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.

Masters Morning

This morning was the 2nd Masters swimming workout. There were actually probably 6 fewer people than at the last workout, which meant the lanes weren't quite so crowded. Also, the coach didn't make us get in the assigned lanes this week, so I wound up swimming with the same people as last week, which worked fine (though I still think that one girl should be bumped up to the B level. She was on my heels the entire time. Meanwhile I was keeping pace with the other people in the lane.)

I wish I didn't have to jump out of the pool right at 7:30 to get ready for work because today wasn't much of a workout. We just did a ton of drill 50s. All sorts of drills.

The thing about drills are, they kind of make you feel like a total goober. Yes, thank you, I KNOW I'm not supposed to slap the water with my open palm, or radically rotate my hips every time I take a stroke. It's a drill. I was fine today when everyone was doing all the crazy body contortions, but I admit to feeling a little self-conscious on Saturday morning when I was doing the drills on my own.

It's interesting how swimming theory has changed since I learned how to swim in the early 80s. Not that it's changed that much, but enough that I'm modifying my stroke a bit and really concentrating on making my technique better. Which is exactly why I joined Masters, so hooray for getting my money's worth.

I predict I will be an even bigger swimming nerd when the next Summer Olympics roll around, scrutinizing everyone's technique and such.

Level D? Psssh!

Saturday morning I went to the pool to do the workout the Masters coach emailed us. I took the Level C workout with me, and I did it! It was challenging, for sure, but I did it. I love having the planned workouts to do because they definitely push me harder than I would push myself.

Yesterday was an inactive day, sadly, though I suppose I did walk about a half hour downtown with Jason. Today I was going to go to the gym, but didn't wake up in time again. Monday mornings are always rough for me (because I'm such a hard partier, apparently). Since I don't have anything planned for dinner, after work I'm going to walk to Whole Foods, pick up some hot bar for our dinner, then walk up to the bus stop. That should take at least 30 minutes. Not ideal for my heels, but I can't stop living, right?

I wondered aloud to Jason yesterday how my heels are supposed to heal when I still have to, you know, walk. OK, maybe I can stop with the official "taking walks" so much, but I still have to walk during my day. Anyone with plantar fasciitis who can tell me how long it takes for the heels to stop hurting?

Day 18: Inadvertent Rest Day

So I didn't actually plan for exercise today because I knew it was going to be a busy day. Early morning meeting in Boston, followed by a full day of work, followed by a Providence Bruins hockey game.

Note: It's kind of awesome living in the town that feeds into the major sports team town. We can go see the Pawtucket Red Sox or the Providence Bruins for a fraction of what it costs to go see those other Red Sox and Bruins.

Anyway, the day started out amazingly when I woke up 20 minutes before the train to Boston left Providence. And it takes 15 minutes to get to the station. So I wound up driving up to Boston and spending about 3 hours in traffic today. Drag.

I suppose I can count the walk from work to the hockey game and back. It takes about 15 minutes each way. 15 + 15 = 30, right? So there's my 30 minutes of activity, no matter how lame.

Sadly, it was enough to make my heel ache a lot, despite making sure to wear good supportive shoes. I'm following coolrunning.com's advice and icing it right now.

Until this heals I think I need one of those hover loungers like in Wall-E to cart me around, with periodic drop-offs at the pool.

Oo, Le Creuset!

Anne Marie, aka Cheeseslave, is giving away a Le Creuset baking dish this month. So I'm entering to win (and so can you, though I want to win. Just saying.)

Swimming and Feet

Went for my swim this morning and got 4 more lengths in my 20-minute trial than I did on Tuesday. Still not nearly as fast as I want to be, but solidly in the C range. So at least I proved that to myself, which makes me feel better.

Still shooting for A, though.

My triceps are screaming at me to cut it out. Sorry, triceps, you will be defined again! Swimming gives me a muscular upper back and totally cut triceps. Looking forward to getting those back.

I am not loving my sore left heel today. I paid for yesterday's lunch walk this morning when I got out of bed and stepped on my left foot. It's even a bit achy as I'm just sitting here at my desk typing, not putting any weight on it at all. I guess I won't be getting 10,000 steps per day again for at least a week while I let my foot rest for a bit.

Of course, today it's lovely and warm and sunny outside and a perfect day for a lunch walk.

You know what sunny days like this make me wish we had in New England? Outdoor pools. I think that's what I miss most about Tucson.

Oh, and my relatives.

And Mexican food.

D?!

Our coach sent out the weekly workouts yesterday afternoon with our official lane assignment for the upcoming practices. I got bumped down to Level D! I was fuming to Jason about it last night and he said I need to stop being so polite with the other people in the lane and not let them pass or slow down so that I don't pass them. He may be right.

I looked at the workouts and the D one is SO SLOW. I use the clock a lot when I'm doing my own workouts, so I know my speeds and I definitely don't need intervals of 2 minutes and 20 seconds for 100s. I'm going to do the C workout this week, and tomorrow morning I'm going to do that 20-minute swim on my own so I know my real pacing.

I was also kind of surprised that the coach bumped this other new girl down into D with me. Honestly, if anything, I thought she should have been moved up to B. I guess she and I will be frustrated in the D lane together.

Of course, it may be more about numbers. There are only 5 lanes and 25 people to spread out over those 5 lanes.

Yesterday was long and late so I didn't get up for my swim this morning. Now, I wish I had. I'm a little antsy and I'm craving a nice swim. One day and I'm already addicted to the endorphins. I get a nice buzz when I swim that I just don't get with most other activities. The only other thing that is a guaranteed shot of endorphins for me is doing HIIT on the elliptical. But swimming is more fun, and less disgustingly sweaty.

Masters Swimming

This morning was my first Masters swimming workout. First of all, why do I always forget how great swimming makes me feel? Seriously, I think I've made that comment no less than 5 times on this blog, yet it always feels like a new revelation every time. Just 40 minutes of swimming gives me such a great endorphin buzz.

I can already tell that having a coach and swimming with other people at about my same level (and better) is going to push me much harder than I would push myself. We practice as a group on Tuesday mornings for an hour, then during the week our coach sends us a workout to print out and do on our own time, based on our skill level.

We did a 20-minute swim this morning so the coach could get an idea of our pacing and place us in the appropriate level. I think my result was a little skewed, since there were 5 people in my lane and I stopped a couple of times because either someone needed to pass me, or I needed to wait a few seconds so that I wasn't on someone's heels the entire length of the pool. I'm going to do another 20-minute swim myself either tomorrow or Thursday morning so that I get a real idea of my pace, without any interruptions.

The workouts are for Level A through Level E, with A being the fastest. Right now I'm in Level C, which I think isn't so bad considering I haven't even been in the pool for about 9 months (or more). Our coach sends all the workouts to everyone, so if I want to push myself, I can try a B or an A workout during the week. Which I already know I'm totally going to do. The competitive swimmer in me wants to be in the A group!

In most aspects of life, I'm not really that competitive. I mean, I like to win as much as the next person, but I'm ok with not being the best of the best. Usually. The difference is, I know I'm a good swimmer. I know this is something I can do well, so I actually do want to be the best. I'm not saying I'll get there, but I'm definitely going to push myself.

Injured. Again.

Every time I start running again, I get injured. Every. Single. Time.

This is just getting annoying. It's not like I'm doing excessive amounts of training here. All I'm doing is going for walks every day, peppered with an occasional jog totaling about 8 minutes of running. I'm not training for some long-distance race. I'm not even breaking a sweat most days when I'm out for my walks.

And still I manage to get injured.

So. Frustrating!

It's always different, though. First it was my ankles. Then my IT band. This time I'm about 99.9% sure I have plantar fasciitis. I've had pain since I did my first jog a couple weeks ago, but after yesterday's jog it's just excruciating. I'm hobbling so much that Jason (who HATES doctors) is saying maybe I should go to the doctor.

So let's look at the symptoms, courtesy of coolrunning.com (the people who gave you the Couch to 5K program):

1. This is among the most common of foot injuries and is signaled by pain on the front of the heel or all along the arch.
Not so much the arch, but my left heel sure hurts a lot.

2. You probably have a lot of pain when you first get out of bed -- it's probably murder just to walk out of your bedroom.
Check.

3. Ditto on standing up after a long time of being seated.
Double check.

4. To make sure it's plantar fasciitis, as opposed to a heel spur (see below), press your thumb up hard on the middle of your heel. If you feel pain, it's plantar fasciitis.
Ow!

Likely Causes:
"In the ideal foot with the ideal stride, your weight during your stride rolls efficiently from your heel, through your arch, and off of the ball of your foot. The arch flattens a little bit to absorb your weight and then springs back. Plantar fasciitis is the all too common result of your weight moving improperly through your arch so that it is overstretched. In more extreme cases, the arch loses its flexibility altogether so that it no longer springs back.
Considering I have the flattest feet on the planet, I'm thinking this might be my problem.

The injury is aggravated, like most injuries, by running too much.
"Too much" in my case apparently means once. For 8 minutes.

Remedies:
First, ease off on the miles and cut out the hills and speedwork.
Of course, it makes you feel like less of a total running loser if you're actually doing miles and hills and speedwork to begin with. I am a total running loser.

Give it ice immediately after running -- ten minutes on ice, ten minutes off, and repeat. Take anti-inflammatories to reduce the swelling.
Noted. Hello, ibuprofen!

For that early-morning pain, avoid getting out of bed barefoot. Put on some thick socks or slippers first.
Yes, I've found stepping immediately into my squishy shearling slippers helps me not to collapse when I step on my left heel first thing in the morning.

I think I may just need to accept the fact that my body does NOT want me to be a runner. Or even an excessive walker. Maybe it's time to concentrate on that strength training...

Challenges

The last time I updated my fitness challenge on here was on Day 6. Today is Day 12 and I'm still plugging along, and haven't missed a day yet (though I had a couple of close calls). Here's my report:

Day 7: 45-minute lunch walk
Day 8: 50-minute lunch walk
Day 9: 30-minute walk (busy day at work with a lunch meeting, but I managed to sneak out for a bit mid-afternoon)
Day 10: 35-minute walk partway home in the freezing rain as the Nor'easter rolled in.
Day 11: 3-mile walk home from work

Today (ie, Day 12) I talked Jason into doing a walk/jog with me down the path this morning. It's so nice to have someone to go with, though I know my short stubby legs are holding him back. He's very sweet to run with me. He also pushed me to do 3 extra minutes of running, which was great.

Well, the running wasn't great, but the fact that we did it was. The running kind of sucked, if I'm going to be honest.

Anyway, I'm almost halfway through the fitness challenge and I'm going strong. The extra hours of daylight over the last couple of weeks have definitely helped. This coming week is the week I need to step it up a notch. Masters swimming starts Tuesday, and I'm going to make a better effort to get up in the mornings and go for a run, or do some strength training. I may still go for a lunch walk most days, but I think that needs to be on the side, rather than being my main exercise.

As for the low-carb, I've been fudging a bit here and there. For instance, I bought some Newman's dark chocolate caramel cups and I allowed myself to eat them over three days this week (there are 3 caramel cups per package). We're going over to some friends' house tonight where the husband, who is from Spain, is making us paella. Yum! I'm not turning that down, despite the carbs.

I definitely think I'm sticking to a good 80/20 balance, like Mark at Mark's Daily Apple espouses. Basically the idea is to eat on plan (whatever your plan is) 80% of the time, allowing for some fudging the other 20%. Sounds reasonable, right? I think I could even claim 85/15 for this month, honestly and I'm pleased with that.

Swim

I think it's about time for me to swim again. Jason and I know a guy in Cambridge who swims with a Masters team up there. He was talking about his latest meet on Facebook, and I felt kind of jealous. I've thought about joining a Masters team for years, but never really looked into it too seriously. And when I did it seemed like practices were a bit too far away and at somewhat inconvenient times.

That is until I went online a couple of weeks ago and discovered that they just started a Masters swimming program at my Y. I noticed they only practice 1 day a week for now, and I thought to myself, "I could totally do 1 day a week." Even if it's a total butt-kicking (which it probably will be), I can do 1 day a week of anything.

So starting next Tuesday, I'm doing Masters swimming! I'm excited (and a little intimidated).

Jason tells me he'll go to all my meets (when/if I actually start competing). He's so supportive.

I Heart Sun!

For the past two weeks it has been pretty gloomy around here, but the last couple of days have been full of lovely sunshine. And wind. Providence isn't allowed to have sunshine without wind, it seems. I will find that much more obnoxious when it gets warmer and I'm trying to wear flippy skirts without the benefit of a heavy winter coat weighing them down.

This weekend I went on a couple of long walks on the path near my house. I'm so glad I started this challenge because otherwise I would have sat on my bum watching Firefly all of yesterday afternoon. Jason was gone and I wanted something fun to watch. I forgot how engrossing that show is. I watched the pilot, then dragged myself off the couch and headed to the path.

When I got home, I did some cleaning and planted some tulip bulbs. They actually wintered in our garage, instead of in the ground, but I planted them in some pots yesterday and am hoping maybe they might come up. If not, I'll just dig them up and plant them in the yard next Fall.

I'm really excited because all of the seeds I planted a few weeks ago have sprouted. This year I'm growing zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and peas. I also started some sage. My rosemary plant is looking a little sad so as soon as it's warm enough, I'll be putting it outside to soak in the sun. Even though I have it in a sunny spot inside, it's still too cold in the house for the rosemary to do well (as we keep the thermostat low in an effort to not go completely broke over heating costs).

Days 1-4: Success

I've been bad about keeping up on here, but suffice it to say, I have rocked the first 4 days of my challenge. Well, "rocked" might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but I've fulfilled the challenges I set for myself.

30 Days of Low-Carb
Day 1: 52 g net carbs
Day 2: 67 g net carbs
Day 3: 58 g net carbs
Day 4: Still eating, but since I only have 14 g net carbs right now (post-lunch), I figure unless I go crazy tonight, my carbs will be pretty low

30 Days of 30 Minutes of Activity
Day 1: 45 minute lunch walk
Day 2: 60 minute lunch walk
Day 3: 45 minute lunch walk
Day 4: 50 minute lunch walk + I'll probably walk the 3 miles home from work.

What's with the lunch walks, you might ask? Well, I've been feeling super sleepy in the mornings and getting up to go to the gym has felt impossible. Heck, getting up to arrive at work on time has been nothing short of miraculous. The whole theory behind this challenge is that something is better than nothing. So I'm doing something.

Day 1 Fail - Let's Try Again Tomorrow

So this morning didn't work out with the strength training class thing. I don't mean this to be a blog of excuses, but I was really, REALLY sore after my walk/jog on Saturday. By Saturday afternoon, my heels were killing me. Basically it felt like the bottoms of both of my heels (especially my left heel) were covered in bruises and every step was excruciatingly painful.

I swear, every time I start running, a different body part hurts. At least it keeps recovery interesting.

Today my heels feel a lot better, but my thighs and knees are sore. Plus, Jason's sister, who was in town this past week, left today and the three of us were up late last night. I still gamely set my alarm, thinking I could go for a walk, but I was so exhausted this morning that it didn't happen.

So, ok, I figured I could do a lunch walk. Only it's been snowing/sleeting/raining ALL DAY. Yeah, it was almost 70 and sunny on Friday.

Not fair, Providence. Not fair.

I've made the executive decision to postpone the fitness challenge start date to tomorrow. However, the food is going well today, so at least there's that.

In related news, my jeans are really tight. I hate it.

Spring In My Step

Rather than be lazy until I restart my challenge on Monday, I've decided to begin getting in the habit of being active every day. Yesterday I had an early morning meeting in Boston, and instead of taking the T from South Station after I got off the commuter rail, I walked the mile or so to the meeting, then back to the train station after the meeting. It's a nice way to get over my sleepy head from the hour-long train ride up from Providence.

This morning I got up early (well, early for a Saturday) and hit the trail near my house. I did the Week 1 workout for Couch to 5K down the trail, then briskly walked back. I honestly am not sure if I'm going to complete the whole Couch to 5K program (since I haven't managed to do it yet), but the first few weeks of workouts are actually a good way to get in some intervals. According to Fitbit, I wind up running at about 6 mph, so that's not too bad. And for how hard I'm breathing after each 1-minute jog, you would think I was doing sprints.

I came home to some happy purple crocuses in our front yard that someone planted who knows when. I love bulbs that come up every Spring!

Monday morning my plan is to head to the gym and take that strength training class that I took once a long, long time ago. It kicked my butt then, so I have a feeling I will be in a lot of pain come Tuesday. But I think I need someone telling me what to do, and a whole class full of peer pressure to really push myself with the strength training.

It's On!

Today it feels like Spring and I love it!

It also reminds me that Summer is around the corner and that I would really like to go to the beach with the Young Women (the teenage girls I work with at church) like I promised them and not feel so unbearably self-conscious about my thighs in my swimsuit. I accept that my thighs will always be big, but there is no reason to accept the amount of fat currently on them. I need to cut the carbs, cut the flour and sugar, and up my strength training. I need to get back into my workout routine pronto, and not half-a$$ it all like I've been doing for the past few months.

My cousin Amy reposted someone's great blog post today about being honest with yourself. It was a good thing for me to read today.

Monday I'm restarting my 30 Day Challenges. Actually, I'm planning to go to the gym on Saturday morning too, but I'll officially start Monday. (Can't go to the gym tomorrow morning because of an early-morning meeting in Boston.)

On Monday I will begin 30 days of:
- Low-carb: under 100 g net carbs per day, though shooting for between 50-75 g. NO white flour or sugar.
- 30 minutes of activity every day.

It's sunny, the days are longer, and I'm feeling pumped!

Sleepy

Yesterday I did my first active thing in a few weeks and I went for a 50-minute lunchtime walk. Even with that, I didn't quite hit 10,000 steps for the day. Hi, my job isn't just sedentary, it's SUPER sedentary!

I planned to get up this morning and had grand visions of a walk/jog down the path near my house. Only I could not get up. Starting last week, I have been completely unable to get up before 7 AM, even if I get to bed by 10:30 or 11. I have a very bad habit of hitting snooze in my sleep and not even realizing the alarm has gone off until after 3 or 4 10-minute snoozes. The days when the alarm actually wakes me up, it usually wind up ripping me from some intense dream and the grogginess makes it impossible to get up.

Usually I need less sleep and wake up more easily when I'm exercising regularly, but in order to exercise regularly, I have to actually wake up. Vicious circle.

I'm planning to go for a walk in a bit to run an errand if the rain will ever let up, so that will have to count as my activity for the day since I'm busy tonight.

Seriously, how does anyone work out regularly after work? I don't get out of the office until 6:30 or so, and then there is ALWAYS something going on in the evening. This is why if the workout doesn't happen in the morning (or on my lunch hour) it's not happening.

I Keep Getting Sidetracked

I am the queen of good intentions it seems, but then it all gets blown out of the water. I was merrily chugging along with my good eating and daily activity, then I got sick, which I wrote about. Cold + flu. Good times. I can't remember the last time I got the flu, but it knocked me out for that entire week.

Last week, my cousin George passed away. He was a year younger than me and though we weren't really close, I have a lot of childhood memories with him and his younger brother, Greg. We lived in the same town when we were very small, and our parents often tried to time our summer visits to the grandparents so that the three of us had some overlapping time. I learned during Greg's eulogy that the very first time I went to my grandpa's camp in the Everglades, was also their first trip there.

It was a tragic accident and very sad. Jason and I drove the 14 hours to Tennessee to be with my extended family and I am so very glad we did. I think it meant a lot to my aunt, my mom's little sister, and it was good to be with family. It was also good to be at the funeral, which made the whole thing more real. Though, I had one weird moment at my aunt's house when Greg walked up the stairs into the living room with Geoff, the other brother, behind him. For just a split second, I expected George to be there too. If I was having flashes like that after not seeing him for so long, I can't imagine how it must feel for those who were around him every day, especially his wife.

Of course, everything took a back seat to that and my food choices were completely out of whack. One thing I have to say for the South, folks take care of you when there's a tragedy.* My aunt and uncle's house, and George's house were overflowing with food from neighbors, friends and co-workers. So many people showed up to give their words of condolences and to just love my family. It was wonderful to see.

* To be fair, I've never experienced a tragedy in the North, so it might be just the same. But I love that Southern hospitality.

So now we're back and I'm trying to get on a good schedule again. This week has been (and continues to be) really busy with work, church and personal commitments. I've been getting to bed by 10:30 or 11, but sleeping solid through until 7 and feeling like I could use some more sleep. My eating is ok, not great, but not horrible either. I'm putting off restarting exercise until Monday.

I need to figure out a way to not get sidetracked when life happens. It's so easy to let my good habits fly out the window at any opportunity.

Monday, Monday

Boy, it is DREARY in Rhode Island today and I almost wiped out a couple of times this morning when I walked out of the house to a world glazed in ice. I'm feeling better and thought I might take a lunchtime walk, but the weather nixed that idea.

So, yeah, so much for my 30 Day Fitness Challenge. Getting sick right in the middle of the month put a big snag in my plans. I'm thinking about starting over again tomorrow for the month of March.

I also didn't keep up the low-carb very well over the past week and a half. OK, really, I didn't keep up the low carb AT ALL. Last Tuesday I probably ate (or kept down) about 300 calories, if that. Jason bought me some saltines on his way home from choir practice Tuesday night and I just ate those on Wednesday. The next couple of days, I kept the food bland and sparse because my stomach was still pretty wonky.

Then we had a crazy weekend of church activities. I spent all day Saturday shopping and cleaning in anticipation of having a bunch of girls at my house and feeding them. Saturday night we drove the youth up to Weston, MA for a meeting, then the girls came back to my house for a sleepover. Jason and I fell asleep at about 1:30 or 2, but the girls told me they stayed up until almost 4. The next morning, we were out the door by 8:15 to get everyone to a meeting in Groton, CT (I got muffins and fruit for everyone to eat on the way). There was much driving this weekend. Also, teenage girls are exhausting. And ours are actually pretty low-key.

We went to our bishop's house for a luncheon after the meeting and I was famished. His wife (hi, Deb!) knows I'm doing low-carb and made a comment to me about it, and I completely waved her off. I was famished by the time we arrived and while I could have munched some cold cuts, cheese and veggies, instead I ate a big sandwich plus dessert.

Jason and I got home yesterday afternoon and he immediately fell asleep. I made a valiant effort to watch a mystery I've had in the Netflix streaming queue for awhile, but only got about 15 minutes in before I was asleep too. We both woke up at about 7:30 and proceeded to eat leftover stew, watch the Oscars and play a board game. Oh, and I ate some Oreos that I had bought the girls.

I woke up this morning feeling like I could really use a weekend right about now. Today is a new dawn for my personal low-carb movement. I am convinced that my malaise is equal parts being sick, too many carbs, and not enough sleep. Tonight I am looking forward to getting to bed early.

Mental Health

I'm taking another day off of work today because as long as I'm sitting down, I'm ok, but I start feeling very woozy when I stand up and I didn't want to try to navigate the bus and the office feeling like this. The good news is, today I don't feel the need to sleep all day and I can actually concentrate enough to do some work. Yesterday was a lost day.

Speaking of lost days... On Sunday, Jason and I went over to the home of some friends of mine for a visit. They are in Virginia temporarily, preparing for a move to India, so while we were visiting one set of friends, I figured I should try to see this other set, since who knows when I'll have the chance to see them again. We spent a lot of time reminiscing about people we knew and things we did when we all lived in Chicago.

Only here's the thing - I don't remember a lot of it. Those 3 years in Chicago are a haze in large part. I remember some things, but other things are just a blank.

Same goes for the first year and a half of law school.

Midway through my 2nd year of law school, I started taking anti-depressants, and my world changed. Almost 2 weeks to the day after I started taking the pills, a switch clicked on in my brain and suddenly I was all there again. There's really no way to express how huge of a shift this was. After probably 5 years of living in a haze, the fog lifted. I understood what was going on. I actually felt happy. I was able to move on from a bad relationship.

I know that in large part Jason doesn't understand depression. I think he sees anti-depressants as a crutch, or, at best, a placebo. But every so often he gets a small view into what my world was like. Sunday night was one of those moments. He commented to me on the way home how weird it was that I didn't remember anything, and I told him that's what depression does. I was physically there, but mentally I was only partially there.

Part of the reason why I want to be as physically healthy as possible is because I don't want to be on anti-depressants forever, especially as Jason and I talk about starting a family. So I'm working on upping my endorphins and decreasing the meds.

On the Other Hand...

...maybe I just have the flu.

Side Effects

I was going to save this post to the end of the month, but since I'm home from work sick today, I thought I would go ahead and write it. Yes, I'm sick, and this is after I was just thinking to myself last week that it had been awhile since I've been sick and how thrilled I was about that. I guess I got too cocky.

Basically, I just wanted to write about how I've been feeling while eating low carb and concentrating on activity. Overall, it's been great. I have a lot of energy, and never experience the mid-afternoon slump, which tells me I'm doing well at keeping my blood sugar pretty constant over the course of the day. Also, I haven't had a migraine in weeks. I had been popping a migraine pill or two at least once a week for several months now. So much so that Jason had commented on how I was becoming a Maxalt addict. Since starting to eat low-carb, I haven't had one migraine. I know that doesn't prove cause and effect, but I'm willing to stay away from the carbs even if there is just a slight connection to my weekly debilitating headaches.

Now, let's contrast that with how I've felt when I've indulged a bit over the last few weeks. (Warning: following are minor discussions of some basic bodily functions.) First, was Sunday before last when I had a small piece of chocolate cake and some frosting straight from the mixing bowl. That night and part of the next day, I felt like my stomach had expanded about 4 sizes as my insides churned with gas. Yuck! Again, not proof of cause and effect (can you tell I've been married to a scientist for 3 years?), but interesting to note.

Then we have today. This weekend was not a low-carb weekend. We visited some friends in Virginia and it's hard when you're staying in someone's home to say "No thanks" over and over, plus try to make your own food. Kind of rude, actually. Also, I wasn't able to be very active, partly because we were spending time with the friends and partly because I started getting a cold on Friday.

Saturday and Sunday weren't too bad food-wise, but yesterday on the drive home I just let all my standards fly out the window. The day started with a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats. Then, Jason really wanted to stop at this sandwich place in Pennsylvania, so we did and I had a 6-inch sub and onion rings. Then came the afternoon McFlurry snack. Finally, we topped off the day with pizza.

I know!

Guess who woke up this morning feeling absolutely rotten? I really don't think this was related to my cold (which continues to improve). Basically, I felt like I had food poisoning, with all the attendant pleasantness. I called in sick to work and slept until 1. Maybe it was completely unrelated. But maybe it was related to all the crap I ate yesterday. I don't really want to do another experiment to find out. Let's just say it's good motivation to eat healthy.

New Podcast!

I love discovering new and interesting podcasts to entertain me while I'm lifting weights or going for walks. (Not for the elliptical, though. I need some good pumping music to stay motivated for that.)

I just started listening to Latest in Paleo, and each episode is chock full of interesting news tidbits and other information gleaned from around the internets about Paleo and low-carb living.

Yesterday, thanks to Latest in Paleo, I listened to the audio of a 2002 panel discussion between Gary Taubes, Dean Ornish, Barbara [something] from the American Heart Association, and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Here's the first segment (the rest are on youtube):



The discussion is very interesting, but also incredibly frustrating to listen to. Dean Ornish and the AHA lady spout the typical low-fat, whole grains line and equate low-carb to "eating pork rinds" over and over. I'm just about to finish Gary Taubes's new book, and I'm really wondering if the low-fat people have really looked into the science of insulin production and fat storage at all. This panel happened right after Taubes's New York Times article, and since then many people have jumped on the low-carb bandwagon, more studies have been done and Taubes even succeeded in getting praise from the revered Dr. Andrew Weil.

The only downside to the video is Gary Taubes comes across as a bit petullant at times, but I chalk that up to him getting frustrated too.

Swollen

In between yesterday morning and this morning, I gained 3 pounds and added back that inch to my waist. TOM anyone? I know I'm oversharing, but I can really feel the PMS bloating this month. Actually, by yesterday afternoon suddenly my stomach didn't feel as flat as it had in the morning.

I planned to go to the gym this morning, but decided it would be better to walk to work because I needed to throw a bunch of stuff together for our weekend road trip. Well, I only got a mile into the walk before my complete and utter exhaustion and aching legs convinced me to stop and get on the bus instead.

Bleh, sometimes being a woman is a total drag.

On Track

First, an update about the raw macaroons. I wanted to decrease the carbs in each cookie (because I keep grabbing them out of the fridge to pop in my mouth every time I walk by) so I halved the maple syrup from 1/4 cup to 1/8 cup. To compensate on the liquid, I upped the coconut oil, but more fat isn't a bad thing. They still taste great and yummy and, most importantly, coconutty.

My food and my exercise are on track except for a couple little food slip ups, which I actually allowed and accounted for in SparkPeople and weren't deadly by any stretch of the imagination. On Sunday I baked a cake for one of the teenage girls I work with at church. I can take or leave cake, frankly, but I love icing. I had a small piece of cake with everyone else, but I also had a few finger swipes of icing out of the mixing bowl. And, actually, I paid for it in how I felt later.

I've started writing down the physical changes I've noticed so far this month and am planning a month-end recap. Suffice it to say, there have been some interesting physical effects of removing grains and sugar from my diet.

On Valentine's Day we got some See's Candies in the mail from Jason's parents and I totally ate a piece of toffee (my favorite). It was worth it to me and was a small enough piece that I was satisfied without feeling yucky afterward.

I've exercised in some form every day since February 7th, which according to SparkPeople is a new continuous record for me. The one thing I need to do is start adding some intervals in the elliptical, but they're so painful. I have to remind myself how awesome I feel afterward and push through it. Seriously, the endorphins following a HIIT workout are out of this world!

This morning I did a quick weigh and measure just to see where I am. I weigh the same, but according to the measuring tape, my waist has decreased by an inch! An inch in a week! Or less than a week, actually. I'll take it!

Cookies!

No, seriously, COOKIES! That I can eat without blowing my food plan!

I have 2 recipes for you. One is for pumpkin cookies from Everyday Paleo and the other is for raw macaroons courtesy of Charlotte at The Great Fitness Experiment (whose name I will forever praise because of these cookies).

Paleo Pumpkin Cookies

1 C. almond meal
1/2 C. finely chopped pecans (the original recipe calls for walnuts, but I'm not a big walnut fan and I LOVE pecans)
1/2 t. baking soda
1 T. cinnamon
1 egg
1 C. cooked and mashed pumpkin, sweet potato or butternut squash (I used pumpkin and it still tasted like Thanksgiving sweet potatoes. Go figure.)
1/4 C. coconut milk
2-4 T. maple syrup (I admit it, I used all 4. I could see using less if I used sweet potatoes or a sweet squash instead of pumpkin.)

Preheat oven to 400. In a mixing bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients. In another small mixing bowl whick together the egg, coconut milk, and maple syrup. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the mashed sweet potato/pumpkin/squash to the dough and mix well. Grease a baking sheet (or use a Silpat) and scoop about one heaping tablespoon per cookie onto the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Makes approximately 15 cookies.


Raw Macaroons

2 C. raw, unsweetened coconut
1/2 C. almond meal
1/4 C. maple syrup
1/4 C. coconut oil (the recipe called for coconut butter, but I didn't have any. Coconut oil works great, though maybe the cookies would have a bit more structural integrity when they get warmer with the coconut butter. Must experiment (and make more cookies))
1/8 t. vanilla
pinch salt

Mix everything together, roll into balls and chill in refrigerator for a half hour or longer. (Try not to eat all the dough right then and there when you give it a little taste.) Made about 30.

The macaroons taste like heaven. And I discovered this morning that a couple of them are a great little pre-workout snack.

Progress!

Saturday is weighing and measuring day for me. So guess what? It's working!

This week I lost 3.4 pounds. I also lost a 1/4 inch off my waist and a 1/4 inch off each of my calves. Yay!

I'm just so thrilled to finally see things moving in the right direction, plus finding out for sure that the level of carbs I'm at - this liveable for me level - is working.

Days 6-11 in Food

I'm still on track for food. It's amazing how easy it is to stick to this when I really put my mind to it. I had a planning meeting for church on Tuesday night and baked brownies, but I didn't eat any. I had the Young Women over for our activity on Wednesday night and set out two kinds of cookies. Didn't eat any. This morning at a work meeting, I could have eaten a big ole bagel with cream cheese. But I didn't.

I think really thinking about the science of this is helping me. The basic gist is, you eat carbs, your insulin spikes, and insulin promotes fat storage. When you eat protein and fats, your insulin doesn't spike. Sometimes I worry that I've become insulin-resistant at this point and need to be eating even fewer carbs than I am. I've been eating about 50-70 net carbs per days and I hope I'll start losing weight and/or toning up soon so that I know I'm at a good level of carbs. This is liveable. I don't know if I can go much lower without feeling deprived.

Jimmy Moore, one of the low-carb podcasters I listen to, often says that he broke his sugar addiction by imagining sugar as poison. I didn't think that trick would work for me because my brain knows very well that sugar is not poison. Sugar is sweet and yummy and happy-making. However, I do have this internal monologue that's been kicking in lately when I contemplate eating something with sugar or grains. Just a little reminder of how the cookie or the bagel will affect my insulin. Then suddenly I don't even want whatever it is anymore. For some reason, that's what's working for me right now.

As I told Jason the other night when he asked me if I wanted a little bit of a cookie, it's a little bit of cookie here, and a small brownie there that got me to where I am right now - heavier than I've been in 4 years.

If nothing else, I'm feeling really good. No late afternoon drops in energy anymore. I love that aspect of eating this way.

I started my 30 days of 30 minutes of activity per day officially on Monday. Every day this week, I've managed to get in at least 30 minutes of activity, and some days more. My steps have been over 10,000 every day since Monday as well. I've started strength training again.

Basically, I feel like I'm doing all the right things. I hope to see some progress on the scale or in my clothes or somewhere soon.

To the Gym!

Yesterday we drove up to Boston, so I figured my excuse of not being able to get to the gym because I couldn't get the car out of the ice wouldn't hold up any longer. However, I'm still trying to get to work earlier (and stay later) in an effort to show my boss that my life isn't being overtaken by my church responsibilities. December was a little light on the billable hours because I left early a bunch of evenings.

So what that means is the alarm goes off at 5:15 AM. Which means I can hit the 10-minute snooze once, maybe twice, before I absolutely have to get up and go. I had a giant battle in my head this morning, but in the end, I won, and I was up and out of the house by 6:05. A little late, but not terrible. I got in 25 minutes of weights and 25 minutes on the elliptical.

The first day back on the elliptical suuuuucks. (Can you tell I've been hanging out with the teenagers?) I know tomorrow and the next day and the next day will be better, but for some reason, I kind of feel like I'm dying the entire time when I hop on the elliptical after not doing it for a few weeks.

For extra credit, I went on a 50-minute lunch walk. The sun was shining and the snow was finally melting and I figured I should get out there while I could since I think tomorrow it's supposed to snow a bit or rain a bit (or maybe, to be super fun, both).

Today will be Day 1 of my next 30 Day Fitness Challenge. That's 30 minutes of activity per day for 30 days.

Still holding strong with the low carbs. Saturday I ate 31 net carbs. I know, right? I was a little amazed by that. Sunday we had Indian food and I was pleased to discover that the flatbread is made from lentils. I wound up with 55 g net carbs yesterday AND I totally didn't cave and eat one of the fudgey brownie bites at our post-choral service reception.

I love those brownie bites.

Go me!

Day 5: Weighing

I'm trying to stay optimistic. The thing is, I know low-carb works. It's worked for me before. Not only that, but it makes sense. The more I learn about the biology and what's going on in my body when I eat carbs, the more convinced I am that it really is the key to gaining and losing fat.

Jason summed it up nicely after we finished dinner the other day, consisting of steak, salad and roasted cauliflower with cheese sauce: "Now we'll sit back while our blood sugar doesn't go up."

It's been awhile since I've made a real go at it, and I know it will take time, like everything. This month of February, I have a goal of being consistent and getting in the habit of minimizing my carbs.

Only it's really hard not to pay attention to the number on the scale. Today I weighed 2 pounds more than last week. The number just keeps going up and makes me want to cry because it's a number that I promised myself 4 years ago I would never see again.

On the other hand, my hip measurement has decreased 3/4 of an inch and my chest has decreased 1/2 and inch. So, like I said, I'm trying to stay optimistic and hope that this is just that awkward moment at the beginning when I'm starting to get a bit leaner, but it's underneath this layer of fat I have.

Jason and I went for a 3-mile walk this morning. Having a buddy really makes the time fly, that's for sure. Then I did about 20 minutes of strength exercises when I got home.

I know if I can just stay the course, I'll start seeing results. I'm just so uncomfortable in my own skin (and my clothes) right now. More motivation to keep working on it, right? Yeah, but it's also easy to get discouraged. Am trying to just stay motivated.

Day 4 and Last Night

Last night: Capital Grille for Restaurant Week.

Stumbling blocks: lack of choice for side dishes and the bread basket.

I ate a couple of pieces of the divine bread in the bread basket. I also ate some mashed potatoes because the only other side option on the Restaurant Week menu was creamed spinach. I can't handle creamed spinach. (Massive penicillin allergy + creamed spinach = lifelong aversion to as much as the hint of the odor of creamed spinach. I can't even handle sauteed spinach if it's been sauteed a touch too long.)

Net carbs for yesterday: 68 g.

That's still a far cry from the 250-300 g per day that most people eat. I'm ok with it.

It's sunny out today and I was thinking about venturing out for a lunch walk, but my boss just came back inside and informed us that it's sunny, but COLD. I think I'm officially going to defer my activity challenge until the weather gets a bit better and I can actually do some activity every day. I think Jason extracted his car from the ice this morning, so maybe I'll make it to the gym tomorrow. If not, I'll do weights at home again.