Still Kickin' it

A baby with croup, a kid with a cold, and a house with never-ending laundry has made keeping this blog up to date harder than I thought. But the good news is I've been keeping up with the training and doing better than I had hoped. I'm still training 3 times a week and I'm doing 3.5 miles a session now. I know lots of people run 5K a lot and it's no big deal, but it is the furthest I've run and the fastest I've gone...ever. I feel pretty good when I'm doing but my shins are sure feeling it. It's a bit daunting knowing that my distance is going to more than quadruple what I'm doing now but I'm just taking it one step at a time.

Greg and I have a pretty good routine worked out and we're really becoming a team. I train twice a week on my own, working mostly on my speed, then on Saturdays we go out together and do a longer distance than the week before. Greg is still wicked fast and much stronger then I am, but I'm gaining speed and he's noticing the changes in me already.

Speaking of changes, I'm finally losing weight, although not necessarily from the training. Greg and I have been counting our calories and it's finally something that is working for me and that I seem to be able to stick with. I discovered an app for my iPhone called "My Fitness Pal', where you enter your weight, goal weight and desired amount lost each week. Then it gives you a calorie max number for each day and you have to stay under it. You can add all the things you eat and it adds up your calories or you can use your iPhone camera to take a picture of a bar-code and it enters the information for you. I've entered everything I put in my mouth, everyday since February 22nd and I'm down 9.5 pounds already.

At first I was hungry and ate my calorie max before dinner most days, but the app helps you realize where you are spending too many calories and where you need to cut some out. I realized I drink half my calories for the day in my juice, lattes, milk...etc. So I've started drinking a lot more water to allow myself more food. I've also given up things I thought were low-cal choices like Booster Juice and I really feel like my stomach has shrunk. I can easily stay around my calorie goal everyday and not go to bed (too) hungry. Greg is down 4 pounds too and he only started 2 weeks ago.

So things are plugging along. I have a crying croupy baby now, so I gotta run. I'll try and post more often. Yay for -9.5 pounds! Only 25 more to go.