Adjusted Reality

The winter olympics?  I have to admit that I didn’t watch much.  Besides life being semi-sorta-completely crazypants lately, I just did not get into it.  First of all – I’m SO over winter.  Seeing winter sports reminds me of cold and snow and yuck, like it was outside.  I do like ice skating but I’m not a huge winter sports fan.  That being said – I definitely got interested in a winter olympics link that Cat sent me.

Yeah, it’s what you think.  Just a list of athletes and their stats.  But it definitely hit me how different the standards are for athletes and other celebs.  For example, Chemmy here, at 5’6″ and 154 lbs, would be slandered as a chunky chick if she were an actress or singer.  She’s just 1 lb shy of being in the overweight BMI category.  Yet, she is rocking the downhill skiing in 5 different events.  Yekaterina here, at 5’4″ and 154 lbs, is firmly in the overweight category.  She is actually technically more overweight than I am (*cough* once I lose the last 2.5 lbs and get back into my maintenance range *cough*).  Yet, she is a world class speedskater.

It’s really eye opening to see that I’m not really that far off.  From the height weight ratio at least… I don’t think I’ll be a world class athlete any time soon.  While I was able to pick out a few actresses and singers and such out of many many many, it’s really not out of the ordinary for athletes to hang out just at the top of normal or just into the overweight BMI category.  Right about where my body has decided to hang out.

So, I’m not saying that my body fat percentage is the same as theirs – but I’m always going to continue to work on my fitness and improving my diet to include more good stuff and less crap, but the gains now have become very very very small visually.  And that’s ok.  Especially if the number on the scale going down is no longer a factor.

…and that’s it.  Short and sweet today.   Do you have the makeup of an athlete?

I am a poster girl with no poster, fo sho.  Ok, so I guess it’s 32, and Baskin Robbins that has 31 flavors, but whatever.  You can see where I’m going with this.  Happy birthday to meeeee!

So 30 was scary as hell to approach.  I spent a lot of my 20’s fat.  I had convinced myself that 21 was about the best I would ever be, and it was all downhill from there.  Sure, I’m never going to make my debut on So You Think You Can Dance due to age requirements (and the fact that I’m about 15 years removed from doing any serious dancing), and I *might* have missed my ability to be America’s Next Top Model, but… what else am I limited to doing at 31?  I’m in the best shape of my life and busier than ever with good fun life stuff (notice the lack of posts lately).  I might not be completely done with weight loss, but I’m maintaining a healthy weight.

It definitely was a trying year in some aspects.  I had a lot of dues to pay at work, and things looked pretty grim for a while.  Financially, it was rough being a 1 income + unemployment household for half of it.  There was a lot of other stressors as well.  However, we are bouncing back nicely.  I’m coming into my own at work, good things are afoot.  We are now a 2-income family again and though it’s not what it was, but it’s getting there.  The iguana is healthy again.  Things are settling down.  I’m finding less days like this…

So let’s recap – some big things I did at 30:

–Got married.

-Ran 2 half marathons.

-Ran 4 other races – two 5ks, one 10k, and one 5 miler.

-Took 2 lovely vacations to Vegas, and visited New Orleans for the first time.  Much drinking ensued!

-Maintained 100+ lbs lost for an entire year.  I’ve stayed within about 10 lbs in my 30th year.

-Really learned to love being outside and active.  2 and a half hour run, bike ride, or hike?  Sounds like a great way to spend a sunny afternoon.

-Like, ate brains and stuff.

-Attempted to write a novel during NaNoWriMo.  Failed pretty horribly.  Trying to figure out WHAT is blocking me there but it is definitely not flowing.

–Worked through a lot of mental stuff.

-But realized that, hey, I’m pretty awesome.   Not as awesome as this guy, but still.

So what’s up for 31?

-Continue to work to achieve balance in my life.  That means making work more of a priority, but not enough that it eats my life like before.  That means fitting in marathon training, but sticking to a program that has me 3 time a week.  That means getting stuff done, but taking time for fun.  Also meaning having fun, but trying to not incapacitate myself the next day so much.  Spend as much time with my Zliten as possible.

-Run a marathon.  14 miles was tough.  I have to add 12 more.  This seems very daunting, but so did 13.1 last year.  And I’ve got 8 months to train.  I can do anything in 8 months, right?  After I do that, I want to think long and hard about what races I’ve enjoyed most and let that guide me in what to do next.  I don’t see myself becoming a marathon-ER, but I would love to do the distance at least once in my life.  But who knows?  Ultras next?  Qualifying for Boston?  The Olympics? …heh.  Most likely – triathalons or some sort of martial art.  But we shall see.

-Try to make the most of every beautiful weekend day possible.  Definitely continue the adventure races and outdoor fun when the weather is nice.  It’s funny, I used to be white as a ghost in San Diego (like, the  most beautiful weather ever) because I never went outside, and now it’s March 2nd and I already can’t help but have skin color cause I spend so much time outside.  Bikes and kayaks and canoes and windsurfing and scenic runs and hikes will not be able to run and hide from me once the weather gets nice again.

-Remove the 5 or so lbs I am over my maintenance range and hang there for a while.  Work on lowering fat and increasing muscle.  Really get comfortable here and see if I want to take the weight loss thing any further next year or if I can learn to be happy here.

-Three planned vacations – South Padre Island in early summer, Vegas in September with friends, and a cruise this winter with my parents.  No honeymoon in Europe just yet, probably late next spring/early fall.  Hey, we waited 2.5 years from getting engaged and 10 years to get married – we just don’t do things quickly!

-Try to figure out this writing thing.  I made the resolution to read and write more, but I just haven’t *done* it.  At all.  Like right now, Zliten is in bed reading and I just haven’t been able to do it.  I haven’t touched my novel.  I just can’t grasp in my head how to incorporate it in my life.  I’ll get there eventually.

-Do something with the house to improve it’s value.  Pick a big project like our drafty ass 1960’s windows or our white counter that stains on contact with a drop of crystal light.  For sure get our heater fixed/replaced.

…and I’m sure I’m missing something, but I’d like to be to bed while I’m still 30 tonight.  **grin**

So – what has been your favorite age so far?  How was your 31st year?  What do you want to accomplish by your next birthday?

This week started out so well…

I lost 3 lbs in 4 days.  I was doing really well with my calorie counts.  I wasn’t touching sugar.  I was BACK, yo.

Then, we had company fun day.  Company fun day was pizza and bowling.  I planned accordingly by eating a BIG SALAD before we went, allowing myself ONE piece of pizza so I didn’t feel deprived.  That went fine.  Then there was cake.  Without thinking, I got a tiny piece and started munching on it and then realized – oh crap – no sweets.  I only ate half but still, it sucked.

Then the rest of the day sorta unfolded as a comedy of health errors.  We were at one of those big fun centers which had rock climbing (yay!) but they weren’t open until 4pm (boo!) and it was only 2:30.  After a game of laser tag with half the company (yay – and I actually worked up a pretty good sweat), I still had an hour to kill, so we played a card game, and I grabbed myself one beer.  Then, I went to go rock climb, and they said that if I had ANY alcohol that day I couldn’t climb (I mean, come on – one corona – it’s practically water), so I went home and quickly did an arms and legs circuit and called it + lazer tag my workout for the day.  And then a little more drinking ensued.  Adding up my calories the next day, I was at about 2k.  Oops.

Friday I was mindblowingly grumpy and tired and HUNGRY after work and we went to a buffet where I ate very healthy, but just way too much.  I ate 1k calories there, and 800 calories the REST OF THE DAY.  Again, oops.  If I had been better the day before I wouldn’t have worried about it but another high calorie day in a row was no bueno.

Saturday I did my long run, so I expected to eat a little more.  I actually honestly didn’t eat that much – I had about a 300 calorie breakfast, 200 calorie snack after the run, maybe a 500 calorie dinner, 500 calories of alcohol and maybe 500 calories of drunken munchies.  Considering I burnt about 1600 and ingested about 2000, I’m not really complaining.   And I didn’t even do too badly – I ate a tiny little street taco and some beet fries – it’s not like I had a super sized jack in the box combo or anything – but in a perfect world I might have moved the eating earlier in the day.  C’est la vie.  When my run ended around 5pm and I just can’t eat much before it, it’s NBD.

Sunday, I had a CRAVING.  One of my biggest comfort foods.  And I had to have it.  Everything in the house looked like crap.  So I leveled with myself.  I wasn’t going to head to Denny’s and get myself a club sandwich and fries, but I was going to recreate it at home.  We had some plain white bread left over from the roomies so I toasted 2 slices instead of 3, piled on turkey and pre-cooked bacon, added the lettuce and tomato, and used light mayo.  I got some really good quality oven fries.  Instead of the 1100+ calories it would have cost at Dennys, I’m clocking it at just about 600.  And my craving was totally satisfied.  Bonus!

Then, my Zliten hadta have some BBQ.  We tried out a new place, and I got brisket (though I had to throw half of it away because it was sooooo fatty), turkey (best turkey ever), and these really adorable tiny sides of coleslaw and mashed potatoes.  I’m thinking this was also about 700 calories max.  I munched a little in the evening, but mostly veggies and fruit (there may have been some bagel chips but whatevs).  The day in total was probably about 1500-1600 calories.

So, by the numbers eating-wise:

Average per day: 1657

Goal: 1500

Difference: 157

This week I was actually kinda dragging hiney on the workouts a bit.  The runs I rocked like a hurricane, but I just am in this weird state where I’m RESENTING cross training.  I’m kinda bored with DDR, I’m not ready for Jillian’s 30 day shred pain, I don’t seem to make it to the gym to do the arc trainer… I don’t want to run 5 days a week so I’ll have to figure something out.

Then again, last week was weird and my cross training fell on a) Snowpocolipse Austin so I didn’t want to go to the gym and then b) Fun Day Fiasco where my plan got ruined by one stupid little beer.  Should I have bucked up and done what I needed to do anyway?  Yeah.  But considering I’ve got the routine of “get off work at normal time, go to gym” down pretty well, I’m not too worried going forward.  I am successfully incorporating more strength work into my days so I’ll take that as a bonus.

By the days:

Monday: 6 mile slower tempo run @ 57:50 and legs at the gym – 844 calories burnt

Tuesday: crossfit 30 minute workout (full body), yoga 20 mins – 328 calories burnt

Wednesday: 3.5 miles with a timed mile in the middle (7:07!!  fastest mile ever!!  and so close to under 7 I can taste it!!  I like exclamation marks!!) and abs. – 532 calories

Thursday: lazer tag and an arms/legs circuit – 452 calories

Friday: off

Saturday: 14 mile run @ 2:37:34 (yep, fastest mile and longest run within 3 days – I love it!) – 1607 calories burnt

Average burnt per day: 537

So – the final totals:

Calories in avg per day: 1757 (+100 adjusted for my horrible tracking skills)

Calories out avg per day: 537

Calories per day: 1220

…which is right on the money, actually.  And it shows, as I am down 1.8 lbs today from where I was at last Monday (162.2, and today, I’m 160.4).  I expect that this trend will continue.  The only snag – it’s my birthday Wednesday, and we’ve got plans to go out to dinner that night proper, and celebrationses going on Saturday.  As long as I confine it to those two days and be good the rest of the week, I should be ok.

Last Week’s Goals:

-Taking it one week at a time (food). Check.  I was a little bummed until I did the numbers.  This week is a completely different animal and different approach.

-Average of 1500 calories per day.  Exception, Saturday.  See below.  Not quite check, but it worked out with the increased activity.

-No sweets this week besides sugar free popsicles and fruit.  Not that I expect to be giving up my 1-2 hershey kisses every few days forever, I just need to detox.  Almost check.  I violated this rule for half a slice of cake and a few creme de menthe hershey kisses (yeah, um…yeah).  Not bad, but not great.

-Sticking to the food plan I made, and stick to healthy snacks of veggies, fruit, pistachios, and beef jerky.  Check up until Friday, then it fell apart.  Need to do better.

-Taking it in two week chunks (workouts).  I’m modifying this a little bit.  I’m not going to be able to long run for a few weeks due to schedule commitments, so it’s short distance training (for an upcoming 5k) and strength until the end of the month!

-Trying to NOT get lazy like last time and decrease my mileage to just about 0.  Total check.  I’m loving the running, cannot foresee that changing.

-Continuing with 3 runs per week.  One short speed run, one medium non-lazy run, and either a loooong run or another medium, slower paced run.  This week, I started with a 6 mile run around 9:40 minute miles, Wednesday I plan on making a stab at a 6:50-ish minute mile sandwiched between warmup and cooldown miles, and Saturday, I want to get out and attempt 14 miles (no matter the speed).  I am considering this pre-training for the marathon by getting used to being on my feet for a long time.  Total and complete check!

-I plan on alternating high mileage weeks (like this week) with extra strengthy weeks (next week).  On a super strengthy week, I plan to try to do 3 full body strength sessions, whereas on super mile-y weeks I’ll do 2.  I will figure out the particulars of this next week.  Will alternate according to schedule, will probably do loooong runs on average every 3 weeks.

-Two cross training cardio sessions of at least 30 mins.  DDR, arc trainer, etc.  If it’s super mellow like biking or walking – at least 60 mins.  Err, sorta check.  It was ok this week due to almost 3 hours of running Saturday, but on non-long run days, I must do better.

This week’s plan:

Food

-Really watch it the rest of the week, with planned splurges Wednesday and Saturday.

-No sweets beyond popsicles and fruit except Wednesday and Saturday.

-Since I’m not long running, try to go as low as possible (while not driving myself batty) on non-splurge days – 1200.

Workouts-

-Three runs – one speedwork, one tempo, and one easy.  Still figuring out the mileage but want to try and come in around 15 for the week.

-Weights, weights, weights.  One body part after each run, then at least 2 days pushing everything else hard that I didn’t ruin the day before.  I want to be SORE by the end of the week (in a good way).

-One cross training session = adventure race and dancing on Saturday.  That totally counts.

-One cross training session – at least 30 mins of arc trainer.  Since my other day is loosey goosey I want to get some good calorie burn here.

And, I do believe I’ve prattled on for long enough.  I’m seeing that my proverbial dance card is a lot more booked lately, so I will update and blog as I can.  I have a lot of good topics in queue, just not enough time to hammer out posts.  It is good to be busy though!

What are you up to this week?  Can anyone assure me that 31 isn’t the end of the world? **grin**

To be quite honest, it’s late, and I was out of inspiration.  It’s been a long day of schedule-wrangling, planning, navigating the craziness, and plotting and scheming… interspersed with leezard bathing, feeding, calcium-supplementing and getting scratched.  Add on that a sufficiently butt kicking workout, more leezard bathing and calcium-ing, foraging some food for dinner, ignoring all the sweets in the house (made it 3 days so far!!!)… I just haven’t had time to consider a post.

I asked my dearest Zliten for an idea, and even though HE has had a long day too (12 hours of work), he came up with a great topic – one that is near and dear to his heart – SLEEEEEPYTIME.  I was going to dedicate half the post to how wonderful he is, however, I’m pretty sure I have quite enough to say on sleep and he’s not getting out of that idea THAT easy.  So there.

Ah, sleep.  We have had a very on again off again relationship.  As a child, I staved you off for as long as I could.  I begged for later bedtimes, and afternoon kindergarten.  Unlike most 5 year olds, I had a 10pm bedtime, simply because my parents gave up the fight.  I was stubborn and I just wouldn’t sleep.  By the time I was 16, I was regularly sleeping only about 4 hours a night.  Sometimes less if I had a lot of homework.  I was your typical overachiever in school, sports, 2 jobs, and I liked hanging out with my friends every night.  The thing I chose to give up: sleep.  I would generally save up my trigonometry homework until the night before the test (when we had to turn it in), drink a BUNCH of caffeine, do the entire chapter, and use that as double duty to study for the tests.  Hey, it worked.

I continued this trend through college.  I would put off my homework partying and going out and working and doing theatre stuff, and then midterms would come.  And I would just up my caffeine intake, stay up for the majority of a week (I think my record was 70-some hours vertical), get through the tests and presentations and projects, crash for a while, then start it over.  It was a game to me.  A formula to plug in the right number.  24 -x-y = z.  x= the minimum amount of hours needed to maintain a good (mostly A’s) GPA.  y = the minimum amount of sleep I could get by with.  z, the result, was the amount of hours I could have fun.  And that was the most important thing to me.

Sleep continued to be for the weak, as I would say, in my early professional life.  Except for the glorious, glorious 2 years where I got to work after lunch until just after summer sunset (not that I want to go back to the JOB, but I loved the schedule), I was riddled with a normal 9-5 (or close) schedule.  Except for a lot of years, it was more like 9-9.  I’m a girl that’s just not typically willing to give up my fun time, so in general, I’d go to bed between 2-3am, get up at 8:30, and do it again.  I would like to, for the record, maintain that I never had anything stronger than caffeine in my system.  No amphetamines here.  I just really didn’t see the need of a full night of rest.  That was for other people.

Nothing put me to bed properly until running.  Within 6 months of my first miracle mile around the track and dying, I went from staying up until around 1am to crawling into bed at 11pm.  I weaned myself off caffeine.  It is now currently 10:20pm and I’m actually thinking that I need to wrap up this blog because I miss my bed.  I regularly sleep at least 8 hours a day.  I rarely sleep past 10 even on weekends, and I regularly sleep less on weekend since I’ll stay up late, and my body will just get up because I’ve banked enough on the weekdays.  Weird, huh?

As much as I still feel the drive of having 24 useable hours in each day (extra props if you can identify the movie – hint, it comes from a cute gal in a plaid skirt), something in my life that is a priority finally has also made sleep a priority.   To have the energy to make good food choices, not have to use stimulants to get through the day, to have the energy to ask my body to continue to grow in strength and speed in athletic feats… I just gotta have my rest.  It also definitely helps getting into work and hit the ground running instead of needing the morning to get my eyes open.  And this sort of propagates the whole early to bed and early to rise – once you start doing one the other generally follows.

Zliten, however, has always been a fan of sleep.  He had very vivid dreams, sometimes even lucid ones, and just enjoyed being asleep and getting enough rest.  We would differ greatly in our sleep theories, but since he usually had the same type of schedule as I did, and also liked to have his fun, he usually was sleep deprived as well.  Needless to say, he is very happy that we get our proper sleepytimes now.  Sometimes he complains about going to bed so early, but most days he’ll turn the lights off on me out in the living room and tell me to come to bed (I mean, it was already 10:45…).

So, I really have been enjoying getting my required 8 hours.  I hope not to have to change that any time soon!  It’s amazing, after most of my life of deprivation, to be fully and completely rested.  Heck, I go to bed now about when I did in grade school.  I’ve learned to just manage the to do list down to the hours I have – sure, I might not get as much done, but I’m no longer a twitching-from-a-pot-of-coffee zombie doing it.

How about you?  How much sleep do you normally get per night?  Do you think you need 8 hours a night to be healthy?  What’s the longest you’ve stayed up without sleep?

**This post’s pictures brought to you by fukung.net, and things that you might see while sleep deprived. **grin**

Not THAT business time, silly.  The business of getting back to eating like a reasonable human and attempting to lose the half marathon weight, that is.  I’ve been not looking forward to this post for a while.  I like training for races.  I like eating.  I get a kick out of having a crazy appetite (it’s actually refreshing when previously, it was hard for me to get 1500 good healthy calories in).  I don’t like having to have a calorie deficit.  I don’t like feeling weak.  I REALLY don’t like having to turn down yummy treats.

However, it’s time.  On the scale this morning, it smacked me in the face with reality.  162.2.  Um, yeah.  I’m pretty sure SOME of that is bloat as I am right in the throes of TOM, but still.  That is now 7.2 lbs above acceptable, and it’s time to do something about it.  And I’m pretty sure it’s all in my stomach – my jeans don’t fit any different, but my shirts all inexplicably seem shorter.  Ah well, no worries.  It is not long for this world.

The plan is as such.

Food:

-Taking it one week at a time.

-Average of 1500 calories per day.  Exception, Saturday.  See below.

-No sweets this week besides sugar free popsicles and fruit.  Not that I expect to be giving up my 1-2 hershey kisses every few days forever, I just need to detox.

-Sticking to the food plan I made, and stick to healthy snacks of veggies, fruit, pistachios, and beef jerky.

Today’s eats: protein bar for breakfast, peanut butter/strawberry/honey on sprouted grain bread for lunch, half a bag of baby carrots and pistachios for a snack, a peach right before my workout, 4 fat free hot dogs + 2 buns and homemade coleslaw for dinner, and a cup of tea for desert.  B+.  Dinner could have been a *little* healthier, but I wasn’t home and eating until 9 – didn’t want to make anything *too* elaborate.  Coming in at around 1400 calories = it works.

Workouts:

-Taking it in two week chunks.

-Trying to NOT get lazy like last time and decrease my mileage to just about 0.

-Continuing with 3 runs per week.  One short speed run, one medium non-lazy run, and either a loooong run or another medium, slower paced run.  This week, I started with a 6 mile run around 9:40 minute miles, Wednesday I plan on making a stab at a 6:50-ish minute mile sandwiched between warmup and cooldown miles, and Saturday, I want to get out and attempt 14 miles (no matter the speed).  I am considering this pre-training for the marathon by getting used to being on my feet for a long time.

-I plan on alternating high mileage weeks (like this week) with extra strengthy weeks (next week).  On a super strengthy week, I plan to try to do 3 full body strength sessions, whereas on super mile-y weeks I’ll do 2.  I will figure out the particulars of this next week.

-Two cross training cardio sessions of at least 30 mins.  DDR, arc trainer, etc.  If it’s super mellow like biking or walking – at least 60 mins.

The plan for this week is Monday – 6 mile run + legs (done!), Tuesday – 30 mins arc trainer + abs/arms, Wednesday – 3 miles with timed mile in the middle + legs, Thursday – DDR + abs/arm at home, Saturday – 14 mile run.

Mentally:

I just have to remind myself that I have to approach this differently than I have the last 3 months.  I am NOT always allowed to eat when I’m hungry.  I need to retrain my appetite to a smaller quantity of food.  I also need to remember that I don’t constantly have to restrict my food, count my calories, and say no to delicious yummies – it’s just for now.  As much as I’ll be regretting saying this in a few days, it feels good to be back to eating like a normal healthy human and not a calorie compactor.

Wish me luck with the new plan!  I’m seeing a lot of people around the bloggy-sphere rededicating themselves to healthy pursuits – it’s about that time, it seems.  What are YOU starting this week?  What bad habits do you want to break?  What good habits do you want to encourage?

EDIT: Snow day today (2/23) and I’ve been a lazy monster.  No post today.  Just an update.  Still doing good, did a crossfit workout that kicked my butt today instead of the gym, and even with being home most of the day, I have not yet eaten my entire fridge.  Oh yeah, and down 1.4 lbs (160.8).  Took good care of the iguana and tried to stay warm (adventures in snow not having central heat = not fun today).  More tomorrow!