Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Correction
Just to stay honest, I have modified my swearing off wine policy to one night a week excluding nights my husband works all day and all night and does not come home, just to be honest, amen.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Calendar must be lying
Today I looked at the date and almost died. I usually am oblivious to the date, just following autopilot and living day to day because the days have been so overscheduled and crazy lately. How can it already be the end of October, I should know this since the house has been decorated for Halloween, we went to a fabulous and fun Halloween party last night, the costumes are purchased and we are listening to Halloween music as I right this, but somehow, I always had it in my head that the 1/2 marathon in January would not get scary until November and now November is a week away! Yikes and since the 1/2 is January 9th that means I only have two months left to train, it is essentially crunch time. Time to sink or swim and I plan on becoming an olympic swimmer!
So to recap, I started in April a full fledged heffalump, unhealthy, not exercising, horrible eater, overall 100 pounds overweight and depressed. I decided to start running and change my life and loose weight and get healthy while raising money for breast cancer. It has indeed been a journey, but it is still the beginning. I have lost weight, but still have a lot to lose, I have made incredible progress in my running, but still have a long way to go. I have changed my eating habits, fallen in love with a new sport, become addicted to races, made new friends, met wonderful people along the way and gotten my children, husband and friends involved in my journey.
I have been slowly trying to remove the unhealthy habits piece by piece. First, I started exercising, then I gave up soda, then I gave up fast food, then, I changed the way I approached food, focusing on making small changes. I would use mustard instead of mayonaise for example, I would use light cheese instead of full fat. Now there is only one BIG change I need to make. I am ready to do it, I have to do it, I think this will help me lose the 20 pounds I want to lose by January 9. I am going to mostly cut all alcohol out of my diet. I am going to allow myslef one night for date nights, events ect, but by and by I am going dry. I am considering myself pregnant and this 1/2 marathon and full marathon is my baby.
I hope this will improve my running, my weight loss and my overall health. It will be hard on the stressful days, on the tough days, when a glass of wine seems like the only antidote, but I will find some other reward system for a bad day.
This is a journey and I need to make this happen, for me, for my kids, for my husband, for my future.
If you think you can you will for it's all in the state of mind....
So to recap, I started in April a full fledged heffalump, unhealthy, not exercising, horrible eater, overall 100 pounds overweight and depressed. I decided to start running and change my life and loose weight and get healthy while raising money for breast cancer. It has indeed been a journey, but it is still the beginning. I have lost weight, but still have a lot to lose, I have made incredible progress in my running, but still have a long way to go. I have changed my eating habits, fallen in love with a new sport, become addicted to races, made new friends, met wonderful people along the way and gotten my children, husband and friends involved in my journey.
I have been slowly trying to remove the unhealthy habits piece by piece. First, I started exercising, then I gave up soda, then I gave up fast food, then, I changed the way I approached food, focusing on making small changes. I would use mustard instead of mayonaise for example, I would use light cheese instead of full fat. Now there is only one BIG change I need to make. I am ready to do it, I have to do it, I think this will help me lose the 20 pounds I want to lose by January 9. I am going to mostly cut all alcohol out of my diet. I am going to allow myslef one night for date nights, events ect, but by and by I am going dry. I am considering myself pregnant and this 1/2 marathon and full marathon is my baby.
I hope this will improve my running, my weight loss and my overall health. It will be hard on the stressful days, on the tough days, when a glass of wine seems like the only antidote, but I will find some other reward system for a bad day.
This is a journey and I need to make this happen, for me, for my kids, for my husband, for my future.
If you think you can you will for it's all in the state of mind....
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
6 months in, a lifetime to go
Six months ago, I looked in the mirror and cried. Starting about two months ago I started looking in the mirror and said hey is that a chin I see, hey I am kind of cute! I see myself again. I was never beautiful or gorgeous, I was always the cute spunky athletic one and I liked that, I kind of see myself that way again and it feels good.
I am not sure how much weight I have lost, I do know that I have been walking out of my jeans and yes Nik does get a few kicks out of this. I also know that my XL workout gear has been falling off me. Kind if cool, I am not existing on salads and fruit only, I still eat nachos and burgers and drink, but more in moderation, I just ate two mini twix, it is Halloween season, what do you expect?????
I find myself getting more and more emotional. I hear songs in my ipod while I am running and start crying. This was just so hard to do, it is easy to think it to want it, but it is soooooo hard to make it happen, and I kind of have been making it happen. I could not have done any of this without my amazing husband. Take yesterday, I left him with all four kids in Boston while I went to run the Tufts 10k. He did it with a smile on his face, what a stud right? Yep, he rules!
It was an awesome Autumn day, we took the train before 8am into Boston and then the T, the kids were in train heaven. We surfed the swag, scoped the common and the kids ran the challenging kids 1k race. This is my fave part about my journey, getting my kids addicted to running and races, they are already junkies! They love getting the numbers and the snacks after of course. I am so proud of them!
I always get so nervous before a race and this was insame over 6500 women lining up for this race. Of course sheepishly I go to line up behind the sign 10 plus minutes miles. It was very exciting! I ran the fastest I could possibly run, it was very overwhelming people tripping over each other and so many people everywhere, the course was incredible, running along the charles, down through Charles street, back down Commonwealth, what an incredible 6 mile route, women of all ages, shapes and sizes and abilities.
I ran my fastest pae, 12:36 mile pace, fast for me, incredible because 6 months ago running for 5 minutes was impossible and look at me now!!!
Anything is possible! If I can do it, you can do it, I have never felt more alive than how I feel when I am running. If you believe it, you can do it so get off your ass and go do it and feel free to call me and do it with me! Come running, it is awesome!
I am not sure how much weight I have lost, I do know that I have been walking out of my jeans and yes Nik does get a few kicks out of this. I also know that my XL workout gear has been falling off me. Kind if cool, I am not existing on salads and fruit only, I still eat nachos and burgers and drink, but more in moderation, I just ate two mini twix, it is Halloween season, what do you expect?????
I find myself getting more and more emotional. I hear songs in my ipod while I am running and start crying. This was just so hard to do, it is easy to think it to want it, but it is soooooo hard to make it happen, and I kind of have been making it happen. I could not have done any of this without my amazing husband. Take yesterday, I left him with all four kids in Boston while I went to run the Tufts 10k. He did it with a smile on his face, what a stud right? Yep, he rules!
It was an awesome Autumn day, we took the train before 8am into Boston and then the T, the kids were in train heaven. We surfed the swag, scoped the common and the kids ran the challenging kids 1k race. This is my fave part about my journey, getting my kids addicted to running and races, they are already junkies! They love getting the numbers and the snacks after of course. I am so proud of them!
I always get so nervous before a race and this was insame over 6500 women lining up for this race. Of course sheepishly I go to line up behind the sign 10 plus minutes miles. It was very exciting! I ran the fastest I could possibly run, it was very overwhelming people tripping over each other and so many people everywhere, the course was incredible, running along the charles, down through Charles street, back down Commonwealth, what an incredible 6 mile route, women of all ages, shapes and sizes and abilities.
I ran my fastest pae, 12:36 mile pace, fast for me, incredible because 6 months ago running for 5 minutes was impossible and look at me now!!!
Anything is possible! If I can do it, you can do it, I have never felt more alive than how I feel when I am running. If you believe it, you can do it so get off your ass and go do it and feel free to call me and do it with me! Come running, it is awesome!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Updates
Well, it has been a month since I posted, but don't think I have not been training, because I have! I am actually up to 9 miles on my long runs, yes 9 miles!!!!! It took me 2.5 hours, but I did it!
September was tough though due to the hectic pace of back to school life and getting the kids adjusted into their activities and the fact that I am coaching field hockey in addition to my gig as a travel agent and mom to four and on the PTO, so it has been crazy.
No cross training this month, something I hope to improve in October. I have been averaging only 2-3 runs a week, I need to average a solid 3 from now on. I typically run 1-2 5 miles courses and try to do a tempo run where I run as fast as I can and then run a more average pace for some, but my course has lot of hills. I have noticed that after these runs, my shins act up a bit which I imagine is due to the pounding when I run faster.
Weight loss is slow, but still happening and that makes me happy. Dropped out of weight watchers, because I feel empowered now that I know how to mke the right choices and I can weigh myself. Not that I do it very often!
I love running! I love seeing my body change. I love the feeling of accomplishment I have at the end of a long run.
I love it so much that I just joined the Tufts Marathon Challenge. www.tuftsmarathonchallenge.com If all goes well, maybe I can run the Boston Marathon.
It is frustrating when it rains like today and I have days when I don't want to run, but I still go, except not in the rain, too scared of getting injured.
My biggest fears are of the sweep bus. I have to improve my pace and only have three months to do it.
3 months!!!! I am scared.
September was tough though due to the hectic pace of back to school life and getting the kids adjusted into their activities and the fact that I am coaching field hockey in addition to my gig as a travel agent and mom to four and on the PTO, so it has been crazy.
No cross training this month, something I hope to improve in October. I have been averaging only 2-3 runs a week, I need to average a solid 3 from now on. I typically run 1-2 5 miles courses and try to do a tempo run where I run as fast as I can and then run a more average pace for some, but my course has lot of hills. I have noticed that after these runs, my shins act up a bit which I imagine is due to the pounding when I run faster.
Weight loss is slow, but still happening and that makes me happy. Dropped out of weight watchers, because I feel empowered now that I know how to mke the right choices and I can weigh myself. Not that I do it very often!
I love running! I love seeing my body change. I love the feeling of accomplishment I have at the end of a long run.
I love it so much that I just joined the Tufts Marathon Challenge. www.tuftsmarathonchallenge.com If all goes well, maybe I can run the Boston Marathon.
It is frustrating when it rains like today and I have days when I don't want to run, but I still go, except not in the rain, too scared of getting injured.
My biggest fears are of the sweep bus. I have to improve my pace and only have three months to do it.
3 months!!!! I am scared.
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