24 Day Challenge - Day 6

Day 6 already.  Even though the average weight loss is between 8-14 pounds (I keep seeing different numbers), you are highly encouraged to not weigh yourself until the end of the challenge.  But I always weigh myself on Sundays.  I will admit that I have been weighing myself daily to this point; but after seeing another blogger (who weighed herself daily) recommend to not do that, I will stop.

Today's plan to get SO much done was a big flop.  I woke up late and knew that I needed to run before I did anything else - otherwise it wouldn't get done!  So I ran/walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes (3 miles) and then just kind of did nothing the rest of the day.

Before workout - Catalyst, Fruit Punch Spark

30 Minutes Before Lunch: ProBiotic Restore Ultra

Breakfast: No breakfast - went straight to lunch!

Lunch: Stir fry, brown rice, Apple and natural peanut butter

Snack: Strawberries and Honeydew Melon

Dinner: Tortilla Soup minus the tortilla (pinto beans, black beans, tomatoes, corn, chicken broth I think...I made this awhile back and froze it), Cocoa Roast almonds 1 Omegaplex

Snack: Probably cherries - I found cherries yesterday!  Never mind that 3 pounds set me back $10...I sure hope they're good!

Bedtime: Herbal Cleanse Tablet

Perspective

I was thinking tonight as I was running how I wish I had recorded the little things last year.  I ran 4 miles tonight...I couldn't even run a mile at this time last year, and even walking 3 miles was a stretch.  I didn't start running until Feb/March 2011 so I'm happy with my progress, but it would be nice to have a benchmark.

So boring as it may be, I'm thinking about blogging the little things.  Like how this time last year I was wearing size 18/20 and happy because I was down from a 20/22 but yesterday I wore a pair of size 14 pants!  I'm in a 16/18 now, but those 14s fit so I wore them!

I had gotten a little off track and lost my mojo, but I've been slowly getting more focused.  Maybe this will help with that.  That and reminding myself of the goals I have met:

Lost 45 pounds
Can run 3 miles without too much difficulty
Lost 2-3 sizes

We have to remember where we've been in order to see how far we've come.  I'm beginning to see the truth of that.

5 Miles

If someone would have told me a year or even 6 months ago that I would ever have the desire to run 5 miles, I would have laughed.  I would have laughed very loud.  But tonight I ran 5 miles...because I wanted to.  And I didn't feel like I was going to keel over when I was done! 

I'm really proud of myself because except for about 5 minutes (warm up, cool down and just a little towards the end), I ran the whole thing.  My average pace was 11 something.  Which, considering I didn't really run until a few months ago, I think is pretty good!  I checked my time at 3.1 miles, too; and it was 33 which is 4 minutes faster than the last 5K I did.  I'm hoping that if I can keep running 3-5 miles at a stretch, I'll be a little faster by my next 5K in August.

25 Pound Benchmark

I've lost 25 pounds!  I've never lost 25 pounds before, and I still find myself thinking about "when I'm under 200" (which I hit 13 pounds ago).  It's slowly starting to sink in.

As a 25 pound present, I bought myself one of these:

It's a  belt for runners, and it has 2 pockets so I can bring my phone and my iPod with room for my house key and some money (you know, in case I need to stop for some ice cream non-fat frozen soft serve on the way home). 

It also has 2 reusable loops for hooking on a race tag and loops for holding energy gel packs or pepper spray (which I probably should also get).

My cousin has one similar, and I was surprised at how much it stretches.  This one looks tiny, too; but I love that I can bring everything I need with me when I'm running in the summer.  And this belt has gotten good reviews.  I was a little nervous because one of the negatives was that it was a little smaller around than suggested so there were several people who commented that it didn't quite fit them.  So I was really happy that the belt part stretches, too; and it fits just fine!  And it's not supposed to ride up or be uncomfortable at all.  So we'll see.  No excuses now that I can't go out in the evening because I can't bring my phone and there's no one waiting for me at home in case something happens.  AND my arm band is really frustrating me because it keeps slipping down so this will solve that problem as well :)

I also bought some PB2 which I'd tried a small sample of before; but it wasn't much to do anything with, and I didn't want to pay the outrageous shipping fees.  Now Amazon stocks it, and I was getting free shipping.  I've heard mixed reviews on this so we'll see...