Franconia Ridge

(Just a warning, this is long. If you want to skip my storytelling, just scroll down to the pretty pictures below.)

This past weekend we went up to New Hampshire for a hiking and camping adventure in the White Mountains. We hiked the Franconia Ridge loop trail, climbing up the Falling Waters trail, summiting at Little Haystack, Mt. Lincoln and Mt Lafayette, and coming down the Bridle Path trail. The hike was a personal victory for me since last year I begged off this same hike.

My hiking history is complicated. Jason LOVES hiking. Going up a mountain is his favorite thing ever and I feel really bad that I haven't quite caught the vision. Last year we hiked up the Beaver Brook Trail to Mt. Moosilauke in the White Mountains. The trail starts out all nice and casual in the woods and then ascends almost 2000 feet in a little more than a mile. Which kind of means you're going straight up. They don't mess around in New Hampshire. No sissy switchbacks in New England. It's straight up the mountain, every time.

I fully admit that I did not listen to Jason and take the proper precautions, and I wound up dehydrated about halfway up the mountain. Which means I went the rest of the way up the mountain, then back down that super steep trail feeling like I was going to die. FYI, in the mountains, Gatorade is your friend. The first and last 2 1/2 miles of the trail consist of these giant granite boulders. Going up, you scramble up and over them. Going down, you have to step on each and every boulder and maintain your balance. It's brutal on your quads, calves and ankles on a normal day. That day, my legs were already shaking like crazy from getting dehydrated, so every time I took a giant step down to the next boulder, I fully expected to just fall over.

For 2 1/2 miles.

Super fun.

And it's not like you can just stop because, you know, you're halfway up a mountain.

Fast forward a couple months later and we were back up in the Whites with a group from Jason's lab. We decided to hike the Franconia Ridge loop trail and everyone started out all excited and fearless and feeling like, yeah, we can conquer the mountain! After hiking for 1.4 miles, we reached Cloudland Falls and took a break for pictures and to assess. One of our group looked at the coming trail and said, "Now we start going up." One person in our group had never been hiking before and his face completely fell. He asked, "What have we been doing so far?!" Because even though the trail hadn't been too bad yet, there had already been a few scrambles and a few out-of-breath breaks (for those of us not in primo hiking condition).

Ultimately, he and his girlfriend decided to turn back. They had seen the beautiful falls, and would get in almost a 3-mile hike this way. They were okay with that. I decided to go back with them.

And it's eaten at me ever since. My experience on the Beaver Brook Trail had scared me out of finishing the trail with the group.

So Jason and I decided to go for it again. At the falls, I almost quit again. Almost. Then I saw a bunch of people up above the falls and decided I would like to see that view so we scrambled up there. Then we kept going.

Two things kept me going. One, on the way up to the top of the falls, there was this really annoying narrow, slippery ledge of rock that I had to scramble over. I did not want to go back down that (which is kind of hilarious to think about now, considering the rock faces I had to slide down going down the other side of the ridge several hours later).

The second thing, and this is really the main one, was Jason. He was being such a dear and assuring me that we could turn back if I wanted to. But I knew he would be so incredibly disappointed. I knew he was already worried that this trip was his last chance to convince me to, if not like, then at least not hate hiking. He loves it so much, and after I pushed myself to go up the trail over the falls, I just couldn't turn around.

He gave me a couple of more chances on our way up the mountain to turn back, but at that point, I was determined to do it for myself.

So I did it. It's kind of an amazing route. In one loop, you can get in 3 4,000 foot peaks - though technically Little Haystack doesn't count since there is less than a 200 foot descent between it and Mt. Lincoln, the next peak on the ridge. Whatever. It's the first summit you get to from the Falling Waters Trail and in my mind, it counts.

Starting out - take the Bridle Path .2 miles to Falling Waters (or you can go straight up the Bridle Path to Greenleaf Hut and on to Mt. Lafayette).

The Falling Waters Trail runs parallel to the river, interspersed by lovely waterfalls. The water was pretty low this time of year, but the Cloudland Falls were still lovely.
After this point, the trail veers away from the water and starts going up. New Hampshire is called the Granite State for a reason. There are huge granite boulders everywhere, including on the trail.
Heading up, still fairly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, even if I am a sweaty beast. It was about 75-80 degrees the whole time and pretty muggy (there were storms coming).

One of the reasons I am not the biggest fan of hiking is because I am extremely self-conscious. I've written on here so much about my struggles to lose weight. On Thursday night I tried on the hiking pants I wore last year and they are too small. Such an awful feeling, especially when I've been working so hard with my swimming. So I feel like I'm the fat girl on the mountain and everyone must be looking at me thinking, What is she doing here? (Though if I've learned anything from my experiences at the gym and the pool, it's that people are nothing but encouraging).

Here's the thing, though. Despite my extra weight, despite my flab and cellulite, I was right there with everyone else. I was keeping the same pace as the guys and the skinny girls. They were feeling just as much pain as I was.

The trail is pretty popular so we kept bumping into the same groups of people. We would slog along and come across one or two groups resting. Then we would rest and they would pass us. We would all smile at and say things like, "Slow and steady" or "We're getting there". There's a great camaraderie on the mountain.

First peak! At the top of Little Haystack
Cairn on the ridge.It was my understanding going in that once you get to the ridge, bagging 3 peaks is cake. That's not entirely true. Yes, all 3 peaks run along the ridge. What other people neglected to tell me is that in between each peak is a descent and another ascent. I suppose that's only fair if you're going to count them, but when I was looking up that rocky slope to the summit of Mt. Lafayette, having already come up the trail to Little Haystack, and then gone up again to Mt. Lincoln, I admit to feeling a little defeated.

My motto became "slow and steady" because, really, that's the only way to do it.

We did it! At the top of Mt. Lafayette, the final peak at 5,260 feet.
We ran into an Appalachian Trail thru hiker and his friend at the top, who kindly offered to take the above picture, if we would take theirs. He had a big bushy beard and a huge, beat-up frame pack with camp shoes dangling off the back and when I initially saw him I wondered if he was a thru hiker. Turns out he started in Georgia on March 20th. Amazing!
After resting for awhile at the top of Mt. Lafayette, we started down. It's easy to forget that what you just came up, you now have to go down. 1,000 feet down from the summit of Mt. Lafayette is Greenleaf Hut, which is maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club. Partway to the hut, we started hearing bagpipes on the wind. When we arrived, a man was standing outside of the hut, playing his bagpipes, which he had carried up with him on the trail

Last year Jason and his dad did a multi-day trek and stayed at 3 huts along the way. Jason had suggested earlier in the week that he and I stay at Greenleaf Hut for the night and hike down the next day, but I thought it seemed silly to stop when we were only 3 miles from the car at that point.

Yeah, by the time we got there, it didn't seem so silly anymore. Alas, Jason had listened to me, and we had no reservations for the hut. We made a quick pit stop, and soldiered on down the Bridle Path. Jason took this picture of a lovely flat section of path just as we came back into the scrub forest.

In reality, this is what most of the way down looked like:
Yes, that is a trail.

I actually love this next picture.
Jason took it when I wasn't really paying attention to him, I was just trying to get down the freaking mountain.

The best way to describe the granite is "unrelenting". That was the word we settled on as we made our way down.

Here's our final shot of the hike, back at the start of the trail. Exhausted, but satisfied.
We went for our celebratory dinner at The Common Man, which is becoming a post-hike tradition, and then headed back to camp, where it promptly started raining. It proceeded to rain for the next 15-20 hours. We went to sleep to the rain and woke up to the rain. We packed up camp in the rain and drove out of camp in the rain.

After we left camp, we went into Lincoln, NH for breakfast, then headed back up to the mountains for some more low-key sightseeing. I'll post more about that next time.

The original plan was to camp for 3 nights. I'm sure it would have been very peaceful at the campsites last night since Rhode Island is the only state that has today, a random Monday in August, for a holiday, but Jason took pity on me and agreed to come home early. I was starting to get really sore and had a headache that wouldn't quit. I knew every campsite would be quiet, but very soggy after the hours and hours of rain.

Besides, I'm not exactly sure what we would have done today if we were still up there since another hike is totally out of the question. Probably would have just laid in the tent all day, trying to will enough strength into our legs to actually get out of the tent. No mean feat after a big hike.

I've learned from strength training and past hikes that the 2nd day after is the worst. I was kind of pleased when I woke up yesterday morning and wasn't in as much pain as I thought I would be. Today is worse. Going upstairs is bad, but going downstairs is just brutal. I feel like an absolute hero for walking up and down the stairs 4 times so far today to take care of laundry and other necessities. I deserve a medal.

Sitting here, comfortable in my house, I feel a huge amount of self-satisfaction. I did the trail that scared me last year. I bagged 3 more 4,000-footers so now I have 5 (Camel's Hump in Vermont and Moosilauke are my other 2). I am sore in that satisfying, wow, I really pushed myself hard way. I shared a neat experience with my husband. I saw views that only a small percentage of people ever see.

But, man, was it brutal.

I have a love/hate relationship with hiking up mountains. I'll leave it at that for now.

Whole30 Update

Well, I suppose I should comment on the Whole30 project that I started with Jenna at The Paleo Project and a bunch of other ladies. We actually have a long email chain going, full of questions and answers and everyone encouraging each other, which has been fantastic to participate in and read.

I must confess, though, I haven't been very rigorous. I've been good enough that I do notice a difference in how I feel when I do eat something non-Paleo, so I think that shows I'm making a generally positive showing in the Paleo effort.

For instance, the other night we had a couple people over for dinner and decided to use up some leftover raw hamburger patties and buns that we had on hand to have a cookout. I was rushing to get home in time to clean and make some sweet potato fries, so I picked up a cherry pie at Whole Foods for dessert. I COULD have eaten the burger without the bun (which I did last week when the burger patties originally made their appearance in our house), but I ate the bun. I also ate some pie and vanilla ice cream. The burger buns were whole wheat and the pie was a no-preservative Whole Foods basic, made with unbleached flour. For sides we had the sweet potato fries (baked with olive oil and a bit of salt) and I made a big salad from our Farm Share veggies. So really, on the whole the meal was not too divergent from what conventional wisdom tells us is healthy, right?

Later that night I crawled into bed with a rotten stomach ache. Not only that, but I was extremely bloated and felt like my stomach was about 2 times its normal size. By morning, I felt fine and was able to get to the pool for my swim, but I really felt yucky the night before.

Based on my own personal experiences, I'm starting to wonder if I have a mild gluten allergy. I don't seem to have the same reaction if I eat corn or rice. I might retain a bit of water, but I don't feel physically ill. Dairy doesn't seem to have a negative impact on me. I think my big problem might be wheat.

Which does not bode well for my traditional Autumn Tennessee Pumpkin Bread. I'm going to need to do some serious baking experimentation over the next couple of months to see if I can figure out a Paleo version.

Injured? Possibly.

Based on my super scientific Googling of "shoulder blade pain swimming", I think I might have swimmer's shoulder. The truth is, my right shoulder sort of hurts most of the time. I carry all of my tension in my right shoulder, which is exacerbated by my decidedly non-ergonomic office set-up.

(I actually have a good office chair, but crossing my legs under myself like a pretzel while I type probably isn't allowing the chair to live up to its full potential.)

Anyway, this is different than my normal shoulder pain and rather than being located in my lat up near my neck, like usual, the pain is more in my shoulder blade. Or rather deep down and right above my shoulder blade.

During my Masters swim on Tuesday it became more than just a nuisance, but I pushed through and did the workout. Yesterday, I wound up mostly kicking because every time I swam more than a 100, my shoulder started yelling at me. Today was supposed to be my 4th swim of Week 6, but instead, I woke up with a stiff and achey shoulder and decided to just let it go. It's not worth it to do further damage and wind up not being able to swim for a longer period of time.

The causes of swimmer's shoulder are overuse (duh) and crossing your arm over the center of your body during your pull. That second cause is exactly what I've been working on correcting over the last few weeks, but apparently not quickly enough.

We're going hiking and camping this weekend, so I know I'll more than make up for that 4th swim in terms of getting in a workout. I won't be back in the pool until Tuesday and my fingers are crossed that taking 5 days off will help.

Fundraising: Blown Away

My firm just donated $500 to Swim Across America! I sent out an email to all the attorneys last night, letting them knowing I will be swimming to raise money for cancer research. The firm doesn't have a problem with us letting people know when we're doing these kinds of events.

This morning I had $500 in my fundraising account. I met my goal, just like that, in one fell swoop! I am so grateful. I really do work at the nicest law firm.

If you're reading this and you got my solicitation email, please, don't be put off by the small detail that I have reached my fundraising goal already. Rest assured, I'm still accepting donations for this great cause.

If you're interested in donating and I haven't contacted you directly about it, email me at frazzled dot kelly at gmail and I'll send you the link to my fundraising site.

Mean Girl - Not So Mean Actually

The mean girl was nice to me today. Maybe it was because her buddy the guy wasn't there today. Maybe it was because we swam side by side the whole time and I kept up with her and so she considers me an equal now. Maybe she was just PMSing 2 weeks ago. The point is, things are good. She actually even complimented me on my ability to hold my breath while dolphin kicking across the length of the pool (one of our drills today). A compliment!

So that's good.

Today we did that drill where I feel like I'm drowning. Here's what it looked like on paper:

8 x 50 on 1:05
1st 25 - 3r, 3l, 2r, 2l, 1r, 1l, opposite arm out front, breathe on stroke side
2nd 25 - 3r, 3l, 2r, 2l, 1r, 1l, opposite arm at side, breathe on side opposite stroke

What that means is we were supposed to do 8 50s in one minute five second intervals. The first 25 consists of 3 strokes with the right arm, 3 strokes with the left arm, 2 strokes with the right arm, 2 strokes with left arm, repeat, with the non-stroking arm stretched out front, breathing on your stroke side.

The second 25 is the killer. It's the same thing EXCEPT the non-stroking arm is at your side and you're supposed to breathe on the side opposite your stroking arm.

So we had to count a lot and breathe at weird intervals and it was kind of a mess. And I felt like I was drowning a little on every 2nd 25.

FYI, there was no WAY we were doing those 50s in 1:05. Even super fast guy in the lane next to us said he was doing them on 1:15.

So am I weird when I say, I love Master swimming? Almost drowning on a regular basis is exhilarating apparently!

Beautiful Days!

This past weekend the weather was absolutely perfect! Sunny, clear, not too hot. Amazing!

Unfortunately, I had to work on Saturday, so I had to cancel our weekend camping/hiking trip. But it wasn't so bad. I brought everything I needed home with me on Friday and set myself up in the backyard to work on Saturday. We have 2 big oaks and 1 maple over the backyard, which makes it inconvenient for growing anything that needs sun, but means we have a shady sylvan nook in the back.

You like that use of the word "sylvan"? The nice weather is making me poetic.

So I woke up Saturday morning and went for a swim - my 4th of the week, which means week 5 of my Swim Challenge was a success! Then I came home and made us some smoothies and set up to work in the backyard. (Also, we might have gone to Cheesecake Factory later for linner/dunch for 1/2 price cheesecake for cheesecake day. NOT PALEO. But yummy!)

I managed to get a bunch of work done Saturday which meant even though our camping trip was canceled, we could still have an excursion on Sunday. Jason and I went kayaking and had an awesome time. I also took the opportunity to do about a half hour of open-water swimming in the ocean. It was a little tough, I have to say. First of all, a storm or something had blown in a bunch of seaweed, so I kept running headlong into seaweed and getting it caught in my fingers during my strokes. The water was completely murky, which is very unusual for that beach.

Also, as I swam up the beach, I had to fight the current the whole way, plus the waves which were rolling in at about a 45 degree angle and hitting me in the face periodically. Swimming back was easier, except for it was harder to sight for some reason and I kept getting turned so instead of swimming parallel to the beach, I wound up swimming into shore and had to keep swimming back out. All kinks I need to work out before my swim in September.

That said, it felt really great. I liked the feeling of actually getting somewhere, rather than just going back and forth in the pool. The pool at the Y is 25 yards and sometimes I wish I had a 50-yard pool available because, while I like the boost I get from the flipturns, when I'm swimming distance, it would be nice not to have to turn so often. Swimming in open water definitely appeals to me.

Plus, it was AMAZING to be swimming outside again. I can't express how much I miss swimming in the sun.

So, initial plans foiled, but a great Summer weekend just the same!

Feed Me

Fitnessista just wrote about her first pregnancy hormone/hunger-related meltdown, then asked everyone about their own meltdowns. I don't have the pregnancy excuse, but I definitely have the hunger meltdowns. I thought I would share, lest you think this blog is only about me rocking my swims.

I have a tendency to get insane (and migrainey) when I have low blood sugar. I discovered long ago that if I don't eat at least a little something before I work out, I get a migraine. Doesn't matter if I eat right after the workout, the damage is done.

Jason has found out the hard way that when I get too hungry, I get snippy and irrational, and we need to get me some food, stat. Eventually I will become completely implacable and all sorts of food will sound WRONG, which, as you can imagine, is super fun for Jason.

Our worst experience was when we were in Paris about 3 months after we got married. We had 3 days to see all of Paris and crammed those days chock full. One day we took the Metro out to Versailles, toured the palace and grounds, came back to Paris, and went to the Louvre for its free night. The plan was to get dinner when we got back to Paris. Only, every place we looked, Jason deemed too expensive. And, let's be honest, he wasn't wrong. Europe is expensive!

As we walked from one cafe to the next, I felt myself getting more and more frustrated and exhausted and just ticked off in general. Then Jason, observing my foul mood, said we could go anywhere I wanted. But by that point, we had crossed that insane line and nothing sounded good to me anymore.

Eventually, we ran out of time and needed to get in the LONG line to enter the Louvre. We finally got inside, and I felt miserable. Tired, getting a headache, not excited about being in Paris anymore, or, in fact, about being married to Jason at that moment.

So Jason sat me down on a bench and came back with a Louvre vending machine sandwich that probably cost about forty-seven dollars and was kind of nasty, but, boy, did I cheer up after eating half of that.

That was the worst and Jason mentions it periodically in the context of, "We don't want another Paris experience on our hands." It still happens, though.

I vividly remember a couple of weeks ago telling Jason in my angry voice that I realized I was being completely irrational, but I couldn't help it and I was tired and hungry and if he knew what was good for him, he would get out of my face and let me just make dinner alone in the kitchen.

He left the kitchen.

So let this serve as my apology to Jason for all past and future hunger meltdowns. Because I know I'm insane, but I know it will happen again.

Swim Challenge Update

Just in case you were wondering, the Swim Challenge is going great! I'm counting Week 3 as a success because even though I only swam 3 times that week, I showed up at the gym for the 4th swim, and it's not my fault the pool was closed. I don't get credit on my fitness tracker on SparkPeople or on the Fitbit, of course, but I'm giving myself a pass for my personal challenge.

Week 4 was a success too. I swam Tuesday, then Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I thought I would be worn out by Saturday morning, but I actually rocked the difficult 2800 yard workout our coach emailed to us, and even tacked on another 200 yards to get to an even 3000.

This week, I'm a little unsure about completing 4 swims. We're supposed to go hiking and camping this weekend, and I blew off swimming this morning because I never am thinking straight when that alarm goes off at 5:30. Tomorrow is Masters, but I have an 8 AM work meeting. However, I'm thinking about possibly scooting over to the gym super early and getting in 45 minutes.

Never mind that we're going to a concert tonight in Cambridge and won't be home until late. I really want to meet my goals! We'll see how realistic that feels tomorrow morning.

Fitbit Results Lately: Am Slug

I love my Fitbit, but the bummer part is that in the same way that your body adapts to exercise, the Fitbit adapts too. So my one hour of swimming in the morning 4 times a week is not giving me as big a bang for my buck as it was a few weeks ago. Added to that is the fact that I've been really babying my heel in the hope that it will feel better, and my daily steps are averaging about 3,000 per day. Pathetic!

Being easy on my heel hasn't really helped. I've been trying to get better about taking anti-inflammatories regularly, but I keep forgetting. Maybe I'll start setting an alarm to remind me. The point is, my heel hurts whether I walk a bunch or I don't. So maybe I should just bring my sneakers to work and start doing my lunch walks again. I can start out easy, a half hour at a time or something like that.

I'm just getting really tired of being still all day. It's especially bad on the days when I swim in the morning because I arrive at work buzzing from endorphins and I just want to MOVE. But I have the least moving job in the whole world, so all of that energy goes to waste. I think it would help to know I'm going to get out on my lunch hours again.

Mean Girls

Joining Masters swimming has been awesome. I have 2 coach-planned workouts per week and generally get nothing but encouragement from the other swimmers.

Only...I got moved up a lane, right? There's another woman in my lane who is kind of brusque, kind of stand-offish. To the point of it being a little awkward when she doesn't respond when I speak directly to her. There's just me and her and a guy in our lane now, and she's super chummy with him.

(Though, 2 weeks ago when he went first, she made a remark to me about how she kept catching him and how his hard swim doesn't really look like he's going that hard. Uh, ok. I wasn't really sure what to say, so I just shrugged and suggested she tell him she would like to go first in the next set)

It's just odd - we're grown women, after all. We'll be getting ready for the next set and she'll make a general comment, but it's very obvious that's it's only directed at the guy in the lane, and I'm not included. Or she won't make eye contact with me. Or I'll say something to her and she'll just ignore it.

Anyway, like I said, it's odd. I figure I'll just keep being friendly to her and see what happens. At least the guy is nice to me.

WINNING!

(Only 5 months since we all learned how crazy Charlie Sheen really is, and that subject line already feels dated)

I feel awesome!!

That's pretty much all there is to it. I woke up this morning feeling refreshed for the first time in MONTHS. I went to the pool and swam with my Masters group. I'm still in the fast lane*, and I'm keeping up pretty well

Seriously, someone smack me the next time I forget how good I feel when I'm not eating crap. I tell myself over and over not to forget, yet I always do. I really need to make this a lifestyle, and not just something I do here and there.

I've cut out the grains, the sugar, the majority of the dairy (I'm still sprinkling cheese on my veggies because I don't want to waste it. Also, parmesan cheese on roasted broccoli is the best thing ever). This time I haven't cut out fruit, though. The Paleo/Primal people let you eat fruit, just not too much. I think knowing that I CAN have a banana if I want it, helps me not feel deprived and makes this whole plan feel more liveable.

Still not weighing and measuring myself at all. I'm just focusing on being healthy. I think my stomach is flatter, I think my thighs have a little less visible cellulite, I think my calves are getting more defined. If I'm wrong, it doesn't really matter, because the point is, I feel great!


* Well, the fastER lane. Faster than where I was. There are these 2 freaks of nature in the lane next to us who do 100s on the 1:30, but I just ignore them when I'm assessing how well I'm doing.

Reason #427 Why It's Best To Just Stay Away from Carbs and Caffeine

Detox sucks.

I suppose I could just leave it at that, but maybe if I give more details, I will remember this the next time I decide drinking 3-4 Diet Cokes a day is an AWESOME idea.

Basically, I've had a headache since Saturday afternoon around 3. It varies in intensity, but is mainly of the behind one eyebrow, stabbing me in the head, migraine-variety. Saturday I started the Whole30, which means no grains, no sugar, no processed junk (which translates to NO DIET COKE).

I admit, I had a Diet Coke yesterday afternoon because I just wanted the headache to ease off a bit so I could get done some of the million things around the house that needed to get done. It helped for a little bit, but then the headache came back full force just as I was going to bed, and stayed with me until, well, now, really. Which meant I was not getting up to go swim this morning, that's for sure.

Whenever I detox, it usually takes about 3 days before the junk is out of my system and I feel better. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

WHOLE30 Fail

So remember that whole food discussion I had not so long ago and how I was going to do a WHOLE30 and get on the Paleo train? Well, it didn't work out like I hoped it would. First of all, there is food in the fridge that I just didn't want to waste by throwing out. Mostly dairy - cheese and milk.

However, the bigger issue was the caffeine. I had a 2-hour presentation yesterday morning and work has been so crazy busy lately that I hadn't really had a chance to go over my materials since I submitted them in May. I knew I would have to hurriedly review everything Wednesday night, then get up early on Thursday to get to the seminar location by 8 AM. It occurred to me that maybe these couple of days weren't the best time to ween myself off of Diet Coke (which I've been drinking a lot of lately).

Apparently my personal license to have caffeine equaled no holds barred crappy eating in my brain. I really don't know where it came from, but yesterday was kind of a junk food free-for-all. I didn't even TRY to eat the Paleo/low-carb option. Not even marginally.

Now, though, I have no excuse. I have a weekend ahead of me with no huge responsibilities, only social commitments. It's the perfect opportunity to knock it off with the caffeine. So tomorrow I take a deep breath, and I show the self-restraint that I know is there, but has been lacking lately.

If this is like prior times when I've laid off the Diet Coke, in a couple of weeks, it will probably taste disgusting to me. Which I know is a good thing, what with all the chemicals in those little cans, but is kind of sad too since Diet Coke with Lime has become a nice mid-afternoon treat for me. Must acquire new, healthy treat options!

I Need A Ruling Here...

I'm not going to meet my challenge of swimming 4 times a week for Week 3. I know this because regardless of my Herculean effort this morning to pull myself out of bed after not getting a lot of sleep on Wednesday night, giving a 2-hour presentation yesterday and having another late night last night for a friend's birthday party, I got to the gym and the pool was closed. Apparently the lifeguard didn't show up for work this morning.

I'm pretty positive I won't be able to leave work early two Fridays in a row to make the lap swim this evening (though if the opportunity presents itself, I'll jump at it).

Jason designated himself the official arbiter of these matters and declared I get to count this day for my challenge. Thoughts?

Let's Talk Food

I've decided to take on a food challenge in addition to my swimming challenge. I think I've got the swimming pretty well under control, and I've succeeded with fitness challenges before so I know I can push myself to get this one done too.

However, my eating has been - not so great. For instance, I had some graham crackers and milk for an evening snack on Sunday. I usually don't even buy processed foods. It's much easier to eat healthy when the stuff isn't in the house and it would take some major effort to get it. I only had the graham crackers because I bought s'mores fixings for the hiking/camping trip that never happened on the 4th. Granted, I only really had one meal Sunday, but the point isn't really the calorie intake, it's WHAT I'm eating that's the issue.

Over the past couple of weeks I've really let my eating slide and have taken in a fair amount of sugar and grains. It's really hard to remember in the moment that those types of foods make me feel bad. (TMI Alert->) When I cut out the carbs, I very rarely have gas or have any sort of upset stomach. When I eat carbs, all that comes rolling back.

Also, I've been drinking way, WAY too much Diet Coke. To the point that on a couple of days it's made me feel shaky. My favorite thing right now is Diet Coke with a packet of True Lime. I'm still a fan of True Lime (like a lime wedge in a packet!), but I need to lay off the Diet Coke. Need to remember: water with True Lime is tasty too.

I've decided to leap on Jenna at the Paleo Project's Whole30 Challenge. This is a challenge to eat Paleo for 30 days. Jenna's challenge started yesterday, but I'm starting today because we had friends in town and had a farewell dinner last night at a restaurant that has amazing desserts. Might as well end my crappy eating with a bang.

On the Paleo diet you cut out grains, sugar, legumes and dairy. I honestly think the dairy part will be the hardest for me because I love dairy. I use cheese a lot to accent my vegetable dishes and to spice up my salads. I've never noticed any type of physical reaction to dairy, so I'll try adding dairy back in after these 30 days and see if it has any effect on me. Fingers crossed that it doesn't and I can bring reasonable amounts of dairy back into my diet. But for these 30 days, I'm going to do the real challenge.

The Paleo diet also focuses on whole foods (thus, the WHOLE30 challenge). I generally eat whole foods anyway (occasional graham crackers notwithstanding) so the cooking and planning part won't be hard. It's just time-consuming. I've been swamped at work lately and I know the only way I will succeed is if I plan, use the crock pot more than I have been this summer, and PLAN.

Jason says he'll be happy to pick up my slack in the Diet Coke department. He's so giving.

Swim Challenge: Week 2 - Success!

Week 2 went off without a hitch. Well, except for my procrastination that I wrote about in my last post. But I got in 4 swims, even if I didn't get them in as leisurely as I might have hoped.

Friday I had the opportunity to swim the mile again, since that was in our workout of the week from our Masters coach. I shaved 1:05 off my time*, which means I swam it in 28:55. Nice! I think it helped that I could go at 5 PM, instead of 6 AM. I swim better after I've been up for awhile. 9 AM is really my optimal lap swimming time, but I have to go to work and dumb stuff like that.

*Not 1:55 which I mistakenly posted to Facebook, but couldn't erase until a couple of hours later after a couple people had Liked it and I didn't want to lose that positive reinforcement. I am actually really pleased with 1:05 since that's a lot of time to take off in a week.

I was supposed to swim this morning (Monday) and start off the week right, but I just couldn't get up. We have friends visiting who have 3 little boys under the age of 4. They arrived Saturday night and I honestly don't know how their parents do it.

Oh, wait, yes I do. The parents usually go to sleep by 8:30 or 9.

The kids are actually pretty low-key, as really small kids go, but their energy still wears me out. Added to that is the fact that Jason hates the idea of having the AC on all night, so I'm usually hot all night, and wind up waking up about 150 times per night. So sometimes I have a hard time getting up at 5:45 AM.

My plan for this week is to swim tomorrow (Masters!), Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

I'm a little worried about my right shoulder. Or rather, my right shoulder blade. I have a definite ache there when I swim, and even a bit when I'm not swimming. I want to get in my 4 swims per week, but I don't want to hurt my shoulder. Hopefully it won't end up being a problem.

Natural State: Sloth

This morning I posted on the daily thread of my SparkPeople swimming group that I work really well with a goal, but otherwise I'm a slacker. This is Week 2 of my 4 days a week swimming challenge and I have already identified a pattern. I start out strong and swim on Monday and Tuesday. The plan for the last 2 weeks has been to take Wednesday and Friday off, and swim on Thursday and Saturday.

Only, Thursday morning rolls around and it just feels so good to sleep in. It probably has something to do with the fact that Wednesday nights are our Young Womens activity nights so I end up winding down my evening later than usual.

(Maybe I should change my strategy and swim Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday... I'll think about that.)

Then I have to make sure to swim both Friday and Saturday to meet my goal, and hope nothing gets in the way to distract me, which on Saturdays is always a possibility. I have a feeling, though, that if not for this challenge, I could easily convince myself not to wake up early and only get in 2 or 3 swims per week. Because sleep is nice and, no matter how good those endorphins feel, exercise is hard.

I think I'm going to continually need to set challenges for myself in order to keep my exercising consistent. Maybe this is what has been lacking in the past when I've fallen off the exercise bandwagon. This challenge still has 10 weeks left so I don't have to have any amazing ideas until then, but I'll be thinking about it.

In other news, today I noticed that my right tricep is getting a little bit defined. When I noticed it in the mirror while doing my hair, I thought, "My arms are going to look awesome in 10 weeks!" I'm positive I'm the only one who can see it, but it's great motivation.

2 MPH

2 mph is roughly my speed in the water. I swam a mile during my workout today to get an idea of my timing when I didn't feel yucky like the last time I swam a mile. It took me 30 minutes exactly and I swam it straight through instead of breaking it up in chunks like last time.

I think I'll time myself swimming a mile every couple of weeks to see if I'm actually improving.

In related news, today was Day 4 of swimming this week, which means Week 1 was a success! I don't know if I'm losing any weight, but I feel stronger and on the days I swim, I have so much energy and an extra bounce in my step.

Not To Be All Judgey McJudgerson, But...

Wednesday night we took the Youth from church (ages 12-17) to a Pawtucket Red Sox game. The Paw Sox are the minor league team to the Boston Red Sox.

A couple of rows down from us was a family that was kind of a study in obesity. There was the maybe 6 year-old boy sucking down a 20 ounce bottle of Mountain Dew. He was still pretty skinny because, you know, he's 6.

Sitting next to him was his I'm guessing 10 year-old brother, eating ballpark food and drinking soda. He was a bit chunky.

Next to him was the approximately 15 year-old oldest brother, also eating crap and drinking a big Pepsi. The oldest brother was carrying a pretty large amount of extra weight.

Anyway, as I looked from the youngest with his Mountain Dew to the oldest, I just thought, Do they not see the connection here?


* Full disclosure: I ate nachos for dinner Wednesday night. And I paid for it. My stomach felt yucky for the rest of the evening.

Paddles

Check out these bad boys
They're called Techpaddles apparently and my coach whipped them out on Tuesday morning for us to try out. We were all stumped.

Here's how you wear them.

This means you enter the water fist-first. This is HARD. However, after swimming a 100 wearing the techpaddles, I definitely felt my stroke in my biceps, which I usually don't at all. My triceps generally do most of the work. So effective tool? Yes. Do I ever want to use them again if given the choice? Not really.

Rest Day

I actually woke up early enough to go swimming this morning and could have gone, but I made myself roll over and doze for another 45 minutes or so because I know if I swim too much too soon, I'll injure myself. The last time I ramped up the swimming too fast, I injured my arm and couldn't do anything more than kick for a month or so.

Yesterday was Masters swimming and we had a good workout. The middle set was 3 100s, 3 200s and 3 300s. I thought I would be dead by those 300s (12 laps for the non-swimmers), but I actually felt really energized. We had a new guy in our lane and I noticed that when I went first, he was on my feet for the first few laps. So I let him go first, and realized that he's fast when he starts, but then he loses his steam and I am right on his feet for the last several laps. It's good to know I can keep an even pace. That will be a good skill for the swim in September.

One thing I forgot about swimming - by 10:30 or 11 PM, I am OUT. I get up at 5:45 or so, swim, then feel pretty energized all day. But after 10:30, I am absolutely useless and can't keep my eyes open. It's pretty sudden and really annoys Jason when I drift off right in the middle of a conversation with him (which has happened before).

Swim Challenge: Week 1

Today was Day 1 of my new challenge. We're thinking about going out of town this weekend, so I knew I HAD to swim this morning or else I would be swimming the next 4 days in a row with no break. I think a goal to swim 4 times a week is perfect for me because it's enough that it pushes me, but not so much that I'll injure myself like I have in the past when I've ramped up the swimming too quickly.

I also want to work in a couple of days of strength training, but since Swim Across America is my ultimate goal at the end of thee 12 weeks, I'm officially just trying to get in the 4 swims per week.

Being an overachiever, I tried to get in 4 swims last week even though my challenge hadn't started. I left work a little early on Friday and went to the pool. I was only 8 laps into my swim when the lifeguard pulled everyone out because someone threw up IN the pool.

Ew.

So that was a bust. But I figured they would have shocked the pool by Saturday morning and I could go then.

Only I had to pick up Jason at the Boston airport Friday night and his flight was almost 3 hours late. So what was supposed to be a midnight pick up, wound up being closer to 3 AM. We dropped off his colleague in Needham, got home a little after 4 AM and didn't wake up until 11:20.

Oh well. I got in 2 swims last week at least. This week, though, I will swim 4 times!

New Challenge: SWIM!

Yesterday I swam a mile in 30 minutes. I met up with C, a lady from my Masters group, and we swam this week's workout from our coach, which included a mile swim broken down this way:

275
250
225
200
175
150
125
100
75
50
25
Rest :10 between each distance above.
Time yourself and at the end subtract 1:40 and you have your time for a swimming mile (1650 yards)

The thing is, I felt terrible. I was exhausted getting into the pool and my head started pounding about midway through the 1650 yards. C was tired too and we both acknowledged that our pace was slower than the last time we swam together.

So I think 30 minutes when I feel like poo isn't too bad. We agreed to do the mile again on a day when we were both feeling better. I think I would prefer to just swim the 1650 straight, but doing the distance intervals is a good way to get in a mile if the idea of swimming 1650 seems a little overwhelming.

But back to the point of this post. I've decided to do a swim fundraiser in September called Swim Across America. It's a mile of open water swimming with a bunch of people, which I've never done before, so that's a challenge in and of itself. I want to make sure I'm ready for this and that I train enough. Maybe I can even swim the mile under a half hour.

So my new challenge is to swim 4 times a week for at least 45 minutes, but preferably an hour. As the lakes and ocean around here get warmer in July and August, I'm going to try to swim 1 time per week in open water to get used to it. My Y just started a Swim Across America team, so hopefully we'll do some training together too.

Challenge starts Monday!

Back in the Water - And It Feels So Good

After almost 3 weeks, I went for a swim this morning. My Masters group was canceled last week, so I haven't been in the pool since just before we went to England. It was lovely! (And hard. Our coach is doing distance swims for everyone who is swimming Save the Bay and distance on top of distance after being out of the pool for a few weeks is no joke.)

I also made a date to meet up with another lady in the group on Thursday morning so we can swim together. So at least I know I'll get in one more swim this week - hopefully more.

On Sunday we went out to Cape Cod to hang out with Jason's brother and family. Our sister-in-law, Sarah, has a longtime family connection to the Cape and was there for a family wedding. We spent time with her parents and her sister's family as well. Sarah's dad owns a running store and is a big-time runner. He's the one who fitted me for my current sneakers, which fit great, but still didn't prevent my heel injury.

He asked Jason and me if we were still running. Jason said he was going to start again. I said, "I've been swimming." I explained that I'm pretty positive I have some plantar fasciitis going on, and Sarah's dad was about as unsurprised as they come because he saw for himself that I have the flattest feet in the world.

Jason then asked him if he had any tips for me in dealing with the injury. He nodded wisely and said, "Keep swimming."

Okay then. I've said it before, but I think it's pretty clear that I am NOT meant to be a runner.

Hung Over

Jason is out of town and I took the opportunity to do some extensive house cleaning this weekend, including unpacking my last box from our move 11 months ago. The office has been our continual work in progress, and instead of organizing as I go, I have taken to stacking papers and other officey-type things on an increasingly taller and more precarious pile on top of this cabinet in my corner of the office. As of Saturday evening, I can say that my part of the office is unpacked and organized. Jason's part is another story, but he's been working on it.

I can't tell you how satisfying it is to finally have this project over and done. It has been looming over me for months, and it was only getting worse as time went on. I filled up 3 garbage bags full of trash and two smaller bags full of shredables and recyclables. So satisfying.

During my cleaning, I gathered up a couple of pans and tupperwares that I've acquired over the last several months, but that actually belong to ladies at church. There's an old-fashioned idea that someone (probably my Southern relatives) hammered into my head at some point that you don't return a container empty. So I decided to make some brownies.

Only we only had one package of brownie mix (Ghiradelli!), which wasn't enough for a big pan. However, we did have a decadent triple-chocolate cake mix, so I combined them. It occurred to me as I was putting the pan into the oven that I probably should have only used one egg instead of the 3 that the cake mix called for. Sure enough, the batter puffed up and became a dark chocolate cake, rather than brownies. It's not really convenient to give someone a third of a cake (uniced), so I had nothing.

Didn't really matter since none of the 3 ladies I needed to return things to were at church yesterday. I suppose I could look at this as an opportunity for a brownie do-over.

The point is, I have had a big chocolate cake sitting on my kitchen island since Saturday afternoon. As I've been running around, up and down stairs, throwing away trash, gardening, etc., I've stopped periodically and grabbed a couple bites of cake.

Today I have a total chocolate cake hangover. I feel exhausted and headachey. I felt it yesterday when I had a piece of cake after lunch. First, I felt that buzz (literally, feels like something under my skin is buzzing) from the sugar. Then about a half hour later I completely crashed and fell asleep right there on the couch while watching TV. I wasn't tired at all when I originally sat down with my lunch.

Tonight when I get home from work the rest of that chocolate cake is going in the trash.

English Breakfast...

...is great for low-carbing.




So long as you don't overindulge in the Continental Breakfast options around the corner.

Or the readily available English chocolate.

England!

I wrote a bit about last week's choir tour in England on my other blog. It was pretty amazing actually. Here are a few pictures:

Confession

I feel so bad. I broke Jason's Fitbit!

Saturday, I did a bunch of laundry and I grabbed his pajama pants off the bed because he has a tendency to let them get - how shall I say this delicately? - stinky before washing them. Or before I demand he let me wash them. They're his favorite fleece pants that his aunt made into fleece cargo pants with pockets all over them. The man loves his cargo pants.

Later in the day we were driving somewhere and he mentioned he forgot to put his Fitbit on that morning.

I didn't put the two together until later that night when he asked, "Where are my fleece pants?" and then informed me that his Fitbit was in one of the pockets. I always, always check the pockets of his pants and shorts before I wash them, but it never occurred to me to check his pajama pockets.

I RAN down to the basement and pulled out all the clothes before finding his sad, damp Fitbit at the very bottom of the washing machine.

But wait! It worked!

Only then it stopped working.

I read on the Fitbit community pages how other people have saved theirs after laundering by letting them sit in something that absorbs water (like rice) so it's been sitting in a tupperware of special crystal absorbant kitty litter (CLEAN kitty litter) for the past few days. Last night, Jason tried it and it was still dead.

He is obviously so disappointed, but trying to be nice to me about it. I keep telling him not to worry because I'm going to buy him a new one. He says that's not necessary, but whatever. What's the point of having the Number 1 active score if you can't beat your husband's active score, in addition to the score of other friends and acquaintances? I have to have someone to lord it over at home.

(Our friend Deborah has now bumped me off the active score top spot again, but I'll be back!)

Challenge. Over!

Yesterday was Day 30 of my 30-Day Fitness Challenge and I only missed one day! That's right, at least 30 minutes of activity a day for 30 days. Well, 29 out of 30 days. I'm feeling okay about missing that one day since I was super sore and figured I needed to give my muscles a break.

I'm proud of myself for sticking to it. I'm flattered and excited by how many people have told me I've motivated them.

Yet, there's the disappointment of knowing I haven't lost any weight... In fact, I gained 1.2 pounds in the past 30 days. BUT, I might have lost a few inches. Finally! Actual movement! In a downward direction!

I lost about half an inch off my waist (for reals, not just me pulling the tape tight) and maybe a quarter inch off my hips (my birthing hips are always latecomers to this fat loss thing). Not major, but improvement. My thighs and calves are also definitely smaller.

Oh my gosh, though, if the loss if going to be this slow...The thought is exhausting. I'm hoping that this is actually just the beginning of a positive trend that will get faster the longer I do it.

On the positive side, in this past month, I've gotten stronger, I'm swimming faster and my resting heart rate has probably decreased by a couple of beats per minute.

We're going on a trip in a few days and when I get back I want to start another challenge, but I'm not sure what that challenge will be yet. Someone suggested P90X, but I think the plyometric cardio may be a bit rough on my heel. Maybe I'll focus more tightly on my diet this time. Any ideas?

Anyway, I'm just going to enjoy our trip and not think about this for a week and a half.

Thinking...

I've never actually engaged in disordered eating behavior, but that doesn't mean that my mind has never flirted with the idea. I've been known to think about ways I could severely restrict food and speed up my weight loss, even though in the smart part of my brain I know that's not how it really works. I would make a plan like, OK, tomorrow, I'm just going to eat this little bit and that's IT. Or, tomorrow, I'm not going to eat all day, and then just have a little dinner.

Then I would forget all about it and never do it. Which is obviously for the best.

Yesterday afternoon, I found myself thinking this way again. With as much knowledge as I have gleaned about how metabolism works and knowing that I don't want to completely shut mine down, I think, well maybe if I just really didn't eat hardly anything, eventually I would HAVE to lose weight.

I know it's messed up and while I wish I could just be this pillar of strength and right thinking all the time, this stall in my weight loss has really, REALLY got me down. I don't want to be skinny, I just want to be normal. And not even normal on the BMI, but normal for me (which is still well into "overweight" for BMI, but I don't believe in BMI). I want to feel comfortable in my own skin and not feel like a sausage in my jeans (that were kind of loose at one point!). I want to look at pictures of myself again and not cringe.

I've talked with 2 medical professionals about this in the past couple of weeks, not as my main reason for seeing them, but as a side note. I got my thyroid checked and that's not the problem. Both of them asked if I want to see a nutritionist.

First, I know the nutritionist will spout the standard low-fat, whole grains things, which I don't believe in anyway. The only time I've managed to lose weight over the past couple of years is when I've limited carbs. Plus, I just feel better without all the carbs. On Friday I went to a work lunch and the ONLY thing they had was sandwiches. Not even a side salad. I ate some of a roll, but pulled the meat out of the rest of it. Just that part of a roll had me completely falling asleep at my desk a little while later. I haven't experienced the mid-afternoon crash like that in ages.

Second, I just have to laugh because nutrition has kind of become my hobby and I've read all different viewpoints ad nauseum. Maybe they don't believe me because to them I am just this overweight (nay, obese, says the almighty BMI) girl and so I OBVIOUSLY don't know what I'm doing at all.

Third, I record my food and my exercise pretty religiously because I like numbers. I've been doing this fairly consistently for a few years now. I know how many calories I eat. I know how many calories I expend. So do Sparkpeople and Fitbit. That's not the problem.

When I told Jason that my thyroid was normal he said "Well, that's good." Yeah, it's good I don't have a medical problem. But it just means that right now I don't have an answer either.

Test Results

Thyroid is normal. So that's not the problem. And at least now when people suggest it, I can say, "I just had it tested. That's not the problem."

Even amid my frustration, I'm continually flattered by the number of people who have asked about my 30-Day Challenge updates that I post on Facebook, and those who have told me that I have inspired them.

Good News and Bad News

Bad News: Last night after shredding, I felt a new, stabbing pain in my heel. Neat. I think I need to lay off the cardio portion of the 30-Day Shred, which generally involves lots of bouncing on your feet. Maybe I can just do the weight and abs sections of all 3 workout levels at once and count that as my strength training. Today I'm totally limping around which, you know, is awesome.

Good News: Generally when I ease up on my heel during the day, wear my splint at night, and ice my heel in the evenings, it actually seems to improve. I guess I just need to let it improve, and not be so impatient. Since I sit for most of the day, I brought my splint to work and am wearing it while I'm seated. Maybe if I keep my foot in the right position for longer, those fascia will get a chance to heal.

Bad News: Today is Day 25 of my challenge and I decided to measure myself. Not officially - that will come after the challenge - but just to see if maybe there was some improvement there since the scale obviously isn't going down. The verdict: nope. Well, I might have lost a quarter inch in my waist, but I also might have just been pulling the tape tight. My calves are a tad smaller, and that's one measurement I can't fake because they are solid rocks and there's no pulling the tape tight on those. (They are also the reason I can't wear knee-high boots.) But the hips, the arms, the thighs, are all exactly what they were 25 days ago when I started this challenge. Frustrating!

Good News: I rocked my swim this morning. On Tuesday, a lady in my Masters group asked if I wanted to meet up to swim our emailed workout together. We got together this morning and discovered that she has been doing the D-level workouts, while I've been doing the C-level workout. She decided to challenge herself and do the C workout with me, and she couldn't stop gushing (to me and to one of her buddies in the locker room) about what a great workout it was and how I pushed her because I'm such a good swimmer. The thing is, she pushed me too in a way. For instance, we swam a 400 right in the middle of the set, and once I set the pace and realized she was right there with me, I felt pressured (in a good way) to keep up the pace.

So when the scale and the measuring tape aren't improving, at least I know someone thinks I'm an awesome swimmer. That was a nice ego boost.

Weight

I just went to the doctor about something unrelated to my weight. They weighed me of course, and I'm 6 pounds heavier than the last time I was there.

So while I was there, I had blood drawn to get my thyroid checked. The thing is, I don't really think I have any of the other symptoms for hypothyroid. But if there isn't a problem, that's one thing I can check off the list.

I'm just feeling so defeated by my body at this point. I feel stronger, and I know I'm in good shape. I just have 40 extra pounds hanging on. Yeah, it's up to 40 now.

On the other hand, my bp is 116/68 and my resting heart rate is 54 bpm.

Day 21: Rest Day

Today I cried uncle. I worked too hard over the last couple of days and my body was just begging for rest today.

Friday after work I did Jillian Michaels's 30-Day Shred (or "shredded". I like that use of the verb). I forgot how much that DVD makes me a sweaty beast! Not only that, but it works some muscles like nothing else does.

Saturday morning I got up and swam for an hour. I modified my Masters workout a bit so that I did fewer drills and more timed intervals, including several 25 sprints, which I did in a satisfying 18 seconds. I felt great afterward.

Then Saturday afternoon we went to help a friend move from one 2-story apartment to another 2-story apartment. I begged off lifting some of the super-heavy stuff, but I definitely worked hard. Then I came home and cooked two huge pans of a Mexican casserole and no-bake cookies for a church fundraiser this morning. We hosted a lunch to raise money to pay for the teenage girls I work with to go to girls' camp at the end of July.

I woke up this morning aching EVERYwhere. My legs especially, but my back and arms hurt too. But we had a fundraiser to do! So I popped some ibuprofen and left for church, loaded down with food, and tulips for centerpieces.

Of course, nothing can go normally at our church. The hot water heater sprung a leak. So the bishop cut church short by an hour and we hurriedly heated up all the food and set up all the tables and were ready to go by noon. It was a success!

I got home a bit after 2, with the thought of going for a 30-minute walk, since my soreness had faded a bit thanks to ibuprofen and adrenalin. Only it was raining.

So I waited. But once I sat down for a half hour, I realized, hey, I'm sore.

I'm really sore.

I think I need to give my body a break.

So I have, and even though I'm feeling kind of bad about not perfectly finishing my 30-Day Challenge, I think it was the right choice.

Tomorrow, it's back to work, both real work and exercise.

Carb Creep

Sometimes I feel really frustrated. I hate that I can't seem to lose weight anymore. I'm frustrated by the pain in my heel (and the horror stories I hear from friends who suffer from plantar fasciitis. Wearing shoes in the shower! No more flip flops ever!)

Today is Day 19 of the Fitness Challenge and I haven't missed a day yet, despite having to replan my workouts when I overslept 2 days this week, including this morning.

Actually, that's not quite true. This morning I was just exhausted and made the executive decision to not go swimming. Instead I'm going to do Jillian Michaels's 30-Day Shred when I get home. I sort of forgot I owned that DVD until my friend Donna reminded me about it yesterday. I'll see how Jillian's jumping up and down cardio movements affect my heel. If it hurts too much, I'll just do the rest of the workout without the cardio, and maybe do it twice.

It's beautiful outside and I wish I could walk home, but I know that's just asking for trouble (and pain), so I won't.

I think part of my problem though is that even though I plan to eat low-carb, and I do eat lower carb than most people, I've allowed the simple carbs to creep back in. Brownie bites? Yes, please. Sugar cookies that I baked last night for a church activity tomorrow? Don't mind if I do. I'm logging them, I'm not ignoring them, but I'm still eating them.

So tomorrow I rededicate myself to getting the simple carbs out of my diet. I don't even know why I eat them. OK, I do love a good fudgey brownie, but I haven't had a really GOOD fudgey brownie in awhile. And I don't even really like sugar cookies. Seriously, if I'm going to have carbs, I'd rather it be in veggie form, like roasted broccoli or brussels sprouts (yes, I acknowledge I'm a weirdo).

Tomorrow, I swim and get back to eating the way that feels best!

New Tricks

Today is Day 12 of my 30-Day Fitness Challenge and I haven't missed a day yet! I'm determined to see this challenge through all 30 days, no matter what busy-ness or messed up schedules come my way.

For instance, I was supposed to wake up and go for a swim this morning. I printed out my workout and had everything ready to go, only I turned off my alarm in my sleep and woke up a half hour too late. I'm planning a lunch walk now (and it's gorgeous outside!), but am a little concerned that the wind will be flipping up my skirt. It is always so windy in Providence and I like flippy skirts. Bad combination.

I mentioned before how our Masters coach told me my elbows weren't high enough (well, me and my entire lane of 5 people). So I've been making a concerted effort to get my elbows high and to modify my stroke. I even went and watched some YouTube videos of some of my favorite Olympic swimmers and sure enough, they have the pointy elbows in freestyle.

So far I've noticed that I'm going the same speed (or faster), but not getting quite so tired. Part of that could be because I'm swimming more and getting into better shape, but I think part of it is not working so hard during my stroke recovery. It still feels kind of awkward, but is getting a little more natural. So exciting to learn something new after 28 years of swimming!

I'm also turning into a complete swimming nerd (Even more than I was before. I've only met one other person who likes watching Olympic swimming as much as I do and she's a swimmer too). A lady in my SparkPeople swimmers group linked to an article at active.com, and now I'm trying not to waste too much time clicking through all of the interesting swimming articles.

I Know I've Said This Before

I'm a little OCD about food and fitness numbers. During the week I record all my food. During the weekend I record most/some of my food because I'm not tied to a computer like I am during the week. However, I am always aware of what's going in my mouth even if I'm not sitting in front of the computer typing in what I ate.

I also meticulously record all my workouts because it's fun. I'm determined to beat my last SparkPeople streak of 12 days in a row of 30 minutes of exercise.

And like I've said before, I have determined that if calories in/calories out was really all there is to it, I would have lost these cruddy 30-40 pounds AGES ago.

According to the Fitbit charts (ooo, charts!), over the last 30 days alone, if you're talking about calorie deficits, I should have lost 8 pounds. There is something else at work here.

By the way, I have officially decided that if after this 30-Day Fitness Challenge and eating low-carb within my supposed calorie range I still haven't lost any weight (or significant inches), I'm getting my thyroid checked. Because, frankly, if in 21 days I'm still exactly where I was after busting my butt and being fairly meticulous with my eating (with a brownie bite here and there on a weekend), I am going to be really ticked.

Swoon

I admit it, I am completely caught up in all of the Royal Wedding nonsense. I scheduled my workout this morning so that I would be on the elliptical in time to watch most of the ceremony. Then I made sure to get to work in time to see the kiss(es!) on the Buckingham Palace balcony. Lovely!

Also, hilarious:


However, my left heel is not pleased with me today. Yesterday, I walked home from work (and arrived home a sweaty mess. The humidity is back!). Today I ellipticaled for 40 minutes. Now I'm at work, with my sneakers on since it's Casual Friday, and my foot hurts like crazy. I don't even have to step on it, just the slight pressure of the shoe on my heel whenever I move my foot is causing me to wince every few minutes.

After the rain and gloom of yesterday, today it's sunny and beautiful and I would love to walk home, but I won't. Instead, I'll take the bus and ice my heel when I get home.

The whole heel thing is getting really annoying.

Strong

I think swimming is making me stronger. I decided to head to the gym this morning for some strength training. For the past several weeks, I've been using my own little weights and body weight exercises at home for strength. Which are good and make me sore (see, sumo squats), but I wanted to try some heavier lifting this morning.

Well, turns out I'm lifting heavier than I was just a month and a half or so ago. I was able to increase the weight on most of the machines and was able to do more reps. I particularly noticed it on the shoulder press. Just a few weeks ago, my shoulders were weak and I couldn't do 3 sets of 10 on the lowest weight. I was lucky if I got 3 sets of 7 or 8. Today I upped the weight and did 2 sets of 10 and 1 of 8 before I hit failure. So pleased!

Day 3: 25 minutes strength training, 12 minutes elliptical.

New 30-Day Fitness Challenge!

Yesterday I started the second 30-Day Fitness Challenge. I'm excited because several of my Facebook friends (and one SparkPeople friend) have said they are going to join in. I suppose if I can't find a gym buddy, having a few virtual gym buddies is the next best thing.

Day 1: 45 minute swim
Day 2: 60 minute swim (Masters)

Today's Masters swim was definitely challenging. We got to swim a tiny bit of butterfly(yay!), backstroke(yay!) and breaststroke (bleh!). I have never been able to do breaststroke. I always feel like I'm not going anywhere in the water and I find it really boring. I used to race butterfly way, way back in the day, and it would be awesome to be able to do a 50 again without feeling like I'm going to die at the end.

Today I learned that my elbows are too low when I do freestyle. At least I'm not alone - my whole lane had the problem. Our coach called us the low-elbows lane. She showed us how to tweak our stroke a bit and I think it's a good fix for me. One of my problems has always been that when I swim too much, my shoulders ache a lot (especially my right shoulder). I think my low-elbow stroke was putting too much strain on my shoulders. When I modify my stroke and get my elbows higher, I can immediately feel the strain easing off of my shoulders.

Right now I feel totally awkward with the high elbows, but if it winds up improving my technique and my ability to swim longer, fabulous!

This is the benefit of having a coach!

Splint

Check out this bad boy:

Yesterday morning I woke up and my heel was absolutely killing me. I've been complaining about my heel hurting for a few weeks now and I figured it was about time to do something about it. Also, my arch was starting to hurt too and I figured the longer I wait, the more messed up my foot will get.

So I did some research and discovered there are such things as night splints for plantar fasciitis. They hold the foot in a flexed position so that the muscles and ligaments stay stretched and have an opportunity to heal.

After work, I walked over to CVS and found one. Last night I wore it and this morning I stepped out of bed and onto my left heel with no pain for the first time in weeks. Amazing!

Now that I've been up for a few hours, swimming and walking around, my heel is just starting to hurt again. I'm hoping after a couple weeks of wearing the splint every night maybe I'll be able to walk like a normal person again.

The Next 30 Days

Surprise, surprise! I'm doing my 30-Day Fitness Challenge again. Day 1 is Monday and I've managed to get several Facebook friends to say they'll join me.

Even though I'm not officially challenged, I had a good 50-minute swim today. One of the ladies in the A group from Masters showed up to do her weekly workout and while I did some kicking laps, I watched her in awe. Even when she's doing drills, she manages to power through the water. Drills slow me down until I'm going about half my usual speed. I think I concentrate too hard on what each arm is doing and forget about actually moving forward.

For instance, Fingertip Drag drill:
Right arm: raise arm out of water, making sure elbow is pointing up while dragging tips of fingers along top of water. Finish stroke and stretch right arm out front with left arm.

Pause.

Pause.

Oh, right.

Left arm: raise arm out of water, making sure elbow is pointing up while dragging tips of fingers along top of water...

Etc.

During this 30-Day Challenge, I'm making a deal with myself that I will not weigh or measure myself at all because, frankly, it's depressing and totally throws me off my game. I've been feeling pretty awesome about myself since I started swimming and purposefully waited a couple weeks into this new routine before I weighed myself.

Well, I stepped on the scale yesterday thinking, surely after my workouts and dedication and eating healthy I have lost a couple of pounds.

Nope.

And then I downward spiraled into a funk and had a really hard time pulling myself out of bed this morning because all I could think was, What's the point?

The POINT is that I feel awesome. OK, maybe my clothes are tighter than I want and I'm not thrilled with how my body looks right now, but when I get in the pool and swim 100 laps I feel tough and strong and I love it. So for the 30 days of this challenge, I'm not going to let the scale burst my bubble of awesomeness.

30-Day Challenge Recap

Today is Day 30 of my 30 minutes of activity for 30 days challenge. First of all, these 30 days have flown by. Day 1 was Tuesday, March 22 and here we are almost at the end of April.

(I'm kind of ignoring the fact that I have a presentation coming up that I need to submit materials and slides for by May 23. In denial.)

So I've been doing regular updates on Facebook about my activity, and I'm glad I did because it's so easy to go back and look at what I accomplished. I did 30 minutes of activity for days 1 through 12, then was sidelined on days 13 and 14 with what I'm assuming is plantar fasciitis.

Day 15 was my first foray back into swimming in about 10 months.

Day 16, I tried another lunch walk and discovered that walking was really painful. Sigh. Time to lay off the walks.

Days 18 and 20 were busy and resulted in me cramming in 30-40 minutes of cumulative walking. I'll count it for this challenge, but probably not for the next one.

Day 24 I bowed out due to extreme soreness from strength training.

So, wow, looking back, I only really missed 3 days. I'm kind of amazed by that. Challenging myself has been a great motivator. I had to consciously think about when I was going to get in my activity for the day because it wasn't negotiable.

The one negative part of this challenge has been my heel injury. Since it started hurting, I've still managed a couple more walks, but I've paid for them with a lot of pain at night resulting in me hobbling around the house. I ice my heel most evenings after work, but it doesn't seem to be getting better. It's also really frustrating because the weather is getting nice and I would love to be taking lunch walks, in addition to my morning swims.

I think the biggest positive thing I've noticed since I started swimming a couple of weeks ago is that it's so much easier to wake up in the morning. I was whining and complaining early in the challenge about being relegated to lunch walks because I could NOT get up in the morning. It's amazing how paying for Masters swimming will get me up in the morning. Also, now that I have the swimming bug again, I'm excited about my workouts. So now that I've been exercising for reals for a couple of weeks, I need less sleep and I'm waking up earlier. Nice!

Yogging?

Today, Jason went jogging for the first time in awhile. (As he likes to say, he ran a 5K last May, and retired undefeated.) I really like it when he's active too because he motivates me. I've always been the one who works out, so how much of a loser am I if I don't get in a workout, and then he emails me crowing about running 3 miles?

(Did I mention swimming brings out my competitive side?)

We had a busy Saturday so I was up bright and early to swim for 55 minutes. Yesterday I got in a 30-minute strength training session (sumo squats, we meet again), and this morning I swam for 45 minutes.

My 30 Day Fitness Challenge ends on Thursday, and I solicited feedback on Facebook as to whether I should do it again. One friend suggested I just make it a 60 Day Challenge now, but I would really like to get in a perfect 30 days so I'm going to shoot for that. I'll give a final report about this challenge on Thursday, then Friday is Day 1 of the next challenge. Feel free to join in!

Soreness

Have you ever done sumo squats? I think I need to do those on a regular basis because there may be no better way to tone up my inner thigh muscles. I woke up yesterday morning with amazingly sore inner thighs. That makes for some interesting walking. And sitting down. Did you know you extensively use your inner thigh muscles to sit down? So I didn't work out yesterday because walking was kind of a struggle.

This morning, I argued with myself for about 10 minutes, then finally got up and went for a swim. I'm so glad I did. I'm still sore from the squats (and the dumbbell flys), but it became more bearable after swimming a few laps, and I think it was good to stretch out my muscles a bit.

The Y's triathlon team still had their workout written on the white board at one end of the pool, so I decided to do it (though I had to cut it short a bit since I ran out of time). I warmed up and then did:

100 (R :15)
200 (R :20)
300 (R :30)
400 (R :40)
300 (R: 30)
200 (R :20)
100

Only, I actually ended after the second 300, and did the last 12 laps as a cooldown combo with kicking and swimming. All told, I did 88 laps, or 2200 yards in 45 minutes, which I'm happy with considering both my warm-up and cooldown included some kicking.

Not-So-Low-Carb

The last, oh, 18 hours haven't been so great on the low-carb front. Last night I met a friend for a movie and got myself a tub of popcorn. That wasn't quite my intention when we decided to go, it's just I met her right after work and didn't plan well AT ALL. If I had, I would have brought some nuts or cheese or something to hold me until I got home and could have another snack. Instead, I showed up at the theater famished with nothing to choose from except popcorn and candy.

However, I would like to note that my net carbs yesterday were still 67 g, meaning that up until the popcorn, I was doing stellar.

Today it's raining and we got pizza for the office. This is actually special fancy pizza with a yummy multi-grain crust and organic, local ingredients. So not the worst thing in the world, but still full of carbs and grains.

We used to get pizza almost every time there was a really crummy rainy day (like today), but I've been deflecting our assistant's pizza proposals for weeks now. I think this is probably the 4th or 5th time she's recently suggested it and I felt kind of mean saying "no" again. Also, it sounded good.

Oh well. I can live with it. Though I'm already feeling that carbalicious mid-afternoon slump kicking in. My eyes are droopy and my head is foggy.

As for exercise, this is Day 23 of my Challenge and I got in my 30 minutes first thing with some strength training, which I've been intending to add back to my routine. The other day I was reminded that strength training is so important to muscle gain and weight loss. See, my weight was at a pretty good place when we went to Hawaii with Jason's family in April 2010, and I found myself wondering what exactly I was doing with my workouts and food a year ago.

Since I've been (obsessively) charting my calories and workouts for a few years now, I could go back to March and April of 2010 on SparkPeople and see what I was doing. The joys of SparkPeople! If you too love numbers and stats and charts created with those numbers and stats, then SparkPeople is for you. (Tell them Kellyim referred you)

First, my workouts. For one, I was swimming pretty regularly (that always seems to be key for me). Also, I was doing a bit of elliptical now and then, walking often (darn this left heel!) and strength training at least twice a week.

As for food, I was doing pretty much what I'm doing right now - eating whole foods, restricting grains and sugar, eating around 50-75 g net carbs per day.

I hadn't hit my arbitrary self-imposed goal weight a year ago, but I remember feeling pretty good and having a lot of energy. So it's nice to have that validation that my instincts are right and I'm back to doing what I know works for me.