Another pound gone! I've been working out SO hard this week. I'm really tired today. I think I may need a little rest from the running and weight training. Today is that day.

I registered for a 5k race happening in March. I feel very ready. I've been consistently running 4-5 times a week now. I can't say that I run very fast, but I run and that's all that matters right now. 

I'm going to Coconut Grove today to hang out with my best friend who's still in town and do some boutique shopping. I LOVE shopping in Miami. 

UPDATE: When I got out of the shower I weighed again and I am actually down 2 pounds! YEAH!

Ok, I'm going to pretend my last post didn't happen. (Although big hugs right back at ya October!) I felt SO much better after a run, an intense ab routine and an 8 ounce steak. LOL Yes folks, I ate an entire 8 oz grilled ribeye, every last little chunk of black and blue fat on it. And it was delicious! I think that's what I needed, just a nice big chunk of meat. Then, I actually went ahead and got on the scale AFTER I ate, and it said 168.5, so I'm all good. I would imagine that this morning (prior to the carnivorous carnage fornication) I was probably around 167-168. Then I took some measurements and compared them to my measurements from www.fitday.com that I took in December. I have lost 5 inches from my waist and 4 inches from my hips. YEAH ME! The working out is really transforming my body shape.I notice my muffin top is almost gone and my butt is a bit higher than it used to be.

Now, if only I could correct the damage done from breast feeding two children. How did my nice, perky 34 C's turn into 36 Longs? LOL

I think it's time for that dreaded TOM. I bet it comes today. I woke up VERY angry, about NOTHING. We just got a new cable/internet service and I was pissed off it wasn't working right away when I got up. The coffee couldn't brew fast enough. And poor hubby. I actually considered asking him to come closer so I could rip his lips off and make him kiss my ass with them. And for NOTHING. He did NOTHING. I just feel FOUL today. I haven't weighed in a few days. I'm a bit leary after my Friday night excursion. I did 35 minutes of cardio and arms yesterday, followed by 20 mintues of abs and then a 30 minute run. I'm eating fine. I really shouldn't care, but with TOM coming, I just don't want to see the number on the scale! I think I'm going to go for a run and see if that helps. Pray for me. Wait.. no.. scratch that. Pray for everyone else around me. LOL

My best friend and her husband came to town from NYC on Friday afternoon. They are planning a move here in February so they came down to look for an apartment. Her mom also lives here. So, Firday night we packed up the kids and went over there. They were so sweet in regards to my diet. We made fondue, which was totally low carb friendly and very wonderful. However, I don't know about that bottle of cabernet that I killed. LOL

So yesterday I ended up in bed most of the day sleeping off an intense hangover. It's nice that hubby let me do that. He's awesome. He took care of the kids all day and didn't say a word. 

I didn't work out Friday or Saturday, but I'm back at it today. I am almost up to running 30 full minutes. It's gorgeous outside and a perfect day for a run. Then I think I'll follow that up with an upper body workout.

UPDATE: I can't take 2 days from running anymore! It was SO hard to get thru 25 straight minutes, but I did it. Then I came home and did a 45 minute THE FIRM Total Muscle Shaping. I have jerk chicken thighs in the oven and I'm going to make a broccoli and cheese casserole. YUMMY!

Ok, so I have been stripping the wallpaper and painting my office since Monday. I thought I ripped the cable out of the wall so I didn't plug my computer in until today. Come to find out, the router was just not plugged up. DUH! The only upside to not having internet for 3 days was that I got A LOT done. I painted my downstairs bathroom, got down all the wallpaper in the house and finished painting the entire downstairs (including the trim!) I even painted the inside of my pantry closet! It looks great and I'll post some pics as soon as I can charge my camrea batteries.

I've also managed to workout everyday this week while I was painting, and I sure didn't cheat on the eating side, as I was TOO BUSY! I'm finally back down some. I'm super excited. Also, I'm up to running two miles straight.

My hubby took me out last night. it was much needed. We went to a Japanese restaurant and while I didn't order much, what I did get was DELISH! I had a Midori salad (asparagus, broccoli, avacado, cucumber, lettucec in a sesame dressing that was very vinegary) several pieces of sushi (I didnt eat the rice) and 1 order of Tuna Tataki (YUM) I also had a glass of wine. Then we went to the hard Rock Hotel and Casino and gambled some. I drank several rum and diet cokes. We had a great time. Then, he gave me a fun filled day of shopping alone today. He literally handed me his debit card and said "don't go crazy" and sent me out the door. I had a blast. I bought new running shoes and several pairs of yoga pants and work out tops. I got some new Wii games for the kids. All in all it was great day. I didn't weigh myself this morning. Yesterday before we went out I was still 168.5. I'm sure I was up today. I haven't eaten much today though and drank LOTS of water. Hopefully I'll weight the same or less tomorrow. I was going to take a break tonight and NOT work out, but I look too cute in my new "gear" so I'm going for a run as soon as the kids go to bed.

I woke up this morning on the wrong side of the bed. I think I'm having a typical "stay at home mom" feeling. I feel very lonely these days. I don't get out much, other than to groccery shop or pick up kids. My husband has now started back college, and while of course, I'm EXTREMELY on board with this endeavor, he doesn't have much time for me anymore when he comes home. My best friend, (who happens to be my sister) lost her husband in Iraq on November 15th, so when I call her every morning, the last thing she really wants to hear about is me feeling lonely, right? And we've only lived here since June and other than a few neighbors, I haven't really made much effort to make any friends. Luckily, one of my dearest friends is moving here in February from NYC. I CAN'T WAIT!!! I actually have not had more than 5 minutes without my kids in 6 months, other than the 3 hours that the little one is at school in the am which as any mother knows, isn't enough time to do more than a few loads of laundry! So anyway, I think I need some ME time, and SOON!

Also, today, my son went on a field trip to the circus. They weren't supposed to be back until 1:30. I decided I would do a 55 minute strength FIRM dvd  and then also run before picking him up. See, his school is only aout a 10 minute walk away so I detour my route all around in order to make it a 3 mile trip and that gives me 30 minutes to run. Well, when I got there after running a full 20 minutes, the office said they wouldn't be back for another 45 minutes!!! Did I mention that the only thing near his school is a DAIRY QUEEN? I was SO annoyed. The last thing I felt like doing was walking all the way home, only to turn around and go back 20 minutes later. But, what was I going to do? So I came home and waited and then went back. However, the whole walk back up there, it was all I could do to keep myself from bursting into tears! I think tonight it's time to tell hubby that Im ready for him to go ahead and buy that 2nd car now!

If there was any junk food in the house, I'd be cheating today, seriously! 

Yesterday I spent a bulk of the afternoon touching up trim from where the carpet had been removed and the new tile was installed. Dumb-dumb (aka  Stupid Reindeer or Buzz Lightyear or otherwise known as "THAT dog") decided to curl up in a freshly painted corner and is now spotted with white paint! He feels so ashamed. LOL

I THINK I finally got all of the tile dust up enough that we reloaded the living room with furniture last night. I took a picture before though. It's really very nice. It feels very "Miami" in here now. 

I'm down 1 pound today. YEAH for me. I worked out really hard yesterday. I did 40 minutes of pilates and then an hour of THE FIRM. I'm not even sore today, but I am noticing my tummy muscles engaging more often. 

half a pound.

And I blame naked bowflexing. 

I'm just sayin....

I just finished the first day of Week #5 of the Couch to 5k program. Amazingly, I got thru it just fine. I'm SO proud of myself. AND, down another half pound! YEAH!! Also, now that the tile is done, today I began attacking the "dust" leftover from all that tiling. It's been A LOT of work to clean it all up. I've swept and mopped and swept again and mopped again and swept some more. It seems never ending, but the house looks AWESOME.

I've really appreciated living in South Florida the last few days. While friends talk about 8 inches of snow and how cold it is wherever they are, I sit leisurely at the pool each day at around 3pm and joy in whatever podcast I happened to have downloaded to my ipod that day. Watching my kids get THIS much exercise in the middle of January makes me very happy. 

Naked bowflexing was a GREAT idea!

I'm just sayin...

Ok, so I actually saw 160's today. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my scale said 169.5 this morning. I'm so excited! I've workedd hard for this and in 24.5 more pounds, I'll be at my first goal!  Last night I went for a late run, because it cooled off nicely yesterday. This morning I woke up full of energy (but not the kind that made me want to start attacking all of this tile dust yet!) so I did my 40 minute Fat Blasting Cardio step dvd. I've really been mixing up my workouts that don't involve running and I noticed today that my muscles were able to move a bit better. I used to do this exact same workout every other day and I think I just burned out my thighs and it wasn't doing much for me. I like the idea of muscle confusion and that seems to make sense. 

I still have't been able to get hubby to actually give me a full workout on his bowflex. I really want to start incorporating that also. I've asked him many times and he's always busy. Maybe tonight I'll try "naked bowflex workout?" If that doesn't work, I'll give up! LOL

So the tile work finally moved into my office today and my poor IMac got booted to another room. I didn't even bother turning it on for most of the day. The amount of sandy dust all over my house is INSANE! I also have lots of trim and other painting to touch up. One of my best friends from NYC is coming on the 23rd, and I'd like to have my house back together by then! 

I lost 2 pounds since yesterday. I ran HARD today. It felt great. I'm thinking later I might do some work on the bowflex also. 

I'm not posting my menu today. But I will say I ate a big plate of tomato/mozz/olive oil/basil/vinegar for lunch and then had 2 hot dogs later on. Wasn't much I could do. The kitchen was ripped apart most of the day and we can't really afford to be eating out today. I just cooked Italian sausage and peppers and onions and I MAY have a little of that if I'm hungry later. 

I decided to start posting what I am eating here. I don't know why. I do it on www.fitday.com already for myself, but I know sharing is a good thing.

16 oz. coffee w/ 1 splenda and 2 tbs. half n half                      86 cal   3.7nc                                        

2 boiled eggs                                                                               143 cal      .8nc

1.2 oz. cheddar cheese                                                               137 cal       .4nc

9 large green pimiento stuffed olives                                       53 cal     1.7nc

1 small chicken leg (drumstick and thigh) roasted              212 cal        0nc

157 grams steamed broccoli                                                       55 cal     6.1nc

1 tbs. KRAFT Ranch Dressing                                                    74 cal       .7nc

TOTALS                                                                                      759 cal    11.9nc

The new tile is looking good. This is Day #3 and it appears to me he'll have at least 2 more before he's done. I didn't realize how much work it was. 

You know you are desperate to see a loss on the scale when you convince yourself if you took off that band-aid on your knee that you'd drop half a pound! The second I realized what I was rationalizing to myself  I started to laugh. That's just DUMB! 

But anyway, I'm the same today. No loss, no gain. Tomorrow, however, is another day. I'm just a little concerned about how I'm gonna be able to work out today. I don't have a lot of space upstairs to use and the tile is not ready down here for me to use. I need to think about it and figure something out. I'll let you all know what I come up with.

Down another pound (and a half!) YEAH! Something has obviously kicked in to get my weightloss going so well all of a sudden. But whatever it is, I'm all about it. YEAH!!

House is a dusty mess. Tile work still happening. Should be done by Friday. Messy, messy.

Had a long chat with my Dad yesterday. Feeling much better. Some of it was my own mis-perception. Glad I didn't fly off the handle and go crazy. I would have looked and felt like a fool. It's nice to be a grown up. Sad it took me 34 years to start acting like one! 

Took the exercise break yesterday. Today is a running day again. 

So I broke down and got ont he scale this morning. I'm down another pound. YEAH for me. My legs also feel better today. I'm not working out today though, well, not as of yet. Sometimes at night if I start to get really hungry, I try to work out instead. Last night I ended up on exercise tv doing the 10 minute pilates abs and then the 18 minute Arms of Envy. Have you ever seen the "Envy Girls" videos? Yeah, I hate those b*tches. (No envy there. LOL)

I'm feeling sad today. I don't know why. The tile guys are here and haven't even really made a mess. They're doing a good job. I started thinking about this serious disconnect I have with my family this morning. Not my husband or kids, but my parents and siblings. It's really very sad that they know so little about Hubby and me. We moved away to NYC and they just really don't know us. I've discovered that my father has made a lot of incorrect assumptions about my husband and they really have hurt my feelings. I guess I'm just wondering now if it's even worth correcting or if I should just let it go. My husband laughs about it. He doesn't care what they think. I guess I shouldn't either. The reality is I only really need the people who live in my house. Everybody else is secondary to that and if I start to find a relationship is hurting me rather than helping me, and I don't think I can fix that, then I'm going to let that relationship go. 

There, I said it! Now maybe I can start to get over it and move on today. I'm off to make a delish sounding beef stew recipe. I'll let ya know how it turns out!

So I ran my "Week 4 Couch to 5k" today instead of walking to pick up my son from Pre-k. It's about a 15 minute walk so I had to make a few loops and turns and detours to make it work, but hey, I figured kill two birds with one stone,  right? It's just so hot ehre in the middle of the day. That makes it difficult. How is it still 85 degrees? Gotta love South Florida I guess. I haven't run since Saturday. Yesterday I did THE FIRM. So, my shins and calves hurt. I think it's my shoes. I'm very flat footed and they hurt towards the inside of my legs. I think I need to go get better running shoes. I could barely walk home with my son after I finsihed the run. They feel better now after a shower, but I know that my legs shouldn't be hurting like they are. Tomorrow I'm taking a day off from both running and any leg workout. I may get on the bowflex and do some strength training on my arms, chest and back. 

There are people coming to our townhouse tomorrow to rip up the carpet in the living room/dining room and all the kitchen and office tile to put down new tile everywhere. My husband JUST called to inform me of this. Do you know how much work that's going to require? Emptying bookshelves, moving furniture, etc. I guess I'm going to be busy the rest of the night. I hope he realizes he will be moving heavy furniture upstairs later as there's no way on earth I can carry a sofa or a glass top table up the stairs alone! I can't even pick up our 37" tv. Wow, I guess I do need to use that bowflex tomorrow!

I've been eating well. Hubby made delish NY strip steaks for dinner last night and a big salad. Tonight we are having jerk pork chops and I might make some broccoli. I'm going to get on a scale on Wednesday and see how I've done. Wish me luck. You may not hear from me tomorrow as I probably won't have internet while those guys are here.

We had a small get-together last night. It was rather impromptu. In fact, the plans for it were conveniently made while I was out running! Go figure. Anyway, hubby ordered pizza from my favorite New York style pizza place. I ate ABSOLUTELY NONE! I had 2 ounces of almonds and refilled my water. I did have 2 shots of tequila with everybody, but that's not even a big deal to me. I had not eaten much all day, and what I did eat was pretty low calorie. 

Anyway, I still haven't stood on the scale but I know I'm doing ok. I decided that Week 4 of the Couch to 5k program is exactly where I need to be for the next week. The first 3 weeks were just too easy, so after 1 day, I moved ahead. However, yesterday's run was pretty tough. I'm going to do it twice more before moving on. I still haven't worked out yet today because the family has stolen the large tv for their Lara Croft Tomb Raider Wii endeavors! As soon as the kids go to bed, I'm going to do THE FIRM from 1989. (by the way, if you've never done THE FIRM, the new ones are okay, but the original videos from the late 1980's are amazing!) I hate the woman who leads this workout. Her name is Susan Harris. She has a dancer's body and she makes me sick with her commentary like "it's hard, eh?" and "isn't this better than dieting?" I want to shove my shoe up her proverbial, skinny rectum every time she says those words on my tv! Seriously, her workout is amazing and how she does all of the floor work with additional ankle weight on is beyond my small minded comprehension!

I completely fell off the wagon yesterday. I just finished putting everything into fitday that I ate/drank yesterday, and it came up to 129.5 carbs! Yes, internet, you red that correctly. It started out vry innocently, a good, hearty usual breakfast. Then hubby came home early from work and went to Costco for just a few things (i.e. cream, eggs, butter, frozen chicken, nuts) and we had promised the kids Dairy Queen on the way home. My daughter had won a contest at school and was given a certificate for a free large ice cream dipped in chocolate. So, both the kids got one and I went ahead and got the Breyer's no sgar added butter pecan in a small cup. Hubby got an iced coffee (probably one that was loaded with sugar!) We got home an di realized I had eaten about 4 half cup servings in that "small cup." That was 16 net carbs once I subtracted the sugar alcohols! Well, that was it for me for the day. it became a free for all. Then I had a beer, and a couple shots of tequila with hubby, some almonds (about 3 ounces worth). Even after all that, I was still ok. But then, I woke up at 3 am feeling like crap from the tequila, and I ate a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with skim milk. That was the kicker. In fact, now that I've seen the amount of sugar in those, I'm never buying them for my kids again. 

So, anyway, there's my written confession. It's over. I'm not weighing myself today, but I am having a very, very low carb day. I had bacon, eggs and a little cheese for breakfast. Going to have shrimp scampi for lunch and a little bit of zuchini and probably won't have anything else today. Also, I usually don't work out on Fridays or Saturdays, but I'm going to work out today. I'm sure it will be fine and hopefully I didn't gain any weight!

My scale said 175 this am. I am hoping it's just because of TOM. This is where I've been hovering for the last 2 months. I will admit though, I didn't stick to plan the entire time, so hopefully I'll get thru this little plateau number. To be in the 160's by next week would really make me happy! I did really well yesterday, so there's no real reason why I shouldn't still be losing. My carbs, caloris and water intake were all awesome. I also started the "sweet free" challenge yesterday and I even did well with that. I still find myself  craving sweets a lot, so the theory is that you give up all sweet tasting things to try and overcome the addiction. So far, so good. Coffee is fine with heavy cream in it for me. 

My run was fantastic. it's getting easier and easier. I even got a little speed going last night when I ran. I am truly enjoying the Couch to 5k program. Today is "clean the house" day and try to get ready for the kids to go back to school next week.

I don't know HOW ON EARTH I didn't gain weight since yesterday! I'm not complaining, just commenting. I looked back at my food log on www.fitday.com and I ate almost 2500 calories and about 28 carbs. I know there are a lot of people over on the Atkins website forum who say they have to eat around that many calories to lose weight! I didn't lose, but I didn't gain either. Although,  I may have actually lost. We'll find out in 5 days or so! Also, it's Day #2 of my "visiting Auntie" and that's usually the worst day for me (bloating, water retention, etc.). I guess rotating these workouts is really working. I did the 2nd level of the Jillian Michaels workout last night. It was tough. The good thing is it doesn't last long. It's literally 22 minutes. It's over and I'm going "Are you serious? That's the end? AWESOME!" So today is a running day for me. I feel good. I'm not sore or anything. I'm going to move on to Week #3 and see how that goes. 

Also, hubby said yesterday when he gets his year end bonus (which should be on the 15th) that we're going to get a treamill. We used to have a really ncie one, but we sold everything when we moved from NYC to Florida. I'm looking forward to having it again. Sometimes it's hard to run outside here because it's just so hot. Also, hubby is going back to college next week (so proud of him) and he'll be gone a lot so I may not get the chance to workout without the kids very often. Having the option of running in the house will be good.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!