Five Thing Friday - Running Edition?

WHAT?? Did I say the running edition??? Oh yes, yes I did. When I ran the 5k last weekend, it had literally been months since I'd last ran. I almost had to relinquish my "runner's card".

I should have made time for it. Instead I sat on my ass for the first few months of the year, went back to JC, and knew I had to get back into the fitness grove. I didn't run though, I went to spin class, a lot. However, I'm slowly coming to the realization that I can't love spin like I want. Because I keep throwing my lower back. hips out of place when I do. Hence my more frequent trips to the chiropractor.

Me - Soooo, what exercise can I do tomorrow?
Dr. B - Well, I'd say you could go to spin class, because it's lower impact, but you'll hurt yourself. Go run instead.
Me - On a treadmill?!?! It's 90 degrees outside. It's like you don't even know me.
Dr. B - Whenever they say that  90% of patients who are successful should follow one path, and 10% defy standard medical practice? You're the 10%.
Me - I'll take that as a compliment.

Really though, my chiropractor is awesome. If you live in the Raleigh area, Osborne Chiropractic is fantastic. I've been regularly for maintenance and they've helped me for normal aches and pains and the few times I've been injured.

OK, on to my 5 Running things. The 5 things I think about most while running.

1. Does that hurt? Am I in pain? Is that a normal running twinge or am I hurting myself? Oh Lord, please don't let me be hurting myself, I don't have time to be injured. Oh, my shoulder is getting sore, I must be tense, I should relax more when I run. How's my form? Is it OK? let me check my stride, it doesn't hurt OK, good.

2. That dude is walking by himself on the trail. I hope he's not looking for people to kidnap. If I scream, will anyone hear me? What if they don't hear me, can I get away? I'm kinda sweaty, I might slip out of his grasp. I could kick him in the crotch if I had to. Remember that Facts of Life episode when they taught self defense, because Natalie was attacked?

Kinda, I have to use my keys as a weapon. Fuck where are my keys? Oh, he's gone, and there's an old man and his dog, he'll help me.

3. Damn it's hot. Well, it's not that hot, I'm out of shape. Damn am I out of shape. I can't breathe. How far have I gone?  O Lord, I though I'd gone further. Why is this road so long? When I can I walk? If I go another half mile I can walk. Fine, 5 more minutes, can I make it 5 more minutes? Maybe I need a better song. I need like a 5 minute song. 

4. Hamilton.

I've been listening to a lot of Hamilton. A LOT. I've gotten some odd looks while running on the treadmill and singing / rapping along. I could go on and on about how awesome it is, but you should listen yourself. Our 10 year anniversary is in August and for shits an giggles Kev looked to see how much Hamilton tickets were. Yea, sold out, Stub Hub for $700 apiece. Several years ago, we were in NYC a year and a half after Wicked opened and they were sold out for the next year and a half. Randomly Kev called to see if they had any tickets that night and at first the ticket lady laughed at him, then she saw 2 seats left, that night! He thinks lightening might strike twice, but I doubt it.

5. Tots

Obvs this was pre-Jenny, but morning runs always end with the Whole Foods Breakfast bar and tots. I think about tots constantly when I'm running.

What about you? What do you think about while exercising?

Linking up with Amanda - Meet @ the Barre! AND

Weigh-in Week 2

I'm gonna try something different this time, instead of smooshing my weigh ins and weekend, in the same post, I'm going to make them separate and talk about what worked, what didn't, my workouts, any cheats, and a selfie to track progress..

Another week, another weigh in. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen that I lost 2.0 pounds this week for a total of 4.8. Yea, apparently I lost 2.8 last week instead of 2.5. 

I'm definitely a little disappointed that I still haven't seen a big initial loss. Like I said, the last time, I had a 6lb first week loss then it consistently went down every week after that. I keep thinking that I should see a 6 or 4lb loss and I haven't. I was lamenting that I hadn't seen a big initial drop, Kevin reminded me that it might be that I'm just not retaining a lot of water. Most initial big drops are from the initial water weight and maybe I just don't have all that much?

He reminded me that I used to be mushy and now I'm not. I think I weigh about the same in these 2 pictures.

If I ever say I want to cut my hair short again, someone show me this picture and slap me.

I think that's why I was shocked to see I gained as much as I did. I don't look like that lady in the picture. I just don't. Yes these pants are stretchy and the shirt is flowy, but these are size 10 pants and a med shirt. I must have some killer muscles under my fat.

Even though I'm a little disappointed, I know the program will work for me, it did for 50 pounds and can do it again. I just have to stay focused.

Workouts:
Saturday - Body Pump
Sunday - Body Flow
Weds - Boot Camp

I definitely think I could have done better in this area. Sat and Sunday I was feeling pretty rough, I just didn't have a lot of energy and I was hungrier than I should have been. Thankfully something switched on Monday and my energy was back and I didn't feel like I wanted to eat my face all the time. Now that I've turned the corner, I think I can start incorporating in some harder workouts.

Cheats:
I ate off plan 1 day, but it was pretty close to what I would have been able to eat. We went out for steak on Saturday night and I had about 4 oz of prime rib. Then I had truffled cauliflower and some other veggie I can't remember. I didn't eat my lunch fat and was planning on not eating dessert and having wine instead. I didn't really like the wine and since we ate kinda early, I new I'd want my dessert later, so no wine. I'm sure I went over on my fats but it wasn't terrible. If we're going to eat out, I like doing it on Saturday and giving myself an entire week to make it up.

I also think I had 1 tortilla chip on cinco de mayo, 1x I had an extra fruit because I was hungry at night and one day I had a small piece of cheese. All in all, not terrible and enough to get a 2lb loss.

Oh, I've been posting more on Instagram recently because I like looking at other people loosing weight and what they eat. I changed my "name" to LarasLosingAgain. I needed a new name, it was time. I was trying to decide what it should be and I kept coming up with the phrase "goes down" or "Lara Goes Down", which I realized sounded more like a porno than a weight loss feed. At least I came up with a better idea.

My "week" starts on Saturday so I'm already 2 days in as I type this, but I think I'm off to a good start, here's to another loss this week! Wish me luck!

Linking up with BLoved Boston!

Time to face the music

Yes, yes, it's been a while since I posted on here. No real excuses, but life got in the way. Now I'm back. I won't make any promises about how long, but I'm here because I have some things to talk about and I need to hold myself accountable.

I know it's on my Instagram and I think somewhere in my bio, about how I lost 50 pounds on Jenny Craig in 2011. My first weigh in was at a whopping 210 pounds. For someone just 5' 3", that's a lot. I don't have a lot of pictures from back then, but Facebook was kind enough to show me this on Halloween.

Obvs I was a witch and I had my black cat. Pretty chunky.

I was on Jenny for almost a year and my goal weight was 160. Here's me about there. The one on the right was taken 2 moths before goal and the one on the left 4 months after wards. I'd put myself at 163ish in both of these.

Call me delusional, but I think my 163 looks different than other people's. I was wearing a size 8 or 10 pant and that color block tunic from the Loft is a small. The striped one on the right is an Express medium.

I maintained my Jenny weight within 5 pounds for a year and in the summer of 2012 I stopped going to the center. Stuff happened, I was on maintenance, I was doing fine. I enjoyed my wine and sushi and it was good. I ran some half marathons and went to a lot of Body Pump and Spin classes.

Slowly but surely, the pounds crept back. The last time I weighed myself was in the summer of 2013 and I was at 170. Not terrible, just 10 pounds over goal, no biggie. First the pants that were super lose got tighter, then they fit well, then I went into the next size up portion of my closet. The medium shirts gave way to larges. And so it goes. #DontGoThreeYearsWithoutWeighingYourself

But I look at myself in the mirror every day and I was pretty sure I'd gained back 20-25ish of the 50 I lost. So I tried several things over the last 2 years. I joined a running club, did a 24 day detox, I did the Whole 30, the 21 Day Sugar Detox (I still haven't had artificial sweeteners in 2.5 years). What else, I had my macros done, tried that, and most recently I had my resting metabolism tested and started seeing a nutritionist. Fun fact, I apparently burn 1627 calories at rest. Really, my metabolism is disgustingly normal.

At the end of last year I was working back from my hip injury and unable to workout. It really messed with my motivation and I felt myself get one step bigger. That's when I went to the nutritionist. I never really got into it and it seemed like every day something happened and I was over my calories or had too many carbs or something.

Last Sunday night I might have had a mini breakdown. I was sick and tired of watching all my hard work backslide. So I called Jenny Craig. One of my biggest fears of going back was that I had developed a soy sensitivity and all foods have soy in them, and could I handle eating the food 3x a day for the next few months.

They had a special, it was 3 days of food, breakfast lunch and dinner, for $40, free shipping, So I ordered it. Worst case, I'm out $40. I talked to one of the phone reps and they renewed  my legacy membership for $0 and made me an appointment at my old center on Saturday morning at 8am. I ate 3 days of Jenny and had 0 pain or intestinal distress.

That morning, I picked out clothes that were light, peed 2x and didn't eat or drink anything. (that's what you have to do for the best results). If you can get up early enough to #2, that's great too. Did you really think I'd do an entire post that didn't include some sort of potty humor?

For the first time in 3 years, I got on the scale. Did I mention that going that long is really, really bad?

I knew it would be bad, but not 42.5  pounds regained bad. That's right, do the math, ouch.

So, back I go to Jenny Craig. Back to weekly weigh-ins and accountability. I also signed up for a 30 day Boot Camp which starts tomorrow. I know my mom is going to comment that I look beautiful regardless of what I weigh and others will say that a number on the scale doesn't define you. I get it.

But what I don't like is that I busted my ass for a YEAR to lose 50 flipping pounds and gained most of it back over 4 years. A fucking year.

So I'll do it again and turn this blog into a weight loss blog. There's going to be a lot of this:

(Everything you ever wanted to know about Jenny Craig food hacks.)

And some of this.

(most recent selfie of me. Mid March)

And some sweaty pictures too.

Hopefully this won't be a year long journey, but it will be the last time I need to lose 40+ pounds.

Linking up with BLoved Boston! AND

Wednesday Hop and Confessions

Wednesday already??? OMG, the week is flying by. It's really concerning because I have a new hire starting Monday and literally have nothing ready for her. I mean she has a desk and a chair, so that's a plus. I'll throw a pen at her and she should be good to go. :)

Well, It's tine for 2 of my favorite hops! Shoot on over to say heeeeeyyyy to Fitness Blondie and Vodka and Soda

 

 

I really love the Wednesday confessions so I'm gonna roll with it. I thought I would run out of things to confess, but apparently not. I keep a little list on my phone as I think of things. The list is long....

 

 

1. My dog doesn't like you. I think this is my PSA to the world. Not all dogs like everyone. It's not an innate dog trait that they come up to you for love and affection. If you're new, don't run up and pet my dog. Now, once she knows you, and sees you aren't trying to kill us, she loves you. Cleo also doesn't like men, she just doesn't. We got her from the SPCA when she was 7 months old and have had her for 2 years. I don't know what happened before she came to she shelter but it's apparently stuck with her.

Please, when you meet a new dog, don't run up and try to pet them. And please don't let your kids run up to dogs they haven't met before.



 

She's really cute though,
 

2. Well, that was a downer... OK, on to something a little more lighthearted. This weekend we went to a beer, bourbon and BBQ festival. There I learned that I'm not really a fan of Bourbon. It's OK, but I wasn't in love. But you know what I did love? MOONSHINE. Is it any surprise that this former WV gal loved her moonshine? Not really.

 

I thought it would be like the grain alcohol of days gone by, but it wasn't. It was so, so good.The Sugarlands Butterscotch Moonshine was AMAZING. I had many, many samples. Now I have to go to the ABC store and harass them to carry it.

3. I'm a sweaty gal at the gym. In real live I'm not one of those people who are constantly mopping themselves off or looking for a fan. I'm actually pretty cold most of the time. People around me are sweating like crazy and I'm perfectly happy. Now, at the gym, all that changes. I sweat, a lot. I always have a headband because without it I'm constantly wiping sweat from my eyes. I just don't understand the people who can walk out of a 60 minute spin class completely dry.

 

This one from lululemon is my absolute favorite and I also live these Biondi Bands. I have an enormous head and these ones don't squeeze my brain and they're super wicking.

4. I'm terrible with my right and my left. If you ask me which way to turn, I have to look at my hands and think about it. I always have. You'd think I'd get it right 50% of the time but I don't. It's more like 15%. I'm sure this is a sign of genius.

Or, Milk hand and cookie hand. 

 

5. I won't remember your name. I'm TERRIBLE with names, just awful. When I was a trainer, I would have people in class for 4 weeks, 4 WEEKS, every single day. They'd leave for a week, come back and I'd forgotten their names. I've seen like 4 people here at my new job that I KNOW I worked with at Wachovia. Heck, at least 2 of them reported to me and I can't for the life of me remember their names. Thankfully I was fat back then and I look different enough now that they wouldn't recognize me. This is also why I accept any and all LinkedIn requests. I figure you probably know me even if I don't know you. As long as your profile pix isn't a big penis, we can be buds.

 

 

 

 

That's all for me! Have a great Wednesday!

 

What do you have to confess?

 

Ever Had Moonshine? What'd you think?

 

 



Monday Awesomeness

Happy Monday!

It's the first of the month and that means it's time for the Secret Blogger Club! Thanks to The Blonder Side and Welcome to the Nuthouse for hosting! Don't forget to say hi to Kendall for co-hosting too!

This month's topic is "What makes you awesome?" This is actually a tough one for me. Not because I don't think I'm awesome. I think I'm pretty flipping amazing. I just need to figure out a way to type it up without it sounding bad. LOL, I might not be starting on the right foot here.

I was thinking about some traits that makes me, and other awesome people, pretty darn fantastic and this is what I came up with.

Don't take any passive aggressive BS. There's nothing I hate more than passive aggressive people. I'm a confronter. If I think there's a problem, I'm going to ask why. It's not going to be in an aggressive way but sniping behind each other's backs isn't any way to live. If after we talk it out you still don't like me or want to be friends, that's cool. Don't get me wrong, I can have my own bouts of passive aggressive behavior but it usually passes in a few days. Anything that lingers longer than that, I'll confront. Just say no!

Believe in yourself! I firmly believe that with the right information, I can solve any problem. I'm not going to find a cure for cancer or perform brain surgery but if there's an obstacle, I truly believe it can be solved. If I can't, it just means I haven't figured out a way. I think sometimes people can get really comfortable and small issues bloom into insurmountable problems. Stop it and change your way of thinking!

You're responsible for your own destiny. Stop waiting for things to happen and MAKE THEM HAPPEN. The status quo is easy. It's easy to be fat. Yes, easy. It's easy to eat whatever you want and spend more time on the couch than up and moving. You know what's hard? Finding the time to fit in a workout when everything else is vying for your attention. It's hard to be "that person" who won't eat what's being served because it isn't on you meal plan. You have exactly one live to live. Live it in a body that will let you experience life to the fullest.

Love yourself and love others. Don't hold grudges, it isn't worth it. Kev likes to say that I'm an anti-girl because I never remember fights. I'm not the person who'll bring up some dumb issue from 12 years ago. First of all, I've already forgotten about it and it's just not important. Do yourself a favor, reach out to someone who you've had an issue with. Even of they don't respond, tell them that you're thinking of them and the past is in the past.

Except Guy Fieri. I'm holding what might now be a 4 year grudge against him. We were in Atlantic City and stopped at White House Subs, which are famous and amazing. The wait is always long and that's fine. But Guy Fieri and his entourage were in there and people were losing their minds. It took almost 45 minutes to get our subs and after we left town, discovered they were wrong. That's not like them at all and I blame Guy. I was waiting all trip for that sub and the Guy Fieri distraction made it bad. If you can't tell, I take my food very seriously. While we were there, JJ Walker came in as well and no one cared. His sub was probably wrong too.

Words to live by Guy, words to live by.

What makes you awesome?

Guy Fieri, keep up the grudge or let it go?