Calorie Tracking

First off, thanks Kris for the great suggestions and motivation yesterday. I will hit up Sports Authority for a hand held water bottle for sure.

I think I want a Polar HRM cause they work with the machines at LA Fitness and lots of friends love and recommend them.

I'm still going to shop for some pocketed running pants somewhere

Now...CALORIE TRACKING!

I know it works because I have witnessed my friend Corryn exercise and track her bootie off to the tune of 20 lbs (congrats girl!) in person and over on Still Chasing Skies. Her blog is insightful and not all about weight loss, but I want to give her credit for her awesomeness :)

I also know it works because when I log everything I eat all week I lose about 1 1/2 a week, sometimes a bit more if I exercise a lot.

But man, sometimes its so annoying, and not because I want to make a crappy choice and "get away with it" or because I want to eat more, but just because some things just seem to take forever to enter in, whether its a hand written log, or online, or on my phone. 

Does anyone else get this frustration?  Mostly the stuff that gets annoying are things like add as I go salads at the salad bar, stir fries, homemade tacos.....I get so frustrated that I just want to eat Lean Cuisines every day cause they are easy, but they are not as healthy as homemade stuff so that's not good!

Today I had a little salad from the salad bar:

spinach leaves
grape tomatoes
a scoop of egg crumbles, mostly whites
a sprinkle of bleu cheese crumbles
a few walnut halves
a small spoonful of sunflower seeds
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

I mean this is healthy, right?  But gah, I don't have measuring things at the salad bar at work! I can't always make my lunch at home, my work has healthy options so I don't feel I have to...but boo tracking this sucks. Separate entries for each one, trying to figure out a good measurement.

This makes me think I always have to pack lunches at home so I can measure as I go, <whine> do I haaaaave tooooo? </whine>

I think this is also why I don't track on vacation, not because I'm eating crap or trying to hide or be off plan, its just that I'm on vacation I don't want to work....or be starting at my phone during a family meal at a restaraunt or running to a computer.

I think I might fit into the majority on this, I *do* track 99% of the time...that 1% being the few times a year I'm on vacation.

Am I being a baby about this?

Run Run Run!

Yesterday I ran 25 minutes nonstop to finish out Week 6 of Couch to 5k!


I looked head to see that week 7 is three more 25 minute runs, so okay its improve my speed week apparently, I can do this!


I've been mostly running on a treadmill, except for one run in Washington last week, it was gorgeous outside and the temp was perfect, that is not happening in Minnesota for awhile, but I want to be ready to run outside when I do!


Things I love about the treadmill
 - controlled environment
 - holds my water bottle
 - holds my music
 - tells me how fast I'm going
 - tells me how far I've gone
 - tells me how much time I have run and how much time I have left
 - great for controlling speed and doing intervals since it controls *me* by how I set it


Things I don't love about the treadmill
 - I feel like a slave to the speed I've set
 - boring when I'm doing long runs
 - I can tell I'm going to get tired of the treadmill when I'm not doing intervals
 - too many people around me on some days
 - I have to go to the gym to use one, fine on weight training days, but I want running to be   more natural


Things that kinda freak me out about running outside
 - I don't know my stats at the end of the run, I love knowing my pace!!!
 - I don't know how long I've been running or how much time left without messing with my ipod
 - I don't know my current pace, or if I've gotten to the pace I'm working towards, etc
 - I can't check my heart rate, if I work to hard, I might not make it through the end if its a time goal
 - I can't stress enough I serious need to know how well I did during my run to be able to keep myself motivated during my run and for future runs, I'm a goals and stats girl!


These are things I think I need:


1. HRM

- so you people that post those awesome maps of your routes and your speeds on each leg of our runs and all that, can one HRM do that or are you using multiple tools? I mean I could run with an HRM on my wrist and carry my phone for map my run I guess?

2. Hand held water bottle

3. Running pants with some kind of pocket cuz I need a place for at least keys


4. Road ID


Where should I get these? What do you have? Any suggestions of things I should add? Also, I'm planning on doing a 5k trail run in September, I need to go get different running shoes for that, right?

Okay so I know this was lots of questions, I hope you guys out there can help me, but I'm also going to do some research and try and answer them, too.

I'm back from WA!

Hey all!  I had a relaxing and fun vacation in Washington state.  Eating is always a challenge on vacations. I did have local favorites and treats here and there, but I also walked all over and I ran 2.6 miles on country roads the 2nd day we were there. It was awesome running on a quiet road, about 60 degrees out with a mist coming down. I definitely was challenged my a slight grade hill on my way back, but that made me even prouder to have done it. I think I'm in love with running outside, now for some cooler weather here in MN and I'm going to do it again soon!

My family stayed in a beautiful beach house in Olympia, WA where we watched the tides come in and out, gazed at stars at night and saw Mt. Rainier during the day.  Ryan and I took two days on our own to venture up to Seattle so I could show him the sights, too.

Here is a little photo diary of my trip :)

Enjoying a sugar free Ring Pop!

A fav snack

Fresh clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
@Lowell's in Pike Place Market

Crab roll @ Lowell's 

My niece and mom!

Jellyfish!

Hamma Hamma Oyster Shots

3 men to BBQ salmon?

Huge pancakes, I could only eat one!

A nice harbor in Bremerton

Ryan and I on a ferry

My favorite food

The Experience Music Project
 @Seattle Center

Top of the Space Needle

View of Seattle from the Space Needle

View of Seattle from the ferry

What works and doesn't work for vacation

I have another vacation starting tomorrow, its 5 days, with my family and friends in Washington state.

On my trip a couple weeks ago to Cleveland, I was visiting my boyfriend's family for the first time, visiting Cleveland for the first time, and attending a wedding.  So a bit of uncomfortableness that could have led to eating, a wedding which usually leads to eating, and touring a city that can lead to "try this speciality and drink this specialty!"  Well guess what, I had some extra food at the family potlucks, I tried a corned beef sandwich at a special deli, I even tried local beer...and well, I had fun, didn't feel stressed out, put on about 2 lbs and lost it within 1 1/2 weeks of coming back from my trip. 

No harm, no foul? That's what I'd say!

How is Washington going to be different?

1 - I am the tour guide for my boyfriend, I can pick where we go and also what do you eat in Washington SUSHI AND SEAFOOD! I'll be in tasty, healthy heaven!

2 - I love everything in Washington, but I also grew up there and have visited every year since we moved away, there is nothing there that I feel the need to stuff in my face, gorge on, drown in, etc

3 - Unlike Minnesota the weather is BEAUTIFUL there right now, yeah it might rain, but so what, rain there is awesome...but its not all day everyday, so I can run outside and be able to breathe fresh oceany air I'm so excited!

4- My family is staying in a vacation home with a full kitchen, we will be grocery shopping for ourselves when we get there, so I don't even have to pack a bunch of safe foods, my family is a bunch of healthy eaters! YAY! (hehe, my boyfriend may OD on being offered veggies, Hahahahaha!)

5 - No stressful feelings about this vacation cuz there are no new people, my parents rented and put together everything, I just had to get my own rental car and schedule visiting some of MY friends, YAY!

So....this trip should ROCK. It is a vacation I may indulge in a couple local brews on my "treat" day, but I think this is gonna be awesome!

I may check in with some photos while I'm gone and some reports of my eating and exercise!

Coming up Next Week:
I want to buy a HRM, I'd really like one that'll do GPS...think about the ones you like and be ready to talk me through a purchase! (Oh I also have  Polar discount that I got from Jen - A Priorfatgirl so I will most likely be buying from them

I also won a prize from Kris@KrisGetsHealthy and it has lots of cool stuffs in it! I'll tell ya'all about that next week, too!

Hot Fun Food Run

Hello from the hottest/highest dewpoint in the world for the last for days! Minnesota! Can you believe it?

Today our heat index is 110 and the temp is 95, both are higher than the Amazon rainforest...yup, lovely.


I spent most of my weekend indoors packing up my apartment or just staying cool in AC..except for Saturday evening, whoo even after 5pm it was hotty boombalotty!


I was going to try and do my run on Friday, but I was still sore in the calfs and hips from getting my butt kicked in a leg workout on Thursday morning, Plus, I fell asleep after dinner for a few hours and slept a full night after that. Yup exhausted, probably from staying up super late on Thursday night seeing Harry Potter!


Saturday was my busy day this weekend! Lots of errands in prep for two parties I was attending!


I first popped over to Muddy Paws Cheesecake and picked up a "hand selected slices" cheesecake made up of Nutella, Raspberry Swirl, Chocolate Decadence and Key Lime for my friends. I also picked up a "toffee sampler" cheesecake to be delivered to the birthday party I was going to! Oh man, it was so hard not to eat them in the car!!


Then it was vet time, Shorty was great, only disliked the thermometer in the "bum" but Isis hissed, batted and growled, she didn't hurt anyone, but we did a very quick exam so she wouldn't stress out. Poor girl, she hates being anywhere but home.


Got my nails done, aaah its nice to have a little bit of a mini vacation at an inexpensive nail salon while they soak your feet and you get to sit in a massage chair, its the little things people!


Finally, I popped on a sundress and headed over to Tiger Sushi 2 in uptown for a birthday party, yes it was still 90 degrees outside, but we were on a covered patio so we enjoyed the hot temp and the breeze, but no beating down sun.  It was nice to enjoy sushi and cool drinks in the warm weather.


I had a custom roll here it is!

Does that look yummy? I love sushi, its my favorite food. When I have a craving for a specialty type of roll I will only get one because they always have some extra caloric treats in there like tempura, spicy sauce and probably extra rice.  I'll then round my meal out with some edamame or seaweed salad.

If I'm feeling like I need more than "one" at a sushi restaurant, I will get a combo of sashimi (which is just fish), some nigiri (which is fish on rice), and some basic maki (fish, rice, wrapped in seaweed).  My favorites are yellowtail and super white tuna!

After fun times at the sushi restaurant, my boyfriend and I headed to a suburb in the NW corner of the cities to gather with old friends. There was beer (I only had one!), ribs that were smoked all day, a freshly made kale salad (so good! I've never had one before!), and lots of catching up.  Once the sun started to set, the temp outside was *only* in the low 80s so it was a lot more tolerable, so we actually sat on the patio until us girls decided to go inside and get away from the mosquitoes, the boys were roughing it, haha. 

On Sunday I did my first 20 minute, non-stop run on the treadmill! It was week 5 day 3 of C25K and I did it! I ran a little bit slow with an average of about 4.1 mph total (4.3 mph running, but also a 5 minute cool down and warm up during the 30 minutes).  I'm so happy!! I've never ever run more than 8 minutes all in a row so this is such an awesome milestone for
me!

Yay 20 minutes!

Thanks for reading my weekend wrap up, I hope you all had awesome weekends, too!

Busy Weekend Ahead!

So I'm moving in 15 days and how many boxes do I have packed? Umm, about 10....BUT..my apartment isn't that big, most of my stuff lives in storage types of drawers or containers anyway (which I just tape up to move).  Still..I'm feeling guilty, cuz I have kinda a busy Saturday ahead, and then on Wednesday I'm leaving for 5 days of  vacation, hehe..oh well, it'll all get packed up, I did this a year ago though and I'm way more organized and have a lot less stuff this year. So I'm not sweatin' it :)

On Saturday I'm bringing my cats to the vet. Shorty loves it, he just likes being touched, paid attention to, whatever so the vet is like dreamland to him.  Isis on the other hand, she gets hissy and snippy (doesn't bite) and the vet tells me every year that she has a heart problem goes her heart rate is so high, no, its not high, she just hates the vet and gets all hyper.

After the vet I'm going to get my girlie mani-pedi on at the local shop in prep for vacation! I want my pretty little tosies and fingers to look amazing for grandma you know!

Then I'm so excited for my night!  First, its sushi dinner for my friend Amanda's 40th birthday! Woohoo for Amanda and for sushi!!! Then, after dinner I'm heading up to Andover to a BBQ and Bonfire with lots of long time good friends, even a couple that now live in Denver (I'm in MN for those that don't know!) I'm so excited to see everyone!!!

Oh oh, okay yes there will be exercise this weekend, either tonight after work or on Sunday I will do my 20 minute run! I'll report back on Monday how that goes!

I hope everyone is going to have an awesome weekend!!!!

Thursday - Things I Eat

All I really want to talk about today is this awesome salad that I made for my lunch today and I've been thinking about it all morning. My personal trainer asked me to cut out as many processed things as I could, and she agrees I can do it slowly as I run out of stuff in the kitchen. So, I officially ran out of sandwich deli meat last week,  this weekend I baked 6 chicken breasts. I then prepped them for lunches this week, two I left whole, two I cut into strips, and two I diced up! 

I used the diced up chicken to make a sweet salad for today...mmmm!

Yum, right?

This is 4 ozs of chopped up chicken breast
20 g of Craisins
1/4 of cucumber diced
1 diced up Braeburn apple
1 TBS Miracle Whip Light

According to MyFitnessPal this is approx 293 calories! Whee!

I was also thinking I could have used cottage cheese or mandarin organges and the juice to bind it together, but I didn't have those in the kitchen today.

Does anyone have any comments about my prepping to run 20 minutes this weeked in my post about running?

Tell me a salad you like! Especially if I can prep it the night before work and perhaps I can avoid dressing by using juicy ingredients!

Recovered from vacation, running, treats?

Yay! I weighed myself this morning and its not an official weigh day yet (Fridays) and I'm back to my pre-vacation weight! w00t!  I still have two days to get to *this weeks* weight loss, so I'm pretty sure I'll post a loss of new weight..(well new within the last few years, hehe). I'm so glad I can make up for a vacation gain in about a week, that makes me feel more confident going forward about maintaining and vacations.

The app/website I use for food tracking is My Fitness Pal and according to the program's predictions I will be down another 5 lbs within the next 5 weeks if I keep eating the same, so I'm happy with that! That means in about 9 weeks I should be in a new decade, which makes me feel even better!

As I've mentioned before I do the Couch 2 5K program...but I'm actually using the ipod version that was done a few years ago. I do the one from http://www.ullreys.com/robert/Podcasts/ on my ipod. I'm on week 5, which started with three 5 minute runs, then two 8 minute runs, and then Friday or Saturday I will do my first continuous 20 minute run. I'm really nervous.

Does anyone have any tips about this? I think I can make it 10 minutes as I can do 8 and still have a bit of oomph left in my legs, but 8 minutes bumped up to 20....how much should I slow down? Or should I not? Hoo boy, I'm nervous!

Treats treats treats, I like treats!

I would NOT be able to keep on my healthiness journey if I didn't have treats, I would fail within days, I can go a couple days without a treat, but if I don't have something sweet, most likely chocoately after a few days I want to eat everything on the planet until I get it!

Yesterday I succumbed to a Snickers bar, but I actually had the calories for it and it was a workout day so I lifted weights and ran on the treadmill shortly after eating it.  I wish I was more prepared though, I bet a Dove dark chocolate square or a mini candy bar would have sufficed, but I didn't have time to leave my floor at work and I had nothing in my desk! 

What should I keep at my desk? (I don't have a lot of cravings, so I wouldn't just mindlessly eat stuff, so don't worry about that!)

I won the Kris gets healthy birthday contest on her blog, I am gonna get a bunch of sweet stuff, I'll tell you all about it when I get it from her, I'm sure we'll just meet up since I'm lucky enough to live in the same town! :) Thanks again Kris!

Celebrating a Year With My Love

Today I have been dating my boyfriend for a year. We dated on and off and were friends before that, we've know each other about 3 years. But a year ago, we decided to commit and there have been lots of ups and downs, learning more about how we push and then to not push each others buttons.  He is a huge source of love and support for me. He's helped me be an advocate for myself in the realms of mental and physical health, I've helped him expand his horizons when it comes to trying new foods and living a healthy lifestyle. We are good for each other and I'm so happy to have him in my life, love you baby!

Okay on to the non-mushy stuff!  We are lucky that its Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine Restaurant Week:Summer 2011 here in the twin cities and we were able to celebrate at a yummy restaurant Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for a nice prix fixe evening!

We were greeted warmly by the host stand, our waitress Lynn was off the charts with descriptions, recommendations and banter, if you go, ask for her section!

We chose filet mignon, shrimp, garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans for our dinner. We both also got our choice of salad, Ryan and Caesar I had steakhouse, and we also purchased a bottle of wine (not part of the restaurant week, but we were celebrating!)    When Ryan received the bill for dinner, our waitress had written "Happy Anniversary!" on the bill and she didn't charge for the wine! What a nice thing for Ruth's Chris to do to help us celebrate!

Here is a little photo review of dinner:

 

How to define successes and setbacks

I go on vacation for 5 days, I wipe out my 3 lb loss and put on an extra pound by the end of that vacation - setback?

During my vacation I log my food, try to make smart choices, limit my alcohol, and I ran on the treadmill, getting up earlier than anyone else, TWICE - success?

3 days after I get back from vacation, I'm back to one lb down, but not my pre-vacation weight - sucess? setback?

Now, I was thinking my vacation was a "fail" because I gained weight, didn't even maintain....but look what I did on vacation, I limited my intake of crap, I drank way less than everyone else, and I exercised!! Sounds like a success to me, even if it wasn't a scale success, yes?

In the past vacation would have been a free for all, and I probably would have come home feeling even more bloated and my clothes probably would feel tight by the end of the trip.  I'm working off my vacation and trying to plan for my next trip next week for how I will keep on track.

I'm thinking that my most recent vacation, while it had a weight gain, it had a lot of learning opportunities and I was pretty successful. I learned that I can be my own advocate, I can ask for what I want and I don't have to do what everyone else is doing.  My friends and my family support me, and voila, so does my new found "family" that I met in Cleveland (aka my boyfriend's family).

I also learned that its not *THAT* bad to relax a little on vacation, yeah I put on a few lbs, but I'm taking them back off and it could have been worse if I didn't exercise, and that exercise made me feel good! I wish my vacation wasn't so close to the beginning of my commitment to myself, but life happens, I just have to learn to roll with it and keep moving forward.

I think going down the line, if I learn something, use that knowledge in the future and be an advocate for myself, I will always be successful!

Okay and lets end this post with my adorable little buddies that I've had in my life for about 10 years now and what I'm going to be doing every night for the next 3 weeks, packing!



Isis giving you the "huggy purry" eyes



Shorty, looking for trouble

Tomorrow I want to talk more about Couch to 5k!

Lesson Learned or The Story of Too Many Workouts?

Ooooh boy today was a doozy. I thought I'd be okay, I got in my two Couch 2 5K runs on Sunday and Tuesday while I was on vacation, I did an upper body/core workout yesterday morning, then this morning I did a legs workout...

I dunno if its that I'm a few hours behind on sleep from vacay, the fact that I lifted weights two days a row and then tried to run, or that it was a leg day and I shouldn't try to run on a leg day (this was the first time I tried that), or most likely a combination of all three....but I made it into 16 minutes of my Week 5, Day 1 run...just a few 5 minute runs, not that big of a deal, I was doing 5 minutes and 3 minutes through Tuesday already. Anyway, I could hardly catch my breath, moving my arms hurt (sore from lifting yesterday), my legs were starting to get tired from my leg workout...I just couldn't cut it...I had to slow down, so I let myself walk for 3 minutes to see if that was all I needed, I tried to run again, could only make it a minute...yup...DONE.

So I did not count this as Day 1 of Week 5, I just chalked it us as "a run" and I tried....we'll try again Saturday....this was the first time I couldn't finish a C25K workout...I wont' be doing them on leg days anymore.

Has something like this happened to anyone else?

Roadtrip Recap!

Hi folks!
I went on a roadtrip for 5 days!! Not much time to sit in front of a computer and I'm not super happy with blogging on my phone, but I took a bunch of pictures and so I wanted you all to see what I was up to!

I was able to stick to my Couch to 5K running while I was out of town, two days on the treadmill!  I limited myself to no more than two drinks a day besides on the wedding night, but I only had 3 then water and coffee the rest of the night!  I brought my own food on our driving part of the road trip and while the boys ate McDonalds and some other treats, I had my sandwiches and salads! Yay me!  I did particupate in family meals but they were serve yourself homemade food so I stuck to less carbs. more salad. 

I did indulge in a couple treats not available in MN (a slurpee that I couldn't even finish, too sweet) and one specificially adored in Clevelend (corned beef sandwich!)...

What did YOU do for 4th of July? Did you stay on your healthy living plan, if you didn't, did you make a plan to splurge a little (that's okay, too!)




Cool Monument in Cleveland

Enjoy the pics!



Slurpee!!



Ryan and I at Great Lakes Brewery

Edmund Fitzgerald and Lake Erie Monster

Cleveland style grilled brat



Cleveland Skyline





Ryan, the groom, and another cousin celebrating!

Famous Cleveland Corned Beef!