Hello, it's been a while.

The last post I wrote was on February 10, a bit over 2 weeks ago.  I'm not sure why I haven't written as I've been following the same regimen - I think I just "didn't feel like it" a lot of the time so I avoided the blog.  So let me try to recap the last couple of weeks and if any highlights come to me, I'll write them down.

OVERALL HEALTH
The last time I did an InBody was February 16 (I would have done it again this past Thursday but my trainer had a family emergency so I couldn't do one).  On the 16th I was down another 0.7% body fat percentage and up another 0.4lb muscle mass ... down 1.1lb overall to 194.4lb.  Since then I've maintained a similar regimen so I'd imagine I am still losing weight and gaining muscle, I just don't have the documentation.  I'm not sure I'm feeling any better than I was when I started a month ago...?

RUNNING
I've kept up with the running group meets, and I'll average about one more day of running on my own, normally a 2-mile route near my house.  So that brings me to 2 formal running days (1 long run and 1 short run), 1 running day on my own, 1 day of personal training - legs, and 1 day of personal training - arms.  Sometimes I feel guilty when I choose to rest for the other 1-2 days and I need to work on the guilt that I have during these days.  Even the best athletes take time off to let their bodies recuperate.

How have I been doing?
- 5 mile run on 2/11 ... average 13:07/mile
- 3 mile run on 2/15 ... average 15:16/mile **
- 2 mile run on 2/17 ... average 13:16/mile
- 6 mile run on 2/18 ... not sure of average because MapMyRun stopped working but, of the couple of miles I did believe, I ran somewhere between 12:30-14:00/mile
- 1.5 mile run on 2/20 ... average 14:02/mile (I remember stopping at least twice for a bit because of shin splints)
- 2.4 mile run on 2/22 ... average 13:05/mile (this was interval training night ... AMAZING ... I can see this technique really helping me with endurance)
- 1 mile run on 2/23 ... average 12:57/mile
- 5 mile run on 2/25 ... average 14:09//mile

** I remember this day.  Around 4:30pm all of my energy just left my body and there was no part of me that wanted to go to the running group at 6:15pm that night.  I shot a text to the leader and told her how I was feeling; she said to come anyway, and that you won't always feel the best every day you run.  So I came, and I ran the 3 miles, and while I was not proud of my times, I was proud that I did it.

While I'm keeping up with the running, what I'm not seeing is my running getting faster.  It seems to be pretty consistent in the 13-14 minute mile range.  I know I still have 2 months before the half marathon, but I thought I'd be seeing something different after a month of training.

EATING
I continue to track my food and I will say that all of my snacks are now fruits or vegetables; I've also consistently cut down on diet coke and allow myself to drink it once, or twice at the very most, each week.  During the week I still have eggs for breakfast, and for most of my lunches at work I grab a chicken caesar wrap that is advertised at 390 calories.  My dinners vary.

Weight watchers gives me a 30-point day with 42 flex points per week (and then whatever points I get for my fitness, I normally average a bit over 50 a week).  I'm taking a look at my "journey" (where any days where I log 27-37 points a day is considered a "healthy eating" day) and I hit it on February 13, and February 20-23.  All the other days I did NOT eat in this range, and some days I had 50-point days, there were even a couple 60-point days!  So this tells me that I still have PLENTY of opportunity to reel this in, and a LOT.  I do struggle more on the weekends to eat healthy, and it shows.  I am happy with the changes I've made so far, but they are clearly not enough. ::sigh::

THAT'S ALL FOLKS
That's it for now!  Hoping to not wait another 2 weeks for my next blog post.  This is meant to be my accountability measure so I must get better at that.