Weigh In Day! Officially 50 lbs down!

Good afternoon,

Today's weigh in marked an important mile-stone for me: I have officially lost 50lbs.  This week was a total of 1.4. Together, Jon and I have lost 102 lbs. This is important to me for multiple reasons:

1. Every time I have lost 50lbs, I have gotten pregnant, thus gaining the weight back. No pregnancy for me this time (permanent prevention will ensure this!).

2. This is the lowest weight I have been since I got pregnant with Hailey (7 years ago).
3. I bought a pair of shorts in the same size I bought my freshman year of college (and I cried a little in the dressing room!).

Here's the unfortunate part of this milestone (for right now). I lost part of my weight before joining weight watchers so they only consider the 30lbs I have lost with them. I have missed the last several meetings and have been meeting hopping. I wanted to celebrate the important milestones with my leader (on Sundays) so I have not gotten my 10% key ring yet even though I earned it a while ago.  I really would like a 50lb charm from them...but I suppose I am 20 pounds away from that, according to WW! Anyway, since I officially hit the 50lb mark, I am putting up a new progress pic. I will add this pic to the progress pic page.

On another note, for our 10th wedding anniversary (last month), I gave Jon a bundle of envelopes with 12 pre-planned dates (1 per month). He opens the envelope on the last day of the month before, we read the date, and mark it on the calendar immediately. This month was Putt-Putt golf, just like we used to do! We took a few pictures and Jon commented: "wow, we're a good looking couple!" I thought it was pretty cute of him to say. We had a lot of fun; we always have fun together but I am loving our new healthy, energetic relationship. We have gone through so much together in the last 10 years of marriage, and nearly 14 years of being a couple, that this road to health has been quite a "fun" adventure. I love seeing us revert to the youthful couple we were when we first started dating.

Not much of an insightful post tonight; I just really wanted to update on progress since it was a weigh in day!

Working our way to fit as a family,

Kati

Holy Hills and Humidity

You know I was all revved up to go run yesterday; I had my mental muscle ready to fight my own negativity. I was ready to tell my self to shut-the-eff-up, I had running to do. Well, in all my insight I decided to run (dramatic pause) OUTSIDE (dramatic pause) because I wanted to prove my own progress. Running outside isn't really a big deal; I love to run outside. However, I chose to run outside for the first time since I had my wisdom teeth taken out (and my pain problem was/is a dry socket), in 100% humidity, in 88 degree weather, and through my exceptionally hilly neighborhood. There was a whole lot of genius happening when I made those plans.

So, the run was not as terrible as I make it sound, though I was not pleased with my time on my mile splits:

My overall time was 44:41 for 3.14 miles. That's not entirely accurate since I stopped to stretch and did not turn off the GPS--so my real time was like 42:00 or so.  I learned a few things about myself and running with this trip. First off, Running in the air conditioned Planet Fitness with a steady treadmill (even at an incline) is a lot easier that the heat and humidity and hills. However, I like running outside so I plan on mixing my treadmill and outside running.

I also learned that last year when I started running, I had little mental milestones that I hoped to hit (I hope I can run to the end of this street before I walk). I was "running a 14 minute mile and walking a 17 minute mile). Last night, I found myself hoping to hit the same length benchmarks in my intervals; however, I had trouble pacing myself. I found myself looking at my running ap and realizing I was running at a 9 min/mile. So those distances were reachable, but they were more challenging than I anticipated. My most consistent pace right now is between a 10:30 and 11 min/mile. I need to practice running outside more and get myself use to pacing what I know feels good. Obviously, I was pushing to fast and then not able to keep up the endurance to go beyond my little benchmarks.

I can say that I broke through some of my mental barrios using some of the techniques in Runner's World, but in all fairness I need a trip to Planet Fitness where I can pace myself more accurately and beat my own mental roadblocks that I have stopping me. I think on less humid days, I will do my running outside, it was a nice change. I also have some new baseline times to beat--you know me, I am all about competition with myself ;)

Until next time,
Working my way to fit,
Kati

Mental Muscle: Now I get it

One of my favorite magazines has become Runner's World. This months issue has a lot of dedication to Boston, which I very much appreciate. However, tucked in between there is an article entitled Mental Muscle. It was literally like this article was written directly to me.

As positive as I try to be, I am the WORST at negative self-talk during a run. I start telling myself its okay to walk, I negotiate my goals, I remind myself of my progress (which could be positive, but I use it as a crutch). There is no earth shattering advice in this article; in fact, most of it is common sense that once I read I though 'Duh, I DO that!" It is the simple matter of bringing the problem to the forefront of my mind and addressing it.

Reading this article has me inspired for tonight's run. I am going to employ a few of their techniques to get over my own mental road blocks and just make it through my goals. I am pretty excited about it actually. All it took was someone calling me out on something that I do quite frequently, and now I know to watch for it.

Have you ever had something like that?  A road block that was seemingly simple, yet it just took someone calling you out to make you confront the issue?

Wish me luck tonight on my run; I am going to beat my mental negativity.

Working my way to fit,

Kati