Thanks Allison! Yeah, I have been working really hard. I am thinking about taking the day off (exercise not diet). I am just kinda tired today. Then again maybe I'll find myself at the pool, in my swim suit, and if I can get that far, I might as well swim. :)

hey Allison Ann! You're too right! (If it were easy everyone would be in shape!) Thanks so much for commenting on my page - it's good to have encouragement so soon and I appreciate hearing from people with similar goals. Hope your plan this week goes well - be strong at that buffet table! :)

Last week was not so hot. Long and crazy work hours screwed with my meal AND sleep schedule. I worked out 3 times, but eating definitely got out of control. This week I'm just trying to ease back into my training schedule, and make sure I'm bringing my lunch and making good dinners.

This weekend I've got a wedding--buffet style dinner and open bar. I guess everyone would be in shape if it were easy huh?

Things have been going well for me lately. Despite long hours at work and social commitments on the weekends I've managed to work out the majority of the week, and my eating--while not 100% perfect--has been pretty good as well. I'm packing more lunches and cooking my own dinner vs eating out which I had started doing a little too often when work got hectic. I even packed myself a good snack for later (mandarin orange, whole wheat crackers and laughing cow light cheese. :)

I'm going strong with running as well. The only thing is weight lifting. I usually do a full body routine once or twice a week. But my gimpy back has been acting up in the last few weeks and I've held up on that. I'm going to wait until I get a little more flexibility back and I'll start it up again.

Here's to another good week!

My Nike has been so incredibly motivating this week. I got it on Friday and have worked out every day since! I did 5 miles yesterday and 4 miles today (mixture of running and walking).

Even better my boyfriend came with me on my run today. We've been together almost 4 years and this is the first time he's ever actually come to work out with me. (We happened to be at our gym at the same time a few times early in the realtionship.)

The good thing is 1) He runs faster than me so he pushes me to push myself. 2) I want to impress him so I naturally push myself more when he's around. :)

I ran 10 minute miles while we were running today--that's the fastest I've done in a long time!

I'm feeling really good right now. :)

Okay so on Wed. we lost power and it stayed off until Fri night. Not a fun time at ALL considering the crushing heat going on in our part of the country. I also didn't work out wed-fri because of this. My gym actually didn't have power the first day and then I stayed at work late the 2nd and third day just to have AC.

But I got my Nike this weekend and I've already started using it! So I did lik3 3 miles Saturday and 4 yesterday. Today I'm going to lift weights. :)

Eating is going--okay I guess. I haven't been counting calories or anything which can sometimes be a problem. But bought a ton of good food yesterday and cooked up a bunch of salmon for salads etc. yesterday so I should be good to go. :)

Tuesday's workout: I changed it up a bit--

Walked .25 @ 3.5
Ran .75 @ 5.5
Walked .5 @ 3.5
Ran .5 @ 6.0
Walked .75 @ 3.5
Ran .25 @ 7.0
Walked .5 cooldown

I'm doing marginally better at avoiding the candy jar at work. I'm packing more snacks to get through the day without being so hungry.

The sleeping part of my gaols worked for the first 3 days, and then work flared up, but I'm going to try and go to sleep earlier tonight.

Monday's workout went without a hitch. Just need to get on the treadmill today.

My workout plan for this week:

Monday:
1 mile treadmill warmup
Weight-lifting:
Leg Press
Tricep Pull
Back Extensions
Crunches
Dumbbell Chest Press
Military Press
Quad Extension
Abductor
Adductor

Tuesday:
2 miles @ 5.5
1 mile @ 3.7

Wednesday:
2 mile intervals
(2 min @ 5.0
1 min @ 6.0
repeat 2x)
1 min @ 7.0
repeat 4x

Thursday:
1 mile @ 5.0
1 mile @ 6.0
Weight-lifting:
Leg Press
Tricep Pull
Back Extensions
Crunches
Dumbbell Chest Press
Military Press
Quad Extension
Abductor
Adductor

Saturday:
10 min stair machine
10 min elliptical
10 min bike

Ugh. Okay. I'm still struggling. I went away this weekend and didn't work out and ate and drank whatever passed within a 5 mile radius of my head.

I'm also have a difficult time passing up the candy jar at work. :\

Here's what I need to do:

1. Get more sleep. I've been really exhausted lately and that makes workouts difficult. I want to get into a better, earlier schedule so that I can either work out in the morning, or at least get to work earlier so that I can be out of work while they sun is still shining and get in a run.

2. Figure out a better meal plan. In conjunction with this I need to find something that makes me realize that just because other people are eating doesn't mean that I have to be eating too. I've decided I'm not an emotional eater--I'm a social eater. I have little trouble sticking to healthy stuff in the correct proportions when I'm alone at home. But with other people I seem to lose that power. And now that I live with my boyfriend as well as two other roommates this is becoming more of an issue.

3. Workouts. I don't know what it is but I've been pretty burned out on working out lately. And strangely I'm in better shape than I have been in a while--running/endurance wise. It helps to have my weekly run with Laura but I need to workout more than once a week. And even the easy stuff like--just walk 2 miles leaves me uninterested. Blech. I think I just need to make a training schedule, suck it up and deal with it.

Okay, so instead of just writing these things and then doing nothing about them I'm going to list 3 goals in each of these areas to try and accomplish for the next week.

1. Go to bed 30 minutes earlier each night. This means between 11:00-11:30 PM.
2. Make lunch to take to work the night before.
3. Get in at least 3 workouts by next week.

Okay...I can do this.

This past week has just been about getting myself back into a place of healthy eating and working out. Not SUPER healthy or MAXIMUM workouts. But just the mind set of: "Okay maybe I don't need 2 pieces of candy from the candy jar." and "Maybe I should go lift some weights today."

It helps that my friend Laura and I are now getting together for runs on the weekend. It's like a need a lynch pin for the week to be like--see? Running isn't so bad. Try it a couple more times this week...

Plus during our last run we came up with some things I can do if I don't feel like doing a full out cardio workout. Even just walking for an hour while watching a favorite TV show would be a good workout.

I've been doing well in the healthy eating departments too. I've been bringing my lunches to work which really helps, and I've done a little better in not making so many trips to the candy jar.

Today I think I'm going to run 2 miles in intervals and then walk 1 mile as I watch some TV.

Thanks for the kind words!

I hate getting up early with a fiery passion, but I hate being fat more, so I'm doing it. I figure it's only four weeks. I'll let you know how the rest of boot camp goes. In the meantime, keep up your running!

I'm with you on those occassional "Oh my god, I HAVE to eat!" days. I think you have the right mentality about it. Sometimes, it is OKAY to eat poorly, as long as it doesn't become the trend. You are usually so amazing about planning meals and eating well, I'm sure it totally fine. Also, in terms of the weight thing - its probably more realistic to think about that as a long range goal and not worry too much about the scalenumber at first. It frustrates me so much to see the scale go up and down. So much of that depends on where in the month you are anyway. Maybe only allow yourself to 'weigh-in' once a week or something. That might help you seemore realistic changes over time... All in all though, way to go! You are so motivating to me!

Great job on your run, Allison! Seeing as I'm a very slow runner, I think that's a great time!

Well the first of my 2 races is over. I finished the entire 10K running--1:12. Actually a pretty good time for me, especially given I didn't finish my 5 or 5.5 mile training runs running. AND there were a ton of hills. So although that time may look slow to most, I'm still very pleased. :)

The one problem is that weight wise I'm pretty sure I've gained a pretty significant amount. I tapered for 2 days, ran, and now I'm resting for 2 days before the start of my 10 miler training.

And I've been RAVENOUS since my run. I'm not sure what it is, but my hunger signals haven't been normal run of the mill: "Oh hey, it's been a while since the last feeding, let's think about food soon." It's been: "Oh my god we're going to die! FOOD FOOD FOOD!" And so I've kind of given myself a bit of a break and eaten more/worse food than I have in a while. Burgers and Ceaser salad, and Mac and cheese. Oh my!

So my ingenious plan to lose a bunch of weight before going to the beach is obviously not going to work.

But I'm not going to sweat it. I did a great job training for the race, and 3 days off my healthy eating isn't going to kill me. I've got a plan for training and I've got a plan for food so I'll just start again tomorrow and enjoy my day off today.

Completely terrible 5.5 mile run today. Couldn't run the whole thing, it was hot, and It took me over an hour to complete. NOT the last training run you want to have before a race. :\

I'm going into this 10K just hoping to get it done in a respectable time. We'll see. I really better stick with my 10 miler training. I want to improve this year.

Also running all those miles has left me ravenous. I had whole grain toast and yogurt for breakfast, a veggie, feta, and orzo pasta salad for lunch, a protein smoothie after the run, a bowl of black bean soup with low fat sour cream and a handful of tortilla chips, and some chocolate milk with a kashi granola bar for a snack. Hmm..1650 calories. Not as many as I thought.

Still hungry but I think it might be water issues too. I'm going to have a couple huge glasses of water and head to bed.

Yikes. I just created my 10 Miler training log. It's a LOT of running. A LOT. I'm going to need to buy some new shoes for sure because of the mileage. I may need to get some more active wear too. I really hope I can continue to train for basically 5 more months. I should probably build in a two 3-day vacations or something in there to give my body a break. I have 2 weddings to go to this summer--maybe then...

You know what's annoying sometimes? The calorie readouts on machines. I did my 5 mile run on a treadmill yesterday and it told me that I burned 800 calories. My HRM told me I burned 500.

My weekends are always a struggle for me. I think I'm going to try to be very conscious this weekend and see if I can't lose more weight this week than last week.

Motivation? A beach party on Memorial Day. I bought a new bathing suit this year. It's super cute and I love it. But my problem area--the back of my hips weirdly enough--are standing out more than I want them to. If I could just lose 2-3 inches on my hips I think the fit would be perfect.

I had a great run last night. 3 miles on the treadmill, but I made sure to include some incline to compensate. Ran the last half mile up a pretty steep incline. Today my right knee protests a bit when I bend it deeply. Not sure what's up there.

Also my work gave us a pizza lunch after meeting a milestone. 3 small pieces of cheese pizza. Sigh. I'm going to have to make dinner small to make up for it. Right after I saw a nice drop on the scale too.

My legs are on fire. Stupid squats. I think they are partially to blame for my 1 pound gain as well. I think I'm storing a lot of water in my poor muscles.

Thank goodness today is a cross training day. I'll be sure to take a long time to stretch as well.