So....Spartan Race...

Hello! I'm still alive!

I've come to a very eye-opening conclusion these last couple of months: I don't like blogging.

I mean, I don't hate blogging. I just don't like it enough to where I want to get on my blog every week and type something up. Half of the reason is because this is a Lap Band blog, and I haven't been paying much attention to my band lately. Another reason is because my life is horribly boring, and I've never felt the need to document it. The process of getting the Lap Band was very exciting, but my life has dulled down since then.

I haven't been focusing as much on my weight loss as I have been on training for 5k obstacle races and writing. I've even let school suffer, too. So, for like the 30th time in the last year, I've made the decision to get my damn priorities straight. Let's see if I can follow through this time. :)

I'm going to attempt to dedicate myself to blogging once a week. This summer should be interesting since I will start training for the Rock n Roll Marathon again in June. I also have another 5K Foam Fest coming up in October, and maybe another mud obstacle race a little later in the year.

If it weren't for these races, I wouldn't be working out. That is the absolute truth. I'm no gym rat, and my average time spent at the gym is about 1 day a week, but I've improved my stamina so much since January that I know I'm getting somewhere. I don't beat myself up because I'm not at the gym five days a week, working out until I throw up (and I know some people who do just that). I've already come to terms with that my weight loss/fitness goals are not a race. As long as I'm following a downward trend in weight and upward trend in fitness, I'm good. Even plateaus aren't necessarily a "bad" thing (especially since I've been on one since like, February).

That's probably why I haven't been dedicated to my weight loss as much. I mean, once you start thinking plateaus aren't bad and just accept it, you stop holding yourself accountable. I do need a new goal, though. Honestly, I'm a sucker for rewards and shit. I need something dangling in front of me on a stick, out of my reach until I accomplish something, or I just won't accomplish it. So, that's where these races come in.

Last year, I attempted the Rock n Roll Half Marathon. It was 13 miles. I only completed 5 miles.

In April of this year, I completed the 5K Foam Fest. It was fun, and I got my first medal!

Yesterday, I attempted the Spartan Sprint. The course is between 4.5 and 5 miles. I completed 3. This race was the absolute hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. Our start time was 12:45pm, and it was around 90 degrees outside. We had a team of 9 people, all of different degrees of fitness. Here's our team (uploaded with permission):

Can you tell our team color was yellow? Hehe. I'm on the far left. Batman Girl and I stuck together as a team during the entire race. The really tall guy with the beard was the first to finish out of all us with a 1:58:00 time.

I was severely under prepared for this race. I wanted to quit around Mile 1. The trail was absolutely wicked, with steep climbs and falls and crazy hard obstacles. Batman Girl fell off a wall around Mile 1, twisting her ankle pretty bad. She managed to keep walking on it for two more miles before she couldn't take the pain anymore and we had to call for a medic at Mile 3. Honestly, though, if she hadn't of twisted her ankle, I have no idea if I would have been able to finish. We had already been out there for over 2 hours, and the hardest obstacles hadn't even come yet. It was blazing hot and I was on the verge of vomiting. If it hadn't of been for Batman Girl pressuring me to continue as far as I did, I would have quit after Mile 1. No joke.

So, I didn't get a medal for Spartan Race. I did get a shirt, though. And muddy.

I kept that nifty little headband with my number. That is my motivation. I went into this crazy depression about my weight-loss and fitness goals after I failed to complete Rock n Roll next year, but it won't happen this time. Rock n Roll is my next major marathon I'm training for, and believe me, I will finish it. Even if I have to drag my dying corpse over the finish line, I will finish it. After that, I will decide if I should attempt Spartan again. Next year's Spartan Race here in Texas is the Super Spartan, which is 8+ miles long. I would need some serious training to even consider signing up for it.

All in all, I'm super proud of everyone who finished. It was a glorious day, and I'm proud of myself. I'm still suffering from soreness and blisters, but it will be back to the gym tomorrow to start training for Rock n Roll in November.

As far as my weight loss goal, I am at 228.8 as of this morning. That means I've lost 43.2 pounds since my Lap Band surgery on June 15th, 2012. It's almost been a year. I know it's not a race and all, but jeez, I can do better than this. My next goal is to try and lost 15 pounds by my birthday in July. I want to lose a total of 30 more pounds and be down in Onederland by Rock n Roll in November. I've started a challenge with my boyfriend that we're going to start in June. Every payday, we'll compare how much body weight % we've each lost, and the loser has to do something for the loser. He wants video games. I want steak dinner. :D

Well, that's been my life in a nutshell for the last couple of months. Expect me back every week with at least something about what's going in my journey. I really do keep up with everyone's blog, I'm just a horrible lurker.

What are your summer plans/goals?

Just a quick check-in...

Weight: 224.8

Whoooo!

Tomorrow is the 5K Foam Fest!! Unfortunately, only my friend P and I are going, so I doubt there will be many picture. I will try my best to take some, though. :)

I think I'll finish. It looks like tons of fun, and I hope P can put up with me slowing him down. :D

I'll post more stuff up within the next couple of days.

Let me tell you about this feeling...

Today, I went to the gym with the same friend who I went to the park with on Saturday. We'll call him P.

So, P and I did an ab and back workout, which was pretty cool since I discovered I've been using this one machine completely and totally wrong!! All I needed was some help, and we finally got down to business. But poor P injured his elbow during his wrestling training earlier today, so he left after we were done weight training and didn't stick around for the run.

So, my run.

I mentioned I'm doing the C25K, right? I adore this program. I just finished Week 3, Day 3 (once again ignoring the fact I started six weeks ago...), and here's what I had to do this week:

5 minute warm-up walk
90-second run
90-second walk
3 min run
3 min walk
90-second run
90-second walk
3 min run
3 min walk
5 min cool-down walk

So! Why am I going over this with you? Well, back when I started day 1 of this week (which was the Sunday before last....), I nearly died when I did this run for the first time. Seriously, it hurt like a mofo to do the 90-second run the first time, and the 3-min run made me feel like my lungs were going to explode. It was nuts!

However, today was completely different. I bumped up the incline on the treadmill to 1 (I usually just leave it at 0), and ran at a pace of 4.3 during the time to run (which used to be 4.0) and walked at 3.0 (which used to be 2.7), and I didn't want to kill myself at the end! I felt so accomplished, and a little astounded when after the first 90-second run, I wasn't gasping and wheezing for air!! It felt amazing!!

The increase in my physical activity due to the Spartan Race had to be the reason for this. I mean, durr, right? I was barely going to the gym before, but now that I'm doing more strength training and running more often, I'm strengthening my body in other ways to help support my runs as well.

Basically, I had started the C25K thinking every run was going to be torture, and I'm sooooo happy that this one wasn't. It's such an amazing feeling to go from practically dying at the end of a run, to feeling energetic and ready to do more after the same run a little over a week later. I know that this is the expected outcome, but it still amazes me. I've never felt like this in my entire life!!

And I couldn't have done this without my Band. :)

I Didn't Even Know I Could Hurt There

Oh man.

Oh man, oh man, oh man.

I hurt right now!

So, remember how I said I signed up for the Spartan Race? Well, a ton of my friends are signing up tons, and one of those friends decided we needed to work out together. The beau and I joined him at the park, and man oh man, he kicked our ass. He's training to be a wrestler, and decided to show us his workout routine.

HIS WARM-UP NEARLY MADE ME PUKE!!

Yeah. Warm-up. That's as far as we got before we had to stop. Squat hops, push-ups and crunches are not my ideal warm-up.

AND THEN, my friend and I went on a trail run together. Well, more like half a trail run, since we got lost and had to turn around and RUNNING ON A TRAIL FREAKIN' SUCKS! Hills and bumps and gravel and ohmygod I don't want to try that again forever.

Anyhow, after about two hours at the park, I am now suffering the next day. I'm sore in places I don't remember having. Sitting down and standing up are a crazy effort. My stomach hurts from the crunches. And I'm giggling the whole way. I'm happy to say I'm not discouraged. I can't wait to see improvements in my body. The Spartan Race is no joke. I have a feeling I will need to be carried back from that race, but I will make it, and I will finish, even if it kills me.

Just thought I'd drop by and let everyone know how sore I am.

How was your weekend? :)

Oh, I Didn't See You There...

Hey, look guys! I'm not dead!

Sooooo....

What's up?

Yes, yes, I know. I'm such a bad blogger. I'm not gonna lie, I have commitment issues. I can't believe I haven't written a single thing down since November. In honest-to-goodness truth, I went into a horrible slump after the Rock N Roll Marathon. I felt shitty for not completing it, and I didn't touch a gym for a good month and a half after that. That totally wasn't a good idea.

So many things have happened since I last blogged. To keep it short, I'll sum it up in one sentence: I'm back in school again (and doing way better than before), my job fucked me over and now I'm searching for a new one, I had a scare with my band (it was probably just my period, lmao), and I didn't lose any weight for TWO AND A HALF MONTHS STRAIGHT.

Let's talk about the two and a half months of staying the same weight. Ooooohhh boy did that frustrate me. Honestly, I was rolling around between 232-236, just yo-yoing like no one's business.

Why, you ask?

Because of the crap I put in my mouth! I would eat good a couple of days in a row, and then sabotage my success with bread and ice cream. Bah! I was seriously stuck in a dumb rut. One day, I finally decided to re-visit my dietician and get schooled on what I need to do to improve my weight loss progress. She basically said, "you're doing it wrong," educated me on the basics again (which I really needed), and advised me to start tracking my food.

I hated, hated the idea of tracking my food. However, once I begrudgingly followed that advice, I can say it has opened my eyes to the facts of what I eat.

My dietician visit was on February 5th. I weighed in at 232 during that visit. As of this morning, I weigh 227. BIG SUCCESS!! I learned a valuable lesson, too. My dietician is my goddess, and I need to work very closely with her if I want to achieve my goals.

Now, I'm back on track to losing weight and feeling great and I want to keep track of my progress like a good Lap-Bander and blog again. I haven't been holding myself accountable, and we all know that that's the most important part. So, you'll be seeing me around here a lot more these days. :)

So, one more major announcement before I go: I have decided to participate in the Spartan Race in May.

 

I have officially started training as of last night.

I am terrified, lol.

I'm going to do a 5k Foam Race in April, but this Spartan Race was the boost I needed to seriously start training. I've been doing the C25K program, but I'm only on week 3 (and I started the program 6 weeks ago...yikes). I hadn't incorporated any strength training into my regime, but now I absolutely have to if I want to complete the Spartan Race.

I asked a few people if they wanted to do the Spartan Race with me, and the feedback I received was overwhelming! I hadn't felt so happy in such a ridiculous amount of team with the support and commitment I received from some of my friends. So far, I have about 6 friends who will definitely be joining me in the race, and another 6 or 7 who are very interested. I am very, VERY excited. I've never had so many people say they want to work out with me before and now I have such overwhelming support that I have no excuse not to train and get work done! I only have two months to train, but I am going to make these next two months count.

So, for the next two months you guys will be seeing my progress in training, and I promise to try and put more pictures up. Also, only 11 more pounds to lose and then I can FINALLY go to the spa! I've been wanting to use my voucher for months now!

So, how have you guys been doing? :)

Double-Yew Tee Eff!

Guys, I am not joking when I say this is my first day off in about a month.

Seriously!

I don't want to go into the whole long story of how my job is seriously screwing me over on my paycheck right now (it's not on purpose, but someone is messing up bad), so I've been dishing out overtime to try and make up for the bonus they still owe me. I mean, it's the freakin' holidays, man!

Today, I finally don't have to walk my ass into work, and for that, I'm grateful. In fact, Tuesday was supposed to be my first real day off, and I still managed to find myself at work for a few hours. Ugh!

Okay, okay, I need to calm down.

Soooo....

What's up guys? Long time, no see. I have a feeling the blogging world is slowly slipping from my grasp. I really don't want it to, and I'm going to try my best to keep up with it. All of you are such a big support and inspiration, and I don't know where I'd be without you guys!

As of right now, I'm weighing in at around 232.8, which is still going in the right direction! I've been in the 230's for over a month, and that is aaaallll my fault. My weight would bounce up and down because of the shit I would put in my mouth, but I'm happy to say I'm still managing to go down in the right direction.

I saw on Z's blog that she is starting her own Holiday Weight Loss Challenge, and I think I'm going to join. There's nothing like the chance of winning some money to get your ass into gear, right?

As far as the Band, I did get a fill last Monday. I was noticing that nothing was keeping me full for more than a couple of hours at a time, and the PA added 0.8cc to the band. I believe I'm at 7.5 right now. I kinda lost track, lol. I'll figure it out. But the fill has helped, and as long as I eat my protein, I can stay full for about 4 hours at a time.

I'm also super stoked to announce that I can eat all the Wingstop I want and it's totally part of my diet, lol. In fact, I'm in the mood for some mild wings with lemon pepper on them right now.... Mmm, absolutely no carbs and tons of protein, and delicious?! If it didn't bust my wallet so hard, I'd eat it every day!

I also had my very first NSV a couple of weeks ago! A co-worker came up to me at work and asked me, "Are you losing weight?" I got all giddy inside, especially because she knows nothing of my Band.

I know I said I signed up for the Dirty Girl Mud Run, which is coming up this Saturday. In spite of myself, I've decided not to go. I know that it's not timed and not competitive, but I just really, really don't want to go anymore. I think it's because of the downer the Rock N Roll marathon put on me, but I'm not beating myself up over it. I just want to wait longer before I participate in any of these events again. I will (eventually) start the C25K program, and I'll start letting you guys know how that goes!

I hope to be in 220's soon. It's going to be a lot of work on my part, especially the way my weight has been yo-yo-ing in the 230's. I'd say the 220s were what I weighed when my beau and I first started dating, over two years ago. Once I manage to get past that, it will be territory I haven't touched since high school.

I just wanted to say that I'm proud of everyone and their weight loss accomplishments! Everyone is doing such a great job, and I'm happy that we're all working towards our goal of a happier, healthier lifestyle. I know I'm not around as much as I should be, but I just wanted to express my gratitude to everyone on here. You're all my inspiration, and I don't know what I'd do without you guys!

Liebster Award

 

The Rules

- Once you're nominated, write 11 facts about yourself.

- Then, take a look at the 11 questions the person who nominated you asked and answer them.

- Get your thinking cap on and come up with 11 questions of your own for your nominees to answer

- Then choose the 5 bloggers you want to nominate (they must have less than 200 followers) & let them know they've been nominated (there are no tag backs - you can't nominate the person who nominated you).

- Complete this post and then link it to the person who nominated you (in the comments of their blog).


Okay, so 11 facts about myself:

1. I feel like one of the youngest Bandsters out there, which kind of makes it hard for me to make friends with other WLS patients.

2. I was a major tomboy in high school. I didn't officially become a girl until like, two years ago, lol.

3. I don't like to use shorthand, even in text messages.

4. I love my boss, love my coworkers, hate my job.

5. I study meteorology. I love the weather!

6. Thunderstorms are my favorite! I have a cloud and lightning bolt tattoo on my wrist.

7. I feel like my weight loss progress is coming along really slow. I know it's mostly due to my decisions, though.

8. I love to read. I prefer fiction, because when I read, I like to be sucked into a whole different world.

9. I also like to write! Maybe one day, I'll post some of the things I've written on here. I just don't think a lot of Bandsters would prefer my writing, because I write action-y stuff.

10. I love videogames!

11. I love everyone on this blog! I might not be the most vocal person on here, but everyone has given me so much support with the littlest actions. I couldn't appreciate it more!!



All right, questions from Tee: 


1. coffee or tea?
Tea, definitely. Preferably Starbucks Shaken Black Tazo tea, no syrup, four Splendas. :D


2.favorite TV show?
I don't really watch TV, but out of all the series I've watched so far, I'd say my favorite was Dexter.

3. one book you absolutely would recommend?
That's a tough one, since most of the reading I do is written by amateur authors. When it comes to something that's already been published, I'd have to say Twilight. It is by no means a well written book, but it is one of my guiltiest pleasures.
  
4. if you could have a famous person's figure who would you choose?
Kate Beckinsale. And her hair, too. :D

5. do you wrap your children's gifts from "Santa" ? if you do not have kids, did your parents wrap yours as a kid?
I don't have kids, but I do remember my parents wrapping my gifts and saying they're from Santa.

6. favorite time of the year? why?
About this time. It's not too cold, not too warm.

7. biggest concern you had when making the choice to get banded?
My biggest concern was the possibility of complications. So far, I haven't had anything wrong, but the possibilities are still there.
8. does your family read your blog? if so do you ever wish they did not?
No, and no.

9. would your dream home be on the beach or in the mountains?
Beach, definitely. I grew up here in South Texas. I wouldn't survive the mountains!

10. have you traveled (out of state or country)  if so where?  
I was fortunate enough to go to San Diego for Comic Con this past July.

11. cat or dog ( i love both, but have kitties ) 
I have a cat named Vivi. I love dogs more, but they're harder to take care of.



And my questions from Banded in Texas:

1) Your dream travel destination?
Hawaii! I can't wait. Hopefully 2013 is my lucky year!

2) Favorite movie?
By far, Sunshine, starring Chris Evans. It's a must-watch.

3) Favorite book or magazine?
We'll have to go with Twilight again, since a lot of stuff I read in unpublished. But remember, guiltiest of pleasures, lol.

4) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Hopefully, getting out of grad school.

5) You just won $10 million dollars. How would you spend it?
I'd buy my parents a home, save the rest.

6) If you could meet/interview anyone living or dead, who would you meet and why?
Hmm, good question. Probably my real mom. I've met her, but never really..."met" her.

7) What is the weirdest/craziest thing you have ever eaten?
I am by no means a crazy eater. I like everything plain. I ate a grilled cheese with avocado in it the other day, does that count?

8) Any phobias?
I have a fear of heights. It's crazy-stupid. I had a hard time going up escalators because of it!

9) What is your best trait?
I'm a fast learner.

10) What is your least-favorite trait?
I'm judgmental, and I'm usually wrong.

11) Why do you blog? 
To ensure my success in my weight loss journey.



Now, time for 11 questions for my nominees:

1. Favorite color?
2. Do you have any pets?
3. Who has been your biggest supporter during your weight loss journey?
4. What's your favorite Band-friendly food?
5. Do you have any guilty pleasures?
6. What's your favorite thing to do for exercise?
7. What is one of your long-term goals?
8. How long have you been blogging?
9. Do you drink alcohol? If so, what's your favorite drink?
10. What do you want for Christmas?
11. How do you hold yourself accountable during your weight loss journey?

My nominees:
The Band-it Girl 
Robyn's Nest
Terrie

I could only get three, because everyone else was nominated already, lol.