peace + love + cupcakes

One of the goals that I had set last week as part of the Do Life Challenge was to perform a random act of kindness. I decided that I would donate to Ben’s cause as he is running his first marathon in memory of his friend who passed away from cystic fibrosis.  I wish I could do more financially but I do know that every little bit counts.   

If you haven’t read Ben’s blog, I recommend that you check it out.   And if you can contribute, please do as it is for a great cause & every little bit helps.

Christy is my buddy for this week’s challenge & let me tell you how much she rocks. I mentioned earlier in the week that she has lost 76 pounds so far. That’s so awesome.

All this week she has been very motivating & I am so lucky that we paired up. One of my biggest struggles is motivation. She posted on her blog all these reasons why she didn’t want to work out which is something that I can totally relate to. However, she worked out and didn’t make any excuses. That motivates me as well. She’s consistently beating her Monday Mile time & seeing how far she has come along in this weight loss journey inspires me.

She has set five goals for this & next week & I know that she will accomplish them:

1. Lose 2 more pounds.
2. Track every day.  
3. Schedule my 10k walk, no matter how many times I have to ask my hubby to watch the kids.  
4. Up my water to 100 oz a day, that’s 4 of my favorite bottles.
5. Get back to reviewing 4 good things I’ve done instead of guilt tripping myself!

She isn’t making any excuses and is not only trying to get healthy for her family but also for herself. Go Christy!

By Wednesday, share five specific goals with each other that will be reachable by the end of week FIVE. 12 days.

Christy (noquithouse) is my buddy for this week’s (and I think next week as well) Do Life Challenge.  She’s lost 76 pounds so far.  How awesome is that! Definitely check her blog & cheer her on.  

Here are my five specific goals from today through the end of week 5.

1. Track my food every day both on WW & MFP.
2. Work out 8 days out of the 11 days remaining.
3. Organize my house.  It’s chaotic right now.
4. Perform one random act of kindness.
5. Drink at least 64 oz of water a day.  

You would think it was Christmas morning since I woke up early.  I was so excited to weigh in. I got on the scale and couldn’t believe the number I saw.  I got off the scale, weighed in and got the same result.

As of January 15, I have worked out a total of 625 minutes (1,000 is my monthly goal) and I have walked 44.41 miles (50 miles is my monthly goal).  Pretty awesome right?

I am going to move on from this disappointing weigh in and this week focus on my nutrition.   This week’s Do Life Challenge is a scavenger hunt which looks like a lot of fun & I will try to accomplish as many as I can.  However, nutrition will be my focus.   I’ve also modified my training guide because I think that for me it would be more doable this way. Originally it was a 12 week guide but I’ve modified it to 18 weeks. The whole purpose of it was to get endurance and gain speed to be able to complete Bay to Breakers (12k) in May in under two hours.  For the next eight weeks, I will walk at least 5K 4 times a week and on the weekend increase my mileage.

• Week 9 - 6 miles (brisk)
• Week 10 - 9 miles  (easy)
• Week 11 - 7 miles (brisk)*
• Week 12 - 10 miles (easy)
• Week 13 -  8 miles (brisk)
• Week 14 - 11 easy (easy)
• Week 15 - 9 miles (brisk)
• Week 16 - 12 miles (easy)
• Week 17 - 10 miles (brisk)
• Week 18 - half marathon 

This is gonna be a long post so get some tea & get comfortable :)

If you would’ve told me that I would be walking 8 consecutive miles in one day I would’ve laughed. I never thought that I would have the endurance for it. But today I did it. It was hard and there were several times when I just wanted to stop but I kept on going. Some random tidbits about my walk today:

• I am so glad that I got my Race Epic shirt this week. It’s the only long sleeve shirt that I have that fits & I wore it. It was freezing walking on the Golden Gate Bridge and that shirt kept me warm.
• GU’s Blueberry Pomegranate Roctane gel is disgusting. However, GU’s Chocolate Outrage is so freaking good.
• Mile 4 was gruesome. I had a pain in my lower back and it made it a difficult mile.
• Mile 7 was the hardest mentally. I kept doubting whether or not I would finish my workout today.
• This is just my experience but male runners are much friendlier than female runners. I try to make eye contact with anyone that I pass and men just seemed to be more friendly.

1. I know how much I have gotten out of the fitblr community & healthy living blogs. I get support from them and the people who I follow & who follow me, who know exactly what I am going through because they’ve been there. It’s a great group of people who have the same goal in mind. What I decided to do was to reach out to those people who I follow on Tumblr who haven’t posted in a more than 3 weeks. I sent out a message to 12 of them reaching out. Perhaps they have been struggling with their journey or been to busy to update. But I wanted to let them know that I was here to support them.
2. I love, love, love Girl Scout cookies. But before I started on Weight Watchers I could probably eat a whole box of Thin Mints in a day. My friend’s daughter is a girl scout & I wanted to support her efforts but didn’t want the temptation. So…. I ended up ordering a couple of boxes and when my friend’s daughter gets them, she will be donating them to a women’s shelter near her house.

It’s not often that I look forward to weigh in but I stayed on tracked this week and worked hard at the gym so I am anxious to see how much I lost. One thing I need to improve on is my water intake. I had set a goal of drinking 5 gallons this week and I am about a gallon short. I still drank more water than I have in the past few weeks so that’s a win for me.

Overall, I think I did my best this week. I look forward to the challenges that next week brings & I am ready to take them on.

8 miles. That’s what I am getting up early to do. Going to eat my breakfast of champions (Strawberry Fage, banana & coffee), fill my water bottle, get my GU & go get my walk on.

Frak! I can’t believe I’m actually doing it.