Bathing Suit Season and Body Issues

It's gonna be a hot, humid and sunny weekend, so we were thinking of taking Lucy swimming at the lake or river. This of course leads to what to wear. Ugh. Trying on bathing suits seriously brings up all my body issues. While I think I look alright in clothes, bathing suits are a whole 'nother story.  After 2+ hours of trying different combinations (I have 9 or 10 one-pieces, 6 bikinis/tankinis, and 1 pair of swim shorts), I ended up with only one "piece" that I like - the swim shorts. Here they are with one of the tankini tops and one of the bikini tops. I'm only showing side views because, well, can you say HELLO flabby belly and stretch marks!! Bleh. Oh, and please excuse my messy house ;)

Chopped all my hair off last night

                                       

I think I look pregnant in this one :(

Wish this top was a solid color

I do actually like the way my legs look!

And which will I wear when we actually venture out of the house you may ask? Definitely the swim shorts! I'd love to have the confidence to wear the bikini top, but I don't. If the tankini top was solid black I'd probably wear it out, but most likely I'll end up in a sports bra and tank top.

Or I'll just stay in and color my hair. It's brutally hot out there ;)

Marathon training started today, and some other rambling...

Well actually, I should say half-marathon training started today because I added to/adjusted my marathon training plan for the half I'm doing on my birthday (June 22nd). The marathon isn't until November. And I actually ran outside today! I took Lucy with me so I wasn't expecting to get a whole lot accomplished, but she actually did really well :) I set my app (iSmoothRun) for a 5 minute warm-up and then 1:30/:30 intervals and off we went.

The subdivision I live in has a main road that goes around in a circle, and it's exactly 1 mile if I stay on the inner sidewalk. Usually I add onto that by using the outer sidewalk/road and go around another street. Here, let me show you what I'm talking about...

My house is at the "pause" mark. If I take the outer road/sidewalk and add on Revere Drive (where the 5 mile marker is) it makes each lap 1.25 miles. If I just do the inner circle of Independence Drive it's exactly 1 mile. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyways, Lucy had enough after twice around so I dropped her back at home, took off my jacket, and back out I went for 3 more laps. On the 5th lap I added the extra street to make sure I hit 5 miles. It went really well, other than some tummy issues (as usual, ugh!), so I will probably keep with the 1:30/:30 intervals for my "long" runs.

After that I watched a couple episodes of Mystery Diners (I love those kind of shows on Food Network!) while making the grocery list, took Lucy for another lap, and then off to the grocery store. I really need to develop a better grocery system because it seems like I'm going every 4 or 5 days, and at about $150 each trip, this is super expensive! The problem is that my husband and I eat completely different types of foods. Of course you all know that I'm vegetarian/plant-strong, but hubby definitely is NOT.

Well well, aren't I just yappy today?! While I'm on a roll, here's today's menu:

• Breakfast: vitamin, coffee
• Pre-run: roasted cauliflower and a black-bean burger (this probably explains the tummy issues)
• Post-run: romaine salad w/tomatoes, onions, celery, radishes, sesame sticks and tahini lime dressing
• Snack: Lime tortilla Popchips w/garlic and artichoke hummus
• Dinner: haven't decided yet

For the past few days I've been hovering at 120 pounds, so this week's plan is get back to around 118. Then June's goal is 116 pounds.

Okay, I think that's about it. Hope everyone is having a happy Memorial Day weekend!

FPC Day 14 (2 week wrap up)

So after 2 full weeks of photographing everything I eat, I'm at the same exact weight I started at. For quite some time now I've been fluctuating between 118 - 119. And while I would like to get back to 116 I'm thinking that maybe my body is happy where it is. I eat 95% healthy and I'm active at least 5 out of 7 days per week. At 5'4 and 118 pounds my BMI is 20. I feel good :)



Today would be the start of week 3, but since I forgot my phone at home I have no way to take any pictures. I'm going to respectfully bow out of the challenge at this point. I had fun doing this, and I enjoyed looking at everyone's photos. I wish you all the best :)

FPC Days 12 and 13

I never got around to posting last night, sorry. It also dawned on me that I don't need to post those summary photos every day since you can see them by clicking on the Food/Fitness Tracker page, and then follow the link there.



Today's workout was a 3.5 mile run, doing 1:30/:30 intervals of 6.5mph/4mph (plus warm-up and cool-down). I didn't take my Acidopholus over the weekend or this morning, and I could definitely tell as soon as I got about a half-mile into my run. I'll spare you the TMI details, but oh my, does my tummy hurt :(

I came home from work, had my monster salad, and took Lucy for her walk. Now I'm going to jump in the shower and then hit the hay.  Have a good night!

FPC Day 8 (Week 1 Wrap-Up)

I didn't get below 118, but I did lose 1.2 pounds this week. Starting weight (5/1/13) 119.6 and today's weight was 118.4. However, my "normal" weight lately has been 118.6 so I really only lost .2. Regardless, I've enjoyed the challenge so far. I did not eat any Reese's all week, and the couple snacks I have eaten were healthy. I've also lowered my caffeine intake and upped my water consumption :)

Today is the hungriest I've been in a long time and I ended up over on both calories and fat. I've been "starving" since I got done at the gym (40 minutes on the Arc Trainer doing Heart-Rate Zone training). My tummy is still growling but I refuse to eat anything else, heh.

Tomorrow I'm off work (Lucy has to go back to the vet for the rest of her shots) so I'm not sure what'll be on the menu. Stay tuned...

FPC Day 7

I've made it through one entire week of photographing every single thing I eat! It really hasn't been difficult at all, and I'm proud of myself for passing up some unhealthy stuff. I was excited to see 118.2 on the scale today, but I'm really hoping to be under 118 tomorrow morning, which will be the official 1 week weigh-in.  Here's today's food summary:

Today's workout was RUNNING again, Yay! Another 3.5 pain-free miles :)

How did everyone's else first week go? Are we gonna keep this up a bit longer? I'm game if everyone else is!

FPC Day 3

Last night after dinner I started getting terrible stomach pains. They've been coming and going ever since. I think it's from too much fiber, and the combination of half a head of cauliflower yesterday followed by Brussels sprouts must have sent me over the edge ;)  I was down a pound this morning, but that just puts me back at 118, so I still have those 2 stupid pounds to go.

Oh look, I hit all my nutrition goals for the day:

Today's workout was 35 minutes on the Arc Trainer. I do like that machine, but my feet both went completely numb after about 20 minutes (again). I burned 300 calories and was sweating like a pig by the time I finished. Then after dinner tonight I took Lucy for a 1.5 mile walk. My toe seems to be good! And at least when I walk (or run) my feet don't go numb. I can't wait to get back on the treadmill Monday!!!

Tomorrow is a rest day, and will most likely be the hardest day of this challenge for me. The moms are coming over and my mom -always- brings snacks and/or will take us out for dinner. When I say no to anything, she tells me I'm too skinny and need to gain about 10 pounds. Oh well, we shall see how it goes!
Wish me luck!

How's everyone else doing so far? It was another crazy day at work, so I only got to 3 or 4 blogs to look around. Tomorrow I'll be cleaning and then "visiting" but by Sunday I should be able to get in some reading time! Have a great weekend!

Fitness Friday (and a new shirt ;))

I mentioned the other day that I've committed to run 26.2 miles this week, for Boston. Here's how this week has been going (so far):

• Monday 3.5 miles
• Tuesday 3.5 miles
• Wednesday 3.5 miles
• Thursday 7 miles
• Friday 3.3 miles

So after today's run I'm at just under 21 miles. Just a little over 5 to go! 

Oh, and speaking of fitness I came across this shirt today and HAD to order it! Yes, it's quite rude and may be found offensive by some, but I think after maintaining a 100+ pound weight loss (by RUNNING MY ASS OFF, almost every day) for more than 4 years now, I've more than earned it ;)

You can order it HERE.  You know you want it, Norma ;)

Food Tracking and Treadmill Tales

I was super busy at work today so no bloggy time. I wasn't even going to post but I wanted to give a shout-out to Jen over at Perfect in our Imperfections for telling me how to take pictures of stuff on my phone (yes, I'm a little technologically challenged these days)!

For the past few months I've been using the iPhone notepad to keep track of everything, which has been working just fine. However, my doctor thinks I might be anemic, or at least lacking in certain nutrients, so I'm heading back over to the food tracker at SparkPeople.com. I added a link to it on the Food/Fitness Tracker page above if you might be interested in seeing what I eat to maintain my weight loss.

If you don't know about SparkPeople.com, first off it's FREE. It's a community of people trying to live healthy. They have food and fitness trackers, teams you can join based on your interests, lots of articles and health news, and so much more. Really, you should check it out! And if you do, my name over there is HALFFAST. 

Last night I was actually going to run outside, but as soon as I put on my gear and headed out it started pouring. So I went in the treadmill room, plugged it in and turned it on, and POOF! All the power in the house went out! Except for the treadmill! Yes, I made my husband sit in the dark for a half hour so I could get a few miles in ;)

And that's about it for my exciting life!

Gotta run, Laura