Home State (and hydration belt)

Oh Michigan how I love you! I had planned on running more while down in the Outer Banks, NC, however I really try to make sure the running I do doesn't turn into torture. I realize that not every run is going to be fun or easy or pain-free. However I do know that when I am running in a climate that is too hot, I feel tortured. So rationalizing aside - I didn't run any more than the three times in NC because it was STINKING HOT! When the temperature at home reaches 75 I head to the gym. In OBX the heat index at 6am was like 90. Sooooooo I wimped out. ;-)

That all being said...we drove the 14.5 hours home yesterday (ate like CRAP) and I'm recommitting myself today to my calorie count and running. Enter the 5 mile run today. The 5 beautiful, wonderful, fairly easy, COOL, 68 degree, 5 miles that I ran at 10:30 am!!!!!! Thank you beautiful Michigan weather! (Granted later this week it's going to be in the 80's...but still!)

I've had some runs that have left me not only thirsty but feeling really sluggish. I purchased the hydration belt that I tried out today (and loved!), but I've also been thinking about what I'm taking in before my runs. Sometimes I don't eat anything, or sometimes its whatever I've eaten for the meal the hours before the run. However I think that I'm really needing some instant nutrition before my runs. So I ate a GU before the run today to see if that would affect how I feel on this run. My plan for today was to reach for 5 miles but I hadn't run much in OBX, and I ate like crap yesterday and didn't drink much water. This left me feeling skeptical about the success of the run today.

The hydration belt that I bought is a Nathan Speed 2R Auto-Cant in Medium. The website gives the measurements for a hip size of 32-38". I have a hip size of about 38" but I have a waist size of 29 so I thought that I wanted to buy a belt that would fit as I lost weight.  I stretched it over my hips when I got it and I can Velcro it but it's very tight. So I put it around my natural waist and Velcro it pretty tight and it works perfectly. I'm used to wearing a training pack around my natural waist with my phone in it anyways so this wasn't much different.

My pace started out at 13:26 for the first mile. I have such a hard time maintaining a lower pace during easy/long runs and then I burn out too quickly, so I tried to not push myself into a higher pace. My heart rate stayed around 160 which was excellent. The hydration belt did not budge! I couldn't feel it bounce or slosh or anything. I took a sip after the first mile and realized that the drinking mechanism is something I will have to get used to. Its not a mouthpiece you open with your teeth or suck on to get water out, its more designed to squirt into your mouth. Back in the belt I could hear the water slosh around when I took my ear buds out but I didn't feel any difference in the weight between a half empty bottle or a full bottle. About 1.2 miles in I realized I needed to go to the bathroom. Uh Oh! So I aborted my original route and turned around to head back home. The second mile was the same pace as mile one and I felt pretty good. I made it home (after an unintentional detour) at mile 2.66 and paused my Garmin so I could go inside the house to use the bathroom. Once I came back out I decided to run my old loop to finish off 5 miles. My splits at this point were getting faster but my heart rate stayed around 165. As I continued the run I got used to the water bottles and how to squirt them in my mouth without slowing down or chocking. The water bottles each hold 8 ounces which I think is perfect for what I'm using the belt for. I don't need or want to drink a lot of water on my runs, but I remember that thirst from the 7 mile run a couple weeks ago and I need a little something to help get me through.

I finished the run without walking and feeling really good. I only had about 6-7 ounces to drink between the two bottles which was good for a 5 mile run. The hydration belt didn't make me sweat more, it has wicking material that worked really well on this sweaty run. I think that between the water available to me all the time as well as the GU before the run really helped make this run as good as it was despite the lack of good nutrition and water yesterday. I am really happy about today's run and I'm really happy with the hydration belt. So now I'm sitting watching last week's Extreme Weight Loss with Chris Powell and I'm going to be getting ready for a training session for work. All in all a good day! :)

PS....I forgot to take pictures of me in the belt today but I will be posting them soon!

Long and picture-ific!

I have a lot to post about! Saturday was such an amazing day. And it started with a great run! 

Picture this: 6 am on Saturday morning. The sun not quite up yet and very few people on the beach. Low tide was at 4:15 so tide is still out. The beach had hard packed sand from the receding waves and there was enough wind to cool you off but not enough to blow sand at you. This is how my 2 mile run began. 

I was able to run with the sunrise and it was glorious!

Both miles felt so good which was such a relief after the miserable 4 mile run on Friday. It was tough work running in the sand and I could feel all of the different muscle groups in my legs working together just to propel me forward but the wind kept me cool. It was such a different atmosphere than I am used to running in and it was a welcomed adventure!

Saturday was my one year wedding anniversary with my husband PJ and I knew we had dinner plans. We went to the beach in the house my mom and her fiancé are building in the morning because they have a great yard and dock to launch their kites for kite boarding. I sat by watching them and sunbathing. Not a bad way to relax! After we came home PJ and I cut into out top tier of our wedding cake we had frozen for a year...and it was fantastic!

It tasted just as good as the day it was made! Shortly thereafter we exchanged gifts. We decided to go with traditional gifts and the first year is paper. I made him a photo book on shutterfly.com and wrote out 52 reasons why I love him on paper that I folded into little hearts that he can open every week for the next year. He painted me a scroll with a big tree in all 4 seasons and wrote me a love note on the bottom. He also made me a book of all the things he knows about me/us and silly things like what superhero I would be: Allergy Girl. Haha we got ready for dinner and headed out to a restaurant called 1587 inside a bed and breakfast on Roanoke Island, NC. The restaurant was semi upscale with a gorgeous interior and a very nice menu. We started out with a flatbread appetizer with buffalo mozzarella and basil and a balsamic glaze. 

It was SO good! We had bread and butter as well before our entrees came. I ordered the filet mignon with a Demi glace and mashed potatoes and seasonal veggies. 

PJ ordered grouper with a risotto cake and some kind of okra salad. 

All of it was fantastic! We had créam brûlée and a chocolate mousse pudding for dessert. I forgot to snap pictures before I dove into those!! Halfway through dinner we were remarking how pretty the place was and how quaint the B&B was and just then PJ slid a brass room key across the table. He had secretly planned an overnight trip! He even packed my bag and snuck it out to the car so I wouldn't notice! He's such a romantic! We had champagne in the room and our anniversary night was perfect. I couldn't have been more surprised!

It was wonderful and the whole day just seemed perfect. I couldn't have asked for more. Needless to say Sunday became my rest day since we stayed away for the night. I was happy to see that my hydration belt showed up Saturday so I will be using that on my run tomorrow. Today we went to the beach and boogie boarded and had a quiet night. This vacation has been so much fun and so relaxing. I'm starting to get sad we must leave on Wednesday. I guess that's when you know your vacation is a success.  It's getting late so I'm going to go to bed so I can hopefully get out there early for my run! Let you know how the hydration belt works tomorrow!

Hot and humid

This morning my dogs woke me up at 5:45 again my shaking their collars. I had already been on the verge of waking up since I went to bed at 7:30pm yesterday! Who goes to bed that early on vacation? This girl does! I took them outside and the sun hasn't risen yet so it was just getting light. I thought about going for my run then but my book distracted me. What a mistake that was! I ended up going out at 7 am and it was so humid! I got to the one mile mark with a pretty good time of 12:26 but was starting to get tired. I thought about turning back but I put in writing I was gonna go 4 miles and I didn't want to wimp out. By the time I hit the 2nd mile I was getting really tired. I was adding in a couple little walk beaks and I was sweating more than ever! By mile 3 I was walking more and super frustrated. I am so not used to the hot and humid running! At home when it's over 75 I go to the gym and run on the treadmill. Here it's 75 with a lot of humidity so it makes it feel so much warmer. The only saving grace is the wind. There was quite a breeze today which helped a little bit. I limped the 4th mile home with about half walking and half running. It was miserable and sweaty! 

I've been thinking of ways to hydrate while I'm out for my long runs back home ever since my extreme thirst episode last week. Today proved to me that in such high humidity and heat I need to have water so I looked on amazon and found a hydration belt that I had rush shipped to my moms so I can try it out this week. I'll write a review of it early next week when I've used it. 

As for the rest of my day I layed around reading and napping for a while. We went to the grocery store to pick up some food for the dinner PJ was cooking tonight. He made fajitas and they were so good! After dinner we went for a dusk walk along the beach with the dogs. The wind was blowing so hard and whipping us with sand but it was still a pretty nice walk. We went about 1 mile on the beach not including the walk in from the house. The dogs had so much fun when we let them off leash to run a bit. All in all a great vacation day!

Beach time

After a 4 day stretch at work PJ and I got off Tuesday morning ready for a crazy day. We slept for a couple hours (I slept way more than PJ did) and we got up and spent the whole day preparing to leave for our trip to the Outer Banks, NC to see my mom. Since we have been on a midnight schedule we decided to just leave Tuesday night rather than trying to sleep and waking up early. We made pretty good time and got to OBX around 3:30pm.  15 hours of driving was not good for my eating. We did mostly snacks and mostly bad ones at that. I'm a sucker for snacky foods! 

After we got unloaded we went down to the beach and built a fire. Several of us played in the waves and I got pummeled right into the beach! Then I found what looked to be the head of a jelly fish without the tentacles in my bathing suit bottoms and I. Freaked. Out.  I thrashed and got knocked over again. Needless to say I looked pretty. We ate smoked sausage cooked over the beach fire and watermelon and stayed until tide came in. I went to bed around 8 and slept soundly for 10 hours! At around 5:45 my dogs woke me up to let them out. Once I was back in bed I kept thinking about running and how it is the perfect time. I peeled myself back out of bed and put on my running gear. I haven't run in about a week because I've been working so I planned to take it easy today. I warmed up and headed out around 6:20. The sun was still low in the sky so I didn't need sunglasses. It was humid but not unbearable. I ran down the road until my watch beeped a mile and then turned around. I ended up at 2.05 miles in 25:27 minutes with an average pace of 12:38. Not bad for an easy run in a warmer climate. 

Now I'm sitting on the beach reading and blogging watching my family boogie board. Not bad huh? I waded into the waves a bit but was too scared to boogie board and get creamed! I did find out that I have some sort of allergy to something in the water tho...

All of those are hives! I'll be taking some Benadryl later! Tonight we are having rotisserie chicken and baked potatoes. Yum! Tomorrow I think I'll try to get up early again for a run. It was nice to be out in the calm early say. I felt very serene. I am planning on 4 miles tomorrow at an easy pace and then later in the week I will have my long run and a tempo run. 

Long run

Originally I had planned to go out with a friend early in the day and run later. When my friend cancelled, I had to make a quick decision about when to do my long run. I didn't sleep much last night since I'm all turned around with my sleep schedule so I woke up at 5ish and decided to read. I'm really into a new series my husband got me on called "The immortal instrument series" and boy is it hard to put down! At 8 I ate some peanut butter and toast and had a big glass of water before continuing to read until 9:15. I came to part 3 in my book and decided to run while it was still cool and before I lost track of more time. 

I set out to do 7-8 miles around 9:30. I planned my route ahead I'd time and decided to do it backwards than I normally do. The first 3 miles went great. I felt good and my heart rate and breathing were comfortable. Around mile 3 my right foot started to hurt a little bit. I tried a bit of walking near a stoplight but that actually made it feel worse so I kept running. Around 5 miles I seemed to hit my wall. I all of a sudden got super thirsty and tired feeling. It just got worse through the next mile. I can't remember the last time I've ever felt that thirsty! I was even considering asking someone who was out in their yard working for a drink of water. My pride held me back and I kept running. I never have carried a water bottle with me because it felt too bulky or odd. After today though I will be looking into a handheld water bottle. The further I seemed to go the more tired I felt and I found myself walking more and more even with the pain in my foot. I was feeling pretty discouraged. Finally I arrived home after 7.3 miles in an embarrassingly slow 1:45:47. I keep telling myself that I should be proud I finished and didn't give up. My foot however still hurts and it see,s to be the tendon running along the top of my right foot. I took some ibuprofen and I'm hoping by tomorrow it feels much better. 

After my run and 3 huge glasses of cool water (ahhhhh) I showered and got a text from my friend who cancelled on me saying she was now available for lunch if I was. I drove out and met her at a little diner in Ann Arbor called Cafe Marie's. I had the grilled chicken cherry salad and boy was it delicious! I came home after a long lunch with my friend and cleaned up the kitchen. After a short nap I got up and PJ made turkey burgers and sweet potato fries. It was good and I felt like I've had a pretty good day food wise. I ate 3 meals with minimal snacking and that's what I'd like to make habit. I get into trouble when I snack a whole lot. 

Now I'm laying in bed watching some tv and gonna finish my book! Then it's bedtime for this tired girl! I'm gonna try to run an easy couple miles tomorrow if my foot is feeling up to it. Wish me luck!

Here are some things I need to keep in mind as I run:

An attempt at interval(s)

I hate the day after my stretch at work. I'm exhausted and all turned around and feel incredibly lazy. I was not made for midnights my friends. This is why I'm excited that I am moving to a day/night rotating shift later in August. I will work 3 weeks of day shift and one week (or weekend as I'll plan it) of night shift. Since PJ works nights, it will definitely alter our lives, but I think once I feel straightened out and on a "normal" schedule it will all work itself out.

So on to what I've done since I woke up at...7pm. Not a whole lot! Since I posted early this morning that I was going to run today I couldn't wimp out. As much as I wanted to just sit on the couch all night long, I made a commitment to myself. That being said...I also waited until the very last minute to get down to it. At 8:30pm I had a choice to make...outside or gym. I HATE the treadmill. I'll use it when it's really, really, hot out; but I'm not a fan. At 8:30 tonight the sun was just starting to go down and it was drizzling outside. So...treadmill or rainy run?

I chose rainy run. Last week I drove around my entire block and clocked it in at 1 mile exactly. So with that in mind I decided to run laps around the block so that if it started to pour or if it just got to dark I could come back in. I ran a warm up lap and saw it was getting dark pretty quickly so instead of running an easy 4 miles, I changed to some speedwork. This is an area I need a lot of work on. I tend to wimp out early and have a hard time pushing myself. So after the warm up mile, I ran 800 meters (1/2mile) at a pretty hard effort. It ended up being a 11:02 pace which I'm pretty happy with. I recovered for the remaining 800 meters. By this time I was rounding my house again and it started really raining. And it was dark. And I'm kind of a wimp. So I called it quits for the night.

All in all - 2 miles in today with one interval. Next time I'm going to allow for more time and do a little more research into interval training and try, try again.

Tomorrow is my long run. I'm getting up early (for me) to go walk with a friend and her newborn in the park and then have some lunch, so my run will be later in the day. Here's to hoping it cools off tomorrow evening!!

Back to the grind

After my wonderful mini weekend getaway to Grand Haven for our races, I hopped right back into work mode. Working 3 12 hour shifts a week has some nice benefits, but man does it screw up my weeks sometimes when they are stacked up together. Especially when I pick up overtime, like I did this week. I picked up Sunday night so PJ and I could go into work together and that started my stretch. When I'm working these stretches all I do is sleep in between shifts and because its daytime sleeping I often don't sleep well. So yesterday I took a Benadryl right before bed and I was out like a light. I woke up disoriented and later than normal so I had to rush to get ready!

Tonight however starts my 2 nights off between stretches! I am going to get in some good running! Since my body feels much better with a couple days rest since the 10K I plan on doing an easy 4 mlies Wednesday, my long run on Thursday and an easy 2-3 on Friday before work. I think I'm going to make my long run this week 7-8 miles depending on how the 4 later today go. 

The Coast Guard Run sent me an email today with a link to pictures! I was pretty excited!

I loved that the beach is in the background! I think I'll buy the digital copy. Eventually I'd like to make a scrapbook of race stuff. I've kept my bibs and medals and even the timing chips. ;-)

I'll update later on how my easy 4 miles go. 

10K Race Report (long post)

Yesterday I ran my first 10K race in Grand Haven for the Coast Guard Run at the YMCA. PJ and I drove up to Grand Haven the night before and spent the night at his brother's apartment. His sister also met us there so we could have a sibling weekend. Since we arrived at close to 6 we went right to the YMCA to pick up our race packets. PJ and his brother Kyle were running the 5K; their very first races!
After picking up our packets we went to dinner at the Kirby House in downtown Grand Haven. Their food is fantastic! We got the Spinach and Goat Cheese Dip and the Thai Lettuce Wraps to share as appetizers and then I followed them up with a Chicken Caesar salad. I substituted the Caesar dressing with balsamic vinaigrette and it was delicious! After dinner we made a trip to Wal-Mart so PJ could pick out some ear buds to wear since he only had full headphones. I've been using the Yurbuds for a couple months now and I have loved them! PJ tried them out a couple of times for runs at home and was pretty set on buying them as well.
Later we went back to Kyle's apartment and watched Les Miserables (or tried to) but all fell asleep before it ended so we tried to call it an "early night." Only it was about midnight when we finally all attempted to sleep. PJ and I were on our air mattress in the living room with his sister on the couch. I tossed and turned ALL night! It was probably the worst sleep I've ever had. The 6:15 wake up call came very early for this girl!
The three runners got ready and headed out to the races! The 5K was starting at 7:30 and the 10K at 8:30. We arrived at the starting line at 7:15 (a little later than I normally am used to) and anxiously waited for the gun!


PJ, Kyle, and Kali ready for the start of the 5K!

 The boys got ready and warmed up and then the race started. I stalked them at the start and finish for lots of photo ops!


Go PJ go!

 Kyle and PJ stayed together for the whole race. I tracked them both on the "find my friends" app on my phone so I'd know when to really look for them at the finish. Meanwhile I cheered for all of the other runners and had a great time yelling and clapping and slapping the hands of the racers. It makes me want to volunteer at a race, and I may do that for one that is in my town coming up in September. After they crossed the finish line they grabbed a few yummy treats and walked me the block to my starting line. Soon after we got there and I warmed up the gun went off and I began my run! PJ was able to snap a couple pictures of me.

Happy at the beginning of the race :)

I started out in the middle to back of the pack. I picked a couple of runners and tried to keep pace with them. I looked at my garmin about half a mile in and realized I was running way faster than my normal pace. The couple I was running next to were running about a 10 min mile and I'm more used to a 12, so I started slowing down a little. The coarse took us through some neighborhoods and then up and onto Harbor Island where we did a little lollipop turn at mile 2. I was getting a little tired at this point so I grabbed some Gatorade at the water station and tried to keep running at a good pace. I was getting really frustrated because I was needing to walk about 100 yards here and there. I had started out way too fast and it was catching up with me. Once we got back into the neighborhoods we came upon a HUGE hill! There were all these signs posted along the way saying "Run Hard" and "It's Just a Hill." There were a lot of volunteers along this hill cheering people on and getting spirits up which is exactly what I needed.
At about mile 4 I started to feel a little twinge in my left ankle. It hurt whether I was running or walking so I kept up a pretty good pace with some 200 yard walk breaks added here and there. At about mile 5.5 I was really hurting. I was averaging about 200 yards running and 200 yards walking. I had fallen to the back of the pack and was feeling really discouraged. The volunteers were wonderful because they were cheering so hard and it made me realize that just because I'm slower than most of the other runners, I was still managing to run and I wasn't dead last. Finally I ran up the last big incline to the finish line and stopped my garmin at 1:16:05. When I looked at my times I realized I ran the first 5K in 37min and beat my previous PR by 19secs! I also had run 6 miles on the treadmill a week before the race and ran those in 1:25:00 so I was pleased that even through the pain I managed a PR!

Splits (GPS Interval)
	Type	Distance	Duration	Total Duration	Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
1	Interval	1 mi	10:45.15	10:45.15	10:46	175	182
2	Interval	1 mi	11:57.62	22:42.77	11:58	179	184
3	Interval	1 mi	12:49.22	35:31.99	12:50	168	182
4	Interval	1 mi	12:42.81	48:14.80	12:43	167	182
5	Interval	1 mi	12:35.48	1:00:50.28	12:36	177	187
6	Interval	1 mi	13:11.98	1:14:02.26	13:12	174	181
7	Interval	0.17 mi	2:03.47	1:16:05.73	12:07	182	189


I was SO happy to be done! My left ankle and both first toes were hurting pretty bad. I walked back to the car with PJ and his siblings and we went back to Kyle's apartment to get ready for the beach!

Ugly black toenail

Both nights we were in Grand Haven we treated ourselves to Ice Cream! Here's a picture of one of my treats :)

YUM!

I had such a wonderful time watching my husband and his brother run their first races and I had a great time running my first 10K. Definately a successful trip to Grand Haven for their Coast Guard Festival Run. Maybe next summer I'll do both the 5K and 10K...you can do them both for the cost of one race!

Rest up

After a 4 day stretch I'm exhausted. It's common for me to spend all day in bed after a stretch like this; and that's exactly what I did. I woke up at 6:30 pm and since have done absolutely nothing but lay in bed with the hubby and catch up on the DVR. PJ made chef boy-ar-dee pizza which works to cure my pizza cravings in a much healthier way. I'd really like to start experimenting in making my own dough soon and making it even healthier. 

I watched the new episode of Extreme Weight Loss tonight and felt inspired. Here is a woman who, like me, is a nurse in SE MI. I actually recognized some of the faces of the other nurses on the show and it made it even more real to me. The woman on the show yo you'd her weight but was able to lose significant amounts of weight in short periods of time. It made me think about my goals and where I want to be. 

My goal date for everything I've been doing this year is October 20, 2013. This is the date of my half marathon, and the race that has started it all. My goal weight is 135. This weight is right within the normal BMI range for my 5'3.75" height ;) Currently I weighed in today at 158.8. I have 23.8 pounds to goal. This means that in the 12.5 weeks to race day I have to lose about 2 pounds a weeks, allowing for a couple less than perfect weeks. 

So... time to step up my game!

Getting the food under control.

There are two sides to weight loss. There's the activity part - which I don't seem to have too much problem with. I can get out there and run my prescribed amount of days and stay fairly active. Then there's the nutritional part. I've allotted myself 1400 calories. A month ago I was only taking in 1280 and realized that my weight loss was stalling. I had a bad week where I ate over my calorie goal every day and ended up LOSING 2 pounds! It was then that I realized I wasn't eating enough...enter 120 more calories per day. I do not log my activity in my calorie counter so that I don't eat all of the calories I've worked so hard to burn.

Eating right seems to be (and has always been) my main problem. Especially on days that I'm working. I will snack and snack and snack until all of a sudden I've realized that all I'm eating is snacks. This means that all of those calories that I've budgeted for the day have been wasted on food with no nutritional value whatsoever. This is usually when I start feeling frustrated and have to really try not to just throw it all away.  I'm also not much of a veggie eater and struggle to get this daily nutritional requirement in.

To add more of a problem, I'm a mindless eater. If there's food sitting out, I'll grab some here and there and eat it without savoring it therefore making me go back for more. I end up eating way too much and then going over my calorie goal. This must stop.

My goals:

I'd like to begin eating MEALS and not only snacks. I need to allow myself one small snack a day and realize my food can't only be made up of snack food.

I'd like to stay within my calorie allotment every day with very few exceptions (very very special events).

I'd like to continue running 4-5 days a week and add in strength training a couple times a week as well.

I'm hoping that by making small adjustments I can change things around soon. I am part of 4 diet bets on dietbet.com  and I have 4 pounds to loose in 14 days. Crossing my fingers I can do this!

Down to Business

So now that I've successfully posted my first time, its time to get down to business. Yesterday I went to the gym (because it's wayyyyy to hot out to be running, and because I'm kind of a wimp about hot weather) and ran on the treadmill before a workout class I was signed up for with my sister-in-law. I had planned to do an easy couple miles and that's exactly what it was. I ran at a 4.5mph/13:20 pace (I'm super slow!) for 2.25 miles and it was wonderful. I felt like I could have kept going...except it was time for our class. My sister-in-law wanted to go to a body scupt/tone class which I was ok with since I've been neglecting my strength training. I felt like the class was super easy...until I woke up today that is. I was so sore today, mostly my arms which are super not in shape. It was nice to feel that sore though, because I was feeling so high and mighty about not feeling like it was a tough work out.

Today I had intended to run 6-7 miles for a long run. Except I slept in way too late and then chit chatted to my husband a little too much. This left me with enough time for 4 easy miles. Yes...I ran easy runs two days in a row. Ugh total disappointment. And besides that; I hate the treadmill so it felt like the longest 4 miles of my life.

Now I'm at work. I'm a midnight nurse working in an ICU at a large hospital in southeastern Michigan. I love my job, hate the hours. I am working 4 days in a row, so that means no running for me until Tuesday. I am going to try to get up a tiny bit early to work out to a Jillian Michaels DVD, but we'll see what really happens.

I think I mentioned in my last post I'm training for the Detroit Free Press International Half  Marathon. I'm super excited about it and started training early so I have time to work my way up and not feel overwhelmed. I don't seem to have much problem getting the running and miles in. The problem I have is the strength training. This is where Jillian Michaels will hopefully help me out! ;-)

The Beginning

I've been inspired. That sums up a lot of what the last few months of my life have been like. I'm the girl who's constantly on a diet. I'm the girl who's always been a little overweight. I'm the girl with the low self esteem. These are all things that I've been trying to change for years. I don't know what makes this time different: but it is.

On April 8th I weighed in at 178.2lbs. This is not my highest weight, but it was high enough for me to feel miserable and not fit into any of the clothes I wore. At nearly 27 years old I was wearing a lot of sweat pants and large scrubs to hide my body. On that day I made it my goal to run several times a week and consume way fewer calories in order to achieve a goal weight of 135. I signed up for the Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon (thanks to much prodding from a friend) which will take place October 20, 2013. Having never run more than 30 seconds at a time I set out on my first run. Since that day I have lost 18 pounds and am now able to run 6 miles continuously (at a slow pace).

After reading many, many, many blogs about running and weight loss, and after boring my friends and family to death about all of my knowledge and questions and accomplishments with running, I've decided to take a big step and put myself out there on the internet. This is huge for me so I hope you'll have the patience to see me through! It's bound to be a good ride!

In the coming posts I'll backtrack and talk about what the last few months have been like as well as discuss what's happening currently. Whether this ends up as just a diary or a blog someone follows, it's all done to help me stay inspired and motivated on this journey.