On Thursday morning December 9th, 2010 after too many weeks of over indulging and giving myself too much freedom I reached a point where I knew I needed an intervention. I weighed in at home 10 pounds over my goal weight. It was a wake up call to get back on track and stop the nonsense.
I sat down at the computer and read this blog post by Prior Fat Girl - Accountability
I knew what I needed to do. I needed an accountability partner, but knowing me as well as I do - I knew I couldn't leave it up to chance - I needed a very specific person who knows what it is like to be at goal and to try and maintain (because this is hard!) - I had just the person in mind..
I sent her this desperate message... -"I'm in desperate need of an accountability partner - someone I can preferably text to since I'm not allowed facebook at work - I would prefer a person who is also maintaining (although as of this morning I'm 10 pounds above goal and that is just not acceptable!) So my first thought was you - would you be willing to accept texts from me good and bad as I battle through the holiday season and try to get this stupid weight back off? I'm so disgusted that I have allowed my self this gain in one short month! And I have done very little exercise wise. - Your mission if you choose to accept it is to text me at xxx-xxx-xxxx and let me know. If you can't do it, no problem and no pressure."
Then I went to work... A couple of hours later my phone buzzed and I saw this text - "Let the texting begin! What is your plan for exercise today?"
I was so happy - but a the same time I was thinking darn - I don't have any plans for exercise...
I had a wonderful on program day and even went out at lunch time and took a walk because I knew she wouldn't accept that I didn't do anything active. She even kept me out of the break room cookies (they make your A** fat... - her words..) which is a major feat!
So I now have a secret weapon in the battle against weight gain and I am going to get back in control!
My Weight Loss Ticker!
Friday, December 10, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
One Year Ago...
One year ago today I was sitting in a meeting with surrounded with family and friends celebrating hitting goal at Weight Watchers! Yesterday at the Meeting I was awarded with my second lifetime key - for weighing in within goal for at least 10 months of the year. I have 11 months in the books, but have not yet weighed in within goal for December but the month is still young!
On an active note - Yesterday I also ran Leg 4 of the California International Marathon - it was a 5.7 mile run and I decided after walking much of the season, I wanted to run part of it and see how well the ankles would hold up. I started out with intervals of 2 minutes running and 1 minute walking and I maintained them the whole 5.7 miles! This is such a fun race to be a part of (especially if the rest of your team is pretty fast and you are still out there with a TON of people!) Our team came in at 5:11 somethingish and it was so cool to see the crowds still heavy and cheering everyone in!
Edited to add a pic! Here is the running fairy! This was taken by a friend that was about 1 1/2 miles from the finish line.
On an active note - Yesterday I also ran Leg 4 of the California International Marathon - it was a 5.7 mile run and I decided after walking much of the season, I wanted to run part of it and see how well the ankles would hold up. I started out with intervals of 2 minutes running and 1 minute walking and I maintained them the whole 5.7 miles! This is such a fun race to be a part of (especially if the rest of your team is pretty fast and you are still out there with a TON of people!) Our team came in at 5:11 somethingish and it was so cool to see the crowds still heavy and cheering everyone in!
Edited to add a pic! Here is the running fairy! This was taken by a friend that was about 1 1/2 miles from the finish line.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Happy Birthday To Me! :)
Today is my Birthday! What better time to reflect on what I did this past year! Life was full of ups and downs this year and it just goes to show you that you never know what to expect.
On my birthday last year I was preparing to run leg 4 of the California International Marathon here in Sacramento and just days away from hitting my goal weight (100 pounds gone!) at Weight Watchers and reflecting back on running several half marathons my first full marathon.
This year I sit here preparing to run leg 4 of the California International Marathon, I'm just days away from celebrating a year of maintaining my weight loss and I'm reflecting back on several half marathons and my second full marathon which I walked with my Hubster (it was his first). I also completed my first Sprint Triathlon, took to the trails for some trail running (Night trail running too!), rode my bike more (and survived my first crash!).
I have some amazing people in my life who keep me striving to maintain my healthy lifestyle and always push my boundaries and try new things!
On a more personal family note - We have went through two major health crisis this year where I needed to step up and be strong and help out others in my family. In June we got to celebrate the wedding of my older son where I got an awesome daughter in law and they both have an active lifestyle. Watching them makes want me to keep doing what I'm doing so I can keep up! My youngest son just turned 11 and I'm enjoying doing things with him that I didn't do with my oldest because I wasn't physically able too. Trips used to be planed out with the details of where will we eat and now trips are planned out with what hiking trails are near and where else can we can walk or run?
A year ago I wasn't much different - but I am constantly evolving. Tweaking things here and there to try new things. Who knows what the next year will bring but I'm ready to take on whatever life throws at me! Stay Tuned!
On my birthday last year I was preparing to run leg 4 of the California International Marathon here in Sacramento and just days away from hitting my goal weight (100 pounds gone!) at Weight Watchers and reflecting back on running several half marathons my first full marathon.
This year I sit here preparing to run leg 4 of the California International Marathon, I'm just days away from celebrating a year of maintaining my weight loss and I'm reflecting back on several half marathons and my second full marathon which I walked with my Hubster (it was his first). I also completed my first Sprint Triathlon, took to the trails for some trail running (Night trail running too!), rode my bike more (and survived my first crash!).
I have some amazing people in my life who keep me striving to maintain my healthy lifestyle and always push my boundaries and try new things!
On a more personal family note - We have went through two major health crisis this year where I needed to step up and be strong and help out others in my family. In June we got to celebrate the wedding of my older son where I got an awesome daughter in law and they both have an active lifestyle. Watching them makes want me to keep doing what I'm doing so I can keep up! My youngest son just turned 11 and I'm enjoying doing things with him that I didn't do with my oldest because I wasn't physically able too. Trips used to be planed out with the details of where will we eat and now trips are planned out with what hiking trails are near and where else can we can walk or run?
A year ago I wasn't much different - but I am constantly evolving. Tweaking things here and there to try new things. Who knows what the next year will bring but I'm ready to take on whatever life throws at me! Stay Tuned!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Morgan Hill Marathon!
First off I have to say - We Did It!!!
I put off reporting about the marathon because I wanted some of the "suckiness" to go away so that didn't taint my blog post. It was a very long walk and parts of it made me doubt if I (or we for that matter) would finish - but finish we did!
We had been watching the weather forecast and we knew it was going to end up raining - OK - we can deal with that. The only bad thing about the course I would say was the camber of the road - we felt like we were walking tilted to the right up until mile 17. The scenery was beautiful!
This pic was taken the day after - Before we left Morgan Hill we drove the course and took some pics because it was too rainy the day off for me to carry my camera. The weather on Monday was perfect!
We knew very early on that we were going to not only be by ourselves for a while but also very last - the half split off from the full course around 1 1/2 miles in and there was no one that made the turn behind us. Amazingly we got tired before we even got to the halfway point and our grand plan was to start out slow and do the second half at a faster pace, but that didn't happen.
At mile 21.38 I got the text message that I had been waiting for - my parents had came down (2 1/2 hour drive one way) and they had brought our younger son. I asked my dad if he would think about coming and being there for the Hubster when he crosses the line at his first full marathon and he told me he would! How I kept that a secret from him for so long I have no idea! I was so excited at that point to see his face when he saw them! We also had two people from our walking group that made the same drive to be there when we finished! It was so nice knowing we would have people at the finish line cheering us in!
We finally got closer to around the 25 1/2 mile mark and our two walking buddies were there! They were so excited to see us and we were so excited to see familiar faces!!
We continue on knowing we are almost there and as we get closer to the finish line I can see my parents and Logan - I point up to the line and tell Jeff to look - and he at first says - what? Then he sees Logan in his bright orange rain jacket and he gets a little choked up! I almost cried too! I was so happy to have surprised Jeff - I was so happy to have help Jeff complete his first full marathon and I was so happy that we could stop walking!
Nothing says true love like walking 26.2 miles in 7 hours and 35 minutes and crossing the finish line hand in hand!
Logan got to put our medals around our necks and my parents followed us back to our hotel room and got us settled before they left to drive home.
At the finish line we both said "never again" but under the right circumstances I think we could be talked into another one now...
A big thanks goes out to everyone who supported us along the way - from anyone who ever did a training walk with us (sometimes you get the group through the mileage and sometimes the group gets you through the mileage) - to my parents who keep my younger son every Saturday while we go out and do the silly and sometimes ridiculously long walks - The volunteers on race day and the family and friends who drive ridiculously long distances and stood in the rain waiting FOREVER for us to come in - special friends who encourage and support all along the way and even the morning of the marathon - and another friend who drove the course keeping us safe and even walked 5 miles with us even though she had a perfectly good car and didn't have to walk that 5 miles with us and supported me when I wanted to give up the most!
Sometimes it is easy to forget the amount of training and support a person needs to complete an event like this and crossing the finish line was a very humbling and emotional experience for me.
I put off reporting about the marathon because I wanted some of the "suckiness" to go away so that didn't taint my blog post. It was a very long walk and parts of it made me doubt if I (or we for that matter) would finish - but finish we did!
We had been watching the weather forecast and we knew it was going to end up raining - OK - we can deal with that. The only bad thing about the course I would say was the camber of the road - we felt like we were walking tilted to the right up until mile 17. The scenery was beautiful!
This pic was taken the day after - Before we left Morgan Hill we drove the course and took some pics because it was too rainy the day off for me to carry my camera. The weather on Monday was perfect!We knew very early on that we were going to not only be by ourselves for a while but also very last - the half split off from the full course around 1 1/2 miles in and there was no one that made the turn behind us. Amazingly we got tired before we even got to the halfway point and our grand plan was to start out slow and do the second half at a faster pace, but that didn't happen.
At mile 21.38 I got the text message that I had been waiting for - my parents had came down (2 1/2 hour drive one way) and they had brought our younger son. I asked my dad if he would think about coming and being there for the Hubster when he crosses the line at his first full marathon and he told me he would! How I kept that a secret from him for so long I have no idea! I was so excited at that point to see his face when he saw them! We also had two people from our walking group that made the same drive to be there when we finished! It was so nice knowing we would have people at the finish line cheering us in!
We finally got closer to around the 25 1/2 mile mark and our two walking buddies were there! They were so excited to see us and we were so excited to see familiar faces!!
We continue on knowing we are almost there and as we get closer to the finish line I can see my parents and Logan - I point up to the line and tell Jeff to look - and he at first says - what? Then he sees Logan in his bright orange rain jacket and he gets a little choked up! I almost cried too! I was so happy to have surprised Jeff - I was so happy to have help Jeff complete his first full marathon and I was so happy that we could stop walking!
Nothing says true love like walking 26.2 miles in 7 hours and 35 minutes and crossing the finish line hand in hand!
Logan got to put our medals around our necks and my parents followed us back to our hotel room and got us settled before they left to drive home.At the finish line we both said "never again" but under the right circumstances I think we could be talked into another one now...
A big thanks goes out to everyone who supported us along the way - from anyone who ever did a training walk with us (sometimes you get the group through the mileage and sometimes the group gets you through the mileage) - to my parents who keep my younger son every Saturday while we go out and do the silly and sometimes ridiculously long walks - The volunteers on race day and the family and friends who drive ridiculously long distances and stood in the rain waiting FOREVER for us to come in - special friends who encourage and support all along the way and even the morning of the marathon - and another friend who drove the course keeping us safe and even walked 5 miles with us even though she had a perfectly good car and didn't have to walk that 5 miles with us and supported me when I wanted to give up the most!
Sometimes it is easy to forget the amount of training and support a person needs to complete an event like this and crossing the finish line was a very humbling and emotional experience for me.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! (aka Sacfit Saturday!)
SacFit Saturday was a BLAST this weekend - the purple group had a great time! We decorated our tent and my hubby carved a pumpkin with our our running groups name in it - pretty cool and it was a huge hit with everyone!
Some people even came in costume and I have to show you what one of my pace group members did!
This is MJ - and she came dressed as me! Isn't that just the coolest thing ever!?! She just cracks me up! I loved it MJ!!
After our mileage we had our annual family breakfast and we were treated to pancakes, sausage, fruit and hot chocolate! It was a very nice treat after all the hard work we had put in and it was neat to meet other team members families!
On a side note - Saturday was all about getting our last workout in before Four of the team members go to Morgan Hill on the 7th and complete our full marathon! We did 5 easy miles (well 2 of us did) my hubby is nursing a shin splint and will do a couple of short workouts this week per doctors orders and one other did her mileage on Sunday morning. We are so ready for this now! We have trained and got in the mileage and know what to do - it is just the matter of putting everything into play on race day and keeping our fingers crossed everything goes well!
Some people even came in costume and I have to show you what one of my pace group members did!
This is MJ - and she came dressed as me! Isn't that just the coolest thing ever!?! She just cracks me up! I loved it MJ!!After our mileage we had our annual family breakfast and we were treated to pancakes, sausage, fruit and hot chocolate! It was a very nice treat after all the hard work we had put in and it was neat to meet other team members families!
On a side note - Saturday was all about getting our last workout in before Four of the team members go to Morgan Hill on the 7th and complete our full marathon! We did 5 easy miles (well 2 of us did) my hubby is nursing a shin splint and will do a couple of short workouts this week per doctors orders and one other did her mileage on Sunday morning. We are so ready for this now! We have trained and got in the mileage and know what to do - it is just the matter of putting everything into play on race day and keeping our fingers crossed everything goes well!
Monday, October 18, 2010
The last long one - before the longest one!
On Saturday Jeff, Ginny and I did 19 miles! It is our longest walk before our full marathon in a mere 3 weeks! I was concerned because the 16 miler didn't go well due to foot pain and I didn't get in the full 16 miles. However in the time between that mileage and Saturday I have become smarter.... I pay attention to how the tight calf and foot is feeling and I STOP and take the time to stretch along the way to work out the problems before they become too bad to continue - because failing on race day is not an option!!
We started out our walk at 6AM - yes it was still dark and was for at least 1/2 hour. It was also amazing out there - the wildlife you see just before dawn is amazing! 100's of bunnies, several deer and a really cute trail kitty that talked to us when we went by! In the dark you just have to look over with your light and they are right there next to you - they are not really that spooked by you and they just sit and stare back!
After 4.5 miles we met up with our group that started at 7:30 and two of the ladies in our group had brought food and water for us to refuel and we started out again with our group for their 8 mile walk. When we came back and filled water bottles and ate again we set back out for the remainder of our miles. I really like chopping it up like that, made them go by a little faster (if 5 1/2 hours of walking can seem fast....)
This has been the longest walk that the hubster has ever done and I'm so proud of him!! After a reward of a cupcake we went home and made lunch and spent the rest of the day relaxing! on Sunday I woke up expecting to still be sore, stiff or at least something... nothing - I felt great!!
The next two weeks is our taper - we do 10 miles next week as our long one and then the week after just 5! On November 7th we will be in Morgan Hill and I will be there every step of the way as my husband completes his first full marathon!!
We started out our walk at 6AM - yes it was still dark and was for at least 1/2 hour. It was also amazing out there - the wildlife you see just before dawn is amazing! 100's of bunnies, several deer and a really cute trail kitty that talked to us when we went by! In the dark you just have to look over with your light and they are right there next to you - they are not really that spooked by you and they just sit and stare back!
After 4.5 miles we met up with our group that started at 7:30 and two of the ladies in our group had brought food and water for us to refuel and we started out again with our group for their 8 mile walk. When we came back and filled water bottles and ate again we set back out for the remainder of our miles. I really like chopping it up like that, made them go by a little faster (if 5 1/2 hours of walking can seem fast....)
This has been the longest walk that the hubster has ever done and I'm so proud of him!! After a reward of a cupcake we went home and made lunch and spent the rest of the day relaxing! on Sunday I woke up expecting to still be sore, stiff or at least something... nothing - I felt great!!
The next two weeks is our taper - we do 10 miles next week as our long one and then the week after just 5! On November 7th we will be in Morgan Hill and I will be there every step of the way as my husband completes his first full marathon!!
Monday, October 4, 2010
The Running Fairy Races!
I walked the Urban Cow Half Marathon on Sunday (My 7th Half Marathon - can you believe it??). I will in all honesty say that I got up the morning of the race and was half excited and half kinda feeling weird about it. I knew I was walking the race - there were no times to beat and it felt strange. One thing I did look forward to was coaching and pacing MJ to complete her first ever Half-Marathon! She did have a time goal in mind so it was our job to keep her on track and get her to the finish line. Her parents came from Oregon to see her and was at several places along the route with signs cheering her on. One thing they liked was they could always spot her coming - she was with The Running Fairy! Every time I got tired or sore or whatever all I had to do was think about MJ crossing the line with her parents there and how much crossing that line for the first time meant to me and I would get goosebumps and keep on moving!As we made the turn into the park I was thinking very much about the first time I crossed that finish line. This race was my very first Half Marathon three years ago. I ran 3:1 intervals (meaning 3 minutes running and 1 minute walking) and I still remember crying like a baby before I even got to the finish line! As I looked at my time I realized that I had a good chance of beating that first time at this race - but this time I walked the 13 miles and ran only the last .1 over the finish line. Sure enough I did. My first Half marathon time was 3:23:12 and this years time is 3:23:06!
I was super excited about my time and then MJ was right behind me! I watched her cross the line and she cried - her parents were so proud of her - she was exhausted and emotional - I grabbed her medal and put it around her neck and we took pictures!
Here is our group! Ginny, MJ, The Hubster (Who beat his previous time by 7 minutes!) and The Running Fairy!
What an amazing race and an amazing day!!And the great thing is - In a month I get to do it all again - this time walking my second full marathon with my husband and seeing him cross the finish line of a full marathon for the first time!!
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