And my "Official" Marathon Training starts...now!

Yup, it's that time again.  Actually, the plan I'm following (Marathoning for Mortals-Walk/Run Marathon) doesn't start until the last week in August, but I tacked on these few extra weeks as a way to ease back into things.  Between now and the end of August, I've added some easy 4 min walk/1 min run interval weeks just to get myself used to doing those interval lengths before starting back to the 3/1's again.

If you'd like to see my full training calendar, I've got it here on my blog.  You can click on the Training Calendar tab up top or on this link for more details.  The blog entry I did ages ago announcing that I'd placed my training calendar live here on my blog is actually my most viewed blog entry...guess there's a lot of people out there who are looking for guidance.  For those of you who are looking for a walk/run marathon plan for January's WDW Marathon Weekend, the plan on my calendar starting August 26, 2013 is straight from the Marathoning for Mortals book (a great resource by the way).  From this week until then, those weeks I added myself for an easy get-back-into-the-swing-of-things schedule.

The weight loss side of things hasn't been going exactly as planned this summer.  I'd kicked my soda habit cold turkey and had gone over a month without a sip.  Then I cracked.  *big sigh*  You know how those things can get out of control...but at least I'm still down from my starting weight so things didn't get too crazy.

Been keeping busy...I've been getting many quote requests and new client inquiries lately as well which is keeping me busy along with keeping up with my other blog, The Disney World Files and my website.  By the way, be sure to stop by my other blog to enter my giveaway for a pair of Toy Story Buzz and Woody Vinylmation figures...and I'd appreciate it if you could share the giveaway with others (like on Facebook, Twitter and Google+).  Today's the last day to enter, and you the giveaway is located at this link.  The odds are still really good to win ;-)

Gotta get going...time to crack down and settle in for the long haul...

Week 2 mini-success; tip for staying on track; other random things

I am happy to report that week 2 finished with a 1-lb loss.  Not spectacular and amazing like week 1's 4 pound loss, but heck--after coming out of the gate with that 4, I'm not going to knock the 1...after all, that's still 5 pounds in 2 weeks.  Only one sorta-iffy eating day last week-several of us had a training class on Friday at work for a new program we're going to be using (not that anyone's interested, but it's going to be for paperless online on-boarding of new hires-can't wait, should be a HUGE timesaver for us), so our boss had us order in lunch, her treat.  The group decided on Italian and I found a spaghetti/salad combo to get.  The portion of pasta I got?  Heaping.  The portion of salad I got?  Teensy-weensy.  And I hadn't had any of my snacks yet-I keep healthy snacks in my desk drawer like carrots, grapes, pretzels and such-so I was really hungry.  Ate almost the whole thing.  But that was my only bad day, and I tried to adjust my dinner but still hit about 2000 calories for the day instead of my recommended range (which tops out in the 1800s).

One tip I use to stay on track is using the nutrition tracker on the Sparkpeople website to track every single thing I eat.  I know it may seem tiresome to have to enter everything, but it really does make a difference.  It's way too easy to just say, "eh, that's about X calories here, another X there, I'll be fine today" and not track, but then if you go back later and enter those same things on the tracker you suddenly see the OMG amount you REALLY ate.  Thankfully they have a mobile app so that makes it even easier for me to track even if I'm not near a computer.  Plus, you can makes groups of food, or copy meals from one day to another....like for me, I often will have a breakfast of cinnamon swirl toast (sprayed with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter), yogurt and orange juice.  I can just copy that whole meal to another day and not have to enter each thing individually.  There's many good food trackers out there in cyberspace, many of them free (like Sparkpeople's), so whether you track online or use paper and pen, try tracking your food-it really can make a difference.

In other news, my work wardrobe has been getting kind of tired so this weekend was a shopping weekend for me (YAY!).  Got some great buys at Sears, plus two extra $10 award cards and 20,000 extra reward points-worth another $10-from their loyalty program from a promotion they were running=successful clothes shopping trip!  Oh, and did you know JCPenney has workout gear?  And in WOMEN'S sizes?  Yup, scored a running tank top on sale for $8.99.  And while the sizes I got this weekend weren't my ideal, I look forward to watching my new stuff get baggy on me by the fall ;-)

One last thing before I sign off for tonight...you may (or may not) know that I have another blog all about Walt Disney World stuff called The Disney World Files.  I've got a giveaway going on over there for a cool Color Block Goofy Vinylmation figure...when you have a moment, head on over to check it out and get yourself entered.  The figure would make a neat addition to any Goofy medal display if you have one, or just a fun thing to decorate with, or even use to trade for other Vinylmations with friends or while you're at WDW.  I'd love it if you'd take a look and share with others!

And the Winner is...

So my first giveaway came to a close and that means it was time to pick a winner!  Congratulations to...................... Amy, my first giveaway winner!

And thank you so much to those who participated...while there were not a ton of entries (probably due to the simple prize I put up since this was a test run), I was able to see exactly how the Rafflecopter widget worked, figure out how to customize some things and so forth.  It was so simple to use and I love how you could see all the information from the entries in one nice spreadsheet.  And picking a winner is simple-just click the button.  So if anyone out there is looking for an easy way to run an online giveaway, yes I do recommend Rafflecopter (in case you hadn't figured it out yet).

Now that I am familiar with the widget, I'll be planning other giveaways for this blog and my other blog, The Disney World Files.  Of course the giveaways over there will be Disney-related...I hope my readers over here will check out my Disney blog...feel free to suggest topics or offer any feedback.  I'm working on expanding that blog with more frequent posts, adding informational pages, adding the giveaways, possibly guest posts and so on.  I've already changed the domain name from a blogspot one to www.thedisneyworldfiles.com to make it more official/professional (big thanks to my DH for helping me out...he's my computer guru!).

Now back to my regular scheduled blogging program...