Weight Loss Update: 10 pounds lost and 5 things I learned

I know, I know--it's about time I updated this blog.  Better late than never, I suppose.  And I really really mean it this time: I am going to do a better job at regularly updating this in the future.  But I wanted to post an update now because I have reached a small milestone in my weight loss journey: I have lost 10 pounds since starting Medifast (and continuing to run and spin my life away in the mornings).

I lost about 5 pounds the first week, and that was kind of crazy.  Since then it's been much more of a struggle, learning how to prepare my own meals and get in the crazy runs and workouts I do these days (the training plan has me now doing 11-13 mile runs during the week...REALLY, TRAINING PLAN?!?) and get enough sleep to recover enough to get up and do the next crazy run.  But while the struggle is real, nevertheless I persisted with the Medifast food and not eating out and not eating nutritionally void food people leave in the break room and here we are...10 pounds lost.

But where else am I (besides sitting in my house writing this post)?  I mean, I'm feeling good about 10 pounds lost, but during this round of hard-fought weight loss I've been thinking differently about a few things, and my mind is in a few different places.  Let's wander to those places, shall we?

1) What you eat matters--food is fuel, not self-medication for work stress.  This is a lesson I seem to have to re-learn all the time (mainly because of reason #2 down there).  I love to self-medicate with really really horrible frankenfood when I'm stressed, but this time I have stuck to the Medifast plan of lean meats, green veggies, and the little powders Medifast sends me of things to rehydrate and heat up religiously.  And guess what--it turns out when you eat food with actual nutrition and no chemicals you can't pronounce, your body tends to drop the weight.

2) I really don't need as much food as I think I do.  I didn't realize how much I used my running and working out as an excuse to overeat until these past few months.  One day I was at my desk completely stressed out working on a project, and I caught myself rationalizing why I could go and have some of the delicious treats someone left in the break room.  That rationalization was all about how much running I would be doing tomorrow, so it was OK for me to self-soothe and eat crap today because I would need that energy for the run.  Now, I've done this a million times in my brain and been OK with it, but this time something stopped me and made me recognize that thought for what it was - a flimsy excuse to go and eat crap.  Now when I catch myself doing this I tell myself that I don't need as much food as I think I do, especially since I figured out (again) that...

3) When I eat better, I train better, and then I race better.

I ran the Cowtown Half Marathon last weekend in Fort Worth, Texas, and man did I run way better than I thought I would.  I was aiming for a 2:10 finish and ended up busting out around a 2:02.  While not a PR for me by any stretch of the imagination,  I was feeling so freaking awesome and I passed the 2:10 pacers in mile 6 and never looked back.  This awesome feeling has happened all during my training in my little basement workout room, where I have cranked out some major workouts (9-12 mile workouts!) before work and managed to stay awake, alert, upright, and passably coherent for the entire day.  That awesome feeling can only come from the actual nutritious food I have been eating on the regular.  It's amazing what happens when you actually give your body what it needs, huh?

4) I need data to keep on track, even if it's data I don't want.  I'm sciency by nature, so I need data.  Although weight loss data isn't exactly the kind of data to which I look forward to getting, I knew that I needed to get continuous weight data over time to see the changes that were happening and adjust for them -- whether those changes be a gain or a loss in weight.  So, each morning I suck it up, buttercup, and get on the scale while telling my cat to get out of the sink.


5) It's nice not having muffin tops.  Not going to lie - it's nice not being regularly marked by my clothing anymore or spilling out of the top of it, either.


Overall, this weight-loss experience has been more about fixing my broken mental habits than anything else.  Eating right is easy - getting yourself to do it is another matter.  Let's see if I can do it to make another 10 pounds magically disappear.

But you know what won't disappear?  Learnings:

• I honestly surprised myself by losing 10 pounds.  My body kept hanging on to weight and then I would suddenly drop pounds over 2-3 days.
• I always feel like I have a tiny stride until I see race photos like that half-marathon one and then I'm all "what am I doing JUMPING each step?!?"
• Data.  It's what I need.
• Muffin tops.  They are definitely not something I need.
• No more food self-medication I swears.

Tomorrow's workout: A 14 mile (!) speed session because REALLY, TRAINING PLAN?!?

Polar Vortex Post

If you haven't heard lately, it's been a tad cold lately here in Northern Illinois--polar vortex cold.  We're talking temps of -25 to -32 underneath the wind chill.  What, exactly, have I been up to during this polar vortex?  Well...

1) I've been doing the obligatory "throw boiling water up high in the air and make more snow even though we don't really need any more" science trick.  If I don't, they'll revoke my Midwesterner license.

Phase changes are UHMAYZING

2) I've been doing spin and lifting weights in my teal and black sparkle-painted workout room and taking weird selfies with my bike.

3) I've been treadmilling in my smelly basement because even thought there's a polar vortex going on, my shirt says there are "no excuses" so I pretty much have to suck it up, buttercup, and get those miles in amongst the basement smell and other junk we have stored down there.

4) I've been watching the animals sleeping the polar vortex away in between taking them outside and watching them do absolutely nothing before racing back in on frozen paws.

Mom.  Only laying on you will unfreeze my paws.

hyooman sleeping through polar vortex SCRAM

While the animals are sleeping, here's some learnings:

• Did half-mile pick-ups during my easy 6 mile treadmill run to make it go by faster and turned it into a not-so-easy run because I'm a moron.
• Remember my left-butt injury?  It's not so bad anymore...must be the spin.
• Remember my ankle injury?  Yeah neither do I but my ankle has been sore for 2 weeks.  Must be picking up left butt injury's slack.
• Fun fact:  The ratio of the number of times I have taken the dogs outside to do some business and the # of times they have done absolutely nothing and run back inside on frozen paws is almost 1:1.

Tomorrow's workout: A 4 mile tempo run.  On the treadmill.  Because polar vortex.  BUH.

Don't want to do your run? Trick that brain of yours.

So it's been a few days since I've tortured everyone with a blog post and I know you're dying to know what fitnessy stuff I've been doing.  Well, here it is:

Some running in a minor polar vortex (the real one is getting here tomorrow)....

SO EXCITED to run in 3 degree weather + snow
freezing to my eyebrows as I ran. So.  Excited.

Pit stop after the first 3.5 = a run in two parts.

Did I mention the 3 degrees thing?!?

Some spin and lifting heavy things and taking bad post-workout selfies...

The black sparkle paint is the best part of the pic.

...and some treadmill speed work to the tune of 8 miles total, 4 of those being one mile repeats @ 8:34 pace.

I must confess that I didn't want to do either of those two running workouts because...well I think the obvious reasons are "too freaking cold outside" and "mile freaking repeats."  But part of my determination to lose 20 pounds by this summer is to complete the running workouts as listed in my trusty My Run Plan app, no matter how cringe-worthy or shriek-inducing (mile repeat workouts do this to me every time).  So away I went on those two runs, doing them anyway even though my brain was all NOPE NOPE NOPE PLEASE NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOPE the whole time. 

Now, I haven't always been able to get past my brain NOPE-ing away workouts, especially if I lie to myself and say I'll do them after work (NOPE).  But lately I've been using some tips and tricks to ignore the NOPE and get the run done, which are helpfully enumerated for you below:

1) For cold winter runs, have the right gear.  If you have the right gear, you can run in the cold with confidence.  For my winter runs I make sure I have some pretty awesomely printed fleece-lined tights and a lot of sass to make it to the end of the run:

So much sass.  And awesome tights.

On top of all that (or underneath, as it were), I also have a thin base-layer tight to keep that warm air right next to my skin, a nice thick running turtleneck under a quilted running jacket, a buff, a balaclava, and a neat-o Ragnar hat to top off the ensemble.  When I run in super cold weather that's pretty much my running uniform, only with different obnoxiously colored tights and hats.  Gotta be sure to mix that up, you know, so the people in the cars passing you don't get bored of looking at your same old tired running outfit.

2) Also for cold winter runs, always know that it's never as bad as you think it will be.  The weather forecasts for those days always put my NOPE brain on overdrive, but once I get out there and start running it's usually never as cold or as miserable as I think it will be.  Unless I forget that water freezes at 32 degrees Celsius and don't have it in an insulated bottle and have no liquid water for for 15 miles of a 20-mile run...then it *is* as bad as it seems.  Especially when you're eating snow from the side of the road and spitting out gravel as you truck on down the road...then it's pretty freaking miserable and you're only running because if you stop moving you'll freeze on the spot and die.

But that's still not as miserable as doing all those miles on the treadmill.

3) Speaking of treadmills, those little running equivalencies I blogged about earlier sure do come in handy.  This is especially true for the longer more torturous repeats, such as the 4 x 1 mile repeats I did this morning.  My mind likes to break down those little mile repeats into more little four quarters, and then celebrate when I reach the halfway point and the "ONE MORE LOOP TO GO" point.  After which I walk for a minute and a half and then do it all over again, making my brain conveniently forget the mile I just did. (Brain: Hey, didn't we just do one of these?  Me: WE DID NOTHING NOW RUN)

4) When you don't want to do your treadmill run, get on the treadmill anyway--but have a backup plan. When I got on the 'mill this morning I went in with a backup plan - if I felt I was going to die running an 8:34 pace, then I would alternate quarters during each mile, running an 8:34 and then an 8:40.  That way I could have a little bit of slower running to look forward to, even if it wasn't much of a plan.  (By the way, my backup plan to the backup plan was just to sit on the treadmill and sob in my smelly basement.)

Welcome to my smelly basement, where
I run next to a set of doors and a pile of lumber.

5) Fun socks are a must for hard treadmill runs. They lessen the torture, especially when they say ROAR on them.

And now let's roar our way to some learnings because this post is over now:

• I mean seriously-how fun are those socks?
• Superfun, that's how much fun.
• Loud shorts and pants are also motivational in getting your run done, but everyone knows that already.
• I need to write a running book called "Overcoming the NOPE: How to trick your brain into running every single day."

Upcoming workouts:  Many more treadmill miles because the real polar vortex is coming in the next two days...

Four pics, four sentences, four AM workouts.

This morning's workout was Cathe's Cycle Sweat, during which my cycle did not sweat but I sure as heck did.

What am I pointing at?  Who knows.  It was 5 AM when I finished.

I did this workout at 4 AM because I had to be at work super duper early this morning; you can tell how excited I was about that.

4 AM workout WOOT FAKE EXCITEMENT

Along with the copious amounts of sweat released by yours truly, please note the ice on the windows in the above pic from the polar vortex and the spike of my heart rate in the pic below:

Also note that male cat could give not a crap about any of this.

Action shot of male cat not caring.

No more pics, just learnings:

• I am happy I added spin workouts into my weekly workouts.
• But not as happy as that crazy excited picture, mainly because holy cow look at that heart rate spike willya?
• Male cat would be very happy if I left him alone.
• But that will not happen as long as he keeps sitting in front of the shower after my workouts.
• 4 AM workouts BUH

Tomorrow's workout: 9 mile run...maybe in the freezing cold with my new thermal running tights...or maybe on the treadmill.  The suspense is killing you, isn't it?

That feeling when...you have so many feels.

That feeling when you wake up and have to get dressed for a 4:30 AM treadmill threshold/tempo run so you take a selfie of yourself at that hour of course:

Huge runner thighs are a go for launch

That feeling when you just wish you looked like this again and wish Medifast could make this happen in two weeks (minus being covered in mud because man does that set off my eczema these days):

That feeling when you use your urge to look like the aforementioned picture to get your butt down to the treadmill so you can run 7 miles under a bare lightbulb amongst that awesome smelly basement smell:

That feeling when you actually run both of those 2 x 2 mile repeats @ 9:00 pace without stopping ONCE to go to the bathroom:

That feeling when you walk into the bathroom to shower after your epic threshold run and see this first thing:

Whut hyooman a little privacy please

But especially that feeling when you realize you have a lot more treadmill runs ahead of you thanks to Mr. Polar Vortex coming back for a visit:

negative 22 BUH

That feeling when the post finally ends and puts you out of your misery with some learnings:

• I'm very impatient with weight loss.  But as my wise mother once said, "It took a while for it to gain, it's going to take a while for you to lose."  *sigh*
• I kicked ass on that mud run, btw.  6 miles of obstacles in 53 minutes.
• I also kicked ass on that threshold/tempo run.  Didn't think I would be able to do both repeats because I tend to mentally break down during tempos on the 'mill.
• Speaking of mental breakdowns, SERIOUSLY NEGATIVE 22 OH COME ON MOTHER NATURE
• The cat, I can honestly tell you, is not worried about the weather at all.  Or tempo runs for that matter.

Tomorrow's workout: I have declared Fridays a "free space" to do whatever workout I want.  I'm leaning (or jumping, as it were) towards a total body plyometic workout, but who knows what 4 AM will bring?  Stay tuned.

Ramblings about my treadmill run this morning. And many bulleted lists.

It's me again, kids!

As you can tell, my treadmill and I had another hot date in my ugly smelly basement this morning, this time at around 5 AM.  Six easy miles was on the schedule, and I have to admit I was dreading it.  That's because it is a known fact that six easy miles on the treadmill is more accurately measured in eons and epochs rather than minutes and miles, and I suspected I might die of old age while i was trying to get this run done.

So I decided to spice it up with some pick-ups.  Well, actually I first decided to spice it up with some awesome purple shorts.

PURPLE POWER

And THEN I decided that I was going to accentuate my run with some pick-ups. 

I ran the first mile at warm-up pace, ran the second mile at around 10 min pace, and then did the first half of miles 3 through 5 at a 9 minute pace (with the back half of those miles at a 10 minute pace). I am happy to report that a) I made it off the treadmill, b) I am still alive, and c) those pick-ups made the time go by much, much easier.

But during the run I couldn't help but notice my mind wandering off, trying to self-soothe by making up these weird comparative equivalencies to keep myself motivated. It actually wanders off like this a lot, and I thought

• I have half a mile of this last pickup....that's only two short little loops on the display.
• I have one more mile left...that's only about 10 more minutes of running.

Of course, those are the more sane ones my brain comes up with when shut up in a basement with a treadmill.  I thought I would share some of my other little running equivalencies I cook up when I'm in a race or outside taking large dog for a spin:

• I have two more miles left of this hilly run....that's only four more times I have to be dragged downhill by large dog.
• I have 13 more miles left of this marathon...that's only three more gel snack times until I'm done.
• I have 20 more miles to go...that's only a puppy every mile that I don't stop.
• I'm at the start line and I have no motivation to run this race whatsoever...that's only one waste of a race registration and one miserable run ahead of me.

But there's other ways you can spice up a boring treadmill workout other than playing little mental games with yourself.  Here are some other suggestions:

• Do speed intervals for 20 seconds whenever you hear a certain word in the song you're listening to or movie you're watching.  Whatever that word is, just make sure it's in good taste along with whatever it is you're listening to/watching.
• Jump off the treadmill every half mile or mile and do some push-ups without permanently injuring yourself.
• Hum.
• Crossword puzzles are always a good idea while running to exercise your brain along with your body.
• For crying out loud get off the treadmill and go outside where it's not boring.

So boring.  Go outside.

And here are some suggestions for learnings from the ramblings above:

• As usual, I should never write posts when I'm this tired.
• So many bulleted lists in this post.  So. Many.
• But boy did that treadmill run go by in the wink of an eye this morning.
• A really really slow wink of an eye.
• Please dear lord don't jump off a treadmill or do crosswords while running.  You'll hurt yourself.  FYI.

Tomorrow's workout: Got me a little tempo...it may be on the treadmill or I may go outside and do it where it's not boring, for crying out loud.

All aboard the motorized weight loss scooter.

Hey there, kids!

When last we met I was talking about goals for the year that were really the same goals I have every year only with different words.  I was also jabbering about how I'm doing Run the Year 2019.  I'm still pretty much on track with those goals (except for the whole "get to bed on time" one), but today I really want to focus on Goal #5--my weight loss goal.

If you remember, that goal was to lose 20 pounds by June and to do it using Medifast.  Now, I set that goal because:

a) I have been 20 pounds lighter before and
b) I ain't getting any younger, so I realize that weight loss at my advanced age of 44 takes longer than it did when I embarked on my first weight loss journey at 35.

So I have been dutifully been doing my Medifast stuff for over a week, and people...I lost 5 pounds already.

Five.  I know that's not exactly a runaway train of weight loss, but it's at least a motorized scooter.

Now, I know that's how these plans hook you and stuff - you experience big loss at the start and then you get to the dreaded plateau.  But after being on my Medifast plan (the 5-2-2 plan), I can see why this is causing some big time loss in the first week.  And because I can never get enough of bulleted lists, here's a list of reasons why:

• It's low carb.  And I don't mean "no carb;" I mean LOW carb.  The only carbs I seem to eat are the ones in veggies and fruit, which I usually eat as my two healthy snacks a day on my plan.  No processed stuff allowed unless Medifast has processed it for you in one of their "meals."  
• Speaking of those "meals," The Medifast "meals" are all low-calorie.  Like, 110 calories or less.  These "meals" could consist of bars, shakes, things labeled "mashed potatoes" and "ziti" that you're pretty sure were never such things and these awesome little "soft bake" things that are like desserts but only the brownie and gingerbread ones are any good.  Overall, they're not bad, but let's just say I keep writing the word meals as "meals" for a reason here.
• Another reason the "meals" don't bother me that much (right now) is because on my plan I get to eat 2 "Lean and Green" meals in addition to 5 Medifast "meals" a day.  I have come to determine that these meals just consist of some flavored meat and some veggies, which is fine by me because that stuff is easy to make.  But these meals are also the reason I think the weight has dropped off in the first week - they're filling, healthy, and low calorie. 
• This Medifast plan I'm on is pretty stinking easy to do.  As soon as I realized the "meals" were really just supplements to my Lean & Green meals, it all fell into place for me and I was rolling with the plan.
• This whole experience is teaching me that my old "I can eat more because I'm training for a marathon" just isn't true.  I have to admit I am hungrier than I was before when I was free ranging on crap, but feeding my body just enough is still working for my training at the moment.  And feeding my body mostly nutrients is working quite nicely - my workouts have been strong this past week.  Well, except for the time I was begging Cathe to stop with the hovers during a spin workout.  She ignored me, though, because she was too busy climbing nonexistent hills on her spin bike.

And oh yeah...I've been doing some workouts this last week too.  Some spin, some weights, and of course some running.  Even ran outside with large dog in the wee hours of the AM crazily whispering "will you shut up barking shut up shut up don't let the coyote pack we hear every night when I take you outside know where we are!" while he ignored me and kept barking. 

We'll see how the Medifast is working as my mileage starts to increase on the weekend.  May have to add in another snack if my energy starts to flag.  But I will leave you all with the biggest learning I've learned being on Medifast and training for a marathon:

Never, EVER have a Medifast "meal" before a run.  Ever.

And now for some lesser learnings:

• I freaking love those running shorts.  Go buy some for yourself at Gypsy Runner's site.
• My fave Medifast "meal" so far - the Triple Berry Smoothie.
• I have run a 16 x 200m repeat workout two weeks in a row now and I'd just like to state for the record that I would not be upset if my training plan app didn't give me that one for awhile.
• If this weight loss keeps going we may have to upgrade from a scooter to an Elliptigo.

Workouts for the week: Weights, spin, and my first tempo run since my last marathon training cycle FUN