Happy New Year!

So I didn't see any weight come off, but I can't really expect it to when I've been eating too much good food...Despite the freezing weather, ice and snow, I did exercise three days this past week - using the Couch to 5K app - it was week 2.  I walked/jogged 1.83 mi Tuesday, 1.88 mi Wednesday, and 1.9 mi today (Sunday) for a total of 5.65 miles.  My caloric intake for the week averaged at 1400 calories.  I expect that continuing to work and eat healthier foods this next week will help the scale battle.  But even if it doesn't, I'm not quitting!  I know that sometimes I have to work really hard for several weeks to a month before the scale starts to move.  That's also why I've taken measurements!  I'll take them again probably at the end of January.  I'm trying not to get too focused on my weight and focus instead on my health and really pay attention to how well I can handle the workouts and my breathing.

That's a nice transition - my breathing has been an issue.  I think it's a combination of being really out of shape and my propensity for getting brochial stuff in the winter, but I've felt like I needed to use my inhaler (bronchial thing) almost every time I've worked out for the past few weeks...I'll keep tabs on this issue to see how it goes.

It's freezing, I'm tired and sweaty from my treadmill workout, and I've got to teach high schoolers for the first time in two weeks tomorrow morning...so I'd better get to bed!

Hope you keep on hoppin!


The Marsupial Maven

Coming clean...

So yesterday I said my next post would update you on where I currently am weight wise and my measurements...so I decided to get that done before I chickened out!

Here goes:
My current weight is 250 lbs.
My height is 5'10"
My measurements are as follows:
Bust - 51"
Waist - 48"
Hips - 56.5"
Upper Arm - 14.25" (avg of both)
Upper Thigh - 27.75" (avg of both)
Wrist - 6.75"
BMI (Mayo) - 35.9

Here are the glamour shots, please don't be too jealous! ;)

So, as you can see, I have a long way to go and a lot of hard work ahead of me, but persevere I will!

Today I re-started the Couch to 5K program with a 30 minute workout, 1.85 miles, 285 calories (5 min warm up walk, 1 min jog, 1.5 min walk x 8, 5 min cool down walk) and yesterday the fam hiked up the grade for 20 minutes, then turned and jogged back down.  Total workout was about 33 minutes and 1.64 miles, 395 calories.

Hope you keep on hoppin!

The Marsupial Maven

New Beginnings...

I find a new year rapidly approaching with a sense of failure.  I've lost most of the progress I gained 2+ years ago.  Rather than continue to hide my head by avoiding my blog, I've decided I need to address things head on!

Not all of the reasons for the weight gain and fitness loss are negative in their entirety.  I just need to finally figure out how to make my health a priority instead of trying to fit it in around my busy life...

So as I mentioned in my last post, a few health/injury events caused initial setbacks.  Then my work schedule changed.  It needed to for my family's financial security, but I've always struggled with stress and put others (read work, followed by family, followed by self) first.  And finally, in August I began teaching full-time again.  I enjoy my job immensely, my only frustration is being able to balance my needs with the needs of work and students and family.  My youngest daughter will be graduating in 6 months and I will have most of my summers free, so I feel that I have an opportunity to balance things and I want a fresh start now!

My family always does a gift exchange for the holidays and when asked what I want, I can only respond "My health and happiness back!"  So I'm taking the break to get some habits established and set some priorities.

I've spent the past few weeks scouring the internet for inspiration, and I finally found that my own posts on this blog are the most inspiring for me.  I know how far I've come before and I know that I can do it again.  I'm scared because I know how much work and determination went into my journey previously, but I'm hoping to capitalize on this self-knowledge to help me this time around.  I know how to eat to be successful, I know that I can take a lot of physical activity and that it makes me proud of myself - and I miss that!

So, without further ado, here are my plans:

* I will photograph my progress as these help me to see how far I have come, and though they may be embarrassing, they also are a way of holding myself accountable
* I will plan my meals with purpose instead of just stuffing whatever happens to be convenient at the time in as well as journal my eating
* I will complete the Couch to 5K plan (got a cool app on the phone), then progress to the 10K plan
* I will hike the grade 1-2 days a week (weather permitting this winter, if not safe, I'll supplement with a walk on the treadmill at a steep incline)
* I will find a way to swim at least one day a week (difficult right now as the pool at the gym is under construction) - I'm having my daughter take me to the gym in the town where I work to help me get started with this one!
* I will register for a race this summer - at least a 5k, but I'd prefer a sprint triathlon...this one will take some investigation!
* I will blog here once a week

I guess since I'm setting goals, I will set some rewards as well!

10 lbs - some new running gear - probably gloves and ear warmer or balaclava
20 lbs - new running shoes
30 lbs - more running gear
40 lbs - wetsuit??
50 lbs - start researching skin removal surgery


My next post will be about where I am currently:
* weight
* measurements
* BMI
* info on my goal race for the summer

In the meantime, hope things keep hoppin' along!

The Marsupial Maven
Amber

Way too long...

I have started several posts since the last published, but I never quite finished them, and now I find myself back over a year later.  Way too long an absence!  I'll try to quickly summarize for you:


Weight:  I got down to 214 for a while, but then ended up at about 219 following an outpatient procedure in November of 2013.  This put me out of commission for a while - I wasn't allowed to walk for about 2 months.  Then I found myself coaching boys swim again until mid-February.  The late nights and long weekends led to more eating out and some weight gain - about 8-10 pounds.  By August I was at 229.  I decided to re-focus at that point, and increased my running, but then mid-August I suffered a foot injury - probably a torn tendon that put me out of commission until very recently.  I am currently in physical therapy for the injury.  The lack of exercise and frustration and coaching girls swim until mid-November caused me to gain more weight putting me at about 244.  I made some commitments with family members about 2 weeks ago and now I am down to 240 and working in the right direction.


Goals:  As I stated previously, I had a goal to complete the Splash and Dash triathlon in Prineville in July 2014.  I am happy to tell you that the whole family, even the nay-sayer Kaylin, competed in the event.  Kaylin and the girls also all won medals for their age divisions!  I finished the course (500 yard swim, 13 mile bike, 4 mile run) in 2:04.49, just a few seconds behind Kassidy!  A cool thing was that I finished with Lew Hollander, actually holding hands with him as we raced across the finish line together!

I'll provide more details later, but I thought I'd get some basic information out there.

Hope you keep on hopping!

The Marsupial Maven!

Better late than never!

A tad bit late on the blog delivery, but here's last week's report!

To start with, a little pat on my own back.  Swim team pictures came out last week, and I was ecstatic to see how good I looked. I emailed my parents a copy of the swim team picture, and they forwarded it on to my siblings who all told me how great I look!  Meanwhile, I cropped the picture and placed it next to last year's team picture.  I still have a hard time seeing the progress I've made (I mean I KNOW it's a huge improvement, but my eyes deceive me)...Sorry about the smears, I didn't get permission from my swimmers to post them on my blog, so I blobbed them out!

 

Last year........................this year!

I slept in on Monday morning, after my practice triathlon on Sunday.  I don't do so well with waking up in the dark.  My body is telling me I should still be abed...it's a good thing I have a walking partner to make me get up twice a week!  Monday after work I swam at the club - a mile swim at a relaxed pace.  Tuesday I got up early to meet Berta for our 4.75 mile walk up the Lincoln Grade.  I think it's more difficult in the dark...you can't see where you're going or how far you've come, just feel the burn in the calves and see the stars above your head.  With the addition of 1/2 a mile, our walk has extended to about an hour and 35 to 40 minutes instead of an hour and 22 minutes.  We also start out with the steepest part of the grade right at the get go.  Ever since we were almost run over by a truck racing up the steep part of the hill I think we race up as fast as we can go, so the old heart is pounding away and doesn't get much rest.

What I see when it finally lightens up...

I decided to ride my bike to practice Tuesday afternoon.  Not sure of the mileage, but it took about 20-25 minutes to get there, then after practice I had to ride up hill.  I was proud of myself for my hard work and had just topped the last hill before I turned and had a flat finish when the back end of my bike felt squishy.  My first flat : (  I guess I should have tried out the new bike pump to learn how it worked...I couldn't make it happen!  So I called Kaylin, thinking he was sitting at home, and learned that he was on his way home and almost to my location.  He said he'd pick me up...While waiting I finally got the pump to work, but the tire wouldn't hold enough air.  We loaded my Strada into the back seat of Kay's Honda and drove the half mile home with the rear passenger door open.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my bike?!

My Strada...

Wednesday I decided to skip the pool as the swim team was planning to hike the grade for practice, so I speed walked the grade with the girls, jogging in a few places.  I was jogging back down at a good slow clip when I realized the other coaches had turned around, so I went back up almost to the top to wait for the last group to get to me, then had to walk to stay with them all the way back to the pool.  I probably did 4.75 miles.

Another view from the Lincoln Grade...

Thursday I didn't get an opportunity to exercise what with packing to head to Oregon, feeding the animals, etc.  So I got a day of rest-ish...After practice we hopped in the car and headed to Portland, arriving at about 10:00 pm.  Just in time to visit for a few minutes, then trundle off to sleep.

Hungry goats...

We left Portland Friday morning at about 7:00 am to head to Corvallis for Kassidy's band preview at Oregon State University.  It was a full day listening to financial aid and application information, watching Kassidy get to play with a couple of ensemble bands, getting a campus tour (though my kids got annoyed at Kaylin and I giving our own asides from our years at OSU - go Beavs!!), meeting up with Lex so she could go birthday shopping with Rylie, and finally watching the OSU Marching Band practice.  I think Kassidy has decided she definitely wants to go to OSU!

After the band preview we headed over to Lon's house where we got to hang out with the family for a couple of hours and were fed an excellent dinner of hamburgers and yummy green beans and salad, then got pumpkin spice cupcakes for dessert!  Before the sugar could make us sleepy we headed over to the coast, and fell face first into bed!

                     Rylie as a mermaid...                                     
                                                                                                       Kassidy's impish grin...


Saturday morning we ate an excellent, calorie dense breakfast at the Drift Inn in Yachats, perused the aquarium and shark exhibit in Newport, then chowed through clam chowder, fried clams, and fried shrimp at Rogue Ale.  Then we purchased plenty of salt water taffy from a shop on the bayfront and headed back to the beach house.  At this point I was feeling sufficiently guilty to jog on the beach.  I ended up going about 4 miles, most of which I jogged, though I must admit to walking a bit at the 2 mile mark and the 3.25 mile mark, and the 3.5 mile mark.  But that was all!  At that point I wanted to lie on the couch and not move, but we went into town to get a few groceries for dinner (yummm, pizza) and movie 300 so Rylie could write a report for school.  All in all it was a great day!

Me during my beach run...

Sunday was spent cleaning and driving, so obviously I didn't get any exercise in.  This made me extremely nervous for weigh-in today...especially since last week I gained a pound.  The scale this morning has me at the same weight as last week (phew!)...so I've got some self-motivating to do!

Hope you keep yourself motivated and hopping!

The (lazing) Marsupial Maven!

Sunny Fall Sprint Triathlon Day!

Looks like I'm on a roll - a post on schedule!  After a long day Saturday for the high school swim meet (which we won!), I decided I needed to complete another sprint distance tri practice on Sunday morning.  I woke up a bit late - to a beautiful sunny fall day.  I was able to convince Rylie and Kaylin to do some of the workout with me. 

The plan was for all of us to leave the house together, then about half way through the ride Kaylin would split off and head home to await our call to meet us down at the club with my swim stuff.

The bike ride progressed as planned, though Rylie and I stopped a few times to let Kaylin catch up.  We thouroughly enjoyed the scenery and the smell of ripe grapes in the air.  At the track I managed to jog 3.25 miles in 37 minutes.  That calculates out to 11:22 minute miles.  I kept the pace steady throughout.  Apparently Rylie thought my jog was photo worthy...

At the club I managed to swim 500 yards in 8 and a half minutes.  All in all it was a great day!


Last week I swam 1.25 miles on Monday, 1 mile on Wednesday, hiked the grade on Tuesday and Thursday (4.75 miles), and biked 8 and a half miles on Friday (with Rylie), in addition to the sprint distance triathlon practice today (12.5 mile bike ride, 3.25 mile jog, 500 yard swim).

Despite my hard efforts exercising, I was a bit of a slacker in the nutrition department.  I didn't journal every day and I snacked a lot.  My goal for next week is to journal everything and to eat better!  If the weather is gorgeous, I'm going to try to convince Kaylin to join me in a short bike ride...

Until next week, keep bounding away at something that makes you happy!

The Marsupial Maven!

Me, the Triathlete!

Ok, so daily posts are probably too ambitious for me at this time.  It's much more realistic to shoot for weekly posts and see if that goes any better.

So I left off with a teaser - telling you I had planned a half-sprint triathlon for myself, then didn't tell you how it went.  Such a bad storyteller!  Or a major cliffhanger?!

Here I am, updating you!

Sunday, September 15th, 2013 I set off on my bike, via a roundabout route, into town and the high school track.  With me were my two daughters (Kassidy and Rylie), and my DH (Kaylin).  My goal at the track was to jog as much of the mile and a half as I could manage.  Guess what?  I did the whole thing!  At first it felt horrible, so I had to talk to myself and convince myself that my legs felt better than when doing the Lincoln grade.  Then a funny thing happened...I settled into a groove.  At the finish I knew I could have kept jogging, so on the brief bike ride from the track to the fitness club I decided that next Sunday I would do 2/3 of a Sprint Triathlon.  I completed a 300 yard swim, and feeling just fine, definitely decided to increase my distance next week. 

I was very proud of my family for following along, despite the fact that they didn't complete as many miles as I did!  Kaylin even walked 3/4 of a mile at the track!

Art Fiker Stadium

I felt so great about the morning, that I decided to travel to REI to look at triathlon equipment, including road bikes.  I hadn't reached my 50 pound weight loss, but knew that this was the time of year that bikes would be on clearance.

At the Richland REI I found an awesome Novara Strada.  This is a men's bike, in red and white.  I'm a tall girl and after trying out the women's and men's version, decided that the men's bikes definitely fit me best.  The bike,  normally $1150.00 was on sale for $659.00.  I convinced Kaylin that I wasn't likely to find a better bargain, and left the store the proud owner of a new road bike!  Incidentally, Rylie decided that she wanted to buy the women's version, same price!  On the way home I vowed not to ride my bike until I lost the last 7 pounds to reach 50 pounds lost.  Rylie informed me that this was ridiculous!  She said "That's the same as saying you're not going to walk on a new treadmill until you lose 50 pounds.  If you walk on the treadmill you'll lose the weight faster!"  What a smart cookie!

 

My new Novara Strada!  And my Nutcase helmet (isn't it cute)!

The following Sunday, September 22nd, we set out to complete 2/3 of a Sprint Triathlon.  Rylie and I took off on our new bikes, leaving Kaylin and Kassidy in the dust on their mountain bikes.  I had just finished 3/4 of a mile at the track when they got there.  I kept chugging away until I completed 2 miles, this time with a positive attitude and a grateful sense of accomplishment.  We rode our bikes to the pool to swim 400 yards, then went to FroYo for a celebratory yogurt for lunch.  I decided during my 4th scoop of yogurt that next week I would try for a complete Sprint distance triathlon training.

Sunday, September 29th:
No one else wanted to join me, in fact, I felt like I was battling the world in getting to go.  Rylie had spent the night at a friend's house, so she wasn't home, Kassidy's hip hurt, and Kaylin was whining about needing to clean the garage.  I told him to send Kassidy to pick me up at the fitness center...

So I set out on my bike on the route I mapped out on google earth (awesome tool).  Only once did a dog jump out at me - during the downhill portion into town.  I cried a little during my 3.1 mile jog, but out of happiness that this body that I have a hard time loving could do so much for me.  I finished my 500 yard swim and noted that my polar watch clocked the entire trip at 2 hours, 2 minutes from when I left the house, until I hit the wall in the pool.

It was a bit of a grouchy day as Kaylin was complaining about not getting much accomplished due to the fact that he decided to pick me up instead of sending Kassidy, then didn't tell me he was waiting on me to finish to pick Rylie up from the friend's house...

Not sure which grump he reminds me of more...

So that brings us to this last Sunday, October 6th:
I managed to convince Kaylin to join me for some of the bike portion of my training.  He started out on Rylie's bike, but after a few miles I traded him bikes.  A few miles later he decided to head back home, so we traded back.  I hope he enjoyed himself a bit - I'm trying to get him into riding his bicycle again!

Kaylin is way too small to see in the distance...but he's there!

I rode into town by myself and completed my 5K jog and 500 yard swim.  I hit the wall in the same 2 hours and 2 minutes, but subtracting the time I spent stopped waiting for Kaylin to catch up means that I probably did it about 5 minutes faster than last week!  Yay me!

Me and my Strada!

So that's my triathlon training in summation...hope you're all caught up!

Keep bounding away at something you love!

The Marsupial Maven!