Sorry for the delay in checking in. Things have been hectic hectic hectic for me!

Last week and a half, my sister's FIL was visiting from El Salvador.. very sweet man and also very loaded with money. I swear, he treated us to dinner every day. I managed to gain 5 pounds and, at the worst of it, was at 301 again. (And that was with TRYING to stay on diet as much as possible!) I mean, the first night he was here, he insisted on Denny's... and I had already eaten way above my carb and calorie count that day... So I ordered a diet soda and a small bowl of coleslaw. Mr. Santamaria takes one look at this measly portion and says "Diet?" "Si. Diet."

He scowls at me and goes "Grmmmm...." O_O THIS MAN IS A FRIGGIN' SURGEON, OK?! (And I guess really famous, he has some award where if, God forbid, if the Pope falls ill anywhere in Latin America he has to be the one to work on him..) You'd think he would understand that being 300+ pounds isn't a GOOD THING!!! o_o

My poor little sister though, who had him in her house and didn't have the excuse of 'going to class!' or 'going to the Y!' to get out of it, gained 30 pounds, going up from 130 to 160. She was NOT happy.

But, I got back on the bandwagon today, hit the Y and got there in time for half of water aerobics (I've been having some kind of problem with accelerating with my car and it takes me ALOT longer to get from point A to point B than I'd like... She's eating gas now too... and the fact that gas is 4.05 a gallon here ISN'T HELPING!) and then got the flippers on and swam laps for another few hours. (Water aerobics ended at 6:30. I finally got out of the pool at 9.)

My bike's seat is loose and needs to be tightened.. but with how high gas is and how crappy my car is acting, I think, until Snow flies, the bike is going to become my #1 source of transportation around town.. (as much as that bugs my mom..)

I've also gotten back down to (just slightly) lower than pre-Mr. Santamaria's 11 day visit... 296.0! (Though, the Y's scale says 294..... Which is odd... just last week it was exact with my mom's scale...)

Anyway.. Back on track and still losing. Signed up for swimming lessons! :3 We'll see how soon I can get in. :3

You folks have a great night!

if your car is eating gas and having difficulty accelerating....check your spark plugs and all the hoses that connect under the hood....i had similar problems along with a crappy idle system and it turned out to need new spark plugs and there was a cracked air intake hose under the hood that was an easy fix (well, easy if you can connect the hose)...i was lucky that my BIL is a diesel mechanic and he changed my spark plugs for me and DH fixed the hose

i am up WAY WAY too early for a saturday morning....woke up at 5:45 a.m. and could not fall back asleep, felt perfectly rested...i think my body automatically hit the middle between summer up at 5:30 and winter up at 6:30 lol....im going downtown for a chaotic, crowded health fair anyhow this morning, need to be there early anyhow, and am going to try to get blood drawn and tested for TSH thyroid...never had that done before

I participated in my first official 5k yesterday. It's the Glo Run for the Ronald McDonald house. We got all decked out with all kinds of necklaces and bracelets from the dollar store; I even made myself a really fun chainlink belt with the bracelets. I also wore a set of fairy wings for no particular reason except that it was fun. And it WAS fun. We had such a good time! AND I ran the entire 5k!! I've never done that before and really had no idea I was capable. So elated!!

Unfortunately, I have a very sore and swollen throat today and I'm ridiculously tired. I was supposed to lift today but that just doesn't seem like a good idea. I'm a little bummed because it was to be my last workout before my week long lifting hiatus, but it is what it is.

way to go on the 5K!!

i ran both days this weekend to make up for missing two days this week being sick....yesterday i got a medium-size blister while running on the pad(?) of my big toe...today i patched it up and ran again...i was shocked to see that it then turned into a HUGE blister covering nearly the entire pad of my toe i was sooo bummed and i dont know what would have been bothering my foot....same workout, same socks, same shoes, same everything...so i treated the blister and bandaged it up and will have to find a better way to patch it up in order to run tomorrow i typically use moleskin for a bad blister, put a bandaid over the blister, then the moleskin, then another bandaid to keep it in place and i'm usually good to go

i'm still trying to have a "rest day" despite running today...i'm mostly sitting at home, doing laundry and not much else it's pouring rain outside too

i patched myself up to run today...bandaid, then moleskin, then athletic tape over the whole toe...it still bothered me to run but more of an annoyance versus a lot of pain

i put in the total 2.25 miles ran with a total distance 3.30 miles which is my typical run these days...going to work now

and today i celebrate 10 YEARS together with my man

Welp, went to the Y today, was a little late because I had someone showing up to see a kitty and I get to tell him he's approved tomorrow and drop the kitty off at her new house!! YAYYYY one more down!

So I weighed myself at the Y and I'm a bit unsure which scale I should be listening to at this point... The Y's scale (one of those doctor ones) says I'm 290 (OMGGGG!!) and my mom's digital said I'm 294. I'm still going based on my mom's scale until I weigh in at the Y sunday as part of the 10 week - 10 pounds challenge. (I was 297 on weigh-in day!)

Food intake was good today, had a few more sodas than normal (especially this time of year I tend to do more coffee than anything else) and swam my heart out for a few hours. Another couple pounds lost..

My poor sis still has 10 pounds to go before she's back to pre-Mr. Santamaria's visit weight... And I'm back to losing.

My size 24 jeans (THAT MY MOM JUST BOUGHT FOR ME LESS THAN A MONTH AGO) are starting to become loose. o_o I do NOT believe it. Thankfully I have size 22 (wayyyy back when I was on atkins before, I lost a lot and got down to a 22/20..) saved in a tote for this very day, when I could fit those clothes again.

I'm just gonna invest in belts.... lotta belts.

Anyway, kinda excited. My car's having issues and being on unemployment means not having the moola needed to fix her right now. (Check engine is on and flashes, hates going up hills, chugs and shudders when accelerating..... pretty sure it's either gas injection or transmission... choice A I can probably borrow $ from my mom and get her fixed, choice B, I drive her into the ground and don't look back.) Soooo, instead, I will be tuning up my bike (1993 Huffy Echo Canyon) and using that as my main mode of transportation around town. Thankfully Syracuse is a pretty bike-friendly city.

Anyway, you ladies have a nice night and I'll check in in a few more days! ^_^

i am finishing up the month of september with my goal of running at least two miles every workday for the month...i actually started doing 2.0 miles the last week of august...then i did 2.1 miles for a week and a half, then 2.25 for a week and a half, now i'm doing 2.30 for this last week...i like knowing that my GOAL is 2.0 miles but that i'm pushing past that a little bit each time

i ran this weekend, which i usually dont, because i missed two days last week due to an ear infection and sinus infection...so i made up those days last weekend...and i still have 5 days to run during this week...so i'm running a total of 8 days straight (last friday through this friday) which is more than i normally go without a rest day...we'll see how that goes

tomorrow and friday i need to be up at the crack of dawn (or "pitch black" as we call that in alaska lol) to get a run in before work....i work at 7 a.m. both days, probably working straight through til 6 p.m. as needed

Ugh, caught a bad cold, haven't exercised since Sunday, so sad.

i am almost to my september goal! i got up super early to run today, up at 4:30 a.m. and at the gym running at 5:15 a.m. because i had to get myself and my son to work by 7 a.m.....i actually rather liked the early morning run although running for now-7 days in a row kinda sucks for my legs

i then worked all day from 7-5:30 with a few hours break to go to parent teacher conferences...i am utterly exhausted now

rinse and repeat for tomorrow and i will be all done with september!!

i finished out my goal for september running at least two miles 5 days a week, aiming for workdays...due to illness last week, i ended up running 8 days straight this last week...that was hard mentally and somewhat physically...

i got up at 4:30 a.m. for my run at the gym...then i went to work at 7 a.m....luckily i was able to actually take my split shift time off and came home and rested for a few hours...worked all afternoon, then went to the local high school football game because they honored all the seniors and my intern that works for me was honored and wanted me to go see it...

i am DROP DEAD exhausted its 9 p.m....my feet are soooo sore and tired...tomorrow i get my protein smoothie from the gym as my reward for september...dont know what my october goal will be yet

Congratulations on hitting your goal, Alaskanlaughter! Woot!
I hope you got yourself a good rest and are feeling better than ever.

I started stage 5 of NROLFW yesterday. The dreaded bodyweight matrix is back! Dun dun DUN! Happily, single leg romanian deadlifts are back too. I love them just as much now as I did the first time.

For this cycle I've set myself a goal of at least 20 minutes of cardio/dedicated movement every day. Usually I do cardio (45 minutes to an hour) 2 days a week and lift 3 times a week (hour to an hour and a half), but I think I'd like to commit myself a bit more. I'll keep all that the same but add bare minimum 20 minutes of cardio to the otherwise non-cardio days. To that end, I walked/jogged 3.5 miles on Saturday (jogged about 3/4). After lifting I took my bike out for a quick 20 minute spin yesterday. Today my thighs are crying out in pain so I went for a 30 minute walk. They felt a lot looser when I got back home but now, about an hour later, they're back to hurty hurt mchurtersville.
Three days down!

my sept goals results were great and I have high expectations for Oct.
Sept stats:
lost 7 lbs. goal was 13. But I did lose over 14 inches in various body parts in just one month!
did 67 hours of cardio. goal was 60.
did 191.5 miles. goal was 120.
burned 52,009 calories. goal was 50,000.

Today was a good way to start off Oct. Did 5 hours of cardio, 19.5 miles, and burned 4018 calories. I can totally do this!

and a NSV: a friend came over to shop in my closet for a dress to wear to a wedding this weekend. I have some beautiful dresses that my big booty outgrew a few years ago. After my friend left with what she needed I tried on a couple. I fit into one of my faves, a size 20 retro party dress with a crinoline under the skirt. I think I had given up hope of ever wearing it again! I wanted to do a cartwheel!

am playing around with HIIT this week on the treadmill...right now doing one minute walk 3.4 speed, 30-second run at 6.5, 30-second run at 7.3 speed, then back to one minute walk....i have to work up to a full-out run because it's hard to go from a walk to a dead run like that...so i increase the speed gradually over 30 seconds til i hit 7.3 speed....i can sustain that for 30 seconds barely so i think that qualifies at HIIT(?)...i do 10 sets of that, walk a minute/run a minute, and then i finish out my time with walking at 3.8 speed at a 5% incline

Wow, Chubbygirl, 14 inches in one month? That is amazing! Congratulations on meeting and exceeding your goals.

Alaskanlaughter, I'm no expert but that sounds like HIIT to me.

Tuesday: NROLFW 5B1 and then ran some intervals.
Wednesday: I was really not in the mood to do anything active! Flat out, bratty child style emphatic no. But then I thought about it and was like, really? I'm going to give up on day 5?! That's so lame! So I popped in a bellydance dvd.
Thursday: NROLFW 5A2 and did the intervals again. My legs were practically seized up after the bodyweight matrix so really running was the last thing I wanted to do, but I did it. I was lumbering around like Frankenstein, but I did it. I'm hoping getting more blood flowing in the area means I won't be too sore tomorrow.

i finished 5 days in a row of my HIIT training...some days it kills my appetite totally, like today...i also did it today on less than 5 hours of sleep last night ughhhh

on another note, i hit another new low today...186.8!!! wonder if it's connected to the HIIT or if i was just due for another little drop