20 Pounds DOWN!!!

First I must apologize for not posting for so long. Nathan turned 4 on August 3rd and we were suppose to have a party for him but both of my boys got sick a couple of days before so it was postponed. Yesterday Isabel seemed to be getting a fever too, but she was acting pretty normal all day so I hope she doesn't get any worse. I also felt pretty crappy yesterday as the day went on. I was planning to do workout 3 of C25K's week 6 training which would've had me running for 22 minutes straight but my legs were aching and my lower back as well. I just didn't feel right, still really don't...not sure if this is the bug the kids had or not but I don't like the feeling...like my bones fell apart and were put together wrong.

Ok...let me back up a bit. I last posted Tuesday morning so I didn't get to tell you about my (almost) TEN MILE Crim training walk! I'll share my splits...but they are really messed up because I thought I would try and stop my Garmin when we stopped for someone to use a bathroom or get some water. I really shouldn't have done that because I ended up forgetting to restart it one time and lost about a quarter mile or so from my total walking time. Oh well I guess. : /

See...all jacked up.

Maybe I didn't lose the distance??? I don't know...I'll have to experiment and see if my Garmin still records the distance difference between when the training session is paused and restarted like it does with elapsed/moving time. I'll get back to you on the answer to that one.

The bottom of my left foot started to hurt around mile 3. I had my show tied a little too lose so my heel was popping up and down with each step. I thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal...but evidently it was. I stopped and retied my shoe when it started hurting...but it was too late. My foot just started hurting worse and worse. It felt I was dragging the pad of my foot across sand paper with every step. As you can see...it took us a REALLY long time...but we did it!!! It wasn't super fun to walk through Flint after dark but we stuck together and it was fun for the most part.

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My birthday boy. Can't believe he started out as a tiny preemie! He's almost the same weight and height as his big brother. You can see some of his newborn pictures by clicking on the March of Dimes tab at the top of the page.

I took two full days to "recover" from that long walk before I went out for a C25K workout. Friday, my son Nathan turned 4. As I said, both boys got sick a couple of days before so I wasn't having the pirate themed party...but I got out some eye patches and their pirate hats because I knew how much Nathan was looking forward to it. Jacob and Nathan were both feeling pretty much all better (go figure)...I say pretty much because David stopped on the way home and bought a cake (the one for the party was cancelled) and neither boy ate their piece!!!

Jacob was Capn' Nathan's First Mate. : )

We got him his first bike. He really was happy about the Lightning McQueen bike...he just got a little scared riding it for the first time. Our driveway is on a little bit of a downward slope so he was gaining speed as he went.

Isabel was the race flag girl. Nathan's bike came with caution cones and a flag to have races with.

It was very humid out so I waited and waited....and waited to go for my run. At 9:00pm I finally decided that I just had to go even if it wasn't much cooler. It was almost completely dark by the time I left. C25K's week 6 day 2 workout had me doing warm up walk; 10 minutes running; 3 minutes walking; 10 minutes running; cool down. I had my music on and it actually felt really good to start running...never thought I'd say that...and it felt EASY...GASP! I made sure to concentrate on my breathing and just trying to listen to my music...but my mind did wander. The road I live on dead ends in a cul de sac that only has two LARGE homes...the rest is woods. I mentioned it was just about completely dark when I STARTED, right??? So my mind wanders to the book I picked for this month's book club...its called World War Z by Max Brooks...its a fictitious (obviously) account of a zombie apocalypse. Its really a very interesting book...but when you running...by yourself...in the dark...down a dead end woods-lined dirt road...its not the best book to start thinking about. As I turned away from the woods to start heading back home all I could envision were zombies coming out of the woods after me. I made sure not to look back...lol. Luckily, the zombies in this book are of the snail's pace variety so I knew if I kept running at my turtle pace I was 'safe'. I actually joked to myself that it was probably a good thing that I thought about that book...it gave me motivation to keep on running. I was freaked out enough that I went ahead and ran back in front of my house...which I never do...I always circle back and run around the cul de sac again...but THAT wasn't happening NOW! So I had to run up the slight incline to get back to my house...that wasn't fun at all...but I should start to run some 'hills' anyways. I was VERY tired by the end of the workout...but I finished...and I didn't walk during either of the 10 minute running intervals. : )

I was pretty slow...but I did run a different part of my road for the second 10 minutes.

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This Thursday I will be participating in my second 5k as a runner! The Great Pizza Challenge! This was the other race that I walked in back in 2007. I was pushing my son Jacob, then 4 months old in a stroller. This is a ROAD race (thank God!) so I should hopefully do much better than I did last month in the Huckleberry Hustle. I'll be sure to post a race report.

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I have now, as of this morning, lost TWENTY POUNDS since I started this journey in January!!! While I was hoping to be much farther along by now I am still happy that I have reached this mini goal!!! The Phentermine is really helping me stay on track with my diet. I am still not always making the healthiest food choices (mostly because of availability and time constraints) but I'm making sure to stay within my daily calories goal. You have to start somewhere, right? Since I have been on the Phentermine I have lost 8 pounds...that's almost 4 pounds a week! I'm hoping that I can keep up this rate of weight loss for a little while. I have a couple important weddings coming up and I would like to be able to wear something that I don't feel like a tent in.

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Last, but certainly not least...I am having my first GIVEAWAY!!! Be sure to check back tomorrow for my very first product review post and GIVEAWAY!!! I'm SO EXCITED!!!

I hope everyone is having a great Monday (do those exist?). I will be doing my C25K week 6 day 3 workout tonight since I didn't do it last night! Wish me luck...22 minutes running in a row! Never could have imagined that back in May! : )