Friday, August 22, 2008

Accountability

Ever since I hurt my foot, I haven't been running. And, when I hurt my foot, it was the first time I had been running in months. So really? I haven't been running for like a year. In fact, I ran last year in the triathlon and pretty much haven't been consistent since then.

Here it is a year later and I'm nearing my 39th birthday. 39! Seriously? How can I be turning 39? I'll be eligible for early retirement in 16 years. I don't even know what I want to do yet!

Anyway, back to the running thing. So a year of relative inactivity accompanied by a laissez-faire attitude when it came to food has resulted in my, well, gaining a bit of weight. Now I'm not putting this out there so you all will chime in and tell me how good I look and you can't even tell because the truth is I hide it well. The reality is - I have a muffin top and it ain't pretty.

But I'm going to put a stop to it! This here is a declaration that I will no longer stuff my face with doughnuts, bagels slathered with cream cheese, handfuls of chocolate, and despite my love of all food Italian, I will not gorge on prosciutto, pancetta, fresh mozzarella and freshly baked bread everyday for lunch. I do not need to eat the two cookies that come with the lunchboxes in working meetings! They're not even that good! Salads will become my new best friend. Water will be my constant companion. High Fructose Corn Syrup is the sworn enemy! HFCS - you're on alert!

But that's not all! I also vow to get back in shape and plan to exercise every day. Now don't worry, I'm not going to go out and run 5 miles for 3 days in a row and then let a raging case of shin splints sideline me. I'm going to be smart this time. I'm going to take it slow, do a little at a time, increase my speed and endurance only after I've been at this consistently for 4 weeks. I'm going to incorporate strength training. Dara Torres is my new hero!

This new regime began today. Despite it being a Saturday, I set my alarm for 6:30 so I could go for a run. Plans started derailing almost immediately when I woke up at 6:29 and reset my alarm for 7:00. But then Jack got up and I thought, hm, maybe I'll take him with me and he can ride his bike while I run. So, that's what I did and it worked great. I didn't get much of a workout in because he had to stop quite a lot to scratch his head, rub his knee, rest his hands, smell the mustard, tell me a story. The good thing about that though was that it forced me to take it easy, stop and rest, and that will keep me from overdoing it and injuring myself again. Then when we got home I did 3 sets of 20 swings w/ the 10 lb. kb, 20 squats with the kb and 20 pushups. By the 3rd set my legs and arms were shaking.

Not making poor food choices was a bit tougher. I haven't been to the grocery store in 2 weeks so I was out of staples. It was almost 1:00 and we hadn't had lunch and I was really close to saying we should go for takeout. But then I remembered I had a cauliflower in the fridge and a recipe for silky cauliflower soup that I wanted to try. O my goodness, it was so good and super easy. So that's what we had for lunch with some cantaloupe and watermelon for dessert. Later, while we were out running errands, we decided to stop by Jamba Juice for a snack. Normally, I don't even think about how many calories are in those things but I did today. Despite my ever-loving lust for Peanut Butter Moo'd, I chose a more sensible drink that had much fewer calories and still managed to get brain freeze from slurping it up too fast.

Have I lost you yet? I know, it's boring reading about someone's weight loss plan. I'm yawning while I type it. But I have to get it down so that maybe I'll hold myself accountable for once.

So? How long do you give me?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Morning Sunshine...
First of all I had to laugh that you ate something called peanut butter moo'd ,,, is that how it went LOL..Second of all, muffin tops suck and just so you don't feel alone I too have a muffin top, I am thinking of giving it a name it has reside so long upon my waist. Thirdly, good for you for taking control of your destiny. I too am once again on a healthy eating plan. I Hate HFC, it is evil and I have decided it must cause cancer.. I may be a wee bit OCD where it is concerned. So how long do I give you..well you will have a day later this week where stress gets the better of you and you will turn to good ol sweets to make you feel better, BUT you will eat your sweet, shake it off, and start anew the next day. That is one of the many things I love about you. Determination to do the thing you have set your mind to. So don't despair if you hit a bump just don't let it run you off the road. I have also decided that our 40's and 50's may even our 60's will be the best years of our lives : )
Miss Ya and Love Ya,
Jen

Anonymous said...

Next time your at Jamba could you get me a RazzMaTazz? And that muffin sounds good as well.

Fish

TWINTALES said...

Fish-

I GOT you a Razzmatazz and was waiting outside your door but you weren't home!

Very, very funny.

TWINTALES said...

Jen -

Thank you for your support! I actually have a little incentive - my boss and I are challenging each other. We put together a calendar and have a little friendly competition going on. We have to submit our diet/exercise plans to each other at the beginning of each week and then if she doesn't do what she committed to - she owes me a $5 gift card to Sephora. If I don't do what I committed to - I owe her a $5 gift card to iTunes. I'm way cheaper than she is so I'll be much more likely to stick to my plan. And, we have to weigh in every Monday. YIKES!!