April 30

It's weigh-in day. I haven't lost a whole lot. I'm at 128.9. Then again I haven't gained anything either. It will be a little easier this week as I am not going to be eating out very much. I have a better grasp on what is high points and what is low. I love how the Weight Watchers website has so many recipes. We've been using them a lot for meal planning. A lot are gluten free as well.

This afternoon Trena and I ran at Minto Brown. We ran four miles and it was a great run! I felt really good! I am a lone runner, but it was great having someone to talk to. It really made the time fly. I am hoping she will run five with me next weekend, but she might do that 12K on Saturday instead. I am not doing it. As much as I would like to, my mileage is not there yet. We do have some things going on next weekend which would make it too crazy.

I can't believe how sore I was from Group Power on Wednesday. I am finally feeling somewhat normal again, but still have some soreness in my thighs and biceps. I hope I can get there next week in the mornings because our evenings are crazy again next week. Lots of meetings. Not just for Rob, but me as well.

April 29

My weight this morning was 128.9

I got up early this morning. Yay! Two days in a row. Kara was awake when I got home, but not when I left. We're trying to push her to 7 AM. She's gotten up at 7 or shortly thereafter for the past couple mornings. I did get her up at 6:45 AM when I got home. I am not going to feed during the night anymore because she doesn't need it. Eventually she'll be sleeping in a little later. I feel so much better now that I am getting up into the morning. I feel MORE energized and I am so happy to see the kids in the morning.

I swam this morning for forty minutes--ten minutes of legs, five minutes of rotations, and then twenty of laps with the kick board and I tried without kickboard. Here are my observations: 1) I am never self conscious when I run. It comes very naturally to me. I've had little instruction beyond reading a few books and talking to other runners. I am, however, self conscious when I swim. Especially when I am surrounded by seasoned swimmers who go fast and obviously know what they are doing. I feel like everyone is watching me even if they aren't. 2) I am still awkward in the water. 3) Swimming is exhausting. Usually after I run I am tired, but I feel pretty good. After I swam today, I felt fatigued and almost sleepy. 4) When I run I can "tune out" or "get in the zone" and think about things. When I swim, I am always concentrating on form which I am not always doing right. It is more mentally exhausting. I still want to continue to swim on or two days a week. I am not trying to be a triathlete. It's just a great form of cross training I want to continue to do.

My body is SO sore today. I think from Group Power yesterday. Maybe the extra running three days in a row. Tomorrow I am going to run four miles with Trena. Then I may take Saturday off and run Sunday instead. I am hoping to the 5K in Keizer on May 22nd.

April 27 & 28

Yesterday was one of those crazy days when Rob has to work from 8:00 AM - 9:00 PM with a hour for lunch and a hour for supper. I also had the preschool kids over so running during Rob's lunch did not work. I tried to do yoga on the "On Demand" and it was OK. I'm not very motivated when I am in my own house. Part of the appeal of exercise is getting out of the house. It also did not help when Hailey kept jumping on me, but I know she was just trying to goof around and be funny. She was trying to do the yoga poses as well. I also did fifteen minutes of core workout. It was better than doing nothing. Again I didn't really like exercising at home and I don't really like exercise videos.



Today I went to the 5:15 AM Group Power! Yay! Kara is sleeping through the WHOLE night. I am going to keep trying it. I like the early morning crowd. They are very similar to the 7:00 PM crowd. I felt so much stronger and like I have way more strength in the morning. I need the alone time before I get up and chase kids all day. Even though I haven't gone in ten days, I did all my normal weights. I had no problems at all. It was a great workout!



My weight was 129...no change. Part of that is probably because of the extra calories I indulged on Monday night and at the conference. I did much better yesterday. I'm not real excited about the pancake breakfast on Saturday and then the Christian School Auction meal that evening. Saturday is going to be a high fat day and I am going to have be very dilligent with smaller portions.

April 26

I ran today in the dreadful Oregon cold, rainy weather that I am getting extremely sick of. I ran to the Shell Station on Sunnyside and back. I did not feel as strong as yesterday, but still completed it and felt OK. I fully blame the weather.

In terms of sticking to this diet, I have done very, very well. Until tonight we went to Red Lobster and my mom watched the kids. Rob and I have hardly been out alon since Kara has been born...only a handful of times. I had to splurge a little. Tonight...not so good with the points. I am feeling a bit guilty. If I would have done better on Friday, it wouldn't be have been as much of an issue. I am learning so much about eating and I have much more to learn! Maybe I'll do better next week.

April 25

I ran about 1.75 miles this afternoon. I ran my route from Hrubetz to Liberty to Boone to Lone Oak back to Hrubetz. I was suprised I was sore from my run last night. I started off feeling stiff again and did not feel good until five minutes into it. I probably could have longer, but I didn't want to overdue it.

If I run the Portland Marathon in the fall I have to start training on June 6th. I want to follow the Hal Higdon plan. It's a little different from the training plan I did when I ran Portland. There's only one 20 mile run and when I trained for Portland I did three. It is set up a little bit differently with more cross training. He says the best cross training is swimming, cycling or nordic walking. I also have to be up to six miles by then and running about fifteen miles weekly slowly increasing it. I hope to run four or five this weekend. Maybe Trena will run with me and hopefully the weather will not be crummy.

I also am doing better again with the points today. My mom made a low fat, gluten free lunch that was very tastey. It is so much easier being on this diet when you're at home. I am hoping I can stick with it when I go to Wisconsin in a couple of weeks even though we'll probably hit the fast food circuit again. I am happy to say our vegetable drawer is getting much more use now and I am eating more fresh fruit too.

Running recap April 19 - 24

I don't know my weight. Let's just say we need to buy a scale. I can't get over to the gym today to weigh myself.

On Monday I swam 30 minutes. I did legs for 15 minutes, rotation for 10 minutes and did actual laps using the kick board for form for 5 minutes. I am really getting the hang of it. I am so excited. It is TONS easier than when I tried to swim laps when we lived in Gary. That lesson with Kim helped so much.

On Tuesday my mom came and I was hoping to get out and run before we left for the conference in the afternoon. Did not happen. Too much to do. My mom helps me so much while she's here. She did practically six loads of laundry. I don't feel right in saying, "Here watch all three kids for an hour so I can go to the gym" when she is doing above and beyond already. It was also very hard sticking to the points on Tuesday and the duration of the conference. I started out pretty good. I would give myself a C- overall. It's not that I was tempted by a lot of sweets and I drank zero sugar pop. I have not any sugar pop in over a month now. It's more like only eating restaurant food and not having many choices. Leaving the conference I am given a box lunch. Almost all the things in it are a lot of points. I want to eat it because I know I am not going to eat again for a couple of hours. It's all I have to eat at the moment. It really stinks!

Exercise also stunk. There was a very scary exercise room in our hotel and the treadmill was not even working. I could have gone outside running in Vancouver. There were AWESOME running paths. Again I did not want to leave Kara with my mom because she was helping above and beyond her call of duty. She took Kara all of Wednesday evening so I could go to the evening sessions and not put Kara in the nursery (she was not doing as well in the nursery on Wednesday). She even put her to bed. She made up bottles, changed diapers etc. She took her all of Thursday afternoon and skipped the plenary session and small group discussion. I did sign up for the dance session on Thursday and we did folk dancing. It was incredibly awesome and we danced for an hour and a half. I did work up a sweat and felt like I exercised. Plus my mom and I walked with Kara in the stroller through Stanley Park for an hour in the evening. So I did get some exercise. But that was it.

With starting to get back into bad eating and not exercising, I felt my mood going out the window too. I felt crummy this morning. I really felt border line depressed because of it. Thankfully I stuck to the points today. It makes such a difference being at home! I am also learning it's not neccessarily the foods you eat, but the portion sizes. I am finding myself cutting things in half or eating more of the 0-1 point foods and smaller sizes of the larger point foods. I am slowly figuring it out and it's not as easy as I thought it would be!

Today I ran three miles. I did my two mile course and extended it down Ash to Ewald and back up to Liberty. I started off feeling a little stiff and weak. But within five minutes, I felt super strong again and great. It was a "good running day." But I am kind of bummed I may not be able to make it to the gym until Wednesday. So lots of outside running until then. I really wanted to get back in the pool and do weights before then. That's the way the schedule looks right now.

April 17

I ran about 2.5 miles this afternoon. I ran to Sunnyslope Park and back. I first ran down to the light at Liberty and Cunningham because I hate the long lights at Skyline. I love this route because I like the neighborhood around Sunnyslope Park. It's quiet and pretty. I need to figure out what streets connect where because I would like to incorporate the route on my longer runs. Sunnyslope is a good place to stop for water. I felt really good while running and the strongest yet. I could have gone longer, but Rob had to get ready for church. We were gone a good chunk of the afternoon already. At least he got his nap in.

I really stuck to the points today. It was hard not taking cookies at church and then again at the Open House. It helped that Rob bypassed them too since he can't eat them either. I made an egg and tuna salad for lunch. After I ate it, I felt full. Then around 3 PM I felt like I was starving again.

I want to figure out what race I want to do because then I can start looking at training plans. It depends on our vacation schedule and whether or not Rob would want to watch me finish. At this point I am leaning towards the Portland Marathon. The 1/2 sold out already so I would have to do the full. The full usually doesn't sell out until later in the summer if it does at all. I am interested in doing the Columbia Gorge (which looks kind of hilly) or Seattle which is over Thanksgiving weekend. I don't want to run Seattle if I am going to be running four hours in a rain storm. That might break that option for me. We'll see what our fall looks like after we figure out vacation schedules next month.

April 17

My exercise for today was walking to Amy's house at 6:30 in the morning. I went with her and a few others to the MOPS Summit in Dallas today. I wanted Rob to have the van so it made the most sense to walk there. It was about a 30 minute walk. Then I also walked with Kara in the stroller to Roths later this afternoon. That amounted to about forty minutes of walking today. It was nice walking in the early morning. I really want to get to the point to where I am running this time of day. I really have to be patient. It will come.

It was hard to stick to the WW points at the conference. I am going to Vancouver next week with my mom for a pastor's spouse retreat. I think it is going be harder there as well. I imagine we will hit fast food restaurants. I do not want to go over the points, but it's going to be super tough. Plus I don't know if I am going to be able to exercise while we're in Vancouver. I am going to try to get on a treadmill if I can at some point. I'd really rather not do pool exercises in a motel pool. I am really excited about this conference and seeing my mom at the same time. Lately it seems like when I establish an exercise routine, I have another "out of routine week" and my schedule gets changed. I am going to miss a full week of Group Power. I guess that's just the way it goes. I am not to the point where I am on a strict training schedule yet. Trena and I were going to do another race (probably a 5K) at the end of May. That's not for another couple weeks. Even when I trained for the marathon I took almost a week off and skipped a long run when we moved out here.

April 16

Weighed myself today. Friday is "Weigh-In" Day. I am at 129! This is great. But how could I go from 132.2 from 129 in thre days? Is that even possible? When I weighed myself Tuesday night I was wearing wind pants, t-shirt, and socks. I had just come from Group Power. It was 8:00 PM. Today I was wearing a bathing suit (had not gone in the pool yet) and it was 11:00 AM. So maybe the time change and the apparrel affected it that much? That's my best guess.

I am trying to make Friday my swimming day. Though I know our schedule is not going to always allow that. It is something to shoot for. I worked on legs form in the lap pool for fifteen minutes doing five full laps. Then I worked on arms and rotation in the warm pool for fifteen minutes. This will probably be my workout for awhile until I feel confident enough to do actual laps. I am still struggling with the rotation, but feel like I am getting the hang of it. I want to do another lesson with Kim in June.

April 15

I ran two miles this afternoon during Rob's lunch. I did my normal 2 mile outside route. I felt really good--stronger than yesterday. I am having some ab soreness that I think is from Tuesday night. He really hit us hard with the core workout.

Been sticking with the points really good today. I feel hungrier than usual. I am trying to figure out if that's "a comfort/boredom hunger" or "I am getting enough calories" hunger. I know it is going to trial and error figuring out snacks and meals. I am trying to incorporate the "filling foods."

I told my close friend from MOPS today I started WW. She was really surprised and said it seems like I do not really need it. She said there is no way I am overweight. This is why I do not want to reveal the WW to very many people--especially people at church. I have friends who are skinnier than me and work out less. I have friends who are overweight. I don't look down on them and I don't expect them to do what I do. I know I am doing this because 1) I don't know how to eat healthy. I really never learned how to do it. 2) I am done having kids and my body will not be shifting back to pregnancy 3) I do struggle with anxiety which triggers depression when it gets out of hand. Bad eating habits and weight gain do not help with that. Quite the opposite. I'd rather do natural methods than taking antidepressants. 4) When you look good, you feel good. 5) God gave me this body and I want to honor him with it.

That's why I don't see WW as "I'm trying to lose tons of weight." I see it as "I am really trying to eat better." I don't think we realize what we do to our bodies when we eat all kinds of junk. I don't think we realize the toll it takes and the mental drain it causes when we eat out of boredom or to "feel good." I want to get that "feel good" feeling from accomplishing something, running, playing with my kids, taking my kids outside, helping out at church, serving, etc. Not from eating a Brownie Blast Sunade from Dairy Queen. My family doctor when I was in high school/college told me the three ways to combat depression are 1) doing some form of exercise you like 2) getting outside even if you live in Michigan where it is gray all the time in the winter or Oregon where it rains half the year--even the outside air is enough to boost mood 3) doing something challenging like serving within your community, taking a course etc. At the time for me that was volunteering for Big Brother/Big Sister

I did not mean to write a book here. Sometimes writing it out helps me refocus.

Wednesday, April 14

I ran at 7:30 PM after the kids went to bed. It's light enough now so I can do this. I ran to Sunnyside and back on the Idylwood route. Ideally I would much rather run in the mornings, but our schedule does not allow that. It might be a couple more weeks. I think I ran 1.75 or 2 miles. I haven't mapped this route out to an exact measurement. There was a light rain in the air. It was a warm spring rain and it made me really enjoy being outside.

I did not feel as strong as I normally do. This is due to fact I have not run in over a week and my body is still getting back to normal from the gastroenteritis. I was able to complete the whole run and felt better after the first five minutes.

I also stayed within my points today on Weights Watchers. Yay!! I am still figuring this whole thing out. Rob went grocery shopping this evening and came home with way more fruits and vegetables and less junk. Except for the monstrous size Easter chocolate bunny. I won't be eating that one.

April 13

My weight is 132.2!

The weight loss is probably due to the fact I was sick and only drank Gatorade and ate toast and crackers for 2-3 days. Nonetheless I've kept off the junk as my appetite came back. For the most part. Today I started Weight Watchers and learned rather quickly my previous eating habits are terrible. And I am lucky I don't weight over 150 instead of 132.2. I should be grateful for my good metabolism because I don't really deserve it. Between my weight loss and Rob's gluten intolerance, meals are a project. We are making it work and finding meals we both enjoy. I like keeping track of everything on line. It's super easy to figure out how to do it.

Usually when I have a stomach bug, I take a full week off from exercising to get my body back to normal. So I started up again tonight and went to the 7 PM Group Power. It's nice to see the evening crowd again. He worked us really hard tonight. I was really feeling it. I kept my weight a little lighter since I had been sick. I was happy with the workout and the weight I chose. I still hate lunges, but I like the dynamic and power lunges. I don't like coming home and feeling extremely hungry! Kara is sleeping very well at night. I hope it will be a matter of time that I can go to the gym in the mornings again. I think it will possible once she gets on three solid meals a day.

April 5

Rob is off all this week which makes the exercise schedule a little bit easier. Derek threw up in the car yesterday on the way to our Easter Dinner at the the VB's house. Rob dropped Hailey and I off at the VB's and went back home with Derek and Kara. Derek threw up three times yesterday and was slightly feverish. I didn't even take his temp. because he didn't even feel that warm. Today he's eating again, but really crabby. I feel like we're on "sick watch." Will it be an isolated illness or are we all doomed? We have been very, very lucky lately. Aside from colds, we have not had a pass it around sickness for two years and one month. Not sure when we're in the clear. Maybe by Wednesday?

Since Rob is off, I went to morning Group Power. It's amazing how it's a whole different crowd and you feel like the new kid. Trena and I were saying how we're so used to the Tuesday/Thursday night crowd now. Starting to see the same people. I like the morning teacher because she really checks your form and teaches you how to do it correctly. For instance I've been really working on keeping my abs tight and not raising my lower back. I increased my weight to 7 1/2 on chest, biceps, and triceps. Although it was tough and I couldn't complete everything, I want to keep it at that for awhile. All the other tracks went very well. She worked us pretty hard, but I wanted a harder workout to start my week.

April 3

Ran 4 miles!

I did my 4 mile route I always used to do when I was training for Portland. Brought back memories! When I started out running down Liberty, I felt tired and cold. The weather has been nasty here. By the time I got on Kuebler and crossed Lone Oak, I felt better. The sun even started to pop out. I was glad I hit the head wind on Jones and Liberty since most of the big hills are on Kuebler and Idylwood. I did not have to stop at all. I was going to stop at the park and get a drink, but I did not think they turned the fountains on yet. I need to map out some more long runs because I am not a big fan of running on Kuebler and Liberty has too many lights.

So nice to get the mileage back up again!

March 31 & April 1

Last night I went to Group Power. Aside from this silly pinky injury (which did affect my grip on the bar) I felt great. I kept with the same weights as last week except I decreased on biceps. The instructor said it was a weight decrease. I decreased it so much I didn't even feel like I was working out. Oops. The abs workout was really good again.

Today I had a private swim lesson! I was so thankful the instructor was someone older. Most of the exercise instructors are 20 somethings. I am self conscious enough about swimming. I really don't know what I am doing at all. To have someone who is 8-10 years younger than me would be even more intimidating. Kim was awesome. I am probably going to book another one in a couple months. I have lots to work on! I will probably work on legs for ten minutes with the kick board and then rotation for ten minutes once or twice a week. I am not going to do actual laps until I can get these forms down better. I have much more to learn. It will be a great workout and a nice break from running!

For the past two days I have been very intentional about eating healthier. I know it's only two days. But I feel good about what I am doing. I am really excited about starting Weight Watchers and getting these pounds off. I am so motivated.

April 1

And Amy's weight is...


134 pounds



Aside from being pregnant I have NEVER weighed this much. So my goal?


124 pounds


I don't know easy or difficult it is to lose ten pounds because I have never had a weight loss goal.

Last night I ran two miles on the treadmill at zero incline at a 6.3 speed. Rob's schedule has been all over the place this week so my exercise schedule has been limited. I am glad I have still been able to run. Even if it's at the gym at 9 PM at night. I liked being able to run fast without the incline. But I'm looking forward to running outside this weekend. Hopefully it will warm up a little more.

No injuries right now aside my pinky finger which is STILL throbbing from shutting my finger in the door on Sunday night. It still HURTS!