Days 10-18: Struggling

Well, we moved. I ended my Whole 30. I had 5 days of horrible glutenous binges. I tried to get back on track. TRIED. I did great on my second Whole 30 for about 4 days, and then stress happened, so I drank a Diet Dr. Pepper and had peanut butter cups, and ice cream and pizza. Then, the next day I ate doughnuts, and other stuff I shouldn't have. My exercising has been terrible this week too. On Monday, I tried to run and because of the poor input of nutrition, I had bad output. Tuesday got better, I ran for 25 minutes without stopping, which was a huge difference from the day before. Wednesday I biked for a half an hour, that's all I had time for and Friday I walked a couple of miles to the store and back. Thursday and Saturday I didn't do any training and today is to be my rest day. All I know is that this next week needs to change or else 9 weeks from now I'll be a BIG mess. I'm in some kind of mind funk and that I need to get out of because I have a lot of work to do on my training, like being able to swim the whole 400 m without stopping and being comfortable on my bike with my clips. Wish me luck!

Day 9: End of 30

Today's the last day of round one of Whole 30. I've gone down a whole pant size and have officially lost 20 pounds in the last 30 days.

I feel great! Tomorrow my plan is to eat what I want, then start again by this weekend. It'll be rough, but can't wait to see what the next 30 looks like. I have really enjoyed eating this way and the way that I feel. Plus, all of my PCOS symptoms have pretty much disappeared. BONUS!

Day 8: Another Milestone

The workout for today was to be another run for 20-30 minutes. I thought today I'd push it a little farther than what I've been doing. What's another 5 minutes, right? Well, it was felt, but I did it. Those last 5 minutes got me to the full 30 minute run. 30 MINUTES. Wow. I cannot believe it. I did 30 minutes of jogging without stopping, without music, without anything. I have realized when I'm running, I get inside my thoughts and lose about 3 minutes at a time, which is perfect and makes the time go quickly. I am really starting to enjoy this process. The run felt great and I feel like my 5k on June 15th will bring about a full run, which will be a first for me. I'm over halfway there already, so what's another 20 minutes, right? Tomorrow we start moving into the new house! Things are about to get hectic and crazy, lets hope I keep it all going.

Day 7: Rest & Recall

I spent most of the day reflecting on the week and my journey in the last year. It's amazing to me that a year ago I could barely finish a 5k just mostly walking it and now I'm able to jog for 25 minutes straight. My jog is a slow one, but it's my new fast. I love that I can move like I do for as long as I can. I like how I feel eating the way I do. I'm grateful for the Lord giving me the willpower and strength to continue this journey and pray that He continues to do so. It's getting easier to do the things that I'm doing and to make the right choices. My family means so much to me and I want to be around for them and be able to do things with them and have fun and not worry about how I feel and look. The boys are starting to get used to it all and Rhys loves going to the Y with me. This next week we'll be moving into our new house, the schedule will probably be off and my eating probably will be too since my last day is Tuesday on this first 30 days. I plan to eat what I want on Wednesday, so we'll see how that goes. My body didn't like the bread last night and so I might be too sick to even try anything else.

Days 5-6

These two were harder days. Day 5 was mostly uneventful with the workout and training, Day 6 however, I was tired. Very tired. I could tell that it was getting into the 6th straight day of working out and my body was feeling it. My swim called for 50-100 more yards than I had been doing all week. I barely got an extra 50 in before I was done. I biked afterward for only 30 minutes and was done. I struggled all day Saturday to keep my energy going and was shaky all day. I'm unsure of what caused it, but I didn't feel that great. I have been doing the Whole30 program, nothing processed, but worried that I needed a better carbohydrate at 11 p.m. at night, so I ate a hotdog with a bun. I have to say, I don't like bread anymore. It does nothing for me. This is the best part of the Whole30. I have found new foods I crave (sweet potatoes, sauteed with onions in coconut oil) and ones I don't like or crave anymore (chocolate, soda, sweets, etc.). My 30 days are up in a couple of days, I am very excited to share the results.

Day 4: Get Run Over

My run for this day was another 20-30 minutes. I decided to run up to the track again and see where it got me. When I got up there, there was a man running already and he was fast and big. Not heavy big, but like 6'5, stocky, and able to run through a person. I was a little intimidated, but I got on the track and started to move. This guy was moving at quite a pace. I was nervous. The track ramps up the sides on the curves and so I thought I'd try and move out of his way and realized that my run was going to be a long one if I stopped and did that every time I heard (and felt) him coming. I thought to myself, "You know Kim, you're running, just slower, so keep going and let the man with the longer stride go up the ramp." So I did. Once I got through that, I mentally decided that I was going to run longer than the day before. I had done part of the C25K the day before, but felt as if I could run a lot longer than I had. So I did. 25 minutes without stopping. It felt wonderful.

I have to remind you too, that this was AFTER a swim as well, which was a great swim too. Not as good as my first one, but I finished and felt good. I was quite tired after all of that running and swimming, but it was a good tired. I can feel myself getting stronger.

Day 3: Single Run

Today's workout was much simpler as far as things to do go, just run. That's it for 20-30 minutes. I had downloaded on my kindle a while back an app that helps newbie runners learn the ropes of running by pacing it for you. It's called C25K and I usually opt for the free apps. This one seemed promising, so I asked Jared to download the app to his ipod for me to use the next day. I set out with my jam packed gym bag, the thing was seriously close to 50 pounds, which got me thinking about the fact that I used to carry around that much extra weight and how I'll never do it again, and Rhys in the other hand. He went his way, I went mine, up to the top (third floor) indoor track. Last time I had been up there, it was when I first started this journey and was with Andy. I was terrified of the heights of it, the way it looked, the fact that it was suspended in air pretty much. I was a little nervous going into it.

Once I found my way through the multiple mazes of stairs in that building, I got open the app and took off. I realized partway through my warmup laps that I wanted to do a higher setting, so I went to week two of the program and took off. I was supposed to run a minute thirty then walk two and so on until it reached the time marked on the workout, which I believe was around 30 minutes. After getting to about the 3/4 mark of the workout, I was tired but feeling well, so I thought that I'd up it a bit and actually continue to run when it said to walk. I am super proud of myself for doing this as much as I did. I am pretty sure I ended up running at least another 5 minutes or so by skipping some of those cycles.

It's interesting that while I was running, I thought back to this time last year. I was getting ready to "run" the White River Run in Anderson and my Mom had been talked into it. I had no idea what to expect. I was so much bigger and felt so much slower than my Mom, so I didn't know how I'd react to her starting to edge me out or whatever throughout the race. As we started, it was definitely harder than expected, but the funny thing was that when my Mom would get so far ahead, she always looked back and checked on me. About halfway, she came back and walked with me. We even managed to jog a little.

I see this transition from last year to this year and I am grateful for the year that I've had in this journey. Here's hoping to a good rest of my training.

Day 2: The Sign

I don't know about you, but I can't hardly mutter the words "the sign" or "I saw a sign." without thinking of the old Ace of Base song, you know the one because you're already singing it in your head or even out loud right now. Today's workout was to be a 200 yard swim paired with at 20-30 minute bike. I decided to go into the Y for this one and that it'd be much easier. The night before, I was scouring Youtube to make sure I knew what the heck I was going to do in the pool the next day. I felt mentally confident, but was still unsure if I would make it.

My plan: swim the whole 200 yards taking breaks as needed on the walls, but NOT do kick drills in between. Not this time. I have to get used to it.

I got into my suits, yes I said suits as in plural because as a larger person, swimsuits are not cheap and wear out easier, so I double them up and hope that the parts of them that are worn on each suit don't match up if you know what I mean. No one has said anything about it to this day, so I go with it. Anyway, back to the story. I'm in my suits. I'm pumped. It's early morning. I'm happy. Rhys got into the daycare without a hitch again and so I was really happy.

I walked the short distance to the locker rooms for the pool area, sat my bag down, took my over clothes off and walked out into the pool. As I walked out, I was thrown off a bit, there was a single lane that was able to be used that was currently occupied by a snorkeler practicing his breathing. There was giant scaffolding next to the empty lane where workers were fixing lights and asking another swimmer to dive after something that had just dropped from their work area at the top of the ceiling. The other 2/3 of the pool was occupied by Silver Sneakers participants trying to get their workout in before the chaotic water aerobics classes started. I was taken back at first, but I walked in confidently and ready to go. That's when I saw it. IT. My sign. For those who don't know, I have link to certain music that even the mention of it puts me in an amazing mood. This was my sign that this would be a fabulous swim.

As you enter the pool area, to the left is a huge blackboard that always has something different drawn or written on it. Usually it's nonsense stuff, but today it made my day and swim. It was just what I needed to get me through the best swim I have ever had, no joke. My form was good, breathing was good, everything came together. Before I knew it, I was out of the pool and in the locker room trying to put dry underclothing on a wet/damp body. (that's a whole other story that I'd rather not divulge in)

I walked down the hall to the spinning studio, picked a bike that I thought would work and got myself set up. On a whim I brought my kindle thinking that possibly maybe I could get the city's wifi to work and I could actually have decent music since my little Nano was missing. I was in luck. Another win for me, the music worked and I was so motivated that I did 35 minutes on the bike! It was wonderful.

What today's workout taught me was that I have to stay positive. Things will work out better and I will actually survive the swim portion of the triathlon.

Day 1: Lesson Learned.

You know those mornings you wake up and you feel like Super Mom and you can do all? Yeah, me neither, but this morning I did feel like I could get a lot accomplished, including going to the gym, but I didn't have time to fix my regular breakfast. I thought to myself, since it's only 30 minutes of resistance training, I should be fine without fueling before I go, for goodness sakes, it's only 30 minutes on weights. Yeah, lesson learned. Luckily it happened my very last set of everything, but still, it was stupid. I got up from doing my last set and I felt my legs almost give out, my sugars had to be super low, and I had no energy. I was actually worried for a minute. Now, two hours later, I'm still shaky even with my yummy breakfast in me.

One of my favorite things to eat in the morning is a sweet potato hash with eggs, salsa and romaine mix. YUMMY! Oh, and sauteed in coconut oil, which I absolutely LOVE!

I am a people watcher, people probably think I'm creepy just looking at them at the gym and stuff while I'm working out, but I love it. This morning there was a woman who came in, you could tell she was looking for the pool, she had her life jacket sitting on her shoulders, a beach bag, and her cane to help her along the walls, she was blind. I was just finishing up a rep and was about to walk with her to the locker rooms when this older, very sweaty old man went running across the room to great her. He loudly said, "Are you heading to the beach this morning?? May I please escort you there?" and then he proceeded to take her to the pool area. It put the biggest smile on my face and made my morning. I'm sure it made hers as well. You'll see a lot of these types of posts during all of my training since I don't use music in my workouts. (another story another time) I get to hear all of everyone's juicy gossip, their political and religious views, and see the occasional passionate treadmill jogger singing as loudly as she can with the music plugged into her ears. The things I've missed all these years by blocking everything out! Get out and go today! You won't regret it!

12 Weeks To 3: The Beginning

Over the last year, I've been through a lot. I have done 6 5k races as an obese woman starting at over 300 pounds and now almost 50 pounds later, I'm on my journey to being a triathlete. I endured a broken foot last summer due to over-training (did 4 5k races and training on it), which set me back months in training, missing one scheduled race last year. Tomorrow is the start of the 12 week training to get myself prepared. I wanted to document how I'm feeling and my progress. I have been doing the Whole30 program for 20 days now. I see a HUGE difference already. Below are pictures of me from when I started my Whole30 program 20 days ago. I'm feeling much better about myself, I have more energy and my training is so much better and faster.

20 days later:

 

Sorry, it's a darker photograph, but you can see the difference already. My goal for the next 10 days is another 4 pounds. At this point, I'll make Paleo as my main food intake. I'm really excited to see the changes that I'm making. 

The Swim:

I am terrified of this part of the race. VERY scared to be honest with you. I've always loved to swim, but have never really learned proper swim technique for this kind of distance, so I'm utilizing everything I can, internet, friends, family, etc. to learn what I need to do. I am the most nervous about my breathing. It's what I get panicked about the most. Any tips and tricks would be awesome. 

The Bike:

I did 60 minute spin classes all Winter long. I kept telling myself, if I can spin for 60 minutes, I can do this or that. So not true once you get out onto the open road with strong winds, real hills, and dogs. Yes, I said dogs. This is the most terrifying part of training for me. Dogs. I've been mauled before, I don't want it to happen again. Never mind the fact that I have clips I'm learning to use, so having to stop quickly in my tracks and not be able to get my foot out would be terrible. That's another thing, my clips. I have no idea how or what to do to make me learn easier! Can you imagine me stopping at a stop sign, not able to clip in and out and then fall right over! I wouldn't even be able to get my feet out of them then and I'd be stuck on the ground trapped under my bike for who knows how long! Hopefully at that point I could get to my phone that is in my fanny pack that goes under my clothing. Yes, it's hilarious to think about and whenever I talk about it with my non-biking friends they get a good chuck. Go ahead, laugh it up, I'm not stopping you! 

The Run:

I can walk. I can somewhat run. I'm not worried about this at all. I just hope that I have enough in my legs to finish the race at this point. When I did my mini-sprint last month, I did fairly well during this part and was able to run the most I'd ever done in a race. I should be good and warmed up by this point, if not then I have a serious problem. 

If you're still with me, that is good. I'll try and be open and honest in my writings. I might get graphic, I might get upset, I might quit from time to time, but this is my 12 weeks to 3. Thanks for being with me in my journey!