There's Hope Yet

Some updated stats about my progress with OLMA (which C has deemed a failure of a project, and yet, I can't quite give up on it yet). (And speaking of C, check him out over at "Run, Fatboy, Run!" and help hold him accountable for working out and reaching his marathon goal!)

Anyway, back to my accountability.

• Weight gained during pregnancy: 30 lbs.
• Weight lost during pregnancy: 8 lbs.
• Net weight gain at the point of giving birth: 22 lbs.
• Daughter born: June 25, 2009
• Days since giving birth: 16
• Weight lost since giving birth: 25.5 lbs.
• Pounds under pre-pregnancy weight: 3.5 lbs.
• Pounds to go to reach lowest weight during pregnancy. 2.5 lbs
• Pounds to go to reach 10% goal weight: (Yeah right, I'm not telling cause the math isn't that hard to do.)
• Pounds to go to reach final goal weight: Too many to think about right now.

So I'm just going to keep on doing what I'm doing. And I'm celebrating losing the baby weight already by eating an apple. Even though I really really want that Twix I have stashed away in my fridge instead. Sometimes, there are hard choices to be made, I guess.

Up your nose with a rubber hose...

Originally posted on my workout blog, Run, Fatboy! Run!

That's my way of saying that today, I'm a sweat hog. No work the last two days. The northeast was hit with a snow and ice storm yesterday. Though most school districts had off yesterday, they went back today after a 90-minute delay. My delay was dramatically turned to a cancellation. That allowed me to get in the workout I missed yesterday (though, I did shovel for over an hour, which is 400 calories for a 150 pound person...so it should be more for me...but I'd settle on 400). Today's workout felt great, I've got to say. I haven't felt this good after a workout in a long time. I'm actually quite pumped.

Monday's workout was good. I did a circuit workout on the machines, then ran 2.5. Today, was much better. After doing the "gut buster" routine, I ran 30 minutes and walked another 10. Just the running was great. I've toned down the pace (averaging around 6.4 mph (9:30 mile or so), and I'm getting a lot more out of it. Plus, my mileage has increased a considerable amount...though I did do the last 4 minutes over 7.2 mph (around an 8:15 mile). All told, I did 40 minutes, and went 4.2 miles...even if I didn't factor in the walking from the cool down, that's an average of exactly 6.3 mph. So, the cool down was even faster than normal. Though I'm not seeing much of an improvement with my weight, I'd have to say my fitness level has increased a lot. Big weigh in tomorrow, but today, I'm happy.

Today's run playlist (I listened to Bill Simmons' BS Report podcast while I did the first part of the workout) :

St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)-John Parr
A Million Ways to Be Cruel-OK Go
I Want to Break Free-Queen
Do What you Want-OK Go
I'm Still Standing-Elton John
This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race-Fall Out Boy
The Middle-Jimmy Eat World
I'm Shipping Up to Boston-Dropkick Murphys
Smooth Criminal-Michael Jackson
All These Things I've Done-The Killers (Quite possibly my favorite mid-run song, it really has gotten to me since this Nike Commercial from the 2008 Beijing Olympics...it may be the shot of Pre's mustache. Then again, the cowboy at the start of the original video is pretty B.A. too.)
Run Away-Bon Jovi
Tessie-Dropkick Murphys (Tessie always carries me away)
Mr. Jones-Counting Crows
My Hero-Foo Fighters
Pain-Jimmy Eat World
Bright Future In Sales-Fountains of Wayne

Hiatus or No Hiatus? That is my question.

I quite literally just posted on my main personal blog that I'm pregnant. By default, that means I am on OLMA hiatus cause, well, rumor has it you're not supposed to diet when you're pregnant.

See, the problem is though, I'm already overweight. If I gain 35 lbs of "healthy" pregnancy weight, I will be completely UNhealthy. I mean, let's face it, I'm not healthy now.

So what does the expectant mom do when she wants to diet but isn't really supposed to?

No, seriously, what do I do?

While I wait for an answer, I think I need to go to the kitchen and eat some red seedless grapes. Hey, at least it's a fruit.

Baby Steps, or "Yes I Can"

Ok, this is a week late, but I made a good OLMA move last week when I WALKED to my voting place. Granted, it was only about 1/4 mile away from my house, but in the old days, anyone who knows me knows that I would've hopped in my car and totally never even considered the possiblity of using those nicely provided sidewalks.

Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

Not quitting

I didn't quit...I just went on writing hiatus.

The best two sites for me are WWW.MAPMYRUN.COM and WWW.CALORIE-COUNT.COM .
They both help me track what I've been up to...

A Pretty Plie' Goes a Long Way

And I so didn't even mean to rhyme!

As some (or all) may know, I'm a former non-professional, but seriously active dancer. I worked at it for 13 years (starting just before my 4th birthday), and stopped when I went off to college. Just under 2 years ago, I went back to dance classes for the first time in about 5 years. And about 2-3 months after that, I hurt my right foot. I had X-rays done to see if it was broken. It wasn't. I went to a rheumatologist to see if it was arthritis. It wasn't. To this day, they still don't know exactly what happened to my foot. The closest they've even come is telling me that I contracted Lyme disease, but here's the kicker -- all blood work shows that I do NOT actually have Lyme disease, which, in my mind, shoots that theory in the foot. No pun intended. All I know is that it was painful to walk, let alone dance. And so my dancing days were done.

The interesting fact was that when I started dancing, I was on a roll with losing weight, too. In fact, I JUST finally got my weight down to the weight I was at when I STARTED that dance class almost 2 years ago. In that 2-3 month period that I had been active, I lost just shy of 20 pounds. Definitely not shabby. (Hey, I will never snub losing approximately 1-1/2 pounds a week!) And I'm feeling good about myself and would love to see some results like that again.

Thanks to this week's 5 celebrity fitness tips from People.com (what can I say? I'm a sucker for celeb gossip...it's my guilty pleasure!), I followed a link and came across "Dance-Inspired Exercises for Shapely Legs." Now, even when I was at my peak of dancing (around age 16-17), I still had pretty big thighs and butt. (I'm not criticizing myself -- I'm just being honest.) That's honestly where I have always carried the bulk of my weight. So this article is EXACTLY what I've been looking for, especially for the days when I just can't find the time to make it to the gym. These exercises are something simple I can do right in my family room, when I've got a free 15-30 minutes.

And as an added bonus, since I'm also a bride-to-be, and every bride wants pretty, toned arms on her wedding day (especially when she's got a strapless or at least sleeveless dress), so I thought I'd throw this article for "No More Jiggly Arms" in, too.

Just a Little Maintenance

I've added many many links that I've been collecting for months to the sidebar. Dieting, exercise, and combo articles. It's chock full of awesome stuff!

And on a personal front, I'm officially down 22 lbs. since the start of OLMA. Here's hoping there's 80 more where those came from!