Lisa

This is also known as motivation for me.

Motivation to think twice before I snack on something mindlessly.

Motivation to keep up with my running and 1/2 marathon training.

Motivation to add shredding to my exercise mix.

Motivation to lose 10-20 more lbs.

While I think these shots are OK (check out my before/after shots from the 2009 30 Day Shred here, there has been a positive change since April 2009), these pictures just serve as a wake-up call that my work is not done. 

I still got some junk in the trunk that is rattling around.  I still have a squishy post-pregnancy belly and my “baby” is 17 months old.  My hips and thighs don’t match my waistline and I would like to change that.  My arms and legs could use further toning up.

I will participate in the 30 Day Shred Challenge for the most part.  My 1/2 marathon training comes first, BUT I think I have it in me to throw in 25 minutes of shredding 3-4 days a week.  Along with swimming and biking and other weight training  : ).

Watch out Jillian!  You don’t scare me anymore, especially since I have been exercising regularly and consistently since September 2009.  Your workout still makes sweat and breathe hard, BUT my muscles no longer creak like they used to, I will not wake up sore tomorrow, and believe it or not, I actually LIKE IT when you yell at me through the TV.

Bring it on girlfriend.

Measurements:

• Arm- 12.5″
• Waist- 36.5″
• Hips- 41″
• Thighs- 26″

I would like to encourage all of my fellow sisters that are doing the 30 Day Shred to post their before pictures.  It is liberating, eye-opening, and I tell you, it will be REAL motivation to keep going when it gets tough.  We’re all here to support you!

Craptastic Morning

• Get all three children dressed and fed
• Toddler reaches up to kitchen table and pulls down a full glass of water onto himself and the floor
• Pre-school gets bitten by a spider and it swells up
• Kindergartner mouthy and sassy and pouty and whiney
• Stressed out and overwhelmed and tired by all that needs to be done
• Laundry, kitchen, toys picked up, mail sorted
• Pre-schooler’s birthday planned for tomorrow
• Pre-schooler’s family party for Saturday
• Need to buy present for him AND for a party my daughter is going to
• Set up “chore store” so that I can get my kids on board with doing chores and earning prizes
• worrying about fundraising, fundraising, fundraising for Team in Training
• must exercise/run this morning
• drop off each child in three different places
• run to Walmart to drop off donation letter request, pick up a few things
• run to Target for birthday presents (didn’t have at Walmart)
• scarf down breakfast and coffee

That was just this morning.  Have I mentioned that my husband has a work schedule that does not allow him to be around much?  I won’t go into specifics because ya’ll don’t need to know all the details, but suffice it to say that I do a lot of the “raising of the kids and taking care of the kids” by myself during the week.

Add a big ole heaping mess of “OMG, there is so much going on at Shrinking Jeans” and yes, I was feeling craptastic this morning.  My husband and Christy got to bear the brunt of my venting.

Then, I went for my run. 

My mind was completely free of “all the things I need to do”, the to-do lists put to the side for 39:38 minutes (3.53 miles).

That was the BEST 39:38 minutes of my life.

Now, I feel refreshed and like I can do anything.  The chores are still there to be done, the party still needs to be planned, the kids still need taken care of, my house still looks like a bomb went off in it, but folks, I did something for me- something that I enjoy and that frees me from my overcluttered, overwhelmed, overstressed mind.

And that, THAT is why I will keep running, even after the half marathon is over and done with.

Fantastic.

You remember that Monday Project a few weeks back that asked us to try something new and report back?  And this week’s Monday Project that asks:  Who is your kickass superhero alter-ego? What does she do? How do you channel her? When does she come out? When do you wish she came out?

Well, my answer for both Monday Projects is one and the same.  I did something new on Thursday and frankly, what I did, makes me a Superhero in my eyes. 

I joined The Sisterhood Olympics and took on the mini-triathlon event, along with my sisters Christie and Brook and Jessica.

What is a mini-triathlon?

• 500m swim
• 12 mile bike ride
• 3.1 mile run

One right the other after the other.  Consecutively.  No real rest breaks, or not much at least. 

I have been toying around with the idea of trying a triathlon, but you know, LIFE got in the way, and then the training for the 1/2 marathon got in the way and I pushed all thoughts of the tri to the back burner.  Until Wednesday night at 9pm when I threw caution to the wind and said to myself:  I’m going to do the triathlon on Thursday.  I am not going to think about the fact that I have no training WHATSOEVER in swimming or biking.  I am just going for it and I WILL finish it, no matter how long it takes me.

You know what?  It wasn’t so bad.  Long- yes.  Horrendous- no.  

The swim portion of it allowed me to re-realize my love for swimming and that I am actually GOOD at it.  I mean, I knew that I loved to swim and I knew that I was a natural at it, but once again, life got in the way and I had forgotten about all of that as I churned out three babies.  I haven’t swam laps in a very long time and yesterday- I jumped in the water and cranked out 500m in 11:30 minutes. 

Folks, I am going to toot my own horn and say that is a FANTASTIC time for someone who has not TRAINED ONE SINGLE BIT for swimming.  I wasn’t even pushing myself – that was my natural, easy-going pace.  I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I am 100% certain that with proper training, I could bring down that time, significantly.

The bike portion was my weakest leg, and longest leg and the one that I obviously need the most work on.  I was on a stationary bike and man, was that boring.  Put me on a bike outside and I think I would do much better.  12 miles in 1 hr 6 min.

The run was good- not my best, but hey, I had just come off a 12 mile bike ride and practically jumped on the treadmill and started running.  My legs felt like jello, my right knee was aching a bit, and my left calf was TIRED.  So yeah, not my best run but still a respectable 3.1 miles at 37.04 minutes. 

My superhero swims, bikes and runs and she kicks ass and takes names while she is doing it.  She doesn’t quit even when her right knee is feeling wonky.  She doesn’t quit when she is bored out of her mind on the stationary bike.  She doesn’t quit when she is breathing heavy while she is running.  She doesn’t quit when she realizes that she has been exercising her body for 1.5+ hours non-stop.

She keeps going and refuses to QUIT. 

That superhero is me and I can channel her whenever I want.

One last thing- I totally want to high five Christie, Brooke and Jessica for completing the mini triathlon with me.  It was awesome to do it together, even virtually!

I totally think she has the right idea of chronicling her virtual team in training, training, so I am copying her!

Week 2 of training for the San Diego 1/2 Marathon is done, done, done!

I am a “follow the rules” kind of girl, so when I was told to run on Tues, Thur, and Saturday, then that is exactly what I did.  I took full advantage of the “rest” days and well, I rested.  Of course, some of those rest days are optional, meaning you can lift wights or do additional cardio work, but I cheated rested instead.

Last Tuesday was a timed run, meaning I was given an exact amount of time to run and of course, that is what I did.  30 minutes, 2.6 miles, 11:24 pace.

Thursday was my tempo run.  Every week, this is my hardest, sweatiest run.  I ran “easy” for one mile although easy running doesn’t really exist for me right now, then one mile of alternating running hard for 2 minutes/running easy for 2 minutes until I complete a 2nd mile, THEN one more “easy” mile again, whoever said running was easy.  A total of three miles.   

Thursday night our family received some hard news.  I’m not sharing the details right now.

When it came time to run my long run of 4 miles on Saturday, I was only too ready to hit the trail.  My spirit was weary from the Thursday news, stress was high, and I just needed to pound it out, free my mind from my troubles, and let my heart be free.  That four miles accomplished that- I did not think of one single thing while I ran.  Truth be told, I did not want to stop running and have to enter back into the real world.

Anyhoo, week 2 is over now and I am thanking GOD every day for showing me the beauty of running.  I may not be the fastest, I may not run the furthest, I may not be very elegant-looking when I run.  However, I seriously think that having found this avenue for me to release stress, to push my body, to cleanse my soul has saved my sanity at times.

And I am a much happier person for it.

BTW- can I get some comment love here?!!!!  This is my 100th post on my personal blog here at Shrinking Jeans- woot, woot!!!!!!!!

So yesterday, 3/4 of my family had a stomach virus. It started at 6:30am in the morning with my 3.5 year old son puking on the carpet in my bedroom and did not end until I was hugging the toilet bowl last night at 9:30pm. Between myself and 2 of my 3 kids, we puked a total of 9 times. Everyone was sluggish and I think my son said “my tummy hurts” at least 8,637 times.

It sucked bad.

However, the one shining light about the whole ordeal is that I was fairly positive I would have a good weigh-in today. I mean, I puked and crapped all day long (I know, TMI) and only ate one meal, so yeah, I knew that this morning would most likely be in my favor.

And it was.

Last week’s weigh-in: 169.5 lbs
This week’s weigh-in: 165 lbs

I wish I could jump and down and claim this as my REAL weight but I am also realistic. I have already started eating again today and I feel about 70% better. I know that I will probably put a few pounds back on by weigh-in next week.

That’s OK.

I am just glad that my kids are no longer barfing in my bed OR on me and that so far, I am not upchucking everything I drink and eat. If I am able to keep the weight off, then that will be the icing on the cake.

either that, or a glutton for punishment.

I knew that today was THE day for the Sisterhood to began the new More Workouts 6 week challenge by EA Sports Active.  I also knew that i wanted to squeeze in some running mileage because you know, we have that Globetrotting challenge going on as well, plus I’m running that 5 Miler on Thanksgiving Day.

Rather than choosing one over the other, I decided to do BOTH.  I am about to die.

I ran first, and I ran fast.  Changing it up a bit, I decided to alternate sprinting with walking.  OMFG, I have never sweated so much in my life.  It was literally pouring off of my face and my heart was beating so fast.  It was a great workout!  I only did 2.5 miles in 29 minutes but I figure with all the walking I did in between sprints, that was pretty good.

I then drove home, powered up the Wii, popped in the More Workouts game, and went to town on that.

I have to say, I very much enjoyed it.  I liked the scenary, I liked the music, I liked the addition of a warm-up and cool-down, I liked the new exercises, and I liked the ab work.  My favorites were the obstacle course and the cardio boxing.  Jumping rope- not so much, probably because my legs were already so tired from the running.

I have to be honest that I have not done much resistance training in the last month or more and I knew I needed to add it back in in order to get the most of my workouts.   I haven’t quite figured out my new exercise schedule (cardio+More Workouts) and how to fit it in to my already jammed-packed schedule, but I will figure it out.

Eventually.

For now, I am patting myself on the back for doing both and for burning upwards of 600 calories- woot, woot!

1. I have not counted my WW points in over two weeks.
2. I have had ice cream for the last 3 nights in a row.
3. It was delicious!
4. I am steering clear of alcohol of all kind and have been since the start of this challenge.
5. I am keeping up with my 5K training – are you?
6. I ran for 20 minutes straight today.
7. My arms are sore.
8. My legs are sore.
9. I think I might never walk again.
10. BUT I RAN FOR 20 MINUTES STRAIGHT!

I’m just going to cut to the chase and weigh-in…..

Last week’s weight: 174 lbs

This week’s weight: 173 lbs

Loss of 1 lb.

Overall challenge loss: 4.5 lbs (not too shabby)

I’m well on my way to losing 10 lbs for this challenge, albiet slowly.  But hey, that’s OK- I AM LOSING THE WEIGHT and that’s all that matters.  

The last few days have been challenging for me because:

1. My husband is traveling for work
2. I get to watch my kids day in and day out by myself (again)
3. I have given up drinking wine in the evening
4. The last 3 nights, my middle child has been waking 2 times a night and my daughter has been waking 1 time a night and THIS IS NOT NORMAL and I feel like I have a newborn but really, the youngest in my crew is turning 1 this Friday and he’s sleeping the best.  I wake up with a pounding headache due to horrible sleep and Iamwondering,whenwillthiseverend?

Regardless, I am plugging away with the EA 30 Day Challenge and gearing up for the 5K.  I’m journaling (for the most part), what I am eating (and dreaming about what I am not, ha ha).  Good luck to all my sisters and my brothers!

SMFD, this stuff works.

I have heard it all of the time and I know it works but really- the eat healthy, exercise mantra- has been difficult for me to execute of late.  I have seen the scale rise and rise and rise over the last 6 weeks.  My heart just wasn’t in it, I was tired tired tired of doing this mothering gig alone and the thought of having to “eat right” just wasn’t in the line-up for me.

Then this challenge started.  And my Sisters, who never stopped supporting me even when it was obvious that I was not doing much and was obviously having issues, encouraged me even more.  I decided to commit fully to this challenge, I joined Weight Watchers (again) and I am 100% committed to doing the EA 30 Day Challenge.

This was the first FULL week that I stayed on track and did what I was supposed to.

This is what MY LOSS looks like this week:

That picture represents the 2.5 pounds that I lost this week.  That would be 2.5 pounds of food that I will be donating to a local food charity.  Not only am I losing weight, but I am also doing something good with it, giving to others.

It feels so good.

Last week’s weight:  177.5

This week’s weight:  175

I love the Sisterhood.

My left arm hurts, right where it meets my shoulder.

I’m not sure if it’s because of the EA 30 Day Challenge or from constantly lifting my 23 lbs of baby love (that would be my 11 month old) or a combination of both.  Regardless, any time I exert pressure on my left arm, it doesn’t feel good.  If I am sitting around doing nothing like typing this post or shoveling food in my mouth, then it’s OK.  Not completely fine but definitely not in agonizing pain like when I lift the baby or push myself up off the floor.

I’m about ready to pop some ibuprofen because frankly, I don’t like pain of any kind remind me to tell you about my 2nd child’s quick, unmedicated birth and how hysterical I became upon learning that I had no time to get an epidural or for that matter, my 3rd child’s 1.5 hour unmedicated labor and delivery, but not too surprising given the 2nd kid’s quick exit from my uterus.

So ladies (and any gents too), ya’ll got any advice as to how I can stretch out that part of my arm/shoulder?  I really want to continue with the challenge and if I absolutely have to, I can take it easy on the arm exercises for a few days.

I’m not really sure what to do.  Anyone, anyone?

lot