Week 2 Weigh In

I worked VERY hard last week and the results are showing it. I am very pleased! Yay me!!!!

weight: was 165 lbs NOW 163lbs

waist: was 33.5 in NOW 32 in

hips: was 42 in NOW 40.63 in

R thigh: was 24.5 in NOW 24.5 in

L thigh: was 24.75 in NOW 24.5 in

R upper arm: was 12.25 in NOW 12 in

L upper arm: was 12 in NOW 11.75 in

This is a great start to my week. Now all I have to do is maintain it.

Goals for this week:

I need to focus on shaping up me eating habits. I will stick with the NO Starbucks Monday - Friday. That worked out well last week.

I am also going to focus on not hitting up anywhere with a drive-through or super size meal option. No fast food!

I will walk six days this week for at least one hour, totaling 30 miles by Sunday. This will be a little tricky because it's Thanksgiving Week, but I am determined to make it happen!

Have a great week and I will talk to you soon :)

Trail Focus: Grant's Trail

Today's Trail Focus... Grant's Trail

Grant's Trail is an 8 mile "rails to trails" bike trail stretching through south and southwest St. Louis County, Missouri. As a former railroad right of way, Grant's Trail is flat and perfect for biking, running, inline skating, walking, or cross-country skiing.

I liked walking on this trail. There were many interesting things to look at such as beautiful trees, streams, and wildlife. At certain points, the trail backs up to residential backyards and I found it fun to see what items people have back there and imagine what kinds of people like in the houses. The trail intersected busy roads at certain points, but it was a welcome rest waiting for the crosswalk sign to change. :)

If you are in Saint Louis, make sure to check out this trail. It is crowded with lots of bikers, rollerbladers, joggers, and moms with strollers but so worth the energy maneuvering through the masses.

Some Points of Interest:



The Lodge at Grant's Trail - This log cabin lodge, located at the Eastern end of Grant's Trail, serves as a bed & breakfast.



Saint Louis BMX Bike Park - This off-road BMX bike park is right off of Grant's Trail. It is only open when a "supervisor" is there. According to the signs, the park attempts to be open on weekends from 12:30 until sunset, but it is not guaranteed. If you are into that sort of thing, it is worth checking out.



Trailnet Office - Visit this office for maps and other in-depth information on this and other local trails.



Lil Cherrybomb Snowcones - YUM! Snowcones!!! This snowcone stand is right next to the trail, but hard to see from the trail. Just go around (behind) the public restrooms at the Reavis Barracks intersection. (Opened seasonally).



Gravois Creek Hiking Trails & Clydesdale Park - Grant's Trail loosely follows Gravois Creek, and at this point there are paved trails through the wooded area up to the creek. This path follows a long gradual uphill route across two bridges to the Clydesdale Park parking area.



U. S. Grant Historic Site - This historic site (a national park) contains one of President Ulysses S. Grant's homes on several wooded acres, as well as an interpretive center.



Grant's Farm - One of my favorite places from my childhood and a new favorite place to bring my son. View wildlife from a tram ride, see animal shows, and sample Anheuser Busch products all for free! A highlight of the trail, you can view Clydesdales in the pastures without even leaving the trail. Or you can see them up close in the stables at the north end of the parking lot.



Whitecliff Park - A municipal park of Crestwood, Whitecliff Park offers wooded trails and an old quarry pond. Crestwood's recreation center is here too, including a residents-only pool and several ball fields.



Father Dickson Cemetery - A historically black cemetery. If you are interested in old cemeteries, this is the place for you!



Sappington House - Listed on the National Register of historic places, the Thomas Sappington House was built in 1808 and is the oldest brick home in St. Louis County. In addition to the Sappington House, which is a museum, there’s the Library of Americana, plus the Sappington Barn Restaurant & Gift Shop.

Week 2 Walking Recap

It was a great walking week! I had set a goal to walk 30 miles this week and I did it!! Woo Hoo! I actually walked 31.03 miles... a 3.42 mile increase from last week. Way to go me!!

Monday: Walked for 1 hour and 45 minutes (5.5 miles) around the neighborhood. That was a great walk. I was feeling it.

Tuesday: Walked for 1 hour and 15 minutes (4.4 miles) around the trail at JB Park. I always feel like I walk so quickly here because I know the trail like the back of my hand.

Wednesday: Hiked for 1 hour (3.1 miles) around nature trail at Laumeier Sculpture Park. This was such a relaxing walk... I love this park!!

Thursday: Walked 1 hr and 30 minutes (3 miles) around neighborhood after work. Was not the greatest walk ever. I was cold and I was preoccupied with my text message convo I had going on with a friend. Girl Talk threw me off a bit.

Friday: Off night. Went to bed early.

Saturday: Walked for 1 hr and 15 minutes (5 miles) at Grant's Trail. This was my first experience on Grant's Trail and I enjoyed it. It was freezing cold... like 35 degrees... but I bundled up nice and tight and got those miles in.

Sunday: Walked for 2 hours and 27 minutes (10 miles) at Grant's Trail. Used my new Nike shoes and IPOD technology to track my progress.

I had set a few other goals this week, other than walk 30 miles.

1. Walk 6 days a week for at least 1 hour. COMPLETED

2. Walk 6 miles on Sunday. COMPLETED

3. No Starbucks. Err. SEMI-INCOMPLETE (I had my beloved Frapuccinos this weekend. BUT I did NOT drink them Monday - Friday. It's a start.)

All in all, I am thrilled with how this week went and I hope next week is even better. We shall see how my hard work has paid off on my measurements tomorrow... stay tuned!

10 Miles Today!!!!

I walked 10.02 miles today, folks!!! I have never done that before. It was a challenge, but I feel so good about it. I cannot wait to do it again.

The weather was beautiful... 58 degrees and sunny. I chose Grant's Trail for this long walk. This trail, which I will tell you more about when I feature it on my Trail Focus (a new blog feature I am working on...) was ideal for this walk because the trail was a flat paved surface with prominent mile and 1/2 mile markers.

Overall, I made AWESOME time - it took me 2 hours and 27 minutes from start to finish and my pace was 14:42 min/mile. FOURTEEN MINUTES PER MILE!! Holy Moly, am I silly or is that pretty quick??? I strived to keep my pace consistent throughout the entire walk... it was difficult, especially for the last two miles, but I made sure I counted "one, two, one, two, one, two" in my head as I walked to keep up the speed.

I am satisfied with the way things went, but I did make some mistakes. First off, I wore my brand new shoes without breaking them in first. This is generally a big NO-NO but I was so excited to put my Nike+IPOD thing to work. The shoes did not give me too many problems, but I still should have stuck with my tried-and-true pair for such a long distance.

As I was getting ready, I had a list of items I always bring for my walk. Chapstick? Check. IPOD? Check. Gloves? Check. Pedometer? Check. Water? Ch... uh. Wait. I did not bring water. Stupid me. I knew I needed my water out there to keep me going, but I left the house without even thinking about it. Needless to say, having no water made the walk a lot more difficult than it had to be.

By the time I reached my car, I was practically a shriveled raisin from sweating so much and not having any liquids. Yikes. Won't do that again.

Lesson learned. Will know better for next time. Still, though. At the end of the day I walked 10 miles today without dying and that really is something, eh? :)

The Nike+ lady voice told me that I had burned over 1,000 calories on that walk. Wowzers. Does that mean I can hit up a Taco Bell without feeling guilty? :)

Nike+ Is My Savior

I was in the market for some new tennis shoes (preferable ones for walking specifically) because I have had my current pair for... hmmm... forever. Cannot even remember when I bought them. They are still in decent shape but they are clearly a running shoe which does not allow my foot to roll as easily as a walking shoe would.

I ran into Lady Foot Locker and began my search. I saw a pair on sale for $49.99. Bargain!! Of course, they did not have the sale shoe in my size. Or the other sale shoe I asked to see. How convenient. So I told the lady what I was looking for: a lightweight shoe that had a flexible sole, good arch support, and a slightly rounded heel to help with my foot roll. It would help if they were cute, too, but comfort was my main requirement.

She listened intently and after running to the back, she appeared with this:



Nike Zoom Air Shot+

I liked the look of them... lots of mesh for breathability and the soles were super bendy in all the right places. I was facinated by the toggle lace lock thingamabobs. It seemed nice to never have to worry about my laces coming untied.

This particular shoe is a part of the Nike+ series. The genuises at Nike and Apple have teamed up to produce a line of shoes that coordinates with the IPOD Nano to track workouts.



You stick this IPOD sensor in the sole of the left shoe, plug in the receiver to your IPOD, enter in your workout information and then start walking or running. This little gadget tracks your pace, mileage, calories burned, time, etc. It even interupts your music to tell you how many miles you have gone so far and how many you have left if you are working towards a specific goal.



You can use Apple ITunes and nikeplus.com to create workouts, track your progress, create and accept challenges from fellow athletes across the globe, and more! Check out my challenge status below (I am currently #1!!!)



How freakin cool is that?!

So I walked away with the shoes and the IPOD thing. It was alot more money than I wanted to spend, but I am looking at it as an investment in my health... and an early Christmas present to myself.

So excited!

Babies Babies Everywhere!!

Congrats go out to two of my best friends, Jess and Sara, who are expecting babies next summer!!!

Geez, don't drink the water... the pregnancy bug is really making it's rounds!!

:) :)

Brrrrrrrrr...

Holy moly, it's cold out there! Winter time has finally hit St. Louis after what felt like a super-extended fall. Since it is 22 degrees outside, I have decided to take the night off from walking. I walked last night in the 30 degree weather and that was a little brisk to say the least.

Last night's walk wasn't as enjoyable as I had anticipated. Maybe it was the cold weather, maybe it was the shin splints, maybe it was the fact that I was having a text message conversation the entire time... who knows. It just did not click last night. I have been walking alot both at work and outside of work so maybe I was just tired. That's why I am hanging out and keeping it low key tonight. I hope tomorrow is better.

On another note, I just want to take the time to mention how OUT OF CONTROL my eating habits are. It's not how much I am eating... it's what I am eating. I have completely relapsed on my diet soda addiction which is so disappointing. It's funny because when I decided to stop drinking diet soda, I did not miss it. Somehow I just had a sip and one day then it was all over. Other than that I have been munching on salty chips and pretzels and candy from the vending machine at work. I am consuming all of these empty calories and then busting my ass to burn them off. I could just not eat the empty calories, but alas... it is not so simple. That would require a little something called WILLPOWER which I do not have.

We will see how my measurements reflect my naughtiness on my Monday Morning Weigh In.

*Gulp*