Tape Measure Gate Redux

Eight weeks was obviously enough time for the tape measure to make a difference as there was a change in my measurements.  (Although I did check two different tapes and they were slight variations but nothing that would make an impact to my outcome unfortunately.)

Waist - lost 1.5 inches/4 cm

Hips - lost 1 inch/3 cm

Chest - lost 1.5 inches/4 cm

There was no change in my neck, arm or calf which I thought was a little strange.  Except for my calf.  I have always had great calves and think they are my best feature.

They look good, right?

Are those fingers or chunky sausages?

I have very small hands and chunky monkey fingers.  So imagine my surprise today when I went to reach for a cup and my ring flew off my finger!  It actually came off three times today.

It never even dawned on me that as I lose weight I would need a Tiffany budget for new rings.  (I do have a Tiffany budget for rewards but that is different.)  As I need to buy new clothes I am going to need to buy new jewelry.

I will never be that weight again

Tonight on the Biggest Loser, they had to climb up a mountain while wearing weights of the weight they had lost.  (If they lost 50 pounds, they had to put 50 pounds on their back.)  And they were all saying, "I will never go back to this weight."

But the reality is more than 80 percent of people who have lost weight regain all of it, or more, after two years.  Researchers at UCLA analyzed 31 long-term diet studies and found that about 2/3s of dieters regained more weight within four or five years than they initially lost.

So Depressing!

I should get a weighted vest and force myself to walk once a week carrying my starting weight.  Would this help me remember how awful it is to be at that weight?  Would it help me keep the weight off?

So difficult to lose, so easy to put on...

I have added a few pounds to my weight this past 7-10 days.  At first I thought it was beverage calories.  Now, I think I have been slipping additional calories every day and not really tracking.  And, then the occasional fun day adds on too much.

I am not going to let this freak me out.  I think if I can avoid a freak out AND get right back on track, that would be a major accomplishment.  My goal is to have a week of 1200-1500 calorie days.  Start watching my white carbs, watching my beverage calories and just track closely.

Too Many Beverage Calories

I haven't been tracking my calorie in take and I realize that I have been sneaking extra calories in - not being bad necessarily, but definetly getting an extra 100 calories here and there.  I think the biggest culprit is my coffee drinks.  This is particularly difficult as the weather gets cooler.

Each coffee is about 100 calories.  If I have 2 or 3 a day, that is an extra 300 calories.  That is my morning workout gone!  300 * 7 = 2100 so it is an extra 1/2 pound a week that I am not losing.

My new goal is to look at the drinks menu to see if there is an herbal tea that sounds yummy before ordering the coffee right away.  I am also back to tracking every day.

new goal - once around the track

I have been trying to up my pace to a 10k/hr pace.  This would allow me to run a 5k in 30 minutes!

On Biggest Loser tonight, one of the girls ran 400km at 14km/hr!  That is sprinting sprinting!
So, I want to run 400km this week at 10k/hr pace.  I know I can totally do this.  Right now, I am running 90 seconds.  It is a big jump from 90 seconds to 3 minutes!

400 meteres is once around the track in lane 1.
Ask me at the end of the week - I am going to do this!!!

No Excuses

I was really bummed out that after such a great breakthru last week, that I was injured.  But, I am really happy that I got up this morning and worked through the injury.  I walked instead of running and did what I could do. That was a really big lesson at Biggest Loser.

I saw the Osteo and he fixed me up so, no excuses.  Back on track!

My Bum Hurts!

I have no idea how, but I have pulled a muscle in either my glute or my hammie.  (I think it is the absolute top of the Gracilis.)  Really struggling to walk.   I will keep icing and heating and see what the doc says on Monday.

The Sun Shines, The Angels Sing and a Rainbow Directs My Path to the Gym

Or, maybe I just got up on the right side of the bed.

I woke up early today (5:20?) and was not tired or crabby.  I thought, "I have a few more minutes before I have to go the gym."  And I was happy about it.  I was specifically happy about going to work out. I could not wait to go and work out!

Once I got to the gym, all 5 treadmills were taken.  This NEVER happens.  Usually there are not even 5 people in the gym!  I didn't care that my running routine was interupted.  I just went over to the elliptical and decided to do treading since it was Thursday.  So, I got on and did a tough, hard 40 minutes and loved it.

I am assuming this is a weird, off, never-gonna-happen-and-has-never-happened-before day.
But, what if it's not?

Normal Section

I am wearing my first piece of clothing bought in a normal section of the store.  No more Plus Size or Womens clothing for me.  I have a brand new sweater in Australia size 16.  (AUS is usually slightly smaller than US sizes.)

Did you think I was lying?

I told you I run ugly and mean.  The pictures are in from the Run for the Kids.  But, I am running TD in every picture so bring it on!

 I look good, calm.  Starting the race at a lose jog.  Get out of my way walkers!

 No idea where this is but by the color of my face, I am guessing I have about 2kms left.

Not pretty...but technical definition!!!!!!!

The FINISH!!! YEA ME!!!

And, a shout out to my colleague Tim who did an AMAZING job of running (real running, not TD) the 14km at 1:33.  Well done.

Hot Cross Buns and Bunnys - No WAY!

Since I was able to skip Easter goodies, and get a bit of exercise up at Golden Door, I weighed in this morning down another 2 pounds/1kilo!  YEA!  This gives me total of 46.6 pounds/21.2 kgs.

I was so energised that I got up and started the c25k from the beginning but running (YES, running) at a 10km/hr pace.  That is a 30 minute 5k.

Today is a busy one as I also have zumba at lunch and tap after work.  But since I have not been good with weights or toning, I bought a new iphone app and I will start it this week at home in the evenings.  It is planks, squats, blagh blagh.  All that non-cardio toning that I use to not like but now I love.

Nicest Dinner

The cheeky possums came up from Sydney last night to have dinner with me at the Golden Door.  The weather has been absolutely stunning while I have been here and for two hours during dinner we had a magnificent lightening/thunder storm.

Due to schedule conflicts, I couldn't be in the triathalon.  This consisted of 15 min run, 15 min bike, 15 min swim.  So, I did a mini one on my own.  The pool here is gorgeous and I will miss it.

Leave for the airport in an hour.

I Will Tell You a Story

Once I reach my goal weight, remind me to tell you a very embarrassing story of something that happened during boot camp.

Today's Schedule

My day is going to look something like this:

6:30 Tai Chi

7:00 Deep Water Aerobics

8 Brekkie

9 Stretch

11 Fitball

1 Lunch

2 Massage

3 Tennis Fit

4 Gym Intervals

6 Dinner

7 Sleep :)

Somewhere in there I have to do laundry.  I went through three workout outfits yesterday.

Boot Camp, Kangaroo Poo and Tarot Cards

What do these things have in common?  All were part of my first day back at Golden Door.

I arrived a wee bit late but had already decided that I would always choose the harder option for all of my activites.  This meant that I was starting off with Boot Camp and then Cardio Boxing.  The boot camp was really hard but a good workout.  The only problem is that they held it out on the grassy field which is where the wild kangaroos hang out and it was filled with kanga poo!  Both gross and annoying.

The evening ended with tonights lecture on tarot card reading.  So, if you want me to read your cards when I get out of here, let me know!

The food was great but I am hungry.   I had pasta with pesto for lunch and salmon for dinner. I could have eaten two.

I am exhausted and going to bed.
Full day tomorrow.

The Results Are In

My result times are posted and are slightly higher than expected. 


Race Time - 49:23
Avg Pace - 9.29
Finish - 6870 of 10,481
Female Finish - 4575 of 7196


Now that I know I can run the full 5K, I am really going to work on my speed.  I was watching Biggest Loser last night and those guys were pounding the treadmill.  If they can do it, I can do it.

The Devil's Salad?

Last night after the race, I was pretty exhausted and unfortunately, my tendonitis was inflammed (ok now)  so I was in no mood for the food poisoning/allergy I encountered last night.  I think I got sick on rocket. ???  Is it even possible?  This is not the first time I think rocket has made me ill.  Really ill.

I only had toast today.
My stomach is still achy.
Will probably skip all gym tomorrow as well.

Proving once again that exercise and eating healthy are bad for you. :)

The Devil's Salad

I am not hormonal but couldn't stop crying!

APRIL FOOLS started with an 8:40am 5.2km Race for the Kids.  Where do I begin?

I can't discuss anything without first pointing out my slightly ironic shirt I bought - a new Nike drifit shirt that reads "FAST."  Needless to say, I left for the race feeling very cool.

I get to the race nice and early to get to my starting point.  There are 30,000+ people participating so there is a bit of walking to do to get to your start.  As I am looking around I notice the posters of the sick kids all over the place.  And here starts my first tear-y cry.  It was so awful to see these kids in hospital beds smiling at me while I am waiting to run.

Now I have about 20 minutes to wait at my starting point.  I look around at all the families near me and realise that they are running as teams.  So, their shirts would say something like "Running for Ellie - get better soon" or "David's Team" with his birth date and death date on the back.  I start crying again.  It is so sad!!!  I was standing next to a family who all had the relationship of the sick kid on the back so it would say "Simon's cousin" or "Simon's brother" on their shirt.

I was sad until I had to start running and realised that ALL of these people are going to walk and no one was going to get out of the way.  So, the actual race was pretty crap.  In general, the event was amazing and the race was bad.  There was only one water stop, there were no km markers so I had no idea how I was running or where I was on the course and people were just all over each other because of the amount of runners/walkers.

I got about 2/3s of the way through and had the hill for the Botanical Gardens (not the big big hill) and Tom Petty's "Dont Do Me Like That" came on so it really invigorated me.  The last km was difficult as expected but because there were no markers, I was kind of coasting.

With about 1km to go, "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins came on and I cried again!  It was so embarassing!  But, I was just thinking of all these sick kids and what a beautiful day I was having and teared up again.

Finally with .2 left I should have turned it up but didn't realise how quick it would be done.  I think I could have shaved a minute off my time as I only sprinted the last few meters.  I am not sure when I get my official time but I think it will be somewhere around 48 minutes which is definitely TECHNICAL DEFINITION but I never stopped so yea me.

I met up with Jim and Andrew after the race.  Andrew took a pic of my running to recreate the race and have a race day pic.

It is a PB in distance since I started running again.  YEA!
I ran the whole time.  YEA!

I will wrap this up by saying that I did not do any fundraising for this race and now that I did the race I feel bad about that.  If you enjoy this blog, and live in Australia, take a few minutes out and donate at https://secure.goodfridayappeal.com.au/donation_v2.aspx If you If you don't live here and want to make a donation, email and I will make it for you.  It is a great cause going to the Royal Childrens Hospital.

When and where is the next race?  I am not sure but I know that I will be able to do it.

The Madness is DONE

Thanks to everyone for running with me in March to help me prepare for the Run for the Kids.

As expected, Scab was the running king far surpassing everyone else.

The whole thing really kept me motivated and I hope it did the same for you.