Wednesday, April 29, 2009
45 Min Easy
Sunday, April 26, 2009
back to counting points
6 Miles
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sick and Tired
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Flow
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Super Mom!
Finally 8 miles!!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Thwarted!
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Springtime
I think we can officially say it is spring!! Today was gorgeous. So I decided that the whole family were going to go for my 50 minute stroll today. We bundled up because it was windy out and headed to North Glenmore Park. It was great. Weirdly enough I had no pain at all and really enjoyed the walk. I had a great time and I am looking forward to the 8 mile walk tomorrow.
I met up with a friend who has a 21 month old today and she was complaining too about how she hasn’t lost weight at all even with tons of exercise. She thinks my theory of not being able to lose weight while breastfeeding might be true. I love that I have a theory and people who are struggling with the weight too but I would really like to be wrong. I don’t want to be this weight and I don’t want to be pregnant again at this weight.
I am thinking that after this marathon I am going to cut calories and really start to try and lose the weight.
I think I can, I think I can
Tonight I was the little engine that could. I had to really work to get my walk done. My legs and ankles were hurting again. It took every ounce in me to keep going and to not quit. I kept chanting, “I can do this” over and over. What kept me going was knowing that the marathon will be hard and it is going to hurt too. In a way I need to practice pushing through the pain.
I am a little annoyed that my motivation is waning. Tonight I almost convinced myself to lie to Mike and tell him that I did the walk earlier in the day. But who is that cheating him or me? Me, of course. I should be getting more excited as the day becomes closer but I think I am getting scared.
I am scared that I will not be able to finish. I am scared that I will really hurt myself. I am scared that I will be the last one to cross the finish line.
I know completly irrational especially being scared of being the last one because that still means I did it. I guess I want to do better than Mike did. I am competitive at the weirdest things. I feel like I have been training better and more consistently than he ever did so that means I should do better. But that is necesarily the case, is it? We are too different people.
I need to work on the motivation….
Evening Stroll
40 Minutes Too Long
Week 10 Training Plan
Monday - Rest
Tuesday- 40 min easy
Wednesday- 25 min stroll
Thursday- 40 min easy
Friday- Rest
Saturday- 50 min stroll
Sunday- 8 miles
Tough Week
Zoe, my youngest has been sick since last Tuesday. She has had an awful flu bug and I had to go to my parents for help. But amazingly I got all my walks in! I also did the long walk of 7 miles! That is the longest I have walked ever. I chose my walk around two hills to get prepared for any hills during the marathon. My mom has done two marathons and she told me that the hardest thing was the hills because she wasn’t prepared for them. I have been preparing on my treadmill and looking for some hills during my walks.
The walk was great, about 5 minutes away from my turnaround point I was getting a bit worried. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it and would have to call my husband to come get me. But when I saw my mark, which was two hay bales, I got a bounce in my step and was able to shave off 5 minutes on the second half. The walk was supposed to be an easy 7 miles, so I didn’t worry about speed even though I wanted to do it in around 2 hours. I typically can go faster but the point was to do it and not break any records, that is what the next marathon is for.
My husband was so cute, he drove out to find me and brought me some water. He came just as I was starting the last mile. That helped give me energy to keep going. I need to stretch better because my shin splints were hurting. I have been told that to get rid of them the best way is to walk on your heels for 30 seconds a day for about a week. So I am going to try that.
My treat for the week was to get new shoes! I went to The Running Room yesterday and got fitted for some sleek looking addidas! I can’t wait to break them in.
Societal Rant
I realized today as I was complimenting my friend on her ‘tiny’ 37 week belly pic, how messed up we are concerning weight and size. Being ‘tiny’ is a desire during pregnancy even though we want a healthy baby and enjoy getting round. But if you ever compliment some one by telling them how big they are you are sure to offend. I relished in my size but I still didn’t want to be compared to a house or my friend who was having twins. I learned that the ultimate compliment is,”Wow, you are so tiny!” But when you think of growing a healthy child with your body, don’t you think being bigger would be better?
Of course, as I know all to well there is such a thing as too much but ironically for me, my second pregnancy where I gained the textbook amount I actually had a bigger baby. But I did eat healthier.
So there you go, it all comes down to health. I am glad that I had midwives because that is what they focused on instead of how much it was what I was eating. That is important and I appreciated that.
I think my compliment from now on is going to be, “Wow, you look so great and healthy.” Hopefully I won’t offend…
Week 9 Training Plan
Monday - Rest
Tuesday- 40 min easy
Wednesday- 25 min stroll
Thursday- 40 min easy
Friday- Rest
Saturday- 50 min stroll
Sunday- 7 miles
4 Mile Brisk Walk
My sister is also training with me and we tried to do our long walks together. This week we were to do a 4 mile brisk walk, my goal is to do 4 miles an hour. This a good speed and if I can be consistent puts me at finishing the marathon just after 3 hrs. We decided to do the long walk on Saturday this week because we had plans to have dinner together. We decided to do the walk in my neighborhood. So we took the GPS and set off down the road. It was fairly warm out with a bit of a wind. I have been reluctant to do any walks in my neighborhood because of the lights and a lot of people don’t shovel their walks and it is icy. We also wanted to talk so we possibly could have gone faster but what is the point of exercise if you can’t enjoy it? There were some treacherous sections and two set of lights we had to deal with but all in all it worked out perfectly and even with slowing down for the lights and ice we did the 4 miles in one hour! I think that is pretty impressive!
I am amazed that I can walk so much faster outside than I can on my treadmill. On my treadmill I can only go about 3 miles an hour and I find that hard. Outside I find it easy to do 4 miles/hour. Weird….I guess it is a good thing that the marathon is out side.
Today I will be doing a 30 min stroll. I would like to get Mike and the girls out but I don’t see that happening because we have been busy de-cluttering the office and unfortunately the house is a mess.
Time
The biggest challenge has been finding the time to exercise. As a mom of 2 young girls this was really hard. I decided that I would wear my youngest in a carrier everytime I trained. I didn’t want my husband to have to stop my work out because he had an inconsolable baby and thankfully Zoe has gotten so used to the training that everytime I stick her in the carrier she is asleep within moments. I am not good at getting up early and exercising, so even though I am exhausted by the end of the day, I typically get on the treadmill about 8 pm. My eldest is asleep and any cleaning up I choose to do is finished. My husband has been very supportive and not to pushy either. All I need is a gentle reminder and I am good to go. I got an mp3 player and that has made the walks even more enjoyable! My treadmill is in front of the tv and I hated watching the commercials they would make my walk drag on and I would need something good on to watch which was hard at times. I may not crave the exercise but I really enjoy the satisfaction of finishing a walk and marking a big x on my training plan. I love the last 10 minutes of the walk because I know that I am going to finish it and I get a big surge of adrenaline and excitement. I am actually beginning to enjoying walking.
Marathon
I started training for the marathon in the beginning of February. I am doing the Calgary Marathon on May 31st. I found this training plan http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/walk.htm and I adapted it from 12 to 16 weeks by doubling the first and last two weeks. I really liked this plan because I do better with a set time because I found the idea of doing 2 miles a night very daunting but doing 40 minutes is easy, even though it is the same.
I convinced my sister and friend to join me because I love company especially on the long walks. I also set up weekly treats to motivate myself to keep going and complete a week. I registered for the marathon after 4 weeks. I waited to make sure I was really going to do it and I had heard after a month you start to crave exercise and have a new habit.
After completing 7 weeks, I am proud to say I have only missed 3 days of training! That is a huge accomplisment. I have never been motivated enough to exercise 5 days a week. Now I don’t crave the exercise but I do look forward to it.
Weight loss and Breastfeeding
I am so jealous of those who can nurse their gorgeous newborns and have the weight just melt off. I am not that person.at.all. My theory is that my body holds on to those precious pounds 'just in case'. Breastfeeding has been a struggle for me and having a good supply is important. I constantly struggle with my desire to look good and cutting calories. To me it is not worth sacrificing my supply.
I started out the year on Weight Watchers because it has a good plan for nursing mothers. I counted my points religiously for about 6 weeks and lost a total of 0 lbs! Yep, that is true; nothing, zip, zilch, nada. I hate depriving myself with no success, even one measely pound would have motivated me to keep going. That is how my theory began to develop.
I knew that I needed to do something to get healthy because I don't want to be at this weight and I would like to have another baby. I needed a plan to motivate me to be healthy but that the sole focus wasn't weight loss. I decided that being fit and exercising regularly is more important in the long run than pounds lost.
I decided about 8 weeks ago that I was going to walk a half marathon. This is a huge goal for me because I have never been one to exercise regularly. I was active but not in a formal fitness way. The more I thought about doing a marathon and all the training in entailed the more it seemed to be a perfect goal. I really like how you can improve over time and you get to travel to different cities. I also really liked how it gave me steps to work towards a goal where I could improve my fitness and show my girls that being fit is more important than dieting.
My girls are what really motivates me I really want to help shape their relationships with food and weight. I want to try my best to help them with the inevitable self-esteem issues. I want to give them tools to be proud of their bodies. I want to protect them from the anguish that I have gone through. I know I can't shield them but if I incorporate an active lifestyle into our lives now maybe it will make it easier for them.
It doesn't fall off
Today as I was despairing about my weight, I thought about blogging about my struggle. It doesn’t fall off is talking about how some of us have to really struggle to take off our pregnancy weight and how for some breastfeeding is not a given for weight loss. My eldest daughter is now 2 years old and for her pregnancy, I enjoyed every latte and hot cross bun to the max and gained 70lbs. I didn’t worry I was going to breastfeed and of course have so much time to go to the gym, I *knew* that I would lose it no problem. Ha!! I was so naive. Time?! And time to yourself, to be exact what is that? I got pregnant when my eldest was 11 months old and with 40 lbs left to lose, I did well with my second pregnancy and gained the textbook 25 and now at 4 months I have lost 17. I have now realized that it is work and hard work at that. I am going to share my journey with any of you who maybe in the same boat.