Graduation Week!

So far, a decently productive day, though I feel a huge headache coming on as I continue to stare at this computer screen for hours on end. At least I have half of my last final paper of undergrad written. Oh, Racine and Corneille, I'm just not feeling you two today.

Although it was painful, Jon and I did manage to drag ourselves out of bed at 5:30am for our morning run. We seem to have gotten a decent routine down for mornings that we run: get up at 5:30, eat breakfast/pack lunches, run from 6-7ish, then shower and get ready/out the door by 7:30am. Well. Oiled. Machine. It's ironic though that on the days we sleep in, regardless of giving ourselves the required hour to get ready/out the door, we always manage to be late. Hmm...

Speaking of breakfasts, I've recently stumbled upon Special K's Protein Plus cereal, and I'm in love. It has a slight cinnamon-y flavor so it's not bland, and I can mix a cup of that with a 1/2 cup of Fiber One Original and cover it with a cup of almond milk for a whopping total of just 2 points. I've become a huge fan since the mix of high fiber + high protein keeps me full from 5:30am until at least 10-11am (when I can have a quick snack).

Okay, gushing aside, this morning's run went well. We're still keeping with the 40 minute time-frame, so I'm going to try and speed it up instead before forcing myself to get up even earlier to start adding more time. Ideally, I'd love to get to a 6.0 pace, since I'm currently averaging at around a 5.45, but we'll see. We're still kicking around the goal of a half in September, but I'm really uncertain as to whether or not I think I can be ready in time.

Anyway, here's the photo/stats from our run. I'm using a screen grab from Jonboy's runkeeper since I was too lazy to plug in my Garmin this morning. Definitely better than our pace on our last run (where I thought I was going to die).



To wrap up, I know today isn't my weigh in day, but I was pleased to step on the scale this morning and see a 170.8 glaring up at me instead of a 175 (from the other day) and then a nice 169.8 after my run. Whew. I really can't wait to get back to the 160's so I can hopefully get into the 150s this time. I'm feeling good being back on track. Tonight I'm going to make a moroccan chicken recipe from one of my WW cookbooks, I'll take photos and let you know how it goes--it sounds delicious!

Oh, and two quick questions since I've been thinking about investing in a food scale.

1) Do you use one and, if so, how often?
2) Do you have any particular models that you would recommend or specific criteria I should look for?

Thanks!

Belated Memorial Day

I've had this post up in-progress for a few days, but today, I promise to post it... almost a week late:

Whew. Food fail.

I'll admit. I've been REALLY bad for the past month, which is largely why I haven't been around. I've been too embarrassed to get on here and read about how everyone is doing a great job while I hadn't been to a gym or successfully tracked my food in weeks. I'd go to Weight Watchers mtgs and hear about how I could plan ahead for a barbecue and then go and it's fly out the window and I'd eat anything that wasn't nailed down. Then, I'd be too far in the whole to even dream of making up enough activity points... so what would I do? Eat more and not track, thinking "Oh, I'll get back on track next week..."

I've noticed that since Jon and I quit running (something we've started only recently to get back into the routine for), I'd been in a bad more more often and haven't felt good about myself food/image-wise as frequently as before. But, the longer I stayed off plan and didn't exercise, the harder it got to be to get back on the bandwagon. I'd even start for a day and exercise or eat right, but then I'd veer off the plan again the very next day and then not want to weigh myself in the morning (like I've been doing daily for the past few months). Anyway, that brings me to Memorial Day weekend.

This year, Memorial Day weekend included not only my birthday, but also my sister's HS graduation AND a separate cookout. That said, as far as food is concerned, I firmly believe that I ate everything that wasn't nailed down. I was able to watch during the day and try and cut back, but at night I definitely went drastically over my points. After our AMAZING dinner at this new local restaurant in Loveland called Tano's, I realized that I'd racked up so many points to be at at least -60 for the week.

Thus, I called up Megan (my Athens WW buddy) and decided that instead of waiting until Thursday, I was moving my weigh-in day for the summer to Tuesdays and went and checked in today. Here are the results:

Weekly weigh-in: 173.2
Total gain since April 29 (aka before I went off-plan): +6.4 lbs
Total loss: 20.4 lbs
Emotion: Disappointed, but determined

This week is my one week "Weight Watch-i-versary," so I planned on kicking my tracking into high gear. I ran before work two times (Tuesday and Wednesday). I'll admit, I wasn't stellar on Friday, but I did get to celebrate the end of our thesis projects with my fellow seniors by grabbing a few drinks. Then, as far as being on track goes, last night, I knew I didn't have the points, so I didn't drink at all and had diet Ginger Ale instead... this was DEFINITELY a huge NSV for me, since everyone else was drinking.

In the land of NSVs as well, this week also saw the final turn-in of my thesis:



Now all that remains are two finals and we'll be ready for graduation on Saturday! I can't believe it's all gone by so fast!

Here's my stay on track plan for this week:

1. Track EVERYTHING I eat.
2. Eat lighter in the beginning of the week so I have all my extra flex and activity points to use this weekend for the graduation festivities.
3. Exercise in the morning at least 3x this week with at least a 40 minute run.
4. Avoid point-hogging freebie foods that will inevitably be out at work. This means no chips/brownies/etc. just because they're there.
5. Enjoy graduation! :)

Now, I leave you with some fun pictures from our Memorial Day. I can't believe my little sis is so grown up AND that the picture of me and Jon (that I'm an unabashedly huge fan of) was taken by my 8 year old cousin! Also, you'll see the after effects of Jon's and my day at the lake the weekend before... Nice tan line, eh?

Friday's run!

Behind on my blogging! Ahh!

So, after going out and over my points on Thursday night last week, I woke up early and went on a run before work (even if Jon decided to stay home and give ze bear dog a bath instead).

I pushed it to 35 minutes this time, and would have gone further, but I got a call from Jon during my 2 minute walk-break saying that it was pouring rain 1.5 miles away at our house and that he was on his way to come pick me up so I wouldn't have to run in the pouring rain (he's a wonderful boyfriend). :)

I'm really glad that I'm getting back into running... more on my weight gain and why I've been too embarrassed to blog about it in my next post(s).

Anyway, while running down our familiar path, I noticed a little 2-foot wide wood bridge off to the side and decided to follow it's path. A few scratches later, I'd stumbled upon these pretty bits of morning scenery that are completely hidden from you when you're running on the path:




Here's a quick view of the "path." As you can see, it's really just a small bit of beaten down grass that the horses follow.I also continued on to the end of the trail and was able to check out the trains at the Hocking Valley train depot:


In the end, it was a relaxing run. I'm still working on getting back to where I was before (20 minutes more to go and 8 pounds-ish to lose), but I think after this weekend (which was a fail...) I'm back on the horse for good.

Here's my map and my lap breakdown:



Now here's to the rest of my blog catch-up!

Picking up at the end of C25K

Whew. After another 2 weeks of failure, we've finally made it happen--we went for something I'd actually call a "run" (as opposed to the last "run" I posted about that I didn't feel good about at all).

This time, not only did Jon run with me (this is the first time he's run since the half a few weeks ago), but we also decided to bring ze doggie too. I don't have any photos of her with her summer trim, but to give you an idea, this is her pre-summer style:

Yes, best dog ever, I know, I know.
She was a real trooper (the shorter hair and the harness probably helped) and I think we'll be trying to bring her along more often.

Anyway, we ended up being out there for a little under an hour with a half hour jog in the middle (we decided to walk with Sahara to the bike path before running). It was rough, but I made it and I'm glad that after essentially 3 weeks I can pick up at where I was at the end of C25K (even if I'm not at the 60+ minute runs I was doing a month ago). So, yeah, I'm feeling good. :)

Here are my splits and my map for tonight--no heartrate info since I'm so out of practice that I forgot to wear my chest strap. Oops!



I'm pretty pleased with how I did and I could have probably pushed a little longer, but our brown bear was getting tired and I didn't want to overdo it, BUT I'm looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow too. I did miss running, it makes my evening feel so much nicer.

I'm back!

Whew. Sorry about that absence, my thesis was due Friday and it had my 100% focus all week. That said, I didn't work out pretty much at all and am now up to 171.2 (I think) as of last Saturday, which was the last time I weighed in. All that's left me feeling pretty gross, but now that that's over, I vow to get back on track and back on plan (I even brought my running clothes to campus to run today... It's not going to be pretty).

Yesterday was my fake birthday. It's really next Saturday, but we'll be in Cincinnati for my sister's graduation from high school, so Jon decided we should celebrate beforehand. Thankfully with my thesis done, I sent out another paper early in the morning and then had no work to do for the rest of the day! :)

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. 85º, sunny, and not too humid. To fully take advantage of this, we spent the afternoon at the beach at Stroud's Run, one of my absolute favorite places in Athens. We went swimming, sunbathed, and then rented a canoe for a lap around the lake (something I've always wanted to do). We had a blast, but now... I look like a lobster. I thought I'd put sunscreen on my back, but apparently not to the sun's exacting standards.

Here's a photo of part of the beach/the lake, you know, to give you an idea of how pretty it is.
Source
Then, Jon took me out to dinner at a locally owned mediterranean restaurant that we love and to coldstone for some birthday ice cream. Not the healthiest choice, but it was really delicious and we had a great time. :) All-in-all, I couldn't have asked for a better fake birthday day... well, I'd do without the lobster-like burn, but other than that.

Anyway, it's good to be back into blogging, sorry I abandoned you all! Also, sorry there's no photos! We didn't take a camera to the beach/in the canoe and then totally forgot to take a photo while we were out.

Happy Monday!

Ulgh.

I know it's a coward thing to do, but... I'm postponing weigh-in until Saturday morning definitely. Especially after this run and Meg calling and deciding she was definitely not going to make it.

Just got back from my first run (if you can call it that) since last Monday and it was horrible. I'll post more charts later when I can hook the Garmin up to my computer, but let's just say... terrible run. After the first mile, I maybe got myself to run another .5 out of the remaining 2 miles that we left. I ended up with an even 3 miles in 40 minutes.

I sweat buckets and really just hated life the whole time. But, regardless, I'm glad I went. At least with that terrible run behind me, I can get back into the swing of things. Plus, Jon got p90x from Liz, so that's definitely happening. :)

Weather for this lovely run:




You'll notice that the humidity is only 59%... I swear when I was running that I thought it was definitely higher than that.

Anyway, here's me, really sweaty, post-run:


Whew. Hopefully my next run won't be quite so terrible. I guess at least I can be happy I got out there! I don't know about you, but once I go off plan or start procrastinating ANYTHING in my life, it's so much harder to make myself go back or crack down and finally get it done. Ick!

Big Kid Science Fair

Okay, so today I'm presenting my undergrad thesis at OU's Student Creativity Expo (aka the big kid science fair). See? This is me with my super sweet set-up:

Instead of eating the pizza they're providing for lunch I packed myself the usual: turkey/mustard sandwich (on an arnold, of course), carrots, yogurt, an orange, and one of those little jello mousse things for dessert. Total: 5.5 points. Much more food than 1 slice of 6 point pizza (and who can ever stop at one slice, I mean really?).

Today starts a new week and I'm debating about going to weigh-in tonight since Megan can't... I might just go Saturday morning before going to the Farmer's Market. I know I said I was getting back on the wagon, but well... this week wasn't as bad as last week, but I'm still going to gain.

That said, Liz (one of Jons co-workers) is going to let us borrow her P90X, so we'll have that tonight and I've packed my gym bag so that I can go for a run after class. After a week and a half of no running, I'm guessing tonight is going to be pretty rough, but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the rain holds off till then!

Edit: Didn't win the Science Fair (well in the Arts & Humanities division), but did get to talk to some fun people. My friend Jaime got second place and also snapped this fun photo of me talking to two prospective undergrads in French (it was high school scholars day too).