Something to ponder on Mother's Day

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Yesterday, I posted a blog about photos and their use to us as another weight-loss tool. Most of us would prefer to stay out of the photo but weight-loss aside, there are other important reasons to be in the picture.

Here's the first paragraph from yesterday's blog:
How many of us run for the next room when there's a camera present? My mom did that; she passed away 16 years ago and it's sad that we don't have many photos of her. As much as I dislike having my picture taken, I've tried to be a good sport about it so that there are pictures of me for my family to have.

My friend ROBBIEMARIE posted a response; here's part of it.

"Oh how you have hit home with this one. I would like to add to all the mothers of younger children - GET IN THE PICTURES NOW!!! I look back at all the wonderful pictures of my kids growing up, on vacations, on birthdays, all the just becauses.... and I am in very few of them. Why? I always chose to be the picture taker because I didn't love and appreciate myself enough to think it was important to be captured in those moments. Now my kids have few pictures of me during their growing up even though there are hundreds if not thousands of them with and without their dad. I know they wish they had more. OK I also wish they had more."

As you celebrate Mother's Day today, keep Robin's response in mind. Don't let self-consciousness about how you look get in the way of preserving memories for your children. If you were part of a family activity, get in the photo and make history!

Happy Mothers Day!

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Photophobia

Saturday, May 08, 2010

How many of us run for the next room when there's a camera present? My mom did that; she passed away 16 years ago and it's sad that we don't have many photos of her. As much as I dislike having my picture taken, I've tried to be a good sport about it so that there are pictures of me for my family to have.

I got my photos from last week's 5K. I look like a munchkin! In my mind, I'm a lot taller than the photos show; my shirt is too long which makes my legs look even shorter and my eyes are closed in one of them. 50% of all photos taken of me show me with my eyes closed. (Here's something to ponder: the photo was taken while I was running. Why were my eyes closed?) I wanted a picture of that important day to post on my SparkPage but this one isn't "post-worthy". It's valuable to me nonetheless; I'm using it to my advantage instead of cringing and deleting. Shirts need to be shorter and, oh that hair! Time for action!!

Did you see my blog from last Monday? Take a look at it (it's short.)

www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=3187855

I have to admit that I was incredibly surprised by the 5/03 photo. I was so excited about it that I posted it right away and, after posting, thought, "You could have taken a minute to crop out the kitchen details . . . " Oh, well, this was too important to not share right away!

I have been taking a lot of photos along the way after I had lost about 20 pounds. I remember the first ones; I was so disappointed by what I saw but I knew that they would be important on the journey and so I just kept taking more. When my forward progress slowed during the last four months, so did my photo-taking. It wasn't intentional; I just didn't figure that anything was happening anyway and I would take some new pictures eventually! I didn't realize how photos could still be so useful to me.

I know I've written this before but it's a lesson relearned for me. Don't be photophobic. Take lots of photos of yourself. Post some on your SparkPage (I love to see all the beautiful faces of fellow Sparkers.) Save the not so flattering ones, they may end up being useful later. (I still haven't posted the one from last summer of me in my swimsuit and black socks! I really can't imagine how that one will be useful for anything but a laugh so it will probably stay in my personal archives.)

The point here is that there are so many non-scale ways to track your progress. Don't forget to include photos as another tool to success!

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Another non-scale weight loss tool

Monday, May 03, 2010

I know it's been a while since I posted any photos; I really haven't lost much weight since February. Or have I?

2/21/10: 69 pounds lost


5/03/10 - 76 pounds lost


Don't let anyone tell you (especially yourself) that 7 pounds is no big deal!!

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Another goal has a checkmark next to it

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Yesterday I ran my first 5K. After reading many blogs from my running SparkFriends, I started running 7 months ago mostly out of curiosity and now I run mostly out of amazement at myself. (Plus it's one of my best calorie burners!)

After rain and severe storms on Friday night, Saturday started out dreary and foggy. The best thing about the morning was that there didn't seem to be much of the forecasted high winds. My knee was just fine; I was still a tad concerned before I started but I had nothing to worry about.

It was a pretty run through the woods of Peninsula State Park and along the shores of Green Bay. By the time we were ready to start, the sun had come out and it was getting warm and a little humid! I was sure sweating by the end! Spring is much accelerated this year and I wasn't prepared to inhale the insect that normally doesn't arrive until next month. Blech!!

After I was finished, I ran into someone who lives close to me and we brainstormed some ideas for future activities here at home. I neglected to get my official time because I was talking (go figure!) and forgot so now I'm waiting impatiently for the results to be posted on line.

When I got back to my car, the wind had returned and the rest of the day was very windy. I took a reward nap and now it is back to business as usual.

So here it is:

Finish time: 40:38 (pace 13:05) I was hoping for 40 minutes and this qualifies!

419 finished; I placed 304; 202nd out of the 291 women.

Not bad.

My reward today (it occurs to me that we can reward ourselves every day!) will be a bike ride and then back to the program tomorrow. The 10K is in 6 weeks!

P.S. My thanks to the beautiful ROBBIEMARIE for her wonderful blog yesterday. With wonderful SparkFriends, how can any of us do less than our best??


www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_jo
urnal_individual.asp?blog_id=3182551

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It's Race Day (and More Life on the Plateau)

Saturday, May 01, 2010

It's race day for me; the first 5K of my life, another stepping stone on this great adventure I've been on for the last 11 months. I tried running once during my last weight-loss attempt; I just couldn't understand the allure. (Plus it made my hips hurt . . . . someone told me I wasn't built for running! I don't remember who told me that but I was convinced!)

It didn't occur to me until a couple of weeks ago that no one would be coming with me today and I would be doing this run alone. There would be no witnesses so who would ever know if I really did it or not? (Understand that not running was never an option, only a "what if?") As I was going in to register on Friday afternoon, I realized that this is my moment, my affirmation; there doesn't need to be any witnesses. I will know. And I will be very proud of myself!

i remember when I first registered back in February; I really couldn't believe that I would actually do it. I went online, got the form filled out and then I stared at it . . . . . I wasn't REALLY going to do this, was I? Eventually I said out loud, "Just push the send button". Obviously, you know I pushed the "send" button!

My bad knee is protesting (why now?); I pushed pretty hard on Wednesday night (but that's a story for another time.) I've been taking it easy the last two days because I realized that I really, REALLY want to do this. I did have a time goal in my mind but because the weather forecast is calling for very windy conditions, my goal and more importantly, my pleasure is to simply run it. Someone asked me once why I run; the only answer I could honestly give was "I run because I can!"

More Life on the Plateau: I lost one pound for the whole month! Whoop-de-do!! Amazingly enough, I'm OK with that. About halfway through the month of April, I stopped obsessing about numbers and recommitted myself to all my other goals. What could have been my worst month, my end of the road, became my month of strength as I reminded myself of what I had achieved so far and thought about how I'm going to build on that strength for the new accomplishments ahead. I think the best day of April was last Saturday; I was so excited when I got the email telling me I am a SP Motivator. I'm always so honored to be able to share something I've learned and I've certainly learned a lot during this challenging time. There's so much rolling around in this brain waiting to spill out. I am forever grateful to have this great place where I can share it (and perhaps someone else can find it useful.)

Today's 5K will be a celebration of all I've accomplished and a launching pad for new adventures.

I am already so proud of myself.

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