Questions, High Heels, Laundry & Chuck Norris

First, I want to thank everyone for their very nice comments on Friday's post (Fat A$$ Friday...From There to Here). It has been an amazing journey!

If I inspired just one person then I feel like the post did it's job. Please, don't ever give up on your dreams!

To answer a couple questions I got about that post and my weight loss-

No. I did not get gastric bypass surgery. While this may be a viable option for some, it was not for me. I think that GBS is not always successful at addressing the reasons you got fat in the first place. If you do not learn new behaviours and/or change the destructive ones, then you will not be successful with long term success. I feel that getting healthy requires a lifestyle overhaul. My experience in medicine has shown me first hand that some medical practices are all too willing to push this procedure through the insurance companies and the therapy, counseling, nutritional education procedures that used to be in place prior to surgery are no longer a priority. Money is. This is my opinion and yours may differ-and that is OK. I am just very passionate about doing it in the healthiest way possible.

No. I did not take diet pills or any other kind of dietary "supplements" such as fat burners. I lost the weight by changing what I was eating and by getting my fat ass off the couch. I slowly switched over to a lifestyle of eating clean foods (meaning unprocessed), I started eating every couple of hours and drinking water. I also cut out all alcohol.

How did I start with exercise? Exercise was a slow start for me-I stared with walking on the TM at the gym and then slowly progressed from there. Lola was a c-section baby so that also contributed to a slow start. Once I started weight training, my body really started changing shape.
I am a huge advocate of circuit training! Love her or hate her, Jillian Michael's was a life saver for me at the start. My first intro to circuit style training and weights were with her DVD's and her book, Making the Cut. I learned SO much from her about how to workout to maximize fat loss and how to eat. She used to have a really great radio show on KFI but it is no longer on.
Still to this day I utilize her basic set ups for my circuits/weight training (resistance exercises x 2 with 2 cardio/plyo bursts then one ab/core exercise). I write up 5 circuits and do each one twice. It usually takes an hour or so.

How long did it take me to lose the weight? It took me about 14 months. I have been at my current weight since April of 2010. Yes, I did this with a newborn baby as a new Mommy. Yes, my husband was incredibly supportive.

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I got out Sunday for a quick 4 mile run in my new pink Kinvara's and I love 'em.

However, running in the new grey suede 6" platform heels, not so comfy!

NOTE TO EMZ: They are Paris Hilton shoes believe it or not-you can find them here. Didn't even know SHE did shoes but...Orig retail $100, TJMaxx clearance price? $15.00. The style is called Sashay-

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Sunday I had a really hard time finding my motivation to get out and run. After two weeks of great workouts, I think my body was just asking for a bit of a break. I spent the majority of the day playing with Lola-coloring, playing hide-n-go seek, watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on DVR over and over....

Lola and her Bungle Bee!

Somewhere along the way I managed to get 4 loads of laundry washed and folded. And she managed to find a great place to cuddle up with her blanket and take a nap.

Right in the laundry basket. 

I am so excited for the coming weekend! I am attending a Joel Freil seminar and I am looking forward to learning a lot! I am also pretty excited to meet some amazing triathletes-including fellow Maine Triathlete and blogger Caratunk Girl-

I will be wearing the super cool Punk Rock Racing shirt called Chuckball (as long as it makes it here in time!!) Be sure to check out PRR's site for some really great stuff.

FROM PRR: Sure, Chuck Norris is a badass BUT even he hasn’t completed an Ironman (pansy).

Monday MMM's

Another Monday~I hope everyone had a great weekend! Here is a summary of last week in Miles Muscles and Mommyhood style!

MILES:
Finally, some miles! I got in a long(ish)/long(er) run on Saturday--just 10.3 miles but it's better than the shorter runs that I have been logging since the 1/2 marathon. Now it is time to rebuild that base and work up to 16/18 mile long runs again.
The 10-miler on Saturday felt good-really good-I went out easy and just enjoyed the beautiful (cold) morning along one of my favorite beach routes, so serene, quiet and peaceful. I was even greeted by a bushy tailed red fox! Anyway, negative splits and the last mile I felt so good I was able to just GO! I switched from music on the iPod to listening to a podcast. I think that this change really helped me to keep the pace slow to start. Some days I am just so dang happy to be out running, I'll have some high energy tunes blaring and I am go out too fast.
I felt fabulous on Sunday. No discomfort. Nothing!
So running 5 days, getting in a "long run" and some speed work this week is making me happy!
I got in 5 days of running-3/6/6/3/10 miles
two days on the bike (short rides) 9.5/5 miles

Yesterday was WORLD RUN DAY** I had the pleasure of watching the ING NYC Marathon yesterday with Lola on my lap and it was awesome! I was super psyched to cheer on American runner Shalane Flanagan to her second place finish-2:28:40-and her marathon debut!! 

Lola did her share of cheering yelling RUN RUN!!

I am just in awe at the pace that these runners can hold for 26.2, especially the men. I cannot sprint at a 4:26 so to see them pulling out this pace at mile 18/20/24 etc is just unbelievable. I never had an appreciation for this until I started running myself. My favorite men's runner, Meb, finished 6th.
Retired NFL'er Amani Toomer ran the ING NYC Marathon starting dead-last and earning $1.00 for each runner he passed. Timex would donate those dollars to New York Road Runners Youth Programs. Toomer finished with a respectable 4:13 finish and estimates he passed about 20,000 runners.
Photo By Lisa Coniglio/Photo Run

**I did not get in my run on Sunday which was World Run Day but more on that in the Mommyhood!!

MUSCLES:
I had limited time in the gym this week so I had to make the workouts effective. As I mentioned in a previous post, I got my Tabata groove on and it did it's magic on my legs. I love me some DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) and I like knowing I worked hard enough.

I am still having a bit of discomfort with my left shoulder so I took it easy once again with my weights this week, keeping it light.

I dropped about 4lbs this past week and I can definitely feel/see a difference. My veins are popping in my arms a bit more (yes, I am totally into vascularity!!) and my arm appear leaner to me. I can also tell in the tummy area too. So I am going to continue cleaning up the nutrition, getting in some intervals and long runs and hitting the IRON.

MOMMYHOOD:
I love my daughter with all my heart. She is my joy and makes me laugh every single day.
Sunday, not so much laughing going on.
I had been planning on attending a Total Immersion swim clinic for 2 weeks and this was something I was really looking forward to doing. I need to learn SO much about swimming. Well...come Sunday morning I am literally up at 3:30 am because of the time change. I opt to get laundry done and clean out Lola's closets of outgrown clothes vs. running or working out since I am going to be in the pool for 1 1/2 hours later that morning.
Lola gets up and she is the velcro-kid and won't give me a moment to myself. Anytime I go down to the laundry room it triggers a full blown crying fit! Then we head out as a family to do yard work and she turns into a wild animal. Really...all over the place and very defiant. Before long she is soaking wet from rolling in damp leaves so we head inside. More defiance. Before I know it, I should be leaving for the swim clinic and family life if just not letting me get away.  So I continued on with the project in Lola's room and harboring some resentment that I am missing this clinic but looking forward to my run later. After all it is WORLD RUN DAY and I have to run right?? WRONG> let's just say things don't ever go as planned and the highlight of my day was watching the marathon.
Of course my friend, Dawn just had to call me later in the day and tell me how AMAZING the clinic was and how USEFUL this would have been for my horrible swimming skills (ok, so she did not say THAT but...) So yeah, I was feeling a upset yesterday about missing the swim. And then I felt even more upset for feeling upset--I thought it was really selfish of me to feel that way when obviously Lola was having a day. I got over it though. Oh yeah, did I mention Dawn is totally going to help clue me in as to what I missed? Also, she told me that Joel Friel is coming to Maine and doing a lecture in December so I am TOTALLY going to that!
NO MATTER WHAT.

Don't forget to check THIS out for a chance to win a pair of YURBUDS. Contest ends 11/11