Blossom Time Run 2019

I have lived within 30 minutes (or less) of Chagrin Falls my entire life (well, aside from when I was away at college); and I have never done the Blossom Time Run. I have heard horror stories about how hard this course is and since it's always on Memorial Day weekend and a late start (9AM), I've never really been tempted. I usually have some other excuse like being on vacation or something, but this year, I decided, would be the year to try it.

Living Lean always participates in Blossom Time weekend by spectating for the race (and several members participate in the race) and then being part of the parade as well. I wasn't able to join in on the fun last year because we were at Disney, but I was excited to do it this year. A bunch of us met at Mark's house in the morning and the people doing the race walked to the start in time for the 9 AM start. 

The race is 5.25 miles long and the course is as brutal as everyone says it is. I was hoping the rain might hold off, but about 3 minutes after the race started the rain started......and it didn't stop until the race was done. The rain didn't really bother me because it definitely helped with what could have been a horribly hot and sticky race. I decided to set my watch for 3/30 intervals (so 3 min run, 30 sec walk). I figured since I rarely used my entire minute walk breaks during the 10k last weekend that I'd be OK. There were a couple of times that I actually ran through my walk break because it was a much coveted downhill and I didn't want to waste walking then! I did walk for a little longer than my 30 second walk break a couple of times because the hills were definitely killer by the end. 

It was so fun to run past all the Living Leaners right around the 5 mile mark. I knew I was almost done and they gave me that last boost I needed. I was also quite happy because according to my Garmin I was going to finish this race with an average pace that was UNDER a 12 minute/mile!! I was right. I crossed the finish line at 1:01:23, which amounts to a 11:42 m/m! WHAT?!?! Even though it was raining the weather was better than last week, but it was definitely hillier than last week so the fact that I was that much faster made me so very happy! 

I love this picture that Leslie caught of me. After the race I walked back to Mark's house and met up with the other Living Leaners who had either spectated or raced. I was obviously happy to be done and was proud of myself for what I had accomplished. I was soaked,  but felt really good! 

Later that day I got to be on the float for the parade and had a blast doing that as well. It rained again during the parade, but it didn't take anything away from the experience. I definitely look forward to doing it again next year.....and of course you know I'll be looking for a new PR on that course! 

Goal Weight

When you're on a weight loss journey people like to ask questions. Sometimes the questions are about how long it has taken you to lose weight; sometimes the questions are about how much weight you have lost; sometimes the questions are about how much more you want to lose.

I don't mind questions. Obviously. I blog about my weight loss journey in the hopes that my experiences can help even one person reach their own goals. However, there is one question that I just can't answer.

"What is your GOAL WEIGHT?" 

The answer I usually give is, "I don't know". I'll get more detailed with that answer today. 

For the longest time I would say that I didn't know, because I was still so far away from any number I would even think about using as a "goal weight". I can remember at one time I even thought that perhaps my goal weight would be as high as 175. I've blogged about the fact that perhaps I would be happy in a comfortable size 12 (or even 14). Well, I've met those goals and I can tell you that I'm not yet at my goal weight. 

I still do struggle with wanting to come up with an actual number as my goal weight. I want to believe that I will hit some arbitrary number and all of the sudden I will be perfectly happy with everything about my body. Let's be real. That isn't going to happen. Being happy with how my body looks is not going to happen because of some number. There's a lot more work that needs to be done to get to that point. 

When you think about it, it's really not easy to come up with a "final" goal number. I've thought about using things other than the scale to determine my final goal, but that doesn't really work either. I could say that my final goal is to wear a certain size, but given how women's clothing sizes change that isn't a great tool to use. I've blogged about this before, but just the other day I tried on a pair of shorts at Old Navy; they were a size 10 and I couldn't even get them all the way up. I then came home and tried on a pair of my sisters' shorts that she had given me last year. They were also Old Navy brand and they were a size 8....and they fit! So, trying to reach for a certain size won't really tell me anything about whether or not I'm healthy.

Healthy. That's another interesting concept. What's the definition of healthy? Remember the time I blogged about my numbers back in 2012? That was when my cholesterol and blood pressure numbers were pretty much as healthy as any doctor would want. But I weighed over 200 pounds so everyone would assume I was not healthy when they looked at me. So just saying that I want to be healthy doesn't work for me either because, really, what the heck does that mean? 

Of course there is always the lovely BMI chart to help determine what a reasonable goal weight might be for someone. I may not completely agree with BMI, but I'm starting to believe that it is not a bad tool to use to figure out what might be a reasonable number to strive for. My issue is not getting hung up on that number. I don't want to get sucked back into that not good enough thinking; that if I don't hit that number it means I haven't succeeded. 

OK, so what's my goal then? I stand firm on the I don't know answer. I have been giving myself goals along the way. My first goal was to get below 200. I met that in April 2018. My second goal was to get to 175, which would put me in the overweight category on the BMI chart instead of obese. I hit that goal on May 5th. 

The next number I am going to focus on is 150.6. You're probably thinking that's kind of a weird number, but that number would mean I have lost exactly 100 pounds from my absolute highest weight ever recorded. I am not declaring this as my goal weight, however, because I am not sure that will be a place I can maintain. If you remember, I've talked about the fact that I have not gotten down to 150 pounds since I started documenting my weight. In 2002 I got down to about 152 pounds, but I don't think I was at that weight for that long before I started creeping back up into the 160's. And, if you recall from that same numbers post in 2012, I talked about the fact that my doctor at the time said she thought a good weight range for me would be 145-160. I want to get to 150, but maybe when I hit that I'll want to see if I can get down to 145. Or, maybe I decide I don't get to live my life quite the way I want to at 150 so I let myself get closer to 160. I won't know until I get there. 

So that's it. My next goal is to hit 150.6 and then I will go from there. The fact of the matter is my journey will never hit an end point anyway. When I hit that number I will have to continue doing what I have been doing in order to stay down there. Sure, I'll be able to have a little more freedom with my food, but not much. So my goal weight doesn't really matter because my life is not going to change much from where it is now and where it has been for the last couple years.  

2019 Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon - 10K Race Report

Writing race reports again never gets old. I continue to feel lucky and blessed that I am healthy enough to be back to doing the things that I love. It's kind of appropriate that yesterday was also World IBD Day. I love that I was spending World IBD Day running a 10k instead of sick in my bed or in the hospital fighting a bad flare up of my Crohn's.

On Friday my sister in law and I headed downtown to pick up our packets for the 10k. The picture to the right was kind of funny. My SIL decided to take a picture of terminal tower to send to some of her friends on snapchat. I couldn't tell if she was taking a picture of terminal tower or if she was taking a selfie so I was just kind of standing there waiting for her. She then said, you can be in it; so I did a quick little silly pose. She sent it to her friends and everyone was commenting back with how good I looked. It definitely made me feel great and I decided it was a super cute pic!

Sunday morning we headed downtown around 5:30 AM and we were there in plenty of time. It's funny how things have changed over the years. The race information said you should be heading to your corral by 6 AM (for a 7 AM start). In the past we would have been standing in those corrals for that hour. Yesterday we got there right around 6, but we sat in the car for a little bit; then we went into Tower City to use a regular bathroom; eventually we were heading to our corral and it was probably about 6:45.

It was definitely crowded again. I have to say that the start was a little disappointing as compared to previous years. Usually they will do the National Anthem and even being in the last corral you can hear it. If they did it yesterday I did not hear it. In the past I could also usually hear the starting horn, but not this year. I did see some smoke up at the start line and then we gradually started moving, but it was very anti-climatic.

Last year I was able to get a new 10k PR, but the weather was significantly different and I wasn't really sure where that PR came from! I was surprised that I ran as fast as I did last year so I wasn't really sure if hoping for a PR yesterday was realistic. I told SIL my hopes of getting another PR and told her what time I needed to beat in order to get that PR. She was awesome in helping to push me to get that PR! The fact that I was able to run my fastest 10k in the heat yesterday is absolutely amazing to me. I can't even imagine what I might have been able to do if the weather was more similar to last year.

The heat definitely made it a tough race,  but I was able to push through way easier than I ever have before. I can still remember in 2012 when the weather was pretty similar to yesterday. I was doing the half marathon that year and probably weighed 30+ pounds more than I do now. That race ended up being my 2nd slowest half marathon and I was totally miserable the entire time. I would not describe myself as miserable at all yesterday. Hot? Yes. Tired? Sure. But not miserable.

Determined. Confident. Happy. Those are better words to describe how I was feeling yesterday.

I had my watch set for the 3/1 intervals I have been doing (outside, I've been running with no walk breaks on the treadmill). By the end of the race I think I only used that full minute walk break twice. The first walk break I decided to just run through because it was still very crowded and we were kind of forced to run at a slightly slower pace than I usually run. I decided that since the crowd was helping me to pace slower I could probably maintain that pace for a little longer before needing a walk break. The next walk break I walked and commented that 1 minute is really a long time. Margie and I decided at that point that I wouldn't necessarily use the entire minute walk break next time and I would just walk long enough to get my heart rate down a little and recover my breathing.

Cleveland 10k selfie comparison from 2018 to 2019. 

Throughout the race if we were running downhill and my watch beeped to walk I would ignore it. I would then try to keep running until my next walk break, which I did. There was even one time when we were approaching the horrible hill between miles 4 and 5 when I confused Margie because the incline had started but we were still running (more like shuffling, but not walking). I told her I was trying to run as long as I could because I knew the hill got worse a little farther up and I knew I'd have to walk that part of it. And when we were on that hill I did not see a single person running.

Our watches were obviously a little off from the mile markers so Margie's had already alerted her that we hit mile 5, but I wasn't even able to see the mile 5 marker yet. It was funny because she was pointing out that we had about 15 minutes to finish the last 1.2 in order to meet my goal, but I pointed out that we didn't really know how much farther since our watches were not in line with the official course. It didn't really matter though. I knew we were close and I knew that IF I got the PR it was going to be very close. I knew that I had basically no wiggle room. I couldn't be taking extra walk breaks and I needed to push it on my runs.

I did just that. I ran through several of my walk breaks during that last 1.2 miles. When I could see the finish line I was trying very hard to find that final push inside me. It took a while, but when we were in that very final stretch I was able to kick it in and push to the finish. I was pretty positive when I saw the clock that I had met my goal.

I continue to feel lucky to be healthy enough to do these races. When I read stories like the one about the 22 year old who collapsed yesterday and later died, that feeling of luck becomes even stronger. Yesterday's weather was no joke. The fact that I was not only able to just complete my race, but to do it in my fastest time yet is amazing to me. I don't take any of this for granted.

Not a PR for SIL, but I SO appreciate her pushing me to my PR! 

Official results = 6.2 miles in 1:14:57, that amounts to about a 12:03 m/m. You know what that means? My next 10k goal will be to complete the race with an average pace that's less than a 12 m/m! I do remember that last year I commented that one of the best things was that I felt like I could have kept going. That wasn't the case yesterday, but if we take away that heat who knows what I could have accomplished!

Lifestyle Change

That's the buzz concept, right?

"It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle"

Buckle in for this blog post because there is so much I want to say and I just hope that I'm not all over the place.

When I was looking for images to put in this post I came across this one which came from this site. This article is definitely one of the better ones regarding making a lifestyle change as opposed to dieting, but I still have my own opinions about this whole idea of making a lifestyle change. 

Is there anyone else out there who feels like the pressure of making a "permanent lifestyle change" is overwhelming? Do you feel like when people suggest you make a lifestyle change that means you should be "perfect" all the time and just all of the sudden want to make the healthiest of all choices? No?  That's just me? Because it has taken me years to realize that calling it a lifestyle change did more damage to me than not labeling it as anything. You can look back through my blog posts and I'll say diet, lifestyle change or whatever you want to call this. I stopped trying to label it because the fact of the matter is it's just my journey. 

The article that I linked above broke down the difference between a lifestyle change and a diet. Some of the things that defined a diet in the article were: weight is generally lost quickly over a set period of time, foods are characterized as good or bad, calories are greatly restricted, etc. The things that defined a lifestyle change were: eating healthy, nutritious foods to nourish your body; practicing moderation, not restriction; losing weight at a safe and healthy pace (1-2 pounds per week). 

Here's my problem with this. If it were easy for me to eat healthy, nutritious foods to nourish my body and practice moderation than I wouldn't be here in the first place. And, telling someone like me that my lifestyle should now focus on eating foods that nourish my body; I interpret that as having to only choose nutritious foods and I'm not doing well if I choose foods that aren't as nutritious. Don't get me wrong; I understand that the idea behind a lifestyle change is that you don't have to be perfect. But when someone tells me I have to change my entire lifestyle I see that as an overwhelming change to make. 

This same article had this graphic to depict why dieting is so unsuccessful. 

I don't disagree with this cycle, but let's talk about what happens when you go through the diet cycle, but never give up. What happens is that over time you will find that you have slowly but surely made that "lifestyle change". You'll find that the deprivation feeling isn't as serious or takes longer to surface. You'll find that those cravings become less severe (but, you probably will always have cravings and it's OK). You will also get to a point where it's not so much about "giving in, feeling guilty and starting over"; as it is about taking a break, not feeling any guilt (or trying really hard not to feel any guilt because there's nothing to feel guilty about), but then refocusing on your goals. You may also find that in the process of starting that diet you have made a habit of working out and that continues regardless of what is happening with your food choices. Why does no one talk about the fact that you may have to "diet" in order to figure out what that lifestyle looks like for you? 

Listen; you have to have a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. I don't care if you're eating the most nutritious foods there are; if you eat more calories than you burn you will not lose weight. When I see things that say it's not so much about the calories as it is about the type of food I want to scream. Again, I understand the point that is trying to be made. But, I really feel like the people who try to make those points are not people who have struggled with food in their own lives. Yes; your body will respond to 1000 calories of broccoli differently than it will to 1000 calories of gummy bears, but you can still lose weight if you eat less calories than you burn regardless of where those calories come from. 

Stay with me because I think people are going to disagree with that statement. 

Obviously losing weight is easier when you choose foods that have a lot of nutritional value. The physical aspect of losing weight is easier when you eat 1500 calories worth of fruits, veggies, lean meats, etc. But I think it's important for people to hear that the weight will still come off if you have a day (or a week or a month) where you fill those 1500 calories with less than stellar food choices. Sometimes the only way to teach someone moderation (and, let me tell you, if someone is trying to lose weight chances are they need to be taught moderation and can't just be told to "eat in moderation"), is to track and count your calories regardless of where those calories come from. 

It has taken me years to come to this conclusion and yet I still struggle with all of it. I struggle with wanting to eat for absolutely no reason. I struggle with feeling like what I've done is not good enough because I will periodically have days where all my calories come from crap foods. I struggle with feeling like I "should" have lost more body fat in those 16 weeks. But that's bullshit. Could I have lost more body fat in those 16 weeks? Absolutely. I could have completely restricted my calories the way I did during that last week. I could have made sure to only eat those super healthy, nutritious foods and cut things like carbs and sweets out; but for me that would not be a realistic lifestyle change. 

Even with allowing myself to eat basically whatever I want as long as I keep it within my calorie range; I struggle with wanting to just eat without thinking (which almost always means eating crap food and more calories than I burn). So you know what I do? Sometimes I just let myself have that time. Years ago that meant months of eating that way and gaining back weight. But now it usually means a few days and then I realize there's really no reason for that so I go back to tracking and staying in my calorie range. My hope is that these changes continue to happen. 

Even last year I stopped losing weight between May and the end of the year. But the difference was that I kept doing just enough so that I had only gained about 5 pounds during that time. Not to mention the fact that I broke my wrist in July and didn't let that stop my activity level. My hope is this year I do a little better. That's it. I don't have to be perfect. I don't have to hit my goal weight in 2019. I don't have to lose weight every single month this year in order to feel good. What I have done has resulted in me losing 75 pounds and I am still going. This is my lifestyle change. This is something that I can see myself doing indefinitely. And that is what makes it the right thing for me. So remember, in order to be successful in weight loss you have to find what works for you! 

This is a reminder to myself; but also, if even one person reads this post and something clicks in their brain to help them on their journey I will be happy. And this was a long one so if you're still reading, thanks 😊

#NOEXCUSES LIFESTYLE CHALLENGE RESULTS!

I waited too long to do this post so now I feel like there's so much to say! You know how much I love my comparison photos, so be prepared because this post is going to have a lot of them!

Let's talk first about RESULTS.

From 16 wks with no alcohol to one in each hand

This year my starting stats on January 12th were:
Weight = 203.8
Body Fat % = 38.6%
Chest = 34.5"
Bust = 39"
Waist = 34"
Belly = 38"
Hips = 43.5"
Rt. Leg = 24"
Rt. Arm = 13"

And my stats on May 6th were:
Weight = 176
Body Fat % = 33.7%
Chest = 31 1/2" (-3")
Bust = 36 2/3" (-2 1/3")
Waist = 30" (-4")
Belly = 34" (-4")
Hips = 39 1/2" (-4")
Rt. Leg = 22 2/3 (-1 1/3")
Rt. Arm = 12 1/2" (-1/2")

In 16 weeks I lost 27.8 pounds, 4.9% body fat, and just over 19 inches. Wow.

My goal was to hit 175 pounds on my home scale and 176.5 or less on the Living Lean scale. On Sunday morning my scale was 174.8 (it went up to 175.2 on Monday, but whatever) and seeing as the LL scale was 176 I can officially say I MET MY GOAL! On a side note - I am  officially "only" overweight according to that lovely BMI scale. I may hate that damn measure of "health", but it is kind of exciting to no longer be considered obese when I have spent so many years in that category.

This next picture is not an easy one for me to post since I know that the majority of the people who read this blog know me in real life; but I'm going to post it anyway. Another goal that I had was these jeans. If you recall, I mentioned in this post that if I could zip these jeans up by the end of the 16 week challenge I wouldn't care what the scale said. Not only did the jeans zip up, but they are the jeans that I wore to the awards ceremony. These jeans did not even go all the way up in January. I honestly did not think those jeans would fit my by the end of 16 weeks.

Let's look at some other fun pictures now........

I love this comparison. I took that first picture when I first got that tank top back in February. The next picture was taken on Monday morning after I got back from my workout.

That 2016 pic was taken in March when I had joined an online 30 day challenge. I was exactly 10 pounds down from my absolute highest. The difference between these 2 pictures is 65 pounds. If you look closely at the pictures you can see that those shorts that were so tight in 2016 now have a gap on my thigh. The shirt looks like it's so much longer because it's not nearly as stretched out.

That first picture was the one that was taken at the 8 week awards ceremony last year (so March 2018) when I won the Most Improved award. I remember that when I looked at that picture that year the first thing I thought to myself was, "why am I still so fat". I'm happy to say that I did not think that when I looked at the pictures from this year's awards ceremony.

I gave myself a little time off this past week (a lot actually), but today it is time to get back to work! I can't even believe how close I am to my goal. As I inch closer to my goal it's interesting because I still am not sure what that goal actually is. Stay tuned because that's going to be a whole blog post of its' own.

#noexcuses Week 16!!!!!

IT IS HERE!!!!

Last week's gain was a total fluke considering on Sunday
my weight went right back down and was actually
.2 down from the previous week. Just goes to show that
the scale doesn't always tell the truth! 

WEEK 16

Although it's not actually here because my FINAL weigh in isn't until Monday morning so I still have 2 more days.

These 16 weeks have been pretty amazing. When I set my end of challenge goal, I don't think I really believed that I would actually hit that "A" goal. I'm pretty sure the whole reason why I came up with an "A" goal and a "B" goal was because I didn't really think that "A" goal was going to happen. I am now 2 days away from that final weigh in and am pretty positive that I will hit that "A" goal.

So let's review: my "A" goal was 175 and my "B" goal was 180. Basically the point was that I'd be happy with anything between 175 and 180. My goals are based on my home scale so I usually add about a pound for the Living Lean scale since I have to account for wearing clothes 😏So, if the LL scale reads 176 or below on Monday I will have officially hit my "A" goal. And really, if the scale doesn't show the number I want to see on Monday the world will not actually come to an end. There have been so many NSV's over these last 16 weeks that the number truly doesn't matter quite as much. Of course when the scale does show me what I want to see I will be absolutely ecstatic!

Since it is now May, I also need to update my monthly weigh in calendar. I am happy that I was able to drop another 8.2 pounds during the month of April. It's no 14.6 like I dropped in April last year, but it's not nothing! It's also 4 months in a row of losing weight, which is more than I could say for last year so that's something.

The number on the scale is one thing; but how I've been feeling lately is something else entirely. The things I have been doing in the gym are absolutely amazing me. I have been feeling so lean lately and that is a great feeling.

Last Sunday when I was getting ready to go to the kids' concerts I was feeling very slim so I just had to take a pic. Numbers are great and I am such a numbers person, but these are the things that really matter.

Two more days and this chapter of my journey will come to a close. Obviously that doesn't mean I'm done or I'm stopping. It just means a new chapter starts. And this new chapter will start with a champagne toast at the #noexcuses Lifestyle Challenge awards ceremony on Wednesday!

I will update you all next week with my official 16 week results!