The Power of One: The Beginning

A brand new fitness and weightloss challenge is starting TODAY at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans!  Are you signed up?  I hope so, because there is no time like the present to get back on track after the holiday debauchery that has just ensued.  This challenge is a little different because there are no teams.  This challenge is focusing on the most important person in your life:  YOU.

I definitely need this challenge.  I had managed to reach my goal weight about a month ago, and technically I'm less than a pound above what I considered my maintenance range of 135-138, but I've gotten a little too loosey-goosey and I've put a few pounds back on.  3 pounds to be exact (and only 1.8 since the end of the last challenge, so it really isn't that bad).  Now, that really shouldn't get me down, but it does.  My weigh-in this morning of 138.8 is dangerously close to a decade I said I'd never see again.  Yesterday, my scale said 139 and it made me cry.  But it also made me go to the gym and work out for an hour and a half, so I guess there was some benefit although I'm pissed my workout only earned me 2/10 of a freaking pound.

So, onto the challenge portion of our challenge.

Step 1: weigh-in.  Check. 138.8 (boo)
Step 2: blog about it. Check. you are reading it, aren't you?
Step 3: take measurements and a photo.  Sorta.  I'm not going to take a photo because with only 3 pounds to lose, there isn't going to be much visual change.  I did take my measurements but I'm keeping those to myself.  M'kay?
Step 4: weigh-in form. Check.

And finally, my healthy living goals for this challenge and the New Year.

• Drink at minimum 64 oz of water 6/7 days a week. (I've been HORRIBLE with this over Christmas break.  I do much better with my water bottle at school.)
• Run 2-3 times a week
• Sign up for my 25k race (the race isn't until May and I won't need to start officially "training" until probably February, but I should just get the sign-up out of the way, don't you think?)
• Do the Shred DVD, EA Sports Active, or some other strength/crosstraining 2-3 times a week.
• 25 push-ups and 25 sit-ups after each run.
• Log my food on Daily Plate at least 4/7 days a week.
• Lose at least 3 pounds to get back to 135.8 or less.

OK, I think that's it!  Ready, Set, Go!

True Confessions: post holiday edition

It is Tuesday, which means it is True Confessions time at the Sisterhood. We've been instructed by the lovely Christie O to confess the good and the bad.

I'll start with the good:
•the almond bars are now gone.
•I made a huge crock pot full of vegan ratatouille and ate tons of it at Christmas & for several days afterwards.
•I used light ingredients in many of the dishes I made (but sadly, the almond bars I demolished were NOT light).
•I did not have any pecan pie.
•I made a turkey breast in the crock pot I won from the Shrinkingjeans vlog challenge. It was A.MAZ.ING and I will never cook turkey in the oven again.
•I ran 6.3 miles the day after Christmas & worked out for 1.5 hrs today.
•I bought myself a dot-com & new blog design for Christmas!

Now for the bad:
•cookies, candy, cheesy potatoes, and almond bars.
•the above in excess.
•too little, too late on the exercise front.
•there are still cookies, stroope, ham, and pretzel m&ms in the house mocking me.

Needless to say, I desperately need to get back on track. I fear I am getting dangerously close to that decade I said I'd never see again and that scares me. While I'm sure I didn't gain the 11 pounds the average person puts on between Thanksgiving & New Years, I've gained some. I am so glad we have a new challenge and a new year to start fresh. So, here's to starting anew!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Our Christmas in Pictures

Our Chrismas holiday in pictures.



The one time of year I get out my Mom's china.


The cousins enjoy a couple rounds of UNO.


Holy presents, Batman!


Squirt & Grandpa check out the snacks


M gets to go first!


C loves his new tools!


K's doll got glasses and K got a new MSU hat.


D got more guns 'n ammo than he knows what to do with.


I got a great new running hat :). I need to exchange it cuz it's too big :(


Finally ready to eat.


Squirt asks Aunt B for some turkey.


Dessert!

I pray you all had a blessed Christmas with family and friends. If you don't celebrate Christmas, then I hope you had a wonderful Saturday.

If you haven't switched your reader over to my new home at www (dot) livelaughrunbreathe (dot) com please do that soon! I don't want to lose any of you :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Merry Christmas From My "New" Home!

Wishing You and Yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year


As you can see, I've "moved" (or maybe you can't because I'm also posting this on the "old" site)!!!! Beginning today, I'm now blogging at http://www.livelaughrunbreathe.com/ and I'd love for you to join me there.  If you are finding this from Shrinking Chick, please go to LLRB and follow me there because it looks like my posts from there may not show up in your reader.  I hope you love the new look of my blog as much as I do. (Major props to Lindsay for the awesome design-click on her link to the right and show her some Christmas love!)  Make sure you click on that little orange RSS button up top and subscribe to this blog and grab my new button!!!! You will continue to be redirected from Diary of a Shrinking Chick, but I'm not sure for how long.

Love you all!

Holiday Hoe-Down: The Finale

I can't believe we are already done with the Holiday Hoedown!  I've had the most amazing team (love my Healthy Holiday Ho's).   While I didn't end this challenge any lighter, I also didn't end in any heavier, really.  Maintenance during the holiday season can be a great accomplishment in and of itself!

So let's get down to it, shall we?

Weight on June 23, 2009: 165.8

Challenge Starting Weight: 136.6

Last Week's Weight: 136.4

This Week's Weight: 137.0

Change: up 0.6

Challenge Change: up 0.4

Total Pounds Gone: 28.8

While I'm not happy for not still being at the 30 pounds gone mark, I am happy that I didn't do even more damage.  Considering the number of pounds the average America gains over the holidays, I'll take my 1/2 pound gain! 

We were supposed to log minutes this week as well, and I logged 170.  Not too shabby.  (Too bad I couldn't count the 1 hr 21 min "tri" I did this morning in those totals!)

Unfortunately, I didn't really talk nice about myself much this week, although I was pretty proud of my attempts at swimming this week and did manage to finish 6 pairs of mittens for our church and that made me feel good.  Hopefully our new Power of One challenge will have me rethinking my outlook a bit.  What???? You haven't signed up yet???? Go. Now.  I'll wait.

Ok, now that you've signed up for the next challenge, I can say:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

to all my fellow sisters, brothers, and bloggy friends.  I really do treasure you all.  The support you've given me this year has truly been one of the best gifts I could have ever asked for.

MWAH,

Bari

ps-this little blog is going to be undergoing some changes! I'm super excited and can't wait until I can share the new look, so stay tuned!

Help Me Rename My Blog!

Hi all!

As a Christmas gift to myself (in line with the health and fitness I've gained this year) I've decided to rename this blog for the New Year.  Below is a poll of several possible new names for this blog (I tried putting a poll in the sidebar but it was an epic fail - sorry this isn't anonymous, but I love you guys anyway, no matter how you vote). 

• lighthouserunner
• runningmademeloseit
• fromshrinktoshrank
• livelaughrunbreathe
• diaryofahealthychick

I don't anticipate changing the format or my ramblings much (unless there is a topic you'd like to see my write about!) but I feel that since I'm really not "shrinking" anymore, my name should reflect where I am now in this journey.  I plan on keeping the "poll" up until at least Christmas, and possibly New Years, and I value your opinions, so vote-vote-vote.  If you think of a different name, please include it in the comments!  Write-in votes are encouraged!  Also, thank you to all of you who submitted ideas.  I had a hard time narrowing the choices down :) 

ps-Since the sidebar poll didn't work, just write your vote in the comments!
Thanks friends!

Bari

Holiday HoeDown Week 4

Well, here we are on another Wednesday and already at week 4 in our latest Shrinkingjeans challenge.  Time sure flies when you are hanging out in the blogosphere with your friends *waves to fellow Healthy Holiday Ho's and bloggy friends*.  Time to hop on over to my scale and see what it says.

Weight on June 23, 2009: 165.8

Challenge Starting Weight: 136.6
Last Week's Weight: 137.0
This Week's Weight: 136.4
Change: down .6
Challenge Change: down .2
Total Pounds Gone: 29.4

Our fitness challenge was to log minutes this week.  The weather here in Michigan has been abysmal for working out outside (granted, there are some crazies who run in this crap, but I prefer to avoid the broken ankles and head injuries I'm likely to incur by running in snow and ice).  I logged fewer minutes than last week, but these were what I consider to be more quality workouts, so I'll take that.  Still not what I feel I should be able to do, but with the craziness going on right now, I'll take what I can get.  Also, my foot has been pretty good lately and I don't want to reinjure it before I start hard-core 25k training in January.
Workout minutes: 132

Our nonfitness challenge was to try something new.  Seeing as I have a bunch of IRL and bloggy friends pestering me encouraging me to do a triathlon, I decided to see if I could actually run, bike and swim in the course of a single, long workout.  I did not do the events in the proper order (I chose to run, then bike, then swim because the pool wasn't open for lap swim when I first got there - so basically I went backwards), but I was able to complete a mini-tri very mini since I think even the kid's tris are longer than this.  I ran 1.5 miles in 15 minutes, biked 6.3 miles in 30 minutes, and swam 400 yds in 15 minutes.  The next day I could barely walk, thankyouverymuch.

For the next week, our nonfitness goal is to say something nice about ourselves/give ourselves a pat on the back each day.  This has been hard for me to do lately.  I really feel like I am in a rut exercise-wise and I seem to have no motivation to do anything.  Hopefully my 2 week break coming up will give me the opportunity to hit the gym, maybe take some kickboxing, spin, or weights classes, and get back on track.  I will give myself a pat on the back that even though I haven't been training for anything, I've managed to maintain my weight (and even lose a tiny bit more) since my 1/2 mary.  That should count for something.

One more tiny thing - a favor if you will.  I am planning to buy myself a domain name for Christmas (I never thought I'd type THAT statement).  I have a couple ideas but welcome suggestions for a new name for this blog.  I don't anticipate the format/content will really change much, but I'd also like suggestions about what you would like me to ramble on and on about :)  So, talk to me peeps!  Help a Shrinking (now Shrunk? Shrank?) Chick out. thanxkbye!

December Monthly Project

This month, the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans has asked us to look outside of ourselves. In their words, "This month’s project has nothing to do with ourselves and everything to do with other people. It’s not about weight, it’s not about confidence, it’s not about eating this or that. It’s about giving. Because it’s the season of giving."

We have been very blessed as a family.  We have a beautiful home, drive nice cars, have jobs that pay the bills and provides health insurance, can send our kids to music and sports camps, we can take vacations every few years.  These are luxuries that many in our community do not have.  The unemployment rate in the state of Michigan is at 12%.  12%!!! Over a tenth of the population is out of work.  51% of the homeless in Michigan are adults and children in families.  This saddens me like you could not believe.  I used to work for a school district in which the majority of students came to school without appropriate winter clothing and over 75% were below the poverty line. 

On the last Sunday of every month, our church provides a community pancake breakfast to any who would like a warm breakfast.  This year, the last Sunday of the month happens to be Christmas Day.  Our family will be helping to serve breakfast this year.  I feel it is important for D and K to give back and look outside of themselves for a change.  In addition, K and I will be making fleece mittens to donate to the church.  (Now, if anyone knows me, they know I am not a crafty person and barely know how to turn on my sewing machine, but if I can give of my time and churn out a few mittens, I'll give it a shot).

I encourage everyone to find a way to help in their own communities this holiday season.  Next time you are in the mall and there is a 50% off sale or BOGO on coats (it happens a lot at Old Navy, btw!), buy an extra coat and donate it to a shelter.  Find an elementary school and offer to sponsor a student or family.  In August next year when all the school supplies go on sale, buy a backpack and fill it with supplies for a student who would otherwise go without.  These are just a few ideas.  Also, if you could click over on BB's button over there <------------- and help a little boy provide clean water to parts of the world without, that would also mean so much.

Holiday Hoedown Week 3

Today is really not a good day for me, for reasons completely unrelated to weight loss and fitness.  I should blog about it but I don't want to.  Forgive my lame attempt at a post.

Weight on June 23, 2009: 165.8

Challenge Starting Weight: 136.6
Last Week's Weight: 137.4
This Week's Weight: 137.0
Change: down .4
Challenge Change: up .4
Total Pounds Gone: 28.8

Workout minutes: 194
Getting in my water: great during the week but suck on the weekend
Try something new: Does running outside on ice and snow in December in Michigan when you are still injured count?  Yes?  Then check.

I'll be back in the groove tomorrow.

PS: Thank you to everyone who voted for me in ShrinkingJeans vlogging contest.  I'm going to rock that pimped out crockpot.  MWAH.

True Confessions: I confess that I'd love your vote!

First off, it is True Confession Tuesday over at Shrinkingjeans, so that means I need to fess up about my week thus far.

• My workouts have been very limited.  I'm trying very hard to heed my own advice and listen to my body.  I was given the ok to run again this past weekend, and I ran a very slow, painful 3 miles.  I finished wanting to cry because a) it hurt, and b) I feel like I'm losing all my momentum.
• We were supposed to try something new this week as our non-weightloss challenge.  My run was in sub-freezing temps on snow and ice.  December in Michigan, baby.  I've never done that before.
• Running is probably not going to get better for awhile, but I've done nothing else either.  I will do some strength and core tonight.  I have a membership to a gym, but have not gotten there because I'm driving kids all over creation or going to diving and gymnastics meets.  When we finally do get home, I just want to curl up on the couch.  I did manage to spend 2 hours Saturday night helping set up my daughter's gymnastics center for their meet.  Do you have any idea how heavy gymnastics equipment is?  That is totally going towards my minutes total this week!
• My eating has been OK, but with our schedules lately, coming up with a healthy, home-cooked meal has just been hit or miss.  Hubs was off on Friday (he works 4 10's so he's always home then).  I was so mad that he didn't plan anything for dinner (and completely overlooked that fact that he'd cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed the living room) that we ended up having Sonic for dinner.  My daughter has an away meet tonight, so we will probably be hitting fast food on the way home again.

Shrinkingjeans wants us to outline how we will stay on track this holiday season.  Right now, I just want to focus on healing so I can really workout again.  Perhaps I need to start logging my food as well.

The last little thing I'd like to discuss is a plea for your vote.  I am one of 5 women who vlogged a holiday tradition and posted a recipe over at shrinkingjeans.  We would all love if you'd take a look at our posts and vote for your favorite.  There are some pretty sweet prizes, and the grand-prize crockpot would probably help a TON in the whole meal planning with kids in a bazillion activities problem I have :)  Obviously, I'd love it if you voted for me, but really, all of my "competitors" are amazing ladies that I consider friends, so a vote for one of them would be a-ok, too :)  You can find my post here and the voting is available here (you need to scroll down the page a bit).  Voting is only open for a few more hours, so hurry over there and check it out!

Thanks.  And please, leave me a comment telling me to get off my arse and find something athletic to do. M'kay? 

Holiday Hoedown Week 2

I'm afraid I've let down my Healthy Holiday Ho's this week.  Granted, as a team we are not necessarily focusing on weight loss but rather health and fitness, I'm still disappointed in my performance this week.

Our challenge was to log as many exercise minutes as possible.  I ran a 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day in just under 53 minutes and ended up pretty injured (I was actually injured to start with but too stupid to back out).  You can read about it here.  I didn't exercise again (I don't think we can count walking around doing our Christmas shopping as minutes, although that certainly would have helped) until last night's Tworkout.  I can't do anything that would work my ankle or calf, so I did about 20 minutes of arms and abs.  Coupled with the stretching exercises I've been doing the past few days, I'm logging a paltry 75 minutes of exercise.  Lame.

After hitting goal last week, I was bummed to see a higher number on the scale today.  Not totally surprised, but disappointed nonetheless.  I felt I made great choices at Thanksgiving, but in the days since, the lack of exercise and eating only ok has taken it's toll.  Here are my numbers:

Weight on June 23, 2009: 165.8
Challenge Starting Weight: 136.6

Last Week's Weight: 135.6
This Week's Weight: 137.4
Change: up 1.8
Challenge Change: up .8
Total Pounds Gone: 28.4

Part of this challenge for me and one of my goals is to not stress about the little ups and downs.  I'm trying not to stress, but I am disappointed in myself.  I am going to need to learn how to balance less activity and eating.  I certainly can't eat like I'm training for a race if I'm not.

Tamarac Turkey Trot

Last Thursday, Mike and I completed a 5 mile (8K) Turkey Trot race in his hometown of Fremont, MI.  The weather reports leading up to the race were looking quite frightful.  Temps in the 20's and snow.  NOT what I want to run in.  I packed all my warm gear Wednesday night, along with all the usual shower supplies and a change of clothes.  I'd need to be de-stinky'd before we headed to Thanksgiving Dinner!

We woke up at the butt-crack of dawn on Thursday to drive the 70 minutes or so to his mom's house, where we deposited the wondertwins.  No sense in having 2 tired, grumpy 13 year olds harshing your mellow on race morning.  Lucky for us, the temps were warmer than predicted (in the mid to upper 30's) and it wasn't snowing.  It was misting rain, though.  We weren't really sure where the race was being held, but this being a very tiny town, MIL was able to give us good directions.  We made it to Tamarac (a beautiful, new fitness facility) in plenty of time to pick up our race numbers and take care of any lingering bathroom issues.  This was Tamarac's first race EVER and the registration area was easy to deal with, they had some water and powerbars out for folks if they wanted, and we were able to wait inside for the race to start.  Since is wasn't as cold as we thought it would be, I just wore my new long running pants, a long-sleeve compression mockneck and a One More Mile t-shirt over top.  I had on my Bondi band to cover my ears and a running hat.  I decided at the last minute to throw a ziplock bag in my pocket, which I used to protect my iPhone during the run.  I kept it in my zipped pants pocket.

A few minutes before 9, we headed outside to find the starting line.  Across the parking lot, and not very well marked, was literally a line drawn on the pavement.  There were less than 400 people participating, so Mike and I lined up in the middle of the pack and waited for them to signal the start.  We didn't really hear the start, but rather the people in front of us started moving.

We crossed the starting line and I hit my watch.  (There were no timing chips in this race.  It was clock timed with a stringer at the end-I'll try to explain later.)  The course went through the parking lot of Tamarac and across the north end of town.  We ran through a nice park that was much hillier than I'd expected.  Thank goodness it didn't snow, because I'm sure it would have been ugly slippery.  Mike ran next to me the entire time, looking at me at each mile marked wondering why we weren't taking our usual 1 minute walk breaks.  Yeah, I didn't tell him I wasn't planning to walk at all.  (I've been having a lot of issues with my left foot and I just wanted this to be over.  You can read more about my injury here. Since I just confessed it all yesterday, I'm not going to do it again.)  Mike stayed with me the entire time.  I was really proud of him.  He's never run farther than 3 miles without walking and he ran the entire 5 miles.  Granted, if he'd wanted to, I think he could have beat me because he actually can run A LOT faster than me.  In any case, it was nice to run with him.  With the finish line in sight, he grabbed my hand (to be sweet or to keep me from passing him?) and we crossed the finish line together.  At the finish line, we see my sister-in-law Laura and 5 year old nephew Alex cheering for us.  Totally unexpected and very cool. 

Here's were things get a little weird.  At the end of the finish chute is a girl with a giant safety pin.  She asks us, Who finished first?  Mike told her we crossed the finish line together.  She asks again, Who finished first?  Um, what part of "together" do you not understand?  I think we pissed her off and she didn't know how to deal with a "tie".  She tore the little tab off the bottom of Mike's race bib and then off the bottom of my race bib and strung them on her enormous safety pin.  Here's how we finished:

Mike: 52:51.9 (this was also my watch time)
Me: 53:36.0 (WTF? How did I get almost a minute behind him when we finished together?)

Mike finished 12/12 in his age group and I was 8/12 in mine.  I was the slowest of the "fast" people.  The finisher behind me in my age group was behind me by 20 minutes.  Overall, we were 157 and 158 out of 370, so we finished above the 50th percentile.  I'm very pleased with that, considering the overall was a mix of men and women!

Needless to say, it was a great way to start out Thanksgiving and I will definitely do it again.