Update & Goals

It’s been about 8 weeks, a lot has happened but all is well in the Smith house. Landen of course is growing and developing by leaps and bounds, his speaking has become a lot clearer, he never seems to stop ‘practicing’; even in his sleep he talks. He is fun to listen to, most of the time, and is starting to tell stories and recount events well. His imagination is another thing that is starting to develop greatly, we seem to have monsters and crazy monkeys under each bed and the couch, mostly blue ones.

Landen this past Monday, June 25, moved up to the preschool (a.k.a. big boy) class at school, he is enjoying the computers, big bikes, and the lego table. In just a short week I have already noticed a difference in his speech, his counting – he can now faithfully count to 4, and jumbled up to 20, he can sing a good bit of his ABCs and has already pointed out the letter ‘S’. He is really enjoying the new class, activities and skills.

I have had an up and down past 3 months as far as weight goes, I have managed to lose about 5-8 pounds depending on the day. But I did another Bod Pod evaluation and I did drop my body fat % by 2.8% & the amount of fat weight by 7.9 lbs and gain 2.5 lbs of muscle, so overall not a loss of three months. So I am going to pull up some motivation from somewhere and get on track again to get on with losing weight more steadily again.

As far as running and my couch to 5K, I was majorly slowed down by some pretty painful shin splints and calve strain, but I started using the elliptical most days and weight training to strengthen my leg muscles. It has been working so far. I still can’t run a steady 5K, I still do lots of starting and stopping but I can complete the 3.1 miles in about 36-40 minutes. I can’t complain about that, being that when I started about 10 weeks ago I couldn’t run one minute straight and one mile took me about 20-25 minutes. I did complete the July 4^th Celebration 5K in 38:07, and finished 371 in a race of 540 & 37^th in my class of 54. I’m not unimpressed.  My dad ran with me as well which was incredibly special and my mom, the Hubs and the Boy waited for us anxiously at the finish line. They said the Boy kept telling everyone around him “My mommy’s running”. So special!

Now that the 5K run in done, the Hubs and I are starting to train for the Fl Roc Mud Run. This will be my goal of strength, I will be working a lot on my growing my muscles and upper body strength. I want to be able to hold my own.

Rewarding Thanks, W3D3, & 2 A.M. Again!

We started attending church regularly in March and have so thoroughly enjoyed it. The teachings are done in series so a bigger lesson or story can be taught, this also seems to give the church more opportunity to be involved. This past week, we finished out a Beyond series, which charged us, the church to reach out into our community, country and world with prayer, acts of service and gifts. One of the first weeks of Beyond were able to help send some infant vitamins, lice shampoo, crayons and stickers with our missionaries going to Brazil. This was a great chance to teach Landen that we can give to others with a joyful heart.  The Sunday before last we were encouraged to reach out into our own community and give thanks to our community service workers. So we did. We brought a dinner to our local fire station to tell them that we are thankful for their service & dedication. They were equally grateful, we spent about an hour with them talking and learning. The Fire Chief happen to be visiting so we were able to meet him as well as two fire fighters, Jack & Jammer. They enjoyed Landen’s excitement and eagerness to peak at everything. Landen & Steven even got a short ride in the fire truck. We were told that it had been a very long time since anyone stopped by to visit the station or show the guys appreciation. Even before this visit Steven & I had decided to make our show of appreciation for our community service members a monthly action and now we couldn’t be more convinced that this is a great decision. We never thought it would be so touching to give gratitude.

Jammer showing Landen the Air Truck

 I completed week 3 yesterday and I am thinking I am going to veer a little off course. Week 3 I needed to run 3 minutes solid & I am really struggling with this, on the other hand though I don’t feel like I need to walk a straight 3 minutes to recover from running. I have been running 2 miles in about 23:30 so I am going to do a little of my own thing with the couch to 5K direction. I am going to try to run against the clock for the next week, sticking with 2 miles. Next week, in accordance with week 4, I am going to increase my distance to 2.5 miles, trying to still increase my time in small bits. I am also trying some compression therapy for my calves. I don’t think it is my shins that are bothering me as much as my calves. I learned this week that as you run and blood starts circulating faster and better through your body that it can tend to collect or pool in your calves. This without being counteracted is painful, very painful. So I am hoping with a little compression therapy I can help the circulation and relieve some of the pressure and pain. Let’s hope.

Sleeping has always been something I enjoyed but never really been great at. This being said I have been trying to stretch out my sleep aid prescription, so when I went yesterday to see about refilling it, I was told about melatonin. Something your body produces, usually more around evening time to make you tired and help you sleep through the night, I can take more of this in a vitamin form to help me naturally stay asleep through the night. So I thought, “why not?” I’ll give it a try, anything more natural. So last night was my trial run, I fell asleep fine & though I didn’t stay asleep all through the night, it seemed easier to fall back asleep after waking and the periods of wake seemed to be shorter. Good, right? Well Landen has not been the most soundful sleeper lately either & his waking seems to be right around 2 A.M. Landen last night moved his time to around midnight and since the hubs is on vacation I was able to encourage him to check on Landen at that time. So no 2 A.M. calls for Mama, right? Wrong! My normally quiet, sound sleeping Kora started barking right around 2. Scolding from bed didn’t work, so again Steven got up to get a quick glance that she was fine or to see what the ruckus was. She was fine & he didn’t see any reason of why she got this wild hair. So a few minutes more of listening to her bark I got up to dig around in the bathroom to see what the deal was. I was surprised, very surprised to find our aquatic pink frog trying to hide from this crazy little puppy. This frog somehow made it out of the only small hole in the fish tank lid, where the filter flows, and made it across the living room, into our room, under the bathroom door and into our bathroom, to make sure I was again awake at 2 A.M. After convincing Steven that I can’t make up a claim like this, he saved the frog from Kora, checked it over, flipped on a few lights and made sure everyone was in their appropriate beds we finally got back to sleep. 

W3D2

Whew, I could use a nap, I’m beat! I did better today with week 3, the first 3 minute cycle I only walked 10 seconds again but at the 55 second point this time, and then the second 3 minute cycle I didn’t walk but once for 10 seconds (which went by in a blink) at the 50 second point. So, over all slow progress, but it is progress & I’ll take it. My shins though are really killing me, I am going to spend the next 3 days, taking it easy, taking anti-inflammatories, using biofreeze, & staying off the beach. I hope some extra babying will help them enough to get back to running Monday, but if not I think I am looking at taking some time off from running. I will make sure to nag the hubby to air up my bicycle tires this weekend so I don’t have to be stuck in the gym if I can’t run. That or I may just spend the week working on building muscle.

W3D1

I didn’t do week three perfectly, for my first 3 minute cycle I walked for 10 seconds at the 2 minute mark and then finished jogging the last 50 seconds, then the second 3 minutes I walked 10 seconds at 1 minute and then again 15 seconds at 1:45 seconds. I feel like I still did well. Since I didn’t run the straight 3 minutes like I needed I went ahead and went to the 2 mile mark then pushed on my way back to see what my time would be for it. I did really well for me, I finished 2 miles in 23:30, making that an 11:45 mile. I am aiming to run the 5K in July in 30 minutes so I have some improving to do, but at least I am better than my starting 15 minute mile.

The First Thing I See

I had a good workout today, my calves & shins have been really bothering me (silly me won’t stay away from the beach where the sand re irritates my shins), so a strength days was needed.  The breeze was night today & I worked really hard, I tried to use my 8 pound weight more than my 6. It was a good workout.

I have noticed in the past week or so that the first thing I think when I look in a mirror now is not “I’m fat”, it’s now “I look pretty”. Not to sound conceded with saying that, but I am one of those people that I like how I look. I can now start to see the difference I have made with my weight, with my hard work. I am still not satisfied with my body, but I sure am a happier girl.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

I measured myself yesterday and even though I only just broke my weight plateau of about 5 weeks and only lost 4.2 pounds this month my measurement showed that I really did work hard this past month. Here is how I did:

                                April's Loss             Total Loss

Neck                        -.25”                      -1.25”

Arms                        -.25”                      -1”

Bust                         -1”                          -5.25”

Waist                       -1.5”                      -6.75”

Stomach                   -1.5”                      -6.5”

Hips                         -2.25”                    -9”

Butt                          -2”                        -5.5”

Thighs                     -.5”                         -3.25”

I finished my week two of the Couch to 5K training today, it felt good but I sure am worried about moving on to week 3. A 3 minute steady run may seem like nothing but to me it is a ton. I have never been able to run more than a minute straight, even in high school, nor walk/run a mile in a healthy time. I am a firm believer that runners are made not born & I am just a bit of a late bloomer, LOL. Other than that the weekend was good, I feel like my eating was not as bad as it could have been and I did not drink. A beer or glass of wine or two (or three, or four, depending on the situation) at least one weekend night is pretty normal around our house. This week I plan to enter in all my points Monday thru Friday into my Weight Watchers points calculator.

I am going to do well this week.

W2D2

A few of my muscles I worked on Tuesday are still a little sore so I decided to run again today & strength train tomorrow. So I finished my day two of week two, it was tough but I did it & it didn’t kill me. Here is a fitting picture for today.