Weigh In: Week 12

Another week has gone by, and I gotta tell ya, I worked REALLY hard to work off that Reuben sandwich. Alas, I didn't get it all off. The swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing is still hanging out somewhere....

Margaret
Current weight: 152 lbs
Chest: 36D
Waist: 34.5"
Hips: 37"
Weight Loss: 1 lb
Total weight loss: 8.8 lbs

Patrick
Current weight: 203 lbs
Chest: 41"
Waist: 38.5"
Hips: 38.5"
Neck: 15.75"
Loss:  2 lbs
Total weight loss: 16.6 lbs

So Patrick was in Florida with my dad, brother, and brother-in-law this weekend for a golf trip. I have to say, I'm really proud of him! I don't think he ate the best food down there, but he clearly practiced some moderation and all the outdoorsy-ness clearly did him well! They had golf lessons and then practiced their skills everyday. He describes his lessons like yoga... holding certain golf poses for a period of time to perfect their technique....riiiight? But now he is back and he is tan and he's willing and ready to run with me again. 

I, on the other hand, was stuck in Wisconsin in the cold. I stuck with my running routine and tossed around the idea of posting about my cold weather runs. Because let me tell ya, they are the WORST. They really are. Can this cold weather just go away? Last Thursday, my teeth hurt breathing! Also, I'm slow to begin with, but cold weather makes me reallllllly slow because it makes me really sad while I'm running. And sadness does not put the pep in my step. I just constantly think "what am I even doing out here? Who does this? This is probably considered torture in some places! I consider it torture here! now!" Some things I have read regarding cold runs makes me feel better: you might not always have your best runs when it's freezing and that's okay. It takes longer for muscles to warm up so it's more important to be cautious and stay safe. Also, layers are incredibly important. Much better to shed clothing than to be miserable. 

Saturday, on the other hand, it was warm out so I was joined outside by pretty much every body else in Milwaukee. This actually makes running (for me) more bearable. There's this sense of camaraderie out there! And happiness! Maybe spring is coming! I saw a guy running in hot shorts, which was a little much in my opinion, but it really was nice out. 

Saturday afternoon, my mom treated my sisters, Patrick's mom, and I to some spa services at the WellSpa at the Pfister and dinner at Bacchus. We had a great time getting pedicures and facials and then munched on DELICIOUS food at Bacchus. 

You might wonder, how does somebody eat out on Weight Watchers when a place like Bacchus is not in the database? You'd be pondering a very good ponder. It's a bit of a struggle. Eating out can always be a diet-buster, but it's better if you can look up a restaurant's menu prior to eating out. Then, I either try to find something very similar on Weight Watchers or I'll actually "build a recipe" and put in the ingredients myself. So Saturday night, I had a delicious romaine salad with deviled quail eggs (how adventurous?) and then I had crispy shrimp with fennel salad. It was muy bien. Also, I tried a bite of my sister Jody's braised short ribs and those were sooooo awesomely delicious and good. Just tender perfectly seasoned and marinated beef that just fell away from the cut and practically melted in my mouth! I only had one bite, but I thought about it the rest of the night. 

Someday, when I'm not dieting, I'll make Patrick take me back to Bacchus and I will eat the braised short ribs. And I'll drink a big ol' glass of wine with them. Maybe two! And I'll have a cheese starter and dessert!  Muahahahaha! 

It's the end of Lent this week and I'm looking forward to a biiiiiiiiiig Bloody Mary on Sunday morning after church! Before I get there, though, I have to get through some nice runs! 

Tuesday: 4 miles at 10:00/mile pace
Thursday: 6 miles at 10:30/mile pace
Saturday: 8 miles at 10:30/mile pace 

Weigh In: Week 11

Well, it's time to check the damage from the weekend...

Margaret
Current weight: 153 lbs
Chest: 36D
Waist: 34.5"
Hips: 37"
Weight Loss: GAIN 2.2
Total weight loss: 7.8 lbs

Patrick
Current weight: 205 lbs
Chest: 41"
Waist: 38.5"
Hips: 38.5"
Neck: 15.75"
Loss:  GAIN 1.8
Total weight loss: 14.6 lbs

And we wouldn't take a single second of the weekend back! We had so much fun, and I wouldn't trade one bite of that Reuben sandwich for anything! Not even a carrot! 

So, it's a little discouraging that one weekend can cause that much damage. It makes sense, definitely, but a little scary that after this is all said and done, this will for sure be a daily thing. Which is the point of Weight Watchers. It becomes a lifestyle. I'd be 120% lying, though, if I said I wasn't jealous of people who don't have to think twice about their eating and exercise habits. 

The way I make myself feel better about that is how good it's going to feel when we reach our goal weights and know how hard we worked to get there. So we have to work extra hard this week! 

We're still running, too!
 Today: 3-4 miles with hills. Since it's so cold outside (still!), we headed to the WAC and used the treadmills.  To do this, we warmed up about a mile, then put the treadmill on 4% incline and ran at 85% effort for 60 seconds, then ran flat for 45-60 seconds and repeated that 6 times. 
Thursday: 5 miles at 11:00/mile pace 
Saturday: 7 miles at 10:30/mile pace. 
We're really hoping it warms up so some of these longer runs are more bearable! 

Patrick is heading to Florida this weekend to golf with my dad, brother and brother in law. I'm sure they're going to have a lot of fun and, more importantly, they'll be in the sun! Although I know they won't be skimping on food, walking with a golf bag DOES count as Activity Points. 

For the rest of us who aren't going to Florida, tomorrow officially marks the first day of Spring, so here's to hoping for some warmer weather! 

Too Much Fun: Craic Addicts

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! We had a very Irish and fun-filled weekend, hand we're hoping everyone else did, too!

I'm not going to lie, though. No points this weekend. I didn't look up or track a single thing. This is one of my favorite holidays and I wanted to go all out and have fun. And, for the first time in awhile, Patrick and I were able to just spend the whole weekend together having fun, not working, and enjoying ourselves.

On Saturday, we ran the Lucky Leprechaun 7k with my family! We had a really great time, but it was FREEZING!

We bundled up and ran with all the other green-clad Irish enthusiasts! My sister Elise and cousin Bill headed up the pack! My sister Jody brought her boyfriend Caleb, who was a self-described "non-runner". However, Caleb kept up with Jody and ran the entire time! So that's really fun and exciting. My friend Leslie brought a co-worker and Patrick and I jogged and chatted about some wedding planning. We ran 2 miles before the race so that we were on track with our Half-Marathon training. At the end, we were bestowed with green beer, which definitely made the freezing cold more bearable! 

That night, we continued our celebration downtown. Lenten promises were broken and liquid calories were consumed. My dear friend Leslie came down from Sheboygan to help get the party started. Patrick's friend Gregg also joined us, and, let me tell you, we definitely had too much fun Saturday night. 

Sunday, we had dinner at John Hawks Pub, I had a DELICIOUS completely NOT Weight Watcher-friendly reuben and fries. So good. Maybe the best sandwich I've had in a long time....Corned beef and kraut and swiss cheese with a little bit of 1000 Island on marbled rye...MMMM! 

After dinner, we headed over to the Riverside to watch one of my all-time favorite bands, Gaelic Storm! We rocked out and danced to fun Irish jigs while singing at the top of our lungs. 

Now, Leslie and I are Gaelic Storm veterans and quickly made our way into the pit for the best view of the concert. Patrick had never been to a Gaelic Storm concert. The awesome thing about Gaelic Storm is that you don't have to know all the words to all the songs to have a great time. They are so full of energy and the music is so fun that even the most boring person in the world will be up out of his seat and dancing a jig. The other cool part was we were on LIVE TV! I have no idea if our faces made it live, but we danced and clapped and sang ourselves hoarse. 

Check out Gaelic Storm on their website, Like them on Facebook, and if you're in the Milwaukee area, as always, they'll be at Irish Fest all three nights! Their new CD Chicken Boxer is chock-full of fun, upbeat songs that will have you singing along and dancing. I use a lot of their music in my running mixes and they definitely get my feet going! In fact, if I can make a couple of suggestions, the song One More Day Above the Roses is definitely a leg-slapping, upbeat song. And the Bear and the Butcher Boy sings the tale of a Butcher Boy who rescues his love with...his sausage? 

I guess we'll see tomorrow what kind of damage our weekend of uninhibited eating and drinking did to our waistlines. Tonight, we're continuing our Irish theme with Classic Shepherd's Pie, Weight Watchers edition. 

Weigh In: Week 10

Well. The lateness and lack of spring and prolongment and plethora of winter is really putting a damper on running. Running on ice is just a touch scary and I tend to stay away from it whenever I can. Take this morning for example. I was going to run 5 miles BEFORE I weighed in (I feel like I've revealed a deep dark secret. Yes, I usually weigh in after workouts), but it unexpectedly snowed yesterday and stayed unexpectedly cold this morning. Meaning, ice. And I have a tendency to to trip on sound, non-slippery ground, so I've taken the morning off. Instead, I think this morning calls for yoga. With Rodney Yee. and Memphis. I think he likes doggy yoga. It realllllly relaxes him. See his Shavasana pose:

We're on week 9 of 16 for our Half-Marathon training! This week, for running, we're doing 3-4 miles with striders tomorrow. That's where you warm up for a mile, run fast (90-95% effort) for 30 seconds then moderately hard (80-85%) for 60 seconds. These percentages. I'm not sure what they mean, but my training plan tells me that at the fast effort, I shouldn't be able to talk and it should be hard to catch my breath. At moderately hard, I should be able to catch my breath. Thursday, we'll run 5 miles at 11:00/mile pace and Saturday, we're doing the Lucky Leprechaun run in Wauwatosa. Since the Lucky Leprechaun is only 4 miles or so, we'll need to run 2 miles beforehand to get the 6 we need for our training.

Here are the scales this morning:

Margaret
Current weight: 150.8 lbs
Chest: 36D
Waist: 34.5"
Hips: 37"
Weight Loss: 0.2
Total weight loss: 10 lbs

Patrick
Current weight: 203.8 lbs
Chest: 41"
Waist: 38.5"
Hips: 38.5"
Neck: 15.75"
Loss:  2.2 lbs
Total weight loss: 16.4 lbs

I hit the 10 pound mark for me, which means I get a present for myself! They say to treat yourself when you hit your goals, so I already decided what I wanted a long time ago and it's....workout gear from Lululemon! Entirely over priced, but I've ALWAYS wanted some Lululemon workout gear. Patrick is waiting till he gets under 200 lbs before he treats himself. 

This weekend is Saint Patrick's Day! One of my most favorite holidays. Not because I like getting white girl wasted (although that IS fun from time to time), but because I think people are generally happy around St. Patty's day because of spring time (and booze). But also because one of my most favoritest bands ever GAELIC STORM comes to the Riverside every St. Patty's and puts on a rocking, good time concert. They are the best. Their music is fun, family friendly, and naughty in the way Pixar movies are sometimes. Adult jokes that kids don't get. And I love. My friend Leslie and I have been going to the St. Patrick's day concert for the past few years now and we've seen them at Irish Fest every year for the past...I think 10 years? I started seeing Gaelic Storm when I was 16. Which is crazy and fun and good. 

Hungry Hungry Pal: Weigh In: Week 9

Hello loyal readers, this is the hungry hungry pal again.  I hope this post finds you well.  A few things happened in our lives this week: we moved (Marge moved in with her cousin Bill and I moved into a new condo), I went to boxing night, and Margaret started her new job.  We are extremely happy in our new places.  Memphis loves his new digs as it is bigger, and offers more smells at his level.  The various moves were extremely hard (thank you Leemac, Dan, Jim, and Greggor), but we got through it.

 Boxing night was full of good ole tom foolery with great friends and family.  For those of you who don't know about boxing night, it is a time when a bunch of friends get together and have a nice dinner, which is followed by 8 ameture boxing matches.  The matches were extremely entertaining, and the jive talking back and forth between the fans was epic.  Margaret's brother Peter made the trip from Minnesota to join us, and it was great to see him.  We all had a great time, but I did get  a little loose on adult beverages (bad WW pts).  It was worth not losing weight this week: a big meal, booze, and cigars, what a fun night.  While I ate poorly this week, Margaret was a great gal, and the proof is in the pudding as they say and she lost 2lbs this week! I am extremely proud of her.  All in all it was a fun week of change, and good times with great people.  Now for our measurements: 

Margaret
Current weight: 151 lbs
Chest: 36D
Waist: 34.5"
Hips: 37"
Weight Loss: 2
Total weight loss: 9.8 lbs

Patrick
Current weight: 206
Chest: 41"
Waist: 38.5"
Hips: 38.5"
Neck: 15.75"
Loss:  0lbs
Total weight loss: 14.2 lbs