End of Jocktober

Jocktober was a success and a failure. However, I look on the bright side, therefore, through the fails, I see improvements. Lets talk about the WINS.

1. Roller coaster

I finally fit in the roller coaster seat without feeling embarrassed. I conquered a fear of mine.

2. Gym Challenge

I pushed myself harder than ever in the gym. One week I ran for a total of 21 miles. I wanted to puke after some runs but I still accomplished something I thought I never could do.

Fails!

1. my diet

haha, I wanted to do a week eating solely fruits and veggies. #Fail… BUT, my takeaway is that I need to eat more fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. Lately, for my snack at work, I eat apples. I brought in carrots and dip for a snack today. I am taking a right step, away from processed food.

2. I am still plateauing!

Yup, no weight loss. Probably weight gain because my diet was off due to a whole cheat week.

To help with the plateau, I ordered Green Coffee beans off of Groupon. These beans have helped clinical trial patients lose 15% of their body fat without diet or exercise. I heard about this on The View and it was also on Dr. Oz. I am not relying on the green coffee beans to lose weight but just jump start the fat burning process.

I will have more on the miracle workers once I start using them.

~NOVEMBER CHALLENGE~

I thought of this in the shower today. Yes, I had to tell you this :)

Anyways, This month starts the holiday period when we binge on sweets and carbs. Well, we can’t always say no. SOOO.. I came up with a plan to fulfill our sweets and still be on a diet. It is a 50 / 50 plan. Every time sweets are in front of you, you will eat or not eat. It will go back and forth. Therefore, if I passed on the cake yesterday, then I can have a thin slice of apple pie today. Get it? it is better to alternate your yes then to binge by saying ‘YES’ all the time. Try it! I bet you will notice how little weight you will gain over the fat gaining season.

Love you all,

LaRell

235 pounds Weigh-In

Didn’t lose much this month but its fine. I ate horrible and had a pretty horrible diet. I mean it wasn’t that bad, but, it was not that great. I have 50 more pounds to my goal weight and it seems much harder to lose these pounds then the months prior. I am way more stressed than 6 months ago. Thanks to Big Brother After Dark I am also not getting 8 hours of sleep anymore.

The main reason why I am not terrible upset about the number on the scale is the fact that my skin needs time to tighten up. If I lose weight to fast (and I did) then I will get stuck with a lot of loose skin. This means I have to fork over a couple grand to pay for cosmetic surgery. So maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that this last 50 pounds is taking a little bit longer because my body, especially my chest, has a lot of tightening up to do.

Today, I had my last Saturday 3 mile run before the 5K Color Me Rad. The race is next Saturday, September 8th. I know I can run (jog) it without stopping. I just want to focus on time. 33 minutes is a good time and I hope I can get under it. The past month I have ran every Saturday. My worst time was 37 minutes and my best was 31 minutes. Granted I was dying at the end of that race and I had a bad case of this.

I am excited to see one of my best friends this Thursday. He has not seen me in person since I started loosing weight. It is unfathomable to think that I lost so much weight. Like so many of our memories are shared with food being the common denominator. If I wanted a late night McDonald’s run, he was there for me. Visiting him will bring back the memories of the over-eating. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. I mean, we both tried to be healthy during our last semester. We both got gym memberships to Anytime Fitness and soon realized that we only went there like 13 times. I am glad I am using my membership to good use now.

FLYING! Okay, I am totally excited to fly now. Before my transformation, I had reservations because I couldn’t A. fit in the seat and B. Have the seat belt fit me.  One time flying, I couldn’t get the seat belt to click so I stuff the pieces under my fat rolls and pretended it snapped. That goes in the top 10 embarrassing moments of my life.

I am excited to see my best friend, to fly, and to race in my first 5K. This will be an amazing weekend and I can not wait. Literally, my work productivity will slowly drop. I feel like a student in the opening scene of High School Musical 2.

~LaRell

236 lbs Weigh-In

This past month has been crazy! I lost 9 pounds which is awesome. I also have been carrying around a secret. A few weeks back, I decided to plan a trip to see one of my best friends in Dallas, TX in September. I posted this on Facebook and another friend asked me if I was interested in a 5K run. Without much hesitation I signed up. This 5K is a color run. Its called ‘Color me Rad’ the website is right here. Basically, for the duration of the 5K, I will get bombarded with different colors and at the end of the race I will look like a rainbow flag had thrown up on me.

A 5K is a little over 3 miles. That is 3 miles of running/jogging/walking. I am striving to avoid the later. I don’t run! I love my elliptical, I use it practically everyday. How am I suppose to RUN 3 MILES???

A workout plan!

Friends advised me to follow a simple schedule to get my body conditioned to run for 3 miles. Its called ‘the couch to 5K running plan’ which will get your body in shape for a race. In 2 months, you are transformed from a couch potato to 5K marathon runner.

Good plan, But will it work for me?

Two weeks ago, on a Saturday morning, at 8am I decided to run… OUTSIDE. Now, I have ran on a treadmill before and I usually run a mile, walk 10 minutes, then run the remaining 3 miles. I am dead afterwards, but I can do it.

I get out of my car and I use this amazingly awesome iPhone app, Nike+, to track my mileage. I just start to run / jog around a local Roanoke park. I am running…doing my thing… trying to catch my breath. I am determined not to stop and walk.

I am chugging along and I hear ‘I completed 1 mile’; I feel great. I finished that mile in 10:30 something. Okay, you have to understand where I am coming from to fully understand this. In PE class in high school, I could “run” a mile in like 16 minutes (with me running the curves and walking the straights). So I am overly impressed with my time.

Apparently, its a ‘thing’ to run at the park on a Saturday morning. Who knew? There were so many other runners with all different shapes, sizes and ages. They were my motivation to keep going. I see a shirtless guy and I am like, ‘I can’t wait to get that body’.

I did it! I ran 3 miles without stopping. I completed it in 33 minutes. This is Cray-Cray because I was going to train so hard for this 5K but now I know I can complete it in a decent time.

Today, I ran 3 miles and completed it in 34 minutes so i am staying on average in my run. i know the first run wasn’t a fluke. Also, I am running on a trail that has few incline shifts. I just hope the one in Dallas / Ft. Worth is flat.

I am training hard so I can kick this 5K in its…

for now,

~LaRell