Merry Christmas!
Posted by: Becky on: December 25, 2009
How is your family, fun, and food going?
Last night I went to Christmas for my side of the family. Mom is still recovering from her trip to the hospital from earlier this year, so we played it low-key with the food fixin’s this year. I brought some chili, sis brought sandwich stuff including the 1 Point Arnold Sandwich Rounds, Mom made oyster stew. I’m excited about these sandwich rounds – instead of 2-3 points per slice of bread, the whole bun is 1 point! I digress… The food was good and I don’t think anyone really overindulged like what we usually do with the turkey and tons of sides. It was really nice.
We’re relaxing here at home after helping the Toddler open all of his presents. :) Christmas is really sweet through the eyes of a child.
Merry Christmas!
What’s a Magic Mile?
Posted by: Becky on: December 15, 2009
As I’m reading more about running, I came across this really interesting concept from McMillian running. (Turns out other trainers use similar tables, Jeff Galloway calls it the Magic Mile.) If you take your race time, or if you race a mile, that time and distance can be used to figure out how you would run at another distance. (Of course, the bigger the difference the more skewed the prediction.) Even more, you can use the result to figure out how fast you should be working out to get the most out of your workout, to improve your fitness.
The data geek in me loves this.
Since I’ve been pretty inconsistent lately with working out, I don’t know how fast I should be pushing, or rather, what I should be dreaming about when distracted at work. ;) (I still need to beat Eric’s 22 minute 5k, which I’m sure I can do.) So last night, I went to the gym, set to run a Magic Mile. I guess part of me needs a line in the sand to compete against myself.
I got to the gym and found the indoor track was 10 laps to the mile. 10 laps? 20 turns seemed like it would be awfully hard on the legs, so I ended up on a treadmill. I didn’t want the treadmill to pace me, but it seemed the bette alternative. The treadmill and my Nike+ read two different distances, so I’m guessing at my Magic Mile time. But it’s a close guess, and it gives me a place to start. \cheer!
I’m not making the 22:00 5k time, but with a little direction in my training, I might be able to hit it by May. Maybe.
Just. Not. Moving.
Posted by: Becky on: November 19, 2009
I’m having a hard time getting out the door lately. It’s not that I don’t want to, and it’s not that I don’t have a plan. I’ve hammered out how bridge from a Couch to 5k program to a half marathon training plan, and I’m excited about it. I just can’t find the bloomin’ time! And that is frustrating.
With the weather getting cold and it raining for what seems like a week, I can’t just hop out the door, run for 25 minutes and be done. I wasn’t stretching when I did that (which was bad) but I was getting out (which was good). With it being dark and my subdivision being a construction zone, it makes for a run that is at best creepy and at worst dangerous. Which means I’m relegated to the gym… which usually means at least an hour commitment, and that’s tough right now.
Last night I thought I would spend some time with the Wii Fit Plus instead of going to the gym… and I still spent over an hour to get a workout that wasn’t quite what I need. The good news is that I got some movement in! :)
Soooo… I’m discouraged. Time and sunlight are low. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get some mileage when it’s o-dark-thirty (either AM or PM after work, hah!) I’d love to hear how you work around that wintery stuff. Maybe I need to be told “suck it up and go?” How do you change your running when time is short and so is daylight?
Do You Love Your Body?
Posted by: Becky on: October 21, 2009
I don’t know about you, but for me that really cuts to the quick of things. Yes, I like my body, but there are parts I long to change… and it’s probably not the same parts as what someone else would say. Take, for example, my ‘baby belly.’ I affectionately dubbed it my mommy muffin before I knew what a muffin top was. (Doh!) I wouldn’t wish away my mommy tummy for the world, I am proud to have borne such a healthy, wonderful son. On the other hand, my mommy tummy came with some mommy hips. How I long to run off those mommy hips… they’re not too bad. I don’t hate them. But it’s hard for me to love them.
I just learned that today is National Love Your Body Day. Body image is influenced by so many things, and the media is a powerful machine. I love this Dove Evolution video that’s been out for some time – if we all had hours in makeup, and hours in hair, and hours of Photoshop, we’d all be ad queens! But we’re not, and my mommy hips are going to take more than Photoshop to work out. ;) It’s positively refreshing to see some honesty trickling into the media.
Speaking of honesty… there are some bloggers taking a crazy leap that I admire them for. As best as I can tell, it started with Mish on her blog. These ladies are taking pictures of themselves and writing wonderful affirmations on them. I found out through Roni, who has been my inspiration for maybe a year and a half, now. Her honesty and authenticity was just what I needed to help my on my own weight loss journey. I’m still not quite where I want to be – with my body-love or my weight loss journey - but her post from today is a bit… (dare I say it?) ballsy in a most wonderful way. Kudos, ladies!
Food Website Link Love
Posted by: Becky on: October 11, 2009
- In: Cooking| Eating
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I’ve got to spread some link love, here…
DH had some surgury done this month, making it a tight month for the grocery budget. I’ve been learning some new tricks from Erin at $5 Dinners. She feeds her family of four (DH, and two boys 4 and 2) for under $5 a night. Crazy! It’s made me a lot more aware of how much I’m spending per meal. She has the cool tip of writing the price she paid for items, on their boxes – not a new idea for us WW’ers who write the Points “price” of food on the box. When I did that with WW, it made it a whole lot easier to learn values, and I look forward to becoming more aware of costs as well.
I’ve also been spending some time over at A Year of Slow Cooking. It’s a blog written by Stephanie, who in 2008 made the resolution to slow cook for a year and blog about it. One distinct catch – her youngest is celiac, so everything is gluten free, and has notes to make milk-free as well. It has reinspired me to cook better and more often for my family with my slow cooker. It is such a lovely thought to be driving home from work and have a hot lovely meal waiting! Although her challenge is over, she’s got some great information about slow cooking that I haven’t bumped into elsewhere.
One last link, to the heavyweight of my online recipes: All Recipes. I absolutely love that they allow ratings and comments on the recipes. I have yet to cook a 4- or 5-star recipe that my family didn’t like. I also like the free online recipe box, it makes it easy to dig up old favorites instead of printing or re-searching. If I’m hungry for something, this is my first line of searching. I’ll read the reviews for tips to figure if/how to tweak the recipe, and so far it’s been great!
Good luck in the kitchen!
30 Day Shredded
Posted by: Becky on: October 6, 2009
Sometime back I bought a copy of 30 Day Shred. I’ve been a little slow in actually breaking it out, and the cooling Illinois weather has finally driven me to it. It’s been a great workout! It’s kind of funny, I didn’t realize my 3 pound hand weights were actually 5 pounds until about 3/4 of the way through! I thought my arms were burning a lot… and no, I didn’t make it all the way through with those puppies, I had to cut a rep or three, lol!
I’ve seen comments (maybe on Amazon?) that the stretching post-workout isn’t quite enough, and I tend to agree. Personally, I’m willing to trade an extra circuit for stretching on my own after. My arms and back are definitely feeling it, and I’m looking forward to more. :)
Crazy Week!
Posted by: Becky on: July 3, 2009
- In: Eating| Family| Food Log
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I haven’t posted in a while – it’s been a crazy week! We’ve got a customer at work that isn’t satisfied that our product performs, so I’ve been seeing some lo-o-o-ng days trying to hopefully get them happy. It’s frustrating because they’re basically not following the user manual that comes with the product and then aren’t happy with the performance. Sigh!
I was able to squeeze a run in on Tuesday, just putzin’ along trying to build some base. My last run previous to that was another 6 days before that… yikes, I need to move more! I’ve been intending to switch to morning runs, but I’ve been too short on sleep to convince myself to get out of bed earlier when the alarm goes off. I’ve been using the Nike+ running system and signing up for challenges has been motivating!
My eating has been off track, too, with all the stress that’s been at work… so I haven’t been logging. I know better, too, that being accountable isn’t as painful as I think it is, and it gives me a chance to balance a bad day or two with the rest of the week… whether it’s better food choices or moving more.
On a higher note… my day at work last Saturday turned into a comp day today, so I got the privilege of playing t-ball outside with my toddler today, helping him dunk animal crackers in milk, and getting lots of hugs. What a sweetheart! We tried to get a haircut, but he couldn’t sit still long enough to get the first snip in. E is 18 months old, and all boy. :) The evening finished up playing with the neighbor’s kids (5 yrs and 18 mos) in the sprinkler. Summer is here, yay!
Food Log
Posted by: Becky on: June 24, 2009
Wanted to get a quick post up before heading to bed. I’ve been needing to track my food better – I’m up a little bit from when I hit WW Lifetime in March. It’s not a whole lot (roughly 5lbs), but I really need to nip it in the bud. The hard part, I”m discovering, is that I try to use my exercise as an excuse to indulge a little. :) Sort of like taking one step forward and two back! So to help with accountability, I’m going to log my food better.
Today:
6 1c yogurt w plain oatmeal mixed in (I’m weird sometimes)
3 snack of banana and cheese stick
3 1 can Progresso “0 point” soup (if you eat the whole can it’s 3)
1 ate the other cheese stick in my lunch box
2 capri sun with the toddler
6 frozen ravioli w spaghetti sauce
2 (guessing) watermelon for dessert
3 1 square of devil’s food cake – fresh from oven, yum!
26 pts
I feel like I’m forgetting something… I’ll have to double check tomorrow. For now, good night! :)
-B.
I Survived Steamboat!
Posted by: Becky on: June 21, 2009
- In: Races| Running
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I lost a couple of tires along the way ;) but survived Steamboat’s 4-mile race! My first race this year (Strides for Justice 5k) was pretty small, they had a record number of runne
rs, with 43 finishing. Steamboat, too, had a record number registered – 4,100! The difference in start lines was black and white; it seemed to take at least 30 seconds just to cross the start line today! (Edit: it actually took :42.) People seeding themselves at the 8:00/mile maker were still running ~11:00/mile after things thinned out… It was really humid, and as soon as the sun came out it got hot. But those were the only negatives. Some people were really nice and had sprinklers out for the runners. They had music bumping at the last water station, about 2/3 mile from the finish, and again about 1/3 mile from the end – the music helped so much! The last 1/4 mile was all downhill, and if it weren’t I probalby would have walked, LOL! As it were, the hill pulled me down to the finish line. It was defintely a good effort today, and definitely a good time! :) Yay for my longest race!
