What a little motivation will do

I don't know why I didn't think of joining a weight loss contest sooner. Apparently, my competitive nature is way stronger than my regular willpower. We're 5 days into the contest, and I'm down 2.4 pounds already. Plus, I've been doing a much better job than in recent days of avoiding temptation.

A couple weeks ago, I directed Rach to a local restaurant (b. good) for a free pumpkin shake being given away at their truck in front of the store. Something went wrong, and there were no free shakes to be had. I complained to the PR person for the company via twitter, because Rach had passed up other free smoothie options to get this one. They delivered in the form of a free burger and fries coupon via mail.

b. good uses mostly locally grown meat and vegetables, and they bake their fries instead of frying them. Rachelle really just wanted her pumpkin shake, so I got the baked fries and the turkey burger covered in healthy stuff (and some cheese, cause it isn't a cheeseburger without cheese). Not only did the coupons make up for their free shake problems, but they make some darn good food, and pretty healthy food.

Our other trip out for the weekend was to use a BuyWithMe we'd purchased to PJ Ryan's. Irish pub's are usually a tough place to make a healthy choice, but Ryan's had a lot of healthier choices. I wound up with a pasta dish in a tomato sauce that was different but good, no cheese or heavy fats. All the rest of my meals the rest of the weekend were homemade and fully portion controlled.  

With just less than a month before the Lowell 10k, I've got 13 more runs running every other day from tonight through the 1st. This schedule lets me not run on Christmas, and keeps me on an every other day schedule. Plus it gives me a chance to add enough distance over almost 4 weeks to have better stamina in my first 10k since last year.

I tried to get in a full swim on Friday, but the lap pool was closed, so I only managed 400 yards in the rec pool before I got frustrated and gave up. BU needs to do a better job of not scheduling classes during open swim in the lap pool, and providing better updates for the availability of the lap pool. But for the price I'm paying, I can't complain too much.

Last night, Rach and I did 30 minutes on the stationary bikes, with a difficulty pyramid and sprinting. Not the longest workout ever, but a challenge. Especially because they had the heat on in the gym and I was directly below one of the vents. The only time I've been hotter on a bike is during my roller sessions.

Notes:

- If you're looking for discounts, along with ByWithMe, Groupon is another site we use a lot.  I got Rach $50 to American Apparel for a dress to take to Vegas for $25. Between those two sites, there's always something I wish I was buying.

- We had our last board meeting for WWMS last night, and it was the first one I attended as a member of the board. I'm going to be doing the quarterly newsletter, and working to help with marketing/sponsorship on top of running the National Challenge Competition for the club. It's going to be a fun way to give back.

- 19.2 pounds, 26 days. Progress being made, but it's gonna be tough.