Taking the Reins

Well, my cramping leg antics yesterday earned me a stern reprimand from Coach Martha. She doesn’t suspect hydration or electrolytes to be the problem— she said that knowing me, I’ve pushed my body too far too fast. What a wake up call! I’m not one for patience or baby steps, so I guess it helps to get knocked around every once and a while. I’m meeting with a sports nutritionist on Sunday before our lecture and swim…..Coach wants to make sure I have it right combining WW with the exercise we will be doing. (I swear I’m fine– I just want to know why I end up gaining weight on what equates to 1500 calories a day and lots of exercise!!!)

Anyway, today I didn’t count points, mainly because I went out to eat for both lunch and dinner and heck if I know where I ended up. Had a turkey burger at this “top of the world” type restaurant…..didn’t eat the ciabatta bun and had no sides except lettuce with a little bit of balsamic vinaigrette on my fork. Dinner was Chili’s…I ordered a mango margarita and took all the batter off 2 chicken tenders. Then ate 2 bites of the molten lava chocolate cake. I know! The horror!! It was such a bad night. (I did have a 4-point granola bar in the afternoon and a Fiberful bar, so trust me, it was plenty o’ food) But I’m not going to feel guilty about it, because I’m just not going to.

Will play with the table thing tomorrow. Thanks for all the tips— we will prevail!

so, so tired.

According to my journal, this is my sixth consecutive day of exercise. Yesterday, we hit the pool for an amazing swim practise. Imagine 24 Divas in 3 lanes, doing 1-arm drills while circle swimming. Yes, it was a circus! I did, however, learn that in triathlon swims, you rely most on your arms….kicking is only for steering. How about that? I need to save my legs for biking and running, hence the need to make a fabulously strong stroke. I have a long way to go. We spent a little over an hour and the pool, and that was enough for me.

Today, I did my mandated workout— 50 minutes of cycling, followed by 10-15 minutes of running. Our first combination of workouts. I hit the gym for my 1-hour cycling class, and made sure to keep the cadence up but the resistance moderate. I *thought* I hydrated well, but apparently not so. After class, I hit the trail and attempted to run. My legs felt like jello after the bike (totally normal and expected), but after two minutes, my legs cramped! Oh crud! I was out on the trail all by my lonesome, cell phone back in my car, no ID on me. I seriously was questioning my sanity at my attempt to run with so many bad things going on in my body. So I listened to my calves and stopped, turned around, and walked back to my car, hoping I’d make it without cramping to the point of immobility. What a night! I just downed 2 servings of pasta and am finally satiated, but my body is tired. Dead tired.

Tomorrow is my day off! Thank goodness– it’s been a crazy long week.

It’s been that TOM, as well, so I’ve been starving and hurting all at the same time. I’m not sure what I’ve eaten lately, but it can’t be good for me. Let me try this stupid table again. OK, the table is not stupid. *I* am, in so many ways.

Well, look at that. It’s showing up now. But now I can’t get it up the darn page. What’s up with that?? What am I doing wrong? Argh…..I’m supposed to understand modern technology!

http://library.princeton.edu/departments/tsd/katmandu/html/tbtemplate.html

Rushed home today to get in a quick run before turning back around and meeting my boss and team for dinner. I did a 20-minute run followed by 10 minutes of walking/cooling off, and I was pretty darn tired afterwards. My legs, recovering from sunburn, are now blistering and itchier than you can possibly imagine. Exercise only makes them worse. Instead of popping and drying out, my legs are staying moist and they blister and then return to normal, day in and day out. Just die already! I am sick of looking like a burn victim and being unable to shave. What are they going to say to me at swim practise on Wednesday when I show up looking like a Yeti?

Anyway, didn’t cover too much ground in my run. Maybe 2 miles? My knee is fighting me on this running thing– so much so that I had to drive with one hand while keeping ice on my knee with the other one on my way to dinner. I’m doing this triathlon, even if my knee is a messed up joint.

Sunday, I hit the pool for the first time in over a year. My first salt water pool, so that was pretty cool. Not sure if it’s because I’m more fit or because the salt water makes me more buoyant, but I did a continuous 800 meter swim after doing a couple hundred meters of warmup. Boy, was I impressed with myself! My time was appallingly slow, but when I e-mailed my coach, she was very encouraging. She said that I didn’t realize how fit and strong I really am and that many of my fellow Divas will never even see 20 minutes on their swim for the distance we’ll be swimming. She then assured me that mine will see marked improvement and that she can’t wait to continue training me to see where I go. Woohoo!! Now I just need to convince my knee to stay well-behaved.

I am signing up for the triathlon 2 weeks before the Pacific Coast as a warm-up. It’s in beautiful Santa Barbara, and it’s pretty quick and easy. 500 meter ocean swim, 6 mile bike, and 2 mile run. Right up my alley! I guess the waters are calm and the bike course is flat, so this will be a wonderful warm-up for my big race. Besides, hubby and I will get a weekend in Santa Barbara. What could be better?

Had a bad eating day. Everything I ordered got botched, but I was so mad I didn’t send anything back. I just shrugged my shoulders and ate, hoping all the calories I burned running adn swimming would be enough to counteract restaurant stupidity. Got a Greek salad with the dressing already mixed in, even though it has it on the side in the picture……then for dinner, ordered a lemon parmesan sole, butter sauce on the side. Shows up, and the damn thing looks like it’s caked in breadcrumbs, fried, and swimming in butter. BossMan paid a pretty penny for it, so I sucked it up and ate. It wasn’t worth it, though. Everything was unremarkable, which is a shame. Why don’t chefs realize that a lovely Dover Sole is very best when broiled and sprinkled with lemon? Why?!

Anyway, need to start over tomorrow. If my legs look better tomorrow, I may take a spin class. If not, I’ll call tomorrow my day off and wait for the swim on Wednesday. After all, we are tapering into our exercise regime…..must go slow!

So glad to have found you guys again. Keep commenting with your blog addresses so I can continue to check on you!

Earlier today, blogs.weightwatchen.com died an early and terribly unexpected death. All 400 weight loss blogs joined together by the work of “Roni” disappeared permanently due to a downed server. We’d been joined together in our common journeys for over 4 months now, so as you can imagine, the loss of the data AND the community is just devastating.

I’ve decided to continue blogging, under the same name, in my weight loss attempt and hope that one day I can reconnect with some of the wonderful people I communicated with on Weightwatchen.com.

To bring you all up to speed, I’m a 28-year old career woman who’s been on Weight Watchers for nearly two years now. I lost 35 lbs for my wedding last June, and I’ve managed to keep 30 off permanently. This blog is my quest to maintain and lose and continue to live a healthy lifestyle. The big news in my life is that I’m training for my 2nd sprint triathlon in September! So if my blog is a mix of triathlon training and dieting, my apologies.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to recover some of my blog posts from Google caches and copy them into my new blog. I’m hoping I can back date them! At any rate, I don’t want to lose those memories…..

Or something like that.

Today was the 2nd training session, and we met at a gorgeous park by the ocean and sat through an inspirational session followed by a lesson on cycling safety, cycling tri rules, and technique. Then we hit the road for a 30 minute ride to work on form and cadence. I was pleased to see that my mountain bike with road slicks was in the company of a few other mountain bikes. All in all, I ended up towards the front of the back, in back of the road bikes (I did beat a couple) and in front of all the mountain bikers. Did 8 miles in 30 minutes without working up too much of a sweat or tiring out my legs…..apparently we have to get out of the “push it” phase, because after the ride, we still have to run. Gee, no wonder why my last triathlon in 2004 was such a nightmare. Why didn’t I think about this stuff?
One additional comment on the triathlon thing. Everyone should seriously consider it! My group is full of skinny minnies, regular girls, and even larger girls who are wearing the XXL wetsuits and workin’ them! Everyone is on an equal playing ground, and anyone can finish. It’s that easy. And what a great way to get out and enjoy the outdoors and meet new people — I can’t recommend it enough for EVERYBODY!!!

Anyways, what fun. DH and I headed up to a triathlon store afterwards and I bought my first wetsuit. And you thought a bathing suit was revealing– you should try a form-fitting triathlon wetsuit! Yikes! I ended up tricking the saleslady with my size. She put me in a larger size at first, but I ended up fitting perfectly into the smaller one. Woohoo!! Victory. I tell you, I may have little legs, but my stomach can be a beast. Thank goodness the tri suits are all about fit in the arms, legs, and hips.

I didn’t eat so well tonight. Had 2 fish tacos without the cheese or guacamole, and I didn’t succeed in resisting the chips and salsa. I’m not sure what I ended up at for the end of today, but it was probably pretty darn close to going over my points. Anyways, tomorrow is a new day. Bought some gorgeous peaches and tons of lettuce at the store today, so it’s back on the wagon tomorrow. DH is working all day, so I may get a respite from Mexican food.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Time to catch up on all the TV shows from last week!

A 790 calorie shrimp burrito, no avocado, no sour cream, followed by chips. This equated to nearly all my daily calories in one sitting. I feel like crud, and it wasn’t even all that great. (Although major kudos to La Salsa for posting their awesome nutritional information online….too bad they didn’t have it in their store so I could make a more informed decision when ordering!)
There, it’s out there. Now I can sleep in peace. (Although I am still nauseous)
Why can’t I stay strong when I go out with my husband? Why?

21 06 2007
Does anyone else throw up a little in their mouth when they hear that? Does it conjure up images of torture? Or kids rushing past you? Of all the weeks leading up to this horrid event that made you feel like the world’s biggest loser?

Well, if it doesn’t, you were probably one of the lucky ones that I used to hate. But no hard feelings, for today I cranked it out and I have to admit, I’m pretty darn pleased to be facing this demon! Grabbed the hubby’s GPS, my MP3 player, and then hit the trail for a timed mile. Coach wants us to have a baseline, and the workout homework for the next two days was 20 minutes of running/walking….so this worked out great. I completed 1 nautical mile in 9 minutes, 5 seconds, which converts to 7 minutes and 52 seconds for 1 regular mile. Woohoo!!! Now, I was definitely dying by the end there, but this is a marked improvement from the 12 - 15 minutes of my elementary school past. I feel like a fine wine– look at how much better I’ve gotten with age!
……well, all except for that pesky belly pudge that just loves to make me feel all self conscious and pregnant.

Before I go any farther, I finally posted my mountaintop photo on the Photo page. It’s a little distorted, but I’m not so good with this thing here so it’s as good as it gets. Yes, it’s called Flattop Mountain for a reason!! But boy, the way up there was anything but flat.
So today was alright. I ate a little more than I wanted to, but I’m without a car (gotta love blinking indicator lights and the panic it instills in me!) so I haven’t had a chance to do any shopping. This week has been all canned/frozen/old foods, so no doubt high in sodium. Back in the 150’s. Big shocker there! My body is justing socking away the fat trying to taunt me with those 140’s. But I’ll get there. Just you wait.

Alas, here is the day:
FOOD POINTS
Coffeemate creamer 3
1/2 Brownie bite (darn you coworkers!) 1
Fiberful bar 1
Granola Bar 3
2 servings Barilla pasta with ICBINB spray and fresh basil 6
Oatmeal — TJ’s with splenda 3
1/2 cup mixed vegetables 1
Lemon Pepper tuna steak 3
1/4 cup Golden Grahams 2
1 Dannon Lite n’ Fit yogurt 1
Activity points earned +2
Flex Points used 0
Totals 24

I’m off!! Day 1 of triathlon training is officially over. Met my coach, met my fellow Divas, and had a great inspirational session followed by a spin class focused on technique. I was surprised that there were plenty of “normal” women in the group and that I was actually holding up on the bike much better than some of the others. I’m sure that this will change over time….it seems many of them are runners. Watch out! I’m no runner, so we’ll see how it goes.
At any rate, I’m happy with the evening and looking forward to getting out there and doing more. What fun! I can’t believe it took me this long to sign up and go for it. Without a doubt, my coach WILL get me through this, open water swim and all. She’s awesome! (And my $15 EBay cycling shoes are pretty awesome, too, despite their smurf blue ways)
I have no idea what I ate today. OK, I do. I don’t think I stayed on track, though. Here’s the damage:
Food Points
Coffeemate creamer 2
Fiberful bar 1
1 small apple 1
100 calorie bar 2
3 Cheese Ziti –WW 6
2 Wasa Crisps with 1 wedge laughing cow lite 2
1/2 tortilla 2
2 servings barilla pasta with 1/2 cup sauce 7
Trail Mix bar 3
Activity points earned +3
Flex points used +1

Totals 26

Yikes! I need to rein in a little here. The past week has made me very hungry. Time to get back under control.

Always a mixture of sadness and relief when you get home from vacation. I was so happy to see my cat and get started with training, but sad to say goodbye to family and our favorite state. Walking is difficult right now. Although I’m sure some of this is soreness from our killer hike, I was dumb enough to elect to NOT put sunscreen on my legs and now I’m paying the piper. My legs are swelled and sleeping is near impossible. I’m walking around all bow-legged because I can’t bend my knees without pain. ouch!! I have learned my lesson, though. From here on out, I’m going to slather myself in a high spf sunscreen. I love being stupid.

Can’t wait to get back on track with this diet. I’m sick of having to guess at everything that I eat! I think it’s safe to say I’ve gained during this trip, but I’m not going to weigh in tomorrow because I’m carrying around far too much in my legs thanks to the burn.

Tomorrow is my first day of triathlon training. We’re hitting the spinning room to learn cycling form and get used to our clip pedals. I bought some shoes on eBay for $15– brand new with new LOOK cleats attached. I think I got a bargain!! (And I guessed my size in UK numbers correctly– go me)

I promise to update tomorrow with my mountaintop photo. It ain’t pretty, but you bet I made it to the top and I’m not going to stop bragging about it!

Sometimes I think I don’t remember that I live at sea level.

I’m sitting here with the world’s worst sunburn on the back of my legs, a sore knee, and sheer exhaustion after our Hallett Peak attempt yesterday. From 7:30am - 3pm, we were on our hike. 9 miles round trip. 2800 feet of elevation gain. Mostly above tree line. Ugh!!! It was a bit much for us. We ended up on the summit of Flattop Mountain at 11:15am, after scrambling up a snow field, and we were whooped. Winds were gusting to 60mph and beyond, and at times I had visions of us being blown off the mountain and down Tyndall Glacier! At any rate, the extra 1/2 mile to Hallett were deemed too much for our inexperienced selves, so we made the decision to begin our descent and call it a day. I’m actually okay with this decision, as it was probably the safest thing we could have done. We didn’t have any gear on us, and both of us were wearing shorts. Everyone who continued on had the heavy duty hiking boots, pants with gators, and poles. I bet they thought it was a miracle we even made it up there. And the altitude! I didn’t feel it until we got down….nausea all afternoon and the world’s worst headache. Why do I live at sea level? Why?

I had a WW heart attack on my hike yesterday when I became insatiably hungry and decided to eat whatever my body told me to eat. I think the grand total was 2 Sweet Salty Nut bars, 1 100 calorie bar, 2 handfuls of Planters nut mix (holy cow– very bad for you), and a 100 calorie breakfast bar, on top of my morning banana and muffin. I drank the equivalent of 10 bottles of water on the hike….and another 3 or 4 when we got back. I felt guilty about all of this until I ran a 7-hour hike through the Sparkpeople exercise calculator…..3,000+ calories burned! Well, I believe it. It was grueling. I think that I’ll be just fine when I meet my fellow TriDivas for the first time on Wednesday. They went running yesterday, but I think that my hike was more than sufficient to bring me up to speed with them.

So, two more vacation days. We’ll see how the weight turns out at the end of this. Jynell, I bet I’m back to the 150’s, so you will probably be the first to sustain the elusive 140’s.

Yeah for internet access in cabins!

We are sitting in our cabin on the eve of our big hike to Hallett Peak tomorrow morning. It’s 5 miles one way, so 10 miles round trip — our longest hike ever. I’m a little nervous, but confident that we will make it and enjoy the gorgeous views. After rock climbing on Thursday, I still think I can conquer the world.

My eating has been horrible today, but we had our year-old wedding cake and then celebrated with the first pizza I’ve eaten in over a year. So I’m just considering all my flex points blown for the next week and will go back to proper behavior tomorrow. Not sure how many points I’ll earn by hiking all day long, but it’s got to at least knock off a piece of pizza….right?! At any rate, I am not beating myself up over it. In order to not go off the deep end in my regular life, I do need a day or two like this every year to get things out of my system. It’s not like I ate the entire pizza or downed a six pack of beer with it. And next week, when Coach Martha starts in on Tri training…..ancient history that pizza will be!

So, that’s my check-in for the vacation. Funny how all I can think about is getting to a computer so I can fess up!!

Just had to check in on vacation really quick to report a personal victory. I went rock climbing and I did it!!! It was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life, mainly because I had to trust my coworkers on belay (I think that’s how you spell it) and because I was clinging to a sheer rock face…..but I managed to make it to the top on 2 of the 3 routes I took. What a high. Actually, it was more like relief and shock that I was able to overcome my intense fear and do it. Now, I’ll never do it again, but I surely can say that now I’ve been there and done that.

What a great week so far, though! Has been quite easy to stay on track, mostly because being scared to death of rock climbing really kills the appetite. And travel does me well — 148.5 at the Health Fair check-in!!! I was pretty darn psyched, let me tell you.

Now, don’t be too disappointed in my lack of swimming the past two days. The Annual Meeting is like a reunion with some of the most amazing people you could hope to meet in this world. So I didn’t do a lot of sleeping, and when I did, it was tough to get going! Suffice it to say that this weekend, I’ll be pushing us on the hikes to try and make up for the inactivity. (But I will say, rock climbing was such a good workout— my legs were trembling going back to the bus, and this morning my arms are sore from belaying everybody….awesome, awesome alternate workout if you aren’t scared of heights)With that, I’m going to disappear for a few more days and enjoy my vacation….and keep soaking up the compliments! I’m 5 lbs heavier than I was at this time last year, but I got so many compliments on how I looked and that was wonderful to hear. I guess it’s just redistributed to more desireable areas?! Keep up the good work, everyone.

Today was the day we received our traithlon equipment list. Is it embarassing to admit that half of the equipment I never knew existed?! I need to buy a triathlon wetsuit, body glide (yeah, sounds like some unsavory stuff is going to go on!!), pull buoy, tire tubes and pumps or cartridges (huh?!), bright colored swim caps, and a heart rate monitor, among other things. I’m on a crazy search for a cheap road bike, but apparently that is too much to ask. I’ve even gotten so daring as to ask my old boss, who apparently has a garage full of very expensive toys, if I might be able to borrow one of his bikes for the next few months? We shall see. I knew that this would be expensive, but I never realized that doing it right would be THIS expensive. Alas, I will make it work. EBay, Craigslist, and co-workers are my friends. I’m really excited, though. I wish we were starting tomorrow, except I need the time to gather all these weird training goodies.

I leave for my company’s annual meeting tomorrow night. This is 3 days of activity and schmoozing and catered meals…hopefully not signs of impending disaster. I survived last year and managed to lose weight before my wedding, so why should this be any different? My friend in DC is packing her swimsuit, as we intend to swim some laps at the start of our mornings. Hopefully this will get me ready for the triathlon divas. This week, they are only running on Sunday. With all of my hiking and swimming, I’m sure we’ll be on the same page!

I’m going through a good eating period here. No insane urges. No eating all my points before noon. Just even steven. I wish it was always this easy. Yesterday, we didn’t even buy any junk at the grocery store. We got 8 bananas that we have to eat before we leave tomorrow night. I’ve only had one, but can you guess what’s for desert?

Here’s the day so far. I’ll add my intended dinner and the aforementioned banana.

Food Points
Coffeemate creamer 2
Mediterranean salad with feta and veggies, 1 tbsp dressing 4
1 apple 1
1 banana 2
String cheese 1
Fiberful bar 1
3/4 cup Golden Grahams 2
2 servings barilla pasta with 1/2 cup sauce 7

Totals 20