Quick Update, big changes!

It’s been a while!  Life is good!  Here are some major changes:

• I am no longer an accountant, auditor or CPA!  I left my job a few weeks ago (because school was starting) and voluntarily suspended my CPA license (so I won’t have to pay for continuing education or annual fees).
• I am officially a Speech-Language Pathology grad student!  I’ve received my clinical assignments and should start seeing client soons. I’ll be doing a school-based placement, an audiology placement, and two multi-disciplinary diagnostics.
• The Richmond Marathon isn’t going to happen 😦  My grad program has ONE mandatory Saturday event, and it happens to be on 11/12/11. I’m pretty bummed, but determined to find another race or 2 to register for. I’m thinking about the Blue-Gray Half in Gettysburg on 10/30/11 and then the Shamrock Marathon on 3/17/11 in Virginia Beach. This means even more time to train, so no excuses!  I’m a little worried about paying for both now that I don’t have a salary, but I worry that if I don’t sign up for a fall race I’ll slack on training.

I hope I’ll have more time to post now – we’ll see!

(Turkey) Hamburger Glop-o

For my bridal shower (almost 2 years ago), my sweet mother made me a book of family recipes.

Last night I decided to try a childhood favorite, Hamburger Glop-o!  (My father named it, haha.) It’s so quick, easy, healthy & colorful. I think we need to make it a regular. The recipe is pretty healthy on it’s own, but I replaced beef with turkey and white rice with brown. It makes 8 1-cup servings.

Ingredients:

• 1.2 pounds ground turkey
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 T chili powder (or more/less to taste)
• 1 15 oz can corn, drained
• 1 28 oz can whole tomatoes, broken apart, with juice
• 1 c chicken broth
• 1 small green pepper, chopped
• 1 1/2 c Minute (Instant) brown rice, uncooked

In a large pan, cook ground turkey just until it loses its pink color. Drain well. Add onion, chili powder, corn, tomatoes, broth and peppers. Continue cooking until mixture just comes to a boil. Add uncooked rice. Stir. Cover and simmer on low for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

 

Nutritional Info (for each 1-cup serving)

• Calories: 225.2
• Total Fat: 6.4 g
• Cholesterol: 50.6 mg
• Sodium: 405.5 mg
• Total Carbs: 26.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.9 g
• Protein: 17.3 g

I enjoyed with a cerveza…

And a salad with goddess dressing.

mmmm!

Here’s yesterday’s foods!

While I’m finally uploading images, here’s how I’ve been tracking things:

OK, off to have a day!  Busy busy today!  Have to clean the house, get an oil change, get started on some of my semester-end projects/papers, and get ready to go out to celebrate my best friend’s birthday!  Have a great weekend!

Reflecting on yesterday

I had a small binge after dinner again yesterday. While it wasn’t that significant calorie-wise, I was eating manically. I really thought I was setting myself up for success…. I had a solid dinner, brushed my teeth, got ready for bed… but still managed to grab for ice cream and chocolate. What I’ve learned for this is that it’s NOT just about deciding not to… I need to actively reflect and recognize when I’m seeking comfort. I need to find other ways to soothe myself. I’ve never tried meditation before, but I’ve always heard wonderful things and would love to give it a try. I’ll try to listen to some podcasts to see what they’re like on my way to class tonight. (I have a 90 minute commute to grad school.)

In more positive news, I went to the gym at lunch yesterday!  I’m fortunate that my workplace is attached to a mall with a nice gym. I did a 15 minute ab class and then 20 minutes on the recumbent bike while reading journal articles for a research paper. I’m still nervous about trying high-impact cardio with my back, but I need to give it a shot soon because my marathon training’s supposed to start in 4 weeks!

Without further ado, here’s my accountability list of yesterday’s foods!  Sorry it’s so tiny – I need to figure out the formatting better.

I’m starting today off with a green monster.  Even though I’m slipping up with sweets at night, I’m feeling good about this week overall!

Regaining some structure

I had a rough weekend fighting food poisoning.  However, as twisted and psychologically unhealthy as this is, it made me a little happy that it resulted in losing 6 pounds. Yes, I understand that this was pretty much entirely due to the fact that I was totally empty and dehydrated, and that I will likely gain it all back as my digestive system returns to normal, but seeing that lower number on the scale lifted my spirits. I hadn’t lost that much weight in 3 months of half-a$$ing Weight Watchers.

This inspired me to start tracking again, and while tracking usually makes me miserable, right now I’m enjoying it. I’m not committing to do this forever, and I plan on stopping once it starts messing with my head, but for now I’m happy about it so I’m going to go with the flow 🙂

I’ve always liked that Brie over at Brie-Fit puts her food tracker online, and I think I’m going to try the same for accountability. As you can see, I had a small binge around dinner time last night. Hopefully knowing that I post this out there will help me prevent another one 🙂

While sometimes it makes me crazy and makes me WANT to binge, tracking can also help me because it makes me realize when a binge isn’t THAT bad. Having one binge that doesn’t even result in a daily surplus (my RMR is 2113) is not going to ruin my week :).

So my current plan is to track everything in SparkPeople and to post it up here in the morning. This will make for a very boring blog, but that’s not necessarily a change, haha.  I also make a weekly deficit & weight tracking spreadsheet and a massive workout calendar that brings me up to my November marathon, but I’ll spare the internet. For now, bwahaha.

Sidelined Sideways

Update!

I have not been following WW 😦 I have been working out more 🙂 But now I’ve hurt my back. I’m nervous about not working out (and being way more sedentary than usual) as I heal, so I am going to focus extra hard on intuitive eating. I just bought Katie’s new ebook on emotional eating, and I am excited to use the tools she suggests 🙂

Cliff’s Notes of what I did to myself: Hurt my back in BodyPump week Thursday, but thought it wasn’t too bad so stuck around for Kickboxing. Had pain on and off for a few days, and then could hardly move on Tuesday. Went to the doctor and she gave me pain killers & muscle relaxers. She says that I had a strain, which is causing spasms, which is causing reactive scoliosis. My back is totally bent now – My upper body is four inches over from my lower body. Here’s a realistic artist’s interpretation:

 

LESSON LEARNED!  If something doesn’t feel right (particularly in your back), take it easy!  And certainly don’t choose that moment to start an intense workout you’ve never tried before!

In conclusion, I am going to take it easy movement wise and work on intuitive eating. I’m still excited about the marathon, and I’m trying to see this detour as an opportunity to focus on my eating and weight loss while I take a break from running. And I may buy stock in the company that makes Icy-hot – that stuff’s amazing!

Hope everyone’s doing well! I miss bloggin and hope to be on much more the coming weeks!

I’m running WHAT?

Hi blog!  Remember me?  I’m Shannon. I used to write you, back when I used to run and eat healthfully.  Here’s a quick recap of my life since August 2010:

• My Dad had a cancerous brain tumor removed. He’s doing very well on the chemo now, but it made for a scary autumn!
• In September I started my graduate program for my dream career: Speech-language Pathology. WOOHOO!
• Working full time and going to school full time is hard!
• I stopped working out.
• I overate.
• I gained 15 pounds. Doh! (I was already about 20 lbs from my highest “healthy” BMI weight)
• I started Weight Watchers in January, but haven’t been faithful to it. In fact, I currently weigh 0.2 lb MORE than when I started 😦

Blah blah, woe is me, I’m so busy. ENOUGH!  I am READY to be healthy again!  On Friday I read an inspirational post by Matt over at No Meat Athlete. One of the main points was that great goals are NOT “attainable” (no matter what the S.M.A.R.T. people say), but rather, great goals seem impossible. Aiming for a goal that you already know you can achieve isn’t going to inspire major change in your life. But if your goal seems impossible, you MUST change to achieve it. And I need to change, so I’ve set a seemingly impossible goal…  Another point that Matt made was that we should think of a goal as a “decision,” not a “goal.”  I have decided. It’s going to happen….

I’m running a marathon!

I have registered for the Richmond Suntrust Marathon this coming November.  You might think I’m crazy, because I can’t run more than 2 miles straight right now. But I have PLENTY of time to train. And if something goes wrong, I could always downgrade to the half marathon (though I don’t want to keep reminding myself of that option!).

My short term plan:

• Buy Jeff Galloway’s book and read it cover to cover.
• Build up a good weekly mileage base.
• Lose some weight. (Sticking with WW thru 3/10 since it’s already paid for.)
• Join the gym near work so I can work out at lunch.

I’ll let you know which training plan I’m following once I decide.  In the mean time I am just SO FREAKING EXCITED about this!

28 by 28

Now that I’ve been 27 for a few weeks, it’s time to make one of my silly lists. Silly lists make me happy 🙂

28 things Shannon might will do before turning 28 (7/19/2011)

Health/Fitness/Food
– Run a PR
– Run another half marathon
– Run a cold weather race (Jingle Bell Run? I’d love to brush off my elf costume)

– Get weight to “healthy” BMI (lose 19 pounds)
– Do 5 real pushups
– Read “Women, Food & God”
– Read “Intuitive Eating”
– Try 1 week of food blogging
– Try 1 week of Intuitive Eating
– Try 1 week of “Clean Eating”
– Try 1 week of Veganism

Finances
– Up my auto savings transfers by $100/month

School
– Maintain a 3.5 GPA
– Take a BIO course (a pre-req required for Speech Pathology certification)

Personal
– Host a dinner party
– Get my wedding dress cleaned
– Find somewhere to donate my wedding dress
– Rejoin a church
– Sign up to be a potential bone marrow donor
– Donate blood
– take my “little sister” horseback riding
– Send thank-you cookies to my grad school rec writers
– Change my name and/or add my husband to ALL accounts
– Leave Operation Beautiful notes somewhere people may need them (clinic, book stores, slimfast cans in Walmart, etc.)

Washington DC (I live next door yet hardly ever visit!)
– Mount Vernon
– Kayaking
– Jazz night at the art museum
– fancy steakhouse

Anyone else obsessed with lists? 🙂

Goodbye Zumba

Dear Zumba,

I have loved you from the moment we met. Well, that’s not true. You made me feel uncoordinated because you are so awesome, sexy and coordinated, while I awkwardly trip over my feet. But we grew on each other. Our lunchtime rendezvous spice up my work day. But this isn’t fair to my husband (or our budget). I just cannot swing $55 a month for the convenience of a gym near work, while still paying $35/month for the gym near home. Especially considering that I have a FREE gym in my apartment building.

It’s true that I may from time to time be able to get off work in time to catch you at the cheaper gym near my house, but that seems unlikely now that grad school draws near. Saying goodbye to you is killing me. (Cue “The Hardest Thing” by 98 degrees)  Please know that I will always remember you! My dance skills will never be the same.

Love, Shannon

Reality Check

I am not a dummy. I know that weight loss is calories in, calories out. I know what the formulas say my BMR is (1,719). My heart rate monitor and Garmin tell me how many calories I burn during exercise (around 2,000 per week). I know how to record my food and calories in SparkPeople.

However, 95% of the time I am very resistant to calorie counting. I hate it. It is burdensome and makes me sad. It seems to trigger binges for me. I haven’t counted calories in months, and I’m currently binge-free for 89 days – I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

But calories DO matter! Whether I count them or not, the calories I consume are what’s causing my body to hold onto this fat. (I think I have the exercise part of the equation down, and I have no trouble recording the calories spent exercising – I do it everyday!) I need to eat less calories. Does that mean I need to record my food everyday? It would be a HUGE help, but I don’t want to spark my crazy. So what can I do? I think I am going to try to count calories one day a week, just to get a general idea of what I’m consuming. I want to see how much ice cream I’m eating after dinner every night.

I started today, and so far, between the work candy bowl and my grabbing a handful of salted, oil roasted cashews, I have consumed 288 extra unplanned calories. I thought “no big deal.” I probably eat something like that everyday. But then I decided to calculate out the result of doing that everyday. Over a year, consuming an additional 288 calories per day would result in 105,120 unwanted calories. Yowzers! Then the scary part – divide that by 3,500 calories per pound, and it equals 30 pounds, almost on the nose. I just so happen to be approximately 30 pounds overweight.

Maybe this sounds silly to people who have thought about it before, but this shocked me! 288 calories doesn’t seem like a lot. Before I calculated it out, I thought “that’s not so bad, I could do that everyday.” But now I know. And I’m going to stay away from that candy bowl for the rest of the day.

On the brighter side, my workout schedule has me burning 2,000 calories/week, which is 104,000 per year, which is just under 30 pounds

Our Anniversary & a new kind of race for me!

My husband and I have been brainstorming about how to celebrate our upcoming first anniversary (8/22).

We were considering either a weekend in NYC to see a show (American Idiot?), or a weekend in Richmond to walk around the cuteness and visit our alma matter (U of R), where we met.  This morning he emailed me with a GENIUS idea!  The night before our anniversary, there’s a big bike race in Richmond!  I was a but hesitant about the idea because:

• I was hoping to dress up and go to a schmancy dinner
• I am a pretty awful bike rider, and
• Richmond is  still pretty hot at 8pm in August

But the more I think about it, the more excited I am. Since we won’t be able to go out to a normal anniversary dinner, I was thinking we could do brunch on Sunday (our actual anniversary). Richmond has a beautiful, historic hotel (The Jefferson) which happens to be famous for its brunch. I was always sad that I didn’t get to go to my school’s “ring dance” and stay over for brunch, per my college’s tradition (I was studying abroad at the time). Now I can make it up to celebrate with my wonderful husband.

Also, I love the idea of celebrating our anniversary by doing something active. It would be a great tradition! Hopefully we can find a race, or just something really cool to do, every year 🙂

As I said, I am a pretty weak bike rider, so I already started prepping at lunch today by subbing my usual treadmill run with a spin class . It whopped my butt!  My average heart rate was 166, whereas it’s normally around 155 on a run. I’ll be shocked if I can sit or stand tomorrow.

My plan to train for this race is to go for a nice long ride with the husband this weekend to see if I’m up for the longer distance (17 miles vs. the 8 mile option), and then incorporate spin class into my “active rest days” and try to get a long ride in each weekend. I’ve edited my workout plan to reflect that – I hope I can keep with with my running and strength work! I will, however, be replacing my planned yoga sessions with bike rides. I’ll try to squeeze in some yoga when I can, but I’m not superwoman!

I can’t believe I’m really training for a bike race! I flirted with the idea of a tri, but I backed out because I really don’t enjoy swimming (I panic with my face in the water). But now I might be will be a biker! I feel like Caitlin, who’s a huge inspiration to me.

Have a great weekend!  I’ll let you know how Sunday’s long ride goes!