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How does July fly by like this? It isn’t fair…it already feels like the summer is slipping away!
Once again, I’m joining Hoho and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap! It’s such a great linkup where dozens of awesome running and healthy living bloggers participate and share what’s going on in their active lives each week! This week, I’m so excited to be serving as a Guest Host! If you’re new to my blog, hello, and welcome!
I’m also joining Courtney for her Weekly Training Linkup! While I’m officially not in training mode right now, I’m getting back to tracking my workouts so that I can keep myself accountable over the next few weeks!
Time for the #weeklywrap - I'm so excited to be a guest host this week! How have your workouts and race training been going? Click To Tweet
I wish I could say that I did a lot of running this past week, but…nope! I’m still in my running off-season, so I’m letting things “slide” just a little while longer before I get back into training mode! Of course, if you know me, you know I always find ways to keep myself busy! First I’ll share a quick introduction of myself, then talk about my Empty Calorie Challenge adventures!
Being a Guest Host for the latest Weekly Wrap, I thought it would be a great opportunity to introduce myself to my fellow linkers that may not know me very well and say hello to anyone who happens to be a first-time visitor! My name is Janelle, I live in Philadelphia, and I’ve been blogging at Run With No Regrets just a little over 4 years – my blogiversary was on July 12! I started my blog to get motivated to run again after having an unfortunate stress fracture in my foot. Since then, so much has happened – my health has recovered, I’ve met some wonderful bloggers, run lots of great races, and had so many wonderful opportunities! And of course, I had my share of setbacks too, I’m not gonna lie! But I’m grateful to say that I’m in a really good place with my running right now. It’s a blessing.
Despite the evolution I’ve had over the past 4 years, the purpose of this blog remains the same – to talk about running and be a space for positivity and encouragement! I love talking about running to anyone who’s willing to listen, especially those who are new to the activity and may not know where to begin. I try my best to be a resource!
Right now I’m not training, but I will be picking things back up soon – I’m signed up for the Rock ‘n Roll Montreal Half Marathon in September and the Rock ‘n Roll Brooklyn Half Marathon in October. I’ll probably do a Turkey Trot for Thanksgiving and maybe a local Jingle Jog in December, but I already need to start planning for 2018 – will I sign up for my second full marathon? Try racing in more states? Time will tell!
Again, thanks for dropping by – the Weekly Wrap has always been one of my favorite spaces! Please be sure to see what everyone else is linking throughout the week!
Last week I mentioned that after finding out I gained a few pounds, my dietitian encouraged me to do an Empty Calorie Challenge where I completely AVOID empty calories like desserts, junk food, alcohol, and white flour products. Well, I’m happy to report that I made it through the first week!
I’m not going to lie…I had my doubts that I’d be able to stick to avoiding empty calories, but it seems to be working! I’ve only been allowing myself one “unhealthy” meal per week. Here is a sample of the meals I’ve been eating over the past week:
When it comes to meal planning, I’ve finally found myself doing the things that I’ve pledged to do each month as part of my monthly goals. I bought a meal planner and a food journal. I haven’t used the food journal yet because I’ve been using the meal planning inserts from my Passion Planner. I’ve also been tracking my water intake and trying to get those coveted 8 glasses a day. I’m still falling short, but I’m working on it! Writing things down really makes a difference!
Another great thing is that I’ve been able to resist temptation very well! I had a staff meeting last Thursday over lunch and they had free pizza for everyone. Surprisingly, I was able to avoid the pizza and eat my own lunch after the meeting. I felt weird being “that person”, but I’m proud that I was able to keep my commitment.
On Friday night, I finally had my “cheat meal” – a burger with bacon, cheese, and a side of fries, and two cocktails. We even had bread and butter at the start of our meal! The funny thing was at the end of dinner, I felt like I ate too much! It wasn’t as satisfying as I thought it would be.
I still need to do a better job of planning my dinner options in advance, but I’m really happy with how things have kicked off for this Empty Calorie Challenge! I’ve been avoiding the junk foods, my afternoon snacking has been MUCH more fulfilling, and I’m drinking more water and eating more veggies than before! I’ll give my first week a B+!
Sunday 7/9: Bret invited me to join him for a 4-mile run through the trails on Sunday morning. While the temperature wasn’t too hot, the humidity killed me and I was huffing and puffing for most of the run. I had to take a walk break after 3 miles, but we still ran up the big hill to finish “strong” before walking home. The whole thing was a struggle and I wasn’t too fun to be around, ugh! Not too long after the run, I cleaned up and went to barre class! I don’t know how I survived, but we did some interesting new circuits and I got a great workout!
Monday 7/10: I went for a 3 mile run at the crack of dawn before work. The temperature was so cool, but once again, the humidity came out to play! I took it easy on this run but was happy to have negative splits, especially since the second half of my run is all uphill!
Tuesday 7/11: Track Tuesday with the City Fit Girls! Now that I don’t have softball, I could finally hit the track. We did the following workout: 2 x 100m strides, 3 x 800m at 10K pace (~9:30), 2 x 400m at 5K pace (~9:00). I didn’t push myself too hard since it was my first time going, but it was a great workout and I met some really nice people!
Wednesday 7/12: No workouts; I was supposed to have yoga class but I had a meeting conflict over the lunch hour.
Thursday 7/13: Complete rest day.
Friday 7/14: It was my day off! While I didn’t get to run, I had an awesome workout called Yoga Pulse, which is a fusion of yoga and barre work with light weights. It was 45 minutes of torture! I unwisely grabbed the 3-pound weights for class and really struggled to hold them while doing the Warrior 2 pose! We did lots of vinyasa flow but also worked our core. It was a good class but I was sweating like crazy!
Saturday 7/15: I went down to Maryland to help my sister pack. She’s moving back to Philly in a matter of days, so I helped her with a few boxes and tried to take as many trips to the trash and recycle bins as I could!
How was your week of working out? Anyone else working on dropping a few pounds this summer?
