A marathon, of sorts

It's been awhile. I know, I've slacked off. But really, I had good reason!

Much has changed in my life in the past year. We sold our condo and moved out to the 'burbs at the end of 2011. All this in anticipation of adding a +1 to our family! Husband and I welcomed our daughter into the world in April. So really, I did a marathon, but the marathon called pregnancy, not 42.2K!

I was able to run a bit in the first trimester, but then life took over. Selling our condo, moving, and work left me with little time to run. And that little person growing inside me took a toll. I really didn't enjoy being pregnant. It wasn't a bad pregnancy by any means, but I didn't/don't care for what it did to my body. I didn't want to think about running during my pregnancy. I disappeared from this blog, online running groups, the miles games that I loved. I was a bad pregnant woman and gained far too much weight. I didn't feel like myself during those 9 months, literally. Delivering my daughter was like coming out of a haze.

Now I'm ready to reclaim my life. But, it's not going to be easy since I'm back at square one. Square one in running and in my weight loss journey again. It's as if the clock was turned back to 2008! Thankfully I've done both before, so I know I can do this. It's just going to be more difficult since I've got a munchkin to take care of and feed. Oh, and the recovery from pregnancy.


So all this to say, hello again. :)

Racing Weight

Today I weighed in for the first time in two weeks. I was down to 155.X then, then inexplicably, I gained 1.6. Thankfully that was just a body mix-up! I lost 3 pounds today, down to 154.0. Hooray!

I would really like to get back down to 145. That's 9 pounds away. I've spent a long time bouncing around the 151-155 range. I like being below 150... I feel good and comfortable in my own skin and clothes.

I know I need to do this slowly and safely as I rachet up my mileage as part of my training. So it won't happen overnight. I just need a bit more willpower in the face of sweets, especially chocolate!

Another awesome part of losing weight is that I'll be a bit faster on the race course! Funnily enough, the Complete Runner's Handbook says that I should actually be much, much lighter. Elites at my height of 5'5" are under 120. Ha! Never in a MILLION years. I can hardly keep the weight off at 135 when I was at that weight in 2000. And I couldn't tell you the last time I was under 135.

145 is the place to be.

My Weightloss Journey So Far

About a month ago I mentioned that my husband and I were rejoining Weight Watchers. I'm proud to report that I've lost 8.8 lbs. since July 28th. It's been a nice, steady loss of about 1.5 lbs. a week. I'm starting to see a difference in my curves and how I feel. I hope to see a payoff in my running, as well. I'd ideally like to get down another 11 lbs., to my goal weight of 145.

I've also tried to incorporate more fruits and veggies this time around. Husband and I are eating at home more and planning more healthy meals. I adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe this week - a black bean and beef stirfry... it was fantastic and I'll likely add it to our list of favourite recipes.

Another key goal of mine in all of this is post-run recovery. I'm trying to improve my post-run fueling since, well, it used to be non-existent. I really believe that a lack of post-run nutrients contributed to my injury earlier this year. I never used to consciously plan to replenish my energy stores after tough runs. Without those nutrients, muscles can't repair themselves!

Now I do the post-run smoothie routine, complete with a vegan protein supplement, yogurt, frozen fruit and kale. They're super yummy and taste great after a hills, tempo or interval workout. I eat about two a week and I've noticed a difference in how quickly I bounce back from the exertion of a tough workout.

This time I mean it

Husband and I rejoined WeightWatchers last week. I know I've talked about it before, but this time I'm serious.

I've put on about 20 pounds in the last year and he's put on even more. His downfall is the bad eating habits his colleagues encourage, while my problem is snacking. I haven't gained it all in one shot, but 5 pounds here and there... Christmas, Hawaii, Easter, my trip to Baltimore two weeks ago...

I lost 3 pounds last week. Hooray! I want to get back down to my goal weight of 145 lbs. so that running will be easier. I've got a 10K to train for which should help, and I'd really like to aim for a new personal best. I also want to be able to fit into my running clothes and everyday clothes. There's a bunch of stuff I can't fit into right now, especially my runningskirts.com camo skirts which I'm DYING to wear out on a run.

Weightloss: One Month Down!

I vowed to lose weight after I returned from Hawaii. I've been fairly good at counting my points on WeightWatchers and am seeing results. So far I've dropped almost 7 pounds! I need to be better on the weekends, that's for sure. But I also won't see big weightloss numbers as I already went through the weightloss exercise once. I actually want to see smaller numbers so that I'm not losing muscle tone.

I've been making most of the meals - we've only ordered in twice since I started. And even then, I've made healthier choices. Like, St-Hubert Quarter Chicken Dinner with white meat instead of a meatlovers pizza. We had pizza last two weekends ago at a friend's place and I wasn't enjoying it. So I didn't eat the second piece. Talk about victory! And I've been good about bringing my lunch to work instead, so I don't succumb to temptation in the food court.

I do need to make more meal plans though. I've done a good job of picking out a couple of recipes each week, but I need to plan more. I tend to get in a rut where I make the same recipes, over and over again. DH tends to get sick of certain meals this way. Gee, I wonder why!

We loaded up on chicken breasts and ground turkey at Costco last night, so more healthy meals are on the way. Fajitas are on deck tonight.

Starting Over

Now that the Superbowl's over, I'm ready to start over food-wise. The Superbowl party was pretty brutal... heck, even I brought Buffalo Chicken Dip (it features 3c. of cheese and a bottle of Frank's Red Hot) which was sinfully good.

But now that Hubby's been ordered by the doctor to lose weight, I can't half-ass our meal plans anymore. Who am I kidding? We have no meal plans whatsoever. I just make whatever I feel like, revert to leftovers, or we order in.

Now that I'm not running I need to eat better, too. I also could use to lose a little bit of weight myself, because I've gained weight since Christmas and our awesome trip to Maui. So this week I resolve to start over on WeightWatchers. I resolve to track my calories. I resolve to make a weekly meal plan for us.

Weighing less will also help with my running. I'll have reduced impact on my joints and less of me to move from point A to point B! I just need to be sure that I don't lose muscle mass instead of fat.

I'll report back with the plan once it's made. Today's plan is pretty good: I've got a Chewy Allbran Bar, celery, banana and a PC Blue Menu dinner.