aprilgellatly.com

Team Luna Chix and April Gellatly partnering to get YOU race ready August 1!

Date – August 1, 2010

Time – 7:30am – 10:30am

Location – Dallas Landing, 5120 Allatoona Dr., Acworth, GA 30101

(same location as the PT  Solutions Acworth Women’s sprint triathlon on August 8 )

Cost – $50 per person (with % of proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Fund)

Reserve your space (clinic limited to 50) please RSVP – contact April Gellatly at algellatly@gmail.com

Clinic Timeline:

Registration and meet the PRO, April Gellatly (www.aprilgellatly.com), 7:30am -8:00am

Race ready clinic: 8:00am-10:00am

• small groups based on experience
• low coach to athlete ratio
• open water entry and exit
• efficient buoy turning, sighting
• OWS tips
• transition contests and instruction
• run drills

Questions for coaches and LUNA refreshments: 10:00am-10:30am

i wanted to share because i can’t be the only one that struggles with a less than excited morning stomach.  i rarely want to eat early in the morning.  however, as i head out on long training runs or rides, i need something in my stomach for fuel.  my solution…

it is an all natural product that i feel good about putting in my body first thing in the morning.  200 cal, 15g protein, solid START to the day.  my stomach approves (most important aspect of my nutrition)!

for more information on the product, please visit – mix1.

in a conversation with my best friend, she was very confused, and i realized that maybe the terms found within my blog and the thought patterns that seems so natural to me…aren’t all that logical to follow SO i’ll review the challenge, re-introduce my trainer, and reveal this weeks resutls!  (it was a good week, a very good week.)

i am in a weight loss program at our gym called ‘i lost it at the gym.’  over the years, i have struggled and battled with the weight with no real direction and no real understanding of what i was doing wrong.  jeremy gritton (http://www.grittonstrainingsystem.com/), my trainer has in the last 5 weeks transformed my diet and my view on food.  one of the things he said today caught me, and i immediately separated myself from the group.  he said most people don’t know how to push themselves, and that the 4th and 5th rep that you don’t want to be doing, are the reps that brings the results.  this, however, has never been my issue.  i know how to push myself, maybe too hard somedays.  i had my high school coach pull me out of the water one day and tell me that i was only hindering my performance by giving him 110%.  i excel at going above and beyond.  HOWEVER, i suck at the details.  i hate working on stroke technique in the water.  i have no feel for the water and i end up frustrated and feeling like i wasted time when i could have been burning calories.  i’d rather work really hard for 2 hours than work on the details that will help me to improve for 2 hours.  this is just an example, but the point being, i needed help with a detail of triathlon and performance that had nothing to do with pushing myself while swimming, biking, and running.  SO i took myself out of range for this comment, and  i have done the same things with food over the years.  

‘it doesn’t matter what i eat because i work out so much.  i am outside of the group of people that need to worry about calories or proper diet.  i am healthy.  i eat mostly, healthy food.  that doesn’t apply to me.’  

it is those kinds of thoughts and that separation that has got me in trouble for years.  it matters what i fuel my body with it.  it matters a lot.  m&m’s as an evening snack do nothing in your body except store as fat overnight.  awesome.  an extra pound to run with, great!  i had an m&m problem, and i really loved ice cream in the evening, and well, i didn’t miss having an evening sweet of some sort be it pie or cookies or cake (YUMMMM i love cake!).

the part of it all that floors me, i have been loosely studying nutrition for years!  i own multiple nutrition books.  i took nutrition classes in college, and not because i had to, but because i thought i’d be able to apply them to my own life, and benefit from them.  i should have known this stuff.  i should have known that my shit diet was a big part of my under performance, but i choose not to change my habits and routine until i read Jeremy’s (aka: j-dogg) comments in my food journal about reaching my goals.  

i got into a good routine right before we left for vacation.  i got overwhelmed and out of routine on vacation and gained 3 pounds.  i jumped right back into my good routine this week though and i lost 6 pounds in 6 days!  

i weighed in at 146 today!  i am down 18 pounds in 5 weeks.  

so 3 more weeks of the weight loss challenge.  these are also my build weeks for cozumel so it is a gentle balance of solid training and proper nutrition, but for the first time in triathlon, i am paying attention to one of the details that has haunted me for years.  i am proud of the things i have learned due to forced application.  i never would have thought i could eat so much and lose weight.  the understanding and knowledge that i have gained sets me free.

‘you have no idea how high i can fly.’  -michael scott

but getting back on REAL quick and i have great excuses.  

here are 2 of them:

madison kaye.  i keep wishing a handful of french fries put that kind of smile on my face.

and…

miss lily janke, my cousins daughter, who is holding up a “poison apple”  (it was really a trix ceral that i was trying to get madison to eat for snack.)  we were in the middle of watching enchanted and playing fancy nancy.  it was quite the afternoon.  

okay in continuing my excuses…

it was the first time (i believe since my fathers death) that we have all been together SO in the past 6 years.  my brother purposely put green shit in his teeth to be funny.  little did he know that it would be the family photo i posted on the internet.  you have to forgive my mother also.  she is very pretty, but she is very bad a taking photos.  gotta love quality gellatly family time.

okay final excuse, i think…

the beautiful Oregon coast…how could i not relax a little bit?!?!

however, i gained 3 pounds last week  i am home now though and surrounded by good, healthy food and workout equipment.  i was scared to weigh in yesterday and of course disappointed with the result, but i would have been silly to expect any different.  i ate salt water taffy AND chocolate!  i have a real aggressive goal for this week.   plus, i start working out full time again so hopefully with the mixed combo of the 2, i will be back on top after weigh in on Tuesday. 

in conclusion, great family vacation, but it is good to be home and moving again.  Cozumel is a short 8 weeks away…time to do work!

the wedding is tonight on NBC!

…and honestly i am disappointed in myself.  not because 12 pounds isn’t great, actually 12 pounds is unreal, but because i know i could have done better.  so i sit here munching on carrots thinking about all the things i did “wrong.”

weight:     152  

body fat %:     24.2%

% of weight lost in 1 week:     7.3%

my commitment to my training has been disappointing however.  i really hoped to get some good work in before Augusta 70.3, and relative to what i felt like i should have been doing, i left a lot on the couch.  the weather has been shit for the last week, however, as i sit here and bitch about the weather and my commitment to training, it is a perfect sunny day outside.  and victoria has yet to go for a ride since lousiville (although i have been out on the road bike).

the other part i found disturbing were my eating habits.  as we speak, j-dogg, my trainer, is probably marking all through my diet book commenting on my lack of breakfast, my use of (GASP) syrup, m&m’s in the pm, the list goes on…  i tried this week too.  i know what i would normally do and i know i held myself accountable for my eating because he would be reading my log, and it was still BAD.  i have bad habits, and that’s all this is really about is breaking those old bad habits, and learning a new, better way to eat and live.  it’s hard though.  we become comfortable in our routine because it fits and works in our lives, but for me at this point, i know there is a better way.  i know i am capable of more and that i need to challenge myself to step outside of my little comfort zones in these next 8 weeks and create new habits that may leave me not only feeling better but performing better.  with that…i need to get outside!

for the weight loss challenge, we had to take a before and after photo.  i choose to take my photo in a pink satin dress i brought for a wedding but never went to SO the dress has never actually been worn.  it still has the tags on it.  sad.  i got a great deal on both the dress and the matching jacket…under $100.  i bought the dress right after my first ironman and back then i was still naive enough to think i would be able to keep the weight off.  bless my heart.  

the dress is an honest size 4 and if i am under 140 pounds, it will zip all the way up… it would be such a shame if this pretty, satin, pink dress sits in my closet for the rest of our lives.  so i have goals… 

without any further ado, here is my before:

weigh in this morning.  

weight:  164  

body fat percentage: 26%

accuracy of this measurement:  0%

does it matter within the “game” whether this first weight and body fat % is correct:  NO!

i kept myself up until 3am (reading but still awake) because of all the food i had eaten so late.  it is safe to say i will not crave mac and cheese for a minute.  i felt sick waking up, weighed myself, 153…okay, but knew i could put on another 5 pounds of water weight plus maybe a little bit of food in my stomach.  i had to weigh myself twice and i checked the accuracy of the scale, but sure enough, i put on “20 pounds” in 2 weeks, and even slightly more shocking, 11 pounds in 1 morning!  i am beaming with pride.  i should probably be maybe a little bit embarrassed because mid-160’s for a girl, a professional athlete none the less…that is just HEAVY!  

it was hard to break my mentality of calorie counting and watching what i ate even if for only 24 hours.  it was hard to think of putting on weight as a good thing.  it was only for one day though.  i have slacked on diet and exercise the last 2 weeks and with the combo of the 2, i did probably gain 5 pounds, but i know that it will all shed easily enough.  once i get back down to the mid-140s then the real challenge begins.  

i am pumped, i could be the next Peachtree City biggest loser!  

of course, all the while i need to keep my mind on the bigger picture and i need to focus on my training for Augusta and Cozumel, but it is fun to have this side goal.  Also, j-dogg has us keeping food logs which i am excited for, but dread all at the same time.  it is going to be exhausting and mentally challenging to write down all the food that i eat and the break down of protien, carbs, etc.  i have to eat to train which means a couple thousand calories a day…oh, all the writing and all the thinking!  

so tomorrow, i embark on my 8 week journey, a fitness and weight loss program at the gym.  the ‘i lost it at the gym’ program is a copy-cat of the biggest loser minus the tv camera and all that money…that i could use so desperately…but i’d never really win that weight loss program (at the point in time…).  i had to laugh at myself last week as i went to sign up for the program.  my size 4 pants (which are my smallest pants…i have a pair of twos, but the fours are actually smaller) were falling off me which means i am about as lite as i have ever been, and i am signing up for a weight loss program?!?  i talked to my trainer though, j-dogg (http://grittonstrainingsystem.com/Home_Page.html), told him what i am thinking and he agreed, it wouldn’t be a bad way to try to lose another 10 pounds.  i have struggled with losing weight and the idea of healthy weight and my body image for as long as i can remember.  so this 8 weeks, through diet and exercise, under the careful eye of my trainer, i am going to try to get down to a more acceptable weight in the running world.  holla.

i am pumped for the team work and the pep talks and the energy that is to come  :)

on a sidenote, Augusta 70.3 in 2 weeks…yes, right, welcome back to training!

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