Kari’s Blog

Well, I weighed-in this morning and was not too surprised to see that I only maintained exactly the same weight from my last weigh-in.  While I have been exercising almost every day, and staying in my calorie range on most days, I did have some splurges this weekend due to my plans & schedules causing me to eat out more often than I normally would.  I didn’t go overwhelmingly crazy, but obviously it didn’t keep me on track to a loss. 

Oddly, I’m not that disturbed by this.  I’ve lost 2 lbs the past 2 weeks in a row, so maintaining isn’t actually that bad - I’ve still lost 4lbs in 3 weeks which is healthy and fine with me!

I’m excited to get my new exercise DVD’s from Amazon - I hope they arrive soon!  I love going for my runs and I will definitely keep doing that, but I think some variety is good too.  Trying on wedding dresses this weekend involved standing around in my skivvies in front of some LARGE, FULL LENGTH mirrors, and seeing it ‘all hang out’ like that was a good reality check and a reminder that even though I’ve lost quite a bit and am on the right track, there’s still some work to be done!  So I am determined not to fall into a complacent trap where I simply maintain - I want to get to my ultimate goal.  And I will!

I am looking forward to hearing from Jo on how her half-marathon went yesterday!  I bet she rocked it.  And reading about Jhonica’s FIVE POUND LOSS after she struggled with a plateau for several weeks was definitely an inspiration that will help me through my “one-week plateau”! :)  Have a good day, buddies!

I took Friday off to go dress shopping with my mom, so I had a nice 3 day weekend - 3 days is so much better than 2!! :) 

I found a dress I’m absolutely in love with, here’s a link to it but it’s about a thousand times prettier in “real life” than it looks online:

http://www.brides.com/fashion/dresses/gallery/vendor/detail/126938?page=1&ff=Bride&f=Wedding+Gown+Designer%3aMikaella&max=Wedding+Gown+Designer&offset=5

Anyway, aside from dress shopping (which is SO fun, I wish I could do it every weekend ), we went out last night with some friends for their birthday celebration.  We went to a few bars, and I had water only (it helped that I was driving, so didn’t have to worry about being tempted by beers).  However, I had skipped lunch (bad girl!!) and so I had a big dinner - a chicken gyro with french fries, yum!!  I entered it all in my calorie tracker and was only about 200 over my calorie target for the day, so it wasn’t a TOTAL disaster, but still.  I should’ve gone for something a little healthier, and without the fries.  That’s why skipping meals is a bad idea!  I get so hungry that the hunger takes over any reasonable thoughts in my brain.

I ran 6 miles with a friend yesterday and 4.6 miles by myself this morning, so exercise is going fine.  We’re having some people over this afternoon for a bbq, and we’re making pasta salad and grilling sausages.  I’ll probably skip having a sausage and just eat fruit & pasta salad and try to make that my meal.

Ciao!

I confess, I step on my scale almost every morning.  So I usually know if I’m going to see a loss, gain, or maintenance when I officially weigh-in on Mondays.  Well this week I’ve been 100% w/in my calorie ranges, plus I’ve already burned 2500+ calories from my runs, biking to work, and a volleyball game.  But the scale hasn’t changed in 5 days!  I know it’s too early to call it a plateau, but I decided I need to mix up my cardio workouts since that’s the first thing they say if you *do* hit a plateau - change something and you’ll start seeing results again! 

So this morning I ordered two exercise DVDs - Carmen Electra’s “Fit to Strip”, which I’ve heard great things about from several people, and a beginners stretching routine from someone named Tammilee.  Years and years of running have left me verrrrry inflexible.  I am really bad about stretching before & after my runs, too.  In fact, I hardly ever do it.   This disc got good reviews on Amazon, so I’m giving it a shot.

I also am hoping that the stretching DVD will be something I can do in the evenings before bed.  Several of the reviews I read mentioned that there’s a ‘relaxation’ section that is good for evenings.  For some reason I’ve had a hard time sleeping lately, even though I’m getting plenty of exercise, which is usually the key.  Maybe a nice relaxing stretch at the end of the day will help!

Today we gave a baby shower for a gal at work and - you guessed it - there was cake!  And punch!  I had the tiniest possible piece of cake, and oh, it was good.

I must be losing my mental math skills though, because yesterday & today when I’ve finished adding in all my food on Sparkpeople, I’m below my calorie ranges - even with the PB cup yesterday and the cake today (and I tried to overestimate the amount of cake I had so I didn’t ‘cheat’!)!  I don’t know what’s up.  I guess I’m just satisfied with less now so I snack less or something?  Anyway, I’m going to eat another boca burger (mmm, soy protein) to get in my range.  I’m just worried that I’m not getting enough calories in on days that I do my runs - I burn between 500-700 calories on my jogs, and I should probably be replacing at least some of those in my eating.  Dunno.  I guess if I stop losing I’ll re-assess, but for now it’s working fine!

I am SO excited to go dress shopping tomorrow!  I didn’t think I’d be this giddy, since I’ve been married before and did the whole fancy wedding thing that time.  But now I’m really getting into it!  I’ll let everyone know how it goes.  I hope you all have a great evening!!

Tiiiiiired.  This cold is really taking the energy out of me.  Luckily today was an ‘off’ day from my running schedule, so I don’t have to feel bad about skipping a run.

I’ve been eating well, hitting all my targets, even though I feel kind of spacey from this head cold.  I had a craving for chocolate earlier and had a single Reese’s PB cup from a co-workers candy bowl, and that did it.  I’ll still totally hit my calorie targets so I’m not worried about it.  Plus I biked to work, and I’m going running tomorrow morning, and blah blah blah, that PB cup won’t even have time to settle on my thighs before I burn it off.

Today I called & made some appts to try on dresses at three different bridal shops here in town.  I’m excited, but a little nervous that I’ll put them on and not feel beautiful in them yet since I still have another 12 lbs to go.  Hopefuly I can put that aside and focus on the dress and how I’ll look in it on my wedding day!  I’m going to take some pictures at the shops so if I find anything promising I’ll post some pics here!

First, today has been so-so.  I woke up with a horrible head-cold, which really has been coming on since yesterday if I think about it.  Aren’t summer colds the worst!  I slept in a little bit and was thinking of skipping my run, but I eventually got up and went for it, I just cut it short to aboug 4 miles instead of the 5.5 I was planning to do. 

I also went to the running shop today and bought myself new running shoes!  The cushioning in mine was totally worn down, so it was time.  My new ones have all the stability I need in the arch but they’re cooler looking than my old ones , and a little lighter weight.

I have a comp day coming at work for all the extra hours I put in during quarter-close, and I think I’m going to take it this Friday and have a girls day with my mom.  She hasn’t been out to see the location we chose for our wedding yet, so I think we’ll go out there, have lunch, and then maybe do a teeny-tiny bit of dress shopping.  I said that dress shopping was going to be my reward when I reached 135, and I’m two pounds shy of that as of my last weigh-in, but Friday is the only day in the near future that I can take off for myself, so I think I’m going to go for it!

Now, for the subject of this message - the ultimate reward!  Sure, when I reach my goal weight, it will be reward in & of itself, feeling great about my body, feeling confident in my wedding dress and beautiful in my pictures, etc.  But really, I should get something for myself that I would never ever do otherwise - because this is a tough journey, and I should be justly rewarded!  Well, I was looking at some websites of photographers for our wedding photos, and one I found does, ahem, “boudoir” shoots as well.  It’s a woman and she had several samples on her website, and they are totally classy and h-o-t!!  So I’ve decided that when I reach my goal weight, I’m going to buy some super-sexy lingerie and have my own set of “boudoir” photos taken to give to my fiance as a wedding gift.  They’ll be inspirational for me to see how far I’ve come, and I think he will appreciate them as well!!

This morning was my official weigh-in, and I’m happy to report that I am down two pounds from last week!  This is great, especially considering my little run-in with the onion rings on Friday night , but I’m wondering if it’s a little artificially low, because of my big run yesterday and the heat.  I guess I’ll find out when I weigh in next week!

Yesterday was a bit of a rollercoaster.  We got home around 1am Sunday morning from our trip to Seattle, and I hit bed right away to try to get as much sleep as I could before the race.  I got up at 5:45, had two pints of water and a banana, and headed down to the race.  Standing at the starting line (which was on the pavement in direct sun), it was already about 80 degrees at 6:30 am, and I could just feel my hydration melting away.  I felt a little nauseous even, from the heat and from the lack of sleep.  The race started and I pretty much plodded through the first couple of miles, but around mile 3 I started feeling better and as we headed up the hilly section of the race I was actually passing people as we were going UPhill!  Then I started feeling great - confident, less tired, etc - and from mile 5 on I really pushed myself.  I was working hard, breathing hard, but feeling strong.  I finished the 9.3 miles in 1:27:15, so I averaged a 9:20 pace, not too bad.  Just think how I could have done if I’d actually had more than 4.5 hours sleep the night before!!

After the race we went to DF’s mom’s house to enjoy her air conditioning. :)  She made waffles and we had them with fresh marionberries and FF whipped cream - delicious!!  But after that I hardly felt like eating anything for the rest of the day.  It was sooooooo hot in our house - the thermostat didn’t go below 90 all day. :(   And the heat just killed my appetite.  In the afternoon I forced down a bowl of cereal, a string cheese, and a 100 cal snack pack, but that was it for the day.  I drank a TON of water however and stayed well hydrated all day. 

I think we might finally break down and go buy a window A/C unit tonight.  I was so sick from the heat that I could barely sleep last night!

Oh and to top it all off, I completely lost my voice from all the cheering at the games I went to Friday & Saturday.  Two days in a row was just too much for my poor little vocal cords!  So I tried not to talk at all yesterday and I’m not answering my phone at work today, just emails.  Hopefully I’ll be back to normal soon.

So it was a mixed bag of a weekend - I lost two pounds and had a great race, but the heat sucks & I lost my voice!  Here’s hoping the heat abates soon!!!

Well, here’s the thing.  We went to the bar about 2 1/2 hours before game time because we couldn’t stand to be in our hot hot house any longer.  The bar was cool and I drank a ton of water, but while there I just couldn’t resist a basket of their famous onion rings. D’oh!!  They were good while I was eating them, but then they sat in my stomach like a grease-bomb later, reminding me, again, why it’s never a good idea to eat them before a game.  Ick.  That’s what I get for hanging out around food for too long while bored with nothing to do!  Next time I’ll take some food to the bar with me.  I did eat dinner before I went (some salmon & brown rice), but it wasn’t enough to stave off the cravings. 

To add insult to injury, my team lost to our most hated rivals. :(   Now I guess I can tell myself that eating onion rings before the match is bad luck and I won’t do it anymore.

I should be able to recover though, I plan to eat very very well today & Sunday, and I have my run on Sunday, so by my Monday weigh-in any effects of the onion rings should be under control. 

We’re driving to Seattle today and I am taking a couple healthy snacks in the car as well as several large bottles of water!

The next time I’ll log in will probably be after my race tomorrow morning - wish me luck!!  Take care, my buddies!

I accomplished TWO things since my last blog yesterday.  Yay me!

First, I went to the work bbq function & avoided almost all the ‘bad’ foods.  I ate my Lean Cuisine at work before I went to the bbq, then I had a green salad w/ff dressing and a small (1/4 c) scoop of potato salad while everyone else had sandwiches made on croissants, smeared with delicious looking herbed mayo….a calorie bomb if I ever saw one though!  In the afternoon as we were all mingling, they brought out fruit plates & brownies.  I had a plate of fruit (grapes, cantaloupe, and pineapple), and 1/2 of a small brownie - it was literally like 3 bites of brownie, but it satisfied the chocolate craving!  I logged all of it when I got back online, had a subway sandwich for dinner, and hit my calorie target for the day! 

Second, even though today is normally my ‘rest day’ (no running, no weight training), I decided earlier in the week that since I’d be driving to Seattle tomorrow & doing my race on Sunday, that Saturday would be my rest day instead.  So I got up at 5am today and did a 5.3 mile run before heading to work.  I’m glad I did it this morning because it’s going to be H-O-T today!  They said it’s still going to be around 90 degrees even at 10pm tonight.  So running in the evening would NOT have been an option.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I feel so good about how I’ve stayed on track this week that I’m actually looking forward to weighing in on Monday! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend, stay cool and take care!

Today is another work bbq day….I swear, don’t these people ever WORK?!?? :-)  I brought a lunch to work and plan to eat it before I head out, but I know there will be lots of tempting treats at the bbq and I’m trying to strategize now how to avoid them!!  I’m thinking of actually showing up a little late so that everyone has pretty much finished eating by the time I get there.  Unfortunately these things usually involve platters of food that sit out during the entire even, so even if I get there after lunch, the food will still be staring at me!!

On a happy note, I took my dog with me on my run this morning, we did 4.5 miles and she was properly tired at the end, so hopefully she’ll be calm and sweet this evening. :) 

Oh, all you folks who are missing your AC?  How’s this:  I live in Oregon, in an old (build in 1928) house with no AC.  It just seems silly to have it since we rarely have 90+ degree days here.  Well, this weekend it’s supposed to be 95 today, 102 tomorrow, 104 on Saturday, and 100 on Sunday, 97 again Monday.  Yeeeah.  My house will be a freaking SAUNA.  Hopefully I’ll at least sweat out some pounds!!

Saturday we’re driving up to Seattle to see a Timbers game, then driving back that same night since I am registered for that 15K on Sunday.  Oh, and I AM going to sign up for that half-marathon in October, thanks for all your support, buddies!!  Your encouragement means a lot!