Tuesday, October 25, 2011

You're coming into focus, kid (168.4)

One of my favorite movies is Joe vs. the Volcano.  I first saw it when Mark & I were dating.  I have seen it multiple times since, and Mark & I have quotes that we sometimes use to joke with each other. Like "these lights are suck, suck, sucking the life out of me" and "that outfit is wearing you, Felix" and "I'm not arguing that with you." 

If you've seen the movie a bajillion times, these will mean something to you.  Chances are, you haven't, so watch it the next time it comes on cable.

One of the quotes that hit me yesterday was "You're coming into focus, kid."  The limo driver who takes Joe to the airport (for his trip to an island in the Pacific where he's planning to jump into a volcano) says it after he takes Joe to get new clothes and his hair cut.  Tom Hanks is transformed from an unhealthy looking sad sack of a man, to the handsome Tom Hanks of the late 1990s. 

Yesterday, I felt like that.  I felt like I was coming into focus. 

I can feel my bicep muscles now, and there's a nice cut when I flex.  Same with my triceps and shoulders.  My back fat rolls are completely gone; no more muffin top either.  My upper body shapes up pretty quickly once I start the workouts, which I've been doing fairly regularly since the first part of September.

My running pace is a minute faster (yesterday, it was 12:38 for a 3.25 mile run) than it was a couple months ago .  I did (a slow) 5 miles on Saturday with my friends, and it was almost too easy.  I just finished a pilates class, where we used a big ball, and I could keep up with everything.  It was challenging, but I could do it all. 

I feel stronger, I feel thinner, I feel like I'm going to be able to reach my goals in the foreseeable future.

So, what are my goals?  It's nice to have some again.

Weight loss wise, I'd like to be at 160 by Thanksgiving, although realistically it will likely be 162 or 163.  I'll be happy with that.  I want to weigh 155 by my race in February.  I think that's totally doable. That weight is important because it affects my running pace significantly.

I don't know what my "final" weight will be.  I want my saddle bags to be nearly gone. I want a normal shaped body, proportionate all over.  Whatever weight that ends up being is what I want to weigh. I do know that I still had significant weight in my hips when I weighed 146, so I'm guessing it will be below that. I have no idea when I'll hit this weight.  It may be next summer, it may be in 2 or 3 years, or it may take longer.  Depends on how hard I work for it and how my body cooperates. Time doesn't matter.  I just want to get there by consistently moving forward. 

Running wise, I want to run an avg 11:00 min/mile for my long runs.  I want to run an avg 10:30 min/mile on my short runs.  These paces are only possible when I have less weight to carry around.  Eventually, I want to run a full marathon, maybe in 2013.

Food wise, I want to kick my darn cookie habit.  I don't know what the problem is--muscle memory, sugar memory, comfort habit?  Probably those and more.  I almost always have 3 or 4 cookies right before I go to bed.  Yes, I realize how stupid this is and how destructive this is for weight loss.  Yes, I realize I could put the cookies somewhere I can't get to them.  It's more than behavior modification or mind games.  I need to figure out why I still eat them, after having a well-fed and productive and happy day.  Just writing about it here will help me work on it, I'm sure.

Still busy at work, still busy at home, still maintaining mostly healthy habits, including my SAD light--which I consider one of the most critical to my overall health.  Lunch time workouts are fortunately completely doable most days. I've already run and taken pilates, and it's only Tuesday!  More running Thursday, weights class Friday, running Saturday.  It's all good.

4 comments:

Vickie said...

it is usually dangerous to think X pounds by X date. I am not sure why, but it is not a food thing. It is more beneficial to think HABITS.

It will be very interesting to see what you have to do to get proportional.

It would seem that since the 'load' is divided in two (one on each side) that will make it easier.

Why do you REALLY feel you have to have cookies in the house? As you put them in the shopping cart, what are you really doing? If other peoplea are eating them, what can you substitute for those people.

Vickie said...

LOVED the concept of 'coming into focus' I think I remember something like that being said to Frances in her 'rooms' when she first started to loose weight.

Laura N said...

Like Alice says in Disney's Alice in Wonderland (the animated one from the 60s)-- "I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it." I agree, deadlines for weight loss is a bad idea. I have told many a weight loss friend the same thing.

I guess goal is the wrong word. I try to calculate, if I'm losing 3 pounds a month, I will be at X pounds by X date. I really am not going to be upset if I'm still in size 12s by Thanksgiving. It would just be nice to be a 10 by then.

I really, really do want to weigh 155 by February, though. That one will be harder to stomach if I'm heavier for the half marathon. A 5 pound difference between 160 and 155 makes an impact on my pace and my endurance. It gives me something to work toward even though it's not make or break, and I'll be OK no matter what my weight.

Cookies are (as you suspect) for the kids. They each get 2 for their lunch at school. I'm not sure how they'd react without their treat.

Vickie said...

try alternating the cookies with other things so they are not having them EVERY day. otherwise, honestly, you are setting them up to think THEY need cookies every day (exactly the same fix you are in).