C25K

The days are ticking down very quickly until I'm in the States again and preparing for my BFF's wedding! I'm so excited!!! However, my weight loss has come to pretty much a complete stop.

As in, hitting a brick wall, stop.

A little while back, I'd thought about trying the Couch-to-5K program. It can't get much easier than a program targeted to couch potatoes and getting them to running the distance of a short marathon, right? So I bought the iPhone app. And it sat on my iPhone, completely unused for something like 2-3 months (at least).

Friday, when I went to go to the gym, I had forgotten that it was a base-wide "down day" (basically it means a day off of work). It might have had something to do with the fact that The Instigator still had to go to his class. lol But the point is, on down days, the gym closes at 8 o'clock instead of 10. Thankfully, the track is located outdoors. And what a perfect time to start my C25K!

It wasn't too bad, honestly, but I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't feel that way if I hadn't already been going to the gym regularly before that day!!!

Unfortunately, I forgot to stretch out after I ran, and Saturday I woke up soooooooooooo stiff and sore! Despite my stretching throughout the day, all day Saturday and Sunday, I was still sore when I woke up this morning. I was wondering if I was going to be able to run at all tonight! (The program has you run 3 times a week, and it changes weekly, gradually taking you from more walking than running to running the entire distance.) Somehow, though, I managed. I ran when the voice in my ear telling me to run, and was very grateful when it told me to walk! I started over again from day 1 so that my week time frame for the program  coincides with and actual week. lol So tonight was week 1, day 1 for the second time. I am really hoping that this helps me lose the stubborn inches that aren't going away and makes me hate what I see in the mirror.

My Weight War

I was always the small one in my family, growing up. Petite. Slim. Slender. Even once I hit puberty and started filling out, the weight I gained around my midsection was minimal, and I learned to suck it in, and nobody even noticed. In high school, I was never above a size 5/6 (which is likely different from the sizes of 5 and 6 that are floating around today, but as I don't have an inch measurement, the size will have to do, lol).

Once I went away to Fort Collins for my second semester of my first year of college, I definitely gained the Freshman Fifteen (if not more!), but I had my amazing BFF as my roommate, and we started a routine of going to the gym every night (after watching Lizzie McGuire on the Disney Channel), and it suddenly wasn't a problem anymore.

Once I went back to Colorado Springs and started to work at Gunther Toody's as a waitress, I was on my feet and moving pretty much constantly. The calories a server burns has got to be a crazy-high number. After I had met and started dating The Instigator, I had had some problems and was sent home for my debilitating migraines. It had turned out that I was dehydrated. As in, needed-an-IV dehydrated. (It was bad!) So at that point, I didn't even have the water weight I should have.

Then I got pregnant.

I actually didn't gain a lot of weight with A (thanks a lot, morning sickness that was really all-day sickness...) to the point of my OB/GYN actually being a bit concerned about my low weight. I think I gained 60 pounds over the course of that pregnancy. And after I had him, I was pretty determined to lose the excess weight. It took a long time to see the results I wanted. And finally, finally, after I had broken through the plateau of weight (where the number on the scale doesn't budge because of muscle weighing more than fat and the building muscle as the fat dissipates)...and I was pregnant with C. I started that pregnancy off 25 pounds heavier than I did the first one. I was not happy about that.

The Instigator left for a remote in Korea 7 weeks after C came along. I moved back in with my BFF in Fort Collins, and with her nifty little regimen, my weight dropped down to 30 pounds less than my end pregnancy weight! I was delighted! But then I moved to Oklahoma to be nearer to the in-laws (as we knew our follow on assignment was to be overseas), and it all went out the window.

Since then, it has been a constant struggle for me to get to where I'm happy with my body.

I'd set my goal of losing the weight when The Instigator deployed, but it never seemed to happen. Then moving from Italy to Germany brought me to an all-time low. (Or high, if you go according to the scale!) Moving is stressful, and there's a lot of unhealthy eating because it's quicker and easier. I crossed the line on the BMI chart into obese.

I cried. I had never weighed that much before without being pregnant.

Thankfully, I have some amazing people in my life that are on my side and cheering me on. They "make" me go to the gym, even when I don't feel like it. They encourage me when I feel I'm not making any headway towards my goal. They make me buy new clothes that show off the weight loss. (I'm looking at you, Misha! LOL)

Last night, after going to the gym, I weighed myself. I had lost roughly 3 pounds while walking all over London, and saw that I've lost about another pound and a half since getting back!!! I'm still in the "overweight" category, but not by much! I am thisclose to crossing over that line into "normal/healthy." So. Close. And I know that the day I do, I will cry happy tears.

So to those that have put up with my whining and kicked my butt into gear to get something done about it, thank you. Every comment on my check-ins or statues about working out have helped. And most especially, THANK YOU to Misha and The Instigator for being my support team in the flesh. :) I couldn't have gotten this far without you!

Strawberries, Pineapple and Grapes...Oh my! (And OH, YUM!!!)

I'm sitting here with a bowl of mini-fruit salad in front of me. (Although, I suppose since there are 3 different types of fruit, it constitutes an actual fruit salad...I just made a personal portion, instead of a large bowl, and without it getting all mushy from sitting in it's own juices.)

Why is this blog-worthy? Because a) it comes on the heels of Day 2 of a P90X workout and b) because I tend to be the one that reaches for the prepackaged junk that is so unhealthy. Like poptarts. Or cereal that has thick coatings of sugar.

This past weekend, Misha and her boys came up again (which was a nice reprieve in many ways, after last week), and she and The Instigator "made" me do P90X. Plyometrics. Can we say "OWWWWWWWW!!!!!"? Because it took me forever to clean the boys' toy room the other day, with a lot of bending and squatting and lifting and moving, my legs were so sore for at least 3 days, and I did Pilates on Friday. So doing a high-impact, hardcore aerobic exercise dvd for an hour....I was exhausted and in pain!

Today, I was unsure if I should do Pilates of P90X again. Misha convinced me to do P90. This time, though, I was determined to keep up with the dvd and do the same number reps they did and to have better form in the exercises instead of doing only all the modified ones. As a result, I only made it 45 minutes through. I just could not keep going. But I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I didn't have breakfast this morning (I must remember to start eating when the boys do!), and I tend to pass out from low blood sugar when I skip meals and exert myself.

So here I am, eating my fruit. :) I am determined to lose weight, even if it kills me! (And the irony in that statement would be that losing weight would actually prolong my life...LOL) I'm going to London in May, and I would like to feel confident in standing in front of the camera instead of always behind it. And as if that weren't enough, my BFF is getting married this fall (I'm flying back to the States to be her maid/matron of honor!), and I want to look good! It's amazing how weight manages to stick around after having 2 boys 15 months apart...