Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Whenever you make a goal for yourself, you always need a reward. What's a goal if you aren't rewarded in the end? The reward for finishing a marathon is seriously the finish in itself. I will never get tired of the hair standing up/goosebumps feeling at the end of a marathon.

A week before my last marathon in November, Liz and I were browsing Target when we came across the most amazing package of Reese cups. No it wasn't your normal 100 calorie Reese Cup packet they have at the checkout counter. These were half pound Reese cups. Yes I said, HALF POUND! 1,140 calories of delicious chocolate and peanut butter... per cup! I picked it up and immediately knew what I would be eating that Sunday afternoon as all my muscles screamed in pain from the race.

It was really really good. Under normal circumstances, that amount of fat and candy is completely nasty, but after a marathon it was absolutely fabulous. It took the whole day to eat and I shared a bit with Liz. Yet we still had another half pound of deliciousness sitting there staring at us. What to do with it? I didn't want it at the time but I knew I'd want it later. It is now sitting in the freezer wrapped in a Ziplock bag. It's the perfect reward for accomplishing what I will call "Operation Reese Cup".

Typing this paragraph makes me sick, but I'll do it anyway. During the Spring and Summer, I lost a ton of weight. I went from 196 to 170ish. I say 170ish because 170 is where I hovered. By the time November rolled around and I was running the marathon, I was at about 177. Then in early December when we left for our cruise I was exactly 180. Sadly, I threw caution to the wind on the cruise and ate everything in sight. I may have even eaten some some chairs and handrails, they are still taking inventory. At this time, I am a not-so-wonderful 187.4.

The issue is when I went from 170 to 177. It's actually really hard to lose or maintain your weight when you are training for a race. That sounds ridiculous, I know, but there's a reason. You are running a good 20 to 40 miles a week and on the weekends you'll have runs anywhere from 6 to 20 miles. When you start to run that mileage, your body craves fuel ALL THE TIME. The only way to avoid gaining weight is by compensating with extra amounts of nutritious food. I decided to go the other direction and fulfill my craving with unhealthy food.

I lost weight to become a faster runner. I certainly accomplished that with the marathon, but I was dumb and  just throw away all that progress. I need to learn portion control and I think I am getting there. When you overindugle enough times, eating too much starts to sound disgusting. I think I finally learned that this past weekend when my sister's delicious meals started piling up.I left one night feeling ill from having eaten too much. I think that's the straw that broke the camels back. Thus begins Operation Reese Cup.

So here are the specs for Operation Reese Cup:

• Goal Weight: 160 lbs.
• Time Frame: 12/27/2010 until May 2011. 
• One problem I have is that I weigh myself way too much, so I'll only weigh in every Tuesday to keep me on my toes(since that corresponds with the Biggest Loser program). 
• I have a worksheet on the refrigerator to chart my progress to keep me accountable. I have to quote Liz here "It's like girls who put pictures of models in bikinis on the fridge to motivate themselves".
• This will be one of my New Year's Resolutions, and I take those very seriously. 
• Reward: A half or full marathon around that time (TBD), and the other Reese Cup in the freezer. 

 I realize it's a little hypocritical to complain about gaining weight and then set my reward as a MASSIVE amount of fat. It's really more for the irony than anything. You would never have a military operation named "Operation Feeble Warrior" or "Operation Limps Home With Crutches". Truth be told, when I do get to 160lbs, I'll probably only break off a small amount as a celebration and portion it out over a few weeks.

Step 2 to Operation Reese Cup will be to maintain my weight the rest of the year.