plus size running

atthequillsmercy

Week 6 Day 2: LARP

Sam is just adorable. I love how hyped he is about LARPing and any other assorted nerdy stuff.

Anyway, this run had two 10-minute sprints during which I had to remind myself AGAIN that I’ve done 20-minute sprints and not to give up halfway through for an extra break. Who needs a break when you have the pride of finishing a long run?

Me. I wanted a break. My muscles hate me.

But I made it through; making me realize I’m neglecting an important part of this process: Stretching.

I usually finish whatever workout I picked; jump in the shower, then get right to work on writing (yes, more reviews and stories are forthcoming). This is just to maximize whatever time I have left in the night to hit my rather lofty sales goals. But the cramps, mostly in my calves, are not fun. Those are not good pain, just PAIN pain. Way back in the stone ages when I was taking Karate, stretching was pretty damn important. Like with the weight training, I’ll need to make time for that.

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atthequillsmercy

Week 5, Day 3. Last run of the week and a recap!

On my days off, I like to go back to my lockdown habit of getting up and immediately putting on running gear to make myself workout first thing instead of waiting until the evening.

I also figured out what’s the deal with skipping weight workouts. Something in my head equates a “proper” workout with tons of movement and sweating – high cardio – and not laying on the ground with weights doing crunches. I have the cardio = weight loss idea in my head and think that it’s the only way to get to my goal when it’s not. Building muscle is important, too.

I started Saxenda on April 29th and since then, I have gone from 230 pounds to 225 pounds. This is about a pound or so a week. I am cautiously optimistic about this but I am withholding celebrations until I’m out of the 200 club. When I’m under 200 pounds and stay there, I’ll feel like I really accomplished something.

I don’t have any other metric because I didn’t think to take my measurements until 2 weeks into the meds. Didn’t take a picture, either. For the same reason I’m not celebrating the 5 pound loss:

Relatable memes for the win.

I’ve been at this weight loss thing since… Shit, I’ve been trying to lose weight since high school when a couple little shits decided it would be cute to oink at me when I walked by. My lowest weight was 179 and then I got pregnant. I’ve been trying to get back to 179 since then and haven’t been able to. I’ve avoided a lot of talking about it since I didn’t want to end up another Amberlynn Reid. My blog is monetized after all and weight loss is a hot keyword. It’s fair for someone to assume I’m in this to make money off my story.

If you saw how little I make from ads you’d realize that’s not the case but, I can see the thought process.

To sum up, I am hopeful but diligent.

And no, oinking at me and ridiculing me did not motivate me to lose weight. It made me feel bad my progress was slow and I’d give up. Don’t do that to people, guys. It’s not helpful.

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atthequillsmercy

Week 5, Day 1. Still truckin…

Like what I said on my Instagram, today was a hard day to get motivated. I was tired, annoyed, hormonal… But I did it anyway and made it through my intervals without much of a struggle. Despite starting this over, I do feel like it was MUCH easier than when I did this for the first time years ago.

I am still trying to fit in a session of weights during the week. Something keeps blocking me from doing it.

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atthequillsmercy

Last run of the week!

Week 4 of C25k is complete!

Now, I’m still hovering around 216 pounds but that’s fine. Losing 4 pounds in 2 weeks is great and I can see if it stalls a little around the time of my period. I don’t expect dramatic results around that time. 

Tomorrow is my off day and Friday I’m gonna try to get in some kettlebell. I’d like to have more toned-up arms but I’m not freaking out about it. I’m trying to do everything as easygoing as possible. I don’t want this to be overly stressful or I’ll end up throwing in the towel. No more crazy things like P90x, just simple cardio, weights, and being careful with my food. 

For the rest of the week, I’ll be putting up a bunch of reviews so, be on the lookout for that!

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atthequillsmercy

Week 4 of C25k Begins!

It feels like forever ago when I was doing c210k and running for 5 minutes straight was easy peasy. Man, how things change in a year. But, it’s getting easier and I am down 4 pounds from when I started Saxenda. I was never a binge eater but I have noticed I’m eating MUCH less than before and I haven’t felt too weak to workout like I did when I was doing Intermittent Fasting. I think this is because Saxenda is supposed to slow digestion and decrease your appetite so I’m still getting the fuel I need to workout. I don’t feel faint or anything otherwise I’d stop using this drug.

After a 4 pound weight loss I am cautiously optimistic. Once the weight loss is in the double digits, I’ll feel better. 

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atthequillsmercy

30 Day Challenge Day 30

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Mission completed! Not only the race but the entire 30 days.

Today was another bike day. I didn’t feel up to running after moving some furniture to clean out clutter and pushing a desk up into the attic. I didn’t want to mess up my back for future workouts.

But that’s it! I did it. 30 days in a row of workouts. Now, I’m going to scale it back to 3 runs a week and weights or bike on alternating days. I’m impressed with myself that despite the unusual circumstances and several serious cases of “I dunwanna” I still made it through. I probably won’t ever do this to myself again. I decided just to try the 5k trainer with the Zombies Run chases on. That should be interesting.

In the end, I went from 220 pounds with 42% body fat to 216 pounds and 39% body fat. Not bad, if I do say so myself. I didn’t even do this to try and lose a bunch of weight but I did. I hope I don’t gain any back now that I won’t be pushing so hard. And the blog will go back to mostly book reviews with occasional fitness stuff.

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atthequillsmercy

30 Day Challenge Day 29

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Since my completionist nature is flaring up, I’m going back into season 1 to complete the race missions. It’s easier because the app allows you to complete the mission in more than one session so I hopped on the bike and did a 40-minute session.

Technically, I did 4 miles but I’m not gonna quibble or mess up my running stats by changing the mission results. I’m fine with leaving it as is and I need more lower impact cardio in my life.

atthequillsmercy

30 Day Challenge Day 28

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From the sound of things, it looks like this will be the last Home Front mission and I’m sad about that. I really like these. I’m hoping they continue them in some form even though lockdown seems to be ending in some places.

A new thing for me in this session was the wall sit. I don’t do that or even think to do that in my regular routine. I didn’t have to hold the sit long so my knees seemed to tolerate it. I may have to start doing wall sits regularly. I’ll just have to make sure to use a timer to see if I make any progress.

As to why I’m not running as much? Honestly, I haven’t been up for it. Mentally, I’m trashed with all the terrible things happening in the world right now. I need a news detox or to just force myself on that treadmill no matter how I feel. I’m almost done with c210k so I might as well give that final push to finish it.

atthequillsmercy

30 Day Challenge Day 27

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This time, I followed the mission exactly with some extra barbell moves thrown in. I also did some high knees and leg lifts in-between sets in the mission.

These types of workouts don’t feel as intense as running until the next day. Then I’m wondering why my arms feel like noodles. But it is worth it because I can see the change in the way my arms look already. Not so much in my abs yet, though but I know that will take a lot more than just 30 days to see results.

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atthequillsmercy

30 Day Challenge Day 26

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Today was supposed to be another c210k but I did not have the stamina for it. As I’m doing this challenge, I’m also doing intermittent fasting using the Body Fast app. I was supposed to fast until 4pm (starting from 8pm the night before) but I ran around 1. I just couldn’t make it six miles when I was struggling at mile 2.

In the future, I’ll make sure to time these long runs better. I know running on a full stomach is a bad idea but still. I had zero energy and shitty form. Not doing this again.

Later on tonight, I’ll add some arm workouts before bed. Only my legs hurt after a run so I have no problem taking on 15 more minutes or so at the end of the day.

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