Plateau isnt a plateau when you eat everything in sight

Hello all.... So last week I was knee deep in all my favorite outdoor activities. Mountain biking and trail running have left a permanent dirt tan line and I have greatly enjoyed all my freedom to participate in the activities I love. HOWEVER, I sure fell off the wagon over the last week when it comes to eating. I can blame two things for my calorie consumption. First, when on vacation, eat! Thats what vacation is for, to leave behind all your stressors and for me dealing with a diet is a stressor. And two, when in training for something eat appropriately. I am running the Davis Moo-Nlight half-marathon on July 16th and when Im required to run 8 miles in 100 degree weather you bet your ass Im going to eat. With that said, I do wonder how do you train on a diet?

I have never figured this out. Weight Watchers gives you extra points for exercise so I assume they want you to use these points for gatorade and power bars. But its still so hard in my mind. A plate of spagetti is like 20 points and I only get 29 a day. Do I just focus on the lower point diet versions of everything like G2 the low calorie sports drink? Or do I say F-it until the race is over? I hate this!! Training for events is second to getting pregnant when it comes to why I left Weight Watchers. Ill ask on Saturday at the meeting, lets hope she has an answer.

When the number isn't going down

Hello all. This week was full of yay-for-me events that I thought I would vainly share. First off, I finally broke through my plateau and weighed in at 178 on Saturday. That weight loss put me at my second 10% loss since I started Weight Watchers in January. I like to remind myself that I started losing weight before WW but at some point I'm going to have to give up and only keep track of one number.

The second exciting thing that happened was my return to Fleet Feet. I trained with FF from July- December while I was training for the Urban Cow half-marathon and California International Marathon (CIM to locals, and I only ran a leg of it, not the whole thing). Anyway, you would think that after spending a half a year with my coaches, they would remember me, right? Apparently NOT!!! Not only did Isa's growth completely shock them as she pulled all the Sharkie energy fruit snacks off the rack, but when I said "remember me" they were dumbfounded by my size. Technically they didn't say they were dumbfounded but their faces revealed that they had no idea who I was after losing at least 30 pounds since I last saw them. SO YAY for me, no one recognizes me.

The third exciting thing, and according to my personal trainer is the most exciting thing (so excited he told his mom), I lost 6% body fat taking me from the "acceptable" body fat range to the "fitness" body fat range. I guess the fitness industry folks can legally call me an athlete now that I am "fit." I still argue that you can be fit and fat but convincing snotty fitness employees this is not so easy (Read "Fit and Fat" by Sally Edwards, she proves the fact that it is possible). Anyway, I was excited to be in a healthy body fat category.

I guess the reason I am bragging has to do with my BMI and current weight. According to my BMI, which most people consider to be the end all decider of fitness and healthy weight, I am still overweight and only .3 away from being obese. This frustrates me so much because people base their weight loss and self-esteem while losing weight on this number and their current weight. I guess I'm a little POed myself. How can I have three YAY-for-me moments while still being borderline obese. Uhh frustrating.

Anyway, I attached a picture of my most recent inches and body fat lost from my trainer Jereme Scott (24 Hour Fitness, Roseville, look him up, he rocks!). I'm going to share his excitement and forget the BMI BS for a while.

Tornado in town, so its onDemand time

Today is National Running Day so I was going to run outside, however since we Californians are being pounded with hail, watching for tornadoes, dodging lightening, and comforting terrified of thunder dogs, onDemand it is. I know I have a treadmill but I am really excited about my new "lets try it" project so I got right to it and looked at what my too expensive cable had to offer. 

OnDemand has an option called Sports/ Fitness and on this screen you can find Exercise TV. Once on Exercise TV you have a table of contents that will send you to every living room exercise available. You can try yoga, Jillian Michael's 30 day program, weight training, and dance among many more options. I chose Crunch Burlesque and Belly Dancing for Fitness. Here are my first attempts at reviews ;)

Crunch Burlesque

I found this dance to be quite silly and impossible to follow if you are uncoordinated. Hows that for an opener! Really you just spin around and follow around on the floor trying to look "sexy." It could be fun if you are a dancer, but the rest of us look silly trying to keep up. The only strenuous part was the pelvic thrusts you had to do from a body bridge position. 

Duration: 22 minutes, warm up and cool down included

Sweat Factor: None (good if you have something to do after and don't want to look like a mess)

Chance of a repeat visit (scale 1-10): 0

Belly Dancing for Fitness

I took belly dancing in college and loved it. Belly dancing is made for people with bellies and we do seem to be better at it than the flat six packers. So I would totally recommend Belly Dancing, whether it be the onDemand version or a real life class. This class worked my arms and shoulders more than anything else. You keep your arms up for most of the routine so be prepared to feel it a bit later. 

Duration: 13 minutes, warm up and cool down included

Sweat Factor: None (good if you have something to do after and don't want to look like a mess)

Chance of a repeat visit (scale 1-10): 6 (not as a work out on its own since its so short in length, plus I prefer the real class with an instructor)

Parkour.... what?

When I lived in NYC I often spent time with the Health editor at Marie Claire and she would tell me glamorous stories of a particular job that I would give up cuddle time with the sharp clawed Gato for.... I want to be the gal who gets to test stuff!!! The girl at Marie Claire got to test out sports equipment and rate it and now I am reading about a girl from Shape magazine that was in charge of testing out different sports activities/ trainings/ classes etc. In this edition of Shape she is trying Parkour, the crazy jump off of buildings martial art that looks more like a stunt devil workshop then Tai Kwon Do.

Anyway, since Marty left Marie Claire and I live in a boring suburb instead of the amazing NYC, I guess my chances of being the "tester" for a magazine are probably not going to happen. Therefore I am going to try to be a tester for Roseville's sporting options. I am going to try to do demo classes at a bunch of different places and I will get back to you and post how they went. I will post about both gym classes and private studios, as well as outdoor activities as well as workout DVDs. If you would like me to test something for you in advance, please let me know and I will do my best.

The only rules I have are:

1. It must be free. Im a stay at home mom so the dough is not exactly flowing.

2. I must have child care. I would be willing to pay for child care, just as long as she is safe somewhere so that Im not focused on her.

3. Im not jumping off a cliff into water, this is stupid, not to mention so not a sport.

So if you are interested let me know what you would like me to try and I will try it. I will try to send out some feelers to see who offers free demo classes. I will also try to re-try and evaluate things I have already done so that you can read about them too. Lastly, I will try to figure out some sort of scoring system to rate each activity. If this works Ill try to do something similar with recipes as well. Here we go!!!