What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas

Just got back from a wonderful Vegas vacation and like they say, "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas".

Seriously, Kristy and I had a great time. We went there for Kristy's mother's (Ginny) 65th birthday. Along with Ginny, she brought, her boyfriend, Don, her best friend from high school, Joan and her husband, Joe. So here were were, Kristy and I hanging out in Vegas with who we fondly call the seniors. Unfortunately for us, the "Seniors" did not live up to their name. They kicked our butts almost every night. Seemed like every time we wanted to take a break or turn in for the night, they were just getting their second wind.

As for the dieting part, that did not go so well. It was almost impossible to make any healthy choices in Vegas. Kristy and I did the best we could do under the circumstances, but it was not easy. The one thing that saved us was we walked everywhere. One of the days we decided to walk to the Vegas sign. We thought it would be a nice bit of exercise and it was, but by the time we got back to our hotel, 5 miles later, we were exhausted.

I'm not going to go into all the details of the trip, but it was well worth the visit and I'm happy with the results of the scale.

Glad That One Is Over

Well, the first big ride of the year has come and gone. Let me tell you I’m glad that one is behind me. It wasn’t that the ride was hard, but the people who put it on did not do a very good job.

First, we did the 32 mile option and there were rest areas about every about every 12 – 15 miles. Well for the ride we did, that meant we only had two. At the rest areas they usually provide a bathroom and some food and drinks. Nothing extravagant just water, Gatorade, and usually some fruit and sometimes sandwiches. By the time we got to the first rest area, they were totally out of food. All they on the table were a half of a jar of peanut butter with a knife sticking out of it and a half loaf of white bread. I felt bad because Courtney, one of the girls who rode with us was planning on packing some things to eat, but I assured her that the rest areas would have plenty of food. It was like that at the next stop as well.

Then, with only 2 miles left in the ride, there was a road block with two police officers directing people to a designated detour. Apparently, there was a parade starting and we had to go a different route. Kristy got to the road block before me and stopped me before I got there. It’s a good thing she did get to me first, because when I heard that we had to tack on another mile, I wanted to jump off my bike and tackle that cop. My feet were hurting so bad, I was blind with pain.

All in all, the ride was very nice just organized poorly. I will probably never ride with that organization again

Saddle Up!

It's official! Tomorrow we head out for our first organized ride of the year. Kristy, Courtney, and I will be getting up at 5:00 AM and heading out with our friends, Deena, Susan, Noelle and Cat for a 33 mile ride. Kristy and I have decided not to weigh in this week until Sunday.

Wish us luck!

Running With Someone

Courtney and I hit the road again yesterday after work and ran the same route we did the night before. Kristy is down with a bad back so she wasn't able to join us on our run. She did, however, joined us for a nice .9 mile warm up walk around the the neighborhood with all the pups. After the warm up, Courtney, KC and I took off for another walk/run.

Even though the route was the same, it was much harder this time. Since we did the nice warm up walk, we were able to start the route off running. Unfortunately, the first part we ran is all up hill so I was already out of breath before leaving my own street.

By the time we hit the dreaded hill, I was pretty wiped out. Under normal circumstances, I would have walked the rest of the way home, but having Courtney beside me helped me push through the pain. We walked up the hill at a fast pace and when we reached the top, we ran the rest of the way home which is approximately a block long. We completed everything, including the warm up walk in 51:39. I'm thinking that's a record time for me.

At the end of the run, I was breathing heavy, sweating like a pig, but I felt great. Thanks Courtney for pushing me the way you did.

Tri-Run

Yesterday, I hit the road running on a 2.15 mile walk/run my faithful dog KC and house guest Courtney. We did what is called interval training which is walk the first five minute (warm-up) run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes and repeat the run walk routine until complete. I would have been able to do the entire 2.15 miles like that if it weren't for this humongous hill on the last block. So I called the last block my "cool down" even though it was harder to walk up than the rest of the run.

With only 52 days until the triathlon, I feel that I am running out of time. I am still not able to run a complete 5K and I am no where close to swimming 400 meters. The bike riding part I'm not worried about since we have been riding round trips to Stone Mountain on a regular basis and that's almost 20 miles alone.

My strategy is to get through the swimming the best I can then really make up some time on the bike by riding as hard as I can and leave enough energy for the 5K run. My biggest goal right now is to run the entire 5k without having to walk any of it.

Wish me luck

Well That Didn't Work

Another experiment failed. I weighed in today and 224.3. I gained 1.3 pounds. There could be several reason for my weight gain this week. They are as follow but in no particular order except for the first.

• I ate dinner late last night - After our game, which we won 16-5 by the way, we went to The Corner Pub for dinner and a drink. I was so hungry because I didn't eat anything before the game. In fact, I hadn't eaten anything since lunch. For dinner I had 2 sliders, one chicken and one black bean, a side salad and two beers.
• I did not journal this week - I tried to see how well I would do without writing everything down. I just get so tired of logging everything I eat. Well this week weigh in as making me re-think that.
• Fewer trips to the gym - We only went to the gym once last week. We did other things like jogging and walking the dogs, but the intensity of the workouts was way less than we have normally done.
• Easter egg hunt - last weekend we had our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. We had a great time but there was a tons of food drinks to be had. Even though I tried to keep my alcohol consumption to a minimum, I did do some mindless eating. It wasn't difficult to just walk through the house and grab something off the table as I walked by.

Well there you go. It looks like I did everything wrong this week. To my defence, I didn't do a bad job eating, I was just bad at everything else.

Hitting The Pavement

After are hard but quick thunderstorm yesterday, the sky cleared and sun came out so, Kristy, Courtney, and I decide Io hit the pavement for a run instead of going to the gym. We took a route that had a distance of 3.15 miles-almost the distance of the running part of the triathlon. This was our first run without a treadmill. Let me begin by saying that there is a huge difference running on the street than running on the treadmill.


We started off by walking for about a half mile and then started our running routine. We ran for 60 seconds and then walked for 2 minutes. We continued at that pace for about 2 miles before we had to start walking a little longer. We completed the run in 55 minutes which is a average of 17 minutes per mile. In my opinion that's not too shabby.


Its hard to say how many calories we burned because my heart rate monitor really wasn't working most of the time, and every website I checked gave me a different number. The range was anywhere between 375 to 1300 calories. It also depends on what activity you put it to calculate it. I could not find one calculator that offered a walk/run scenario.

Tonight, its softball. Let's hope we can keep our winning streak alive.

Someday Is Today

Today, I was able to fit in a shirt that hasn't fit since I got it about 5 years or so ago. A friend gave me this shirt to wear to an event and it didn't fit. I've saved this shirt knowing that someday, I would be able to wear it. Someday is today!!!

I know this has been slow going for me, but I have to tell you when you have little things like this to celebrate about, the pride you feel motivates you to keep sticking with it.

35 Pounds!!!!

Today I weighed in at 223.0 that's a loss of 1.2 pounds this week and a grand total of 35.8 pounds!!!

I have been experimenting with different things that would help me not get frustrated or bored with dieting. This past week, I have decided not to log my calorie intake in my journal. I am just trying to be mindful of what I eat. During the week, I write everything down, but on the weekends I try to give myself a break and just take it easy. The result is a slower weight loss but a happier more motivated person.

I'll keep you up to date on my future experiments.