I'm Alive!

Wow, how three months can fly.

In May, I had my bachelorette party...

The following weekend, I PRed the Geist Half Marathon...

In June, Ryan and I got married!

Immediately following the wedding, we took our honeymoon in Mexico...

 We returned from our honeymoon in July, and only a week later, we bought a house...

Two days after that, I told my work that I want to go part-time. I'm going to use the extra time to focus on my growing photography business...

Overall, It's been a whirlwind of a summer to say the least.

Oh... but you want me to talk about triathlons, don't you?! Well, I haven't done any. In fact... I haven't even been training much. I did my first swim last week, and did my first bike ride today. I have my first race, the Chicago Triathlon, at the end of August. Thankfully, I'm doing to sprint, and not the Olympic (which almost killed me last year).

My weight is holding steady for now. I gained (no joke) 8 pounds during our wedding and honeymoon. Ouch! But I lost a few when we returned, and now I'm back on the Weight Watchers wagon... aiming for that elusive 140. I only have 11 pounds to go.

Hopefully I'll be back soon! I'm still reading everyone elses' blogs religiously!

Four Month Photos

Technically, 4 months and 1 week.

I've lost a total of 22 pounds since the beginning of the year. Here's the proof...


The side photo is my favorite. I didn't realize how big I was!

We are less than 2 months out from the wedding, and I've got 9 pounds to go until my goal. I don't plan on reaching it in the next two months, but I do plan on having a set-back during our all-inclusive honeymoon.

My Dad and I ran a 5K a couple weeks ago. I was aiming for a PR, but it was 24 degrees with 25 mph winds, so I missed it by a mere 14 seconds. I got 4th place in my age group out of 28 people, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Two Month Photos and other Stuff

I hit my 15-pound weight loss mark today, and now my mom is bugging me to see photos. I took these on Saturday, which was officially 2 months into Weight Watchers.

First up is the face picture. Sorry I suck and wore my hair up the first time. That makes it hard to tell the difference...

But now onto the good stuff. Here is the side of me. Check out that stomach!

Lastly, is the front picture. Bulge-be-gone!


I totally wore the wrong shorts too... but I'm sure you can get the gist of it. Overall, I'm feeling great about myself. Yes, I miss gorging on pizza, pasta, and ice cream... but I'm loving how I look. All my work pants are literally falling off me. When all this is over, I'm going to need to do some serious shopping. I'll need all new pants and bras.

I'm halfway to my goal weight of 140. I don't think I'll reach that before the wedding (June 25th)... which might mean a slight set-back (there's no way I'm dieting on our honeymoon!). But I plan on reaching it eventually.

Training

On the training front, I've been pretty bad. I'm basically just working out once a week now. (Ouch.) I thought it was all fine and dandy until I saw my BuckeyeOutdoors account today, and noticed that this time last year, I was already full-swing into half-marathon training.

Eep! I need to get a move on it.

So training officially starts this weekend. Crappy weather or not.

Other

I've been so busy recently. Wedding planning has turned into invitation printing... which we are doing completely by hand...


And I've been putting a lot of thought into what I want to do with my life (isn't that something you're supposed to figure out in college?!). So there may be a career-change in the future.

I hope everyone's doing well. And fear not! Just because I'm not writing much doesn't mean I'm not reading all your blogs!

One Month Photos

Just wanted to drop in and post these photos. On the left is me at the beginning of the year and 171 pounds. On the right is me today, 10 pounds lighter...

I can't wait to see how 20 pounds will look. Happy Saturday, everyone!

WW Week 4

I've officially been a Weight Watcher member for a month now. I had my meeting yesterday, and prepared for a pretty meager weight loss (I did a lot of eating and drinking on Saturday). I was bracing myself, and just hoping I had lost at least 1 pound.


Then the number came up on the scale... 161.0

I had lost 3.2 pounds! That's my second biggest week ever!

I'm so thrilled with my progress. I have officially lost 10 pound total, and passed my 5% weight loss mark.

I'm in total disbelief at how well this program is going. I'm not hungry (well... no more than usual at least), I don't feel deprived of my favorite foods (pasta, cookies, ice cream? sure!), and the weight is just melting off. I can't even imagine how much better it will be once I start half marathon training in March.


I have 21 pounds left to my goal weight (140). That's about 1 pound per week before the wedding... which is totally doable if I try hard.

I need to take my one-month photos, but I need Ryan around to take them... so it'll have to wait until Saturday. I'll post them later.

Bring it on, weight! I'm getting ready for bathing suit season!

WW Week 3 and a Race Update

I went to my fourth meeting yesterday, rounding out week 3 of Weight Watchers. I lost 1.2 pounds this past week, with a total weight loss of 6.8 pounds. It's not a ton... but they say you're supposed to average .5-2 pounds per week, so I'm right on target.

Cue the cheesy high five moment!

I changed my tracking week so it ends on Saturday (it used to end on Wednesday, the night before my weigh-in). I figure I usually eat the most on Saturdays anyway... so now I won't be able to blow through all my extra points at the beginning of the "week" anymore.

In fact... I've been trying to save up all my extra points this week. I've only used 8 out of 49. The rest will go towards tomorrow's trip to Indianapolis to meet up with some friends. They expect some eating out, drinking out, and possibly even drinking in (one of them mentioned something about beer in the hotel hot tub!). So I'm gonna need all the extra points and all the will power I can muster!


In the past 3 weeks, I have tracked every morsel of food that goes into my mouth, and I have never gone over my points for the week... I don't want this week to be the exception!

On some triathlon and running related notes...

1) I signed up for the Geist Half Marathon again. I'm hoping to PR last year's time.

2) My uncle and my cousin signed up for their first triathlon! Don't you just love newcomers?! I think they did it on a dare from my Dad... but I'll take what I can get! Unfortunately, I was unable to sign up for the race with them... but I may have to drive the 5 hours to go watch, cheer, and take some awesome photos.

Weight Watchers Week 1

I went to my second Weight Watchers meeting today. I weighed in at 166.8, which is a total loss of 4.2 lbs.

That's great for one week!


I will ignore the fact that I was wearing significantly lighter shoes today than I did last week when I weighed in.

I have, in fact, been weighing myself each day at home. I wasn't sure if I wasn't supposed to... but I think it keeps me motivated. Seeing the numbers drop every day gives me that extra push to not give up.

So according to my home scale (which is only more accurate because I weigh myself first thing in the morning, wearing only pajamas), I've lost a total of 3 lbs.

That's still great. I'm very happy with that.


What I'm not happy about are the two women who were sitting behind me in the meeting today. They were chatting the entire time... and being extremely negative.

"I ate all my points and no extras, and I lost no weight this week!"

"This leader is annoying. She's so scripted."

"I already heard this stuff."

... and so on. Gurrr.

It's really frustrating because I'm new at this, and I was just telling Ryan how surprised I was to find such a positive and friendly attitude at my last meeting. These ladies need to take their bad attitudes and leave!

I think I've got my race schedule all worked out for 2011. I will post on that soon.

Happy New Year!

This post is sort of a New Year's tradition. Every year I take a look at how I did the past 365 days, whether or not I met my goals, and set new goals for the upcoming year.

Here we go!

Miles Run in 2010: 231
Miles Biked in 2010: 263
Miles Swam in 2010: 6.5 miles

Total Number of Workouts in 2010: 114 (only two more than last year!)

How I did on the goals I set at the beginning of the year...

Run more than 210 miles: I passed this goal by 21 miles. It's not a ton, but I've been slowly adding mileage year after year, so I'm pretty proud of this.

Complete an Olympic triathlon: I did that back in August. Yay! It was a rough race, but I survived, and had a pretty decent time to boot!

Run a 10K in under 58 minutes: I never actually ran a 10k race this year. I had the 10k during my olympic triathlon, but it was a disaster and I ended up walking a lot of it... so I'd rather not count that one. Maybe next year for this goal.

Average 17.5 mph biking in a race: I accomplished this goal at my last triathlon of the year (where I also got my first AG medal). I put new road tires on Reagan... so hopefully 2011 will be even faster!

Lose 20 pounds: Oh boy. I don't even want to address this one. Here have been my weights on January 1st for the past 3 years...

January 1, 2009: 152 lbs
January 1, 2010: 163 lbs
January 1, 2011: 170 lbs

So essentially, I've been slowly gaining weight every year since I started doing triathlons (what?!). That's totally counter-productive. But I'm working on this.

Goals for 2011:

• Run more than 280 miles.
• Do an olympic triathlon in under 3:49.
• Run a 5K under 28:00.
• Average 18.5 mph biking in a race.
• Weigh 155 or less by next January 1st.
  

Happy New Year everyone! Go sleep off your hangovers and get your butt in gear for 2011!

My Weight Watchers Welcome

I've been saying since September how I want to lose some serious weight.

I'm thinking 25-30 pounds.

After gaining and losing the same few pounds for the past few months, I finally did something real about it and joined Weight Watchers today.

Let me disclaimer this by saying it was not an easy thing for me to do.

A) Social situations where I don't know anyone make me extremely uncomfortable.
B) I thought the people there might judge me or think I'm too thin to join.
C) Saying goodbye to an additional $40 per month is hard.

But I sucked it up, put on my big girl pants and went to the meeting. The first thing they did was weigh me in.


My official weight was 171.0 (including my clothes and shoes). As I was getting my information packet, a lady behind me leaned in and whispered, "take your shoes off before you get on the scale!"

I blushed and replied, "Oh... well, I already weighed in." She smiled and said, "It's okay. It just means you'll be even lighter next week!"

Duly noted.

There were about 15 people there... all women... and at least half over the age of 70. Everyone seemed friendly, and our leader seemed very nice (and skinny... which is always a good thing!).

I faced my first Weight Watchers obstacle this afternoon. I thought, perhaps, since I had already wasted almost half of today's points with my on-the-go bagel and juice for breakfast this morning, that I should just scrap this day and start tomorrow.

But that's not what this is about. This isn't an "all or nothing" thing, which I need to remember. Every little effort counts. And even if I end up going over my points for the day, I'm going to try anyway.

So I had half a peanut butter sandwich and an apple for lunch.

I'm pretty excited about this whole thing. I think they have a really great program set up... especially with the new change to PointsPlus. All fresh fruit and most fresh vegetables are zero points. Hello, strawberries!

So here goes nothing!

Weight Loss Month 2

On Sunday, I hit my 2 month mark for trying to lose weight. I totally forgot to do an update and photos at the 1 month mark.

The first 2 1/2 weeks were great. I lost almost 7 lbs.

After that, it got kinda bad. Ryan and I went on vacation, we went to a wedding in New York, we had a bunch of events and parties and whatnot. My eating got out of control.

And my weight slowly crept back towards where it started.

So as of this past Sunday, I was holding steady at 164.8 (4.8 lbs lost). Here are my photos...


It's only 5 pounds, but there are a few minor changes. In the front view, it's hard to see any difference, but I think my face is a tiny bit thinner in my cheeks. If you enlarge the side view, you can definitely see a small change in my stomach (especially at the thinnest part).

I know it's all minuscule, but I'll take what I can get! I'm really trying to use these photos to motivate myself to get back on track.

You and me, food. It is so on!

Tying Up Loose Ends

We're back from vacation! Yeah, okay... so we've been back since Friday. But I've been busy... or lazy... or perhaps a combination of both.

Florida was good. Nice and relaxing and hot and beachy. :)


I'm sad that we have to wait another 9 months to experience such bliss again (hurray for honeymoons!).

But let's get down to business with all the loose ends...

Did I gain weight on vacation?

Yes, but it wasn't a terrible amount. We had a full kitchen in our hotel room, so I tried to keep breakfast and lunch pretty similar to what I was eating at home. I let myself eat and drink whatever I wanted at dinner, but it never got out of control (okay... there may have been a day where I ate like 6 chocolate chip cookies).

Overall, I gained 1.6 pounds in 5 days, and then another .4 pounds on Saturday after a pizza and fondue night with our church group. Woops! But I'm back on track and counting calories, and I should be back down by the end of this week.

Did I ever get road tires for Reagan?

I realized that I never updated on the road tire debate. I decided to forgo the tires for the time being, and put it off until next spring. First of all, I wanted my Fishers Triathlon to be as similar to last year as possible (last year I didn't have aero bars, but that's the only difference in equipment), so that if I PRed (which I did!), it would be because I have gotten better. Secondly, I just never really got around to it.

How are my workouts going?

Uhh... next question, please. Well, in all seriousness, I've only worked out once since my last race. That's one measly 2 mile run in 17 days. Ouch! That's a big fat "F" for fail on my part. Without any races to prepare for (and with this chilly fall weather!), I've found my motivation seriously lacking. Which brings me to my next question...

Are there any more races in the near future?

I want to, but I'm not sure which one. I really only have 2 options... a 5 miler that is only a week an a half from now, or a 5K on Thanksgiving Day near Ryan's hometown in Pennsylvania. Neither option is ideal. The first race is just too soon, and I'm unprepared. The second option is a little odd because it's in an unfamiliar town and an unfamiliar terrain. I need to give this some more thought.

I'm back for a while, but still super busy (Ryan and I went to the Goo Goo Dolls concert last night, and we have a wedding in New York this weekend!). I'll keep you updated.

Six Pounds Down

Well, 6.6 pounds to be exact.

That's pretty good for only 2 1/2 weeks.


But I've done this before. I'm well aware that the beginning is the easiest. The first five pounds just melted off. My body was rejoicing that I was no longer stuffing in 2300+ calories per day.

I haven't yet given myself a set amount of daily calories. My average daily calories for the past 18 days is 2011, but that's severely skewed by this past weekend, when I consumed 3000 calories on both Saturday and Sunday (I blame the triathlon).

Generally, I'm trying to keep my calories under 1900 each day. I figure once my weight loss starts to slow down, I'll reduce my calories further, then take it from there.

I'm doing a terrible job working out. I haven't done anything since Sunday's race. I went to look for a 5K or something to keep me motivated, but I didn't find much (plus, Ryan and I are super busy the rest of this year). There is a 10K here in town that I did last year, but it was the only weekend our wedding venue could make an appointment for our tasting. Gurr.

Ryan and I are headed to Clearwater Beach, Florida next week (yay!). I'm sure there will be much food and alcohol temptation. Perhaps I'll just go ahead and bring my workout clothes.


Then I'll feel less guilty about giving in to said temptations.

This is Serious

Over the past 2+ years, we've all gotten a good laugh from my blog (at least I hope). Who could forget the time I got ketchup in my eye?

Maybe... just maybe... I've even inspired someone (yeah... I guess it's possible).

But it's time to be serious for a moment.

I'm at my highest weight ever.

And that's bad. Like... super duper bad. Because I don't want to wake up one day and wonder how I ended up in the 200's and hating my body.

I'm a triathlete... who gains weight.

I think I use training as an excuse to eat whatever I want. Nachos every night? Sure! Ice cream for dinner? Why not! An entire bag of Tostitos? Yes, please!

But it's time to make a change. I have had a lot of weight loss efforts in the past.... the last 2 years probably being the most significant.

In January 2009, I was at my lowest point (after a 3 month long diet) with a weight of 149 lbs. But I'm 20 lbs heavier than that today. Which just goes to show you... what good is losing the weight if you aren't going to do anything to keep it off?

So this is starting. I apologize ahead of time if you are all ::groan:: and ::sigh:: "I hate weight loss blogs" but sorry... that is what's happening.

Yes, this is still a triathlon blog... but with the tri season coming to an end, it's the perfect opportunity to focus on some different endeavors. I hope that all my current readers will stick with me.

Here comes a doozy of a goal...

I want to lose 30 lbs. in 9 months.

More specifically, I want to go from 169.6 to 140 before June 20th, 2011 (my 26th birthday).

I'm done messing around. I'm done celebrating good races with high-calorie food and alcohol. I'm done having "free" days. I'm done pretending that this doesn't bother me. I'm done letting other people's opinions influence how I feel about myself.

And to show you I'm serious, I present you with my "before" photos...

I hope to lose some visible weight in my waist, inner thighs, and face.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous to post this. And I'm not talking about the photos. This whole thing makes me nervous because if I fail, I'm not sure how I'll be able to live it down.

Bad Blogger!

Shame on me! It's been almost 2 whole months since my last post.

Here's what I've been up to...

• Planning our wedding (less than a year away!)
• Training
• Trying (unsuccessfully, of course) to lose the extra 20 lbs I've managed to pack on
• Winning a photography contest
• Freaking out over my upcoming triathlon
• Turning 25
• Receiving (and then learning to use) a Garmin Forerunner 305
• Buying my first triathlon outfit

So there you have it. A short list of poor excuses. But I vow, over the next week or two, to turn that list into new posts. I also have a race report from last week's sprint triathlon.

Valued readers, I will disappoint you no longer! Stay tuned...

Houses, Shots, and Chicken Casserole

It's always hard to come back to your blog when you haven't written anything in a month. I've missed talking about so many things that it simply seems overwhelming.

Weight Loss

As punishment for losing the Weight Loss Contest to Ryan, I took Maggie out and did the dishes for an entire week. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be (plus, I think my awesome boyfriend was secretly loading and unloading the dishwasher while I was at work).

Maggie loved all the attention I was giving her.

The other thing Ryan won from our contest was a dinner made from scratch from me. Well, I'm not the best chef on earth (I tried to cook a whole chicken for Valentine's Day, and it ended up raw and inedible). So Ryan picked something pretty fool-proof: a chicken broccoli casserole.

Yummmm...

I was doing good losing weight up until this past week. Three of my college roommates visited this past weekend, so I ate (and drank) WAY too many calories.

Shots! At a dance club Saturday night.

Then, to make matters worse, I got a nasty cold which kept me inside with a food-filled pity-party for a few days. Ouch. But, I should be back on track soon.

Moving

We got notice in the mail that we needed to renew our apartment lease by March 24th. Ryan said, "You know... we don't HAVE to stay here." I had never given it even a moment's thought... but that was all it took to have me scouring Craigslist for new places to live. We love our current apartment... but we wish we were closer to downtown and the bike path. There is NO good place for me to ride my bike around here, and it takes a good 20-25 minutes for us to get from here to downtown.

We saw a total of 7 rental homes in a 2-week period. We have decided on an old duplex in the heart of downtown. It's an area filled with young professional couples with dogs (perfect). Our new place has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath (ouch) and is only 3 city blocks from the bike path (woohoo!).


Our lease isn't up until the end of May, but we get the keys to our new place mid-April, and we are very excited to move.

Half Marathon Training

Despite my week off from running, my overall training is going well. I am up to 4 miles, and the runs are pretty much a breeze. I do wish the weather would cooperate a little bit better. We had a few days with temperatures above 60, but this week has been chilly and rainy. My biggest struggle in training is motivation and time. I would MUCH rather sit and watch an hour of television than go run for an hour. Bleh.

Other

• I bought aero bars! I'll give a full review once I get them installed and try them out, but I'm very excited.
• Earlier this month, Ryan and I celebrated 2 years of dating.

The beautiful roses Ryan gave me.

• I dreamed the other night that I was doing an Ironman, then running a 10k the next day. I was going to pick up my registration packet, and it didn't hit me until then that it might be a REALLY bad idea... especially since I didn't even train for the Ironman! Woops. Good thing I'm smarter than that in real life.

I hope everyone is doing well. I am going to try to blog more in the near future, but I can't make any promises. We have a busy month coming up... and an exciting move to prepare for!

Final Weigh-In Results

It hurts to have to admit this to the blogger world... but, I lost.

I know what you're thinking: "WHAT?! No way!"

Yes way.

Well... here are the official stats:

Ryan
Beginning Weight (1/2): 165.6
Mid-Way Weight (1/29): 155.6
Final Weight (2/27): 155.4
Weight Loss: 10.2 lbs (6%)

Kelly
Beginning Weight (1/2): 163.6
Mid-Way Weight (1/29): 158.2
Final Weight (2/27): 157.8
Weight Loss: 5.8 lbs (3.5%)

Yeah, so I got beat PRETTY bad! Although, I'd like to think that I tried WAY harder than Ryan. I think it's much harder for girls to lose weight, and Ryan didn't work out at ALL to lose those 10 lbs (jerk).

So what's my punishment? Ugh. I'm in charge of taking Maggie outside for 1 whole week, along with doing the dishes for 1 whole week. And I have to make Ryan any dinner of his choice from scratch. Oh boy... it's going to be a LONG 7 days!

But I have much bigger goals in mind. This is my official announcement that I would like to lose 18 more lbs by the Chicago Triathlon in late August. That's 18 lbs in under 6 months. Scary? Yes. Doable? Totally. I've even joined eDiets.com to assist my weight loss efforts.

What else is new? Half Marathon training starts TOMORROW! Woah, that's exciting (and terrifying). Why can't it be all sunny and warm out? I want to run outside!

Go Team Kelly!

PS: Tri Dave and his girlfriend are doing their own weight loss challenge, but theirs ends next week. I'm not really worried about them having more time than Ryan and I, cause I'm pretty confident we kicked their butts!

Mid-Way Weigh In

In case you're out of the loop, Ryan and I are competing against each other (along with Tri Dave and his girlfriend) to see who can lose the most weight.

Last week, we had our mid-way weigh in. It was 4 weeks after we began.

And... drumroll please!

I lost 5.2 lbs. Ryan lost 10 lbs exactly (Psh. He would.)

Sorry, Dave. You guys have some catching up to do. But now is MY perfect time to strike. Ryan has stopped the calorie-counting and is set on just maintaining his 10 lb weight-loss for the next 4 weeks.

As I write this, he is sitting on the couch eating nachos and drinking beer (ok... maybe I'm doing that too. It's the Superbowl after all!)

Our trip to Cleveland last weekend went great. It was exactly 2 years after we had our first date in Cleveland, so I took him back as a birthday present.


We went bowling (I won of course)...


We ate junk food (how else to you celebrate weight-loss?)...

We went to a dueling piano bar...

We went tobogganing (scary!)...

And we ended the trip with lunch at the Applebee's where we had our first date...

Good times had by all (except Maggie who was stuck in the kennel).

I haven't been working out too much recently. I know I should, but I just don't want to get burned out before half-marathon training begins at the end of February. That, and I loathe my trainer. Gurrrr.