My 6 week challenge

Iffer75

I guess I am not really stressing about the day itself, but getting to that day. LOL I just want it here so we can have a great day. Tomorrow is the big day with my dress. I am so excited!!! Can't wait to put it on.

How are you doing, btw? :bigsmile:

princesspurple

i am glad you are excited...this is one thing i will say...after the vows are said and you get ready to 'party', take 5 minutes, just the 2 of you, no photog...no family...just the 2 of you and take in what just happened. Someone told me that before my wedding and i was so happy to do that. The days is so beautiful and it goes by so fast, so it gave us some grounding and, really, the days is for the 2 of you 2 start the rest of your lives.

I am doing ok...just want to move that stupid scale!:)

Iffer75

Princess-Great advice, I will do that. Makes total sense. We are actually writing our own vows as well. I am looking forward to what he will come up with. He is not romantic at all, so it should be interesting.

I know what you mean about the scale. Hide it for a few weeks and don't let it stress you out. :bigsmile:

Iffer75

I started my week yesterday with a 3 mile run and I will do another tonite. It went really well. My pace was 11:30/mile, which is really good for me. Maybe tonite I will make it 11/mile. I am running a nite 5k this Friday and am really excited. Have not done one like this before. At least I know I will be ready for it. Then I will start my HM training back up on Monday next week. WHOOOHOOO!!! It is about time. LOL :laugh:

Iffer75

Another 3 miles in the books. It was another good run. I did slow down by 1:30 min/mile just because I usually don't run two days in a row, especially 3 miles. I am pretty proud of myself. Sunday nite was 11:00 min/mile and last nite was 13:00 min/mile. For someone who is still learning, I can't complain. I sure slept better last nite. LOL :yawn:

I ate 100% better yesterday and will do even better today. I had one birthday cupcake last nite for dessert, since Sunday was Jon's birthday. We celebrated last nite. Today will be 100% clean. If we don't have band practice I will get to play softball. I will only be the catcher and they may put me up to bat, but at least it is something. Then I will get in my strength training and core workout. I think I will do Cardio Abs tonite, I just won't do the jumping around warmup at the beginning. After this week if my ankle is doing good, I can start with Plyo work again. I am excited about that. I sure miss jumping around and hearing Shaun T yell at me. LOL :laugh:

I will be posting my wedding dress pic today. :bigsmile:

Have a beautiful day.

Iffer75

Yesterday was strength training and core work. I decided to go with Insanity Cardio Abs, I did not do any of the warmup due to what my doctor told me. Next week I should be able to. I had Jon tweek my strength training a little. I looked at myself in my dress and really don't like the looks of my arms. They look flabby. UGH!!!! I am my own worst critic. So, I have 9 more strength training days before the wedding and really want to tone up the best I can before then. He is having me do more reps with a lower weight. I thought, oh, this won't be a problem, I was wrong. It was still hard, which is good. I do feel it this morning, I am sure I will feel it more tomorrow. LOL

Tonite I will be running again. Not sure how long though, depending on when band practice lets out. I want to do 3 miles, but may not be able to. As long as I get something in, it is better than nothing. :bigsmile:

Where are my girls??? I miss you. :sad:

Iffer75

Last nite I was driving home from band practice and was starting to get a splitting headache. I was thinking, really can this be happening? So I remembered that I had Ibuprofen in my purse grabbed my water and downed my pills to alleviate the pain. My plan was to run and get a little more practice in before Friday's 5k run. I was not about to let a headache hold me back. It was already ten after 9 when I got home, so I decided to get in at least a 20 min run. I was going to try and run some intervals. Mind you, I am not really good at intervals and want to give up and stay at my normal pace after maybe two intervals. I made Jon (my fiancé') go with me so he could push me along the way, just for the fact I want to give up. Of course, that is what I did, I wanted to give up, but honestly I don't think I did. I never really got back down to my pace because Jon was with me. I was trying to keep up with him. I am pretty sure he was running a head of me to push me and it worked. I could not believe that I ran 2 miles in 20 mins. That is a record for me. Now if I can just do that tomorrow nite at the run. I will try and think of Jon in front of me and I have to catch him.

Okay, I am also going to confess. For the last couple of weeks I had been eating really badly. not journalising all my food, eating as much as I wanted. I was kidding myself, just because it was on my menu doesn't mean I can eat the whole box of Wheat Thins in one sitting. In all I gained about 8 pounds in the last 2 weeks. I found my willpower this week and have been doing an awesome job. I think mostly because my wedding is coming up and I want to look amazing for Jon. He already says that I am amazing, but I don't buy that. I am truly my own worst critic. If you look on my Sparkpage at my wedding pic, I actually hate it. My arm looks so fat and flabby. UGH!!! I can't handle that. So, I had Jon tweak my upper body workouts to tone up more. I am also more committed than ever to start my HM training again on Monday. Since my Achilles Tendon is doing well now, I can start back up and also mix in cross training. I am really excited to incorporate Insanity and TurboFire back into the mix. I sure have missed jumping around and yelling at Shaun T.

The good news? This week so far I have lost 5 of the 8 pounds I gained in the last 2 weeks. I am almost back to where I was before my Achilles Tendon injury. I really want to be at 155 by my wedding date. I will take 160 though. Almost there. :bigsmile:

NewImprovedCnbethea1

Hey Jennifer just want you to know I am still around I will be in here to really read your post and get all caught up it's been a real long day for me today so I am off to bed!!

I did get a sneak peak at that gorgeous wedding gown your going to make a lovely bride!!!:bigsmile:

NewImprovedCnbethea1

Hey Jennifer glad to hear your getting things back on track and your down 5 of the 8lbs that's awesome!! Only 27 days to go to your big day and it sounds like you have a great plan in place to continue on your success with the toning and running I wish you well with that. How did the night 5k go that sounded really interesting? Hope you had a great time and the rest of your weekend went well!!

Be back to check in and see how it went!!

Iffer75

Hey Jennifer glad to hear your getting things back on track and your down 5 of the 8lbs that's awesome!! Only 27 days to go to your big day and it sounds like you have a great plan in place to continue on your success with the toning and running I wish you well with that. How did the night 5k go that sounded really interesting? Hope you had a great time and the rest of your weekend went well!!

Be back to check in and see how it went!!

You are so sweet, thank you. :blushing:

My run Friday nite was actually a 4 miler. I know that isn't much difference from a 5k, but for a beginner, it is a lot and I was not really ready for that. We ran around a little part in the park 5 times. I was kinda bummed about that, I was hoping for a nice scenic run. We did have a creek at one side of the trail. It was an all concrete/road run. We did start in the rain, it was fun. Once you got wet it wasn't so bad. It was just the first initial drops that you worried about. Then, once I was soaked, it was no big deal. It did stop after about 1 1/2 laps around and it stayed pretty nice. The start of the run was down hill and the end of each lap was uphill. Next time, I think they should turn it around. Oh, now that I think about it either way it would have been the same. LOL :laugh: I did finish in 44:59 mins. I shaved off about 1:30 mins from my last 4 miler in October. So, I would have to say that I am getting better. So, that was an 11:15 min/mile pace. I will take that. Next time will be even better. I did beat 9 people. WHOOOHOOO!!! It was a lot of fun and maybe I will do it again next year.

Now, starting today I am starting my Half-Marathon training over. I did have to shorten it by one week in order to get all my miles in before my race on October 16th. I am really excited about doing this and actually finishing a Half-Marathon.

So, here we go. Have a great week. :bigsmile:

Iffer75

Where are my friends???? :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad:

Last nite was the start of my Half-Marathon training, again. This will be my third attempt. First two times, I injured myself, this time I am under doctor's instructions. We will see how this goes.

I did strength training last nite and I decided to add in some dancing to work my core. It was a lot of fun actually. I have a playlist on my Mp3 player for running and it is some pretty kewl dance music, so I just decided to dance to it in between sets.

I need to be ready to run a 10k by the end of the month. So "balls to the wall" as they say. I need to stay consistant and keep my food intake good. Plus I am getting married the same day as the 10K. I figured it would be a good way to get energized for the day and the only time that Jon and I will have together alone all day. He is not really looking forward to it, but I know he will enjoy it once we get started. It just takes time for him to warm up to something different.

So, here is to a great month of running and eating healthy for the big day. 25 days left. :bigsmile:

Iffer75

I hope that you are all well and happy today. One day closer to Friday.

Yesterday was a really bad day for me emotionally and eating wise. I did not follow my menu and did not workout. My boss put me down to part time and with just 2 1/2 weeks till my wedding. So, I had a feeding frenzy. I am now having to drastically cut things from the wedding, namely, the reception. So everyone that I had sent out an invitation to I had to let them know about the change. That is not an easy task.

Today may not be a better day emotionally, but I am going to make it a better physical and eating day. There are 24 days left until the wedding and I need to lose a few pounds and feel better about myself after all this. So here is what my plan is to keep me on track. Every time that I even start to think about driving to get any food not on my menu I will drop down and do 5 good pushups (mind you my normal pushups are easier, I can do 20 of them compared to 5 good ones). Then I am thinking of doing jumping jacks. I figure when I start to get my heartrate up I will start to feel better and not want to put bad things in my body.

This morning has been good so far and it is about time for my morning snack. Tonite I will be talking to my cake lady about making a much smaller cake and when I get home I will eat my dinner. I will be doing an Insanity workout tonite for my crosstraining. I can't decide whether to go with MCC or PCC. Either one is an awesome workout.

Here is to a good food and physcial day. Happy Friday Eve!!! :bigsmile:

princesspurple

dont let anything get to you before the wedding, all of it happens for a reason, and no matter what, the day will be fantastic! :drinker:

Iffer75

dont let anything get to you before the wedding, all of it happens for a reason, and no matter what, the day will be fantastic! :drinker:

I do understand that everything happens for a reason, but sometimes I just don't want to accept that.

I know that it will all be fine when the day comes. I signed us up for the 10k run that morning. Can't wait to do it. Talking to Jon last nite he said, are you ready to run at my pace? I said, no way!!! I am still pretty slow, but can pick it up for short spirts. It will be my longest run to date. We are even having t-shirts made with Bride & Groom on them with our wedding date on the back. It makes it even more special since we will be spending quality yelling time together before the big day turns into chaos. LOL What I mean by yelling is, he will push me to the point that I will want to walk and he will continue to push until the end. Yes, I will yell at him, but will be glad that he is there to get me going. :bigsmile:

Douniap

dont let anything get to you before the wedding, all of it happens for a reason, and no matter what, the day will be fantastic! :drinker:

I do understand that everything happens for a reason, but sometimes I just don't want to accept that.

I know that it will all be fine when the day comes. I signed us up for the 10k run that morning. Can't wait to do it. Talking to Jon last nite he said, are you ready to run at my pace? I said, no way!!! I am still pretty slow, but can pick it up for short spirts. It will be my longest run to date. We are even having t-shirts made with Bride & Groom on them with our wedding date on the back. It makes it even more special since we will be spending quality yelling time together before the big day turns into chaos. LOL What I mean by yelling is, he will push me to the point that I will want to walk and he will continue to push until the end. Yes, I will yell at him, but will be glad that he is there to get me going. :bigsmile:

Try doing some circuit training and for running (especially if you want to improve your pace), do speed work:
go hard (really hard) for 1 min, rest for 30 sec ==> do as many as you can after a nice warm up..
and as you become stronger start increasing that number of intervals as well as the duration of each interval.
Then may be you can move on to doing your speedwork in terms of distance: As an example run hard for 0.25 miles, Jogg for half of that..
Make sure to keep track of your progress too..
Happy running
Dounia

Iffer75

Try doing some circuit training and for running (especially if you want to improve your pace), do speed work:
go hard (really hard) for 1 min, rest for 30 sec ==> do as many as you can after a nice warm up..
and as you become stronger start increasing that number of intervals as well as the duration of each interval.
Then may be you can move on to doing your speedwork in terms of distance: As an example run hard for 0.25 miles, Jogg for half of that..
Make sure to keep track of your progress too..
Happy running
Dounia

Yeah, I try that, but I am not really sure if I am doing it right. It just seems that after maybe one or two times I am out of steam all together and I really want to finish my miles for the day, so I kinda back off. I am still learning obviously. :bigsmile:

Iffer75

Yesterday was Day 8 and I did strength training and Insanity Cardio Abs. It was a great workout. My Maid of Honor, Katrina came over and did the strength training with me. She is new to it and I hope she had a good experience with it. I will be checking in with her after I send this post. It did take a little longer, due to her being with me, but I still made sure to do good form and 15 to 20 reps, 3 sets. I do love to feel the burn. I actually did the warm up for Cardio Abs last nite and my ankle was fine with it. I think I am really good to go now and I love that. I tried concentrating harder on keeping my bootie in place while doing the high plank and low plank oblique moves. I am pretty sure I did better this time than last week. Feeling good about the workout.

Today was/is Day 9 and I did a 3 mile run this morning. Since I am now part-time at work, I don't go in until 1pm. I decided to get the run in early, so after work I can go get my flowers ordered for the wedding and then head out for a softball game. It was a good run. I ran 11:21 miles. I am so wanting to go faster, but don't really know my limits yet. Some day though, I just need to be patient. It was nice this morning, there was a breeze to keep me going with the sun up high in the sky. We are having a heat advisory starting at noon today, so it was good to get it in early.

I hope everyone is doing well and have an AWESOME day. :bigsmile:

NewImprovedCnbethea1

Jennifer it sounds like your back in the swing of things with your running that's awesome!!! Can't wait to here all the amazing stories about your race and the wedding.......Keep up the great work!!

Iffer75

Jennifer it sounds like your back in the swing of things with your running that's awesome!!! Can't wait to here all the amazing stories about your race and the wedding.......Keep up the great work!!

Thanx so much. Sorry for not being on and updating. My home computer is down and I am now only working afternoon hours. So, not as much time as normal to get on.

I am doing well. I did a 4 mile run last nite and beat my last time by 1:50 mins. For me that is fantastic. Tomorrow will be another 4 mile run. Feeling really good about things.

I hope all is well with you. I will try to get on as much as I can. Let me know how you are doing. :bigsmile:

Iffer75

I have been doing really good with my eating this last week and am very proud of myself for that. I really have not lost any weight, but I can definitely see a difference in my body. I put on a shirt this morning for work and it is too big. I wore it just a couple weeks ago and it looked fine. So, I may not being losing on the scale, but I am otherwise and it feels great. I guess I am pretty happy with where I am at. After the wedding I will concentrate a little harder and try to get down to the 155 goal I set for myself.

Keep up the AWESOME work everyone and have a beautiful Friday Eve!!! :bigsmile:

NewImprovedCnbethea1

That's awesome Jennifer way to go staying focused and losing the inches!!!! You know that is what count great health plus looking and feeling good who can ask for anything more!!

Iffer75

Hey girl, how are you doing? Have not heard from you in a while. Hope all is well. :bigsmile:

NewImprovedCnbethea1

Jennifer I am doing good going through my 1st complete round of insanity!!:bigsmile:

So are you all set and ready to go 3 days away can't wait to see all the beautiful pics i know you are so so excited that's going to be such a wonderful day for you!!!

bak2good

I was reading your posts and I'm curious about this couch to 5K plan. Where do I get it? How much is it? I currently do the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. I have about 10 more lbs to go and I'm finding it very difficult. I gain three, lose two, gain 2, lose three and it keeps going back and forth like that. I tried the oral HCG and that didn't work so well for me. I lost a little, but I'm skeptical that I may have bought it from a company that is a scam. Do you ladies have any suggestions for me. You all seem to have done really, really well. Congratulations!!!!

adcoursey

couch to 5k is a podcast on iTunes, and it's free.

Iffer75

Jme-I just googled Couch to 5k and I used Hal Higdon's novice program. It worked very well for me and I am still running to this day.
What is HCG? Have you ever heard of Hip Hop Abs or Turbo Jam? These are also great programs that can help you with losing weight and being physically fit. Try the link below and let me know what questions you might have about it.

http://beachbodycoach.com/esuite/home/jjtonic75?bctid=10103956001

princesspurple

when is the wedding?

Iffer75

Princess-It was August 28th. It was a beautiful day and everything went smoothly. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

How are you doing? :bigsmile: