Wow, has life ever caught up with me.

I'm still whittling away pound by pound, mile by mile. I just finished week six of C25K today. Never in a million YEARS did I think I'd be able to run for 25 minutes straight! I'm running comfortably at 4.3 mph, which puts me just slightly under a 14 minute mile, my fastest pace thus far. I'm also maintaining my weight at 195.

I've started seeing a guy who takes fitness and a healthy lifestyle very seriously and having him in my life has been incredibly instrumental in keeping me on track. We are usually active when we're together.. either on the trail, walking Lucy, or something else. Yesterday we went to a Zumbathon for two hours. Kicked my butt, but I LOVED it. :) He was such a trooper.

The only thing I'm really struggling with is bumping up my workouts and weight training. I do an hour of Zumba on Mondays and Thursdays, then Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are usually running days. I get in a short walk on Friday and fill in wherever on Saturday if I have time. Since I'm typically with Boy on Fridays and Saturdays, it's difficult for me to fit actual gym time in. I need to start pushing myself to do an hour at the gym three days a week, especially if I want to see more weight come off.

I feel very good about how my fitness level is increasing though. I went for my first outside run a few weeks ago and ran for about 20 minutes through my apartment complex. I laughed because I remember walking that path not that long ago and being upset because of how far I'd have to walk to get home, and now I'm RUNNING it. :) I still have a month left before the 5k I signed up for. I'm able to run 2 miles without really struggling, so I'm confident that I can do the whole 5K, especially with the time I have left to train. As long as I can bump up my weight training, especially my legs, to add some force behind my run, I should be good. :)

C25K

I've been working on the Couch to 5K. Today I started week three, two cycles of 90/90 and 3 min./3 mins. It wasn't bad! I actually felt like I easily could have kept running after the three minute intervals. However, my quad/knee/hip is a little messed up. I'm not sure what I did, but it's been bothering me since last week. Like, when I move, it gets sore, but once I hold that position for awhile, I'm okay. It's weird.. I'm hoping it's nothing serious. I'm taking tomorrow night off from any workout. I have dinner plans and I REALLY could use a night off I think. I have a really hard time saying that I can take a night off. With the 5k, Megatransect, and Biggest Loser at stake, I can't stop myself from hitting the gym, lol.

#15

Starting weight: 222
Last week's weight: 199

This week's weight: 195

This week's loss: -4
Total loss: -27

Not bad for only going to the gym once this week! I really regulated what I ate. I made sure to eat just like I was at school because that's what works best for me. I did some good indoor workouts and made sure to get Lucy out in the snow as much as I could. I kicked my BUTT yesterday once I finally ventured out to the gym. I had myself convinced that I wasn't going because I had spent over an hour shoveling myself out. Around 2, I was going stir crazy, so I decided to bundle up and make the trek to the gym. Roads were clear! So I did 45 minutes on the eliptical (burned a good 500 calories), and then I did the 30-minute circuit. Felt SO good.

I'm home for the weekend. This is the first time I've been home since Christmas.. I've lost 25 pounds since then. Isn't that insane? I'm taking a Zumba class tomorrow with my sister and I'll be able to get out a lot because my family's really active. I'll be checking the scale the morning after I get home to see how I fared!

Working out inside.

So, I scratched the stairs and WATP plan. I found a fitness walk On Demand that I thought I'd give a shot. It's a 45-minute workout and it kicked my butt! Granted, I can't do it as intensely as I'd like to since I'm on the 2nd floor, but it still was a good workout. I'm sweaty and tired and my arms are shaking from the resistance part. It breaks down into 5-minute intervals. Five minutes of walking, then five minutes of strength training and so on. Really good workout!

I may still do another workout later, just because I'm going stir crazy, but I do need to clean up around here before I do anything else.

Snow.

I'm tired of the snow. This weekend, we got around 20 inches. I live on top of a hill and drive a little sedan. If it snows, I'm snowed in. If I had a treadmill, I wouldn't complain, but I live in a 2nd floor apartment and can't really workout the way I'd like to when I'm home. So, Saturday consisted of three miles of Walk away the Pounds and Sunday I was out of comission from the cold, but I did get Lucy out for two walks in the snow.

I did a mile walk yesterday morning, Zumba, and two Lucy walks. I didn't have time to make it to the gym on top of that, but I didn't think I would need it. Plus, when I left Zumba, my right knee was really messed up. Tonight, I planned on going to the gym after a 4 PM meeting thinking that the snow wasn't supposed to get heavy until dark. Wrong. Luckily, I walked laps around the lower level of the building for about 40 minutes with two of my coworkers so I did get some activity in.. but once again, not as intense as I'd like.

I'm assuming tomorrow will be a snow day and I'm not going to be able to get out of the apartment because we're looking at close to another 20" of snow. I'm planning on doing half an hour of stairclimbing on my own stairs. Plus either yoga or strength training and the three-mile walk. AND I need to do some serious cleaning, which will also keep me off my butt.

I just hate working out inside.

I'm frustrated because I want to work on training for the 5K, the Mega, and the school's Biggest Loser contest. I need to work on keeping my eating under control while I'm snowed in because I usually just want to eat. I REALLY want to win the Biggest Loser contest, but with losses like this week, it's not going to happen.

#14

Starting weight: 222
Last week's weight: 200

This week's weight: 199

This week's loss: -1
Total loss: -23

Okay. It's a loss and it puts me out of the 200's, but really? ONE pound? Ugh.

Positives:
1. Completed first week of Couch to 5K.
2. Got in a 3 mile indoor walk yesterday during the crazy snowstorm (Leslie Sansone)
3. I'm OUT of the 200's!
4. It was a loss.

Negatives:
1. Having a hard time keeping myself from snacking.
2. Did not have STRONG workouts like I should have.
3. Small loss.

I need to bump up my workouts this week. I have an easy week as far as school goes, so I'm going to try to stick with 45 minute workouts each night this week. We have a two-hour delay tomorrow morning, so I'm planning on doing the two mile WATP workout when I get up, plus a walk with Lucy. Unless we're closed, I'll have Zumba at 3:30 as well. I'm going to do strength training when I get home from Zumba, plus another Lucy walk.

I will be weighing in on Friday this week because I'm going home to my parents' right after school Friday afternoon. I'm planning on getting some hikes in and some runs with Mom. I haven't been home since I got serious about losing and getting fit after Christmas, so I'm hoping I can control myself with the food and the laziness.

Sick.

I started feeling sort of crummy on Tuesday, but I forced myself to go to the gym and start day 1 of the Couch to 5k. Yesterday we had a two-hour delay at school and I had to run a bunch of errands afterwards, which really messed up my eating. Not because of WHAT I ate, but because of the time. I ate breakfast at 9 and then ate lunch at 12:30 and wasn't hungry. I wasn't really hungry for dinner either so I ended up having a bowl of Special K. I forced myself through a 30-minute eliptical workout, but I didn't feel like really putting any effort in.

I took a sick day today and part of me wants to just sit here and do nothing. My nose is stuffy and my head hurts. (Granted, that might be from not having my morning coffee).. but the Couch to 5K schedule on the wall and the $25 check I just wrote out for the Biggest Loser are telling me otherwise. I think I'm going to take a dose of Dayquil, drink some Fruit 2 Day, and then head off to the gym.