First Run

Well this morning I charged up my ipod, grabbed a bottle of water, loaded up the kids and went for a run. I only made it about 4 songs on my ipod before I realized that the tires are basically completely flat when the kids are in the stroller. I slowed my already snails pace because I didn't want to blow a tube. The girls were well behaved or at least I assume they were since I couldn't really look down. The stroller pulled so hard to the right that it was a fight to keep it going straight. Today's run was cut short because I couldn't assure the safety of the kiddos. We pulled into the driveway and I parked them in front of the garage. I spent a few minutes shuffling stuff around and managed to park the stroller in there with no problem. It saves me from figuring out how to fold the thing and it will be easier to get in and out.

I must make a note to fill the tires before tomorrows attempt.

Stroller....check

I'm one step closer to actually starting to run. My dearest friend found a double stroller and I brought it home yesterday. Today I loaded up the little girls, carefully wrapping a blanket around them, just in case I picked up enough speed to actually cause a breeze and tested it out on our short walk to school. Turning it is a new experience for me, I've never had a fixed wheel stroller. Also it probably weighs three times as much as my side by side does. After Gabriella went into school I took the girls for a quick walk around the neighborhood. We made it maybe a few blocks before it started to sprinkle and I turned around and headed home. It was a quick jog home in an effort to keep the girls from getting wet. The ride was smooth but I know it's going to take me a while to get use to it. Tomorrow, baring any weather issues we will take our first real run.

**Just a note, when I say run I probably mean more of a hurried shuffle. I'm by no means going to be moving fast, but still it's still moving.

How far is a 5K?

I have a goal, I want to run the Tinkerbell half marathon next year. I want to stay at the Disneyland hotel and hobble around disneyland the day after with a huge sense of accomplishment. In case you don't know, which I bet most of you do, a half marathon is 13.1 miles. I must say I get a bit nervous thinking about making it such a distance. But I know I can do it, especially since I would be jogging past my favorite attractions. Training must start immediately. First step is to start running, any distance, all the time. My wonderful friend Molly found me a double jogging stroller. It was a necessity, I couldn't imagine the cost of finding a babysitter every morning so I could run. So the new plan, starting next week everyday after I drop Gabriella at school I'll take the twins for a run. I hope they'll like it. Once I build up my distance there is a great park they can play at when we stop half way. I hope this works out, I hope I can stick with it. It's a year away, such a long time to keep up a goal. But with my Disneyland passes I can remind myself of the goal. The first goal will be to run a 5k. A fun run if you will. Hopefully I can accomplish that in March.

Weigh out

I weighed myself this morning and after days of cheating and ignoring the diet plan I'd set up the scale gave me a stark assessment of my behavior. While I'm still down overall, I'm up for the week. Instead of licking my wounds via a bowl of ice cream I did two work outs this morning.

Motivation has become an issue, once the day starts and the stress begins I'm no longer interested in working out. Therefore this week I'm going to try something different. I'm going to try to work out before the girls get up. It's a system that worked before when I did boot camp. Based on my calculations I only need to get up an hour early which should coincide with when my husband leaves for work. So a kiss on the cheek will be my new wake up call.

That's all for today, I hope to have a cheerier blog later in the week, but today I can't help but feel like I've failed.

Cheating

The thing about diets is that if you cheat you are only hurting yourself. Rationalizing your choices by making excuses for bad behavior is still cheating. I was reading a cool blog about a woman's food journal. The difference between my journal and hers was that rather than putting in only meals and snacks she included every sip, lick and taste. Anything that went into her mouth she made note of. I do not do that, but probably should. I find myself sampling the kids food, to check for temperature or seasoning. I have a tasting spoon next to my stove which I use constantly when I cook. It's the sign of a good cook, but it's also a sign of denial. I know there is butter in the little girls eggs and that I don't really need to have a giant bite to make sure they aren't too hot. I could easily check the temperature with my finger, but I don't. I want some of those delicious eggs and I never write my sample down. Today I found myself taste testing my guacamole with a chip, to make sure the seasoning was good. I started by having a chip, adjusting the seasoning, having another chip, adding some salt, having another chip then a squirt of lime, well you get the point. I probably had one serving of chips just "testing" the guac. I need to hold myself more accountable because no one else is. No one else knows what I eat in a day. I can lie in my food journal but the scale knows the truth and deep down so do I.

Wacky Wednesday Weigh In

I think the posting everyday on this blog is a bit of a pipe dream. I can't find 5 minutes to go to the bathroom alone much less a few minutes longer to try to piece together a full sentenced blog.

Anyway it's weigh in day and as of last week I've lost another 1.5 pounds. It's not much but this week I tried a lot of different workouts, some obviously less strenuous than others. My new favorite is Just Dance 3 for wii. I'm sure it would be more fun if I had a connect but I'm not buying an x-box just so I don't have to hold a controller. The sweat option on the game is awesome, if you do the entire playlist, which I think is maybe 10 songs you work out for around 45 minutes. There is a 7 day work out option on there which is what I'm going to try this week. It gives you the same amount of sweat as walking, running or swimming for 30 minutes. I did the work out and finished in the 30 minute time frame, but it was a challenge. The challenge was not the moves or my endurance it was my children. Just two of them, both 17 months old, running around while I'm trying to dance. I thought since they enjoy music and dancing that they would get a kick out of watching me. I was clearly wrong. Also I have a list of errands to run that is as long as my arm and I wanted to finish the work out, shower, change the girls and get out of the house in time to finish before school pick up. Unfortunately this proved to be too ambitious a goal. As I type this the girls are down for a nap and I'm sitting here with dripping hair contemplating what things I can slice off my list to do on another day.

Here is a little visual of how the work out went. Picture a living room, slightly cluttered with toys and shoes. The offending items have been pushed out of the way to make room for the curvy woman standing in the middle of the room. She holds the wii remote in one hand, clicking the options on the screen. Below here two small gnome-like children meander around picking up the toys and pressing buttons on the dvd player. The music begins and all three people turn their attention to the television. The largest one starts gesticulating in an effort to keep up with the dancing image on screen. The gnomes take this as an opportunity to try to steal each other's toys, which leads to someone hitting the other over the head with a shoe. The injured party immediately runs to dancing mommy in order to be comforted. They receive no such comfort and in response they throw themselves on the floor directly in front of mommy's dancing feet. Mommy steps back, onto a pointy toy, and then forward gently nudging the child out of the way. The other child feeling like she wants to join in the fun sneaks up behind mommy and grabs her pant leg. Dancing mommy is now moving disjointedly with two children hanging on her. The song ends and as she reaches down to pick up someone but they immediately get up and move onto something else. Convinced, stupidly, that she can continue dancing mommy starts the next song. The crying, clinging and all around insanity continue for another 3 songs before it becomes eerily quiet. Dancing mommy, cringes and decides to finish the workout. Once finished she hobbles towards her bedroom with only a cool shower on her mind. As she passes over the threshold she sees two little gnomes pulling all the clean laundry out of a basket. Shrugging she moves on to the bathroom and starts the water. Interested in the sound of water the girls drop what their doing and wander in just as mommy steps into the shower. Finding their mother trapped behind glass with soapy hair and closed eyes they take the opportunity to riffle through the sink cabinets. Pulling out all manners of feminine products, they leave the bathroom to sprinkle them around the house where mommy won't find them but assuredly a visiting guest will. That not being enough the second mommy steps out of the shower she is accosted by two crying babies, each demanding to be picked up immediately. Mommy does just that, announcing nap time in the process and dropping the offending subjects into their tiny mattressed prisons.

By the way, the girls still aren't asleep and I suppose if I was a glutton for punishment I could get them up, dressed and still probably run all my errands.

The Weigh In

Week one has come and gone so it's time to drag out the scale. I have a strange love of my scale, it's very modern looking, digital, goes up to like 400 pounds of something so I know I won't break it when I stand on it, and at least for this week had some good news for me. I lost just over 4 pounds. Not bad for the first week. I imagine it's water weight and the loss of my fatty snack at 10 at night. I like to think some of my clothes are fitting better but I think that is just my imagination.

This first week wasn't that hard. I got a work out or some sort of strength training in every day. I learned some valuable lessons about doing this whole weight loss stuff at home. First, wait until the kids are occupied before starting your workout or you may find yourself apologizing for kicking a kid in the bottom for no reason. Plus they just look at you with these weird appraising looks and if they talk they make comments about your form. Second, if you don't have healthy food in your house then you can't eat it. When you find yourself hungry for a snack the last thing you want to do it get in the car. Carl's Jr is the closest place to my house and I don't even have to get out of my car. Thirdly, water is necessary for a healthy lifestyle and it can be jazzed up with a bit of fruit. Cucumber water just tastes like dirty water, I don't recommend it. Finally, it is important to share your goals with your spouse so they understand why there is a bushel of broccoli in your fridge and that fish is going into heavy rotation in weekly meals.

Thank you for all the support. I week down 51 to go.