Eye of the Tiger

It's Tuesday... There is nothing fun or exciting about Tuesday's. The are actually pretty boring. I decided today to blog about what's all going on in my life this week.. Let's start off with things that directly affect me and my weight... I have two weight lose contest coming to an end this week. We have Biggest Loser with my Aarons co-workers. I am currently down 1.16 % so that means I need to drop 2 pounds plus whatever that woman loses this week. I am shooting for a 3 pound lose. Currently I am down 1 and only have until Friday AM. The second contest is the DietBet I am doing. For this one I needed to lose 4% of my weight in 28 days. I need to weigh in on Monday and as of today I am good/if I can keep this lose off until weigh in. I feel like Rocky. I need to be running up and down some stairs singing Eye of the Tiger.. Okay for those of you who have never seen Rocky or do not know the song; here are the lyrics.

Risin' up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance

Now I'm back on my feet

Just a man and his will to survive

So many times, it happens too fast

You trade your passion for glory

Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past

You must fight just to keep them alive

[Chorus]

It's the eye of the tiger

It's the thrill of the fight

Risin' up to the challenge

Of our rival

And the last known survivor

Stalks his prey in the night

And he's watching us all with the

Eye of the tiger

Face to face, out in the heat

Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry

They stack the odds 

Still we take to the street

For the kill with the skill to survive

[Chorus]

Risin' up straight to the top

Had the guts, got the glory

Went the distance 

Now I'm not gonna stop

Just a man and his will to survive

[Chorus]

The eye of the tiger

The eye of the tiger 

The eye of the tiger 

The eye of the tiger

To top of my Rocky impression I decided to add some additional cardio to my workout. I picked up an old DVD my little sister lent me and thought I would give it a shot; Jillian Michaels Kickboxing Fastfix. It was wonderful! Some of the moves were on the tricky side but felt good during and after. 

Spring Break

Burr... it's so cold here in Northern Michigan. My poor kids are on spring break and building snowmen.

According to MiKayla my 11 year old; "She is the only one not going away for Spring Break". We looked into going away again this year but after taking a closer look at the budget, decided it wasn't going to happen.  I tried to bring spring to the home at least by making up a fresh table centerpiece. 

I have been battling shin splints for the past couple of weeks. I have tried everything but resting them. My first 5K is scheduled for Memorial Day and I really want to beat my previous times. 

This should say 2012 Results. 

I am not sure why my time got worse in 2012. 44:41 is the time to beat though. Right now on the treadmill I am running a 5K in about 36 minutes without an incline. I really want to try to run outside and see where I come in at but right now it's just to darn cold. I ran 4 miles last night on the ole' treadmill though. I did pretty good but I am paying for it this morning. My legs are so sore. Maybe the outside cold would do my muscles some good.

A couple good things happened to me on the scale and a couple bad. I am currently in 2 weight lose contest. Aaron's office is doing a biggest loser and I am in the dietbet. After Friday's weigh in I am currently winning Aaron's office contest.

As for the dietbet I have a little ways to go as of Friday. 

Here is the problem; I overate on Easter and am having a hard time staying out of the kids Easter candy. Also, I believe Mother Nature is about to curse me again right before my final weigh ins. I am scale stressing which can't be good. Hopefully my run yesterday will help. I am also meeting with personal trainer on Thursday night and hoping that will help also. We will see what happens on Friday - wish me luck! 

Day 1

DietBet day 1:

This morning I got up to find that first mother nature hates me physically and mentally. Besides that I started out pretty good. I had my oatmeal this morning. This is huge for me since most mornings I don't eat anything or maybe a piece of fruit. I had a lean pocket for lunch today and a small 140 calorie snack after.

Because I have to be to work by 7am which means I need to leave my house by 6:30am I really do not have time to workout in the morning so I go after work. I decided that today I would run. I did 3 miles on the treadmill. Felt pretty good to get to 3 miles, but boy was it tough.

I finished up the night by having a smarter Wendy's choice dinner and relaxing before bed.

Incentive

It has been a long week. My three beautiful children keep me very busy or maybe I keep them busy which in turn keeps me busy.. something like that.. all I know is that I am always busy. We have gymnastics, church, swim lessons, school activities, softball starting, etc., etc. We all the craziness in my life I am trying to find time to workout and being that it's winter in Northern Michigan that means I need to find gym time. Needless to say it's been hard to find enough time to give it 100%; until now.

What has changed you might ask? Well I now have some financial incentive. My little sister stopped by tonight and told me about this site called DietBet. DietBet holds weight loss challenges. You pay $25 and bet to lose 4% of your weight in 28 days. if you can do that you will win the pot divided by all that lose their 4% so at least your $25.

To be honest with you while signing up I though piece of cake.. then I calculated my 4%. I haven't had my official weigh in yet but I figure that 4% should be about 7 pounds. Yikes!!! That is 2 pounds a week. That goal is harder then it might sound. We have weeks that are up and down and lately I have been averaging about 1.25 pounds a week. So not only do I need to do what I have been doing but kick it up by double the effort.

No turning back now.. official weigh in will be on Sunday afternoon. Wish me luck!

I think I can! I think I can!

First off let me start by saying I am sick of winter... It's cold and icy and I am so over it. The only thing nice about winter is that it is acceptable to run around in long pants and big sweaters.

Back in January I decided I need to become a runner. All the women I know who have lost weight either walk or run and most run. I went out and bought some running shoes, joined the gym and decided I needed to start training for a 5K as motivation. After several weeks of training I decided to see how well I could do on the treadmill. I was going to run 3.1 miles and see how long it takes me. I was still learning how to log things on my run keeper so it's listed as walking not running.

Last night I was feeling pretty good and decided it was time to try it again. Here are my results:

I didn't go the full 3.10 so it's not a perfect comparison but it's pretty darn good. That 0.10 of a mile is only maybe another minute if that. As you can see though my average pace has sped up and even if I add another minute to my run last night I have shaved 4+ minutes off in just a little over a month. 

In addition I want to note that this time and distance includes a 5 minute warm up walking before I start running. I am going to wait a couple weeks and try starting my time after my warm up and see what my true 5K treadmill time is. Even though the scale lately hasn't moved this to me is a sign that my overall health is improving and I am becoming more fit. I have not registered for the April 20th 5K yet but I think I might just to see. 

Running Shoes

Today for no particular reason I decided to buy my first pair of running shoes. Being that I live in a small town I really only have one store to shop in. I asked the clerk (who looked younger then me and not sure if he even runs) which were the best and he suggested these..

I bought them. They were a bit pricey but I like how they feel. Not sure if I am in love with the hot pink and black but feel good. They are Asics Gel-Blur33 shoes. Reviews look good online. Not sure how much running I will do verse fast walking but we will see. I plan on getting a walk in tomorrow. Actually I plan on attempting to kill it on an outdoor 5K trail and see how I do.
Results coming soon...

Fatty get off the couch!

As always I need a pep talk and a kick in the butt. I took some time to read over some old post. I found that I had some great weeks. Those weeks I noticed that I got my 3+ pounds in every night, watched my calories and had a good attitude. So I tossed the pretzels, passed on ice cream and got my 5k with a twist DVD done. That doesn't make my 3 small tacos go away nor the pre-pms any easier but it will help.

Feeling Good

Whenever I start I new "diet" I get new gear but this time - I have found some wonderful gear. I have purchased 3 new DVD's. Walk Away the Pounds - 3 mile, Walk Slim - 4 mile, and Walk at Home the 5 mile. Each one a little different than the other. The 3 mile DVD uses free hand weights. The 4 mile DVD uses a firm bands. The 5 mile video doesn't have any additional strength training. Even through the 5 mile DVD is the longest; it is the easiest one. I am feeling good. I completed the 5 mile tonight and feel stronger than ever. I really hope to see the pounds melt off soon.


I have set a small goal for myself. I want to get to the build up enough endurance to walk around the lake this spring in an hour or less. That is 7 miles. I have another set of walking DVD's I want to buy. It is the 21 day plan.

Working out makes me feel good about myself. I really hope all this pays off in the end.