now what?

A friend of mine said in reference to my 10k, "it's so not fair that you did all that and don't lose 30 pounds" That's kind of how I feel today! It's a regular old Monday after a weird week with a holiday and a huge race in the middle of it. I ate and drank like a crazy person for the last 5 days and I feel like crap! I'm still fat, nothing looks good on me and I'm still tired of carrying around 100 extra 93 extra pounds.

In my efforts to quit whining and get back on track, I just had my spinach smoothie and I plan on having vegetable juice and water all day until dinner. I have a workout with my trainer this afternoon that I'm really looking forward to -it always makes me feel so positive.

I still plan on running some but I need to focus on walking to get for the 3-Day coming up in October. That means long days and lots of miles and is sounding rather boring to me at this point. I'm also going to try to fit a spin class in there somewhere - maybe even twice a week. I think I could get a lot out of it. My gym doesn't have it so either I have to switch gyms again or go to a drop-in class. All I know is that it's time to mix it up again a little.

Have a great, healthy week everyone!

6.2...

is in the books! Frankly, I'm a little relieved I don't have to stress about it anymore. I managed to do it in well under 2 hours which was my goal! The winner? 27 minutes if you can imagine!

I slept pretty well the night before which is rare. I had my clothes laid out 3 days ahead of time so I felt prepared but I was still so nervous! My husband came with me on the train which was an experience - it was packed like a New York subway at rush hour but the people were fantastic and the atmosphere was electric.
Excited but trying not to have an anxiety attack to due to being 5 feet tall on a packed train. It was a sea of men's armpits above me holding on to the rails. blech!

It took so long to get out of the station and I had to pee! The porta-potty line was out of control and this is where being a local has it's advantages - I just cut around the block and went into Publix. The manager was even welcoming people in to use the facilities which were clean, air-conditioned and had no wait at all. Thanks fine people at Publix.

By this time it was start time. I just couldn't imagine what 60,000 people looked like on one of the most familiar roads in my city. It was a sight to behold!
I did not take this picture but I'm down there somewhere!

I had practiced this route a few times but I was so much faster being able to run down the middle of the road and not worry about the sidewalks and curbs. My goal was to run all the way to cardiac hill, which was a 4 mile stretch. About half way, I was getting really hot. I hadn't practiced this late in the morning and the sun being overhead was difficult. I stopped at all the water stops which were mostly warm water stops at this point and I went through all the misters and fire hydrants.

The streets are lined with spectators the whole way. People have elaborate parties, all the bars are open and it really helps with motivation to keep going. I passed a guy who had a shirt on that said "I'm 91. Eat my Dust" I had to give him a high-five.

The ONLY thing that pissed me off is when I started to see the elite runners RUNNING back UP the course after finishing. I'm sorry if 6.2 miles on a 90 degree day isn't enough for you but do you have to show off that much??? Seriously?

After cardiac hill, I was struggling to get back to running again but I managed to get my legs going and knew I only had two miles left. The crowds got even bigger toward the finish and I just kept going.

The finish was a blessing. I was struggling by then but I did it.

Seriously hot in that sun but proud!

I met my husband then walked the LOOOONG walk to our ride. All the streets are closed and the closest our friends could get was another mile up-hill. By this point I thought I was going to pass out but finally got in the car and was given a fresh, hot Krispy Kreme. That jolt of sugar was exactly what I needed and I didn't feel dizzy or sick anymore.

When I got home, My front door was decorated by my amazing neighbors. What a surprise!
I'm so lucky to have all this support!

They also had brunch ready and after my shower, I ate an entire bagel and then basically ate and drank whatever I wanted the rest of the day!
Me, my neighbor and my delicious (and patriotic) strawberry, lemonade vodka cocktail in a mason jar.
He finished in 57 minutes which is amazing!

So now what??? I guess it's some hard-core training for the 3-day coming up in October. Beyond that, maybe half-marathon in March? Stay tuned....

Thank you all SO much for all your support. This was a lofty goal and I couldn't have done it without all of you cheering me on.

Friday weigh in

2 more pounds for a total of 7 in June. That's seven less pounds I have to carry on the 10k. Now THAT makes me happy! I worked out hard 4 days in a row and believe it or not, ate a little more. After doing some tracking I realized I really wasn't eating enough for all the working out I do.

Speaking of the 10k it's going to be 105 this weekend and I'm running the course tomorrow - one more time before Wednesday. I'm going before dawn and there are water stops so I should be okay! The local weather guy said its supposed to cool off enough by the 4th to make the Peachtree "somewhat bearable". I won't have the luxury of an early start that day!

Have an awesome weekend everyone and thanks as always for the support!

*edited to add this awesome post from my trainers blog. She always makes so much sense and it's helping me out so much right now!

Spin Psychle

This morning waaaaaay before dawn, I did the number one most scary thing on my list of things to do....

I took a spin class.

This may not seem like a big deal to some but for whatever reason, I was terrified of it. I could never imagine my big butt lasting one hour on that teeny tiny seat.

I was prepared and had a gel seat cover but the instructor said not to use it if you don't have to and that you should try to get used to the saddle. Well lets just say his butt is nowhere near as large as mine and I begged for it 15 minutes in. It was a little better but still really painful. The rest of it? AWESOME. The music, the speed, the sweat literally dripping all over the bike.

I can see why people love it and I really want to keep doing it so it won't hurt as much. Apparently you DO get used to it!!

The moral of the story? Do something that scares you. Be brave! You won't regret it.

Tales from beyond the scale

Sometimes I just need to step away from the scale and evaluate what else is going on with me. This came up because I was complaining to the trainer that I only lost 5 lbs. in one month and she pointed out that it was 5 lbs. I wasn't carrying anymore. It's a GOOD point too because carrying less weight will really help me as I'm running down Peachtree in 100 degree heat.

After my training session on Monday, I came home and walked the dogs a mile before my husband got home. I was thinking how that mile used to be the extent of my exercise. I would be totally wiped out and out of breath. Now it seems like nothing - even after the trainer. Even when its 98 degrees.

Today I ran all the way around the golf course at sunrise. 3.2 miles. I still walk up one nasty hill but I remember a time where that distance was unfathomable. I even have a cute guy that works on the grounds of the golf course that waves to me every time. I've been really consistent and even my Nike + noticed.So the countdown to the race begins. The race I said I would never do. Never say never!

Not the Biggest Loser

Let me start by saying thank you so much for all the encouragement. I had myself convinced I wasn't going to do it until I saw all the comments!!

Saturday started at 5:30am. The night before my sister and I were laughing about how this was the one day of my life I'd ever get dressed trying to look as fat as possible :) Everything I had read about auditioning for the show suggested dressing as if it were a job interview. Myself and about 10 other people took that advice (including one woman who had on the same dress as me!) The rest were a hot mess. Literally.

Walking to the end of the line was weird. Everyone was staring at everyone walking by. I felt thin by comparison which was really new to me. I didn't bring a chair because I didn't want to be the one lazy fat person with a chair. HA!! EVERYONE had a chair - some even had huge shade structures. People were SMOKING! People were eating DUNKIN' DONUTS. People brought huge coolers FULL of food. I had an iPad and a bottle of water. I was beginning to wonder why I was there.


This was my view of the line behind me about 30 minutes after I arrived. It was hard to judge how many people were in line ahead of me. I met the people I was destined to spend the next 4 hours with. All of them super nice, I was the oldest and thinnest of the bunch - by 60 pounds. I know this because we all shared our weights. Most of my line-mates at one point told me I didn't need to be there but I weigh exactly as much as Olivia weighed when she started and she WON!

We had about an hour of shade until the sun was directly on us and that's when it got a little more challenging. My horror turned to sadness as people started heating up. There was kid who couldn't have been a day over 16 needing oxygen from the paramedics. There were people that couldn't stand or move to even get out of the sun. I grabbed the umbrellas I had in my car and handed them out to the ones that looked the worst - not caring if I ever got them back. After seeing some of these people struggle I thought If I did get on the show I might have to give my spot to someone who was really sick.

About 9:00 we got numbered applications. I was number 167 in line. Not bad considering the line had grown to at least 1,000. It had similar questions to the online application which I think everyone should fill out. It asks some really tough questions and requires a lot of deep thinking. You can download it here if you're interested.

Finally they let the first 200 in the building. The whole process was very organized and they were trying to get everyone inside and out of the heat as quickly as possible. The crew were a lot like when I went to see Oprah. Trying very hard to rev up the crowd and keep everyone excited about it. I was just happy I got a chance to pee and fix my makeup! My hair was flat and un-fixable by now but because of the 2 years of hot yoga, I wasn't as affected by the heat as much. Score!

After 4 hours it comes down to one group of 10 and one casting director. You leave your application, one photo and have about 30 seconds to answer one question. The question was "who do you want to inspire?" My answer was you. My faithful readers. I told the casting director that for over three years, I've been keeping a weight loss blog that almost 600 people read and haven't really ever lost any weight yet people say I inspire them.

She was trying to be all cheerleader-y with everyone saying things like "this is the first step - you're here today" blah blah blah. It's really not true. It's not a step at all unless you're chosen or happen to be inspired by the shear amount of sick people around you.

That was it. I was kind of hoping it would be more than just the decision of one person. They said you would hear by midnight if you had a call back but I wasn't expecting the phone to ring. I had as much chance of getting called back as I did of winning the lottery. I just let it go. And had a shot of Patron and a beer.

But I was sad. More sad than I thought I would be. Sad for the people who weren't going to do anything to help themselves if they didn't get on the show. Sad for myself that at the end of the day, I still have a hundred pounds to lose (again).

With sadness can come inspiration and I do feel inspired. I'm not too far gone to ever come back. I'm running 6.2 miles a week from Wednesday. I'm going to do some food journaling to help me figure out why all this exercise isn't helping me shed any pounds. The last month I've barely had a carb and only lost 5 lbs. I suppose it's better than nothing but I'm tired of hauling around this other person on my runs. I might as well have my 90 pound friend on my back. 90 pound friend once told me she didn't weigh 90 pounds so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and call her my 95 pound friend. :) She's also my biggest fan and I couldn't do this without her.

Wow this was a long post but it was very therapeutic. I'm training really hard this week so stay tuned...all leading up to the worlds biggest (and hottest) 10k.

Doin' it

After a few sleepless nights and (probably way too much) discussion with friends and family, I've made the decision. I'm doin' it. I'm auditioning for the Biggest Loser season 14 on Saturday.

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of work required for this. I'm giving up an official training run WITH water stops which I will still have to do on Sunday instead. Unofficially. Without water. I feel like I would always wonder if I didn't do it.

The application is probably something every one of us should fill out - even if you aren't applying for the show. It asks a lot of thought-provoking questions I'm not sure I've ever asked myself like "what do you think would be the best thing about being fit?" or "what is the hardest thing about being overweight?" This goes on for 9 pages. I kind of feel like I need to dive into this with a bottle of red wine and a box of kleenex.

I would never give up a precious Saturday if I didn't feel like I had half a chance. I have the personality for it, I'm just not sure they've ever had someone who already works out a lot. I do have a "sob story" to share but I don't use it as an excuse for being fat. It's the reason I work hard every single day. My father dropped dead at 49 after trying to lose weight his whole adult life. He literally died trying. I'm only 6 and a half years away from 49 and I'm following in his footsteps. I never stop working and it's not getting me anywhere. Not sure if that's TV material or not.

I will have nothing but time while I'm in line so I will be blogging about it so stay tuned. Would I be me if I wasn't on some kind of crazy adventure? (you don't have to answer that question Shelley) : )

Monday Mix Tape

Is it really Monday again already? The weekend was a relatively successful. I drank and ate a little more than planned and ran a little less than planned but all in all, it wasn't bad.

For my Saturday long run, I was a little disappointed in myself for having "only done 4 miles" then I realized how ridiculous that sounded. I decided to stay in the neighborhood instead of doing the course - mostly because of the lack of water stations this week. The next 2 weekends will have water every mile or so and I will be out there practicing with a ton of other people. I got once around the golf course. My big victory was running without stopping up 2 giant hills I've never done before. It was so hard but I read somewhere to just focus on running from telephone pole to telephone pole and that really helped. I pushed myself to my absolute limit and it felt awesome.

My Monday morning attitude was surprising. There was work to do before work so I wasn't going to go but I finished it pretty quick and threw on my shoes. I knew how good that post-run shower was going to feel and I didn't want to feel disappointed in myself all day. I have my trainer this afternoon so I could have justified it but I need my cardio and it's the only way. The only problem with having "raised the bar" and ran those 2 hills Saturday was that I had to do the same this morning. It was a shorter run but I knew I was never going to be able to walk those hills again. No going backwards. Only forwards!
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Although it was a busy weekend, I still managed to shop for and prep great food for the week ahead which for me is THE KEY to staying on track. We've been eating really low carb which can be really difficult to keep interesting. I made broccoli slaw, lite ranch dressing made with greek yogurt and 13 bean soup. I washed, cut and stored about 20 pounds of vegetables. That is a ton of work but it's done and I'm so happy knowing my fridge is packed full of goodness.
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I also had to make Oreo truffles for a wedding shower. Oreos are my Kryptonite. Instead of having any while I was cooking, I put 3 away to REALLY enjoy later in the evening. There have been many times where my husband and I have eaten the entire package in one night so I'm considering that a huge victory. It replaced my weekly cupcake and I'm okay with that trade. I ate absolutely nothing at the shower which was another huge victory.
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Blogging regularly again has made me realize just how much hard work this all is. The huge pile of laundry from double workouts, working 3 different jobs, shopping, cooking, cleaning, exercising. No wonder the time flies but it's so worth this feeling of pride in myself that's slowly developing again.

Have an awesome, healthy week everyone.