This morning did not turn out the way I wanted it to. I got up early to go to the YMCA like I usually do. I knew as soon as I started walking around the house, however, that running today was going to be a challenge. I have developed a blister on the side of my left instep from my attempts to get the running for the Iron Man done. Today this blister was showing no mercy. It was hurting in bed before I got up. I hoped that a good band-aid and pair of socks would help and headed off the Y. They did not help. I managed to limp through one mile on the treadmill and then had to quit. This was far from my 4 mile goal for the day. I then went to the bike and did 5 miles, but I did not feel good about it.
 
To make matters worse I completely blew my diet at breakfast. I set out to only have a bowl of cereal but got derailed. There was one pancake left so I went ahead and ate it. My daughter did not finish her muffins or her toaster strudel so I ate those too along with my bowl of cereal. Not a good start to eating for the day. I think I managed to eat all the calories I had struggled to burn while exercising.
 
I am going to have to back off on the exercising until I can get this blister patched up somehow. I hope this doesn't mean bad news on the scale!

I lost 10 pounds! Woohoo! I am very happy with that of course. I have not been doing real strict dieting but I have been eating sensibly. I have also been doing a lot of exercising.

I will admit to a little worry. Last year when I did this I plateaued at the same weight I am now. I hope that doesn't mean I will struggle to lose any more weight. I will just keep working hard and hope for the best.

Sunday - 40 minutes = 10 miles
Monday 80 minutes = 1 mile
Tuesday - 34 minutes = 3 miles
 
This was quite a change of pace in everything! Sunday I was biking, Monday swimming, and Tuesday jogging. I never realized how slow a swimmer I am! I am doing all of these things to try to complete an Iron Man triathalon in 6 weeks through the YMCA. Even though I am very sore and tired from the past three days, I am also impressed with myself. I can already tell a real difference in my fitness level. Before I never would have been able to swim for an hour and twenty minutes straight. I never thought I was going to reach the 1 mile mark but I did it! I did not give up. I also managed to jog for 34 minutes without any walking breaks. I never would have pushed myself to that extent before either. It feels good to be able to do things that I couldn't before. Yeah!

Do I have it in me to do an Iron Man? No, not the race where you do it all in one day. They YMCA is sponsoring an Iron Man program. You enter and then have to run 26.2 miles, bike 112 miles and swim 2 miles. If you can do it within 2 weeks you get a gold prize, 4 weeks silver and 6 weeks bronze. I am not so worried about the prizes but I think I would like to push myself to meet all the requirements in at least the 6 week period. The swimming will be the hardest I think. I have no idea how many laps that would be. Just finding the time to actually swim when the pool is open would be a challenge in itself. The other thing that would be a challenge  is the running. I can choose to do a modified Iron Man where walking is allowed but I want to really push myself. Setting high goals is the point of joining this Lighten Up competition so that is what I am going to do!

Tonight I ate salmon for the very first time. We went to Cabanna's for dinner. The Teriyaki Salmon sounded good so I did something I do not usually do. I tried a food that I was not sure I would like. When my order came out, it looked very appealing. I will admit I started off with eating the potatoes and the green beans. I kept looking at the salmon while eating the other food. Finally I tried it and of course it was very tasty. I was pleased with my "risky" choice and with the food over all. It was a very nice dinner and did not blow my diet for the day!

I am proud of myself. Yesterday with all the snow our power went out at the house. After running my children to school and daycare, I came home to find the power still out. I had not gotten up that morning to work out because I failed to set my alarm properly. Instead of lounging around with no power, I decided to exercise! I got the lantern, went in the basement, and lifted some weights. Then I got on the exercise bike for 15 minutes even though the power had come back on by then. I was in a time crunch to get ready for work but I still squeezed in some exercise. Not high calorie burning, but definitely better than nothing. I will consider the small things a victory for the day!