Checking In With the Ol' Scale

After running a marathon, I've found, I have a magical two-week window where my weight stays where it is despite the loss of miles during taper and recovery. Post-Houston Marathon in late January was no exception. I sat pretty at 127 pounds or so despite not really worrying about what I was eating (including birthday cake and celebratory meals out). At one point my weight even dipped into the 126-point-somethings, a place it hadn't gone even at the height of my mileage.

But now that lovely honeymoon is over.

My last couple of trips to the scale have registered numbers that range from 129 to 131. That's the wrong direction to be moving when I'm trying to get faster.

So it's time to get back on the Mario Lopez wagon: lean foods, meal planning, no sweets.

Yep, it's time.

It's also time for my annual Catholic girl ritual of giving up sweets for Lent, which begins next Wednesday. I've had good success with this most years, ending up leaner and with fewer cravings than when I began. And it's not a two-month-plus period of absolutely NO chocolate. The "rules" for Lent, which is a 40-day period of reflection and self-restraint before Easter, say that sacrifices made for the season don't apply on Sundays because Sundays are themselves mini Easters (and if you count, you'll find you can only hit the 40-day total by leaving the Sundays out). So it works out well for me--I eliminate most of the junk but still get a treat every Sunday.

Wish me luck! Despite the recent creep upwards, I'm starting at a weight that's almost 10 pounds lower than where I was at this time last year. Losing even two pounds should help me meet my speed goals for the spring.

Mario Bet Winner and a Couple of Blog Recommendations

There was a lot of great news from the New York Marathon today, including a new course record. Congratulations to all of you who ran, especially Carrie and Erin.

And unless my race-time stalking powers betray me, Mario Lopez ran a 4:23:31. That means Tricia of Running, Life, Etc. is our big winner. Her guess of 4:23:11 was uncannily close. By the way, I heartily recommend Tricia's blog. She is going to run her first marathon next year, and it will be really fun to read about her training as she heads for success. She's really good at keeping it real, too.

My friend Kathy suggested I post about my experience running NYC in 2005. Since it's such ancient history at this point, I'll just list a few highlights. I do think this is a race everyone who loves running marathons should do. It won't be your fastest time, but every step is memorable.

The highlights for me were:

• the fabulous summer and fall of training that led up to it, including running in Hawaii on our honeymoon, running in my first relay and running a 5K PR
• forgetting my bra and borrowing one the morning of the race (thank God it fit, and didn't chafe!)
• running on the top of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (yes, I got the top deck! almost as lucky as winning the lottery first try, which also happened)
• seeing my husband, in-laws and friend Wendy twice on the course (Wendy used her NYC savvy to get them around)
• sticking with a really great pacer woman to run what was a PR at the time (the other pacer for our level gave in to the high 70s temps and couldn't maintain it)

Heading toward Central Park with a few miles yet to go; I'm in the blousy orange shorts; no one wore running skirts back then as far as I know

• getting a sponge from the Sponge Bob people
• entering Central Park at last
• after the finish, telling the pacer that my next goal was to have a baby. Who knew we'd end up having *two* at once?
• eating an amazing meal wearing my medal at the Blue Water Grill with Dan, my wonderful in-laws (who traveled all the way from Pennsylvania to watch me run), Wendy and my other old friend, Jim

Dan and I celebrate with his mom and step-dad, Patrick, at the Blue Water Grill

• having a beer with Steve (who was soon to BQ) and another Peace Corps friend, Dan

Good times!

Thanks for suggesting this, Kathy. Kathy is a new blogger. She ran her first marathon in Portland last month and has two more planned (including Houston with me!) early next year. Read about her journey at got to keep on running long.

Newsflash! Mario Lopez Will Run NYC!

Did you know Mario Lopez, my nutrition guru, is also a marathoner? He's running the New York Marathon on Sunday!

Credit: Runner's World

According to a Universal Sports interview online, he has a time goal. Here's a quote:

You know, I'd like to go as close to four hours as possible. But my running partner is unfortunately at 4 and half. To be honest, because my running partner tore his hamstring I'm feeling bad and feeling guilty. I'm like, ‘Should I slow up for him until he gets better and he's in good shape too, or should I just leave him and just do my own deal?' I'm a little conflicted. But I know I'm definitely going to complete it.

That's right, dude. Blame the running partner!

Mario was profiled in Runner's World a few years back and claimed a half-marathon PR of 1:48. That's better than my half PR by eight minutes. But when he ran the Boston Marathon for charity in 2002, he clocked a 5:41:42. So I have beaten him at 26.2 by nearly two hours.

He blamed his girlfriend at the time for his Boston time, according to the same interview:

Well that one I ran with my girlfriend and she didn't want me to cross the finish line without her. I swear. Believe it or not, I'm in decent shape.

Classy.

So anyway, for a little fun for those of us not running NYC this weekend, I have a friendly wager with Raina over at Small Town Runner that I want to open up to everyone. I've got five virtual cents that says Mario finishes in 4:12. Raina (being a more generous soul) says 3:59:59. What's your guess?

Mario Lopez Eating Weeks 4 and 5

I'll share some happy news first.

Somehow, despite many and significant slip-ups in the last two weeks (described below), I weighed in this morning on three different scales as NOT SO MUCH WORSE than the last time I weighed in two weeks ago.

Home scale=128.4 (post-run, pre-breakfast) and 21.8% body fat (the body fat was actually down)
Gym scale=129.8 (post-breakfast); no BF measure, but Chris, my trainer, is going to do it again next week
Special weigh-in for our "Maintain, Don't Gain, Over the Holidays" team at work=129.6


I have this man to thank (or at least his ghost-writers and personal chefs) for the Extra Lean Family eating plan:

So now for the bad and the ugly.....

Here's what happened in Weeks 4 and 5 that caused a bit of a breakdown in the good habits:

• We got (oh, the horror) invited out to eat a couple of times by friends. Yeah, I know...first-world problem. But I've come to believe that restaurant food--more than any single food group, even sugar--is the devil when it comes to getting and staying lean. I do believe at some point that I will get better at not inhaling my entire plate of tasty tempting restaurant fare (in these cases, it was a brew pub twice and an organic grocery deli once)--but I am not there yet. So it's best for me just to avoid restaurants altogether. When someone invites your whole family out, though, what are you gonna do? Say no and look like a food prude? Fortunately, this doesn't happen very often.
• Halloween. Peanut butter cups.The work candy trough. And cold weather. Hot chocolate cravings. 'Nuff said.
• Insomnia. Yes, it's really true. The carb cravings came back after last Tuesday's bad night.
• Portion distortion. All the other stuff aside, I found myself going back for seconds more than I was in the first three weeks. Gotta stop that. I just like to eat. What can I say? I wish it weren't so fun for me.

Fortunately, much of this is over for a couple of weeks (until the temptations of Thanksgiving week and a couple of family birthdays arrive). And returning to good news, we have stuck by the basic tenets of the Mario plan (meals planned in advance, most of the shopping done in one fell swoop on the weekend) even amid all the slip-ups.

There's still something that's a mystery to me, but it probably always will be. Why do plateaus happen where they do? My weight history since my kids were conceived looks something like this:

April 2006: twins conceived; weight 125
June 2006: height of morning sickness; weight 125
August 2006: morning sickness a distant memory; appetite HUGE; weight 145
November 2006: appetite waning, but weight gain continuing; weight 170
Dec. 8, 2006: twins born; weight before C-section--175; weight after C-section--150
Dec. 8, 2007: twins one; weight around 145; yeah, that baby weight didn't come off despite a year of breastfeeding/pumping
Dec. 8, 2008: twins two; weight about 137; I started running again for real that year and did a half in the fall
Dec. 8, 2009: twins three; weight back above 140; less running, more eating; blame potty-training and bed-wetting? or my own lack of willpower?
Dec. 8, 2010: twins four; weight between 137 and 145; the plateau getting old; I had started running again and started my Boston quest
June 2011: weight 134; some pounds finally came off as I ramped up for another half
September 2011: weight 128; more pounds came off post-Top of Utah Marathon
Right now, Nov 1, 2011 (twins almost 5): weight 129; thanks Mario Lopez!

So it took me almost five years to get back to the vicinity of my pre-pregnancy weight. Much of that time was sitting in a huge plateau in the five-pound range between 137 and 142. Now I think I might be sitting in another plateau at around 129-ish.

Why do these plateaus occur where they do? Why was it so hard to break through 137, and yet when I did I lost nearly 10 pounds? What will it take to break through this one?

Don't get me wrong. I could be happy and healthy for the rest of my days at 128 or 129 pounds. But I feel that 120 would be better for my running. We'll have to see what happens with some returned fidelity to the Mario plan. Because of course we're going to stick with it. I like the results. My husband likes that it's actually inspiring me to cook. :^)

My Awesome Doc and Mario Week 2 Recap

As a city employee, I get good benefits. The best, I know as a wife and mom, is health insurance, but that's not as sexy (to me) as the free membership I get to the Boulder Recreation Center, home of my weight training and spin classes. One condition of this membership, though, is that I have to get my blood drawn every year for a cholesterol/glucose analysis as part of the City Wellness Program.

This meant a visit to my doctor at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine this morning. My doctor is *great.* He effectively fixed my Morton's neuroma back in February, was super kind when I came down with a kidney infection in July after the ZOOMA Women's Half and he's been helping me try to get to the bottom (so to speak) of my tricky intestines.

He's also a badass runner. This morning I had the following conversation with him before the Wellness Program blood draw. Have you ever had a conversation like this with your doctor?

HIM: So your kidneys have been OK? No residual pain?
ME: Oh yeah. That was the other thing about my marathon. 15-minute PR, no pooping during the race, and no bladder infection! Yeah, they've been fine.
HIM: Great! You know, I ran Chicago on Sunday.
ME: Really?! How'd you do?
HIM: Well, I'm a master now, I'm 41, and there's good money at that race for masters, like $2,500, so I thought I'd go for it. And I was doing great, on a 2:30 pace. But it was hot and I just couldn't eat, and at mile 17 I just died. Those last nine miles were torture. I did pull out a 2:50 but I had to walk for about 15 minutes at one point.
ME: (trying not to let my mouth drop open at "2:30 pace" and "2:50") Yeah, that happened to me in my race too...except I DID eat. Makes me feel better that guys like you walk sometimes, too.
HIM: Yeah, it was my first marathon. I really want to do another one now and get it right. I guess I should do Boston, since I qualified.

I guess!! His first marathon! 2:50! And that was with a bonk! He told me he had four GUs in his pockets during the race and couldn't bring himself to touch them.

I'm so glad this guy is treating me, that there is a facility like this here. A couple weeks back, I was in there briefly and had the door opened for me by Frank Shorter. Ah Boulder.

Today is Tuesday, so that meant weighing in. Not such good news on the body fat front today....my home scale read 22.5%, and because I had to leave weights class early for the doc appointment, I didn't have a chance to get my trainer, Chris, to do a measurement with the calipers as I had planned. My weight, at least, was unchanged on the home scale at 128.4 pounds, and a little lower on the gym scale, at 128.2. I might have been a bit dehydrated, as I had to fast for the blood draw and had run 6 miles in the wee hours.

The second week of the Mario Lopez Extra Lean Family eating plan didn't go quite as smoothly as the first, though the planning, shopping and prep were once again fine. Part of the issue was it's "that time of the month" and at that time I'm always ravenous for things I shouldn't be eating--like second helpings of Mario's chicken enchiladas and other tasty things. I also caved and took the kids to a coffee shop once for their snack, which didn't harm me (I drank unsweetened green tea), but wasn't exactly easy on the pocketbook.

On the upside, we once again stayed out of restaurants entirely (two weeks of no eating out is a record, I think), and my fruit and vegetable consumption is way up. This week I'll do my best to keep the portions reasonable again, and my hands out of the snack trough at work. I'm still really liking the ease of this plan. I actually ordered Mario's book. It's a big deal for this cheap librarian to actually BUY a book, if that tells you anything.

Finally, I have MET my $500 goal for the Houston Marathon/Houston Food Bank's Run for Food Program. YOU FOLKS ROCK!! In fact, at $506, I'm now just $94 away from the $600 level at which I have promised to do a giveaway of some tasty and healthful Boulder goodies. Can you help me keep it going? If so, go to my fundraising page and donate! A big THANKS AGAIN to all of you who have already given. I'm so happy about this.

Recap of Mario Lopez Eating: Week 1

Sorry to frighten you with that picture, but I can't resist any reference to the 80s. Or I guess early 90s. I got a funny note from my sister-in-law, who's a California girl, talking about Mario's sleazy tomcat ways and how ironic it is that he's writing books for families. I'm not really surprised. But hey! I still like the book (and I'm using the library copy for now, so I haven't lined his pockets yet, though I probably will buy it).

Before I fill you in on the scintillating details of my family's first week on the Mario Lopez Extra Lean Family eating plan, let me put in another request for donations to my Run for Food/Houston Marathon fundraiser for the Houston Food Bank. Click here to donate.

OK! So...the week went well. I had gone on a mondo shoppning excursion Saturday night, stocking up with most of the things we would need for the entire week. This itself was a big change from the piecemeal grocery shopping we usually do, which is to say, Dan and I calling or emailing each other at about 4:30 p.m. with the "Any ideas for dinner?" question and then one of us beating a hasty path to the store ahead of picking up the kids. Having done the shopping was g-r-e-a-t. It made all the evenings so much less stressful. We did have to make one other trip on Thursday, to pick up some more fruit (my kids eat more fruit than Mario predicted--a good problem to have)...but I stayed out of the (expensive) organic grocery store across the street from my library all week.

The other great result: I brought all of my meals and snacks to work. I had all the kids' meals and snacks ready to go at home on the days I was with them (I can't tell you how many afternoons I've just taken them to a coffeeshop because I have nothing to give them--way too much expensive pumpkin bread consumed). And no dinners were left to chance. We didn't eat out once, any of us.

We are now geared up for Week 2. I went on this week's mondo shopping excursion last night, and this morning made a big pot of turkey chili for dinners tonight and Wednesday and some quinoa for a salad on Tuesday night (Sunday is Mario's prep day). Last night, the plan fell apart a bit as we went over to some friends' house for dinner, and I had FAR too many chips with guac, chips with bean dip and chicken enchiladas that were decidedly NOT extra lean, as well as too many of Mario's "lean" brownies (which were my contribution to the evening--and mmm, they were good). But we don't do that very often, so I figure if that's the worst I did, it will be OK.

Has my leanness (or lack thereof) been affected yet? Doubtful. I will check in with my bodyfat scale on Tuesday morning after my run and report back. Tuesday is scale day for me. I generally weigh myself both on my own at home (thus getting the bodyfat reading) and also on the one at the gym after weight training.

Regardless of what the scale says, trying this out has been great so far on a number of other fronts. I love having the meals planned, the healthy food we need bought, the guesswork removed, the restaurants and coffeeshops avoided, the spending on unnecessary grocery trips eliminated. I don't love shopping on Saturday nights, but really, since I'm at home with two sleeping kids most Saturdays anyway, it's not like I'm sacrificing great social alternatives.

Bring on more, Mario! Saved by the book!

Mario Lopez Will Help Me Eat Right

My recovery week from the Top of Utah Marathon has been a week of regrouping. Here's the quick lowdown:

1. I've got my plan for the Houston Marathon ready to go. It starts tomorrow....with an off day. :^)

Like my Top of Utah plan, it's from McMillan Running (home of the running calculator that many of us use). I'm excited about it. It ups the intensity and the miles a bit (3000 meter repeats! a 24-miler on Christmas Eve!) while still preserving some cross-training and step-back weeks.

I really liked the McMillan plan I used this summer. It was not only effective but fun, with a lot of variety in the workouts and a lot of choice built in. Depending on how I felt, I could go harder or easier (within a range of paces and distances). There were even frequent "Choose Your Workout" days mid-week, where I could go with a fartlek (if I was feeling the need to work on speed), or a hill workout (if I needed that--I'll be choosing this option more often in this cycle), or a stamina workout.

2. I'm (again--yawn) working on diet.

A few days after the marathon, I climbed onto the scale and found my weight still sitting pretty at 129 pounds (this is "pretty" for me in recent years). But my body fat also hadn't budged: there it was, 22%. Too high for a runner trying to BQ.

A big part of my problem with food is poor planning. Here I sit, with this super-detailed plan for running workouts that I follow like a religious zealot, but almost never do I have any idea what I'm going to eat that day. This results in lots of seat-of-my-pants meals and snacks that may or may not be what I should be eating. It also results in hunger striking at bad times (like when I'm about to enter three hours of meetings at work) and the loss of lots of money I shouldn't be spending that way being poured into unplanned eating excursions. It's not good for my kids, either. Frequently (and especially when Dan is working late), they get PB&J or macaroni and cheese for dinner. How can I expect them to be organized and healthful in their food choices if I'm not setting an example?

I've known this planning thing is a problem for a long time. Now, with some time to devote to changing my habits and that 22% chub factor literally hanging from my body, I'm going to tackle it for good. And to help me out, I've turned to the obvious source: Mario Lopez.

Yes, he's got a high cheese factor (and no, I NEVER watched Saved By the Bell). But it turns out he's written the book I've been looking for on this topic. It's called Extra Lean Family: Get Lean and Achieve Your Family's Best Health Ever. That's got two words in it that I like: "lean" and "family." And I like the inside of it even more. It's all there: four weeks of good-for-you mostly-kid-friendly meals and snacks for a family of four planned out, with a grocery list at the beginning of the week so you can (hopefully) do all of that at once too (we're also at the grocery store way too much) and plans for making enough for leftovers (and then actually using the leftovers) built in.

These meals are realistic, and these meals are easy. I really don't like cooking very much at all. Every now and then I'll get a bug and want to make something elaborate, like a cake from scratch or scallops in pistou sauce. But those bugs have been few and far between since I had my kids. And while Dan loves cooking and is good at it, the man has a full-time job and isn't really much better at the planning side than I am. Mario takes care of all of that. He does incorporate some healthful takes on fun foods, especially on weekends (this morning's breakfast was Banana French Toast). But mostly it's super-practical. Even for someone who hates cooking, has a job and has kids--but wants to cut sugar and fat out of everyone's diet.

The debut of Mario's plan in the Becker house was today. For lunch at work, I brought a sandwich of lean deli turkey on a whole wheat English muffin with lettuce, tomatoes, a slice of low-fat cheese and hummus. It was yummy, and even better it was filling enough that the planned snack (a cup of grapes) will actually be enough for me. Tonight we're having grilled BBQ chicken with brown rice and an Asian cucumber salad (that I made in advance last night).

I know I'll have to bump it up some when the miles start rolling again. But it's organized enough that I can do that easily. I'm also hoping that after four weeks, I'll be able to branch out a bit and add some easy ideas from other sources, like Cooking Light magazine.

I'm really really hoping to get that 22% body fat down to something more like 19 or 20%. Mario does say "extra lean," right?

3. I will be returning to Tammy's spin class this week. Yay! Not only will she kick my booty, I should get some new music ideas.

4. Last Thursday I started weight training again. I'll be doing this twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Hopefully this will also help with the leanness factor. I'm going to really work on the leg stuff this time, too--no slacking on hamstring curls and lunges. I don't want my legs to die in Houston like they died in Logan, UT.

So there you have it! Solid plans laid on all fronts. I love new beginnings!