Let Them Eat Cake

Over the past year since I've started my weight loss journey, I've gotten pretty good at not eating stuff that isn't good for you. However, I still have a craving once in a while, and that's why I give myself one day a week (Saturday) to cheat and eat some unhealthy stuff.

One thing that I crave once in a while is cake with buttercream icing. It is my absolute FAVORITE!!! I just love the taste of it.

Well, this last week at work, it was my co-worker's 10th anniversary, so the company bought her this HUGE sheet cake to share with the department. It was a white sheet cake with strawberry filling and it had white buttercream icing with purple and pink roses.

Normally I would have no problem passing up a piece of cake, or if I chose to have a piece of cake, it would be basically a single bite of the cake, but I was craving the cake. It just looked and smelled sooooo good, but I knew I couldn't have a piece and I wanted a piece really really bad. It made it extra hard to pass up a piece of this cake because the past 2 weeks I hadn't lost any weight, no matter how hard I worked out (see blog post about muscle gain). To top it all off, the cake was sitting on the table literally right next to my desk.

I basically had a melt down at work over a piece of cake. Plus, it didn't help that the next day at work, my department was having a celebration with banana splits because we'd had a rough couple of weeks because we had to cut bonus checks for the entire company and it didn't go very smooth.

I called my dad and spoke with him and basically had a HUGE meltdown at work over a piece of cake, banana splits, and all the goodies we had at work that week that I couldn't have. It didn't help that my co-workers were like "Have an apple (banana, piece of fruit, etc.)". I felt they were comparing having a piece of fruit to having a piece of cake or ice cream. Now don't get me wrong, like I said a post or two ago, I LOVE fruit, but it's not the same as having cake or ice cream. C'mon people...seriously.

Well, come Saturday, my cheat day, I decided to go up to the bakery at the store and buy myself a piece of cake. They usually have chocolate cake, white cake, and german chocolate cake that you can buy just a slice of, but this last Saturday all they had was mint chocolate (not a fan), german chocolate (not a fan) and cookies n cream cake. So, I bought myself a slice of cookies 'n cream cake and went home to eat it.

I got about 1/4 of the way through the piece of cake and it was SO sweet and SO rich, that it made me sick. :( I was so disappointed that the piece of cake made me sick. I think my body has not been used to that much sweet and richness that I tried to eat this big piece of cake that it made me sick.

I don't think I'm going to want a piece of cake for a while.

Turkey Trot 2009

Here are pictures from my last triathlon of 2009 that was held down in Utah County. It was AWESOME!!! My final time was 1 hour and 28 minutes!!! I beat my best time by 17 minutes!!! I was thrilled!!! This was what they call a "reverse" triathlon. It went in the order of run, bike, swim (my favorite order).

My first triathlon of 2010 will be this exact same triathlon. :)

Me coming in from the run. This is the first triathlon where I was able to jog about 90% of the 3.2 miles. The only reason I couldn't jog the whole 3.2 miles is because part of it was uphill and I wasn't used to running on such an incline.

Me in the background coming in from the bike. This particular triathlon, in order to get the 10.0 miles in on the bike, we had to do 2 "laps"of the route. It was quite difficult as well because part of the course you have to go up 2 VERY steep hills. I, as well as many other participants ended up having to get off their bikes and walk up the hill, but it was AWESOME, there was one person at the top of the hill cheering EVERYBODY on. It made it much easier.

Me dismounting my bike and getting ready to run in to the transition area to go to the swim.

Running as fast as I can in to the transition area to go to the swim.

My parents thought they were getting a picture of me in the pool swimming, but by the time they got in to the rec center to see me swim, I was done. :) I thought this swim would be difficult because I normally swim in a 25 yard pool, and this was, I believe a 50 yard pool, but it wasn't difficult at all.

Fruits & Veggies

Lately it seems like I've been eating lots of fruits and veggies. I can't seem to get enough.

I've never been one to enjoy lots of veggies, but especially baby carrots, I absolutely LOVE. I've always loved fruit, but never this much.

Within the past two days, I've eaten a whole bunch/bag of grapes that we bought at the store yesterday. On Friday, I think I had 3 apples (one wasn't very good though), two oranges and two tangelos.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE fruit. It's sweet, yet healthy for you too.

Down from 10 to 7

Earlier this year I started looking for triathlon's to do and I made a calendar on my computer and made of list of all of the triathlon's I wanted to do. I did 3 triathlon's last year. This year I wanted to do at least 5 triathlon's.

Well, yesterday, I was looking for triathlon's online and going through my calendar and noticed that I had found 10 triathlon's that I wanted to do!!! Ten!!! That's alot, but I thought I could do it.

Then, today as I'm looking through the list and seeing how much it's gonna cost to register for them, if I did all 10, it'd cost about $400 just to register for them, and then I'd need to get a hotel for 1 night for 2 of the triathlon's and then gas and everything to get to and from the triathlon's, it'd be about a total of $700. I just can't stomach paying that much this year. So, I've narrowed my list down to 7 triathlon's that I'm going to do this year. Only 1 of them is away and I'll need to get a hotel for one night. I'm kinda bummed, but I know this is in my best interest.

Another thing I'm debating right now, is, I've been invited by 3 different people to do the MS 175 in June. What is the MS 175 you may ask? It's a century ride on your bicycle. You can ride either 40, 60 or 100 miles all in one day on your bike. I really wanna do it. A local radio station has invited me to be on their team, a teacher from the high school I went to has invited me to be on their team, and my friend has invited me to be on her team. The only kicker is, to be able to ride in this century, you have to raise $250. Now, I'm all for donating $$$ to charity, but I just don't have $250 to donate, and I don't feel comfortable asking family to donate to it. So, we'll see what happens there. I really wanna do the ride because it's a challenge, but I don't know if I'll be able to come up with the money.

Less than 2 months

Less than 2 months and I get to compete in my first triathlon of the season! I'm SO excited!!! I love feeling the energy of competing in the triathlon's.

Last year I competed in 3 triathlon's. This year I want to do at least 5. I'd really like to do about 2 a month. It's such an adrenaline rush and it's like being on a high. I love it!

Muscle Gain

Lately, it seems like I've now been gaining more muscle than losing weight because whenever I weigh myself, it doesn't show I'm losing weight, but it actually shows I'm gaining weight. The only thing that's keeping me going is my clothes are getting baggy therefore, I know I'm still losing weight, which I need to do, it's just frustrating and it's kind of like a mind game because you expect to get on the scale and see the number go down, but instead you see it go up.

I think I'm going to make an appointment with my doctor though and see if he can check my BMI (body mass index) to see what my fat ratio is.

Got My Bike Out Today

Today was the first day in a while I was able to get my bike out and take it for a spin. It was AWESOME!!! It was cold, but it was awesome. It wouldn't have been so cold if I still wasn't wearing my swim suit and my hair was wet from going swimming. Granted, I was wearing sweats and a long sleeved t-shirt too, but it was still chilly.

It was a little harder than I expected. Granted, I've been riding a bike at the gym, but it's not the same as riding a bike out on the road, and with my first triathlon of the season coming up in a little over two months, I need to take my bike out a little more often. The cold doesn't really stop me from taking my bike out, the main thing right now that stops me from taking my bike out is it gets dark too early and the weather has been horrible. But, I don't have lights on my bike, and people don't watch for cyclists out on the road, so it makes me nervous to take my bike out when it's dark.

Anywho, I SO can't wait to take my bike out again.