12-Week Sprint to the Finish: Week 2
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![12-Week Sprint 2[10]](https://weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/12-Week-Sprint-210-248x300.jpg)
Well, we’ve got our first official week of Sprint to the Finish behind us. I’m excited to have many of you joining me for the journey! As I’ve gotten healthier and more fit, I’ve realized that I have a strong desire to ignite in others a passion for health and fitness, so I love that so many of you have committed to dedicating time during the next 12 weeks to better health and fitness.
I even had an opportunity this past week to share my story on the blog, Successful Homeschooling, along with some tips for moms just starting out toward a healthier lifestyle. I hope you’ll take a moment to read the post and leave me some comments over there.
So, how did you do on your goals last week? I confess, I did something I rarely do: I weighed nearly every day last week. Yes, I was stalking the scale. My official weigh-in is tomorrow morning, but it’s looking promising.
I feel like I did great on my goals last week. I ran over 12 miles, with a fantastic 5 mile long run on Sunday. The weather was not miserably hot and I had a pace that I was proud of. I go to a 6 mile long run next week. I also stuck with the Week 2 strength-training plan that I’m using and did some ab work and worked on learning to do a pull-up.
I didn’t spend as much time reading Reshaping It All as I’d planned because I had another book that I had to finish for a review, but I hope to spend more time reading it and getting inspired this week.
Thanks to My Fitness Pal, I was very consistent logging my food and I think I really stayed on track, calorie-wise for the most part. I’ll give you my food log for last week at the end. My goals for this week are:
Mental. Continue reading Reshaping It All.
Physical. Continue the first four-week portion of the strength-training plan, ab work, and working on pull-ups. I also want to make sure that I’m remaining active during the day and not having the attitude that, since I worked out, I can sit around all day, as tempting as that sometimes is.
Nutritional. Continue logging everything I eat with My Fitness Pal. That played a huge role in cutting down on excess calories for me last week.
What are your goals for the upcoming week? Did you meet your goals last week?
Okay, for those who are interested, here is my food log for last week:
5/29/11
Brunch: Ham, turkey, roast, Swiss on Sarah Lee wheat w/light mayo and mustard, pita chips and hummus, sweet tea
Dinner: Chicken salad sandwich, Doritos
Snack: McD’s sweet tea, fruit salad w/yogurt and granola
5/30/11
Breakfast: Flax cereal w/strawberries and skim milk
Lunch: grilled chicken salad w/sweet tea
Dinner: turkey hot dog, hamburger, chips, sweet tea, banana pudding
5/31/11
Breakfast: fruit salad w/yogurt and granola
Lunch: ham/turkey/roast/Swiss sandwich w/pita chips, hummus, sweet tea
Dinner: Pineapple chicken, grilled pineapple, roasted squash/mushrooms/onions, steamed green beans, crunchy almond salad, sweet tea
6/01/11
Breakfast: Flax cereal w/strawberries and skim milk
Lunch: Turkey burger w/grilled onions and red peppers, avocado, pita chips w/hummus, sweat tea, 1/2 cup fresh pineapple
Dinner: Taco casserole w/tortilla chips and sour cream, sweet tea
Snack: Fiber Plus bar
6/02/11
Breakfast: Fruit salad w/vanilla yogurt and granola
Lunch: Turkey/Ham/Roast/Swiss on whole wheat w/light mayo and mustard, pita chips w/hummus, sweet tea
Dinner: Grilled chicken, corn-on-the cob, salad w/Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, pepperoncini, and Kraft Classic Caesar dressing, Texas toast, Coke, 1/2 slice birthday cake
Snack: orange
6/03/11
Breakfast: Flax cereal w/blueberries and skim milk
Lunch: Chicken quesadilla w/sour cream, black beans, sweet tea
Dinner: 2 turkey hot dogs (40 calories and 0.5 gram of fat vs. 120 calories and 12 grams of fat for a regular hot dog – very worth the substitution and they taste good), 1 oz. BBQ chips, baked beans, sweet tea
Snack: birthday cake
6/04/11
Brunch: 3 buttermilk pancakes, butter, syrup, sausage biscuit, hash browns
Dinner: Wendy’s new berry-almond salad (yum!) w/fat-free raspberry vinaigrette, sweet tea
Snack: popcorn
Overall, I’m very pleased with how this week went as relates to my fitness goals. No matter what the scale says tomorrow, I feel like I’ve given it a good effort this week. I hope you’re feeling the same.
Do or do not. There is no try.
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
Great post on the other site – I just read it and it was like you read my mind. I just said to myself yesterday "It doesn't matter, I can't ever lose weight anyway" and my husband, due to his new job, has lost 10 pounts . . I point out to him that I've gained ever pound he's lost and it is depressing. No one can fix me but me and I really need to stop making excuses!
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I read something on another blog yesterday that I thought about sharing here — and I may yet. It concluded with "I didn't say it was going to be easy. I said it was going to be worth it." That is the absolute truth about weight-loss.
Right here with you! Awesome job on the great 5 mile run! I notice you have a chicken quesadilla on your food log, but I see no cheese. How do you get it to not slop off all over the place without cheese?
Here's my week's post: https://mykidsmydietmylife.blogspot.com/2011/06/sprint-to-finish-week-2.html
Good job on your goals and such for last week! I feel as though I did pretty well too. I've been trying to get used to logging my foods on MFP also, and it is getting faster as I do it more. I love how it tracks the calories throughout the day for you. I am feeling as though my daily calorie amount is really hard to achieve, and I've been having to rethink a lot of food choices that I'd been making lately. But that's kind of the point! I also felt good when I had exercised for 45 minutes this morning and it took those calories burned into consideration with my daily calorie allotment. I did have a day over the weekend when I knew I was already in a not-so-great place as far as calories consumed by the middle of the afternoon and I knew I was going to go over my daily calories so I "decided" to go get an iced coffee from Starbucks anyway. It was with nonfat milk and sugar free syrup but still something I didn't need and should have done without. But I kind of was having a "I'm already having a tough day calorie-wise … what the heck" moment. Need to let the MFP calorie counter help me succeed not talk me into making things worse!
My goals this week are going to be similar to last week: 1) Log food into MFP daily and try to stay within calories 2) Exercise daily on the weekdays (and if I miss a day, make up for it on the weekend) 3) Work on finding interesting, creative ways to meet calorie allotment without feeling hungry (I'm actually struggling with feeling hungry during the day which I'm not used to since I usually battle cravings or boredom/stress eating rather than hunger. Any thoughts about that?) 4) Wait to weigh in until Friday morning.
Oh, it had cheese — exactly one ounce of cheddar. I measured it. 😉
Yeah, I went over my calories on Saturday, but I knew I would. That's my splurge day and we always have a big breakfast with bacon and hash browns and such, BUT because of MFP, I tried to compensate by having a lower-calorie supper. I feel sure that I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't been tracking my calories.
I've had some hunger issues this week, too. Mostly near bedtime, though. I had the same problem when I first started counting my calories with my body bugg way back when. My body finally adjusted to the reduced calorie intake.
I'm not suggesting that you starve yourself because if you're not taking in enough calories, your body will go into "starvation mode" to conserve energy, which is counter-productive to losing weight. However, I always remember something that I read in a weight-loss book once upon a time: hunger can be a sign that your body is tapping into its fat reserves. If I know that I've taken in a sufficient amount of calories, I will ignore those hunger pangs if they're late at night or getting close to another meal because I know that I don't really need the calories and my body will adjust.
I am trying to remember that I've decreased my calories and increased my activity level in the last two weeks and my body probably is reacting to that (and in a good way I hope) and will adjust and not "feel hungry" so much. I also realized that in addition to my exercise in the mornings, I've been spending around 90 minutes each evening in the swimming pool with my 4 year old several evenings a week while my other kids are at swim practice. I'm paddling around holding him (he doesn't swim yet) and lifting him out of the pool to jump to me and moving constantly when I'm just watching him on the steps. Probably burning a ton more calories, I hope. Thanks for your thoughts on the subject!
Swimming will do it. That always makes me hungry.
I am pleased with my results from last week. I didn't think you wanted it all in a comment, so I started blogging about it. I'm only logging food at the moment, but I'll probably start into other things as well. Just need to get in the groove.
https://formerlyfrowzy.blogspot.com/
These are things I've recognized too, Christine. And now I find that I'm AWARE of how much things "cost" I'm less likely to splurge. That awareness is just so vital. A few weeks ago we were … somewhere … Chili's maybe? … anyway, I wanted a burger SO BAD. And I looked at the calorie content, and I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't. So I got something within my 500 calorie range, and it was great. I didn't miss that burger at all.
I love reading comments like that! I think that's a huge revelation — realizing that we can have something if we want it, but it's just not worth it — then, realizing that we didn't miss the unhealthy thing at all.
We ate at Chili's for my birthday last night. I had one kid who was disappointed that we didn't order chips and salsa, but she got over it. I knew what I was having before I walked in the door — the kid's portion grilled chicken, corn-on-the-cob with no butter (it was delicious — didn't need the butter at all), and a side of black beans (yum! I could eat a vat of them). It was 400 calories and delicious.
Midway through the meal, I realized that I wasn't jealous of everybody else's hot wings and honey chipotle chicken at all. Really. I started to have a bite of Brian's chicken and I realized that I really didn't even want it.
I did order my chocolate chip paradise pie for dessert — with 5 spoons. I ate five or six bites and loved every taste, but that was plenty. It was about 200-250 calories, but I'd planned for it and still came in under my calorie count for the day.