Still going strong!! Can’t believe I’ve worked out for 50 consecutive days now!! One more week and it’ll be 2 months!! When I started this 7 weeks ago, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it through the first 28 days. Now, on day 51, I feel like I can keep on going. Some days, all I get in is 10 minutes of Abs of Steel, but I feel like every minute counts. And, I could have easily been sleeping or sitting on the couch those 10 minutes, so it’s better than that.

In regard to weight loss, the scale actually went back up to 138 this week. I’m not overly concerned as it’s that time of the month … y’all know how it is. Also, although I ate very well during the day, I had a really irregular week as it related to dinner. Nothing I ate was bad in and of itself. But, I was eating randomly and too much … green smoothie, kale chips, pistachios and smoked oysters one night … green smoothie, kale chips, a sweet potato and pistachios the next … green smoothie, taylor ham and pistachios the following night … I told you … random. And, over the weekend wasn’t the best either … I didn’t eat too much in regard to quantity, but didn’t have the best options when I went out to lunch on Saturday (ended up w/a breaded chicken cutlet on a white roll … was hoping it was grilled … only ate half the bread, but still all that friend breading) and a birthday party on Sunday (2 slices of plain cheese pizza … it was after hot yoga and I was starving!). But, again, it wasn’t a lot in terms of quantity … just more calories than I would like and not much in the way of nutritional content.

Oh, and Sunday night, Wei and I went to our new favorite spot, The Loving Hut in Ledgewood, NJ. It’s an international chain (never would have guessed) specializing in vegan cuisine. Let me tell you, the food. is. DELICIOUS.

So yeah, I’ll probably wait until next Sunday or Monday to weigh in again and keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be down a real pound or two to 135-136. Of course, I need to get my dinners back on track this week …  ‘cuz Monday night was a repeat of the randomness.

Alright, here’s Days 43-49 in pictures!!

In regard to Day 46, you may have noticed that I posted my Day 1 and Day 2 results. Now, the thing is, treadmills that don’t allow you to enter you weight, height, sex and body fat percentage don’t accurately calculate calories burned for everyone. This is because treadmills that don’t allow personalization generally use the universal calibration for a 150 pound male (check out this article on LiveStrong.com: Do Treadmills Accurately Burn Calories? for more info). However, though I know the results for calories and carbs burned on my calculator are not accurate for me, the information is helpful as it provides a point of comparison from work-out to work-out.

C25K Week 7/Day 1 was yesterday morning!! This week is 25 minute runs for each workout! I’m so excited to be here as, when I started, didn’t know how’d I do it! But, every day, slow progression is the key to seeing results!!

Oh, and before I go!! I wanted to share a video on pre- and post work-out stretches to do to improve running speed and endurance!! It’s from Marshall’s!! You see, when I bought work-out clothes from them a couple of weeks ago, there were these “Get Fit” tags with QR codes to “unlock” YouTube videos! Well, I got the perfect video for me!!

I have found that doing the demonstrated stretches pre- and post work-out does make me feel more limber and the pre-run stretches definitely help warm me up. I can’t say that the stretches have improved my endurance or speed just yet. But, I’ve only been doing them for about a week now. So, I’ll give them more time for that. And, now that I think about it, I did do long run intervals at 5.5 when I was struggling at 5.2 a couple of weeks ago. So, maybe they are helping! If it can improve my speed to 5.3 for my 25 minute run at the end of this week, I’ll give these stretches some kudos ;)!

Lata Gatas!!

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Any runners out there? Do you have tips on stretches or techniques for a novice runner to use in order to improve running efficiency, form, gait, speed? Thanks in advance!!