I pity the fool challenge

Well.....here we are at the end of the Love Bites Challenge.   That was a seven week challenge that began at Christmas.   I can happily say that I have lost during the Love Bites Challenge.    I weighed in at 231.8   A whole whopping 2.2 pounds lost.    Hey, it's better than none!   So I was about 11.8 pounds shy of reaching my goal.    I refuse to look at this last challenge as a failure!  A failure would have been if I had GAINED weight.  (and let me tell you....I don't know how I didn't at some points!)

So up next?   The "I ain't no fool"  challenge.   Yes, I struggle using the word ain't.  It's never been a vocabulary word that I found acceptable.  "Ain't ain't a word and I ain't gonna use it!"   The other week I lightly called this next challenge the Foolish Fat Against Fat challenge.     That was just a mouthful and I didn't like it.   Maybe I should make it the "I Pity The Fool"    (if your old enough to remember the TV show A-Team, you will totally get the reference!).    Hmmm...that could be more fun....

Sooooo  "I Pity the Fool"  challenge.   Starts this week....runs the seven weeks until the weigh in before April Fools!  (yeah, makes sense now why I have the fools thing in there doesn't it!).   7 weeks.....14 pounds!   That will put me at 217.8 pounds.  Totally doable!    (hmmm...and that said...if I can make it to 217.8 by April Fools.....the next 'holiday' would be memorial day...and I think that is about 9 weeks after Aprils fools.....9 x 2 is 18 pounds......could I really be at 200 pounds by memorial day????   Holy cow, YES!   My word...and then i would simply be 20 pounds from my lowest ever adult weight!!!!).

No fiddling around.  This is it!  My blinders are on....this just got real!   I am eating lunch out with a friend today....and we are eating Chinese.  (Remember the other day I turned down Chinese food...I knew that Terri and I were going out to eat somewhere today.....so when I crossed off my order, I almost immediately texted her to suggest Chinese......and I'm STILL calling it a victory!)  But I will pound the water to counter act the effects of the delicious Chinese food and I will move on with wise choices this evening....can we say lots of fruits and veggies for me tonight!!!!

Trust your gear

Well, what do I say?    January was a trial run?????

I had grand plans for my Love Bites self challenge has not gone as planned.  Not at all.   In fairness, I haven't weighed myself since last Wednesday, but I can honestly say that I have NOT eaten right.  Ohhhhh  some days were not THAT bad.  Some days were positively horrible with french fries, tator tots, and all sorts of other fattening (but sadly tasty) foods.  Oh and there may have been a donut or two involved in the mix.  Yeah, I just fell off the rails!   

I have a week and two days until the Love Bites challenge is over.   My goal at this point is to try to hang onto the weight that I was at the end of the Saving Christmas Challenge.  My weight last week was right in that range...so hopefully it will be a simple maintain.  

What does that mean for me?  

I'm already gearing up for the Foolish Fat Against Fat challenge.    On February 10th, the last weigh in before Valentines day will start this next challenge.  7 weeks until April Fools.  The Triple F challenge.  I blew this last challenge but I'm soooo planning on rocking this one!  7 pounds...14 pounds is what I'm thinking!!!!

I had a busy and fun weekend.  I sadly had to work on Saturday morning, but was treated to a gorgeous sky on the way to work!

Jason and I spent some time in Old Town Winchester (Virginia) this weekend.

We did some hiking at the Third Winchester Battlefield Park.   That was interesting as in some areas we were walking on slick ever shifting slush and at at other points we were walking in 1-2 feet of snow.  It was definitely a workout!!!!  

It is also crazy to be hiking in 1-2 feet of snow and be stripping off clothes because you are hot.....I started the hike with a tee shirt, sweatshirt and a light jacket.  By the first mile or so I had taken off the jacket...and by the end of the hike I was down to the tee shirt.  Nope, definitely wasn't going to let myself get sweaty!   That is miserable in cooler weather!!!!   And yes, I was more successful than a few weeks ago when we had been out hiking  and it was either REALLY cold or just cool.  No worries....as soon as I got back to the car, I popped my sweatshirt back on to avoid getting chilled as my body temperature adjusted back to normal. I will also say that I gave my newest pair of hiking boots an amazing test and they passed with flying colors.  What test was that?  Well, I've had them out a few times as we have been hiking...and they have been through some muddy areas and some water puddles.   But that was more short periods of being dipped into wetness.  We hiked a few miles (my tracker showed about 4 miles) and for 90% of that time, my boots  were totally encased in snow.  My feet were dry and toasty the whole time!  (shows the beauty of good boots and wool socks!).  My pants.....well, I was wearing jeans which are notoriously horrible for hiking and they were a flared leg....and long.  They were wet at the bottom almost immediately and they just wicked the moisture upward the whole hike so that even though I had never been in snow up to my thighs, the jeans were wet above the knees.  We laughed that if we had hiked longer that they would have been wet the whole way to my waist!!!   (Yup, just add the parking lot at the trailhead for the Third Winchester as ANOTHER place that I've changed my clothes in a relatively public place...hahaha)  

We slowly made our way back home and ended up stopping at a few places just killing time and being together for longer!  

It was a good weekend.....and the icing on the cake?  We were active and it felt GOOD to get outside in the sunshine and surprising warmth!

It sure does bite!!!

Love Bites...Not going so well at this moment.  Ohhh...all is well in love and friendship.  Yes, things with Jason are going well.  (Yeah, the guy I finally kinda sorta alluded to for a few posts in November and December and then revealed in my 10 year blogiversary post )  Ok, things are going REALLY well.  I'm just gonna say it...it's hard to admit because I'm so afraid of getting hurt again.  But I will admit it...I like this guy.....and as crazy as it seems to me sometimes.....he likes me!  Seems like a win win!   

No, Love Bites was referring to that Valentines day Challenge that I created for myself.   Last week was eh with eating.  I was over my budget on Monday by a ton, spot on on Tuesday and Thursday , a few hundred calories  over on Wednesday and Friday.   And then it went really bad.  It started on Saturday morning when I left for work HUNGRY!  Why yes, I stopped at Burger King for a drink and caved and got food.  Why?   I don't really like fast food to begin with!  Poor planning.   The weekend just followed that trend.  Ok, in fairness Sunday wasn't that bad.   Monday however was......we got a late start and ended up snacking in the car for lunch while we toured the Gettysburg Battlefield.  I actually did pretty well with that.  I picked up some cheddar cheese and ate a Kind Bar at a 7-Eleven.  Not a bad lunch......

Maybe the Slurpie wasn't that great!  (although not that bad in calories!) But in fairness I drank well over my recommended amount of water for the day even without the Slurpie!  (Wild Cherry flavor of course....Jason had a lime something or other flavor...which wasn't bad, just no comparison to the good old fashioned cherry!)

It was dinner that messed me up.  I was hungry and I was on my way home and I opted for more junk.   Deep fried cheese (so yummy...but can I say BAD for me!)  and a pepperoni sub (wayyyyyyy too salty).   I caved and got a donut also.   Yeah, a donut.  Really?   My mouth was dried out from the super salty sub so when I was home I added on a Chocolate Eclair Ice cream bar thingy.     Ok, so poor planning, because I KNOW that my slurpie inspired lunch had left me hungrier than usual so I binged for my dinner.  

NOT how I am going to reach my goals.  Not gonna reach them that way at all.  I recognize it and I know that the only way for me to reach these goals means I have to PLAN.  I have to think.  I have to be cognizant.  I have to want it badly enough to sit back and say "NO" to the donut! 

The weekend was good.  We got to relax.  We got to hang out together.  And saw some pretty cool things.

This is a monument at the Gettysburg Battlefield that we read about.  It is inspired by a nest of baby birds that got knocked out of a tree during the heat of the battle.  A soldier actually stopped and saved the birds during that battle.  Neat story....cool monument.

And of course beautiful scenery all day....even though it was bitter cold!!!!

Good or Bad

This morning I decided that I was going to head out for a run.  Yup.....It was time to bite the bullet and face the running monster.  I was't sure how it was going to go, simply because of two HUGE reasons.  Number one, I have not run in probably a month.   But secondly and more importantly, my ankle that I hurt back in December has been 'mostly' better.  Yeah, I still get twinges of pain but for the most part that is what it is.....twinges.  I know that when I hurt my ankle back in April, that the twinges were there for quite some time....and I ran on that ankle just fine after a few weeks of no running.

It was a Saturday that I didn't have to work so I was able to leisurely get up and head out the door. I checked the weather and got the report that there was only a very slight chance of rain for my projected run time .  I looked out the window to make a visual confirmation of the weather report. (Hey, we all know how accurate the weather report is sometimes right???)  It was wet outside, but not raining.  So I garbed myself up in my warm running clothes and I headed out!  I was planning to do a simple 2 to 2.5 mile loop.

I was probably less than a half mile into my run whn I realized that I had made an error in judgement.   I was dressed WAY too warm.  Oops.  Not sweaty warm but just warmer than I prefer.  Not a biggie.  I trucked on.

For the first mile, my ankle was FANTASTIC!  It was just like normal....no pain an honestly no thought about it!   YIPPEE

At about the mile mark the ankle wasn't bothering me per say.  However, I was aware that I had an ankle.  (Yes, this sounds crazy, but seriously....that's the best way to describe it  When my body is working properly, you don't even pay attention to the certain body parts and thus it's almost like you don't have them..but then you become 'aware' of a body part.....almost like a precursor to pain  ha ha ha).   I wasn't too worried.  Afterall, my ankle hasn't been up to snuff lately!     I kept going.

Might I break from the regularly scheduled ankle report to say that at this time I was running/jogging and hadn't stopped for a breather at all!!!  Go me!

It wasn't until about the 1.75 mile mark in my run that the ankle twinges really started to kick in.  Still not really anything horrible...just there.  Maybe a slight pain, nothing searing.  Nothing too concerning.

So of course, being me....I did what I always do in such situations.   I kept running.   To be fair, I DID think about walking the rest of the way home...but remember, I hadn't stopped running at all and I wanted to run the whole way!   It wasn't that far...and I made it just fine.

So good that I was able to run the whole thing (mind you...it was VERY slow)  but bad that my foot is feeling it!

It wasn't until I actually got inside, relaxed a bit and moved on with my day that I realized that 'OUCH'  my foot hurts!  

Ohhhh, and I picked up a really weird hot spot/blister on the top of the second toe on my foot.  Go figure.

So my plan????   Tape up my foot. (Yeah, 'J' and I may head out to walk/hike for a bit today.) Band-aid up my blister.  And move on!   When will I run again?   Probably Monday or Tuesday!  (barring any real set back with my foot!)  I'm BAAAAAAACK.

Last night I was hungry and found myself literally gorging on food.  SOOO not good.  I was tempted to ignore putting my dinner into myfitnesspal  but this morning decided to face the music, be it good or bad.  Surprisingly, my calorie count is RIGHT IN LINE with where it needed to be.  Go figure!   And even better? (And probably because I was pounding water last night) The scales were very kind to me this morning.  If I can maintain today's weight (and lost a half pound by Wednesday) I will be right on track for meeting my little Valentines Day Challenge.  (Love Bites....14/15 pounds in 7 weeks)   Woo hooo!   

And just for a good laugh today........  (and in case the link breaks down....  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGojEyYBmwc  )     We can all make speculations about what type of awkward runner I am!