Day 788: Wordless Wednesday!
Category Archives: FitBlog
Day 778: Reflections on New Orleans
So unless we aren’t friends at all on any social medium, you may have noticed my awesome amount of statues from New Orleans this week! Megan had a conference in the Big Sleazy so I had to tag along for the ride. It was ridiculous on multiple levels. I had a blast walking around the town, checking out the street art on Jackson Square, exploring the little stores in the French Quarter…and then eating. So much eating.
Here’s what I learned on my trip…
Beignets and I have got a groovy kind of love. I ate them three times this trip…every morning. It’s hard not to just go down there and just soak up that quintessential New Orleans experience. There was something so calming about walking around a city before it wakes up, before it becomes the tourist trap that it kind of is. It was a delicious decision every morning to get powdered sugar all over your clothes while reading the local weekly newspaper and slowly drinking a cafe au lait in hopes that you wouldn’t sear off your tastebuds.
I’m more adventurous with food now than I have ever been. Although I think it helps that I was actually somewhere that deserves the label “a foodie town” (unlike Tallahassee…no offense Tally.) I tried some pretty exotic stuff from head cheese (Wikipedia it and the first sentence involves the term “meat jelly”) to rabbit jambalaya. Oh yeah… and smoked duck quesadillas, pork belly sandwich, pancetta mac n’ cheese and even duck confit ravioli. Like the beignets, it was hard not to just go nuts and try everything and anything that sounds rich and delicious.
Working out in a new city and while on vacation is a lot of fun! I’m going to do a big post about this later this week or so, but I still put 30-40 minutes in to exercising a day in to the hotel gym and running around the city this morning (although there is seriously nothing grosser than taking in a deep breath while running and inhaling the stagnant scent of last night’s vomit.) Granted I needed to spend about an hour or so more in the gym, but I still easily walked a good 5 miles a day around the city.
I have some awesome fans in Austin! I met up with Megan’s best friend Bethany who goes to school at UT which is where I met Heather. Come to find out Heather and her awesome co-workers at Capstar Parkers are big fans of the blog and have been doing their share of SAWSing it up and losing weight like ballers! It was so encouraging to know that I am hopefully helping people out there in the blogosphere! It really makes me want to be a more consistent blogger and to be more accountable because that’s what this blog is about. Thanks for reading Heather and gang! The next time I’m in Austin, let’s go for a run!
So I have no disillusions about how my weigh in is going to go on Tuesday. It’s going to be rough. But I learned from this trip about the importance of “treating yourself” when it is warranted. I truly feel like I would have missed out on a lot of the New Orleans experience if I hadn’t tried the local food which in this case is rich and delicious. On the other hand, eating stuff like cookies and a whole bag of chips isn’t treating yourself, it’s cheating on your diet and cheating yourself out of a healthier life. This trip made me want to be good so I can explore and try unhealthy stuff like on this trip. See ya tomorrow.
Day 770: Sunday Funday
Hocus Pocus is on. It’s that movie where Sarah Jessica Parker is transformed in to a horse…oh wait…she always looked like that? Geez.
So today has been pretty awesome here in North Florida! IT’S FINALLY COLD in the Florida sense of the word. It was in the mid to low 50’s all day.
Also, I broke my PR this weekend at the Trick or Trot! I ran a 27:01 which was 25 seconds faster than my PR and and did 3:37 better than last year’s Trick or Trot! I’m feeling really good about my running right now. It’s helping me stay focused on my weight loss, particularly what I eat. When I want to eat something unhealthy, I think “do you want to carry these extra calories on the half marathon?” I want to be as lean and fit as I can be by the big race in February so this mindset is going to help me out a lot for the next few months. Anyway, my next big race is on Thanksgiving. Doing the 15k (9.3 miles) Turkey Trot in Tallahassee. I’m pretty stoked. Good stuff.
Alright, let’s talk food. For breakfast, I had a SmartOne breakfast sandwich. Yum.
For lunch, we had a young pro’s event after church to get to know one another. I had a turkey and cheese sandwich, a bowl of potato soup and 15-bean soup, and two cookies and a small slice of cake.
We decided to rest yesterday since we had ran Friday night, so we braved the cold and went for a run out at Lake Ella. The wind was whipping around off of the lake so it was flippin cold, especially in my new Under Amour running shorts. (Yeah, they’re short…) Anyway, considering the wind and the first time running in the cold since last year, I ran a 29:22 5k which was still pretty good. I’ll take it.
For dinner, Megan made her super awesome mac n’ cheese with broccoli and then made her even more awesome pumpkin pie. Pretty delicious way to end the night.
I know this was short, but we’ll talk more later. See ya tomorrow.
Day 745: First Wordless Wednesday in October
Sick of the debates? Me too. Here’s picture of food I eat and stuff.
Day 738 Wordless Wednesday With Awesome Pictures Of FSU
Day 731: Two Years Later…
I can’t believe it’s been two years!!!
There have been plenty ups and downs this year, but I’m definitely back on an upswing. It has been a trying year: I went through a rough patch that made me doubt why I was actually doing this whole weight loss thing, though in hindsight the last semester of grad school was just a nightmare which made everything horrible in general. Anyway, a lot of awesome things have happened: I’ve destroyed my previous 5k records, I have become obsessed with running and I have been on an awesome weight loss streak that sees no end.
Speaking of weight loss, it’s weigh-in day!!! I was hoping for an awesome day of weight loss and I got it! I lost 2.6 pounds which puts me under 230 officially for the first time!!!!!!! I am down to 228.4. So in the past two years I have lost 128.6 pounds which is insane. That’s 36% of my of my original body weight. While more than 100 pounds of that was lost that first year, I have still been chugging along. I’m losing a lot more consistently now (after I met my hero Hannah Curlee) because I’ve just kept doing what I’ve been doing: keep the portions in check and keep moving!
Anyway, so I have laid out some goals for myself for year 3. I know things are going well now and I want to keep it that way. Your body does some crazy things when you lose a significant amount of weight.
So here is what I’m shooting for in the next 356 days:
- Breaking 200 pounds (only 28.4 pounds away!)
- Run a 5k in less than 20 minutes
- Run in my first Half Marathon
- Eat more fruits and veggies
- Work out more
- Be more consistent with counting points
Really, none of these are out of the range of possibility and some of them just mean I need to get back to the basics.
Finally tonight, I just wanted to thank everyone for your encouragement during this awesome transition in my life. Today I looked through some of those first posts and it was awesome to re-read so many encouraging comments. I had forgotten that I didn’t post my weight initially. It took me about a month to finally post my weight. I remember that I had the courage to even post my weight because of the support I was getting from awesome readers like you. I love you readers. Thanks for reading what I eat day-in and day-out. You rock.
See ya tomorrow.
Also, I made nachos with broccoli today. It was delicious. That is all.
Day 730: The Night Before…
I feel like tomorrow is my birthday…and not to get oddly philosophical on you…it kind of is. Two years ago, I took up almost half of the couch I’m sitting own right now, and I wrote a post. Yes, this post. While I’ll admit I don’t remember every detail of that day, I remember how bad that summer was and how with that much weight comes a lot of sweat, embarrassment, and frustration. I remember worrying about breaking a pew in church and having to scope out every room to figure out the logistics of where you could sit without smooshing someone or creating such a force while sitting on a couch that the people next to you were leaning on you.
There were many reasons why I ate so much. Sometimes it was because I was pushing down feelings, other times it was because it was the only thing that would make me happy. Other times it was much less depressing. I love going out to eat with people! A lot of my favorite memories of people are over meals, in fact most of my favorite memories of my family involve food. That’s just how I functioned. Also, food just tastes good. I love food, but I used to be obsessed with food. I would surround so much of my day around when and what I would eat. It was a sickness. It was unhealthy.
Now, I have scaled back on my relationship with food. I’ve recognized the impact it has on my health. I still love food, but I love my body even more.
Now, I love to exercise. Sure there are still days when I don’t want to run, but I miss it when I don’t. I still need to do more of it, and that’s a goal of mine for this next year.
So tomorrow morning, I’ll be stepping on the same scale in my kitchen that I have been for the past two years. It has seen me at my worst and at my best. No matter what happens, it will be a much different number from day one. See ya tomorrow.
Day 702: Wordless Wednesday in Sept!
Day Flippin 700
I can’t believe it has been 700 days since I have started this crazy weight loss thing.
I can’t believe that 700 days ago I made one of the best decisions of my life.
I can’t imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t made that change.
Over the past few years, I have heard a lot of people say things like “I’m going to make a change tomorrow” or “I have lost weight before so I know it’s possible, but I just can’t give up my [insert favorite food here]”
I think about how many times I have heard that and how different their lives could have been if they had just started that day.
I’m not saying that to be preachy (this is a weight-loss-pretentious-free zone) I’m saying it as a challenge. I think about this every time I don’t do the 25 sit-ups and pushups I plan to start at the start of every week. I have counted it out and if I had started six months ago, I would have done around 4,500 sit-ups and 4,500 pushups already. I would be in better shape and way close to my goal, but since I haven’t I’m further away.
This is why I’m telling you that if you are thinking of losing weight start now. Not tomorrow. Not after breakfast. Now.
Because this…
Looked like that 700 days ago.
Get to it. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Day 694: Weigh In Stuff
King of the Hill is awesome. That’s all that needs to be said about that.
So I knew that I wasn’t going to be down to where I was before our Disney trip weight-wise, but I was definitely shooting for at least a loss. I am definitely hoping to be back where I was and then some by my two-year blogaversary on September 18th. This week, I lost 1.6 pounds which is a pretty good lost considering the way I ate on Saturday (more about that in a bit…)
Breakfast: I had a bowl of Back to Nature Cranberry Pecan granola cereal. IT was delicious and filling. I also had a banana and drank a bunch of water.
Lunch: I went home and made a sandwich. The turkey we bought from Publix tastes the way Pay-Less Shoes smells. Anyway, I also had some chips and salsa with some Corn Flakes. I also had a Fiber One bar for my afternoon snack.
Dinner: I had some leftover chili from last night. Nothing too fancy. Then I had a banana before it was time to go for a run in Southwood.
Brutal Run: Today was one rough run. It had just rained so it was particularly humid. It felt like I was wearing a sweater when I was running. By the first half mile I was already covered in sweat. Today, I didn’t break any land speed records, it was more of a detox run. I ate a lot of junk (delicious junk that is) this weekend so it felt like my body was sweating all of that out so I could get back to my regularly scheduled weight loss. It also didn’t help that I was still sore from playing softball. My quads and groin were completely sore from sitting down all day so running was pretty rough too.
fun stuff.
Snack When we got home, I had some popcorn while watching Adventure Time (also an awesome show.)
So that’s all for today. Wordless Wednesday next. See ya tomorrow.