I drove home then, and at 5 started getting ready to go to the gym. I do as much crunch/core work at home as I can so I can get home sooner rather than later.

By 5:30, I’m out the door, walking to the gym, arriving 25 minutes later.

I do my ST from 6 to 6:30 or so – keep in mind all these times are estimates, +/- 5 minutes.

At 6:30, we find out our Zumba instructor called off sick. Bummer. But.. wait! There are three of us ready for class, and we happen to have the CD our instructor has made for us. Why not??

Heh. We did our Zumba class on our own. We know the routines (85% of each one at least) so we went through and did our own class. Nice! We Zumba’d our hearts out until 7:20, and call it a night.

I walked home from the gym after that, another 25 minutes, then got cleaned up and settled in for dinner. I was STARVING!

So, if we total it up, I dedicated approx. 3 hours yesterday to fitness. Nice!
Even nicer is seeing that graph depicting my efforts, and the resultant calorie burn in total for all day.

I did set up my BodyBugg page with the goal of sports training AND losing weight. I want and need to be active, and I want and need to fuel my body properly. Having said that, I was blown away by the recommended target Calories in of 2050! Dang! I didn’t quite make it yesterday, and I’m not sure I’m going to fling caution to the wind and go charging after that 2050 with gusto! LOL I’ll up my intake a bit – I’ve already expanded my calorie range up to 1800 because I haven’t been feeling as if I’m eating well enough to support all my activities, and.. AND.. and I’m not releasing any real weight.

Yea, I said I didn’t care about releasing more weight. I fibbed. I do care, of course I do, else I wouldn’t still be here. I want to do it healthfully, and I want to do it in a permanent, sustainable manner. This is for life, and I’m willing to use whatever means are available to me to get this thing figured out and nailed down.

Of course, as soon as I feel confident that I do have it figured out, everything will change again!

So there – there’s my recap of Day 1 with the Bugg. I’m excited to see what else I can learn and whether or not this can really help me get back to releasing steadily again. I’ve had more than enough of this 222-225 business, thank you very much. I want to crack 220.. then 210.. then big ole 200! It’s within my grasp, and I’m reaching for it.. hard!

Spark On!
C~

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CICO June 19-25

Monday, June 20, 2011

This is my Calories In/Calories Out tracker for the week of June 19 to June 25. We started doing this tracking on our 10 weeks 10 lbs challenge team.. back over the holidays I think. It's been a great tool for me to see how I'm doing.

This is mostly housekeeping for me, nothing all that exciting. I'll update this entry daily, or at the least every other day.

06/19
Eaten 1,566
BMR* 2,086
Exercise 0
Total Burned 2,086
Differential -520

06/20
Eaten 1,636
BMR* 2,086
Exercise 651
Total Burned 2,737
Differential -1,101

06/21
Eaten 1,671
BMR* 2,086
Exercise 0
Total Burned 2,086
Differential -415

Let's see if my formatting will stick when I post today's update. Nope :{
SparkPeople Report......................BodyBugg Report
Calories.......................Calories
Eaten 1,629.....................Eaten 1765
BMR* 2,086
Exercise 1,165
Total Burned 3,251.......................Total Burned 3105
Differential -1,622........................Deficit -1340

06/23
SP Report
Eaten 1,505
BMR* 2,086
Exercise 246
Total Burned 2,332
Differential -827

BB Report
Calories Burned 2520
Calories Consumed 1611
Calorie Balance 909

06/24
SP Report
Eaten 1,912
BMR* 2,082
Exercise 533
Total Burned 2,615
Differential -703

BB Report
Calories Burned 2949
Calories Consumed 1895
Calorie Balance 1090

06/25
SP Report
Eaten 2,693
BMR* 2,082
Exercise 703
Total Burned 2,785
Differential -92

BB Report
Calories Burned 3391
Calories Consumed 2563
Balance 828

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We survived the Mud Run MS Portland!... Picture heavy...

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Chazeray and I tackled the Mud Run yesterday to help raise funds to battle MS. Let me tell you, it was unlike anything else I've ever done! There aren't enough words.. crazy, incredible, tough, funny, daunting, scary, ecstatic, filthy, fantastic.. I could go on and on!

6.2 miles, 30 obstacles, 1 day. Sounds like a piece of cake compared to what some people with MS face every day. That's the message that really spurred us on through out our quest to survive - we can face this challenge for one day, because it's nothing compared to what folks with MS deal with.

I've done a few 10Ks. I respect the distance, but knew this wasn't any ordinary 10K. Add to that the fact that my left leg has been bothering me since the 13 mile run and 5K race last weekend, and I was wondering if I was going to be able to make it through. That's what I had emailed my coach about, and quietly freaked out that I'd run myself into a stress fracture. I ran on Tuesday last week, but didn't run the rest of the week. I did Zumba on Wednesday, but was left limping and wigging out afterward. I iced and rested and took it easy the rest of the week, hoping I could milk some kind of performance from my leg on Saturday.

As has become my habit, one must dress appropriately for whatever battle she's facing.

Heh.


Bill was his typical self and went with, carrying water and snacks and money and camera and enthusiasm - which wasn't easy because it was in the mid 50s and drizzly. Great way to spend a Saturday morning, eh? Standing around for 2 hours waiting for a couple of whacked out women! LOL

Speaking of.. my teammate, Chazeray!


I cannot say enough about this amazing lady. Chasity has a great can-do attitude, and honestly had she not agreed to do this challenge, I wouldn't have done it myself. We agreed on one of the many trips up or down the killer hill that we'd have to agree to forgive each other for getting ourselves into this!

See how neat and tidy and clean we look? Yea, that's before things got started. This was a fantastic event, the first one in the Portland area, and the course was built on amazing country 'donated' to the cause by the Sherwood Forest Equestrian Center.

Here's a glimpse of the map of the event. I only found this map today. Had I seen it before? No guarantee we would have done this LOL

Photo credit:
www.facebook.com/mudrunmsoregon

See that large beige spot that sorta looks like Africa? That's a hill. A big hill. The kind of hill that makes grown men cry like little girls. Ok, maybe not that bad, but it's HUGE. Before we got to the hill though we trecked through the woods and realized that we were relatively lucky - we took off at 9 a.m. with the first waves of DGAP (don't give a poop!) non-competitive runners. The trails were wet from the drizzle, and getting mucky from the feet pounding over them. It was only going to get worse.

30 obstacles. Seriously, I don't know that I can recall all of them. There was an awesome one where you waded through 2-3 feet of muddy water, only to climb up a giant hill of mud, to slide down the other side into more muddy water. We climbed over logs, we waded through mud, we slipped and slid and skidded and .. I'm tired just writing about it again!

Chas was a total super star and tackled all but one obstacle. She climbed the giant ladder thingy - I only went up two rungs then slid through and back down LOL I don't do heights. She did the monkey bar swing-a-ma-jig, and splashed down with a big ole sploosh! I ninnied out and bypassed that one, too!

There was a rope bridge - one rope above your head, one rope to balance on as you walk your way over water. I did that one! I was proud of that one, very much. I've lived a life of being too heavy to do crazy stuff like this, and old thoughts die hard. I just knew I was going to stretch the rope beyond its limit. DID NOT HAPPEN! I went really slowly, but I went, and I crossed that bridge and I was so stoked!

The only obstacle we both bypassed was the Leap of Faith. You climb up onto this platform 8-10 feet in the air and jump off into a hole, 8-10 feet deep, filled with muddy water.

No, thank you.

Next!!

I could go on and on and ON about what we faced, what we did, and how it went. We crawled through creeks, we slipped on the trails, we laughed our way down hills and motored back up again. I think it was 4 times up, 5 times down. It's all a blur now.

The end. We made it to the end! The last obstacle standing between us and finishing. A low crawl, going through a mud pit, under a cargo net. The water was deep enough and the net low enough that you were down on your belly and slithering through. At one point my head got caught on the net because I refused to put my face in the water LOL The volunteer working the obstacle lifted the net so I could keep going. I made it to the end, but then couldn't get myself out of the pit. There were people all around, cheering and yelling and encouraging. I stopped trying to stand up and just crawled up the slick wall of mud until I was free. I rose up and threw my hands in the air with a Spark-inspired WOOHOO and took off for Chas.

We finished that run in 2 hours and 20 minutes. It was incredible. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Yes, it was harder than running 3 hours for half marathon training.

Hard.
HARD.
H-A-R-D!

I can't wait to do it again!

The start/finish area.


They actually fired this cannon to start our first wave LOL It was a HUGE kabOOOOOOm!


On our way. It was too mucky for Bill to try and get out on the course, so this is really the only action shot of us on the path to glory.


This is just after the last mud low crawl, rounding the corner and heading for the finish.


I swear, I almost stopped here. I didn't think I could make it, but then.. I yelled 'kick it' to myself and kept on going!


Sweet victory! We made it!


I couldn't be happier - so proud of what we accomplished, for not quitting, for making it to the end!


In line at the wash off area. A gentleman with a giant hose - think firetruck hose - was spraying everyone off. We waited patiently in line for our turn to, on purpose, spin and turn and dance before a man with a giant waterhose shooting cold water at us LOL It was nutty, but good.


Post-wash off. Do we look cleaner? LOL It helped, but didn't come near enough to actually getting us clean. Keep in mind, it's still mid-50s and drizzly. We're cold. We warmed up while we ran, inbetween getting drenched of course, but when the race was over for us, the cold started setting in bigtime.

Bill was a paragon of wisdom - he had two handtowels in his backpack and gave one to each of us. We wiped our faces and hands off and he eventually opened our waterbottles for us. Yes, we were handed waterbottles as we crossed the finish line. Awesome! Except, our hands are so filthy, that there's mud all over the bottles and lids and .. we needed help!

Now, this event had various sponsors and vendors. You would not believe the rejoicing that took place when the big pink VooDoo Donut van showed up before the race LOL One young guy even ran down from barns toward the van, diving for it. Tooo funny.

During our run, I'd blurt out randomly "I want a DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOnut" That kept us going I think! Needless to say, as we were toweling off our faces and hands, we headed for the VooDoo truck and indulged. Chas and Bill each had an old fashioned. I had an apple fritter the size of the state of Delaware. Whatever calories I burned out on the course were cancelled out by that donut LOL

In all, it was a fabulous time. We retrieved our clean dry clothes and headed to the changing tent. That was another new experience. I've never changed in public, or in front of others. Just doesn't happen. Except, it did. Or mostly did. I couldn't bring myself to shuck my panties, so I wore my wet muddy panties under clean capris LOL I did cave and change my sportsbras (yes, I wore two) and tshirt for clean ones.

I think we cleaned up pretty good. What do you think?


And yes, that's the last little bit of the giant donut clutched in my paw LOL

I absolutely love Chas to pieces. That woman has a can-do, will-do attitude that I admire. I'm so glad that we've met here through Spark and have taken the friendship offline and onto the race course. I was worried my leg would slow me down, or that my running intervals would slow me down. Chas was patient and stuck right with me, encouraged me, inspired me, and made this whole adventure an experience I will never ever forget!

Mud Run MS Portland 2012? Oh yea, we are so totally there!

C~

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I am worthy of notice...

Thursday, June 16, 2011

What follows is akin to a whiny whine full of whining, written by Mrs. McWhines-A-Lot. Do feel free to move along and wait for a happier more upbeat blog after the weekend. Hopefully.
You’ve been warned.


I am worthy of notice.

Do you know how odd that simple sentence is for me to type? For YEARS I thought I was doing a good job of packing on weight, putting up a wall, weaving a cloak of (fat) invisibility and hiding from the world. I didn’t want to be noticed. I wore brown and black and gray because they were (bland and blah and boring) slimming. Oh sure, I’d be ‘the big lady’ or ‘that fat chick’ but I wouldn’t be someone anyone would be interested in getting to know or paying any attention to.

Now, I’m working on busting out of my shell, coming out from behind the wall, and deciding that I AM worth noticing, and listening to, and meeting, and befriending, and being involved with.

It feels like an odd transition to go through. I mean, I embrace being an introvert, and needing down time, quiet time, to recharge and draw energy in. I’m not a big ‘lookit ME’ kind of person. I like people. I used to like people mostly at a distance LOL Now I find I’m eager to become more involved, and BE involved and included by others.

Maybe I’m lacking in normal social skillz? I’m tongue-tied and dorky and not good at small talk or chatting with someone I don’t know. I blurt without thinking – never offensive or bad things, just.. big ole DUH moments.

I am worthy of notice.
At work, since the culling of our department last August, the other lady in my group (there were three of us until my manager was let go) and I were handed off to other groups. Neither of our jobs really fit with the groups we are now members of, but they had to give us to someone. Someone has to be responsible for us, manage us. Ok, fine. But.. my manager, as much as I really like and respect him, doesn’t know what to do with me. I’m not really included in the group’s efforts or activities. I’m forgotten about more often than not. My opinion isn’t asked for, my skills aren’t considered, my tasks aren’t calculated into the greater scheme of things. I am not noticed or included in what seems to me to be important things.

I am worthy of notice.
I’ve emailed my training coach about a possibly vital issue I’m dealing with. On Tuesday. I haven’t heard back from him yet. I understand busy. I understand not everyone works on a computer all day, every day, and may not have access in order to respond in a more timely manner. I do understand that. The petulant 8 year old inside of me doesn’t really care and wants to know why I’m not worthy of notice and a response and some encouragement and actual coaching.

I am worthy of notice.
There’s a guy at our gym who apparently has noticed me. At first I thought maybe he is a BBW lover, has a fatty fetish, etc. I’m not used to being noticed by men. It just doesn’t happen. So when it does happen, it catches me off guard and I wonder if I’m just hallucinating or seeing something there that isn’t. But for reals, yo. This guy has noticed me and has made it pretty obvious. I’m at the gym with my husband, and I make that obvious as well LOL But still.. someone other than the man I’m married to has noticed me.. for me. And why not? I’m looking cuter in my workout gear. I’m working hard on the machines, on the mats, with the weights, kicking my own boo-tay in Zumba! I arrive with a glisten from running to the gym, cheeks in high color and eyes bright. I’m cute, damnit, and I appreciate the fact that someone has noticed. I’m not model material, but I might as well be compared to how I looked before. So yea, it is nice to have a stranger apparently appreciate the work I’m doing and putting into myself. Call it conceited, fine. My ego needs a boost every now and again as well.

I am worthy of notice.
Perhaps I come on too strong in my admiration of someone’s efforts – back to being socially awkward. Perhaps telling someone that they are your hero (here on SP) is too much and sounds too needy? Maybe it comes across as an emotional vampire, someone wanting to suck the accomplishment right out of you to make themselves feel better? I think I may have blown a friendship or two because I was so impressed with people, so wow’d and in awe that I gushed and praised and .. I don’t know. I love you, my friends, who stick with me, read me, laugh with me. I adore YOU and wouldn’t trade you for the world. The insecure 8 year old inside wants to know why I’m not good enough for some people to be nice to, back. Why I don’t get the encouragement back that I try to give to so many people.

Gads that last batch of words just makes me cringe, but if I’m going to lay it all out for you, to get it off my chest and purge it from my worries, then it’s gotta be honest.

So there. I’m done with my whiny needy “poor me” post. Fortunately, I don’t go through these moods very often. It’s awful, and to be further honest with you, I’ve sat here teary-eyed while writing this, because I’m a ninny and obviously hormonal and feeling neglected.

Get over it already!
I will change the things I can, and come up with a game plan for those things that I can’t. To that end, I’m now going to go for my lunchtime walk, absorb what sunshine there is out there while I can, then come back feeling better. After work, I’m going to meet Chazeray to pick up our Mud Run packets for Saturday’s event! I can’t wait.

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