Rebecca isn't gonna be happy...

Well, slacker-season is officially over.  December wasn't great.  I didn't really expect it to be; it was the last month of off-season and I knew I was going to take it easy.  What I didn't plan on was taking almost 2 full weeks off, and 3 weeks away from the pool!

Who's got time to make it to workouts when there are fun things like the Winter Classic to go to?!
That's me, Ted and Jon :-)

Moving forward, it's time to really start focusing on hitting all of my workouts and really tuning into my nutrition.  During my last appointment, my nutritionist, Rebecca, told me she wanted me to lose 12 more pounds before my next visit.  Suffice it to say, that didn't happen.  I'm just crossing my fingers that I at least stayed the same and didn't gain anything (yeah, right).  Don't worry, I have my excuses all lined up, from the holidays (does anybody eat healthy over the holidays?!) to life getting in the way of hitting my workouts, to it being so cold and dark outside.  I mean, this is clearly not my fault!

Except..... yes it is.  If there is one thing in common with all of the items on my excuse list, it's that Ironman doesn't care about any of them.  Ironman won't care that I was sick with a bad cold or that my dogs were restless and kept me awake too late.  Ironman won't care that it's freezing outside or that it's raining.  Ironman doesn't really blink an eye to the fact that my refrigerator broke and I had to wait 5 days for a new one.  And Ironman really couldn't care less that I wanted to get my PMP, and that there are several other certifications I'd like to get in the near future.

So, I set up Xena in the dining room (can you still call it a dining room if you no longer dine there?) facing the television (hello Scandal and Downton Abbey!), and dusted off the treadmill in the basement for those days that I just can't bare to go outside (though honestly, I'd rather brave the weather than spend more than 90 minutes on that bike trainer!).  I did some research and found a boot camp that meets at 4pm at a nearby high school that I can run/walk to, and a small yoga studio (for recovery weeks) that is also in running distance.... this is key because I know myself.  Once I'm home, I want to be in pajamas and sweats, and the very last thing I'm going to do is leave the house and drive any sort of distance to do any of this (this is why I swim and run track in the mornings... to each his own!).  I am getting back into the swing of things!

Look at that training volume from last week compared to all of December!
I'm well on my way towards my attempt to out-run/bike/swim a mediocre diet :-)

As for this week, I will put my tail between my legs, go see Rebecca and confess all of my nutrition sins.  It's actually easier to face what you did wrong when you have already started making improvements.  I'm looking forward to my next nutrition post that will detail all of my successes (I hope)!!

working on the engine

"A carbon bike, carbon cranks, carbon pedals and carbon bottle cages will make the bike lighter and faster but the cheaper and easier way to make it lighter and faster is to NOT eat the cheeseburger!"

-- unknown on BT.com

It's too bad nobody told this person that cheeseburgers are delicious!  But yeah.. so one of my main focuses going into Ironman is nutrition.  As someone who is already anticipating the flirt with cutoff times, getting leaner will certainly contribute to my speed (not necessarily a 1:1 ratio, but less weight to carry around, more aerodynamic, less energy spent supplying extra fat with oxygen, etc).  So, I've enlisted the help of a nutritionist, and am happy to say that I am off to a good start:

Since the beginning of summer...slow and steady wins the race!

It's really just been the little things: choosing better snack options, ordering in food less, you know the drill.

Road trip snack plan: mine on top, Jon's on the bottom :-)

One small hiccup to my big "I'm gonna cook all my meals now" plan is that my stove broke over the summer.  And I didn't bother to do anything about it.  This wasn't 100% due to laziness (well, maybe 80% lazy), but it seems that my appliances are all the originals from when the house was built in the late 1970's, and they don't make any the same size anymore (d'oh!).  When I finally got around to calling a handyman (last week), a 15 minute conversation suddenly turned into me agreeing to a $35K remodeling job - Yikes! 

The new layout design!

So anyway, no stove [until early Spring] means that I have to get creative with how I make and prepare food.  Luckily the microwave, toaster oven and slow cooker are all fully operational.  Also, I don't do complicated.  Hell, I barely follow a recipe.  For this effort to be sustainable for me, I need simple and fast.  Buying produce is a wasted effort in my house as half of it gets tossed in the garbage when it goes bad after a few days.  So, I stocked up on a bunch of canned goods (black beans, diced tomatoes, salsa, marinara sauce) and frozen veggies (broccoli, corn, peppers) and got to work:

Southwestern chicken in the pot and ready to cook!

• "Southwestern Chicken" - yum, this is absolutely my new favorite.  Throw chicken breasts into the slow cooker and cover with salsa.  Add in beans, tomatoes, corn.  Low for 8 hours, take a couple forks to the meat and wah-lah, shredded chicken!  I throw it on a tortilla and add cheese.  Done.
• Breakfast Burritos [for dinner] - and all-time favorite that I've kind of given up for breakfasts b/c of my effort to not buy food at work.  I add tomatoes and peppers to the egg and "cook" it in the microwave.  Then I heat up some tempeh "bacon" strips in the toaster oven and combine it all on a tortilla with cheese.  Delicious.
• Cheese Tortellini - super easy when you buy frozen tortellini, but the catch was the lack of stove.  So, I bought one of those microwave pasta cooker thingies.  Throw on some marinara sauce and you've got the quickest dinner known to man, even if you have to wait an extra 3 minutes to cook some broccoli for the side.

My nutritionist - Rebecca - gave me a goal of 12 more pounds by the end of the year.  That's going to get tricky with the holidays coming up...apple pie? pumpkin roll? cookies?  Yes please!  (all in moderation, Jen, all in moderation)  Wish me luck... game on.