On My Way to Butterfly

This past Sunday, Bridget and I competed in the YWCA Winter Indoor Tri.  The event includes a 600 yard pool swim, 10 miles on a spin bike and then 2 miles running on the track.  Even though I was a little under the weather, we had an awesome race!

I felt great swimming, but felt my throat and chest burning when I got out of the pool- sore throat from a bad cold turned into fire!  Later I found out I was 26 seconds faster than last spring, so that was fun news.  When I went to transition, I couldn’t get my capri pants on! I was soaking wet and they are tight and it took me almost a minute longer than my past transition to get them on! I used the first part of the bike to catch my breath, fix my hair and relax a little.

After finishing 10 miles in a super quick time (the metrics on these bikes are very generous), I hopped off and had a great run.  I ran the 2 miles in 23:43, which is about 90 seconds faster than last spring and slightly below my 12 minutes/mile pace.  It’s pretty cool to me that I was below my 12 minute pace because I had just finished swimming and biking!

What a fun day!

I am so excited! My first tri in 2012 is this coming Sunday at the YWCA Midtown.  It’s a 600 yard swim, 10 mile bike and 2 mile run, which is a great way to kick off the season.

Although I haven’t been swimming a ton, I have made it in the pool a few times already and have been running 3 times a week.

After this, there is a 5k in February, an event or two in March and April, a 10k in May (wowzer!) and then triathlons in June and August.  I am PUMPED

Where to start?

I received a quick note from Amy today, part of the dynamic duo who literally forced me to get active after 5 years of being a sloth (January 2010). She wanted to know why I haven’t blogged in a month.

Because I’m fat! There, I said it  I have been working out a ton (Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred, kettlebells, spin class and running), but have been an absolute horrible eater.  I read online today that 70% of weight loss and maintenance is about eating right and 30% is about activity. Those numbers aren’t in my favor at the time being.

People always say it’s really hard to lose weight and really hard to eat healthy.  Well, listen up- IT’S NOT HARD!!!  You know what you should eat and what you shouldn’t.  When you fine tune that with serving sizes and reading nutrition labels…you’re like 95% of the way there.  With that said, somehow I just haven’t been following the basics at all.

One issue lately has been SUGAR.  I have been eating so much sugar (cookies, cakes, candy, pecan pie, lemon bars, etc.) that I feel addicted at the moment!  I just “can’t” control myself.  (“Can’t” is in parenthesis because seriously…it’s just willpower!!)

Now that I’ve rambled on a bit…I am going to start with a small goal.  Really limit my sugar for the next few weeks!  Maybe I can accomplish this one…

Wow, proclamation sounds serious, right?  Exactly what I am going for.  It’s time to get back on the bandwagon of eating well and moving a ton.  I have been debating how I would share this progress via blog as the number on the scale is something I feel uncomfortable putting online, so here’s what I came up with-

Today, I weighed myself in at XXX.X lbs. This number is 11.4 lbs higher than where I was sitting for quite some time after losing weight.  11.4 lbs might not seem like a ton of gain, but I also feel like my muscles are less toned, so it feels more like a 15-17 lb gain.

I am going to start posting weekly if not more what my weight is an I’ll just say how much it’s up or down from where I am today.  I am weighing myself in the AM fully clothed with wet hair.

My goal for these first 11.4 lbs is by January 29th (doing an Indoor Tri that day).  Hopefully after I hit that goal, I can set a few more