School is over, which means I don't currently have a job...I'm on vacation right now (yeah, spending money that I don't really have...), and will be heading back to the states in a week. Vacation has been fun, but I met a friend (who doesn't read this blog) and she is soooo out of shape that we didn't do a lot of the things that I consider fun. She was like, "Oh, steps? SIIIIGGGHHH. I don't like steps." As she didn't like walking to the second floor, getting her to hik was impossible. I did ditch her for a bit to climb a (little) volcano, and keep up with my runs for a week, but I wish she had been up for more. It makes me sad to realize that I have friends that get out of breath walking and talking at the same time. She is overweight, but that doesn't stop so many other people. There's a difference (in my mind) between being fat and fit and being fat and totally out of shape. Sigh. Note to self: next time I plan a trip, on plan it with people who want to do physical activities!!!!

Whoa, that first bit was kind of a downer. Didn't mean for it to start out that way!

Let's see, I'm not really running right now 'cause I'm cold and a baby and didn't bring warm running gear. I ran last week when we were in a warmer spot. I ate a lot of crap food, but since I'm in a good seafood place, I've had a ton of nummy, grilled fish.

Future: so I wanted to run the Portland Marathon this year, but I don't think I'm in shape to be ready by October. So, I'll probably train for the half (still depends on job stuff), and perhaps a november or december full. I just have not been in the right place (logistically or mentally) to seriously train. Hopefully things will get more peaceful in the next month or so and I can get back to it.

I hope everyone is doing well and accomplishing goals. Happy summer!

Not having the best time of it these days. It's effecting my eating. Trying to stay positive.

I got home this afternoon and knew I had to go back to work for an evening event. I was tired and didn't go for my run. What did I do instead? Picked up a magazine and ate a meal-sized snack. It was sort of a bingey snack...but not as bad as it could be: coffee with sugar and soy milk, two pieces of toast, one with cheese, one with peanut butter and honey, and three pieces of chocolate. It came to about 500 calories, so not horrible, but not a healthy dinner.

Okay, tomorrow is pilates and maybe a 2-mile run. Salad for lunch...we'll see about the rest. I had two great days of eating, today wasn't so hot, tomorrow will be wonderful.

I have ten weeks before I leave Bolivia and go back to the states.

I have about 6 months until the Portland marathon (which I haven't signed up for, due to the uncertainty of where I'll be in October, but which I'm planning on training for as there are plenty of marathons at that time, and one should fit my schedule).

In the next ten weeks I want to lay an amazing base for training and get firmly in the 140s.

I'm pretty sure I'm a bit above 150 right now due to a lack of running, travel eating and other stuff. I'll weigh in on Sunday.

Tomorrow there's a fun run at school (7 km, about). I won for my group (adult women) last year, but there weren't a lot of us running. We'll see how I do this year. I haven't run for about two weeks (gasp!), and just did a quick 2-miler this evening. Maybe silly to not rest, but it's the first day in a long time where I had the time and opportunity to do it and I really wanted to!

Need to start or continue: plan food/meals, map out marathon training, grocery shop at the store with the better produce, avoid the bakery section at the store, rearrange schedule for weekends when I know I'll be out of town and not able to run, keeping track of food intake (estimating, at least).

Plan, plan, plan, that's the crux.

So, yeah, it was dengue (is?). I'm still not 100%, but the fever, pain, itchiness, rash, etc. seem to be out of the way. Now it's just days/weeks/(please god, not months) of tiredness.

Anyway, with inconsistent eating and almost no exercise due to sickness I'm down to 149. It's sort of a bummer of a way to get there: no triumph and pride at my accomplishment, just relief that the virus is finally being beaten back by my immune system.

Today I got back on Sparkpeople to log food. I haven't been doing that during the sickness 'cause it was just too depressing and I was too out of it. I'm going to go for a walk tomorrow, at least, and maybe even try a 1-2 mile s-l-o-w jog.

Part of dengue is the possibility of liver issues and you're supposed to eat liver friendly for a while afterwards...from what I can tell this is similar to normal healthy: grains, veggies and fruits, with little or no saturated fats. Oh, and, of course, no alcohol. But I also read that I'm not supposed to overdue it on iron...but I'm not sure how to balance this one with my anemia. I've been taking a multivitamin that gives me 100%, but perhaps for the next week, or so, I should cut it out. Maybe two weeks. Dunno. I'll ask the dr. tomorrow.

I'm still feeling yicky, tomorrow I go to get a blood test to see if it's Dengue fever. Today's new twist has been a quasi-nausea...I don't feel like vomiting, per se, but every time I get up and move around my stomach yells at me. Not fun. I find myself in the weird position of trying to consume the most calorie dense foods I have in the house 'cause I'm not really happy with the smell or taste of anything, and I just want to get the whole eating thing over with. My stomach was grumbling when it was empty, but got mad at me when I brought smelly food too near. Oh, and silly me, I don't have any saltines or white rice or that kind of stuff in the house. Nope it's all whole wheat and quinoa and stuff. Flavorful, healthy stuff, but not so fun for an iffy stomach.

I'm also hella low energy. I hope I get well soon. I was reading Runner's World today and it really made me want to get out there...but I don't know when I'll be in shape for that again. I have to wait for the fever to go away, at least. Hopefully sometime next week I can try a mile or two. Sigh, i feel brought low by the mighty bug.

I've decided to keep up with the calorie counting. We'll see where it gets me.

I ate a chocolate doughnut today, but counted it in.

I think I need to up my protein and calcium intake.

On Tuesday, I weighed less on the gym scale than I ever have before. Not much less, but enough to make me smile. I didn't weigh myself today after the aforementioned doughnut (yes, I know, irrational).

That's all.

Still at 152, but that's after a weekend of messiness. And yesterday's run was supposed to be 6, I ended up doing 2. I was just so low energy. Oi. A normal running week for me is 20, and I like the idea of working up to 25 again. This week? 7.1 so far with only today to go. I am so off.

Blah.

I was 152 this morning. Down from last week, but not by much.

I went for a run yesterday and was shockingly tired. I'm not sure if it was sleep or calorie tired, but probably a mix of both. On my walk home from the park flashes of different foods went through my head, and most of it was fatty protein: fried eggs, breaded fish, hamburgers, etc. I know I have cravings that are all mental, but I also do get nutritional cravings, and I think my body was telling me it was hungry and wanted protein. So, dinner was tons of black beans and rice, semi-burrito style. I also followed it up with too many cookies. I should've had two, I had four, but stopped myself from having the whole package. The day ended up with me 160 calories over where I had planned to be, but I went to bed full.

I'm not sure what I learned from this. I'll have to think about it. I don't want to be tired from my runs, but it's also the heat and lack of sleep making me slow on the uptake.

Still going forward, slowly.

I've been thinking about pancakes for a while, so I went out and had breakfast at a cafe this morning. I still logged it all in sparkepeople. It was way more than I normally eat for breakfast, but totally workable. I just have to plan around it for the rest of the day. Actually, breakfast was big, so I wasn't hungry for my morning snack (normally a piece of fruit, or some carrots, peppers or the like), and it's 1 pm now and I'm just starting to think about lunch. So, it worked out.

Tomorrow is a weigh-in. I'm kinda nervous that last week was a mistake and that this week will be the reality. In my mirror in the morning it seems like I'm losing weight, but I really rely on quantitative measurements to make confirm it.

As I near the end of my 21 day challenge I'm beginning to see that if I want to actually meet any of my goals (149, 145, someday 135, size 8, etc.), I'll probably need to keep counting and measuring 'til I get there. Right now that seems totally doable. Other times it has seemed tiring and overwhelming. I think this is a reflection of my mental peace right now. With the move and job change (if I get one!) coming in July that might change.

I weighed myself at my pilates class today, in the afternoon, and was 69.6 K (153.4 lbs). It's in the afternoon with food in my stomach, so that's a perfectly fine weight.  I haven't ever measured myself below 70 there, so it's a little victory.

Aiming for 25 miles running this week.

Weighed in at 152.5 this morning. My scale doesn't really do decimals, but it wasn't at 153, nor 152, so I made it up. That's 1.5 down from last Sunday, so somethings working.

Did my 6 miles yesterday, but at a pace that was embarrassingly slow for me.  Ah well, this is the "get back into it" week.  It'll get better.

After this post I'm going to do about 15 minutes of yoga. This afternoon I have a 4-5 mile run planned. It's hot, that's killing the exercise desire, but I'm still at it.

I think I should add in some inch/cm measurements to the mix. Maybe next week.

This challenge was supposed to be 21 days. I'm half done and see obvious results. I may continue after it's officially over, but I know from past experience that'll depend on outside factors: as stress levels go up, eating habits tank. I think I'm in a generally balanced place in my life right now, though, so I should be able to manage.

Still going strong. Running has felt better now that school lunches are added into the mix. I'm enjoying one part of the calorie counting: it really has freed me to eat "forbidden" foods in small amounts.  Well, I was always free to do it, but now I don't feel guilty about it.  Yay.

I'm doing fine with hitting the 1000 + lunch mark.  Sometimes I'm like 40-60 over, but never more than that. Good for me!

Today is supposed to be 6 mile run. It's hot, we'll see. I'll try and see how the balance of my energy and the high heat work out.

Tomorrow is my weigh-in.

Day 1 worked pretty well, but ended with a an invite to a friend's for dinner.  I won't let my diet plans interrupt social plans with folks I like, so I went over and ate a chicken breast stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese.  Not too bad, but added on 3 glasses of white wine.  Whoops.  Not really whoops, but not a great start.

Today is so far, so good.  I need to get some more calcium, so will probably do a yogurt/strawberry smoothie in a while.

Only exercise was a 2 mile walk, rt to the post office.  I feel better (getting over a cold), so I will run tomorrow! Yep, trying to convince myself.

156 this morning.  Day 1 of 21 day challenge.  Started out well: logged breakfast.  I need to pack a lunch/snacks 'cause I'm going into work (it's still vacation, so this is voluntary).  I won't be going to pilates today 'cause I feel sick and run down.  I want to have a few more recovery days.  I'm not sure if I'll do a little running or not.

Wrap up of last year: I ran my goal, and made a total of 1000.1 miles.  I was pretty proud of that.

Now, on to the new stuff.  I got all inspired by yet another "perfect plan" in one of those health magazines, and am going to follow my modified version.  Twenty-one days.  That's all I have to do. For 21 days I will measure, and count everything I eat, except lunch.  Lunch had been making me hold back 'cause it's provided by my school and I don't have a particular way to measure and quantify it in calorie land.  So, without counting lunch, I am going to aim for 1000 calories (read that whole sentence before you yell at me!). I'm sure that lunch is at least 500, and often up to 1200 calories if you eat all that they provide.  I'm going to track how I feel when I run based on eating this much.  After the first week, or so, I'll either adjust that 1000 up or down.

On the exercise front, I'll keep my 2x/week pilates class, and aim for 25 miles/week in running.  I really, really want yoga to be a part of my life this year, so I will work on doing at least a little bit every week.

Here we go. Today is day 0 (I just got off an exhausting flight and can't be bothered, I planned this in).  Tomorrow I start.  Ah, New Years, nothing like you to get us all started.

It's the end of the school year and I'm exhausted.  When I'm exhausted I eat too much.  Some sort of calories give me energy and I have no energy logic.  I mentally know this, but I still find myself trying to eat away my tiredness.  Also turns out I'm way low on iron.  You know you're in South America when a doctor tells you you're not eating enough beef and liver.  Mmm, beef and liver. Yick.  I hate liver and will never willingly/knowingly eat it.  And I've really cut back on eating beef for moral and environmental reasons.  So, multivitamins, beets, beans and spinach it is.  Eat more of that, be less tired, eat less of the junk.

( Boring list of food I ate today )

Fruit: 4
Veg: 4-5
Prot: 3
Dairy: 2, at least
Carb: 3-4
pure junk: 2+

97.1 miles left to run this year and I'll make my 1000 goal.  If I run about 16 miles this month I'll have doubled my total from last year.  That is so cool!  I'm not sure if I'll make 1000, but I'll definitely get the double!

(Last year at this time I was aiming for 500, and missed it by about 30-40 miles.  I was still happy with the total.)