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Watermelon Season is Here!

Monday, May 24th, 2010

I’m so excited: I bought a watermelon yesterday for just $3.99, which means it’s officially Watermelon Season in my book! Watermelon is one of my all-time favorite fruits… I don’t want to look like one, but I love to eat them!

I cut half of it up to enjoy with dinner tonight, and it was finger-licking, lip-smacking, melt-in-your-mouth delicious. When I fed a bite to my husband while he manned the grill, he said “Holy crap! That’s quite possibly the best watermelon I’ve ever had!” I couldn’t agree more. Sweet, juicy, bright pink – simply perfect.

Run out and buy yourself a watermelon – and then eat it. It’ll fill you up with its delicious fiberifficness!

How to Choose a Watermelon

Look the watermelon over: You are looking for a firm, symmetrical watermelon that is free from bruises, cuts or dents.
Lift it up: The watermelon should be heavy for its size. Watermelon is 92% water; most of the weight is water.
Turn it over: The underside of the watermelon should have a creamy yellow spot from where it sat on the ground and ripened in the sun.

Health Benefits of Watermelon

Watermelon is the Lycopene Leader in fresh produce, having higher concentrations of lycopene than any other fresh fruit or vegetable. In fact, fresh watermelon contains higher levels of lycopene than fresh tomatoes – a 2-cup serving of watermelon contains an average of 18.16 mg and one medium-sized tomato contains 4 mg.
Watermelon has heart healthy properties because it is naturally low in saturated fat, total fat and cholesterol.
Watermelon is practically a multivitamin unto itself: A 2-cup serving of watermelon is an excellent source of Vitamin A (important for optimal eye health), Vitamin B6 (used by the body to manufacture brain chemicals [neurotransmitters], such as serotonin, melatonin and dopamine, which preliminary research shows may help the body cope with anxiety and panic), and Vitamin C (which helps bolster your immune system’s defenses against infections and viruses and is known to stimulate the immune system and protect against free radical damage.

For more information on watermelon’s health benefits – and all things watermelon! – visit www.watermelon.org.

Posted in Food Recommendations, Health Information | 1 Comment »

Gluttony

Monday, April 19th, 2010

My husband and I recently returned from a mini-vacation to Arizona. He won a big award at work (yay!), and his company flew him and “a guest” out for a banquet*. Since we have friends there, as well, we decided to stay a few extra days.

Much fun was had by all. However, the four days we were away were detrimental to both my eating habits and my half marathon training.

I didn’t run a single time we were gone. This means I missed 2 mid-week runs, and Sunday’s long run. I would have done the long run today, but I got terribly sick last night after getting back home, and – though I’m much better today – I was definitely not up for running 11 miles. Or any miles…

I have a sneaking suspicion that getting sick was my body’s way of telling me it was unhappy with the food I had been giving it. Obviously we ate out a lot – that’s what you do on vacation – but I didn’t even try to make good, healthy decisions. I ordered whatever I wanted, and then ate the entire thing. Every single time.

I don’t know why I was going so crazy with the food. It was like I couldn’t help myself. I gorged myself over and over again, to the point of feeling bloated and gross. And then I did the exact same thing at the next meal.

It bothers me that I could go so ridiculously overboard – and for so many days in a row. I’ve overindulged before, but typically that’s for a meal or a day, not 4 straight days. AND without much** exercise!

I’m happy to report that at least I’m back on track today. It feels good to eat food not prepared by a restaurant. I didn’t run today, but I went to hip hop, and that was good. Mostly.***

*This banquet required that I buy a fancy dress. More on that later.

**We did climb the to the top of Camelback Mountain on Friday, which was both difficult and tons of fun. Photos and story to come!

***More to come on that later, too.

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, Trials and Tribulations | 2 Comments »

Bad Food = Bad Workout

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Neither my husband nor I had to work on Friday. We had a lovely morning together, walking around our neighborhood to run some errands and get breakfast.

A BIG breakfast.

Too much food. Delicious, greasy food. Enough food to hold us over until about 3pm. When we went out for lunch.

A BIG lunch.

Too much food. Delicious, salty food. Enough food to hold us over until after 9pm. You know you ate too much for lunch when you’re still not hungry at 9pm…

Regardless of my cuisine carelessness, I had to run 5 miles that day. I was waiting for the food to settle before going out, but at 7, I had to reevaluate that plan, as the day’s food was still churning and the sun was preparing to go down. So I went out anyway.

It was a terrible run. I felt bloated and gross the entire time. I had a cramp for the first 3 miles. My overall pace was more than a minute slower than usual. I wanted it to end before it even started.

Learn from my mistakes, folks: Bad food = Bad workout.

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, Workouts | 1 Comment »

High Standards

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Sunday was 8 miles.

I have mixed feelings about my performance. Well, they’re not that mixed: I’m pretty solidly disappointed with myself.

I couldn’t run the entire way :(

I had to walk up three hills – all on the same road – in miles 4 & 5. What a bitch of a road, too, let me tell you. Each walking spurt was probably between 1 & 3 minutes, so not too bad, I suppose, but still really disheartening. Especially since I’ve been getting pretty good at hills, which is inevitable being that they’re freaking everywhere in this damn city. In fact, many of the hills that used to kill me I can run up without too much trouble.

But I had never run up this road, and its hills are intense. Hell, it’s hard to DRIVE up this road.

The other thing I’m blaming for my poor showing is insufficient planning. I went out about an hour and a half after breakfast, which was a delicious husband-made sandwich of ham, egg & cheese. And thai hot sauce. Not a good idea before running 8 miles, if you know what I mean, and I think you do…

It also occurred to me about 2 miles in that I hadn’t had any water all day. Who does that?! Who embarks on their longest run ever without having so much as a sip of H2O? I was so incredibly thirsty that I kept looking for water fountains, which I never found. Every time I passed a restaurant I considered going in and begging for a cup of water (I never carry money with me when I run. Maybe I should start?)

I did complete the entire 8 miles, but again, with a few walk breaks up crazy hills in the middle. My overall time was roughly 1 hour and 41 minutes, which is an average pace of 12:36 per mile, significantly slower than usual.

Damn hills.

And yes: I’m disappointed with my 8-miler because I couldn’t run the entire thing, and yes: I’m making up excuses for it. I’m sure some of you will think it’s ridiculous that I’m not proud of myself for just DOING it, but what can I say? I have high standards.

Next Sunday: 8.5 – and NO walking this time!

Posted in Half Marathon, Personal Stories, Road Races, Training, Trials and Tribulations, Workouts | 3 Comments »

Back to Basics

Friday, March 19th, 2010

I know what works for me. I know what I have to do to lose weight. You don’t lose 92 pounds accidentally (which is ironic, because you can certainly gain it accidentally!).

So why haven’t I been doing what I know works and logging all of my food and exercise? Because it’s time-consuming. And it means being accountable . It means NOT sneaking a few extra crackers or automatically having a chocolate-covered banana every night. And I like crackers and chocolate-covered bananas…

Clearly I have the maintenance thing down: Without putting in extra effort to lose weight, my normal eating habits – combined with my exercise – keep me at roughly the same weight, give or take 3 pounds.

But I don’t want to stay the same weight – I want to continue to lose weight! Yes, I’ve lost 92 pounds, but I’ve got 20 more to go to reach my goal! You’d think that this close to my goal I’d try harder, but it hasn’t worked that way.

Once I hit about 180, I felt so much better about myself. I was finally comfortable in my own skin, and didn’t feel like the biggest person in most rooms… I wasn’t the biggest person in most rooms. Even though I ‘want’ to get to my goal, I haven’t had the same drive that I had before, because it’s not as dire as it was before.

So for months – a year now? – I’ve been half-assing my attempts to actually lose weight.

But today, I decided enough was enough. I logged on to My Food Diary and recorded my food and exercise for the day (for the first time in months). It’s funny too: As soon as I did it, I felt great! Completely re-energized. Like I’m actually going to hit that elusive 150.

Of course, I first have to get back into the 160s first…

Yes, “back into.” Excuse time:

I’ve been super hungry lately. I keep blaming all the running I’ve been doing, which actually is the likely culprit. Since I’ve been running so much, I’ve also just been eating when I’m hungry, figuring that it’s ok because I’m burning so many calories with the exercise. Hunger is my body’s way of telling me I need to eat, right? I make good food choices, too, but I think I’ve been overdoing it, eating too much, too often.

So yes, even though on February 19th I finally made it into the 160s (at a meager 169.5), on February 20th I made it out. I then proceeded to work my way back up to 172 and I’ve been struggling the last few weeks to reclaim my place in the 160s. Today I was at an even 170, so it’s coming. I know it is. Especially now that I’m back to basics and logging my food.

How are YOU doing?

Posted in Diet, Personal Stories, Weight Loss | 6 Comments »

An Object in Motion

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Sundays are generally my long-run days, but this past Sunday my husband talked me out of it. Ok, full disclosure: I practically begged my husband to talk me out of it. Between the cold rain and the late night on Saturday filled with Disaronno on the rocks, I was not feeling it.

I made up for Sunday’s laziness yesterday, though. It was such a busy day! I was super-productive work-wise in the morning, ate an early lunch at my desk (which I never do), then headed out for my long run at noon.

Seven point four-one miles. My new longest run to date. It felt good, too. Mostly.

I certainly wouldn’t say that it was easy, because it wasn’t, but it was most challenging mentally. I get all in my head and start thinking about how far I’ve gone and how far I have left. And about how tired I am.

Last week when I ran 7 miles, I was completely spent for the entire day. My husband and I had plans to run some errands, but I just couldn’t do it. I felt a little sick and had zero energy left.

But yesterday was completely different.

I did the 7.41, spent 10 minutes recovering, took a quick shower, and was out the door for the next item on my schedule: Visiting with a friend and rooting through her discards of “skinny clothes.” (I’m not proud – I’ve happily taken a lot of people’s discards, but before this they were always “fat clothes” not “skinny clothes.” This friend is pregnant and won’t have a need for business casual size 12′s for quite some time… and is nice enough to let others benefit from her decision to procreate, in the form of free clothes. She’s awesome.)

After a few hours with her, I went directly to my hip hop class and busted a move for an hour. It was a reasonably aerobic class, too, and I was actually feeling good, rather than exhausted!

When I got home, I still had energy: I cooked a delicious and healthy dinner (thai chili salmon over brown rice with green beans) and did some cleaning before heading to bed at the end of a very active and productive day.

A very good day.

Posted in Half Marathon, Personal Stories, Road Races, Training, Workouts | 5 Comments »

Running in Circles

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

I know I haven’t been posting very frequently lately – or at all – but I’ve been doing good things during my hiatus. Most notably, I’ve been a running machine.

I’m 3/4 of the way through my fifth week of training for the half marathon I’m running on May 2, and I’m proud to say that I haven’t missed a single run. I’ve had to be flexible though, and switch up a few days here and there to accommodate life and whatnot, but I’ve gotten in every scheduled run to date. A quick recap for you, in case you’re interested:

Week 1: 3.5, 3, 2, 3 = 11.5 total miles

Week 2: 4, 3.5, 2, 3.71 = 12.21 total miles

Week 3: 5.37, 4, 2, 4 = 15.37 total miles

Week 4: 6, 4, 2, 4 = 16 total miles

Week 5: 7!, 4.57, 3.07 = 14.64 so far (4.5 miles scheduled for tomorrow)

Did you see the long run in Week 5? SEVEN MILES. That’s my longest run to date. Prior to that, I did a6.5 mile run on Christmas (in the rain) and a 10k road race (6.2 miles) in early December.

That 7 miles was tough, too. I wasn’t completely convinced that I was ready for it, but I set my mind to it and just went for it. And I did it – running nonstop (except for a traffic light or two), at my very slow pace, it took 1 hour and 19 minutes. I’m proud of every damn one of those minutes, too.

Here’s the thing, though: For my longer runs, I generally run a short route multiple times. So for instance: That 7-miler was two laps of a 3.5-mile route. For my 6-mile run, I did 3 laps of a 2-mile route.

I’m literally running in circles.

Which is still better than running on the treadmill, where you run and run but get nowhere.

In some sense, I like doing multiple laps rather than one big loop. You definitely know how far you are into the run this way, which is usually good… except when I’m feeling particularly tired not far into the first lap…

In another sense, I think I might prefer one long run. It would certainly alleviate the temptation to cut the run short, but that’s not generally an issue for me. Of course sometimes I’d LIKE to, but I would be so disappointed in myself if I did that, so I don’t think it’ll ever happen.

Question for the runners out there: Do you run laps of shorter routes or do you do one big circle when you run? What are your reasons for preferring one way over the other?

Circles or not, I’m RUNNING. And that’s all that really matters.

Posted in Half Marathon, Personal Stories, Road Races, Training, Trials and Tribulations, Workouts | 3 Comments »

Quickie: Long Runs

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

This may be obvious to most people, but long runs take longer to complete, and therefore require more time in your schedule.

Or you could just run faster, but that’s easier said than done.

Posted in Training, Workouts | 1 Comment »

Everybody’s Losing It

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Lots of people I know are working hard at losing weight and getting healthy. It’s like an epidemic! One I’m really excited about. Just a few:

Brown Betty: BB was slim and trim growing up, but that changed after having four children. She put on the “correct” amount of weight with each of her kids, but didn’t lose it each time. However, for the last 20 years, she has maintained her weight. Granted that weight is much higher than it should be, but she hasn’t gained any weight in 20 years. For someone who eats essentially whatever she wants (except when on ‘fad’ diets, which never last long) and doesn’t get any exercise, I think that’s astounding, don’t you?

BB has recently started seeing a nutritionist who is giving her some excellent advice on how to eat healthy… and BB’s following it! She’s no longer counting apple fritters and blueberry muffins as fruit. She’s eating three square meals a day – BREAKFAST even! She’s even got her husband to stop enabling her (not a malicious enabler, just a clueless one).

Her efforts are all paying off. She’s lost over 11 pounds so far! The success has spurned her to add exercise into her routine and she’s making arrangements to get a treadmill so she can start walking/jogging.

For the first time in 30 years, BB’s doing it right. And it’s going to work this time. She’ll be slim and trim like her old high school self in no time!

Awesomesauce: Awesomesauce has always struggled with her weight; I think it’s one of the reasons we became such good friends, even though we didn’t talk about it much at first (we secretly bonded over it). A few years ago, she did Atkins and lost quite a bit of weight, then switched to Weight Watchers and ‘watched her weight’ go lower and lower. Then she fell in love, and – as is often a result of cohabitation – put all the weight she lost back on.

Good news, though! Awesomesauce – and Mr. Awesomesauce – have both made a commitment to return to a healthy lifestyle. They understand that getting better nutrition, exercising and losing weight will help them in all sorts of ways – lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, increasing self-confidence, decreasing stress, perhaps even an improved sex life *wink*wink*

Both Awesomesauce and her hubby have started watching their diet, and really sticking to it! And, I’m pleased to say that (thanks to my influence, lol) they’ve both started the Couch-to-5k program. They’ll be running fools!

:::::

I’m so proud of Brown Betty and Awesomesauce (and Mr. Awesomesauce!) for making the commitment to lose the excess poundage for good. And since I know these people, and I know that they can do anything they put their minds to, I’m confident I’ll soon be surrounded with svelte hotties :)

There are others in my circle who are editing their lifestyles to be healthier, happier folks. No doubt, there are hundreds – THOUSANDS – more out there who are doing the same thing! To those of you working on getting in shape and losing weight, know that you’re not alone and that it can be done. And that YOU can do it.

Go team!

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Posted in Personal Stories, Weight Loss | 2 Comments »

Chugging Along

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

I’ve completed Week 2 of my 12-week half marathon training program! It wasn’t easy, but I’m proud to say that I didn’t miss a single workout. I had to rearrange things a little bit here and there due to weather and… life, but I got in every single run.

The first week was difficult, but had the benefit of being exciting: I was starting a new training program! To prepare for my longest race yet! And I had all sorts of new running clothes!

That excitement was enough to propel me through Week 1, even though I was forced to run on the treadmill, which can be torturous. You see, one of the things I like most about running is being outside: The breeze (but not wind!); the sun (as long as it’s not too hot!); the people (as long as they don’t look at me funny!). And with the snow we were hit with, running outside wasn’t an option.

So Week 2 was even more difficult than the first: The excitement of starting the new program started to wear off, and I was still stuck running inside on the treadmill.

Until yesterday, when I ran OUTSIDE.

The sun actually emerged. My city had been shrouded in gloom, and then – remarkably – the sun came out! And, as I tend to do, I took advantage of that sun.

It was fantastic. It felt so good to be outside and running in the elements – not on a conveyor-belt inside a stuffy gym. It also was like running through an obstacle course: While many people have cleared their sidewalks, many still haven’t. This led to a lot of hopping and stretching and jumping. That part was difficult, but was still kinda fun.

What wasn’t fun were the sections of my route that don’t have sidewalks. Usually I run on the shoulders in these spots, but as the shoulders are filled with snow (not run-on-able snow, either), I had to run ON THE ROAD. Decidedly un-fun.

Tomorrow I’m scheduled to run 5 miles. It’s supposed to be a decent day here weather-wise, and I am planning to get outside again, foregoing the treadmill as much as possible. But this time, I’ll plan my route better, so as to avoid those pesky roads without sidewalks.

Week 3: Here we come!

PS – Yesterday’s weight was 169.5. Finally in the 160s!! 7.5 more to the big 1-0-0!

Posted in Half Marathon, Personal Stories, Training, Trials and Tribulations, Workouts | 2 Comments »