Thursday...

Good morning, happy Thursday!! I can't believe it's Thursday already! 

Yesterday was a pretty good day of food choices. I didn't really get back into the swing of tracking....I have a tendency to be rather anal about numbers, and it's really hard for me to pick up in the middle of the week with tracking. But, I did have a portion controlled, no junk food, kind of day. 

I had one of "Julie's Giant Oatmeal Cookies" for breakfast.  ( a recipe from one of our WW leaders) I was super busy at lunchtime so I grabbed a few ounces of chicken breast meat, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and a banana for lunch. Dinner was a bowl full of bowtie pasta with butter, garlic, and cheese. Probably a little point heavy but it hit the spot. I had some Greek yogurt and a banana after dinner. 

It's a little weird not running in the morning! My foot is improving fairly rapidly! The bruising on the top of my foot is fading. The bottom of my toe is still purple and my toe is still very tender to the touch. But it's not as intensely painful and achy as it was. I can almost walk normally but it's tender to do so. My toe is tingly and sort of "pins and needles" feeling. I think I'll live...lol. 

Tomorrow is my Weight Watchers meeting. I know I've said this so many times over the past few months...but I am going to do my very best to make this the week when I get completely back on board with my Weight Watchers journey. 

No Rock & Roll for me :(

Good morning! Happy Wednesday!! We are back from our long weekend at Disneyland and ready to get back to a routine. I had really good intentions of tracking my food while we were there but that fell by the wayside when we got there. We were very busy for the entire time we were there and food was not as much of a focus as one might think. 

On Monday morning, as we were packing up our room, I tripped over a canvas duffle bag and caught my small toe on my right foot on the corner of the bag. I felt it pop out of joint and I quickly grabbed it and pulled it until it popped back in place. I really thought it was broken because it was do painful!! We had one more day in Disneyland and we were meeting up with one of our kids. So I toughed it out....I sat with it elevated for a good portion of the day. 

Tuesday morning it was still quite painful, swollen,  and bruised so I decided to have it checked out. The good news is that there is no fractures. However, he said no running at all for at least a week and them I can test it out to see if I might be able to start running again at about 10% of what I would normally do. So no Rock & Roll Half Marathon for me this year. 

So, it should be interesting to get back to tracking and counting points without the benefit of exercise points. 

Starting today....counting, planning, routine...1...2...3...go!

Feeling empowered

Good morning!! Happy Tuesday! I'm ready to do this! I'm feeling empowered by the fact that I stayed within my points allowance yesterday. I'm ready to do it again today. It's time to get back to photo journaling my food, and keeping my blog updated. 

I'm enjoying a cup of coffee and then I'm off for a run before work :)

Regroup Monday

Monday morning update:

I had a great weekend hanging out with friends and family.  

I didn't have such a great weekend of making good food choices. One thing I did do was track everything I ate. I don't often track on the days when I throw caution to the wind and just eat whatever I feel like. But this time I tracked it...and I, quite frankly, am stunned at how quickly those points add up when I don't make good choices. This weekend's tracker has been eye opening to say the least. 

So now it's Monday morning and I am at negative 7 points for the week. I have used up all of my weekly 49 extra points, all 14 of the exercise points I earned, and 7 points I didn't have. 

I am determined to save what is left of this week. I don't have to let the weekend stretch into an entire week of eating off plan. I left my meeting on Friday, saying that I was going to follow the plan like I did when I first joined....like a newbie...that didn't quite happen over the weekend. HOWEVER, for the next four days that is exactly what I am going to do. 

I am going to track my food and activity. I am going to update here. (as embarrassing as that can be sometimes)

One thing I know....I am not going to quit. No matter how many times I stumble in this journey, I am going to keep trying, keep pulling myself back to center, keep learning from my actions, and keep moving forward. 

Lastly, these past few weeks have taught me some things about exercise, running in particular. The biggest thing I've learned is that I NEED A REST DAY between run days. My muscles need that time to recover. I am the most sore I have ever been from running and it's not easing up. So I am going to go back to running on Tuesday and Thursday mornings with a long run on the weekends. I might walk on the off days. I haven't decided yet. But I'm done running every day. 

So there we go. 

Happy Monday!!! Let's do this thing!!

Return to Victory...Week One

At my WW meeting. Up .6 this week. This week I am going to pretend it's my first week and I am going to follow the plan to the letter like I did when I was a newbie. AND I am going to go go back to updating here daily.

Back to the Basics...

Good morning!! So, today is the day. No more "I'll really start back to tracking tomorrow, or next week, or after this weekend." I can feel myself going in the wrong direction. The cold hard fact is that I am 10 pounds up from my lowest weight. It's time to get back to the basics. It's not enough to go sit in the magic green chair (the chairs in my WW meeting) each week. I actually need to buckle down and DO THE PLAN!!! So here we go, here is my commitment:
Starting today, May 7, 2013, I will track my food and not exceed the points a ail able to me. I will earn 4 activity points per day. I will drink eight glasses of water each day. I will focus on real foods and avoid highly processed "food-like products." Back to basics for me.

Finding my Strong

Good morning! Something happened yesterday while I was out for my run, and as I processed through my feelings about it, I realized I had to share it with you all. Because, after all, there is more to becoming healthy and whole than just diet and exercise.

I was running a route that was different for me and it was just about mile four. I was doing my normal intervals of one minute jogging, one minute walking. As the interval changed and I slowed from a jog to a walk, a car that was coming from behind me slowed down and several young men/older teens yelled something rude and derogatory. It's not really important what they said. What's important is what it ALMOST triggered in me.

I don't know if I've ever shared this here. I know I've shared it with my Weight Watcher meeting. When I first began to think about running, it took me about a year to actually start. I downloaded a "Couch to 5K" app on my phone about a year before I took that first tentative jog. The thing that kept me from starting was fear. Fear that was rooted in my past experiences. I was afraid, almost convinced, that I couldn't do it.

I had a mental image of an obese little girl, forced to run around a track in elementary school, while the other children who were more fit and less awkward, jeered and poked fun. Sure, there was a teacher trying to cheer me on...but hers was not the voice that stayed with me for the next 40+ years.

So fast forward to yesterday. Those jeering voices of foolish young men reached my ears and for a moment I was jerked back to that painful place. That place of not feeling good enough, or fit enough, or slim enough, or pretty enough....for a moment I went there.

But then something happened. Suddenly a voice from my heart cried out, "No!! You are not that girl anymore!! And it's not because she ceased to exist. It's because she found her STRONG!!!

I don't know if I can adequately put it into words. But, part of becoming healthy is finding your strong. Running has helped me to do that. It has changed my life. I will never again be that frightened, hurting kid who was afraid to run because she might not be able to do it, or because she was afraid of what others might think or say.

I am a 55 year old wife, mom, & grandma who can go out on a Saturday morning and decide that I'm going to interval run ten miles.....so I did. I ran from the voices in my head that tell me I can't do it. I ran until the echo of those boys' words could no longer be heard rolling around in my head. I found my strong :)