Big Milestone!!

This morning, I weighed in at 159.2...  Yep, I am back into the 150s!!  I haven't been here since I got pregnant with Jackson five years ago.  I must say, it felt great to see that number this morning on the scale!  I am so proud of myself for finally making my health a priority and working hard to look and feel better.  And to celebrate, I bought some new summer clothes -- size 10 shorts and small and medium tops :)

I am still doing Weight Watchers and making sure to track my points online every day.  I am avoiding eggs because Garrett is allergic, so that makes a lot of temptations off limits (like the amazing wedding cake that I had to pass up this weekend!)  I am also doing cardio and weight training at the gym.  So far, the combination has been working really well.

I don't have a lot of time to write because I need to get ready for my Monday morning Zumba class.  All I can say is that I feel SO much better, physically and emotionally, than I did this winter.  So bye bye 160s... don't want to ever see you again!

5k and Today

The Race 4 Recess 5k went really well on Saturday.  It wasn't too hot, only 65, but it was very humid.  And the course had lots of long, gradual hills.  These combined made for one sweaty mess for me!  But, I finished in my best time yet - 33:58!  The only reason I know this is because of my new watch :)  The finish line didn't have a visible clock, so I relied on my watch for that time.  They're supposed to post official results and pictures at some point, so I'll add those when I get them.  All in all, it was a nice course, a good morning and a fun time.  I can't wait to run another race!

So, today is Monday -- weigh in day for me!  This morning, I was 164.2, which is only 0.3lbs down from last week.  Meh.  I was expecting more since I worked out a lot this week and stayed on track with my points.  However, I did have Five Guys with the family (using my extra weekly points) and played Bunko with snacks last night.  That's a lot of sodium for one day.  We'll see how it shakes out next week, but I'm not too bummed out with that.  A loss is a loss!

Today, I'm heading to Gold's for Zumba, then playing with the kids outside and doing laundry.  It's already pretty warm , so I have a feeling we'll be breaking out the water toys soon.  Garrett is going to LOVE playing in the baby pool!

As for my weekly workout plan, I'm doing Zumba today, running intervals and lifting tomorrow and Thursday and hopefully fitting in another Zumba class on Saturday morning.  I may just run instead.  We'll see.  Either way, I'm planning for another active week!

This Girl is on Fire

It's been a pretty good week for me, especially getting in my workouts.  I took a Zumba class on Monday, which is so much fun!  I love the instructor and the energy level of the people in the class.  Then, I ran intervals and did my lifting circuit on Wednesday.

On Wednesday afternoon, I got my Garmin running watch in the mail, so I had to try it out ASAP!  So, on Thursday morning, I got up with Joe and ran while he was getting ready for work.  I did two miles at about an 11:30 mile.  Not too bad for me at 6:30am!

Then, this morning, I went to the gym and did a quick warm up on the bike, then did my lifting circuit.  I'm running my first 5k of the season tomorrow morning, so I decided to skip intervals and save my legs for the race tomorrow.  I haven't run a 5k in over a year, so I'm really excited to get back out there.  I'm leaving in a little while to pick up my race packet.  Then, it's relaxing with the kids for the rest of the night.

So, I have a few running songs that push me along when I'm getting tired or bored, so I'm loading them onto my Ipod shuffle for the race tomorrow.  There is one song that is pretty corny and actually from a cheesy movie that I happen to love (Center Stage, anyone?) but it always keeps me moving when I hear:

"There's a passion inside, an inner strength that drives
Can't nobody take that away from you
It's the greatest high, you set the floor on fire
when you come alive"

So, with that song in my playlist, I'm going to run tomorrow morning.  I'll update with race results sometime tomorrow.  I'm not fast, but at least I get my butt out there and try!  And, I have a good time.  I love races!!

Back to Blogging

Things have been insane in my house.  We've had lots of sicknesses (LOTS, including a month-long round of pneumonia for me), Garrett's baptism, visitors on and off, the March for Babies, winter vacation to Florida, etc.  In all the craziness, my blogging went out the window.  Thankfully, my healthy lifestyle did not.  I just didn't blog about it.

Here's the update: I am doing great and am down to my pre-pregnancy weight (with Garrett, anyways!)  This Monday, which is my weigh-in day, I weighed 164.5 lbs.  I'm down almost 25 lbs since October and 44 lbs since giving birth to Garrett almost eight months ago.  Yay!!  My goal weight is 150, which was my pre-pregnancy weight with Jackson.  I'd like to get closer to 140, but we'll start with 150, which is within my healthy BMI range for my height.

So, here's what has been going on.  I started back to the gym (with the kids in the gym's daycare) and have been going at least three days a week since March.  I had three personal training sessions where I learned how to use all the machines and created a circuit to follow.  Since then, I have been lifting two days a week, running intervals on the treadmill and doing Zumba one or two days a week.  I'm also starting to run outside since the weather is getting nicer. I'm running my first race, a 5k here in Charles Town, on Saturday.  My goal this year is to run a fall 10k.  I've never run farther than 4.5 miles, so I'll need to train for that this summer.

As for nutrition, I am still following Weight Watchers.  I'm careful to track my points every day online and am finding lots of new foods to try out to keep things interesting.  I'm also drinking a lot more water (especially during and after workouts) and eating tons of fruit now that it's coming into season.

Just as important as what I'm doing is who I have been working with - my friends!  A group of us have been encouraging each other via Facebook and we're all losing weight together.  We weigh in on Mondays and check in to keep each other accountable.  It's been going so well and I couldn't imagine going at this alone.  Thanks, ladies... you know who you are ;)

Overall, things are going really well.  I feel much better about myself and am fitting into a lot of my old clothes.  I still have some work to do to get to goal, but it's much less daunting now and seems easier because I have a routine established.  And, for reaching my pre-pregnancy weight, I bought myself a Garmin Forerunner 10 running watch!  Yay!!  It is supposed to be delivered today, so I'm planning an early morning run tomorrow to try it out.  Can't wait!