I am a Warrior!!!

Yesterday was the Warrior Dash....

And I did it!!

I finished!

I finished in less than an hour!!

I wasn't even totally wiped out by the experience!!!

Amazingly enough, I was actually somewhere in the back of the middle group of finishers for my wave. I only came in about 5 minutes behind my spouse, and about 3-4 minutes ahead of our friend that ran with us. I really expected both fellas to leave me totally in the dust (or mud). But nope -- I really held my own!

This was a huge facing-my-fear experience for me. All through school, I was the chubby chick who was picked last for teams, the slowest runner, etc. Running was my least favorite physical activity -- ever. So, I went into this experience with two very distinct minds. Logically, I knew that I would finish. After all, I'd been finishing within a decent time in training. Inside, though, some big part of me was convinced that I'd be the fat chick last straggler of the day, making my embarrassed way through the final gauntlet with all these people looking on and smirking/laughing at me.

After it was over, I was sore -- but not in my legs or feet. In my shoulders, across my back. Apparently I had been holding on to my fear and anxiety in a physical way and hadn't even realized it until it was all over. I literally felt like a noodle, and I really was wishing for a hot tub. heheh

Now, though, I am SO glad that I did it, and I think my spouse and a few of our friends that were there in other waves are going to try to hit more of these adventure races around Texas. The idea of a regular 5K doesn't really appeal to me as much, but I loved running through the muck and mud, sliding down hills, climbing over cars and walls, and wrangling my way through and over rope obstacles.

Bring it on!!!

80! Not Obese! and New Hair!

Hey so I guess I should update!

After 3 weeks of inexplicable great numbers on the scale, I'm solidly down over 80 pounds total since the start of 2010. Yay!

This milestone gets me a couple of others.

-- According to the BMI calculation, I am no longer obese -- now I am merely overweight. :D

-- And, I am 2/3 of the way to my goal range - I'm aiming for somewhere between 145 and 150 pounds.

Today I got my hair cut and colored. You can't see how bright the red is in this shot, but I have bright streaks of red in near-black. No more crazy salt-n-pepper hair, woot!

Day after tomorrow is the Warrior Dash. I'm not really sure I'm ready. I know I'll finish, but I don't know if I will manage it in less than an hour. I've been able to get my time down to 40 minutes to cover the same distance (3.2 miles) on the treadmill, but the race is on a horsetrail with 12 obstacles, so I'm sure my time will increase considerably from the treadmill time. I don't have a great pedometer, so I haven't been able to tell how I'm faring when I've taken my running out to outdoor trails. Guess we'll see!

Oh look, I'm on the radar again....

... and other thoughts.

So last night's Freak Homecoming Dance brought home something that I'd noticed every other time I've lost weight, but hadn't noticed yet this go-around. Usually, right around the time I hit onederland, I come back on the radar as far as attention from guys is concerned. I haven't been particularly social, so it hadn't come up too much yet, but last night it definitely did. I showed up, and the attention was *immediate* from a couple of guys I'd dated casually in my long-lost past (who haven't said hardly boo to me in the intervening "fat" years -- not rude to me, I was just invisible). And another guy that I never dated, but knew me back in the late 90s came up to me and was asking me what I'd been up to, why he hadn't seen me around since he moved to Austin, etc. The thing is, he HAS seen me around.... but I didn't register on his radar, so he never realized that we were at the same parties and such for the last couple of years. LOL

I got a little bit of the same sort of stuff at a local monthly social dinner recently. Several guys (who I've seen at these things every few months for the past 3 years) apparently just noticed I exist. It's weird and disconcerting. At least the female contingent of my various social circles is more observant (and less "radar"-oriented, it seems). heheheh

On the flipside, I have been noticing some other interesting phenomena. A post from Lap Band Gal got me to thinking about my attitudes about justifying food, and about how people react to food statements. And about how those attitudes and reactions change as I become less overweight.

I was at a new Chinese place with my spouse and kids a couple of nights ago. Kind of like Pei Wei, but local and with less options. Anyways, there was a very obese couple eating at a table near where the line to order was. They had ordered the lettuce wraps as an appetizer, and I was really impressed with the large portion size (as I was looking to feed all four of us off it). I commented that "Wow, that's a big amount" or something similar, and immediately I could tell that she had interpreted it wrong -- her eyes narrowed and she mumbled something about how it was only chicken and mushrooms and lettuce. She would have probably taken it as intended from the 270# me, but it definitely went awry from the 191# me. Oops. I casually clarified that it was a lot of bang for the buck and proceeded to order one of the same for us, plus my entree, my spouse's, and a kids' entree for them to split. We then proceeded to discuss kids and her grandkids, so I think everything was fine from there, but there was a real moment of ACK on my part. I guess I'm going to have to think about what I say more closely, as I'm so used to being on that side of the fence that I still see myself there --- even if other people don't now.

My camera last night had serious blurry issues, so I didn't get any good body pics. But, there were other cameras and a pro taking pics too, so once those are posted, hopefully there will be one where I can see how I actually looked. I don't have a full head-to-toe mirror here, so I never did get to see the total package that I managed to wrangle for an outfit. ;)

The Halloween Candy Diet?

Um, OK....

So maybe me eating everything in my kids' buckets last weekend that contained chocolate+ (I like chocolate, but it's a weakness only if it's combined with nuts or cookies or something) was a trigger to get the metabolism rolling or something? LOL
And I kept nibbling on the pan de muertos we made too.

2.6 pounds down on Thursday, and another .5-1 gone unofficially since then. What???

And it's not like I had major exercise offsets or anything. A lingering respiratory bug has me doing my runs with more walking than running for the last 2 weeks.

I'll take what the scale says, but I'm very confused!!

Hopefully it will keep on going, though, because I'm going to be hard-pressed to make my Christmas Challenge goal if I hit anymore plateaus.

Tonight is a "Freak Homecoming Dance" that I'll be attending. I'm making my mum today (don't ask, the HUGE and obnoxious homecoming mum is apparently a Texas-only phenomenon), and am trying to figure out how to make myself tall enough that my dress hem won't drag on the ground. Fortunately, in Burner culture, platform combat boots go with *anything*, including ethereal vintage 70s formalwear. ;)

If I can remember to actually USE my camera, I'll get pics. heh

Put it back in!

So it would seem that I need to put at least .25 cc of what I had Dr. Ganta take out back in again.

I've hit something of a plateau, weightloss-wise, and my willpower has been lacking big-time. School got crazy, kids got sick. Then I got sick. My restriction is erratic at best, and much like before my last fill, I can usually take down at least 2 cups before feeling sated. I get stuck every once in a while, but it's usually only with chicken or pork. Everything else goes down fine, and in whatever quantities I choose to eat it. *sigh*

Still, there hasn't been much in the house to eat that's dietarily detrimental in quality (just quantity), until a couple of days ago. Then we took the kids to my spouse's place of employment, where they have trick-or-treating all over the building. Yep, candy. Lots of candy.

Two days later and all the chocolate-related candy goods have disappeared.... and we all know where they went. :(

I'm so glad we do the Sugar Fairy thing around here. So as of this morning, the candy is gone (including last night's haul), and given to someone participating in the Halloween Candy Buyback program. Whew!

I won't be able to go get filled again for a few weeks, though, I think. My copay is $50, and I just don't have the extra right now to do it. I just registered for my spring semester classes, so this month has a double tuition payment whammy. I'll just have to dig a little deeper and find some willpower reserves somewhere. Especially if I intend to make that Christmas Challenge.

C25K is going OK, I guess. Being sick this past week meant my runs were on the weak side, but I did do them, so that's something. :) I don't know how much distance I'm covering on my outdoor terrain runs, but the indoor ones are coming out to about 1.8 miles per 25 minutes. I have to get faster or my butt is going to be lagging way behind at the Warrior Dash in a few weeks. (EEEK!)

I hope everyone has been doing GREAT! I've managed to read blogs every 2-3 days, but I have had NO time to comment. I don't expect I'll have more time any time soon, as my 8-week distance learning class just started and I somehow have to find time to watch 26 hours of online videos and take exams and quizzes relating to them. And keep up with my other classes. hrm.

Yesterday was the last day of our gym membership. I loved that gym, but the Y is less than half the price for a family membership, so we start over there tomorrow!

Speedy post!

Sorry I've been negligent in my posting. Life's getting all crazy and such. I should be back to my normal schedule now that my oldest is back in school. She's in a year-round charter right now and they had a 2 week fall break, plus Columbus Day, which threw everything for a loop as far as my school schedule went. The first Monday was wrangled OK as my kids were visiting my parents, but the other two involved some variation of childcare fail. Next semester I'm taking Tuesday/Thursday classes instead of Monday/Wednesday ones in an effort to hopefully avoid some of the Monday-holiday issues we've had this semester.

My unfill has definitely helped in the pain department, but oddly enough, now I think my band is too loose. I guess this thing really does have some serious fine-tuning needs. On my next appointment, I'll be having Dr. Ganta put back in .25cc, as my portions are still kind of out of whack. I get stuck every once in while, but if I chew and take my time, I can now usually down a couple of cups of food at a sitting again. hrm. :

The scale moved the right direction again last week, and I think it will again this week, though I've been trying to stay off the scale. There's definitely a pattern to my weight loss (and gains), it seems. I should graph it at some point. :)

Today was Week 2, Day 1 of C25K for me. I completely kicked its ass today for some reason. Maybe because I wasn't actually at the "couch" setting, physically, to start, but I'm finding it not too hard to do 3-4 minute runs broken up with 60-90 second walks. I think whenever I officially get to the 4th or 5th week, I'm going to try to start doing it on a trail near my house instead of at the gym, at least once or twice a week. Hopefully by then it will be cooler here, and the terrain running will be better training for the Warrior Dash than treadmill running.

I should be working on my Chem lab right now, but I left my syllabus at home, so I have no idea which lab to start working on. So, it's email, FB, and blog catchup time for a few minutes, woohoo! :D

Hope everyone is doing great!

Wherein I bite off more than I can chew....

Or at least, I'm thinking real hard about it.

My spouse and a couple of other (male) friends are doing this upcoming race at the end of November.

The Warrior Dash is a 6K race full of obstacles, mud, fire, and chaos!

On one hand, it sounds right up my alley.

On the other, I am no longer the 24-year-old Burner chick that ran through magnesium-fueled bonfires and went 4-wheeling through the Hualapai Playa.

Now, I'm a 37-year-old, kind of flabby, overtired mother of two. ;)

It *would* be good impetus to really get crackin' at the gym, both on my running endurance and on my upper body weight training. I definitely would need to work on both, as I'd like to not end up walking more than running. And I need some more upper body strength if I anticipate being able to haul myself over the climbing wall and over the rusted junker cars.

The idea is really intimidating, especially as I don't think I could get any of my female friends to do it with me. The only one I know who would be all over it is due to give birth right around then, so it's definitely not going to be happening for her. *laugh*

But it's also really inspiring. I've been thinking of trying to C25K anyways to do maybe the Thanksgiving Bun Run or somesuch, but this sounds WAY more interesting than your typical 5K. heheh

I'm a little put off by the fact that in all the videos I've watched so far, there has been a real variety in the shapes, ages, and sizes of the male participants. But the women all seem to be in their mid-20s and fit. Now, probably that just reflects the typical predelictions of the videographers, but it would be nice to see some other women participating that don't reflect that demographic.

Hrmmmmm...... I should decide sort of soon, and then see which of my girl friends I can browbeat into accompanying me if I do register. ;)

Also....

Cons : No beer for this banded girl, I'd have to wear contact lenses, I might be doing this by myself

Pros : Good incentive to train, It would probably be a lot of fun, I would get a Really Awesome Furry Horned HAT