Monday's Workout: 40min swim

Tuesday's Workout: 1hr 19min bike / 27min run

Wednesday's Workout: 36min run / 24min swim

Thursday's Workout: 1hr 39 bike

Friday's Workout: 32min swim

Saturday's Weigh-in: 146.2

Week 3 Loss/Gain: -1 .4

Total Loss: -25.2lbs

So sorry for the delay guys- it's been a jam-packed week and this weekend involved some traveling, amongst other things. I even had to skip my Saturday run due to sleeping in a bit (8:30am- bad Jenny!) and wasn't able to make it up today due to cold rain and then more traveling. So, tomorrow I will bike and swim and be happy. Hell, I may even run for a few minutes too. :)

Have a great week!!

Wednesday's Workout: 32min run / 23min swim

Thursday's Workout: 1hr 29 bike

Friday's Workout: 31min swim

Saturday's Workout: 40min run

Saturday's Weigh-in: 147.6

Week 3 Loss/Gain: - .6

Total Loss: -23.8lbs

I barely squeaked out a loss this week, but I'll take it. While I know it's going to slow down eventually, like I told Grandma Julie, I'm just not ready for it yet!! :)

Thursday's bike ride was nice- I decided to try out the Shelley Lake paved trail. It's about 2 miles long and it goes around the beautiful (and large) lake in Raleigh. It also happened to be the place where I busted my butt not just once, but twice. The first time was on a short, but steep hill- I was trying to go around some people, avoid a big bump in the pavement, and get up the hill. Not a good combo. I fell, scraped my knee a bit, and almost quit riding altogether right then and there. I thought I might fall at some point, but I didn't expect to feel so downhearted about it. But, even though I just wanted to pack it up and call it day- I decided to give the trail one more try and give that hill at the end one more sincere effort.

When I got back around to the hill, I was really tempted to just hop off my bike and walk it. Something told me that I could manage it though, so I got some speed going and VOILA, I was up and over. I almost cried I was so relieved. And, I proceeded to do it about 7 more times- each time was easier than the last and by the very last one I was thinking "why did I think this hill was that hard- it's actually pretty easy." Amazing how our minds can trick us like that. :)

The second time I fell was when I attempted to turn around to get back on the main trail. Whoopsy-daisy! :)

And, to end the day with an interesting story, I spent a few minutes watching a little girl, while her mom fished their runaway stroller out of the lake. Luckily, no one was in the stroller at the time, but everything in the stroller was soaked. That and, depending on where they were parked, she had a 1/2 to 1 mile walk back to the car. She was in surprisingly good spirits about the whole thing though, after she got over the initial shock.

I guess that's all for now- Josh is in NJ for a long weekend with his brother, so it's just been me and the boys since Friday. We're heading over to my Mom and Mike's house for a little afternoon get-together and then back here for dinner and a desperate attempt to straighten up Phoenix's bedroom (Playmobil and Legos have started to become one with the carpet.) Tomorrow morning is the house inspection at 8am, so it will be an early day, but I'm looking forward to being at the "newer" new house for a few hours. :)

Have a great weekend!

Monday's Workout: 38min swim

24min run

Today's Workout: 1hr 11min bike ride

Today was my first day out on my new Trek Lexa SL- and the first time I've ever clipped into a bike. Basically this is where your shoes have brackets on them that clip into your pedals. Clips = terrifying experience for me, but I overcame my fear and got out there.

For my first ride, I chose a greenway in Wake Forest that was around 3miles around- it ended up working out perfect. It took me about 5 minutes to even get on the bike, but once I got clipped in I was fine. Then, I ended up going down a path that stopped at a main street, so I had to stop. And, then I almost fell, but lucked out and my foot clipped out just in time. I know that time will only make this process easier for me, but I can't help feeling like I'm learning how to ride a bike for the first time. :)

Also, a big moment for me today- I signed up for the Goofy's Challenge at Walt Disney World. This means I'll be running the WDW Half Marathon on Saturday and the full Marathon on Sunday in January 2012. I also signed up for the 5K on Friday- apparently this means I'm unofficially doing the "Dopey Challenge", 'cause it's Goofy to do a half and full- but to do a 5K on top of that is just Dopey. LOL The only bad part of those races is that it pretty much checks me out for 2 days on our vacation, but I think it's worth it. Plus, I think my recovery will be quicker this time since I'll be at least 35lbs smaller.

Tomorrow is a good day- Josh and I will be celebrating 9 years of wedded bliss. :) And, I guess we unofficially celebrated it by putting in an offer on our "dream" home on Sunday. 2011 is looking to be a great year!!

Thursday's Workout: 22min swim

29min run

Friday's Workout: 29min swim

Today's Workout: Run for the Oaks 5K- 8:37pace

Today's Weigh-in: 148.2

Week 3 Loss/Gain: - 2.6

Total Loss: -23.2lbs

Another great week- my weigh-ins have been stressing me out a bit 'cause I'm not showing a loss until Thursday or Friday. But, once I get a loss, it's still pretty good, so I'll take it. :)

I was scheduled to run for 36 minutes today, but since I was so fast in my 5K it took me less than 27...whoops! :) LOL It was a good race though- officially the first 5K of the Jenny season. :)

On another note, I've been dealing with some anxiety when I've been starting my runs lately, so I'm trying to figure out what's causing that. It seems like as soon as I start running my body just freaks out a bit- I get sort of nervous and unsure of myself and my ability to run strong. It's really a strange feeling- and only hits me when I'm running. Never when I'm on the bike or swimming. Sometimes it goes away, but then sometimes it lingers. It actually hit me fairly strong today- to the point where I really wanted to stop running even a few minutes into the race. I'm going to try to work through it myself, but if I'm not successful, it's going to be time to talk to a shrink, 'cause I can't run the Goofy Challenge freaking out for 2-4hrs! :)

BTW, I will be posting some pics in my next post- I know that pictures speak louder than words and I feel like I've lost enough at this point that it's worth a few shots. So, look forward to those darnit!! :)

Monday's Workout- 1hr 4min bike ride

36min swim

Tuesday's Workout- 22min run/ 8:27 pace

Today's Workout- 1hr 20min bike ride

Well, on a non-weight loss related note, we put an offer in on a house on Sunday. And, less than 20hrs later, another offer came in at a higher amount. Since it was a short sale, we decided not to get into a bidding war (since we were going to have to negotiate with the bank at some point too), so now we're on the search for another home. The Penfold Lane house was nice, but it was not our dream home by any means- and, since our rental lease isn't even up until August, we don't have to move any time soon. To be honest, we probably won't have to move in August either- we're in an investment property, so I'm sure we could just extend the lease.

While part of me is tempted to just keep on renting (especially after seeing Phoenix playing Star Wars with the neighborhood kids yesterday), a part of me also yearns to own my own home again. There's an appreciation and permanence that goes along with home ownership and I miss it. I guess we'll just have to see where life takes us. All I know is I'm definitely going to take a look at as many houses as I can with our fantastic new realtor, Kevin Starkey.

As far as exercise goes, I'm back on a longer workout schedule again after last week's taper. I'm also prepping for the Run for the Oaks 5K this Saturday in Raleigh. And, with a 8:27 pace yesterday, I'm feeling pretty good about breaking my personal goal of coming in under a 9 minute pace. :) My right foot is hurting a bit though, so I think there may be a trip to Athlete's Foot in the next few days. It's probably too soon to consider running a race in new shoes, but I don't want my "injury" to get any worse.

I'm also going to switch up my exercise schedule a bit- my 2 longest days happen to fall on days that Josh has to be at Jui-Jitsu at 12pm and I'm having trouble getting home in time for him to get to class in time. I think it would also help to switch things up a bit- while I enjoy being on a schedule, I also get bored sort of quick and knowing that each Monday and Wednesday is "long ass bike and swim day" starts to get to me after a bit. So, I'm going to switch it up and see if that helps my boredom and my tardiness. :)

Have a great week!

Friday's Workout: 17min swim

Today's Workout: 22min run / 9:00 pace

Today's Weigh-in: 150.8

Week 3 Loss/Gain: - 2.0

Total Loss: -20.6lbs

Well, I did it- over 20lbs gone! I'm so excited to be close to the 140's again- I feel pretty confident I'll be there next week, but , of course, there are no guarantees.

I told Josh a few days ago that this journey has been so different for me. I've rarely felt deprived and my fitness level just keeps on getting better. I really feel like I'm going to be able to pull it off and keep it off this time. Of course, if we decide to have a third baby...well, we all know how well I do when I'm pregnant. HA!

Anyways, have to keep today's entry short, 'cause we're celebrating my sister and her upcoming bundle of joy in a few hours. And, the shower is at my house, so lots of cleaning and preparing to be had. So, later tater- have a great weekend!

Today's Workout: 17min run / 8:20pace

Just had to put another post up with today's workout stats- very pleased with my time on today's short run. I was able to pull off over 2 miles, so I'm feel really good about my potential time in next week's 5K. Before I was pregnant with Ladon, I had a personal goal of getting into the 7min range- at that time, my fastest official 5K time was around 8:05. So, while I doubt I'll be breaking any records next weekend, it's still nice to know that I'm getting faster again.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week! We have a park playdate today and then I get to go pick up my new Trek road bike! The bike group I'm looking to join does a 32mile ride on Sundays, so I'm going to do that next Sunday- in the meantime, I'm going to cruise around the neighborhood and try not to fall down too much. :)

Monday's Workout: 39min bike

22min swim

Tuesday's Workout: 13min run / 9:17pace

Wednesday's Workout: 48min bike

13min swim

This week is a recovery week, so my workouts are a lot shorter. Of course, that just means I have to work a bit harder to insure a good weight loss this week. :) With swimming, I've also started working towards a kick flip (where you flip and push yourself off the wall.) I have trouble with this move, so I've decided to break it up into stages- the past 2 swim days I've just worked on kicking off the wall. Tomorrow, I'm going to spend some time working on the flip part. My biggest fear is clipping my heels on the wall, so if I can get over that, I'll be fine. :)

I wanted to take a second to comment on something I've noticed on a lot of these weight loss shows. I've started watching Shedding for the Wedding and this week the contestants met with a cake designer- and, of course, part of the process was to try the cake. I was disappointed to see that 2 of the couples opted not to eat any cake. I think when you go into a diet and treat it like a diet, you're already in a trouble zone. Now, I do understand these people are on a weight loss show and not losing weight on their own at home, so they might be more strict on themselves with cameras rolling. But, it's a troublesome mindset and I hope they allow themselves to take a single bite of cake once they get back to the real world.

When I was on Nutrisystem, I remember bringing my NS dinner to PF Chang's. While everyone around me was eating delicious food, I was eating some not-so-tasty chicken and pasta "mix with water" dish. During a Christmas vacation, I didn't have one bite of our friend Jill's, Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, 'cause, yep, I was on Nutrisystem. I don't remember what I ate instead in that instance, but the fact that I remember that choice bothers me- I should not be remembering what I didn't eat. :)

Finally, I wanted to give a shout-out to my friend Tricia who lost 7lbs last week on Weight Watchers!! I'm so happy for her and I know she's going to have a great journey this time!