I'm amazed by the camaraderie I've encountered

Maybe it was my childhood "trauma" of being the last one picked in gym class, not being athletically gifted (and catching grief for it), or being a "late bloomer" to fitness that I thought that I would be isolated in this journey but I have found the reverse to be true.

When I started running, I did it exclusively on the treadmill because I was self-conscious over the extra weight I was carrying. I trained for a 5K and my first 10K on the treadmill and it seemed to work for me but when I started training for a half-marathon, I had to bite the bullet and start running outside.

Until recently, a considerable portion of my running was done in the park or on a trail because I was hesitant to run on the street (once again, self-consciousness was taking control). I was amazed at the friendliness of the folks I encountered. A number of people will wave, say "hi" or "how are you doing," but some may actually initiate dialog to ask how far you're running today or if you're training for a particular race.

When I started going on the race circuit, I was intimidated by being surrounded by numerous runners who were a hell of a lot faster than me. When I go to the NYRR events, my corral corresponds with my best registered pace and I am surrounded by folks who run a pace comparable to mine. I've met a runners who were committed to running and overcoming challenges but yet we've joked about "how slow" we are and would check on each other during the course of the race to see how we're progressing.

I just moved to a new neighborhood and it's a bit of a burden to go to the places where I've run so I have been exploring the area while logging the miles. It turns out I was my biggest critic in terms of how I looked when running; as far as "everybody else," they don't care.

Wait a minute...did you...

Over the next two weeks, I will be spending a lot of time working at one of my client's offices. I haven't been there in over two years but I have run into some folks between now and then.

Within my first hour at the office, the first person I ran into looked at me and said "I know there's something different about you. I want to ask if you've lost weight but sometimes you just can't go there." We had a chuckle and I confirmed that I did lose weight. About 30 minutes later, another person looked at me with similar commentary.

I understand that some folks are uncomfortable with commenting about somebody's weight loss because of the fear that it opens a can of worms. For example:

• "You look great. Have you lost weight." So are you trying to say I looked terrible? Are you trying to say that I was fat?

Not for nothing, I appreciate the validation and the compliments.

Hitting a plateau

I have been slacking something awful since the fall. Running has been the only thing that has saved my ass from having the scale revert to my previous numbers.

I will admit fault. Yes, I can say that life got in the way, I picked up a crazy workload, I'm dealing with personal crap, etc. but the fact is that I haven't been on top of my game.

A few weeks ago, I went for my Weight Watchers weigh-in and the leader addressed plateaus. He was spot on when he said that we will plateau when we get comfortable with our results and take it as license to get lax in our routines. That's exactly what happened to me. I lost 60 pounds and have been getting compliments so it goes without saying that I did develop a sense if complacency.

Yes, if my life was different,  I'm sure the extra weight would've been long gone but the reality is that I have a husband, a daughter, and a career that seems to revolve around meals and cocktail parties so it's a challenge to modify my eating.

I'm running my first marathon in less than 4 months so I will be doing a lot of training runs and some cross-training. To be on top of my game when I conquer those 26.2 miles on November 2nd, I need to work on other components between now and then.

Completed my second half marathon

I have been using RunKeeper to train for a half-marathon and will be using the same app to train for the NYC Marathon. This app is on my phone and I also log on from my computer on the web. When I run, the app tracks my distance, pace, total time, and my route; it's pretty cool to see how I'm doing day-to-day and by location.

The More Magazine/Fitness Magazine Half Marathon was my first half. This race fell during a busy weekend; went to the Yankee game on Friday, my HS reunion was the day before, and I was going to a birthday party for one of my daughter's classmates immediately after the race. I wanted to complete the race in 3 hours and was thrilled to see that I finished in 2:59:10.

My second half was the Long Island Half this past Sunday and it was a great day for a race. I had a really strong start and finished in 2:59:49. I tracked my time on RunKeeper and noticed that I lost a considerable amount of time waiting to use the bathroom at various points throughout the race. Whatever the case may be, I completed the race without needing a wheelchair or an ambulance (LOL).

I'm registered for my third half taking place in a week and a half. The Superhero Half sounds like it will be a fun race. To get in the spirit, I wanted to get a superhero outfit (my daughter wanted me to get a Spidergirl costume) but I find the prices to be a tad prohibitive considering I'm not at goal weight and I don't want to buy something I can only wear once. I went to Party City and bought a Superman shirt for $9.99 (tax free because I bought it in NYC).

In the meantime, I'm still figuring out hydration and fueling strategies as I build my speed and endurance.

Updated Measurements

Just wanted to get a more global perspective on my progress

Weight - 166.4 lbs (down 67.6 since I started)
Waist - 36" (down 8 inches since I started)
Hips - 43.25" (down 12.75 inches since I started)
Bust - 40" (down 11 inches since I started)
Chest - 32" (down 6 inches since I started)
Right calf - 15" (down 1 inch since I started)
Right thigh - 24" (down 7 inches since I started)
Right bicep - 10.5" (down 2.5 inches since I started)
Right forearm - 8.5" (down 1.5 inches since I started)
Approx BMI - 28.6 (down 11.6 since I started)

I just went on a 5 mile training run this morning and will be running a 15K this Saturday. It's 24 degrees, 11 with the wind chill. There was a time when I wouldn't want any part of being outside in weather like this, much less run in it. Talk about going through changes.

I'm hard on myself but was given a different perspective

In last week's blog, I mentioned hitting a plateau and being down about it. Yes, there are things within my control that I could do better but every day is an opportunity to start anew.

I've spoken to my Weight Watchers leader on a number of occasions over the past few weeks and yesterday, she gave me a different perspective on my plateau. She told me that it's tough to stay within a given weight for a certain period of time and she commended me on my ability to do so considering all of the "crap" I've been dealing with in terms of a crazy schedule and other personal circumstances. Yes, there are things that I could've done better in terms of tracking and food choices but due to my level of physical activity, I've been able to not regain a considerable amount of weight.

I'm 25 pounds away from getting to Lifetime status at Weight Watchers.

Plateaued and it's nobody's fault but mine

Over the past few weeks, there hasn't been much progress on the scale. In fact, the scale has teetered around one number. It's frustrating but the fault lies within me. I haven't been making very smart food choices but fortunately, I have maintained a decent level of activity.

The next six weeks are going to be challenging because of Thanksgiving, Christmas and all of the holiday-related activities. At a Weight Watchers meeting a few weeks ago, one of the attendees said it's a holi-day, not a holi-month. With that in mind, I will need to make a better effort to be more conscientious with my food. I am training for a half-marathon so activity is not a problem but it's not license to pig out.

Getting stronger/faster

I ran a 5K today and it was personal best so far. When I did my first 5K in 2011, I was basically untrained and my pace was 15:08; I wasn't disappointed with the time considering it was my first race and I didn't put a heck of a lot of effort with training. I was thrilled to see that today's race was done at an 11:24 pace, which means that I trimmed almost 4 minutes from the pace of my first race. My previous PR was hit in August for another 5K at a pace of 12:11. This will be my last 5K until March 2, 2014. I'm registered for other races between now and then ranging from 4 miles to a half-marathon. A lot of my training over the next few months will focus on longer distances. I will be curious to see what my pace will be in March.

Latest numbers. Another 3-1/2 months have passed.

I'm supposed to take my measurements on a monthly basis but that hasn't happened. I took some measurements yesterday & noticed the following changes:
Hips - 46 (down 3.5 inches since March)
Bust - 41 (down 6 inches since March)
Waist - 37 (down 5.5 inches since March)
Right thigh - 24 (down 4 inches since March)

A lot of folks have noticed that I've lost a significant amount of weight. In addition to the kudos I've received, some are bold enough to ask me about my boobs; yes, they've gotten smaller but I'm not flat-chested.

Enough with the celebrities who lost oodles of weight in a short period of time.

I'm down 65 pounds so far and it's been a tough road. I just have to put it out there that I am sick and tired of seeing celebrities getting front page coverage for losing 50+ pounds on 4 months.

Time to poke holes in this crap. I don't have a personal chef who will take care  of my 3 daily squares and I don't have a personal trainer who will make house calls to work with me 2-3 hours per day, 7 days a week. Another thing to put out there is that when you have a baby, you will lose not only the weight of the baby but you will lose the amniotic fluid, sac, etc. and that can be between 15-20 pounds.

Yes, I do know somebody who did lose 45 pounds in 3 months but she busted her ass to make that happen and she continues to bust her ass to keep that weight off.

This is a lifestyle change.  When you take out certain foods or put in other restrictions, you're running the risk of putting on the weight you lost when you get back on "real food."

It took me 7 months to drop 50 pounds. In my younger days, it was easy for me to drop 20 pounds pretty quickly by hitting the gym for a few weeks or cutting out some stuff but as quickly as I lost it, those pounds found a way to get back on.

Rant over.

Validation

I notice a difference in my clothes and my measurements but when other people notice your changes, it's pretty exciting.

My Weight Watchers leader has been very encouraging in terms of my progress but when you hear "wow, you look great" from other folks, it feels great.

A few days ago, I ran into a couple of my neighbors and one of them told me to get out of my car because he "heard that [I] was thin." I asked him where he heard such a thing and he said on Facebook. So I stepped out of the car & told him that I was down 50 pounds. He's not the only one that's commented but it's just awesome to hear and it gives the inspiration to keep going.

I hate to shop but have to bite the bullet

I hate to shop. I don't know how the aversion to shopping developed...maybe it's bad memories of shopping with my mom growing up or general dissatisfaction with selection, prices, etc. The irony is that I have a considerable amount of clothes. My approach to shopping is that the less time I spend in a store, the happier I am which means that I tend to go to stores that group clothes by size or genre in a small area; with that said, I have minimal patience with department stores where I have to go rack to rack for an outfit. In recent years, most of my clothes have come from Walmart and Burlington Coat Factory because I can hit a few racks, find some clothes that I like in my size, try them on, pay for them and get out of dodge.

I am looking to lose a considerable amount of weight and recognize that I will need to buy a few "transition" wardrobes along to way. Doesn't change the fact that I hate to shop. I'm also not crazy about the fact that I need to buy clothes that I know I won't be able to wear for more than a few months. Whatever. Fortunately, I work from home (or wherever I happen to be at a given moment) so I don't have to keep an extensive "work" wardrobe so I can get by on shorts. I basically buy dress clothes on as as-needed basis since I gave away a lot of clothes because they are too big.

Tonight, I'm meeting up with a group of folks I haven't seen since last summer. A number of them keep in touch with me through Facebook but we don't see each other in person. I wanted to buy shorts that fit so I can show off my weight loss (they've heard about it on Facebook & Twitter) so I went to Old Navy last night. I was annoyed by the slim pickings of larger clothes (must be the given location or all the bigger folks shopped there before me) and since I'm in between sizes, I usually try an item in two sizes & pick from there. I couldn't find anything in a size 18 so I grabbed a size 16 and hoped for the best. I was thrilled to see that the shorts I tried on fit and what I mean by "fit" is that I was able to zip them up & have room in them. What an awesome feeling!

The Color Mob 5K NYC. Fun but a mess.

On Saturday, I participated in my fifth 5K. The Color Mob is a relatively informal event that doesn't issue D-Tags or have a timing system in place to measure one's progress so I used MapMyRun to get my results. I'm thrilled to say that my pace is faster than previous races so I'm pretty psyched about that.

I had somebody take my picture after I finished, posted it to Instagram and linked the photo to Facebook & Twitter. The responses to my picture have been positive.

Next Sunday, I tackle my first 10K.

New numbers 3-1/2 months later

I'm supposed to take my measurements on a monthly basis but that hasn't happened. I took some measurements yesterday & noticed the following changes:
Hips - 48 (down 1.5 inches since March)
Bust - 43.5 (down 3.5 inches since March)
Waist - 39.5 (down 3 inches since March)
Right thigh - 25.5 (down 2.5 inches since March)

50 down, 50 to go (give or take)

This post is a tad overdue but I was thrilled when I weighed in at Weight Watchers to see that I am down 50 pounds from my highest weight. As I mentioned in my blog description that losing 100 pounds isn't the end all & be all goal but I was striving to a better level of fitness and health.

I like the flexibility of Weight Watchers. I knew that I couldn't deal with the "restrictiveness" of other programs for an extensive period of time. Ideally, I would & should pre-plan my meals but life has a tendency to get in the way and that doesn't happen. Yes, I have gone to McDonald's, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, etc. and as long as I log in the point value of what I ate, it's all good.

Physically, I'm making strides. I'm doing a 5K tomorrow and a week from Sunday, I will be doing my first 10K. I am also starting half-marathon training and hope to be able to do the Philadelphia Half Marathon in November. There are a number of other races that I will be doing this year.

It's great to have experienced this weight loss but I hate shopping and it's come to the point that I need clothes. The problem with women's clothing is that you can be one size under one label but a different size under another label; in the words of Sweet Brown "ain't nobody got time for that." With that said, I consider shopping to be a chore but I'm beginning to feel ridiculous in loose-fitting clothes.

Knocking out a 5K

I joke with people that I won't run for a bus but here I am trying to knock out distances that are greater than a city block.

In the months before my wedding, I was seeing a personal trainer and during one of our sessions, she had me do a few sprints on the treadmill. I think the last time I was actually "forced" to run (besides trying to catch a train or a bus) was when I was a freshman in college & needed to run for ROTC.

Fortunately, I walked a lot through the years so the concept of going a certain distance wasn't foreign to me but doing it "double time" just wasn't happening.

I realized that incorporating running into my fitness regime was a quick way to burn calories in a short period of time but it is hard as hell.

I found a few "couch to 5K" programs and took numerous stabs at getting started in recent years but I would burn myself out and quit after a few weeks.

Last year, I found this program and I will admit that life has gotten in the way causing my to take more than the suggested 9 weeks to finish. I am currently in week 9 of a "couch to 10K" program. I'm still pretty self-conscious and not too comfortable about running outside. I know that once I'm done with the 10K program, I will move onto the half-marathon program and I will have to run outside.

Last month, I participated in my fourth 5K. Here are the results of the various races I've done.

Date	Race	Time	Pace
3/6/2011	Coogan's Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5K	45:34	15:08
3/4/2012	Coogan's Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5K	53:19	17:47
3/3/2013	Coogan's Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5K	42:38	14:18
4/14/2013	JFK Runway Run	40:39	13:20

For the 2012 Coogan's run, I hurt my foot before I reached the one-mile mark so I basically walked/limped the rest of the race. In 2011 & 2012, I wasn't diligent about training but I decided to get serious this year. When I did the JFK race, I was thrilled to see that I was able to knock an minute off my best pace.

I do need to disclose that the Coogan's course is quite hilly and the JFK course is flat (well, it is a runway...duh).

Revisiting my numbers

I referred to my first post and the measurements I took that day. I took some measurements yesterday & noticed the following changes:
Weight - 207 (down 27 pounds)
Hips - 49.5 (down 6.5 inches)
Bust - 47 (down 4 inches)
Waist - 42.5 (down 1.5 inches)
Right thigh - 28 (down 3 inches)

I joined Weight Watchers on February 4 and lost 14 pounds on the program so far. I came to terms with the fact that losing weight on my own wasn't going to happen. I also realized that it wasn't enough to just go to the gym but I needed to get right with food as well. I have been pretty diligent with going to the gym by doing weights & cardio. I'm currently on Week 3 of my 10K training program.

Scale hasn't reflected but I feel a difference

Over the past three weeks, I've been pretty diligent about going to the gym but my eating habits are still horrible hence the lack of movement on the scale.

In a previous post, I commented on the challenge I had on the treadmill; I'm thrilled to announce that I have overcome that and can knock out a 30 minute session combining walking & running. Gradually, I will be increasing the amount of running & decreasing the amount of walking per session. I'm registered for the Coogan's 5K which is taking place on March 4th. I participated in this event last year but I didn't train properly. I'm reversing that this year and would like to take 10 minutes off my completion time.

I'm also swimming 3 days per week. In a previous post, I included a link to a swim training program that I'm following. The pool at my gym is 25 yards long and I've noticed that I would lose counts of laps I've done; I found a lap counter online, ordered one & should receive it by the end of the week.

Last summer, my husband bought me a bike. My goal is to do a century this year. I have been on the stationary bikes at the gym but once the weather warms up, I plan on doing a few training rides with my brother.

Every other day, I have been hitting the weight machines.
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1/8 status

Weighed in and tipped the scale at 230.

Made it to the gym after not going for 4 days. Spent 30 minutes on the cross-fit machine (equaled 2 miles & burned 220 calories) and did weights for lower body.

The Bally's location that I used to frequent was acquired by LA Fitness a few months ago. Last week, I was driving to the Bally's in Bay Shore which opened a few months ago; it's a great club and there are an ample number of cardio machines.

My husband has been on my ass about me adding him on my membership. I finally got around to joining LA Fitness and I added my husband. As a new member, we are each entitled to an hour with a personal trainer; my session is tomorrow and my husband's is Wednesday.

My husband is looking to build muscle to prepare for his Navy reunion in April.
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I used to walk a lot so why is the treadmill kicking my ass?

I lived in Queens for over 20 years and spent about a dozen years working in the City. Walking a lot came with the territory. I'm also a dog owner so there's some walking that comes with that as well. Basically, if I needed to go someplace that was within 10-20 blocks away (about half a mile to a mile away), I walked because driving or taking public transportation didn't seem worth the trouble.

Five years ago, I moved to Long Island and found a job that was a 30-minute drive from my home. While it was great that I no longer had to deal with the LIRR, the problem is that I wasn't walking as much as I used to. Not that I was winning the Twiggy contest by any stretch of the imagination but add a more sedentary lifestyle to horrible eating habits, the pounds are surely to follow.

I spent most of my adult life gaining and losing the same 20 pounds but over the last five years, those 20 pounds seemed to have returned with companions which has yielded a 50 pound weight gain.

Over the summer, I went through a period of being pretty diligent about going to the gym but that went to hell in August when I got busy with client work and leaving town for a conference. New Year's rolled along and I (along with the rest of the free world) resolved to mend my delinquent ways.

I found a 5K training program which can be done exclusively on the treadmill and it didn't seem as overwhelming as another 5K program that I tried last year. The program consists of a blend of running & walking; the time on the treadmill starts at 30 minutes and peaks at 45 minutes. I'm on "week 1" and I never thought that I would be flaking out the way I have considering just a few months ago I was knocking out 50-60 minute sessions on the treadmill.

When I saw my mom earlier this week, I expressed a level of disappointment by not being about to complete a 30 minute session and she told me to just work my way up to that time. On Monday, I spent 13 minutes and yesterday, I spent 18 minutes. Hopefully, I can knock out 30 minutes.