peace + love + cupcakes

 I had set a goal of reaching a 100 pound loss by Bay to Breakers’ morning.  I weighed in yesterday before leaving for the race and I was down 2.4 pounds which gave me a total loss of 95.4 pounds.  I was really happy with it.  Today was my official weigh in day and when I stepped on the scale I was afraid that I would retain water after the race.  I was so hungry all day yesterday but I tried hard not to just eat everything around.  When the scale showed a 3.3 pound loss, I was SO FREAKING excited.

I am now 3.7 pounds from reaching a triple digit loss.  Holy crap!  My 33rd birthday is in less than 3 weeks & I would really like to be in 100 pound loss club so while today I am taking it easy fitness wise, I am back at it tomorrow by restarting the Boot Camp Challenge at a higher intensity/using heavier weights and back to the gym for incline treadmill workouts.

I used up all of my Weekly Points which it was mostly due to my out of control eating on Monday.   I did use some yesterday but I feel that it was within reason.   I reached my goal of 40 Activity Points for the week as well.  Putting aside Monday’s hiccup, it was a great week.  My goal for this week is to earn 40 AP’s, drink at least 100oz of water daily & make better food choices meaning less processed foods.  

Now on to Bay to Breakers… 

When I committed to do this race back in October, I was thinking “what the funk did you sign up for?” At that time I had only participated in 5K’s and here I was signed up for a 12K.  I started following the half marathon training guide I found on Hal Higdon’s site and was pretty consistent with it.  It kept me on a schedule and working on a walking base.  But after February’s 10K, I sort of got bored with walking and switched to doing cardio DVDs.   I had set a goal of 2:15 adding extra time due to the hill that’s in the middle of the course.  My time was 2:37.  I was telling someone that records weren’t made but memories were made & Mary reminded me that we did set a record.  We both participated in our first 12K.  I have to remember to look at things in a positive way.  

We walked the race and it was so much fun.  So many crazy costumes, too many naked old men and so many drunk people.  The weather in San Francisco was gorgeous.  I think I didn’t hydrate enough because afterwards I felt a bit dizzy but overall it was a great day.  On to the pictures…

Goodies picked up at the expo

On our way into SF at 5am o.O

Me, Karen, Mary & Angela

Tortillas be flying at the start line

Time to get ill with the Beastie Boys

I swear Karen was a naked dude magnet hahaha!  Best comment made by Angela: I just don’t want any penises in the shot.

What goes up… 

New Zealand must be proud!

I read that 40,000 people registered for the event although more participated - Source

About to walk up the Hayes Street Hill

Got my game face on!

Such lies!  No beer or coconut water at the finish line.  Boo!

I made it up the hill.  Whee!  Had 5 miles to go at this point.

I didn’t get a decent picture of the hill from the top so I found one published in the paper today - Source

We did it!

Heavy metal \m/

I had a great day & it was so awesome to finally meet Mary who has been such a source of inspiration to me.  I want to thank all three of them for sticking by me & walking the race with me.  You ladies rock!

Let’s get today’s weigh in out of the way.  I stayed the same as last week.  I am so frustrated.  

I didn’t weigh in at all during the week because I am trying to not obsesses over the number on the scale but it’s really discouraging when you think you had a great week and then nothing changes.  Give me a freaking gram for crying out loud.  I won’t be reaching my Bay 2 Breakers goal and that pisses me off.  Ahhhh!  Ok I am over my tantrum.   

I ended up using 21 of my Weekly Points and earning 41 Activity points.  I ate more this week but I tried to make good choices.   The Weekly Points allowance is something that still puzzles me.  Am I supposed to use them? Am I not?  Are they there for special occasions?  Talking to some people on Twitter some use them, some stay away from them and others feel like if they use a percentage of them they seem to lose.  No clear answer — that’s one of the things that frustrate me with WW.  My goal for this week will be to not use them and see how I do.  This is a new week and a new opportunity to improve.  

I completed Day 18 of the Boot Camp Challenge this morning and here are my results as to how I’ve improved:

Initial assessment:

Push-ups (modified): 25

Sit-ups (modified): 31

Body weight squats: 30

Today’s results:

Push-ups (modified): 57

Sit-ups (modified): 66

Body weight squats: 59

Holla!    I even impressed myself.  After 18+ days of following this program, I have gotten stronger.  My exercise for this week is to walk on the treadmill in prep for my race on Sunday.  But next Monday I will start this program again upping the intensity and also using heavier weights.  Even if it’s only 10, I want to be able to do a proper push up and sit up so I have to continue working on it.

I took a break last week from drinking meta-d and I can say that I am going back to drinking it every morning.  I definitely felt like I had more energy the week I drank it and wasn’t as hungry.  One of the things that I am also thinking about is trying to eat clean.  Looking at my food tracker I realized that I do eat a lot of processed food.  I’ve been thinking of trying the Tone It Up Nutritional plan since I like a lot of the recipes that they have on their site but it’s $150 and I just can’t spend the money right now.  Cassey from Blogilates has her own 90 day meal plan which is free.  She designed the meal plan off of Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet.  I am going to be reading more about it and won’t make the decision this week but it’s something to consider.  Anyone follow any of these clean eating plans?  

I completed Day 15 of the Boot Camp Challenge today.  It was not as tough as yesterday.  Hallelujah! Or maybe I am just getting stronger. 

Boot Camp:

• 0:34:00(+353 pts)

Activity points earned - 5

Two more days to go & then I will do the fitness assessment.  I will probably run through it again at the beginner level and increase the intensity.  I really am enjoying it even if it kicks my ass some days.

Bay 2 Breakers is coming up next Sunday & I am beginning to freak out.  There’s a ball of nerves in my stomach that won’t go away.  I know that I can walk the 12K but it’s the .7 of a mile that’s going up hill (at the 2.5 mile mark at an 11.15% grade) that’s making me freak the fuck out.  Thankfully the course gradually flows downhill after that.  I’m probably just worrying too much about it but hills are not my friends.  I get so winded so easily.  Well not as easily as I used to.  My plan for Saturday, Monday through Thursday is walk on the treadmill and increase the incline after 2.5 miles and walk at the highest incline I can handle for .7 miles.  I know it will be a slower walk but I just don’t want to be so winded that I can’t even talk. I hope that it helps to sort of practice the walk. 

Another thing that’s making me anxious is that 6 months ago I never thought I could walk this race.   It’s playing tricks with my mind thinking that I will be able to complete a 12k race. I am very proud that I am trying it and I don’t want to fail.  I’m walking the race with two other people and I don’t want to hold them back & ruin their experience.  I need to just get out of my head, not worry about it and just do it.  But it’s all I can think about.  

Allow me to introduce you to my first cupcake of 2012.  It was a delicious & mouthwatering red velvet cupcake.  Yum!  

What made this cupcake possible was the fact that I walked 9.27 miles today.  Wheeeee!

(Total time - 2:56, total miles - 9.27, average pace - 18:59, total calories burned - 1,614)

I was very intimidated by walking 9 miles this past weekend & I decided to do 6 each weekend day.  This week I knew that I wanted to face these 9 miles & decided to just do it.   As soon as I got to the park where I was walking, I could tell that my mind wanted to do 9 miles but my body was not keen on the idea.  By mile 1.5 I couldn’t get into a groove and was just walking at a terrible pace.  But I kept going.   My goal was just to finish it.  My Runkeeper stopped and saved the first 3.57 miles & I thought to just stop and try another day.  

But I can be stubborn so I restarted the app & continued walking.  It was the longest workout ever.  I wanted to stop so many times.  The last mile and a half was so horrible.  I swear that babies could crawl faster than I was walking.  Maybe not.  But my body didn’t feel in sync with my mind.   I felt like my feet weighed a ton and I could barely lift them.  

But I did it!  I freaking did it.  

I got to my car & I started crying.  They were happy tears but man did I look like a hot mess afterwards.  I couldn’t believe that I had just walked over 9 miles.  I am not happy at all with my time but I now have room to grow.  I am just so excited to have been able to do it.  

I went to Whole Foods to get some watermelon (for some reason my body craves it after a long workout) and happened to walk by the bakery section.  And that’s all she wrote.  

I realized that this new healthy lifestyle is all about balance.  I can’t have a cupcake every day week but once in a while it’s ok. One cupcake is not going to damage my diet.  I am tracking it and the rest of the choices I make today will be healthy ones.  I don’t want to live a life where I can’t do something or go without something that I enjoy.  It’s all about balancing both my needs versus wants and doing what must be done to enjoy the only life that I have.