When life throws you lemons....

When life throws me lemons forget about lemonade, I'd rather make lemon meringue pie or something rich and decadent to drown away my sorrows with comfort eating. Unfortunately that's not exactly the healthiest coping strategy and at some point I have to put the pie away and find better ways to deal with my stress.

As you may have guessed from my lack of posting, life has been a little crazy lately. I finished up June feeling great. Worked out 6 days a week the entire month without missing one day. My runs have been getting faster and I'm averaging an 8:35-8:45 pace on my 3 milers and a 9:00-9:30 pace on my 6 milers. Even though I wasn't perfect with my WW points I still managed to lose 6 lbs in June and was fitting back into pre-pregancy clothes.

I started July with a lot of momentum. Taber and I signed up for a 10K on the 4th of July and after running a couple 6 milers I was pretty sure I would come in somwhere between 54- 56 minutes.

Well then life got crazy. Taber's Dad was in a horseback riding accident landing him in the hospital with 6 broken ribs. His mom was out visiting us and was going to watch our kids while we ran the 10K but she had to catch the next plane back to Colorado to be with Dad. Without a babysitter we decided we would still run it but we'd have to run with the kids. I figured I still might be able to come in under an hour, but the night before our race I received the shocking news that my grandmother had passed away unexpectedly.  I was up all night talking to my family and trying to find a flight to VA for her funeral. 

Anyway, long story short, I woke up on race day with very little sleep and a lot on my mind. Add pushing a stroller on a 80+ degree hot and humid day and all thoughts of hitting a time goal went out the window. I just took it slow and steady, stopped at every water station to keep myself and the baby cool, and came in at 1:04:01. I guess it's technically still a PR since it's the first 10K race I've ever run.

After the race I was off to Virginia to be with my mom and aunts and uncles for Grandma's funeral. It was nice being down there but all the wonderful comfort food and zero time to work out kind of derailed my momentum I had gained from June. 

When I got home from Virginia I dove right into getting Brinley's birthday party together. We did a barnyard bash and had a cute little petting farm with pony rides. 

It was a lot of fun but once again, stress + being surrounded with yummy naughty food derailed my dieting efforts and I ate WAY too much party food and barnyard cake.

It's been a week since all that madness and I still can't stop stress/comfort eating. I think letting myself eat all that fried food and sugar just triggered my cravings for it again and I'm getting a little out of control. I'm up 3 lbs, which stinks after all that hard work I did to lose them in the first place!

So anyway, I'm rededicating myself (something I have to do quite often) and getting back into gear.

I signed up for the Applefest Half marathon on Oct. 1st and am pretty sure I'll also do the Run to the Rock half on Sept 10th as kind of a tune up for the Applefest. I hammered out a training schedule and I'm ready to put away the pie and make lemonade. 

Here's my training schedule for the next 11 weeks. I promise to try to check in more and be better about keeping the blog updated with my training.  

Good and not so good.

So I haven't posted in awhile mostly because I've been so bipolar with my exercise and eating habits.

On one hand I have been on fire with my workouts. I've worked out 6 days a week for this entire month and even though it's been a huge challenge I haven't' missed once! I've been upping my mileage and just really feeling awesome about my progress on the fitness side of things.

On the eating side though I have been sucking big time. Maybe it's because I'm working out so much. All I know is that I've pretty much been stuffing my face like a starving animal and I haven't' exactly been making the best food choices either, (as in chocolate and sugar overload.) When I eat that much junk food I just feel gross and I feel like I'm totally negating all the good I'm doing with my exercise.

Anyway, I totally skipped my WW meeting last week because I hadn't been doing the plan and I didn't want to face the scale. When I don't want to go is probably when I need to go the most, and I know that even though I've still been off plan this week I have to go back on Thursday and get the kick in the pants I need to get me back on track.

So yeah, that's the update. Exercise has been good, eating, not so good. Hopefully I can reel it in soon and get back on track.

Rib Fest, Father's Day, Shred and Fevers....

I got off plan a little this weekend thanks to the Rockin' Rib Fest where I found the award winning ribs too hard to resist. That and they had homemade birthday cake ice cream with actual swirls of buttercream frosting! It was heaven in a waffle cone and worth every indulgent WW point it cost me to eat it.

(Taber and the kidlets on Father's Day)

I also ate a little more than usual on Father's day, partly because I was in charge of making cookies for all the Dads at church on Sunday and it's hard to bake 80+ delicious smelling cookies and not eat 4 or 5 of them yourself.  So that was that. I own it, and it may come back to bite me at my weigh in this week but I don't care, totally worth it!!

And speaking of weigh in's, last Thursday I was down another .8. Not quite a pound but close enough. I'm just glad I'm over the plateau from last month and that the scale is going downward, even if it is in tiny increments every week : )

I had a good week as far as workouts go:

Monday: Shred level 2
Tuesday: Shred level 2 and 3 miles on the treadmill, 8:41 pace
Wednesday Shred level 2
Thursday: Shred level 2 and 2.3 miles on the treadmill, 8:35 pace
Friday: Shred level 2
Saturday: 6 miles outside, 10:00 minute pace

I'm proud of myself for moving up to level 2 on Jillian's 30 day Shred DVD. It is a BUTT KICKER and I seriously want to cry when I'm doing it. I have to follow Anita (the girl doing the modified easier stuff) because I think if I was doing the stuff Natalie (the hardcore girl) does, my heart would explode and my arms would fall off. My goal though is to keep doing it every day until I can follow Natalie, and once I can do that I will consider moving up to level 3.

Saturday's long run was pretty brutal. I'd like to blame the humidity because it was disgustingly humid, but the real reason is probably just my own personal lack of judgment. I woke up Saturday morning feeling horrible.  I was achy, my throat hurt and I just felt sick. I felt like I had a fever so I took my temp and sure enough, it was 99.8. I got online to see if you could still run with a fever and I read somewhere that if it's under 101 you would probably be okay. Looking back I know I probably shouldn't have gone running, but I had already made arrangements to run with my friend and I didn't want to let her down, so I took some advil and sucked it up and ran.

The run was horrible and we had to stop and walk several times. After I got home, stretched, re-hyrdated and ate, I took my temp again and it had shot up to 101. The rest of the day I was useless. That night I woke up drenched in sweat and shivering from hot and cold chills. I was still running a high fever and my tonsils were bright red and swollen to the size of golf balls. I missed church on Sunday and Taber ended up having to pamper me on Father's Day instead of the other way around.  Feeling a lot better today but lesson learned, if you're sick, listen to your body and give it a rest. I'm sure I would've been sick either way, but I'm guessing my run didn't do much to make the situation better!

Exercise Recap

I know we're already half way into a new week but I wanted to recap my exercise from last week just because it keeps me honest and on track to have to report it somewhere : )

Monday: I did the 1 hour Burn it up DVD from Slim in 6.  It was not as hard as it normally is and I was just feeling bored with it. Definitely was looking forward to getting my Shred it DVD.

Tuesday: I got up early and ran outside before Taber went to work. I did 3 miles at a 9:14 pace. Here's the elevation and map stuff on Runkeeper. It felt good to run outside and it's always nice to get a workout in at the beginning of the day and not have it hanging over your head.

Wednesday: I tried to do the 1 hour of Burn it up but that was one of the days I had 6 kids and I just kept getting interrupted so I finally stopped after about 40 minutes of it.

Thursday: Teya came down with a raging fever and the girl who never naps took a 5 hour nap!! So while she was sleeping I brought Brinley and Cam downstairs with me and did a speedy 3 miler on the treadmill (8:39 pace) Cam just sat in his swing and watched me. I think he actually liked it. And Brinley played with her toys and the baby. I was surprised at how well they both did and having them down there made me go faster because I wanted to finish before their attention spans maxed out.

My basement running buddies

Friday: My Shred it DVD arrived and I did level 1. It was awesome!

Saturday: Ran 6 miles outside at a 9:55 pace with my buddy Kendall who had a baby a week before I had Cam. We're both training for the Applefest half marathon in October so it's fun to have a running partner training for the same race and at the exact same fitness level. We conquered a major hill and felt pretty darn proud of ourselves. When I came home I stretched and did level 1 of Shred.

Sunday was my rest day. 6 out of 7 days working out. Felt pretty darn good about that!

Five Things Friday

1) Had my WW weigh in yesterday. Down another pound! Yay! I know it's not Biggest Loser weight loss going on over here but as a nursing mama I'm happy with the slow and steady losses.

2) Taber started his marathon training this week for the Hartford ING Marathon in October. I'm so pumped for him and also trying really hard not to be jealous! (is that bad?) It's just that part of me really wants to be crazy and sign up for it too but if neither of us can walk down the stairs like normal people for 3 days afterwards who's going to take care of the kids?  Also with both of us trying to train for a marathon I think the time commitment might be too big of a strain on our little family. So I'll just focus on my half marathon in October and train to be the best marathon cheerleader ever for T's big race.

3) Tried out my Shred DVD this morning and I LOVED it!! It goes by so fast but you're working hard the entire time. It's perfect for me because sometimes literally all I have is 20 minutes so I feel like I'm getting the most out of my time with this workout. Maybe someday I'll even have abs like Jillian! (haha! not. Don't think my genetic code was designed for abs like that ; )

4) On Monday my friend gave birth to TWINS, so I watched her 3 older girls for 4 days while they were in the hospital, topping my kid quota off at a whopping SIX kids! It was pretty intense and I didn't have much down time at all to read/comment blogs, watch any of my shows, or even workout. They went home yesterday so to reward myself for being on Turbo Mom duty I watched 3 straight hours of So You Think You Can Dance : ) I'm all caught up now and LOVE the top 20! This season is gonna be good!

(Poor Cam and Taber were pretty outnumbered with all of these girls!)

5) Taber discovered a new sort of social media type site that we're having a lot of fun with. It's Tout.com, and basically it reminds me of twitter updates except all your updates are just 15 second videos shot from your iPhone. I guess that's how Shaq announced his retirement and now it's really starting to pick up traffic.  I just like it because Taber and I can swap really short video messages throughout the day that give him a peek at what the kids are doing. The site is still very new so it has lots of room for improvement, but the concept is pretty cool. It will be awesome once you can embed the little clips into your blog! I think they're working on it. For now though here are a few links to some of my touts:
My Frist Tout
Camden making the girls scream
Cam in the Pool
Becca's Tout page

Quick Update!

Last week I dug in as promised. I worked out 6 out of 7 days and stuck to my WeightWatchers points.

Well mostly anyway, had to indulge in some of this caramel corn goodness over the weekend. (don't be jealous Sarah, haha)

Still I was able to break through my plateau for a 1.4 loss and finally dipped into the 130's! 138.6 at my last weigh in. My leader said I'm just outside the higher limits of a healthy BMI for my height and age. 137 is the highest, and 109 is the lowest. We set my lifetime goal for 128. If I reach lifetime and maintain it for 6 weeks I can go to WW meetings for the rest of my life, for FREE! (as long as I stay within 2 lbs of my LT goal) Anyway, kind of exciting.

I also hit my 10% weight loss and got this cool key chain shaped like a "10" to celebrate. I worked hard for that keychain!

And while I did workout every day I wasn't ever able to fit a run and a workout DVD in on the same day. 30-45 minutes is about all I get before somebody needs mommy. I even tried waking up super early but the kids are getting up earlier and earlier with the sun so that was a bust.  Also Taber started his marathon training this week for the Hartford Marathon in Oct. so we're trying to balance our work-out times and taking turns watching the kids. It's tricky and sometimes it's all I can do to squeeze in a 20 minute turbo run somewhere.  

This picture is a perfect example of the craziness. Taber was out running at 6am, so I put on a DVD in  my room to work out to. I got 30 minutes into it and Teya woke up and wanted me to do her hair for preschool. Did that, got back to it and Brinley woke up.  She decided to feed the dog, right where I was working out. Than Cam got up so I brought him in and tried to finish my push ups and butt presses while entertaining him underneath me. Taber walked in to find me working out with a dog in my face and all three kids climbing around me.  He laughed and I told him to take a picture so I don't forget the craziness of this stage of life.

My Shred Video got here TODAY so I'll be giving that a go tomorrow. Can't wait! Also I have my WW meeting tomorrow and think it will be another good weigh in. 

I'll leave you with some yummy summer food ideas from my lunch last week

Penne pasta salad with mixed green salad and whole wheat crackers with Taboule.

Pasta salad: WW points plus 8
1 cup cooked penne
2 Tbs Newman's own light lime vinaigrette
1/8 cup garbanzo beans
1 Tbs Feta cheese
diced tomatoes
diced red onion
diced yellow pepper

Toss ingredients together and eat chilled.

Just bought the taboule from Costco, that stuff is awesome!! and the salad is just mixed greens with diced carrots, peppers, mushrooms and almonds with the TonTon Ginger dressing from Costco. I absolutely could not live without that stuff. Only 20 calories a serving and insanely delicious!

Time to dig in

So it's been over a week since my race and I haven't posted anything on here. Mostly because I've hit a plateau and it's never fun to post about that. blah. May has come and gone and in the last 4 weeks I've managed to lose only one whopping pound! *sigh* it's frustrating because I can only blame myself. I have not been staying on plan and as a result I just gained and lost the same silly pound all month long.

Since Cam was born I've made some good progress and have lost 33 of the 43 lbs I gained during my pregnancy.

Um yep, I was pretty huge.

 But I've still got that last 10 lbs hanging on for dear life and I'm ready to dig in and say adios to the maternity swim suit. 

So here's my game plan. Last month I ran 4 days a week and didn't do much else. Running is great cardio but doesn't tone the areas that have been stretched out from birthing the Chuberdoodle. 

So this month I'm going to workout 6 days a week with Sunday as my rest day. My blogging friend Lauren said that her sister lost all her baby weight from doing the Jillian Michael's Shred it DVD. So tonight I got online and ordered that sucker and it will be here in 5 days. In the mean time my goal is to do the Slim in 6 Burn it up DVD 6 days a week (which I will replace with Shred it when it gets here) and also fit a run in on 3 of those days. I know it sounds ambitious but it's better to shoot high and miss than aim low and reach your goal right?

Also I will be tracking my food better and sticking with my weight watchers points. Gotta keep on the plan!! And with that final thought I will leave you with my latest lunch obsession:

Turkey Veggie and hummus Pita: WW points plus 5

Ingredients:
1 whole wheat pita ( I use Joseph's Flax oat bran and whole wheat pita bread, only 60 calories a pita!)
2 oz hummus
2 slices deli turkey
handful of mixed greens
sliced mushrooms
sliced bell peppers

Pile it all together, fold and eat! So good!

First Post-Baby Race Report

Six weeks ago, inspired by the weight watchers 5K challenge, I decided it was time to start training for my first post-baby race. The first few runs were tough. I was busting my lungs to squeak out an 11 minute mile and 2 miles was my longest distance. Each week I added a quarter mile and slowly increased my speed. I ran 4 days a week, doing a 5 mile long run every Saturday, and was diligent in my training. The runs started to get easier and my speed increased. When I started training, a 10 minute pace was my "sprint" at the end of a run. After 6 weeks, a 10 minute pace was the speed I ran to warm up. That is what I love about running. If you're consistent, it's amazing what you can train your body to do.

A week before the race I practiced doing a 5K on the treadmill running as hard as I could. I finished in 28:11 min. My race goal was originally to finish under 30 minutes but after that run, 28:11 became my new standard to beat.

For 7 days before the race we had cool, overcast weather, perfect for running. But I woke up on Saturday and the sun was shining brightly, bringing the temps up around 77 degrees with lots of humidity for my 11am race. I hate running in heat and humidity! (for a girl who's done most of her running during Minnesota and New Hampshire Winter and Spring, 77 is definitely hot!) I started having some anxiety about my race but Taber calmly reassured me that I was going to do great and kept saying, "PMA, positive mental attitude, you can do this!"

We got to the race, I picked up my packet, stretched and warmed up. Taber and the kids followed me to the starting line and got into their cheering positions, cowbells ready.

The gun went off, I turned on my carefully crafted running playlist and started running to my music. The first mile felt good and I finished it in 8:45 min, but the humidity was a challenge and I quickly started losing steam. It felt like I was breathing in hot water and it was hard to push myself when I came to a little hill. By mile 2 my "PMA" was gone and I was considering a walking break. I ran by a water station and dumped two cups of water on my head and down my back. That helped and I dismissed the walking idea and kept running. The final stretch had us going up a big hill and onto the high school track where we ran 3/4 of a lap to the finish line. The hill kicked my butt and by the time I got into the stadium Taber said I looked pretty beat. But then I heard them say my name on the intercom and I saw Taber and the kids waiting at the finish line and I decided I had enough in me to kick it into the finish.

Taber snapped this awesome action shot of me pushing it hard on the final stretch.

My finish time was 27:26 min, an 8:51 pace. Mission accomplished! I beat my treadmill time and set a PPPR (post pregnancy personal record) Cam is 4 months and 1 week old. When the girls were that age I definitely wasn't running any 5Ks, so I was happy. Taber and the kids came and showered me with hugs and praise. It felt good to be back. Maybe not back to the shape or speed I was at last year, but back in the game : )

At the finish line with the kiddos, who also happen to be my biggest motivation and the best cheerleading squad ever! (Taber's not in the picture since he was behind the camera but he is a huge part of that motivation and support and I couldn't do any of it without him)

The frosting on the cake was the lunch they had for the runners with food catered from Carraba's, T-bone's, The Crab King, and Panera. They had amazing tomato basil and minestrone soups, fabulous lasagna, chicken nuggets and fries, bagels and cream cheese, bananas, grapes, yogurt and drinks. best finish line food I've ever had, and this was just a for a 12K/5K event! They let everyone get the food, so we fed our entire family on a $15 race registration fee! Can't beat that! : )

Back from the Vineyard and Trying to get back on plan

When it comes to disciplined eating I can be pretty dang good when I want to be. Put the most tempting thing in front of me and I won't even flinch.

But we all have our weaknesses, and mine is vacation eating. When I go on vacation my discipline goes on vacay too. So yeah, let's just that Martha's Vineyard was amazing, and my calorie consumption was amazing as well : )

Taber's company paid for "professional" babysitters to watch our kids so we could go out to a fancy dinner with his leadership team. Fancy food is another weakness. It just seems like if someone is paying that much for your dinner, you should eat all of it right?

And you've GOT to have dessert. Vacation without dessert is just wrong.

So yes, I didn't go to my WW meeting last week, I didn't count any points, and I didn't dare step on a scale because I'd rather not know what was going on with those numbers : )

I DID manage to fit two runs in while we were there. a short 2 miler on the treadmill and a 5 mile run outside. Martha's Vineyard has tons of great running trails and it's super flat, so I felt like I was hauling and really loved running outside.

I also ran around with the kids on the beach so that's gotta count for something too. I'm counting it anyway ; )

Now that we're home though I'm trying to get back on plan. It's been hard. We were eating out for almost every meal so your stomach gets stretched out and you start getting used to salty, fried, and fatty foods again. And the sugar, oh the sugar!! Boy did I got hooked on that stuff again. We got home on Sunday and I've had dessert every night since (and we're talking real desserts like cheesecake and cookies) yeah, gotta get that under control again too. Basically I'm okay with the fact that I splurged on our trip and ate what I wanted without stressing out. But now that we're home I really want to reel it in and get back under control. Not to mention my race is this Saturday so it's probably good if I'm eating healthier for that. Gotta do it.

Exercise summary for last week:

Monday: ran 3.1 miles on treadmill 9:05 pace

Thursday: ran 2 miles on treadmill 9:45 pace

Saturday: ran 5 miles outside 9:26 pace

And here's a quick and easy lunch idea:

Mushroom and onion quesadilla: Weight watchers points plus: 5

1 whole wheat flour tortilla

1/4 cup reduced fat Mexican blend cheese

2-3 mushrooms sliced

1/4 cup diced onion

salt to taste

Spray pan with butter spray and saute mushrooms and onions adding salt to taste if you want.

Fill tortilla with cheese and mushroom/onion mix. Cook in pan on both sides till cheese is melted and tortilla is crisp. Serve with salsa. YUM!

Weekend Festivities

Had another solid running week then capped it off by partying hard with el Guapo and los ninos.

That's right, my kids are 1/8th Mexican so we couldn't let the day go by without a little fiesta ; ) I busted out the old decorations from my Spanish teaching days, plus a few new ones from iParty and put on a little Merengue music.

Taber picked up some Mexican food from La Carreta and the party was on!

We kept the good times rolling on Friday by heading up to Lake Winnipesaukee for Taber's first race of the season. He did the Big Lake half marathon in Alton, NH and it was such a fun and well organized race! The course was challenging with lots of hills but Taber did awesome and finished in 1:50:56. Go T! (Full race report will be on the family blog later this week for those of you who follow both blogs)

Teya and Brinley got into the action too and finished their first 1K. Brinley came in dead last but look how happy she is to have that medal! I was a proud mama ; )

And Cam was there for all the fun too, even if he did sleep through most of it. Here's a pic of his newest trick. Big Boy Camden sitting up in the Bumbo. He'll be 4 months old next week! How has 4 months gone by already?

Anyway, lots of fun staying up in the white mountains and even with our little road trip I did pretty good staying on plan (minus the kettle corn and a few of Taber's buffalo wings, too good to resist!)

We're off to Martha's Vineyard for 4 days on Wednesday so hopefully I can keep it up. Hard to be good when you're in a hotel but our room does have a kitchenette so I'll be bringing all my fav foods to help me stay on track : )

Exercise Summary for last week:

Monday: ran 2.75 miles on treadmill 9:09 pace

Tuesday: 30 minutes of pilates

Wednesday: ran 2.5 miles on treadmill 9:13 pace. 20 minutes of resistance bands and yoga

Friday: ran 3 miles on treadmill 9:08 pace

Saturday: ran 5 miles on treadmill 9:24 pace

(hardest run ever! Did it late at night after driving back from Alton and eating not so great food. Felt awful during the run but proud of myself afterwards for getting it done!)

How'd your weekend go? Any tips for eating healthy and fitting in exercise on vacation?