It has been a crazy busy month! First an unbelievable storm, then an unexpected week at my parents’ house followed by vacation, three days at home, another 7+ hour trip to a wedding, vacation with the in-laws, and finally, home again to get ready to go back to work for the first time in 18 months less than two weeks from now. It has been a very emotionally trying month with some nice highs but also very low lows. The short version is that both vacations were a lot more work and a lot more emotionally draining that vacations should ever be.
The good news is that I have managed to remain positive through some tough times, I’m still here on Spark, and I lost almost 16 pounds through all of this. I have never once given up on my healthy eating or exercising and managed to keep it a priority throughout the craziness. It was pretty difficult at times to find good things to eat but I made do. Exercising was easier because I was so active swimming and walking everywhere. It was so nice to not feel winded or tired just walking to and from the beach like I had in the past. Instead I did extra activity. Even though I was in a size 22 bathing suit, I didn’t once feel self-conscious because I know how much healthier and smaller I am than three months ago. It was very nice to feel this way. I am proud of myself for sticking with it even when it was tough.
My best news just happened today though. One of my goals was to run a mile as I have never once run a mile in my life without having to walk part of it. Today was supposed to be day 1 of week 8 of my training program, walk 1 minute, jog for 4 minutes, and repeat this 7 more times. It was almost the same as last week except it added another set. I have walked and ran every minute of this program exactly the way it was designed, but I am really tired of my watch beeping at me every minute of every run. So today I decided that I was going to skip the intervals and run a mile and then I would let myself walk/run the rest. Well, I made it! I ran a mile without stopping at all in 12:40. I wasn’t tired either so I just kept going. I knew that I was going to run a 5K today because I signed up for a virtual race that I had to finish by Friday, so I just kept running and told myself I would take a walking break at the halfway point. I ended up running the entire 5K without walking a single step!!!! I wanted to do it in less than 40 minutes and my big push to sprint the last 0.1 mile paid off as I finished it in 39:38! I was so thrilled and I still can’t believe I actually did it! Before today I had never run more than 4 minutes in a row. If any of you are considering starting a running program I highly recommend the Sparkpeople Rookie Running Program. I followed it and thought for weeks how am I ever going to go from 4 minutes to a 5K with no walking like it said, but it worked.
As if that wasn’t enough for one day, I also had another milestone of sorts today. After trying on every piece of clothing I own, I had about 300 items that are too big for me now. I decided to give most of it away today to Goodwill. It was hard to do not because I am afraid of needed the clothes back at some point, but because it was a little nerve-racking to just hand over such a large pile of clothing. I got over it though and I hope that some ladies out there will benefit from them.
This has left me with a much smaller wardrobe, all of which will also be too big after I get down another size anyway. I had way too much clothing to begin with and never wore most of it. This was not by my choosing but because I have an overzealous shopper near and dear to me. I like being able to see everything in my closet now and not having to store part of it in the guest room. I also like knowing that everything there fits or is close to fitting in one direction or the other. I am going through my shoes too because even my feet have changed in the past three months. I have shoes that are too big because I should really be wearing a narrow and I have others that are just too small because that happens after two pregnancies. The only small problem is that these shoes are marked the same size!
So, to sum it up, today was a really good day full of NSVs that was much needed after a bit of a rocky time. I am on track to lose between 60-65 pounds by the time I go back to work in two weeks, which will surpass my original goal by 10-15 pounds. I feel like I can finally call myself a runner and that I can continue running even without a structured program. I also have tons more confidence about my race in 2.5 weeks! I am doing my best to look forward and positively plan for the upcoming changes in my life and I am very confident that I am not going to let anything derail me from the great track I am on. I hope that all of you Sparkfriends are doing well and I am looking forward to having more Sparktime again to catch up with you, comment on things and blog. It really helps to know that other people are working on things just like me. Happy Sparking!