Thursday weigh in and running update

Today was my weightwatchers weigh in. My meetings are Thursdays at noon and I have a very sweet friend who watches my girls so I can go every week. Today however she was unavailable and my other sweet friend who I usually call for back up is out of town. The easy option would've been to skip it or go to another meeting but I love my leader and the group I'm in so I decided to be very brave and took all three kids with me.

I gave the girls a breakdown of what the meeting would be like. Mom will stand on a scale, people will talk and clap for each other, and if I'm good they'll give me stickers. They liked the idea of stickers and promised to be really good if I shared. Deal.

The girls were good for their word. They were seriously perfect angels the whole time. I had packed the iPods, snacks, and even bribery goodies but never had to use any of them. They loved it when I got a sticker for my 2.4 loss today! aw yeah!! And Teya was beaming when everyone clapped for me and she told me to raise my hand and talk again so I could get more stickers/praise. : ) I was prepared to leave in the middle of it if things got hairy, but we were able to stay for the whole thing and afterwards Teya said, "Actually mom, that was pretty fun!" Seriously love my kids and so glad they decided to have a good day when I really needed them to.

So yeah, down another 2.4 which is a big loss! Down 13.4 lbs since I started WW 2 months ago, and down 30 lbs since the end of my pregnancy 3 months ago. I credit the solid losses I've had over the last 3 weeks to the fact that I started running again. It's really made a big difference. Last week I ran 4 times. I did 3 two mile runs and a 4.6 miler on Saturday. I'm getting faster and my pace is now around 10:30 min/mile so that's kind of exciting. I feel like I have a million more things to talk about but I gotta get back to the kiddos. So, I'll leave you with a recipe and some pictures of my kids because they're awesome.

Angel hair with Tomato, spinach and Feta: WW points plus 8

1 cup of cooked angel hair pasta

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp garlic

1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes (you can also use canned tomatoes if you don't have fresh ones)

1/8 cup feta cheese

2/3 cup of Spinach leaves

sea salt to taste

Heat 1 tsp oil and garlic in a pan. Add tomatoes and cook for 3-5 minutes until soft. Add spinach leaves and stir until wilted.

Toss angel hair pasta in remaining tsp of oil and season with sea salt. Add tomatoes and spinach and the feta cheese. Toss until everything is mixed together. This is so easy, it's my back up dinner when I haven't' really planned for anything because I always have canned tomatoes and pasta. Really yummy and my whole family loves it.

They also really love this guy. He's constantly getting smothered by his big sisters. Such a good little sport : )

Working hard

Today was my weight watchers weigh in and I was down another 1.4 lbs. I hit my 5% goal, got a sticker and only have 15 lbs to go till I hit my pre-pregnancy weight. As long as the scale keeps going down I will take it. : )

Some people are blessed to have the baby weight just melt off them while they breastfeed. I am not one of those people. I work very hard every week to say good-bye to each little pound. I carefully measure my food, track my points, drink my water, and down my veggies. When I'm at a party I say no to all the yummy treats, I don't finish my kids' leftover fries and nuggets like I used to, I've replaced my old afternoon sugar binge with a workout, and I don't snack late at night. It's not easy, sometimes I WANT to do those things still. But every time the temptation comes instead of giving in I think, "what will I really get out of that if I eat it? Will it fuel my body? Am I even hungry? Will I be happy afterwards if I eat it?" Stopping to think about it usually changes my mind. If it doesn't then I say, "okay, you can have that treat, but first you have to drink a glass of water and eat a piece of fruit. If you still want it after that then go for it." 9 times out of 10 I don't want it anymore. And when I do want it, I eat it. But I still measure out the portions and track what I've eaten so I don't get out of control. It seems to be working.

And speaking of working, I did two 2 mile runs last week and my knees are working just fine :) . It is so therapeutic to be able to run again, even just short distances. Getting my heart pounding and my face all sweaty, I don't know, it just makes me happy. I also tried doing pilates last week. hahaha! My core is soooo weak after being stretched out during pregnancy, it was a pretty pathetic attempt. You gotta start somewhere though right? Maybe if I keep it up I'll actually be able to get through the whole video without wimping out.

And here's a little recipe for my favorite evening treat:

Strawberry banana smoothie: WW points plus value: 2

4-5 big frozen strawberries

1 ripe banana

1 cup of vanilla almond milk

mix ingredients in a blender and wa-lah! DELICIOUS low point, very filling treat.

btw I am a huge fan of the almond milk! I put it in my oatmeal too instead of sugar to sweeten it up a bit. Good stuff.

5K challenge day 1

Got my run in this morning while Teya was at preschool. I put the baby down for his morning nap, plugged Brinley into a nice episode of Curious George and headed down to the basement for a run. I miss my old gym back in Minnesota that had childcare but a treadmill and PBS kids has turned out to be a pretty decent alternative : )

I warmed up by walking for a half a mile then got off to stretch. I hopped back on and started jogging at 5.5 mph (10:54 min pace) My training schedule called for 2 miles today so that's what I did. I bumped it up to 6.0 for about 3 minutes and it was tough, but I felt good through the whole run and finished in 21:26. After my run I did resistance bands and some ab work to try to coax my long lost ab muscles out of hibernation. I know they're buried in there somewhere...

It felt really good to run again and the new shoes are great, although I thought my knee did hurt a little when I was done. I'm probably being hypersensitive because I'm so paranoid of getting injured and not being able to run again, but I decided to ice it and take some ibuprofen just in case. It feels fine now so hopefully I was just overreacting.

So that's day 1, always feels good to be back on track. And since some people have asked for recipes I'm going to try to throw one in at the end of every post. Here are two of my favorites:

Grilled Chicken Fiesta Salad:

WW points plus value: 9 w/out chips, 13 with chips

Ingredients:

2-3 cups Mixed greens salad

1/2 cup canned black beans

1 grilled chicken breast (I just sprinkle mine with garlic salt and lemon pepper and saute it in a pan for about 3 minutes on both sides)

1/4 cup reduced fat Mexican blend cheese

Fresh garden salsa ( I get mine at Costco)

Trader Joe's corn salsa. (best stuff, EVER!)

Tortilla chips (optional, I just use them for extra WWpoints since I'm nursing but the salad is great without them)

Load everything up on your plate and top with the salsa. You don't need any dressing, the salsa is perfect and gives it tons of flavor for hardly any calories. In fact, Salsa is my go to condiment these days. Tons of flavor for low low points. I bought 10 jars of Trader Joe's corn salsa and 4 jars of black bean salsa the other day because we go through the stuff so quickly. And speaking of salsa, here's another quick lunch idea that I use it on:

Sweet Potato with black bean salsa:

WW points plus value: 5

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato

3 Tbs black bean salsa

Wrap sweet potato in saran wrap and microwave for 5 minutes

cut it open, sprinkle with salt if you want and top with salsa. This is one of my favorite things to eat for lunch, fast, easy, delicious and filling. I'm sure other salsa's would be good with it but this black bean stuff that I get at Hannaford's is the bomb. (and if you don't have a Hannaford where you live then my taste buds weep for you, this stuff is awesome. Maybe I'll send it out to all my non-east coast friends for Christmas ; )

It's on!

Today I bought new running shoes. FINALLY! they discontinued the Nike Elite Zooms that I normally buy so I went for something new and am trying out a pair of Brooks Raveena 2's. I think they'll be great!

Also I officially registered for my first post-baby 5K! The race is 6 weeks away on May 21st. My goal is run it in 30 minutes. Kind of ambitious considering my current pace is about a 12 minute mile but I've got 6 weeks and as long as my knees cooperate I think I got this : )

It's been a good week: )

Today was my Weight watchers weigh in and I was down another 1.8 lbs! WOOT! When I started going to meetings 2 months ago I weighed 156. Today I weighed in at 146.6. I'm only 0.4 away from losing my first 10 lbs! YAY!

I know 10 lbs may not sound that impressive for a 2 month period but I'm really happy with the rate I'm losing at. I lost my baby weight way too fast after I had Teya and it really affected my milk supply. It's common to lose up to 20 lbs the first month after having a baby but doctor's recommend that nursing mother's only lose a 1-1.5 lbs a week after that first month. So that's exactly what I'm doing and my milk supply has been great and the little chub is thriving!

See, Just look at those chunky thighs and that double chin. : )

He's also sleeping through the night (8-9 hours every night) and he's not even 3 months old! My girls didn't do that and I swear it's because he's getting better milk. Who knows, but it makes me wonder...

Anyway, at our meeting they challenged everyone to walk or run a 5K in 6 weeks. We all got to sign up on a big poster and we get stickers every week we complete our training. Race day is May 21st and if we complete a 5K we get a little 5K charm for our keychains. I'm not gonna lie, I am PUMPED about this challenge! I know it might seem a little juvenile but stickers and little charms totally motivate me. You better believe I'm going to earn those babies!

So yeah, now I just need to get some new shoes so my knees will be nicer to me and then I'm going hit the pavement starting next week. Since I haven't been able to run though I have been doing my Slim in 6 DVD's and have worked my way up the the hour long workout. It's kicking my butt and makes me sweat buckets, but it feels good to get my burn on and when I feel like giving up I just imagine that I'm on the Biggest Loser and Bob and Jillian are in my face and yelling at me to push through it. Whatever works right?

So that's the latest update. Workouts are going well, I'm eating well and I'm excited to run my first 5K in over a year.

Falling apart

My excitement over getting back into running has been replaced with frustration thanks to some serious knee pain and shin splints. The knees started hurting last week so I took a few days off thinking they would get better. On Saturday the weather was gorgeous so I decided to re-asses the situation and go for an outdoor jog. As soon as I started I knew it wasn't going to be good. Sharp pain started shooting from the outside of both knees. Every step made me wince. I slowed my pace and pushed on hoping the pain would ease a little once my legs warmed up. No such luck. I had planned on doing 3 miles but after a mile I knew I needed to save my legs and turn around. The mile back was awful. I probably should've just walked but my overly optimistic side stubbornly kept thinking if I ran maybe it would get better. Wishful thinking.

When I walked in the door Taber asked how it went and all I could say was "I think I really messed up my knees." The next day my fears were confirmed when I found myself wincing in pain just walking up and down the stairs. On top of the knee pain I also got some good shin splints from that little outing. Boo! It is so disheartening to get sidelined by injury again when I was finally starting to recover from my foot issues. I feel like my body is falling apart and I'm wondering if I'm trying to do too much too soon or what the deal is! I thought I was taking it pretty slow but my body sure doesn't seem to want to cooperate at all. It's very very frustrating.

So now I'm not sure how to get my exercise in. Can't really run and not sure if walking would be good for my injuries or not. The DVD's I normally do are tough on the knees since they have lots of squats and lunges. If only I had access to a pool...

While I wait for all this to get better I know one thing I definitely need to do is get some new shoes. Mine are over a year old and I put a lot of miles on them training for the New York half last year. I'm really hoping a lot of my issues stem from wearing bad shoes and not just me getting old and falling apart.

On a positive note my weigh in last week went well. Down another .8 for a total loss of 7lbs. I even got a sticker from my WW leader. Little ups to balance the downs. : )

Running and Motherhood

So I'm on my third go around with a new baby. It's wonderful just like it was with the first two, and it's hard just like it was with the first two. This time though I have my running experience to draw upon and I have to say, running has given me strength and perspective when dealing with the challenges of having a new baby. I mean let's be honest, running, with all it's highs and awesome benefits, can still be really hard. Same with motherhood.

The other night I went to bed exhausted after a full day of taking care of all my little people. I told Taber I was so tired I felt like I was going to puke. Sounds dramatic but that's how I felt! Anyway it seems like I had barely hit the pillow when Cam's hungry cries yanked me out of dream land. I knew I needed to go get him and feed him but I was sooo tired. My body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. My eyelids felt like THEY weighed a thousands pounds. My mind kept saying, "get up and get the baby" But my body was launching a full on rebellion. I couldn't do it. It was like I was pinned down to the bed and just didn't have the strength to break free. That's when the running perspective came into play. I thought to myself, "you ran a marathon woman, a MARATHON! you made your legs move when they couldn't move anymore, you pushed past pain and fatigue for that, so there's no reason why you can't get your butt out of bed and feed that baby!"

And it worked. I drew on that same will power that carried me through those last miles of the marathon and forced my eyes to open. Forced my legs to slide out of the covers and pull my body out of bed. I walked to Cam's room and picked up my sweet little chubster and brought him back to my room for yet another midnight feeding. Just like running, taking care of a newborn is hard. But just like running, it's amazingly rewarding too. I can't tell you how good it feels to hold that snugly warm bundle in the middle of the night, when him and I are the only ones awake in the house and we just send our unspoken love vibes back and forth to each other while we cuddle. Pure bliss.

On the flip side, Motherhood helps me be a better runner. Lately I've been back on the treadmill and it's been painfully difficult trying to get back into shape. I've been doing about 3 miles 3 days a week. That used to be a really easy running schedule for me but it's been killer. I have to push myself through each quarter mile. "One more lap, one more lap, don't die, you can do one more lap." Then the motherhood perspective comes in. I think to myself, "You carried another human being in your body for 9 months. You pushed it out and it hurt like the devil. You juggle carpools, grocery trips, housecleaning, kid entertaining, cooking, laundry, sick kids and tantrums, if you can push yourself to do all of that, there's no reason you can't keep those legs moving for one more lap."

and you know what? It's working. I'm running, slowly but surely I'm pushing myself through it and every day I feel a little bit stronger and a little more confident. Running is great. Being a mom is great. I'm glad I have both in my life to make me a better and happier person.

Non- Scale Victories

So today was my weight watchers weigh in and I was expecting good things. I did everything right last week, tracked all my food, worked out every day, drank all my water, got my 5 fruits and veggies, etc... When I got on the scale though I was only down .6 lbs. I was a little disappointed, but then the topic of our meeting was celebrating non-scale victories and it made me realize that even though I didn't have a big loss, I still have a lot to celebrate.

1) I worked out every day last week and even jogged on the treadmill twice! Finding time to workout with the three little ones is tough. Sometimes the only time I have is after 9 pm when the kids are all in bed and I'm exhausted. Still I made myself do it and I definitely feel my body getting stronger.

2) I actually wore non-maternity clothes to church on Sunday. Sure, I had to stuff myself into them like a sausage but it still felt good to wear something that wasn't designed for a pregnant woman.

3) My girls asked me to make sugar cookies with them last week and I managed to get through the whole experience and only eat ONE cookie. That is a true sign of will power for me since usually I eat a ludicrous amount of cookie dough, plus several of the cookies and way too much of the frosting. So yeah, this time no sampling till they were done and I stopped at one. (patting myself on the back big time for that)

4) I made it through the entire butt section on my Slim in 6 DVD without wimping out or stopping. Those who have done this workout (Naomi) Know that it is SOOOO hard to do without stopping.

5) Someone at my weight watchers meeting told me I look great for just having a baby. Who cares what the scale says? Hearing something like that always makes you feel good. : )

So that's the update for this week. Next week I'm shooting for 3 days on the treadmill and hopefully will work my way up to 2.5 miles without stopping. We'll see how it goes!

Hello Treadmill, My old friend : )

I'm back people! I'm BACK!! Well, not back to my former running shape but I'm back on the treadmill and MAN it feels GOOD!! I'm slow, like 12 minute mile slow. But I don't even care because I'm sweating and my heart is pumping and every minute I'm on there I feel stronger and stronger. Getting my sweat on like that reminds me that I AM strong and that I can STILL do hard things! Woot! (can you tell I just got done with my workout? Still riding the runners high I guess ; )

So yeah, I spent almost 8 weeks rehabing my foot and it's finally well enough that I can run on it. I'm still icing it and wearing my inserts around the clock but it's just doing tons better and I'm so happy!

I started my work out tonight walking at 4.0 mph for half a mile. Then I picked it up to 5.0 mph (12 min/mile) and jogged for a song (3 minutes or so?) then I went to 5.5 (10:54 min/mile) for a song, and back to 5.0 for a song. Every other song I'd rotate between the two speeds. The last song was J-Lo's new On the Floor single (awesome running song) and it really got me going so I ran at 6.0 for the whole song. I was sweating SO hard and I had to work my tail off to run that 10 minute pace for those 3 minutes but it just felt so good to push myself after being sedentary for the last 9 months.

Getting back in shape is really really hard, but I knew it would be so I don't feel discouraged. It helps to just keep my expectations realistic and not to compare myself to what I used to be able to do before I got pregnant, but rather to what I could do when I was pregnant. Two months ago I could barely waddle 10 feet without stopping. Today I jogged for 2 miles without stopping. I think that's reason to celebrate : )

Slow but steady progress

Thursdays are my weigh in days at weight watchers so I'm going to try to at least post every Thursday to keep myself honest and hopefully motivated to stay on track.

Last week I only had a 0.4 lb loss and I wasn't surprised since I had majorly gone off plan and wasn't tracking my food like I should. After that I felt motivated to get back on course so all last week I wrote down every last bite I took. It really made a big difference and when I weighed in at my meeting today I was rewarded with a 3.4 lbs loss! My leader said, "Weight watchers is great because if you kind of do it, it kind of works, but if you really do it, it REALLY works." So very true.

I'm really loving the new program because there's tons of flexibility, all fruits are now ZERO points so you can eat them to your hearts content which means when you're out of points, you still never feel hungry because you can eat fruit. Also since I'm nursing I get a TON of points (43 a day) and it seems like I'm eating so much but the amazing thing is, I'm still losing weight, just slow and steady but that's fine with me as long as I get there eventually.

So yeah, along with being really good about what I put in my mouth I've also been working out consistently. I do this program called Slim in 6 from Beachbody.com and it's great because it has a 25 min easy DVD, a 45 minute moderate DVD, and a 60 min intense DVD. So far I've only done the 25 minute and 45 minute ones but I hope to work my way up to the 60 minute one in another week or so.

Finding time to work out with 3 kids is HARD. like majorly hard. I would do it early in the morning but the baby still gets up throughout the night to nurse so I'm just way too exhausted at 6am. I've been trying to fit it in while he naps around 9am but it's always such a fiasco. The girls are up by then so they're trying to do my workout with me, but they mostly just end up crawling all over me while I'm trying to do push ups and sit ups or hanging on my legs while I'm doing squats. It makes me wonder if I'm really getting a good work out at all but at least I'm trying right? Yesterday it took me an hour and a half to do my 45 minute DVD because I got interrupted so many times to change a diaper, wipe someone's bum, get someone a snack, break up a fight, etc... I just had to laugh because I guess this is my new "normal" now that I'm a mother of 3 : )

So that's the update, still haven't gotten back on the treadmill yet. The foot is improving but it's not 100%. I'm doing everything I can to baby it so I can recover and get back to doing what I love, running. Not that I could run right now even if I wanted to. haha! Pretty sure I'll have to start with walking but that's okay. I've started from ground zero before, I know I can do it again.

And just for fun here are some of the things I've been eating lately. Since lean meats, whole grains and fruits and vegetables have less points values that's what I eat the most of. It's been fun trying new things and when I do I get excited and take pictures (although some aren't that great since I took them with my phone)

Salmon, brown rice and stir-fried veggies

Slow cooker lasagna from the weight watchers recipe book. This was AMAZING! so savory and delicious and amazingly low in points. (camera phone pic doesn't do it justice)

Quinoa with squash, zucchini and grilled chicken on top and the famous weight watchers 0 point soup which is surprisingly delicious and easy to make.

And sauteed chicken over brown rice with broccoli, topped with Japanese ginger marinade. delish!