Termination

I got fired from my job this week. Via text. Case in point of why I hated my job so much. I have no idea what I’m going to do next; I was still figuring that out. I’m so thrilled to not have to go back there to work though. Really. So thrilled. But I don’t want to cook any more. So that’s where figuring out what to do next comes in. I’ll update as I figure it out. Get a job to pay the bills is at the top of my list- I’m looking into seasonal retail jobs. That way I’m not caught in anything and it’s something that I have experience with and somewhat enjoy. And hopefully it allows for some flexible time to figure things out/interview as needed. I’m aiming for something slightly more corporate/office related with 9-5 type hours. Maybe related to food still. Or fitness. Though I don’t know how much the fitness world likes hiring fat people.

But I’m 3.2 pounds less at least! According to Weight Watcher’s scale. Which is usually about a pound more than my home scale with clothes and such. But it’s the downward trend that’s important. (But it’s nice to see myself back in the 2-teens.) 28.8 pounds total. This is awesome! I didn’t want to put a lot of pressure on myself to lose a lot of weight during the 8 week challenge, but I’m doing great! Down 7.2 so far. (I was hoping for 8 in the back of my head). And I ate everything I wanted last week too. Cheeseburger, onion rings, milk shake, chicken parm sub, fried calamari (not all in the same day, mind you). And I didn’t really exercise- just on Thursday.

That was in part because up until I got fired, I was super blue. And I didn’t want to work out. Also my back was killing me from work, and it still is, but now I have time to go to the dr. and get it fixed. I went to my 2nd running class Thursday night after missing the previous week because of work. I definitely need to return back to running a few times a week if I want to actually see some benefits. But my back/butt hurt a lot when I was done. A woman I met there told me about this great chiropractor that does more than just alignments that I’m going to check out. They do something called active muscle release or something like that and it helps better work out the tension in the muscle. Which is definitely what I need. And apparently all the major runners go there when they’re in the city and the head doctor worked at the olympics. Those are some credentials!

God I’m never going to have any blog readers with boring entries like these! But I guess it’s more for me. Though conversation would be nice.

Life Update

Oy. So much going on. I’m not sure if I can even cover it all in 1 post. I’ve been very blue this past week or so. My best friend and I had a fight and aren’t speaking anymore since Labor Day. Don’t know if that will ever get patched up. So that’s brings me down to 0 close friends. And I’ve given up on my ex and getting together, so now I really have absolutely no one to talk to. Starting to get kinda lonely. But also getting used to it. No bueno. I joined that running class, so in 10 weeks, it’d be nice if a friend emerged from that. We shall see. I’m keeping an eye out for socializing opportunities, but friendships don’t happen over night, and I’m gun shy, so it’s gonna be even harder for me. Maybe some people just aren’t meant to have friends? But then again I suppose if I were less gun shy, I’d have more friends? It’s too hard. I dunno. I need a new Marissa. But there are only so many Marissas in the world (metaphorically speaking).

And then of course there’s dating.

One day. If I ever have time. Stupid night time job.

Stupid job. I don’t feel like hashing out the awful back story again, but needless to say, I’m starting to wonder if I can find myself a nice 9-5 desk job. Or something. Preferably 9-5. And hopefully it pays more than I currently make (which is very little, so it’s a very low bar to be fair). Maybe. We shall see.

Part of me is very inspired right now with this whole losing weight and getting healthy and I’m wishing I could do something with that now. I’ve been thinking an apparel store for plus-sized women (people?). It’d be great, as a plus-sized person, to be able to find all the bigger sizes in one spot. It’s frustrating never being able to just grab something because one brand’s XL may be just fine for me and another may not even be close. So in my shop, I wouldn’t even carry a certain brand if I found most plus sized girls couldn’t fit into it. And how great would it be for there to be a judgement free place where bigger girls can feel good about being active and fit and healthy?

And not that I’m a designer, but if I could find someone, it’d be great to have a specific athletic line just for plus sized women. Something that really considers making room for junk in the trunk! Lol. And for me, I haven’t found a long sleeved tech shirt I like cause I have chunky arms. I even found a XXL tech shirt at Target and I just couldn’t handle having the arms so damn tight on me. You would never see a built in bra in my tanks either. I’m only a C cup, so I can actually get away with them sometimes (though I haven’t run in one yet), but I think most girls would prefer to choose their support (I know I do), without worrying about the bulk with a shelf bra.

Oh and price point would be well below Lulumon. Personally, I’d like to see it around Target prices (if that’s even possible based on the material). I’m not a fan of paying more than $20-30 for a top, $40 for a sweatshirt, and $30-40 for bottoms.

In other news, I’m down just about 25 pounds now. Isn’t that awesome?! 25 pounds is no small number. And it’s been a slow crawl. I updated the Weigh-in Page. I kinda lost steam over the summer, though I didn’t gain the weight back. I made decent enough choices to be able to maintain basically. Which felt like a success in it’s own right. Losing 100 pounds is hard work, and it’s going to take a decent amount of time, so I like knowing that if I want to take a time out for whatever reason, I can do so without back sliding. That’s so important to me- as much as losing the weight. Not gaining it back. Ever. Well, except pregnancy. And I’d like to have the right tools and mindset to take off baby weight too.

This week has been a little rough. Being blue has kinda zapped my appetite so I haven’t been eating a whole lot the past few days, and then when I am hungry, I’m too lazy to eat properly, so I just eat something weird. Like a whole package of imitation crab with cocktail sauce. Or a bag of popcorn. For dinner. Fruit? Veggies? Not much. Protein? Not much. *Sigh*

Last week I ate randomly as well, but more, and stayed completely within points, and gained 2.2 pounds. THAT was frustrating. I’m hoping it was due to running the half marathon and storing water, or even gaining some muscle. According to my scale, I’m already back down to where I was the week before, and still 4 more days until the weigh in, so hopefully I can lose another pound. Especially since I’m eating so lightly.

I’m working on participating in the WW 8 week challenge. I really don’t want to set a weight goal, because as you can see, even with tracking and staying with in my points, I still gained 2.2 pounds! That’s nuts. So I don’t want to be disappointed by not meeting a time goal. My concrete goal is to track every day for the 8 weeks. I’m 2 1/2 weeks in and haven’t missed a day! Love it. Feel very happy with keeping up with that habit. It will be what gets me to my goal weight in the end (even if some weeks don’t always show success.)

Ok, well I’m up too late and need to get to bed cause I have therapy and work tomorrow.

More updates when something new happens! Haha.

I did it!!!

I’m a lazy blogger.  Almost a week since my half marathon.  Geez.

Well I did it.  I finished my half marathon last week.  Chip time of 3:11.  Garmin time of 3:06 (didn’t include stretch and potty breaks).

I ran most of it.  Walked through the water stations.  And I walked a lot between mile 11-12.  But ran it all the way in.  My mom and step-dad were there at the finish line to cheer me on.

It’s bitter sweet now that it’s over.  I was hoping to come in just under 3 hours.  I was on pace for that up until mile 10, but the last 5k was just difficult.  I was in pain.  My feet killed.  My hips were tight.  My back was tight.  I know I’m 99% likely to improve my time for my next half marathon, so that’s always a plus.  I didn’t give training 100% effort, so it’s a minor miracle I was able to run across the finish line.  I basically did that race on only long runs.

I took a gamble bringing untested gels on the course with me.  I figured I’d be able to just choke them down with lots of water if I really hated them.  But they were mostly a win!  Hooray!  The texture is still borderline nasty.  Ever since my first taste of them, I’ve been struggling to compare them to something, but I can’t.  I’ve never had anything like these in terms of texture.  My first taste was Gu Tri-Berry and I gagged and threw half of it out because I just couldn’t get it down.  So after talking with my therapist a bit about different brands, and just squeezing some packs at Jack Rabbit (NYC running store), I opted to try some PowerBar gels in Orange and Strawberry Banana because when I squeezed the packets, it felt much looser than Gu, so I hoped it would go down more easily.  Both had caffeine, with orange having 2x as much.  Caffeine has been shown to improve performance, so I was keen to try that.  The guy at the store recommended the strawberry banana flavor (good choice!).  I also grabbed some Clif shots in Vanilla and Chocolate because my therapist said they had a bit of a thicker texture.  And finally Gu peanut butter.  Seeing if Gu could redeem itself.

I only needed 3 gels for the race and I opted for both of the PowerBars and the Vanilla Clif Shot.  I started with the PowerBars mostly because I was hesitant about Vanilla flavored gel.  The flavors were good for the PowerAde.  Orange is always easy, and the strawberry banana was actually pretty nice. They were thinner in consistency which was great, but still kinda stuck around in the mouth a bit.  I always need to take these with water I think.  I don’t know if the caffeine made a difference.  Maybe when I get faster I’ll notice.

Now on the other end of the spectrum, the Clif Shot Vanilla was GREAT.  I loved it.  As much as you can love a gel.  It tasted like Vanilla frosting.  Super smooth frosting which is weird, lol.  I still like water to wash these down, but loving the flavor helped me forget about the texture.  I’m hoping the chocolate one tastes like Chocolate frosting.  It might be awhile before I try more gels since I’m not planning to do any more long distances until the spring.

My plan now is to just focus on having fun, and hopefully getting fast.  I’m hoping by the spring I can get my 10k time to about 12:30 min/mile. That’s about 6 months time.  And I hope to be about 30-40 pounds thinner by then as well which will help.  I’m also in a running class that the NYRR club is offering.  It was $105 for 10 classes which is a STEAL in NYC.  The downside is that it’s held on the Upper East Side.  Almost a 90 minute commute from Brooklyn for me.  I’m gonna need to find something else to do in the area to make the trip worth while.  And I can only go to the Met so many times.

The first classes started with running for 10 minutes at about a 12:00 pace, walking for a minute and a half, and running another 10 minutes at the same.  I did pretty good.  I was able to keep up for the most part, though towards the 2nd half, I slowed down to about a 13 min/mile for a bit.  It was comfortably challenging.  So I believe they said the goal is to run a 5k at a 11:00 pace which would be awesome.  So yeah, as you can see, traveling for over an hour for a 20 minute run is not optimal.  But getting to run in Central Park is awesome!!  I’d like to continue runs sometimes, but I’m afraid of getting lost.  I get lost almost every single time I’m in the park.  Not that it’s a huge deal, but it’s annoying.  Especially since it’s dark by 6:30 now.

So I’m up waaaaaayyyyy too late.  I have work in the morning, and I’m doing Yoga before it.  I’m looking at about 4ish hours of sleep.  *Sigh*  Because I took a 4hr nap today.  And it looks like I’ll be napping tomorrow.  Such a cycle.  Gotta break it!

I’ll finish with some pics from my 2 runs this week.

Night time skyline. Gorgeous.

Ran along the Hudson near work this week. Gonna try and run in Manhattan more- I like it!

Great path by the Hudson!

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow is my half marathon!! I’m eating my pasta for dinner. About to pack up all my stuff and lay out my clothes and head to bed for the early wake up. I can’t believe it’s here! It’s supposed to rain, and while it’s not optimal, I just pray for none to minimal blisters.

Half marathon baby!!!