in case your as inept at the anatomy of the human body as I am, here is where I give you a little picture post about what I’m talking about.

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These little beauties are you Deltoids. Today they have made themselves known to me. It’s from the swimming I did yesterday (30 laps). I woke up with them sore and while I did have a fleeting moment of “I’ll just skip the swim today”, I swam with them sore today as well (40 laps) so you can bet they’ll be letting me know they’re still around tomorrow. I probably won’t be swimming at much as I am this week just because school starts up next Monday and I am slated to pick up quite a bit of work at the community college. I’m trying my best not to freak out (as I would normally do) because I am starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I am taking on over the next 3 months. I’ll be working about 52 hours per week (Mon – Fri) until the early part of June. I’ve enjoyed the last 3 months of working 32 hours (Mon-Fri). It gave me time to get things in perspective. Time to figure out what this whole notion of “eat less, move more” meant. I had time to plan food and workouts. Time to walk the dogs, run, break a sweat, eat breakfast, get to work, spend time with my husband, get more than 7 hours and repeat all for 3 months. I saw just under 30 pounds disappear and now I’m wondering how I will do over the next 3 months…

But I digress.

As I almost always do.

Let’s move on to my next newest friend: The Gastrocnemius

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Now before you go saying, “Geez Tara, everyone has calf muscles”, let me tell you why this little beauty is my newest friend. Before I started running just a mere 9 weeks ago it was distinctly one muscle (the outer muscle). 9 weeks later not only is the outer muscle stronger and more prominent, but now its sister muscle (inside calf muscle) is making an appearance. I’m developing a runner’s leg!!! Well not just one of course, both legs are developing into runner’s leg. Tomorrow is my last day at a 28 minute run. On Tuesday (yesterday) I ran 1.88 miles in 28 minutes. That’s about a 4.0 mph speed. A little slower but also a little farther than last week. Tomorrow I’ll head back to the track to see if running on a flat surface, not having to worry about cars, and not needing to be mindful of changes in the pavement make a difference.

4 sessions to go…

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Back to my digression…

I’ve been trying to think of ways to make sure that I’m still moving more and eating less with a work schedule that is about to become a lot more worky and a lot less not-worky. My work days will begin with me leaving the house at 8a and getting home around 7:30p. Doing any sort of work out at night is going to be out of the question as this will really be the only time I can spend with my husband (who is out of the house by 5:30a and in bed by 9p). So I’m looking to do my move more part in the mornings. I will have about 2.5 – 3 hours to get what I’m used to doing in 5-6 hours done. This means shorter dog walks, shorter workouts and faster breakfasts.

On days that I’m running, I will probably do it at the track at school or at least in the vicinity. Parking at the school before my run will ensure me two things: A) I get a great parking spot (which at times can get a little hairy) and B) I can shower on campus and then walk to my first class. If I’m on the track by 7am, I can walk the dogs and eat breakfast with relative ease.

On non run days I would like to at least get an hour’s worth of time at the gym. I’ll need to be there about 6:30 to ensure time for workout/shower and leaving with enough time to get to campus.

(Sorry I just need to think this through, I know this is the boring part of my post)

It’s all feasible if I micromanage. Also there are some pretty kick ass classes being taught at the gym super early if I’m so motivated to go first and then go home to shower.

Anyway, all this craziness starts on Monday!

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I had a 700 calorie workout today.

I’d high five myself but my shoulders hurt and can’t really lift them up above my mid-section. This brings up an interesting point for me. When I started on this weight loss I was all about calorie intake and no exercise. It was easy to maintain my 1500 calories day in and day out. When I did introduce exercise it was in small amounts (100 – 200 calories burned) and was able to eat back those calories without a problem. Now I’m stepping it up a bit and it’s getting a little difficult to maintain a net calorie intake of 1500 when I have to have a gross intake of 2100-2200. I’ve never been a big eater. I’m the clean plate kid but if you don’t fill up too much of my plate to begin with I’m good to go. I’m finding that I’m forcing myself to eat more just to keep within that range of net calories. Yesterday I had a 350 calorie breakfast (it would have been more if I had my usual oatmeal but I went with egg whites and veggies instead), and a 700 calorie lunch. My snacking is way down to almost non existent (which is pretty rad!) so by the time I got home I still had 1000+ calories to work with. We had Papa Murphy’s and I ate an entire salad (with very little dressing) and 4/10 of a pizza just to make it to my calorie goal. After all was said and done my dinner was 1044 calories.

I didn’t want to keep eating but I also didn’t want to go below the 1500 calorie mark. I’m in a similar position today. 500 calorie breakfast, 500 calorie lunch and if I’m to eat back all my work out calories I’m left with 1100 calories for dinner. The menu? Fish and cous cous. Now I don’t know about you but I just can’t eat that much fish and while I do love cous cous…I don’t love it that much.

In the beginning I was eating too much food…

Now I can’t seem to eat enough.

With that being said, I’m going to stop tracking all my work out calories. This journey is supposed to be about listening to my body and eating when I’m hungry. It’s about not eating when I’m bored, sad, emotional or driving. Forcing myself to eat when I’m not hungry any longer is self-defeating.

The good news to all of this is I can now start to incorporate some higher caloric foods that I’ve been cutting out…breads for one thing. I’ve been eating the sandwich thins. I like them but I miss my 12 grain breads…I miss Dave’s Killer Bread (which btw if you haven’t tried, shame on you). Plus I want to eat a real omelet.

And I’d like some sour cream on my next soft taco!