keeping on and new events

Well, I have two new things to lose weight for.  One is so soon that I'll see noticeable results.  My husband told me yesterday that we're supposed to go to a black tie event next week. I'd like to look great for it. I'm thinking I'll try doing pilates every day, in addition to my cardio and see if I see a difference in my waistline.

The other two big things is on 10/15 is a zombie 5k. I think I don't mind running so much if I'm distracted by costumes, mud, or foam. So, I'm going to try to run for a bit, and hope that my time at this race will be quicker than the 5k I did in May. I was pleased with that time, but I would be thrilled if I could improve it.  The other (even biggeer) thing is I'm going to Japan this month. The last time I was there and saw my friends there, I was barely post partum, so it'd awesome to go looking awesome. Granted, I thinner than I was the entire time I lived there, thanks to pregnancy, anything will be an improvement.

I am feeling happy in one aspect of this super long term journey.  Two years ago this month, I posted a picture of a formal dress that I'd like to be able to fit into. I tried it on today, thinking about that formal event next week. While it still is a little too tight for me to feel comfortable out in public, I was able to zip it up (well, all but the last inch, but I think that's a reflection of not being able to do my own zipper, and not the size of the dress). I haven't been able to do that before. That is really great for me.

The Dirty Dash

Well, I completed the Dirty Dash.

Our team had 7 members- 3 ladies and 4 men. We ended up going the full 10k, though most of us walked most of the time. There were many obstacles, including tall bales of hay, balance beams, tubes to crawl through, rope swings, tubes to crawl under, and a good 1/2 mile walking through hip dip water.

Towards the end, there was a huge inflatable slip and slide.  It was easily the funnest part of the race. In fact, when we saw the final two people in our team (they were far behind, as they didn't run at all), we decided to go down the slide again, all together.

All in all, I had a marvelous time.  I didn't mind the little bit of jogging I did do, as I was with friends, and we were covered in mud, throwing mud at each other. I can't wait to do it again.

No Exercise

This has been a really tough week and a half for me.  I developed a serious infection on the back of my thigh. It made driving, walking, sitting extremely painful. Exercise has been out of the question.

Two doctors visits and a couple hundred dollars later, and I'm feeling a bit better.  Still can't exercise, but at least I don't look at driving the kids to school with dread.

I would be in a complete panic, since the Dirty Dash is this weekend, except I've been chatting with other people on our team.  Evidently, they all decided that 1- we would be walking it and 2- we'd be taking the 5k shortcut. I was really, really disappointed.  Why have I been training so hard if we're going to make it so easy? However, since I haven't been able to exercise at all for almost two weeks now, part of me is somewhat relieved.  I think I'll need to rest even more so that I'm as healed as possible.  Taking an open wound into mud sounds like a bad idea.

August Autopsy

I really did title this correctly.  August was not a good month for me.

When I look at the math, I was out of town for almost half of the month on either a camping trip, an anniversary trip, day trips, etc. That adds up to a lot of eating out.  I also gave myself permission not to log my food on myfitnesspal.  After all, I've been doing it every single day since January, and I was getting very burned out. Because of the trips, my soda consumption was way up.  Mountain Dew was also on sale most of the month.

On the plus side, I was very active on these trips.  I think that all considered, I probably hiked almost 100 miles throughout the month.

When it was all said and done though, when I got on the scale this morning, I was up 1.5 pounds from where I was on Aug. 1 (well, Jul 31 to be technical- I was off on a camping trip on Aug 1 and weighed in early).  In general, that wouldn't upset me too much, except that July was a dud month for me too.

Part of me is extremely angry and upset.  This is probably the most active month I've ever had.  When we weren't off on our active vacations, I was going to the gym.  I've been trying to train for the Dirty Dash, so there's even been (gag) running involved.  This month I even ran 6.5 miles in one go.  Ok, I had to stop and walk some of it, but I didn't get off the treadmill until I'd gone 6.5 miles.  That's big for me.

I haven't done pictures yet because I sent my kids off to school before I could take them, but my belly actually feels a little bigger, so if I am heavier, it probably went there.

On the other hand, I didn't journal.  Maybe the soda did it.  Maybe I was eating more food, or more junk.  I don't know.

I'll try to start September fresh, and I am journaling again.