Life Line

Just finished week 2 day 1 of #C25K with @c25kfree! #everymomentcounts #run #running #health #fitness

I am starting to feel like a mini-runner. Emphasis on mini. :-) I thought for sure that the first day of the new week would kill me. I was nervous.

Now for the first week, I did Sa Mo We. And I did a ton of house cleaning and furniture moving and whatnot last week. I hit a manic stride, didn't get quite enough rest, and wore myself out. (Plum wore out.) The weekend was busy, so I decided to do Mo We Fri this week for C25K week 2. DH was home so I went by myself to the Y Monday after school time for the boys. I was so tired. I got to the Y, sat in the parking lot. I just could not bring myself to go in.

And you know what, it's okay. I wasn't quitting, I just took the time I needed. There is no deadline for healthy--except for the obvious one, and you cannot plan for DEAD. For healthy there is only a Life Line. There is only progress.

There I sat out in the car and made appointments, returned emails and messages. I got a few things checked off of my to-do list. And I returned home refreshed. I'll take it!

So, on the Wednesday, I had double booked a play date on Wednesday morning, and when I realized it, I called my friend and rescheduled. I Wanted to get to the gym today. I needed to. I went to my upbeat, joyous morning Zumba class and then scooted over to the treadmill.

It went great. I even added a point to my walking and running speeds. It was 3.0 & 4.2, with 5.0 on the last run.  Today I bumped it up to 3.1 and 4.3 with 5.0 on the last. Which nearly killed me. But I forced myself to smile the whole last 90 seconds of running while chanting endings to plural pronouns in Latin. I'm doing this. I'm FLYing, I'm running, I am being the change.

Hold on to your Life Line with all that you are, y'all. God meets us where we are.

This Little Light of Mine

Just finished week 1 day 3 of #C25K with @c25kfree! #everymomentcounts #run #running #health #fitness

Not long ago I would not have thought that I could say I feel good after anything involving running. Mostly because if I was running it would have meant someone or something was chasing me and I had chose flight over fight. 

But now I'm choosing fight AND flight. I am fighting back against sabotaging thoughts and bushel basket habits. Hide myself and my love and my light under a bushel? NO! I'm gonna let me shine!

And I'm taking flight, FLYing with the Fly Lady, making my house a home. O Lord prepare me to be your sanctuary.

My Lord and my God, help conform my desire to the plans you have for me. Amen. 

Fight and Flight, y'all!

Rock me, Amadeus!

Just finished week 1 day 2 of #C25K with @c25kfree! #everymomentcounts #run #running #health #fitness

And at the end I even "ran" for the last minute at 5 mph. Credit x 10!

One foot in front of the other

Just finished week 1 day 1 of #C25K with @c25kfree! #everymomentcounts #run #running #health #fitness

Before is Now

One of the things recommended by WW at the beginning of your journey is to take some "Before" photos and measurements. I whipped out the camera phone this morning to do this, and I plan to take others along the way, hopefully giving me inspiration as the weeks and months progress. (See the Photos Tab at the top of the page for updates.)

2011-10-21 240 lbs. Holy @&#%!!

Seeing this picture was a real eye-opener for me. This is what you, the public - and my family and friends and aquaintances and strangers...- are accustomed to seeing.

Round Me.

In my head, I seem smaller.

Which is why it always feel so strange when I realize I can't scratch a part of my back that I want to or have trouble getting down to and up from the floor. What is going on? Why can't I do this?

This picture is the answer: I'm pretty fat.

Don't worry, I still love myself. I'm not evil. I don't deserve to be treated like a second class citizen. My size and shape are a personal problem. Nobody torchered me into over-eating or tied me to the couch to prevent me from exercising.

Personally, I can tell you: I am fat. This is not the example I want to set for my children and this is not the way I want to be for myself. I am making a change.

Today was C25K 1.3, and it honestly felt pretty good. I think I am mostly ready to move on, but I want to repeat Week 1 next week in order to give my bones and knees and feet a little more time to adapt. My shins and calf fronts are pretty sore!

Fatigue is setting in now. My youngest (11 months) is cutting five teeth and has been waking me in the middle of the night. I need to go to bed now just in case he wakes later. That and I am drop-dead tired. (Anyone else remember Drop Dead Fred? :-)

May my faith heal and grow while I rest!

Spring:Cleaning::Autumn:?

Spring and Autumn, for me, are both seasons of change and preparation. As the cool wind now blows, I am more inspired to clean up and clean out. I want my body and my environment to be somewhere I want to be for the next months of cold and isolation.

This song has really inspired me lately. I know the association is oblique, but roll with it.

It's a song about hanging on to things that belong to another time. Somehow singing it makes me ready to say goodbye to the unhealthy parts of me that I have clung to.

Tomorrow I go back to the Y. Nico (3yo) has a swim lesson, and, I WILL be there early so that Cyril can be in the nursery and Nico can be on time. Then I can dash upstairs and get in my "run."
My first full day at WW is going well. It is a relief for now to just track and follow the plan. But I refuse to think about food all day long. Time for a little bedtime yoga and prayer. God be with us!

Pete and Re-Pete

Sometimes when you are the mother of young children it takes everything you have to get just one thing accomplished. After starting the C25K on Sunday, while at my mother-in-law's, who was awesome enough to hang with my kids while I went outside for my first session, my next day should have been Tuesday. Back at home, just me and kids. So when Nico (3yr) woke up at 4 am with a fever all of my Tuesday plans shifted. No pre-k, no grocery shopping, no gym in the morning. I knew that on Wednesday I had to do whatever it took to get my session in or risk losing momentum, because I am just starting out and I am not sure that I have enough momentum yet to handle too many setbacks.

So the boyz didn't get up until NINE-FORTY! Then my mp3 player wouldn't load so that I could add the week-one podcast. But I finally got it on the phone. We made it to the Y. I did my next session. Today's mission accomplished.

It felt good.

Physically, it did not feel great. I am WAY overweight, and my body needs to be lighter before it won't feel like carrying around a ton of pointy bricks. But I did it. And in time not only do I plan to get lighter, but my bones and muscles will be stronger. But my lungs felt good, and my heart felt good, and the rest will come in time.

Motivationally, the podcast is the key. When I timed myself on Sunday, I was convinced that I could not do quite as much as was asked. I lengthened the recovery session from 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Today, with Robert Ullrey's C25K Podcasts, I did it along with the script and nice running music. Plus ESPN to watch on the TV while I ran. Delight! The pre-recorded timings keep you trying, encouraging you to succeed.

Mentally, another perk became clear to me while I was jogging/walking (j/w). Lately I have several conflicting cravings. Craving to get more done around the house, more research and reading, more stitching, sewing & crafting, more time with adults making and keeping friendships, and more time to just think. Often I think I view the time at the gym as social time, but I leave feeling empty in this regard, because even though I am Zumba-ing with other people, it's not like you are really chatting it up with your fellow exercisers. I love Zumba, but the exercise time itself is still not truly social, at least not deeply. J/W time, however, is intensely personal. The music washes over you, and, whatever else you may be hearing or watching, your thoughts have a chance to bubble to the surface. I think this mindset might also be able to improve my Zumba experience.

I still don't know when I will be ready to move on to Week 2, but at least I did 1.1 for realz, and on Friday I will do 1.2. Run and Re-run, until I am ready to take on the next level.

Now I just have to decide what to do about my eating habits!

C25K Week One

Running.

I am quite certain I never thought of myself as a runner. But from today on, I will. I am not in shape, I am a shape - round. And I might need to repeat the first weeks in order to not hurt myself. But I need goals. I need something that is cheap and available at different times of the day. Something I can do without getting in the car. I need to get fit. Get fit or risk getting so overweight that there will be no return!

I have friends who run and they love it. I have heard plenty about the C25K program and I am going to do it. This means "Couch to 5K" - about three miles in 30 minutes at the end of 9 weeks.

I might not make it in nine weeks. I did my first session today, and alternating 1 min jogging to 1 1/2 walking was a bit much, so I lengthened the walking to two minutes. I am plenty sore tonight, so I think I will continue with that this week and decide at the start of next week whether I should move straight to week 2 or do a redo on week with the correct time. That's the great thing about the C25K program - it's flexible. The MOST important part is the committment. 3X a week. Keep on going. Be the fit mama I long to be.

Next run on Tuesday! Tomorrow will be House Fitness - laundry, floor sweeping and mopping, raking. Plenty of time for listening to Latinum, the Latin learning podcast!