3 miles baby (at least in our head)

We’ve (aka Missy) been a little lame about updating lately. Just alot going on. Not enough hours in the day. The brain has been convincing lately that sleep is better than blogging.

Our training is going well. We won’t be running a marathon anytime soon, but we are doing some type of exercise regularly and most importantly and most exciting is that we’ve been doing awesome with eating healthy and not eating so much (and losing weight!).

You all know that my bloggy friend Anna inspired me to start the 30 Day Shred. Well she also inspired us to use My Plate, which is part of the Livestrong website.  It keeps track of everything you eat and all the exercise you do. In the beginning you put in your current weight and what your weight loss goal is and then it calculates what your calories should be and let’s you know throughout the day how you’re doing.

Needless to say we are obsessed. It’s kinda like a game. You try to stay under enough so that you can have a snack at the end of the day. It’s been amazing to become more aware of all the little snacking we did and how much that adds up. Not to mention the calories that are consumed with soda, which we’ve almost completely given up. 

As far as actual training we’ve been running more and more lately. A few nights ago we ran around our neighborhood and Pat was certain it was 3 miles. I actually made it the entire way without stopping and even sprinted the last 2 blocks. Unfortunately when we drove the course and measured it was only 2.4 miles. Bummer! That’s ok though, it was still the longest we’ve run in a long time.  We’ve been rotating between running, biking, tennis and I’m also still doing the 30 Day Shred. I haven’t been doing it every day so I’m still on level 2.

The weight loss is going great too. I can finally start to tell that I’ve lost weight so that’s exciting and keeps me motivated. Pat is losing weight like crazy, he’s turning into this skinny little thing. Again, not fair. But he’s working hard so I’m also proud of him. Yesterday he was at 198 and I was at 146. So we’re making good progress.  Since doing the My Plate thing for 2 weeks I’m so amazed at how I’m not that hungry all that time. I think alot of it is just reminding myself to not eat everytime I get sad or mad, exercising and drinking lots of water.

I need to get to bed but I’m going to have to do a post about eating healthy. I am so surprised at how it is actually LESS expensive then how we were eating before. Seriously. It’s amazing. So we’ll share more about that next time.

Under achievers

Under achievers as in we’ve achieved a weight that’s under what we’ve ever been.

Woo hoo!

(Missy here by the way. Someone needs to leave a comment that they are sick of hearing from me and then maybe Pat will write.)

Anyway, I’ve been really discouraged the past 7-10 days.

1. Pat has been losing weight like crazy.  (I know I should be happy for him and I am but it’s still frustrating and discouraging.)

2. I have not been losing any weight.  Stuck at 150 for a week after getting to 149 for one day and then going right back up.

3. I haven’t been as motivated to exercise.  I’ve only been exercising every 1-2 days. It’s no wonder I wasn’t losing weight.

But finally yesterday when I stepped on the scale I had to do a double take. 147!  Pat is under 200 which he is really excited about too.   So far he’s lost a little over 10 pounds and I’ve lost 7 pounds. Now that gets me motivated!

After Pat not feeling well a few weeks go and then me getting sick the week after, we are both finally feeling better. I’m still not exercising every day but the past few days have gotten a little better and I’m determined to get back into a good routine. That’s the problem. Finding a routine that doesn’t involve getting out of bed at 5 am.

Pat’s been mostly biking – putting in alot of miles! He’s going to be doing a 58 mile bike ride this coming Saturday. I’m so proud of him, he’s doing such a great job. I’ve been rotating between running, biking and doing the 30 Day Shred. We’ve also played tennis a few times. The variety is really good for me. I find that when all I do is the 30 Day Shred I get bored.

Speaking of running last weekend I ran 1.6 miles – well I ran/walked that far. Unfortunately I had to walk part of it because it was up my parent’s ridiculous steep hill and I couldn’t make it. On Wednesday night Pat and I ran our loop – 1.2 miles – and Pat ran the entire thing. First time he’s ran in years so that was exciting.

According to Pat – we just might make that 5K after all!

If I have to crawl across the finish line I will finish that 5K

Oh my, what a week. Ok two weeks. Hopefully this will not become habit.

(This is Missy by the way. I know. Surprising.)

If you read my blog you know that two weeks ago Pat wasn’t feeling so good and we had a really overwhelming week which caused our training to suffer a little. Well this week I got sick and it really ticked me off because I felt like I was finally making some good progress.

I finally got my weight to under 150 (149 but it’s still under!) and I ran a mile! And then I got sick. So I haven’t done a thing for 4 days except sleep and work. I haven’t ate much of anything except chocolate so that’s good I guess. I haven’t even weighed myself in 4 days because I don’t want to be depressed if I’m over 150 again.

I don’t even remember what we did last week. I think I ran one day (3/4 mile) and I did 30 Day Shred 2 times.  On Saturday I ran a mile.  The whole way. Didn’t stop.  Yes, I am proud.  I was actually a little surprised at how easy it seemed. And then I realized I wasn’t pushing 60 pounds of children in a big clunky stroller. Wow. Talk about helping me get in shape!

On Monday I did the 30 Day Shred (level 2). I can actually do the entire thing without stopping. Even all the sit ups. I’m dying by the time I’m done but it’s so rewarding knowing that I can finish through it. Monday was the last time this week I’ve done any major exercise. I got sick Tuesday morning. One of these nights I did work in the garden a little bit and that was exhausting but not really cardio or anything like that. Today we are at my parent’s house and me and the kids did go swimming this morning and I tried to run in place as much as I could while I held Caleb. Plus we played “jump to Mommy” for about 15 minutes and my arms were dying by the time we finished that. So I haven’t been a complete bum. It just feels that way.

I’m still battling a head cold today but it’s much better and so I’m hoping tonight to go for a little run or maybe a bike ride.

Since Pat started feeling better the end of last week he’s been kicking some butt working out. Mainly riding his bike as often as he can, almost every other night after the kids go to bed. He’s also been walking at lunch time about 1/2 mile.

Overall I guess when you consider everything else going on, we are still doing pretty good. It’s very overwhelming trying to find the time to do everything. Have devotions, play with kids, take care of kids, clean, blog, sleep, work, etc. Something’s got to give and unfortunately lately it’s been blogging which makes me sad. It’s not only a way to journal our family happenings but it’s a way for me to journal my thoughts and what’s going on in my crazy head. So not having that lately has made me sad but like I said something has to give.

We’re down to about 4 weeks until the 5K. I can’t believe it. I’m certainly not going to reach my 20 pound lighter goal by then. But we aren’t giving up.  Hope you aren’t either!

Training update

(Missy here)

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since we did an update. Here’s a little bit about what we’ve been doing (or as much as we can remember).

Wednesday: We can’t remember. Which means we don’t think we did anything. My sister was in town and so we had to go out to eat with her and my brother and were forced into not exercising. Really.

Thursday: I did the 30 Day Shred in the morning. Pat biked to and from work.

Friday: I did the 30 Day Shred in the evening.  I introduced my mom to Jillian on Friday night too. (You can do it mom! Dad, I dare you to beat me in the 5K!)

Saturday: I did the 30 Day Shred in the morning (level 2! YA!) and Pat and I played tennis in the evening.

Sunday: We had our work party at a water park.  I held 30 pounds of child and did squats in the wave pool for an insane amount of time. That’s gotta count for something.  We also did the batting catches. That level of humiliation has got to count for something too.

Today: I did the 30 Day Shred and Pat went on a bike ride when he got home from work.

We’ve been doing really good on our eating. Not snacking as much and when we do snack we’ve been choosing a healthy snack instead of a bag of chocolate or chips.  And most of the time no seconds at meals.

Unfortunately though I did awful today.  It was a really stressful day at work and I am a complete emotional eater. There were leftover cookies from Friday and leftover pop from our summer work party this weekend and since I had no will power today I had both. Actualy 2 cookies since we’re being so honest.

One thing that helped me kick this whole exercise, eating healy attitude into gear is that I started focusing on the fact that my overeating (and yes I overeat) was mainly becuase I’m an emotional eater. I would eat extra when Pat and I were fighting or when I was stressed at work.  So when I focused on the “why” of my eating, I could calm  myself down, pray and ask God for strength to get through the stressful time (without food) and remind myself that I wasn’t hungry. It’s been working great. Until today.

But tomorrow’s a new day.  And I worked extra hard when I did 30 Day Shred tonight. Ouch.

Friday is payday and we’ll be registering for the 5K that’s on September 12th. Then there’s no turning back.  We haven’t done our 1.2 mile loop in over a week, since I’ve been doing the 30 Day Shred each day. I’m anxious to see how it goes.  And of course, we’ll keep you posted.

If you think you’re gonna die, stay with Anita

(Missy here)

Anyone know what day it is? I don’t. It’s all beginning to blur together. And my stomach growling and muscles aching are making me delirious.

Actually I’m not really hungry. We have been kicking some major behind on eating healthy. I just cannot believe it some days.  I’m not sure why this time is so different but we are both very motivated to stay on track. And I guess I don’t care why, I’m just glad we are. Like I said I haven’t really felt hungry.

EVEN THOUGH I HAVEN’T HAD CHOCOLATE IN 8 DAYS! (Except for one teenie tiny piece of brownie at a church potluck).

We also haven’t had a soda in a week and 1/2. (Except for one small soda when we went out to eat last Friday night). But come on – we’re still doing pretty good.  Eating tons of fruits and veggies – many from our garden, which is really exciting.  We’ve really tried to get control on our snacking. We are major snackers and so the past week and 1/2 instead of snacking when we weren’t really hungry we would go on a walk/jog or do our 30 day shred video or some other type of exercise.

Last week Wednesday we played tennis. That was so much fun as I whooped up on Patrick. Ok, not really. But it was still fun. And funny.  We had extra balls and the kids each had one and threw their ball around while we played. At one point Caleb came onto our court and I asked Pat to move him. He told me not to worry and Caleb would be fine. The very next serve I smacked the ball and it went wizzing by Caleb’s head. About a 1/2 inch from killing my child.

As Pat said, “You can’t write that stuff.” 

On Thursday Pat rode his bike to and from work.  Thursday night I started to go on a walk with the kids but they weren’t interested and so we ended up only going about 1/4 mile. So then we came home and did the 30 Day Shred video.

Let me give a shout out to my bloggy friend Anna. She inspired me to do the 30 Day Shred and it’s amazing. I absolutely love it. Even though Jillian completely kicks my butt every time, I love the variety of the different stages and different exercises. I also think Jillian is so motivating. Her pep talks have now become common conversation at our house.

As we are walking/jogging our 1.2 mile loop Pat will say, “IF A 400 POUND MAN CAN WALK 1.2 MILES SO CAN YOU!”

Or our favorite, “IF YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING TO DIE STAY WITH ANITA.”

We love Anita.  But let me just say that after 6 days of the shred I’m getting close to kicking Anita’s butt. And that feels awesome.

More awesome to report: I’ve lost 4 pounds!

Starting weight: 154
Current weight: 150

Pat is doing awesome too. He’s lost 2 pounds.

Starting weight: 210
Current weight: 208

Unfortunately the one thing not going well is I’m so tired. I thought I would have so much energy when I started exercising and eating healthy. I think part of the problem is I’m not getting much sleep at night. So I need to work on that. Beginning with tonight.