The Outer Banks - 2010 edition

This spring has been a wonderful but busy time. Work is going wonderfully, Scott is amazing, my dieting/training is right on track, and my brother moved in with me!

Yep, after not living with Reid since freshman year of college, (specifically, ahem, summer 2001) he decided to spend the summer with me working in Virginia and preparing to enter the military in the fall. It was great having family to come home to.

Needless to say, keeping up with everything was a full time job, and on top of my full time job, I was in need of a little time away doing ... nothing!

Enter the outer banks of NC. I was introduced to this little piece of heaven last year right after Scott and I started dating. It is a wonderful place to relax, and thanks to some planning, I got to spend five days there last week with forty of my closest friends for relatively little cost.

Enjoy the pictures from the trip. There are a whole lot more you can check out on Facebook.

Wouldn't this be a great spot for a wedding?! ;-)

Reflections on 29

April 12th I turned twenty-nine years old. When you think about your life as a child (which I classify as any time before 19) you picture where you'll be in 5, 10, 20 years, etc. I have to say that I pictured a very different life for me when I was a kid. I thought that I'd be living in Texas, like all my relatives. And married with a family, again, like all my relatives who are in their late twenties.

With all the expectations one has for their life, it's a very transcendent place to be when one is peaceful at every point along the path. Which is a verbose way of saying that man, I never thought I'd be here but I'm so glad I am. Who would have ever thought this Texan would end up in northern Virginia selling pacemakers and dating an artist at 29?! I am so blessed to have my employment, my health, my friends, my family, my boyfriend, and most of all, my relationship with God. It is the only thing that makes me special and has gotten me through the darkest times on my journey. Thank you so much, readers of this blog, for supporting me along the way, it means the world to me!

These are a few pictures from my party, where the theme was ... TEXAS!!

Update 3

Hello folks! I'm happy to report that training is going well! I ran in the Cherry Blossom 10 miler about two weeks ago and I'm running in the GW 10 miler this Sunday. The last race went ok. I didn't do it for time - which was good, since I ended up stopping with a friend to use the restroom. I'm hoping to do the race this weekend in 100 minutes or less. I've come to enjoy running more as my weight has gone down. Not only are my runs easier, but I actually feel good at then end of the run and some days even look forward to my runs (some days).

My diet has been going well using WeightWatchers. I'm trying to convince one of my girlfriends to do it with me , which will make it easier to stick to. My weight right after the last race was 133.2, today it is ... 134.4 lbs. I've gone up a bit, which is normal considering my training schedule. I have to be honest, it's a bit dissapointing. I try to focus more on my overall weight gain/loss since I started and I'm still consistantly losing. My body fat percentage has gone down 2.5%!

More to come.

Update 2

The Cherry Blossom 10 miler is this Sunday! Pray that I run a good race and that my knees and hips have minimal pain. My training runs have been really great, no doubt due to the awesome weather we've been having here lately. Today's high is in the 90's and I love it! Bring it on spring allergies, I'll take you over blizzards any day.

The diet has been going really well. I feel like I've finally hit my groove with my eating habits. My 10 year high school reunion is this July, followed a week late by my dear friend Noelle's wedding (where I will be a bride's maid) so I've got sufficient motivation to be in good shape this summer. Not to mention pool and beach time ... bikinis, ugh!

So my current weight is ... 132.8 lbs! This is the lowest I've been since before Scott and I started dating. Ironically, I think he's gained about 15 lbs so I guess there is something to that physics law "matter is neither created nor destroyed, just transferred from one form to another". Ok, I feel like a nerd now. My goal weight is still a good 15 lbs away, so continued prayer for my motivation hit plateaus.

When all this is over I'll put up some before and after photos, that's where I can really see a difference.

Regan's 30th on the River

My dear friend Regan turned 30 this past week. He's one of my aggie friends that I've kept in touch with up here in DC. In addition to turning 30, he also is leaving the marines to start grad school at ... Harvard! I'm so proud of Regan although I will miss him dearly when he leaves this summer. I told him I'd visit him in Boston, but only when there isn't any snow on the ground. Here are a couple of pictures from the boat.

Update

I'm happy to report things are going well on the dieting/training front! My current weight is 134.8 lbs. Of course we would all like to lose 2+ lbs a week, but since I'm in training, that really is unlikely, as I'm pretty sure I'm retaining water from muscle recovery. Anyway, the diet is going well. It certainly helps that Weight Watchers is online and so easy to use. I also have a ton of support from Scott, who always supports me and tells me I look great no matter what (isn't it awesome to have a guy like that?!).

My training schedule was awesome this week. I ran 15 miles total, with all of my running outside since the weather has been so great. My IT band isn't giving me too much trouble, which was a welcome change from training last fall. I hope to incorporate more weight training as my schedule allows.

What worked this week:
- Fruit! having fresh foods around totally helped satisfy cravings, especially mid-morning and late-afternoon
- Water, I drink at least 64 ounces a day and more on my running days. Did you know that drinking cold water speeds up your metabolism by as much as 30% even after you're done drinking? Water is essential to weight loss and long term weight maintenance
- Sticking to my training schedule, even if I didn't go as far as I planned, just getting out there got the endorphins going and helped me make better diet decisions

What didn't work:
- keeping candy around! Having snack food in big bags made it that much easier to grab something when I got hungry, especially when I was out of my fresh foods and didn't have time to prepare something
- Grazing, one of my biggest challenges to weight loss. I don't really eat when I'm stressed, I eat when I'm sitting around the house and I'm bored. A few M&M's here and there add up to a lot over an entire day
- Sadly, eating with Scott. We're getting better about this since he wants to drop a few pounds too, but I definitely find it harder to stick to my diet when he wants to indulge. Since he can naturally eat more than me, he doesn't always understand that I really can't share a decadent dessert with him every time we eat together. I hope this gets easier as I adapt to new eating habits.

Please feel free to share your weight loss trials and triumphs.

A Little Rant and New Goals

It's been a couple of months since my last post. I made it through the winter blues and Snowmageddon 2010 relatively unscathed and I'm looking forward to a sunny spring. (You're listening, Mother Nature, right?!)

One of my goals of 2009 was to run a marathon. I accomplished this goal, however, my performance was definitely lacking. Part of this was due to the diagnosis of IT Band syndrome. Basically, this syndrome is diagnosed when a piece of tissue that runs along the outside of your leg becomes stressed and causes knee pain. According to my orthopedist, I have knees that are prone to this because of the angle my knee caps are in relation to my hips. IT Band can be exacerbated by weight gain. For every pound of weight one gains, FOUR pounds of extra pressure are put on the knees. WOW. I had no idea!

That brings us to my little rant. I think I'm the only person who GAINED weight training for a marathon. And I'm not talking a little - I gained 15 pounds between Jan-Oct 2009! With my training schedule, I felt hungry ALL the time. And I didn't reach for carrots and fruit, I enjoyed peanut butter and cookies and whatever else was in the pantry. It was very depressing. My friends tried to tell me, "Oh, it's probably just muscle", but I knew better and got irritated that I couldn't seem to get it under control.

I'm happy to report that I've lost several pounds since the marathon in October. I feel pretty good about it, especially since I enjoyed myself a lot when I was home for the holidays in December. But I definitely wish I could get back down to my ideal weight. Let me be clear, however, I don't view myself as fat or unhealthy (my physical was actually really good this year) but I do feel better and my clothes fit better when my weight is lower. Blogging about this familiar journey would help keep me accountable and hopefully encourage me when I want to reach for those Girl Scout cookies or Cadbury Mini Eggs (my kryptonite).

I've already started training for my next two races - the Cherry Blossom 10 mile on April 11th and the GW Parkway Classic 10 mile on April 25th. I've been successful doing WeightWatchers before so I've started tracking my points again. Along with my running schedule, I'm hoping to be down to my ideal weight range by the time I head to the Outer Banks at the end of May.

So here it goes: As of this week I weigh ... 136.0 lbs. My goal weight ranged is between 116-120 lbs (which I haven't weighed since high school!). At 5 feet 4, this is a healthy range and I've already discussed my goals with my internal medicine doctor. I would also love to get my body fat percentage down to 20-22%.

Please keep me in your prayers that I stick to my training and diet plan. A few words of encouragement would be great too! I'll try to update weekly on how things are going along with tricks that have helped me get through the tough times. More to come soon ...