Once Again, This Time With Enthusiasm

I'm going to quit drinking soda pop, again, I hope, no I will.  I'm getting my game plan all set. I bought a what was labelled as a refrigerator bottle to make tea in and put in the fridge for easy access. I plan on getting some juices and sparkling water/club soda for when I want something sweet and bubbly.  I'm going to workout instead of reach for a Dr. Pepper when I feel stressed (I have finals in four weeks...stress is building).

I'm challenging myself this month to no soda at all. Even if the hubby brings some home I'm not drinking it, I'm not really, I swear. I've laid off soda and it would work for anywhere from a day to nearly a month.  Then I would "have just one sip" and all bets were off.

I want abs, I want to see the six pack that's hiding under these fat. I cannot get that by just doing crunches and ab machines. No matter how far I run I cannot out run fat if I keep drinking/eating crap.  Since baby steps work better for me then great big leaps, I'm starting with soda.  I'm hoping to pick up more clean eating habits as my garden grows, but this is something I have to get my whole family (especially hubby) on board with.

Race Results

The results from the Mito What 5k I ran last Saturday are finally in. Here's how I did:

• out of 258 runners I placed 116th
• out of 25 runners in my age/sex group I placed 13th
• my time was 37:03

While I'm happy with these results, I know I could of done much better if I trained just a little bit harder. I think I ran a total of 6-7 miles the past two weeks and only a mile or two the week before. I was only spending one or two days a week in the gym and too many days on my behind.

I don't know when my next race will be. There is one in August that I want to run, but I would like to do at least one more before then.  There's a free on April 13th on campus that I may try to do. I'm not sure I can get there in time though. It starts at 7:00 am, but I can't usually leave the house before 6:35 because of the kiddies.

I may try though...maybe the race will start a bit late and I  can get in at the end of the pack.

My First 5k of 2012

It appears that I finished in just over 37 minutes and I'm very happy with that number.  My last race was in more then 45 minutes due to me injuring my ankle be twisting it during a fall before the first mile. The race before that I ran in 39:45. So 37 minutes is great.  I was aiming for 36 minutes, but I'll accept this.  I share when I find out the official time later. Right now I'm enjoying my post race glow and getting ready for youngest son's baseball practice.

It's a beautiful morning today.  I had plans on running nearly three miles at the golf course/park after dropping oldest son at his civil air patrol meeting.  However, I get there and I see several cars in the parking lot. I see a group of about 5-7 men playing disc golf. I see 2 more cars pull in to either fish or play disc golf.
I get self-conscious about hitting the pavement.  So I take off my mp3 player, I put my keys back in the ignition and I leave.

I don't know why I get this way...well, actually I do, but I don't know how to fix it.  I'm a little self-conscious when I go to the gym, but that feeling goes away once I get working out.  I think this is partly due to the variety of people there.  Also, no one is staring at you there, they're all busy getting their own workout done to care how you look doing yours.  Only thing I ever have anyone say is "Good job" on a day I was really working up a sweat.  Everyone has the same goal, just at different levels of achieving it.

However when you go outside and run people stare.  I really don't like to run after say 8am on weekend mornings because of this. I'm not some skinny, in shape, fit looking person.  I'm overweight and have more jiggle then I care to have.  I worry about how I'm looking in my shorts/capris. I worry if any stomach or back skin is showing (sometimes my shorts slip down, but it's not like I'm flopping around a belly roll, but I get nervous showing too much). I worry when my shorts ride up too high on my thighs.  I end up thinking over all the wrong things instead of concentrating on my run. Is my form good? Am I going heel first? Do I need to correct anything? Is there a car coming?

If I'm out before anyone is really up and going then it's great.  All there is, is the sound of sneakers on pavement and music playing softly in my ear (I keep it to where I can just hear it so that I can hear sounds around me as well). The birds are chirping, wind blowing my hair. I'm feeling great, got that running high going on.  The minute  I start to see people sitting on their porch smoking their morning cigarette that feeling goes away and I just want to hurry up and get done.

This morning I was thinking that maybe having a running partner would help.  Someone to run and talk with to keep my mind off my surroundings.  I may enlist one of my kiddies for that position, they're old enough and I'm slow so they would have no problem keeping up with me.  Adults I know, that work out, seem to prefer to do it in the gym or at home on the treadmill.  They're the walkers, the just barely want to break a sweat people.  You know the type...their make up is still in place when they get done...they wear make up.

When I get done working out I want to be red faced, sweaty, ponytail done slipped and big smile on my face.

Staying Motivated With a New Challenge

One of my biggest hurdles is staying motivated, keeping on track.  I start good, I'm just not good at finishing.  I'm real good at backsliding.
Challenges help me somewhat, especially if it's one where I feel I'll be held accountable for finishing.  They give me a set time, a set goal. I can make lots of goals, just not a lot of good goals.  A good goal follows the SMART acronym: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely.  Just saying I want to lose weight is not a good goal.  Saying I want to lift weights 3x a week is a good goal. I'm going to give up soda=not a good goal. I'm going to give up soda for 1 week = good goal. After you complete the goal you reassess and see what your next goal will be.  I know how to set good goals, I just fail to in my own life.

Challenges help me do what I know how to do but for whatever reason can't.  So, I've signed up for another challenge and this one is 1 Month No Sweets Challenge on weighttraining.com. I got this link from the Athletarian's post.

So here's to reading labels and trying to fight this never ending sweet tooth I seem to of developed since the start of Spring semester (I blame Organic Chemistry).

Catching Up

Wow, it's been just over a month since my last post. Sorry, February was a busy month for me. That cold I last blogged about turned into bronchitis and so I was fairly sick for a week or so, and then had a cough that lingered on for another week.  I'm better now though, except for normal seasonal runny nose and stuff. No coughing so that's wonderful.
This week is my Spring break and my plans are to catch up on studying, catch up on exercises and catch up on yardwork.  Oh and cleaning, got to throw that in there as well.  I'm planning on a busy 5-6 days.
I'm also restarting the Supreme 90 Day workouts.  I only made it to day 12 last time and got behind, so I'm going to restart those and see how it goes.
My mom asked if I could write her up a meal plan and so I've got to work on that as well (though I'm wondering if she realizes how much work goes into making on up). I'll get one done and sent to her and then explain it better when (if?) we go up later this month.  She's wanting to make changes and have a healthier lifestyles and I'm all for that. She has a meat and potatoes husband who may be a little harder to go along with stuff, but I have ideas for working around that as well. She also said she only eats vegetables like 3x a week! I think my jaw dropped on that. I eat 2-3 big servings of veggies a day (and probably should eat more). I couldn't imagine only eating that per week. No wonder she's tired and down...my guess is I should recommend she try a fiber supplement (and lots of water) for a while too.  Now, for disclosure, I'm not doing any of this for money. I'm not recommending any kind of medicine (other then maybe a few otc supplements like cod liver oil and fiber).  I'm using sites like myplate.gov and other information that anyone with a few minutes and internet access could use.  I don't want anyone to think I'm giving medical advice or working as a rd when I'm just a student. I constantly tell her to tell her doctors everything she's eating, taking, doing, so that they can work with her and her prescriptions.
For my own eating goals, this week(starting today) I'm going no added white sugar.  I've been on a sweets binge lately and I know I have got to get this under control.  So far so good I had some puffed red wheat cereal (I love the ingredient list all it says is: whole red wheat). It's Alf's Natural Nutrition and is only 1.00 a bag at Walmart. I did add just a teaspoon of local honey to it for sweetening and flavor as the cereal itself is rather bland. It has only 70 calories(before 2% milk) 2 g of dietary fiber and 2 g of protein and no sugars. So cheap and good for you sounds great.  I'm going to hard boil an egg for after my workout this morning because I do need more protein for muscle.
Well time to go get started, I have a 5k I'm running in just over 2 weeks and am not quite ready for. Have a great day dear readers.