Goals

It is the last day of June which means it is time to evaluate my goals for the past month and think about what I should plan for July.

I had three goals for June.
1. Lose 5 pounds
Check! I lost .8 this week (which is amazing because I don't feel I had the best food week). This made my total for the month 5.6 and my grand total 40 pounds lost!!!!
2. Run 6 miles straight.
Check! As posted earlier this week, I accomplished this task in 74 minutes with my warm up and cool down. I think this run is what saved my week and got me the .8 loss.
3. Earn 35-40 activity points each week.
Check! This goal had to do with Weight Watchers and how many points you earn based on the activity, level of intensity and your weight. I almost didn't make it this week until I made myself go to the gym yesterday and do 45 minutes on the elliptical - which is something I haven't done in a long time.

Goals for July:
1. Lose 5 more pounds.
This should be doable with my new gym and regained focus - especially after coming off such a successful month and knowing Karrie's wedding is creeping up and I better need to have my dress taken in! So about 1-1.5 pounds a week is reasonable, right?
2. Run 6 miles again, but faster.
I averaged close to 11:30 min per mile last time. I think my goal will be to go 11:15-11:00 min per mile. This will put me close to where I was 2 years ago before pregnancy. To get faster I plan on continuing my weekly run (about 5 miles on the treadmill) but start each week at a faster speed. Last time I started at 4.9 and increased every 10 minutes or so depending on how I felt. As long as I can keep increasing without killing myself, my goal will be to start at 5.1 and end on 5.5 or 5.6. I usually run faster than that the last few minutes, but this will be the average.
3. Improve self confidence.
I'm throwing this in because I know I can earn plenty of activity points so it's not a good goal. One thing I've never been good at is being nice to myself. Especially when it comes to my weight, my appearance and comparing myself to others. I've been trying to remind myself lately how we are each unique and we each have our own strengths and weaknesses. I look at other women and don't criticize how they look or act (well, sometimes I do, but only extreme cases). But somehow when I look at my own reflection I only see imperfections. Now that I have a daughter, I want to instill confidence and a sense of self worth in her because it scares me to death to think she would dislike herself when, in fact, she's the most amazing being. I know I'm her mom and this makes me biased, but this is how I feel about all the little ones I know right now. I want them to embrace their quirky traits and not struggle their whole lives with these things like I have. I know I'm asking a lot since it is unlikely that they will ever criticize themselves but I like to dream.

On another note, I went to Cardio Kickboxing today and it was awesome. Very similar to Combat - it left me exhausted, sweaty, and wanting more! I hope my upper body feels it tomorrow!

The Big Six

Well, I did it! I ran six miles straight yesterday. It was in the afternoon and part of me didn't want to spend the last few hours of my day "off" on the treadmill sweating my butt off. The other part of me said to just get it over with so I can spend my next day off trying out a new class at the gym and getting work done.

Here's the numbers:
2 min warm up
70 min jogging
2 min cool down (would have been longer but I had to stretch and shower before I picked J up from daycare)
1020 calories burned!
Total of 6.2 miles

I started at 4.9 mph which is about 12:15 per mile and bumped it up .1 mph every ten minutes until I was at 5.2 which I stayed at until the last 20 minutes when I slowly bumped it up to 5.6, so I averaged around 11:40 per mile (I think!).

This is a great beginning to next month's goal of 11:30 miles and I hope to do a six miler again before July is over!

New Environment

I asked Don today to help me come up with post titles because I'm not very good at it... This is what he came up with. This is based on the fact that I've started working out at my new gym as opposed to the old environment I got used to during the shape up challenge. So far I've only been twice; once to run (and try out Josie at the daycare) I did 3.5 miles, and that was even without my water bottle, which I forgot at home. The second time was Saturday morning to try out a Zumba class for the first time. I've done Zumba on my wii but this was my first real class. Thankfully doing the video game helped me be able to keep up in class because I had done some of the moves already. It was a pretty good workout. I was sweating my butt off but I probably could have gone another hour! I love dancing and it was a nice way to get in a workout without feeling like you're dying.

I also have good weight loss to report. I lost 1.6 pounds this week, making my total so far this month 4.8 pounds, only .2 pounds from my 5 pound loss goal for June. My other goal, jogging 6 miles, will be attempted tomorrow morning and if it is not achieved I can try again Thursday since Josie is at daycare twice this week. I'm hoping that I can do it tomorrow though and go to another class Thursday. Either Zumba again or spinning (which I've never done). I'm hoping to end June on a great note. It took me from march to the end of May to lose 5 pounds and with a lot of focus and determination I lost the same amount in almost one month. My next goal will be to lose another 5 in July and work on my running speed. Right now I'm averaging about 12 minutes per mile and I'd like to get to 11:30/mile. Before I know it summer will be over and the stresses of school will be back to torture me!

Challenge

Well, Team Bigfoot did not win the summer shape-up challenge.  We finished in third place out of nine teams, which isn't too bad, but I was really hoping for that $600!  I have a TV in my living room that goes wacky on me all the time now and I was hoping to replace it but I guess I'll have to wait until November for the Black Friday deals.  Even though we didn't win the challenge, I did lose weight, and that's all that matters.  So far this month I've lost 3.2 pounds and I'm hoping for a total of 5 pounds by the end of the month.  I also have the goal of running 6 miles on the treadmill by the end of June.  I've been pretty steady at getting 5 miles in on Sundays but because of time restraints I haven't had the chance of pushing it further for that extra mile.  I've been averaging about 12 minute miles, and honestly, right now I don't really care how fast I'm running.  I try to remind myself how long it took me to get to 10 minute miles and how often I ran every week to get there.  I spent a lot of time in the gym on the treadmill back in the day or running around the neighborhood I lived in or trails near by.  I don't really have the luxury to do that again, so I'm taking what I can get.

This week I joined a new gym.  It is a gym I've been wanting to join for years but haven't because it costs a little more than the other gyms I've belonged to in the past.  However, it is ultimately worth it because it has a huge daycare area, two studios for classes, plus one for cycling and one for yoga/pilates.  They also have two indoor pools and one outdoor pool that is very child friendly and has TONS of chairs to layout on during these summer days.  So, if I really felt like it, I could drop Josie off at daycare and then go layout/take a dip in the pool for a couple hours and then go pick her up!  Or I could be a fun mom and take her with sometimes and let her experience the pool too.  Also for joining I get two free personal training sessions which will come in handy for getting to know their equipment and free weights area.  Unfortunately they don't have any of the Les Mils classes, but they do have a wide variety of classes including just cardio, strength/cardio mix, or just strength training.  I've been wanting to try spinning and Zumba so this will give me the opportunity to try it at times that fit within my schedule as opposed to the Y's schedule which did not.

I'm hoping for another pound weight loss at WW this week.  I haven't been pushing as hard as I did last week (resulting in a 2.2 pound loss) but I've been sticking to my high protein meals and the only day I really splurged was Father's Day but I even made a chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert that was only worth 6 points.  Oh and the cookie I had last Saturday when I picked up a dozen to give my dad for Father's Day.

Redo

I started writing a post the other day and it somehow got erased so here I am starting over!

It has not been a good food week. I don't know if it's because of the holiday, celebrating Avery's birthday (she's 7! WTH?) or coming off such a successful month, but I've been living pretty carefree - or carelessly - all week. I've had wine, a margarita, nachos, pizza, cookies, etc. I haven't tracked my food very well (aside from my breakfast and lunch which are essentially the same every day).

I have been working out though. For the week I have done cardio kickboxing on Saturday, ran 3 miles Sunday, and yesterday I ran 4 miles and would have gone longer but the bandage on my neck became irritated (I had my mole removed on Tuesday) and I couldn't take it anymore! When I was jogging, I did average about 11:30 min per mile and it felt pretty good. I think if I can regroup and get past the holiday eating I should be in good shape this month. It's been a long time since running felt natural and it's such a great feeling that I want to keep it!

Changes

My two weigh-ins this week did not bring great news. I was up .2 on both scales with no extra lean muscle gained according to the scale at the summer shape-up challenge gym. Since I didn't have an official weigh-in last week, I think I'm actually down (since I'm pretty sure I gained that week) but I don't have it documented. I was told by a little birdie though that Lynn and I have a good chance to win this challenge so I'm stepping it up.

I really stepped up my workouts last week (thus the disappointment on the scale) but I haven't really made food changes, at least until this past week. First let me share my workouts: Sunday: jogged 5 miles
Monday: Total Body Burn (45 minute weight lifting interval training)
Tuesday: Total Body Burn
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: I was supposed to go to Total Body Burn (TBB) but had the wrong time in my head and showed up 30 minutes into the class
Friday: walked 3 miles in the neighborhood pushing Josie (which is harder than you think!)
Saturday: TBB

Then yesterday I jogged 5 miles again and I'm planning to go to the class Metabolic Blast tonight, which is similar to TBB but more cardio bases.

And for the food: I'm giving up my morning cereal and I'm going to shoot for more protein for breakfast. Today I had a Smart Ones breakfast sandwich. I think I'm going to also have a banana to help tide me over. Other things I plan on trying are Greek yogurt (plain$ with fruit and nuts, scrambled egg whites (for when I have time and energy to cook), and either hamburger patties or turkey burger patties (at Steph's suggestion). She also suggested leftovers in the morning. I'm also giving up my coffee creamer. I used to always drink my coffee with skim milk and a little sweet and low but somewhere along the way I became addicted to creamer!

I also made a little discovery at HyVee's health market: 50 calorie soft wraps that are only one point and tasty! I've been enjoying them with laughing cow cheese and a limitless lunch meat for a 2 point snack. I'm also going to try them with bell pepper strips or shredded carrots. Yesterday I had them wrapped around my turkey sausages for dinner instead of a bun. Less carbs and sugar!

My next step is giving up my nightly WW ice cream bar. It's not horrible for me and I will still enjoy one every once in a while, but my new dessert will be some berries with fat free whipped cream.

And here is my new obsession: PB2 in my smoothies.

Here's my favorite:
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp PB2 (or PB2 with chocolate)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder

Blend and enjoy! For some reason I really like peanut butter and blueberries (pb on a blueberry bagel is an old favorite) so I understand this might not be for everyone. I also have added in frozen banana for extra sweetness. This adds up to 4 points and a filling lunch!