Friday Follow-up

Hi there! 

Hope you all are doing well and that your holiday seasons are enjoyable! 

First of all, thank you guys so much for the emails and texts I got supporting me in this journey.  It's a interesting beast, this white elephant in the room, and perhaps an interesting conversation about why its so hard to have this conversation about struggles with weight. But that's for another day. Suffice it to say, for now, that I love you and I'm glad you are my friend. :-)

 

Today I'm doing a quick accountability check in so you can see how close I am in getting to my goal.  As always, tips and motivations appreciated!

1	Wed	Bi and Jog	-400
2	Thurs	Shoulders and Abs -425	-425
3	Fri	Pull muscles and Jog -460	-460
4	Sat	Legs	-330
5	Sun	Yoga	-300
6	Mon	Push muscles (Back and Bi)	-325
7	Tues	Off
8	Wed	Jog	-425
9	Thurs	Sprint intervals on the Elliptical	-300
Total: -2965

Goal: 3857

So I know I need to do roughly two additional workouts to make up for where I should be at this point (much less getting ahead for when I leave on vacation next week for the final push!).  That being said though, I'm pretty pleased with this. I had an incredibly busy week with engagements 6 out of the 9 days that cut into my workout time. So for example, last night our neighborhood through a holiday party at a wine store near us.  We missed the block party when we moved in, so it was really important to both of us to go and meet the people we've been living around for almost 5 months! However, the party started at 6:30, and while I thought I would be able to get home early to get in my workout before, my meeting ran long, so we got to the gym at 5:30. BUT we both squeezed in a workout! I originally had been planning to do my "push day"* but decided to do some interval sprints on the elliptical to maximize my calorie burn since I knew I had a deficit this week.

Lessons learned so far:

1- In this hectic season, it might have been a little optimistic that I would still be able to do my 90 min workouts with lifting and cardio. Whether it means breaking it up into two workouts, or settling with one 30 minute workout before the party, its about remembering that a short workout is better than no workout! And going to work with your hair wet on Friday *probably* won't get you in trouble with the boss.

2- Your mind will quit before your body more often than not. On my jogs, I'm focusing on distance. I want to be able to run a 5K with no walk breaks, so I've been doing Galloway, as mentioned in some of my previous posts. Each session I'm slightly increasing up the time, but have been keeping at the same pace, since pace wasn't my goal. But after talking to SuperDan, I realized that since my conditioning felt like it could take the push, I just needed to go for it! Plus, we are talking about upping it .5-- nothing crazy! So on Wed I finally tested it out, and I must report, I did indeed survive, and I was pretty darn proud of myself!

3- Wine tastes better after you've done something to deserve it, i.e. sprint intervals. Even if it makes the old man on the elliptical next to you give you the evil eye as your machine rocks-- no shame girlfriend!

So for the next 8 days, I have to average about 540 calories a day burned to be on track for the goal. Ouch. Suggestions welcome! Saturday the 21st I will leave for skiing for 4 days, so I'm unsure how I'll track/if I'll count that or what my available options will be. I certainly don't want to count on having to make up time when I'm at Snowshoe!

What are your tips for getting maximum calorie burn in a short amount of time? Are you a HIIT girl too?

Oh, and has anyone heard or tried swimming with your HRM and specifically Polar watch? Will I ruin it?

Thanks, and have a happy Friday evening! :-)

December Challenge!

Well hey there December!!

I know we are all trying to figure out a way to counteract the extra calories we inevitably take in during the holiday social season, and of course, since I never do things the easy way, I'm actually still trying to LOSE weight this month. Rough. 

I won't mention how I have a memory of being in this same situation last year, and the difference (-5? maybe?) of my weight at this time last year as opposed to currently. Chalking it up as motivation NOT to be in the same place this time 2014.

I briefly flirted with doing the #RWRunStreak, but altering it to allow cross training to count as run days, since I think going from training for a 5K to running every day would be a little excessive, and then I realized- that ain't a streak no mo. Whomp whomp.

I'm motivated by the immediate rewards (feeling proud of myself after a good workout, rubbing it in SuperDan's face when I get in a 2 a day, etc.) by also by short term rewards, i.e. money. Yes, friends, I can be bought. What can I say? I'm a good American, and if I'm going to be hyper controlling of my diet, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm setting my sites on something bigger. But February and Savannah are a long time away. Momma's gonna need some stuff along the way. 

So far, I've rewarded myself with a season of Homeland and a Polar watch/chest strap that I use all the time. I practically feel like a workout is wasted if I don't have that strap on to validate my efforts and to keep me motivated to keep my heart rate.

As we've discussed in a prior post, I'm on team inputs (Thanks Meg for agreeing with me!) while SuperDan is team outputs. Team inputs means I'll reward my efforts, aka what I have control over, and trust that the outputs will come if I keep focusing on the right inputs. So, I've decided, if I burn X number of calories by Christmas day, I can buy whatever I want off my Christmas List that Santa leaves (I'm sure accidentally!) at the North Pole.

Here's my plan:
I've made "All Day" events in my Google Calendar in my Workout calendar for these three weeks. I like this because I can drag and drop the workouts I want to get in on different days if I need to change it up.

I also found this cute (and free!) calendar at ShopHollyDays where I've blocked out nights I know I won't be able to work out, so I make sure I get my butt out of bed those mornings and make it count. 

I also had to do some math. If you know me, that's more like "get to do," but never mind that. There are 21 days, including today, before Christmas. I wanted the number to be a challenge, but I also want to be able to have a few rest days where if I just do yoga or a walk I won't completely derail. So assuming 18 solid workout days, burning an average of 450 (?), that's 8100.  So because I want it to be a challenge, I'm bumping it up to 9000 calories in 21 days. 

I agree, 10,000 is a prettier number, but I wanted this to be a challenge, not dictating my life! :-)

I'll have to figure out how to count yoga, since I'm sure my fellow classmates would not be a fan of my Polar beeping at me when my heart rate drops. Any suggestions for the hour?

And here, the fun part, are some of the contenders for the reward:

Sweat Once a Day Bag at Lululemon

Rose Gold Knot Earrings at Kohl's

Freya sports bra. Y'all top heavy beauties gotta try them out!

I've been saving up for Dutch Oven for a while, so I might let myself cash in the extra $$ here and grab it!

Anyone want to join me? Post what your holiday challenge is, whether you are doing it solo, with someone in the online community, or friends/family!