Proud

I've been on this weight loss journey for over a year now.   It's had it's ups, it's downs, it's surprises, it's losses, it's gains, it's plateau's.  The hardest plateau was almost 5 months in length, between July - mid January, I seemed to lose and gain the same 10 ounces or portions there of, over and over and over and over again.

I don't know what really kept me motivated, maybe it's because even though the weight wasn't going away, I was more active.  I was walking dozens of kilometers a week and I was happy with myself. 

I had some pretty major milestones in there.  I did my first 5k race, the Abbotsford Police challenge, followed by 5 more races by the end of December.  I started shopping in department stores instead of just the one or two plus size stores I've been using most of my adult life. 

So many things have changed and when I get frustrated I look back and remember all the good things that have happened in the past year.  I've come off almost all medications.  I'm in a running clinic, I've signed up for 6 races so far this year with an ultimate goal of 14 races.  I've had some good moments and some bad moments, and some aha moments.

The biggest "Aha" moment for me came last night.  I had to get a new phone recently, my old phone finally gave up the ghost.  I was looking through the pictures that were transferred onto my new phone and I went back a year, there exactly a year ago was a picture my husband took of me when I came home from my first long walk.  I was tired, sore and I had worked up a sweat.   I showed my husband the picture and he was amazed, I don't really see the difference in myself so we took another picture, with me standing in the same spot, the same pose.   I then used an app on my phone to put them side by side, and when I did, I got very emotional.   I can't believe the difference in how I look.

I still have a long way to go.  But now, when I'm frustrated, if I hit another plateau, if I don't feel like exercising, if I want to just sit and eat junk, I have something to look back on.  I have something that I can be proud of.

I am proud of who I have become.  I've become healthy, I've become active, I've become the person I deserve to be.

Snow!

I know, a weird title for a blog post but for the past 52 hours or so, that's all that we've had, snow!

I went to weigh in on Saturday morning, it had been snowing but nothing had really been accumulating much.  My weigh in went well, I'm now down 77.8 pounds. Yeah!  After weigh in I went home, changed into my running clothes, grabbed the dog and off we headed for what I call our "wog" (walk/jog)  I figured the dog would be accomodating as the snow was starting to stick and he loves to run in the snow.

We only went around the block once, as the sidewalk was getting slick and I slipped a couple of times coming up the hill, so back to the house we headed.  The rest of the day was spent doing the grocery shopping and then the ton of laundry.  By noon it was really coming down outside so it was decided we would have an inside day the rest of the day.

We woke up early on Sunday and lay in bed watching the gold medal hockey game.  It was exciting to see our men's team join the ladies as gold medal winners in hockey.   We were supposed to go into Coquitlam today but with the snow coming down and the roads bad we decided to stick close to home.  We took Angus for a walk around the block.  It was so cold and snowy.  This is what our back yard looked like by mid afternoon.

I don't think I'll be going for any "wogs" in this kind of weather.

Harsh Run Clinic

Tuesday's run clinic was harsh.  I sort of know why, and after our guest speaker after our run, I know what I did wrong.  In order to get to Run Clinic, I have to be up by 430am, so I can catch the first train into work, so I can be on the first train coming home from work in order to make it back and be ready to go at 6pm.

I didn't sleep well Monday night, so I was really tired Tuesday morning.  I went to work and I ate my lunch early as I was hungry so it was only 1130 when I had my soup and salad.  I ate my veggies and hummus at 130 and left work at 330 to head for run clinic.  I also didn't drink a lot of water after 12 or so.  Last week I drank my water as usual and half way through our run I was dying to use a washroom, so I figured I would avoid that this week by cutting down on my water intake after I had lunch.

I was tired when I got to run clinic at 6pm and on the schedule was 1:2 for 5 and then .30:1 for 5 until we made our way back to our start point.  I started out all right, and did pretty good for the first three intervals but I started to get a cramp along my shin.  That was not fun.  It hurt like the dickens and every step hurt.  I struggled through the fourth interval stopping just short of the 1 minute to start walking as my shin kept cramping.  When we hit the fifth interval I only lasted about 30 seconds.  I couldn't do it.  Kobie who is the assistant leader was hanging towards the back and asked if I was all right.  I told her my shin was cramping for some reason.  She said immediately, you're probably dehydrated.  Listen to your body and walk the rest if you need to.  I didn't really want to I did the first couple of the 30:1 but then decided that I did indeed have to listen to my body.  The cramp that had started to subside came back full throttle.  I also had no energy.  It was like I was moving through molasses.  I couldn't seem to get my body moving no matter how hard I tried.  As the group looped around to keep going, I turned around and headed back towards our start point, I walked up and down a couple of times until I saw the group heading towards me and then I re joined them for the cool down walk.

When we got back to the Store, Yoshi, our guest speaker was there to talk to us about proper nutrition.  What he had to say totally made sense and I knew why my body had slowed down, it was out of fuel. I had not had anything to eat in more than 6 hours, and your body can't exercise that way.  You need to fuel your body with simple carbs about 2 hours prior to exercise and that will carry you through about 1 hour of intense activity.

So what did I learn from this weeks harsh run?

1) I need to eat a piece of fruit on the train when I'm heading home, my body needs the fuel to keep going.

2) I need to keep drinking water during the day, and if I have to make a pit stop on my run, oh well, I make a pit stop.

Wahoo! 75 Pounds gone!

Finally!!!!!!

After five flipping months, I finally, finally, finally broke that flipping 75 pound mark!

Happy Dance, Happy Dance, Happy Dance!!!!!

It was a great meeting today, and I was really happy and proud that my perseverance paid off.  I could have given up many times, i could have walked away at any time, but I stuck it out....and what do I have to show for it....

A nice shiny new piece of bling :)

My shiny new silver 75 Pound Charm attached to my purse

So you may be asking yourself, what did I do to celebrate this great day?  Did I go out for breakfast, or lunch?  Did I have a treat?  Did I buy something new for myself?  No, no, no and no.

How did I celebrate, finally meeting that goal of having lost 75 pounds? 

Why I grabbed the dog and headed out to do some intervals!  After all I have a run clinic that I missed on Tuesday to make up for!

Angus leading the way on our 3K walk today.

Missed Run Clinic tonight.

I was so looking forward to my run clinic tonight.  There was a guest speaker from a fitness club to talk to us all about stretching and I missed it.  I've come down with strep throat and I'm contagious so I made the decision to stay home.  My run leader Janet has said from the beginning, if you're not feeling well rest, take it easy and let your body recover. 

Other than the sore throat from he!! I didn't feel that bad, I couldn't swallow without pain and my voice sounded like a Barry White's, but I felt all right.

After going to the doctor though, I knew that it wouldn't be fair to the ladies who were at the clinic.  Strep throat is contagious, and I hadn't started antibiotics.  If I'm not well enough to go to work, I'm not well enough to go to Run Clinic.

I'm really bummed about missing it, but my leader did send me an email with the hand out on stretches that the guest speaker went over at clinic so at least I have that point of reference.

Weigh in - staying steady...again

Arghhhh!!!
I am getting so frustrated.  With all of the activity I've been adding into my regular days, and being so careful about being on plan, eating my points and all the rest of it I was hoping against hope for a major loss this week.  I felt really good all week and I really did expect good things, but low and behold, here we are on weigh in day and I didn't lose anything, I didn't gain anything.  I held steady once again. 

My leader Mare, has asked me to bring in my trackers with me next week so she can go over them with me and maybe, just maybe between us, we'll figure out a way to break this plateau.

2nd Learn to run clinic under my belt

Today was run clinic day.  My goodness that week went by pretty lickety split.  I was up and on the go before 5am, on the 550 train to get to work an hour early.  Stopped at my parents house to get changed for run clinic and then hustled up the street.

We once again lucked out and the drizzle that has been happening on and off all day held off for us while we were out today.  We did Rapid pace and then recovery intervals, 4 minutes rapid, 1 minute recovery.  We're still walking but our pace picked up significantly this week, compared to last week.

I'm looking forward to next week as we're going to have a speaker come in and talk to us before we head out for our walk about proper stretching.  How to stretch, what stretches to do before and after our walk/jog's and for how long. 

Stretching is something that I really struggle with.  I tend to come back from my intervals and get on with things rather than letting my body cool down and stretch the muscles out.  I'm looking forward to gleaning as much information off the guest as I can.

I've got a great group of ladies that are in the clinic with me and I;m really grateful that my awesome husband got this for me.

This week's weigh in - Jan 11th

So with the start of my Run Clinic I really did hope that by kicking my activity level up a few notches a few times a week it would help get me off of this plateau I've been on for what seems like forever.

I was really careful with my points, weighed and measured everything, was really good at tracking everything.

This morning came and I was feeling really hopeful...but to no avail! 

I was down an ounce.  One piddly little ounce.  It seems to be the recurring theme to my weight loss since August.  It's starting to get me a little frustrated but at least I'm not gaining, and I'm not giving up.  I've worked too hard to come as far as I have to let this plateau send me reeling.

I'll make it, we'll break that 75 pound mark yet.  Mark my words!

Run Clinic Started today!

I did it! Today was the first day of my learning to run clinic! My awesome hubby gave me a certificate for our local running store to join a learn to run clinic in order to get me ready for the BMO 8K in May that I signed up for. I was excited about the clinic last night when I get my bag all packed and ready to go. I was so excited that I had a hard time falling asleep.

The last time I remember looking at the clock it was almost 1am and I kept thinking, you need to get to sleep, you need to get to sleep. Needless to say, when the alarm went off at 445am, I wasn't really all that excited to be getting up at that ungodly hour of the morning! But up I got, dressed and on the train an hour earlier than normal, so that I could be at work an hour earlier, so I could leave work an hour earlier, so I could make it to run clinic on time.

 As my day went on, I started to get that nervous little knot in my stomach, you know, the one you used to get before the first day of school. I don't know anyone in the run clinic. I have no point of reference for the clinic. I was a little scared as the time to leave work got closer and closer. I was a bundle of nerves while I was sitting on the train headed back home. I was so nervous, and I don't really know why. Was it because I was going outside of my comfort zone? Perhaps, it was because I'm generally a shy person. (stop laughing, I truly am!) Perhaps it's because of my own expectations. My own pre-conceived ideas.

 When I arrived at the running store I was still really nervous. There is about 14 of us all together, and most of them know each other. They are a group of friends supporting one another as they learn to run. The age range is quite wide. I'm by far the heaviest in the group, but I'm not going to let that distract me. When we were accounted for and ready to go, off we went, we had a warm up walk and then did interval walking, 1 minute of normal walk, 1 minute of brisk walk and then back to 1 minute of normal. We went around the area twice, which was good. I did bring up the rear, you know me, I'm as slow as a herd of turtles but I did it. I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to next week!