Author Archives: katilh

Goals and Guidelines

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I like to set goals, that should come as no surprise to anyone that’s been reading this since last month when I posted the monthly update to my new year resolutions.

I find myself in the middle now (well, quarter of the way) through a sort of unplanned training cycle. It’s really just a base building cycle, with the Heights 5K Fun Run as my goal race (how familiar does that sound now?) and the TriGirl Super Sprint relay thrown in for fun. Assuming, all goes as planned this will put me in a great position to spend the summer doing sprint tris and building up my running towards a 10K and maybe, just maybe, an late season Olympic tri. Foot, you best get on board with these plans, hear that?

Anyway.

This current training cycle is 12 weeks, running from April 1st to July 22nd with my A race being the Heights 5K on June 1st and my B race being the Super Sprint relay on May 12th.

Goal – stay healthy, train smart, don’t be an idiot and don’t be afraid of backing off of the training and repeating a week or taking a rest week if my PTT flares back up.

That’s just one goal but I have a whole lot of guidelines. I like guidelines, they keep me motivated and um, remind me of what my original intentions were. I have a problem of flitting from place to place and idea to idea and I often forget what I meant to do in the first place. Whoops.

Guidelines:
* average 12-15 MPW for one week at the end of June (assuming I’m injury free!)
* 1650 swim time under 35:00
* average bike speed over 15 MPH
* consistent (2 x a week) strength training
* 100% Whole30, 80% of the time
* average weight under 160.

A quarter of the way in, I’m doing trucking right along in all these areas, except one. I’ll let the fact that I had french fries and a milkshake for dinner on Saturday clue you which one it is.

March Resolution Review

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1. Read 100 books list
February -
1984 – George Orwell
Started Lord of The Rings.

March -
Still plodding through LOTR

2. Do an Olympic distance triathlon
Registered for a sprint tri relay!

3. Swim a continuous mile, both in the pool and in open water
I did it!! 1650 in 37:40!!!

4. Lose 24 pounds
Down 6 now

5. Become a more proficient sewer by sewing one project a month
January’s project – The Lucy Tunic
This involved buttons, pockets and was reversible! Buttons and pockets were new to me
February’s project – Pig blankets and rodeo dresses.
Satin binding and minky fabric, peasant dress pattern and sleeves!
March’s project – um, there was no sewing at all this month. Sad panda.

6. Knit a seamed sweater.
Nope, haven’t even picked out a pattern

7. Continue to spin.
Getting a backlog of fiber here.

9. Keep a daily food journal
This has slipped up big time since stopping Whole30

10. Complete a 50 mile bike ride.
So close! 47.58 miles in the Tour De Houston

Three sort of dream goals
11. Compete an actual cycling road race, time trial or some other competitive stand alone cycling event.
12. Break 27 minutes in a 5K (current PR is 27:43)
13. Purchase a spinning wheel. And my husband just died a little reading this.

March Summary | April Showers

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March Summary

Swim
Planned – 12,600 yards
Actual – 11,100 yards

Bike
Planned – 96 miles
Actual – 108.51 miles

Walk/Run
Planned – 27 miles
Actual – 28.26 miles

April Forecast

Swim – 11,000 yards
Bike – 108 miles
Walk/Run – 39.0 miles

I’m super, super pleased with March’s numbers. I just wish 40% of my bike totals hadn’t come from just one ride!

Aerosmith Trainer Workout

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I am/was having one of those days where just nothing is/was going right. The park where I usually ride is closed and so I had to come home and ride on the trainer. (Yesterday, on my backup riding trail, a homeless woman decided to jog next to me while I was pushing Marion in the stroller so I’m a little skittish of going back there just yet. Anyway.) Trainer it was. I didn’t dare risk going upstairs to get the laptop and watch a Sufferfest video like I normally do because I’m certain I would have fallen down the stairs and broken both the laptop and my neck, given the way the day seemed inclined.

My bad day is your good luck because I happened to find out Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits is the best trainer workout music. Almost ever.

Go buy the album, come back, make this playlist, then go jump on the trainer.

Just not too hard because if you have my kind of luck, you’ll break your bike.

Warm up
Draw the Line
Kings and Queens

Interval #1
Dream On
Sweet Emotion
Back In The Saddle

For fun, stand up during that big long bridge in Back In The Saddle

recovery
Same Old Song And Dance

Interval #2
Walk This Way
Come Together
Last Child

Cool down
Remember (Walking In The Sand)

There you go, a roughly 35ish minute workout.

Life After Whole 30, Day 38

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Also known as the post I didn’t want to write

Breakfast -
Coffee with cream, eggs, half an apple

Lunch -
Chick fil A 12 count nuggest

Dinner -
Broccoli and eggplant. And Josh made lamb chops that I’m sure were delicious. If you like lamb. Which I found out I don’t.

Snacks -
Almonds, milky way and dr pepper.

Yeah, you read that right. Fell, big time. And it wasn’t even good. So, onward, upward, lesson learned.

Lunch happened because I ran out of time to cook meat at home. I intended to come home and make a salad, but our lettuce was bad. So after picking the girls up from school, we went to Target to buy some potty training rewards, which, in this case was candy (Eliza’s choice. She is her mama’s daughter.) The nuggets had me thirsty and I did so well until the checkout line. There wasn’t any water in the aisle cooler, so I grabbed a Dr Pepper. And somehow, that Milky Way jumped into the cart as well. As they say, a failure to plan is a plan to fail. That was certainly true today.

Life After Whole 30, Days 33-37

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So yes, life after Whole30, what’s it looking like for me?

Friday
Breakfast -
Bananas, almonds, almond butter, tea

Lunch -
Sweet potato hash with a little bit of bacon

Dinner -
Pork burgers, sweet potato fries and oranges

Snacks -
Coffee with cream, raisins, almonds and almond butter

Saturday
Breakfast -
Coffee with cream, bacon and eggs

Lunch -
Almonds and an apple

Dinner -
Pork belly wraps, crispy spring rolls and pickled vegetable plate

Snacks -
Coffee with cream and two paleofied cookies from Clean Sweets I had a Skinny Mint and a salted carob cake cookie. They were oh so yummy!

Sunday
Breakfast -
Coffee with cream, banana and almond butter

Lunch -
Taco salad with rice

Dinner -
Eggs, spinach and bacon

Snacks -
Coffee with cream, honey roasted peanuts, banana and orange

Monday
Breakfast -
Coffee with cream, eggs with spinach, onion and orange bell pepper

Lunch -
Mashed sweet potato with real butter

Dinner -
Pork burgers with sweet potato fries

Snacks -
Almonds, almond butter and tea with cream

Tuesday
Breakfast -
Coffee with cream, apple and banana

Lunch -
Eggs with onion and bell pepper

Dinner -
Chicken in tarragon cream sauce, roasted Brussel sprouts

Snacks -
Coffee with cream and almonds

The most interesting point to start with is that my weight loss has accelerated again, just like on the first week of Whole30. If it’s just because I’m eating less calories, an increase in exercise or because I added back in dairy, I’m not sure. But I’m not arguing with it!

Of other note, my GI issues have cleared up since adding back in dairy. How odd is that? I also have a daily dairy limit. Anything more than about a half of cup of dairy and I get gassy and bloated.

Saturday night, we went out to eat at as a family. We went back to Downhouse and I had the same pork belly wraps (oh so yum) and the crispy spring rolls. A local coffee shop was also hosting the launch party for a new bakery in town, so we dropped by there and partook of some goodies. First, the flat white was just as good as I had remembered and second, cookies, paleo’d or not, were fantastic as well. The difference post Whole30 though was that after two, I felt done. No need to keep on eating and eating, I was satisfied with just those two.

Then Sunday. I had the best of intentions to load up on Lara bars before my 45 mile bike ride, but just never made it to the store. So at the rest stop, my choices were pretty carby. I skipped the pretzels and had fruit, but did have myself some of the Southwest Air honey roasted peanuts. I was hoping for some protein satiety from the peanuts, but I’m pretty sure that was offset by the copious amounts of sugar that were added in. For lunch, I could have eaten an elephant but unfortunately, Freebirds only offers their burrito bowls in one size. So Josh added rice to mine (which I was fine with, not like he was trying to sabotage me!) I didn’t have any ill effects from it but neither was I like, OMG ALL TEH RICE! I was very meh about rice. I was pretty exhausted so dinner was quick and then I slept for 13 hours. No joke.

I’ve been fine Monday and today. No weird cravings or funky side effects from some less than perfect choices. I even walked past the chocolate in Target today without buying any. Which, if you notice, six days now with no chocolate (the cookies had carob in them instead, does that count?) I still get the cravings (I ohsowanted to bury my face in a box of DingDongs at the register) but they almost are just a blip on the radar now, not the overwhelming WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP of an incoming missile like they were before.

And that’s a good thing.

Whole 30, Day 32

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Breakfast -
Coffee with cream, eggs and orange bell pepper

Eaten in obscene amounts through the day -
Strawberries we picked on Tuesday

Lunch -
Chicken breaded in almond meal, lettuce, shredded carrots, cheddar cheese and dressing I made earlier this week

Afternoon snack -
Coffee with cream and coconut butter (not in my coffee!)

Dinner #1 -
Eggs and bacon

Dinner #2 -
Sweet potato hash

Firstly, yesterday’s day of less than stellar eating had no negative effects, unless you count a one pound weight loss. No weird GI issues, no bloating, no nothing. Except being hungrier than normal because I wasn’t eating good fats.

Secondly,
Apparently I’m all in with dairy already. Whoops.

Thirdly,
Dairy doesn’t like me anymore. I think it was the cheese at lunch? I had shredded cheese, shredded at home, not that stuff in a bag and it just didn’t taste very good. I mean, the cheese was fine, my daughters ate it with no problems, it just had no taste or appeal to me. And about 15 minutes after eating it, my stomach started hating on me and hasn’t stopped yet. Tomorrow will be dairy free until this gets cleared up. I think just a bit of cream in my coffee is going to be okay but once again, today proves I have issues with moderation.

Whole 30, Day 31

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Gimme an inch, I’ll take a mile

Breakfast -
Strawberries, coconut butter, almonds, tea

Lunch -
Smashburger, plain hamburger, no bun, egg and bacon. Plus water.

Snack -
Coffee with 1/4 c of milk and grapefruit

Dinner -
The now normal taco salad from Freebirds

Evening snack -
Not sure yet but there will be one. I want to eat ALL TEH THINGZ

So yeah. Today. For starters, I had a big swim planned and wanted something not super heavy to start with. I used to get really sick if I swam anything over 800 straight but since switching to Whole30, no more wanting to vomit in the pool. I think having a light on the tummy but heavy on the fat meal has eliminated that.

Then the girls really wanted to go to Smashburger for lunch and apparently I wanted to test my will. It was on the very tip of my tongue to order my regular BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger with smash fries as soon as I got up to the register. But I opened my mouth and just couldn’t get it out. When the guy confirmed my order, he told me I was his hero. Haha!

Yes, I had coffee. With milk. But my only other option was a double shot of whiskey at 3 p.m. as neither girl napped today. Lesser of two evils, right? And it was as delicious as I hoped. It may or may not be back in my diet now, I can’t decide.

See previous non napping children to explain tonight’s dinner.

Curious to see if there is a major scale jump tomorrow morning.

Whole 30, Day 30

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Whelp, I made it 30 days.

Breakfast -
Tea, eggs, turkey sausage, orange bell peppers

Lunch -
Tuna and egg salad with mayo and lots of mustard, apple and almond butter

Dinner -
Chicken with asparagus and eggplant

Throughout the day snacks -
Tea, cashews and strawberries

We celebrated this milestone day by going out and picking strawberries where it took us 45 minutes to park and then 15 minutes to pick 7 pounds. I successfully walked right past the candy and fried pies at checkout without stopping (but I won’t say without a thought because that would be a lie. I did think about them!) and then we had a picnic lunch outside.

Let me see if I can sum up the 30 days of this Whole30 in a nifty little list.

Pros
* I guess it worked in many ways. I surely have never stuck to something this restricted in eating for 30 days before.
* I feel better physically. That afternoon slump where I needed my coffee is gone.
* My nails look better. They wen through a stage where they looked awful, but I think all that is grown out now because now they look really nice, smooth and a good color
* My acne almost completely cleared up. I think I’ve only had three pimples this whole month, which is some sort of record.
* My skin overall looks much better.
* I lost weight, 7.2 pounds from day one to day 30. My weighted average (which is what I usually go by dropped) went down 4.7 pounds over the past month.
* I lost inches, a total of five inches overall from hips, waist and bust
* I wake up a lot easier now and fall asleep quicker as well. Or at least I did until the time change messed with my sleep.
* I’m not nearly as snacky as I was a month ago. I still sometimes snack, but that has more to do with the fact my workout varies greatly from day to day, so it makes it hard to eat calorie consistent meals.

Not a pro, not a con, just observations
* I seem to have developed some GI issues. Nothing awful, but they weren’t there 30 days ago. I don’t know if it’s getting used to more veggies or a higher fat diet but either way, GI issues are here that weren’t before
* It made my cycle six days longer than normal. Not fun. It’s also not an easy going cycle, let’s just say that. However, one month isn’t long enough to know if this is a diet change or just bad luck.

Cons
* This has seriously messed with my head. I find myself sometimes opting not to eat when I can’t have what I really want. I’ve had breakdowns over not being able to have a grilled cheese and a hamburger bun.
* I was borderline depressed going in to this (have been ever since I found myself in a cast) and I still feel that way. I’m really unable to see that I’ve made any progress, mentally or physically. All I can see is the ways that I’ve failed.

Despite those last two things, I’m keeping on with this until Easter. Mainly because I know I haven’t been “perfect” and so I want to give it more time being as close to perfect as I can on it. Mainly omitting the chocolate that I have more than indulged in the past 30 days.

Long term, my plan is to keep this up until Easter. Then, through April and May, add back in dairy and coffee and dark chocolate (over 75%). Also, on weekends, being okay with SWOPing things. Paleo pancakes FTW! We have a wedding to go to the first weekend in May, so when we get back from that, I’ll do another Whole30 round. I’ll need it after vacation. I kind of plan on cycling through like that for a bit, add something in, see how I feel, then go back to Whole30.

Anyway, one Whole30 down, Whole31-49 coming up!

Whole 30, Day 29

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Breakfast -
Tea, eggs, turkey sausage, orange bell peppers

Lunch -
Chicken in almond meal, roasted brussel sprouts, green beans, broccoli, and carrots with a mayo/lemon juice/garlic/parsley sauce

Snack -
Grapefruit, cashews, tea

Dinner -
Pork chops and sauteed cabbage with balsamic vinegar

And so begins week 2 with no coffee and week 1 of no chocolate.