5K!

So I have not gone on a single sun since my last 5K four weeks ago, but I'm going on another one tomorrow! Me, the hubs, and my sister in law are all going to be running a 5K tomorrow. I've never run with other people, so that really excites me. Especially having my hubs with me! Then I might be running one next Saturday too with a different group of girls. Yay!

I think I'm going to weigh in tomorrow morning too. I know my milk's not completely gone, but it is for the most part. So I might as well get a new baseline (now that I'm no longer breastfeeding) and see where I'm at.

I might have picked a work-out video to help me get past my weight-plateau, which I'm almost at. (My pre-baby weight.) My sister in law has 30 day shred. She says she's never gotten through the whole thing because Jillian Michaels is too mean. :) I think after these 5K's are over, I'm going to borrow it and give it a try. Something new, keeping it interesting, mixing it up.

Update

So I did weigh in yesterday out of habit, but I am not posting it. The reason for this is I'm weaning my baby. So I've been walking around with what feels like 2 gallons of milk strapped to my chest for the last 3 days. Once this is finished and I'm dried up, I'm going to weigh in and give a more official accounting.

In the meantime, I'm thinking of taking up a more active approach to getting in shape. Once my milk dries up I think I'm going to be pretty close to my pre-baby weight. So I am looking into some more intense work-out from home options. The 3 I've heard of are:

• P90X
• Intensity
• 30-day Shred

Any insight onto these? I don't have any of them, so I'm open. I just need the at-home option right now since I've got a 2 1/2 year old and 6 month old at home. One day I'd like to have the option to exercise out of the home on a more regular basis, but for now that won't work. So I'm going to do it at home.

Oh, and in running news. There is a 5K coming up this weekend called "On the Go for Big O". It benefits a local man's family. He's dealing with cancer. My sister-in-law knows the family so I think we're going to get out and run. The hubs said he'd like to run with me, which I think would be really fun. Especially since I know he can handle it, seeing as the 5K he ran a few weekends ago was faster than me by about 6 minutes or so. He'll have to slow down for me! Then there's another one October 8th, the next weekend, which a bunch of girlfriends of mine are interested in walking and running. (One just had a baby and one is pregnant, so they'll be walking.) I've never done running in a social setting, but I'm getting more and more excited about it.

More running

So I thought that my running days might be over, especially being in the NorthWest in the Winter. But turns out there are a few 5Ks coming up next month and a few of my friends are gearing up to run. So I think running might still be something I'll have to gear up to do. I'll have to find the time to get out and get some runs in. That's still tough. But even if it's only a few times a week, I think it'll be good. I might have a decent spot to run during the winter. We'll see. Anyhow, I'm just going to keep plugging along in the meantime. I'm hoping my numbers keep going down. I think if they do I'll get to invest in some new jeans in a smaller size. I hope so! I'm still not down to my pre-baby jeans yet, but I need some intermediate sizes before I'll get there.

It's about time!

I went in for my weekly weigh-in this morning and had quite the pleasant surprise. I lost 5.4 lbs! Yay! I have to say I don't know what was different. I did a few cardio work-outs (Thank you Denise Austin kick-boxing and interval training!) at home during naptime that really got me sweating. I feel like my metabolism just needed a kick in the pants. I don't really get my heartrate up doing housework or taking my kid to school. But my diet has been good and there hasn't been any good reason why I wouldn't be losing weight. I do feel like I'm losing my milk supply. I don't know why. But I can't help but feel like that's part of the reason why my body's losing weight. I wasn't able to lose my baby weight after my 2nd kid, and I nursed her for 7 months. It wasn't until she weaned that I was able to lose the weight. I had full intentions of nursing this one as long as she wanted to, but it seems like my milk supply has other plans. And I'm okay with it. She loves the bottle, it gives me a tiny bit more freedom, and if it helps me get rid of this baby weight, I'm happy with that! So I'm hoping to continue with some good loss over the next few weeks. If I hit a plateau (which I always do) I have a plan in mind. It will be fun, and very measurable, which is good. So that might come up soon as well.

Yay for progress!!

Veggies

Like many, I struggle with getting in a good amount of veggies each day. I'm doing significantly better than I used to however. One tip I can share that has helped me have veggies ready to go for me and my kiddos is this:

Empty peanut butter jars make great containers for pre-cut veggies. I always have one with carrot sticks and celery sticks. I suppose if you buy baby carrots you won't have that problem, but I buy a big bag. Anyhow, this is super helpful. Oh, and it works with cheese too. :) This way when I'm needing a veggie to go with my lunch, I'll just grab a container and some ranch or peanut butter and I'm good to go. (I'm still not able to just crunch them solo. Perhaps I'll get there though.) It's also super helpful when making a lunch for my kindergartener. I also keep peanut butter in smaller to-go containers for lunches too. I started doing this over a year ago and I absolutely love it!

Keep on

The last few days I have been struggling with my motivation a bit. For anyone who's struggled with weight or body image, you know how hard it is to maintain a good perspective, good attitude, stay motivated and on track. Fortunately, I have an amazing support network, with my husband at the helm. I know he loves me the way I am and just wants me to love me too. Anyhow, I thought I'd share a song that I added to my 5K list. The original does have some foul language, but this radio version is great.

I had a real mommy moment when my tiny baby was crying in the crib and I just desperately wanted to have some alone time to take a shower. So I was in the shower with her crying in her bed, my two older ones in the living room, probably with the tv babysitter. I was having a real moment. Then this song came on the radio and I couldn't help but have a good, healthy cry in the shower. So here's something that helps me keep on keepin' on.

Weigh In

I was pretty nervous about weighing in. I felt really good about the small changes I made this week. I know I've lowered my calorie intake this week because I'm snacking much less and I don't eat later at night anymore. I'm pretty proud of my little changes. So after getting up and nursing the baby and hitting the bathroom (gotta get rid of as much as you can before you weigh in, right?) I stepped up on the scale. My number didn't go down a whole lot, but it's lower than it was last week, so I'm pleased.

I can't help but feel that I have this layer of chub that just won't go away until I'm done breastfeeding. Anyone else ever felt like that? I don't know.

So I didn't really get to exercise at all this week. Certainly no running. But perhaps I can start doing some home-exercising a bit more this week in my efforts to boost my weight loss.  Otherwise, I'm just going to continue doing what I've been doing this week, and keep drinking more water. That's probably the one things I could've done better at. Anyhow, right now I'll take good news where I can get it and progress is progress.

Balancing Calories

Here are some more tips from choosemyplate.gov:

1. Enjoy your food, but eat less.

I really like this one. Ever heard of the book about how french women are skinny, or something to that regard? I remember hearing about it once. They eat very decadent foods, but don't get overweight. The idea was that they ate smaller portions of really great foods, and they enjoyed it so there was no guilt involved. It kept them from overeating, or emotion-eating and they got to eat great food. They didn't eat low-fat or fat-free and then eat more because it wasn't as yummy, or they thought they could because it had less fat. I read something similar once that said for many foods, it isn't worth getting low-fat or fat-free because they substitute it with other things that are even worse for you, or you overeat the food because you think it's better for you. So you might as well get the real deal because it will taste better, you can enjoy it more, and just watch your portions. Which takes us to #2.


      2.  Avoid oversized portions.

This is mostly a self-control thing. Although if you eat out a lot, you have to be much more aware, since most places where you eat-out the portions are huge. I don't eat out very often at all. Usually it's a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary. But even at home, you have to be careful. That's where I like to think of the visual they give you on their website. Make at least half your plate fruits and veggies. And beware of the size of your plate! If you have large plates, don't eat more just because your plate looks empty! Look at how much food you have, not how full your plate is. Or get smaller plates!

5K pics

Here are the pictures we took at my 5K.

Ready to go!

Getting my tunes ready.

Listening to all the announcements before we begin.

Let's go!

Coming to the finish.

Round the bend to the finish line.

Cooling off!

Choose your plate

Since I'm only weighing in once a week, I figured to keep a good frame of mind during the week, I'm going to share any health/nutrition tips or tricks I know or come across. I've got a few. This first one, however, came from my mom. I've been to the Government's food pyramid website many times of the last few years when I've been of a mind to reform my food intake. This site was new to me. It is www.choosemyplate.gov.  It has a few tips listed, one of which was new for me, but easy to remember and I will be using it to help me get a good serving of fruits and veggies. Here are the tips on which foods to increase:

1. Make half your plate fruits and veggies. (This is the one I really liked. It's easy for me to make my plate and think that half should be fruits and veggies. It's a nice visual reminder for me to get the servings I need.)
2. Make at least half your grains whole grains. (We eat wheat bread, and other whole grain products as often as possible. I'm pretty satisfied in that regard.)
3. Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk. (I've been doing this since my freshman year in college. I took a nutrition class and she talked about the difference in calories in the different milks. I was raised drinking 2%. The calories you can save from switching from 2% to fat-free is quite a bit, and in my mind it was such an easy thing to do to save calories. So I did. I've been drinking it ever since.)

There are other tips on that site that are great. I'll share more soon. Not to mention my other tricks for easy, healthy eating. So far I'm very pleased with how I've done. My biggest victory comes from my night-eating habits. I was getting into a real habit to snack on treats at night when the kids were in bed. Now, I either have a moderate dessert with the kids, or I have one after they've gone to bed, but before 8 o'clock. A few times I've really wanted to snack on ice cream or something, but it's been after 8, so I've restrained myself. It may seem like a small thing, but gaining mastery over your mind and body can be a very empowering thing and it really made me feel good. Self-mastery is another topic I might have to blog about sometime. It's something I've made quite the study of, and I'm still getting there. But I enjoy every bit of progress I make.

Official

I am now the proud owner of a bathroom scale. I am going to make a habit of weighing in once a week, same day, first thing in the morning. It will probably be Saturday mornings I think. So I weighed in after getting back from the store. I'm excited to have a regular scale to weigh in on. Not to mention that my new scale put my weight back down to where it should've been. So either my mother-in-law's scale was on the fritz (which could very well be) or all of my efforts this week have been working. I'm going to go with the latter, if for nothing other than to make me feel better. :) So I'm now only 8 pounds from my pre-baby weight, 18 pounds from my ultimate goal. I'm excited to continue making progress on this.

Checking In

So I've been working the new goals this week. Getting more fruits and veggies every day. It hasn't been a huge change, but I'm hoping it's been enough. I've also not been eating after 8! I'm pretty proud of myself on this one. The other night we got the kids down, and I hadn't had my nightly treat. It was 7:50. I bust out the ice cream and took a few bites and put it back so happy with myself. It's the little things, really. :) Another thing I've been doing that I didn't mention was trying to drink more water. I've been doing this for a while now, but I've renewed my dedication. At lunch and dinner, I usually pack down 2 cups with my meal. I'm not a big water drinker first thing in the morning. So I usually have milk or orange juice. But I'm hoping this will help as well.

So, in an effort to make myself more accountable and to keep better track of my progress, I think I'm going to invest in a scale. I have never owned one, and for the most part don't like them. But if I'm only stepping on it once a week I think it'll be a good investment.

I also wanted to keep working out in any form, but since getting a run in is not so possible right now with our new school-schedule, I've decided to try working my Denise Austin DVD's at home. I finally did it, and got in an ab work-out this morning. The DVD I have is great. It has work-outs for 3 separate areas. And each area has 3 levels. The first 2 levels in each area are 10 minutes long. The 3 level video is 20 minutes. So I can do a 10 minute ab-workout and be done with it. They're super good work-outs. I really like them. Then if I get more time I can do levels 1 and 2 and spend 20 minutes, or any combination. It's hard to be motivated to work-out at home, but I always feel good when I do.

If I can start making progress on dropping the poundage, I'm going to start working on another goal. Something a bit more engaging, since this is really lifestyle changes and won't take a ton of mental effort once I get in the habits. I have no idea what I'm going to work on next. Any ideas?

Ooh, tune in soon for pics from my 5K. Our camera was missing, but I found it. :)