Adjusted Reality

Quick update on how the first week back to sanity is going:

Food-wise:
I swear, I feel like I’m in detox this week, at least early in the week. 1500 calories and I was still hungry at the end of the day.  I was resenting how many calories fruit and veggies have because it meant I had to give up something else more filling.  Crazy, huh?  It was weird not to have a bunch of sugar.  Yesterday and today though, my appetite has started to get the hint.  Yesterday I finished the day around 1300 calories and just wasn’t hungry.  Today, I’m not feeling ravenous either.

I think the worst is over, but I still have some bad habits to break.  I think I did right by banning chocolate this week and limiting myself mostly to sugar free popsicles for desert (though I did splurge on about 1/3 cup of soft serve and a drizzle of caramel at the salad bar).  I’m ok having stuff out occasionally but I need to put the stop to having pinches of chocolate chips/spoons of fudge/etc.  Once I get through a few weeks, I’ll allow myself again if it works into my calories that day, but for now, I want to unlearn the habit.

Another thing that absolutely stops is the going to the fridge to feed my face snacktimes.  Fine when I need to make sure I’m keeping up my energy for a race, because I’m not usually eating junk food when I do that , but it’s not fine while I’m trying again to lose.  If I want a snack, I get a measured amount of it, eat it, and then be done.  No eating with the fridge still open.   Again, doing better since my appetite is going back to normal, but still something to watch for.

Workout-wise:
I’m still feeling compelled to burn at least 3000 calories this week, but it’s been at a much lower intensity.  Bike riding has been a little hard to do in 104 degree heat, but we’ve gone twice for short mellow rides.  The pool was great.  I’ve done lots of DDR and yoga and weights at home.  We are hoping to do an epic bike ride Sunday, and if not, the back up plan is ice skating.  I even gave myself permission to do as little as needed this week if my body needed it but this is just reinforcing that moving my ass is now an ingrained part of my life.  If for no other reason than I feel great when I do it.  I might do a *little* less if I wasn’t training for anything and/or trying to take off weight, but still.  Probably not much.

Also, 3 days until the running ban is lifted.  I am ready to take these legs out and see what they can do on some short distance training!  Next week I think I’ll limit myself to 2 easy runs though – after a week off I might need a little warmup!  I do think the first order of running business is to work on improving my mile and 5k times.  I think I can shatter both my records of 7:50/mile and 27:19/5k, and it’s perfect to do in the morning – it’s cool outside and it doesn’t take much time!

Mental-wise:
Besides battling with the want to run (mostly for the stress relief, it’s been a heckuva week here at work) and dealing with the mental letdown of actually having to watch what I shove in my mouth again, it’s been nice.  I have just been going with the flow this week.  My workout plan hasn’t panned out exactly how I imagined it most days, but I’ve been getting lots of mellow activity, and I’m feeling great.   I admit I feel a little lost without something specific to be working towards, but that should resolve itself in the next week or two.  As my neurotic mind starts getting antsy, my common sense kicks in and says, “chill, baby”.  And chill, I have been.

Weight-wise:
Well, I saw a number Monday morning that did not make me happy: 155.6.  However, after a workout it read 153.6.  Same thing the next day – 155.0 to 153.0.  I’ve weighed now everything from 155.6 to 152.6.  I’m counting the low weight for the weigh in, of course, but I’m hoping by Monday everything stabilizes.  Considering TOM just started, that might be a pipe dream.  However, even the high weights have been steadily going down all week, so I think once I finish “detoxing” myself, I hope to see the 140’s soon!

The plans here for the weekend are relaxing tonight (maybe some DDR, 1vs100, and some other gaming fun).  Saturday we are hitting David’s bridal to try on dresses, Sephora for some wedding makeup ideas, and a summer camp themed party on Saturday night.  Then… either that epic bike ride or ice skating Sunday.  Should be a good few days!  What do you have planned this weekend, peoples?

Yesterday, in lieu of roller skating, we decided to hit the pool, because it was beyond 5000 degrees outside and remember, I put the clause of “doing whatever I damn well please” this week so it was still part of the plan!  We biked past this neighborhood pool yesterday (and even then I was tempted to get in, fully clothed) and decided to return and partake of it.  We did bring the car, just because we had planned to go to dinner right after and biking soggy didn’t sound like fun.

We paid our 3 dollars (hi, inflation – I remember paying a buck as a kid, and even after college 1.50-2 bucks to go swim laps) and got in – the pool was super clean, there was a seperate kiddie pool, and a huge, huge deep end so we had space to ourselves.  Zliten got in the normal way, but I eyed the diving board and decided that was the perfect way to enter the water.  It was the first time in 10 years I’d been up on a diving board, and I was a little nervous.  But, being the way I am, I decided it was go big or go home, and I went for a jacknife dive (jump up, fold in half into a pike, and then enter the water straight up and down, head first).  It wasn’t very good, but I also remembered I used to crank the board way back to 6 so it was tighter (and they had it locked on 1, which is suuuuuper springy), so it was a matter of getting used to the board.

Next time, I did a much better jacknife, and then I decided to pretend I was back in high school diving again and rock a front flip, first in tuck, then pike, then layout (which was kind of a failure).  I spent time swimming between each one so it took about an hour and 15 minutes, and Zliten was ready to leave.  I had considered considered chickening out, but I got up for one more dive.  I wanted to conquer the one and a half.  Was going to see how I felt, and I got just the right bounce so I went for it.  One front flip around, stay_in_just_a_bit_longer…KICKOUT and hey – I was up and down and even able to rip the entry with my hands semi-properly.

So, what does this have to do with what’s next?  Well, this was one of my goals this summer – to get up on a diving board (now that I’m not afraid I’ll break it) and see what I can do.  More specifically, I wanted to complete a one and a half.  The dive that generally separates the “I’m goofing off on the diving board” people and “I kind of know what I’m doing” people.  I still have it after 10 years (and actually 12 years since diving with any regularity).  Now, to find a pool that will let me try backwards stuff, reverses, and inwards!

Also on the list of fitness-y things to do by the end of summer:

-Run a mile in under 7 minutes.  I know I’m shooting for the moon here, but my best 400 sprint was 1:41, which works out to about a 6:44 pace.  I think I can do it if I go to the track intending to do one and only one mile (and not have to save myself for 4 more miles of sprints).  My first goal is to beat 7:50, my best mile time ever from middle school, but I really think I can conquer 7.

-Run a 5k in under 25.  Same principle.  I think if I plan properly for it, run it like a race, and give it my all, I can do it.

-Go for a really, really long run.  Pick a day I’m feeling great and pick a course I know the mileage, and see how far I can go.  Take like 3 hours, don’t push the pace at all, and see how far I can go not training for anything.

-Go roller skating.  At least once.

-Go ice skating again.  At least once.  Attempt at least one move that makes me worry that I might fall on my ass and/or break my face.  Maybe like this, or this.  Haven’t done either of those in about 20 years!

-Go climb again.  At least once.  Attempt the big-kid wall.

-Do my own unofficial triathlon one day, maybe in reverse order though – run a 5k, bike 12 miles, get to the pool and swim half a mile (and then just relax there, don’t really want to pay 3 bucks to swim laps and leave).

-Attempt a back walkover.

-Convince 3 of my friends to do a relay race with me September 4th.

-Maybe get antsy and do a short race.  But not until I am good and rested and trained up again pacing myself for short distances.

-Do one pullup, unassisted.  I’m damn close now, just need to gain the capacity to lift about 15-20 more lbs of myself.

I’m sure there will be many others, and I’m looking forward to meeting the challenges and doing something different.  I’ll just have to figure out how to enter the water headfirst and not get water in my ears (everything sounds fuzzy today).  What are YOU going to do this summer?

Even though right now the half-marathon is pretty much the only thing on the brain, I figure I should take at least ONE day off talking about it.   For the sake of my poor readers who might want to hear something else besides marathon training, how awesome I feel, blah blah blah.  It’s tedious, I know.  It’s almost over.  There will probably be a “pre-race” post and a “post race” post and then a “after I’ve been thinking about it for a while” post, but then that’s all.  Until fall comes and I start training again.

Hmm, ok, let’s try this not talking about running again.  So this week the smart thing would be to stay in and relax and basically do nothing but eat, sleep, work, train, and stretch, right?  Well, that was the plan except there was also a Yelp Elite event planned for Tuesday night.  And it was a fancy dress-up party.  At a REALLY expensive steakhouse.  And they had Maker’s Mark.  And spa treatments.  AND it was all free.   So, since it was early enough in the week, we made the pilgramage down to Finn and Porter and enjoyed Maker’s Palmers (whiskey, ice tea, lemonade, and a sprig of mint), amazing lobster salad on wontons, these potato cake beef bernaise things that were heaven – and I realized that I might not hate all salmon!  They also had sushi, but since neither of us are fans, we stayed on the other side of things.  We didn’t actually get any spa treatments because the line was so long, but we enjoyed some rich deserts instead.

Yelp events are also always catalysts to a night of debauchery.  We ended the evening getting poured a particularly strong (but yummy) manhattan, and neither of us were in any shape to drive (ok, so after one drink lately I’m not in any shape to drive but…yeah…), so we walked to the Jackalope (another bar, very much a dive) and stood out in our fancy garb and sobered up with about 3 waters (either they weren’t providing non-alcoholic drinks or they were super hidden at the event) while we nursed another whiskey.  We met this crazy cool chick with pink hair named Rev who was attending medical school.  Then we came home, had a nightcap, and then I willed myself to go to bed instead of staying up and pretending it was a weekend.  I woke up the next day feeling fine (a little tired because I didn’t sleep until close to 2am and got up at 8), and was quite happy my yesterday plans got cancelled because it would have been another night of it.

These days, I am a pretty responsible drinker.  I typically enjoy myself about once a week to the point of feeling silly and happy and tipsy.  Perhaps another night a week I’ll have a few on a weekday I don’t have to get up and run the next morning.  Occasionally, usually due to lack of sustenance before or whatever, I’ll have a little too much (and I used to do that a lot!).  Just to give you all a laugh, here are some funny things I’ve done while drunk!

I have (mostly in my younger, stupider college years):

-mooned a policeman, in an attempt to get a ride home because I was sick of walking.  Note – it didn’t work (but I didn’t get arrested either, yay).

-laid down in a yard on the way home from the bar to make “grass angels” or try and nap.

-crashed parties on the way home from the bar on New Years Eve of people I didn’t know.

-fallen asleep in our only bathroom with my fiance (remember, we have been together almost 10 years), because we were both too sick from drinking to be anywhere else.  Ah, love.

-passed out and used the Sega Dreamcast as a pillow.

-asked my fiance to grab me water, and then once he had it and wanted to know where to put it, I told him to just throw it on me, some would hopefully get into my mouth.   Bless his heart, he did exactly as I asked.

-before the water incident, I bartended the whole party, making specialty martinis (or as Zliten calls them, cocktails), and had to taste each one to make sure it was proper.  By the end of the party, I was still pouring, but I would each time drop the bottles, catch them before they hit the floor, and then keep pouring.  I wish I was that awesome normally!

-got into a hot tub fully clothed, and then once I realized how much that sucked, started taking my clothes off.  Thankfully I was stopped before I went full monty.

-got into a conversation about how I probably wore the same size pants as a friend, and we should trade.  Except I was all about it right then.  I found my pants on the bush the next morning.

That’s enough to keep me from ever being president!  So, what’s your funniest drunken moment?  If you don’t drink, what’s the silliest thing you’ve ever done period?

This post brought to you by www.textsfromlastnight.com.  Warning – not work safe, and if you’re easily offended, don’t go there.  But funny, and makes me both feel sad for the human race and happy I’m not quite as much of a lush!

I figured while I was having a cocktail and marveling over the awesome weather (rain and lightning and tornados, oh my!)**, I’d pop in and say hi. Work has been crazy, as I predicted, and some late nights, but we’re getting close! Never fear, I’ve been keeping up with my training, and I just have a yoga session tomorrow and my 12 mile run on Saturday morning to go!

I’ve been thinking lately – as I get close to being an “after”, life is peachy, of course, but there are some unexpected side effects.

1. I am very susceptible to cold! I remember at my heaviest I used to thank the dear fluffy lord for the awesome AC in my office, but now, I bundle up in a sweater, and run my portable heater constantly. Over the winter, I actually wished that I could add some fat back to my ass (from my own stomach of course) because I was so unnaturally cold when it was in the 40s. Thank goodness we rarely get in the 30s or below!

2. I used to never have to shave the inside of my thighs because they rubbed together, but now that there’s space between them, I am growing hair again. You would think 10 years would kill those follicles, right? Not so much.

3. I can no longer bitch about feeling bloated/lumpy/complain about my body in any way. I get eye rolls. Instead, everyone just wants fitness tips.

4. Instead of getting the pity look when I’m wolfing down a cheeseburger and fries, I get the jealousy look when I’m downing a cheeseburger and fries.

5. I don’t have the alcohol tolerance I used to. I have to make sure I pour all my own drinks at home to pace myself, and when I go out, I need to make sure I don’t try to “keep up with the boys” like I used to. When I do, there are some funny stories though!

6. I am that annoying chick that suggests exercise as a cure for anything. Tired for no reason? Go exercise, it will be make you feel better. Depressed? Go do a super intense workout where you can only think about the movement and not what’s in your head, and your mood will lift. It even bugs me when it slips out of my mouth too much, but it’s true. There are very few things that exercise DOESN’T cure.

7. If I’m wearing a tight shirt and/or pants, I’ll sometimes get “phantom belly” – as in I feel like my stomach is sticking out in a bubble like it used to (especially when I’m sitting. Then, I look down and there is either a little bitty lump that no one would notice besides me, or nothing. It’s quite odd.

8. My jewish nose is more prominent the skinnier I get. I forgot why I used to hate profile shots when I was younger. When my face filled out, it didn’t stand out so much. Now, schnoz-o-plenty is back!  See picture above for proof (I’m in the purple).

All in all though…I’ll take it over being 265 again. In a heartbeat.

What are some unexpected things that have happened after you got fit? Did you find out that you had funny shaped knees or collar bones?  Did you start evangelizing your new love of fat free cheese (I hope not, that shit’s nasty!)?

**Wrote this last night and got too into watching the awesome weather be awesome.  Happy Friday!

So, I had visions of doing a wrapup of E3 (the big gaming convention that just went on last week), or more stream of consciousness posts, but to be honest, work is crazy with a big deadline looming at the end of day tomorrow, and this week is the last (and hardest) of my marathon training so most days are like 2 hours of workout.  In role playing games, a creature or a quest giver or essentially something that you need, but only has a small chance of appearing or doesn’t appear for a while is a rare spawn.  So, I am going to say that I will be a “rare spawn” this week.  I might be able to carve out some time to yak away, but it’s unlikely. The dice rolls would have to be really good.

Instead, enjoy the hammer pants dance.

5 more runs ’til H-day.