Wednesday, July 25, 2012

My Next Journey...

Day 1
I woke up this morning in a panic. My stomach felt awful and my pants just were way too tight! "This is it!" I thought. All my excuses for waiting till Monday were going to be thrown out the window. "If I wait till Monday," I thought, "I'll just keep eating like crap and gain more weight!"

Weight gain after competing a 70.3? YES!!! My scale had gone from the 150's to the 160's! How did this happen with all my training? Well let's just say training for all three sports added muscle (great!) while causing me to be more hungry (not so great!). I only ended up more hungry and oftentimes consuming more calories and, truth-be-told, not always the healthiest of choices on post-training meals. I also think what did it was making sure I was fueled before a training session. If I was going to ride the next day I'd eat a lot the night before and during the day before going out to ride in the evening.

Vineman was a real eye-opener for me. I felt very uncomfortable at T1 coming out of wet clothes and onto the bike. Wet spandex and having to move fast...not cute! I tried hard to lose before the race but it became such a challenge with my eating and being in a constant state of hunger. I tend to be ravenous days after a ride or long run.


I looked up the nearest Weight Watchers meeting that day and said, "That's it! I'm going!" I went and boy was the number on the scale bad. It was solid proof that I'd let things get out of hand. To be honest, I wasn't motivated after leaving. I couldn't stay for the meeting because of work which probably didn't help. The lack of motivation didn't come from the pounds I wanted to lose...27 to be exact for my optimum goal, 20 to feel more normal again, and just 12 to get back to my pre-training weight. My lack of motivation came from the fact that I'd been down this road so many times and have failed. Just look at the entries in my blog...two which I've written about in the past and have failed miserably. Is it embarrassing to post about this AGAIN? Yes! But the way I see it, it makes me human! I know there are people our there going through the same thing. Those who say, "This time is gonna be different." A few things I am doing differently already though is being more vocal about it. I talk openly with people to hold myself accountable. I've even shared with my co-workers and got someone to join again with me. It's a start and nice to have someone join me in the journey...here we go!  


Day 3
I'm officially on day 3 now of Weight Watchers! I have to admit, I actually enjoy running to my phone or computer to track what I eat. I try to track ahead of time so I know how many points I'm going to have but i seem to know roughly what things are and point range. Guess you can say I've been here a time or two...okay three. Surprisingly I'm doing well and staying within  my points and feeling very satisfied with my food. Although Weight Watchers allows you to eat whatever you want within reason based on a points system,  I've chosen to stick mostly with clean meals and snacks. Salads, fruits and veggies, and lean meats. This type of eating is easy for me since I do genuinely enjoy healthy foods.
One challenge did come today though and is going to be for the remainder of my journey...healthy fueling for endurance sports. I did an intense 24 mile ride on water and two Nuun tablets (sugar-free electrolytes). I don't want to do my normal gu's and gels because they're so unnatural so of course I suffered keeping my endurance levels up. To counter this I've purchased a book called The Feed Zone, recipes for endurance athletes. Most of the ingredients are clean and will more than likely help me with my fueling struggles. Now it's finding the time to make these and calculating points. It's a learning process that I will have venture through. Till next time..keep in tracking!

Day 5...technically 6The weekend was tough for me which I knew would be the ultimate test for me. The weekends are always hard because I always seem to have something going on. I had two events in one day...an Angel game and a birthday party. I did well on my activity though...I ran a 10K Saturday and did a short recovery run on Sunday.

The game was great and I managed to wait until we left to eat but I did let loose and have a few beers. The drinking continued at the birthday party. I ate well until I ruined it with some Asian cracker mix and a Twizzler. I tracked every bit of it. I was proud that I didn't go overboard but disappointed  that I hadn't stuck to my trying to eat clean. I can tell alcohol consumption is going to be the hardest part of this journey since I enjoy a few drinks on the weekend. I guess if I try to keep it to a minimum and put in the work at the gym I should be okay. We'll find out at weigh in. 

No comments:

Post a Comment