biking – The Shrinking Jeans of Thea

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July 23, 2010 By thea

I can’t believe that it’s finally THE weekend. My first triathlon, people!

I’ve been training for 11(ish) weeks and I’ve learned a few things along the way. Will you indulge me while I share them with you?

thankyousomuch

And you know I love me a good quote, so that’s how I’m going to give you my tidbits.

Or I guess if it’s quotes it’s their tidbits.

Whatever. Here’s what  I learned.

  • Well done is better than well said.  ~Benjamin Franklin
    I can talk all daggone day long about doing a workout, but unless I’ve actually done the workout, my words don’t mean much.
  • Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.  ~Alex Karras
    Seriously, what I can do has more to do with what I THINK I can do then whether I’m actually physically capable of doing it.
  • Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.  ~Woody Allen
    This one is so true. If I go to the gym, if I go to the pool, if I go walk outside and get my bike…I’M GOING TO EXERCISE. It’s not like I go to the gym and sit on the couch. If I take the first step, the rest will follow.
  • Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.  ~John Dewey
    About 3/4 of the way through the training, I knew that I already needed a new goal to focus on for AFTER the triathlon. If I didn’t pick something before my first event was done, I knew I would flounder aimlessly for a while. My triathlon is Sunday and I start training for my 2nd triathlon the next day.
  • Whether you think you can or think you can’t – you are right.  ~Henry Ford
    It’s amazing how much of exercising or sticking to a plan is mental. On the days where I grumbled about going out, I had sucky sessions. On the days where I felt good about going out, I enjoyed it a lot more and I did better. Talk nice to yourself. Pretty simple.
  • Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.  ~Chinese Proverb
    I’m slow. I swim slow. I bike slow. I run/walk slow. But slow is better than stopped. Just keep moving, just keep moving, just keep moving.

April 21, 2010 By thea

Oh my goodness, I almost missed it!!

Based on the changes that I made this week as far as water and candy, I was VERY happy to step on the scale this morning and see a 2.2 pound LOSS!!  Yippee!!

After my little hiccup, today’s weight of 156.2 puts me at 14 weeks of keeping my weight between 153 and 157.

Let’s just pretend that I didn’t actually make any goals for this challenge, k? I didn’t do so well with tracking my goals this time around.

In fairly unrelated news, I’m going to buy a bike soon.  I haven’t owned my own bike since I was in high school…5 years ago.

Ahem.

April 14, 2010 By thea

The good news: I maintained this week!

The bad news: I gained two pounds last week, LOL!

So, my little maintenance streak ended last week, but I wasn’t too torn up about it.  I have no illusions that I am going to make it all year without a gain here or there. I figured my body was just taking a break and it was a false gain.

But when I stepped on the scale this week and it was exactly the same (158.4), I knew something was up.

The weird part is that I don’t FEEL like I’ve gone off the wagon.  I’m not totally gorging myself on food.  My workouts have scaled way back but I’m still doing a little something. But something has changed.

What I feel is bloated.  My water is consumption is down.  I’m only getting about 64 oz a day instead of my usual 96 oz. I’m not sure why I’m drinking less.  I’ll have to keep an eye on that.

And as much as I don’t like running, that was when I was maintaining my weight so I have to take that into consideration.

So, here’s the new plan.

  1. Get my water back up to 96 oz. a day.  No exceptions.
  2. As much as I like the Wii, it’s just not enough to be my main source of movement.  I can use it for rainy days and quick fun movement.  But I need hardcore cardio, I think. That means back to running and biking. And I’m still toying with the idea of boxing, but I ‘m not sure I can fit that in if I am going to do a tri program.  I’m really all over the board with the exercise.
  3. I can’t have “treats” 3 times a day. If I have a cookie after school with the kids, I can’t have ice cream after dinner, too.  I may have to break up with sugar, but I really, REALLY don’t want to.  Really don’t want to.

I’m going to start there.  Hopefully, I’ll see a downward trend next week!