"Progress"

Hey everyone! 

I'm still doing my challenge- but I think it should be a "fitness" challenge instead of a "running" challenge.  My legs really aren't running legs yet.  It gets really hard on the joints, and I don't want to be walking around like an old lady yet.  Here is my journal from where we last left off: 

Day six:  I went a little bit longer today!  I ran for 23 minutes, and kept up with the warm up for three minutes, then intervals of 2 minutes after that.  I’m getting faster little by little every day!  My pace today was 13.29 minute miles, so I went 1.73 miles!  I’m hoping to be up to two miles next week, in about 25 minutes.  I wanted to push myself today to go 25 minutes, but I don’t want to push too hard and have to stop.  I also went to the grocery store today and got healthy food, because I gained one pound at TOPS today, and I don’t want to be doing all this running and sweating for nothing.

Day Seven:  I opted for the bike instead of a run today.  Running is hard on the hips and knees.  I figured I’d give them a bit of a break.  To keep up with exercising, I went for 35 minutes and did just over seven miles, with higher resistance on the bike.  Thanks to the running, I’ve built up more cardio strength.  I was able to do much higher resistance than normal for both rest and work periods.  

Day Eight:  I got up to two miles today!! I really, really didn’t want to work out.  I almost skipped it for a nap.  A nap wouldn’t have gotten me as sweaty, but I also am really proud of getting up to two miles- at 24:54!!!  I kept going, and did my last rest interval, for a total of 26 minutes, 2.07 miles.  I’m down to under 13 minute miles!! Much better than the 15+ minute mile I started with (or the 17 minute mile outside).  12.56 minute miles to be exact!! I am very glad I worked out when I wanted to do anything but that.  I made myself put on the shoes, and said I was just going to do a short workout.  I ended up doing my longest and farthest run (so far).  Keep at it!!

I am getting a little discouraged with my weight loss so far. I've been working out way more than I ever have (which was pretty much nothing), we have cut out all fast food, and judging by my "cheat days," we've cut out about 800-1000 calories on a daily basis. I've also cut back on beer- I didn't drink a lot before, but now I don't drink any. With all of this that we've cut out, and all the work I've been doing, I haven't had a lot of progress. I'm still only down about ten pounds from my heaviest at the beginning of the year, and have only gone down about three pounds since I joined TOPS. It's very frustrating!!!

We sometimes go out to eat, and I'm sure that doesn't help, but overall, we've made a drastic change in what we eat, and I'm really sad about the lack of results.

On the plus side, I've never been able to do a mile in 12.5 minutes, and today I did two of them! I know my heart is getting in better shape, and I am getting healthier. But can't I get healthier and lose some pounds?

Anyway, things that I've been doing to hopefully be down this week are: stocking up on healthy lunch things. We've been having turkey wraps on either spinach tortillas or using lettuce wraps, with soup or cottage cheese for lunch. We've also been getting back into our smoothie kick. I now know that I can eat lettuce wraps, and that I like almond milk. We put it in our smoothies, and I put some in coffee or hot chocolate when I have a cup.

I have also been getting better at recognizing when I am hungry versus when I want to eat. It gets pretty difficult sometimes to stay under 1500 calories, but I really do try! We have also been trying to take out dinner from the freezer in the morning, and prep meals before we go to work so we have no excuse to make dinner at home.

I hope some of this is helping with your weight loss goals!

Also, I've discovered that mobile commenting isn't working as "anonymous," but it works to comment if you are on a computer. Don't know why that is- but feel free to email me! eringesine@gmail.com