My Simplified Eating and Training Plan to Drop the Extra Weight

Okay, this is a humiliating humbling post for me.

Before I get into that part, though, first I will write about my upcoming training plan. I mentioned a couple of days ago that my friend Adam and I are going to run the Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon together in October.

Obviously, I need to train for it. Right now, I'm capable of running about four miles at a pace that is slower than a walk, hahaha. I don't have a time goal for the race (my main reason for doing it is to get back to training for something--anything--and especially to run Adam's first race with him.

Since we have 33-1/2 weeks until the race, we have plenty of time to train. I definitely don't want to wait until it's 12 weeks out and then start a plan that I'll dread. I mentioned that I want to really SIMPLIFY my diet and exercise routines so that they feel doable and comfortable again. I don't want to overcomplicate anything at all.

So, I'm going to be doing one of my own half-marathon plans that I have posted on my blog: Six-Month "Beginner to Half-Marathon" Training Plan. This is to take someone from zero running to running a half-marathon in six months.

The plan begins with my "walk to run" plan--doing a 30 minute walk, but replacing walking with running for an increasing amount of time per walk until you're able to run the whole 30 minutes. I'm definitely capable of running for 30 minutes now, but I like the idea of following this plan from Day 1. So, I'll be starting completely from scratch, how I did in 2010 when I started running in the first place.

Since I am going to start the plan next week, I'll have 33 weeks (longer than 6 months) to train... so I added seven weeks to the beginning of the plan--with straight-up walking. I scheduled 30 minutes of walking four days a week for seven weeks. THEN I will begin the actual six-month training plan.

I realize this is probably a very slow way to make progress, but I have the time and I don't want to dread this. I want to enjoy it! Also, while I don't plan on following the MAF method (like I said, I want to keep it super simple and run by feel rather than numbers), walking at a decent pace should help strengthen my cardio system per the MAF method anyway. After seven weeks of walking, I should feel good adding in the running.

I'm actually really excited about doing it this way. It can't get much simpler, and the baby steps will ease me in.

When I first started running, I went from not running at all to running my first half-marathon a year later. I know that I can do this again if I really want to! I used to enjoy training much more when I didn't make it so complicated. When I was still learning by trial and error.

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Now, about the dieting aspect for dropping this weight (and the reason for my embarrassment)...

I SWORE ON MY LIFE I'd never, ever do it again. But I have reasons that I'll explain below why I am choosing to do this: Weight Watchers.

The last Weight Watchers plan I did was Weight Watchers 360 (also called PointsPlus), which I started in 2012 and stopped in 2013 or 2014. I started counting calories in fall of 2015 after gaining weight back.

I liked the Weight Watchers Points Plus Plan. It got me back on track and I dropped weight that I'd gained--I even reached my WW goal weight for the first time in my life!

Here is a blog post I wrote about the basics of Weight Watchers--referring to the Points Plus plan: The Basics of Weight Watchers.

Here are some pictures from the day I hit my Weight Watchers goal weight in 2015 (I'd actually hit my personal goal weight of 133, I believe. I always weighed in "heavy" at WW on purpose--wearing shoes, heavy clothes, etc. Just as a buffer in case I needed it one week! haha).

I earned my maintenance charms when I reached goal, too:

Weight Watchers was refreshing and working great... until it wasn't.

Now... the reasons I quit Weight Watchers. Here is a blog post of my rant and (legit) reasons for quitting once they switched to the Smart Points plan: Calories vs. Weight Watchers Smart Points. (Keep in mind, it's my OPINION, so don't hate me for it)

Anyway, can you believe that I didn't have enough Smart Points on the new program for this little candy bar as a snack?! I mean, c'mon.

I found that switching from WW to calorie counting when I did was a great change of pace. It's nice to switch things up now and then, even if it's not a huge change. The newness of it helps keep it "exciting" enough to stick with it. I feel like I'm always using the word "refreshing", but it fits so well!

Now, though, I just cannot seem to get into counting calories again for whatever reason. The "spark" isn't there and I can't find a momentum. I'm bored with it.

My sister texted me last week and begged me to do Weight Watchers with her again, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it--I said no. She's tracking with an app called iTrackBites, which is basically the WW program but much cheaper. I tried out the free version, just to get an idea of it, but I really disliked the database.

I hemmed and hawed all week about what to do as far as my diet goes, and today I finally decided: I'm going to go back to the old school way that I followed the plan--with a pen, a Weight Watchers journal, and a Weight Watchers calculator. I bought them on E-bay today, so I won't get them for a week or so, but I'm going to try to start tracking tomorrow.

Looking at the old 3-Month Tracker made me feel so nostalgic for those days!

I loved tracking in an actual book because I was easily able to flip through the book and see what I was eating when I had good weeks and bad weeks. Also, I love to journal so it was just another fun journal for me. (I have way too many journals of all sorts! I have a bad habit of collecting them. Those and water bottles.)

I'm SUPER bummed because I cannot, for the life of me, find my old Weight Watchers journals. I loved looking through them to see what I was eating and patterns in my weight loss and all that. I have turned the house upside down looking. I'm sure I wouldn't have thrown them away! But maybe I did when I was purging everything from the house during my extreme hypomania a couple of years ago.

Anyway, it's embarrassing to change my stubborn mind about ever doing Weight Watchers again, but I'm going back to the program that I enjoyed and I'm doing the simplified version of it--before everything went to phone apps! (I won't be attending meetings)

It's going to take some getting used to again--I forget the PointsPlus in my favorite foods, and none of my recipes have the PointsPlus values on them. So, I'm going to spend some time over the next couple of weeks doing the calculations which will hopefully make life easier when I cook.

The hardest part about it all will be having to measure out my food again. I never used to mind it until I got so used to NOT doing it. But I did it a couple of times before while losing weight, so I know I can get used to it again.

Right now I feel pretty confident that I can stick with this--I love the simple and refreshing ideas of an easy training plan and the very basic Weight Watchers plan that worked well for me before. Hopefully I'll see some progress, because I'd love to start posting it on my blog again!

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Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale - SmartPoints

(ETA: Here is an updated post I've written about my thoughts on Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale SmartPoints, as well as a comparison of calories vs. SmartPoints. It's pretty shocking.)

After my run this morning, I went to Weight Watchers to weigh in. The new WW program (called Beyond the Scale) started this week, and I was very curious to learn about it. I don't plan on doing it, but I wanted to at least get the info. And since I'm a free lifetime member, I like to continue to weigh in to keep my membership. The meetings are motivating sometimes, too.

I weighed in, got the new materials, and then went and sat down for the meeting. Some of the women around me were flipping through their books, and one woman said, "A quarter cup of dried cherries is 8 Points!" I actually gasped out loud when I heard that. Dried cherries are pretty much my favorite food ever, and they were 4 PointsPlus. Not anymore--with the new plan, they are now 8 SmartPoints (that's what they're calling the Points on the new system).

The new program uses calories, saturated fat, sugar, and protein to determine the amount of SmartPoints in a food. If you're a healthy eater already, or your ultimate goal is to make healthy choices, the new plan is a great tool--foods that are high in sugar and saturated fat are very high in SmartPoints, while foods that are high in protein are lower in SmartPoints. Fruits and veggies are still 0 Points. Interestingly, alcohol has gone down in Points (just a little). One shot (1.5 fl. oz.) of liquor is now 3 SmartPoints, whereas it was 4 PointsPlus.

Weight Watchers also did away with the Good Health Guidelines. I guess that if you're following the new plan, you will tend to make healthier choices anyway, so there is no need to specifically track them.

As a lifetime member at goal, my daily SmartPoints target would be 36 to maintain my weight. I'm not sure how many weekly SmartPoints I would get (it's different for everyone, but I think Glenda, my leader, said that Lifetimers still get 49).

Also different is that members are discouraged from using "FitPoints" (previously "Activity Points") on food. The purpose of earning them is so that WW can set an exercise goal for you to reach each day.

I can't get the WW app to work (apparently, it's a problem for everyone--even my leader said she doesn't have a working app yet). The website is glitchy, and still showing all the old PointsPlus stuff, too. Once everything is working, I may calculate the SmartPoints in a week's worth of my current diet just to see how it compares to my calories eaten.

I really like counting calories, though, so I don't plan to switch! If any of you are trying out the new Weight Watchers plan, I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts on it. My friend Andrea has been doing it for three days and she loves it!

Personally, there is no way I would be able to stick to this plan. Weight Watchers just keeps making it more and more difficult for people to change their habits gradually, and I'm disappointed.

(ETA: Here is an updated post about Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale SmartPoints thoughts, as well as a comparison of calories vs. SmartPoints. It's pretty shocking.)

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This morning, I had intervals on the schedule. Usually, I like to do them on the treadmill, but for some reason I wanted to do them outside today. The weather was great (36 degrees and very little wind). I was curious to see how my current outdoor interval pace compares to December 2012, when I was working on getting faster. Also, it will be nice to see in a couple of months if today's pace will have improved.

On the schedule: 0.5 mile warm-up, 5 x 0.25 miles with 60 seconds recovery between intervals. On the treadmill, I just stand still and catch my breath for 60 seconds, but outside, I would just walk very slowly between intervals. The bonus of doing just 5 intervals is that the distance is so short!

I jogged very slowly for the first half mile. I was nervous for the intervals, per usual (which is so dumb to get nervous over! Who really cares but me?). When my Garmin hit 0.5 miles, I started running hard. I wasn't sure how hard to run. I didn't want to sprint all-out, because I needed enough energy to finish four more intervals; but I wanted to make sure I was using my full potential.

I didn't even look at my Garmin the entire time. I didn't want to get discouraged or let it mess with my head, so I just kept my Garmin covered with my shirt sleeve, and then whenever it beeped, I knew to start or stop the intervals. I turned around after the second interval, and then stopped my watch after the recovery of the fifth interval.

I'm not sure how I feel about the pace for my intervals. I guess the pace is probably about what I expected. Again, it's just hard to imagine running a 10K near that pace in about four months!

My splits were 1:56, 2:00, 1:51, 1:55, 1:54; which translates in minutes per mile to: 7:44, 8:01, 7:22, 7:39, 7:36. That's an average interval split of 7:40. Last week, on the treadmill, I ran them at 8.2 mph, which is a 7:19/mile pace. The treadmill always feels easier to me, so that sounds about right. (For comparison, in 2012, I averaged 7:10/mi pace for outdoor intervals).

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A grown-up field trip

Wow! I had such an amazing (and super busy) few days in St. Louis with Purina. (The whole event kept giving me memories of field trips when I was a kid, which was kind of nostalgic in a way.) I attended the True Nature of Cats event at the Purina headquarters in St. Louis a couple of years ago, and at the time, I really didn't know much about Purina. I just love cats, and thought it sounded like fun to talk about cats for two days ;) I ended up learning more than I could have imagined, and the things I took away from that trip stick with me on a daily basis as a pet owner. Then, in October 2014, I attended Purina's Better With Pets summit in New York City, and that was SO inspiring.

I was so intrigued by Victoria Stilwell's dog training presentation at that summit, and it planted the seed in my head to consider getting a dog in the near future. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and then in February, we decided to adopt Joey. Having Joey has been life changing! I'm still more of a cat person, but now I can say that I really do love dogs, too.

Anyway, both of those events were packed full of amazing information about pets, so I was very excited when Purina invited me to their headquarters once again, this time for a "Meet Purina" event. The purpose of this event was more focused on who Purina is and what they do (in addition to producing pet food, of course). There were about 25 "digital influencers" who attended--not only bloggers, but also Instagramers and YouTubers.

We arrived on Wednesday. My flight got in at around 1:00 pm, and then I went to the hotel to hang out for a little bit until we had "Yappy Hour" (drinks and hors d'oeuvres) at a nice restaurant called Scape. I wanted to stay on track with Weight Watchers for the whole trip, so I was careful about what I ate. I recognized a couple of women from previous Purina events, so I chatted with them and of course met lots of new people (and pets! This was a pet-friendly happy hour, and I totally fell in love with Ruby Roo):

Ruby Roo only has two legs (her hind legs) and she's the
sweetest little doggy ever!

Thursday was a super busy day, starting at 7:30 AM. We went to the Purina headquarters first thing, and had breakfast while we were introduced to several people who would be working with us while we were there. Everybody was so very nice, and it was obvious how passionate they were about their jobs--that was a common theme on the whole campus, actually.

The campus is gorgeous!

We took a tour of campus, and then spent the rest of the morning checking out the research labs and learning about the product innovation. It was all very scientific, and kind of went right over my head, but I was amazed at how much is involved in developing new products.

Lunch was quite the experience! Purina has a chef on staff that uses trends in human foods to inspire new pet products, and she cooked an enormous feast for us. Look at this menu:

The family-style foods were on our table, and we passed those around. Meanwhile, Chef Amanda Hassner served the plated foods listed above. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so I wanted to make sure to taste everything, even if I didn't think I'd like it (chicken hearts?!). I decided to take 1-2 bites of each item, which ended up being a good plan to not go overboard.

My favorite dish was the rice with botanical oil vinaigrette (it's under the pile of chicken skewers)... and the quinoa cake for dessert was pretty amazing as well! I left feeling satisfied, but not full, which was the goal.

After lunch, we interacted with the Purina brand teams, which was probably the most informative and interesting part of the event for me. There were two rooms set up like a trade show, and we walked around to talk about the different products and ask questions from each brand. At one table, for the Just Right line of food, I was so surprised when I was handed this bag:

It was actually kind of funny, because at first, I just looked at the words--"Joey's Blend"--and I said, "Oh, I have a dog named Joey!", thinking it was a coincidence. Haha, then I realized that the photo was actually Joey and me! The Just Right line is a food that is completely tailored to your dog based on a questionnaire that you fill out online. They put a cute, customized label on it, like the one of Joey and me, and then ship it to your house.

After that, we got on a bus to go to the Purina Farms, which are about an hour away. I had no idea that the place existed, but it was amazing. It's open to the public, and the whole place is dog-friendly. They have a huge building for dog shows and training. We were lucky enough to see some dogs show off their frisbee catching skills for us, which was really fun to watch. Here are a couple of videos:



We had dinner upstairs--an amazing barbecue spread. I tried to stick with healthier options (chicken instead of pulled pork, lots of veggies) to avoid a spending the 100 PointsPlus I easily could have spent. Someone mentioned that there was a chocolate cake for dessert, and I really wanted that. I decided to have just a couple of bites. I took the very last slice (which kind of fell apart on my plate), and it was SO AMAZING. I decided to go ahead and spend the 14 PP on it, and enjoy every bite.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel, and it was nearly 8:00 pm! I was exhausted, and I had plans to get up uber early (4:45) to meet up with a reader for a run on Friday morning. The plans for that were pretty spontaneous--someone named Alicia emailed me on Wednesday and said she reads my blog, and asked if I wanted some company on my run. I was a little intimidated to run Forest Park alone, for fear of getting lost, so I thought company would be nice!

This post is getting long, so I'll continue tomorrow... :) It feels good to be back home!

(In full disclosure, Purina sponsored my travel to St. Louis, but all opinions are honest--as always).

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Pizza lunch with Nathan

There have been a couple of sad news stories around here this week. Last weekend, there was a home invasion/murder in a nearby town. A group of people (two female friends and their children) were heading to NASCAR races from upstate, and they needed to get out of the rain (they had been planning to camp), so they stayed at a friend's house overnight. Two men broke into the home and stabbed them, killing two half-brothers (a 12-year old and a 26-year old), and injuring three more people.

To make the story even more shocking, Jerry recognized one of the men who did it--he went to school with Jesse Spurlock, and graduated with him in 1999. Jerry ran into him a few years ago, and said he was all kinds of messed up. It wasn't very clear from the stories what the motive was in the killings, but it sounded like the men weren't expecting those people to be in the house, and they were trying to rob the man that actually lived there, who was a drug dealer. Joseph Hall, the man who did the stabbing, apologized in court, saying that he just "snapped". Seriously?! A person has to be extra-screwed up to stab someone to death, especially a CHILD.

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Yesterday, the kids wanted to go to my parents' house to play in the lake with Joey. While I stayed home to write my blog post, Jerry went over there with them. I was surprised when they came back about 10 minutes later, but they said that the waves were too rough to play in the water. A few hours later, I saw on the news that a 10-year old boy had drowned in the lake at the State Park, which is a few miles down the road. It happened at around the same time that my kids said the lake was too rough.

The boy was at the beach with his family, and his mom was with his siblings, when his 17-year old uncle took him out to swim at the far end of the beach. Apparently, there was a strong current, and they were separated. The boy went under the surface, and rescuers arrived to search for him. They found him about 45 minutes later, in just four feet of water. He was pronounced dead shortly after they got to the hospital.

That story really upset me, because it just hits so close to home. The boy was 10-years old and had just completed fifth grade, which is the same age as Noah. We've been swimming there lots of times, and it's just so scary to think of something like that happening. I'm glad that my kids recognized that the water was too rough yesterday to play in the lake, and decided to come home. I'm just so sad for the boy's mom. I can't even imagine how she felt when they were searching the water.

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Also yesterday, a 19-year old man was hit by a truck while he was bicycling. I learned today that he died from his injuries :(  This is SO upsetting to me, because the drivers around here are so inconsiderate and don't pay attention to pedestrians at all. When I'm out running, I see so many people texting or otherwise not paying attention, and drifting onto the shoulders of the roads. This is not a bicycle-friendly town, which is unfortunate. We don't have bike lanes (there are a couple, but not anywhere useful), and the shoulders are very narrow.

I am always extra cautious when I run on the busier roads, and I make eye contact with drivers to make sure they see me. I've been hit once, by a guy backing out of his driveway (he clipped my hip, leaving a bruise); and I've had more than a few close calls on other occasions. I feel much safer running than I do biking, because I run against traffic so I can make eye contact with drivers. This man who was killed was riding with traffic (which you are supposed to do on a bike), and he was struck from behind by a man in a pick-up truck. He was only 19, which just makes me so sad.

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Anyways, enough bad news! Today, my younger brother, Nathan, had 20 miles on the schedule (he's training for his first ultra--a 50K in September). He likes to get pizza after his long runs, so he asked if we would want to go to Anson's, our favorite local pizza place, for lunch after his run. We, along with my parents, met him there this afternoon.

Anson's has some really good, unique pizzas--things like a Reuben pizza (I adore Reuben sandwiches, so the pizza is one of my favorites), a jalapeño popper pizza, and an insanely good chicken bacon ranch pizza. We each ended up ordering mini pizzas, so we could get what we wanted. I was tempted to get one of the specialty pizzas, but I knew it would be a caloric nightmare, so I chose to get a veggie pizza instead--bell peppers, onions, black olives, and my favorite, banana peppers. (It comes with tomatoes, too, but I requested to nix them)

I estimated each slice to be 8 PointsPlus, and I ate two slices (half the pizza) for 16 PP--that's really not too bad! I could have housed the whole thing easily, but I tried to eat slowly and stick with two slices.

When I put the first slice on my plate, I picked up the shaker of red pepper flakes on the table. I turned it over to shake some on my pizza, and the lid fell off, dumping about a quarter cup of red pepper flakes all over my pizza slice! I've heard of people pulling that prank at restaurants, but it's never happened to me before :/  I was able to dump most of the pepper flakes off, so it was just a nuisance more than anything.

Today marks 32 days of being binge-free and on track with Weight Watchers! It's gotten much, much easier over time. The first couple of weeks were the hardest, but it's starting to become a habit again :)

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New PointsPlus target

We had a really nice morning for a run today. It actually wasn't too humid when I headed out at 7:00. Again, I had 30-minutes (which I just translate to 3 miles, because I prefer to run for distance rather than time) on the schedule. I'm still doing the 1:00-run and 0:30-walk intervals. I think next week, I may increase the running segments just a tad.

The blackbirds seem to be extra abundant this spring! I can't really find a route that avoids them, unfortunately. Today, I did an out-and-back route on a fairly busy road, so I hoped that the cars would deter the birds. I was dive-bombed a couple of times, and then they were circling above me for what felt like MILES (it was more like a quarter mile, haha). That's the worst--when you can hear them squawking over your head, but you can't see them. I always imagine them right there, ready to start pecking into my skull.

On the way back home, I they wouldn't leave me alone, so I ran right through my walk segment, and through the next running segment--which meant I ran for 2:30 straight. That should be easy for me, but it was hard! I never expected getting back into shape after this injury would be so difficult. My cardio system feels like it did when I was around 200 pounds. I hope that it improves quickly with consistent training.

My pace was slower today, because I definitely enjoy the run more when I'm not pushing so hard. It was still tough, but my running pace was easier (9:30-10:00/mi instead of 9:00-9:30).

I need to get a new battery for my heart rate monitor. Actually, I have the battery--I just don't have a teeny tiny screwdriver to get the old battery out! I haven't been wearing it the last few runs because the battery is totally dead, so I have no idea if my cardio is improving. 

I took a quick shower and then drove the boys to their football camp. After dropping them off, I went to my Weight Watchers meeting. After another fraction of a pound lost, I told Brenda I was getting frustrated with how slowly the weight is coming off this time around. I'm doing everything just the same as before, but it's not working like it did before. I can only guess that it's my age? When I was in my 20's, I would always hear older women complain about how it gets so much harder to lose weight as you get older, and I never really believed them. Ha! 

Brenda told me that she wants me to increase my daily PointsPlus target to 29 (it was 26 before), and she wants me to get the extra 3 PP from protein. I have no idea if it will work, but I'm going to give it a try this week. I'm not a huge fan of meat (I eat a little if it's mixed in with something), and I really despise yogurt, so my protein options are pretty limited to eggs, cheese and maybe smoothies with milk. Conveniently, 1 Tbsp. of peanut butter counts as protein, and it's 3 PointsPlus. I would be thrilled to eat an extra tablespoon of peanut butter every day! ;) 

I noticed right away that there was a guy working behind the reception desk--I've never seen a male receptionist at Weight Watchers! It was really refreshing, actually. He came into the meeting to hand something to Brenda, and she introduced him as Jeff, who was training to be a Weight Watchers coach. He's lost 100 pounds, and he's training for the Chicago Marathon. My ears perked right up when I heard that he runs, because that's a topic that nobody shares interest with me in my meeting (my meeting is mostly women in their 60's). He's a former Marine, and said he's in better shape now than when he was in active duty!

After the meeting, I stopped to chat with Jeff for a minute, and he said he's running Chicago for charity, and he's raising money for ALZ Stars Alzheimer's Association. My grandma died of Alzheimer's, and I know what a terrible disease it is, so I asked him how I could donate. Anyway, it'll be fun to have a male at our meeting center, and someone who understands running!

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When I mentioned the Arctic Zero "ice cream" here before, several people suggested that I try the Yasso frozen yogurt bars. They were pretty expensive, so I didn't buy any, but today they were on sale, so I got some of the cookie dough ones. I ate one after dinner, and it was SO good!! I had always been turned off by the "frozen Greek yogurt" phrase, because I hate yogurt (especially Greek yogurt), but these bars taste nothing like yogurt. The cookie dough chunks were delicious! It was pretty small, but for 100 calories, that's what I expected. A very yummy treat! So thanks for the suggestion :)

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Greenfield Village and La Pita

Even though Eli just had a field trip on Friday, he had ANOTHER one today... and so did Noah. Jerry and I both volunteered to chaperone (he for Noah, and I for Eli). The kids go to different schools, but their field trips were at the same place--The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village (the museum is indoors, and the village is outdoors).

I've been to the museum three times this year, so I just couldn't do it again, which is why I decided to do Greenfield Village with Eli. I took Noah there two years ago, and we thought it was pretty boring, but since I went with Noah, I thought it would be fun to do the same field trip with Eli.

Over the weekend, I asked my dad to look at my Jeep, because it felt strange when I drove it--almost like it was really windy, and rocking the Jeep a little (except there wasn't wind). My dad checked it out yesterday, and discovered that the ball joints were completely shot--he said I'm lucky they hadn't already broken completely, because that could cause a serious accident. Also, the brake pads and front tires needed replacing.

I'm so lucky that my dad is an auto mechanic, because I've saved a fortune over the years with car repairs (I get the "free labor" discount for being his daughter). The parts and tires were an unexpected expense, and along with replacing the weed wacker that was stolen, we were getting hit one after the other with these things this weekend, which is a bummer.

Anyway, my dad said that I absolutely should not drive the Jeep until I replaced the front tires, because they were completely bald. That was last night, and since Jerry and I both had to report to different schools this morning, it was a bit of a problem. I drove Joey to doggy daycare and dropped him off at 7:00 this morning (using Jerry's car). Then I went to Eli's school, and Jerry drove the Jeep a very short distance to Noah's school. After we got our "assignments" for the field trip, Jerry and I drove together in his car to Dearborn for the field trips.

Just like two years ago when I took Noah, there was almost a 1:1 ratio of parents to kids, so Eli was the only one in my group. That was nice, because we could do whatever interested him the most. Like me, Eli isn't very interested in history. We rode the train when we first got there, and then Eli played on a playground for a little bit. He was dying to go to the gift shop, of course ;)

On the train (I took a pic with Noah like this two years ago... now I see where
the 27 pounds I gained since then went! haha

After that, though, we decided to go out to lunch at La Pita, which was just a couple of minutes away. Jerry had other kids in his group at the museum, so he couldn't leave, but Eli's teacher told me we could leave whenever we were ready. So we decided to have lunch and then go back and pick up Jerry and Noah.

Today is the last day of my Weight Watchers week, so I wanted to use up the rest of my weekly PointsPlus. I had 26 PP remaining for the week, so I decided to get my favorite meal there: the chicken kabob lunch.

I estimated it as follows:
Chicken- 6 PP
Rice pilaf- 7 PP
Garlic sauce- 12 PP
Hummus- 7 PP
Pita bread- 2 PP each
Salad- 1 PP
A grand total of 35 PP for the entire meal. That seems so high! But the garlic sauce (the white stuff in the photo) is a huge chunk of that. It's counted the same as mayonnaise (3 PP per tablespoon) because it's basically oil and garlic.

I ate about 25 PP worth of the meal. I totally could have eaten it ALL, plus about five more pitas, but I am doing so good being back on track that I didn't want to screw that up! It was really delicious, and a healthy way to spend a big chunk of points (my other option was going to be a flurry).

I am THRILLED that I actually made it through two weeks on a binge-free streak and not going over my Weight Watchers Points!

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A walking program

I had a bad day today, but I somehow managed not to let it derail me completely (which is some serious progress!). A few days ago, Jerry and I went to Sam's Club, and I bought some dried cherries. I probably shouldn't have bought them, knowing that they are a binge food for me, but I told Jerry that I was going to portion the bag into individual servings (and I had every intention of doing that!)

I totally forgot to portion them, but I was doing well with having them in the house. I had one serving, for 4 PointsPlus, each of the last two nights. After lunch today, I was feeling really tired and just didn't have any energy, and the dried cherries popped into my head. After debating with myself, I finally ate them--a LOT of them. (A serving is 1/4 cup, and I guessed I'd eaten about 6 servings). I was tempted to just finish off the bag, but I decided to stop myself and portion the rest into single servings (not that there were many left).

I weighed them out, and had enough for two single-serving bags. The bag had nine servings to start with, and since I'd eaten two before today, that left seven. And since there were two left over, that meant I had eaten five servings today. At 4 PP per serving, that meant I'd spent 20 PointsPlus on dried cherries.

And to be honest? I was kind of relieved! I thought for SURE it was more than that, and I was already thinking about how I'd get through the week without any weekly points. After that, it was tempting to just say, "Screw it!" and go eat all kinds of junk, I wrote down the cherries and logged the PointsPlus. Realized it wasn't the end of the world. Then I went about my day.

(This was before I logged my dinner)

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When I first decided to take some time off running to heal my stress fracture (back in January), I was super gung ho about staying in running shape. I went to the rec center 3-5 times per week to do deep water running, and I was doing fast walking about once a week. I think it really helped me, too! When I started running again in March, it didn't take long to get my fitness back to pre-injury level.

And then in April, when my stress fracture recurred, I just felt totally deflated. I wanted to throw a tantrum and just scream that I quit. I was so irritated at the whole thing that I just didn't care to come up with a training plan for while I was injured.

And to be blunt, I've been really fucking lazy. I haven't been making excuses; I just lost the desire to even keep trying to maintain my fitness after my stress fracture recurred. I go for short, easy walks, and I've been doing the strength exercises that my physical therapist gave me, but other than that, I haven't made any effort to exercise. I've only done one deep water run, and two elliptical runs. I don't have any sort of schedule that I'm following, which has really screwed me up.

So, to get back on a schedule, I decided I'm going to start doing a walking program. I used a walking program when I was losing weight in 2010, before I started running, and I liked following a plan (as opposed to just going out for a walk whenever I feel like it). I had printed out the Hal Higdon's Half Marathon walking schedule, and hung it up in my kitchen. Every time I did one of the walks, I'd cross it off. It was fun to see the calendar marked full of X's.

I'm going back to the physical therapist on Wednesday, so hopefully he'll give me an idea of when I can start working back to running, but for right now, I'm just going to assume I'll be walking for several weeks. So, I chose Hal Higdon's 10K walking schedule.

I have no idea what to do about the Wins for Warriors Detroit 9K a week from Monday. I've fundraised for it, so I have to do it--but I may end up having to just do the 1-mile walk instead of the 9K run. I'll talk to my physical therapist and see what he suggests. I'm hoping he'll let me do a run/walk, but I don't even know if there is a time limit, so that may not even work.

The asterisk for 6/8 is when Detroit marathon training is supposed to start. Again, something to talk to the PT about. I'm hoping that I'll at least be able to do a run/walk in June, and then work my way up to all running by July. My PT said that when I do start running again, it's going to be a run/walk--because he doesn't want me to fracture my leg yet AGAIN.

Anyway, I think having a planned schedule for walking will be good for me, if nothing other than mentally. Right now, I hate feeling so lazy, and even though I would ideally go to the pool for deep water running, I just don't see myself doing it. With walking, I know I can force myself to get out there! So, I am going to do a long walk this weekend, and then start the schedule on Monday.

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Today's Weight Watchers Photo A Day prompt is: Best Condiment

This is tough for me! I'm not a huge condiment person. I suspect Sriracha is a popular one, but I'm just not into it. Actually, we've had a bottle of it in the fridge for a few years--probably time to throw it out! ;)  I think that MY favorite condiment is probably sour cream. A tablespoon or two goes a long way, and you can use it on anything from chili to potatoes to any sort of Mexican food.

I also like mustard, but it's not *as* versatile as sour cream. Anyone else want to chime in with your favorite condiment?

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Habit changes

Still sick here :(

The bronchitis is getting better, though, so I hope I'll be back to normal in a few days. Right now, the most frustrating part about being sick is that I can't hear very well (ears are clogged) and I can't smell or taste anything! Noah wanted to cook dinner last night, so I was helping him make turkey loaf. After adding some herbs and spices, he said, "That smells weird!" I couldn't smell anything at all, and I started wondering if the ground turkey had gone bad or something. I never realized how much I use my sense of smell! I think he just meant the Italian seasoning I'd used smelled weird.

I've been craving ice cream like crazy lately. I bought some popsicles because they were soothing on my throat (they're peach-flavored, but I can't taste them, unfortunately). Because I've been really focused on staying on track with Weight Watchers, I even bought something to try that I've avoided for a few years now:

Arctic Zero "ice cream". I'd heard of it several years ago, but it just didn't sound good. How good could it be, at 3 PointsPlus (150 calories) for an entire pint?! I've read mixed reviews from people who either love it or hate it. It's pretty expensive (I think it was $6 for the pint), so I just never tried it. But considering my cravings for ice cream lately, I figured it was worth a taste.

It's now been in my freezer for three days, because it would be a waste to eat until my cold is gone. I tried a tiny little spoonful, but I couldn't smell or taste it, so I figured I'd better wait until I'm healthy again so I can form an honest opinion. There are several different flavors, but I went with chocolate peanut butter--no surprise there ;) Anyone else have thoughts on the Arctic Zero?

Yesterday, I was replying to some emails, and I was looking for a post in my blog. I got caught up in reading a bunch of old posts, and it made me feel so nostalgic! Over the last year or two, I sort of got away from talking about my diet and weight, because I was getting quite a bit of unsolicited advice. My blog is really just a daily journal of my life, so it was off-putting to read opinions about my diet and weight. But looking back on those posts yesterday made me want to write more about it again. When I first started this blog, that was my full intention--to document my day to day life in maintenance after a large weight loss.

I made a goal to lose weight each week for the full eight weeks of Glenda's challenge (Glenda is my Weight Watchers Leader), so if I stick with it and see some progress, I may start doing my Wednesday Weigh-ins again. I got away from doing those because I was tired of not seeing any change in the scale (or seeing a gain) and then hearing what I was doing wrong. I already know what I need to change--I just have to stay consistent to do it! ;) Writing everything was one of the things that helped me to stick with it while I was losing weight, so maybe it will help to write more about it again.

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on getting back to the habits I formed when I was losing weight--things like drinking a quart of water first thing in the morning, and using brown rice instead of white rice, etc. I promised a blog post about it, listing all the habits/tips I formed, and I've been working on that. Hopefully I'll have that up this week. I never consciously made all those changes at once, but as I list them out, I realize that I really did make lots of small changes that added up in a big way. Eventually, it was just a lifestyle--I did it all without thinking. Over the past year, though, I got away from most of the habits that helped me to lose the weight, which is why I gained nearly 30 pounds back. Jerry mentioned a couple of days ago that he likes that we're getting back to all the old healthier habits again, because it makes him feel good, like we did when we were at goal.

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Joey was supposed to go to his doggy daycare today, but we had some bad storms last night, and the weather wasn't great today. I decided to reschedule for Thursday this week, when the weather will be better. While he's there, it wouldn't be worth my time to drive all the way home, and then all the way back to pick him up, so I have to think of something to do while he spends four hours there. I was thinking I could go for a long walk at a park that's about 20 minutes away, but that still leaves a lot of time to kill.

I was feeling bad for not being very active with Joey all week, since I've been sick, so yesterday, I took him to my parents' house to play in the lake. He's been doing really well off-leash, so I took him down by the water and let him go. He had a blast exploring--he kept dunking his head totally underwater, like he was looking for something under there. He loves chasing rocks, too, so he was begging for me to constantly keep throwing rocks. I'm excited for him to play at doggy daycare on Thursday!

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Gait Analysis

A busy weekend turned into a busy week. I don't usually have so much stuff going on, but this whole week has gotten filled. The boys started baseball today, and they will have practices four days a week. I had Weight Watchers and my gait analysis today. Tomorrow is another temperament test for Joey (did I mention that they want him to go back to try again? I don't have my hopes up, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it another try).

This morning, I went to Weight Watchers to weigh in and stay for the meeting. I gained 4.4 pounds, but considering I'd lost 6.8 pounds last week, I'm happy with that. I didn't count points all week, because I was in Indy, and then when Thomas was here, we ate some higher-point things. But I went back to counting points yesterday, so hopefully next week will show a good loss.

Glenda, my leader, had told us to bring a notebook this week for an eight-week challenge she is doing. She said that several people in her meetings have been struggling lately, and she wanted to think of a way to get them focused and excited again, so she came up with a little contest. There are prizes (I'm not sure what), but the only rules are to attend every week for the full 8 weeks, and to lose 5-8 pounds (minimum of 5, maximum of 8). I certainly hope I'll lose more than 8 pounds over 8 weeks, so I'll just forfeit the hope of any prizes, but I like the idea of the challenge. She said we'll be taking lots of notes, which is what the notebook is for.

Today, our meeting was pretty full--there were probably about 25 people in there. Glenda wanted us to think about what was the final straw that made us join Weight Watchers, and what we're doing to reach our goals. She asked for volunteers to go up to the front of room and share. After a couple of moments without volunteers, I raised my hand. Definitely way out of my comfort zone to speak in front of everyone, but I hate awkward silences. Also, I was hoping that maybe by sharing my story, I might open up a conversation with some other members, because I'd really like to make friends in the meeting.

I talked about my final straw moment--when I was trying to teach Noah to ride a two-wheeled bicycle--and then how I lost 125 pounds over the next 16 months. I shared that I did pretty well maintaining my weight until December 2013, when I had that moment with Mark at the hospital, where he offered me chocolate. I'd felt foolish for counting points while Mark was dying of lung cancer, so I thought I could handle eating "intuitively". And here I am, 30 pounds heavier, which is what made me go back to Weight Watchers.

It felt good to talk about, and I wasn't sure if anyone had noticed my weight gain since the last time I was there or not, but now I don't feel like I'm hiding anything. A couple of people thanked me after the meeting for sharing, which made me feel good.

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This afternoon, I had to drive up to Novi (about 50 minutes away) for my gait analysis. It was in the physical therapy wing, and I instantly liked my therapist. He didn't seem super rushed, he was easy to talk to, and asked lots of questions. He did a physical exam first, bending my joints and pressing here and there to see whatever it is he was looking for. (Interesting fact he shared: 30-40% of stress fractures actually recur, which is what happened with mine.)

I changed into shorts, and he had me walk and then run up and down the length of the hallway while he filmed it. Then he took me to a treadmill, where he filmed me at several angles for a couple of minutes while I ran. He's going to analyze the films over the weekend, but he said that he could clearly see that I am asymmetrical, particularly when I run. He tested the strength of different muscles, and my left side is quite a bit weaker than my right. He also said that I don't pronate enough (I supinate), which can cause stress on the fibula.

When he said that, something clicked for me. When I first started feeling the pain, it was after a 12-mile run on a newly paved road that had a sharp slope on the shoulder. Considering I run facing traffic, that would have made the supination even worse. After that run, my leg was really bothering me. The same thing happened when I ran the half-marathon in December--the slope was terrible, and the pain kicked in when I hit that part of the road.

Anyway, the PT gave me several strength exercises to do 4-6 times per week. I'm going to work on both sides, but on some of the exercises, he wants me to do more reps on the left side. He also said to focus on walking lightly on my feet--try not to impact hard on the ground. After the strength issue is solved, and I'm more symmetrical, he'll work on getting me running again.

I love the diagram ;)

I left feeling good with the choice of PT, but frustrated at the thought of several more weeks before I can even start running again. At this rate, I don't even know if I'll be able to run the Detroit Marathon in October. I'm going to be the most compliant patient he's ever had, and follow everything he said to the letter... and hopefully, I'll be able to start training for Detroit on time.

I'm glad to have some answers as to what caused my stress fracture, and hopefully the plan he outlined will get me back to running sooner rather than later!

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3th Street

Last night was supposed to be Joey's obedience class, and I had every intention of starting a new five-week session yesterday. But the kids were going to be staying the night at my parents' house, and Jerry was planning to meet me at Joey's class after he got off working a 12-hour shift, and the class was just sounding less and less appealing. We really wanted to just hang out and have a date night at home.

So we called Joey's trainer to ask if it would be okay for us to start his new session in two weeks (next week is Easter weekend), and he said absolutely, that was just fine. So, when Jerry got home from work, we put on our embarrassing "onesie" pajamas and made vodka tonics. We had a few drinks while we caught up on the show "Girls" (we both like that show!), and it was a fun and relaxing evening.

My calf was still bugging me a little this morning, so I decided to wait until tomorrow to run. I'm supposed to do nine, but it would be fine if I end up cutting it short and calling it a step-back week, too. When I started this schedule, I built in an extra week just for circumstances like this--if I have to miss a long run for whatever reason. So I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'd like to do at least five, but if I'm feeling good, then I'll do nine.

The kids and I took Joey for a walk this morning, and it was SO COLD. The temp has been in the teens, with the wind chill in the single digits! I would love for it to at least get up to around 50. While we were walking, I saw a sign that I found much funnier than it probably was:

I sent the pic to Jerry, and asked, "Where do you suppose 3th St. is?" and he responded, "I don't know, between 2rd and 4rd?" Hahaha.

Today, I did some more cleaning, and I laughed out loud when I saw the foam roller I'd gotten at the Runner's World Half. Phoebe apparently hates foam rolling as much as I do:

I know that it's Phoebe's bite mark, because she's the only cat that's always chewing on things (I can't leave important papers on the coffee table or my dresser, for example, because she chews them). This is obviously the perfect bite impression of a cat, so my money is on Phoebs! (I still prefer my homemade foam roller to this one, anyway).

Eli was invited to a birthday party at the movie theater tonight to see the movie Home, so Noah and I dropped him off and then had a little date of our own. I told him I'd take him out to dinner, and let him choose where we went. He chose Kentucky Fried Chicken. I hadn't been there in probably 10 years, at least (other than picking up some take-out for Mark).

I ended up getting a three-piece chicken tender meal, which came with mashed potatoes and gravy, a biscuit, a cookie, and a soft drink. I didn't eat the cookie, and I was actually surprised that the rest of the meal (with a diet soda and without the cookie) was only 18 PointsPlus. I say "only", because I would have thought it would be way more than that. But regardless, I was still over my PointsPlus today, because I didn't run.

I do like that I started counting my points by the day, rather than the week, though, for situations like this. I am over my points, so instead of saying, "Well, I already blew it this week, might as well just get back on track Wednesday when my week starts over!" I can just start tomorrow with a fresh number of PointsPlus.

Jerry's off work tomorrow, and the temp is supposed to get up to the low 40's (woo hoo! haha), so I think we'll probably take Joey for a walk in the Metropark or something. I always look forward to his days off, even when we don't have big plans. I'm super tired, so I just may go to bed super early tonight!

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How much effort is it worth?

A few people asked me about how I changed my PointsPlus tracker to reflect only a daily PP target, rather than weekly. This isn't an actual option, so I had to create it myself. Here are the settings I used:

When you sign into your account, and then go to your food tracker, you click on "Settings" in the top right corner. I changed the objective to "Maintain weight" rather than "lose weight" (even though that's not my real objective, it will allow you to change the Daily PP Target at bottom). Technique is "Tracking". Swapping activity should be "Daily", so it won't hold onto your activity points all week. I set the Weekly PP Allowance to 0 (zero). And because I changed that to zero, I simply added 7 PP to my Daily PP Target, making it 33 (usually, it's 26 when my objective is to lose weight; so if your daily PP target is now 30, then you would just add 7, and your new one would be 37).

By doing the settings this way, every single day starts out the same: 33 Daily PP, 0 Weekly, and 0 Activity. If you exercise, you can earn more. You're still getting the same number of Points either way, but this way every day is the same; you don't have to track anything for the week. Hope that makes sense! I have no idea how well this will work, but I'm going to give it a try for a while.

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On yesterday's post, I got a very interesting comment that I thought made a lot of sense, and wanted to share:

I can definitely see how this could be what's keeping me from putting in the extra effort to get back to goal. I'm certainly "okay" with how I look right now--when I saw my pics from Portland, I never thought, "Eww, I need to delete that!" or anything. I certainly think I looked better when I was at goal, but I don't think I look bad now. I desire to get back to goal, because I was faster at running, and my clothes fit well, and I just looked better; but maybe, subconsciously, I am not putting in the extra effort toward being strict with counting because I'm okay with how I am now.

When I was 253 pounds, or even 200 pounds, I hated how I looked, I felt terrible, and I was unhealthy. Now, I feel healthy; I look okay in a size 8; and I feel like a "normal" person. So, the desire to lose weight when I was 253 pounds was MUCH greater than it is now, which is probably why it was easier for me to stay consistent. At 253, the reward in my future (for making the effort to lose weight) was monumental; whereas now, the reward is just a slightly smaller clothing size and a little less pudge.

So basically, it's not that I don't care if I lose this weight to get back to goal; it's just that I don't care as much as I did when I had over 100 pounds to lose.

Thank you to whoever left that comment! I'm not sure if it'll help me moving forward, but it certainly gives me a lot to think about and makes me feel less frustrated about staying on track. I guess I just have to determine what I want more--to be "okay" with how I am now, putting in little effort? Or to be very happy by being at goal, and putting in a heck of a lot of effort? I'll have to give it some serious thought. Interesting!

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Ohmygoodness, I started a new puzzle today, and at the same time, started binge-watching Marriage at First Sight on A&E. It's a show about three couples who agreed to get legally married into an arranged relationship with someone that they'd never met and knew absolutely nothing about. They didn't even know each others names until the wedding! When I heard of the show, I thought it was sort of insulting to marriage ("Well, if it doesn't work out, we'll just get divorced! No harm done!"), which is why I didn't watch it.

Today, though, I got completely hooked on one of the couples (Jamie and Doug) and just couldn't stop watching their story unfold. Doug is the kind of guy who totally grows on you over time, and that's exactly how Jerry is. Jerry is super goofy and silly and a sappy romantic, but I completely fell for him. Even though I was only 17 when we started dating, I knew I was going to marry him. (Looking back, we were way too young to get married, and there was so much more we had to learn about life; but we were committed to our marriage, and now, nearly 12 years later, I can't even imagine NOT being with him.) Anyway, this show is so addicting! Other than an hour of walking Joey, I've been pretty glued to my puzzle and the TV all day ;)

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Daily versus weekly tracking

When I started counting PointsPlus again on Wednesday, I decided to switch from the usual weekly tally to a daily tally. Normally on Weight Watchers, you keep track of your daily PointsPlus and you get a weekly allowance (49 PP) to use any time during the week that you'd like. This works out really well if you have an event coming up, so you can hoard those PP for the event; but I've discovered it to be a problem for me, most of the time.

Since I've been having such a hard time staying consistent with counting PointsPlus, I decided to change it up a little. My week usually goes like this--great counting Wednesday through Friday, and then usually go WAY over on Saturday and Sunday, and then Monday, I think, "Well, Wednesday will start my week over, so there is no point in counting Points now..." (If you've done WW, I'm sure you may be able to relate to that thinking?). This has caused my weight to stay within a 3-5 pound range for about a year now, rather than losing weight.

Basically, if I have a bad day (or meal) and blow my Points for the week, I find it really hard to get back on track until Wednesday. So, to remedy that problem, I changed up the way I distribute my Points. I set the tracker to give me 33 daily PP (my usual 26 + 7 weekly); and I set the activity Points to where they must be used the day I earn them. So if I earn, say, 10 activity PP today, then I would have a total of 43 PP to spend... today. Tomorrow, it would go back to 33 + the number of points I earn for activity.

By doing it this way, each day works in and of itself--a fresh start. (It's very similar to counting calories.) I think this will help me to stay more consistent; and even if I have a bad day, I won't be waiting a few days to start my week over. The only downside is that if I have an event where I want to spend a lot of Points (50+), then I won't be able to "save up" for it. Those events are very rare, though, so I don't see it causing a problem.

For the past year, I've been trying to get back to a very consistent regimen, like I did the entire 16 months I was losing weight. I never went over my points then, because I learned to plan things out and work all my food cravings into my diet. But for some reason, I've been having the hardest time getting back to that. So, my main focus right now is just staying consistent with my tracking--always tracking, even if I go over. And I'm hoping that by doing daily tracking (versus weekly), it will help me to have more consistent days each week.

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Anyway, today was my long run. It's so hard to believe that I'm up to eight miles already! After taking over seven weeks off for my stress fracture, I felt like I'd never be able to run longer distances again. And today, here I was, procrastinating all morning, just like old times ;)

Finally, I talked myself into going by promising myself that I could do it like a "light jog"--very easy pace. Last week, I did my long run with Jerry before I left for Portland. We thought it would be a good way to spend some quality time together before I left, and we took the pace very easy. Between the chatting and the icy path at the State Park, our pace was 11:22/mile. I didn't even look at our pace until we were done, though.

So today, even though I was running solo, I decided to just run it comfortably without any goal at all. I had planned on doing an out-and-back, but once I got about halfway down my street, I realized I didn't have my phone with me. I didn't want to go back in to get it, because Joey would think I was back home for good (I always feel bad about leaving him, and he gets so excited when I get home). I didn't feel comfortable going that far without my phone, so I just stuck to the neighborhoods around my house.

My pace wasn't very consistent, but I wasn't focused on it at all anyway. It was a little faster than the "light jog" that I'd imagined, but it was comfortable. I was kind of surprised at how fast the first half of the run went. I decided to stop by my house and pick up Joey for the last two miles. He was thrilled when I came in and grabbed his leash and harness. He was really good at heeling today, staying right by my side for a good portion of the run. Then when we hit mile eight (for me, not him!) we walked for another quarter mile so that he could stop and sniff and pee on things.

He slept all afternoon (actually, he's sleeping next to me as I type this):

Tonight is his last obedience training class. I'm kind of bummed! I've really enjoyed the class, and Joey has done awesome with it. He listens to Jerry and me, and even the kids, really well. He still needs a lot of practice (mainly in distracting environments), but the class definitely helped us to know how to train him. I'd like to continue with more advanced training, but I'm not sure where to go from here, so I'm going to talk to his trainer tonight.

Happy first day of Spring!

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My first deep water run

I slept so good last night! I really needed that. It's very rare that I sleep through the night without waking up five or six times. I had a bunch of weird dreams, and when I woke up this morning, I was totally confused for a minute.

I was kind of excited to use the AquaJogger for the first time today. It feels like I haven't run in MONTHS, but it's actually only been 11 days. I keep feeling this pit in my stomach, thinking that I'll never get to run again. I've been resting as much as possible, and have probably only gotten 4,000 steps per day max. It's like I can feel my muscles wasting away (dramatic, yes). I can't do squats or lunges or anything like that, because it bothers my ankle, so I haven't done any cross-training since I've been injured. But I'm really determined to get my ankle back to normal before I start marathon training.

And of course, I miss earning activity PointsPlus! I was used to earning about 50 PP per week from exercise, and cutting back on that much food is hard. So the deep water running will help me to earn some of those points.

Anyway, I've been reading so many great things about deep water running--people have used that to continue training for important races, and have done well (even setting PRs) in their races. So, I am hopeful that if I use this as a training method, I won't have such a hard time going back to running on ground when my ankle is better. I'm still going to ease back into running; I just hope the transition is easier. Here is the backstory to the AquaJogger:

After I got the kids off to school, I got ready to head to the pool. One of the reasons I really dislike swimming is because of all the stuff it requires--bathing suit, towel, change of clothes, hair brush (I always forget this, and then my hair is in a huge knot), lock for the locker, etc. But maybe if I start packing it the night before, I won't feel so rushed in the mornings.

I had to renew my membership at the rec center, so I'm good for another year--someone please hold me accountable to getting my money's worth this year! ;) I changed into my bathing suit, and brought the AquaJogger belt out to the pool with me. I was really nervous to give it a try, because I thought that the lifeguard would surely know if my form was all wrong or something. I had tried doing deep water running without a belt before, just for the heck of it, but it was really difficult to stay upright. So I hoped the belt would help.

There were a few people in the swimming lanes, so I was glad I wasn't the only one in the pool! I put on the belt and quickly got into the deep end of the pool. I just tried to focus on my form and then started "running" in the water. I read the workout guide book that came with the belt, and it gave some tips on form, so I was trying to make sure that I was doing that correctly.

Surprisingly, it actually felt pretty natural! It was much easier than I imagined it to be. It was easier to focus on my arms, and as long as I was doing the arm motion correctly, my legs did a natural running motion. It felt kind of like running in place, only I wasn't touching the ground. I wasn't really expecting to move forward, but as I ran in place, my body just kept inching forward.

The thing I was most surprised about was that the time flew by! I discovered that it took roughly one minute to cross the deep end of the pool; so I just kept "running" across, and then turning around and running back. I was planning to do 30 minutes, but I liked it enough that I wanted to go longer.

The hard part was seeing the people above me run on the track. I saw my friend Alicia running, so I waved to her. From the pool, it's very easy to see one end of the track, so I kept watching the people run by as I ran in place. I wanted to be up there running so badly! But I really did enjoy the deep water running.

It was a REALLY good workout, too. Occasionally, I would run hard for a minute or two, and then slow down (intervals, basically), and my legs felt so tired after the hard intervals. Another bonus to running in the water is that I wasn't dripping with sweat--the water kept me cool, which was nice. I had pulled my hair into a high bun, so it didn't even get wet (yay) and I just had to rinse off when I was done (I had taken a shower when I woke up, and I really didn't want to have to re-shower). So even though it was a little bit of a hassle to pack a bag to go to the pool, it made up for it in that I didn't have to come home and shower (again).

I was really surprised to see that Weight Watchers actually lists "water jogging" as an exercise. I had done 45 minutes, which gave me 8 PointsPlus! That's the same as if I had run outside. I don't know if I really feel I deserve that many, so I may try to just eat half of them, but it's nice to see those activity points.

I'm going to order a belt for Jerry, too. I think it would be fun for us to go "run" together, and would certainly help the time pass. Even after I'm able to run on ground again, I think the deep water running would be good cross training. Next time I go, I'll bring the kids' underwater cameras and see if they can get a video of it.

I have to say, I think using this AquaJogger belt would be awesome exercise for ANYONE--not just runners. The book shows different exercises you can do, but for anyone looking to exercise, it's a good workout without any impact. By wearing the belt, you are basically suspended in the water up to your neck. The floatation part is on the small of your back, so it doesn't impede movement at all (like a lifejacket would). I only used it for 45 minutes today, but already, I highly recommend it!

Anyway, the first day of deep water running was a big success! I'm actually really looking forward to going again. I leave for Phoenix tomorrow morning and don't come home until Monday, so I'm not sure how much I'll be posting over the weekend, if at all. Hope you all have a great weekend!

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