It's Been a While...

Monday, June 27, 2011

I haven't blogged on SP in a while so I'm pretty sure I'm overdue with an update. Still hanging onto those last sticky ten pounds :(

Started CrossFit 3 weeks ago. It's definitely kicking my butt and I feel like a total weakling compared to everyone else, but I'm also DEFINITELY getting some arm/shoulder definition. Hopefully the rest of the body will follow?? I have my fingers crossed.

I also found this wonderful blog entry: amysmithr.blogspot.com/2005/08/how-i
-do-ns-with-my-own-food.html about doing Nutrisystem on your own. As in, cooking NS-like foods on your own so that you don't have to spend $300/month on their somewhat nasty cardboard food. I did NS the summer before vet school and got down to the lightest I've been since about highschool, so I'm hoping that if I go back to something that I KNOW worked for me before then that will help me kick these final lbs.

On that note, I made a delicious dessert treat tonight that I would love for everyone to try... and review... :)
recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detai
l.asp?recipe=1700415
They're fat free AND sugar free pumpkin shortbread bars as seen at www.picky-palate.com . I love the website but I just can't justify all of the calories in her food! I always get rave reviews when I make her treats for guests and parties and such, so I tried to slim down her recipe with what I had in the kitchen, and lo and behold it actually turned out tasty!!!! I hate when fat free/sugar free stuff tastes funny or too different from the real thing, but this is delicious. The only thing I noticed is that the shortbread came out a little biscuit-like, but it totally didn't matter because it tastes awesome anyway. I think the fat free Promise spread is the key.

So anyway... please check out my recipe and I will try to be better about posting on here :)

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

MCJULIEO 6/28/2011 7:36PM

OK, I'm putting that recipe on my To Do list! Report Inappropriate Comment

KMLINDAUER 6/27/2011 8:57PM

OMG it's kicking my ass!!! I think my favorite so far was 30 heavy back squats and then mile run for time. Anything with running works for me since it's the only thing I'm decent at! :) Report Inappropriate Comment

JENNFIT24 6/27/2011 8:39PM

Woo-hoo for getting into Crossfit! It is flipping awesome:) What is your favourite workout? Report Inappropriate Comment

Florida or Bust!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

We finally decided what we're going to do over spring break... ROAD TRIP!!! :)

Jordan and I did a road trip out west before school started in the fall, and went to all sorts of fun places like Roswell, the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Santa Fe, and Carlsbad Caverns. We camped every night in state parks and had an amazing time. So now it's time for round 2!

We're going out east this time, and here are some of our planned stops...

#1: Our friend Jaci's wedding in San Antonio


#2: My parent's new house for a family get-together


#3: The Shed in Ocean Springs, MS for BBQ!


#4: Destin, FL


#5: Cape Canaveral


#6: St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park


#7: Havana Hideout from Diners, Drive-In's and Dives


#8: Collier-Seminole State Park


#9: Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park


#10: Crystal River Archaeological State Park


#11: Manatee Springs State Park


#12: St. Joseph Peninsula State Park


#13: Aggieland :D

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

MCJULIEO 2/28/2011 11:08AM

All this in a WEEK?!!!?? That's some serious driving! Just a FYI- due west of Pensacola about 50 miles in Foley, AL is a great outlet mall environment, with all kinds of girly type stores, but there is one outlet that my DH really enjoys (besides the typical Black and Decker around here)... the clerks wear t-shirts that have the store name and "Day Care for Men" emblazoned across it (I can't find that store listed in their website, http://www.workshoptools.com/index. htm, but it was there on the main drag just a mile or so north from the big outlet mall complex) Very fun. Report Inappropriate Comment

Runner's diet

Friday, February 25, 2011

Oops! Forgot that I was going to talk about the Runner's Diet in my last post!

I ordered this book:



It's written by the creators of Runner's World, who I trust for the most part. I should get it in the mail tomorrow, but I went ahead and read about it on the Runner's World website so that I could pseudo-start right away.

I'll keep you guys updated, but so far this is how it works...
They want you to eat a ratio of 50% carbs 25% protein and 25% fat, so that you have enough carbs to fuel your running but you don't overdo it. They also ask that you eat your carbs mostly around your runs, and then eat protein and fat the rest of the time.
So far so good.

I set up a spreadsheet so that I can keep track, but basically it's body weight x 13 for your maintenance calories before running (It's set up for runners, so it assumes you're lightly active otherwise). Then you allot 100 calories per mile you run. Subtracting from that whatever you want your deficit to be gives you your calories per day. (I'm not accounting for strength training because SP doesn't).

My chart has my current weight, carbs, fat, protein, calories/day, net calories and "lbs. lost" which is kind of a fake number based on the sum of my net calories out. I think it'll be interesting to see if it correlates with my weight loss. If it doesn't, I've probably got a slower metabolism than this book estimates for.

Anyway, I'm really excited to have a diet book that's actually made for runners, and like I said I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

RLA1891 4/13/2011 3:43PM

Hi there. I was wondering if you received your book yet and any thoughts you may have. Thanks! Report Inappropriate Comment

TRAINER_T 2/25/2011 3:05PM

I hope it works great for you there are so many runners on sparks if you need help. Report Inappropriate Comment

LOREENYK 2/25/2011 3:03PM

When you get it, I'd be interested to hear if they make any distinction between male or female runners. I see they have a woman on the cover and I read in someone else's blog that women might not need as high a carb ratio. Personally, I was having some tough runs until I added more pasta to my diet (dinner the night before my long runs). Report Inappropriate Comment

The PLAN

Friday, February 25, 2011

I've picked my next marathon...



It's in October, so hopefully the weather will be nice and not too hot or too cold. I'm really excited because the course looks gorgeous...



The medal is AWESOME...



And my running buddies will be there with me!
We have a small group of girls in our vet school class who are really into running, and we're planning events all this year. Three of us went to Austin this past weekend (amazing!) and we've got a girls weekend planned in April for THIS:



It's an all-women's race that's being held here:





And there are lots of free goodies for participants, including free massages and wine at the after party/expo! Lots of stuff on the table, but I'm really excited about all of it!

Have a great weekend!

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

MCJULIEO 2/28/2011 10:37AM

What a great medal! Both should be absolutely wonderful experiences... and who can resist a run that comes with a massage??? (I may have to take up running!) Report Inappropriate Comment

LEFTCIRCLES 2/25/2011 1:39PM

That is some seriously cool bling!!! What a beautiful area too!!! Report Inappropriate Comment

KMLINDAUER 2/25/2011 1:30PM

I know! I LOVE it!!! :) Report Inappropriate Comment

PINKBEANBOO 2/25/2011 1:29PM

I love the idea of running in the flowers & that is by far the coolest medal I've seen. Report Inappropriate Comment

Caught the bug...

Thursday, February 24, 2011

I know I told everyone that after I ran the marathon I would kind of be done with running for a while but... I lied.

I have a recovery plan for coming off of the marathon which is supposed to work me back up to about a 10K. We learned in pathology a few weeks ago that a lot of marathon runners have heart problems because they quit running after their marathons and won't run for a couple of weeks in the mistaken attempt to "rest" their muscles and whatnot. NEWSFLASH: This is really, really BAD FOR YOU. According to our board certified pathologist, who I would trust with my life, if you train hard for a maximal effort (i.e. a marathon) your heart hypertrophies in order to be able to compensate for the work being required. If you don't keep using your now hypertrophied heart, it can become ischemic and you can have infarctions (read: heart attack).

Okay, I'm off my soapbox!
Here are a few more shots from the marathon this past weekend, notice that Jordan is in all of them with me :D






In new news... I wound up registering for two 5Ks this weekend. One is Friday night:


It's run at 9pm and the path is lit by glowsticks. It's probably the most fun 5K I've ever done and I'm looking forward to running it with my puppy and my wonderful BF :)

The other 5K is on Saturday morning...


Pup and I will be at it again! I don't think she'll mind though... remember this?


We'll kind of have to play it by ear at that point, but I'm scheduled to run a half marathon the first weekend of March (in a week and a half). I know I'm really pushing it, but a bunch of my friends are running it and I really want to. Plus I'll get a really cool shirt, and we all know that's what it's really about ;)


The next few weeks are obviously going to be kind of make it or break it for me. For longer term plans... I'm signing up for a bootcamp that starts the week after I get back from spring break. I've really been thinking that I need to get back into some kind of structured strength training since I slacked on it a lot before the marathon and I think that's why I've gained some weight.

I'll finish my updated running plan for the year later. Have a great day!

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

MCJULIEO 2/25/2011 10:03AM

How interesting! Love the armadillo t-shirt, but think the night time 5 K is really cool (hoping it's not REALLY COLD, a late February night run sound kinds chancy.... but if New Braunfels will be fairly temperate as forecasted, B-CS should be OK) Have fun! I had no idea that there was a group called the Maggies on campus.... that was a pejorative term when I was in school, about the same as a Harry Potter character calling someone a "Mudblood".. Report Inappropriate Comment

ONE*BUSY*MOM 2/24/2011 1:34PM

Wow, what an interesting fact. That has the opposite effect on me -- that means I'll never run a a marathon because I don't want to have to keep up the training -- LOL! No, seriously, thanks for sharing this info. And what a cute puppy... just adorable. Report Inappropriate Comment