Race Day

Last year, I ran my first 5K with my two oldest daughters.  At that point, my life was in a totally different place than it is now.  I had been jogging regularly for a while, my feet weren't hurting as much and I had already dropped around 20 pounds.  I had committed to losing weight and was finally succeeding for the first time.  I really felt the best I had ever felt in years.  When I ran last year my goal was to make it in less than 45 minutes and I made it in 42.  I was so excited.  Then in May, Taylor and I ran the Race for the Cure.  I beat my time by one minute.

It was right after this race that my mom fell really ill.  I kept up with my diet and exercise all the way through June, when she passed away, and then I just lost all motivation.  I went back to old eating habits.  My feet were a wreck so I quit doing any exercise.  I very slowly, over the course of a year, put those 20 pounds right back on and despite trying to lose it again from time to time, I just wasn't committed.  By now I was a yo-yo dieter which is one of the worst things to do for weight loss.  My metabolism was all screwed up.

This spring, Taylor told me she wants to do the races again and I got really scared.  I have been going back to the gym, and tweaking my diet to find out what my triggers are. However, when she told me she wanted to run again, I was really scared.  Thankfully I had remedied my foot problem.  For the last several years, I had been wearing Asics and my feet just kept getting worse.  I talked to a person that has the same problem that I do with her feet and she recommended some (very spendy) Nikes to me.  Boy, that has made all the difference in the world.  I have very little foot pain anymore.  I can jog, jump, walk in stores (that used to really trigger foot pain), with no problems at all.  I have not been able to shed a single pound despide my toughest efforts.  I am trying to push through this and keep doing the things I need to do without getting discouraged.  Some days are better than others.

Middleton Fun Run 2013

I am elated that my kids want to be a part of these races and go hiking and just be outside.  So I decided to go ahead and do this local race with my girls.  At this point, my goal was to just finish without dying.  I managed to make it through to the end in 46.5 minutes.  Twelve minutes longer than it took Taylor and 10 longer than Bridget.  BUT, I finished.  And it felt really good!  I remembered how much I loved doing it and have decided to go ahead with the Race for the Cure again this year.  It is the day before Mothers Day.  Almost exactly a year from the last time I had a "normal" conversation with my mom.  This Mother's day will be tough, but I think the best way to celebrate it, is by doing this with my daughters.  I am ever grateful that Taylor dragged me out there this last Saturday morning.

life interrupted

It seems I have slipped a bit again.  So much has happened since my last post and I don't really know where to begin.  On May 12th, Taylor and I ran in the Race for the Cure-Boise.  It was a gorgeous day and I felt really good.  I beat my first race time by 2 minutes and of course Taylor was waiting for me at the finish line again.  She is a speedy little thing.  It was a lot of fun and I look forward to my next one which is probably in August.

Boise Race for the Cure 2012

My friend is a nutritionist and I decided to work with her and try and get my nutrition on track and I am so glad I did.  I also took progress pictures for the first time since last September and all I can say is I was so shocked at how much my body has changed for the better since then.  I attribute it to beginning weight lifting.  Even though the scale hadn't moved much at all, I have definitely lost a lot of inches.  The first week of working on my nutrition I lost 5 pounds.  Its a 30 day program intended to help me become a "cleaner" eater and eliminate added sugar and processed foods.  It has been challenging and I will have to incorporate a lot of this for the rest of my life but I am happy with it so far.  I am officially coffee-free and have been drinking green tea instead.   For anyone that knows me... this is HUGE! I can't wait til the end of the 30 days so I can compare it again.

My garden is doing wonderful!!  I have four types of tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, cucumbers, Lemon cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, summer squash, lettuce, scallions, spinach, wax beans, green beans and carrots all growing now.  I have room for two more cucumber plants and then they will all be full.

My first radish

The radishes I have picked since this are a bit bigger and the plants in the beds are a lot bigger now.

Mother's day this year was great.  My husband (and children of course) thought of the perfect gift.  When we bought this house, the front landscaping was a MESS.  There were three huge nasty rose bushes and I wasted no time digging those up immediately and I pulled out all of the myrtle that had taken over.  I uncovered a truckload of river rock and listed it on craigslist for free so it would get hauled away.  The bed has sat empty for over a year now.  On Mother's day I woke up to this beautiful sight-

Mother's day 2012

This wasn't enough to fill the area so the next week I went and bought some more to fill the space.  I am so happy with how it looks.  It is different than most people have around here with their bushes and daylilies.  I wanted lots of color so I have it now.  Now all we need is some mulch and it will be complete.

Summer has officially started and we are going to have a busy one.  My son graduated from kindergarten, my oldest is officially a middle schooler, we have two kids in tee-ball and games or practices 4 of the 5 days a week.  I have decided to cut back on work so I can be more available at home.  It was a hard decision to make but one that was needed and I think it will really help on many levels.  As it was before, I would have missed every single game of theirs and that was just not acceptable.

I am sorry I was neglectful and I hope I have been able to play a little catch-up with this post.  Thanks for visiting!  

Weigh-in Wednesday

I know it isn't Wednesday anymore but I was so unbelievably tired today that I just didn't get to it in time.  Why so tired?  Well today I had a complimentary fitness evaluation with a personal trainer at my new gym this morning at the crack of dawn.  I had no idea what to expect so I went into it with an open mind.

This young kid was there to show me the ropes of the place.  I spent a lot of time at the YMCA last year but I realized that I was only cozy with the elliptical and the treadmill.  I hadn't rendevouz'ed  with the resistance machines much at all.  They are so intimidating to me.  I really have no idea how to use most of the machines and the fear of looking like a moron who doesn't know what they are doing isn't so glamrous to me.  I was happy that he was going to take some time and show me how some of them work.

After a few reps on a handful of machines and also some workouts I can do sans machines, it was time to get down and dirty.  I had to face the hard cold facts of the dreaded BMI and mass distribution.  In other words, how much of this body is fit and how much is flab?  I'm not stupid, I know I am extremely out of shape and I have a lot of weight to lose still, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  The trainer confirmed that my personal goal was realistic and that with diet and exercise, I shouldn't have a hard time reaching that goal.  He also informed me that even though my BMI was too high, I have a lot of lean mass under this layer of flab.  This is really good news and I am pretty happy about it.

As for my weigh-in, I have lost 3 of the 7 pounds I had gained back.  Only 4 to go and I will be back where I was before I lost focus.  I feel my motivation is back finally.  I have been able to run very short periods of time on the treadmill with very little foot pain.  Next week I am going to get fitted for some REAL running shoes with the proper support my feet need.  I am so excited to finally get real running shoes because I know I need proper footwear in order to take care of my feet.

I can't wait for spring.  I have already started looking at races that I can do and am leaning towards the Dirty Dash in August!  How fun will it be to run a 5 mile race in goopy mud??  I also intend on running (not walking) a 5K by the end of the year.  I just want to get moving again.  It feels so good even when I am exhausted.  I need to finish what I started a little less than a year ago.