Days 25 and 26...4 to go.

This was a pretty good weekend.  Saturday I got up early to ride the gaps.  Unfortunately I had to go without my riding buddies.  Wendy got sick, Kristy was busy winning her age group at the Tri2Remember triathlon, and Tracy was still boycotting her bike and the gaps.  At 5:45 on Saturday morning I decided to go alone.  Probably not the grandest of ideas but I really wanted to ride and I really wanted to do the gaps because the official 3 gap ride is only a couple of weeks away.  I woke Marcus up to tell him my plan and he said that it was a bad one.  I asked him why and he said because I didn't know how to fix my bike.  This is true.  But, I told him there are plenty of other cyclists that would be up there and I'm sure they would be willing to help one of their own.  Then he asked me why I was asking him if I was going to go anyway....I told him I wasn't really asking ;-)

My beautiful view on the tail end of my ride in Suches

So, I set out alone.  I'm not sure if was nervous or really excited to do it by myself but I had an extreme high on the drive up there.  I was jamming out to Florence and the Machine and God had painted an amazing sky with the mountains as a back drop.  It was stunning.  Though I would miss my friends, I was looking forward to some alone time.  It proved to be very cathartic.  I couldn't have asked for a better day.  I did better than I thought I would riding by myself.  I thought I might be slower since I wasn't chasing anyone, but I turned out to have a pretty good pace for me.  Riding time was 3:15.  A solid effort I think.

When I got back from the mountains, I went straight to Mom and Dad's because Mom and I were going to a fundraising event for Congressman Graves in Rome.  We were spending the night.  We had a great time.  First of all, we always have fun when we are together.  Second, Rome is a surprisingly cute little city.  Third, the Tams were the entertainment and they are always good.  I love me some oldies.  Mom and I are known for our lack of a sense of direction.  We actually went through Adairsville to get to Rome....not exactly on the way.  Oops.  At the event, my food choices were limited.  So I had hamburger with no bun and celery and carrots.  Just what I wanted.  I ended up having a Lara bar for dessert.  Mom did her best not to tempt me on the trip.  Typically when we go on a road trip we have lots of good snacks.  Not this time.  On the way back I stopped to gets some dehydrated apples and pepitas.  Since I was eating, Mom felt like she could and so she snacked on doughnut holes.  Again, why couldn't I have her genes?  Seriously not fair.

The Tams (check out the little Tams, they were awesome!)

While on the trip, I read a new book I've been working on, The First 20 Minutes.  It's all about the science of exercise.  At first, I was really liking the book because it said that you really don't have to stretch (I hate stretching).  It also said that tight muscles could be a good thing for athletes.  This weekend I got to the part in the book where they say that exercise really doesn't help with weight loss.  What?!?!  It said that it's good for health and fitness but it doesn't do much for weight loss unless all of your workouts are very high intensity.  This is terrible news for me.  It also said that the body is so efficient that when you workout for a long time and burn a lot of calories, the body gets upset with the negative energy balance (burning more calories than it's taken in) and it actually finds ways to hold onto extra calories.  In women especially (because of the reproductive thing), the body will tell the brain that it is hungry so you will eat what you burned and more!  Unbelievable.  Seriously.  How unfair.  However, this could explain a lot for me, and maybe you.  Here I am, exercising my little heart out and thinking, wow, I'm burning all kinds of calories.  I'm even burning more calories at rest because I exercise (another myth per the book).  And then my body is telling me that I'm hungry even when I shouldn't be so I'm probably eating way more than I burned during exercise and therefore I'm not losing weight.  Oh dear.  This is such bad news.  To make it worse, if you don't eat enough after exercise, the body will get even more nervous about the negative energy balance and may slow your metabolism.  I really can't win.  I'm hoping the book will turn the corner and offer me some sort of good news.  I'll let you know.  So far, not good.  I'm hoping for a miracle.  Oh, and by the way, this news in no way makes me against exercise.  It is still very good for your overall health it just won't make you skinny.  So keep doing it because you'll live longer and have a more enjoyable life when your 80 because you'll still be able to get around on your own.

Today on the food front it wasn't so good.  I started out with a good breakfast at the hotel of eggs and bacon.  I snacked on my apples and pepitas.  Then I decided to take a nap instead of eating lunch.  I woke up and ate another snack of a banana and almond butter just to get me through my 3 mile run that I had to get in.  After the run, I had a smoothie for dinner.  Take that for negative energy balance!

I have 4 official days to go.  I went to the grocery store tonight and stocked up to finish strong.  Marcus won't be here this week so I'll be cooking solo with no supervision.  He advised not to use the oven while he was gone because he knows how my cooking sometimes turns out.  I think I'll be fine.  I got ingredients to make another batch of muffins.  Tracy had them fresh out of the oven when I got to her house to run tonight and they smelled delicious.  Even though they are a hassle, they are worth it.

Here's to one more week of being really strict.  Pray for the stupid scale to dip to at least 5 lbs for my sanity sake.

Until tomorrow....