I am a Spartan!

I did it!!  On June 8, 2013 I completed my first Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo, NY and became a

Spartan!   As I had mentioned before, I wasn’t competing for a time (which was good because mine stunk. lol) but only to complete the course as an accomplishment of my strength.  I did exactly that and was extremely proud to cross that finish line. 

 

Call me crazy, but the race itself I found to be kind of fun.  Mastering the different obstacles was my favorite part (except for one obstacle).  However, all the hill mountain climbing I could have done without. Thankfully we had a perfect temperature that day so it was perfect running weather.  I started off the race with a clear head and high expectations.  That mindset was crushed not even 5 minutes into the race when we were hit with our first obstacle - running through 3 trenches of waist high muddy water while you got sprayed with more water.  Well, that certainly woke us up!  It also made for some nice sloshy sneakers to climb the steep hill of rocks that was up next.

 

It POURED the entire day before I was scheduled to run the race.  All this extra rain made the race site an (even bigger) mud pit and also made all of the rocky trails we were running on dangerously slippery.  I watched as other racers slipped and slided past me twisting their ankles as they ran the course.  It wasn’t worth breaking an ankle so we walked a lot of the trails where it was extremely slippery and ran in the places where we could.  This of course slowed our team down quite a bit.

 

Some of the other obstacles that we had to overcome over the 4 miles included: 

-  Monkey Bars

-  Lots and lots of walls (5, 6, 7 & 8 feet tall)

- Herculean Pull (using a pulley lift a concrete block 10 ft off the ground & back down)

-  Tractor Pull (drag a concrete block connected to a chain up a hill & back)

-  Tire Pull (drag a huge tire down a hill then using a rope pull it back up)

-  40 lb Sandbag carry (up & down a hill)

-  Hurdle jumps

-  Cargo net climb

-  Tire Drill (running through tires like the old football drill)

-  Log carry (up & down a hill)

-  Spear Throw

-  Rope Climb

-  Transverse Wall

-  Muddy “slip & slide” under ropes & into a trench of water

-  Barbed Wire Crawl

-  Fire pit jump

 

For any obstacle that you are unable to complete the penalty is 30 burpees.  If you don’t know what a burpee is check out HERE for an explanation.  Luckily I only failed 3 obstacles (rope climb, spear throw & transverse wall).  The barbed wire crawl was by far the worst obstacle in the entire race.  I was dreading it the entire day and couldn’t wait to get across it and put it behind me.  You can see the “oh s**t” look on my face in the pictures.  That’s pretty much exactly what I was thinking. It hurt like a mother crawling over the rocks and I have the bruises and scratches to prove it.

Crossing that finish line was one of the most satisfying moments I’ve experienced in a long time.  My hard work training certainly paid off and I couldn’t imagine having done this at my previous weight.  Although I was sore and a bit bruised and scratched up afterwards, it was completely worth it. 

The scratches will heal.  The bruises will fade.  My muscles will loosen.  But the experience will stay with me forever.

I can’t wait until next year.  Aroooo!!!!

Week 24 Results

Pounds Lost this Week:  +1.0 lbs

Pounds Lost to Date:  -30.4 lbs

This past week was my own fault.  I know what I did wrong. Nothing to blame other than bad choices and very little exercise.  Ever since I hit the 30 lb mark I’ve hit a plateau.  I teeter back & forth on a pound or two, but haven’t made any real progress in weeks.  I need to find my motivation again.  I need something…anything…to get me out of this rut and back into the groove that I was in for so many weeks.  It’s that motivation that is going to get me past these last few pesky pounds and over the finish line.  I know I said that I didn’t have a number goal I was trying to hit, but when I first joined WW they make you put in a number.  I’m only 7 8 pounds away from that number now and it would be a huge sense of accomplishment to hit the number that I set for myself so long ago.

This week’s dinner menu is not all that fantastic.  I’m working from a freezer stash of meat so it’s a hodge-podge of whatever I’ve got on hand.  I had to deal with a medical issue over the weekend (I’m ok) so didn’t get a chance to go food shopping.

Sunday 6/23:   no cooking (attending a graduation party for our niece)

Monday 6/24:   little man requested Chinese (I ordered steamed shrimp & veggies with brown rice to stay light)

Tuesday 6/25:  Skinny Baked Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard Sauce (7 pts+) and side salad (1 pts+, for dressing)  - didn’t get to make this last week

Wednesday 6/26:  leftovers or something quick (have a client meeting in Philly and am getting home late)

Thursday 6/27:  Baked (orgrilled) chicken thighs with dijon & lime (5 pts+), garlic brussel sprouts (0 pts+) & side salad (1 pts+, for dressing) - another one that I didn't get to make last week

Friday 6/28:  baked sole (lightly breaded) with sautéed zucchini  (approx. 8 pts+)

Saturday 6/29:   leftovers (have birthday party & play date during the day)

Week 23 Results

Pounds Lost this Week:  -1.2 lbs

Pounds Lost to Date:  -31.4 lbs

 

I was a tad lazy this week and didn’t count my points at all.  I guess I’ve either gotten really good at figuring out points in my head and/or portion control has started to become 2^nd nature.   I’m hoping it’s the latter since I’ve started to get tired of measuring everything out and have been trying to do things more by eye.  Hopefully this means my eye has become smaller (haha) and I’m measuring out what I should be eating rather than 2x the amount, like most Americans do. 

 

You would think that between losing weight and exercising more I should be feeling so much better and energetic, right?!  Ironically I’ve been exhausted & crabby this past week, to the point that I caught myself nodding off yesterday while at work (NOT good).  It baffles me that once I started getting healthy I kinda started to feel a little worse.  I don’t get it.  It’s not only this week.  I haven’t really felt a ton more energy like I expected.  Maybe I just need to up my vitamin or my protein intake.  Or maybe I’m just having an off week…

 

Here’s this week’s dinner menu:

 

Sunday 6/16:   Father’s Day BBQ

 

Monday 6/17:  Mexican Adobo Rubbed Grilled Pork Tenderloin (4 pts+) with ¾ cup cilantro lime rice (5 pts+)

 

Tuesday 6/18:  Taco Tuesday!  Using ground chicken & whole grain shells (6 pts+) with fat free spicy refried beans (2 pts+)

 

Wednesday 6/19:  Surf & Turf night.  Steamed snow crab legs & grilled marinated London broil (no recipe.  Just some garlic, olive oil & parsley.  Marinate in a bag for a few hours)

 

Thursday 6/20:  leftovers

 

Friday 6/21:  Skinny Baked Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard Sauce (7 pts+) and side salad (1 pts+, for dressing)

 

Saturday 6/22:   Baked (or grilled) chicken thighs with dijon & lime (5 pts+), grilled corn on the cob (2 pts+) & side salad (1 pts+, for dressing)

 

 

Week 22 Results

Pounds Lost this Week:  +0.4 lbs

Pounds Lost to Date:  -30.2 lbs

Not exactly the numbers I was hoping for this week, but it could have been worse.  I allowed myself a junk food binge after I was done with my race on Saturday so I’m probably still full of salt.  I should have been taking measurements of myself from the beginning so that I could not only measure pounds lost but also inches lost.  While I haven’t quite lost that many pounds over the last month, I do feel my clothes fitting much looser and even noticed just this week that I need to put my bras on the very last setting because they are too big for my back.

These last few pounds are certainly going to prove to be the most difficult ones but I’m determined to hit the goal that I had set for myself when I signed up for weight watchers years ago.

Here’s this week’s dinner menu:

Sunday 6/9:   Fluke Piccata. (7 pts+) with corn on the cob (2 pts+)  Actual recipe calls for flounder, but hubby went fishing on Saturday and caught fluke which is very similar to flounder so I used those fresh filets instead.  It came out perfect!  

Monday 6/10:  BBQ spare ribs (10 pts+) with sautéed zucchini (0 pts+)

Tuesday 6/11:  Balsamic Chicken with Roasted Vegetables (9 pts+)   

Wednesday 6/12:  Asian Glazed Drumsticks (5 pts+) with side salad (0 pts+) 

Thursday 6/13:  Going out to dinner for A’s preschool graduation

Friday 6/14:  Leftovers

Saturday 6/15:   no plan.  attending a late day birthday party.

Race to the Finish

As I had mentioned in an earlier post a few weeks back, I signed up for a couple races in the coming weeks/months.  My first one is in less than 3 days (!!)  This coming weekend I will be running the Reebok Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo, NY.  If you’ve never heard of the Spartan Sprint, it’s a 5K muddy obstacle race.  Think wall climbing, rope climbs and crawling through mud underneath barbed wire.  Why would I want to do this you may be asking?  I’m asking myself that same question this week ;-)  It's going to be an adventure to say the least.  I’m not competing for a particular finish time.  I’m doing the race simply as a personal accomplishment.  I’ll be sure to report back at some point next week with pictures & an update on how it went.

 

Race #2 in September is The Color Run.  This is a 5k race being held in Brooklyn, NY.  It’s similar to other races such as Color me Rad where you get doused in various colors (colored corn starch) as you run the course.  You start off in a clean white t-shirt and finish plastered in color!  It’s more of a fun race than a competitive race so I’m looking forward to it.  I’m running this with a bunch of friends in a team as well.  Not competing for a finish time, but doing it just to have fun and as something different. 

 

I haven’t done a ton of serious training for this coming weekend other than running, my weekly volleyball, some push ups plus a boot camp class that I started taking about a month ago.  But I feel that I’m in good enough shape to get me through the 4 miles.   We’ll see though.  I may have something different to say come next week.  LOL  Wish me luck….I think I need it!
 

Week 21 Results

Pounds Lost this Week:  -0.2 lbs

Pounds Lost to Date:  -30.6 lbs

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been at this for 5 months.  If one way it feels like forever but in the next breath it feels like I only started a couple weeks ago.  This past week I was pretty bad at tracking my points within the weight watchers app, but instead was doing it in my head.  I didn’t do a half bad job considering I pretty much stayed even for the week.  I guess the last 20 weeks have taught me something after all ;)

Here’s this week’s dinner menu:

Sunday 6/2:   Asparagus Risotto (7 pts+)  I ate it as my main meal, along with a side salad.  For hubby he needed something more so I made him some lamb chops to go along with it.  

Monday 6/3:  Chicken Marsala (7 pts+) with garlic brussel sprouts & ½ cup long grain wild rice (4 pts+)

Tuesday 6/4:  Grilled Shrimp Scampi (8 pts+) with side salad (1 pts+ for dressing)

Wednesday 6/5:  Tandoori Chicken (3 pts+) with ¼ cup quinoa (4 pts+) and mixed vegetables (0 pts+)

Thursday 6/6:  leftovers

Friday 6/7:  Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas (8 pts+) with fat free spicy refried beans (2 pts+)

Saturday 6/8:   Treating myself to takeout