42 years

After last week's disaster of a weigh-in, I was 100% on track all week. I logged my food every day, and finished the week without having my PointsPlus be in the negative. I was very happy to see that my weight is going back down...

I think what has been the most helpful in staying on track this week was that I divided up my 49 weekly PP at the beginning of the week, so instead of aiming for 26 PP per day, I just added 7 per day, and aimed for 33. Before, I would end up using all 49 PP in the first half of the week, and then I would struggle to stay on track for the last few days. By dividing them up evenly, I stay satisfied all week long. Then I use my activity PP as a "bonus" for something I really want (like the cookie I had on Sunday).

I also finished a whole week of the Hansons' method of marathon training. I've never trained for six days a week before, so I was worried about how well I would adjust. The extra day didn't bother me at all, but I was definitely ready for a rest day today!

I think the nausea and stomach issues I've had the past few days have been from anxiety. For some reason, my anxiety has been really bad lately, and this morning, I felt on the verge of a full-blown panic attack. I haven't had a panic attack in a long time. Usually, when I have anxiety for no reason, it goes away pretty quickly. Hopefully, I'll be feeling back to normal in a couple of days.

It was absolutely gorgeous outside today--in the high 60's/low 70's and sunny. I turned off the air conditioner, and opened up all the windows in the house. It felt so good, and that helped with my mood a bit. It's supposed to be another nice day tomorrow.

Today was my parents' 42nd wedding anniversary...

July 24, 1971

I thought it was funny, because my mom said that rather than just she and my dad doing something together, they wanted to take us out to dinner! Nathan, my younger brother, had to work at 5, so we ended up going to an early dinner at Red Lobster before he went to work.

I looked up the menu before we left, so I could plan out what to order. Seafood is usually a safe bet, unless it's fried. On their seasonal menu, they had Mango Rum Tilapia with Pineapple Salsa. The lunch portion was only 7 PointsPlus, and it sounded really good, so that's what I decided to order. I got a double side of broccoli instead of mashed potatoes or fries.

 

It also came with a salad. The tilapia was really good, but I didn't care for the pineapple salsa at all. I adore pineapple, so I thought I would love it, but it didn't go with the fish very well. Regardless, it was a yummy dinner, and only 8 PP for the fish, broccoli, and salad.

My older brother, Brian, and his girlfriend Becky, came in from Minnesota yesterday for just a couple of hours. They were going to stay for Noah and Eli's baseball game last night, and when we got to the field, it was pouring rain. The umpire called the game off when we got there, so they didn't get to play. Then as soon as we got home, the sun was out and the rain was totally gone. Bummer. Tonight is their last game, and thankfully, it's gorgeous outside!

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Loose skin issues

This whole post is full of TMI (too much information), so I am sorry in advance for that... ;)

Yesterday morning, I had one of the worst runs ever. I wore my new shorts (which isn't the reason for the bad run), and was excited to try them out on an easy four-miler outside. It was hot and humid, but not ridiculously so.

When I first started running, I almost immediately turned around to change out of the shorts. I hated how uncomfortable the jiggling of my loose skin was. Chafing wasn't an issue at all, thanks to the Aquaphor I put on my thighs, but loose skin moves a lot. The best way I can describe it would be like running without a sports bra. Normally, I wear compression-fit capris, which hold everything really tight, so jiggling isn't an issue.

Since someone always comments that I don't look like I have loose skin on my thighs, I'm going to post a graphic picture for the first time, showing that I'm not making it up. Loose skin is a sensitive subject for me. I worked extremely hard to lose the weight I did, but this is the result of the weight loss, and evidence that I used to be morbidly obese. Here is a picture of when I was lying in bed last night. It's not a flattering angle, but it shows just how loose the skin really is (that's my inner thigh):

As much of an inconvenience that the loose skin is, I would choose my loose skin over my obese legs any day. When I was obese, my legs rubbed together constantly, so I was chafed all the time. It was hard to walk because they felt so heavy. I had to stuff them into my clothes, which was extremely uncomfortable. The loose skin isn't pretty, but it's much more comfortable and easier to deal with than the issues I had when I was obese.

Anyway, I wanted to give the shorts a fair chance, so I decided to just run the whole four miles before deciding whether I liked them.

When I got on the main road, I was very self-conscious of the jiggling. Logically, I knew people probably weren't staring at my thighs; but the fat girl inside my head was remembering when people used to yell out their car windows at me--"Fat cow!" "Moo!" "Look at fattie run!" and stuff like that. After about a mile or so into yesterday's run, I stopped caring about what I looked like, and just tried to focus on keeping good form.

Something I wasn't expecting about wearing shorts was that it would throw off my running form. The movement of the loose skin made me swing my legs outward a little on each step, and I could feel it in my knees (a twisting motion). Not a good thing.

It was when I got to mile two and turned around that my run got really bad.

I was extremely nauseous for some reason. I was running at an easy pace, so it wasn't like I was exerting myself too much. All of mile three, I was just trying to focus on breathing normally, and trying not to panic at the nausea that was getting worse. After I reached mile three, the nausea was so bad that I wanted to stop and just vomit on the side of the road. But stopping would mean I wouldn't be at home, and I desperately wanted to get home.

I was trying not to think of throwing up, because it kept causing me to feel more panicky. Instead, I focused on breathing and I finally--FINALLY--made it home. I sat down for a couple of minutes, and the nausea went away, but my stomach was feeling really icky after that. (I had a wave of nausea after breakfast this morning, too. Not sure what's going on. No, I'm not pregnant!)

I'm glad I tried the shorts, because I'd always been curious about them; however, I'm going to stick with my compression-fit capris, because they are much more comfortable.

Today I had speed work on the schedule. I was hoping to go to the track, but it was thunder storming outside, so I ran on the treadmill instead. I did one of the Hansons' speed workouts: 4 x 3/4 mi with 400 jogs. Basically, that was a 1 mile warm-up, then 3/4 mile at 7:30-ish pace, 1/4 mile jog (repeat for a total of 4 times). On paper, it didn't seem that hard; but when I did it, it was a tough workout! I kept thinking I'd never last more than two intervals. Somehow, I managed to get through the entire thing, though.

I felt like I was drowning in sweat when I was done. I just sat in front of the fan for a couple of minutes trying to cool off. But it felt great! I love that feeling of pushing my body to the max (well, when it's over, I love it).

Even after taking a cold shower, my face was still flushed. A good workout!

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Taste Test Tuesday was a big win this week! I bought this new flavor of cream cheese:

As I've mentioned before, I love anything jalapeno, so I was excited to see this at the store. However, I don't eat cream cheese much, so I wasn't sure what to do with it at first. I ended up making a sandwich with an English muffin, a vegetarian chicken patty, and a tablespoon of this cream cheese, and it was insanely good!

It's the perfect amount of spicy, too; not so spicy that you can't taste anything else, but not a "barely there" kind of heat, either. I used just one tablespoon for the sandwich (for 1 PP) and that little bit went a long way. I'm going to experiment with it a little more, too--maybe on eggs, or as a spread for other kinds of sandwiches. Maybe even on some sort of pizza? Jerry gave this two thumbs up as well; we both loved it!

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By the way, I forgot to post this earlier... A few people asked about the bracelet Brandi gave me. Her friend has an Etsy shop, and she custom made it with my own quote: "determination always trumps motivation". I love it!

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Motivational Monday #25

I'm having a great week being back on track! I've managed to stay on plan, even with dinner at La Pita on Wednesday, a wedding shower on Saturday afternoon, and a wedding reception on Saturday night. I even saved up my activity PointsPlus so that I could have a big cookie yesterday, and still stay on plan. I feel so much better mentally and physically when I stay on track, so this has been a great week for me so far.

I hope everyone else is feeling motivated going into this week! It was great to read through these stories...

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Early this spring, Allison was feeling very down and depressed about her weight, and decided to start making some healthy changes. She started by walking around her neighborhood, and eating a healthier diet. As she got more confident, and started to see the weight come off, she got more and more active. Her Zumba teacher encouraged her to start running, which was a goal of Allison's. She said for her first run, she ran about 50 feet before she had to stop--it was much harder than she expected! But she kept training, with an ultimate dream of one day running a sub-30:00 5K. Her first 5K race was completed in 36:00. Two weeks later, she ran one in 31:46. This weekend, she ran another, and hit her goal, finishing in 29:06! She says she was happier in that moment than she's ever been in her life, and she cried as she crossed the finish line. She's now down 45 pounds, too!

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Amanda completed her first mini triathlon this weekend! She lost a whopping 50 pounds a couple of years ago, and was struggling with maintenance. She decided to find other ways of staying motivated, and training for races was a big help to her. She set a goal of one hour to complete the 200 meter swim, 4 mile bike ride, and 2 mile run; she ended up crushing her goal and finished in 42:14! She's already planning to do the full triathlon next year.

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Brenda and her husband have motivated each other this week to get active. They started with a 2 1/2 mile walk one day, and the next day decided to try for 3 1/2. They ended up walking 5 miles! They are leaving for vacation, and these walks helped motivated them to use the gym where they are going to be staying. Brenda says that having his company helps motivate her, so it's a win-win.

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Jennifer started running just seven months ago, and she ran her first half-marathon yesterday! She completed the distance on her treadmill, which takes some serious self-motivation. She's excited to train for 26.2 next!

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Justine has always wanted to get into running and races, and she just ran her first race! She and her best friend had a blast while doing a color run, and is excited to do another.

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Kelly just completed her first half-Ironman triathlon this weekend! She said she feels fantastic, and is very excited to do it again. You can read her full race recap on her blog. 

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After losing 50 pounds, with a little more than 100 to go, Wynter ran a Tough Mudder this weekend! She struggled with training, and for a long time, worried that she may not even be able to complete the race. She says she had a fantastic team that helped and encouraged her enough for her to finish the entire 10-mile race, and 12 of the 18 obstacles! She's already planning to do the Tough Mudder MN in 2014 (with a goal of being down another 75 pounds). She said, "If I can do it, anyone can!"

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Don't forget to check out all the motivating stories on the Motivational Monday Facebook post, too!

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Anyone have a goal for next week? Feel free to share in the comments! I've found that when I make my goals public on my blog, I tend to work a little harder to complete them ;)

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Photo booth

Yesterday ended up being just as busy as I thought it would be, but thanks to my dad, it was pretty stress-free. When I woke up, I ran eight miles on the treadmill. I'd planned to do it outside, but when I got out there, it was SO humid, and the air felt really thick. I just wimped out and ran it on the 'mill, while watching The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

I showered and got ready to go to Jerry's sister's wedding shower. Her fiance, Chris, asked Jerry to go to hang out with him, so we were able to go to the shower together. My dad volunteered to watch the boys AND take Eli to the birthday parties he was invited to. Eli had two parties back-to-back, and my dad took him to both, which was awesome.

I didn't eat anything at the wedding shower, because it started at 1:00, and I would have been starving by then. I like to eat lunch at around 11:00, so I just ate before I left. When we left the shower at 4:00, though, I was really hungry for dinner. Jerry and I had a wedding to go to at 6:00, so I went home and ate a sandwich and some soup quickly before getting ready for the wedding.

The wedding was a lot of fun! I was stunned by the cupcake display:

They had a ton of different flavors, but I'd been saving my PointsPlus all week for a cookie from Mrs. Fields today, so I chose not to eat any cupcakes. I was glad I'd eaten dinner before we left, because they didn't end up serving the food until close to 8:00, which is nearly my bedtime, hahaha. I did have a couple of glasses of wine, though, and I chatted with my friend Amber for most of the evening. She had more than a few glasses of wine, which led to us getting silly in the photo booth:

Jerry and I went in the photo booth too, and I think it was the first time in our entire relationship using a photo booth. Photo booths should be mandatory at weddings--it was so fun! Then the bride and groom got a copy of all the photos placed into a memory book. I wish we'd done that at our wedding--very fun keepsake!

At around 10:00, I was ready to go home (I don't dance, unfortunately, and all of my friends love to dance). Jerry drove me home, and then he went back to the wedding; luckily, we were only a couple of miles from the reception.

This morning, I had my long run to do, which today, was just eight miles. I was expecting it to feel like an easy, peasy eight miles, because it's not that long of a distance while marathon training. However, since I switched to the Hansons' Marathon Method, I'd run eight miles yesterday, followed by running eight today. So my legs weren't exactly "fresh".

Holy cow, it was so much harder than I thought it would be! I decided to run outside, because the humidity was a little lower today. As soon as I started running, my legs felt very heavy. Normally, that would have bothered me, but I know that the whole point of this type of training is to run on tired legs. It was great to know that it was working!

It was a pretty decent run. I kept my heart rate in Zone 2, which is where I want it for my long runs. That translated to splits in the mid-to-high-9:00's. A blackbird dive-bombed my head again, which was mildly terrifying, so instead of an out-and-back route, I ended up looping around to avoid the bird on the way back. Then, about a quarter-mile from my house, I got stung by some sort of bug on my ankle! The pain was really bad for a minute, and I actually had to stop to make sure the bug wasn't stuck in my sock or something. I could see the spot where I was stung, but the bug was long gone.

I was happy to be finished...

It was interesting to look at my stats from yesterday's eight miler and compare them to today's. On the treadmill, I ran a 9:24/mi pace, my heart rate was an average of 141, and I burned 634 calories. Running outside, I ran a 9:36/mi pace, my heart rate was an average of 155, and I burned 805 calories. That's a big difference!

Jerry and I took the boys out today to have some fun with them. They'd been wanting to go ride go-carts for a long time, so we took them to do that. Eli drove his really slowly, and I didn't want to make him feel bad by passing him, so it wasn't a very thrilling ride ;)  After that, they did the batting cages, and then had an ice cream. I stopped and got my cookie on the way home. I'd saved up 31 PointsPlus for it so far this week (it's 23 PP). I'm going to enjoy it for dessert tonight :)

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Just a reminder, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you accomplished a fitness/health goal that you are proud of this week, you can send a picture and short description to my e-mail at SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, with the subject Motivational Monday, and I may include it on tomorrow's post.

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Pizza Doh!

It was another super hot and humid day today. It's supposed to cool down next week, and I really hope it does! Today, I had four miles on the schedule, but since I was going to run it on the treadmill anyway, I just waited until about 10:00. I really like running in the late morning, because it seems to help keep my appetite down for the whole day. When I run first thing in the morning, I always feel ravenous all day.

I set the treadmill at an easy pace to keep my heart rate in Zone 1, then started running. I watched The Secret Life of the American Teenager again. I'm really liking that show!

After my four miles were done, I showered and then got ready to go run a bunch of errands. The kids asked if I wanted to play Hedbanz, so we played that for about a half hour before heading out. I thought it was kind of funny that I got "cow" for the first round ;)

I waited to take the picture until after I'd guessed that I was a cow, so I wasn't cheating!

We used to play a version of that game in college, with Post-It notes. We would write a famous person's name down on a Post-It, and then stick it on someone's forehead (after having a few drinks, of course!). Once we all had a name, we took turns asking questions to figure out who we were.

I was always terrible at that game, because I don't know anything about celebrities. One time, I was asking questions FOREVER, and everyone else had already guessed theirs. I was getting mad at Jerry for picking something so hard for me to guess, and finally, I just grabbed the Post-It and looked... Eric Estrada. Then, I shouted some words that my friends still tease me about to this day:

"WHO THE FUCK IS ERIC ESTRADA?!"

Hahaha, I still think Jerry purposely picked someone I wouldn't know. He's wasn't allowed to write my Post-It for the forehead game after that ;)

Anyway, tomorrow is going to be a super busy day--I have to go to a wedding shower at 1:00, Eli has TWO birthday parties (one from 2-5 and the other from 4-7), and then Jerry and I are going to a wedding tomorrow night. So I had to go out and buy birthday gifts and the other half of a shower gift.  Taking the kids with me to buy the stuff was a mistake, and I just couldn't take the bickering, so I decided to go by myself after Jerry got home. The Hedbanz game was fun, so I ended up buying that for both kids' parties tomorrow. Hopefully they don't have it already.

Pizza Friday was a disaster today. We decided to make homemade pizza, so I put all the dough ingredients in the bread machine on the dough cycle. After it spun for a little while, I walked past it and noticed that the oil smelled rancid. I don't use oil very much in cooking, so it tends to go bad before I use it all. So I dumped out all the dough in to the trash, and started over with new oil.

After about 20 minutes, I noticed that I'd accidentally put it on the bread cycle instead of the dough cycle; which meant that I would have a loaf of bread made out of pizza dough when the cycle was over. It hadn't started baking yet, so I just started it over with the dough cycle, and it worked out.

When it came time to make the pizza, I split the dough in two, to make two pizzas. I grabbed a round pizza pan and started working the dough out for Jerry's and my pizza, and when I flipped the dough over, I noticed a gross grayish film all over it from the pan. I have no idea what that was about, but it was too gross to eat, so I had to toss that ball of dough. Fortunately, the kids' dough was still good.

After spreading out the pizza in a square, I had the idea to bake it the same way you would bake cinnamon rolls. I rolled up the whole pizza, with the sauce and cheese on it, and then cut it into slices and baked the slices that way. The kids said it tasted amazing...

Jerry and I just ended up having sandwiches for dinner, because there was no way I was going to make more dough after that.

After dinner, I went out to buy the gifts I needed at Target. While I was there, I saw some running clothes on clearance, so I just checked them out. There were a few pairs of running shorts, which I've never worn. I have a lot of loose skin on my thighs, so I never attempted to wear running shorts. But I see other people run with shorts, and a lot of them look like their thighs have some loose skin, so I decided to buy some and give them a try. 

Now, I know they aren't going to look pretty while I'm running, and my thighs are jiggling, but if I can wear them without chafing, I will be very happy to wear cooler clothing in the summer months. They're very comfy! But of course, I haven't run in them yet.

I have an eight-miler to run tomorrow, but I think I'll wait to give them a try until I have a short run. I'm mostly worried about chafing on my thighs. I'm also very self-conscious of the jiggling, but the longer I am at this weight, the less I really care about my imperfections (it's hard to tell from this photo, but trust me, the loose skin on my thighs is pretty bad!).

Because of my super busy day tomorrow, I may not get a chance to write. Have a good weekend!

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Dinner at La Pita

Dinner at La Pita was great last night! I was a little nervous about meeting Kelly, simply because I'm kind of awkward when meeting people and I'm pretty shy until I really get to know someone. I'm glad Stephanie came with me, because she is about as social as you can get ;)

I picked Stephanie up on the way, and we got there a little early, so we chatted until Kelly got there. Kelly was very easy to talk to, so my nerves went away as soon as she got there. She's just as funny in-person as she is on her blog, and it was a fun dinner.

I've shown my favorite meal from La Pita on my blog a million times, so I figured I'd order something different this time. My usual chicken kabob meal is about 30 PP for everything, so I wanted to find something that wasn't so high. I ended up ordering crushed lentil soup and baba ghannouge. I'd never had baba ghannouge before, but it's lower in calories than hummus, and the description sounded very similar...

Hummus is 1 PP per tablespoon, and the baba ghannouge is 1 PP per 2 tablespoons. So you get twice as much for the same amount of PointsPlus. I thought it was worth a taste!

When our food came, I was totally ready to dig in, but I managed to let Steph take a quick picture.

The soup was fantastic; it tasted nearly identical to my Lemon Lentil Soup recipe. And holy smokes, I was in love at first taste with the baba ghannouge. It was amazing! It reminded me a lot of the hummus, only a stronger garlic flavor, and a little bit of a smokiness. I will definitely get that instead of hummus from now on. I ate all of the soup, half of the baba ghannouge, and three (1-ounce) pitas, for a total of 14 PointsPlus.

After dinner, we managed to snag a hostess to take a quick picture of the three of us outside.

Kelly, me, and Steph

We said good-bye to Kelly, and I took Stephanie home, then went to pick up the kids from my parents' house. I thought Jerry was going to be home at 6:30 to be able to get the kids, but it was almost 9:00 when he got home! He'd left at 5:00 in the morning for work. I felt bad that he was there so long, but he said they had to get some sort of tests done (he's going through orientation/training all this week and next week). He didn't seem to mind the long day, because he said it's been really interesting.

I decided to go ahead and switch over to the Hansons' marathon method. I'm really curious to see how I feel while doing it. I'm going to do the lower mileage (beginner) plan, because it'll start at about the same mileage I'm doing now, 30-ish per week. Someone had asked about what the speed and strength workouts were, and here is a list of some for the plan.

My knee was feeling back to normal today, so I think the two days off was just what I needed. Today was a five-mile run at marathon pace on the schedule. Since I'm not going to be "racing" in Chicago, I just chose my pace based on the McMillan Pace Calculator prediction (the pace that the calculator says I can run a marathon at).

First, I calibrated my foot pod. For some reason, it pretty far off on the last treadmill run I did. It's been a long time since I calibrated it, so I'm glad I got that done. I finished watching Pretty Little Liars a couple of weeks ago, so I needed a new show to watch on Netflix while I run. After watching PLL, I was in the mood for another teen show, and I ended up watching The Secret Life of the American Teenager. It's pretty good! Just another teen drama ;)

So I finished my five miles. Tomorrow would normally be my long run day, but since I'm switching over to the Hansons' plan, I'm going to try and follow that right to the letter; which means I'll be running my long runs on Sundays. Tomorrow is just four miles, then I do eight on both Saturday and Sunday. That sounds so much nicer than 14 miles tomorrow in this horrible heat wave we have going on!

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An Honest Weigh-In

All day today, I was trying to come up with reasons not to post my weigh-in today. I had a terrible week (I probably only stayed on plan for two days total), and I watched my weight climb all week long. Even when I opened this blank post to start writing, I was planning to say something like, "I'm going to take a pass for my Wednesday Weigh-in today..."

Is it okay to take a break from the scale once in a while? Of course. But I know me ;)  I know that it would be the start of skipping many more weigh-ins just because I gained a lot, and didn't want to show the internet. When I got to my goal weight in December, I said I was going to weigh in every single week, no matter how badly I didn't want to.

So today, I really really really didn't want to. But I'm going to, because I don't like breaking promises to myself.

Two weeks ago, I was at my goal weight of 133. Today, I was eight pounds heavier. Am I surprised? No. I ate very poorly this week. Am I totally devastated? No, because I know that if I get right back on track, it will only be a short setback. I actually think seeing that number on the scale was sobering enough to make me realize that every day really does matter. I have to log my food every day, even if I eat way too much (there were a couple of days where I didn't this week).

I've been doing this long enough now to know that I can take the gain off just as quickly as I put it on if I get right back on track. I also know that if I don't get right back on track, by next week, I could be up another five pounds. So even though I am going out to La Pita for dinner tonight (!), I am back to measuring and counting.

Jerry kind of fell off the wagon this week, too; we both got in that "But it's summer!" mindset that I've talked about before. I'm not putting any blame on him in any way, but when he's off track, it's easier for me to fall off, too (and vice versa, I'm sure). We had a long talk about it yesterday, and we are both totally committed to not letting this one week turn into two or more.

Anyway, it was hard to post the gain, but I'm glad I did. Did anyone happen to watch Extreme Weight Loss last night? The man on the show started manipulating the scale to make it look like he'd lost weight when he really was gaining. He was lying to Chris Powell for weeks (maybe months) about it. When he finally told Chris about what he was doing, he said that he felt so much pressure to lose the weight, he lied about it, and then planned on actually losing it so nobody would know. But instead of losing it, he kept gaining, until it was obvious that he had been lying. 

So I think, in a way, "taking a pass" for my weigh in would feel dishonest in that way. For anyone who wants to know what life is like in maintenance, this is a reality. It's happened to me lots of times over the past few years, and I'm sure it'll happen again! The key is just getting right back on track and taking care of it right away, instead of continuing to eat poorly and say, "Just one more day".

Considering all of this, it was perfect timing, then, when I got this bracelet in the mail yesterday:

Brandi, one of my readers, had this bracelet made for me--it says "determination always trumps motivation". That is something I said over and over in my head the whole time I was losing weight and feeling unmotivated. Motivation is very temporary, and can help get through a tough moment or day. But determination is for the long haul, and that helped me to chug along through the whole weight loss/maintenance process, good and bad. (I wrote a post a while ago about the difference between motivation and determination).

Now, about La Pita... I'm very excited about going tonight. Stephanie and I are going to meet up with Kelly from Sublurban Mama! I only know her through her blog, and since Steph "knows" her too, we thought it would be fun to meet up for dinner. And what better place than La Pita? ;)

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Cookie Nookie

I skipped my run today. Not because I wanted to, but because my knee has been nagging me a little. After running through the pain all last year, I'm probably a little hypersensitive about knee tweaks and pains, but I'd rather not take any chances on getting injured. Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day, so I'm hoping two days off in a row will take care of it.

I've been doing a ton of reading about different training methods lately, and I've become really intrigued with the Hansons' Marathon Method. Most training plans have you focus your week on the one long run; but the Hansons' training spreads the miles more throughout the week. It's a high-mileage training plan, but focuses more on running on tired legs, which helps you prepare for the marathon.

The longest run is only 16 miles (could be more or less, depending on pace, but 16 works for the majority of people), rather than the 20 I've done in the past two plans. However, the workouts through the week make your legs tired enough to where the 16 mile long run feels like the last 16 miles of a marathon, rather than the first 16 miles. It's very hard to explain in a nutshell, but the more I read about it, the more interested I am. I'm still 13 weeks out from the race, so I could make the switch if I wanted, and I'm really leaning toward doing that.

My knees don't like runs longer than 14 miles, and I'm really nervous about getting injured once I get into the 16-, 18-, and 20-mile runs. With the Hansons' training, I can't help but wonder if it would be better for my knees. Since I'm going to be running at Andrea's pace during the race, I can afford to try out different plans and see what I like best. I'm really leaning toward making the switch. Mentally, I really think I would like the Hansons' method better, because I get SO nervous for those long runs.

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A few days ago, I was at Wal-Mart when I saw the perfect item to try for Taste Test Tuesday!

Does that not sound like it was made for me?!  As soon as we got home, I got out some spoons so Jerry, the kids, and I could all give it a taste. I was immediately disappointed. I didn't like it--at ALL. I adore peanut butter, and I'm not at all picky about any nut butters, but I didn't like the taste or the texture of this one. Here are the ingredients:

The texture was very soft and oily, which wouldn't have bothered me so much if I liked the taste (for reference, my favorite peanut butter for both taste and texture is Smucker's Natural). The taste was nothing like cookie dough, in my opinion. It tasted almost fruity to me. I liked that there were tiny little chocolate chips mixed into it, but I didn't taste any chocolate at all. I just tasted the strange, fruity flavor, which I think was the chocolate liquor. I wasn't even tempted to take another spoonful.

I will say, though, that Jerry loved it. He said he would have a hard time staying away from it. The kids had different opinions, too--Noah didn't like it at all, but Eli really did. On one hand, I'm disappointed that I didn't like it, but other the other hand, it's a relief! ;)  At least I won't be tempted to buy it again.

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Tonight for dinner, I was really craving fish--totally strange, because I never crave fish--so I made some mahi-mahi. I tried a new recipe for potatoes to go with the fish, and they turned out SO good. I've always loved salt and vinegar chips, so when I saw this recipe for salt and vinegar potatoes, I had to make them.

Instead of using fingerling potatoes, I just cut up regular old potatoes, then boiled them in vinegar, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and put them under the broiler. Jerry and I loved them!

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Motivational Monday #24

I have lots of motivating pictures and stories to post tonight, so I'll jump right in... enjoy!

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Since she started reading my blog in November, Beverly says she's lost 55 pounds and became a runner! She's currently training for her first half-marathon, but she ran her first official race on Saturday, a 5K. She said the race was super hilly, and she was thrilled to finish in 32:14. 

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Thomas shared this picture of his "little brother" (from the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization), Brandon, who ran his first 5K at 10 years old! He'd expected to have to take a lot of walking breaks, but he surpassed his goals, finishing in 36:50. A year ago, he was "completely tanked" after a half-mile race, so the 5K proved just how much of a difference a year can make. By next year, maybe he'll be beating his brother to the finish line ;)  Regardless, Brandon said he had fun and would do it again! (You can read more about Brandon here on Thomas' blog).

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Cindy Jo ran a 5K race this weekend as a training run for a triathlon she's doing next month, and unexpectedly PR'ed her 5K time by 45 seconds! Her kids earned their first race bibs in the Small Fry Trot, too ;)

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After having a baby boy in November, Cynthia started running. She's since lost all of her "baby weight" AND all of her "marriage weight"; she says her husband has never seen her at this size before! She just ran her first 5K, a color run.

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Darby was recently going through old photos, and was very excited to see how visual her weight loss progress is! She's lost 70 pounds, and is in the best shape of her life. She posted more pictures on her blog, "The Difference Between Try and Triumph is a Little Umph!"

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Deb ran an 8K race on Saturday night, and set a PR by 1:32, finishing in 46:00! She added that as of this morning, she is only two pounds from her Weight Watchers goal weight.

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Kacie just ran her first 5K! She only started running five weeks ago, and the furthest she'd run in training was 1.5 miles. She wasn't expecting to be able to run the entire 3.11 distance, but with the support of her sister-in-law (who pushed and motivated her to keep chugging along), she finished in 35 minutes, running the whole way!

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Naleen wanted to share about her husband, Karl, but they both have a lot to be proud of! They've each lost 40 pounds and have become much more active than they were when they got married 4 years ago. Yesterday, they completed a 10K race (along with Naleen's mother); Karl PR'ed by 11 minutes(!) even though the course was much hillier than the course he ran his previous PR on. Naleen and her mom also did great, finishing in 1:06 and 1:01 respectively.

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Not only did Liz wear this shirt, which she hasn't been able to fit into for a few years, but she also purchased her first pair of running shoes!

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Genny's five-year old daughter, Parker, just completed her first Tough Kids Triathlon! Genny says she is very proud of her daughter's commitment to fitness at such a young age, as well as her confidence during the race.

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Rebecca shared her story, which explains the struggles she's gone through, and I didn't want to edit anything out; she's truly gone through some really tough stuff to get where she is today!

"I'm an overweight wife and mom of 4 kids, and I work full time.  I go through spurts of being fitter and spurts of being fatter.  For the past year and a half, I would definitely say I was in a fatter period.  I have put on 40 lbs (after losing it all after the birth of my fourth child) and was just eating very poorly (I am a stress eater, and had been out of work for 3 years after my daughter was born, and we were beginning to struggle financially).

"I started back to work in June 2012, but a couple of months before that I started having unexplained issues with my stomach.  I felt that it was a food allergy, but could never pinpoint a commonality between the occurances.  Fast forward to January of this year, I had one of the worst episodes yet, I went into septic shock among other things and nearly died.  And yet there was still no explanation.  So, about two months later, when I finally started feeling like myself, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

"I started eating better and exercising, and slowly losing the weight.  That's when I came across your blog and decided I wanted to run as well.  So, I slowly began the process (I also have asthma, and never had a great lung capacity) and decided that I needed to register for a 5k in order to truly commit (in October, plenty of time to train).  I had gotten to where I could run 1 mile on the treadmill, and then I had another setback with my stomach.  I was unable to exercise for about 3 weeks, and when I finally got back to it, my legs felt like lead and I just couldn't do it.  I was having a real hard time making myself run on the treadmill, and I was just fatigued all the time.

"In the midst of all this and through various tests, the doctors diagnosed me with Celiac's disease.  It's been rough adjusting, because I also love cakes, cookies, donuts, all of that yummy stuff I can't have anymore.  But now I feel empowered again, and like I can be in charge of my health, by getting rid of the foods that have been destroying my body.  I was never able to do it before, but this new diagnosis has made it easier. I also decided to take to the streets, and started running outside.  So, as of today, I am down 20 lbs and was able to run 2 miles outside!  It was very exciting!  Thank you very much for being so inspirational!"

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Don't forget to check out the Motivational Monday post on Facebook!

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Window washing

As ridiculous as it sounds, I was nervous all night about my tempo run this morning. It's so weird that I get nervous for certain runs (particularly long runs and tempo runs), because I've been doing them for over three years now. I woke up this morning at around 6:00, and I looked at the weather on my phone--70 degrees with 94% humidity! It certainly wasn't the amazing 57 degrees I had the other day, so I decided to get out early, before it heated up some more.

When I stepped outside, I could see that all the car windows were fogged up (from the outside), and the water was actually dripping down the car because it was so humid. Everything felt wet, including the air. I briefly thought about going inside to the treadmill, but I had gotten up at 6:00 on a Sunday to run, so I might as well make the most of it.

I wish I could say I loved every second of the run, but tempo runs are HARD, and I was counting down the miles until it was over. The goal for a tempo run is to keep my heart rate in Zone 3 (163-175); I started out by warming up until my heart rate reached Zone 3, about half a mile in.

I ran out until I reached the two-mile mark, then I turned around and headed home. I ran 3.25 miles at tempo pace (er, heart rate, rather), then I ran slowly to cool down until I got home at mile 4. I was exhausted, and SO hot. I actually went right into the bathroom, turned just the cold spigot on in the shower, and peeled off my wet clothes. The cold water was a bit of a shock, but it felt wonderful! I felt amazing when I was done, and when I looked at my splits, I was really happy with today's tempo:

Splits 1 & 6 were my warm-up and cool down, so my actual average tempo pace was 8:05/mi. A great workout!

My parents took the kids to church this morning, and while they were gone, Jerry and I went to my parents' house to wash their windows. My mom had made an appointment with a window washer (her house has 50 windows!!), but the guy canceled at the last minute. She asked if Jerry and I wanted to do it for $100--sure!

It ended up taking us about three hours, and it was a tough upper body workout! My shoulders and arms are going to be really sore tomorrow, I can feel it already. Jerry went around and did the outside while I did the inside. I was pretty proud of our work when we were done--the windows looked great.

I know that I sound like a broken record lately, but I am having such a hard time staying on track with my diet! I'll do great for a couple of days, and then throw all my cares to the wind and eat way too much. Then, of course, I pay the price for it--not only on the scale, but my running feels harder when I've been eating crappy.

There are 13 weeks until the Chicago Marathon, and Andrea suggested we do a little game/bet to help keep each other on track until the race. My goal is to be at my goal weight (133) on marathon day, so I just have to try really hard to maintain my weight (well, lose a few pounds, actually, because I'm up from all the crappy eating). Before I leave for Chicago, I'll weigh in and if I'm over my goal weight, I'll owe her money for each pound that I'm over (same goes for Andrea).

She does Weight Watchers, too, so we're also going to keep each other in check with our food tracking. For this, we'll do the same thing I did with my sister; for each PP that we go in the negative over the course of a week, we'll owe each other $1. Obviously, the goal isn't to earn money from each other, but to have consequences for binge eating or just going way off track. One binge could set me back quite a bit! ;)  I think that turning it into a "game" like this will be fun.

Jerry starts his new job tomorrow. I'm excited (and nervous) for him! I'm sure he's going to do great, but I just really want him to like it and have no regrets about leaving his previous job. Things are going to be a little different while we adjust to his new schedule, but in the long run, I think it'll be a great change.

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Just a reminder, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you have a health/fitness accomplishment you want to share (along with a photo), feel free to e-mail it to me and I may include it in tomorrow's post. My e-mail is SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) come. Can't wait to see your accomplishments for the week!

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