10 days of celebrating = weight gain.

I have spent the first part of this week getting back on track and trying to reverse some damage I did in 10 days of celebrating my son getting married and seeing family that I don't get to see very often. On Friday June 18th I weighed 164.4 (goal weight 162.5) I was just barely within my goal weight because I was letting old habits creep back into my life. Not working out as often and eating out too much. Friday night was the start of many dinners out and many more meals that I could have made better choices, but I didn't for the sake of enjoying the company I was with. The total damage done was 5.5 pounds. Tuesday a trip to Trader Joes was made and I spent almost 30 dollars just on fruits and veggies so I have fresh stuff in the house. I spent time prepping my lunches and making sure I had everything convenient so I would have no excuses to eat right. I have started working out again (as of Tuesday) and I have been tracking 100% again and doing what I know works to get the weight back off. I have until the end of July to take it off and be able to weigh in within my goal weight once again.

I am amazed at how quickly things can head off the rails, one not so great choice leads to another and another and 10 days later you look back and think what could I have done differently. Today I choose to look at the great choices I did make during that time. The whole 10 days the one habit I didn't drop was my water. I drank my water just like before and sometimes even more water because of the salt consumption (due to eating out more) left me feeling dry. Several of those meals I did have salad with them to get in my veggies. several more of those meals I stopped at one plate and didn't get seconds. There is a saying at WW that I have heard and now truly believe. My new bad isn't as bad as my old bad. I do believe that....

I'm a Mother in Law now!

My apologies for not posting in a little bit - and this is just a quick one as well - I'm spending days at work and nights at my parents house so I can spend time with out of town family while they are still here!

My older son got married - yup that is right - that son.... Here is me, Jessica the bride (so beautiful!!!), Matt my oldest son (so handsome and grown up!), The hubster and my younger son who didn't quite get the hang of picture taking....

The weekend was amazing! The wedding was so wonderful - "just enough" everything they did was great and not over the top - the food, the band, the amount of people and the ceremony... They did a wonderful job planning it and it was the best wedding I have ever been too and I'm not just saying that because I'm mom!

I am so blessed, I have a great family and with the addition of Jess it got bigger and better! She has a large family and they were all wonderful and welcoming!!

I will leave you with something that I'm sure you already know...

Cherish your children and the little ones in your life because you never know what is around the corner and they grow up way too fast!

I can now add Triathlete to my resume!

So before I start this post - I have to explain something here that those people who know me closely know, but I never mentioned on my blog. After I ran the Parkway half I had a serious lack of motivation to train - and then about the time I was getting it back I got sick. I wouldn't have minded a nice little cold to make me appreciate not being sick or maybe something else mild that I still could have worked out with, but that wasn't my choice - what I got was an upper respiratory infection that kicked my butt for two weeks! I spent three days straight in bed doing nothing while my wonderful hubby made sure I had what I needed and took great care of me. It has been a long time since I had been that sick - even after my body felt better my lungs took a while to bounce back (I also have asthma) and all training for the tri stopped. I did a one mile run on the Wednesday before the tri to make sure my tri shirt and shorts were not going to rub anywhere and than went well, but I was nervous about the fact that I had trained up to the mileages I was doing in the tri, but it had been sometime since I had done anything active and I was hoping my lungs were 100% - It turns out they were not.


Here I am on the beach of the lake ready to start - the pink cap was given to me by the race organizers - each wave had their own color and I was in the last wave that started at 8:25 (Women 40 and up and the Athena Athletes) I stood on the beach and looked at the bouys and they seemed so far out there and so far apart! I will admit my nerves kicked in and my tummy hurt! My dad was taking pictures of my and I wanted him to stop - that is why I look grumpy...

Here I am 33 minutes after my start - my swim took longer than expected because once I got into the water there were several things happening that I didn't expect since I did all my swim training in a pool - first 50+ people starting to swim at the same time causes a wake and tosses you around quite a bit. Secondly - the lake is very green and it is very hard to see where you are going. Thirdly - my lungs ended up not being 100% and I struggled to catch my breath from early on. I spent some time holding on the the kyacks catching my breath and was so happy to have those guys out there - they are so encouraging! What you can't see in the picture is just how much the swim had taken out of me, I was so tired already and knew I still had 16 miles on the bike and a 3 mile run ahead of me. My arms were sore and my lungs hurt and I was just plain tired... (notice there are only a handful of people still in the water behind me...)
This is me in my transition area. I got out of my wetsuit and sat down to put my shoes and socks on to get on the bike. The transitions both went well, I don't think I really spent too much time fussing with things and everything went smoothly (well except for knocking the rack over when I took my bike out, but some guy coming in did the same thing right after I did so I don't feel so bad..) Oh yeah, that was a weird feeling - I was getting ready for my bike ride and there were people who had already finished their swim and bike ride! Again the volunteers here in the transition area were amazing and encouraging - this series had something like 200 first time triathletes! I actually felt pretty strong leaving there on the bike, but that quickly faded and I decided that slow and steady would have to do...

The bike course was on a pretty busy two lane highway with no bike lane and it was not closed to traffic. I had cars very close to me zipping by at 55 mile per hour. Something else I hadn't really trained for was riding around traffic. I had a death grip on my bike and when I came in my arms, hands and shoulders were very sore and the rest of the energy I had was pretty much gone.
And here I am going out for the last 3 miles of the tri! I ran for a little bit, but most of it was walking for me. The few of out there still on the course were talking and encouraging each other and we were still having fun despite being very tired!
And here I am running in for the big finish! There were only about 5 people behind me at this point but still a HUGE crowd at the finish line! Again so encouraging and enthusiastic!

So would I do it again - heck yeah! I would train differently since I know what to expect now and I would try really hard not to get sick right before! LOL!! Do I have any regrets? Heck no! I can now be called a triathlete and like I once told someone - I may not be fast but I'm determined and I get the job done and I'm out there!