No, not I love you. Although I do.
143 is the weight I saw when I hopped on the scale yesterday, meaning I’ve gained about five pounds.
I mentioned it to a friend at happy hour last night and realized when I said it out loud, that really, five pounds isn’t all that much. And it’s not. And it still puts me in a healthy weight range for my height.
But considering that I put on a lot of weight in my early 20s by “eh, it’s just five pounds,” over and over again, I want to nip any weight gain in the bud. I know it’s a slippery slope for me.
I also stubbornly thought that once I’d beat that weight-loss thing, I’d be done. I say stubbornly, not naively, because I know how biologically hard it is to lose weight and keep it off. But I was—and still am—determined to not be that statistic.
139 was my goal weight of a 50-pound weight loss, and for the past two years, I’ve been hovering somewhere between 136-139. 140 was the line I drew in the sand for the weight I wouldn’t surpass.
Gratuitous beach photo to break up otherwise serious post.
If I were otherwise happy with my body right now, I’d care a lot less about that number on the scale, honestly. But the number on the scale and the unhappiness about my flabby abs is obviously directly correlated. I also went to put on a pair of jeans for my New Balance event the other night and a few pairs of my jeans were way too snug to comfortably wear. I felt like a fraud representing a fitness brand when I didn’t feel so fit myself.
I’ve been making a real effort to clean up my meals, but I know exactly where the other calories are sneaking in—and what’s lacking.
In pretty list format:
Sneaky Calories:
None of those things above are that bad on their own (err, except for maybe bar food), but combined, quite a few more calories are sneaking in.
And the below are lacking:
Greens. I just don’t have enough.
Fruits. Again, I just don’t have enough. Nuts aren’t a bad snack, but they would be more balanced if I had some fruit with them.
So, here’s to more fruits and veggies and less drinking calories and letting the small indulgences add up.
If you’ve lost a lot of weight, have you been able to keep it off?
First of all, apologies if you saw a version of this earlier. I meant to save as a draft, but published by accident.
Yesterday, I had an awesome client event. New Balance had their fall press preview, and I worked at it for a few hours.
We showed quite a few lines of shoes, but there was one that I was dying to try—the RC 1600s.
First of all, they’re GORGEOUS. I value my knees and not injuring them, so I don’t pick my shoes based on looks, but these are one good-looking pair of shoes.
And they’re made for marathoners. They’re racing shoes built for people racing distances anywhere up to 26.2. (It just so happens I’ll be doing that again in October!) They’re lightweight (less than 5 ounces) and have a shorter heel-to-toe drop.
I have never worn racing shoes before, and honestly, I’m not sure if I ever would have bought them, but I decided to take them out on a tempo run this morning. One mile warm-up, two miles tempo (8:20, 7:56!), one mile cool-down.
They were awesome. The first mile it felt a bit odd wearing such a light shoe with a thin sole, but after that, it felt great. I could definitely feel how a lighter shoe helped my legs power through.
The tempo run was also amazing, too. So far, so good on my #RWrunstreak. 4 for 4. For the past few months, I’ve had no desire to do any sort of speed work at all, but knowing I’m starting marathon training next month, I’m starting to add it back in to prepare my body for what’s to come. (Dear body: a lot of running. Some of it as fast as you possibly can.)
We also showed the RC 5000s—the lightest shoe ever. The women’s version weighs 2.7 ounces!
They’re made for short-distance racing and speed workouts. (And are also gorgeous.)
Do you (or would you ever) wear racing shoes?
Carolina BBQ! (Taken with Instagram at Corolla Village Barbeque)
…this isn’t a post about Reach the Beach?
I had so much fun, but it’s nice to get back to regular blogging. Sort of. I leave for a fabulous long weekend at the beach TONIGHT! I’m going to the Outer Banks with friends—for the fifth Memorial Day in a row—and driving down to DC tonight and OBX tomorrow.
I’m really excited to collapse on the beach tomorrow, because I feel like I’m still catching up from sleep from last weekend. I’ve been a complete fail at waking up to work out, but I still managed to get a good workout in Tuesday night and last night.
Tuesday, I did 20 minutes of super-sweaty intervals on the Stairmaster, and last night I had a lovely run while out at my parents’.
The Stairmaster is something I did often while losing weight, and I forgot what a good workout it is. I mean, hoisting your body weight over and over again for 20 minutes is no joke.
Last night, I went out to my parents’ to borrow a car to drive down to the Outer Banks. I hadn’t woken up in time to work out before work yesterday, so I told my mom that as soon as I got home, I was going to run. I didn’t give myself or her a choice. Once I walked in the door, I dropped my bags and immediately changed into my workout clothes, because I knew I wouldn’t otherwise do it.
There’s a huge hill coming out of their street, and I tackled it head-on. After running on hilly terrain all last weekend, I was far less afraid of tackling hills. Tuesday’s tough-but-awesome workout reminded me that I need to push myself more in my workouts than I have been lately, so after that first tough mile, I kept picking it up.
I came back, and my mom had an awesome dinner of scallops, sweet potatoes and spinach for me.
So, a few weeks ago, I said I really wanted to lose a few pounds before going to the beach this weekend. Three weeks later, and the scale’s only down a pound and I tried on a bikini last night and was still really unhappy with what I saw. I’m disappointed in myself, but at least I feel like I’m making progress.
Save for this week, I’m back in a much better workout routine. I’ve introduced strength training back into my life. It’s no longer as much a puzzle to get my workouts in, making me wonder how I thought it was so hard just a few months ago, as my schedule hasn’t gotten any lighter.
And now that the routine is back, I’m craving the intensity. I want the hard workouts, not just because they will make me thinner (which they will, if I don’t eat back everything I burned…), but because I miss pushing myself.
But I’m ready.
(Which is great, because I have a marathon coming up that I’m coming for.)
I’m back in a better place than I’ve been lately, and I’m ready to kick ass.
I’ve had a great week at work, and considering that last year as I left for OBX, I knew I was probably going to get laid off the week after (and I did..), I am just really thankful to be employed at all, much less at a rewarding job.
Tonight I’ll be driving to DC and tomorrow, down to OBX.
I have a feeling I’ll be talked into another long bike ride, so I’m sure I’ll be back at some point with another post.
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND! Are you doing anything fun?
[video]
So this is one of my last Reach the Beach-related posts…probably. There’s a few more things about the race still on my mind that I may blog about, but I’ll at least spare you a few days!
One of the other really cool things we did was go on a tour of the New Balance factory in Lawrence, Mass.—about 40 minutes outside of Boston.
While this tour would have been interesting to me just as a blogger who was interested in running, it also held special meaning to me for a few other reasons.
First of all, they’re my client, so it was completely invaluable to learn more about the background of the company I’m working with. The past six months, I’ve loved working on this account, but seeing the factory in person really brought it all to life and made me feel even more connected with NB.
Secondly, until recently, my dad owned a textile factory in NJ, despite most of his competition going over to China—so New Balance’s commitment to American manufacturing really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
The facility in Lawrence we went to is one of New Balance’s five U.S. factories. The company is committed to manufacturing 25 percent of its shoes in the U.S—which is 25 percent more than any other American running shoe company.
While this is obviously good for keeping jobs here, it also helps the company because its retail partners can maintain a lower inventory at any time, since the shoes aren’t coming as far. It also means that if you customize 990s or 993s online, you can get them on your doorstep within a week.
Sarah made a very important phone call from the lobby before our tour started.
Safety first—we had to wear these safety goggles and closed-toed shoes.
And…yeah. Our New Balance and RTB friends quickly realized what a pack of bloggers means: lots of “can you take a picture with my camera?”
[photo via Jack at pixelwiremedia.com / rtbrelay.com]
The shoes’ uppers are constructed from synthetics and pigskin sourced from Maine and cut by hand.
They are cut down, and then the Ns are sewn on. (The shoes we saw being made are the 990s, the company’s heritage shoe.)
The upper is then formed before the sole is put on. Once the sole is put on, the shoe is put in heat to form the shape. It’s then put through a metal detector to make sure there are no pieces of metal in the shoe.
Ta-da!
In this factory, the 990, 812 walking shoe and 706 walking shoe are produced. (Walking is a big market for New Balance’s U.S.-made shoes.)
I also thought the corporate culture I saw in the factory was really interesting.
Every year, each associate is responsible for coming up with a problem-solving idea, which is then displayed on this wall.
There was also this poster on the eight deadly wastes, one of which is “unused associate creativity.” The company really values the contributions of everyone.
After the tour, we went down to the Sports Research Lab, which interacts with and tests athletes from high school athletes and runners from local running clubs to elite Team New Balance runners.
It was really freaking cool. We started off trying out a device that measures how your foot distributes weight, aka the loading rate.
You step on this…
And it spits out this graph, which also shows your arches. It can’t show height, but it shoes whether they’re long or not. I think this graph is Sarah’s feet, but they said my arches were long. (Probably because I’m a bigfoot.)
Afterwards, they split us into three groups and rotated us among the stations.
We started off with the Glass Top Kistler Force Plate, which measures the forces people apply to the ground in all directions while a camera below the plate captures the foot landing. It’s one of the only glass top force plates in the United States.
I first walked over it and then ran over it.
The initial bump in this graph shows that I heel-struck a bit, but not too dramatically.
They had tons of competitors’ shoes to test.
Next, we went into the Smash Lab.
We learned that the more firm the foam, basically the more it protects your foot and leg. He showed us with a softer foam, and we saw the machine hit the foam harder and leave an indent. The stiffer foam absorbed more of the impact and didn’t leave an indent.
This MTS Mini Bionix System applies force and torque to simulate an athlete’s use of the shoe. It can replicate 6-8 weeks of wear in two to three days.
This machine measures traction, and how much force it takes to move the foot within the shoe.
[via Monica]
Next, we got to run on a treadmill to measure gait. Even for 30 seconds, running without a sports bra was…interesting.
DO YOU SEE THAT MIDFOOT STRIKE? It is a thing of beauty.
They explained, though, that it’s much easier to not heel-strike barefoot—hence the whole barefoot running trend and their Minimus line.
But still. I’m going to pretend I just have a pretty midfoot strike like that.
Finally, we learned about perception testing.
Do you see his weird goggles? We all have subconscious (and conscious) brand preferences. They found that if they brought in runners who were used to, say, Brooks, and asked them to try on a Brooks and a New Balance, if they could see them, they’d always pick Brooks. They also noticed that some people would always choose the shoe on their right foot, no matter what. So they started using these googles so their testers couldn’t see their feet.
They suggested, that if you’re trying on a few different pairs of shoes, to not just try one on each foot, but to switch the shoe on each foot so you don’t select the shoe you’re naturally biased towards.
And that’s it! Our tour concluded in their factory store, where I ended up buying the skirt I wore on my last leg. #thingsidontneed #notevenalittlebit
If you could go inside any company’s office/factory, what company would be? (Or what cool company have you been inside of?)
Debated for a month whether I should order it, finally did, and it comes a month later and is not long wide enough for my shower and the Etsy seller doesn’t accept returns. Still pretty.
Addicted. (Taken with instagram)
I heart this picture so much from #RTBRelay with #TeamOffBalance - Theodora of LosingWeightInTheCity.com is by far my favorite space starer.
Check out my race recap here.
Tina of www.carrotsncake.com
Theodora of www.losingweightinthecity.com
Monica of www.runeatrepeat.com
Ashley of www.healthierhappierbear.com
Anne of www.fannetasticfood.com
Jess of www.fitchickinthecity.com
Elizabeth www.ontapfortoday.com
Bridget of http://yogurtberries.blogspot.com/
Gretchen of http://honeyishrunkthegretchen.com/
Melissa of http://fitnessnyc.wordpress.com/Image Courtesy of: Jack at pixelwiremedia.com / rtbrelay.com
Me=so awkward right now.
I’m stuck in a glass case of emotion right now.
I had an amazing weekend…and then it ended. I’m in some serious Reach the Beach withdrawal
When Tina asked if I wanted to be on a blogger relay team with her, I said yes immediately. I’d read lots of relay recaps and knew people had a ton of fun, but I didn’t quite get why.
I mean, being in a van for a million hours? (In our case, something like 32 hours.) Not showering after running and not eating regular meals? Running on no sleep after I’d already run 6 miles earlier in the day?
I didn’t get it. But I knew Tina would put together a fun team and so I hoped the race would be as fun as everyone else said it would be.
As the emails about the race became fast and furious, just what I was getting myself into started to take shape.
Reflective vests and headlamps? Crap, I really would be running in the dark.
Gallon-sized Ziploc bags for my clothes? Oh. If I don’t do that, every single thing in my bag will stink.
I knew there would be a lot of logistical challenges and a lot of fun, but I had no idea it was possible to be that happy for three straight days on that little sleep.
But it turns out when you put six high-energy ladies in a van, add in the the most awesome driver in the world, play Call Me, Maybe on repeat and have a huge challenge in front of you, it’s sort of amazing.
I also need to thank New Balance for helping us have the time of our lives. Tina has worked with New Balance in the past, and they were an official sponsor of the race, so we talked about seeing if there was any way they could work with our team.
They’re also one of my clients at work, so I put together a proposal of how we could work together and why I thought it would be a good investment. I put together a proposal that I thought could create a great event and experience without blowing my client’s budget, but the wonderful Kristen at New Balance absolutely went above and beyond with this experience, and I can’t thank her enough.
I haven’t been on an athletic team since high school, and I didn’t realize until this weekend how much I missed that camaraderie. From watching Monica freak out about her overnight leg to watching most of my van struggle yesterday through stomach issues, I wanted nothing more but for everyone to succeed and feel great. Running is an awesome solo sport, but I encourage anyone who has the chance to try running a relay.
There is no possible way to wrap up this weekend in one, or even two posts, so I’m going to have a few more posts going up this weekend recapping all the fun—so let me know if there’s anything specific you want to know about!