Week 7: Goodbye Holiday Eating, Hello Healthy Eating!

Week 7 was the last week of the holiday season and my last week of eating like a little piggy.

It was fun while it lasted, but as my jeans got tighter and the number on the scale got higher I knew it was time to get it under control. 

So for my New Years resolution I have committed to dropping the 4 pounds I gained over the holidays, (because believe me, when you're 5 ft 2, four lbs makes a difference in the way your clothes fit.) And then dropping 5 more pounds to get down to marathon weight. My friend who recently qualified for Boston said that losing weight was key in helping her get faster. I'm not looking for a BQ but dropping some extra poundage might help me get my sub 4. 

To drop the weight I started using the MyFitnessPal calorie counting app on my phone and it's pretty awesome. I'm aiming for about 1500 calories a day and the app just helps me keep track of everything. It seriously has every food you can imagine in it's data base and is really easy to use. I also like how it adjusts your calorie total when you work out. Like today I got 600 extra calories for running 7 miles. Pretty Cool. 

Anyway, here's what yesterday's meals looked like: 

( I didn't work out yesterday so I had to take it easy on the snacks, usually I snack more than this)

Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1 tsp brown sugar, 2 Tbs raisins, 1 Tbs chopped almonds and 1/2 cup of almond milk.

Snack: banana

Lunch: 1 egg + 2 egg whites scrambled with 4 slices deli turkey, 1/2 cup spinach, 1/4 cup reduced fat cheese and 1/4 cup of salsa.

Snack: Chobani Strawberry Banana Greek yogurt

Dinner: 7oz Salmon filet on a bed of Spinach with 1/2 cup of broccoli on the side.

Snack: Strawberry/raspberry smoothie made with 5 frozen strawberries, coconut extract, vanilla extract, 1/2 an orange, a packet of raspberry crystal light and 8 0z of water. SO YUMMY!!!

So yeah, I've been eating like that for the last 3 days and I'm feeling tons better and expect to see some good results on the scale next week. 

Training was good last week. We had a 15 miler for our long run and it definitely gave us a workout!

We stayed up late the night before so we could go to the Celtics opening game. Totally worth it!

The next morning we had a babysitter come at 9am and headed out with temps in the low 30's and a forecast for "freezing rain." I was nervous about the weather but once we got going it wasn't that bad. In the end we finished 15 miles with a 9:04 average pace. The course had a 997 ft elevation climb so we really worked for that 9 minute pace!

Also, my last 2 miles were 8:20 and 8:50 so I finished in negative splits. Woot!  

There was ice in my hair and as soon as I stopped moving I was freezing my buns off. I went inside and told the babysitter I needed her for 20 more minutes so I could change and warm my body back up.

It took 2 pairs of pants, a long sleeve shirt, a fleece jacket, and my winter coat to make me stop shivering.

Taber had even more layers than me though. He put on 2 shirts, a sweatshirt, his robe, his winter coat, and a blanket! I was laughing so hard when I saw him that I had to take a picture.

Once we were warm again we realized we were STARVING!! 

I started pulling stuff out of the fridge and making whatever food I could think off. I put some noodles on to boil for spaghetti but then pancakes sounded good too so I decided to do both. While I was waiting for them to cook I guzzled a coconut water, then drank a chocolate milk while I stuffed almonds and craisins in my face. Taber noshed on a giant sweet potato drenched in salsa and then we sat down to eat our carb-tacular feast.

The aftermath of our carb binge.

After we stuffed our faces we showered and then we were so wasted we made all the kids take a nap so we could crash too. We slept for 2 hours and then at last, we felt recovered. 

It was the longest run I've done since having Cam and it definitely took a lot out of me, but I felt great while I was running so I think the bigger issue was not sleeping a lot the night before and probably not fueling well enough during the run.

Anyway, here's the summary of week 7:

Monday: 4 miles of interval sprints on the treadmill: avg pace 8:03

Wednesday: 7 rough miles on the treadmill (ate too much junk that day): avg pace 8:21

Friday: Another torturous 4 miles on the treadmill due to crappy eating: avg pace 8:08

Saturday: 15 miles outside: avg pace 9:04

Hoping my treadmill runs will be a little more pleasant now that I'm eating better! 

Happy Wednesday everyone!