Wednesday, July 21, 2010

I'm Fine. Really.

Hello there! I'm doing much better! Even sans makeup and on the INTERNETZ I am happy happy happy!

What? You didn't know I wasn't doing so hot?

It was really more of an internal turmoil, not so much external. Although the last time we chatted I was bummed about my missed long run.

Folks, I was totally beating myself up for falling back into really terrible eating habits. Hence the reworking of goals and yada yada yada.

I am proud to say that the last few days I've stayed on track, gotten in all my exercise, and am pretty pleased overall.


And now on to address an email and a comment I received.

First up, I received an email from a lady who basically wants to know how I lost all my weight. She says she has been a runner for a good amount of years and is currently in marathon training but she isn't losing any weight. I have no answer for this. At least not for her. I am a firm believer in everyone is different inside and out. What works for me won't necessarily work for you.

But, to answer the how did I do it question....I did it through good ole' fashioned calories in versus calories out. Expend more calories than you take in. Get yourself a daily calorie intake of what is best for you. Try this calculator to figure it. Then go to SparkPeople, get a free account and record every single thing you put in your mouth! When I started my health journey it was with walking and reducing calories, but not by an extreme amount. Then I did get kind of extreme. When I started running and losing weight, I wanted to lose more weight. So I made my daily calorie limit 1300. Pretty low for an active person. Some months the weight would fall off. Others it stood still. I took cheat days and would absolutely gorge when I did. Eventually I evened it out to eating around 1500 a day and still losing weight. Actually when I increased my calories a bit I lost those last 10 I was trying for. Lately I've been around 1600-2000 a day. Some days more. Which is why I am back on track and trying to keep it at 1500 to lose another 4 lbs.

All this talk of extreme calorie counting brings me to the comment I received. A reader asked how I had the energy to run only eating 1200 or 1300 calories a day. The answer is... I didn't. I often felt very sluggish on my runs and couldn't seem to break past the 3 mile wall. Only when I increased my eating to 1500 or so did I see an improvement in my running and weight loss.

So it seems I am a swinger. I swing from one extreme to the other and have a hard time finding a happy medium.

For now, I am going to keep increasing my mileage, keep my calories somewhere in the middle, and just be super duper happy with my body because I have worked hard for it and it is mine!

And one reason I love this body is because it carried me through 6 whole miles Monday morning without complaint. This run was pretty good overall. The first three miles were like running underwater. Arkansas humidity is insane! At mile 3.5 we took a 2 minute walk/water/Sports Beans break and the remaining miles were a piece of cake! Mmmmm, cake. Sorry, I got distracted. Anyhoooo....it was a good run and I am pleased with my miles. Tuesday I hill walked on the treadmill and did SparkVideos and this morning I did a easy mile warmup and then two miles of intervals on the treadmill. Despite being inside in my chilly house, I was sweating like crazy. Those intervals kicked my butt!

Tomorrow I will rest. Rest as in, deep clean my house, take the kids swimming, and hardly sit down. Friday will be 3 miles on the treadmill and Saturday another long run. I can't wait! My husband laughs when I say I can't wait to run 6 miles at 6am on a Saturday morning.

Hope you are having a healthy happy mentally stable week! Happy running!

3 comments:

  1. Ok, I have to tell you this, just because I do...

    My "teammates"  and I were talking about all of the blogs I follow (they read quite a few of them, as well) and your blog came up:

    As in: Why does that girl call her blog "Run Fat Girl, Run?' She is so skinny and not fat at all!!!!

    Just thought I would pass along the compliment!

    Have a great day!

    Wendy

    ReplyDelete
  2. LOL! I love it!

    I don't know, it was kind of my motivational phrase for a long time. Like get your ass in gear woman! I would chant it to myself when I couldn't even run half a mile.

    Also it helps me remember I do have the capability of being a fat girl if I don't watch it.

    ReplyDelete