The Plan

 So, yesterday was bringing you back up to speed (although I realized later I did forget to mention that I did do a third IMLP in 2017. It was the bike ride from hell but a good swim and run helped me squeak out a small PR), and now the plan:

Starting Point:

Weight:

BF:

Photo:

Food (a.k.a. Where the magic really happens):

Breakfast: 1/2 cup old fashioned oats with 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk before run, then two eggs scrambled in 1 tsp olive oil after.

Lunch: Green salad with 1 cup pork roast, veggies, diced apple,20-ish cals of olives, and half serving (1 TBS) dressing.

Snack: Protein shake and tangerine. On Mondays and Wednesdays when Dr. Z teaches self defense and we eat dinner at 7:30 I'll have a packet of Quest chips.

Dinner: Whatever I make. It's usually a simple baked, broiled, or grilled serving of meat with a veggie and about 3/4 cup of rice or a small potato. I'm not going to get too strict about this meal yet.

Bedtime Snack (because I sleep TERRIBLY on an empty stomach): 100 calorie pack of almonds.

Exercise:

Believe or not, I've decided to basically do the One-Punch Man workout for now. (Since I can't afford a gym membership.) 

For those who don't know, the workout is a 10K (6.2 mile) run, 100 pushups, 100 situps, and 100 air squats. Now first of all, I will NOT do it every day as that's not healthy so it'll be six days a week. Also, I'm going to have to build into it. Right now I'm running 3 miles, and doing 10 reps of each of the exercises and that's the plan for next week as well. 

I'm also going to do Runner's Yoga (this one: ) three days a week to improve mobility and prevent injury. I'll eventually add a 2-3 mile walk on my "rest day."

Other:

Another big factor right now is stress due to unemployment. My goals for that are meditating and getting outside every day. I'll also be doing the Mins Game to declutter and only checking the news once a week. (Any other suggestions for stress reduction welcome!) I also will make sure to get in 100 oz. of water a day.

So let's do this and see how it goes! I will at least update weekly with how things went, photo, weight and body fat, and plans for the following week.

Veronica

10 Years

Well, holy hell. Here we are back blogging like it's the early 2010s. Literally a decade has passed and a LOT has changed. Dr. Z and I now live in Colorado (moved in 2019), I changed jobs and then recently lost that job (so if you know someone who needs an information security person - Hi!), and I am the most out of shape I've ever been in my life. (Not the heaviest, at least that, but still not happy with how my body looks or feels.) 

My last triathlon was Tinman 70.3 in 2018. I finally broke the 6:30 barrier I had worked at for almost a decade. A couple months later, I was on the table for a hysterectomy with a surprise oophorectomy. I had multiple complications afterwards and by then had kinda given up on triathlon. Shortly after that we had a lot of prep to do for the cross country move - two houses to sell, Dr. Z needed to retire his business, etc.

When we first got to Colorado, we stayed at a furnished two-bedroom townhouse right in North Boulder. It was an amazing location at a ridiculously low price, but it wasn't quite big enough and Dr. Z really wanted to buy a place.

We ended up purchasing a fixer-upper in Nederland, which turned out to be way MORE of a fixer upper than either of us could imagine. Thanks, useless Inspection Guy! At this point, I was ready to get back in shape again but living in Ned doesn't really allow for the triathlete lifestyle (no good riding and no pools for half an hour). I focused on getting my run back until I was attacked (charged) by a moose two days before a half marathon. Luckily I got away with a bone bruise, but after succeeding nonviolent encounters with more moose, decided that the treadmill was the safest bet.

At one point, my weight skyrocketed to 131.4, which was CRAZY (cue that old post where I freaked out over hitting 114, a number I haven't seen in a decade) considering I'm only 4'10". I looked terrible, my clothes didn't fit, and I FELT awful. Even the skin around my stomach was so stretched out I felt uncomfortable.

So I did manage to get a few pounds off - usually hovering around 120-125. Still not great, and I wasn't consistent with exercise. January 2025 I came down with a very bad case of RSV (Dr. Z actually took me to the ER) that completely took away my appetite. My stomach was upset, but sometimes even the thought of drinking ginger ale repulsed me. I got down to 115 and managed to keep it off for months.

Then late 2025 just kinda happened and I regained seven pounds. Not sure it was any one thing...I just slipped on the healthy eating (I love eating out) and running.

Anyway, now it's mid-2026, I have no job, and I look and feel not-great. It doesn't help that I just had to take three weeks off of running because my Achilles blew up.

And this is already long enough so I'll post about what my plan is to get fit tomorrow.

Veronica