August 2011
33 posts
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Portion sizes & measuring: Freedom
In the last four months, I have found I am terrible - and I mean awful - at guessing portion sizes. So I’ve taken to measuring calorie-dense things, which generally means measuring anything but vegetables.
I avoided counting calories for a very long time precisely because I didn’t want to measure. I wanted a more intuitive way to understand how to eat well. What I didn’t...
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Garmin Forerunner 305 with heart rate monitor
Just ordered this. Happy early birthday to me! Now, if I can just shrink my puffy ankle…
ETA: BTW, even though I have both the Nike Plus iGizmo and the Adidas miCoach (for the HRM), with the Garmin I feel I’ve officially entered the world of running toys. I am ridiculously excited about being able to know my pace at a glance, without...
It’s still swollen. : ( Since it happened about 24 hours ago, I figure I should just let it heal for a couple of days while RICE-ing like crazy (copious anti-inflammatories, resting with it elevated, compression and ice…) and see where we’re at. I’m sure it’ll be fine, but I’m impatient, and sad I can’t get my run in today - I didn’t realize...
Grrrrr ankle…. hopefully if I treat it right, I can start running tomorrow again… *sigh*
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Saw this on my Facebook feed and had to post. Brother Ali is a member of Rhymesayers Entertainment, a local hip-hop collective here in Minneapolis that includes Atmosphere and many other talented folks. His last album, “Us,” was entirely focused on building community. Inspiring stuff.
We can all be our own best example of community and of leadership.
“I started rhyming to be...
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I can get through the Muddy Buddy run/bike race, hurtling down steep hills fishtailing over loose gravel and sand, running through tires and throwing myself over no less than six walls, climbing this weird rope ladder thing and down a 20’ slide, and emerge unscathed… and THEN turn my ankle on a curb during my usual morning run.
Universe, you have a terrible sense of humor.
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It’s tomato season. Here’re a couple of hints to keep your tomatoes tasty -
- Don’t store fresh tomatoes in the fridge. They lose their flavor. (Grocery store tomatoes… well… I don’t know if anything saves the flavor of those things.) - Store your tomatoes face down (stem scar-side down) on the counter. The stem scar, where the tomato was attached to the vine,...
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Setting a calorie budget
Every time that somebody comments on my weight loss these days, they inevitably say something like “Must be all that running!”
I wish. The truth is that if running got me to my weight goals, I would have been at a healthy weight three years ago, when I trained for my first marathon. Or back in high school, when I competed in sports two out of three seasons of the school year....
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NSV: Today's long run & looking back
First, even though our coach had re-adjusted our training schedule from 18 miles to 15, I was feeling good at 7.5 miles turnaround and decided to go the full 18.
That would not have happened two years ago, or even a year ago.
Also, my fastest miles were in the second half. In fact, my fastest mile of the whole run was the last.
But best of all… my overall pace was almost a 1:30...
Thanks so much for all the kind words, everyone. It means quite a bit. Alie’s funeral was yesterday - our TNT staff attended and they brought a card for the team to sign for her family.
In brighter news, our one teammate signed up for the Kauai Marathon is leaving next week. The course is supposed to be brutal - crazy elevation changes and tons of hills - but the very cool thing is that...
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Well, yall, depending on what day you’d believe, I’m up anywhere from 1.5 to 3 pounds. I’m a little disappointed and going to be doing some remediation work - thinking about how to change up what I eat, how I move, and tracking calories again (kinda fell off the wagon again, and the result, such a surprise ; ) ) - but again, I just can’t bring myself to be too...
Anonymous asked: I have been a terrible fitblr buddy. Forgive me? I think I could give more support if I revealed myself. I was thinking maybe in about a month, after a certain birthday. What do you think?
Most bizarre conference call ever...
I am on a work teleconference and all the sudden participants from DC, Virginia and Boston reported feeling earthquake tremors. Some folks have been asked to evacuate their building. Turns out an earthquake of a 5.8 magnitude just hit Virginia. Crazy.
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Birthday Unofficial Half Marathon Recap
fitnessyear:
Well, yesterday night came and went, followed by the entirely way too early alarm clock this morning to get me out of bed, into my running gear, and out on the road before the heat of the day hit.
The recap and pictures behind the cut!
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THIS WOMAN. She’s incredible! Nava cranked out her first 13.1 on her birthday as a TRAINING RUN. Holy crap. Way to go, Nava!!!...
Sad news
Good news: I finished my first-ever training 20 mile run.
Very sad news: I just found out right before our Team In Training run this morning that our honored teammate, Alie (above), who just turned nine a couple of months ago and had been fighting leukemia for five and a half years, passed away Thursday morning. Though her bone marrow transplant had initially gone well, she was having trouble...
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Here’s my new (vegan-friendly) Asian restaurant strategy:
Fried spring roll salad (200-400 calories) Order fried spring roll (usually comes in orders of two) and side salad.
Cut one spring roll into four slices (or both, depending on what your calorie budget is/how you want to plan your lunch/dinner.) Add to your salad. Use a bit of your dipping sauce for dressing, if you like.
Not an...
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What do you say...
…when people compliment you on your weight loss, and say, “Gosh, it must be all that running”?
This is such a common misconception. If running made you skinny, I would have been a healthy weight three years ago, when I was training for my first marathon. Weight loss has been 90% calories, 10% activity, and I want to shout it from the rooftops.
Is there a polite way to say I...
In regards to Push-ups
Reblogging for reference. I’ve always wanted a guide like this! (Yeah, wow, doesn’t take much to make me happy these days, does it.)
mangosteele:
wbaw:
Hope this helps.
Nice! I’m going to have to try out each one of these.
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Weigh-in: -1.6 pounds
A day late, yall, but good news…
Weight change: -1.6 pounds Previous BMI: 25.69 Current BMI: 25.42 BMI change: -0.27 Total weight loss: -33.4 pounds (-41.9 pounds from highest weight.)
CHUGGA CHUGGA WOO WOO!! Normal BMI, I am coming for you!! GW 7.6 pounds away. Woohoo!!!
@notovernight, @ellavemia
I’m so with you, @notovernight. I love food too (definitely in “foodie” country), and the way I’ve shared eating habits on this blog has been pretty much entirely about sharing recipes or pictures of balanced eating choices. Not so much on the inner mechanics of what drives those choices (or what drives the unbalanced choices), mostly because I don’t know that I...
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It could be me, and there are probably tumblrs who blog on this topic with proficiency who I haven’t met, but most of the folks I follow are really good about blogging about activity (myself included) but not as reflective about one’s relationship with food (myself, again, included.)
And considering that learning how to set a reasonable calorie budget is about 90% responsible for my...
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NSV: Last week was my first 40 mile week ever! Woohoo!!!
(Yes, I increased my mileage by 50% in weeks 21 to 22. Do as I say, not as I do ; ) )
Fatass to Skinny Bitch: How to REALLY love... →
fatasstoskinnybitch:
Okie dokie people, there’s something that has been REALLY freaking bothering me lately, that I admittedly used to do.
I can not STAND when people say things like, “the average pant size in America is a size 14. We should have our models be that size”
I don’t know about you, but at a size 14 (im…
I couldn’t disagree with this more. The people who run the fashion...
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I apologize I haven’t commented on more of yall’s incredible progress and inspiring ability to face challenging circumstances. I need to focus a bit more on work for a few weeks, and my new early morning running schedule to beat the heat means I need to be in bed by a very reasonable hour (read: now) to be functional.
I’m pretty proud of my long run yesterday. I could be wrong,...
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[Warning: gratuitous dog pics ahead]
I think you’ve already been introduced, but fitblrs, meet Bonnie. She’s basset hound/jack russell terrier with a HUGE personality. (She jumped straight up onto that table, by the way, without having to even run up to it.)
Bonnie and I went on our first-ever run - two miles. Effing hilarious. One moment she’s got her ears pinned back and...
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Run For Your Lives Zombie 5k →
So I’m always the last to the internet sensation party (seriously discovered the “backin’ up” video only about three months ago) so I’m sure people have already seen this, but too good not to post… this is an actual 5k race. If it wasn’t halfway across the country I would TOTALLY DO THIS. From the website:
ESCAPE FROM THE RUNNING DEAD.
Protect your...
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@fitnessyear @robownslife @spanishdoeslife
Thanks, guys! It would have been way more impressive if I planned a ten mile day, but it was just too warm to run on Tuesday, so this was the tradeoff (definitely not sound training scheduling; do as I say, not as I do.) After today’s scheduled 5 mile run this morning, I am hella exhausted. Easy two tonight and rest tomorrow before 18 mile long run Saturday.
Side plank dips:
...
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Track workout with the team!
~1 mile warmup 1/2 mile (2 laps) half marathon pace (30s faster than marathon goal pace) 1/4 mile (1 lap) recovery 1 mile (4 laps) marathon pace 1/4 mile recovery 1/2 mile half marathon pace 1/4 mile recovery 1 mile marathon goal pace 1/4 mile recovery 1/2 mile half marathon pace 1/4 mile recovery
26.2 crunches 26.2 pushups 1 min plank (more like 20s intervals for...
PSA: A blog is a COLLECTION of posts. One does not “write a blog”; it’s a blog ENTRY or a blog POST.
You don’t write a journal or a diary in a day, do you? Yeesh.
Right up there with people who end every email with “thanks”, even when they didn’t request something.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program…
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Woohoo!! -30 pound mark!!
Well, it’s not WIW yet, but I’ll take it. Probably will weigh in tomorrow and Thurs too just to see how things go. Lots of traveling last week - first on a work trip (where I was acquainted with Melt Bar and Grilled of Man v. Food fame and purveyor of amazeballs grilled cheese sandwiches with vegan options. Oh yeah, baby!) AND a visit to my grandma in a small IL town a few hours...
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Quick Nectarine Apricot Salsa
Stone fruits are in season right now, which makes them both cheap AND delicious. Make this quick salsa and serve it along any grilled protein (I used a chili/garlic/ancho chili rub on a gardein chicken scallopini). It’s tasty - as attested by the fact that T ate it so fast I didn’t have time to take a picture. (Peaches and cherries would work too, though pitting cherries is a bit more...
