Milestone Loss

Had a great workout today, body pump and cycle. My legs were tired from my extra long walk yesterday and my wrist is sore. I'm not really sure what I did to it, but it's been bothering me since last week. I thought I slept on it wrong but it still hurts and it's been nearly a week. I'm starting to wonder if I should go to the doctor but I don't really want another bill especially if there is nothing they can do for it and it will heal on it's own. The weather has been beautiful lately, sunny and warm. Perfect for outdoor activities and grilling BUT the forecast says it will be raining most of this week. I guess, I should be thankful it's this week and not next. Next week Mariyn is on Spring break. I'm so looking forward to it.

Weigh in today was AWESOME! Best loss I've had in a long time, which is probably not a direct result of this week but a combination of the previous few little to no loss weeks. This week I lossed 5lbs! Which leads me to my biggest weight loss milestone yet -52lbs! WOW! God is so good and I am half way to my goal!

As I write this, someone was knocking on my door. Inviting them to their church. A new church in town, Lighthouse Baptist Church. I talked to him for a bit. Even though, I'm not baptist-- they hold a special place in my heart. Always reminds me of my family and just how truly great God is. He is always there. Always.

Busy Busy

It's been another great day. Amelia and I went to Costco this morning. Got tons of great food...and samples! Yumm... They had lemon cookies and chips. So delicious. I haven't had either in such a long time. I figured a sample was probably ok. It's not like I'm cheating on my diet and the sample seemed to be great portion control... ok ok, so maybe I feel like I cheated because I haven't had any of these type of treats for a long time. Oh but it was worth it! After school, I pitched a few buckets of wiffle balls to Mariyn. She really loves softball and I love spending the quality time with her.

While we were out, a dog wandered by. He was older, yellow lab seemed friendly so we took him in. It seems we're always rescuing dogs since we moved into this house. Mariyn says we have a dog rescuing business. Not any profit in it, but it is rewarding to help a doggy get home safe to it's family. As soon as we found the dog, it was time to get ready for the gym. Monday night is kickboxing, always a great class! After the class, I came home and walked the dog we found around the neighborhood in hopes of finding it's owner. I walked down my street until the end with no luck. Then I thought, I'll text my friend, she lives in my neighborhood and knows EVERYONE. If someone by her is missing their dog, she'll know. Funny thing is, it ended up being HER dog! What are the odds! I've been to her house a few times and didn't know they had dogs. Just Saturday she we were talking about dogs and I remembered she said she had 2. Had she not said anything, I probably wouldn't have thought to check with her. Anyways, she lives in the complete opposite direction that I was walking... so I ended up walking about 2.25 miles to help the dog find it's home. AFTER kickboxing. My legs are tired!

I noticed I forgot to blog again on Friday. Geesh, guess I'm slacking. I notice that when most of my friends don't blog about their weightloss/goal it's because they have temporarily fallen off track. Well, that is not the case for me. I've just been super busy between softball, family and the gym. But I will say, I've not been as careful with my diet this week. I have felt ravenous at times and well, too tired to cook. I think I've made good choices overall. Guess I'll know for sure tomorrow during weigh in :)

Life is Good

This morning I hoped online to see if there were official race times for Saturday's 5K. I was really just curious, I have an idea of my time but just wanted to know "officially". Unfortunately, race times aren't available. I decided to scroll down and look at all the names of the people who place. There it was... my NAME! In FIRST place! I was astonished, I was amazed. I am so proud! My goal was to finish, I thought it was possible that I would come in last. I prepared myself and my family for that my goal wasn't to be the fastest, my goal was to finish. Don't get me wrong, I've always thought it would be cool to win but I didn't think it was possible -- not on my first race --Not while I am still obese. All I can say is I really just feel so blessed and full of pure bliss.

I tried to take a screen shot but I just can't get it to post. So, if you want to see for yourself, and I know you do :) Open this link. If I had a camera I'd take a picture of the medal I got this afternoon!

Oh and today, I had another great workout with Clare. We ran. Life is good.

Skipped a day ...

Late last night, I realized I didn't blog yesterday. Opps! I'm shocked I forgot. I decided that it must not have been that eventful if I forgot to document my day and I decided it would be ok if I just went to bed. If you really need to know, I had a great workout and run w/ Clare. Then had softball practice. Yesterday was one of those days when you're running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Too much to do and of course if you're not running late your waiting around on someone else. Yeah it was that sort of day. When we finally got home I was so tired I didn't even want to cook. I convinced Rich we should just go out to eat, I was so tired. But once he mentioned Taco Bell, I miraculously found the energy to stick to my diet and just cook.

Weighing In...

My word for today:

per·se·ver·ance –noun
1. steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

I weighed in at 211 lbs. Getting out of the 200's is going to be a lot than I thought! The positive thing, is the scale is moving in the right direction again! That is a 2lbs loss! I'm hoping to build on it and just keep pushing through. I still have 11 lbs to lose in order to meet my personal weight loss goal before the end of the month. I think it may be possible, depending on whether or not my body cooperates. Even though the scale concerns me and says I haven't made that much progress lately, I know I have. I know I feel trimmer and most importantly I've been meeting new fitness goals. I know God willing with preserverance I can continue focusing on my goals.

Amelia and I got up early today. I did body pump and cycle. It's a great combo and while, it still kicks my butt, I don't feel the exhaustion I used to feel. Whenever I am at the gym and I notice new people or very overweight people working out, I try my best to smile and pass on positive encouragement. I know, it is always encouraging to me when someone notices my hard work. Today, there was a new overweight person in body pump. She was right next to me, so I helped her out in class and after class I talked to her a bit. I told her about my weight loss and how difficult the gym was for me when I first started. But I decided just to keep on coming, stay motivated and you will get the results you want to see. The smallest things kept me motivated when I first started and I just want to make sure I pass whatever positivity around that I can. I challenge you to do the same. :)

runInspired

I came across this pic and I think it sums up how I feel right now better than any rambling that I can do :D You know what they say, a picture is worth a 1,000 words!

Life seems to be getting busier. Softball season, working out and just wanting to be more active, outside. It's one of my favorite times of year. I spent the day planning or should I say dreaming of my running future. My Gold's gym competition is almost over. A couple more weeks max and with my first 5K under my belt, I feel confident enough to train for anything. My main focus is going to remain my weight loss goals but I know that I have to continue my fitness goals in order to meet them. I think training for events will help keep more motivated and accountable. If I focus on these things, plus diet and my regular exercise. I'm sure the weight will just continue to fall off.

I've decided on two more 5K challenges. The first one is May 16th, it's another local competition at the Oakdale Chocolate Festival but is sponsored by the shadow chase running club. I think it will be more competitive then the last but still relatively small. I might let Mariyn participate in the 1 mile kids run. She seemed really interested in Saturday's event. I'm still thinking about letting Mariyn but I think she is responsible enough. The other 5K event is a Nike Women's Festival in Sacramento on June 6th. I'm sure this one will be more competitive but I'll have 2 other 5K's under my belt and plenty of time to practice. It's relatively inexpensive and we get a lot of goodies for participating. The best part is the money raised goes to Women's causes. I love that. I really love that most of these activities raise money and awareness for charities and other not for profit organizations.

Depending on how these go, I am heavily considering doing a the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Fransisco. It's in October, which will mark 1 year of my weight loss and fitness journey. 1 year of hard work, determination, commitment and blessings. A half marathon is 13 miles and while I know I'm no where near that now, I think it might be possible come October.

Tonight, I did cardio kickboxing. It was a great workout. My legs have been sore all weekend from the run. I wasn't too sore today but I just wasn't ready to lift weights. I'll resume my weight training tomorrow. I'm optimistic about my weigh in. A little nervous but I think I had an o.k. week. Guess we will just have to wait and see!

First 5K

A few short months ago, I attempted to run. I don't know if you could even call it running - it was more like waddling with speed. It was a challenge to lug my 200+ pound body at a speed faster than walking. Who am I kidding, before I started working out in October, sometimes just walking made me breathless. I've always had a love hate relationship with running. Let's face it, I hated to run but loved the idea of being able to do it. I guess I sort of admired runners from a far. Running appeared to be one of those sort of torturous challenges: hard to do but rewarding to complete.

I've always admired how physically fit runners are. You know you have to be in great shape to WANT to run. Why would any normal person want to torture themselves that way? On October 5th when I decided to change my body, it wasn't just my body that I decided to change. I'm changing my life. I decided that I am going to become one of those physically fit people who can do active things, adventures like running, biking, hiking and just enjoying the outdoors more. As I lost weight, I decided that I want to be one of those fit people who CAN run. I can change my life and not be limited as much by my body.

In January I started working out and running with Clare. She is hands down one of the most amazing women I have ever met. I pushed myself to my limits and could barely run 2 minutes, even months after working out. Each week, I've pushed myself harder to keep up with Clare. Thus changing my weightless journey from just weighing less to having more physical goals. It was then, the first day I ran with Clare that Mariyn brought home a fundraiser for her school, a family fun run. I decided I was going to complete my first 5K and I had a date to complete it by March 20th. A no stress family fun run in my own community.

I had a busy day yesterday. I had so much to do, load and charge my i-pod, plan and clean my running clothes. Plus, taking care of the kids (and babysitting my niece and nephew). I planned a runners dinner - whole wheat spaghetti, asparagus and garlic bread. I laid the girls clothes out because I know I am not a morning person and getting us all up and out of the house before 8 am was going to be a marathon in it's self. I loaded over an hours worth of music on to my running play list because let's face it. I knew it was going to take a while to finish my 5K. All I had ran up until this point was 30 minutes - a little over 2 miles. So I figured it would take me about 45 minutes to finish the 5K. I loaded music suggested by some of my most supportive friends. Friends who were running along side of me in spirit. Rich and my girls, along with my mom, brother, sister and her kids, came out to support me cheering me on and meeting me at the finish line.

I got up early this morning, tired but nervous and excited to. I had my usual breakfast: protein and a banana. Made the family some hard boiled eggs. We were out the door before 8 am, I checked in got my registration number: 220. The race had a much larger turnout than I expect. I heard someone say it was over 300 people, what a great turnout to support our schools! I began to get more nervous. I couldn't believe that I was going to do a 5K. Still well over 200lbs but I knew I was in much better shape than my body appears to others. Waiting for the race to begin, I let Mariyn listen to my i-pod. I put one of my favorite songs on it, Martina McBride's In My Daughter's eyes to remind me of my girls, the reasons I stay motivated day after day to be in better health.

When it was time to line up, I kissed my family good bye. I lined up a few rows back, kind of at the beginning of the middle of the flock of people. I took of and waved good bye to my family, and set my i-pod to the running play list I created last night. At that moment, I felt so proud, so accomplished and so grateful for all the blessings God has provided me. I wanted to cry but I was still surrounded by runners. I remembered to pace myself but I was quickly feeling winded. I remembered there would be a water checkpoint about half way through. I just kept telling myself to keep on going, I wasn't ready to stop yet. Keep running. I wanted to run the whole thing but I knew I would be satisfied just finishing. I haven't had much opportunity to run outside. I wasn't that familiar with the distance and pacing while running outside. I wasn't even that familiar with the neighborhood the course was in. So many people were out there cheering us along all the way. I really felt like I was doing something important - something worth accomplishing. Soon enough I ran past a family serving water to all the runners. I decided at that after I hit that point I could walk for a little while, catch my breath, I wasn't going to be dissappointed. I knew I could finish the course. The flock of runners had sort of dispersed. Some were in front of my some where behind. I was tired and struggling to keep my pace. I walked and ran most of the second half, running a lot more than I walked. It was such a beautiful and glorious day. Did I mention how blessed I truly am? As I approached a rolling hill, I was worn out, one of the other runners I was pacing myself with had slowed. Breathlessly, I encouraged her to keep going. She smiled and started back up running. Soon, I was nearly finished. I could see runners heading towards me. They must have already finished and just turned around to encourage everyone else. Sherri's song came on, Everything. I had listened to it a few times yesterday it's such a pretty song but now I was listening to it hearing the words finishing my 5K. The funny thing is, I knew I set this high enough in my play list that I thought I would hear it at the beginning of the middle of my run. Just at the point where I thought I would need some encouragement. I placed the songs my friends selected every throughout the play list just to keep me motivated. As I reached the final stretch, a quarter mile or so from the finish line, I seen one of my counseling mentors (an Amazing woman to me) cheering me on. I smiled gave her a thumbs up and decided it was time to sprint. The crowd was really clapping and cheering each runner on as we all entered the finish line zone. My family was there, at the end waiting for me just behind the finish line cheering me even louder than the crowd. I did it! I made it! I completed my 5K! I was happy, I was ecstatic, I was breathless! I felt so fulfilled, so triumphant! So blessed! So thirsty.


I sat down caught my breath and got a drink of water. I didn't hear my time as I crossed the finish line. I told my family not to be surprised if I was dead last. Mariyn thought I would finish first, I knew I wouldn't but I just wanted to finish. I ended up somewhere in the middle, with a time around 32 minutes. A lot faster than I had anticipated!

Reflecting on my accomplishment there are a few things I need to do to improve my running. I need to get out and run outside more frequently. Most of my running has been on a treadmill and I've been able to push myself watching a clock. Each minute I push myself for to go for another minute more or to finish to X miles. I need to learn to pace myself better, I have never made 3 miles in 32 minutes. Obviously, I uped my pace which caused me to get breathless more quickly and not be able to run the entire race. I need new running shoes. I already knew this but I didn't want to break in new shoes the day of the race and well, they just weren't in the budget this week.

In May, there is another local 5K. I'm going to sign up and do it again. From there, who knows. I am thinking I might try to complete a 1/2 marathon in October at the Nike Women's Marathon. Gotta have goals, right?



Oh and here are some pics, courtesy of my mom's iphone.