It has been WEEKS since I have sat down and written anything and for that I am sorry! Let me catch you up to speed. Just because I haven't been blogging does not by any means, mean that I have fallen off of the wagon. Not in the least!
I still run 3 times a week and am eating healthy. In fact, my total loss to date is 63 pounds!!! WOOT! That is the baby weight AND THEM SOME, BABY! :) I have however decided to take a break from Weight Watchers, actually my wallet made that decision, LOL! Please do not think for a moment that I do not believe in that program. But, my wallet just didn't want to take the hit anymore. That being said, I have started a love affair with My Fitness Pal (MFP). It is an app available on my droid. It is also a website. It is AMAZING! Oh yea...AND FREE:) It is a super simple calorie counter that figures out your calories, allows you to scan barcodes for foods, tracks your workouts and graphs your progress. Plus, you can add friends and keep track of one another's progress. Even make posts and comments...think Facebook for health nuts. I am IN LOVE! And honestly, counting calories is way easier than I ever anticipated! If you are looking for an easy and effective way to lose weight, you should check it out! And add me:) amberd0626.
Now, onto my workouts. I am running 3 times a week and ran my first 5k yesterday. I had 4 VERY specific goals in mind for this race:
- Don't be last
- Don't stop running
- Don't throw up
- Don't die
What in the hell was I thinking???? I am not a runner, I am not an athlete! I am 192 pounds, I don't fit in here. And I certainly can't run this race...Thankfully my husband knows how to handle me when I am like this. He did his best to calm me down. At least enough to make me see that I could try it and give it my best.
Race morning arrives and I lace up my Asics and away I go. It is in the 40's and raining, what a miserable day! I arrive to see a massive group of runners. What I noticed is this....runners truly do come in all shapes and sizes, there was even an angry brid running with me:) As the race begins, I run at my pace; being super careful not to start too fast and in turn end up having to walk. My pace is slow but steady. We come across hill #1 and it doesn't kill me...but I was certainly unprepared! For 8 weeks, I had trained on a treadmill. And for 2 weeks I trained on the canal. I had never hill trained, my body was certainly not prepared for this. We continue along the black top, across a foot bridge and down the canal. I was tired but still strong enough to not walk. We slow down through the "water stop" which was gatorade and it was terrible, turns out I wore most of it so it isnt like it mattered all that much anyway. As I continue past, I see a hill ahead of me. This is a MONSTER hill. Every bit of a 1/4 mile that zig zags straight up. As I continue to make the turns on this hill, my legs are screaming at me to stop, but I see the final bend and know that I have to SUCK IT UP and freaking do it. I press on, the hill levels out as we pass under a bridge. I am so relieved I did it!!!!
As we come out from under the bridge, there is another stretch of the monster hill remaining. The moment I see it, I have zero control, I am so exhausted and I am ready to walk. All I can muster at this point is,
"You have got to be fucking kidding me"
This got a giggle out of my sister, but I was angry, these damn hills were not in my plan. I press on and as I finally reach the top, it takes everything I have to keep my legs moving. It takes everything I have to not turn my stride into the "grandpa shuffle."
Finally, I see the football field in the distance and I know I have to keep going because the finish line is FINALLY in sight! We keep trucking and as we make the turn towards the field, I get chills. I look at my sister and say,
"I am going to finish this thing without walking!" My voice breaks, and I can feel the tears welling up. It took me a second to swallow the tears. And just as I do, I see my husband lift Jayce up and say,
"There's mommy!!!" I was ecstatic, I picked up the pace and I raced those last 50 yards with everything I had. I crossed the finish line at 39 minutes and 32 seconds!!! I secretly had a goal to do it in less than 40 minutes:)
My race time wasn't fast by any means, BUT, I didn't walk, die, puke or come in last....can you say SUCCESS?!?!?!?!?!? I may not love running, but man oh man do I love racing!!! I am already looking forward to my next race on October 15 at noon. I am aiming to improve my speed in the next two weeks. Two weeks is a lot of running time, so I am feeling confident that I can make this happen:)
As I reflect on my running and weight loss journey to date, so many things run through my mind. I have such an amazing support system that I know I can continue to banish this baby weight. This is not "baby weight" that I am losing at this point and it isn't easy. When someone hears that I am nursing my son, they tell me how amazing that is for weight loss. I am here to tell you that nursing is not how I have lost this weight. Because for me, along with nursing comes the need to eat 24/7!!!! This weight has not fallen off from having a baby or from even nursing. I have fought for every stinking pound. I have the sore muscles and the increased endurance to show for all of my hard work. So if you are reading my blog in hopes of a miracle drug or trick, I don't have one for you.
Hardwork and determination are what gets results. Diets don't fail, people do.
Until next time:)
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