Tails n Trails

Saturday 10/9/10 I participated in a local 5k benefiting our humane society. Last year I ran the race too however this year it was at a different location. This year was the second year for the race so I can proudly say I have consecutively ran in every tails and trails 5k ;).

It was so much fun to be in this race. Not only was it a 5k but they also had a 15k and dog walk. There were dogs and people everywhere!

I made it my goal to try and finish the race under 40 minutes. I have been averaging 12 to 13 minute miles on my running during the week so it was feasible to reach my goal. Also I had 3 of my co-workers walking in the dog walk and my personal trainer was doing the 5k, so I felt extra pressure to do well.

This was my first trail run. I had no idea what to expect but didn't imagine it would be much more difficult than my normal running I do on pavement. Maybe I was just being naive. They explained before the race that the 5k route we were running is the exact track laid out for our local high school cross country sectional meet.

The race began and we all took off across a huge open field. It really surprised me how different it felt to run on grass as opposed to my normal runs on pavement. And when we switched to gravel/trails it really proved to be more of a challenge than I expected.

There was this steep hill we had to run down and it scared me that I was going to fall but I didn't thank goodness. However, I was unaware later in the race I was going to be running back up that same hill!

As I was nearing the last mile another large hill was in the course. I could see the grass hill and knew I had to get up it but in my mind I was thinking I can't do it. Then I gave myself a little pep talk. I have accomplished so much so far in my journey one stinkin hill isn't me. Each step up the hill I just reminded myself how far I have really come. By the time I reached the top, I wanted to do the victory dance I was so proud. Not only did I make it up the hill, I also finally saw a bit of the strength I had inside me, I didn't think was there.

I finished the race in just under 42 minutes. I didn't meet my time goal but i didn't care so much. This race was proof to myself that I can accomplish more than I think I can... Including running up big ol stinkin hills!!!

Sugar Day 8

Today is day 8 of my no sugar quest!  Some days are better than others.  I ran a 5K Saturday and had a Gatorade, I didn't even think about to check the sugar until after I drank the whole thing! Sunday at dinner with the family I enjoyed myself a slice of pumpkin pie.  But its all good... I have not given up and I am plugging away. 

Friday I had a conversation with a group of people that kind of opened my eyes.  I was discussing my attempt to cut sugar out of my diet.  One person sitting at the table began to say how they also try to not eat sugar in their diet. In the meantime they are sitting there eating a piece of apple pie!  One of the other people sitting with me at the table brought up the fact that this person was eating the piece of pie and they excused eating the pie as ok because it was mostly fruit!

Its is amazing to me to how much we will make excuses to make ourselves feel better about our bad choices.  The pie is mostly fruit, I will work harder in exchange for eating crappy!  FOR REAL?!?!  Why don't we just say how it is, I ate the pie because I wanted to eat it, I am not really going to work harder I just want to make myself feel better now about eating crappy.  

Honesty I have struggled with making the right choices when I am alone because, I am alone. I know the right choices to make but I have that little voice in the back of my head telling me, it is ok to eat something because no one is there to see me... the only problem with that is, I am only hurting myself!!  Yes, I don't have the accountability when I am by myself but it is not about doing the right thing only when people are there to critique what I do.  It is what I do when no one is watching me when I am truly learning my lesson.  It is ok to eat something off every now and again, just don't let it become an every day occurrence, deal with your decisions and don't let it hold you back from continuing on with your journey!  

2 years! What?!

Today is a day of celebration!! It has been 2 years since I decided to make my health a priority. I was no longer going to be the fat girl... Oh my, how much I have learned in these past two years. I learned how to have effective workouts, what I should and shouldn't eat but most of all learned so much about myself.

It is more than just a number on the scale, it is about the change in you head. Growing up always being the big girl, I had to start thinking of myself differently. I have learned just how strong I can be. How many times do people jump on the bandwagon only to have crash and burned later down the road. I have continued on this journey for 2 years and will continue for the rest of my life. A friend of mine recently pointed out to me the fact that I have the strength to lose this weigh is evidence of just how strong my will power is. In addition, the strength I have inside to improve my health also shows that I have the strength to improve other, non-health related, areas in my life.

I am succeeding in proving that even though I have lived most of my life with a weight issue I don't have to finish my life with a weight issue. Growing up I listened to the negative "I can't" voice in my head giving every excuse to not live life to my potential. However to go from saying "I can't" to "I can" is the mind shift that changes the world. We all have limitations and things we are not good at, but to do what we can do is the baby steps that brings you to your goals.

When I started my journey I could have easily said "I can't do a half marathon", and I believed that. But I had to say, "I can walk a mile" after I did that it brought me to say "I can participate in a race" which in turn led to "I can run a 5K" which eventually got me to "I can do a half marathon!". How much greater potential would we all have if we just stopped saying I can't and focused on what we can do!

Below I am sharing my photo time line I started 2 years ago, up the my most current picture. The pictures below are a visual representation of what "can" can do!! :)

Day 3

I survived another day! ;) It seemed to be easier to resist the candy and pop temptations today. Could be that there was less stress in my day but I wanna think I am getting stronger in my will power.

Today my oatmeal, which I normally put honey and craisens in, tasted a little better than wall paper paste and actually not too bad. I am even proud of myself and have not ate a reeces pumpkin! I know it is only day 3 of my no sugar adventure but I am starting to see this might actually be something to help me break this plateau I am on.



I am going to stick my flag in the ground today and declare to all you reading this blog my next goal. I have been stuck in the 10 pound rut fluctuating between 80 - 90 pounds lost since May. Although my body has continued to change and have lost multiple inches, it is time for me to get focused again. I am making it my goal that I will lose 100 pounds before January 1, 2011! Which currently means I will need to lose 14 pounds to reach my goal. Totally achievable, so I also challenge you to set your own personal goal to reach by January 1... who said resolutions had to start on January 1 anyways!! :)

Day 2

Ok, so today I seriously contemplated my sanity today with my no sugar challenge. Today was quarter end close at work, which causes extra stress because all work needs to be complete by 5 pm. Not to mention, now withdraw is setting in and I have a heighten sense of awareness of every sugar laden food in my general vicinity! :)

I did manage to make it through the work day without adding extra sugar to my foods. One of my coworkers gave me a picture today of us when we did the march of dimes walk a little over a year and a half ago. The picture was taken after I had already reached 30 pounds lost. It blew me away to see that picture and prove to myself that I have come a long way. I kept looking at that picture all day as motivation to keep my head in the game.



True confession time though... I did however eat a reeces pumpkin tonight after dinner, but it is not the end of the world.

Overall I rate today a 8 out of 10. I am slowly learning I am stronger than I think I am. I choose to make decisions to further my health and strength. I might mess up but there is no failure when quitting is not an option!

What?! No Sugar!

So I have been planning for a bit now to try and cut out excess sugar from my diet. I always hear about how extra sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial sugars are bad for us. Stuff about it messing with your blood sugar levels and also causing your body to crave more sugar and so on. So I decided today 10/4/10 was going to be my first day without adding excess sugar to my diet. That meant no sugar in my coffee or tea, and no honey in my morning oatmeal. I am also trying to limit my sugars in packaged foods to 10g of sugar per package.

I have heard warnings that when you cut sugar your body goes through withdraw period where you are irritable but once you get past the first few days your body will adjust. Now I am not one to jump on any bandwagon for fad diets where you cut out all carbs, starve yourself and/or inject your body with hormones all just to look better in a pair of jeans. If you are looking for a quick fix to the mess of being overweight you are never going to learn and I pretty much guarantee the weight will not stay off in the long term. I know it is cliche but come on people, you didn't get fat overnight, your not going to get thin overnight. But I digress :)

When I heard about cutting the sugar out of my diet I thought, "oh that would be easy", Ya right!! After studying labels and examining my diet I realized I had a lot of excess sugar in my diet. A packet of sugar in my coffee or tea, a tablespoon on my oatmeal, heck there is even 19g of sugar in my yogurt!! Not to even mention the blatant sugars I consume in skinny cow ice cream, chick-fil-a sweet tea and the occasional chocolate bar or candy. So I made the decision, I was going to cut out all excess sugars see what happens.

So what happened... I get to work this morning and there is no regular coffee in the entire building, only decaf. Not so much of a big deal because I have green tea in my desk so I drank tea all day. Then the computer system I work on had an "upgrade" done to it this weekend, however our obsolete computers were not able to handle all the updates so our view screen only showed a 1x6 inch rectangular crosssection of the page and all the sorting functions were wacky too! So first day was not the greatest, but I survived, I resisted the jolly ranchers, reeces pumpkins and tootsie rolls, and fought off the urge to buy a cherry coke out of the vending machine. I did however make a peanut butter fluff sandwich for my 4 pm meal. :( But the marshmallow fluff is now gone and so I will not have that in the house anymore.

Day one, I rate 6 out of 10 overall... Lets see what the next few days of withdraw will bring :) haha wish me luck all!!