Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

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Baby Steps: How To Go From Fatass To Athlete in 3 Years

So there are a lot of new people on the interwebs, looking for direction.  Motivation.  An assurance that they CAN DO IT.  Well, let me offer my story in bullet points and summaries.  Here is a succint version of couch potato to hot potato in 3 years.  Maybe it’s just a self masturbatory exercise, but maybe it will help someone.  So, I pontificate.

Winter 2007
Weight: around 265
Fitness Level: Walking a mile was doable but hurt my body and I’d be out of breath, two miles would probably make me collapse.  Daily life was tiring.  I’d email instead of getting up and talking to someone a few offices away or refrain from getting up to get something from the other other room I needed if I was on the couch.  One flight of stairs winded me.
Smoking: Pack-a-day smoker
Diet: Half portion controlled micro meals and soups, half trying to eat “healthy” at restaurants and cut out fried foods (trying for 1200-ish calories per day, rarely succeeding).  Typical meal would be either a marie calendar’s microwave meal or a campbell’s chunky soup.  Or soup and salad and a muffin at Mimi’s.
Exercise program: 3 times per week of either DDR on light mode (usually for 30 minutes, but sometimes when I was mad at work I would do upwards of 2 hours) or Yourself!Fitness (PS2 game that tested your fitness and gave you workouts, either a 15 or 30 minute segment).
Verdict: Believe it or not, I lost 30 lbs in a matter of a few months and then sorta plateaued once things got stressful (job changes and moving).  The plateau happened because I went back to eating… well, not as bad as I used to, but not very well.  Not that I was doing that great a job of it before (tallying some of those “healthy” restaurant meals up with calorie counts now that I know better – and half were still over 1k calories) And stopped making exercise a priority when things got hairy.

Fall 2007
Weight: around 235
Fitness Level: Not hugely better (I didn’t see it working out), but I’d say my energy levels were definitely increased.  Daily life was not so exhausting.  I could have a normal day without just wanting to die at the end of it.
Smoking: had cut back to half-pack-a-day smoker
Diet: 1200-1500 calories per day minus some weekend splurges.  Typical meal would be a wrap or a sandwich on light bread/tortillas, diet microwave meals or soups, tortilla or pita pizzas, and sides of light italian salads or veggies with spray butter.
Exercise: 20 minutes on the eliptical 3 times per week (worked up to 30), 15 minutes of general bodyweight strength training 3 times per week (pushups and crunches on the ball, tricep dips, leg lifts, etc)
Verdict: This was huge for me.  I started sparkpeople.com and just did what spark told me to do for a month.  I lost 8 lbs and I was hooked.  I remember thinking back then, “How am I going to keep up with all that exercising?”  Little did I know… heh.  28 months later, I’m more addicted to it than I was to caffeine back then.  It was a great way to start small, and perfect for someone who didn’t WANT any specific dietary requirements.  However, through having a BANK of calories, I learned that a plate full of veggies and other good stuff was way more filling than say, pizza.  I finally started learning how to make low calorie substitutes for things I was craving (thus the pita pizza and some of my best soups were born).

Winter 2007
Weight: around 220
Fitness Level: leaps and bounds better – I had just spent the last month renovating our new house, and all but the last week before move in, kept up with my regular workouts.  Could have never done that before.
Smoking: still probably about half a pack a day but whittling down
Diet: attempted 1200-1500 calorie per day, but realized it was the holiday season.  Pretty much the same as above.
Exercise: had just lost access to a gym but gained a lot of space to do it at home, so I moved to 30 minutes of Dance Dance Revolution 4 times per week, and worked my way up to 45 and sometimes added a 5th day.
Verdict:  I was amazed that I was able to continue my program through a huge life change (moving into the house, losing the apartment gym, losing the ability to pop home for lunch, etc), but it just worked.  I had increased my exercise due to the fear of the holiday season, but honestly, I barely indulged and I lost about 12 lbs between Thanksgiving and NYE.  I discovered that no matter what changed, it would still work.  I made use of my huge house instead of a gym.  I learned how to eat healthy eating most meals out.  I learned that a little more eating just meant a little more exercise.  And I started to look at myself in the mirror and see the makings of hawtness.  I did lose track of strength training for a while which was less than bueno but baby steps.

Spring 2008
weight: 200
Fitness Level: I accomplished a huge milestone.  I ran around our local track 4 times without stopping.  And then pretty much collapsed.  But I ran for the first time in probably 15 years.  And it felt gooooood.  I was hooked.  Anything daily life ceased to be an issue here on out.
Smoking: I was probably down to a quarter pack most days, maybe 3 packs a week.
Diet: Still trying to stick near that 1200-1500, and not doing too badly at it.  Making fruit and veggies and water a priority.  Had to learn to lose weight still on not only lunches out everyday, but also catered crunch food dinners.  But I made it work with strict calorie tracking.  Typical meals were pho, turkey meatloaf, salad bars, sandwiches, or whatever else I could order off a restaurant menu that was under 500 or so calories.
Exercise: We started crunch at work, so I got over my fears of the treadmill and started using the crap-ass work gym.  I did on average 4-5 days per week.  A typical week might be – short interval run and weights (probably about 15 mins, my sprints were about 5.5), medium run (2 miles-ish at around 5.0) and weights, long run (3 miles OMG!), and some DDR and more weights.
Verdict: Weight loss kept speeding along, and I really got hooked on running.  It’s odd back then, I never thought about run/walk intervals, I just kept pushing myself to run as far as I could without stopping.  I’ve never been a fan of run/walking.  I find it hard to start again once I walk.  I’ve had to introduce it into my intervals for .05 mile just so I get used to it (if I have to stop and tie my shoe or for a water break in a race).  I was finally starting to get into exercise for the benefits of it itself, not just as one more thing I had to do to lose weight.  Started finally being able to get into some old college clothes and just all around feeling powerful.

Fall 2008
Weight: 170
Fitness Level:  I was able to run a few miles without stopping at a reasonable pace (I’d say at my all out, closing in on 10 minute miles for a mile or 2).  Most of my dumbell exercises were 10-12 lb weights.
Smoking: Probably about the same – quarter pack per day, maybe 3 packs per week
Diet: I was in the gym more so I started needing to eat more, aiming for about 1300-1400 minimum.  Just about the same as above but with homecooked healthy dinners instead of takeout.
Exercise: I finally joined a gym after finding out we were losing our office gym.  One example program when I went to 4 day weeks (after getting used to 5 days a week) was day 1/3 30 mins running, 15 mins arc trainer, and full body weights, day 2 was 60 mins run and yoga, and day 4 was 60 mins DDR and yoga.
Verdict: I stalled for a bit and then started to lose again after I instituted the 4 day weeks.  I was feeling pretty rockstar and fit.  It was a *stressful* winter though so it took me forever to chew through about 5 lbs, but I was seeing improvement with both my weights and my running so it wasn’t so bad looking back (although back then, not losing weight was a TRAVESTY).

Spring 2009
Weight: 155
Fitness Level: Was good with the 10k distance around 10 minute miles pushing it HARD.  5k was around 9 minute miles also pushing it to the max.  Increased a lot of weights (grabbing 15 – 25s for most exercises) and reps.  For the first time, toyed with the idea that I felt athletic.
Smoking: 1-3 per day, minus some weekend nic-fests with the booze.
Diet: Aimed for an average of about 1500 most days (1300 weekdays, 2000 weekends).  Moved work locations, so I could eat at home again so we were back on the wraps and sandwiches and homemade food at lunch and homecooked dinners like grilled chicken potatoes, and veggies or fish tacos.
Exercise: Half training.  At it’s peak, 2 days of 5 mile runs + weights, 1 double digit long run, 1 3-4 mile tempo run + weights, one hour cross training, and two days of yoga.  Yeah, it was too much training.  I realize this now.  But it did the trick!
Verdict:  And this is about where my weight loss stopped and I started getting more caught up in training.  I started the 3 month crazy ramp up from 10k to half marathon distance and found my love of running.  I think I *might* have underate during training (and my body revolted with some binges and practically dragging me to the fridge for any easy carbs I could get).  I did prove to myself that if I put my mind to it and put in the training, I could do anything, which was better than any crazy weight loss I could have accomplished.

Summer 2009
Weight: 155 still
Fitness Level: recovering from 13.1 miles.  Feeling fit but enjoying a break.
Smoking: 1-2 per day minus weekend nic-fits with booze.  Two packs a week max.  Maybe 1-2 days a week not smoking.
Diet: Trying to up my calories to match my activity.  Most weeks, an average of 1700 matched well with what I was doing.  Weeding out some junk food snacks and replacing it with good fats and protien.  Allowing more healthy calories.  Same type of meals but added snacks like pistachios and sunflower seeds and started loving the protien bars in the mornings.
Exercise: Just aiming to get some activity per day, 6 days a week.  Some days, it was a run.  Some days, dance class.  Some days, weights.  Some DDR and yoga.  Sometimes it was fun roller skating.  Burning on average about 2500 per week just doing whatever the hell I felt like.
Verdict: I feared that after this break I’d never run seriously again.  But then I started training short distances and finally bested my junior high 1 mile record (7:50, now my fastest is 7:17) and got a 5k PR of 26:31, I realized that I’d be ok.

Today
Weight: 155 (see a pattern)
Fitness Level: I am an athlete. I don’t snicker or cringe when I say this.  It is SRS BUIDNESS!
Smoking: 1-3 per week, minus weekend nic-fits with booze.  Maaaayyyybe a pack a week max, usually closer to 1/2.  I don’t smoke more days than I smoke.
Diet: No longer tracking calories.  Today’s food – protien bar, leftover homemade chili for lunch, pistachios, nectarine, and a bag of carrots and pea pods for a snack, homemade beef stew and some salad for dinner, and probably a hershey kiss for a sweet treat after.
Exercise: Training for another half more sanely.  3 days a week HARD running, 2 days a week milder cross training (weight/cardio circuits), and yoga.
Verdict: This is something I can do for the rest of my life.  I eat what makes me feel good, and what fuels me to put in the training I need to accomplish my goals.  There is allowance in my daily life for moderate indulgence – I might have a drink or four on the weekend.  I might eat a piece of particularly good looking cake.  But generally, I have leaned that I operate best on lots and lots and lots of high octane premium grade fuel.  And keeping the tank topped off with the good stuff allows me to do things like run 8 mile at 8:50 pace.

So you see, it can happen.  Without completely shocking your system, you can go from lump on a log to bonafide athlete gal.  In 2007, I was winded walking up a flight of stairs.  In 2010, I plan to run my first marathon.  I don’t eat perfectly, I still drink, I eat (lean) red meat, and *shock-and-awe* I still haven’t completely quit the smokes.  Wherever your fitness level is at – you can get to where you want to go and miles beyond it with just a little stubborness and dedication.  I leave you to create your own self-masturbatory life experiences.  Commence!

Without Really Noticing…

I’ll go into it more Monday, but this week sorta fell apart on me.  However, it’s Friday, I’m feeling good, I’m totally psyched to hit the gym for a super killer treadmill workout tonight, and most importantly, I’m feeling totally uninjured, rested, and healthy.

It just hit me yesterday thinking about how I’ve changed over this whole getting healthy thing in general by reflecting on the week.   Even in the last year.  When I get frustrated that I haven’t lost much weight, I have to remember that I been maintaining a huge loss.  I have a completely different headspace than I used to.  Here are things I did without really noticing…

Some examples:

Peanut Butter Pie in the breakroom yesterday.

4 years ago: “Pie, fuck yeah!  Can I have 2?”  Then later, scolding myself for being so weak.

2 years ago: “No thanks.”  Then being freaking obsessed over peanut butter pie for the next week.

this week: “Oh yum!”  Taking a slice, eating about half, and throwing the rest of it away because it was just too much for me.

Mindlessly pigging out on what’s in the house because my tummy is ravenous.

4 years ago: frozen pizza, chips and dip, cookies, ice cream (yes, all in ONE night).  Feel depressed and crappy physically and mentally after the sugar and fat buzz wears off.

2 years ago: 100 calorie packs, sugar free pudding, low fat cheese and reduced fat crackers (though certainly not all at once!).  Feel still slightly unsatisfied, but mentally I convince myself I have had enough and need to stop to stay in my calorie range.

this week: raw veggies, turkey pepperoni, jerky, veggie pasta salad, fruit, pistachios, small amounts of full fat cheese (over the course of a few days).  Feel satiated, feel a little guilty, then think about what I actually ate, and laugh.

Not working out for a week due to injury/exhaustion/other crap:

4 years ago: “Duh, I don’t have time with work.”

2 years ago: “OMG OMG I’m going to get fat again this is horrible my life is ruined.”

this week: “Eh, that’s the way it goes.  So looking forward to hitting the ‘mill tonight now that I feel good!”

Seeing a ridiculously unflattering picture of myself:

4 years ago: “Damnit, why am I so fat…”  No way is anyone seeing this.

2 years ago: “Ugh, and THIS is why I am so not done losing weight.”  No way is anyone seeing this.

This week: *laughter* “Man, this is SO not going up as my facebook profile pic.”  Eh, why not, you can laugh with me.  Still not going up on facebook though.  Seriously, who squished my face like that and how am I not falling over from my massive chest?

I am certainly not perfect and I still have my freakout moments and make stupid decisions, but I am taking today to appreciate the strides I have made.  It may take me 50 bazillion more years to take off this last 20 lbs, but at least it’s not gaining.  I may not be completely vain-happy here, but I am certainly happy with my health and what my body can do, and how I feel more like I’m running on energizer batteries instead of just the crappy generic store brand that’s half dead.

Now, the ultimate question: since I’ve missed an entire week of running, I have my pick of workouts.  Long and slow, tempo run, or sprints?  The treadmill is my oyster!  What awesome have you done this week without really paying attention?  Happy weekend all!

An Untimely, Shreddy, End

The 30 Day Shred Experiment is over.

Not because I’m a wuss (though I have to keep telling myself that).  Not because the workout was too hard.  It was challenging workout for sure, but I was able to get through it.  Not because I hated seeing Jillian’s smug mug every day saying the same cheeseball lines about “gargling my heart” or “replacing hours phoning it in at the gym”.  Not because it got boring doing the same damn thing over and over each day.

Just about the only thing that could break me did – I found myself yesterday *thisclose* to an injury.  When I first started running I had a lot of heel problems.  I had to take 2 weeks off (which literally almost drove me crazy) because each step doing something more poundy than just walking hurt like the dickens.  Of course, I’ve gotten over this.  I haven’t felt heel pain minus an odd tinge in about a year and a half.  Until Jillian came into my life.

The first week wasn’t so bad.  In fact, the overwhelming pain was leg muscles, and it was the “hurt-so-good” pain.  So I kept on.  Week 2 wasn’t too bad either.  However, I think my feet started to be sensitive as by the end of it, I REQUIRED new shoes.  I’ve been wearing the old ones to shred and honestly, nothing really seems wrong with them now.  Week 3, I only made it through 4 days and started to feel some mild heel pain.  Figure it would go away.  This week didn’t start so badly, but yesterday morning, I had to quit during the WARMUP because my heels were killing me.

If you know me, I do not quit workouts.  Starting sometimes is an issue but when I’m suited up, I’m just about unstoppable.

After considering the options, I decided that Jillian everyday was not going to work for me.  Not with running and DDR too, and I don’t want to give those up.  My heels were still mildly sore today, so I avoided running, but was able to DDR without a problem, even the super jumpy songs.  This doesn’t mean I’ll never shred again, but I cannot see doing it every day.  Apparently my heels aren’t tough enough.

So, my half-assed review follows:

Weight lost: Hard to say because I fluctuate so much, but I will say that when I started, my weight was between about 155-158.  I’m now stabilizing around 154-155 this week with a low last week of 152.8.  I would have liked to say that this was the month where I kicked the 150’s to the curb, but I just didn’t have it together.

Inches lost: I totally misplaced my measuring tape, but I found another way to tackle this problem.  Huge progress here.  I had one pair of jeans that were in the “a little tight but wearable-ish”, and one pair that would barely button at the beginning of the month (both size 6s).  I am happy to report that both pairs are now in my regular rotation (though the too tight to button, I do have to take care which shirts I wear with them as they are suuuuper low rise).

Pictures come later – I took befores, and I am going to take afters tomorrow or on a day I don’t feel so bloated. 🙂

The good:

I feel stronger.  I haven’t felt stronger like this in a while.   Through my half training my weights and reps stopped increasing and I just haven’t been motivated to do a big push on this since.  While I was only using 7 lb weights during most of the videos (occasionally I’d switch to my 3 lb ones on the second set if I was hurting), it definitely worked me over.

I discovered I needed to work some muscles I wasn’t.  I had been neglecting the squats and lunges for a long time, and had convinced myself that running worked them just fine.  Not so.  The first day convinced me of that when I was having trouble sitting down and getting up the next day after a 20 minute workout.

I had been shying away from dual moves (for example, lunges with hammer curls instead of just doing hammer curls).  Now I know that I’ll get worked over much faster by doing two things at the same time.  I mean, duh, right?  Not sure why I didn’t get this before.

I have fallen in love with circuits!  I dig the idea of mixing strength, cardio, and abs into one simultaneous workout.

My short distance running has VASTLY improved.  My easy 5ks have gone from 30-ish to 27-28ish and I did a 25 minute tempo run two days ago and got 3 miles under my belt.  My goal was a 5k under 25 minutes and this takes me so damn close.  I haven’t done a timed mile in a while but I bet I could shatter my 7:17 record.  Shredding was also a fantastic warm up for running.  If I had an hour, I did a shred and then immediately hit the pavement for a 5k.

I feel slimmer.  I may not weigh much less than I did a month ago, but putting on those skinny jeans and having them fit felt GREAT.

Traveling pushups.  ‘Nuff said.

The bad:

It just felt wrong to do the same workout 5 days in a row.  If my heel hadn’t acted up, I totally would have been down for doing alternating levels, but doing the same workout 5 days in a row?  Totally boring and bad for the muscles, imo.

I didn’t look forward to it at all most days.  There were some mornings it took me an extra few minutes to get out of bed because I didn’t want to shred.  It was definitely a “get through this” part of the workout and not a “hey cool I get to do this” part.

Anyone else just fucking hate jumping jacks?

The ugly:

As detailed above, I got really close to a heel injury.  No bueno at all.

However, I really enjoyed what I did today, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear about it.  Yes, I know I’m awful.

So I want to know – anyone gonna go shred after my review?  Ever found a great exercise that works wonders but your body just didn’t like it?  Who wants to call me a wuss for not finishing my last few days?  Any shredders and runners see a huge improvement in times like I did?  Hit me up.

Pictures from fukung.net, that don’t have anything to do with anything but made me laugh. 🙂

The First Week Back to Reality

Since I seem to be ahead on posts and this doesn’t get up on the blog until Friday, I’m just going to jot down my progress and what’s going through my head each day.  Overall it’s been sort of a “detox” week.  You never understand how inactivity and eating junk affects you until it’s no longer the norm.  A week and a half was long enough!  Here is my journey out of it…

Monday:

Did – Got up around 8:45, very bleary eyed.  30 mins DDR as planned in the morning and was too hungry to do yoga so I sank into the couch with dinner and didn’t get up instead.  Bad Quix!  Will make it up sometime this week.  Had a very healthy day of eating (ate a promax 20g protien bar for breakfast, a homemade tuna sandwich for lunch, carrots and snap peas with hummus for a snack, chicken masala, rice,half a tortilla, and peas for dinner, and a honeycrisp apple for desert) coming in right under 1500 calories. Weighed in at 159.0.

Felt – I am feeling very bleh.  I think a week and a half of no consistent exercise and not watching what gets in my cakehole has actually made me tired, almost a little depressed (I’m not my bouncy, energetic self), lethargic, and I have this little bit of nose/throat funk – had it for almost a week now but it hasn’t turned into anything.  I’m sure it’s not helping that it’s *greygloomyrainy* outside.  That always makes me in less than a happy mood if it lasts more than a day or 2.  So I am going to ignore the way I am thinking and feeling and dive back into healthy and hope this will all pass.  Looking forward to setting out for a run tomorrow, but just feel too exhausted right now to see how that will be any good.

Is this what I felt all the time before?  I seriously feel like I am slogging through molasses for the last week since the day after the wedding.  I feel like I am broken.  Someone needs to find the circuit that shorted and replace it please.  I can’t remember a time when my body has felt so… useless.   Not even after the half marathon – after one day off I was up and ready to go again.  At first I told myself that it was good to give myself a break before the wedding.  Then, after I just felt like I needed to sleep for days and it’s just not getting any better even though I AM getting plenty of sleep.  Hopefully just returning back to normal habits will right me, because this sucks.  I think this part is worse than the weight gain.

Yes, this too shall pass.  I just need to get through it and learn from it.

Tuesday:

Did – Got up around 8:45, just about as bleary.  5k run and weights at the gym after work.  Ate another promax bar for breakfast (can’t beat 20 g protien for 200 calories even if they aren’t the tastiest), had snap peas and a plum for a snack, some leftover homemade lentil soup and a gigantic salad for lunch, a junior burger for dinner and then I realized I was WAY under my calorie range so I snacked on some raspberries, a 100 calorie bag of popcorn, some turkey pepperoni, a few rice chips, and a sugar free popsicle.  Came in at just under 1400 calories.  Weighed in at 156.8

Felt – Morning – still bleh.  It’s still grey and dreary, I’m still in this state of nose/throat thing being icky but not bad enough to call myself sick.  I feel tired but not tired enough to feel like I need rest, but tired enough to make workouts feel like WORKouts.  I still suspect this is just my body rebelling after taking more time off working out than I have in years WHILE eating junk.  I’m hoping that slogging through another workout or 2 and later in the week when the sun comes out, I’ll be back to my normal self.

Evening – WOW!  What a difference a little sun and a great workout makes.  My nose and throat feel better, my mood is back to happy, and the workout felt GREAT (even during).  This is totally encouraging!

Wednesday:

Did – Got up around 8:45 slightly less begrudgingly.  30 mins DDR in the morning, yoga session at night.  Ate another promax bar, a turkey sandwich for lunch, fish, brown rice and veggies (wedding present fresh fish from Alaska) for dinner, and a honeycrisp apple, snap peas, pita chips, and hummus for a snack.  I did splurge on half a serving of ice cream and a special k bar for desert but I had the calories for it. I came in just over 1400 calories.  Weighed in at 156.2.

Felt – It was still hard to get up this morning (I was hoping to get up a little earlier), but I think it was more because I was kinda sore from my workout and also was having weird dreams.  DDR was tougher that normal, but definitely a marked improvement over Monday.   My nose is still running, but my throat isn’t sore!  My mood is definitely in a better place.  I don’t feel like I’m about the grab the day by the huevos and storm castles, but I don’t feel like curling up into a little ball and hiding away either.  I’ll take it.

Thursday:

Did – Got up around 8:35, more alert than I have all week.  I could have gotten up earlier but I was having a cool dream, and when I did, I kinda sprung out of bed instead of being bleary eyed.  I did a full weights session (one set max reps with the ball), and after work I made up that yoga session I missed as well as ran a 5k!  I was totally workout woman today!  Ate yet another promax bar (I’ll have to change it up a little next week but they’ve been great this week) for breakfast, a cut up black bean burger, some corn/bean/pepper relish, and tortillas for veggie tacos for lunch (this was SUPERB), snap peas and some jerky for a snack, and grilled chicken, taterflowers (half mashed potato half cauliflower) and veggies for dinner.  I also splurged and had a few vodka drinks.  I came in just under 1500 calories.  I forgot to weigh in the morning, and at night after my run I weighed 156.4.

Felt – I am finally feeling emotionally like myself, and workout wise feeling close to normal – though I still have this freaking nose funk on and off.  While I still don’t feel 100% strong, I’m feeling like I can get there.  I’ll have to build my running up a little more next week because that seems to be doing wonders for me in terms of both mood and physical well being.

Today I’m weighing in at 154.8 (yay, under 155!) and feeling pretty darn good heading into the weekend.  If there is anyone out there who’s not on the workout train or off the wagon eating-wise, just climb back on!  Let me give you a proverbial hand.  Get through a week and you’ll feel SO GOOD.  I know I do.

The goal now is to get through the weekend as close to 1500 as possible, and next week… well, we’ll talk about it then.  What have you been up to this week?  Any awesome plans for the weekend to share?

Pictures from graph jam, because graph jam rocks!

So Much To Say…

…but it’s not flowing.  So it’s a FIVE RANDOM THINGS day and a short one at that.

1.  I haven’t taken my measurements since July, and apparently gaining some weight also meant losing an INCH on my waist and half an inch on my bicep (which I am still deciding if that’s a good thing or a bad thing).  So crazy.  So even though I’m up a bit, I am still making some progress.  I may not be in the normal BMI category, but I am now in the low risk hip to waist ratio (by .01!  Take that, inverted triangle body!)

2.  I did my best mile ever again on Monday afternoon – 7:18.  If you’ll remember, my best mile time before about a month ago was 7:50 – a record I set in 8th grade.  I beat that and have been whittling the time down each week – 7:35, then 7:27… now I just have 19 seconds to shave off to beat my goal of a mile under 7 minutes.  I want to try to do it by the end of September.  What’s NOT going as well is whittling down my 5k time.  I wanted to get under 25 minute but the best I’ve run so far is 26:40.  I just haven’t been able to really find the right pacing so I don’t die by the end.  I’m targetting a little unofficial 5k in a week and a half so I can put myself to the test then.

3.  Three weeks from tomorrow I will be getting on the plane to head to Vegas, and three weeks from Sunday we get married.  It feels like there is so much left to do, but I think it’s just me freaking out.  There’s not that much left to do.  I mean, we just have to finalize the guest count and finalize the flowers/decorations/ceremony/music and make a playlist for the reception and get Zliten his shirt and order the favors and…geez, this isn’t making me feel better AT ALL.  Moving along…

4.  Work is going well so far with the new and crazy.  Still a lot of unknowns but I’m feeling less like my brain is moving at the speed of molasses and operating at 2 year old level.  Sad to say that I can’t talk specifics for a LONG time, but I’m really looking forward to the day when I can.  I do have my hand in 3 different projects right now but I like rolling like that.

5.  This week and the rest of the weekend stand to be pretty mellow, but Friday night is both the next Yelp Elite party (this time, it’s a cocktail contest!) and a good friend’s birthday.  We are heading to Fogo De Chao.  Yeah, that’s unlimited meat on swords you see there.  I am still debating between splurging it up good or just ordering the salad/sides bar which looks super yummy too.

5b.  I’d talk about my bachelorette party but I don’t have any pictures yet!  Most of the pictures were taken on disposable cameras so waiting for someone to develop and scan them might take a while.  Let it be known though that it was a blast!  There was dancing and drinking and penis cake and lingerie gifts and great times with great girls.  Oddly enough, I felt just fine the next day and I think everyone else was more hung over than I was (lots of water between shots and dancing the liquor out = ok next day).

Happy hump day!  Tell me something random about your week!

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