Step Away From the Cake

That's what I have to keep in mind, running to something not running away from something. I'm running to health and activity and doing things I enjoy. The other day when I saw that 191 on the scale I immediately flipped and began running away from it. I can't run away. That doesn't work for me. I need to work towards a goal, not run away from one. That's why I've been able to do the things I've done in my life. I went back to college and got a degree - running towards a degree. I trained and ran a marathon - running towards 26.2 miles. I did a few triathlons - running towards swimming, biking, running. I changed careers at 50 - running towards something new. I bought a house - running towards insanity. Anyway, running towards something works for me, running away from something never got me anywhere. So, after 2 days of running away, I'm re-shifting my focus to run toward a goal. That goal is health and fitness. I want to run marathons and

I think I overreacted yesterday.  I saw that 191 on the scale and totally freaked out. Seriously came unglued.  In my mind 190 is like my drop dead number.  I always thought that once I saw that number I would kick it into high gear.  I spent yesterday trying to keep moving and avoiding food at all costs.  Luckily, by yesterday afternoon I started to come to my senses.  I realized that that 191 may not be completely true.  I have been running and doing a lot of walking.  I can feel the muscles developing in my legs.  I have a feeling that the 191 might be a bit of an anomaly between muscle and fat.  Yesterday I ate 1900 calories and burned 2500 calories.  Okay, not perfect but that's a 600 calorie deficit. So far today I've burned about 1200 calories and only eaten about 700 - and today is fairly typical. Yesterday ended up being pretty typical too in spite of my insanity of the morning.  I don't think I need to move 24-7 and  eat next to nothing.  I think just by keeping o

Yes, my 3rd post in less then 3 hours...so what??   That number that I saw on the scale this morning, 191, has me so pissed off I can not think straight.  I took off for my run right after the last post and all during my run I was just steaming.  My initial reaction is, of course, to stop eating and work out until I collapse.  That is a little extreme but I think I'm on the right track.  I definitely need to be more active.  I've been wearing my FitBit since I got it on May 28th.  I wear it all the time so I have a pretty good idea of what my activity level is like in general.  It's really cool because it tracks your level of activity all day long.   Here's today's so far: So what it shows is that I've been u (because you tell it when you sleep) for about 3 1/2 hours.  And I've taken 5,996 steps, gone 3.38 miles, and the pie chart shows that for 1 1/2 hours of that time I've been sedentary.  That is my problem.  I regularly log 9-11 hours of day of se

Since school ended last week I have avoided stepping on the scale.  I have been working out and eating okay (so I thought) and I thought that by avoiding the scale I would avoid obsessing over the numbers.  Of course, I thought that by not tracking my food I would avoid obsessing over the numbers.  Guess what?  I  was wrong.  I have been feeling decidedly fat the last two or three days. So just a little while ago I decided to step on the scale.  191!!!  191?!?!?!?!?  Hello!!!  So I thought back over the past week and thought, how can running in the morning, sitting on my ass, eating lunch, napping, walking the dogs, eating dinner....how can that lead to a 3 lb weight gain???  So that pretty much cinches it.  Starting right now I am tracking everything that goes in my mouth - everything!!!  I will continue to build my activity and hopefully get some of this weight off.   My goal now is to be 180 by the time school starts. That's 11 lbs in 6 weeks.  Ugh!!! Why do I do this to myself?

Yesterday morning I went for my run - yea!!!! - then I worked on my thesis for a while - yea!!! - then I ate lunch.  Around 1 pm I headed out.  I walked to the local SuperCuts for a haircut - yea!!! - then I walked over to the mall to check out a farmer's market they have every Wednesday.  I met Hubby there and after we headed home.  The farmer's market is really good and I will definitely be going there while I'm off.  This morning there is anything farmer's market in the park, I'm going to check that one out too. So I just have to moan about my neighbors for a bit.  They started working on their house last week and you would not believe the things they are doing.  They began by removing all the windows in order to paint ?!?!?  Then they replaced the floor in the kitchen - which was fairly new vinyl tile - with travertine tile ?!?!?!? Hello!!!  That is a lot of money to spend on flooring for a cheap house.  I always see travertine tile in million dollar homes.  T

That's exactly what I've been doing - phoning it in.  A little over a week ago I had all these grand plans.  I was going to lose like 20 lbs in this 7 weeks.  I was going to work out until I collapsed every day.  I was going to be hyper-vigilant with my eating.  Yeah, none of that came to be.  In my defense I have been relaxing ( to a point ) and enjoying the time off.  But seriously, time to get real.  This 7 weeks is going to pass by so fast, I have to get it into gear now.  So I'm starting today.  First, I will workout 3 times a day.  I've been pretty good on getting 2 in I just need to do some yoga at night.  Second, I'm going to start strength training.  I'm not sure how I'll work that out yet but I'm going to get that into the mix.  Third, I will have a to-do list everyday of things I need to accomplish.  I hate the feeling I get of not wanting to do anything because I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Fourth, I will work

I have been off for a week now, okay - officially it's only been 2 days... In that time I have let the sloth creep in too often. I've already gotten the habit of naps after lunch - not good...  And lying on the couch to veg whenever the mood strikes me - definitely not good. So that all changes today.  I want to be active but I need to write this thesis so I'm trying to balance both.  Here is the general plan; I will run/strength train in the mornings.  I will come back shower and work on my papers for a few hours. Around 10ish I will head over to the beach for an ocean swim 3 days a week.  Back home for lunch and a few more hours of work.  Walk the dogs in the afternoon and then I'm done.  The other 2 days instead of swimming I'm going to ride my bike.  I'm aiming for the Na Wahine Sprint Tri in September. I really want to do at least one tri this year.  Then I'm shooting for the new North Shore Marathon next May.  Hopefully By then I'll be in shape to

I've been following this running program that is really great. At least for me. I haven't seriously run in a really long time and was basically back at square one. I knew I had to start all over. But I also knew that it wouldn't be like when I first started when it took me 30 minutes to walk/run a mile. I was in slightly better shape then that but not much. So when trying to start back running I wanted to be careful that the program was challenging enough that I didn't get bored and it pushed me a bit. But also that it wasn't so hard I injured myself. I looked around and looked around and looked around. I considered couch to 5K but decided that was too easy for me. And too confusing, run for 200 yards, walk for 200 yards. It's a great program and it helped a lot when I started running, but it was not what I needed right now. So I continued looking. Most programs I found were either way too easy or too hard. So I kept looking. Then I found a program