Yesterday Rocked!

 I really should be cleaning my house right now but the baby is asleep and the girls are playing so nicely that I'm taking a quick minute to document yesterday's awesomeness.

Two things:

1) Went to my Weightwatchers meeting (finally!) and was down 2 lbs!! It was so motivating to see how close I am to lifetime status. 3 lbs to go!

2) Taber told me about a local 5K just 10 minutes from our house that was going on last night and said I should run it. I was hesitant because I haven't been doing any speed training and it was 89% humidity last night with temps in the mid seventies. Ideal 5K weather for me is more like in the 50's. Anyway, I didn't want to run unless I could beat my last 5K time of 27:11 and I honestly didn't know if I could do that in the muggy conditions. 

Taber was Mr. encouragement though and kept telling me I could do it. He believed it enough that I started believing it too and said, what the heck, I'll do it!

The race was small, only 327 runners. But it was well organized and the course was relatively flat for New England. There was no chip time so I knew that whoever I didn't pass was going to beat me, and that was pretty motivating. I ran the first mile in 8:23 and the second mile was also 8:23. At that point my lungs were burning and the humidity was oppressive, like running into a hot steamy towel.  I saw a couple of older gentlemen in front of me though and I knew I could beat them.  I pushed through the jacuzzi air past the old guys and caught up with a tall middle aged guy with about a quarter of a mile to the finish. He didn't know I was behind him but I decided in my mind I was going to beat him and started closing the gap pretty quickly. As I came down the home stretch Brinley got excited and came running out onto the course. I briefly left my quest to beat the tall guy and slapped her some skin then I was right back on him as we battled it out for the finish. According to the official results he beat me by 1 second, but it wasn't chip timed remember? so Taber caught it on video and even though it's hard to see, I think it might've been a tie. Here's the clip.

Overall I was thrilled with the race. My official time was 25:37 (8:16 pace) which is a huge improvement from my last 5K and put me 6th place out of 43 for my age division. (On Facebook I said 5th because that's what it said at the race, but today the results online said 6th. Either way I 'll take it!)

I'm so grateful to Taber for pushing me to get out there yesterday. It made a good day even better and boosted my running confidence. And I know I'm all red faced and sweaty in this pic but when I saw Cam holding that little cowbell I decided it was too cute not to post! I really have the best cheerleaders ever!

Wal-mart ego boost and a double digit run

Last week the fridge and pantry got pretty bare because I could not bring myself to do a major grocery shop with all 3 kids. When things got desperate I finally decided to hit up Wal-mart at 10pm and just get 'er done.

It was pretty glorious shopping by myself and totally worth the late night outing for the low stress experience. As I was checking out, the cashier noticed the diapers, baby food and other kid items and asked me how many kids I had. I said, "Three," and her eyes just about popped out of her head.

"Wow you do NOT look old enough to have 3 kids! How old are you?"
I told her I was 30 and her eyes popped out all over again. "Well you don't look close to 30 at all! More like 18!"

Thank you cashier lady. You are my new best friend.

And her nice words kept coming. "Well it must be all this healthy food you eat. You didn't buy any junk at all! Are you a nutritionist or in the medical field or something? I can tell you read the labels because this is all such good stuff."

Disclaimer: I am nowhere near the clean eating awesomeness of many of you healthy eaters but I try to at least avoid tons of processed pre-made foods (except for the eggos, which my kids are crazy about so I buy them in whole wheat.) Anyway, it made me feel good enough about my "healthy" loot that I brought it home and took a picture. (and yes, there's chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in there, great source of calcium and um, vitamin D?)

So that was my little Wal-mart ego boost that made me feel young and healthy, even if I do get a little crazy with S'mores every now and again ; )
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Training went well last week. Not quite up to the 6 days a week I was shooting for but I got some great runs in. Here's what my week looked like:

Monday: 9 miles, outside, 9:11 pace

Wednesday: 3 miles, treadmill, 8:55 pace

Friday:  4 miles, treadmill, 8:38 pace

Saturday: 10 miles, outside, 9:33 pace

The 10 miler was kind of a big deal to me because it was my first double digit run since having Cam. I ran it with Taber and our friend Joseph who's running the Applefest too. It was awesome running with those guys and it made it go by quickly. We tackled some pretty serious hills and I'll admit, at one point I started having a mental panic attack and freaking out about signing up for such a hilly race. I have a bad habit of feeling doubt or anxiety during tough parts of a run but Taber always tells me, "PMA!! positive mental attitude! you can do this!" And it's true, the one thing running has taught me is that I can do hard things. So I switched over to PMA mode and willed my fanny up those hills. Even though my lungs and legs were screaming, I pushed through to the end and felt a great sense of accomplishment afterwards.

When we were done I stretched really well but I could feel the the old plantar fasciitis flaring up again. I iced and rolled it and wore my inserts all the next day. It's feeling a lot better but I think I'm going to need some new shoes before I attempt another long run.

This week I'm shooting for 4 runs and 2 cross training sessions for 6 days of workouts. Hopefully I fit it all in because I can tell my legs and core could really use some strengthening!

Time to Buckle Down

So I guess it's been a month since I've blogged. Oops! My blogging frequency seems to be directly related to how well I'm doing with my Weightwatchers and exercise goals. The better I am doing, the more I blog, (and vice versa). So my month long absence on here should give you a pretty good idea of how much I've slacked off...Um yeah, summers are tough.

I hate to say it but my awesome dedication to 30 day Shred has completely stopped. Haven't done that workout in 3 weeks. : ( Luckily my running is still going well since I kind of have to keep that up with a half marathon in 6 weeks, but my weightwatchers tracking has been non-existent and I haven't gone to a meeting in 3 weeks. yikes!

Last weekend we took the family camping (don't the girls look cute?) and I think I may have consumed my entire week's worth of WW points in one night of S'More roasting. 

As I shoved the 19th or 20th S'more in my mouth (I lost count after the first dozen), I felt the sugar buzzing around in my brain and the discomfort of being stuffed beyond stuffed and I thought to myself, "Becca, it's time to buckle down." (Naturally I meant AFTER the campout and pit stop on the drive home that included a mushroom burger, onion rings and coconut soft serve ice cream. Can't buckle down without one last hoorah. : )

So now with a month of gluttony behind me I am back on track! As in, tracking all my points and bringing back the 6 day a week exercise plan. I have 5 lbs to go before I hit lifetime Weightwatchers status and get to go to meetings for free! 5 LBS!! I can totally do this! Just got to buckle down.

Yesterday I ran 9 miles to make up for the long run I missed while we were camping. Even running on marshmallow fuel I was happy with my overall time of 1:22:58 for a 9:11 pace on a course with some serious hills. The run gave me a lot of confidence and made me think for the first time since I had Cam that maybe, just maybe, I could break 2 hours at the Applefest. That would mean I'd have to crank out a sub 9:10 pace on a hilly course which is ambitious for me, but good to have something to shoot for.  So that's my goal, that and to be a lifetime WW member by the time I line up at the starting line : )

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!