Day 1: Success!

So day 1 of the 21 day habit challenge (see previous post) went well! I tell you- all I need is a little accountability. Amazing how that works. Tell people you are going to do something and then you HAVE to. That and documenting it. I was glad that Jenn gave the little calendar to go with the challenge. Documenting progress will also ensure I do it. It's sort of like how I am about schedules. I will do whatever a schedule says to be able to check it off. (This goes under how I am about lists). So this challenge is sort of the same. If the calender is going to say 'down 5 lb' at the end, I know that that has to be accomplished somewhere in the middle, so the daily logging of weight helps me see this happen, and therefore I can check it off my list. See how that works?

So day 1 was a success, in that I avoided the ever-tempting junk food at work and home, and managed to stick to my planned meals and snacks. I suppose the part that wasn't a success was the initial 'weigh in'. Now I could have made this a qualitative challenge for myself, but I'm a numbers person. I wouldn't really feel like I had succeeded in the 'habit' of say, getting in better shape if it wasn't quantified somewhere. So ugh- here it is- initial weigh in 158.4.

So for success in the challenge my weight at 3:30pm on Sunday, November 9 has to be 153.4 or less. To clarify, this is possible (and not too extreme) for two reasons:
1) about three pounds is very recent weight. I usually find recent weight to be particularly easy to lose...almost like it hasn't entered your cells yet :) Now this isn't true, of course, and I'm not talking about water weight here....but for some reason weight that has only recently been gained is more easily lost. and,
2) I'm tall. 5'10" to be exact. Therefore for me five pounds isn't as much as it would be for someone who is 5'4". I can gain and lose 10 pounds at about the rate someone of that height can gain/lose 5. This is a blessing on the 'gain' side, as I can pretty much gain 10 lbs before it's obvious, but annoying when you can lose 10 lbs and no one can tell!

So yeah, it's possible, and I'll show you! :) This has come at the perfect time, and I found it so ironic that the Runners' Lounge post today (and leading up to Thursday's TiaRT discussion on weight loss and nutrition) touched on several of the things I need to work on to turn this into a real Habit. (The post itself even mentioned Jenn's challenge!).

To clarify one more thing- while I want to lose 5 (ok really 10) pounds, I by no means think I am overweight. I put myself in the 'few pounds to lose' category. Every inch taller someone is than someone else they should be around 5 lbs heavier, so if I'm 6 inches taller than someone of same build, I should be about 30 lb heavier....So no worries about a weight loss challenge going off the deep end! (Besides, I am way too much of a foodie).

What I really hope to accomplish is the habit of eliminating mindless eating and snacking on chips and sweets. This is where I REALLY sabotage myself. My meals are all healthy, I drink 80 ounces of water a day, and exercise. THEN I sit down to watch TV and munch away...so THAT is what I really hope changes. I think I need to keep some sugarless gum at home. Seriously. My brain associates TV with eating. And I know, I know, I shouldn't be rotting my brain with TV either, but cut me some slack...I work 80 hours a week and am trying to train for a marathon...I need some time to just veg out! :)

Ok- so on to yesterday's run. With all my new-found motivation for my diet, I had stuck to not snacking in the afternoon besides my designated afternoon snack of a quaker protein granola bar....which I ate immediately after lunch. This is another thing I need to change...by the time lunch comes I'm hungry, so I eat my lunch and my snack at the same time....now before lunch I have breakfast and a snack, but I'm at work for 7, so I'm starting to think maybe I should try more a.m. calories...But anyway- so I ate my 2:30 pm snack at 12:15...now I was looking at three hours before my run with no food! When this happens I usually eat a small, easily digestible snack right when I get home at 3, and then try to at least wait 30 minutes before running if it's a long run, short ones I find it doesn't bother me. (I have actually gone running out of guilt after complete pig-out sessions with no ill effects also).

Soooo, since I needed a small snack, and have been waiting for next weekend to try the gu, I figured what the heck. I felt kinda silly since I was only going 6 miles, but I sucked down the Chocolate Outrage flavor (and a small glass of water) and headed out. It was delicious! I was shocked. I thought it would taste disgusting. I found it to taste exactly like Betty Crocker chocolate frosting. Not sure how I'd feel about that after 10 miles, but before exercising it tasted great.

So I was curious to see if I would have a little energy boost about 25 minutes into my run, and I guess I did...it's hard to tell. Afternoons are REALLY bad for me in terms of feeling tired and sluggish, and my afternoon runs usually reflect that. The miles were 10:04, 9:27, 9:24, 9:24, 9:24, and 9:06. Now I would love to say it was perfect negative splits, but if you want to split hairs the second 9:24 mile was 9:24:59, so almost a second slower than the first one :)

Regardless, I'm happy with that, though the last mile was really tough for me. I can't wait to get some of these shorter runs back in the 8s, but I need to be patient, I suppose. (I did take four months off, and this is only my second month running again, so what can I expect?).