A Loss! but still Rubbish! On Pimping the Beast!

I am still feeling like rubbish!  I am awake and I am able to be attentive for the entire day, But I am tired and am stuck in that funk right between ‘Feeling Tired’ and ‘Feeling Sick’.  I am both of those things, but not quite, if that makes any sense?

Today I jumped on the scales, even though it is not official weigh-in.  I am weighing every fortnight, and because I weighed last week, I need to wait again till next Monday.  I did not wait. Goh!

I have achieved a loss of 300 grams, which is awesome!  But I feel like shit!  I am officially into the 74th Kilogram, but because I feel horrible, I haven’t quite got excited about it!

I have a few theories…

I may have an Iron deficiency – I kinda doubt it because I have been eating spinach like no bodies business, but at the same time, I have lowered my red meat intake, instead I have been hitting up fish and chicken.It may or may not be this, but as a lady… who experiences ‘Lady Days’ this may well be the root cause.

I may not be eating enough – Today I went on to MFP to check my settings.  It was set to ‘Lightly Active’.  I hardly think that I am just ‘Lightly’ Active, I am doing something everyday for a lot of the day so I bumped it up to “Active” instead, this gives me an extra 100 cals a day, not that I feel I need it, I am satisfied as I am, but we will give it a whirl.  There are also activities that I don’t log that maybe I should?  Stuff like the windows I am stripping, that is pretty freeking physical, Mowing the lawns, Stationary biking for 5mins!?! Hardly Counts!, Some of the Weight training I do – in my mind it doesn’t feel like I have exherted enough energy for it to even count, walks that I take almost daily – again I don’t feel like I am exhert myself much at all.  Maybe I should be logging these, but then I have a fitbit, so it kinda does it for me anyway…

My macros may be off – I don’t get too much into this, because I just don’t have enough knowledge to know what is right.  But perhaps on my run days I am not eating enough Carbs.  I know I eat plenty, shit I eat a sandwich almost everyday, I freeking love sandwiches!  But I don’t know much about how much of what I should be eating.  I just try kick it low fat as much as poss, and almost every single day I am hitting the correct amount of Cals while feeling full and satisfied.

I can’t say it is not enough sleep, I sleep most nights 7-8 hours, which is more than the average person I am sure.

Dehydration?  Maybe.  It has been super hot lately, but I drink enough I think.  I am never thirsty.

Maybe I need to get laid?  Quite possibly!

And before you go any further with your thinking…I am not knocked up!

Who knows, but I have made a few changes to what I have been doing, although it has been working in a ‘weight’ sense, not so much in the energy sense.  I will see how it all goes.

Oh I ran today.  Which was good and shit at the same time.  I did what I needed to, I just didn’t enjoy it as much as usual.  Heavy legs, bad form, breathing was fine, but it was HOT!

Meh, tomorrow I go out to the TECT!  Carbing up tonight and in the morning for a Long hard run.  I hope to be feeling better before, during and after haha!  Experiencing some of natures medicine!

Ok so there wasn’t too much Pimping going on today, but how about you?  Ever hit that ‘in between’ funk?  What are your plans for the week?

See you tomorrow,

Jay 🙂

P.S.  I am pretty stoked about how muscly my legs are these days, I kind of feel a little badass about that! ha!

Mapping for Graduation – On Pimping the Beast/I Just Want to Run!

I thought I would kill 2 birds with one stone today!

First, I want to invite you to run a Virtual 5k with me and my group Friday 29th November!  On the 29th – Anytime, Anywhere, Anyhow!  Or just do whatever distance you can manage.

My group Graduates the C25k programme in just 2 short weeks and I am on a mission to round up as much support as possible for their Graduation Run!

I must say, that even for me, someone who used to run longer distances than a 5k, it has been extremely beneficial!

I have found myself feeling very unaffected by the full 5k run’s I have done on my own away from the group, and I think the c25k has helped with that.  By unaffected I mean able to run at my fastest pace non-stop for longer, and to not feel like crap immediately afterwards.

So my something new for today – Today rather than following the programme, I did a 5k in just under 35mins, almost creating a PR for myself.  Because we had an odd number of ladies at the Run group today I was able to run alone – so I mapped out our 5k Route for Graduation.  I ran non-stop, I did have to stop once about a K shy of getting home to help a lady up the stairs, she fell (paused my app, took her up the stairs, went back down the stairs, unpaused app, continued running up the stairs hahaha)
The run was great, I feel like I could have done better, I didn’t quite hit that exhaustion mark, so I had more to give…YUSS!

Smells like my fitness is improving even on the downtime I was having not so long ago.

So anywho – please run along with us, I even have a Bib for you to print out and wear 🙂

Right,

Weigh-in day today!

A loss of 1 whole kg!!  Bringing me down to 75.2kg!

That is a total loss of 17.3kg since I started using MFP a year and a bit ago!

I have noticed my Tech wear getting a little baggy, stuff that is supposed to be tight and create compression, is kinda not doing its job for me right now!

Anywho, roughly 2 more kilo’s to go and I will be happy with this years progress.  After getting stuck in a funk since the end of January, I have not done too badly to redeem myself!

Another date with Jillian for Ab day, feeling stronger already!

Ok, so how did you Pimp the Beast today?

Any PR’s that you have to Brag about lately?

Beast On y’all and I’ll see ya tomorrow,

Jay 🙂

Finishing off the Plan – On Pimping the Beast

Today legs are feeling better, Abs – almost hundy percent.  I am ready to take on the next week!

No run today, the children and I spent most of it in the backyard gardening and playing in their little paddling pool.

We also tried the Bethlehem Farmers Market, I really wanted some decent Avocado’s, the ones from my supermarket that I had been delivered were crap!  I think we will be making a regular Sunday trip to the markets for veg!

While we were out I got a 2014 Calender so I could finish off my Training Plan, and kind of get a jist of how everything is going to happen over the Christmas Period.
I am planning a camping trip and a week away, so I need to know where everything falls to start making some robust habits that wont fall by the wayside during the festive season!

Seeing as we will be away for almost 2 weeks before Christmas (Week 4 and 5 of my training plan)  I kind of need to plan out how I am going to get those runs and strength work outs in.  If I don’t start looking at it all now, and shit hits the fan, I will feel like I am stuffing up by not sticking to the plan!  Can anyone say CONTROL FREAK!

It is also my children’s 2nd Birthday in the second week of December, Our trip away, then Christmas, a Family 40th, and then New Years!  I will be glad to see January!  I just want everything to go off without a hitch!  Failing to Plan is a Plan to Fail – said it before, saying it again!

I also did the Weekly meal plan for next week, and did the shop online, I researched a new product to try and also a new recipe to try.  Got a lot going on, but that is how we Pimp the Beast!!

My Plan to Win!…

When I step back and look at it, it looks pretty busy.  Its not really, it’s just methodical.

I have 1 small and 1 big event that falls on the first and second week of my training plan, so I wont be able to follow those ones to the ‘T’.

I also realised when looking at the next years tentative plans for events, it seems there is only 7 weeks between the other 2 Half Marathons that I want to compete in.  I will have to get some advice on how to deal with those ‘training plan’ wise.

TOUGH MUDDER is also coming to New Zealand in April… It smells like an expensive year!!

Plan is done, now all is left to do is work off a bit more weight over the next 2 weeks, then we get the show on the road!

Weigh-in Day tomorrow… nervous and excited to let you know how well all this Pimping is working for me.

What did you get up to today?  Did you Run long?

See you tomorrow

Jay 🙂

I am officially OVERWEIGHT!

Now, in any normal situation this would be a cause for concern!

But for me quite the opposite.

This morning I stepped out of what would be medically termed “obese” and stepped into “overweight”ville!

Weigh in day today had me jumping up and down like a tween’aged girl, on the inside that is.  It is funny because what I feel inside, more often than not is not what I express on the outside.  When it comes to my weight I kind of have that feeling like I need to wait till the next good loss before I can get excited about the last one.  In my mind it only means something if I have beaten it and celebrating prematurely can often leave me with guilt if I go backwards again.

Any who, you may have read in early posts that I kicked my 6 month plateau just recently, I have once again worked to get the scales heading in a downward movement.  And I am feeling good!

The last scale reading had me at 77kg.  Today’s read 76.2kg.  I am going to have to keep challenging myself.

I do have a lot of my MyFitnessPal friends to thank for my continued motivation and loss.  Us NZ users of MFP have a private Facebook group where we bounce ideas off each other, congratulate each other, console and motivate, listen and talk.  I have never met a more supportive bunch of people as these.  We are in something challenging together and we celebrate victory together!

This week I have no major changes to my plans.  My running group is in full swing now, all the ladies are doing so well.
My Intermittent Fasting is going well, I hardly notice it as 16:8 (16 hour fast, 8 hour feeding window) has become normal routine in my house.  I am eating a lot cleaner these days, when I do my shop I do my best to avoid things that come out of the center isles.  My children are also reaping the benefits of a cleaner diet.  For a wee bit there I was feeding them a lot of processed ‘out of the box’ kind of foods purely for convenience.  They are learning that they get exactly what mum eats, which means less sugar, more veg, less fat – more goodness!

All in all, what I am doing to achieve what I have is all sensible and simple.  Keeping to my calorie allowance, eating more of the good stuff, less of the shit stuff and regular exercise.  It is not rocket science, it is just stuff that makes sense.  My hope is that it sticks, I don’t want to go back!

Roll on for another good week,

Happy Monday everyone,

Jay 🙂

Leaving my plateau

I am back on the downward movement.  Downward as in weight loss.
I haven’t really had much loss since the end of January until now.

To get myself going again I started some Intermittent Fasting (16:8) where I consume my daily calories inside of an 8 hour window and Fast for the remaining hours of the day.  My ‘feeding window’ I have set for myself is 9am-5pm.  I find this to be the most manageable 8 hour block to ensure I don’t get crazy uncomfortably hungry and also to get myself used to discontinuing my late night snacking.
Over the last week I have lost 900 grams which I am super happy about.
I plan to continue my fasting for the remainder of this week and then back to a regular routine of diet and exercise next week.

I never intended for it to be a long term thing, just something to get the ball rolling.
I can’t be certain that this loss is the direct result of the fasting, or just that I have managed to keep within my calorie goals, the combination of the two I think.

We are one week away from the start date of my Running Group. Super excited about this too!  It would be great to have a few more people running alongside me more regularly.  I usually prefer to run alone so I can concentrate more on what I am doing and just enjoy my ‘solo’ time, but I am actually looking forward to grooming more running addicts, more people should be experiencing this running buzz, and in general should be more active!

Anyway that is about it for tonight, a great loss, and a shift from a difficult plateau!

Have a strong week,

Jay 🙂

Carbs, Sugar and Poo!

Ok lets start off with the good news…

My weigh-in yesterday tells me I have lost 2.3kg!!!  Im pretty amped about that!  I am also starting to notice a difference in my core and leg strength due to all this Abs and Squat challenge business.  I am on to something good with that!  Consistency really is key!

Ok and now the crap news…

I have had a pretty stink last few days.  My good eating habits went AWOL (too much Carb action, and far too many sugary treats) , it probably went to where ever my ‘happy’ went.  Sunday was my eldest sons 11th birthday, who I have not seen since he was 4 years old.  He lives in Australia with his dad for reasons that are too lengthy and complicated to fit into this post, nor do I really want to spill, we will just leave it at that.  Anywho, I always get a bit emo around this time of year.  This year it seemed to last 3 whole days, but it is time to just get on with things and be happy about stuff!  I never like to be sad for too long anymore anyway, its a waste of life, and you only get to do life once!

As a result of the shit eating habits, I had a terrible run today, so terrible that when I went to log it on MyFitnessPal, it was considered a ‘WALK’, a very very brisk WALK is what I had to select as my speed *bigfatsaddyface*!!!
Just days before I had read a post by Colin over at UBERBEASTMODE, titled Improperly fueled bodies are the worst.  Was this not a sign to keep my shit together for Run day!?!?!

Meh enough of the Boo stuff, moving on quick smart, spent enough time on negativity… except I do need to express one last rant…

Attention all Dog Owners!!!  Clean up the God Damn Poo!!!  Seriously!! (Apologies for the pic of poo lol)

As if I wasn’t already in a shithouse mood, I had to dodge poo all down the boardwalk. GARRR!!! (sorry mum for swearing)

Right, moving on…again lol

Ran past my rock I tripped over last week lol  and walked back past it on my way back…

Quite frustrating to see how much this rock ‘was not‘ sticking out of the ground, which means I was being more than lazy with picking up my knees for my run that day.

Also took this pic, the Estuary water looked so great on such a nice fine day!  My iPhone pic just doesn’t do it any justice.

I wish my run was just a great as the weather today, but I will just have to work on that when I have my next run day on Thursday.
I will be able to up my run days next week as the hubby is home, yay for free childcare!  I am so excited about this, I feel like 2 runs a week four days apart is just not enough to get me to where I want to be.  In between weather permitting I can wog (walk/jog)  with the children in stroller, but its winter time here, and I do not need sick children while home on my own!!  Besides they’re almost 10kg each, plus weight of stroller, urgh!  Its no easy feat!  But I will do it if it is my only option to get a run in.

Plan for the rest of this week….
1.  Stop being sad!
2.  Continue with logging on MFP
3.  Fuel myself properly for runs
4.  Keep on with my 10k App
5.  Be Awesome!

Apart from being amazingly awesome, I hope you all have some great plans for the remainder of your week, tomorrow is Hump Day!!

Be Awesome, Be Beast!!

Jay 🙂

Chucking it in!

I am giving up on road running!  I hate it, and I don’t even know why!  Well I do know why, because every road run I have done in the last week or so has left me in pain!  My knees, hips and back!  Also I get the craziest stitch!  In amongst my road run’s were my off-road runs, where there was no pain at all, and seemed so effortless in comparison.  I say I am giving up on road running, I probably wont, but I will limit them.  I have got to the point where I run more for enjoyment than for my original reason of losing weight.  Quite frankly I would rather be fat and running, than to be thin and not be able to run!  I stress so much about losing the weight, and keeping to my objectives and goals.  I stress about meeting my 1kg mark and counting the calories of each meal.  The feeling of losing that 1kg, is nothing compared to the achievement I feel of covering an extra unplanned kilometre!
I need to re-think my thought processes and what I actually want out of this whole thing!

Anyway I am going to be straight up and include todays weigh-in…dun dun duuuuuuun….

08.04.2013 – 77.4kg
15.04.2013 – 78.1kg

I fucking hate it but I know exactly how I got there!  Too much the drink!  But it was all in the name of one of my GC’s!  Brad, it was his birthday and I swear I polished off almost a box of beer, I was on fire, I was witty…I was so hung the next day!
I also had made a decision that after his birthday I would go dry, tbh, I have finally grown up and realised drinking isn’t for me, well not drinking to get drunk anyway.   A few here and there is all good, but to sink a whole box on your own, that is just asking for trouble!  My husband has little faith in me being able to hang up my drinking hands, quite frankly he needs a punch in the head for saying so!  Usually if someone tells me it can’t be done, they better fuck right off and just watch me…

I don’t mean to be a dick about it, I do know though, that you can’t rely on someone else believing in you, sometimes you just have to put on your big girl/boy panties and believe in yourself, whether it be running, quitting the drink or just getting through your day.  Not trying to get all philosophical and shit, but you know what I mean.

Weather is expected to be a bit shithouse this week, plus the twins are scheduled for 15month immunisations, fun times in my household this week, it will be madness!  I am going to attempt a few more runs down the Estuary.  I hope I figure out this pain issue because running around the estuary is the most cost effective and boredom-less way I can get in my 7k’s.  I defs wont be giving up my Trail runs, but at the end of the day it is time and money to get out to the TECT, or any off-road trail.

3 and a half weeks till we Run for our Freak’n lives!  I am not phased about this, it will be physical and it will be challenging, but I know I will not (literally) die from competing, so I am not getting too hung up about it.  Jared (hubby) won’t be competing in our team anymore, some wrong calculations meant that he misses out and will be back at work at that time, so instead a friend of Brads is entering in Jareds place.  This guy (Marc)  is a little insane, totally competitive and very tactical.  He is exactly what we need.  He has completed a few Tough Mudders and has once competed in a Worlds Toughest Mudder, where you have 24hours to try knock out as many entire runs of the course as you can.  We sat conversing about TM for a good half hour to an hour about how to complete one, his teams experience with hypothermia and methods of how to get myself ready for one.  This guy was intense, but that’s cool with me!

I had mentioned in one of my last posts about the events I will be completing this year.  I have had second thoughts about whether to continue with the road runs, or to change my events to Trail/Off-road.  I don’t know, I’ll mull it over, I don’t want to end up hating it and chucking it all in for the sake of completing an event!

Need to sort my shit out, need to go for a run!

Jay 🙂

97.5km to go!

First of all Weigh-in…
01.04.2013 – 77.7kg
08.04.2013 – 77.4kg
URGH this is not getting toward my 4kg for this month, not enough running, too much eating/eating the wrong things!  Moving on…

Hit up another 7.42km today.  We have an Estuary/inlet that pools right in the middle of my town (Tauranga).  The entire Waikareao Estuary Loop is unofficially 9km.  Because it is situated right in the middle of Tauranga City, there a numerous ways from which to access the track.  It is very popular with runners, walkers, mountain bikers and dog owners taking around just 2 hours to complete the entire loop (walking).

Today I ran about half the Estuary, I live about 1km out from the track, so considering that I would be dying if I dared try anymore than half.  Though it wont be long until I will be running the entire loop seeing as have plans to kick it up to 9km runs sometime in June.
I completed my run in under an hour at 56.07mins with an average speed of 7’34″/km.  I am happy with this, but not so much in the effort it took my body to achieve this.  I swear running this track is harder than running up at the TECT which is mixed terrain.  I felt like on the estuary I was having to be very careful on how I place my feet otherwise I feel close to assing over!  Not a cool look!  I really dislike the pebbley/stoney type path which is mixed in with springy boardwalk.  I prefer the trail runs more, it feels more … grippy … like I can propel myself better, if you know what I mean.  Maybe I am just not a good runner, but I feel a difference, so much that my lower back aches tonight.  I am thinking the run was the cause, and on top of that I got a fat stitch about halfway in that took about 2k for me to run comfortably enough again.  One good thing about todays is that I managed to sing an entire song whilst running haha, I thought that was pretty cool, I can’t hold a conversation but I can sing…weird!

I plan on running tomorrow morning, another road run, another 7km, hopefully it is not mega freezing like this morning was, if it is I may leave it for the icky hot afternoon again, fingers crossed I have enough balls to run in the cold freezing dark *thinks ‘man up Janine’*!!!

Well in Totes, I am 22.5km out of 120km, 97.5km to go!  At this point, I am not entirely confident that I will hit my 120, but I have been known to surprise myself ha!

Beast On tomorrow,

Jay 🙂

All Over April!

It is April, and I am all over it!  I had a nice relaxing weekend and now I am ready to get this Beast show on the road!
As planned I am hitting up 120kms for the month, this means I will have to run at least 30k a week.  I am planning to run 4-5 times a week at 5-7km, alternating the longer runs with a shorter run.  Knowing me I will try and be a hero about it and push a few long runs in a row, lets hope I don’t over do it and send my amateur ass back to the drawing board!

Day one of 30 Day Shred – I always fly through level one, however this time last year I would not have.  This time last year most of the exercises in just the first level would’ve killed me and I would be in pain for at least 2 days resulting in me never finishing the full 30, but only just making Day 10 at what should’ve been 20 or something silly like that.  I must admit, it did open up a whole new world of abilities for me, once mastering each move and losing my first 5 or so kg’s, I was pretty much on a roll with getting my body to a point it has never been before!  In all honesty, By the time I am finished with this quarter, my body will probably be at its best ever fitness level of my entire life, seeing as I have never been hugely sporty.  I had played school and college netball, and did a few outside of school club sports/martial arts, but not taken any of those anywhere and never really achieved much at all.

Urgh Weigh-in Day

Weigh in 25.03.2013 – 78.5kg
Weigh-in 1st April – 77.7kg
800grams Yo!
Pretty chuffed about that, considering I had been holding on to that 78kg mark for like forever!!

30DS Day 1 Level 1 done and dusted, Cal consumption for today @1258Cals, a good start to the month!

Tomorrow I run eeeeee!  Totes excited about it!  Very much addicted, got the bug!  Oh and another good thing about today… Had the stroller tyre fixed by the Bro-in-law, who I also bought my bike off.  Him and his wife (my hubby’s sister) have just sold their Bike business and so I got in before it all was settled!  Yuss!  They are pretty much the “Man’/s” lol if that even make sense… So back to the tyre, will be able to get in a couple of runs with the children before hubby comes home on Thursday, almost 5 weeks down and he is coming home!
I really want to head out to TECT, but probably just hit up the Mount – Up, Down and around, just to save some Gas money, spent almost a whole half tank boosting out to the TECT last week, and the Commy doesn’t muck around with fuel, a down side of the hubby owning a V8!

Tomorrow, Day 2 of 30DS, a 6-7km run and a shit load of house work, lawns to mow if I am on to it with my organisational skills… shit just remembered a visit with the Chiro at 10am, yikes! Big day, busy day, looking to smash out that 15,000 steps on the old FitBit!

Looking forward to a very active week and some more super weight loss!

Have a strong week y’all!!

Jay 🙂

P.S. Forgot to do before pics for my 30DS, will snap some up tomorrow, always hard to do them on my own tho lol

Pretending My way to ‘Awesome’

I started running in Nov of last year.  Before this time, I hated running!  Like URGH hated running!  Today I love it!
I bought a bike last week… I hate biking lol  But I will learn to love it.  I’ve been tricking my mind into thinking certain things almost all my life haha and in this case it is not such a bad thing.
This my friends is my new ride…

Now I have no idea about biking.  Way back when I was a mini me, I can remember I did the biking leg of the Weetbix Kids Triathalon with 2 of my primary school friends, I kinda sucked at it back then, and 18/19 years later I can imagine that I will kinda suck at it now.  But I will get better!  So when purchasing this bike I had all intentions of getting right into Mountain Biking… here’s hoping it was worth the investment, I’m sure it will be!

My next ‘hate’ is swimming, I f***ing hate swimming!  And this one has got me stumped.  I don’t think I could learn to like swimming…maybe.  This is where ‘talking myself into something’ would come in handy, I’ll have to try get myself there one day I’m sure.  Fake it till you make it lol Well it is one thing I do so great…Pretending my way to awesome!

Today I had plans to run The Tauranga Estuary, and then I thought maybe the Mount, then Researched another reserve to run, got out there – no Cell reception, no GPS reception lol No Deal!  In times like that you need a dog!  I want a dog!
But anywho, back to where I was going with this post…
I can’t stop thinking about the next time I will run up at TECT, so I decided I’ll just go and run it lol

Just a quick 3.2km, so quick in fact that I shaved off 10mins from the last run up at TECT for my first Loop.  Wanna know how I kicked that 10minutes??  I didn’t stop the whole way!!  Felt amazing!  Wish I had time to do a second loop but had to get home to pick up my children.  Thursday is my next Date with the TECT, I am very excited!  And this time I have my TMGC with me.  (Tough Mudder Good C***)  Oh and BTW…my first kilometre was still really ugly, man I hope I get better at it, I have to push past the urge to want to stop and take a rest!  But once I get past it, I can pretty much carry on non-stop, I guess it is normal…is it normal? meh…

Ok formalities…Weigh-in URGH!
Weigh-in 18.03.2013 78kg
Weigh-in 25.03.2013 78.5kg

This is what happens when you don’t track lol Oh my life…back to MFP I go, it was good to have a break, so now I am in a better state of mind to continue my weightloss!

Plans for this week…
Today – TECT 3.2km
Wednesday – 5k Street run/walk, if time permits, got a busy day!
Thursday – TECT 7.5km
Friday – Mount Up, Down and Around, but maybe if Miss Amy comes with me, we can just do around twice, seeing how she feels about it lol
Saturday – REST
Sunday – 5k Street run/walk

Speaking of my friend Amy…
Do you remember how I mentioned her in >>this<< post, how she got her snaps in the newspaper??  Well Miss Famous in NZ Jarmin, is famous once again…
Was so crazy, she was just flipping through the paper, and noticed the pic they printed in that issue was hers!!  EXCITEMENT!
So here is what she had submitted to hopefully be picked to publish…

There is that name again!  Pretty darn choice if you ask me!

So we are starting to get a bit more serious about this training business, Zombie run is in 6 weeks!  Will have to post some pics of what we get up to to be able to survive the apocalypse!  Bet you are all dyyyyying to know what our theme is….  Not telling!!!

Jay 🙂