State of the union: An update on recent goals

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OK, so last week I was freaking out about my weight, messy house and life in general.

I made a few goals to try to reign the crazy in and I thought I should update you (as not to let you think that I'm just making up stuff, never to follow thru.)

Here were the goals and the update is in red.

Goals for my week:

• Super duper clean the house. I'm a happier person when things in my house gets in order. The home chaos just spills into everything else. Well, I didn't "super duper" clean, my poor son came down with a fever/strep throat so my house cleaning time was cut. I did, however, super duper clean my kitchen and bedroom which were the two rooms that needed it the most, making me feel much better.
• Track all of my food at Spark People. Yep. Did this. Even on Thanksgiving.
• Hydrate. My friend Angela told me about this free App "Idrated" it's kind of dumb but for some reason it is making me drink my water. It beeps at you and reminds you to drink water and gives you little rewards for getting it in. I was skeptical I'd use it but I have. So there you go.  Yep that dumb App is working for me - 7 days fully hydrated and counting!
• 15 miles running. Close, 12 miles. I was going to run 3 yesterday but my legs felt sore after weight training and decided to take a rest day. Happy that I got a 5 miler in this week. 
• 30 minutes of strength training (starting slow -- new goal to strength train.) Did it! 
• Bonus: I have a groupon for a gym that does boot camp, pilates, yoga, spin and Zumba classes. The groupon is for five classes. I will try to use one this week. Maybe yoga - I thought I hated Yoga (because I'm so gawky and non-flexible) but I tried it once (remember?) and want to really give it a fair shot. I am looking to truly start to cross-train, I think it'll ultimately make me a better runner. Nope, but i blame it on limited time due to sick kid - I did buy a fantastic groupon that gave me 30 yoga/bootcamp or toning classes for only $20! And I plan on using them!  

You may or may have not seen my subsequent post about freaking out over my weight. At my WW weigh-in I came in at 151 pounds. My happy weight is 144 and I don't like to get much above 147 so that freaked me out a bit. I'm feeling a bit better with perspective on it. I think I've dipped back below 150 and will continue to mind my food and activity closer until I'm back in my comfort zone.

Hope you had a lovely holiday and your week is going well!

Have you ever bought a fitness related groupon?

XO

Jen

I might be a mess but I'm a thankful mess

Some of my fav. running peeps...

Even though I've been up in weight and feeling ick lately, I would be remiss if I didn't take a pause for the cause (i.e., stop bitching and moaning for ten seconds) to count all of the blessings and great things in my life, especially today on Thanksgiving day.

Despite some of my latest blog postings, I do try to live my life in a state of gratitude. I can probably list 1000 things I am actually grateful for but I will spare you and come up with just a few.

Today I am thankful for:

The peeps. Son, hubby, sister, momma and papa, best friends, Moms In Motion, you guys who read my blog, I'm lucky to have you all in my life…

The Running. My anti-depression drug, my anger management, my celebration companion, my blood sweat and tears, my "I can do anything" proof, my provider of bling, my weight controller, my bringer of more peeps, my everything, 'the journey,' my friend.

The Running Stuff. Sports bra, Nike+ App, Simple Hydration water bottle, my Garmin watch (yes it co-exists with my Nike+ App, Ignite gels, toe socks, good running songs, great (other) running blogs, Runner's World magazine, Saucony and Brooks sneakers (yes they coexist in my closet), fun races, bling, oh  this one could go on forever…

The food. (with the food issues I'm particularly thankful for) Avocados, oatmeal, brown rice pasta, beans, peanut butter (and chocolate peanut butter) Chipotle, Amy's Organics, Udi's bread, Applegate farms yogurt cheese, bananas, walnuts, dirty martini's (is that a food?)….  oh this one could go on and on forever too.

The blog. Wow. How did I get so lucky to have over 329 of you care enough to follow my journey and rantings!?

The job. I work as a health blogger and copy-write editor for a company close to home. I'm so blessed to have this position as it is flexible enough to allow me to grow my production company but keeps food on our table. This job has been crucial in allowing me to pursue my bigger dreams… which leads me to being grateful for...

The film. I'm on this awesome Ragnar team and we are making a movie! I love my partner in the film and I get to be a part of this amazing journey. How cool is that!?

The basics.  Food, shelter, clothes on my back, clean water. We often take these "basics" for granted, millions world-wide lack or fight to have the basics. Even friends in my very own New Jersey are finding themselves without because of Hurricane Sandy.

The health. Without that, ya got nothing.

Oh I'm grateful for plenty; from episodes of Kitchen Nightmares to my car making it to the gas station when it's beyond "E" -- my life is awesome and I'm really a lucky girl.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What are you most grateful for?

XO
Jen

And the freak out continues

Ugh.

So I'm slightly freaking out.

I did state a bunch of goals the other day that I'm working on and so far so good -- even with a kid who came down with strep and had me sequestered to the house for 2 solid days. Set back but not out of the goal game completely. Managed to clean my kitchen and bedroom (those were the two that were bumming me out the most). Got in a little run and 10 minutes of strength training.

I have been tracking at Spark People, plus have hit my personal hydration goals for four days in a row.

a little good news

So humming along and then this. awful *WW weigh-in.

Well. My 'official' WW goal weight is 150 (but my personal happy weight is 144) I've been able to pretty much maintain right around that for the better part of two years. I thought I was flirting with 147.5 or so  (thus up 3.5 / 4 pounds that I had reported) but when I went for my monthly weigh in this morning the scale snarled, 151... WHAT? The highest I've been in 2 years and 1 dangerous pound away from having to pay for attending (Lifetime members don't ever have to pay unless they are 2 pounds above goal.)

How did this happen!? Now I will say that I weighed in wearing jeans, a sweater and post an oatmeal and coffee breakfast, so perhaps (if I'm lucky) I can knock off a pound for that... but still. It's still at least 2.5 pounds more than I expected. BOO.

I've been so careful this week with everything. This seriously bummed me out - and tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'm not saying I'm going to be the worst eater ever, but it's my favorite holiday and I'm not planning on being the best either. I will run in the morning but, I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm still planning on indulging a bit (or a lot...) Oh for F$&* sake. It's so annoying.

By the way, and in other annoying news... (I counted the calories before you judge this decision) I have to tell you that I got stuck at work and needed to eat. I was starving and didn't have the food I usually have with me and got coerced into going to Taco Bell today. Now I've given up fast food 99% of the time -- not only am I striving for clean eating but with my gluten/dairy issues, there's usually nothing that will work for me.

So back to Taco Bell. I gave in to going with a co-worker based on this review I read by **a gluten-free blogger about the newish "Cantina Bowl." Her picture of the Cantina bowl was beautiful (I didn't expect it to be as fancy as hers, just kinda nice). If I was going to eat fast food, I thought it kinda looked OK and relatively healthy-ish. But here's my review: It was yucky, messy looking and skimpy.  It provided about a tsp. of guacamole, less than a 1/4th of a cup of beans and hardly any rice or pico de gallo.  I didn't put any dressing on it. I added steak to it and couldn't eat more than one piece of the meat because I found it so blech. But maybe that's just me. Serves me right for going to Taco Bell I guess. I used to LOVE that burrito supreme and nachos supreme in the day (you know, the day when I was 200+ pounds, cared less about 'clean' eating and had no clue of my gluten or dairy issues...) Sigh.

Anyway, a mess I still am but I'm hanging in the fight. I am freaked out about the scale but all I can do is work / try harder - I know T-day is gonna be a bit of a monkey wrench but it's just one long meal. I will have to deal. And no more Taco Bell.

XO
Jen

*I am tracking on Spark People because I like the calorie counting program. But like to keep my membership active at WW since it's free to do so, as long as I continue to weigh-in once a month.
** I'm not bagging on that blogger. She has a great site and Taco Bell did set her up with a fancy tasting of the new item at an undisclosed locale… I wasn't expecting that but found the whole thing underwhelming and disappointing...

Taking control of my messy world

I apologize for the very sporadic posts of late.  My whole world feels messy lately.

My house? A mess.

My food choices? A craptastic mess.

Even my email needs to be cleaned out.

This mess has led me to feeling a bit out of control in many areas of my life, weight included.

It's not without good excuse. I've been traveling and working my tail off and my time management skills have been sucking an egg.

But still. I hate this feeling.

I got on the scale this morning and I'm up close to four pounds. It's OK. I'm staying calm and carrying on (and counting calories and trying to get my groove back.) But still. I feel those pounds. I felt like I was running a super speedy 2 miles today and the four pounds proved I wasn't terribly speedy, just carrying around more weight and thus, exerting more effort.

So this week I will un-mess myself. And get in control over some of the stuff in my life.

Goals for my week:

• Super duper clean the house. I'm a happier person when things in my house gets in order. The home chaos just spills into everything else.
• Track all of my food at Spark People.
• Hydrate. My friend Angela told me about this free App "Idrated" it's kind of dumb but for some reason it is making me drink my water. It beeps at you and reminds you to drink water and gives you little rewards for getting it in. I was skeptical I'd use it but I have. So there you go.
• 15 miles running.
• 30 minutes of strength training (starting slow -- new goal to strength train.)
• Bonus: I have a groupon for a gym that does boot camp, pilates, yoga, spin and Zumba classes. The groupon is for five classes. I will try to use one this week. Maybe yoga - I thought I hated Yoga (because I'm so gawky and non-flexible) but I tried it once (remember?) and want to really give it a fair shot. I am looking to truly start to cross-train, I think it'll ultimately make me a better runner.

My first not sucky yoga experience - dare I say
I actually almost liked it?

In other news, I ran a 5K last Sunday - not my fastest, not my slowest -- did Giralda Farms in Madison, NJ, placed 10th in my age group - yippee.  There was a massive hill and I wasn't even sure I was running this until the day before so I'm happy with it overall.

I'm starting to get nervous about Ragnar! With all my focus on trying to raise the money and produce the filming of it, I somehow forgot - I'm actually running this thing!! Well, hopefully my above goals will be a good kickoff to training for it. :-) It's coming quick!! 

What mess do you have to work on cleaning up?

XO

Jen

The results are in! Simple Hydration winner announced

I am terribly sorry about the delay in selecting and announcing the winner of Simple Hydration giveaway.

Sandy hit NJ hard and while I was one of the few lucky ones to retain power thru most of it, I was stranded in Florida and things have been a little off schedule.

But without further ado, thru Random.Org, the Random number generator, a winner has been chosen!

Congrats to Running On Candy for your win.

You're gonna love this water bottle!

Drop me an email so I can arrange the delivery.

If I don't hear from you by November 17th, I will select another winner.

XO
Jen

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