So, the Gruene 10K has come and gone. Let's talk about motivation.

Lots of things happening since May.

I had a pretty ridiculous bout with back injuries (injured one side... then the other, that was fun).

Then, as it often does, it got really hot in Houston.  REALLY hot.  So hot that when you got up way before the sun to exercise, it was still ridiculously hot and crazy.  I lost the oomph, didn't do much in the way of running, got discouraged.

Then it got busy with my daughter having all kinds of needs for me to run her around throughout the day and evenings, which left me exhausted and feeling very "NO" about extra activities.  She did try out for volleyball, though, which got us both up and running for a little while.  She needed to get a little conditioning under her belt, because she hadn't been able to attend the conditioning camps that a lot of the other girls had been to (she had a super-travelin' summer).  I was pretty proud of her for having the drive, at age 14, to get up before the sun to go running with her big old slow stepmom.  She was able to run that mile during volleyball tryouts in plenty of time : )

Then school started.  Both kids in a new school (one high school, one middle school).  New carpool routines, new schools, and again... exhausting.  I think I worked out consistently for a good week!  Then I came up with the "too much to do" excuses.

Then my grandma took ill and died.  It bears repeating that I really, really loved my grandma... and the fact that she suddenly wasn't going to be with us was personally devastating to me, even though she was 90 and I know she was ready to go.

Then I got sick, like sinuses-really-bad-cold, can't-stop-coughing, i-don't-effing-CARE sick.  Lingering cough for WEEKS.  So sick in fact, that I even had to reschedule some work stuff due to illness, which I am not fond of doing.  I don't make money when I don't work, so let's just say, I like to work.

Then I got a notice in the mail from my insurance company that they will indeed NOT cover a breast reduction for this Chesty Pear.  *facepalm*

When you reach the point of "I don't care" so much that you're not cooking even one meal a day, and you just want food to magically appear, and you want to get out of the house at dinner time because you've been hanging out all day staring at the same four walls (when you weren't sleeping, that is)... or stress is making you hungry for all the wrong things... or you just flat out aren't making time for yourself to incorporate any sort of exercise...

Sometimes you just need a little something to whack you on the head and tell you to snap out of it and realize that these are the same problems lots of people face on a daily basis when it comes to motivation.  You know what they say about excuses...

The Gruene 10K was coming up, and I was really just thinking about ditching it because I haven't been running at all, and was pretty much feeling like a big-fat-blob, and still coughing like a bandit and pretty much sucking on cough drops 24/7.  Well go figure, I had gone ahead and scheduled work in Gruene-- and it really couldn't be rescheduled.  I headed up there, checked into my hotel, and wasn't planning to even try that 10K because 6 miles is FAR, and I had just not been breathing well at all.

My sweet friends Emily, Daniel and Roberta were coming to the Gruene 10K as well.  I went on Friday evening and picked up my racer packet, and decided I'd try.  Even if I walked the whole thing, I should try.  Emily & Daniel would be walking, so I knew that at least I could hang with them if I needed to.

I walked with Emily and Daniel a little, then my legs just wanted to run, dammit.

I alternated walking and jogging for the remainder of the race, and finished it without a hitch.  My left foot was asleep for most of the third mile, but the feeling came back eventually ; )

It was inspiring to see people much heavier than me, much older than me... passing me by, or way ahead of me on their way back from the turnaround.  Toward the end of mile 4 or 5, when I was definitely on the home stretch, I turned off of Albert Street in a little neighborhood.  Like a beacon of hope for tired legs, there was a street sign.

Josephine Street.  What are the odds?  Of all the things a street could be called...

That was my grandmother's name.  It was like she was cheering me on from Heaven.  I cried a little and decided I would run all of Josephine street : )

So HEY, it's MAY!

Clearly, I'm a very goal-oriented person when it comes to the whole running thing.  Lately I've been really easily distracted from my routine, and not running as much as I wish I would... clearly no one's fault but mine.  Time management isn't easy, if it was easy we'd all be fabulously organized and on perfect schedules, right?

I can feel my body slipping back into the land o' flab when I don't exercise but sometimes life and task-accomplishment can be overwhelming, I mean who hasn't experienced that before?  I think we all go through phases of falling off the proverbial wagons and getting down on ourselves.  That's been me for the past couple of months.  I know that when I don't exercise the moody, annoying, overwhelmed Chesty Pear rears her head... which is good for no one and all.  So hey, I should fix that, huh?

We recently went on a vacation to West Texas, and on our way back home stopped in Kerville for the evening.  In our hotel lobby were lots of Hill Country brochures, on in particular for Gruene, Texas-- a place I've never officially been, but always wanted to stop in.  I'd also been riding on the back of a motorcycle for 6 days, and was itching to stretch my legs... and inside the Gruene brochure I noticed that they have a 10K in September.  I checked my schedule, and sure enough had the weekend free.

You can probably guess what happened next, I decided to sign up for this run, and get back on the exercise wagon.  I made that decision in mid-April, and it only took me a month (ooh, that's hard to admit) to get my shoes on and get my butt outside and run to start kind of training to be able to go the distance.  I've never run a 10K before, and I'd really like to.

So that's my goal : )

Since I have my big fancy running watch with GPS that's all programmable and whatnot, I decided to take the c25k program and double up on it.  I programmed in each of the first four workouts, but instead of the normal number of intervals, I doubled them.  I didn't start at the beginning, but at week 3 (intervals of 1:30 and 3:00, alternating) because I know my body and knew it'd be manageable.

It took me just under an hour to do 4.119 miles and I topped out at a phenomenally tortoise-like speed of 7.4 mph : )

BUT... I didn't give up, I kept going even when I was convinced my Timex Global Trainer was stuck in some sort of interval-rep warp and not acting right.

Today, I didn't want to be someone who makes an excuse about why they can't do something, I wanted to be someone who could finish something and post that flippin' sucker up on facebook...lol.  I know it's totally goofy and kind of attention-whorey, but when I'm getting tired and feeling like stopping before the end it's totally a motivating factor.  I really appreciate the friends on FB who cheer me on!

It was probably helpful that the weather was absolutely perfect.  Thanks God!

This week I'll try and repeat that workout on Wednesday and Friday as well... then move forward to the next workout.

I have to tell you, I really feel like after logging 4 miles I should be magically skinny by evening.  Holy crap, that's kind of far!!!

So I think I'm gonna start a little garden this year.

I've been reading and hounding my gardener friends for details lately, and I think I'm going to start a few little gardens this spring, hopefully turn out some herbs, peppers, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and pumpkins this year.  I've generally had a pretty green thumb, but haven't really ever successfully tried food plants.

So far, I've started some seeds in a little flat (indoors, because for some reason it's decided to be snowy in Houston this year).  We've bought some seeds and are planning to start some pumpkin seeds in time to harvest for jack-o-lanterns, too.

Since we're having wacky snow possibilities and hard freezing right now, the seeds are indoors on their starter flat, with a heating pad below the water reservoir.  Because I'm a goofball.

Surprisingly enough, the cats have completely not even bothered to check it out, other than snuggling next to the heating pad now and again.  It's in their favorite warm window spot... and unbeknownst to them, there are catnip seeds in there!!!

I'm also encouraging the family to help save stuff that we can repurpose for gardening use.  Tonight we had little ice creams (the single-serving containers-- not the pint ones), and I rinsed them and set them aside for seed starting.  The little tiny containers are a good way for me to handle portion control when it comes to eating ice cream!

Over the winter holidays I built a worktable and hutch for use outside, because in the past I think it's annoyed my lovely husband when I bring the good old potting soil into the kitchen and go to work with my flowers.  He's a little cleaner than I am, but I'm no complainer.  It's kind of fantastic to have a guy around who really cleans up!  Now I can be as messy and dirty as I like in my very own little backyard : )  Please note the fancy worklight I installed for after the sun goes down.

There's a shelf along the bottom to add stability and store stuff.

I've even started collecting organic trashy stuff for composting!  We'll see how all this goes.  I figure if the composting fails miserably, hey, I'll just throw it away in the actual trash.  If it works, then WHEE!  Fantastic free fertilizer for my little planties.

If you'd like to research some easy gardening, please check into Square Foot Gardening.  It can be done in a backyard or on an apartment balcony, you just need containers, sunlight, and water.

There are a zillion websites that will help you decide what and when to plant, but the cutest by far is Sprout Robot.  It'll even e-mail you when it's time to start planting new stuff!

Here are some books I bought/inherited that I've found helpful.  You can also find them at the library-- ours has a whole section on local gardening.  The Square Foot Gardening book is grrrrreat!

Here goes nothin'.  I'm looking forward to trying all of this out!  While I'm not sure it'll actually "save" money as opposed to buying veggies at the grocery store, I do think it'll be pretty satisfying, and give me some reason to spend more time outdoors kind of communing with nature... plus I'm one of those nurturers, and we definitely don't need anymore animals.  We'll see how good of a seed mommy I can be...lol.

The Holidays: Tough to stay focused!

So, once the holiday season (and coincidentally my insanely busy season at work) hit, I didn't run nearly as much and probably fell back into some less-than-desirable habits.  This happens to a lot of people, and I really try not to let "food choices" determine whether I've had a great day or not.  Moving toward a healthier lifestyle is about a lifetime of making better choices.  I try to keep the attitude that every day is new, and even when I slack on the super-healthy choices... I've still come a long way from where I started, when I weighed about 260 pounds and was feeding my family lots of bad-fatty/sugary foods on a regular basis.

Even though I feel that I've "slacked" over the past few months, I can look at the way our lifestyle has changed and say that we're still moving forward.  The way we cook is different, the things in our pantry and fridge are still, for the most part, the things that should be there.

We went out of town for the week of Thanksgiving, and I ran while we were in Missouri.  I ran a little bit once we got back, but then the cold weather arrived and it was just... brrrr.  I allowed myself a little break, thinking I'd hit the gym more regularly.  That didn't happen.  My daughter no longer had crack-o-dawn volleyball practice, so I did a lot more sleeping in!

The good news is, my clothes all still fit : )

I headed back to the gym today, walked as fast as I could on the treadmill for 3 miles with a little incline (about 40 minutes), then did a weight circuit.  It felt reallllly great to get my body moving again!!!  It was also great to exercise and watch some mindless tv ("Fashion Police", which my husband hates).  It had been so long since I'd been to the gym (although I had been running) that the trainer had to re-activate my FitLinxx account!  God bless the YMCA.  I love those people.  No questions asked, no making me feel guilty.  Just a welcome back and a smile!

If you've lapsed in your workout routines, or indulged a little more than you feel you should have over the holiday season... Please keep a positive attitude!  Remember that every day is new.  Every single day is a day that you can begin making better choices.  Improvement doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing, it simply needs to be BETTER.  If small steps are what you need, then take small steps.


Sometimes when we decide we're going to overhaul our lives, it's a huge step and it's really difficult... which leads to feeling badly about yourself when you don't "make it".  Revise your plan, and change one small thing each day.  Be in this for life, not just until you hit a goal : )