A New Me

I think I like Mondays.  I had a great Monday yesterday.  I've discovered that time doesn't flow normally for me.  My days are pretty much the same all week long.  There really is no break and so there is no beginning.  Therefore, there is nothing to dread about Monday like most people dread the start of a new work week or the first day back at school.  Monday for me means Zumba toning, and I have come to really like the Monday morning Zumba toning class.  I really don't like to lift weights, and I really don't like the body pump class, but I love the Zumba toning class.  It's definitely not anywhere near as intense as a body pump class but I was sore last week and I am sore today.  Last week I was really sore in my legs, today I am sore in more concentrated areas and it's not as intense which is nice.  I hate being so sore I can't move.  That motivates no one to go do it again. 

Monday Morning I had a 1,000 yard swim on the schedule which I completed and I even shaved off 3 seconds of my 50 yard swim.  Although I couldn't keep that pace for an extended period of time.  I have noticed that I am using my legs more, kicking harder and therefore my legs are burning more.  I can definitely see the benefit of having strong legs.  I think after the triathlon they will be dead.  I burned 233 calories in 27 minutes of swimming and then rocked it out at Zumba toning and burned another 539.  I ate 1,822 calories and had 430 left over that I didn't eat.  I also haven't been having my typical afternoon slump lately which is awesome.  Maybe it's because I have had things to do.  Yesterday I started the homeschool Preschool program I found online and the kids loved it.  I finally got the calendar laminated and all ready to go just in time.  I think the Calendar was one of their favorite parts.

Aren't they so cute!  Chloe was in and out of the activities which is totally fine, she is only 2 and there are lots of other toys and books and things for her to do in that room while Lily and I work on other school stuff.  But she would be so sad if she were left out, besides it's good for her to get exposed to the alphabet, she doesn't know it at all.  The crazy thing is Lily has known the alphabet since she was Chloe's age!  She is one smart cookie. 

Here are some other super cute pictures of our preschool activities from yesterday and today.

And probably my very favorite photos was of the movement activity where we made our bodies look like the letter A.  The kids found it fascinating and I found it incredibly cute.

Today I took my bike out for an actually bike ride for the first time in over 6 years.  I want to get as many bike rides outside as I can before the tri since it will be a mountain biking segment.  I went out for 30 minutes and I was so wobbly at first!  I couldn't hardly stay on the sidewalk to get over to the greenbelt.  After about 2 minutes I was doing much better but I had to figure out all the gears again.  Riding outside is definitely different than riding a stationary bike inside.  I burned 244 calories in 30 minutes riding outside on fairly level ground.  I really tried to push myself (not too hard since it was supposed to be an easy ride, but since there weren't really any hills I thought I was doing fine with my pace).  And managed to keep my heart rate around 140 for most of the ride.  My average however was 135 and my max was 157 when I was going up that one hill.

Maybe I have finally found a purpose, maybe I have finally rediscovered my why, I'm not sure what happened (which I know is of absolutely no use to you) but the last week and a half since I started training has just been great.  I have been excited for my workouts, I have been tracking everything and I have been staying within my calorie range, often not even eating all my workout calories because I just wasn't hungry.  I definitely think that being sick to my stomach for a while has had an effect on my decreased appetite.  I hope that once I get all better again I don't start going crazy with food again.  I haven't been obsessing over my weight, I haven't been weighing every day.  The thought will cross my mind "I wonder what I weigh now" but then I remind myself it's not weigh in day and besides that, it's not really all that important anyway.  What is important is that I eat right and that I am doing the very best I can in every training session.  I am still struggling to eat enough vegetables.  Today I ate 1,680 calories and the only vegetables I managed to eat were the onions in my fajitas.  Not very stellar. 

I did eat some cheesecake today, my first real dessert since I started training.  Which is amazing given my history of sugar obsession.  I just haven't wanted to waste the calories on it.  I weighed out my cheesecake: 4 oz.  I didn't seem like a lot on the plate since I am used to eating large slices of dessert, but it was enough and I couldn't even finish it.  I think my stomach is still a little upset, either that or my week and a half of hardly no desserts has already altered my senses.  But that doesn't seem right because I have gone off sugar for two and three weeks before only to binge on it later.  Maybe it's because this time it's not off limits.  I can eat it if I want to, I even usually have extra calories to spend on it if I wanted to... I just don't want to. 

Something weird is definitely going on.  I wish I could identify it, and I'm terrified that things will just go back to the way they were.  It's like everything I've been praying for for the last 3 years has been granted.  I feel more purposeful and like I am interacting with the kids and teaching them not just surviving.  I have more energy throughout the day, my afternoon energy crashes are really minimal, unlike the ones that left me passed out on the couch.  My food is under control, and even my thoughts.  I'm happier with myself, and my body.  I know I want to lose weight but I also know that it isn't going to happen overnight and I am okay with where I am at now.  I know I will continue to make progress since I am doing the things that are right.  I'm not doing anything extreme, it definitely feels sustainable.  I can't say I'm content because I am still moving forward.

Looking at recent events in my life the only things that have changed is that I started a homeschool preschool program and I started my triathlon training.  The thing that is similar between both of these things is a schedule.  I have been living with no schedule since Lily was born.  Is it possible my life just needed a schedule?  I tried several times to develop a sort of schedule but the kids were really just too little.  It's certainly something to keep in mind as these programs will both end, and if that is key: having an exercise schedule and having a schedule with the kids, I will need to figure out what to do next and make sure I always have a schedule from here on out.  Although I'm terrified that everything will suddenly revert back to the way it was, or the "old me" I am excited for the future because this new me is definitely worth fighting for.

Mother's Day Weekend

I woke up Saturday feeling exhausted and sick.  Matt wanted to watch Avatar and we didn't get to bed until 11pm and then I couldn't fall asleep until 1am.  Whenever we watch a movie late at night I just can't fall asleep.  So I got a grand total of 5 hours of sleep Friday night.  Combined with the poor sleep I have been getting all week thanks to Chloe, I did not feel well.  I felt most of the day feeling sick to my stomach and lightly depressed.  The weather has been really weird here too.  It's been raining like crazy all week and Saturday was no exception.  We were rained on in the morning, and then we decided to cancel my Pampered Chef show due to the weather since it was flooding all over and it was supposed to rain/hail/sleet/snow all afternoon.  I took a two hour nap in the afternoon with Chloe, it was much needed.  Matt was planning on watching the kids during that time anyway so it was nice to get some much needed sleep.  Due to the weather we canceled our dinner plans which I was super bummed about, but I felt so sick I skipped dinner anyway so it's probably just as well.  I only ate 1,000 calories on Saturday which is unusual for me even if I am sick.  I usually eat my weight in saltine crackers when my stomach is upset, but on Saturday all I wanted to do was sleep.  I did have some Chamomile tea in the evening which seemed to help.  Saturday was also my weigh in day which ended up being the highlight of my day.  I was 153.2.  Down from 158.4 the previous week.  I know a few pounds of that higher number was because I had binged on cookies the night before, but I had been hanging out around 156, 155 for about 3 weeks so I am happy with 153.2.  Even if you take my weight from the beginning of April which is 154 I'm still down a pound.  So like I said, very pleased.  I ate well all week, did all my workouts, and I hope against hope that I can stay on track for the remaining 11 weeks and drop some weight so I don't feel so foolish come race day.  Overweight and Triathlon just don't mix nicely in my head.  When you think of triathlon runners I definitely don't think of overweight people, but when I signed up there was a category for women who were over 165 pounds which I thought was interesting.  So I guess just like other races, there are overweight people who are interested in doing those events.  But not me!  That is not what I want my race to look like.  I would love to finish in the middle of the pack, which would be a miracle.  Even in high school cross country I was one of the last people to cross the finish line. 

Saturday night was rough.  Chloe was feeling really sick, probably with the exact same thing I had and she woke up screaming several times and I was terrified that she had thrown up.  Fortunately she hadn't and I just rocked her back to sleep, after looking at my fitbit the next day I clocked 5 hours and 45 minutes of sleep.  I felt mildly better in the morning, but not much.  The morning proved to be pretty stressful trying to get the kids ready for church, along with myself, and get out the door on time.  I also had to finish preparing my lesson since you know I didn't do anything yesterday I was way too sick.  After church I was feeling less stressed and managed to get the family fed and Matt helped me clean the kitchen which was overflowing from me not doing the dishes yesterday.  Matt bought me a cherry tomato plant for mother's day.  (I love cherry tomatoes) and the kids bought me some Petunia's from Costco.  That was sweet of them. 

My Tomato plant and petunias

After cleaning the kitchen we packed everyone up and headed over to my grandparent's house where my whole family was meeting for dinner.  I still wasn't feeling well so I didn't eat much.  Just some of the fresh fruit they had out, one small steak, and one finger potato.  They even had sparkling grape juice which I usually down by the bottle but I didn't even finish my glass which was probably just half a cup.  I had one bite of cheesecake and knew I didn't want anything else.  It didn't even taste very good and I wonder if that is just because I'm not feeling well.  Strange though, usually sweets still taste good even when I'm not feeling well.  Several times when I've been sick I've caused myself to throw up because I ate something sweet that really aggravated my stomach.... maybe I've finally learned my lesson.  I finished today around 1500 calories which is really great for a Sunday.  I'm hoping the kids sleep tonight and I can get some good sleep in tomorrow and fell better.  I don't want to miss any days of training and besides that Zumba toning is tomorrow and I don't want to miss that. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's who read my blog!

Something Changed in my Head

Yesterday went well as far as eating goes.  I stayed home from the gym to give the kids a break and so I tried my best to stay within my calorie range.  Matt wanted to go out to eat for lunch, and fortunately he wanted to go get Korean food and there is a whole host of healthy food choices.  I ordered a soup called Doenjang Jjigae which is this fermented bean soup with vegetables which sounds gross when I write it down but I actually really like it.  It is super flavorful like a lot of Korean food.  Koreans flavor their food with spice instead of fats and oils like in American culture so their food is in general a lot healthier.  I stayed away from the rice that came with my soup, that is where Korean food will get you, rice comes with everything and you always get about a cup of rice with every meal (unless you are ordering a meal made out of rice).  At 242 calories per cup rice will really add up fast if you are eating three cups per day (yes, they eat rice with breakfast too).  Anyway, the soup looks like this:

Source

MFP has one bowl of the soup at 211 calories.  Not bad for eating out!  I did have some of the "side dishes" which are all basically a variety of vegetables cooked and seasoned in various ways.  Also Matt ordered this Kimchi pancake thing which I know what really high in calories but I only had a few bites so I tracked half a cup of rice to make up for that.  Usually I eat at least half of the buchimgae, but since Matt wanted it and I was really trying to not go over today, I mostly stayed out of it.  I was still satisfied when I was finished eating, but not stuffed so I was proud of myself.  The buchimgae looks like this:

Source

Even though I didn't workout yesterday I tried to stay fairly active throughout the day.  I swept and mopped the kitchen floors, which quickly became dirty again as it's been raining like crazy this week and the kids are tracking in dirt and mud more than usual.  After the floors we all went out into the backyard and I worked on weeding the walkway some more.  Chloe fell asleep around 12:30 and slept for three hours so Lily and I were able to do lots of fun activities together.  We painted, finished up her PreK workbook that I found in the dollar section at the store, did her reading lesson and our favorite made fruit kabobs!

That bottom one is Lily holding up her workbook, it's the back side that says "I Did It!" 

I ended the day with 22 calories to spare and ate 1458 calories.  I haven't had any desserts in a week and it hasn't even felt hard.  I have had a great week and I have been really motivated.  I was talking to my friend today and I thought I would write down some of the things I mentioned since it has to do with me getting out of my "old" mindset and into a brand new mindset .

My friend was lamenting how she has been off track for so long and that her eating has been out of control.  I said Sign up for a triathlon and then become so terrified of not finishing or coming in last that you freak yourself out into being good.  That's what happened to me, my training started last Saturday and I've been good with my eating ever since.  Mostly because I do not want to be the fattest one at the race, and I don't want to come in so far behind everyone else that they are cleaning up the course before I finish.  That is an embarrassment I plan on avoiding at all costs.  Once I started training something changed in my head.  I just had an intense desire to eat right and get into better shape.  To eat so that all my training can actually change my body instead of working out so much and just getting pudgier from overeating.  I set my calories at 1480 (about 1 pound loss per week) and allow myself to eat all my exercise calories and I wear my HRM to calculate how much I burn.  I eat a post workout snack about 30 minutes after my workout (basically after my shower) and that has been really helping to keep up my energy and prevent me from starving by the time I get home to eat lunch. 


I don't know if I will be able to blog again until Monday so I hope you all have a great weekend!  Weigh in day is tomorrow so maybe I will try to get in a quick post in the morning. 

Three Ingredients

Here we are on Wednesday.  My favorite Zumba class is today, which is perfect because Lily has dance class at the exact same time so we are always at the gym at the time Zumba starts.  I felt better today than I did last night.  Last night was rough, I was sore all over and aching.  I was dreading today because usually day two of being sore is the worst day, but today wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday.  Perhaps it was because I drank more water, or ate more protein, or did some cardio, or sat in the hot tub... or maybe it was because of all of those things.  My hamstrings were the most sore.  I arrived early for Zumba so I could spin before.  I had another 20 minutes on the schedule today and I definitely noticed that it was harder today.  For one thing my butt really hurt from sitting on the bike on Monday.  "Saddle sore" I believe they call it.  But I made it through and decided that I definitely need to do a ride on the bike I will be using in the actual race so I know how it feels and what the stationary bike should feel like since they are all adjustable. 

After my 20 minute spin (HR around 140, 166 calories burned) I stretched my hamstrings for a while before Zumba.  Then I headed over to Zumba, 55 minutes and 469 calories later I walked out sweaty, tired, and super happy.  Before Zumba class today there were some people having a conversation about work.  They were mostly complaining about work and how it was really hard to get to the gym and still get to work and one of the girls was going to only get 3 hours of sleep today, and on and on.  I found myself thinking "Wow, I am really lucky that I don't have to deal with that.  I'm glad I don't have to work and get to the gym and take care of the kids."  Then I thought Wow!  I have FINALLY embraced my chosen path!  I truly have no regrets and I am so happy that I get to stay home with the kids.  It is a whole different set of challenges, but I think I would prefer my challenges and the freedom and flexibility that staying home creates for me.  For the first time in a very long time, I was smiling just because almost the whole time in Zumba. 

After my workout I took 10 minutes to myself and sat in the lounge and tried my new Larabar, and I had 2 mandarin oranges and a diet pepsi as a treat.  I tried the Peanut butter cookie Larabar and I loved it!

The thing that amazed me the most about it was that it has only three ingredients!  I was floored.

I love dates.  I think at least five of the pounds I gained during my "off" season was due to discovering dried dates and eating them.  There are 220 calories, 12g fat, 7g protein and 4g of fiber.  A great recovery snack.  I would like to find a bar with a lot more protein in it that also uses all natural ingredients.  Many protein bars have around 17g protein up to 30g for some of the meal replacement bars and so far the two other bars I have tried only have about 7.  But I'm not complaining.  I would rather eat something with less sugar and more real ingredients. 

This afternoon I tried a new recipe from the Feel Great in 8 blog.  I made her 3 ingredient banana peanut butter oatmeal cookies which aren't really a dessert but I wanted to try them for a snack.  Here is what they looked like all mixed up

And here was my final product.  After they finished baking I realized I should have pushed them down because mine looked much different than Tiffany's

Here is the recipe on Tiffany's site

Mine look like a round ball instead of a cookie haha.  They were still great, and at only 47 calories per "cookie" they make a great snack.  I had three of them for an afternoon snack around 2:30 and I didn't feel hungry again until about 5:00.  Of course I was out and about until 5:00 trying on wetsuits which was quite the ordeal.  I had never been in a wetsuit before and so trying to get into one for the first time was a feat in and of itself.  I was sweating all over by the time I finally got into it.  I am supposed to go try on some other brands later and now I am not looking forward to it!  I don't know how I am going to get out of that thing quickly during the race.  I guess it is a good thing I will be doing several open water swims with my wetsuit on before the race.  I need practice putting it on and off!  I think in my training program there should be a training day where you put your wetsuit on before workout out because putting that thing on felt like an exercise in and of itself! 

Anyway, for dinner tonight I tried a new recipe from my WW cookbook I have called shrimp scampi and it was really great.  Of course it wasn't until later I realized I added too much butter, but I was only over by 2 tsp so I figure it wasn't too bad. 

It was a really easy recipe and tasted great.  My calorie goal was 1,480 and I ate 1,856, add in 635 for exercise and I have 259 calories remaining.  I'm debating on whether or not to eat one of those non fat frozen yogurts in the freezer.  They are only 100 calories.  Chloe will be awake until probably 11pm tonight since she napped from 2-5pm so I might eat it later, we will see.  

Trying new foods

I woke up pretty sore this morning.  Doing the bike and then Zumba toning did a number on my legs and I was quite tired.  Of course Chloe getting up in the middle of the night from 2:30-4:00 could have had something to do with it. 

Today was quite busy, I made a breakfast of cottage cheese with applesauce, chia seeds, granola, and strawberries.  Chloe woke up much later than usual (at least she slept in after her midnight escapade).  This morning I made my meal plans for the week and I was really looking for something I could do for lunch as well as dinner.  I found this recipe on the Feel Great in 8 site.  I decided to make these whole grain chicken, cheddar and broccoli pockets as I thought they sounded good and I could make a whole bunch and keep them in the fridge for a while and keep some in the freezer for later.

Click here for Recipe

I made them tonight and they were really yummy.  It does take some time to assemble all of the pockets though.  Each one is 216 calories but it has your whole grain, protein, and vegetables in it!  Hopefully they will heat up nice and not be soggy coming out of the freezer.  So after my meal planning we were off to the grocery store, which wasn't too painful.  The kids kept running around but at least they were running in the same direction. 

After a rather hectic return from the store where I was trying to get everything put away, feed the kids lunch, set mouse traps, text my father in law, then send the kids outside, make lunch for me and for Matt, then get the kids gloves because their hands were cold (It's been raining and they wanted to play in the rain).... I sat down for about 5 minutes and then we went to the gym.  I needed to swim today since that was what was on my schedule but I also decided to run so I didn't have to exercise 6 days this week.  It's been cold and rainy all week and it isn't supposed to let up anytime soon.  In fact it's supposed to snow on Sunday.  Plus Matt is super busy with work and school with his exam coming up so I don't want to bother him to go run outside for 20 minutes, so to follow the program exactly I would have to go to the gym 6 days this week and that is rather hard to do with the kids.  They like the gym, but that is a little excessive.  I've already had to bribe Chloe twice this week not to throw a fit (even though she loves going to the gym, she gets pretty testy if we go too much).  I still need to go two more times, and Saturday is a new week so I guess three more times.  Tomorrow for sure because Lily has dance class.  I'm thinking of combining my swim and run again on Friday so I don't have to go Saturday too.  Once the weather clears up it should be easier to just go outside for a 30 minute run or bike.  (Especially if Matt isn't studying for exams). 

So today I ran first since getting my exercise clothes on after swimming can be a bit of a chore (mostly getting on a sports bra).  My triathlon schedule wanted me to run a total of 20 minutes which fit perfectly with the 10K trainer which was a 20 minute run as well.  5 minute warmup, 10 minute jog, 3 minute walk, 10 minute jog, 5 minute cool down.  I felt pretty good during the two 10 minute jogs.  My pace is at 6mph which is a 10 minute mile.  I would love to get faster but for now I am just focusing on surviving!  After my run I went down to the indoor lap pool for my swim.  I had 800 yards on the schedule which took me 20 minutes to do.  It was pretty easy, which is good because I set the swim workouts at the intermediate level so they get harder much faster.  I did a 200 warm up, then 2 sets of 50s with 15 second rests inbetween then 6 sets of 50s with 10 seconds inbetween and then a 200 cooldown for a total of 800 yards.  It was a bit more difficult with the shorter rest inbetween each lap.  Usually I wait 30 seconds to a minute depending on how fast I swim.  I averaged a 1 minute lap (50 yards) and that seems to be a pace that challenges me but I can keep up. 

I forgot to wear my HRM during the run so I just checked out what MFP had in the system and used that.  They have jogging at 6mph so I figured it would be pretty close.  I burned 166 calories during my swim which I thought was interesting because I burned 170 calories during 20 minutes of biking.  I just found it interesting that I burned almost the same amount of calories during both activities.  Granted I had already run before the swim so my HR was already up from that. 

Anyway.  I bought some new post workout snack bars to eat at the gym after my workouts.  I read a great article on some popular protein bars HERE called the healthiest protein bars and which ones to avoid.  Not all the bars are on that site (such as some very popular ones like Luna bars) but there is a lot of good info.  I picked up some Kind bars and some Larabars today at the store and I ate this one after my workout.

That says Maple Glazed Pecan and Sea Salt.  It was pretty good.  I liked how it was all real ingredients and I could taste the individual ingredients like the nuts and the maple flavor and the wonderful sea salt.  I just love sea salt on stuff like this.  There is 210 calories per bar which is the same as the Zone perfect bars.  There isn't as much protein, but the Zone bars I posted about yesterday have a TON more sugar in them.  They probably fit more into the realm of candy bars posing as healthy food. 

I really like the idea of getting off of all the "fake" food and eating more real foods.  Eating healthier protein bars is an easy improvement/switch to make.  I'm also going to make several of the snacks Tiffany has on her blog and see how I like them and how they make me feel. 

I earned 482 calories today from exercise and I ate 1,719 which left me with 243 calories remaining which I chose not to eat because I was full after dinner.  I did get hungry later in the evening but I chose to have some tea instead of snacking.  I really don't want to be running this triathlon at 155 pounds.  I would love to get down to 140 by then.  It's time to see what I am capable of and strive on making real changes.

Moving Forward

Saturday night Chloe woke up at 11pm having thrown up everywhere.  I spent the next three hours with her cleaning up and getting her back to bed.  She only threw up one more time thankfully but it took a while to get her back to sleep.  After that something startled me at 3:30am and I rushed to Chloe's room only to find her sleeping... It was probably the cat.  Then Lily woke up at 4:30am because she had a bad dream where her teacher at the gym took her paper and wouldn't give it back.  Needless to say Sunday morning I was pretty tired.  I decided to stay home from church while Matt took Lily to church.  Chloe and I watched Veggie Tales Jonah, and we played with some new special Sunday toys I bought for the kids so that they have something exciting to look forward to instead of thinking "I can't do anything on Sunday" now they have some special toys and activities and games they can play.  Chloe absolutely loved the fishing game.

Chloe did really well with the puzzle and catching the fish even though the toy was labeled for 3+ Chloe did just fine with it (2 and 4 months).  She was even able to put most of the pieces back by herself.  The squid gave her some problems as she kept trying to put it in upside down.  Lily had a bug catcher one and the pieces are much more similar in shape and that was too hard for Chloe, but Lily was a pro.

I had to do a lot of cleaning Sunday morning.  I had to finish Chloe's laundry from last night, and do all of our laundry which was overflowing out of the basket, and the kitchen floors were much too dirty.  I just swept and passed on the mopping for now.  I had to rearrange the floor of the pantry and clean all the dirt and dropped flour and rice out of the bottom.  We have some mice nesting in the basement and we just cleaned all that up Saturday which was really gross.  They got into our Christmas stockings and pooped all over the cross stitched stockings which I am really pissed about.  I have to find some way to clean the stains off without ruining the threads.  We caught one mouse but the others just keep eating the peanut butter off the mouse traps without setting them off. 

Anyway, I tried very hard to stay on track Sunday.  I didn't have an official workout so I really wanted to keep my food on the light side.  Even though I went into the settings and said don't track steps in MFP it is still giving me activity calories with my fitbit, but just not tracking steps.  Blast!  I will have to figure out how to get it to stop doing that.  It just throws me off and I'm left wondering if I should or should not be eating those calories.  It gave me an extra 445 calories from my housework in the morning and throughout the day, but I just deleted them.  I had a hard time staying out of the snack food because all Chloe ate that day was goldfish and saltine crackers.  Thankfully she didn't throw up again.  I did get into the crackers a little bit and by the end of the day I was 45 calories over my goal of 1450, which makes it the best Sunday I have had in probably years.  I had to fight the urge to eat the cookies.  I was trying to rationalize it by saying that having just one or two would be fine and then when I saw the activity calories from my fitbit it was harder to resist, but I have to stop making excuses.  When I am maintaining and happy with my weight then I can eat one or two cookies but if I want to lose weight, those two cookies will probably prevent me from losing weight and lets be honest, with my history two cookies usually turns into five. 

Today is day three of triathlon training, yesterday being a rest day, and on the schedule is a 20 minute easy beginner bike ride.  Matt is going to be gone and super busy all week so I can't just leave him with the kids for 20 minutes to hop on my bike even if he is home.  He is taking his comprehensive final exam for grad school Thursday and Friday so I'm trying to give him space, peace and quiet.  Last night he said he was going to be studying and working on his final paper and asked if we could "make ourselves scarce".  I chuckled to myself and said we could leave by 9:15.  That gets me to the gym at 9:30 and I have two and a half hours of daycare meaning I have to pick up the kids by noon.  The class I wanted to go to was at 10:45 (Zumba Toning) so I could do my easy 20 minute bike ride and then go to class after that (with a bit of a gap in between the two but I'm not going to complain) and then still have time to shower after that.  I wore my HRM so I could put an accurate calorie count into MFP.
Easy Biking (20 min) 170
Zumba Toning (55 minutes) 470

My first time on the bike went pretty well I thought. I aimed to keep my heart rate around 145 since I didn't really have any other guidelines.  I was on a stationary bike at the gym.  I brought a Zone protein bar to eat in between the two "events". 

 I was surprised at how my legs felt like jelly after only twenty minutes of supposedly easy biking.  My body is definitely not used to biking!  Which is good. I'm switching up my routine and making my body do something it's not use to.  Maybe I will see some results.  Zumba toning was fun, I haven't been in a long time.  I've been having a hard time figuring out what to do for lunch lately.  It just seems like I don't want to eat anything for lunch and then I end up starving by 1pm and eat junky.  Today we went to Noodles and Co because the girls were being so good and Chloe has been rocking the potty training.  She is fully potty trained now and it only took three days.  I ordered a large Pad Thai at the restaurant which is 800 calories but I figured I would need the energy since I still had to go to Costco, and then put everything away, and get through the rest of the day without dying.   The carbs would help my energy levels and they did!  Even after exercising I was able to make it through the shopping trip, put everything away and rearrange the play room upstairs because I bought a new table for the kids!

That picture is in our living room, before I put it upstairs.  For a snack I ate the remaining 5 strawberries that were in the fridge to make room for the new strawberries I bought, munched some baby carrots which tasted surprisingly sweet, and ate the last few bites of Chloe's avocado. (probably the equivalent of 1/8 an Avocado.  For dinner we finished off the Tilapia in the freezer and I made some Quinoa and frozen mixed vegetables to go with it.  I ended the day at 1,864 calories with a remaining 256 from exercise which I chose not to eat.  I wasn't hungry after dinner and the only thing I would have eaten would be cookies.  I decided that my treat today was eating out and that I didn't need another treat. 

I think I might be on a roll, this is the farthest I've gotten in a long time.

Here We Go

Today I officially started my training program for my triathlon.  The program is 12 weeks long which means I have 12 weeks to get ready for this crazy thing I have decided to do.  I would really like to be no more than 145 for the triathlon as I know I will perform better at that weight.  I can really feel the extra weight I gained weighing me down when I do Zumba and other exercises.  On the schedule today I was supposed to swim, but when I woke up this morning I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to swim this morning.  Last night Chloe didn't fall asleep until 11pm due to a very late nap she took and I had forgotten to take my evening allergy medicine last night and I woke up at 5:00 with a splitting headache and burning eyes from allergies.  If I were to swim I would need to put my contacts in and there was no way I was going to be able to wear contacts today.  Fortunately the app I have allows you to reschedule your weekly workout, so I moved things around and ended up with a week that looks like this.

Friday is a 20 minute Run if you are wondering.  For the run segment I am continuing the 10K training app as long as it is still harder than the triathlon training app.  If the tri app gets to be harder than the 10k app I will have to switch.  You can click on each workout and it will give you more information about the workout.  So for today the 15 minute run says: run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute, run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute, run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute for a total of 15 minutes running.  My 10K training app said: 5 minute warm up, run 5 minutes, walk 3, run 8, walk 3 run 5, cool down 5 min.  For a total of 18 minutes running, so I did the 10K trainer today.  I was sweating buckets as I was doing this run, and I'm on week 6 of the 10k trainer!  I find it amazing how I can go through an hour of Zumba and be just fine, but 5 minutes of jogging (6mph for a 10 minute mile) leaves me dying.  I was sweating so much I could feel it splashing on my arms!  I don't think I've ever sweated so much during a workout, it was crazy. 

I am deleting my fitbit calorie adjustment in MFP because it always throws me off.  I am going to measure my workout calorie burn with my HRM and plug that into MFP.  I will allow myself to eat all of my exercise calories if I feel I need the food, which I probably will.  I have my daily calories set at 1460.  Today my total tracked calories was 1606 with 306 remaining that I ended up not using.  I ate plenty of cookies last night though when I made peanut butter white chocolate chip cookies.  I did manage to stay out of the cookies today. 

Well, I made it past day 1.... now I just have to make it past the next 12 weeks.... and then well.... the rest of my life.