First 5K

Finished my first 5K today (well, first *real* 5K--I ran one years ago and didn't formally register and had bronchitis and undiagnosed asthma, so I'm counting this as my first real one). Yep--I FINISHED. :)

I also won the overall women's division, with a time of 28:02. (All the faster women runners were competing in the 10K, but I STILL WON.) According to my MotoActv, the race was actually 3.32 miles, which meant my average pace was 8:27 minutes/mile. As far as personal bests, I ran my first mile in 7:54 minutes. THAT'S FAST, y'all. Although I progressively got slower, I'm still really proud of myself and excited about the possibility in competing in more 5Ks. My slowest mile was only 9:06, and at 3.10 miles (an actual 5K), my time was 26:25 minutes.

Obviously, I'm extremely proud of myself, and excited about my capability to run now that I'm properly medicated with regards to my asthma.

I'm also excited about my award, which wasn't a medal, but was a stretched canvas poster of today's event. A big one. And it's allllll mine. :D

Progress (measurements)

Lately I've been adding foods in no particular order, although I'm definitely still following the "rules": I don't add anything that's in the same food family within five days of the other, I still space them out, and I monitor my weight religiously to make sure I'm not sensitive to the food. The past 24 hours, I've added in black pepper and strawberries. Neither caused a reaction, and I'm happy to be able to add them to my "safe" foods list, although they're not absolutely necessary. Tonight I ate ONE STEM of broccoli (which didn't make me gain weight last time) and got terrible gas--I recall having gas last time, and apparently that's not a normal reaction to broccoli (which is just what I wrote it off as). :) That makes several foods that I really can't eat without gastric distress. These foods are:

1) Caffeine
2) Wheat
3) Sweet potatoes (but not normal potatoes--weird, huh?)
4) Broccoli
5) Cashews (I'm allergic to peanuts, so I guess it stands to reason)
6) Milk (although I think I'm going to introduce lactose-free milk tomorrow and see what happens)

Some foods I'm not necessarily SENSITIVE to but that I like to stay away from are butter and onions, because I don't like how they make me feel.

As far as weights, this morning I weighed in at 108.2 and this evening I weighed 108.6 lbs. I also finally took some measurements of my body this morning, and my progress looks like this:

Obviously this is a huge difference, and great progress in such a small period of time. At this point, I'm not even TRYING to lose weight. I'm just following my diet and working my ass off in the gym, and the weight just keeps coming off. I've decided to revamp my program to focus on really gaining muscle and cutting fat (rather than focusing on weight like I've been), so I'm going to be researching how to do that.

I've already discussed my training this morning, but here are my charts with regard to exercise and diet, respectively:

Also, today I did something big: I registered for a 5K. It's only my second one, and the first time, I was an undiagnosed asthmatic, ran with bronchitis, and wanted to die. My time was around 33 minutes, if I recall correctly. This time, I'd REALLY love to run a 27 minute 5K, but I'll settle for under 30. :) I'm going to be training for this in the gym and outside too, and I'm really excited--but I don't have much time! It's going to be on March 9! (Wish me luck.)

Elimination Diet: Week One Review

When I decided to start the elimination diet, it was because I was working my ass off in the gym and not seeing results on the scale. Although I know we all like to repeat the mantra that muscle weighs more than fat, the fact remained that I spent eight weeks working out and restricting my calories only for my weight to go UP rather than down.

I had already begun to suspect that I was sensitive to some food I was consuming on a regular basis. Then the week before I started the diet, I went to a Mexican restaurant with my boyfriend, and experienced fatigue, headaches, and severe stomach issues for several days (not one day, mind you). I have always dealt with stomach problems, namely those related to GERD and something akin to IBS. Whenever I ate, I would run to the toilet. Whenever I got stressed, I would run to the toilet. It seemed like I was running to the toilet all the time.

After I read the initial article about Dr. Mansfield's diet, I was skeptical. There weren't many book reviews because this book was only recently released (I think maybe in October?). I also couldn't get immediate hold of it because it was mainly released overseas. However, I found a blogger, Blissful Mama, who was trying out the diet. She wasn't being paid, and her opinions were all her own. And she is really the one who solidified this idea that I should try it as well. So I bought the book.

I'm not going to kid you and say this week has been a cakewalk. The first day was miserable, running to the toilet every 15 minutes as a result of the Epsom salts. Then the food hankerings started. I wanted eggs. And milk. And bread, for God's sake! And I quickly tired of lentils, and pineapple, and lentils. And cod. (If I never have to see cod for as long as I live, I will be a happy girl.) Being from Louisiana, I craved garlic and onion powder. I wanted to douse everything in pepper. I wanted whip out my trusty container of Tony's and sprinkle it on EVERYTHING.

But I didn't. Because I wanted this diet to work. And so far? IT HAS. Below are my statistics regarding my weight throughout the week.

I've lost FIVE pounds. IN SEVEN DAYS. It's a post-Christmas miracle! But the work isn't done. The next couple of weeks marks the second phase of the diet, in which I slowly reintroduce foods. As I said in my previous post, I got to eat broccoli tonight, and you've NEVER seen someone so happy to eat her broccoli.

I'm not going to lie. I'm TERRIFIED at the thought of having a reaction to dairy. Or eggs. Or wheat. Or yeast. But I'm also not exactly welcoming of the thought that I'm slowly poisoning my body with things it reacts violently to. I've got an allergy test scheduled for next week, which means I might have to wait a few days to rid myself of the subsequent allergic reactions that are sure to ensue following those tests before introducing any new foods. That's not the most exciting prospect either. :-/

Regardless, the first week of this diet has proven to me that SOMETHING in my diet is causing my inability to lose weight and my gastric distress. I've already committed this much time and trouble, so I'm going to stick with it and see how the next month and a half goes.

Body Shots - 1/21/2013 - Gauging where I'm at

I looked high and low for a swimsuit, but they're all packed up. Thus, I picked some boyshorts and a matching top to take these pictures in (which are actually probably more covering than a swimsuit!).

As the caption says, I've been working out for about eight weeks--I started on November 27 (after gorging myself on EVERYTHING). I hope to have a lot more definition by the time summer rolls around, and I'd LOVE to have some cuts in my legs.

Compared to where I was 8 weeks ago, I look TONS better. :) I wish I had some proper before pictures to display.

A little about me + goals/measurements

Although I've blogged before, I've been strictly anonymous and like to write about my rants and raves. I've been wanting to write more about my progress to getting back into shape, but my other blog is not the venue in which others may appreciate it. Therefore, I created this blog to foster a sense of accountability in my workouts, to track my achievements and failures, and also to possibly help others as they try to achieve their own goals.

I'm a lawyer by trade, although since I've graduated from law school and passed the bar, I've been woefully unemployed. I'm from the great state of Louisiana, where the general attitude is that people live to eat, rather than eat to live. I'm unashamedly of the former group, and will not lie--I lerrrrve food. I'm not in terrible shape, and I'm not overweight or anything more than average. But I'm tired of being average. I want to look great. I want to feel great. And I want to do so in such a manner than is SUSTAINABLE, not just something that happens once a year after I cut out ALL THE THINGS that I want to eat. 

I will admit that I've gained about five pounds since I graduated from law school, and I don't like it. I'm five foot two, and five pounds shows up. This was the main motivator to get back into the gym, but now I think I really need to kick it into high gear. I'll be posting some pictures of me in a swimsuit in the next few days so as to watch my progress, and my weight/measurements/goals are listed below.

Goals:

(1) Eliminate overly-processed foods from my diet 6 days out of the week. 

(2) Cook at home more often. 

(3) Lose about ten pounds.

(4) Eventually see lower ab definition.

(5) Identify food sensitivities and work to avoid them.

(6) Experiment with diverse foods.

(7) Get to less than 20% body fat. 

Body Part Measured	01/19/2013
Weight	118
Chest	33
Waist	25.25
Hips	37
Bicep (unflexed)	L: 10         R: 10
Bicep (flexed)	L: 10.75    R: 10.75
Calf	13
Thigh (top)	L: 21.5      R: 22
Thigh (above knee)	15
BMI	21.6