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.

A ride by any other name…

I haven’t posted much for quite awhile. I had intended to train, and train hard, for a 50 mile MTB race this summer. I failed miserably. Between work, wife and kids I’ve been a bit overwhelmed. Time to set a more realistic goal…..the 5K with my loving wife. Considering I’m NOT a runner….this is still a challenge for me. I’m only maybe 20 pounds overweight, but with my bad knees it might as well be 50 pounds. So rather than run…I ride.

My plan is to ride to work as our schedule allows. Right now that’s 1 day a week. I’ll try and fit in rides during the evenings and over the weekends. I’ll even do the “jillian” dvd with my loving wife…..and suffer just for her.

Today was a “ride to work” day. I actually rode the skinny tire bike (road bike) instead of the mtn. bike. Normally the ride to work is an enjoyable ride. Easy pace, ipod on, beautiful sunrise and sometimes a friend or two. But not on the road bike. My road bike is an old school racing bike. I really like this bike. It’s fast. Rigid aluminum frame, carbon fiber wheels, rock hard seat and really, really skinny racing tires. I don’t think you can buy skinnier tires. What’s the big deal? I’m the big deal. Everytime I ride this bike I get a pinch flat. I hit a crack in the road, a rock or something solid and the tire compresses (ever so slightly) and pinches against the rim and pops the tube. I’ve avoided riding this bike for a few years. But not today.

This morning I fired up the air compressor and proceeded to force feed 140+ pounds of air pressure into those skinny tires. Just enough to keep my lead butt off the ground. As I rode to work (and home afterward) I tried to avoid every bump. Every rock. Every pebble. Rather than enjoy the beautiful morning God blessed me with today, I was obsessed with looking down at the dirty, rock strewn road. Sand, garbage, broken glass, pot holes. All the dirty stuff we just ignore and try not to think about.

As I did this today while riding, I couldn’t help but think of how other we do this in life. We become obsessed with looking out for the little obstacles in our life rather than trusting in God to take care of everything.

Psalm 39: 6-7 says  ”Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in You.”

Tomorrow, I will lift my head to the Lord and let him lead me where he may (maybe a little closer to making that 5k).

Whose blog is this anyway?

Well I (Missy) have yet to convince my husand (Pat, the owner of this blog) the importance of blogging through our training. Oh well. I don’t really have much else to do so I might as well write on two blogs. (Seriously if you believe that you’re as crazy as I am).

Anyway.  It’s been a good couple days. 

Monday was Day 4 and I didn’t get out of bed in the morning to work out. That is SO hard for me. I’m working on it though.  Monday night about an hour after supper we did do the Jullian 30 Day Shred video. We being me and my rock star daugther Angel.  It was so hard.  Jillian kicked my butt.  But in a good way. I love it. As mean as she is I love her. She’s so motivating. And seems just a little bit psycho but maybe that’s why I love her.

So we did the video and then about 10 minutes later Pat says, “Let’s go for a walk!” Ouch. But Angel and Caleb were really excited about it and so I sucked it up and went along.  Now I got to enjoy Pat kicking my butt.

Just kidding. It wasn’t enjoyable. It hurt. He kept walking faster and faster and then would run and I was bound and determined to keep up with him. 

Today, day 5, once again started without me getting up in the morning to exercise. Although this morning I had a good excuse, I was meeting friends for breakfast at 6:30 am. And I also really want to make an effort of having time with the Lord in the morning, even if it’s 10 minutes. I need to have that time.

Pat and I did walk 1/4 mile at lunch. We’re going to try to do that every day. After work I took the kids to the pool and during the lifegaurd break we walked probably 1/2 mile to get a snack. We went to Dairy Queen and I had a side salad. Did you know they have side salads there? Ya, me neither. Ok, ok I also had a small ice cream cone but this is major progress that I didn’t get a Blizzard.  We walked a little bit back to the park and then my Prince CHarming came and switched with me and he walked the kids back to the park and I drove!  Because I was tired and it was hot and windy and uphill. (No, Jillian wouldn’t be proud that I caved).

However, later tonight I convinced Pat to do the 30 Day Shred. Guess who’s not mocking me anymore. That’s right. Jillian kicked someone else’s butt tonight!

Days 2 and 3

Hello. Missy here again. This weekend was crazy busy but not too busy for us to not get in a little training.

Pat still thinks it’s silly of me to call it “training”. When I’m 20 pounds lighter we’ll see if he makes fun of my terminology.

Anyway. Saturday morning I had to go into work for a few hours. We spent the rest of the day cleaning and running errands. Saturday night Patrick went to a move with my brother and so the kiddos and I decided to go “train”.

I did my same 1.2 mile loop only this time I ran almost 1/2 of it. I felt pretty good.  I wore different shoes. Very cheap shoes that don’t have a back on them. It was a little hard to run in them but my feet didn’t hurt at all.  Pushing 60+ pounds of children and stroller, now that hurt a little. But by the time we finished I was sweating horribly so I know I got a good work out.

It felt so good to actually do something. Well something other than sit on my rear watching Bravo and eating ice cream. It also feels good to have a goal and to be motivated to reach my goal. I’m not sure why I’m motivated all of a sudden. Maybe because it’s Tour de France time and we’re the crazy people that watch every single stage and know 30 other cyclists other than Lance and Levi.

And after today’s stage I’m even more motivated to perservere. Lance would have it no other way. Lance would also call me a wacko but that’s ok.

Sunday morning was beautiful and normally Sunday will be my rest day but since I just started I didn’t want to take a rest day yet. I also wanted to show Patrick our 1.2 mile loop. My legs were weary this morning. I also had my other shoes on. The real tennis shoes. The ones that make my feet numb. So that wasn’t a good feeling. I ran almost as much as I did on Saturday. It was already pretty warm so once again I was sweating like crazy and feeling like I was actually making some progress.

We’ve also had fun this weekend getting the kiddos involved, more than just riding in the stroller. Each night we’ve done sit ups and push ups and planks. When I attempt to do sit ups they will sit on my feet which was really helpful. It was so funny seeing them try to do sit ups and push ups.

My goal this week is of course to walk/run the 1.2 mile loop each day. As soon as I can run the entire thing I’ll go farther.  I also want to work on limiting my soda this week and trying to eat healthy. We had some great healthy sandwiches this weekend that we’ll share the recipe for but I also might have had a little too much ice cream. Need to work on that.

I just asked Pat if he wanted to share an update. He said no. I guess a re-run of today’s Tour is on.