The Amazing Race

I did it!
Cyndi and I ran the Turkey Trot today in Chesterfield, Missouri. There were a lot of people there. I think over 7000. I finished in 39:05 minutes. I'll have to look and see which place and everything, but I was really proud of myself. Cyndi finished a lot faster than I did, she did great. I told her that my goal for next year is to beat her. That would take a lot of work, and she, of course, would have to work not very hard to allow me to catch up with her. :)

Anyway, it's off to the showers and then to finish cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I'll post pictures soon!

I'm ready

Today was the last time I will run before going to St. Louis for Thanksgiving. I completed the 5K again. I didn't hate it as bad as last time. One difference was this was outside and the other one was inside on the treadmill. I am finishing in right about 40 minutes. My goal for the Turkey Trot run is to finish in under 40 minutes. 39:50 would be fine with me.

I had a skinny day today. Kind of like a good hair day or bad hair day, I tend to have good body days or bad body days. I felt thinner today than yesterday. (Even though my weight had fluctuated up a bit.) I've been having lots of fat days lately, it's good to have a thin day. I'm sitting here thinking this is probably normal for normal-weight people. I've just been so big that all my days were obviously fat days. At the size I was, you don't have days where you feel small. I didn't feel smaller until I had lost a significant amount of pounds, like 40-50, I think. I'll have to go back and re-read my blog, but it was a lot.

I had some car trouble at Wal-mart today. I had to run and pick up just one thing and so I left the kids home. My oldest is almost 11, so they are fine for a few minutes. When I came out of the store my car wouldn't start. I live about 1 mile from Wal-mart and for once I wasn't worried about how I was going to get home. I knew I could easily walk home, or even run home for that matter. I was just worried about my car and how we're going to get it home (and then to St. Louis!) It was a great realization of just how far I've come. The car is fine, Brad wiggled some connections and we're in business again. Also, thanks to my sweet friend for helping me jump start and get myself home!

That reminds me of another experience I haven't written about yet. A week or so ago, we were working in the back yard, raking leaves and cleaning out the garden and this same sweet friend was there as well. She got in her car to leave (we have a driveway running along the side of our yard) and I wasn't sure if she had seen my toddler who was heading to the area right behind her car. He was standing face to face with her taillights as she started the car. I yelled to her and I think she raised her hand in acknowledgment, but when your toddler is practically kissing someone's taillights, you don't assume anything, you just move. I ran across the yard and scooped him up. Our friend pulled out and we waved. Brad said to me, "Wow, you moved fast." I hadn't even given it a second thought. This is the true reason I had this surgery, for things that really matter--to be able to rush to help your child.

My second child was a very challenging toddler and as a result I didn't go out with her if I could help it. If she bolted in the store, I knew I wouldn't be able to catch her. I knew that I couldn't stop her from running in front of that car, or just getting so far away from me that she'd be lost. That's not to say that being fit will insure that you will be able to prevent these things, but it does make your chances better.

What?

I stepped on the scale this morning and was really hoping to see 208 again. It was holding at 208 and then it jumped to 206! I weighed again to make sure and it was definitely 206. It's good to see those numbers moving again. I've been eating better and exercising pretty hard, so it makes sense. Yay! Like always, we'll see if it sticks.

After running yesterday I came home and told Brad, "I hate running!" I really don't enjoy it a whole lot. The only reason I'm doing it is to get good exercise in and to get stronger. I think most of the times I go running I have this internal battle of trying to justify some reason I can stop after 1 mile, or 1.5 miles, or 2 miles, by the time I'm close to 3 miles I stop arguing with myself, but it's an internal struggle most of the time. I guess I wouldn't be growing as much if I wasn't doing something that is hard for me. I just had to admit that, though--That I sometimes think I hate running.

Hello again!

To my surprise I saw 208 again this morning. I'm relieved to be back down to where I was a few weeks ago. I didn't do anything drastic this time to get here, so I believe it will stick.

Did my 3rd 5k yesterday

I'm consistently running 5k (3.1 miles) each time I go running now. I didn't increase my speed yesterday because I opted to listen to Glenn Beck instead of music and while interesting, he doesn't get my feet pumping in quite the same way.

I've also dropped a couple of pounds finally. I'm still not back down the 208 I was at a couple weeks ago, but I'm down to 209 today. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

I did it again!

I ran 5k again today and decreased my time by about 1 minute. It was harder, I could tell. Of course the biting wind wasn't helpful.

My eating has been better today. One day at a time.

5K

I did it! I ran 3.1 miles this afternoon. I didn't even know I was going to do it until after I had started running. I felt strong, so I figured why not, and gave it a shot. I doubted myself after finishing that I had really done that, so I went back out with the car and drove it and it was precisely 3.1 or 5K. That's so amazing to me that I can do that. Turkey Trot, here I come! By the way it took me 41 minutes to do so. That makes it about 13.2 minutes per mile. Not bad, but I can do better.

I'm so glad exercising is going well because I'm still struggling with my eating. I don't know why it's so hard for me these days. My band is just right as far as tightness goes. It's just the junk I eat in between meals that is causing me not to lose weight. I got down to 208 with the South Beach week I did, but as soon as I went off it, I went right back up and then back down the next week and then back up again. I finally accepted it and changed my ticker back. (I hate doing that when it's going the wrong direction!) I was 213 yesterday, 212 today. I need to do some soul searching and praying and find a way to be stronger with my food choices. It doesn't help that Thanksgiving is coming up and Christmas is right around the corner. Blasted food-oriented holidays!

Ups and downs

It's been a roller coaster the last couple of weeks. I do great with eating one day, then the next is rough. I'm on a good day today.

I had to take an extra day off of exercising because I just felt like I was getting weaker and weaker instead of stronger and stronger. So I took Monday off and it really helped. I ran 2.6 miles today on the treadmill! I sweated so much. I sweat so much more using the treadmill verses running outside. The wind makes a difference, but that's not all, I'm sure. I must push harder when I can see the numbers. Anyway, I felt good and strong. That's in contrast to last Saturday when I could barely drag my feet. I think I was under 2 miles in the same amount of time as my 2.6 miles today. Oops. I just realized I was supposed to increase my distance and time today since it's a new week. I've got a couple more runs during which to do so, though.

Better today

I'm doing better today. Sorry for the downer post yesterday, but it's reality and sometimes reality is a downer.

I've made much better food choices yesterday and today. I didn't consciously say no sugar, but that's what's happened. Yay for that.

My feet have started swelling again. They were chronically swollen while I was so heavy, but when I started losing weight after my surgery, the swelling went away. They have been swollen now for about a week. They are bothering me, a bit painful, and I think I may go to the doctor and see if he can't figure out why the swelling--or maybe a chiropractor. We'll see.

Unrelated to that swelling, my feet have gone down 1/2 to 1 shoe size. I went to buy shoes a couple of days ago, ended up getting a size 9W (used to take a 9 1/2W) and these size 9s are a little too big. The size 8 1/2 ones were too small, so I couldn't have gotten those. Weird.

I'm about to send in my registration for the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. Pretty exciting. I still have a ways to go to run the whole 3.1 miles. I can do it, though!

Reality of the numbers

Well my weight has been going up for a few days now. I'm back up to 212 today, which is 4 pounds up from my lowest yet. Ugh. Too much junk food over the weekend. It's amazing to me how quickly the numbers can go up. I was also coming off of the South Beach Diet week I had done, so that might have been part of what I'm rebounding from. I got all the junk out of the house yesterday and I've done really well today with no bad choices. I've got to be stronger than occasions like holidays, etc. I can't let my circumstances control my choices.

Also, my run was really hard today. Not sure why exactly. I've been taking Advil before running to avoid the headaches I got at the start of this program. Today I didn't take any, so maybe that made a difference. I did manage to run 2. 4 miles. I use the term run loosely! LOL I was literally praying a lot of the time to help me keep moving one foot in front of the other.

Increasing my running

I realized the other day that if I am going to run a 5K on Thanksgiving, that I'm going to have to step it up a bit. The couch to 5K program takes you up to running for 30 minutes. Well, I'm not getting 3.1 miles into 30 minutes of running. I run a 13.5 minute mile right now, so it's going to take me about 42 minutes to do a 5K.

I ran extra yesterday and today (Yes, I did run two days in a row to make up for missing Thursday!) and bumped it up from 25 minutes of running to 30. I'll just keep increasing as I go and by Thanksgiving I should be good to go on the 5K. Not sure how I'm going to proceed thereafter. Should I keep increasing distance, or try to increase my time for the same distance? Any advice from you who run?

I keep getting a blister on the bottom of my foot in the instep. I need to develop a callous there so that won't happen. I'd really like to splurge on some amazing running shoes or something. I have pretty good ones, but I know you can certainly spend a lot more on them. Again, any input from runners?