Day 12

weight: ?
days left: 35
today: 6.0mi
total: 100.1mi

i am at my parents' place this weekend. today we went into the city to hang out with my aunt and uncle and my brother and i rode along Lake Michigan. it was a very nice leisurely ride, the weather was great. there were a lot of people, but it was fun manuvering around them. and look, i finally hit 100 miles! woo hoo!

i got up this morning and was so busy cleaning house, packing, and getting ready to leave to Chicago, i forgot to weigh myself. darnit!

all i had to eat today was a delicious hamburger with onions, casear salad, potato salad, and an ice cream. i was actually hungry when i went to bed, but i fought the urge to find a snack.

not sure what tomorrow will bring. it's my dad's birthday (and Fourth of July, of course) so we'll have family over for a bbq. supposed to be dreadfully hot. if i don't get any riding in, i'm hoping to at least be good about my food choices (no more brownies or ice cream, nina!). i'll let you know if i succeed!

Day 11

weight: ?

days left: 36

today: 0mi

total: 94.1mi

today didn't go as planned at all. i got up this morning and took the bus to meet my friends and watch the soccer game. i should have rode my bike, i didn't even remember to weigh myself. i ended up not being able to find my friends and watched a little bit of the game by myself. i'm so sorry that Brazil lost. then i just walked around enjoying the weather before taking the bus back home. in the evening i didn't even go to volleyball, my friend and i decided hang out and have dinner instead. healthy choice, no? it's too bad that i didn't get to reach my 100th mile today. i'll have to bring my bike to my parents' place this weekend and force myself to ride there, in between all of the Fourth of July festivities. i really hope i can make healthy choices!

for breakfast i had a handful of cereal, no milk. for lunch i had some chicken nuggets in ketchup, and for dinner i had shrimp, spinach, chips and dip, and a peach. ah, dessert, you horrible friend, ice cream!

i did a lot of walking today and my feet are tired, but i regret not riding. only 36 days left nina!!

Day 10

weight: 218lbs

days left: 37

today: 15.2mi

total: 94.8mi

ugh, riding was so hard today! i left like a slug. it didn't seem like i was going as fast as i usually do right here in my parking lot, and the whole ride was really hard. i got tired and was huffing and puffing way too early. it doesn't look like i gained any weight, so maybe it's RJ that gained and made pedaling so difficult. jeez! well, i have heard somewhere that what you eat really effects the ease of riding, so maybe i'm finally getting punished for the ice cream i had last night. RJ is really heavy though. i can't stand carrying him up and down the stairs all the time. when i go into Lafayette, i have to carry him up and down the pedestrian bridge, those stairs are huge when you have such a load! and it's so tiring when i get home from a really long ride and have to carry him up the my apartment. RJ, i love ya man, but if i were given the chance to have a new bike, i wouldn't give it a second thought!

so yea, i rode around town doing errands, and then headed over to my bhangra class. bhangra is really cool. it's a type of dance from India, and it's a really great work out. i love indian music, so fun! i had the same instructor and zumba on tuesday, i really like her. after class, i rode home and went for a swim. it was so refreshing! we didn't have volleyball today, i had forgotten that we rescheduled for tomorrow. but hey, i got a lot of exercise in!

food was very minimal. i had 3 eggs over easy for lunch and 2 more eggs wrapped in tortillas for dinner. wow nina, looks like you have to go shopping! i'm really bored right now, so that may lead me to going out for a milkshake or something. i don't want to go food shopping at walmart now because i'll probably be out of town for the weekend. i have enough food to survive tomorrow.

i hope tomorrow will be better. gotta put on enough miles to finally hit 100! woo hoo!

Day 9

weight: 218lbs

days left: 38

today: 8.1mi

total:79.6mi

well, i dunno, today was ok i guess. i'm just feeling a little guilty right now because i just allowed myself to enjoy a deliciously amazing Coldstone Creamery ice cream. this is like my guilty pleasure, it is so amazing! the only reason i let myself have one is because i had a 20% off coupon that expired today. and that i really really really wanted it.

but overall, today was pretty good. i woke up early this morning so that i could go to the farmer's market. i was too excited that i didn't even eat breakfast. but when i road my bike over there, no one was there! there were signs and traffic cones, but no vendors or cars! what the heck? did i miss it? am i too early? so i rode around wasting time until i finally gave up at 12:30. when i got home and googled the farmer's market, i found out that it is from 3pm to 6:30pm! i thought the whole point of farmer's markets was to have them early in the morning, which is the main reason why i've never been. guess not! at least i didn't miss it though, my friends and i went at 5. i was able to pick up some yummy veggies, but they were already running out of a lot of stuff. and the vendor that was supposed to be there selling bison meat wasn't! that was the number one thing i wanted from the market! grrr..... but i picked up some rhubarb and am hoping to steal my mom's yummy rhubarb pie recipe.

for lunch i had two slices of french toast with strawberry jam, for a snack i had a slim-fast shake, and for dinner i had pasta with olive oil and parmesan cheese, with a few of chicken nuggets in bbq sauce.

wish i could have gotten in more miles today, the weather was absolutely beautiful. also, i couldn't go to zumba because i was having too much fun at the market. tomorrow i hope to punish myself by riding a lot, going to bhangra and volleyball, and not eating much! i'm sure the scale reading with make me fall over...

Day 8

weight: 218lbs

days left: 39

today: 10.1mi

total: 71.5mi

today was so great! the weather couldn't have been more perfect. mid 70's with a gorgeously refreshing breeze. i think i'm going to need a blanket tonight! i just randomly followed the trails by my place during my ride, but i actually got bored and really had to force myself to not quit at 7miles. i think i do better when i have a destination in mind, no matter how far away it is. however, i did find a trail that leads to the local grocery store, better than taking busy, and horribly paved, roads.

zumba was great too. we had a different instructor today and she made me feel better about myself because she herself was bigger than me! but where does she get all that self confidence in order to teach a class of 40 girls to shake their booties? i could never do that. you go girl! her class was great in other ways too. we zumba-ed to songs that seemed more choreographed, instead of doing random aerobics. she taught us the moves before the song came on instead of during, and i also liked how also how she interacted with the class and encouraged us when we were "lookin' good." we did a lot of different kinds of dances too, from hip-hop, to salsa, to indian bollywood. really cool. it helped too that the room was not as hot as last week, i didn't sweat as much as i was expecting.

after zumba i went over to play volleyball for 2.5hours. well, maybe not that long, since there were so many people that we had to rotate teams and had to sit out some times. i like it so much better when it's just our familiar group of friends, it seems like we have more fun and get a better workout. but we gotta share! so yea, lots and lots of working out today, i really hope it shows on tomorrow's scale!

hmm, food, what did i eat today? i woke up later, so i had some pasta with olive oil and parmesan cheese for lunch, a slim-fast before riding, 2 fig newtons after zumba, beef and rice for dinner, and now i'm enjoying a bowl of strawberries. oh yea, i had a bowl of vanilla/chocolate ice cream with dinner. just a little treat.

tomorrow i hope to wake up early and check out the farmer's market. looking forward to picking up some fresh fruits and veggies. the pool looked clean today, if it still is tomorrow, i'd love to take a little dip. i'll also probably go to zumba again, with the instructor that i had last week. we'll see how it goes. on thursdays there is a bhangra dance class. i'm not exactly sure what that is, but i'll let you know after class!

Day 7

weight: 218lbs

days left: 40

today: 15.8mi

total: 61.4mi

today was beautiful. i didn't do much, actually i slept too much. i think i fell asleep in front of the tv at about 2am last night, and slept like a rock until someone txtd me at 1:30 this afternoon! i like not having to worry about getting up and being somewhere, but maybe i shouldn't sleep in so much. to make myself feel even more guilty, i went back to bed at 4 and slept until 6:30pm. haha!

then i did actually get out of bed and pulled on my cycling clothes. there was no way i was going to waste the gorgeous evening. so yea, i racked up just over 15 miles, wanted to do 20 but it was getting dark and too dangerous to ride. going up the robinson hill on saturday was grueling, but today it didn't seem too bad. salisbury hill is becoming second-nature and yesterday's venture up grant st hill again was a great accomplishment. there's only one other hill i'm afraid to try, but it's currently under construction. the two largest hills in town, in my opinion, are no even bike-able because they are narrow and winding, i don't think i want to take the chance.

food today was good, just had a pb&j sandwich, a slim-fast shake, a fiber-one bar, some veggies, and now i think i'm going to curl up and watch a movie with a bowl of homemade popcorn.

weight looks like it went up a little bit, i'm finally receiving punishment for overeating this weekend. i sure hope it doesn't go up any more!

tomorrow i want to wake up early enough for a morning ride. gonna make myself not succumb to excuses for not going to zumba at 5:30pm and if that doesn't kill me, i'll be heading to volleyball too. weather looks like it'll be another beautiful day!

so, reflection on my first week. it's great that i did more than 50miles. i hope i am able to keep up at least that much for the rest of the summer. my goal was to do at least 10miles a day so it looks like i sort of failed, but hey, it's a great start. overall i lost 2lbs according to today's measurement, which is the healthy rate. i have 5 more weeks until London, so if i keep this up, it'll be 20 more pounds! looks like my goals are really do-able, let's keep going full-force!

Day 6

weight: 216lbs

days left: 41

today: 10mi

total: 45.5mi

lazy and hot today. went to watch the world cup game with a friend at Buffalo Wild Wings this morning, it was incredible how many points Germany got. so instead of breakfast i had some boneless wings in parmesan garlic sauce, yum! later in the day i had a delicious mango smoothie and for dinner i enjoyed a huge watermelon with some other friends. since watermelon is just water, i think i'm going to have some cherries or strawberries tonight. the scale didn't change today, so i guess that's better than going up!

i rode my bike to and from the rec center where i played sand volleyball for 2hours this evening. so i was able to put in 10miles round trip. on the way there i took the scenic route, but part of it was flooded because of the lake it runs along. i got through most of the flood with just getting my tires wet, but the last 20feet or so was deep enough for my toes to get wet. lucky enough i had sandals so i didn't have to ruin gym shoes, but unlucky because of all the gross stuff that could be in the water. just think of it: pond scum, bacteria, other grossosities, ew! so on the way back i took the more direct route and didn't have to worry about dead fish. hopefully the storms will hold out and the flood will dry up, that's one of the best trails to ride!

i read in the idiot's guide today that there is no advantage in getting a woman's bike, the kind where the top tube is really low so that women can wear a skirt while riding. they are not as strong as men's bikes and women shouldn't have a problem riding a 'man's' bike nowadays. they are basically unisex. i wonder what the woman's guide to cycling will say about that...

well, i have no idea what tomorrow will bring. i'm sure i'll hop on my bike and put on a few more miles. it's supposed to be 85 and sunny all day.