Things I'm doing...

Things are doing!

I have prepped breakfast and lunch foods for the week. 
I have tracked my food. 
Still working on prepping my weight lifting area. 
The weight lifting schedule is waiting for it's area to be prepped.
I have been walking at least 10,000 steps per day (except for the traumatizing Tuesday where I left my Fitbit at home *gasp*) 
I've made some progress on cleaning and laundry.  The house is looking much better and the areas that look a bit chaotic are like that while organizing other stuff :)

During a fun time at a Stitch and Bitch at Alex's place with Vicky, we talked about things that work for us and I brought up how I feel that weekends are my weakest point.  I do very well during the week because of the structure and then the whole thing goes to shit when that bell rings and the end of the day on Friday.

So this last weekend I decided to try adding more structure by making a schedule.  I wrote down a schedule making sure I included meals, vitamins and approximate times. I set my alarm and I woke up at 8am on Saturday and 9:30 am on Sunday.  A little bit of a sleep in, but not too overboard.  I made a lot of progress on the cleaning/organizing of the house.  By the end of the weekend, my weight had still gone up a bit, but I'd like to think that it's a work in progress.

The most important part of the weekend was that I went back to my Weight Watchers meeting for the first time since August.  It was the 9:15 meeting, I used to go to the 12:15 meeting, and I remember the 9:15 was really busy, boy that hasn't changed!

It was traumatizing!  It was chaos!  People everywhere, all sorts of lines as they tried to set up a new system and worst of all, my file was "retired" to the archives section.  Basically I've been gone so long it's like I've never existed to them... even if I still paid for those 3 months I missed.  Oh well, starting from scratch is what I need.

This weekend the new plan will be revealed, but I think it's already been revealed online.  Looks good. I like the website re-vamp and it seems a bit easier to use.  

More changes and progress to come from me, so stay tuned!

Things...

Things haven't been great:
Low iron
Missed WW meetings since August
Week 5 of a bad coughing flu starts tomorrow
Weight gain
House a mess
1000 dollar car repair

Not all things are bad, but they've been better. I've decided to change the things i can control and other stuff should eventually fall back into place.

Things I'm gonna do:
Prep breakfast and lunch foods for the week.
Track my food.
Prep my weight lifting area.
Commit to a weight lifting schedule.
Start walking at least one km per day on the treadmill and increase my distance as time goes by.
Cook more WW recipes to replace my favorite dishes with healthier versions.
Create a cleaning schedule so that I won't get overwhelmed with chores again.
Commit to getting more sleep.
And most of all put more structure into my weekend so that I don't ruin my weeks progress.

So far I've prepped my weeks worth of meals and I've begun to wrangle the house back into order. It's not going to happen overnight but I hope to be implementing my new workout schedule next week.

Iron Acquired! But supplies running out...

I got two refills of inject-able Iron on Wednesday, but the Pharmacist pulled me aside to tell me that they expire on September 1st 2012.   So I have to use them up fairly quick-like otherwise they seem to think various body parts will fall off... or something equally horrible.  I'm running pretty low (or at least it really feels that way) so I reassured the pharmacist that I would take both dosages a week apart and that should be OK since I haven't had any for over a year.  He didn't seem worried... just walked away nodding.  How reassuring!

The fact that they sent me soon to be expired medication leads me to believe that this pharmacy will most likely run out of injectable iron as well.  FRIG!

*stomps feet*
*holds breath*
*temper tantrum on the floor*

*sigh*

Ok, that didn't resolve anything, but the whining about it helps ME feel better LOL

I'll worry about the lack or iron in another month or so when I try and get more, but I know it's going to be a big pain in the butt :(

I need ideas for my Zombie costume for the upcoming Zombie race... I'm drawing a blank... must need iron... there's iron in brains right?   BRAIIIINS!  *stumble, stumble, shuffle, shuffle*

Ironing out the details...

I saw my family doctor (finally!) for a physical after almost 3 years.  Yeah, they are supposed to be yearly, however her office has a weird system wherein you have to phone every morning after 8:30 and see if she has any open spots... regardless of what the issue, or non-issue until you can get an appointment.  In my previous job is was difficult to get an appointment, not because my boss would want more notice (she was aware of the difficulties), but because it was difficult for me to remember or have the free time to call at 8:30.  I start work at 7:30, therefore by 8:30 my day is in full swing and I'm not thinking of physicals.

Apparently time flies, and while time was flying I did nothing to rectify my lack of follow up for a yearly physical.  I'm not on any meds really, and the one prescription I have for inject-able Iron was still valid... or so I thought.  I mentioned in a previous post that I'm starting to feel run down and tired all the time... again which is an indication that I should gear up and start taking iron regularly again.  So I went to my pharmacy and their one supplier was closed down and the other was out of stock... so I needed a new prescription and a alternative to the first iron prescribed.

For some reason I believed bringing up my iron levels would let me coast for several more years without having issues... DUH!!!  I'm not usually that stupid, but this is a mix of stupid, procrastination and time really does fly!  I seriously thought it had only been a year and change, possibly close to 2 years... not close to 3 years!!!  So super bad me!  *SPANK*  Part of the procrastination is due to the fact that giving myself these injections always produces a really ugly looking blotch on my leg that looks like a bruise... vanity can lead women to do stupid things... I am living proof!

In the end I did see my family doc, all is well except for the tired part (it's already tough to get out for run in the best of conditions, never mind low iron me) she poked, she prodded and she pronounced me good to go with a new prescription for Iron with the warning that I might have to change pharmacies if my current one's suppliers still couldn't fill it.  After work yesterday I went to my pharmacy:  no iron available for the foreseeable future.  I almost cried, I was stuck in traffic for 40 mins to get there, plus low iron me is extra emotional.  I went home, ate some pizza and resolved to call around to every pharmacy if needed to get some iron.  So today before calling everyone in the world, I went to the pharmacy in the mall attached to my work building and success!  They will have some iron as soon as next week.  YAY! and PHEW!

While I wait for iron, I get to enjoy a long weekend of cleaning and hopefully some walks/runs and some crafting thrown in for good measure.

My poor neglected blog!

I haven't posted here in forever!  *If* anyone is still reading this... I apologize for the absence.  I guess I just didn't have anything to say or didn't feel like saying it here. 

Let's see... since my last post at the beginning of  May what's new?

- In mid-May I changed jobs @ work.  Still work in the same branch, just a different division and a more technical type job.  Going from reporting on IT outages to working in a group that does mainframe support.  It's a steep learning curve, but I'm really enjoying all this new stuff to learn :)

- I ran the 10km on May 26th right at the end of being off for a week with bronchitis.  Finish time 1:46:06, which considering I was only able to actually run the first 5km and hobble, speedwalk and cough my way across the finish after the last 5km, I'm not gonna complain.  Just kept telling myself that all I wanted was to finish under 2 hours before they closed the race... and I did it.  Next year I should be able to beat that time no problemo!!

- On June 23rd I ran 8km Perth Kilt Run.  I felt much better than when I did the 10km in May, but I still hadn't pumped up my mileage enough to be my usual Speedy Gonzales (HA!) so I finished with a decent time of 1:25. 

- In July I don't have any races and there are none in August either so I'm taking advantage of this time to try and switch up my diet to remove as many carbs as possible without making myself insane (white carbs mostly like sugar, flour, rice & pasta)  It's been a week and so far I haven't assaulted anyone... stay tuned :D

Upcoming races:
- 5km on Saturday September 22nd - Zombie run in Orillia Ontario
- 5km on Sunday September 23rd - Army Run in Ottawa Ontario
- 5km on Sunday September 30th - Run for the Cure (Breast Cancer Awareness)
- 5km or 10km (undecided) on Sunday October 21st - Rattle me Bones Halloween Run

I'm not Iron Man!

I'm not referring to the sporting event, cause ya know i'm not ready for that kind of level of fitness!

I'm referring to the lack of iron in my body... so tired all the time.

I have done almost no training since beginning of March, but tonight I did 4km.

I'm ordering some iron and be damned splotchy legs, I can't have it all obviously :(

I'm not strong, but I'm not gone!

Aaaaaaand 2012 race season begins!

The 30 for 30 challenge ended shortly after the holidays and I think all said and told it went well.  I came back from Xmas vacation and had actually lost weight.  However, having a few days off before going back to work and being exhausted from a 12 hr drive I convinced myself I "deserved" some time off and some time to "eat whatever I wanted"  double whammy kiss of death.  I feel off the wagon hard, got stuck in a puddle of mud and wallowed there for awhile.

When I finally awoke from my calorie induced coma, I decided it was the usual:  not really worth it in the long run and I can't really live that way full time.  I am going to have to weigh and measure everything I eat for the rest of my natural life.  Once they jar my head in pickle brine I can hit the chocolate croissants, but until then I have to try and live the Weight Watcher lifestyle as much as possible.  It's not to say that I won't fall off the wagon again, but I plan to jog behind it and not loose it from sight.  Man, I sound like a broken record.  It's the definition of insanity:  doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

So to avoid being defined as "insane" I decided to take a leap.  No, not a leap off a bridge LOL  I was never that depressed about some weight re-gain.  Bummed and resigned was more the state of mind.  What I did to kick things up a notch was to sign up for a race... a 10km race!  *gulp*  I need to focus on training for something again and since I've run 5km races for the last 2 years I decided that 10km was not only a challenge that I was ready for but a challenge that would help me with my weight loss and my running speed.

It stands to reason that more training mileage (from 15km a week to 40km a week) will burn more calories, which will make me loose weight, which will hopefully also help me speed up.  That's my theory anyway :)

Stay tuned!