Dirty Girl Mud Run and Weekly Weigh In

So far, being back on track, I'm down 3 lbs!

Before and After

This weekend was the Dirty Girl Mud Run, and I did it!!!  I did all but 2 of the obstacles, and I was very proud of myself!  I've found that I have very good balance, and rock cargo nets!!!  There was one inclined log obstacle that I almost got over, but it was very slippery, and I had a vision of my foot slipping and hitting my knee or head on the log.  So, I decided to go around it after I was almost at the halfway point.

The one obstacle that killed my legs?  There was this one section towards the end that was (or at least felt like) at least a half mile of thick, thick mud a few inches deep.  Like, the kind of mud that you could easily lose a shoe in.  It reminded me of the scene where Artax drowns in the swamps in the Neverending Story.

If this scene means nothing to you, your childhood was lacking!

Like, seriously, my body just couldn't deal with having to pull my legs out of the mud after every single step of this section.  My fellow Dirty Girl, Katie (who is awesome and amazing for staying with my slow butt even though she is currently training for her marathon- you should check her blog out!), almost lost me in the mud!!!  I did survive, but my body is not happy about it today!  

For anyone considering doing a 5K or a mud run- do it!!!  If I could do it, you can do it!  It's completely non-competitive, I walked 90% of it, plenty of others walked, too!  Chances are that you will do better than you think!  I plan on doing more in the future, hopefully my body will be less sore as I get back in shape!!!

My Game Plan

I've decided not to join Weight Watchers this time around.  While the program worked for me, I don't want to spend the money and dread the meetings.  I loved going to my meetings for a very long time, and then eventually some new people joined who, quite frankly, annoyed me.  Think what you will, I speak the truth!

What I did learn the most from WW is that I need to track what I eat.  I'm going to use myfitnesspal in order to keep track of what I eat as well as my exercise.  There is also a social part of myfitnesspal, so if you want to give it a try, my username is Gogasa.  I'm not quite sure about the social part of it since I've never used it, but it can't hurt!  Feel free to add me as a friend on there!  The reason I chose myfitnesspal is that has a free app as well as a website.  A few other apps only exist as apps.  I like being able to access my information on my phone as well as on my computer.  

While I am focusing on my calories, I am also trying to eat the least amount of processed foods as possible.  I'm not talking about buying only organic foods or anything like that.  I (luckily) enjoy cooking, so I try to keep my shopping to at least 75% produce and fresh proteins (fish, poultry, etc.).  This step alone keeps my food intake much healthier.  I find that on days where I cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner from scratch, I end up way below my recommended daily calorie intake.

I am a "normal" human being, though, so I do have convenience foods stocked up in my house for times when I don't want to cook or when I just don't have the time.  I also have my share of artificial sweeteners and the like, because sometimes you just need the fake stuff.  

I'm also getting my butt to the gym at least 3 times a week, usually more than that!  Right now, I'm limiting myself to the elliptical.  I'm doing the Dirty Girl 5K Mudrun (woohoo!) this weekend, and I don't want to be unable to complete it if my body is too sore from starting a new routine!  After that, I'll start weight training and going back to yoga as well.

I've also gone to another doctor to see if there's anything that can be done to make my knee "normal" again.  It's never been the same since I tore my ACL and meniscus, and it really limits me.  It doesn't hurt, but it gets tired, achy and swells up very easily.  I pretty much wear sneakers all of the time since any other shoe just makes it worse.  

So far, so good.  I will be posting more pictures, recipes and weekly weigh-ins as I go along.  Thanks everyone for your support, it means more than you know!

Goodbye Summer!

Well, the time has come.  It's Labor Day, and summer is over.  Work starts again tomorrow, leaving the weekends to grab the last warm rays of sun before autumn fully sets in.  


I have a very good feeling about this school year, in more ways than one.  I believe my weight loss is going to start back up.  I haven't been back on track since my vacation, not tracking my foods, not measuring anything out.  It's nice, but I know it's hurting me.  


I've got a batch of white bean turkey chili going for lunches and dinners during the week.  I'm planning out my meals so that when I go shopping, I know exactly what I need and what I'll be eating when.  The year is busy and crazy, but that means I have to plan ahead, and I work well that way.  


I'm going to get back on track with the gym as well.  It's so much easier for me to go there on my way home from work instead of leaving the house to go there.  I got my new knee brace, so hopefully that will allow me to continue to push myself.


My birthday is October 8.  This year I'm turning 27.  My goal as of now is to reach 140lbs by the time I turn 28.  That's over a year to lose 50lbs.  I can, and WILL, do it!!!!!


To all of my fellow teachers:  Have a great school year!  Here we go...

General Update

Overall, I'm feeling pretty great!  I'm down to wearing a size medium or large shirt (used to be XL or XXL).  When it comes to pants, I now wear a 12 or a 14 (down from 16 or 18).  I'm putting off buying new clothing, but I know I will have to before school starts.  None of my work clothing fits me anymore!  I'm going to buy a few staple pieces, so plan on me wearing the same outfit pretty often!


I still track everything I consume, even when I'd rather not admit to it!  I don't feel guilty about using my extra weekly points, but I try to avoid doing that.  I refuse to track anything on a vacation I have coming up.  I'm going to make wise decisions, but a vacation is a vacation, and I take them so rarely that I am going to enjoy it fully!


Physically, my knee is holding up.  PT ends this week, and that's fine!  I'm doing the exercising on my own, and really just use them for the massage aspect as well as the electric stimulation machines.  My knee has learned to work without being 100%, and even though I know that's not what's best for me, it's going to have to work until I'm ready to have surgery, which won't be for at least a year or two.  A brace is on it's way, and that should enable me to push myself without ending up with a swollen knee.


So, the journey continues.  I'm hoping to reaching my goal weight, or what I think my goal weight is (140 lbs) by the time I turn 28 (October 8, 2012).  45 lbs to go...

Knee News

So after a few different appointments and another MRI on my knee, we have good news and bad-ish news.


The good news is that my ACL is still attached, and it doesn't look like I'll need further surgery on that.


The bad-ish news is that my meniscus developed another nasty tear (they had shaved it down when I had my ACL repair because it was torn then, too).  My knee cap is also off-center.  For now, I'm getting another brace and starting physical therapy 3x a week.  My doctor said that I'm right to be staying away from exercises that have too much impact, so I'm going to leave any "new" workouts for PT so they can judge what won't hurt me.  Depending how all of that goes, I may need them to go in again to repair my meniscus, but at least that's not nearly as invasive as a complete ACL replacement.