Archive for March, 2008
Siren Song of the Triathlon
OMG! I did it!! I have officially registered for my first triathlon. 
I’ve wanted to do a triathlon for a long time (since watching the Kona Ironman the first time many years ago). I’ve always put those feelings aside though because 1) I was so overweight, and 2) I didn’t know how to ride a bike. 
After volunteering at the Ironman California 70.2 over the weekend, I can’t push down the desire any longer. So, today I plunked down my money and signed up for the Subaru US Women’s Triathlon Series that will take place in San Diego on October 19, 2008. I signed up for the Super Sprint distance which means I’ll be swimming 375m, then biking 13k, and ending with a 3.35k run. In English measurements, that translates to roughly a quarter mile swim, an 8 mile bike ride, and a 2 mile run. So, I have about 6.5 months to improve my swim, finish learning to ride a bike, and build up my running time/speed. 
I took a few pictures with the phone on my Blackberry while I was volunteering. Rather than posting them all here, if you’re interested, you can check them out at the link below. I’ll take some time later in the week to write more about the experience and all the cool people I met this weekend.
Before I headed down to Oceanside on Friday to volunteer, I went by and weighed in at a WW center since I wouldn’t make my normal Saturday morning meeting. I was down 1 pound last week which puts me at 9.6 pounds gone for the month of March when I recommitted to staying OP and started my 50 Day OP Challenge. It would appear that if one actually stays on program that one can lose weight. Who knew?! 
I’m also thrilled to report that I did indeed manage to stay on the straight and narrow with my OP streak over the weekend. I was a little nervous about it because I wasn’t actually journaling the couple of days I was down there other than in my head. I even managed to fit in a couple of snack size candy treats! I put it all down on paper when I got home Sunday just to make sure I hadn’t calculated wrong, but it was all good. 
So, I’ll close this entry with my stats for Friday, Saturday, and yesterday.
Friday:
Total Points: 29
Exercise:
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 26
Saturday:
Total Points: 32 (used 1 AP)
Exercise: 7896 steps on WW pedometer (1 AP)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 48 oz
Days OP: 27
Sunday:
Total Points: 31
Exercise:
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 28
Until next time … 
The Journey Ends …
Congratulations to Louisville for making it to the Elite Eight. 
I guess Courtney and I can commiserate with Michele since Washington State got knocked out tonight, too. 
Thursday’s WW stats:
Total Points: 30
Exercise: Walking - 2 APs
Weekly Points balance: 33.5
Water: 56 oz
Days OP: 25
Until next time …
Testing
This is a test mobile blogging entry from my Blackberry.
Melissa
—-
Sent via BlackBerry
Sweet 16, Baby!
Yes, it’s Thursday, so that means it time for more March Madness. 
The Vols will be facing off tonight again the Louisville Cardinals in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament. The Vols are the #2 seed and Louisville is the #3 seed, so it should be a GREAT game! It starts at around 7pm PT, so I’m going to try and get out of work a little early to be sure I’m home in time to watch the game.
I got in some more stitching time last night on Hannah. I’m really enjoying this piece so far. I’m not sure what it is about it, but I just find myself not wanting to put it down. It’s going to be VERY difficult to stop working on it after Sunday. The SAL group is working on this piece the last full week of each month, so that means waiting until April 21 to work on it again. Here’s my progress as of last night (pardon all the wrinkles, but I just didn’t feel like pressing it every day to take new progress pics):
I’m not sure how much I’ll have a chance to post over the weekend. I’m heading down to Oceanside to volunteer at the Ironman California triathlon with Terri. Her DH is participating in the event, so this will be a great way for us to be up close and personal to cheer him on during the race. Some other friends from the Beginner Triathlete forums are also in the race, so it’ll be fun meeting them in person for the first time and cheering them on as well.
I’m SOOO excited to be part of such an amazing event, even if it is as a volunteer. I have HUGE amounts of respect for what these athletes will be undertaking this weekend. The race is a half Ironman distance, so that means they’ll be starting with a 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike ride and capping things off with a half marathon run (13.1 miles). I do hope to finish a triathlon myself one day, but I seriously doubt it will ever be a half Ironman distance.
Anyway, I’m going to attempt to set things up so I can post messages to my blog from my BlackBerry. I’ll try a test post later today. If that works, I’ll try and post a few pics from the event to my blog over the weekend.
In closing, here are my WW stats for Wednesday:
Total Points: 30.5
Exercise: 45 mins stationary bike - 3 APs
Weekly Points balance: 33.5
Water: 80 oz
Days OP: 24
Until next time …
First Row Finished
I finished off the top row of Hannah Beeby last night while watching TV. I’m really loving how my fiber selection is looking on the fabric. The farther I get, the more I like it. 
Here are my WW stats for Tuesday:
Total Points: 32.5 (used 1.5 WPA)
Exercise:
Weekly Points balance: 33.5
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 23
Until next time …
Life
I saw this sentiment on a greeting card today and it really struck a chord with me. I just thought I would share it with all of you.
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. It’s about creating yourself.”
I really like that!!
Monday’s WW stats:
Total Points: 28.5
Exercise: None
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 22
Until next time …
A New Start
Yes, I’m fully aware that I’ve not yet completed my WIP Killer Challenge, but I started a new project. Today is the first day of the Hannah Beeby 1816 SAL that I signed up for several weeks ago. This was one of my planned exceptions for my WIP Killer Challenge. I’ve been so looking forward to actually starting this piece that I got up a little bit early today so I could start on it this morning. 
Ok, so I realize it’s not much, but it’s a start. I’m pretty sure I’ve already mentioned my fabric & fiber choice, but if not, I’m stitching this over 2 on 36-count Tundra from Lakeside Linen. I’m using 1 strand of Snoqualmie Falls overdyed cotton from Needle Necessities. I still don’t think I’m capturing the color of the fabric that well in my photos. According to the Lakeside Linen site, the approximate DMC equivalent for it is 3024.
I did manage to get in some good stitching time over the weekend as well. I put in more time on my Dazzle canvas project. I’m really loving how this piece is coming together. Since it’s nice size square when finished, I plan to use this as a topper for a wooden box. Here’s my latest progress pic for it:
You KNOW I have to give a March Madness update, too. My beloved Vols pulled out the win over Butler in overtime. It was a real nail-biter, but we did it! The East region is pretty much going as one would expect. The 1-4 seeds are all through to the Sweet Sixteen. So, now it’s on to Charlotte where we’ll face off against Louisville. If we can win that game, then we’ll face off in the Elite Eight against the winner of the North Carolina - Washington State game to see who will be off to the Final Four to represent the East region.
I’m doing pretty well in my bracket pool, too. In my most successful bracket (I submitted 3), I’ve correctly picked 35 of 48 games thus far. I’m in 2nd place so far. I’m actually trying to defend my title since I won last year.
In closing, here is Sunday’s WW stats:
Total Points: 31.5
Exercise: 45 minutes stationary bike - 3 APs
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 16 oz
Days OP: 21
Until next time …
Silkweaver Sunday
I received my Silkweaver grab bag that I ordered recently in the mail yesterday. I didn’t get around to really looking at the fabrics until today. I think most of them are fabrics I can definitely put to use. Here’s a photo of what I received:
Today has been a fairly low key day for me. I got together with Darla for a late breakfast. While we were there, she showed the the fabric and fibers she’s selected for the Quaker Turtles from Ellen Chester of With My Needle. I also handed off her copy of the Hannah Beeby 1816 chart to her. We’re both participating in a SAL that starts tomorrow, so we decided to order together to save ourselves a little bit on shipping.
I have managed to get in some time on Dazzle the past couple of days, too. It’s too dark tonight already to try and get a decent photo, so I’ll take one in the morning to post tomorrow. It’s really coming along quite nicely, IMO.
On the weight loss front, I tried a really tasty new cereal yesterday. It’s Fiber One Caramel Delight. For a high fiber cereal, it was amazingly tasty and nothing like a typical cereal from that category. I don’t know how often I’ll actually eat it with milk though. It’s definitely one of those cereals that will be tasty dry as a crunchy snack food. Here are the basic nutritional stats for it:
Serving size: 1 cup
Calories: 180
Total Fat: 3g
Fiber: 9g (Total Carbs: 41g, Sugar: 10g)
Saturday’s WW stats:
Total Points: 31.5
Exercise: 2 miles walking & 35 mins bike riding - 4 APs
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 20
Until next time …
WW Happiness
I went to my WW meeting this morning. I was a bit nervous going into it because I had a luncheon on Wednesday at a local Mexican restaurant. That was immediately followed on Thursday with a potluck luncheon in our department at work. I tried to make the best choices I could, but you just never know what you’re always getting with other people’s cooking, KWIM?
Anyway, I was THRILLED to see that I dropped 1.6 pounds this week. That puts me at 8.6 pounds lost since I recommitted myself a few weeks ago. I’m really happy with how things are going again.
I’ll have to get creative the next couple of weeks as far as making a meeting. I’ll be in Oceanside next weekend volunteering at the California Ironman triathlon. I’m heading down on Friday to work the registration tables Friday evening, and then I’ll be on the course in some capacity on Saturday morning during the actual race.
The following weekend, I’ll be heading down to Oceanside again to participate in the Carlsbad 5000 race. That event isn’t until Sunday, so I could swing by my regular Saturday morning meeting before I head down for the expo on Saturday afternoon. I’ll just have to see what’s on the agenda with Terri and her DH before I made any definite plans. She’s also signed up for the race, but hasn’t decided for sure if she’s going to be able to participate due to on-going issues with plantar fasciitis.
My plans for this weekend include getting out for a couple of nice walks and, perhaps, some more time working on learning to ride my bike. It’s going to be GORGEOUS weather here this weekend with temperatures in the low 80’s. (My apologies to those who are still dealing with winter snow!). I’m hoping to do some spring cleaning, too. I’ve got the windows wide open and just enjoying the nice weather. (Again, my apologies to those still dealing with winter.)
On the NCAA March Madness front, yes, my beloved Tennessee Volunteers won their game yesterday. So, they will now face off against Butler in Round 2 of the tournament. The women’s tournament starts today with Round 1 action. The Lady Vols are a #1 seed this year, so they’ll be playing tomorrow against Oral Roberts.
I’ve been really impressed with how well the schools in Tennessee have done this year in hoops. There are 5 teams from Tennessee in the men’s tournament, and 4 teams from Tennessee in the women’s tournament. Given there are only a total of 64 teams in each tournament, those are pretty good percentages for my home state.
Well, I guess that’s it from me for now. In typical fashion of late, I’ll close with my WW stats for yesterday:
Total Points: 30.5
Exercise: None
Weekly Points balance: 26
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 19
Until next time …
NCAA Round 1
Nothing really new on the stitching front because I haven’t gotten any done the past couple of days. I’ve just been really tired at night and haven’t felt like concentrating enough to even stitch.
The past couple of days have definitely been a challenge on the WW front, too. I had lunch with a group from work at a local Mexican place on Wednesday. I limited myself to 8 tortilla chips and had a veggie fajita salad with fat-free mango lime vinaigrette. I was thrilled when it arrived to see that the veggies were raw and not grilled. So, I ended up making a really great choice.
Yesterday was the next challenge. My department decided to have a spring potluck lunch. Everything looked sooooo good … especially the cheesecake my boss brought. I was a good girl though and didn’t have any of it. I looked over everything and decided which would be the best choices points-wise. I filled half of my plate with green salad and then took just a couple of bites of the things that I decided were the best choices. By my calculations, I had 17 points for lunch, but by reigning things in at my other meals for the day, I stayed within my daily points target and didn’t even have to dip into my activity points or weekly points allowance.
So, as of yesterday, I’ve completed 18 days of my 50 day no cheats, no slips challenge. I have to admit that I’m amazed it’s been that long already. I doesn’t really seem like that it’s been nearly 3 weeks since I started this. Hopefully the scale will show me a nice number tomorrow at my WW meeting.
Total Points: 31
Exercise: 20 mins walking & 40 mins stationary bike - 4 APs
Weekly Points balance: 26
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 18
Until next time …
