C25K

Friday, February 01, 2013

I completed Couch to 5K on Sunday, January 27. Woohoo!

Seriously, when I started this program on a whim at the beginning of December, I didn't know if I would finish it. I looked ahead at the later weeks and couldn't believe I was supposed to jog 25, 28 and then 30 minute intervals. I just thought, "Well, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do that, but I'll do the first few weeks."

I huffed and puffed on my first day, and the only way I could finish the 60 second jogging intervals was to hardcore stare at a tree in the distance to keep my focus. My only rule was that I couldn't cheat - I couldn't walk when the lady's voice said to jog. I could jog really slow, as long as I wasn't walking.

The second week, I actually started crying during a jogging portion. I cried because it felt so difficult and I knew it shouldn't be difficult, for a normal person, because I was only jogging in like 90 second intervals. I felt pathetic. I cried one other time during the program...that was after I finished jogging 20 minutes straight for the first time, which I never thought I could do. I guess those were tears of shock and happiness. My last session I jogged 30 minutes straight, which is just insane. I have never been a runner, and I'm quite certain that's my longest jog ever.

In the first couple of weeks, sometimes my legs would feel really really heavy and I was just trudging along. One time I paused several times during the walking portions because my calves felt so stiff and tense that I had to stop and stretch them. I started stretching my calves beforehand and that pretty much solved the problem.

My friend said my calves look more defined, which I'm not so sure about, but that'd be great. I am a pear shape and I have big ole thighs, and some chunky knees that run in the family. She went with me on a couple of sessions, and it cracked me up because she's 4 or 5 inches taller than me and has always had muscular legs, at any weight, and she was basically just fast walking while I was "jogging." Like my jog was her fast walk. I did think it was funny, but it also kind of bummed me out, because it was way easier for her than for me, so I didn't feel as accomplished on those days.

Ummm what else.. I did start monitoring my distance with the Runkeeper app. I was pretty sure I wouldn't actually reach 5k by the end of the 8 weeks. In the end my best time was like 18 min/mi, which would be a 56 minute 5k (3.1 mi), which is not too good. I looked up that most people aim for 25 - 30 minutes. I am signed up for a 5k on March 30 and I'd like to increase my speed by then. I have a Couch to 10k app which I'm planning to use, and basically, I want to be able to run 5k by the end of the 10k program. Haha. I was supposed to start the 10k training a couple of days ago, but when I got to the park, I jogged 10 minutes and just couldn't stop thinking about how bored I felt, and how annoying it was. It was like a giant wave of apathy washed over me. So I'm going to try to start it tomorrow.

Also on a whim, I decided to try for 1000 fitness minutes in January. My first month of C25k, I was only doing my jogging sessions 3 times a week, and then no exercise the rest of the week. For January I wanted to exercise on my "off" days too. So I've been keeping track of it on my calendar and I ended up with 1028 fitness minutes for January. Yay...


I have been eating paleo-style a lot of the time but I also eat non-paleo more often than I'd like. I have done two Whole30's and I highly recommend it. It's not all about weight loss but the first time I lost 11 lbs and the second time I lost 9 lbs (and kept it all off). I've been eating too much junk lately so I think I'll start another one sometime in February.

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Some DIET observations...

Monday, December 12, 2011

How does anyone pick a diet to stick to?!


I mean, I've been on plenty of diets....used to count calories and that's not the best...because you can technically eat 300 calories of cereal or ice cream or plain ole lard and the calorie count is the only criteria...I remember in college I used to eat honey o's cereal and fried fish patties on white buns, and high-carb granola bars, and counted every calorie....I did lose weight but my metabolism was a lot higher then.


A couple of years ago I was on a whole grain kick...made quinoa and hummus and bulghur and oats and all kinds of "natural" foods... I do love some of those foods but depending on what it is...it can be very bland! Sometimes very delicious though......like quinoa with chopped hard-boiled eggs and caramelized onions....yum...


Last year I did Atkins for a while...and that was probably the best I've felt on a diet, ever. As far as hunger goes. I was never hungry. I ate tons of low-carb vegetables. I hadn't eaten that many vegetables, daily, in a really long time, probably never actually. But I did sometimes go the wrong way and order double cheeseburgers from McDonalds and then take the bun off (or.....say you're going to take the bun off, and then eat 1/4 or 1/2 or 3/4 and then throw it into the paper bag lmao...). I did like the Atkins plan but it is very hard to maintain, and I tended to eat a lot of fake sugar. AND, I used to NEVER drink cokes, not even diet cokes, and on Atkins, I started the bad habit of drinking Diet Dr. Peppers at work to quelch my sugar cravings. So that was a bad side effect.


For a few months earlier this year I didn't really change my eating but started going to the gym a lot. I would burn sometimes 1000 calories in one visit. Let me tell you....I didn't lose A DAMN THING. Not even a pound. So exercise alone obviously doesn't cut it.


I have been planning out meals for me and my husband, and I've been trying to keep them reasonable.. We were making breakfast burritos to freeze and we always ended up buying extra tortillas (delicious) and snacking on them all week. So we had to phase out the breakfast burritos.


I put some Weight Watchers recipes on the menu this week and they were just OK. A tad on the flavorless side and not all that filling. So WW....not sure it's for me. I've never been officially on the plan and I've never felt drawn to it, and the thought of the points system makes my head hurt just thinking about it. I hate math! Food should not involve math.


Yesterday I found a mouth-watering-looking VEGAN food blog.... Wow, just wow, I've never seen vegan food look that good. I have made vegetarian meals many times, esp. in my whole-grain-quinoa-101cookbooks.com phase (I do still love that blog), but never been interested in vegan recipes. Well, everything looked so fresh and delicious and vibrant that I decided I would try out some of the recipes on our next meal plan. If you're interested, http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com


On the OPPOSITE side of the spectrum....today I found a PALEO food blog, with equally mouth-watering food photos. Wow, just wow.....this food looks delicious. Here, http://nomnompaleo.com


And I thought, how ironic that I would be so intrigued by 2 completely different diets! One food blogger restricting meat completely and eating lots of pasta dishes....the other restricting pasta and grainbs but chowin down on roasted pig, steak, bacon-avocado "sammies" and bacon hard-boiled eggs!! But, if you read into it, both diets seem reasonable and healthy in their own way. You can lose weight doing either.


So which "diet" to pick? How do you decide what foods to eat? Which rules to follow?? When will it end??? I'm not saying I'm planning to "choose" any of the above diets mentioned or any other for that matter. I'm not asking for advice on which I should choose. Many would promote their own current diet and others would say that you shouldn't have keep changing diets, you should change your "lifestyle." (That's becoming its own cliche, but that's another story....)


I wish I could wake up and just eat when I'm hungry, and never have to worry about it! Often I wish that humans didn't have to eat to survive, because wouldn't that make it so much easier? There are so many choices that it boggles my mind...and I'm sure it boggles yours too. I am longing for a simpler solution...where eating doesn't require rules and no-no's and restrictions. Where eating is just eating!

What are your thoughts??

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Wedding Nightmare

Thursday, June 16, 2011

I had this horrible dream...

It was my wedding day, and we were supposed to get married at 11 AM. I rolled out of bed at 10:55 and went to sit in the chapel with my guests. I remember looking around thinking wow, why is everyone here so early...then realizing that I wasn't even dressed and had no makeup on or my hair done.

I went into the next room to start putting on makeup. My mom came in with this woman I didn't know and the woman started asking me all these questions, bothering me. She pointed out a portrait that was tacked up on the wall and started gushing over it. The funny thing is, I remember now that the portrait was of my younger sister's old childhood friend's younger brother. I know it was *supposed* to be him but actually the portrait was not his face. Weird. And, maybe the worst part of the dream, I remember looking in the mirror and I had BANGS. Blunt-cut bangs, like I had when I was 8.

Then the woman left and I started doing my own eyeliner, and I kept messing it up, so I had to keep drawing more on to cover the ugly line (lol). My sister came in (the make-up artist) and sat on the floor with her makeup bag, looked at me and said, Oh did you want me to do that for you?? Then she said that she wanted to use a stencil for my eyebrows (?!) and to do a "cut-out" makeup style for the wedding (??!)....I think this meant like when you hold a piece of paper up to your cheek and do your blush over it.

Then my mom sat down and asked me, We didn't make any decorations, what should we do? I started freaking out. I looked around and saw maybe 4 tissue-paper flowers with streamers attached...but the flowers were all ugly, misshapen, and they were all different colors, like bright yellow, lime green, and light pink. I started saying that maybe we can decorate the church with these 4 flowers (LMAO) but then I broke down crying saying that I don't want to get married today, we didn't get anything done, and can we please postpone it til tomorrow. Please, PLEASE, can we just do this another day.

And then I woke up. I have been feeling like nothing has been accomplished with the wedding, I've had a few roadblocks recently. Also, I lost my job about 3 weeks ago, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm in a rut...I feel like a bum and I haven't been motivated to do much of anything, not even wedding stuff. Then even when I *do* have a burst of energy, it seems to be futile, because the stuff I do work on doesn't seem to pan out. Of course, I'm sure I'm just being dramatic...

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Mean things I tell myself

Sunday, April 17, 2011

You're so dumb.
You're incompetent.
You're such a loser.
You can't do it.
You're such a chunk.
You look disgusting.
You don't fit in.
They don't like you.
Nobody likes you.
They're all better than you.
You're such a moron.
You can't do anything right.
You have no purpose.
You'll never live up to your potential.
You're too scared to ever _______.
You have nothing to show for your life.
You're a failure.
I hate you.

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Wedding Makeup

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

My sister Jill (THELILMERMAID) is a makeup artist so naturally she is doing my wedding makeup. So far we have tried 2 different looks.



At first I thought I wanted my usual, red-lip, pin-up look. We tried that out and it seemed harsh, and I started thinking how tedious it'd be to have to keep up with red lipstick during the reception.



So the next time we went for a softer lip and more eye makeup. I like both, but I think I prefer the second one. The hair is not right in either set of pictures. I am planning on doing a Veronica Lake peek-a-boo wave.

Which look do you think is better?

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