Mary's Goals and Long Distance Race

You're right about the goals, I haven't written any down in a while.

Long-term goal- I think I'm okay at this weight, but I would really love to get some muscle that you can see in my abs. I think I'm at a point where you might start to see some muscle if I started lifting. I'm going to start small though-

Goal #1- Run at least one time this week. (It's been a while and I'm getting lazy)

Goal #2- Do push ups 2x this week. We're supposed to be able to do 3 sets of 20 (I think, Joanna correct me if I'm wrong) according to the paddling coach, Dan.

Goal #3- Pullups after practice 1x this week. Again, I've been lazy, but I can at least do it one time this week.

Darn it, now I really have to do these things.

Will report back on these goals later.

This weekend was my first real long-distance race. (With Changes). 24 miles. It was pretty incredible. It started at Kailua Beach and ended in Waikiki. We changed out several times over the course, and overall it took about 4 hours. All I know is that our other Kailua team had a time of 3:19 and they got in way before we did. It was absolutely beautiful on the escort boat, but I was so freaking nervous every time we had to jump out of the boat and change in. I was so nervous that I wasn't going to be able to get into the canoe. It was pretty scary because there were actually waves and it never looked like our steerswoman was going to get near enough to us. Of course every time she would end up heading right past us exactly in the right spot. It was definitely a difficult race, there was not a whole lot of waves and it was hot out. Usually the waves give you something to think about, so you don't have a whole lot of time to think about how much paddling hurts after the first hour. There was a couple of stretches where it was pretty smooth and you just felt like you weren't moving. A lot of the race was a challenge to mentally stick with it. I kept thinking about our trip on the Makani Olu, Myia, when we went around Rabbit Island, and were still going past it, and still going past it.... The land just didn't seem to move very fast. I did what I do when we did our long distance runs and picked out spots on the land that we had to get to and just focused on those spots.

Thank God Derek was the coach in our escort boat, he was great. Mike was with the first string boat. Dan went with Joanna's crew. In our boat was Ananda, me, Mele, Stephanie, Sheila, Leyla, and then three girls I don't know as well- Mehana (different from the Mehana from regatta season), Leona, and Angie. Oh, and then Christie (Derek's wife) was steering. She steered the whole thing, it was really cool. She had a bladder with her with water and some gatorade and a couple of power bars and some gum in the back of the canoe with her. I guess she must have taken a few quick breaks.

Leyla had an underwater camera and she says she's going to put some of the pictures on myspace. When she does I'll steal some and put them on this blog.

Goals

Alright, I need to set some goals and I need to write them down because they always seem real when you write them down.
Goal #1 – Go to the gym at least 3 times a week (Running on Treadmill)
Goal #2 – Work on abs at home during free time
Goal # 3- Eat more vegetables and less frozen foods
Goal # 4 – Find a job

That should be it for now.

Losing Weight Rocks

Month 8 is coming to a close since my new year's resolution and I have more then met my goals. I have lost 22 pounds since Jan 1, '07. I figured if I could do it for half a year then the rest of the year would be easy. Well, let me tell you there isn't anything easy about it, but it does get easier but lets never call it easy.
I learned how to control my weight strictly through calorie counting. The workouts and exercise are very helpful but I realized they aren't necessary to maintain weight but are VERY necessary to remain fit and healthy.
I was unable to exercise in a while and got a little scared that I wouldn't be able to maintain my weight, that didn't happen but I did quickly and easily get lazy and tired without it.
I realized the best ways to stay active are to set goals and find people to set goals with. Working out together is so much better then working out alone. You don't have to do the entire workout with someone but starting together helps.
I have a great group of friends that I started running with a while back and at first we would run at the pace of the slowest person because that was easy. It was great when one of us didn't feel like running because we can all run slowly. Well that was when we were jogging not running. After a while we just started together but each of us found our own pace that improved over time and then we began running. It was much better and felt good at the end and if you didn't finish first you wanted too and you ran faster next time.
I hit up Bally's Total Fitness twice now and look forward to working in so exercise time once I get on schedule.
In the last year or so I seen lots of my friends lose so much weight. It's amazing to see them and how hard they have worked. Mary, Teri and Janet, you guys rock!! Keep it up. Mary I love the new blog were we can post and talk about eating healthy, drinking wine, and being active. It was a great idea.
I weighed in today at 125 pounds and was in Old Navy and bought a small button up shirt, which is amazing that I can buy a button up shirt and be so comfortable. Losing weight in my boobs have definitely put those suckers in the wrong place but have made it easier for me to clothes shop and buy cuter things without feeling like I am busting out of them.
I body is still very soft and not very tone, but I am going to change that by starting to weight lift when I can especially in my legs and abs. They need some extra attention.
Well all I think next years resolution will have to be a good one to top this one. Maybe I will run a marathon. I still need to do another half marathon before I hit that up. Once I can complete a half marathon at a decent time and not feeling like I want to die then I will move up.
For those of you working on being fit, losing weight and eating right, keep up the good work and don't get side tracked. Stay focused and it will be worth it.

Oh yeah that's my new home up on the left there.

Distance Paddling

Wow, so distance paddling season started two weeks ago. It's very different, because now we're practicing with a lot of the more experienced paddlers from other crews. Sometimes it makes you feel a little out of place because they've obviously been paddling with eachother for a while and seem to know each other really well. The other day I wanted to quit, the first time for me this year, just because the girls in the boat made me feel really out of place. I know they didn't do it on purpose, they were just talking about how good the boat felt when we did our last run after they switched me out of seat two. It just basically made me feel like it was my fault that the boat wasn't running smoothly, because once I got moved it was going fine. Really after thinking about it, I don't think that's quite what they meant, but it still felt junky. Paddling non-stop for 2 hours will do that to you.
So yesterday we had our first race. The race itself was awesome, it started at 7:30, left from Kailua Beach and went around Birdshit. For those who don't know where that is, it is one of the little islands out to the left when standing on the beach looking towards the ocean. It's about 6 miles, so no changes, it's the same 6 paddlers through the race. Anyway, the waves were 10 feet, and it was nuts. I felt confident because we had a really good steerswoman (Christy) and I have paddled with the other 3 girls many times before (Debby, Mele, and Cassie). I don't know Sheila very well, she was the other lady in the boat, but I'm pretty sure she has a lot of paddling experience. So the race was fun. We rode an awesome wave in straight from flat island almost all the way in to the beach. We came in fourth. Two other Kailua boats took 1st and 3rd. Lanikai came in second.
So after practice we waited while the guys went out for their race, they were going all the way to Waikiki. They went out, and then we got in the boats for some practice. We paddled for another two hours. I was so sunburnt at the end because I didn't think we were going to be out as long as we were. I didn't have my gloves either, and ended up with huge blisters all over my hands. It sucked because they hurt, and they kept getting worse, but when you're way the hell out in the ocean, all you can do is just paddle until you get home to take care of it. Hopefully they'll finally turn into callouses, but right now they still hurt.
Hopefully I'm going to run with Ananda tonight, I think we might actually run the Marsh. She's working and I'm gonna make her take a break.

My New Other Blog

I'm at work so this will be quick - I've got a new blog with a friend:
www.fannypackgirls.blogspot.com

It's about biking around Philly and taking lots of pictures. We've done it twice and it was AWESOME! We've got plans to do it weekly and maybe get published on Philly's www.uwhishunu.com.

Getting Back to the Basics

I haven’t ran or worked out in a really long time, but I still managed to maintain my weight by eating healthy. I thought that maintaining my weight was solely because of how much I worked out, it’s a relief to know that isn’t true. However, I am going to get back into working out and getting into shape. Although paddling isn’t there anymore I am going to be a member of two gyms Bally’s and the NIU gym. I am hoping to have extra time to schedule in some workouts. I will be taking four classes and am currently looking for a job and my road time is going to be a lot. I will spend about 6.5 hours a week just driving to and from school. L Not fun. I have to do exercises in my head.

I think the best way to stay motivated and focused is when other people around you are motivated and focused on their goals. This is why blogs like this are so important.

Oh by the way that's my and my hot friend Mary!

Update on Weight Loss and Fitness

Weight- 140
I was just reading through my old blog. That was a really awesome tool to help me lose weight. It helped me keep track of my goals and I have succesfully gotten myself to a really healthy weight. Somebody actually asked me the other day if I had gotten my stomach stapled. Of course that person doesn't realize that you have to be morbidly obese to really consider that kind of a procedure, it was someone who has known me for just about a year. I know I am going to be able to keep the weight off if I just continue to eat pretty healthy- which for me is still less refined carbs, and less carbs in general, plus I've cut out table sugar and ranch dressing. Drinking only water and diet pepsi has helped a lot. I have to watch out for the days when I start drinking a lot of alcohol, I tend to go in cycles with that. Last week I had wine several times in a row and for me that is a sign that I need to be careful. I'll start drinking every night again. Plus, I really try to stay away from beer. I can really pack in a lot of beers before I feel full, but I can only drink a little wine. I always try to remember the fact that I actually enjoy being clear headed, so I don't want to drink more than one glass.

I have gotten down to 140 and actually the scale has gone below 140 on several occasions. Of course, that's usually right after paddling practice, so it's mostly just water weight. I have been feeling pretty healthy. Our paddling regatta season ended last weekend in Kauai, at the states races. My Novice A crew came in 3rd behind Waikiki Beach Boys who paddled an unreal 4:03 or something like that, and Puna, who was right in front of us. We were behind them by about 3 seconds. Our time was just over a 4:18.

This past week we started long distance season. I didn't realize how different the practices were going to be. The first practice we just did triangles. A lot of them. The two next practices were pretty hard, just a lot of paddling, back and forth, without much rest. This morning we did tractor pulls again, and I did a time of 3:33. I can't remember if I beat my time from regatta season, but it's a pretty good time. Some people did 3:15 and Heather did a 3:11. Pretty awesome.

Tonight was also the Kailua Canoe Club banquet. Tayte got the outstanding paddler award for our team, I was not surprised, she's very good. Joanna also got an award for being awesome and being so consistent and motivated even though she didn't get to race this season. She totally deserved it as well. I took some pictures, they didn't come out that great, it was kind of a half-assed effort at photography tonight. When I got home Nate took some pictures of me, cause I didn't get any of me in my banquet outfit, which I thought was pretty cute.

Goals for this upcoming week:
Running Sunday with Joanna, Paddling Monday, Paddling Tuesday, Running Wednesday on my own, Paddling Thursday, Friday morning run with Ananda and Denby, Saturday practice, Sunday race and practice afterwards. Hmmmm, maybe need to take Wednesday off, might be too much.
Weight goal: scale to stay below 140 next week Saturday. (It's been wavering, going up and down)

(I've invited people to post on this blog, mostly so I feel a responsibility to stick to my goals. I would love it if people would actually join in, so feel free. If I did not invite you to blog, but you would like to, post a comment with your email address and I'll give you posting capabilities.)

New Blog

Alas, due to my recent marriage, I must give up my last blogger site, as my name has changed to Preston and I have updated my email address to match that change. The link to my old blog is on the left hand side of this screen if you would like to read about the saga of my life (for the past two years). My very next blog will be about the wedding. I would like to add some of my memories of the day, and give a more detailed description of the event for those of you who were unable to make it out to Oahu.
Feel free to comment and if you would like to add yourself as an author on this page, just email me at maryalycepreston@gmail.com. Onward Blogger!