You may have already heard me proclaim my desire to lose 40 lbs of baby weight before my 40^th birthday this July.  You also may have already heard about me joining the Janathon.  Well, one week of the Janathon under my belt and I’ve already ran miles and lost 4 pounds!  WOOHOO!

Last week, I ran nearly every day.  I watched my food intake by reading the serving sizes on labels and I recorded my food with the help of a food/diet application from Sparkpeople.com as suggested by @BigBadEd and @jellisfl.  I also seriously cut back on the number of beers I drank last week.  Normally, I’ll drink one or two beers at night or a glass of wine, but this week I drank a total of FOUR.   I replaced the glass of wine I drank at dinner with a glass of water.

Who would have thought portion control, reducing my alcoholic consumption, drinking more water and increasing my activity level would have helped me lose weight?

It’s genius, I tell you!  My tweep and virtual running partner, @boutdrz suggested I brand this idea and sell it as a weight-loss program.  I could call the Florida 40 Diet.  I’ll make MILLIONS!  I’ll get to work on a prototype program ASAP.

I have to admit.  I love food and I run so I can eat as much food (within reason) as I want.  But until, my body slims down and my miles go up, I need to watch my caloric intake.

Portion control bites.

Moving on to something a bit tastier, here are my Janathon miles:

I set out Saturday to run 6 miles, but I didn’t start my run quite as early as I had hoped to.   As I set off at 9:30, I worried about running 6 miles as it’s been over a year since I ran that distance.  However, I truly impressed myself when I ran 2 miles without stopping.  Maybe it was the gorgeous weather or the wind, but the next 2 miles seemed to fly by as I looked down at my Garmin in disbelief.  I didn’t feel like I had run 4 miles yet.  Though I think I celebrated a bit too soon, because the next 2 miles were definitely the toughest.  But I did it.

Janathon Day 8

6 miles

Time 1:18:18

Ave Pace 13:03

Max Pace 9:51

Sunday, my legs were stiff and sore, so I decided to rest and recover with 50 minutes of yoga.  Later that day, my family and I strolled around the neighbor.  It felt good to move after the huge brunch we enjoyed earlier.  But not to worry! I only ate one helping of Allan’s sweaty brekkie because I didn’t want to undo all of last week’s efforts.

An ugly thunderstorm rolled in Monday morning, but I wouldn’t let that stop me.  Thankfully, I had arranged to meet some mommy friends at the gym for the first weigh-in of our annual Weight Loss Challenge (a friendly weigh loss competition).  After the initial weigh-in, @jellisfl offered a core conditioning class but my body resisted.  My abs did not like the strain I put them through and decided to hurt me back.  As I wheeled the barbell out in front of me, my chin slammed into the wooden floor.  My abs suckered punched me. Now, I know why they call them dumbbells.   I won’t be repeating that exercise any time soon.

After the class, I set out to run 2 miles on the dreadmill.  I’m not a big fan of dreadmills, but with rain in the forecast, I was grateful to see it.  Honestly, with the slow pace that I run these days, the dreadmill wasn’t too bad.   But then, just after I finished my first mile, they paged me to the nursery.  Liam wanted his mama and that was the end of my running attempt for Monday.   The Gods just didn’t want me working out.

Janathon Day 10

1 Sad Mile

Ave Pace – Slow as shit

Max Pace – Dashing to the daycare

This morning, I woke up 5:00 a.m. to fit in 3 miles because I was NOT going to lose another day, not after I’ve been doing so well.  This time, I remembered my mace and a flashlight, but borrowed DH’s MP3 player since mine was dead.  I don’t know if it was his playlist or all the strength training, but something made me shave a minute off my time.

Janathon Day 11

3.1 miles

Time 37:42

Ave Pace 12:11

Max Pace 8:58

***Proudly submitted at The Un Mom’s Random Tuesday Thoughts, because when I blog about my runs, it’s usually pretty random.***