May 31st...

There are 31 days in the month of May, in case anyone forgot. So many things happen in the month of May, graduations, first communions, I had so many friends growing up who had birthdays in May and my favorite lilacs bloom in May!  I had set a goal for myself to be active/workout every day in May, 31 days. Well I almost did it. Out of the 31 days I worked out 29 days. I swam, biked, ran or walked for 29 days. I missed Wednesday. May 20th and Thursday, 28th. However, if I include the last five days in April, I worked out for 34 of the past 36 days! I am quite impressed with myself.

So what will June hold for me? Well on May 23rd I signed up for an open water swim that will take place on August 29th in Lake George, NY. It is a 3.1 mile swim and I am so looking forward to the event. Also on Monday, May 27th I signed up for another half marathon. I decided when I signed up for these, they would be etched in stone on my calendar and I don't care what else is planned I will not miss them. The half marathon is the Rock n Roll Brooklyn Half Marathon. Since I was feeling so ambitious I also decided to sign up for the C&O Canal Half Marathon in Washington, DC. The Brooklyn Half is on October 10th and the C&O Canal Half is on November 8th. I have incorporated some long runs into my workouts over the last two weekends but now I have to kick it up a notch and June will be the month to do that.

I need to swim, bike and run. I have seven weeks until the Gillie Girl Triathlon; 13 weeks until the swim and 18 weeks until the first half marathon scheduled. We can not waste any time. I also have five work trips planned for this month alone and I can't use that as an excuse. I have to lay out my schedule and work things in appropriately. I will have to keep you posted on what I come up with but I am planning on increasing my swim and bike workouts. There are 30 days in June, bringing my travel into consideration (traveling 15 days) I would like to plan to swim and bike 15 out of the 30 days. On the other days I would walk and run. I can do this!

"But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep" - Robert Frost

Numbers are all around me...

"Belive you can and you're halfway there." - Theodore Roosevelt

So this morning I had my monthly appointment with the diabetes specialist. According to their scale I lost 4 pounds in this past month. According to my scale I am down 2.5 pounds ... either way it's moving in the right direction. However, my daily blood testing numbers are all over the place.  They are not consistent and are definitely not low enough to make everyone happy. My specialist is happy that my weight is going in the right direction and the fact that I do exercise on a daily basis. For example in the last 31 days I have worked out 30 of them. However, that isn't enough when it comes to my blood sugar numbers. She doesn't want to put me on any more medication and I don't want to go on anymore medication. However, my body is not breaking the carbs down.

I write down everything I eat, even if I cheat. I have to in order to compare it my blood sugar numbers. My specialist checks everything I write down and sees that I am in control of my carbohydrates throughout the day but I tend to lose control in the evening around dinner and snack time. It has always been a tough time for me. She has threatened me that if I don't control the numbers she will have to put me on insulin.  The fear that goes along with that is, one of the side effects is weight gain. Now there is an oxymoron for you!!  So of course that is not the route I want to go!!

She has given me three months, to challenge myself and set a goal of eating within my carbohydrate limit per meal and get my numbers down!!! As she explained to me she knows that I am a goal oriented person and that I just need to tell myself to eat within my limits and avoid everything else. As I always say, if it is important to me I will find a way if not I will find an excuse. This evening I saw this quote from Teddy Roosevelt and thought to myself, "will this work for me?"

Tomorrow is the beginning of the next three months ... I go back to her on August 25th and my numbers will be down! In some ways this is a matter of life and death!

Is there a difference in these pictures?

 Do you see a difference? The picture on the left was taken in March of 2014. I am the person in the green vest. The picture below on the right was taken this month, May, 2015. Some of you may not see a huge difference but I do. Just this week I was searching through some work event photos when I came upon this one on the left. I couldn't believe it when I looked at myself! That was 36 pounds ago!! I haven't taken many pictures of myself over the last 11 months. I don't always like what I see when I am shown what the lens sees so I usually avoid the camera.  However, this past Sunday a friend of mine took this picture of me as I was driving the golf cart around campus during Commencement Weekend. Although I am still far away from my goal and I am certainly not perfect I was quite surprised at the differences that I saw between the two pictures. Obviously this is all working!!

I do have to share some bad news though ... I missed a workout yesterday. I was shooting for 31 straight days in May. I made it 19 straight plus the last five in April made it a total of 24 days straight. I just wasn't feeling it yesterday. I was still tired from the very long work weekend; I had cramps big time and I just didn't have the energy. I didn't even hit 10,000 steps on my fitbit yesterday! I tried but I didn't get it done.

Now I am not giving up, there is always today and tomorrow...I focused on today and I went out for a 40 minute walk this evening. I got right back up on the horse. I need to keep moving towards my goal. Once again today I went over 10,000 steps on my fitbit!! Just keep moving forward, there are 10 more days in May in which I could continue my workouts!

It finally moved!!

It had been over a month that the scale in my home had not moved. It was stuck at the same number for too long. However, Saturday morning I stepped on the scale and it finally moved. I had lost a pound!! I felt relief ... pressure was off. I had visions of my emotions and frustrations getting in the way of this long plateau and eventually throwing in the towel. However, I wasn't ready to quit and I had to keep fighting!! Total loss now is 36 pounds. I don't know if I am going to make my goal of 45 pounds by June 8th, due to the plateau. However, as long as the scale continues to move in the right direction I will be happy.

Why June 8th ... It will be the anniversary of when this all started. I stepped on the scale the previous year and said to myself, that is it!

I am also happy to report that my workouts have continued this month. I have not missed a workout in 22 days. Even though this passed weekend was crazy busy with work travel, all day meetings and events and finally the college's commencement I still got my workouts in. As they say if it is important to you, you will do it, if not you will find an excuse!

It's time to keep moving.  Happy Monday!!  Enjoy your day!

20 days

This will be a quick entry, I have a very busy weekend ahead of me but I needed to share. I am right now in Boston and will be heading back to Ithaca in about an hour. I came into town last night for an event and need to head back for commencement weekend on campus. Life is a bit nonstop right now but I can't skip the workouts. I just got back from the hotel gym.

At the end of April I set a goal for myself to do some sort of physical activity every day during the month of May. We are 15 days in and I have done something every day. I have ran, bike, swam and walked my way through May. I am actually at 20 days because I had worked out the last 5 days of April too but who's counting??  ME!!

This weekend will be the challenge, today is done but tomorrow I will be in meetings all day long starting at 7:30 and will continue working until 10 pm. I am determined to do something. Who knows what Sunday will bring with a very early morning and I am sure I will be very tired by the time commencement is over.

Stay tuned but I think determination will carry me through this weekend.

The highs and lows of the weight loss challenge

I started to write this blog a week ago but throughout the week I would get home from work and be too tired to do anything. So today I thought I would take the time to sit down and finish this blog. Three weeks ago I shared with you a high ... I tried on a few of my tri suits and some of them were too big. So I decided I needed to order some new tri shorts and a top. I put the order in on the 19th of April and it was delivered to me by the 22nd. I was so excited to try on my new items until I took them out of the box!  I had ordered an XL in the shorts and top and if you don't mind I will preface the next scene by saying I hate trying on tri clothing. I took the shorts out of the box held them up and thought to myself "XL??? I don't think a doll could fit into these, I would love to see what an XS looks like". To make a long story short ... my self esteem came crashing down. I couldn't get the shorts on to save my life.

Now I know after years of doing triathlons and trying on shorts and tops, each clothing company cuts their items differently. So this particular brand isn't made for me ... it isn't made for a barbie doll either but that is besides the point. I know that the clothes I already have fit well and some are too big so I am going to try to remember that. I will also ship these items back and try a few others.

After that not so fun day I was out running errands and ended up near LL Bean. I thought I would run in and check out their flip flops. The flip flops didn't work out but before I exited the store a display of workout pants and tops caught my eye. I brought one size into the dressing room and realized that they were too big. I had to go and get a smaller size...back on a high.

So I am trying very hard to focus on the positive and not focus on the fact that the scale hasn't moved in over a month. I have been very frustrated about that but trying not to let it bother me. However, I know me and if this plateau continues everything I have worked for will begin to go backwards. I would get frustrated and start to not care. I have done too much and have worked t hard to let that happen. So I decided to take advantage of the gym where I work out. I work out in the wellness clinic on campus which is associated with the exercise science department. I met with an exercise specialist last week and we decided to change up my workouts that will kick things up a notch. I am committed because as much as the almighty number on the scale shouldn't affect me or rule me ... they do and I would like to see the numbers go down some more!!

The other numbers that rule my life are my diabetes numbers. My diabetes expert is still concerned about my numbers. The medication, exercise and diet is still not controlling my numbers enough. My body can not break down carbohydrates and it keeps my numbers really high. I have worked very hard at limited my carbohydrates...which are in everything ... but it is not easy, it is a lot of work.

My life has become controlled by numbers!! But I am not ready to give up!!

Some good numbers to report I have not missed a workout since April 26. I have done some sort of movement (swim, bike, run or walk) for the last 15 days. I am feeling good. I find my body hurts more when I miss workouts then when I workout. This coming week is going to be busy but I have already planned my workouts because it is important to me to get them in. I have found that making my workouts a regular part of my routine is what helps the most.

Here's to the highs and the lows!!