Whoops, neglected the blog, not the regime.

Life update:

My shopaholism has actually been relatively in control! I'm able to resist buying clothes since I am now getting into the sizes that I used to fit into a couple years ago, and I don't want to go shopping until I am no longer planning on shrinking out of a given size. Go team!

I kept up with my running and some sightseeing when I went to visit Damien in London in mid-August (which is about when I stopped updating the blog), including some lovely views when I was in Greenwich park, and I also hit up my last Jazzercise class for a while.

I moved in to my grad dorm here at UMaine, and started up a really good schedule to keep myself working out- running on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and going to Spin on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also have an abs class I go to on Tuesdays, and need to get my butt in gear and start up the ten minutes three times a week I need to do a little pushup program.   Occasionally, I hit up Yoga, Circuit Training or Zumba, too, but not regularly!

I ran my first 5K race in September, the 65 Roses in Portland. I had a personal record- 29:12 was the official time- which was amazing! I immediately started training up for a 10K- I signed up for one in Lowell, MA called "Thanks-4-Giving" on Thanksgiving morning- and just ran my first 10K distance this afternoon. I actually did 6.38 miles in 60 minutes, 6.4mph pace! Now I need to keep it up and figure out a new goal time for my actual race, since my goal was to do 6.2 in under an hour on race day (mile 6.25 was at 59 minutes on my run).

I've recently been pseudo-plateaued, I've lost a total of 2 pounds over the entire month of October, so I decided to go over my plan but under my maintenance last week while Damien was visiting and for Halloween, and this week I'm increasing my plan to 1 pound a week weight loss instead of 1.5.  I hope that this will help kickstart my metabolism a bit, I'm officially at the "ten pounds to go" stage of my weight loss journey, and I want to be at my goal or within one or two pounds of it by Christmas break so that I can overhaul my wardrobe appropriately!

Now let's see if I remember to update this a little bit more regularly :-)

Zzz...

I am so exhausted right now from getting up too early. I went to bed about forty-five minutes earlier than usual to compensate for getting up forty-five minutes earlier, but my mental block is more like a titanium brick.  6am is early, 5am is just unheard of.

However, the good news about getting up so early and going for my run is that I was able to breathe, and feel comfortable moving on to week 5, day 1 of the C25K program. I think Friday will have to be another early morning to get that in before I leave for my last day of my internship!
I am sooooo ready for my vacation.  I hope Dames doesn't mind if I totally zonk out on him a lot while I'm visiting.

I'm also excited to see if I have more energy when I start at UMaine; I should be able to get enough sleep on a regular basis, and still work out, go to class, do homework, etcetc. It just gets to be more on my schedule, which has become increasingly more apparent to be a necessity.

Goals, goals, goals

I decided to separate this one from the negativity of my spending.  Even though my finances need serious help, my diet and exercise are going AMAZINGLY.

I lost three pounds over the last week, breaking my lovely run of "lose a pound, wait two weeks, lose a pound."

I'm also moving on to longer running periods in C25K. I'm on week four now, which is 3 min run, 90 second walk, 5 min run, 2.5 min walk, 3 min run, 90 second walk, 5 min run. I did that Sunday afternoon at my grandparents' house, and then jumped in the pool after my cool-down walk (my face felt like it was going to explode, it was so hot and humid, so the pool was wonderful!).  That jump made me realize, "hey... the hardest thing for me is running. Once I can run a 5K, what's really stopping me from a triathlon?"  So I decided that I will start swimming, spinning classes, and eventually outdoor biking once I get back to school. If I work at it slowly, I should be able to do one next summer! 

I also spent a good chunk of time yesterday looking up potential races to do.  When I get back from London, I'll gather some crafting supplies and turn it into a "wish board."  Things going on that include a couple more 5Ks, (aside from the 65 Roses one I've already signed up for), some 10Ks closer to next summer (like the Beach to Beacon), triathlons for late summer/early fall, and the one that will be my CROWNING (get it?) glory- the Disney Princess Half Marathon. I'm aiming for the February 2012 race, because I really, really want the tiara.

I actually was quite energetic Saturday morning when I got up to go to Jazzercise.  I found that I didn't feel like I got the same amount out of it, since I had only done one of the routines in the past. Different locations with different instructors mean that you do different songs, so I couldn't anticipate the patterns or the moves as easily so had to do a little more following and a little less oomph. 
Yesterday's run was TOUGH. I seriously think I was starting to have an asthma attack, but with only a minute left in my last interval, I didn't want to stop. Definitely a poor choice, but I made it through and was able to breathe again with the cool-down walk. I'm going to have to get up early tomorrow to go out in the morning when it is cooler and less humid; 6 o'clock yesterday evening was 88 degrees with high humidity, tough on the people in the best of shape, let alone a newbie runner with mild breathing problems!

The schedule for the rest of this week is:
Tuesday- Jazzercise
Wednesday- C25K, W4D3
Thursday- Jazzercise
Friday- C25K, either W4D3 if I think I need a repeat, or W5D1; a bit of treading water and chilling at my grandparents' pool.
Saturday- leaving on a jet plane!!

Running next week should be much easier, London has been having 70-75 degree weather lately.

Not your Frugal Fanny...

What IS it about things being "discounted" or "on sale" that makes me go crazy?? Honestly. I could be in the Olympics- if they had a sports category for "justifying expenses."  This last weekend, I took my parents out to dinner, I bought my grandma a gift card for her birthday, I got a few more things for back-to-school, I got another one of my magical sports bras (seriously- it accounts for cup size, and you can adjust the band AND the straps; it's fantastic), and I'm about to get some gift cards for my aunt and uncle since they have been so great to let me stay with them this summer. All reasonable-to-necessary expenses.  Then I got a pair of ballet flats. Okay, that one was alright, but not the greatest expense- I was planning on buying two new pairs for back-to-school since three of my pairs are about to be out of commission.

Then I bought a Nook with a cute cover. This is where my mentality was starting to get warped.  I've known for several months that when I have the money I would get a Nook.  I don't have the money.  But I convinced myself that because I'd be traveling to London, and would want to be able to have an eReader, and when I read books on my iPod it really makes it die faster, and since I use my iPod for so much other stuff, like LoseIt! and C25K, that it was better if I got the Nook before I went. And the cover was necessary, and it was okay to get THAT instead of borrow my mom's because they only had the display model and they gave me a 20% discount.

I am officially going on a payment plan and strict budget when I move in to school, and I am going to try to buy almost nothing this week and when I'm in London. My mentality about money needs a serious overhaul before I get in serious trouble- I'm getting to be too grown up to have my parents bail me out if I get in a tough spot because I'm being frivolous!

Let me eat cake!

I missed my run on Monday night; I went to see Inception (I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed the film, by the way) with some friends, and the 7:15 showing worked best for them. I was going to go for a run when I got back from the movie, but after dropping the guys all off, it was 10:20 at night, a little too late and a little too dark.

Since I have a rule- "Don't make plans that make you cancel your exercise"- and I broke it, I had to pay for it by getting up wicked early Tuesday morning.  I like working out, since it makes me feel great, but I do NOT like getting up around 5:30 in the morning.  It was a lovely and cool morning run though, and I was going to add on one minute of jogging before taking a four-minute cooldown walk.  I didn't check the time until I'd added a full three minute interval of running on, which was amazing- I definitely felt like I could've kept going.

I also did Jazzercise on Tuesday night, so I was EXHAUSTED by the time I got to bed, and super tired all of Wednesday. 

We had an end-of-summer BBQ for the interns. I would have done SO WELL, but for the cake! It was chocolate and had two layers and yummy frosting... I was going to cut a piece and half and take half, but didn't want to leave a half of a piece (silly, I know), so I took a full one. I felt satisfied after half, but it just looked soooo yummy there on my plate.  I actually felt a little ill for the rest of the day after I finished it, since it was 90, humid, and I was overly full!

That cake might just be the only thing that got me out of the house to go running yesterday evening; I was literally falling asleep, then Damien told me I should go for my run or I'd be upset with myself (he was right). At 9PM I hauled my butt out the door... and felt like I was stepping into a SAUNA. It was still over 80 degrees out, with at least 65% humidity (having trouble finding the exact), an hour after sunset. I didn't go quite as far, maybe because of the dark and humidity, or maybe because I ran two days in a row, but I still added in an extra three minute jog before I finished.

Despite caking out, I dropped another half-pound or more from two days ago, bringing my total this week to 2, which is fabulous. I've been worrying a little bit, since it seemed like I was losing maybe a pound every other week.

Money spending... I talked myself out of a cute dress at the Express Outlet. It was summery, green, and adorable, but I didn't really have the forty bucks for it and should start looking into fall and TA-appropriate clothing. I did, however, buy a cute short-sleeve pink sweater that I'm already wearing at work right now. $17 and I will definitely wear it a lot :-)  It's a good thing I don't pop up to the outlets on my lunch breaks more often!

Oh, Mothers

My workout schedule has been going strong, which is excellent! I did Week 3, Day 1 of C25K on Saturday morning, and even lengthened a running interval a bit (ninety seconds to 2 minutes 15 seconds) and added another minute-long run interval using the first minute of the cool-down walk. It seemed silly to me to do a 3 minute walking interval, and then do a 5 minute cool-down walk, so I think I'll keep that up for the next two days of this week.

This was also the first week that I came in under what LoseIt! displays as my budget, which is pretty amazing. I purposefully set my deficit lower to account for the fact that I would likely go over by about 500 calories a week, so I'm impressed that I was able to stay under! I'm sure my hours of walking around Boston yesterday, including going through the aquarium (and watching the penguins for likely a good hour), helped a ton- I only put it in as "household walking" for three hours, even though it was more strenuous than that and for a good five to six hours.

I'm addicted to caffeine, apparently. That's no good... drinking a cup of coffee was the only way to make my killer headache go away after I got in yesterday. I thought I was dehydrated, so I drank a ton of water and took some ibuprophin and took a ten minute nap, but it was still throbbing strong a couple hours later, soothed only with my lovely iced concoction. If it was sugar-induced... well, my chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles and m'n'ms was well worth the punishment (I only ate the top part that had the frosting, though).

While my intake and output this past week was pretty fantastic for me (1700 exercise calories), my spending was sub par.  I bought a bunch of stuff that was on my list for back-to-school, eliminated other items off my list, and came under budget with all that. I registered my car, which cost a pretty penny. I treated my family to dinner, which wasn't as expensive as I was anticipating. And let's not talk about that ticket I got... :-\

The unexpected expense was my stop at Old Navy with my mom. She has this unique habit of being able to talk me into buying almost anything- she almost got me to purchase a pair of WHITE shorts! The style was adorable, but I would never buy white shorts; I am truly her daughter, and have an awesome knack for dropping stuff on myself, or sitting in stuff, or just mysteriously getting dirty, so white is just a very poor bottom color choice. Not the greatest for the top, either, come to think of it.  I was going to buy only one item, and use my 30% off coupon, but ended up with a cardigan, a tank top, a tee shirt and a pair of khaki bermudas, and kindly picked up a tee for my little brother. Not a total bank-breaking trip, since everything was on sale, but definitely more than anticipated.

I REALLY need to get my butt in gear with this whole "sticking to a budget" thing.  I'm thinking it might be smarter to start that once I've moved in to school- a new place with new spending habits, hopefully leaning towards a bit more frugality.  And I also won't have the dorm-furnishing, car-registering purchases that I am currently plagued with.

JazzBunnie

So today was Jazzercise, and an auditor was visiting (to make sure the instructors are instructing well). Having her watch was definitely good pressure to put even more oomph into the workout, since I was dragging a bit as I walked in to class.

Bunnie- yes, BunnIE- pulled aside me and three other girls after class and solicited us to consider becoming Jazzercise instructors, whilst expressing her happy surprise at the number of us that had potential in the class (I guess they don't frequently get young, energetic people in the classes).  She also suggested that, if I were to become an instructor, that I could start classes up at grad school since they don't have them anywhere near there already.

I'll be honest, this is something I'd been thinking of trying to do for a while. Wouldn't it be so fun to earn money while working out?

The catch is that you have to "buy into the franchise" to be an instructor. So while in one respect, this would be a great time to go to training, and start Jazzercise at the gym at my school, in another respect, it's a terrible time. I don't think I really have the right amount to invest- if I COULD get the money, would I really have the time to make it all back?

Definitely something I'm going to keep considering! And I'm pretty flattered that she pulled me aside, that's for darn sure :-)

Yesterday: C25K, Week 2 Day 2- pretty decent, though my route was really messed up since I kept tripling back over stretches of the run to get more shade, which meant I didn't go as far. I decided to go over a bit with the calories yesterday because I really fancied one of my light Klondike bars, and now I'm accidentally pretty far under today, so that all worked out just fine!

Today's lesson: don't chop up your banana unless you're going to eat it immediately or unless you really want to eat a pile of brown mush.