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!

Welcome 2014, starting the year the right way!

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope you all had a fun, safe New Year's eve!  My husband and I had a great night having dinner with some friends and playing games with them and their two teenagers.  we all knew we were getting old when at 11pm, we decided to call it a night.  My hubby and I had been up since 5am as we both worked and it was just too long a day.  It was not fun to realize that not only are we getting old, but we were feeling old as well!

I don't like to make resolutions as to me they are never realistic or defined. ie.  I want to lose weight,  want to exercise more, etc. They are good for some people but I need to be able to set parameters around it so that's what I have done instead.   For my birthday in December my husband got me a medal holder to hold the medals I have been earning from my races, as well as a gift certificate to a local run store.

It reads "Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever"

This past week, I redeemed that gift certificate for a running clinic.  I have joined the learning to run 10K clinic. 

That's right a 10K clinic!  Besides continuing on my weight loss journey in 2014.  I also set the goal to participate in 14 races. I know crazy!  But that's the goal I have set and barring any injuries I should be able to do it.  So why a 10K Clinic and not a 5k?  I have signed up to do the BMO 8K in May.  With that goal in mind the man at the running store suggested I do the 10K so that I would be completely ready to do it.  Training for a 5k is different then going out there and doing 8K so that's the reasoning behind it.  Whether or not I actually sign up for any 10k races is yet to be seen :)

For the 1st time in my life, January 1st dawned and I was up bright and early and joined about 300 other crazy people for a 5k race in a local park.  It was a cold and foggy morning when I first arrived but before long the fog was rolling out and it was just cold and damp.  But it was a beautiful run!

Motivational sign on the path :D

                                          

Crossing onto the docs that go over the water connecting the paths.

Not quite a full 5K but I'll take it!

I  am so excited to see what 2014 has in store for me.