Undah Pressah

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**