Vacation is over and race report: Race for Grace 5K

While I was on vacation I got the chance to do a 5K outside of my home state for the first time, doing the Race for Grace 5K in Logansport, Indiana. I like the picture above because it actually shows me RUNNING with relatively fit people at the finish line, lol. I'm on the far right in the teal "Fight Like a Girl" shirt. The race was to raise funds for a 72 hour prayer and discipleship event that the church where the 5K was held does every year. This was also the first time I've done a 5K with a family member other than my husband. This time, my nephew (who is on the cross country team at his school and finished 6 minutes ahead of me), my sister in law and her father all did the 5K. Before it started, we were warned about "Holy Hill", a very steep hill with several churches on it that starts and ends the race. However, we were reminded that one the way back, once you get over Holy Hill, "the promised land" (the finish line) is just feet away. The coolest part of this 5K was the view from the top of that hill on the way out- from there, I could look down and see the hundreds of people ahead of me in the valley created by the hill, it was really a pretty sight. The two hills really did about do me in, with all of my races being in flat Florida I'm not used to those! I ended up coming in 147th place (almost exactly in the middle of the pack) with a time of 35:48 according to my chip. I somehow paused my Nike+GPS at around 2 1/2 miles, so the time on that was way off. The very best part of the race was the AWESOME post race snacks- grapes, apples, oranges and hundreds of amazing homemade cookies. I tracked every bit of it on WW, but I surely did enjoy using up 1/4 of my points for the day on those wonderful peanut butter/chocolate/oatmeal cookies. Way to go, church ladies! I was very careful on my eating while on vacation (I actually lost 2 pounds over the 3 weeks), but since I hadn't weighed in at WW since the beginning of June I showed a gain of 6 pounds and had a lapse in my lifetime member status. I had to pay for a week of WW and I'll continue to have to pay until I lose another 4 pounds to get to the high end of my goal range. Hopefully that will only take a few weeks, it's very disheartening to have to pay after striving for so many weeks to earn that "free" status. :)

Vacation 2012...staying on track, on the road!

We're about 10 days into our 3 week summer vacation to my hometown in Indiana. We'll be in Indiana with my family for about 2 1/2 weeks, then we'll spend 5 days (two days of that is travel time) hiking at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee before we come home. I need to drop about 3 pounds by the time we get home to keep my Weight Watchers lifetime membership intact, that's rough to do but I've tracked everything I've eaten and I've been able to stay within my points range. I've been walking almost every evening, so I'm getting a little activity in- nothing like my 50 activity points some weeks at home with my gym classes, but it's something. I did find a great snack/lunch idea that I've had almost every day. I take a Flat Out original light bread, and I spread a Laughing Cow lowfat cream cheese on it. Then I mix 2 tbsp of PB2 with 2 tbsp of unsweetened almond milk and spread that on top of the cream cheese. Fold up the sides to hold in the cream cheese and PB2, then roll up. It makes a very peanut buttery treat, only 4 WW points and 16g of protein. Delicious! Today at church the pastor (who is also my brother's father in law) announced that he was doing a 5K next Saturday in the next town and of course my ears perked up at that. I got the information from him, and I just registered for it. It's the Race For Grace 5K, to raise funds for ministry events at a church. I'm very excited, it will be my first 5K in another state (for that matter, the first one outside my home county in Florida). I brought along all of my running gear just in case, so I'm all set. I'll be back with a race report after the race on Saturday.

Race report: WFYRC Beach Series- Race 1 (Clearwater Beach, Pier 60)

I signed up for a summer beach race series, there are 4 races but I'll be on vacation for the July race so I'll do two in June and one in August. They all begin and end at beautiful Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach during the sunset festival that is held there each night. The races are run just inches from the water, at times you have to step quickly to the side if you'd like to avoid soaking your pricey running shoes in saltwater from the tide coming in. A friend who is a marathoner told me that beach races are harder and slower, and it surely was. It was a beautiful location, but not even half way in I got a wicked stitch in my side and nothing that I tried would clear it. So, I just focussed on finishing (and not falling in the sand castle moats that sprinkled the shoreline, THAT'S very important in this race series!) and didn't worry too much about my time. My finish time was 36:57, over 3:45 longer than my personal best. I have the second race in the series this coming Friday, I'm hoping to improve my time a bit and perhaps avoid that darn side stitch this time. The picture above is me after the race, you can see the pier where the start and finish line was under ("under the boardwalk...down by the sea..") right behind me, as well as my husband popping his head into the picture to say "it's raining, can we GO now?" :) I achieved my first "lifetime" monthly weigh in at Weight Watchers on June 2nd- you have to weigh in once a month within 2 pounds (up or down) of your goal weight to remain a lifetime (free) member. The receptionist noted that I don't have to weigh in again until sometime before July 31st, and something clicked in a bad place in my brain. I guess I got a little cocky because I decided I could "take a few days off" of WW to enjoy my anniversary and get through the last week of school. Bad move- when I went to my doctor's appointment 11 days later for a checkup, I was up over 10 pounds! (However, that was weighing in heavier clothes, with shoes on AND after eating lunch...but that surely can't account for ALL 10 of those pounds!) I've been hitting the gym hard since then and eating well and now I'm back to within 5-6 pounds of where I need to be before July 31st so things are looking up. I just have to keep reminding myself that there is NO "free week" allowed in maintaining a 100+ pound weight loss. To paraphrase the quote about the price of liberty, the price of maintaining long term weight loss is eternal (nutritional and exercise) vigilance.

Restaurant review: Applebee's new Weight Watchers menu items & maintenance week 2 weight in

Last week, I was thrilled to find out that I had won an Applebee's $25 gift card on a giveaway on the blog Weight Watchers Wannabe. The point of the giveaway was to introduce Applebee's 3 new Weight Watchers Points Plus entree choices. So, when my son volunteered to run the lights, sound and video for his school prom tonight it seemed like a perfect time to make use of that gift card and enjoy a date night with my husband while our child was occupied for the evening. I chose the Grilled Jalapeno-Lime Shrimp (Weight Watchers PointsPlus value: 8). The Applebee's website describes it as: "a hearty portion of grilled chipotle lime shrimp and black bean corn salsa tossed with lime juice and chopped cilantro, served on a mix of grilled zucchini, marinated tomatoes, onions & red peppers with steamed white rice."

The shrimp was very good, especially the veggies, beans and corn salsa which was very flavorful. My only disagreement with the description is the phrase "a hearty portion"- I understand that portion control is a vital part of Weight Watchers, but there really wasn't a whole lot of food in this meal. I enjoyed the meal very much, but the fact is that I could have easily eaten two servings before I felt like I'd had a full meal. However, for 8 points it's a good deal in both price and points cost. My husband got the Cabernet Mushroom Sirloin (Weight Watchers PointsPlus value: 12). This is a Applebee’s 7 oz. grilled House Sirloin with sautéed Portobello mushrooms & onions in a Napa Valley Cabernet sauce with steamed herbed potatoes and garlic broccoli.

Same story here- the food itself was excellent, but my husband was still hungry once he'd eaten everything on his plate. As he said, that portion size was not intended for a full grown man such as himself. We ate at a little after 5 and by 6:30 we were both ready to eat again. In summary, the new Applebee's menu choices are very good, but be aware that they are not the most filling meals. I came home and enjoyed a yogurt/banana smoothie and some fresh fruit afterwards and I'm good. (My husband is planning a full additional meal, however- he's still quite hungry! Then again, he's also 6 foot 1 and 280 lbs so he can really consume some food!) :) The update on week 2 of maintenance at WW is that I'm up 1.2 pounds, for a total gain of 2.6 pounds since I started maintenance. However, this particular gain was earned- there were dietary transgressions this past week. Gloriously chocolaty transgressions at that, so I'm ok with the gain. For the week coming up I've lowered my daily points allowance back to my pre-goal range of 26 until I can get back to my goal weight. Then, I'll bump it back up 2 or 3 points to make a more focussed attempt at maintenance. :)

Weight Watchers maintenance: Crazy Train Edition

This was my first week of maintenance on Weight Watchers after reaching my goal weight last week. WW suggests that you raise your points allowance on maintenance by up to 6 daily points and decrease that as needed until you are maintaining- that is, neither gaining or losing. I increased mine by what I thought was a conservative 3 points per day and when I weighed in I had gained 1.4 pounds. Grrrr. The awesome receptionist reminded me that maintenance is a "balancing act" and advised me to drop down to 2 points added to my previous pre-goal points allowance and see what happens this coming week. I say this "balancing act" is more like a wacky see saw with a roulette wheel and the conductor of the crazy train on the other end. While it probably won't help that I've already used 28 of my weekly points, we'll see where this crazy train ends up on next Thursday. I'm WAY tempted to go right the heck back to my pre-goal points allowance and just stay there. I'm stressing a little over maintenance so I'll feel better once I hit lifetime and only have to weigh in once a month. The blurry picture here (thanks, iPhone camera!) is my "inspiration board" featuring things that help keep me on track on WW. The "certificate of accomplishment" is my 100 pounds lost award from WW, thrilled to finally have that! I also have postcards from my WW leader, quotes, Twitter messages, and a nice message that my husband printed out and put on there while I was gone one day, "I'm proud of you!". :) Below the inspiration board is a holder for my race numbers, with my personal best race bib on top. We have a busy weekend planned, this morning I went to the gym and did the BodyVive and BodyAttack classes. This evening we are going to see Rick Springfield (my inner 13 year old girl always squeals a little when I say his name) at an outdoor concert in Clearwater. This is probably the 7th or 8th time I've seen him in concert, he puts on a great show. He often comes into the audience for several songs, and as a result I can say that I have touched Rick Springfield several times as he's roared by. (I think you have to be a woman of a certain age, raised in the 80s, to appreciate the blessing of touching a sweaty Rick Springfield) :) I'm going with Dianne; one of my great friends since high school, and my husband John is going as our personal security. I think he secretly enjoys Ricks music a little too, but he always claims to be going to protect us from the overzealous Rick fans. One concern is that the show is outside and tonight we are expected to have 2-3 inches of rain, hail, thunderstorms and flooding. For Rick, we will risk it! Hopefully the rain will clear up by Sunday AM because I have the Iron Girl 5K run at 7:30 AM. We will run from Coachman Park in Clearwater (the same place where we are seeing the concert tonight) to the pier at Clearwater Beach. I did a practice run over the big scary bridge over to Clearwater Beach with one of my pals from the gym on Tuesday night and it was no problem- I can say to that bridge "you don't scare me bridge!". Now if the thunderstorms and hail will just stay away! I'll be back on Sunday with a race recap, John is coming along and will take pics IF the weather isn't too bad- don't want to lose a camera in the downpour!

GGGOOOOOOAAAAAALLLL! (Read in the booming voice of a Mexican Univision TV soccer announcer, duh!)

As you might gather from the ridiculously overwrought ALL CAPS title of this blog entry, I *finally* reached my goal weight at Weight Watchers last night. I needed to lose 6/10ths of a pound to reach goal, but when I stepped on that scale I had actually lost 1.6 pounds so I was a full pound UNDER my goal weight, with a total loss of 101 pounds! My group of friends who've attended WW with me for most of the 2 1/2 years ( the "No Pudge Posse", made up of myself, my BFF of 35+ years Lisa, our other friend Lisa and my husband John) it took to get there came with me to the scale to celebrate. My original goal weight was 143, but since I weighed in at 142 I set that as my official goal weight to start my 6 weeks of maintenance. I'm still freaking out that 142 is too high, but since I've worn size 8 pants to work every day this week and I can *just* get into size 6 capris, I think that I'm still seeing the "old" me that weighed 101 pounds more when I think about my weight, I might actually BE at a healthy weight. My best friend Lisa took the picture that is on this post, neither my husband or I were organized enough to *bring a camera* so Lisa did the honors with her cell phone camera. I got my 100 pounds lost charm, my goal weight charm and my maintenance book and instructions at the meeting, then the leader called me to the front of the room. I told how much I'd lost, then the leader
sat down and told me to talk. I said "I thought that's what I just did!"...I'm SO not comfortable talking in front of people. So, I talked about my 9 5K runs, how long it took to lose the weight, etc. Then she asked if anyone had questions for me as I frantically tried to retreat back to my seat, lol. A man asked "so what are you going to eat now that you've reached goal?", I answered that on WW I can eat whatever I want as long as I plan for it- I really think he thought I was going to freak out and eat gallons of ice cream now that I'd hit goal, I'm hoping that's not his plan once he gets there! :) Then a woman said "with an over 100 pound loss there has to be some issue with...loose skin, right?" I fear that I overshared, because I vaguely recall telling the 30+ people at WW that my stomach was "not pretty, and just plain gross". Ug. Thank goodness they didn't ask me anything more embarrassing than that, because I was sort of in a haze of anxiety from being in front of all of those folks, who KNOWS what I might have said! :) I have 6 weeks of maintenance, I increased my WW points range by 3 points and I'll weigh in next week and see how that works. If I maintain, I'll stay in that range- if I lose, then the points are increased again, if I gain then the points are reduced. It's all a balancing act to keep the weight stable now. After 6 weeks, if I'm still within 2 pounds up or down from my goal weight of 142 (so, between 140 and 144 pounds)then I will become a free lifetime member two days after my 43rd birthday. That is especially sweet since I remember how upset I was to realize that on my 30th birthday I weighed over 200 pounds and by my 40th birthday I was over 240- I love (hopefully) making WW lifetime member so close to my birthday for that reason!
Tomorrow is my big day at the gym, I usually take 2 or 3 classes in the morning. The great instructor for my favorite class, Body Attack, says that they will be celebrating my weight loss goal at the class with some workouts of his choosing...I'll apologize in advance to the others in the class as I fear he will be inflicting some pain on us, lol. Then a week from this Sunday is the IronGirl 5K, I am very excited about enjoying that event with so many other women- and the awesome race bling at the end isn't bad either! Now that I've rambled on, I'm off to go catch up on everybody's blogs. I love reading your comments here, if you've suffered this long through the blog please drop me a comment. :)