KathyG's 2012 Awesome Mentor Group-Full up (Page 22)

Onward!  Great job

Jennifer, I have been considering Pumpkinman or the new Rev3 in Old Orchard Beach. Both offer aqua bike option.

Do you know anything about the swims or the bikes? If you know the bike courses how would you compare them? Terrain and road conditions?

Whoo hooo!

Went on the scale today and with some hard work (eating wise) the last 2 days I managed to only gain 0.4lbs this week ( I was up 8lbs on Tuesday morning but it must have been all water retention mostly from the red wine!)

But that still means 2 gains in a row (last week was really not deserved!) and I am going to be in Germany once again this weekend (with 3 Girlfriends) and I need to be strong! And I have already decided NOT to drink any alcohol (they don't know this yet )

I was wondering if someone is up for a February Weight-Loss challenge?

I need to loose 11lbs during this months to get to my race weight for Abu Dhabi and I think it would help and be nice to have some accountability like in form of a challenge and weekly WI's!

Anyone interested?

Steffi,

I was thinking we should do a challenge for February as well.

What about we set some individual goals, maybe 2 or 3,  that are measurable and see how we do. 

For me it works better to focus on what I'm eating not on pounds lost.

Let's brainstorm and see what ideas we can come up with....

Good idea! Its necessary to set certain goals regarding nutrition and other things and then usually the weight-loss will follow

I am in on the WI's and making Feb a weight loss month.

Steffi:  I am right where you are.  you seem to travel about as much as I do; monthly trips to europe from florida in my case for the past 4 years, a lot of Delta sky miles, but also a lot of sleep lost and training missed.

I have noticed I need about 2-3 days my long flights back to have a "normal" weight, there is a lot of H2O retention going on, I think its from the flights.  3-5 pounds is not unusual IMO

I always have taken my own breakfast, never include BF in my hotel rates, as I really love the buffets but sadly cannot exert any will power.  I have to eat the cheese, different yoghurts and breads as well as the nutella which tastes much better than the nutella sold in the Us that is made in Canada.

Recently I have also started taking healthy/protein snacks (some bars, some protein chips i buy here in the US  or most German train stations sell fresh fruit and yoghurt or nuts) for lunch and only eat a regular dinner if I have to with colleagues or apples and almond butter (which I also bring along) if I am by myself.  I try to limit wine to 1-2 glasses and a lot of sparkling water in between.

It takes a lot of preparation and takes up a lot of space in my little suitcase that I never check but once I have gone thru the effort of packing all that I have found that it helped me stay on track, not in the least because I want to free up space to bring back little things for my kids....  And it kept me within 5 pounds of my "best " weight for the past 5 years.  Off course, having said all that,  I am at that stage where I am 5 pounds up.  I did have  to travel to the French Alps in January and there I ate my way thru everything.... Plus, the wine was pretty good also 

So long story short I am in, manageable goal would be 2 pounds a week?  start with a healthy BF, eat something proteiny every 2-3 hours, eat a sensible lunch and dinner...  No wine or alcohol?  other thoughts?

Weight loss is always a fun challenge, althought right now, like kathy, I'm more focused on eating well, and assuming the weight will come off as a result. Of course, with my increased training, my appetite has taken off like a rocket, so managing that is truly my February challenge! I'm also aiming to not miss any workouts this month starting today. I've had issues with the past 2 Thursdays (family/work, etc) and missed training each day. I'm going to focus on not missing that anymore.

Went out for a run this AM and did 6 miles. I SO did not want to get out of bed. So warm & comfy (and early!) and so cold and rather breezy outside. But I managed to get my feet on the floor and put in the time, although it appears my pace was slower than normal. I feel better for having done it!

A challenge sounds like a great idea! I'm with Kathy and Mike - I can't focus on a number or I will drive myself insane. I am in week 5 of Paleo and am committing (here and now) to continuing through the month of March no matter how much I may want that chocolate croissant.

I also intend on swimming at least twice a week (sigh), biking at least 300 miles and running at least 150 miles in February. I've got a business trip next week, so we'll see how well I can stay on track!

The main limiter for me right now is my back. About a week ago, I did something (I have no idea what) and my upper back seized up. After much management (frequent self-massage with a tennis ball, heating pad, ibuprophen) and a massage on Tuesday, I thought I had resolved the issue. Sadly, I'm still not 100%, tweaking it every hour or so and having difficulty sleeping (every time I move, it wakes me up). This has limited my ability to swim (I can't raise my arms over my head easily...and I tend to do that during swim). I'm ever hopeful that being diligent on management, it will resolve.

Jennifer - not an injury! Being sick or injured is becoming an epidemic around here!

I have a long trainer ride tomorrow AM (1:45) and rather than watch a movie, I'll be firing up a Sufferfest cycling video. I have one already, and just bought this other one (Local Hero is the name of this one). I'm finding them a great way to get in an interesting trainer workout, and a relief from the monotony of a trainer ride.

Today I feel as though I was attacked by a jackhammer! A good kind of hurt due to the deep tissue massage yesterday.

Planning on a swim this evening. Going to back off of the run until the hip feels better. Couple of days.

Kathy - congrats on the recovery process! You are almost there. Stay the course...

Kathy: Walking - YAY!

I'm in for the weight loss challenge!

I'm also in the sickies league now. Struck down with some sort of gastrointestinal distress bug. This was not what I envisioned to kickstart weight loss! Hopefully it's only a 24-48hr thing. Looks like it's going to be a ginger tea, coconut water, banana and toast day.

Have a great one all!

Here's my idea....

Make 3 goals that are measurable that will help you with your weight loss/healthy eating goals.

Goals may be something like the following or your own.

• Write down everything I eat
• Write in my BT training blog what I eat
• Follow my training plan
• Eat 3 or x  servings of vegetables a day
• Stop eating after 7pm
• Follow my plan for eating (Paleo, count calories, what ever is your choice)
• Drink xxx oz of water a day
• Stop eating or drinking xxx
• No junk food

You guys get the idea. Think about what your goals will be. What we could do is track if we meet our goals. Simple a point if you do and 0 if you don't so you could earn 3 points each day. Adding a bit of personalized competition I hope would be fun for us.

If you think this is something you want to do, post your three goals and we will start tomorrow for the rest of the month of February. If you read this later feel free to join in whenever it works for you. It's all about support and encouragement.

Who's in and what's your goals?

I'm in and here are 3 things I really need to focus on:

1. Stick to the plan - no missed workouts

2. Stop grazing, especially when getting home from work

3. Drink at least 3 liters of water a day

Hey everyone:

Yesterday i did my first ever double.  MIW in the morning, five miles hard during lunch and a heavenly 1.5 hours of yoga for a nightcap.  This morning my legs had that wonderful achy feeling.  Rest day today.  It felt luxurious to sleep in to 5:30 a.m.  Back at it tomorrow morning.

I plan to try and bike 20 miles on the trainer and swim a mile.  Then it's off to a Girl Scout camping trip with DD #4 for the night.  She and her troop are already at the camp and I will hook up with them around Noon.  Bummer that this MN winter is so warm and lacking in snow.  They are supposed to snow shoe, cc ski and do outdoor survival training.

Regarding weight, I never weigh myself and go by the feel of my clothes.  Knowing that stupid number on the scale stresses me out and causes way too much mental angst.  In fact, at the onc's office on Monday I had to turn away from the scale and make  sure the nurse did not say my weight.  The onc didn't mention weight, although he was admittedly more interested in the CT results. 

I registered for marathon #2 for this year yesterday.  Twin Cities on October 7 (Grandma's in Duluth MN in June is #1).  Has anyone run the Marine Corp Marathon?  I am thinking about that one, too.  I have two sisters in Maryland and a brother in Fairfax, VA so it is a good excuse for a family visit.

Does anyone lift weights as part of her or his training routine?  If so, what is a good overall strength routine to do?

What does everyone have on tap for Saturday and Sunday?

How are the sickies doing? I know few have turned the corner....Kelly and Rusty.

Saturday we are going to Hartford area for a Cross Fit competition that Emily, Brian and Kevin are participating. Kevin and Brian it is their first one so they are excited and nervous.

Had a GREAT swim tonight! Finally got the hang of breathing from either side, found a powerful kick, some great WOW moments. Felt absolutely great afterwards.

Steffi - THANK YOU for the advice on the Indoor Tri transition advice. We are riding Life Cycles (spin bikes). My thought is to get out of the pool, towel off and slip on my bike shorts over the swim shorts. Now, the "performance anxiety" sets in. I keep trying to set a goal for myself in a competitive sense but I need to keep things in perspective. I am going to set the goals I had for my first distance run: 1. START 2. FINISH.

As far as this weekend: Saturday I am going to knock out an open road run. Weather has been unusually warm here so the snow is gone. In the evening a trainer ride.

Sunday I will get back on the bike again as I will switching back to 12 hr nights on Monday.

Hope all of you who are stricken with illness are getting better. Have a great weekend!

The best laid plans of mice and men.. no run, no bike today. I took over solo parenting duties so my wife could get some work done. We all went to the library for story time, spent a good deal of time outside (45F in FEBRUARY???) and took a long walk to the river and back. Had a great day. I am going to do something tonight I have not had an chance to do for some months now: set up my telescope!Venus, Jupiter and Mars will be up and about along with any number of celestial wonders.

Have a great night/day one and all!

Count me in on the challenge!

1.  Follow the training plan.

2.  Drink at least 64 oz of water (not including workout fluids).

3.  Eat at least 3 servings of fruits/veggies daily.

This is the start of my recovery week and I'll enjoy the down time before I start the IM training plan!

Have my run in for the day - a glorious run by the ocean on a clear sunny day. Felt a bit slow, maybe due to long trainer session yesterday, but finished, and it went better than I thought. Good mental day to push through the self doubts.

Remainder of today is resting, and getting ready for the main event -- the Super Bowl!

Diet restriction will be taking a back seat to the game I must admit. I have some fantatic ribs I had sent  to me from Alabama, my wife is making a killer apple pie & biscuits, and I'm getting some buffalo wings, too. Not exactly a top 10 of nutritional foods, thats for sure

Overall, a GREAT week of training. Feeling stronger, and tired, but its obvious things are progressing. Week 3 is in the books -- only 19 to go!

My goals for the challenge:

1. Record what I eat include how hungry I was and what was going on
2. Eat 3 or more servings of veggies a day
3. Drink 50 oz water a day