Running with Pixie Dust

Waaaaaaay back in April I declared that I would be blogging every day.  I believe I said I was back and here to stay.  I'm sure if anyone is still reading this blog, then the fact that I haven't blogged since May is probably rather amusing.

So for today's update out of nowhere, let's recap my run yesterday.  I ran 11.5 miles.  It was absurdly hot, I was ridiculously slow, and my iPod shuffle decided that all I wanted to listen to was Daft Punk.  That thing is packed with music and aside from a few samplings from other artists and genres, the bulk of my run was the two Daft Punk albums I have.  That was interesting.

This morning I got up early because I wanted to restart Focus T25.  Let me back up just a bit to say I really like Focus T25.  I am not a Beachbody coach, so I will not steer you in one direction or another with Beachbody programs - I'll be honest.  I hated Insanity.  It made my lower back hurt so much after three days that I couldn't continue.  So maybe that's not fair, maybe I would have loved Insanity if I could have physically done it.  But something like that should be hard on the muscles you're trying to work, not hard on your poor little back.  So I was reluctant about Focus T25.  But this is a totally different workout and I really like it.  For one thing, I like that it is only 25 minutes.  As you learned earlier, my Pinterest and Frasier schedule really takes up a lot of time.  But in all seriousness, devoting an hour to exercise on work days is kind of exhausting, especially when your work day consists of putting on pantyhose and a variety of wools and taking people on a five hour tour through the Magic Kingdom in 95 degree heat.  When I am done with a tour, the last thing I want to do is exercise.  And if I want to exercise before the tour, I am getting up before dawn even has a chance to crack.  So the 25 minutes is great for me.  I feel like I can deal with 25 minutes even when I'm exhausted.  I also just like the workouts.  And Shaun T has a modifier for this one!  It's really great to have an option when you don't feel up to jumping around.

But I digress.  I planned on restarting Focus T25 this morning.  I missed a couple workouts over my first two weeks and wasn't thrilled with that, so I thought I'd just hit the reset button.  I got up early to get T25 Cardio done before work.  When my alarm went off, I was ready to show Shaun T what I was made of.  And then I got out of bed and remembered that I had run 11.5 miles the day before and it hurt to move my hip flexors.  So... just kidding on the T25!

BUT I have made it four days so far!  Yes, you read that correctly - I have made it through four days of the running streak AND since it didn't start until Monday, but I ran on Sunday, I ran five days in a row!  This is impressive for me.  I am taking it very slow and very easy on the one mile days (sticking to the one mile for now since I want to focus on my training runs for Disneyland and cross training), but it is still running, and I'm still really stinking proud of myself.  I've been posting about it on Instagram with my account for Tone it Up - you can find that here.  I am "tiurunnerjess" on Instagram if you want to come follow me!

I've been posting pictures of my Garmin with a date stamp so that I can keep track of my runs, except for the last couple days when I used pictures of my RunKeeper app because my Garmin died (oops). 

I just started using RunKeeper and I'm pretty impressed so far.  It will never replace my Garmin because that is my sweet baby, but what I love about RunKeeper is that it lets you set a goal for yourself and it shows your progress.  I set a mileage goal and it's fun to see the little chart pop up at the end of each run and watch myself get closer!

And speaking of goals... I have (once again) recommitted to Weight Watchers.  I'll be totally honest - I have been struggling.  It's hard having been a Weight Watchers Leader to go back in and admit how badly you need help.  On top of that, I don't particularly like any of the Leaders and meetings I've encountered here.  They're okay, but it's a long drive to the meeting location (about a half hour each way from my apartment) and I have better things to do than drive an hour to go to a half hour meeting that doesn't get me motivated or excited.  But meetings are what got me to my goal weight.  So I've been having a bit of a crisis.  So I dug down deep today after talking to my mom about it and really tried to figure out what to do.  And when I thought about it, it really wasn't a tough decision - Weight Watchers was the only thing that worked well for me before, and I know it will work for me again.  I just have to do it.  I cannot keep making excuses.  Yes, the meetings worked for me and helped me get to my goal.  But it wasn't the meetings that got me there - it was me.  It was my hard work and determination.  Just because I don't love the meetings here doesn't mean I'm off the hook.  I can still work hard, eat right, track, and exercise.  This program works if I follow it, but I have to follow it.

So I'm taking a tip from the Tone it Up girls today.  The inspirational challenge of the day from them for the Bikini Series is to "Think about 2 small adjustments you can make to your routine! Think about little changes that can pay off BIG by the time summer arrives. Maybe you need to go to bed 15 minutes sooner, add one mile to each workout, take a walk on your lunch break, spend a few extra minutes prepping your meals or just keeping healthy snack with you on-the-go! It can be as simple as focusing on drinking more water! Whatever it is, tune in and find what small changes YOU need to make!"

Wish me luck!

This physically hurt me.  I didn't realize how much of a pansy I am about heat, especially if I'm in that much clothing.  I felt so bad for everyone on my tour because I was dripping sweat.  I made the mistake of wearing my bangs down and I feel like they were super duper attractive the whole time.  To make it even better, I wanted to be extra impressive on this tour because Jamie and two of his best friends from home were on it - I'm sure they were very impressed by how much I could sweat.  Jamie assures me that they were also impressed with the tour and had a great time... but I have a feeling they were also impressed with the sweat.  Let's be real.

The real problem with the heat is that it knocks all the energy I ever had out of me.  Please notice that there is no "today's workout" or "today's run" at the top of this page.  I had a really great streak going - I exercised Monday through Friday this week, every day.  I had planned on doing a HIIT workout today, but there is no way that is happening.  My head hasn't stopped pounding for hours.  I am currently guzzling water in hopes that it will help, and I'm going to go to bed early, which will be delightful.  There's a part of me that wants to push myself to do a quick workout, but honestly, I am drained.  I think if I did exercise, it would do more damage than good - plus, I want to go to bed soon and I think it would be better if I just relaxed.  And I had a salad for lunch on the tour instead of getting chicken nuggets and I only stole one of Jamie's fries when he wasn't looking so... I think we're okay here.

... really, that's it.  It's 8:51 and I'm thinking about crawling into bed right now.  In my defense, my alarm will be going off at 4:30 tomorrow morning, so going to bed at 9:00 is justified.  It's either that or I go to Chick-fil-a for the millionth time this week.  We shall see what happens.

I am newly obsessed with this app called BeautifulMess that allows me to add heart borders and squiggly lines to photos.  Which helps with my other obsession, Instagram.  I don't even remember life before iPhones and apps.  I think it was a dark and sad time.

This was a tough run to get up for, and though I woke up before my alarm was supposed to go off, I did NOT want to get out of bed.  Bed was very cuddly, and I had plenty of time to sleep in before work today.  But instead of sleeping in for an extra hour and a half, I got up and went out for a four mile run. And though it was slow (still sore from Wednesday's HIIT workout... seriously rough workout) I am incredibly glad that I went.  The weather was lovely and it was nice to just go out and run.  I'm getting back into the groove of running - I know I run best and enjoy it the most when I'm running 3 days a week and focusing on cross training on the off days, rather than just sitting around.  Today marked my fifth day in a row of exercise (yeehaw!) so I know that if I keep at it, it will just keep getting better.

That being said, though I'm glad I went for the run, my feet are going to fall off.  After the run (and a delightful shower, courtesy of new Bath & Body Works products) I got into my pantyhose and heels and went to work, and then I got into my yoga pants and sandals and met Jamie and his friends in Epcot.  In the back of Epcot.  And then I walked around Epcot, walked out of Epcot, walked to my car... and then this happened.

This earned me at least one new pair of Toms, right?  Right?

I would love to say that today was a wonderful day in the world of weight loss and fitness because after all, I was just here yesterday posting about how I'm trying to do check-ins with the Tone it Up team and how I'm trying to blog more and isn't that wonderful motivation to stay on track?  You would think.  And to my credit, today started off well - I had a healthy smoothie for breakfast and had plenty of water before I even got to work.  But I didn't have time to pack my lunch before I ran out the door, so I had to buy lunch at work.  I told myself that I would get a grilled chicken sandwich, and hey... I did!  It's not my fault that onion rings jumped into my hand too.

That being said, one of the things that I am working on along with my weight loss and fitness goals is not beating myself up over every little thing.  This is something that I have always struggled with, and I probably will always struggle with it, but I want to work on it.  I'm very hard on myself, and this applies to everything - not only am I hard on myself with weight loss, fitness, eating, healthy lifestyle and all that fun stuff, but I'm also hard on myself with friendships and relationships.  I was hard on myself in school and now I'm hard on myself at work.  I am easily my toughest critic, and while sometimes that works out well because it forces me to push myself, sometimes it backfires badly and I end up just feeling terrible about myself.  So I'm working on it.  And I'll start with lunch - yes, I grabbed onion rings.  But then I grabbed water instead of soda, and when I had a couple onion rings and realized I didn't like them, I stopped eating them.  Tiny successes, right?

Then I came home from work and napped.  Let's be honest, I don't even feel bad about it.  That nap was glorious.

But I did manage to get a little exercise in today!  I did a 2 mile Leslie Sansone workout.  I don't know if I've mentioned Leslie Sansone on the blog before, but I love her.  My mom started using her DVDs a few years ago, and I will admit that when she first told me that she had purchased indoor walking DVDs, I scoffed.  You can walk outside, I said.  Indoor walking sounds dumb, I said.  

I was wrong.  First of all, Leslie Sansone is a delight.  I think she and I would get along very well because we are both super bubbly and we both talk a lot.  Plus, she seems to like bright colors and sparkly things.  We'd probably be best friends.  Which means that honestly, her workouts are fun.  They are not crazy choreographed or super strenuous because yes... they are indoor walking DVDs.  But do I sweat?  Does it get my heart rate up?  Absolutely.  Love her for days when I cannot face jumping around like a crazy person with Chalene Johnson and TurboFire, or when I cannot face HIIT workouts.  Which is most days.

Those two miles that I did with Ms. Sansone got me two miles closer to completing the 100 miles by summer challenge that the Tone it Up girls started.  On Monday, they announced that they were challenging everyone to complete 100 miles by summer, whether it be walking, running, biking, swimming, hiking, on the elliptical... they even count dance!  So I've been tracking my miles!  I'm doing pretty well so far - on Monday, I went to Body Jam, which is an hour dance class.  That counts for 3 miles.  Then on Tuesday, I went for a 3.75 mile run, and yesterday I did a one mile Leslie Sansone workout after a brutal HIIT workout.  Which means that including today, I'm up to 9.75 miles - not bad for four days!  Tomorrow is another run for me, so that will get me a few more miles as well.  At least if I actually get up at 6 am to run.

Aaaaaaand... that's it.  Really.  I went to work, came home, took a nap, did a quick workout, and then went to P.F. Chang's with Jamie and ate too much.  But I drank plenty of water and had brown rice and brought home half of my entree, so... I'm saying we're good.  See?  I told you I was working on that whole beating myself up thing.  One day at a time, kids... one day at a time.

Can you see the drop of sweat about to fall from the tip of my nose?  Seriously.  I am so pretty.

Now it's definitely bedtime.  See you again tomorrow!