I hope everyone had a Happy Easter, Passover, Equinox, etc. I celebrated Easter with family and some dear friends at my house. We had lovely (not very healthy) food and it was a great day. I started the day sitting on the deck with my husband and a cup of coffee on our new deck furniture (that I've been dreaming about owning since he built our deck three summers ago), watching cardinals and chick-a-dees flit around my bird feeders and listening church bells ringing in Easter morning. It was quite glorious and the closest I've felt to God in a while. I think people use the word "blessed" gratuitously, but at the moment, I was truly blessed. I wasn't thinking about losing weight, or that I'm not training enough for the Triathlon, or stressing about work or even obsessing over setting the perfect table for Easter (although my table was beautiful, if I do say so myself). I was at peace and truly in the moment. Blessed, indeed.
My workout scheduled suffered last week mostly from laziness but also getting the house ready to host Easter. I did have a great swim last week, though. I did my first timed 400 meter swim, which is the distance of the triathlon swim, in 15 minutes and 45 seconds! I don't know how that compares to anyone or anything but I don't really care. In that moment, I felt like Michael Phelps and literally heard crowds cheering in my head. It was one of those great days to be at the pool too because I went in the middle of day and it was virtually empty except for a couple of senior citizens doing water aerobics. I love senior citizens, by the way. They are in my lineup of favorite types of people, just under 6 month old babies (who are always giggly and sweet). Senior citizens have been around long enough to not really give a shit about most things and are nice, non-judgmental people. Most of them, at least. But everything has outliers, right?
The triathlon is about a month and a half away and I'm starting to get nervous. The weather has been awful around here, mostly cold and rainy with a few bursts of nice weather that don't last very long. Because of that, I haven't been on my bike once, which is starting to make me really twitchy. I know the bike is my strongest leg and I know that I can do the distance, but I really want to bike the race route and then do what they call "bricks" which is training two of the legs of the race in the same day. So I want to bike, then run to work on my leg stamina and I haven't had a chance to do so because of the weather. Hey, didn't I say in my last blog that I don't complain about stuff like the weather? Well, I am now. I'm so sick of this crappy weather! There, got it off my chest. So, I'll keep swimming and jogging (indoors and out) until I can get my behind on the bike.
I've also decided to re-join Weight Watchers. It really is a great plan that works for me and if I'm not staying on top of what I eat and am accountable to someone other than myself, I'm in trouble. So I start back to meetings on Monday. I go to an excellent meeting in downtown Chicago just down the street from my office. It's not only convenient and has a great leader, but the building and room it is in had a spectacular view of Grant Park and Lake Michigan. Win-win-win. I'll let you know how it goes. Until then, stay dry!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Control this!
I'm laughing looking back at last week's blog and a funny comment from my friend Karen. She said it read like a diet confessional and she's so right. I've been watching too much reality TV! I'm happy to report that I ate well all week, exercised four days and feel great. Although I did splurge on a decadent dinner on Friday and didn't get my swim in, overall I am happy with how I handled my week food-wise and training-wise. Also, I broke in my new running shoes which feel like they were hand-crafted by cherubs in heaven. The are actually New Balance 860's. I get fitted for running shoes at Dick Pond Athletics in St. Charles, IL. If you are contemplating buying running shoes, I highly recommend that you get professionally fitted for them. Fleet Feet is another great place to do this. I am a super frugal person who is smug about finding great deals and scrimping when needed. Good running shoes are not something to scrimp on. Spend the $100 bucks, it's totally worth it.
One of the reasons I didn't get my swimming in was that I had a big event over the weekend where my best friend/co-author and I did a huge cooking demo and sold our cookbooks at a Diabetes Expo put on by the American Diabetes Association (the publisher of our two cookbooks) at Navy Pier in Chicago. That event required me to be on my feet a lot and haul heavy things. I'm not 25 anymore and it wore my sorry ass out. I joke that I used to be a work horse and now I'm a show pony...I was exhausted!
I don't want to use this blog as a forum to promote myself professionally, but my published cookbooks are an important part of my life and a huge part of the reason I want so desperately to get back to a healthy weight. You see, they are healthy cookbooks for people with diabetes (links to the books are here and here). They are also really for anyone who wants to eat healthy because I think the diabetic diet is the healthiest one out there. Now, imagine the irony of me up there lecturing and demoing about cooking healthy food. I acknowledge my weight struggles when I'm demoing so I don't come off as too much of a fraud but I do not believe in the "Do As I Say and Not As I Do" approach and it's hard. I do think people like someone they can relate to (and there is A LOT of me to relate to) but I'd love to be up there saying, "I cooked this healthy food and look where I am now!"
Again, it's that worrying about people judging me that messes with my "I Can Do This" attitude that I so desperately need to get through this struggle. We sold a lot of books and we had more than several people come up to me and tell me they love us and our books (and one extremely creepy guy who was hitting on me...I wanted to tell him that I prefer men with all of their teeth like my husband, but I politely disengaged myself from him instead). So the validation from the people using our books and loving our food from the demo helps and it means the world to me that people are positively affected by our books. The whole point of doing the books and demos is to help people and teach them that healthy food can taste great and is easy to prepare. So to hear that validated is the best feeling. Ever. And I really mean that because anyone who thinks we did it for the money is cracked. Unless you are famous, or JK Rowling, most authors cannot live, even poorly, on book royalties alone.
So, that was a really long way to get to the point of my blog today. It's about control and worrying. This is a problem I have also struggled with for a very long time and I am working on focusing on what I can control and forgetting about that which I can't. This is not a new idea, of course; ask anyone who has suffered from any addiction and is in recovery. I do pride myself on not being one of those people who gets upset over every little uncontrollable thing like the weather, late trains, idiots who talk loudly on their cell phone anywhere they shouldn't be, people who use rolling briefcases that really don't need to, tourists idly standing in the middle of the sidewalk during morning rush hour, etc. That sort of stuff usually rolls off me. I'm talking about when I need to be somewhere important, like the cooking demo this weekend, and forcing my co-author to leave 4 hours early because I've worked up every possible scenario in my head of what can go wrong, from car accidents (which I was in one on my way to prep for the demo, by the way. Everything is fine except the jackass who hit me tried to tell the cop it was my fault and I went batshit crazy), to traffic, to not being able to find parking, etc. Now, to be successful, you need to plan well and double and triple check everything, but unless you're Nostradamus, you can't plan for everything, which I try to do. To the point where I wake up gasping for breath in the middle of night worrying that everything won't fit in the car! This is not healthy! And it's not mentally productive when working on a goal like a triathlon and weight loss. It's exhausting, actually. And worrying about what other people think. That's another one. I just need to get over it and realize that no one is watching me wheeze along the running path. And if they are, and they are judging me, it's probably because they are too scared to look in the mirror and judge themselves.
All easier said than done, but if I was perfect, I wouldn't need to write this blog and you wouldn't have something to waste 10 minutes on at work! So, this week, along with my goal of training five days and maintaining a healthy eating record, I am also going to work on not worrying so damn much and only controlling those things I can. You know, like my husband...ha ha, just kidding honey!
After all, that little fender bender I was in over the weekend could have been a heck of a lot worse, and I'm grateful that I have my crazy life to worry about, instead of being paralyzed from a car accident. It's all about perspective and while everything is relative, it's also good to be grateful and live like no one is watching you wheeze down the running path.
One of the reasons I didn't get my swimming in was that I had a big event over the weekend where my best friend/co-author and I did a huge cooking demo and sold our cookbooks at a Diabetes Expo put on by the American Diabetes Association (the publisher of our two cookbooks) at Navy Pier in Chicago. That event required me to be on my feet a lot and haul heavy things. I'm not 25 anymore and it wore my sorry ass out. I joke that I used to be a work horse and now I'm a show pony...I was exhausted!
I don't want to use this blog as a forum to promote myself professionally, but my published cookbooks are an important part of my life and a huge part of the reason I want so desperately to get back to a healthy weight. You see, they are healthy cookbooks for people with diabetes (links to the books are here and here). They are also really for anyone who wants to eat healthy because I think the diabetic diet is the healthiest one out there. Now, imagine the irony of me up there lecturing and demoing about cooking healthy food. I acknowledge my weight struggles when I'm demoing so I don't come off as too much of a fraud but I do not believe in the "Do As I Say and Not As I Do" approach and it's hard. I do think people like someone they can relate to (and there is A LOT of me to relate to) but I'd love to be up there saying, "I cooked this healthy food and look where I am now!"
Again, it's that worrying about people judging me that messes with my "I Can Do This" attitude that I so desperately need to get through this struggle. We sold a lot of books and we had more than several people come up to me and tell me they love us and our books (and one extremely creepy guy who was hitting on me...I wanted to tell him that I prefer men with all of their teeth like my husband, but I politely disengaged myself from him instead). So the validation from the people using our books and loving our food from the demo helps and it means the world to me that people are positively affected by our books. The whole point of doing the books and demos is to help people and teach them that healthy food can taste great and is easy to prepare. So to hear that validated is the best feeling. Ever. And I really mean that because anyone who thinks we did it for the money is cracked. Unless you are famous, or JK Rowling, most authors cannot live, even poorly, on book royalties alone.
So, that was a really long way to get to the point of my blog today. It's about control and worrying. This is a problem I have also struggled with for a very long time and I am working on focusing on what I can control and forgetting about that which I can't. This is not a new idea, of course; ask anyone who has suffered from any addiction and is in recovery. I do pride myself on not being one of those people who gets upset over every little uncontrollable thing like the weather, late trains, idiots who talk loudly on their cell phone anywhere they shouldn't be, people who use rolling briefcases that really don't need to, tourists idly standing in the middle of the sidewalk during morning rush hour, etc. That sort of stuff usually rolls off me. I'm talking about when I need to be somewhere important, like the cooking demo this weekend, and forcing my co-author to leave 4 hours early because I've worked up every possible scenario in my head of what can go wrong, from car accidents (which I was in one on my way to prep for the demo, by the way. Everything is fine except the jackass who hit me tried to tell the cop it was my fault and I went batshit crazy), to traffic, to not being able to find parking, etc. Now, to be successful, you need to plan well and double and triple check everything, but unless you're Nostradamus, you can't plan for everything, which I try to do. To the point where I wake up gasping for breath in the middle of night worrying that everything won't fit in the car! This is not healthy! And it's not mentally productive when working on a goal like a triathlon and weight loss. It's exhausting, actually. And worrying about what other people think. That's another one. I just need to get over it and realize that no one is watching me wheeze along the running path. And if they are, and they are judging me, it's probably because they are too scared to look in the mirror and judge themselves.
All easier said than done, but if I was perfect, I wouldn't need to write this blog and you wouldn't have something to waste 10 minutes on at work! So, this week, along with my goal of training five days and maintaining a healthy eating record, I am also going to work on not worrying so damn much and only controlling those things I can. You know, like my husband...ha ha, just kidding honey!
After all, that little fender bender I was in over the weekend could have been a heck of a lot worse, and I'm grateful that I have my crazy life to worry about, instead of being paralyzed from a car accident. It's all about perspective and while everything is relative, it's also good to be grateful and live like no one is watching you wheeze down the running path.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Food Glorious Food!
Hope everyone is having a great first couple of weeks of Spring. The weather is nuts (82 yesterday, 51 today, etc.) but I took advantage of the incredibly warm and wonderful days over the weekend. Well, sort of. It was a rough week, actually. I worked 6 days, all downtown Chicago (which is 40 miles from my house) and had a couple of late nights. Now, please refer to my last blog about excuses. Ha! That went right out the window this week. I had every excuse in the book and only worked out TWICE! Yes, twice. And neither workout was all that impressive. I also ate like the Titanic was going down and the only food aboard was nothing but junk food.
Being overbooked and not planning is an equation for disaster in my life, and what a disaster this week was. This blog is about full disclosure for me and I am embarrassed to admit this but I ate McDonald's three times, Dunkin Donuts twice, Epic Burger once, Jimmy Johns once and went out for sushi once. The rest of the food I ate was popcorn, cereal, cookies and cheese and crackers. No wonder I didn't have the energy to workout and felt like crap all week. All I ate was crap! Typically, I am a great meal planner for our household. I shop every week, prep food on the weekend, make sure everything is healthy and use as many whole foods as possible. Unfortunately, I have been on this downward spiral with meal planning and we have been eating convenience foods, fast food and just junk in general. Well, I'm happy to say that I got my kitchen back on track yesterday!
I cleaned out the fridge and pantry and got rid of anything that was not healthy. Luckily, I don't usually keep a bunch of junk in the house (I go through drive-thrus for that) but the cleaning process felt great for both my fridge and my state of mind. Clean fridge=clean mind. I had some bananas that were starting to brown so I cut them up into chunks, portioned them out and froze them for smoothies. You can also freeze whole bananas and use them for banana bread or a sub for oils in baking. They basically turn to liquid when they thaw so they are great for baking and you're not wasting any food.
I shopped smartly, even going to two stores to get everything I needed at the best prices, and came home and prepped for the week. The prepping took less than an hour, which, in my mind, is an hour well spent. I bought a big, beautiful papaya and cut it up into chunks and froze it too (for smoothies). The papaya was $2.79 and I got two bags worth of frozen fruit out of it. A small-ish bag of frozen papaya from the grocery store is about $4.99 so I saved over two bucks. Saving money makes me very happy and smug. "You paid how much for what?" Frozen fruit is great to have on hand for making smoothies, or stirring into yogurt. If you've never had papaya before, this is what they look like and they taste sort of like a tropical cantaloupe with the texture of a mango. They are mild and delicious and make a great smoothies (see smoothie recipe). Peel it, scoop out the black seeds and cut into 2 inch chunks. That's it.
I also made a big batch of turkey taco meat. I add a few things to bulk it up (it's more filling and lasts longer). If you have meat eaters who refuse to eat ground turkey, make this recipe and don't tell them you switched the meat. Trust me, they'll never know! Here's the recipe:
Turkey Tacos
I actually feel less stressed out this week because I know I have all of these meals planned and I don't have to worry about what I am bringing for lunch or cooking for dinner. Now I can focus on working out this week and breaking in my new running shoes. I am also testing different kinds of gels and chews that I will use for energy the day of the triathlon. I'll let you know how it goes.
Have a great week!
Being overbooked and not planning is an equation for disaster in my life, and what a disaster this week was. This blog is about full disclosure for me and I am embarrassed to admit this but I ate McDonald's three times, Dunkin Donuts twice, Epic Burger once, Jimmy Johns once and went out for sushi once. The rest of the food I ate was popcorn, cereal, cookies and cheese and crackers. No wonder I didn't have the energy to workout and felt like crap all week. All I ate was crap! Typically, I am a great meal planner for our household. I shop every week, prep food on the weekend, make sure everything is healthy and use as many whole foods as possible. Unfortunately, I have been on this downward spiral with meal planning and we have been eating convenience foods, fast food and just junk in general. Well, I'm happy to say that I got my kitchen back on track yesterday!
I cleaned out the fridge and pantry and got rid of anything that was not healthy. Luckily, I don't usually keep a bunch of junk in the house (I go through drive-thrus for that) but the cleaning process felt great for both my fridge and my state of mind. Clean fridge=clean mind. I had some bananas that were starting to brown so I cut them up into chunks, portioned them out and froze them for smoothies. You can also freeze whole bananas and use them for banana bread or a sub for oils in baking. They basically turn to liquid when they thaw so they are great for baking and you're not wasting any food.
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| Papaya - yum! |
I also made a big batch of turkey taco meat. I add a few things to bulk it up (it's more filling and lasts longer). If you have meat eaters who refuse to eat ground turkey, make this recipe and don't tell them you switched the meat. Trust me, they'll never know! Here's the recipe:
Turkey Tacos
- Cooking spray plus 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground turkey (93% lean, sometimes written 93/7, the 100 percent lean stuff is too dry for me)
- 1 packet of your favorite taco seasoning mix
- 1 can petite diced tomatoes
- 1 can fat-free or vegetarian refried beans (the non-vegetarian ones are made with lard and really, no one needs to be eating lard)
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| Finished product. Delicious! |
- Saute the turkey in the olive oil and cooking spray until just cooked through.
- Add the taco seasoning packet and the canned tomatoes with the juice. The seasoning packet says to add water but I just use the juice from the tomatoes.
- Let that cook down for a couple of minutes then stir in the refried beans. It makes double the amount you would get with just the turkey and it adds 30 grams of fiber to the whole recipe. Fiber=filling (and tooty so don't eat this if you have a hot date later or have to sit somewhere quiet for a long period of time).
I actually feel less stressed out this week because I know I have all of these meals planned and I don't have to worry about what I am bringing for lunch or cooking for dinner. Now I can focus on working out this week and breaking in my new running shoes. I am also testing different kinds of gels and chews that I will use for energy the day of the triathlon. I'll let you know how it goes.
Have a great week!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Excuses are like...
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| Pumpkin Plod - Highland, IN 2002 (the ole running days) |
Speaking of running, I've been steadily improving each week as I get out there and "run." What I really do is jog very slowly but my short, stubby legs are going faster than walking so I count it as running! I used to be a Runner. Sort of a hard core one at that. Now, mind you, I've always been slow and I always will be. My fastest pace ever was an 11-minute mile and that was when I was in the best shape of my life. I logged that time at the Wacker Drive is Done 5K in Chicago after they revamped lower Wacker Drive in Chicago the first time in 2002 with my friend Kelly (who was and still is an uber-runner). I almost tossed my cookies at the end of the race but she so kindly reminded me that the Channel 7 TV cameras were there and I didn't want to be the person throwing up on the evening news. I still appreciate her for that! I was running 4-5 days a week, participated in Bulldog Bootcamp and eventually trained for a Half Marathon. That's the thing about the running world. It's hard to be happy "just" doing 5Ks. It's always about getting faster, going farther, and I got sucked up into the running world vortex. I eventually came shooting out the other end of that vortex and landed firmly on my couch with a bowl of ice cream and a TV remote!
The Half Marathon is actually what caused my running meltdown. That was one of the hardest things I've ever done and the training for it was a serious mental mind-Fword for me. I've never been a "good" runner. I don't particularly love running. I love how I feel after I run but I don't love (or really even like) the actual running part. It is the one thing exercise-wise, however, that really does it for me both in the weight-loss department and the sense of accomplishment department. So when I got sucked into the running vortex back in the day, I aimed to do a half-marathon. Never a full marathon, mind you. I'm not that big of a masochist (but I support all you marathon-nuts out there and applaud your insanity!). So when I signed up for training, it was with a group of runners who, unbeknown to me, were training for the Boston Marathon. THE. BOSTON. MARATHON. The one you have to be Kenyan or at least super-fast to qualify for. My best friend did the training with me too and she was much faster than I was but was also very sympathetic to feelings of inadequacy in this training group. Running is a serious mental sport as well as a physical one and if you are messed up in the head, it can seriously hamper your ability to run. So imagine me, even in pretty good shape but still running about a 12 minute mile heading out for training runs with these Boston Marathon Nuts (BMNs). There I was, plodding along and I wouldn't even be halfway out on the run and they'd be on their way back, clapping for me and cheering me on like their own personal chubby charity case. I know the BMNs were honestly cheering me on and thought it would help me but I felt like the slowest, biggest loser on the planet and it totally screwed with my head.
I did the Indianapolis Half Marathon in May of 2004 and then never ran again. Ever. Until recently when I started training for this triathlon. I attempted running again a couple of times before this, but all were epic fails and all were because I had a mental block against it. So you have to understand my complete and total glee right now that I am running again. Slowly of course. But I am back in the game. So much so that even though I didn't get home until almost 8 p.m. last night, and it was already dark, and I had about a million things to do, and ended up having to stay up way later than I normally do, I went out for a run. It used to be that if the moon wasn't in the right house, and the temperature wasn't just right, and the wind wasn't blowing a calm, cool breeze, and the Middle East wasn't at peace, I'd find an excuse not to run. Well, you know what they say about excuses...
Have a great week!
P.S. If you weren't able to comment before because you didn't have a Google account, I've changed it so anyone can comment. Again, please be kind! xoxo
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Smell of Accomplishment
Thanks again to all of you who are reading and following my blog. I'm really honored. I'm writing this blog with rubbery, shaky arms today. If you remember from the last time I wrote, my goal was to run three days this week and swim two days. Well, I did it! (training log here if you care) But boy am I tired today. I just finished swimming and I struggled. Big time. The struggle possibly came from working out five days this week and/or too many glasses of wine last night (and possibly the dirty martini). I also think I struggled because I did my laps in the deep end for the first time. I always swim in the lanes where I can touch and somehow that's easier, even though I really never touch down while doing the laps. Knowing I can though is a mental thing, I guess. Swimming in the deep end adds another layer of not only exertion (I firmly believe it is physically harder to swim in the deep end) but also a layer of stress. When you're already struggling to swim well and you look down and the bottom is so far, far away a type of panic sets in and makes it much harder to swim. I did it though, and in style - I finally bought a swim cap! A hot pink one, in fact. As if I weren't already a spectacle. My dear, sweet husband told me that the swim cap will help my speed because it cuts down on the resistance. Yeah, that's my problem. My hair is slowing me way, way down. He's so cute.
One of my favorite things about swimming is the smell of chlorine. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I love that smell. I love driving home after a swim and the whole car smells like chlorine and when I get in the next time, I can still smell it faintly. I have this crazy theory...I have really bad eyesight and have since I was a little kid. So my theory is that all of my other senses are really acute because they are making up for my bad eyesight. Even though I wear contacts and glasses, I'm still always aware that if something happened to them, I would be seriously screwed because I can't see. So, because of that, I have extremely keen senses of smell and hearing. Crazy theory but I believe it. We all associate smells with feelings and memories. I smell onions cooking in butter and I'm right back in my childhood kitchen with my mom cooking. I can smell Spring coming on the first warm day. I can smell rain before it pours. And the smell of chlorine is equated in my mind as the sweet smell of accomplishment. The first thing I did to train for this triathlon was to start swimming again and that smell of chlorine is a reminder that you just have to start with one toe in the water and the next thing you know, you're swimming 700 meters. Maybe not a huge accomplishment to some people, but the Rocky theme is playing in my head.
It's hard not to worry about people judging you, though. I had a bad experience at a super-mega-sports store over the weekend. I went in looking for body glide and to see if there were any workout clothes on clearance because people are going to start handing me change pretty soon if I keep going out in the "workout" clothes I wear right now. The sales associate wouldn't ask me if I needed anything, even though she looked me dead in the eye as I was clearly looking around for the body glide that I couldn't manage to locate. In case you don't know, Body Glide is a magic potion that looks like deodorant that you put on places that chafe easily while working out to stop that from happening. I won't describe those places as I'm sure you can imagine. Anyway, once I finally asked her where the body glide was, she walked me over to the men's section and showed me the body glide for men. She then looked at me skeptically and told me in a doubtful tone that they also had body glide for woman if I was looking for me, which she surely believed wasn't the case. I wanted to snarkily tell her that I really needed that body glide this morning when I ran 3.13 miles but instead, I nodded and said, yes, it's for me and was feeling really shitty that I let this super-mega-sports store sales associate make me feel like I was in the wrong place. I'll mentally flip her off when I finish the triathlon on June 12.
So, on a positive note, my goal is to do the same workout this week: 3 days running, 2 days swimming and if it gets nice out and I can fit in a bike ride, I'll do that too, and I won't forget the body glide.
Have a great week!
One of my favorite things about swimming is the smell of chlorine. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I love that smell. I love driving home after a swim and the whole car smells like chlorine and when I get in the next time, I can still smell it faintly. I have this crazy theory...I have really bad eyesight and have since I was a little kid. So my theory is that all of my other senses are really acute because they are making up for my bad eyesight. Even though I wear contacts and glasses, I'm still always aware that if something happened to them, I would be seriously screwed because I can't see. So, because of that, I have extremely keen senses of smell and hearing. Crazy theory but I believe it. We all associate smells with feelings and memories. I smell onions cooking in butter and I'm right back in my childhood kitchen with my mom cooking. I can smell Spring coming on the first warm day. I can smell rain before it pours. And the smell of chlorine is equated in my mind as the sweet smell of accomplishment. The first thing I did to train for this triathlon was to start swimming again and that smell of chlorine is a reminder that you just have to start with one toe in the water and the next thing you know, you're swimming 700 meters. Maybe not a huge accomplishment to some people, but the Rocky theme is playing in my head.
It's hard not to worry about people judging you, though. I had a bad experience at a super-mega-sports store over the weekend. I went in looking for body glide and to see if there were any workout clothes on clearance because people are going to start handing me change pretty soon if I keep going out in the "workout" clothes I wear right now. The sales associate wouldn't ask me if I needed anything, even though she looked me dead in the eye as I was clearly looking around for the body glide that I couldn't manage to locate. In case you don't know, Body Glide is a magic potion that looks like deodorant that you put on places that chafe easily while working out to stop that from happening. I won't describe those places as I'm sure you can imagine. Anyway, once I finally asked her where the body glide was, she walked me over to the men's section and showed me the body glide for men. She then looked at me skeptically and told me in a doubtful tone that they also had body glide for woman if I was looking for me, which she surely believed wasn't the case. I wanted to snarkily tell her that I really needed that body glide this morning when I ran 3.13 miles but instead, I nodded and said, yes, it's for me and was feeling really shitty that I let this super-mega-sports store sales associate make me feel like I was in the wrong place. I'll mentally flip her off when I finish the triathlon on June 12.
So, on a positive note, my goal is to do the same workout this week: 3 days running, 2 days swimming and if it gets nice out and I can fit in a bike ride, I'll do that too, and I won't forget the body glide.
Have a great week!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Is That a Regulation Flotation Device?
Thanks to everyone who is reading my blog! I've received some really positive feedback so far and I appreciate it a lot. This whole thing (training, blogging, putting myself out there) is still pretty scary, but it's also fun to think about what I am going to write about while I am training; takes my mind off of the pain and wheezing. When I was swimming today, for example, I was thinking that one plus side of being a plus-sized triathlete is that the extra flab on my ass helps keep my back end up so I don't have to use my legs quite as much and I can focus on working my arms instead. That will be helpful the day of the race so I don't have rubber legs starting the bike leg (that will come after the bike leg when I try to run 4 miles after a 14.5 mile bike ride). Is that positive thinking, or what?
The Batavia Triathlon is a "Sprint" distance triathlon, but is a little longer than a traditional sprint distance. In a traditional sprint distance triathlon, it's a 400 meter swim, a 12.5 mile bike and 5K run. The Batavia Triathlon is the same swim but a 14.5 mile bike and a 4 mile run; thanks a lot, Batavia. Now, you may be saying to yourself, "That's not that much difference", but you try it and then we'll talk. Anyone who has made any attempt at running knows that there is a big difference between 3.1 and 4 miles...even more so after swimming and biking. I'm sure it will be just fine though, right? Right?
I thought I would share with you some of the resources I've been using to help train. The first and most important one is the book, "Slow Fat Triathlete" by Jayne Williams. She really could have written that book just for me and was a huge inspiration for me to start this blog. She also wrote me back when I posted on her Facebook wall, which I thought was super cool of her. She really made me feel okay for wanting to do this again and being horribly out of shape. Jayne if you ever read this blog, I owe you a beer next time you are in Chicago. Thank you.
Another great resource is runkeeper.com. One of my dearest friends, Meg, who is a super runner, uses it and turned me on to it. It's a great way to keep track of your training and you can create a Street Team of other people who are doing the same race as you to keep each other motivated. I love it. You can follow my training (if you care at all, and truly, it's not that impressive thus far) here. It uses GPS on your smartphone for tracking your running and biking and you can manually input things like swimming or treadmill running. I just started using it and it has been a great way to keep track of my training and admire my Street Team's efforts, which are impressive.
Throughout this blog I will post other stuff I find useful which will hopefully become useful to you.
We're coming in to the beginning of Spring and this past week the weather was really beautiful. I did a "run" (in my world that is walking/slow jogging) outside in shorts and a t-shirt. It was heaven and it almost felt like I had the mythical "runner's high". Yes, all of you elite runners, I know it exists for you with your long gazelle like strides but I've never experienced it. Once. Ever. You all lie! No, seriously though, I've never experienced runner's high but it was so beautiful out Thursday night and I was so happy to have more than just my eyes exposed while outside that I could have gone twice the distance I did. I didn't though because I didn't want to injure myself, but I was a happy, happy girl.
My goal for this week is to run three times and swim twice. I may try to get a bike ride in there too but that is my strongest leg so I am focusing more on the swim and run for now to get some fitness back. I'll share one last thing with you today and then wish you farewell for now. This is a smoothie I drink after a work out and it is a total energy booster for me:
The Batavia Triathlon is a "Sprint" distance triathlon, but is a little longer than a traditional sprint distance. In a traditional sprint distance triathlon, it's a 400 meter swim, a 12.5 mile bike and 5K run. The Batavia Triathlon is the same swim but a 14.5 mile bike and a 4 mile run; thanks a lot, Batavia. Now, you may be saying to yourself, "That's not that much difference", but you try it and then we'll talk. Anyone who has made any attempt at running knows that there is a big difference between 3.1 and 4 miles...even more so after swimming and biking. I'm sure it will be just fine though, right? Right?
I thought I would share with you some of the resources I've been using to help train. The first and most important one is the book, "Slow Fat Triathlete" by Jayne Williams. She really could have written that book just for me and was a huge inspiration for me to start this blog. She also wrote me back when I posted on her Facebook wall, which I thought was super cool of her. She really made me feel okay for wanting to do this again and being horribly out of shape. Jayne if you ever read this blog, I owe you a beer next time you are in Chicago. Thank you.
Another great resource is runkeeper.com. One of my dearest friends, Meg, who is a super runner, uses it and turned me on to it. It's a great way to keep track of your training and you can create a Street Team of other people who are doing the same race as you to keep each other motivated. I love it. You can follow my training (if you care at all, and truly, it's not that impressive thus far) here. It uses GPS on your smartphone for tracking your running and biking and you can manually input things like swimming or treadmill running. I just started using it and it has been a great way to keep track of my training and admire my Street Team's efforts, which are impressive.
Throughout this blog I will post other stuff I find useful which will hopefully become useful to you.
We're coming in to the beginning of Spring and this past week the weather was really beautiful. I did a "run" (in my world that is walking/slow jogging) outside in shorts and a t-shirt. It was heaven and it almost felt like I had the mythical "runner's high". Yes, all of you elite runners, I know it exists for you with your long gazelle like strides but I've never experienced it. Once. Ever. You all lie! No, seriously though, I've never experienced runner's high but it was so beautiful out Thursday night and I was so happy to have more than just my eyes exposed while outside that I could have gone twice the distance I did. I didn't though because I didn't want to injure myself, but I was a happy, happy girl.
My goal for this week is to run three times and swim twice. I may try to get a bike ride in there too but that is my strongest leg so I am focusing more on the swim and run for now to get some fitness back. I'll share one last thing with you today and then wish you farewell for now. This is a smoothie I drink after a work out and it is a total energy booster for me:
Post workout smoothie
1 cup vanilla almond milk (can sub soy or regular milk)
1 cup frozen fruit (I'm totally in to strawberries right now)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp honey or agave nectar (can sub any sweetener but may need to use more or less depending on your taste)
2 tbsp ground flax seed
Put everything into a blender and whiz until smooth. It won't be completely smooth because of the flax seed but I love the texture of it. Also, I make mine dairy-free because dairy makes me phlegm-y and while that is unpleasant enough on it's own, it's even worse after a workout for some reason. Isn't phlegm a funny word? Anyway, sorry for that ADD moment. Have a good week!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Swim, bike, blog?
Fast forward to March 2011. I'm pushing 40, married, and a suburbanite who is happier than I've ever been. Oh, yeah, and fatter than I've ever been. The old saying, "fat and happy" didn't come from nowhere, you know. I have the best husband, best family, best friends. I love my job, love where I live. Everything is great, except for that whole fat part. Oh, and did I tell you I hate to exercise? Well, maybe hate is a strong word. I don't love to exercise. I am inherently a slacker. I am very successful...published author, have a dream job, make good money, happy marriage, family and social life, nice home...so I wouldn't call myself lazy, per se. But I do love a good long veg-out in jammie pants and a t-shirt, sitting on my big fluffy chair watching a marathon of Real Housewives of Insert City Name. So no, I don't jump out of bed every morning and spring into my running shoes and sing to the birds as I pound out mile after mile. I squeeze my tonnage into two, yes count them, two sports bras, ill-fitting workout pants and a XXL t-shirt to hide as much jiggling as I can and haul my carcass out to wheeze my way through a couple of miles. I hide in the bathroom stall at the pool to change and get in the pool as quickly as I can so the Michael Phelps look-a-like high-school swim team who is practicing two lanes over doesn't have much to gawk at. Like they're looking anyway, but in my mind the place is dark and there is a huge spotlight on me and the WWF announcer is booming over the loud speaker, LET'S GET READY TO GIIIIIIIIIIIIGLE! That's just all in my head. Right?
Anyway, this is my first blog (EVER) and I thought it would help me work out my issues as I trained and possibly give you a laugh or two as I work my way up to the June 12, 2011 Batavia Triathlon (www.bataviatriathlon.org) in Batavia, Illinois where I live. Yep, I'm doing it again and telling all of you about it. I've always been scared to blog because I don't like to put myself out there too much but thought I needed something else to help me along the way. So, this is it. My blog. Big Girls Don't Tri...or do they? I hope you enjoy it.
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