Achy and Crispy

We had a lovely day today biking all over the island. We went to the Ding Darling (yes it's called that) Nature Reserve, one of the main reasons Lewis wanted to come to Sanibel Island. It's a beautiful reserve for wildlife; tons of birds, mammals and lizards. He's a aspiring nature photographer and he's having a ball!

However someone (i.e. me) forgot to put sunblock on her feet and right now they're a wee bit crispy as our trip took a little over four hours. I was so careful about Max, I forgot about me! We've figured out we're cruising along at about 9-10 miles an hour and, man, you feel like you can go forever! However, it now turns out that my muscles aren't quite used to biking on a cruiser for so long, as they're rather achy! But a good, achy, you know? Like you know you worked them out and after a day they'll be fine and stronger for it.

Oh, yesterday we had a great thunderstorm. Ya gotta love the Florida weather!

Hope everyone is well! Wes, I'll post pictures as soon as I can download them from my hubby's camera. :)

Hugs,

Regan

PS I haven't missed a day of workout, but my diet is pretty much down the tubes. Which sucks, as I wanted to loose weight on this vacation, but now it looks like I'll be lucky if I maintain! Sigh...

F-L-A-T

On Sanibel Island everyone bikes everywhere. It's awesome! The bikes are just your regular cruisers (called Beach Cruisers here!) and only have the one gear, but it's been fun learning how to brake again (one foot reversing the pedal stroke, the other going to the ground...). I haven't done that since I was a kid! And the area is FLAT. F-L-A-T. I thought most of Florida was flat, but this place really wins the prize! For those of you I've biked with: it's flatter than the Sammamish River Trail! LOL Hence, no bikes with gears. And, of course, you don't need those gears. Poor Joyous would be so overkill here (although I do miss her!). It's fun, though, just cruising around at about 6 miles an hour. We've done all our shopping and site seeing so far from our bikes; and it's truly the best way to see things here!

There is one thing I don't quite get though... See, Florida is a big triathlete state. In fact, just outside of Orlando, in Clermont, is a big triathlon training center where a lot of pros go. When we were in Orlando we drove through Clermont and I turned to my husband and said "What's that big tower on the hill there?" (it really stood out) He replied that it was the tallest point in Florida. "The tower is the tallest building? Even over the skyscrapers in Orlando?" No, he replied, that hill that the tower is on is the highest point in Florida. Huh???!!!

Folks, we drove up the hill by that building. And I thought of two things: 1) the hill is easier than the 520 hill and 2) right now Jessica would be laughing hysterically at the thought of this being the worst hill a Triathlete could go up in Florida state!

So how do they do it? If anyone has any insights, let me know. I'm meeting with a Florida triathlete/personal trainer on Tuesday and I'll definitely ask her!

Hugs to all,

Regan

Happy in Sanibel

We arrived in Sanibel Island today - yay!! So happy to be here and in one place for the next 9 days. The first thing I did was unpack EVERYTHING. Lordy, I hate living out of a suitcase!

The resort room that Lewis and I are in is just lovely. Really feels less of a hotel and more like a condo - full kitchen, dining area, living area, bedroom, etc. So nice to feel a little at home! We went to the store and got stocked up right away. Also, we went to Sanibel Fitness and got me a trainer - unfortunately all she has is 7am next Tuesday, so I'm still keeping my eyes out. Who knew it would be this hard to find a personal trainer?! Sheesh!

Exercise is going to be great here - the island is TOTALLY bike friendly! Trails everywhere and bike rental shops everywhere - even at this hotel. I'm not sure I can get a road bike for actual aerobic activity - they mostly do cruisers, but that's okay. Sanibel Fitness has classes I can take to give me a change from running and then I can just spend some nice time with the family cruising around the island on "non-aerobic" activity time. :)

Eating is going okay - still some challenges, but definitely not binging, which is heaven.

Hugs all,

Regan

PS I've been getting dizzy lately - especially when sitting down and looking at the computer. Not sure if I have an ear infection (no pain or anything) or I'm dehydrated. Lewis thinks it's dehydration, so I'm gonna concentrate on getting water. But boy, it's annoying!

Back on the Internet

Wow, three days without Internet access. I about went insane! Tried to blog from my husband's cell phone...no dice. So sorry for the delay in blogging! I felt like it was the 1990's again...*shudder*. Hehehe, I had fun teasing my sister-in-law about it! :)

All is going pretty well. The exercise especially has been great; the hills around my sister-in-law's place in Maryland (outside of DC) were awesome and made for a great hour long run in the morning. I ran Saturday, Sunday and Monday for the hour I wanted to and everything worked great.

My diet started out awesome - my sister-in-law was amazing and went to Whole Foods and completely stocked her refrigerator with fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken breast, turkey sausage, you name it, she got it! So my first meal there was incredibly healthy. Saturday went well too, but on Sunday she cooked up one nice Easter meal and I splurged a little. And on Monday for the "goodbye" dinner, we had steak and some wine, which I rarely do (I wasn't running today, so it was okay to have), and she had a rum cake. Sigh. Well, it wasn't the worst thing I could do and I made sure I had plenty of protein. Still it was a little disappointing. I want to *loose* on this vacation - not just maintain!

The good news is that I found a great gym in Sanibel. They're not part of the Pro Club affiliation, but they do take guests and they're going to work me in with one of their trainers! Yay! I'll be contacting them as soon as we get into Sanibel on Thursday.

Well, I'm bushed and am going to go take a nap. All is well and hope you are too!

Hugs,

Regan

The Vacation Plan

Okay, so here’s the Plan For The Vacation:

April 6th, Friday – travel/rest day.
April 7th, Saturday – Run in the morning
April 8th, Sunday – Run in the morning
April 9th, Monday – Run in the morning
April 10th, Tuesday – travel/rest day.
April 11th, Wednesday – Run in the morning.
April 12th, Thursday – Travel day/run in the morning
April 13th, Friday – run/workout with trainer (hopefully)
April 14th, Saturday – rest, but active day.
April 15th, Sunday – rest, but active day.
April 16th, Monday – water aerobics with trainer? Or run.
April 17th, Tuesday – run or bike
April 18th, Wednesday – run or bike, probably with trainer
April 19th, Thursday – run or bike
April 20th, Friday – run or bike
April 21st, Saturday – travel/rest day.
April 22nd, Sunday – home! Rest day.

The plan is to get at least one hour of aerobic exercise 5 times a week. Of course the diet goes without saying; and I will be meal tracking as well.

The trainer stuff is still up in the air – I need to plan some more when we get into Washington DC, but it probably won’t be until Monday. I got some names of clubs that are affiliated with the Pro Club in Florida and there are several just about 10 miles away, so that’s not far (no further than I go now). If I don’t get a trainer, then oh well. I’m still gonna do it! I know this could potentially mean a lot of running, which I’m not too used to, but I don’t plan on killing myself on the runs either; just take it easy and get a nice aerobic heart rate going. I shouldn’t have problems.

Also, I’m not sure about blogging as I’m uncertain of my internet access until we get to Sanibel Island on the 12th where I’ll have wireless internet access. I’m pretty sure, though, that I can blog at least once when in DC (7th thru the 10th), and then in Orlando (10th thru 12th). After that I Plan on blogging at least every other day.

In addition to all of this – I plan to email my trainer, Travis, of my status. He’s a sweetie for having volunteered this, helping with my accountability. I will email him on each Monday and Thursday in lieu of my regular weigh in days.

Had a nice workout with the Pink Ladies today; Jessica, Aleks and I got to do weights together and I got to see Wendy and Nancy as well. Yay! ;)

Next time I write I’ll be officially on vacation! Yay!

Hugs to all,

Regan

The High Glycemic Side of Things

Well bugger. The previous three nights I've been having some difficulty in the evening with my eating - wanting to eat more than I should. Well, my doctor today very kindly pointed out something I knew but was ignoring: bananas, white rice and potatoes hit the system just as fast as sugar does. They're high glycemic, in case anyone didn't know. And I'd been eating more of those than I care to admit. That fruit salad I had all week? Bananas in it. The yummy cabbage rolls I made last night? White rice. Sigh. So, out with those things too.

Tonight I made up a nice stirfry with shrimp and had some wild rice on the side. I made sure I had plenty of protein on my plate and now I'm fine. No cravings. Whew. Bummer though...I really do like white rice and bananas! Potatoes I'm okay about. :P

On the awesome plus side...today's run with Travis went, well, Awesome! :) I beat my time with him! I did three miles at 38:23 and man did that hurt! That's near to 5pm (4.9 I think). And I felt great! I knew I'd be fast today - just felt strong - and it was nice to prove and hit my vacation with such a high. :) Travis keeps reminding me that I'll get faster and better as I loose the weight. He's right....I just hate waiting! (get it, weight...wait....oh I crack myself up!)

Hugs to all,

Regan

No Worries!

My apologies for not blogging sooner. Everything is just fine; all is good with the diet and exercise! I've just been having fun in the evenings and being lazy about blogging. My bad. :)

In fact, the weight is still coming off - which is awesome. I had a hard couple of runs with Travis on Friday and Monday, but today on the treadmill I went up a bit and was able to maintain my heartrate, so that felt good. :)

I'm running around like a crazy woman trying to get ready for the big vacation coming up. A couple of things have happened: 1) I sent a shopping list to my sister-in-law and she's shopping at Whole Foods for me to stock her kitchen! How cool is that? 2) My mother-in-law is also on a no sugar, no dairy and no wheat diet - so no worries there! :) 3) I still haven't been able to get ahold of a personal trainer for Florida - the name given to me turned out to be a Yoga teacher ... hmmmm ... I will try again tomorrow and 4) United is a pain and the butt and I'm not sure they'll have diabetic meals (I don't believe their miscommunicative operator) so I'm going to take Wendy's advice and assume they'll forget it and the plane will be late and prepare accordingly. :)

Hope all is well in your world! Hugs,

Regan