A Smidjin at a time

How did I end up here? What got me to this place where I am less than 2 months away, 6 weeks to be precise, from doing my 2nd half marathon? Especially considering I did not have fond memories of the first one and I swore I would never do another one again.  In order to best understand that, we have to go back to where this current journey all started. Mid-October 2015. I was right around my heaviest weight ever, heavier than 6 years ago when I had started my weight loss journey. I was mad at myself. I was mad body. I was even mad at God a little. And then my co-worker started mentioning that she needed more people to sign up on her Shamrock Race team. It was still 5 months away, I figure I had plenty of time to train and survive the 15k event. But the more I trained, the more I doubted, the more my legs objected to all the work, the more the idea of 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) seemed very scary and very, very undoable. So, the day of the race, I switched to the 8k. And it still...

It's been a trying couple of months since I last sat and wrote stuff down. But it's also been a couple months of incredible growth. Lets start where I left off. Day One of training for a half-marathon, also known as Day One of Back Pain. Steroids brought relief for a couple of weeks, but when it returned it was muscle relaxers and Physical Therapy time. And man, physical therapy has been the most amazing torture I have ever done. Twice a week I go in and get my butt kicked with what looks like should be simple workout moves (trust me they aren't) and then I usually get to just lay there for 15 minutes on some heavy duty heat while the e-stim is zapping my back. All the while I get to talk running and racing with my PTA Don. Thankfully the PT Nathan and Don are both runners, so when I first mentioned my race in December, they have been fully on board helping me get strong enough to achieve that goal. And while the first couple of weeks I felt like I was getting behind with...

Whole 30 Round 2 starts today! Well, technically it started today. Survived breakfast no problem, cooking lunch and food prepping for the week ahead as we speak. I am excited to tackle a second round because I know what I was able to accomplish the first time and I feel like with that knowledge I can go even stronger the 2nd time around. I know that I really am not a huge fan of sweet potatoes so I'm not gonna use them as the star of something. I'm also not scared of dump ranch anymore. I am also past the "scared of making a mistake so I better stick to the basics" phase and am excited to try out some new recipes. Also, starting tomorrow I start training for my 2nd Half- Marathon! I mean, why not start round 2 of 2 things at the same time. Similarly to Whole 30, I feel much better heading into this 2nd round of training than I did about the first, despite knowing how much it hurt and how much I did not like it at the end. Probably because I do know how much it h...

When I rejoined Weight Watchers in October 2014 it was to put a stop to regaining all the weight I had lost. While I knew it would take a while to lose it all again, I was confident I could do it. However, the last 2 years of weight journey have not gone the way I envisioned them. In those two years, I actually continued to gain weight, however at a much slower gain than it had been, and I did have some losses along the way. I actually gained to the point of being 15 pounds heavier than when I started. Not exactly a Weight Watchers success story. That is until this summer. In June I did that round of Whole 30 and lost 15 pounds, putting me back at my "starting weight". Since then I have lost more and am under my starting weight. I actually earned my very first 5 lb star! It really is just a sticker to put in my weight loss book, but it's my first one.  Next week I have middle school retreat, so while I am not planning on actively losing while on the trip it will b...

I successfully went 30 days without any bread, pasta or pastries. 30 days without any beans or peanut butter. 30 days without any cheese, yogurt or creamer. 30 days without any sweetener in my coffee. 30 days were I ate super clean whole foods, planned every meal out a week at a time, and cooked everything I ate. 30 days where I said no to co-workers offering me pizza. 30 days of bringing my own food to a BBQ and making a salad out of the sandwich toppings. 30 days of getting up early to cook breakfast at home instead of grabbing something at the cafeteria. Not gonna lie, I did miss pizza and mac&cheese, and Pad Thai and burritos. I hope when I finish re intro I find that these are my body actually likes and I can still have them on special occasions. Also, major victory today: my car wouldn't start this morning, long story I got it jumped after church was over and grabbed my wallet and ran to a shop to get it looked it. Grabbed my favorite LaraBar and water as well and tha...

What better time to write and talk about my feelings heading into my first round of Whole 30 than on day 29 when I am almost done. I knew I was ready for change. What I was doing from a nutrition standpoint to improve my wellness was just not working. I had a friend start a week before me and I had read about Whole 30 before so I figured why not. I maybe should have planned a little more than the 3 days warning I gave myself, but I figured I would probably talk myself out of it if I had too much time. I kept it pretty basic, took a couple weeks before i tried "recipes". But I did learn how to make my own ketchup and ranch. Like without Dairy and Sugar, so there's that. Man, you don't realize how "bad" you feel until you start to feel better. I mean I knew I was tired a lot. And I knew something must be off balance because even when I was working out and eating well the scale and the fit of my clothes was not reflecting my work. And I knew that I certainl...

High-Low Sword draws+Box Jumps+Push-ups+Tire Flips+ Burpees Take 3 rounds of moves, 30 secs, 45 secs, and 60 seconds per move. Add 3 friends working out with you. What do you get? You get four Bad-A ladies working together to strengthen their bodies and their minds. Man I have missed bootcamp, so glad the weather is nice again.