Yep, I did it! Yesterday was day 50 of no slips and/or cheats on my eating plan. In that 7 weeks, I even managed to drop 11.2 pounds (another 0.6 this week) which averages out to 1.6 pounds per week. I’ll take it! Even though I’ve come to the “official” end of my 50 day challenge, I don’t really feel the need to splurge of go off plan. I’m just going to keep on keepin’ on.

As I’m sure many of you have heard by now, we did indeed have a pretty good shaker here in southern California yesterday. According to the US Geological Service, it registered 5.4 on the Richter Scale. Even though my office was approximately 40 miles from the epicenter, we were still evacuated for safety reasons. They did a quick inspection of all the buildings to ensure they were safe.

When I got home last night, I had to do a bit of quick clean up since my home was only about 15 miles or so from the epicenter. I mostly just had to pick things up from the floor and put them back on shelves, straighten pictures on the wall that were askew, and straighten things on the countertops that had “wiggled” out of place. For the most part, everything was OK with the exception of one of my candles which did not survive the fall.

In stitching news, I did manage to finish another item for my WIP Killer Challenge. This piece is from the 2006 ornament issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. It’s called Sampler Noel and was designed by Jane Timmers of Fancy Work. It’s stitched on Vintage Light Examplar from Lakeside Linens using Gloriana silk in Rosewood. It’s a combination of over-1 and over-2 stitching, with the alphabet all being over-1.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. Until next time …

TB posted this interesting twist on the Five Things meme on his blog in honor of his 1st anniversary of blogging. The rules are to post five things about yourself. The twist is that four of them should be true, but one should be false. I thought it sounded like fun, so I’ve decided to play along.

Here is my list of five things about me. I’ll leave it up to you to guess which is the false one. Of course, those of you who know me well will immediately know.

1. I’ve lost over 75 pounds on Weight Watchers.
2. I drive a BMW.
3. I once appeared in a TV commercial with Johnny Cash and Richard Petty.
4. I have visited nearly 30 major league baseball parks.
5. I once sang on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium (original home of the Grand Old Opry) in Nashville, TN.

On the weight loss front, I made it to my WW meeting on Tuesday. I was down another 1.4 pounds this week which makes for a total loss of 7.2 pounds since I rejoined on June 11. Immediately after I left the meeting, I went straight home and spent the next 36 hours violently ill with some sort of stomach bug. I’m finally starting to feel a bit human again, thankfully!

I’m still doing well with my no-cheat challenge as well. Today will be day 24, so I’m nearly half way to my goal of 50 days already! WOW! I can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly. It feels great to be in control of my eating!

Training, quite naturally, came to a standstill this week. The only exercise I got was running to the bathroom to hurl. If I’m feeling up to it tomorrow, I may try and get out and at least do some walking. Since I’m still having some queasiness issues, I don’t think I’m up to trying anything more than that yet.

For all of my readers in the U.S., I hope you all have a safe, healthy, and happy Independence Day!

Back to edit: I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I seem to have lost all of my navigation stuff from the left hand side of my blog. I’ll have to try and slowly get it all set back up again.

First of all, let me apologize for being so remiss in posting this week. It seems like it’s been a busy week for some reason, but it’s not really been any busier than normal I don’t think. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it just seems busier.

Perhaps it’s a psychological thing since I started my training plan this week for my first triathlon coming up in mid-October. There definitely seems to be more “pressure” of sorts from following a defined & detailed training plan vs. just going out and doing some sort of activity several times per week. I’m sure I’ll adjust just fine after a week or so, but it just feels a bit odd right now.

The photos from my race on Sunday were posted yesterday. They only got one pic of me and it was right as I was crossing the finish line. At least they got me during the one part of the race where I was actually running, even though it still looks like I’m walking for some reason!

In other MAJOR news, my toe is feeling much better! So much so, that for the first time in YEARS, I actually jogged just over a half mile (0.54 mile) without any walk breaks last night! I was slow as hell (15:09 pace), but I did it! So, I’m well on my way of meeting my goal of running the entire 2 mile run portion of my tri.

Yesterday’s training plan also called for an 18 minute swim, so I did that prior to the run. I swam laps in the pool at my complex which is 15 yards in length. I did repeats of 60 yards of swimming followed by a 1 minute rest. I managed to get in 360 total yards of swimming in 17:57. All in all, yesterday was a good training day!

Here’s my training plan for the rest of the week:

Today: Bike 25 minutes
Friday: Swim 18 minutes & Run 15 minutes
Saturday: Bike 45 minutes
Sunday: Run 30 minutes

I’m still going strong on my food challenge as well. Today is day 17 for me with no slips and/or cheats on my food plan. It’s really paying off, too! I was down another 1.6 pounds this week at my WW meeting which brings my total loss thus far to 5.8 pounds since I started the challenge. Go me!!

Until next time …

Hey everyone! Sorry for not posting for a couple of days. I’ve been pretty busy and when I wasn’t busy, I just didn’t feel like making the mental effort to post. I’m still going strong on my OP streak. Today is day 12 for me, so no worries there.

I arrived in Del Mar this afternoon. I’ve already picked up my race packet for the Iron Girl 5k tomorrow. Right now I’m just relaxing in my hotel room and trying to avoid the chocolate chip cookie they gave me at check-in. Yes, I’m at the Doubletree.

My toe is still hurting, but not nearly as badly as it was earlier in the week. At this point, I’m pretty sure I’ll just walk the whole race and not try to do any running. It’s REALLY HOT down here right now as well, so that’s another good reason for making sure I don’t overdo it tomorrow. My only plan for tomorrow’s race is to just enjoy my first women only race, listen to my body, and have a great time.

I did pick up a few goodies for myself at the expo today. I’ve had my eye on a few things at the Iron Girl online store for a while. I was holding out purchasing anything because I figured I could get them at the expo and save myself some shipping. Well, not only did I save shipping, but everything was cheaper at the expo, too! Here’s a list of the things I picked up:

Transition Bag
Performance Visor
Nutrition Pack
Hydration Carrier
CompetiTowel

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I’ll post my race report either tomorrow night or sometime on Monday.

Here’s my WW stats for today:

Total Points: 37
Exercise: 1.5 miles walking (2 AP’s)
Weekly Points balance: 30
Water: 56 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 12

Later!

Please send me all positive toe vibes possible! I am scheduled to do the Iron Girl Del Mar 5k race this weekend. Unfortunately, it seems I have reinjured the toe that I’m pretty sure I broke earlier this year. I’m scared to go to the doctor for fear he’ll tell me I can’t race this weekend. So, any and all “stop hurting” vibes for my toe are appreciated. LOL

Here are my WW stats for yesterday:

Total Points: 30.5
Exercise: 10 Push Ups (started the 100 Push Ups Challenge)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 8

Until next time …

I went to my first weigh in today since rejoining Weight Watchers last week. I was down 4.2 pounds!!! The most amazing part of that is that in the past couple of days I’ve eaten some very out of the norm foods for me.

On Sunday, I went to a Chinese buffet with my outlaws (former in-laws) for Father’s Day. I did really well with the situation and only had foods that were steamed and avoided anything with much of a sauce. The only real “bad” thing I had was 1 small veggie egg roll. All in all, I considered the meal a great success for my weight loss journey!

Yesterday was much more of a challenge. I attended the wedding & reception of my coworker Kelly which took place on a Carnival cruise ship. Pretty much all of the food was fried with the exception of some sushi, the deviled eggs, and the fruit. Oh, I almost forgot, the cake wasn’t fried either. Since I knew I had the event coming up, I had reserved all of my extra weekly points allowance just for this occasion. I did dip into them quite a bit yesterday, but didn’t exceed my budget, so my OP string continues.

Here are a couple of pics from the wedding. As always, you can click on the images here in the blog to see a larger version of them.

The ceremony:

The reception area:

Cutting the cake:

The kiss at the end of their first dance:

I think Kelly was such a beautiful bride and her dress was gorgeous! Here’s to wishing Kelly & Adam and long, healthy, and happy marriage!

In closing, here are my WW stats for yesterday:

Total Points: 45
Exercise: Walking – 2 APs
Weekly Points balance: 23
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 7

Until next time …

Race photos were published today. For the first time ever, I’m actually happy with one of my race pics! This photo was taken just before I reached the 3 mile marker, so it’s about 2/10ths of a mile from the finish line.

And, no, my right leg isn’t malformed. I was wearing one of my running skirts and it was flapping in the wind at the time the photo was taken.

In closing, here are my WW stats for the day.

Total Points: 29.5
Exercise: None
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 48 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 6

Until next time …

Official results are in for my 5k. I finished in 52:04. So, I only missed setting a new PR by 18 seconds since my previous was 51:47. Here are my stats for the race:

Overall Place: 744/775
Female Place: 361/384
Overall 40-44: 79/81
Female 40-44: 40/41

At least I wasn’t DFL in any category.

I also realized this afternoon that I am a complete ninny. I completely forgot that several months ago I registered from the Iron Girl Del Mar 5k next weekend. Normally I wouldn’t do back-to-back 5k races like this, but it looks like I will be this time. So, I hoped on Priceline and used their Name Your Own Price option. I got a great deal at the Del Mar Doubletree Hotel (regular price is $205 and I’m playing $79! ). So, it looks like I’ll be racing again next weekend. This could be the one exception of my usual goal of always beating my time from my last race whenever I race. Since I’ve never raced on back-to-back weekends like this, I’m not sure what to expect from my body.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. In closing, here are my WW stats for today:

Total Points: 31
Exercise: 5k race – 4 APs
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 5

I’m home from my little local 5k here in Anaheim that I did with my friend Darla. Here are my unofficial results taken from my Garmin:

Time: 52:57
Lap 1: 16m 07s, 1.00 miles, 16m 07s /mile
Lap 2: 17m 12s, 1.00 miles, 17m 12s /mile
Lap 3: 17m 59s, 1.00 miles, 17m 59s /mile
Lap 4: 01m 09s, 0.07 miles, 15m 54s /mile

I almost beat my previous personal best which is amazing since I set it a couple of years ago right before I started having my back problems. I was nearly 50 pounds lighter then than I am now as well due to weight gained during my back surgery/recovery. So, I’m feeling pretty good about that!

I think if the conditions had been different, I would have made it today. They didn’t completely close the streets to traffic. They only closed off 1 lane. Since we were on some of the major thoroughfares near Disneyland, there was a lot of traffic whizzing by us on the left, so we were all sucking in exhaust fumes. I’m a borderline asthmatic, so I found myself starting to wheeze several times, so I would back off to let my lungs recover.

Since I only missed my PR by about 40 seconds, I think I would have gotten a new one today if I hadn’t been backing off. On the upside, even with the backing off, I managed to shave ~2 minutes off my time from my last 5k race on April 13. I’ve also shaved over 5 minutes off my time for my first 5k of year back on Feb. 3.

In closing, here are my WW stats for yesterday:

Total Points: 28.5
Exercise: Rest day
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 4

Until next time …

I had really hoped to get out on my bike last night after work for a ride. As soon as I got home, I dashed in to change clothes and grab some water. Imagine my disappointment when I got down to the garage and saw my front tire was pretty low. No problem I think to myself. I’ll just pump it up a bit and then off I’ll go. Sadly, I couldn’t get the pump to work, so there was no bike riding for me last night. I’ll be heading over to REI tonight after work to look at getting a new pump. Thankfully I had gone out yesterday morning for a wog (walk/jog combo) and got in a couple of miles there, so I did get in some activity still.

Day 2 of my challenge went really well. I don’t know if it’s from officially rejoining WW, starting this challenge, or what, but I’m just feeling really good right now about my journey. Whatever it is, I’m running with it! It sure makes the journey that much easier when one’s motivation and MoJo are flowing!

In closing, here are my stats for yesterday:

Total Points: 26.5
Exercise: 2 miles wogging (3 AP)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 2

Until next time …

M.