Wednesday Weigh In

Aaaaaaaand we're back.

I paused the weigh ins to get through the holidays and New Year's.

Now it's back to the grind.

OFFICIAL WEIGH IN:
Down 12.6 lbs since my birthday!!!! WOOT!!!!

A small loss, but a loss none the less. The scale got kind of stagnant through the end of December, but it's creeping back in the right direction.

GymPact now allows you to make a Pact for food tracking too, so I'm on board with MyFitnessPal tracking every bite I eat. Find me if you're using MFP too! Kim0903

Tracking food is crucial for me to lose weight. When I'm not tracking, I'm over estimating calories burned at the gym and underestimating how much I'm consuming. This unbalance only leads to GAINING.

How is your year starting off? Are you still on track with your goals? Tracking food or just winging it?

"January Joiners" and the time I accidentally PRed 5k

Starting about mid December the regulars in the spin and step classes I go to started to lament the approach of January. They were groaning that every bike would fill up early and the group fitness classes would be packed. The New Year's Resolutioners would be flocking to the gym, "January Joiners" they labeled them.

I reminded them that I was one of those January Joiners last year and here I am, sticking around and one of the regulars. Everyone always replies "Well you're the exception, hardly anyone sticks around past January". Well, when you welcome them with THAT attitude, why would they want to come back?!? This January I'm trying to be welcoming to the new folks, hoping they feel welcomed enough to join our crazy gym family that would rather be working out than at happy hour and who wake up early on the weekends so we don't miss a class. We have fun, laugh, sing, and get healthy together every week.

So. If you're thinking about venturing out to the gym to kick off your Resolutions, don't be shy. March right into the class and work your butt off. Get there a few minutes early to get set up and introduce yourself to the teacher. Take class at your own pace, there are always alternatives to every move.

So how does this have to do with me accidentally PRing 5k? Well, like I said a couple of weeks ago when I went out to start my training for the 1/2 marathon I'm doing with Hubs in the spring, the run went so well, I surprised myself. All these months of 6-7 classes a week has improved my endurance and overall fitness beyond my expectations.

After my first couple of runs went so well, I signed up last minute for a 5k on New Year's Eve. I thought, what could be a better way to close out 2013? It was a 1:00PM start, so I was thrown off from my usual pre-race rituals of oatmeal or english muffin and banana. It was a local race with about 600 people running the 5k and about 350 doing the 10k option. Once we got started I was feeling great. I was sticking with intervals I knew I could maintain the whole time, 4 mins running/1 min walking. I clocked the first mile in 11:39 and the next two miles at 12:32 pace. The last 1/2 mile I was losing steam and feeling a bit discouraged that I wasn't going to do as well as I had hoped.

My previous PR time was 41:15 (13:16 pace) and I knew I could blow that out of the water. My secret, would be amazing, I'd have to really work for it, "A" goal was anything starting with 37:00. My "B" goal was anything with 38:00, "C" was 39:00 and so on. I was getting audio cues from RunKeeper with my pace and time. I had about a 1/4 mile to go and if I picked up my pace I could make my "A" time goal. When I crossed the finish line I had given everything I had in the last 1/4 mile and thought I might have been able to squeak out 37:59. Once the results were posted my official time was 38:03 (12:16 pace). I'm kinda bummed I missed my "A" goal by 4 seconds, but am completely over the moon that my pace went down by a full minute. I know I'm still not the speediest of them all, but I'm slowly moving up from the back of the pack and can't complain about being able to run a race with only 4 days notice!

So lessons from today: Go to classes, get a faster 5k time.

How is your year starting off? Are you joining a gym or just looking to try something new at one you already belong to?

Five on Friday - January's Goals

In sticking with the blog o sphere's theme of goals and intentions for the New Year, I'll dedicate this Five on Friday to my Five goals for this month.

So in no particular order....

One - I have a HUGE backlog of magazines all around my house. I have a stack by my bed, a stack by my chair in front of the tv, a stack in my car, and who knows where else they pop up. My first goal is to be through this backlog in January. Anything not read by February 1st is getting trashed (recycled)

On a related note, I have been working my way through my Real Simple back issues and came across the "Your Words" section and remembered that I had responded to an email prompt from them this summer about Tips for Getting your Day off to the Best Start. I replied that just making my bed can make me feel more productive and kick off the day on the right foot. I was contacted by an editor asking to elaborate, so I wrote a few more sentences and never heard back. They paraphrased the heck outta my comment, but I made it into the issue! My name is in print!

Two - Kick off the diet on the right foot. I've done this the past two Januaries and am trying it again, Sober January. I take the month off from drinking to try to kick start my diet. The first year I lost like 14lbs (which obvi didn't stick since I ended up GAINING weight in 2012) and last year was closer to 7. My heart isn't in it so much this year since the number on the scale wasn't as scary as the past two years, but I'm going to give it my best shot anyways.

Three - Half Marathon training. Hubs and I signed up for a half marathon in DC on March 15th. The first couple of runs have been good, but I haven't been sticking to my training schedule very closely. I want to make running my priority for the next 10 weeks so I can do the best I can on race day. So far I've only been running twice a week, but have been getting in the "long" runs, currently 4 miles, bumping up next week. I know I'm going to have to start getting the weekday "homework" miles done if I want a fighting chance at surviving the weekend runs once they start getting more substantial.

Four - Try some new crockpot recipes. My sister gifted me with several cookbooks for Christmas, one specifically for crockpots. I have already gone through and marked the dozens of recipes I want to try. Before the end of this month, I want to try at least three or four to find some we can add into our weekly/monthly rotation of regular meals.

Five - Complete my blog post about our trip to London. We had such a fabulous time, I really want to document the trip in more than just a file of pictures on my computer that we'll forget details about along the way.

So instead of setting a year's worth of goals, these are just the things I want to get through this month.

Are you setting resolutions for the whole year or are you breaking it down into monthly goals you want to accomplish?