Marathon Monday - 2nd Edition

So I am officially done with month one of marathon training and so far, so good.

No injuries, no heat stroke in the Georgia summer sun and I am still enjoying my training.

I don't know what it is about this round of marathon training, but it feels so different from the training I did last fall.

I am just enjoying it more I guess and I am doing better. I am only running four days a week this time (I did five days a week last time) and I haven't missed a day yet whereas last time, I made up a lot of excuses for missing days and got really behind on my schedule making for a terrible marathon experience.

In some related news....I finally saw a number on the scale that I haven't seen in a few years which was pretty darn exciting. I have been below this number for four days straight now and I am hoping that by the weekend I might be down even another pound. Right now, I am under the weight I was when I graduated college and when I lose another eight pounds, I will be at the weight I was when I graduated high school/when I was a fitness instructor in college.

Some photos of me from sophomore & junior year in college. That right there is the physique I am trying to get back.

I think that the vegan diet, eating clean and eating as cheaply as possible (lots of beans, grains, greens, fruits & no wine, chocolate or extra treats) have really helped me lose a few pounds this past month.

I do lose weight veryyyyyyyyy slowly (go away saddlebags!)....but here's hoping that by eating better and moving more, things will come together in a few months.

(Sidenote: we just had an impromptu dance party to Ice Cube in my house thanks to the Sublime pandora station).

I was talking to my mom last week about running and she mentioned that I must get terribly bored when I go for my 2-3 hour runs.

I do sometimes, but I am an avid podcast listener, so I thought that I would share some of my favorite podcasts (which you can download for free from the Itunes store) in case you needed some good listening material while you exercise, do some household chores or work from home making jewelry :)

/1\
RISK

 

This is hands down my favorite podcast in the world. The best way to describe it is a combination of story-telling, spoken word & stand up. The stories are real, sometimes heart breaking, other times a bit raunchy, usually funny and are well told. Episodes either have one long story (40 minutes) or 3-5 shorter stories (10-20 minutes per story) and the story tellers range from ordinary people who have a crazy story to share and then there are comedians like Sarah Silverman or Lisa Lampanelli or Michael Ian Black.

This past week I listened to a story that actually had me crying while I was running along and other weeks I have been laughing my head off like a crazy person while running because the story is so funny and I can't contain my excitement. 

Check out RISK in the Itunes store or on their website and just look for a title that interests you. I started listening to this podcast when it first started four years ago and have listened to every episode. You will not be disappointed. 

(Any of the stories with Elena Baker are pure gold).

/2\

 Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me

 

 If you listen to NPR, you are completely aware of this awesome weekly current events game show, but if not...listen now. 

Each week you have a celebrity panel (hats off to my personal favorites of Paula Poundstone & Alonzo Bodden) and special celebrity guests (last week was Jim Gaffigan, but others include Neil DeGasse Tyson, Martha Stewart & Ed Helms) that answer silly quizzes based on random weekly news. 

It's pretty funny and definitely makes the time go by quick because you can get lost in thought while trying to answer all the questions correctly in the lightening round. 

You can almost forget that you are running 15 miles.

This past year for our wedding anniversary, we actually went and saw the taping of one of their shows when they did a live show at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA. It was so fun to see the behind-the-scenes action of this podcast. 

Us last September on our 3rd year wedding anniversary at the Fox Theater

/3\

Stuff You Missed In History Class

 How Stuff Works is an awesome website owned and operated by the Discovery Channel. On it are thousands of well researched and thought out articles on completely random questions/topics. 

Some examples I saw today are...

* Is the Dead Sea really dead?

* 10 Silly Inventions That Became Wildly Famous

* Why Do Men Have Nipples?

How Stuff Works also produces over a dozen separate podcasts a week. I listen to three of them, but my personal favorite is 'Stuff You Missed In History Class.' 

You get to listen for 20-40 minutes on one subject matter and the ladies really break it down for you. It is super interesting and I have learned about things like 'Lizzie Borden and Her Axe,' 'The Disappearance of the Lindbergh Baby,' & 'Who Was The Real Dr. Frankenstein.'

This podcast really makes you stellar at the history questions on Trival Pursuit. 

I hope you found a new podcast or two to listen to, but if you are more of a music fan while sweating, here is my current playlist for when I run. 

Lots of upbeat, fast songs with catchy hooks.

Linking up with Ashley from 'The Domestic Wannabe!'



Have a great Monday everyone!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

I'm Hungry

So one of the things that happens when you run a race is that they have professional photographers all over the course taking your photo.

They have nice cameras which really show a lot of details. 

Too much details. 

We got an email from the race photographer on Monday evening with all the photos that we were in. There were a few dozen and we each went to our separate computer and looked at our individual photos.

Our photos were bad. Real bad. Mine were really really bad. So bad that I cried. 

We both came to the hard conclusion that we could stand to lose a few pounds. It really took the wind out of my sails. I mean 36 hours prior I had finished a marathon, but after seeing those photos, I got really bummed out. 

It also just so happened that Monday night when we received the race photos, we were in the middle of watching the documentary 'Forks Over Knives' on Netflix. 

In case you don't know, this movie highlights the importance of having a plant based diet (veganism) using scientific arguments on the health benefits that occur once you remove dairy and meat from your diet. I won't get into the details at all because I am not an expert but I definitely recommend that you watch the movie to learn more about it. 

It is powerful but not 'in your face.'

When I was in fourth grade I became a vegetarian and did so for about five years (minus the occasional bacon indulgence here and there. I had a weakness!). In tenth grade I started eating meat again. Once I hit college, I went vegetarian for about a year and then turned to veganism. I was a vegan for about a year, ate meat for a year, became vegan again for about two years, went vegetarian for two years, then ate meat for the last 1.5 years. 

To say that my relationship with animal products is off/on again is an understatement. 

After watching the movie 'Forks over Knives' with my husband though on Monday, we both came to the conclusion together that we needed to adopt more of a plant based diet. We need to get healthy, lose weight and get control of our future.

We are doing it together and I am excited about that.

We are slowly easing into this. We have some dairy in the house we need to eat still and some meat in the freezer we need to cook. We are planning on doing one meal a week with the meat until we use it all up and basically limit our dairy intake by a lot as we slowly get rid of our cheese/eggs/butter. I am most likely going to go full-on vegan once we use up all the dairy and meat, while my husband will be fairly plant based, but still enjoy the occasional burger :)

We will see how this goes and we are really excited about doing this together (probably me more than him though. He just got a new grill for his birthday two weeks ago and grilling vegetables on it isn't quite the same as grilling meat).

So expect some vegan recipes to come your way during the next few months. I actually did a guest post on Kate's blog last week, Scathingly Brillant, about one of my favorite vegan dishes to make (total coinecende). 

Check out Scathingly Brillant (here) to see how I make a yummy Pakistani Dahl.

All in all, I definitely want to eat some bacon right now.

Only a 1 lb gain!

When it is Thanksgiving weekend and you love gorging as much as I do, I will take any victory. 

This morning when I hopped on the scale after binging all weekend on pie, butter, gravy, butter and high fructose corn syrup, I was delighted to find out that the scale was only showing a 1 lb gain. Hooray!

If I stick to my exercise plan again this week, I should be able to negate my gain and maybe....just maybe drop another lb. 

Maybe.

Today I did all the things that I am supposed to do to be healthy. 

* Woke up and drank some water.

* Had a cup of warm water with lemon. 

* Had oatmeal for breakfast instead of pie (eating pie for breakfast is a wonderful thing and only allowed during the holidays).

* I had some vegetables not covered in cream of mushroom soup or gravy. I even stuck to my allocated calories for the day (as of 8:00pm EST).

* Went to the gym with a million other people to burn off some stuffing calories.

This is a photo of me from Thanksgiving six years ago with the best damn pecan pie I have ever tasted.

Last week I did pretty good exercise wise (it's already been established that I ate a whole bunch of nonsense). I created a running and work-out plan that will hopefully get me to where I need to be to finish the Atlanta Marathon in March. 

For this week, I needed to weight lift five days and ran a total of 14 miles over four days (3/3/3/5 miles). I ended up running three days only because on Friday the day slipped away from me and it got too dark out before I realized I needed to run still.

What I did last week:

Monday - Legs

Tuesday - Arms/Abs plus a three mile run

Wednesday - Chest/Back plus a three mile run

Thursday - Legs

Friday - Shoulders/Abs

Saturday - Rest

Sunday - Five mile long run.

This week is pretty much the same, but with that missed day of running three miles thrown in as well as upping my long run to seven miles. Also, I am going to start counting calories again, so I can actually be sure to shed fat, not just gain muscle.

All in all, I am hoping to get enough of a deficit in my weight over the next few weeks so I can eat as much cake/cookies/frosting/butter as I want over the Christmas week.

111 days until the Atlanta Marathon! Here I come!

 

I may be crazy...

Earlier this month, I had the honor of watching my husband run the Savannah Rock N' Roll marathon. It was awe-inspiring, made me feel incredibly out of shape and lazy and I also got to cringe at some people's outfits (seriously...no one needs to wear a unitard, even if you do have a runner's body). 

My husband trained for this marathon since July. 

While attending law school. 

And being on law review. 

And mock trial. 

He was a bit busy the past few months, but he was so dedicated and worked so hard at being able to cross the finish line. There were quite a few times when he would get home from a full day of studying at 9pm, strap on his headlamp and go running for three hours. 

He is insane.

 

This is him before the race began. Doesn't he look happy?

This is around the 8 mile mark. 

Getting ready to cross the finish line...

And done. 

I can't even begin to describe how incredibly proud I am of him. Of his dedication, perseverance and willpower. I had several people ask me if I was going to run along with him and I told them that I only would if someone was chasing me. 

But...I have changed my mind. 

I think.

I am going to run a marathon. I am pretty sure. Like for real. I think. 

I am scared. 

 via

And then I hear quotes like that....and I think I am a giant wussy.

So I have decided to ....

via

And I hope that I will feel like this most of the time...

So Atlanta Marathon, March 17, 2013....here I come. 

I think.

I Don't Like Pants With Zippers & Buttons

So...something interesting has happened all of a sudden. I seemed to have gained some weight. 

I guess it wasn't really all of a sudden, but you know....kinda, sorta, not really paying attention, so some doughnuts attached themselves to my outer thighs, all of a sudden.

Right around Thanksgiving I was around 145 lbs, the lowest that I had been in about five years. Since Thanksgiving, I have gained about 15 pounds. 

Gasp. Gag. Shudder. 

Unfortunately, at 145 pounds, I wasn't one of those people who walked past you and you thought to yourself, 'She needs to eat a ham sandwich.' You thought....she looks good, but might need to lose a couple of pounds. 

So at 160 pounds, you can see the kind of predicament that I am in. I went from needing to drop a couple of pounds to needing to lose 25 pounds.

Total bummer right? I will admit, these last few months were kind of awesome. I stopped being a vegan and went full-on meat eater. I went from one extreme to the other. Instead of beans, I have been eating McDonalds. Instead of fruit, I am eating fried eggs. 

Well...today I realized that I need to lose some weight. Since I work from home, I have the pleasure of wearing yoga pants all day/everyday. No tight waistband, no constricting materials. It's awesome.

I just started a new part-time job today though (more on that later) and need to wear jeans to work. 

O.M.G. 

My Old Navy jeans and I had one hell of a battle this morning and I was actually almost late for work as I had to do about three dozen deep squats to activate the 'stretch' in my jeans. When I got home from work, I ripped my pants off immediately and actually had the jean side seams imprinted on my outer thighs. 

Am I painting you a sexy enough picture yet? 

So yeah...I need to get back in shape. I know what I need to do, how to work out correctly, how to eat right, I just don't do it. I get a bit lazy. So I am hoping that by posting updates on my weight loss each week, maybe you all will keep me accountable and help me lose my saddlebags (I'm keeping the booty though). 

So....as if my jeans experience wasn't bad enough, I took a few photos of me in a bathing suit today, thinking that I would post a 'before' picture on the blog with this post and then show you photos in a few weeks of how I look after getting my fitness on. 

Um....well after reviewing the photos, I have decided that no way am I posting photos right now. I have realized that 1) I have an ill fitting bathing suit, 2) I am deathly pale and 3) I don't want any creepers looking at my photos online. Who knows though....maybe when I get all fit, you guys can see some photos then. 

Maybe. 

So since you guys aren't getting any photos, here are some of my starting stats. I didn't measure myself because I feel like it is too inaccurate for me. I always seem to measure myself in different places, so I get all amazed at a 3 inch loss per thigh after a week.

So no measuring tape, just my scale and calorieking.com (to track my food intake/calories burned). All of this information is as of this morning.

Weight:  160.6 lbs

Body Fat: 45.5 lbs

Body Fat %: 28.4 %

BMI: 25.1

Ugh. So there you have it. All my info is out in the interwebs. Be kind.