Weight Loss And Running, Because It's Been A While.

When I started blogging in September 2012, I posted 23 blogs between September 8th and December 31st.  In 2013, I posted 87 blogs.  It's now July 21st of 2014 and I have written a grand total of 16 blogs this year.

SIXTEEN???  I had posted 17 blogs by MARCH of last year.

Crazy what two kids will do to your free time, especially compared to what I thought just ONE did to my free time.

They're awfully cute, though! (Love Heidi Burks Photography - she does all of our photo shoots!)

I wanted to talk about my current fitness/running/weight loss status, since I haven't talked about it in quite a while.  Back in April, 4 months post-Lucy, I ran the Nashville Rock n' Roll Country Music (Half) Marathon.  It was my first half marathon in over a year, as I had been pregnant that previous year and not worked out AT ALL while preggo with Lucy.  The half marathon was hard for me - I walked quite a bit (though I did run a lot more than I walked) and clocked my worst personal half marathon finish time to date.  I just wasn't ready for it, and I knew I wasn't ready.  But I wanted to do it anyway, so I did.  And I DID enjoy it, as I always enjoy running races.  It was the jump start I needed to lean towards getting back into shape.

As soon as we got back from our beach wedding trip in May, I joined Weight Watchers online.  I also started running on a regular basis again.  Weight Watchers gave me meal ideas and recipes to help keep me in check, while encouraging me to track what I ate to make me accountable.  Weight Watchers tracks food based on a point system, so there's no counting calories, just adding up daily points (so kind of the same thing, but different).  As for running, I made sure I was getting in three runs a week when possible, with the runs being at least a mile long.

Over the past almost two months, I've done pretty well.  I have days where I screw the plan and eat whatever I want (or whatever's available) and I've become a super slacker on tracking my foods......but for the most part I stick to "low point" foods for breakfast and lunch, and occasionally eat a salad for dinner to really up my game.  I'm up to 3-4 miles on the treadmill (though sometimes I still only clock 1 mile) and even ran 5 days out of 7 a few weeks ago.  And I've lost about 7 pounds.

 

I started out at about 140-143 lbs, which is where my body decided to "settle" after having Lucy.  I'm now right at 133 lbs, which was my first weight loss goal.  It just felt so good not to be crossing into the 140s anymore, even on crappy days!  So now that I've managed to maintain 133 lbs, my next goal is 129 lbs.

I'm averaging a pound a week at the moment, which is right in line with the healthy weight loss standard of losing only 1-2 lbs per week.  Could I be doing a better job trying to lose closer to 2 lbs per week?  Of course I could.  I could be following Weight Watchers more closely and I could be running more days and farther distances by now.  Losing only a pound a week is tough mentally.......you feel like you're just BARELY succeeding.  And when I have an off day where I eat crap and don't run and then I step on the scale the following morning and it jumps up a few pounds from the morning before, I feel like I'm not succeeding at all.  But I just have to remind myself that it's all just a temporary setback.  As soon as hit the treadmill once or twice and eat more consciously again, the scale dips back down to where it was before and sometimes less.

Getting down to 123 lbs (my ultimate goal) by eating well and running isn't going to eliminate my fluffy belly, so I'm going to have to do some extra stuff to help with that.  I've been following Diary of a Fit Mommy on Facebook, and plan to use her 10 Week Workout Plan to help tone myself up once I get down into the 120s.

She also has a daily booty workout I really should give a go.  This butt could use it.

She has a bunch of other workout routines on her page, as well as recipes and diet plans and what not.  I haven't decided if I think she's awesome or if I hate her.  Her baby turns 6 months old today and her body is RIDICULOUS for just having had a baby 6 months ago.  In fact, here's her profile picture 5 days after having her son:

Crazy.

And here's her body today:

Ridonk-ulous.

Granted, she was a fitness-aholic pre-baby, and was working out like a mad woman up until the day her son was born, so she has had that advantage.  Plus she only has one baby instead of two, AND she works out in her own home gym while her baby naps.  Another advantage she has is that she LIKES working out.  She wouldn't be a famous fitness blogger otherwise!  I like to run, but I HATE anything else workout-wise.  I just don't ever stick to anything.  So attempting her 10-week workout plan is going to be a definite challenge.  We'll just have to see how that goes.

Besides slowly losing this baby weight, I'm also slowly increasing my mileage on the treadmill.  I've been moving TOO slow in that department, so I definitely need to up my game in that area!  Not only will it help the weight fall off quicker, but it will help prepare me for the races I have coming up, which I'll talk about in another blog post!

Love it.