Getting outside my comfort zone and a Tweet Up!

Part of the deal with my stair climb was, I joined a team of 9 others that I didn't know in real life. I knew two of them on Twitter (and then on Facebook) but we hadn't met in real life until the morning of the climb!This is our lovely team right before heading to the concourse level and then to the stairwell! Hazel (Our team captain) is in the little miss T-shirt in front and Susan is right behind and to the right in the black shirt! Hazel has a ton of energy and her and her husband John (the lone guy in the picture) joined us for breakfast after the climb - they are both so great! Susan is a fellow Weight Watcher, cupcake lover and all around great person! It was so nice to get to meet them both in person! Susan and I did two events on Saturday together - the stair climb and the Oakland Running Festival's twilight 5K. We parted ways and then I rode BART (outside my comfort zone #1 for the day) into Oakland to meet up for the 5k. (Race re-cap to come later).

We had plans to meet a large group for dinner at one place, it fell through, then it was just going to be me and Susan at a different place and then some others wanted us to meet with them and I said sure - so we met up at a place called Souley Vegan. (Outside my comfort zone #2 for the day) The menu was a little intimidating to me since I had never had vegan or soul food before and the table decided to do large platters of everything on the menu and we would just share. At this point I was thinking I could just grab a burger or something on the way to the hotel and I would just pretend to eat some and like it. I LOVED IT! They had both a deep fried tofu and a BBQ tofu that were wonderful! The fried Okra was delish! They had wonderful red beans and rice and a cornbread that would have been the death of me, but I had to be polite and not eat it all! I also tried greens! Yes greens! They were spicy and flavorful. The best part was a vegan Mac and Cheese - so yummy!! Not the type I place I would have chosen to eat at - but will go back to if I ever get the chance!

Fight For Air Stair Climb Re-cap!

I wanted to get some thoughts out before I lost them all! We got up bright and early on Saturday morning to make the drive to SF - it was rainy and icky and I wanted to leave in plenty of time to make sure we got there early so I wouldn't be rushed or stressed. Good thing to, because once we got down there the building parking entrance was on the other side of where the GPS told us to go and then we ended up on a road where we couldn't turn left and took the scenic route back to the building. We parked, got stuff gathered up and then headed into the building and I picked up my bib number and timing chip and I had plenty of time to get ready and take pics.
I found the rest of our team and we took a couple of group pics and then we headed to the stairwell - lining the entrance was paper and pens so you could write why you were climbing - I wrote "My Dad" and "Velda" on the wall - moved down a little more where the rest of my team was and at least one team member had written "Sabrina Hill's Dad" on the wall as well. Being in there and reading the names made me really emotional. Then we had another group photo taken right at the entrance to the stairwell - and then there I was in the stairwell and told to start! It all happened really quick - I remember passing a couple of people right away and then I settled into a good stride and my legs felt great - but my lungs were a different story - after about 15 floors my lungs hurt and they didn't stop hurting until I stopped at the finish and caught my breath! There were signs every couple of floors - this is one I snagged from a friends pics...Only 40 floors to go! Ha! Another one said "Are we there yet?" I was passed by some firefighters from Menlo park around floors 35-40 and one of them was casually chatting away on his cell phone! The water stations (and volunteers cheering!!) were every 8 floors and you had to actually exit the stairwell to get water (which I did at least 3 times..) and the last 15 flights of stairs were the hardest where I had lots of thoughts running through my mind all at once... Lung Cancer, Asthma, 9/11, how brave firefighters are, the party at the top, the view once I get there and the rest of our weekend. It is amazing what you think of when you are digging deep to finish something like this. It was way harder then I though it was going to be. I get to the top and cross the finish line and a cute little teen volunteer at the finish line looks at me all seriously and asks "Are you going to climb again?" I truly didn't understand what she was asking me at the time - I said huh? and she repeated the question and then I realized she was serious.. Um no sweetie, I'm not going to climb again.. she took my timing chip off my ankle and I went on my way... (turns out if you want to do it again you can - and people did - a lot of them firefighters who did their second climb in full gear..) - I head to a window to enjoy the view and I can't... I even asked someone if we are supposed to be able to see out the windows since they looked frosted over and they had to inform me that is was fog. (I'm such a tourist - or maybe I can blame it on the fact that I was still delirious from lack of oxygen...) - But a little after we finished the fog lifted and we got to admire the view!My official time was 20:10 - 1197 Stairs - 52 Floors Done! I always ask myself - will I do it again? Heck yes I will do it again, I have a time to beat! I can't wait!!

Back at Goal!!!

It's been a long time coming but I finally got my head in the game and got back at goal this morning! I had a great week! One that I started out the week with a high point day but then I met all my goals 100% and was rewarded with an awesome weight loss this morning that put me within my goal weight! I was down an amazing 4.6 pounds this week! I have a regular pattern of having big losses every so often and I could feel my body changing and more people were commenting that they could see that I was losing weight I knew it was just a matter of time and sticking with the program that I know works. I think changing up the exercise was a good thing for me - a little running, a little walking and a little stair climbing keeps me from getting bored with my routine and I plan on doing more bike soon and working some sort of upper body routine in there somewhere.

Saturday was SacFit and I decided not to do the 8 1/2 mile workout with the group (too much mileage last weekend and too many things going on next weekend - I needed a break) - I was going to take the boy out on the trail and do an easy 2 miles with him, but the weather was horrible and instead of making him miserable, we choose to go to the gym. I did 50 minutes of stairs and he played with some other kids in the child care and then we went back out to see the groups come in. Of course after the workout we headed to the cupcakery to get our after workout treat!

Next weekend will be a flurry of activity for me and the family - I'm taking part in the Fight For Air Climb in San Francisco - and that evening I will take BART into Oakland for the Oakland Running Festival's Twilight 5K - I'm meeting up with a couple of twitter buddies and after the 5K we will be having dinner at Miss Pearl's Jam House I don't know what I'm more excited about - doing the 5K and meeting new people or having dinner at the type of place I don't normally go to because it isn't exactly family friendly!! The Hubster and the boy will stay behind in SF and see a movie and get their own dinner.

The next morning is a Hike back in SF - the Barbary Coast Trail - it is an easy hike through some of the neatest areas of SF and I'm excited to show my little guy more of the city that he just loves! I'm hoping for good weather for the weekend and that the trip is enjoyable for my little guy - got to build on the excitement that he has right now!

So - goals for next week?

Workout 4 days this week! - This one stands because I need to workout - it makes me happy and offsets high point days :)
No eating out or splurging unless I have the points available. - This one I will do until Saturday ;)
100% tracking - Again, I will do this one until Saturday ;)

Saturday and Sunday will not be eat like a crazy woman days - but I will be pretty much taking those two days off. BUT - ONLY those two days off - in the past we have had a bad habit of saying "Well Saturday and Sunday are going to be bad so Friday doesn't matter and Monday won't matter either... I will not do that with this trip!

In the meeting today we talked about looking back to move forward - using a vehicle windshield as an example - you look in the rear view mirror - but only briefly and you mainly look through the windshield at where you are going, but it is still good to look back at where you came from so you can learn from it, but don't get so focused on the rear view mirror that you forget to look ahead.

A weekend update on a Monday...

This weekend was super busy and so I didn't have a chance to update on Sunday - it was full of wonderful activities!

Saturday morning was Sacfit and I did 7 miles which I ended up doing almost 100% walking - I walked with one person and we talked for a while and then she turned around early and I walked mostly by myself the rest of the way - it was nice to be with my thoughts and the 100% walking turned out to be a good thing in the end!

After Sacfit the Hubster and I visited a new cupcake shop that has opened up right down the street from where our running group meets. They were delish and I think it is going to be an after workout tradition! The place is called Payton's Cupcake Place and I highly recommend it!

After that we headed to the mall - I got three pairs of jeans that were badly needed because I only had one pair (yes I should really invest in some clothes now..) and I got two shirts from "Life is good" - I love their stuff, it is so soft and comfy! We also bought tea at Teavana (our new obsession) and we enjoyed a lunch out without a child since he was at a birthday party for the afternoon.

On Sunday morning I woke up and weighed - I'm down 1.6 for the week (only half the gain that I had - but that could be the fact that I ate out again on Saturday even though it was within points - salt content will throw my body off) and then the family headed downtown so I could run the Shamrockin' half marathon! I started out with two very fast walker buddies and my goal was to keep up with them and I did for the first 8 miles or so and then they kept getting ahead of me, then my goal was to keep them in sight, but that slipped away as well - they wanted to finish under 3 hours and I just wanted to finish since I didn't even know I was going to be running it until the day before! I had enough energy to run the last two miles straight and I came in 3:04:46 and it turns out my walking buddies faded a bit at the end and they only came in 30 second ahead of me! I'm very happy with my time especially since the first 8 miles was all walking - I sometimes can't believe what a quick walker I have become!

We had an awesome cheering squad all along the route and it was a great day - the rains held off until later on that afternoon and it was almost perfect weather to run a half marathon!

We also bought my little man his first pair of running shoes! We took him to Fleet Feet after the race and had him fitted - we have several events coming up that he will join us for and I'm super excited about him joining us on some of our adventures! He is finally showing interest in doing stuff with us and I'm going to take it while it lasts because I'm sure once he becomes a teenager it will be a different story!

Quick goal racap

Workout 4 days this week. - only got two days in because we bought a car in the middle of the week
No eating out or splurging unless I have the points available. - Accomplished!
100% tracking - Accomplished!

Going to stick with the same goals this week - I am going to have to be careful with my ankle - we went out to eat after the half-marathon and coming down the stairs at the restaurant I turned my ankle. Yes - Ironic... 7 miles on Saturday - 13.1 on Sunday and I turn the ankle coming out of the restaurant after our post-race meal... I iced it and it is wrapped and I'm going to baby it as much as I can - I see some bike workouts in my future this week....

I told you it was a busy weekend! I'm pooped!

A Sunday Goal Update!

So again to recap my Goals for the week were...

Workout 4 days this week.
No eating out or splurging unless I have the points available.
100% tracking

I worked out 4 days! It was hard to get the workouts in this week due to an abnormal schedule for me and the Hubster was out of town most of the week so that brought challenges at home as well, but I did it! I hit the gym 3 days and then had our normal Sacfit Saturday workout to make it 4!

The second goal got a little messed up on Day 7 - I actually thought I had messed up on day 6 but when I came home and tracked what I had at the Mexican restaurant that we went to unexpectedly I was still within my points (thanks to the workouts!) Day 7 came along and I had a plan, but too much alcohol on a wine tasting/brewery tour and I lost track of lots of stuff. I am happy to say that I did track everything that day later on that evening, but, I ended the week over my points by quite a bit.

The result was this mornings weigh in I was up 3.1 pounds. I know part of that will come back off quickly but the question is how much? A high point day and alcohol the day before weighing in isn't good - I'm willing to bet I will be down some of that tomorrow, but I want to be consistent with my weigh in days so there it is...

I will continue those goals this week and see what happens!