A "Weak's" Progress

I apologize for not updating more frequently.  I hate when people say this because everyone is always busy and everyone's life is hectic, but I was just too busy and/or tired to find time to write more often this past week.  

Anyway, as you can tell by my little play on words for the title, this week was not as successful as I would have liked it to be.  That being said, it was not terrible and I am proud of the small gains I have made.   The first gain was that I went to my trainer for all 3 sessions for the first time in months!! This is huge.  I always struggled with this because the only time I am free to go is 5 am.  And many days I have every intention on going and then that alarm clocks beeps and I make the split decision to shut it off rather than waking up.  A couple more weeks of consistently going all three days and it will be a habit and no longer a struggle to get up and get going.

Another gain I made was eating better, NOT GREAT, but much better than I usually do.  I did not eat one thing that was fried or greasy or "fast" all week.  Again, this is a huge accomplishment for me.  As I mentioned above, I usually am running from one place to another so fast food and eating out are my constant go-to's.  I am proud to say, that I indulged in only one chocolate chip cookie on Monday and a glass of white wine & a cupcake on Wednesday.  Absolutely incredible.  I was strong enough to throw out a slice of Funfetti vanilla cake with vanilla frosting AND rainbow sprinkles (my absolute fave), I was given during one of my tutoring sessions.  I also went to Wegmans and grabbed a $6 meal before working the hockey game, where they so very thoughtfully always provide us with pizza & wings, or Chinese food or pasta... all of which I am trying to stay away from.     I finally received my nutrition plan from my training on Thursday, so the official start day for that is TODAY! I went grocery shopping yesterday to get all that I needed for the week and so far I ate the identical breakfast that was laid out for me minus the glass of skim milk, so I actually saved a few calories there. 

Where I struggled was keeping up with my marathon training.  This past week, was Week 1 and I completed the first of four workouts last Monday, run 2 miles.  That was about as far as I got into the training.  The weather here has been bitter cold and the wind and the snow have not made for the greatest of elements to run outdoors.  This is not an excuse.  I have a treadmill in my house that I could have easily ran on to complete my 3 miles, my interval training and my 6 miles.  I slacked at making the time to do so.   This worries me a lot.  I ran a marathon a few weeks back and did not train as I should have.  This upcoming marathon in May is going to be the one that I actually train for and show myself how I can perform for 26.2 miles.   I am not off to a good start.   I need to be better with this.   I love running.  It has brought me some of the highest, if not the highest moments of my life (and I was not innocent in college, if ya know what I mean).  I have made an incredible friend through running who holds a very special place in my heart.  Without her, I know I would not accomplish all that I have in this sport.   I just never seem to make running a priority and that needs to change.

Hopefully, I will be able to update a bit more this week.  I have a busy week at work, as I have visitors coming into my classroom to do walk throughs and observations, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday!!  It will be a stressful few days for sure.  I am hoping I can stay on track even better than this past week.

Until next time...

Pre - Regime

Monday. Monday. Monday.  Monday is the day.  The day I will begin my eight week workout and "diet" regime.  Now let me begin by stating that I have never, ever stayed disciplined enough to follow a diet or training schedule for an extended period of time but I am hoping this time will be different.  The biggest difference this time around is that I have a lot of professional "push" to stay on track.  My diet was created by a personal trainer who I have been strength training with for a few months, inconsistently of course, which is my usual M.O.   I will not only be strictly following his daily diet plan, but I will be strength training with him three days a week.  The problem I have is not the actually working out part, its the getting up at 5 in the morning to train and not eating every cookie, chocolate, french fry, sweet, fried food that comes within my sight on a daily basis.  In addition to my diet plan and strength training, I have also joined a running group with a professional coach to help prepare me to accomplish a PR in my third half marathon this April and complete my second full marathon in May with a much better time than my first, which happened to be a pathetic 5:59.17.    So with my strength training, running, soccer playing and diet plan you would think I could easily drop the 17.5 pounds I am looking to lose but although I have always been very active, losing weight and eating healthy has never been easy for me.  So hopefully this will help keep me on track and be held accountable for my progress or lack thereof.