Fat Girl Learns To Run

A Chill in the Air ---------- Day 100

Today was the first day this month that I felt the weather was changing.   By that I mean the weather is getting colder.  There was definitely a chill in the air. As I mentioned before, this weather makes we want to curl up in a ball with a blanket when I get home. When I did get home today I saw my son sitting at the kitchen table with his running clothes on.  He just finished his dinner and had this tired look on his face.  I told him that I didn’t feel like exercising tonight.  My son then tells me that he didn’t feel like exercising either when he got home from school but he did.  We just looked at each other and agreed that exercising just needed to be done even if we didn’t feel like it.  In reality, if I waited to be in the mood to exercise, I would probably exercise once a month.

I did exercise this evening and then didn’t do much else.  I am taking a vacation day tomorrow so I can be more productive tomorrow. My motto for tonight is “Why do something today when I can do it tomorrow.”  I better get a good night’s sleep for by busy day tomorrow.

Just for the Smell of It ---------- Day 99

My Mom has baked cookies for Christmas as long as I can remember.  She makes many batches of different kinds of cookies every year to give as gifts.  There are certain people on her list that wait all year long for her cookies.  Last year my Mom wasn’t able to bake cookies since she broke her leg and couldn’t put any pressure on her leg for 3 months.   She is back to baking cookies this year but needs help since her leg still hurts besides also having back pain.  This morning I went to her house to help her bake some cookies.  The thing I really like about cookies, besides eating them, is the smell of cookies baking.  I will still have some of my Mom’s cookies this holiday season but will definitely cut down my cookie consumption this year as compared to previous years.

To get me through the holiday season I thought of a way to get the aromas of the season without ingesting all the calories.  When I was shopping with my son yesterday, I stopped at a cosmetic counter and bought a holiday ‘cookbook’ filled with six different shower gels in assorted fragrances.  The following holiday ‘foods’ were in the cookbook: Pumpkin Spice Muffin, Red Velvet Cake, Cocoa, Pear Cobbler, Gingerbread and Cinnamon Buns.   When I take a shower in the morning, I can determine which fragrance that I am in the mood for that day.  The way I feel about the holiday season this year is that if I need to stay away from the holiday treats I can at least smell them without all the calories.  If I am at the weight that I want to be next holiday season, I will actually be able to eat the holiday treats without all the guilt.

 

Walk this Way --------- Day 98

Today was one of those days where my son and I were on the go for about 11 hours straight.   We ran errands for most of the morning and then we went shopping in the city.  My son had received money for his birthday and Christmas so he decided that he wanted to get some new clothes that fit better since he had lost all this weight.  Also, I had promised him back in June that if he ran the Turkey Trot with me I would buy him a pair of jeans.   Since he kept his end of the deal, I had to keep my end of the deal.  For me it wasn’t about the jeans but teaching my son the importance of honoring a commitment.

Since my son mostly hangs out with girls he has become very versed about fashion.  He actually enjoys going shopping for clothes.  Today was all about him and where he wanted to shop.  In the course of shopping today, we must have walked at least 2 miles.  See, shopping can burn off calories besides burning a hole in your wallet.  Since I knew that walking would be involved with shopping today, I decided to do strength training in the morning instead of cardio.  Tomorrow, I’m back to running.

The best thing about today was that I got to bond with my son.  Since he will be off to College next year, I want to cherish the time we get to spend together.  When we got home from shopping, I thought we would just take it easy at home.  Well, that is my story but not my son’s story.  He comes into my office as I writing this blog and asks if he can go dancing with his friends.  Since the group he is going out with tonight are now all 18 years old, they are old enough to go to this dancing place.  They wanted to do something special to celebrate that they don’t have a curfew anymore.  My son will get more exercise tonight when he dances with his friends.  Wouldn’t it be great to be young again and have all that energy?

Waste Not; Want Not ------------ Day 97

One of my Dad’s pet peeves is wasting food.  He just hates when people waste food.  If you take my Dad to a restaurant with a buffet, he goes nuts when he sees people pile food on their plates and not eat it.  He says that their eyes are bigger than their stomachs.  I am surprised he hasn’t gone to those people and just yelled at them at the restaurant.  My Dad told me of sign that was in a Mess Hall when he was in the Army.  The sign read, “Take what you eat.  Eat what you take.”  One day a guy took this really large steak to eat but didn’t finish it. Just as this guy was going to throw out his steak, one of the officers saw him and told him to sit down and finish the steak, pointing to the sign.  I bet that guy took a smaller steak the next time.

My Dad and Mom both grew up on farms where no food or anything else was wasted.  There was no such thing as garbage pickup day.  During WWII in Europe, food was scarce.  My parents had no choice but to beg for food to survive during the war years.  In all our lives, certain experiences shape our lives and our beliefs. For my parents, being without food made them have strong beliefs about food.

 A common thing parents say to their children when they don’t eat the food on their plate is something like this, “The children in Africa would be happy to eat the food on your plate.”  My parents never said anything like that to us.  They just told us about the hardships that they endured with food when they were younger.  Naturally, my parents passed on their beliefs about wasting food to me. One of the things they would say is, “Once you have gone hungry, really hungry, you will never waste any food again.”

Why bring up wasting food today?  Yesterday was Thanksgiving; a day known for eating copious amounts of food and leftovers.  I like Thanksgiving leftovers but I only like eating a maximum of two meals of leftovers.  Since I don’t like to waste food, I took all the turkey bones and scrap meat from the bottom of the pan and then added some root vegetables and made some turkey stock.  Tomorrow I skim off the fat from the refrigerated stock and then add some of the leftover turkey meat to the stock with some vegetables and rice.  With the leftover vegetables from the dinner, I made some rice and then added the vegetables and some of the turkey meat for a stir fry (I had a really large turkey for only 8 people so there was a lot of leftover meat). I then take the soup and the stir fry and make individual servings and freeze them.  This way parts of the Thanksgiving dinner can be enjoyed in the next few months.   Having all this frozen food makes it easy for me to grab my lunch time meal when I go to work.  I’m all about making things easy for me.

 

Turkey Trot ---------- Day 96

Today my son and I ran a 5K Turkey Trot.  In the morning, it was in the 30s and raining so I dressed appropriately.  Since the race was about 15 minutes from our house, we left at 8:30 a.m. for a 9:30 a.m. start.  After we found parking, we hung around the starting line of the race.  About 15 minutes before the race, they announced that all runners should line up behind the starting line.  At this time it stopped raining and seemed to be warmer.  In one way this was a good thing but on the other hand I realized that I had on one too many layers for running.  With all my layers I look like the Michelin man in the photo below.

As the race started, I felt good.  At the 1 mile marker I was running at a 11 minute mile pace.  At the 2 mile marker, I was still running a 11 minute mile.  After running 2 miles, things started to go downhill for me.  I was in the walk/run mode which I attribute to being too warm when I was running.  When I crossed the finished line, I had run at about a 12 minute mile pace.  My son had run at a 9.5 minute mile pace and finished earlier than me.

After running the race, my immediate thoughts were about what I needed to do to run a faster race.  I asked my son if he would run another race and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to.  After some conversation, we decided that he would run one race a year with me.  As for me, I definitely have the running bug. I haven’t progressed at the pace I would have liked with my running but I have made progress since April.  If my body holds up, I will continue to get better at this running thing.

When we arrived home, I showered and worked on preparing the Thanksgiving dinner.  My family came over in the afternoon to spend Thanksgiving together.  After everyone left, I suddenly just hit the wall. My energy was gone for the day.  I think it is going to be an early night for me.  My first Turkey Trot is over but if all goes well there will be more Turkey Trots in the future for me.

 

Ying and Yang ---------- Day 95

I place a high value on good customer service.  Yesterday I had two customer service experiences that spanned both ends of the spectrum. I like to refer to it as the Ying and Yang of Customer Service. You’ll understand what I mean as my day’s activities unfold.

Since I had a group run yesterday, I wanted to continue my routine of getting a yogurt parfait during lunch from Nordstroms. I have found that this is the perfect food for me to eat a couple of hours before a run.  When I get to Nordstroms there are no parfaits in the case.  How could there not be any parfaits?  There are always about 4 to 5 parfaits every time that I go there.  Was today national yogurt parfait day and nobody told me?  I just stood at the counter in shock.  I then composed myself and asked if they had any parfaits left.  They said ‘no’ but they could make me one if I wanted one.  I, of course said, “Yes, I want a parfait.”  One of the girls behind the counter went into the secret back room to make my parfait.  After about 2 minutes another guy behind the counter said that my parfait would be ready soon.  I didn’t care how long it took because I was just grateful that they were making me one.  After a few minutes the girl came out from behind the secret back door and brought my parfait to the counter.  I was so happy.  I have always heard that Nordstroms has great customer service and my experience today is another example how they will accommodate their customers.

As I mentioned yesterday, it was raining when I left work.  When I got off the train, I made my way to the bus stop since I really didn’t want to walk in the rain.  As I left the train station, I saw 2 buses at the bus stop.  How lucky was that?  I never see a bus waiting at the bus stop.  All is good in the world.  I will get straight on the bus and not have to deal with walking in the rain.  As soon as my group from the train crossed the street to get on the bus, both buses pulled away.  I just couldn’t believe this happened.  There were 2 buses waiting there.  Why couldn’t the 2^nd bus wait for us?  I was dumbfounded at what just happened.  One of the girls from my train expressed what all of us were thinking, “What an asshole.”  All of us at the bus stop were just shaking our heads and mumbling swear words underneath our breath.  That’s the CTA for you.  Sometimes the drivers can be such jerks.  I could go into a whole dissertation about the CTA but I leave that for another time.

I decided to walk to my car but kept on checking behind me in case another bus was coming.  No such luck.  When I got to the bus stop that I would normally get off at, I finally did see a bus coming.  I was still pissed at the previous bus driver because now my coat was all wet even with an umbrella.  Once I got in my car, I needed to find parking near the new running meeting place that I was going to (it was a bar).  Let me put it out there now, I hate looking for a parking space in the rain.  I did finally find one and then headed for the bar.  Once in the bar, I saw some of the group leaders from my Thursday night class and then found my running partner (Shannon) who was the only one running with me last week.  Meeting at bar was a totally different experience than meeting in a store. 

To begin the run, one of the group leaders would ask if anyone was running 6 miles and that group would head out to begin their run (because of the rain no one ran 6 miles).  Then the 5 milers left, then the 4 milers, and  then the 3 milers.  Since I am running 3 miles on Thursday, I was only going to run 2 miles.  We were the last group that headed out.  I was in the slow 2 miles group which consisted on Shannon, my blonde group leader from Thursday night and someone new.  The 4 of us headed out in the rain.  I took a few steps on the sidewalk and then proceeded to step in the biggest puddle.  My shoe was soaked.  Once you are wet I realized it doesn’t matter anymore.  Wearing a hat was the best thing that I did.  As long as the rain is not in my face, I’m good to go.  With all the rain, we got more of a workout just dodging the puddles on the ground.  It was 50 degrees last night which is really great running weather if it is not raining.  The good thing is that I was wet but not cold.

Since we were starting from a different place, our run path was different which made things interesting.  With 4 girls running, there is always something for one of us to talk about so the time goes by fast.  When we got back to the bar after our run, everyone looked like a drowned rat.  I have to admit that this is the first time that I have run in a steady rain fall and it really wasn’t that bad.  Since this is more of a social running group, after the run we each got a raffle ticket to redeem for a beer.  I decided against the beer and had a club soda instead.  The bar also provided some appetizers for the runners.  I stayed around a while and had something to eat and drink while talking to other runners.  I have read on the CARA websites about other running series and I was glad that I was invited to check one out.

Tonight I had to prepare food for the Thanksgiving dinner that I am hosting at my house tomorrow.  I also got my running stuff ready for tomorrow’s Turkey Trot.  Now it is off to bed to get some good sleep before tomorrow’s run.

 

 

 

 

Soaked to the Bone --------- Day 94

I did my bonus group run tonight.  When I left work, there was a steady rain coming down.  I was very close to not going but I promised some people that I would be there.  I ran 2 miles in the rain and got soaked.  I’m home now and still chilled to the bone.  I am going to grab a cup of hot tea and try to warm up.  I’ll fill you in more about my run tomorrow when I am not so cold.

Tell it Like it is ---------- Day 93

My Mom was in rare form yesterday for her birthday. By that I mean, she doesn’t hold back on saying what she thinks.  When I came to her house, she looked at me and said that my rear end had gotten smaller but it is still too big.  Also, that I don’t look like I lost much weight recently.  She said that she can tell just by looking at my face if I have lost weight.  Many years ago when I was dieting she told me at one point in the diet that I shouldn’t lose any more weight because I was getting too skinny (image that; me being too skinny).  I guess I will know when I have reached my ideal weight when my Mom tells me that again.

I was not the only one my Mom targeted with her words.  A good friend of hers stopped by latter for cake and coffee.  The woman brought her a present which was a black scarf and a matching pair of gloves.  When my Mom opened the present she told the woman that she had enough scarves and didn’t need another one.  She also said that she doesn’t even wear the scarves that she has.  My Mom did say that the gloves were nice.  As my sister and I cleared the dishes, my sister said to me, “Mom, tell us how you really feel.”  The woman who gave my Mom the present said later that she would return the present and get her something she could use.  My Mom told her she didn’t need anything and to just return the present; nicely of course.

My Mom usually tells it like it is.  She is brutally honest in her opinions about things.  You don’t have to worry about my Mom talking behind your back because she tells it to your face.  I guess the weight loss part of my journey will be over when my Mom says I look good.  Who needs a scale when you have a Mom like mine?

 

Figuring it Out ---------- Day 92

Figuring it out

Today was my Mom’s birthday so the family planned on meeting at her house for dinner at 1:00 p.m.  This meant that I had some free time this morning.  After Church I drove to the site of the Turkey Trot race next Thursday.  I wanted to check out the area that we would be running around and to find out where to park.   When I got home, I had some breakfast and then went to the grocery store to pick up a few things for Thanksgiving dinner which I am hosting.

On my drive back to my house, I passed the path that I run on.  Seeing all these people on the path made me want to get on the path myself.  It was such a nice sunny day today that I couldn’t wait to go for run.  When I got home, I changed into my running gear and headed towards the path.  Once I reached the path, I started to run.  After running for a few minutes, I had such difficult time breathing.  This didn’t make sense to me.  I have been running a minimum of 2 miles for the last month with the running group and I have never been that out of breath.  I ended up walking more than I wanted during my run but at least I got some running in.

As I was walking home from the path, I remember one of our group leaders saying that if you have a good run think of what you did the days before and do that again.  On the other hand, if you had a bad run, think of what you did the previous days and don’t do that again.  I started thinking of what I had done in the past days that would cause me to have such a breathing problem.  Then it came to me.  It wasn’t what I did but what I didn’t do; I haven’t been drinking enough water.  On Saturday I had some water but not as much as I usually do.  Today, I didn’t even have any water.  My problem was that I was dehydrated.  How stupid was that?  The #1 rule for runners is that you have to be hydrated.  I know that but I apparently forgot that rule. 

At work, I am drinking water constantly throughout the day so when I run after work, I am hydrated.  Even though I didn’t have a good run, I have learned my lesson about water.  I won’t make that mistake again.  This is not the first time I have had an issue because of the lack of water in my system.

A few years ago, I had a physical scheduled the first day of my vacation (I just stayed at home for that vacation).  My appointment was at 9:00 a.m. and I was told not to eat anything because they were going to draw some of my blood for tests.  Since I wasn’t eating anything, I also wasn’t drinking anything (the doctor’s office failed to mention that I should be drinking water).  When the nurse stuck the needle in my vein, no blood came out of my body.  I should say at this point that I have deep veins and finding a good vein in my arm isn’t the easiest thing to do.  After a few more tries, the nurse gave up and had to call the doctor and tell her the problem.  The doctor and the nurse were finally able to get just enough blood out of me for the tests.  I was told that the problem was that since I hadn’t been drinking water, my veins weren’t plump enough to release blood.  The side effect of all those missed needles in my arm and hand was that my one arm was sore the entire week of my vacation.  Since then I have always made sure that I drink enough water before giving blood.  Maybe the lack of water for some people doesn’t affect them as much as it does me.  I have finally figured it out; I need to get enough water in my system or bad things will happen to me

At the running clinic last week, I received a sheet of 101 Running Tips.  At the rate that I am going, I am going to have 101 tips on what not to do when running.

A Tale of Two Cities ---------- Day 91

Charles Dickens wrote a novel called A Tale of Two Cities (1859), set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution.  It follows the lives of several protagonists during these times.  Even if you haven’t read A Tale of Two Cities, the opening line in the book is well known, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times  ....”  Why you ask do I bring up this book?  As the book compares the events occurring in two cities, I feel the need to compare two reality TV shows with the similar subject manner.

One of the TV shows that I am referring to is a popular show on a network station that follows the journey of overweight individuals who live on the “Ranch” for several months with their sole purpose being to lose weight.   The show usually starts out with these individuals being on some kind of team and in later episodes the teams are dissolved. There is also a host for the show. During their time at the Ranch, these individuals learn what food to eat and have the guidance of two trainers to help them get in shape.  At the workout sessions, these trainers usually beat the crap out of the contestants, figuratively speaking.

Not all the people who are on this show make it to the end.  Each week there is a weigh-in and the two people with the lowest percentage of weight loss are up for elimination with one of those individuals being voted out.  The show always depicts some kind of drama between the contestants.  There is at least one challenge for the contestants in each show; usually with some type of prize awarded to the winner.  When there are about 5-6 contestants left, they have the famous makeover show.  On this show the contestants usually have something done to their hair and get clothes that fit their new bodies.

When there are only three people left, the time on the Ranch ends for everyone and all contestants go home to lose more weight on their own.  A couple of months later, all the contestants show up for the finale.  In the finale, the top three contestants weigh-in and the one with the highest percentage of weight loss wins a cash prize.  The other contestants also weigh in and whoever has the highest percentage of those individuals also wins a cash prize but not as much as the other winner.  The bottom line is that the individuals on the show are not there to make friends (some do become friends or even start dating one another after the show) but to have the highest percentage of weight loss without getting voted out before the finale so they win the grand prize.

The other TV show is on a cable network that I stumbled onto by accident one night.  On this show a group of five overweight women, who are good friends, decide that they want to lose weight.  Four of these women wanted to lose 50 lbs and one of these women wanted to lose 35 lbs.  The time frame for this weight loss is 120 days.  I will add at this point that some of those women need to lose more than 50 lbs but that was the goal set for the time period.

While these women are on their weight loss journey, they continued to live in their homes and work at their jobs.  To help them lose weight, they have a trainer who teaches them how to exercise and eat the right foods.  Let me take moment to just say how cute their trainer is.  Besides being cute, this trainer is so nice to the women and offers nothing but encouragement to them. I don’t think this trainer has a mean bone in his body. I have officially decided that he is going to be my TV boyfriend.  The trainer also does their weigh-ins using one of those scales that you see in a doctor’s office.  There is a certain weight loss goal set for each weigh-in and if the women reach that goal, they get a prize.  There is also a psychologist on the show who talks to the women about the emotional issues that they are dealing with in terms of their weight.   There really isn’t a host of the show.  The cute trainer and the psychologist sort of serve as the narrators.

The end challenge for these women was to complete a mini Triathlon.  If all the women completed the Triathlon, they would be awarded a week’s cruise with their families.  Since Friday was the finale of this show, it showed the women all finishing the Triathlon and going on the cruise right after the event.  On the cruise, the women received their makeovers and had their final weigh-in.

Now that you have gotten a synopsis about the premise of these two shows, it is now time for me to compare these shows.  I will refer to them as the network show and the cable show.  First of all, I am talking about Reality shows so they are written to have drama in them to get people to watch them.  The network show at the end of the day has inspired many people to lose weight and change their lives.  The setting of the show is not reality for most of us.  If I had about 4 months to do nothing but focus on losing weight and receive guidance on how to do it, all my weight would be gone by now. That is not how life works.  After watching an episode of the network show (and I have watched many), I never get that warm fuzzy feeling afterwards.  Most of the time, I don’t think that the makeovers look that great on the contestants.

On the cable show, I really enjoy that these friends are encouraging to one another throughout the 120 days and that they live at home.  I wish that I had someone who was going on this journey with me.  This show has such a positive vibe to it.  There is no backstabbing, no taking sides, no getting chastised if you didn’t have a big weight loss number for the weigh-in and nobody is voted out of the group.  After the makeovers, all the women looked beautiful.  They all had different colored dresses on, their hair was styled to flatter their face, they wore nice jewelry and let’s not forget to mention the sexy shoes that they had on.  These women all had some more weight to lose but they reached or almost reached their initial weight loss goal.  The best part of the finale was that the women were so happy to have reached their goal. This was evident by the smiles on their faces when their TV journey had ended.

So here ends the tale of two weight loss Reality shows.  The goal of both of these shows is to provide the tools for the contestants to lose weight.  The difference in these two shows is the type of journey that the contestants went on.  Which journey would like to have been on?