.6 pound loss

I'll take it! 179.0--it's the lowest number I've seen on a scale since probably my sophomore year of college. So yes ma'am, I will take it.

I'm in the 170's!

I've been terrible about posting lately, but I have NOT been terrible about being conscientious about what I'm eating. I am officially (just barely) in the 170s today! This is a land I have not visited for many years. I am soooooo excited!

In other happy weight news, when I was at a thrift store a few days ago (where they had crazy bargains on nice stuff--I haven't been in years), I fit into size 14 jeans. I wouldn't have bought them (they were too tight--I'm sure my husband would have loved them on me), but I could zip them without feeling like I was dying, and that's awesome! As you may remember, I mentioned that I wore a size 12 dress to a wedding recently; when things are A-line cut, I can wear a smaller size over my hips and thighs. But with pants, I am still a size or two up. Last night, I got inspired to try on my last remaining just-barely-too-small pants at home, and one pair now fits me well. The others just don't look great, but I ordered them off the internet, and they may just not be cut for me. We'll see how I'm feeling when I'm down five more pounds!

I met my goal of 5 pounds in July (slow and steady wins the race, right?), and I am just thrilled with how the weight loss is going lately. I think I am going to set another 4- or 5-lb. goal for August.

Some days when I weigh myself, my weight will suddenly show a brief upswing or will not be lower when I am expecting it to be lower. I just remind myself it's an off day and don't let it throw me off track. That's one major way this round of weight loss has been different from previous attempts. (Then, I would have gotten stressed and angry and given up; I was 'restricting myself' for nothing. But now that I have flipped the mental/emotional switch so that I am taking care of myself instead of restricting myself, it doesn't make sense to eat myself into misery if my weight happens to be up or flat.

Since I learned about my food allergies, I have been terrible about exercising. There is only so much energy to go around in a given day, and I have spent a lot of mine on figuring out what to eat. Now that I am beginning to get the hang of dealing with that issue, though, I am going to make it a priority to start back with regular exercise this month.

A Momentous Day

(Thanks, Google Earth! We were able to measure the route of my 20-min. run and then add my warm-up and cool down to it . . . so here's a photo of my path!)

I did it. I ran 20 minutes straight this morning. Twice on my curvy path of my run, I ran into my best friend, who was also doing her C25k run (she's on an earlier week), and she ran with me for a minute each time. That was good because talking to her (and realizing I could talk while running my 11th and 15th minutes) was good support for me to keep going.

TWENTY MINUTES! And I could have run 21, possibly more. I can't say it was fun, exactly, but it gave me a feeling of accomplishment. And it was/is really cool to the feel of my muscles shifting into different gears for uphill and downhill run. It's fun in the same way it's fun to admire how your car engine feels shifting from one gear to the next. (Cleary, I am a total nerd in this way (among many other ways), but that's perfectly okay. I love driving a stick shift.) I love feeling how things tie together.

At the end of my run, when the beep to stop surprised me because I thought I had 1-2 minutes more, I was thinking of what's next. A fire truck went by with its siren screaming, and I thought about joining a volunteer fire department some day. I thought about being in good enough shape for something like that to be a possibility. Then I thought:

I can never again let myself get out of the habit of engaging the physical side of me.

As a person who tends to be very intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally based, those are the elements of myself that I engage most often in my life: in choosing my work, in getting impassioned, etc. But there is a physical element to me that is interconnected with those other elements, and when I remember that and give the physical part of me reign sometimes, I am a happier, healthier, more successful person.

Week 6, Day 1 will mean going back to alternating running and walking before committing to only running from then on. I am so excited now to know that I really can do it!

Meals for One (or Two)

I have five minutes until I get dressed to go for my run, my first run in a week since I didn't run on my vacation. This is going to be interesting, I have a feeling. . . . But I'm going to do it. I'll feel better once I've done it.

I went to Borders today, looked at a couple of great new cookbooks and came up with a plan for the meals I'm making this week . . . meals for one, except for the night one of my friends is in town visiting, and even then the meal could have been for one. When my husband is gone for a few days, I often eat out every night or nearly every night while he's gone. Our grocery budget, divided by 1 instead of 2, allows that. However, it's not the best way to go as far as taking care of myself, and taking time and energy to take care of myself is the name of the game these days. So check back each night this week, and I'll post a photo and recipe of what I've made that night. I'm worth a tasty, healthy home-cooked meal all on my own.

Weekly Weigh-In & Exercise Explanation

I'm down 15 pounds total now since Jan. 1st! Woo-hoo! That also means that I'm over halfway towards my first goal of 28 pounds by May 28--a goal that was intended as a guideline, not something to fixate on . . . but which may turn out to be attainable! I ordered a bridesmaid dress for a June wedding in a 14, and it should at least fit me well now, if not be a little big. I'm certainly not going to complain if I have to get it taken in.

I have a new shirt in a size medium that fits me. Yes, it's a fluke--I would normally be in the large size range, especially given my 36DDD boobs. But I'll take it. It's a cute shirt, anyway, and I've gotten lots of compliments on it. (I gotta tell you I think a company could make a lot of money selling clothes that were sized a bit larger. If a woman who's normally in a 12 can fit in a 10, I'm guessing she's more likely to buy.) I also tried on a pair of 16 jeans that I possibly could have pulled off of me--they were that loose zipped and buttoned. I found another pair of 16's that are a lot smaller and fit me well; I bought those. (I was at a discount store, so things are entirely hit-and-miss size-wise. I got a pair of Michael Kors jeans for I think $30.)

Someone emailed me to ask about the Couch-to-5k program. As I believe I've mentioned before, I tried a similar plan when I was in college and failed to do it. But this time, there have been a few differences: I was already getting cardio for at least half an hour almost daily with my long walks, I bothered to go to a running store and get expensive shoes that actually fit my gait and foot pecularities, and I have my mp3 player--thanks to my husband's computer-geeky ways--set up to beep when I need to switch from running to walking and back to running again. Those three things have all made a big difference. Thanks to the global warming of the past 20 years or so, Atlanta is much more pleasant for exercise in February and March than it was when I was a kid (nice for me right now, bad for everyone in the long term), so exercising outdoors now is easy. About the middle of May, it will suddenly be up in the 90's with very high humidity, and I will constantly feel like I'm melting into a puddle.

I tried out my new Enell sports bra that I bought from Two Roads Fitness (an online store for women's fitness products--my stuff shipped very quickly with great customer service). That sports bra kicks ass. It keeps my boobs strapped in, comfortably, even with running. It's pricey but I highly recommend it. It's awesome.

I use Cool Running's Couch-to-5k program. I'm working on adding in appropriate stretching. If you don't have a computer-geeky husband, I would encourage you to utilize a podcast that tells you when to switch from walking to running and back. If you want me to send you my version with the beeps in place, email me at veggiepaparazzo at gmail dot com.

Week 2 starts tomorrow, and I'm really excited! I've also signed up to have a personal trainer create upper body exercises I can do at the park to supplement my work-outs on my not-running days. I need to go pay the fee and then I should have someone helping me!