Monday, March 8, 2010

Little Victories

March 6, 2010 - Boys and Girls Club 8K

8 am. 34 degrees. 5 miles.

Insecticide, Goblynn, Matt-a-tat-tat, Kat A'Combs, and Crash Cymbal (me)

I had two goals for the race: 1) run the whole time, no walking; and 2) finish in under an hour. Not only did I run the whole time including the hills, but I finished at around 55 minutes!

After the race with the Knoxville Rubber Duck.

In other good news, I stepped on the Wii Fit for the first time in about a year and was thrilled to finally hear, "That's normal!" rather than the sad tones of "That's overweight!" In addition, I checked my BMI with one of those online calculators and it says I'm finally normal!

The Bet Progress:
9.5 pounds lost
24 days left

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

New Tastes

The Bet has really opened some doors for me, and I don't only mean the weight loss. Eating out has been minimized since February 1, which means I've had to get creative cooking at home again. Thanks to Giraffe's help, I've been eating different meats and vegetables in an effort to get healthy. I've been eating a lot of tilapia, ground beef, steak, and chicken. Surprisingly though, it's not been boring so I don't feel like I used to with "I don't want the same old thing. Let's go out! (again)"

My favorite meal during this diet has been Giraffe's chopped steak, which I added sauteed onions to the top and recently, mushrooms. I used to not be the biggest fan of mushrooms, but I find that I love certain types now. There are these burgundy mushrooms at Chop House that are amazing! Which leads me to my next point: it seems that since I've completely altered the way I eat, my taste buds are playing tricks on me. I've been eating things that I never ate before (and for those who know me are about to be as shocked as I still am). For example:

- mushrooms
- fruit smoothies (Giraffe made me one that I loved and it even had banana in it)
- eggs (I know! But they have to be made a certain way)
- chili (I've only had a few bites of Chop House's and Texas Roadhouse's and I liked them both, but not sure if I'd order one for myself yet)

The eggs thing has completely thrown me for a loop since now breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I whip up 2 large eggs, about a 1/4 cup of grated cheddar, and a heaping tablespoon of Pioneer Woman's pico de gallo. Then I fry it up in a skillet with some leftover bacon grease from the 2 pieces of bacon I've had in the oven while the skillet heats up. If I have the time and inclination, I crumble up one of the slices of bacon into the omelet as it cooks, but sometimes I just do it after the fact on my plate. It's wonderful!

I figure this is definitely the time to try new things to see what I like now. I'm wondering if because I eliminated such a large staple from my diet, my body is trying to find the same thing in other places, which means opening up to new flavors and tastes in things that I possibly didn't like before. It's all very bizarre and been a fascinating discovery to see how the body works.

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Bet: Halfway Down

Well, the bet is still in place, at least in my mind since the Marine told me he wasn't taking it seriously. That's okay. I'm still going to call him Tubby if I win since no prize has been distinguished and probably won't be at this point. Bragging rights will have to suffice.

After a month of revamping my diet and an exercise plan that features roller derby and running, I'm down 8 lbs! I had to make some adjustments because during the month I plateaued and fluctuated, but I think I'm back on track. I feel great and have so much more energy than I used to, especially when running/skating. I love it!

So they say it takes 21 days to break a habit and I've gone 28 days with no bread, pasta, or Diet Coke, all of which were staples in my day-to-day diet. There are things that I miss and most of them are only when I eat out. Bread baskets mostly, and then Diet Coke, but I've been substituting with iced tea, which isn't so bad. At home, I've been missing peanut butter sandwiches a lot lately. And, of course, the brownie that I keep talking about for when I finish the bet. With ice cream. The taste of victory.

This weekend I'll be running an 8K for the Boys and Girls Club with the derby team. My goal is to jog the entire time, even if it means at a crawl. I'm running 2-3 miles every other day so I'm not sure how adding 2-3 more miles to that is going to be.