A picture is worth 17 pounds…

You can’t make anything more real than by taking a picture. The pants on the bottom are the one’s I was wearing when I went into Kohl’s yesterday. The middle pair is one of the pairs I bought (Size 20). They fit nicely. The one’s on the top are the size 18. They fit nicely as well and I actually appreciate the shape of my thighs while wearing them.

Today was a much better day emotionally. Not that yesterday was a bad day…it was just a hard day to get through emotionally (started out way low…ended up way high) and left me feeling exposed and sensitive. Up early this morning to complete the last run of week two for the c25k program. I’m going to go ahead and give week 3 a shot this coming Sunday. I’m horribly nervous about the idea of running 3 minutes. The thing to remember that if I feel it’s not time I can redo week #2.

I saw an interesting sign in front of a church: “Notice what is right”. I saw this on my way to the track today. I was a nice mantra to have while running in the rain. I spend too much time noticing what is wrong that I forget to think about the things that are right. Here are some things that are right:

• I have a loving husband that supports everything I’m doing on this life changing journey.
• I have lost 17 pounds while implementing these life changes.
• I can run 90 seconds (multiple times).
• I have more energy and find myself craving more time to move and less time in front of the computer.
• I am buying sizes of clothes that I thought far out of my reach.
• I am not smoking nor do I have the urge.
• I have saved 150+ hours of my life NOT playing World of Warcraft in the last month.

What are some things that you notice are right in your life?

144 Heartbeats per minute and perfecting my farmer’s blow.

I did two things this morning: c25k Week two day two and walked my dogs. I did not do these things together as I have since learned my lesson and am now making time to do them separately.  Here’s my time line:

7:00a – alarm goes off

7:10a – dogs let out for bathroom stuff, sweats / hoodie on and ready to go

7:20a – on the track. It’s quiet. Only one other person on the track and it’s an old person so I know I’m gonna pass them at least once and feel good about it!!! First heart rate reading = 110

7:51a – Done! Week two day two is complete. I didn’t get to pass the old person on the track because they left before I even got a chance to do my first interval…I really wanted to pass them but I guess their need to get back to whatever old people do at 7:15a was greater…NEXT TIME OLD MAN! Last heart rate reading = 144!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8:00a – Home and right back out the door to walk the dogs for 45 minutes.

For a recap – I exercised today for a total of 75 minutes!

The lowball estimate for calories burned (walking at 2 mph x 75 min) = 389

Highball estimate (walking at 3 mph x 75 min) = 611

I need to perfect my farmer’s blow. Urban dictionary says the following about the action : The process of plugging one nostril, and blowing air out of the other, in order to shoot out mucus. In order to make this technique successful, you must use great force, otherwise you will just look retarded when you have one nostril covered in snot and are breathing heavily in front of your friends.

I mainly just get it all over my sleeve trying to clean up after my farmer’s blow disaster.

Weekend recap, library visits and hello there 246!

Hello there 246: That’s right the scale said 246 this morning.  I’ve officially picked a weigh in date (Saturdays) but have a hard time not checking everyday.  I know it’s not good for me to check everyday because it can lead to some serious heartache. Today was not that kind of day.  When I got on the scale this morning I was pleasantly surprised by the number 246. That brings me up to a 17 pound weight loss since starting this journey at the end of December. I won’t be making this my official weight since it is only Monday but it was a nice pat on the back.

Weekend recap: This portion of the entry needs a picture…

Though I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing that outfit that was me this past Sunday. It wasn’t pretty but I’ll be damn if I didn’t finish the 2nd week day one of the couch to 5k program. I was so nervous to get up and out of bed Sunday morning. I’d been out the night before (I’m a sucker for the UFC fights at my local bar) and while I did count my calories all day Saturday and took the dogs on a long long loooooong walk to help combat bar food calories I had 2 kamikazi drinks (and since I know the bartender it was more like 4) and a chicken burger…fries jumped in my mouth during a really good fight but I managed to keep them at a minimum. That being said I was a little groggy Sunday morning. Nothing says stay in bed like a “greasy food, alcohol induced” hangover. Add to that feeling scared about adding an additional 30 seconds of running to my already “this is too hard” attitude.

However I made a commitment to myself.

I chose to go to the community college near by for it’s track. During my 5 minute warm up I gave myself a little pep talk and then just got down to doing the six intervals (90 sec running / 2 minute walking). Then it was over.  It wasn’t as easy as I had hoped it would be but not as hard either. So that was Sunday. My next attempt will Tuesday (tomorrow). I really liked the track so I think I’ll go back up there early in the morning before any classes begin.

Library visits: Because I am going to be sticking to a running only 3 x a week regimen I need to fill my “off” days with something else. I’ve put a reservation payment on the Wii fit but it’s not due to arrive until the end of this month. I thought I’d check out my local library to see what they have to offer. I was surprised to find such an array of dvd(s) I had to pick from. I renewed my library card and left there with the following dvd(s).

• The biggest winner! How to win by losing. The complete body workout. (Jillian Michaels)
• The biggest loser, the workout. Power sculpting
• Fat-burning kickboxing workout for dummies.

I have these for exactly 7 days.  I can’t renew them (I guess there are a lot of us poor fat people out there) so I’ll give them a try to fill in time between runs and until my Wii fit gets here. I also walked out with some good music to put on my ipod shuffle for those early morning dog walks.

Tomorrow’s anticipation and today’s revelation

TA: I’m excited to be moving on to the next phase of c25k. I’ve got Robert Ullrey’s week two podcast ready to go. I gave it a run through yesterday (listening only) while on the track at my local community college. I walked and listened to it to get a feel for the music. There were a few runners also on the track so I was able to gauge approximate length traveled for 90 seconds. I’m going out bright and early in the morning (dark still so no one can see me lol) and going to give it my best shot. I’m starting to have quite an appreciation for those people I see running. I’m watching their form and looking at how fast / slow they’re going, how much their feet are coming off the ground and what their arms are doing.

I’ve always wanted to be a runner but way to intimidated by the jockiness of the whole thing. Skinny girls in their spandex, muscle toned boys and their shorts and tank tops. But here I am sort of running and in no way am I “jocky” unless you count my ability to slam duck a pint of ice cream in 15 minutes flat! I wonder if any of those sexy jock-like runners were like me in a previous life: Fat but wanting a change. Tired but motivated to continue. Frustrated but committed to a happy ending. I wonder now if any of those people worried about sweat rashes between thighs that rubbed together or were way too hot due to needing to wear hoodie to cover bouncing belly syndrome?

Now when I look at people running I see what I hope will be me some day in my near future. I think to myself, they didn’t always look this good. I won’t always look this bad.

TR: I like moving. Not just moving from room to room in my house but really moving. Yesterday I had 90 minutes in between classes and I walked that track at the community college 7 times. 1.75 miles. I didn’t go to starbucks and sit around reading. I didn’t go home and play on the computer. I moved! Today is my day off from any kind of “exercise” and while I do look forward to having a c25k/treadmill free day I was missing something. I had a workshop to go to this morning and the entire time I was there I kept thinking about moving. I didn’t want to sit in that chair for 3 hours. I wanted to move. When I got home I did just that. I moved. I walked my dogs for close to an hour at a “holy crap my dogs walk fast” pace. I took them across the 6th ave division of my neighborhood into what is also known as “the rich part of town”…manicured lawns, large fences and not one dog in sight. It was by far the best walk I’ve had in weeks and I think when I do my c25k tomorrow I’ll head north (rich) instead of south (ghetto). I don’t care that the north side of town will see me running. I welcome it. FAT GIRL RUNNING….HELL YA FAT GIRL RUNNING!!!