If I could talk to Phelps...

...I would congratulate him. What he's accomplished is nothing short of amazing.

Then I would advise him to get a PR coach, and get a different type of training than what he's spent so much time on. He has another amazing opportunity in front of him - that of building an image, a brand. This image, this brand if built well could easily outlive his physical talents for swimming... but he needs to wipe the chlorine from his eyes, get the water out of his ears, and take advantage of the situation before his chances are washed up. What few endorsements he's had are charmless and the delivery, flat. He's got a great physic - face it, what swimmer doesn't! - now he needs a little polish to deliver on the the what he has. I hope to see Michael grow and learn now that the cameras are on him.

C25K, Day One

Tonight I *finally* made it to the gym for Cool Running's Couch to 5k! OH MY GOODNESS it felt good! I'm so excited! After having spend the last how long - at least a year and a half, probably more - not exercising with any kind of consistency, I'm very happy with how well it went. And it's also amazing what 15 pounds feels like when you aren't carrying it around.

Yay!

The first 4 intervals I ran at 5.2 mph (11:30 min/mile), the next 1/2 at 5.8 mph (10:20) and #5.5, 6, 7, 8 at 6.0 mph (10). I can feel my form is a little unsettled... and I really need to fix my form before I torture my knee some more.

Overall, I could feel myself working without having to push too hard... which is exactly what I was hoping for. I'm guessing I'm going to be quite sore tomorrow.

Today, A Victory!

I came into lunch *ravenous* and didn't really overeat! That's probably a first for me!

I curbed with a banana and some crackers, waited 15-20 minutes, then had lunch.

/cheer!

Overall, eating today has not been the best; lunch was breaded chicken tenders and tater tots... but I've stayed within plan points. Overall, mostly balanced eating, and I've gotten some good fruits and veggies in.

Still haven't made it to the gym :\ but the podcasts for the C25K are loaded up. My abs are feeling my work from last night. :)

Little Boy is sleeping in more... Generally good, but hopefully won't throw him off too badly when Monday hits. I think he's enjoying being home over holiday as much as we've enjoyed having him. It's so hard to leave him at day care.

Yay for good days! Hope I can manage some more. ;)

Thought on weight loss...

...and it was my MIL (Love Her!) that asked the key question... how much difference is there between my before-baby weight and now?

Before Baby? 184.
Now? 160.
That's 24... Yay for victory!

It's been hard to look at the 230 before weight and think about having lost 70 lbs... didn't seem fair some how. But 24? I'll claim that. That's mine.

Thanks, Mom!

Changing it up...

So here we go...

I've been absent for too long (DOH!) and have been, accordingly, stuck at 160. I saw 158 one morning, 162 and 164 more than I like...

Time to take Week 2's advise to heart -> That is MOVE MORE.

I am hereby doing something slightly insane.

There is a 5k run locally. That's 14.5 weeks away. Coolrunnings.com has a 9 week couch to 5k program... which gives me an extra 5 weeks or so. Maybe that's too much slack? Maybe not, esp with holidays and maybe repeating a week or two here and there... anyay ( ramble) I want a TANGIBLE goal, and I think this is it. =)

The goal: local 5k on 3/29.

The plan: CoolRunning's couch to 5k plan, courtesy of a podcast I downloaded over a year ago while I was on bed rest, pregnant with LO.

Tomorrow, to the gym! =)

W7D1: Thoughts on "Goal" weight

At last week's weigh-in, my WW Leader brought up that I should consider what I would like to set my Goal Weight since I'm closing in on the maximum of 164. (I'm currently 166.6 and at that weigh-in had hit 166.8.) Here are a couple of thought's I've been able to pin down:

• Part of me wants to pick the 164, get Lifetime and be Done, but then maybe lose a bit more "on my own" anyway.
  
• Part of me wants to hit the 10% goal of 159.4. That would be CRAZY since I haven't seen the 150's since at least 1994, if not before, which makes me (honestly) afraid to attempt that goal.
  
• Another part of me wonders what I'd look like if I were 148 - smack in the middle of my "healthy" range... this is the part of me that wants to conquer the world via running and or triathlons, and sees that these professional athletes of the same height are typically even lighter than that (130's).
  
• Through all of this I've got in the back of my head that we are planning on having a second baby, and I'm going to have to do all of this all over again... but that part is only a very small one and I know that since I've done it now, I can do it again after the 2nd baby, so I'm not too worried at this point.

So... my ramblings on Goal. How are you determining Goal?

W7D1: Oh boy... time to open my eyes!

Logging didn't go so well. BUT 'm proud of myself - instead of just burying my head in the sand, I just sat down and thought through my day... and I should know better, that it is okay to open my eyes and be honest about what I've eaten. I'm not off program, it allows for this, and that's part of why I like the WW Points system.

SO... my best guess is that I dipped into my weekly pool about 9 points. I've had worse, namely W5D2. Burger King and homemade apple pie did me in that day for a total dip of 22 (!) into my weekly points. That puts today's 9 into a rosy, most deal-able light. I'm finding with my Friday weigh-ins that the weekends are rough, but my week-days are usually disciplined enough that it works out.

I think I'm going to look at my pantry and try to run "floor" for plan - a flex-core hybrid. I'm not quite brave enough to jump all the way over to core, but I know my snack choices need to be better, and I would like to watch my serving sizes, still. So I'm going to try to choose from the Core foods list, and track the points. Might be redundant, but Points is a security blanket that's hard to leave, and I'd like to get a feel for Core before I jump all the way over.

To be honest I guess I don't *really* trust myself to stay only with core foods, and want the Points safety net if I burn through my 35 weekly points too quickly. :)