Things kinda took a downhill turn for me after our amazing trip to Arkansas. But not until I had a moment of glory --- first thing I did after we returned home that next morning - I stepped on the scale. I met my biggest weight loss at that point! I was now down -109 lbs! I was ecstatic! I managed to hold it there till the end of September.
But then I allowed mistakes to be made. And I don't even know why. W/o thinking, I mindlessly allowed myself to start sweet-toothing again. Kids and I went to Scenic Drive, enjoyed such evil pleasures as deep fried Oreos, donuts, taco in a bag, cornbread and chilli, etc. And when I discovered nobody had any fried apple dumplings out there that year, I just went home and made my own. Halloween comes around and I think I'd put back 10 lbs by then. Thanksgiving - another 10 lbs. Christmas and New Year's Eve, yep, I continued to indulge. However - I was still faithfully going to the gym practically everyday. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut..........by Valentine's Day, I'd realized I'd packed 30 lbs back. My big 109 lb loss, w/only 30 more to lose was squashed!!! Now I was only at a 79 lb loss. In fact, very, very briefly I even managed to put another 9 lbs back on, but that was also during "shark week" (aka "chocolate week" - maybe by now you're getting the picture?) and w/in a week, I dropped that extra 9#. So, there I sat w/a 30 lb GAIN!! I was so angry w/myself for allowing such foolish bad habits back into my life. I mean - I never did completely let go of my sweet tooth, but I was very well behaved about it during those first 2 years. Then I gave in and indulged. Very disappointed in myself. BUT!! I was not going to allow any further weight gain, and I was not giving up on exercise. The exercise, I think, is what saved me from gaining anymore weight from there on. I made sure I was at the very least burning the same I ate, if not, burning more. But, it became a constant battle of burning and eating. Eating and burning. But all the while, staying w/in a close 3-4 lb range. The worst part, I could not get myself to break past 200 lbs again. Once I crossed that 200 lb barrier back in February 2011, it stayed w/me until September last year.
Now I'm going to break off onto what I thought would save me from having put 30+ lbs on - hubby thought it too. And the funny part was that I didn't resort to this decision as a sort of tie-breaker, if you will. In fact, I took it on as more of a challenge, like "hey, since I've lost all that weight, and since my adrenaline/adventure side has come out of its shell.....I want to try this! I want to see if I can ACTUALLY do this, and succeed!" and what is this I speak of??
Running.
November 2010, I received a notification on my Facebook wall from a friend I made through my "trainer" Pat, inviting me to join her in a Half Marathon race in the subs of Chicago in the spring of 2011. Funny, *NOW* hubby has doubts. After all that time of him telling me "I think running will be your thing. Running will probably be what helps you drop the rest of the weight and get you in great shape. I really think you should run", I guess my "Top Ten Reasons Why I Can't Run" finally sunk in w/him. I presented the Facebook invite to him and expressed how excited I was to try this. (And quite honestly, I had never even heard of a Half Marathon. I had no idea how many miles were involved. In fact, I never even knew how many miles were in a full marathon, or why that race was called a "marathon" BECAUSE I HATED RUNNING and never had any desire to know anything about running!!! I did a lot of Googling at that point, lol!) I told him it would be my next challenge. Maybe now w/significant weight loss, my knees won't bother me. Maybe my asthma won't bother me. Maybe I CAN do this?! I brainwashed him pretty good into thinking I could never, would never run. So, he was a hard nut to crack.
He finally agreed to let me drive to Chicago for this race and see if I can actually do this -after I committed myself to research and training. He told me I could try it if I really wanted to, because he just seriously had doubts that I'd succeed.
And that's another thing that changed about me. I became this person who was wanting to try all sorts of new physical adventures, AND not allowing anyone to tell me I can't do something. I didn't even realize I'd become that person until hubby showed me his doubt in me running a big race. He said he was concerned about my bad knees (did I forget to mention I have torn cartilage in both knees? I think I mentioned it, but here it is again, just in case), and my asthma. Me??? It made me mad that suddenly my own husband didn't have faith in me that I could accomplish a physical feat such as a Half Marathon Race. The registration for this race would go up in cost by $25 or so by December 31st, 2010. So he gave me until then to research all things running and search my soul as well. I think he was counting on me changing my mind by Christmas, then he wouldn't have to worry about me hurting myself.
Nope. Didn't happen. In fact, I only wanted it more! By Christmas I was still on the upward spiral of gaining, (which I already mentioned above). I read everything about running, I read different magazines, different websites, talked to my friends on Facebook that ran, especially my friend Valerie, the one who sent me the race link w/the message to me saying "we'd love it if you could join us". By Christmas, I was already committed to this whole running a race thing, w/o even having begun any kind of training yet. I signed up, and hubby approved!! He was just as excited as I was by that point (well, maybe not quite as excited, but definitely curious to see what I'd do, lol), and was finally on board.
Val sent me a full training schedule. I told her I wanted to start my training in January, the race was scheduled for May 1st, 2011. I read that runners should allow about 12-14 weeks training prior to Race Day. I figured I'd need more since I was completely new to all this. So, I took it upon myself to actually start my first week of training during the week between Christmas and New Year's to kinda give myself a head start.
It's funny when I reflect on this, at the time I didn't realize the training program I was on was a Couch to 5K plan. I'd heard a few friends talk about the whole Couch to 5K thing months before all this started w/me, but I was NOT at ALL interested, lol! And since I didn't know what all the hype was over it, or exactly what it was, it never occurred to me till after I finished it that's what I myself had just completed - a Cto5k program, lol.
That first week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I was to use the treadmill for walking and running for certain amounts of time. A lot of walking, only a little running. It would take 8 weeks to complete this part of my training, and I was clueless what would come next! But, I managed that first week, realized it's tiring, but I can surely handle it, lol. Good thing I decided to start it early though. By New Year's Eve, we made a sudden split decision to take a vacation to Florida for 10 days. Kids had an extended break from school, so why not?!? No exercise while we were there though. No running my training program. Oops. Well, by the time we got back home and I got myself back to the gym the following Monday, it had turned into a whole 2 weeks off of any exercise. So, I decided I'm going to really put myself into this now and start the program over. Ran Day 1, Week 1 again and this time felt my feet weren't playing along nicely. From what I read, I would need specific running shoes. Apparently my Skechers Shape-Ups weren't a good match for running in, and my body was letting me know.
A friend informed me of a running-shoe store in town that had recently opened up, so I hunted it down. Oh, it had the funniest name, and their store logo was even more funny, yet so very apropos! The store is called "Go Outside & Play", their logo/sign? A pig, running up on 2 feet, in shorts, t-shirt and a headband. I thought, "yep! Works for me, this chubby pig needs this!" it wasn't till a few months later that I realized the last name of the married owners was "Pigg", and that they themselves were REALLY, REALLY into running (the hubby, especially). So, now the pig in a headband made even more sense and made me appreciate it even more. I thought it was very cute. Very clever! Well, I told Nick, the owner, how I'd lost a lot of weight, was still working on losing it, and was invited to run the First Midwest Bank Southwest Half Marathon in May and was just beginning my training. Never been a runner before. Never been interested in running before. So, he had me run barefoot on the treadmill in the store while recording me so he could see what my running style was, and how my feet looked. I also had to step on this pad thingy that would show my foot pattern. He came out w/what he thought would be the most appropriate shoes for my feet and running form and spent a long time w/me trying on several, several different shoes and walking around the store/running on the 'mill to get a feel for all the shoes. Narrowed it down to Saucony Guide 3's. Felt confident that Nick sold me great shoes and that I could have happy feet while training.
I'm going to end today's entry here, considering it's a long post, and I need start my chauffeur-mom role again. I will pick up where I left off next time. Be happy, smile and be positive! And, thank you EVER so MUCH for reading my blog! I appreciate it tremendously!! :-) :-) :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment