My huge milestone

(I apologize for any cursing in this post beforehand.  In real life, I have a potty mouth and it really comes out when I'm feeling a strong emotion.)

I cannot believe it.  This 220 pound, size 16W woman did it.  I just jogged for 20 minutes without stopping. 

I fucking did it.

Even in the best shape of my life, I don't think I ever jogged more than 1/4 mile without stopping.  And tonight I jogged 1.3 miles.  Without stopping to walk.  Without succumbing to the cramp in my calf.  Without catching my breath.

Wow.  Totally shocked.

Something I did discover?  It's my brain that was holding me back all those years ago.  If I can do it now, I definitely could've done it then.  And I'm so damned happy I found that inside me today.

I think we're going to try the run again soon (technically the program says we should do more running and walking for week 6 day 1), only we're going to try to push the pace a little.  4 mph is really slow--some people can walk that fast.  But you know what?  I DID IT. 

Couch to 5K Update

Even though we've been doing this for three or four months now, we've just moved onto week #5.  Since The Hubby and I are doing this together, we also need to take Baby Girl with us, which means the weather has to be okay and she needs to not be too cranky.  And it has to be before her bedtime (it would be nice to be able to go running around 8 or 9 now that Central Ohio has turned on Summer, but she's in bed at that point).

We're taking it slow, but this run was a HUGE ramp-up from Week #4 Day #3 (there are 3 running days per week).  You can see the whole plan here.

We went from jogging for no longer than 3 minutes (alternating with 90 second jogs) to jogging for three separate 5 minute stretches!  For someone who has never been good at or liked running, that's a big difference.

But you know what?  I finished it.  And I'm really damn proud of myself for it.  I posted it on Facebook and was so excited by the comments I got (including a "like" from the guy I dated before The Hubby who loved to run and I think always wanted me to run with him).  It also reminded me, though, of how much I've changed since college.  I can't really explain it, but I could feel the judging non-comments from some of my college Facebook friends who I participated in athletic activities with and who used to judge me for being bigger at that point and it made me self-conscious about how much weight I've gained (and lost and gained and lost and gained....) since then. 

And then I stopped feeling that way and realized that I'm living my life the way that makes me happy now.  And I'm doing something that good for me and I should be proud!  So I am.  Who cares where I came from or how I got here--I'm here and I'm trying to make myself better.  So you know what?  Go me!

Down Seven

I've been watching my food intake now for 4 weeks (tomorrow).  I've been a bit more loosey-goosey with my points-counting in the last week, especially during the weekends when I have no idea the points values when we eat out or how to account for my activity. 

To give you a view into how my body works, I give you my weekly (approximately...I've been a bit more lax on weigh-ins, too) weights.  These are all first thing in the morning, pre-shower, no clothes:

4/26: 228.4
5/3: 224.4
5/10: 225
5/17: 225
5/23: 221.4

So I'm down seven pounds overall and I think just under 2 pounds per week is a good pace over the course of four weeks.  I am very glad I stuck with the healthy eating through the mini-plateau.  I knew from past experience that my body tends to not lose for a couple of weeks, then lose a larger number, so that was helpful.  The other thing that kept me going is my outlook on this--I just want to be healthy.  I want to be able to keep up with my daughter.  I want to be able to fit through smaller openings.  I want to wear smaller clothes.  I want to be safe whenever we get pregnant again.  I want to feel good in my body.

I'm determined that eating better is going to make a difference, as will getting more exercise.  Even if the number on the scale doesn't go down, I'm doing something good for my body.  I will see and feel a difference, even if I still weigh 220 pounds.

Yesterday we did Couch to 5K week 3, day 2.  It had been awhile since we did week 3 day 1, so it was sort of rough, but it felt awesome end the end.  Baby Girl was okay in the stroller (it had been a LONG day and I wasn't sure how that was going to go), thank goodness.  I love the way my body feels after I exercise and need to find a way and some time to get more--I know I feel better when I do it.  It's just so damned hard to prioritize the exercise when I get so little time to relax each evening and need my sleep to make it through the day.  If Baby Girl is going to continue to cooperate in the stroller, maybe we can squeeze in some more jogging just before or after dinner.  I need to find a way to make it work, somehow.

Our Plan for Health

Sunday, February 27th, The Hubby and I started began our plan when we made our meal plans for the week.  We decided it was time to do something about the extra weight we are both carrying around (I first mentioned this plan here).

Essentially, the plan is to do the Couch to 5K program three nights a week, weather permitting (since we have to take Baby Girl with us if we want to do it together (except this past Sunday--my parents were in town and watched her while we went out)). We're looking at the weather forecast on Sunday to determine which nights we think we'll jog and planning on slow cooker meals for those nights (since I barely had enough time to cook dinner after we got home before Baby Girl went to bed). Then all other nights we're planning to do The 30 Day Shred. 

The Shred has three parts to it and is intended to be done every single day for 30 days (aha....thus the "30 DAY Shred"....).  Each part should be done for ten days straight.  We're trying to decide if we'll do each part ten times, switch after a couple of weeks, or just play it by ear.  Right now Part 1 is free On Demand through our cable provider (thanks to Sara for pointing this out!) and you can download each part for $1.99 on Amazon Video. 


This is what this has looked like so far:

• 2/27: The Shred, Part 1 (after Baby Girl was in bed)
• 2/28: The Shred, Part 1
• 3/1: Jogging with Baby Girl in a jogging stroller (Couch to 5K, Week 1 Day 1)
• 3/2: The Shred, Part 1
• 3/3: The Shred, Part 1
• 3/4: Jogging (Couch to 5K, Week 1 Day 2)
• 3/5: Rest (mostly because we were exhausted from being at our niece's 4th birthday party for four hours)
• 3/6: Jogging (Couch to 5K, Week 1 Day 3)
• 3/7: The Shred, Part 1

Tonight we're picking Baby Girl up from the sitter and have brought our workout clothes and the stroller to go jog on a path that runs around some baseball diamonds close to both work at the sitter's house.  It's different than jogging through the neighborhood.  And we brought reinforcements in the form of pretzels (the other times it's been Cheerios).

I'm not changing how I eat, as I really do eat pretty reasonably.  I feel like I should, but am afraid of cutting my precious milk supply and also am afraid it will cause any progress to stall out.  Unfortunately, though, I've gained five pounds in the week that we've been working out.  It's disappointing, but I'm going to chalk it up to natural variations--water, time of day, scale weirdness, etc.  I'm planning to keep this up for a month before I get discouraged by my lack of weight loss and reevaluate this plan.

I'm also drinking more water.  I've always drank at least 64 ounces of water per weekday (the weekends are another story), but am trying to get closer to 100 ounces now, which is where I was when we were losing weight before.

I can't express how helpful it is to have my husband on board with me--I don't know that I could (would?) do this without him.  We spend all of our time together, so if he wanted to lay around the house while I worked out...well, it just wouldn't happen.  The only time I've worked out without him was when he was working evenings--I was great about going to the gym while he worked.

Here we go!