I'm back!

Hello!

Hard for me to believe that an entire 7 mos. has passed since I last posted to this blog. How time does fly.
A quick update of my life since my last post:

Things that did not happen/no longer exist in my life

- School - I withdrew from my education program @ KVCC in October. Not a good fit for me. The older I get, I recognize more easily what doesn't work for me. What does.... is not as easy to determine.

- I never did run a 5K  - No good, valid reason - in short, I gave up my goal. Not proud - just being honest.

- My mother - she passed away in January @ the age of 90. I miss her terribly, though am @ peace that she & my father are reunited again.

What is true for me now:

- I love being a full-time homemaker - And realize that I am very lucky to be able to do so right now.

- Looking forward to my son Chris' wedding - August 2012  - His fiance Holly is a wonderful girl and we look forward to having her & her family as a part of ours (at least on paper, for she has been a member of our family in spirit for a while now. )

- My daughter Emily turned 21 earlier this month - An official adult milestone, but she'll always be my baby girl.

- Have reconnected with old friends who are dear friends once again & a blessing in our life  - And our life (my husband and I) is richer because of it.

- I'm back on the Healthier Lifestyle Train once again - Although I haven't posted about it, I wasn't completely stagnant on the exercise front over the last few months:

• Renewed my membership @ Peak Performance (our local gym) in December (& have been using it).
• Participated in a weekly group Cardio Circuit/Strength Training Class this winter.
• Have developed gym & walking partnerships with friends Deb & Tracy, respectively. (We try to meet at least once/week for our exercise dates, though aren't always successful. It's the weather's fault sometimes. Really, it is.)
• Am on my 4th week of a new eating plan - Along with my husband (initially by default since he eats the meals I cook) who is along for the ride. To his credit, he is as dedicated as I am. And from experience, it's always easier when you support each other in these efforts. I have lost 10 lbs. to date. Yay! With only........ (don't want to think about it)..... ? lbs. to go! Focusing on little victories right now, like clothes fitting better & feeling better overall. We surely don't follow the plan to a T - have made adaptations that make sense for us & for our sanity. Like the occasional glass (or bottle!) of wine (Hey, Wade makes his own awesome wine and we have a large supply in the house - I'm not made of stone, people!) Or eating things on certain days that are outside of the plan parameters. But the next day we rededicate ourselves & continue to progress along. Eating a lot of vegetables, fruit & lean protein & basically no carbs or sugar. I won't say we're not hungry at times nor that we don't crave certain foods - reducing caloric intake drastically will do that to you, no matter how healthy it might be. But our progress & little victories keep us inspired to continue on. And Wade has lost a good little chunk of weight also (although there's not an official#), probably more than I.
• Have started the C25K (Couch-To-5K) Program again. As the name suggests, it's a training program to help you progress from no running (couch potato) to running a 5K in 9 weeks. Am about to start Week 2 of this. Not sure I'll be ready for a 5K as soon as 9 weeks. Just concentrating on, once again, small victories along the way. Like going from no running to running a total of 8 mins. (not consecutively, but that will come later when it tells me to!) I'm having better success on doing this on the gym treadmill than when I previously did it before outside. Eventually I will have to move it outside because I know of no indoor 5Ks. But this is working for me right now. Plugged into my IPod workout playlist & following the prompts of the program of when to run & when to walk, I am truly in-the-zone, to the exclusion of whomever might be around me or the concern of what I look like running (the jigglin' & the sweatin' - I'm sure it ain't a pretty sight!) But I don't care - I'm doing it for me & I've let the other stuff go. Honestly, Ann, get over yourself - who is really focusing on you?! Other people are in their own zone.

So that's where I stand right now. Maybe someone else can identify with some of what I have said?
Hoping to post this more regularly.
I hope life is good for you, as it is for me.

Until next time,

LLOTM

I'm human

The length of time that has elapsed since LLOTM's last posting could be viewed as for a positive reason or a not so positive reason - either I've been so busy training for my 5K that I haven't had time to post. Or... I haven't had any training/exercise news to report. Unfortunately, the later is true in my case.

Since my last posting, I have only done a walk/run a couple of times. No good excuse other than I've let other things take up my life, like school. I haven't had any less time than I did before to devote to exercising. Frankly I've just let it get away from me - I'm human. You miss a day, and then another, and the next thing you know.... it's been more days than you want to acknowledge since you've last exercised. Maintaining a balanced life of school, work, leisure, exercise, etc...., something I am studying the importance of in my college program, is always a struggle for me, and I am not consistently good at it for sure.

Anyone else struggle with this?

Today, in fact right now as I write this, I should be a participant in the East End 5K in Portland which I signed up for many weeks ago as my end goal for my training. Instead, I am sitting on my butt writing this blog - not something I am proud of. I'm not going to wallow in feeling bad about it. I'm noting this hear in my blog so I can let it go!

This doesn't mean I have completely failed and have given up. I just didn't reach my initial goal. Time to readjust the goal. There are other 5Ks scheduled later into the season, I have discovered. I will select one this week to work towards.

I'm starting out with a smaller goal: I will do a walk/run session 3 times in the coming week. Period. I will report back in a week as to how I faired.

So here it is in black and white. Can't take it back now.

I would love to hear comments on this if anyone can identify with my struggle.

Have a good week.

This Large Lady vows to be On The Move again.

Until next time.....

Antidote for a bad day

Mondays are tough sometimes, and that was true for me today. Nothing terribly horrible happened, and it really didn't even have anything to do with it being Monday. It was just a combination of feeling overwhelmed, very unsure, incapable, and being totally out of my comfort zone - too much new stuff! - at school today that was wearing on me on my drive home today. So by the time I walked through the door, I believe you could actually see the black cloud hovering over my head, and my mood was indeed poor. I bet each of us knows this feeling at one time or another from work or whatever circumstances.

But I had made an exercise date with Wade (mah husband) that we would do our next walk/run together when I got home from school today. Believe me, it was the very LAST thing I felt like doing. And I was tired too. (small violin playing...) But I knew that if I sat down to check messages or email which is my usual M.O, I would be done for and would not go. So I quickly changed my clothes and shoes without sitting down, and we both headed out together, in the drizzle. (The weather would usually be a reason for me to cancel out also.)
As the minutes ticked by and each time my feet hit the pavement on my mini-runs, I felt my poor mood slipping away, and literally felt a weight lift off me. By the time I got home, I was in a much better frame of mind, and more fun to be around for sure (right, Wade?!)

Having someone to exercise with does indeed make a difference and Wade as an exercise partner is a big help to me. We have an unspoken competition going on. Whomever starts running first, the other tries to match the distance that they run. And we encourage each other on each run especially.

So, in summary, my antidote for a bad day is to sweat it out of ya! I hope perhaps you can identify with this and maybe get a little inspiration. I know I will need to be reminded of this again the next time I feel like this. Hopefully, not as soon as tomorrow :-).

Until next time....

LLOTM

Memory Walk 2010

The month of September is when Memory Walks are held all over the country. Our local Memory Walk was held today in Wilton. And what a beautiful day it was! The Memory Walk is annually the largest fundraiser for the Alzheimer's Association, which provides support and services to those who have this prevalent degenerative disease and research to one day end it. This is my 2nd year participating when I was a team of one then and this event has grown significantly since last year. The amount of walkers overall grew significantly from last year also to approximatley 90 walkers this year.

Our team named Memory Keepers consisted of 6 walkers today; my sister Janice, my son Chris, daughter Emily, friends Holly Paul and Michelle Beedy, and myself. (We missed you, Tammy and Julie.) And I know my Dad was with us as well. We were the 2nd highest fundraising team, raising $730! We rocked! And we had fun! Our goal is to grow our team in size and donations for next year, so let me know if you are interested in joining us. Always the last Saturday in September, by the way.

I chose to do the shorter of the two available walking routes today for various reasons. What it lacked in distance, it made up for in grade, in parts - steep!

Our team gathered for breakfast after the Walk and awards and replenished our carb levels we had depleted. :-)

Thanks to those that contributed and definitely to those who participated. It was esp. great to share this with my sister (Cathy, I know you were there with us in spirit) and with my kids, and to have both my kids under our roof again last night. That happens very rarely these days.

So tomorrow this LLOTM is back to the walk/run plan - the 5K is 2 weeks from today.

Today was indeed a good day. I hope it was for you as well.

Until next time....

LLOTM

Here goes....

Welcome to my blog. I've been thinking about creating one for some time now. I have to do enough writing already now for school, but this is for fun and for me... and maybe for you too.

Why write a blog? Selfishly, to keep myself on track and motivate myself by making this commitment to write a blog. Maybe some others can gain something from it as well.

This is mainly going to be about my ongoing journey with losing weight, getting healthier and exercise. No weighing in and posting hard numbers in black and white for all the world to see - no thank you. That's just a little too Biggest Loser/too much reality for me! Let's just say that when I step on my Wii Fit board and do my Body Profile or whatever it's called, it speaks to me.... in a tone that sounds like it's really disappointed in me. Enuf said. Great for your self-esteem! Yeah well, screw you too, Wii Fit Fiona or whatever the heck your name is!

My goal is to be much healthier within the next two years, and removing some medications from my life, which will also have to include a significant weight loss. But it seems too daunting if I think of the sheer amt of poundage to lose. So let's just take it 1 step at a time.

Speaking of steps, I began the Couch To 5K running plan about 6 weeks ago. I learned about it from some other Facebook friends. For those that haven't heard of it, just like the name indicates, it's designed to take someone who isn't exercising (from the couch) to the point of running a 5K at the end of the 9 weeks. The C25K app that follows this program is one of the few apps I have paid for on my ITouch. It incorporates music and a prompt for running and walking, plus keeps track of the dates of your runs and you can add a note each time as to how you felt, etc... I even signed up for a 5K as a goal to work towards - my first ever - to correspond with the end of the program. I was coming along pretty well on building up my running over the last weeks. When you start from barely being able to run 25 ft, it doesn't take much to improve upon that! But I didn't take into account that this training program was proably not designed for someone of my size. And so, I couldn't progress as much as the program prompts you to. I would have to repeat each week twice before I was ready to increase my endurance. And having a pesky flu virus a few weeks put my program on hold for a full 10 days. Which means at the end of 6 weeks, I am still on week 3, with my 5K less than 3 weeks away. I began to get discouraged and think "What was I thinking?!" Me, run a 5K - you must be joking! I am so not ready to run a 5K!

Also when I found out that the 5K I am signed up for in Portland goes right through the Old Port and Congress Street which means that my fat behind will be parading right through the city. Not a pretty image to imagine!

Plus I am doing the Alzheimer's Memory Walk this Saturday which is a c. 3-4 mile walk, and so I started focusing my attention on the distance of c. 3 miles which I was far from, instead of on running.

In summary... whaa.... whaaa........ call the whambulance.

And then tonight.. I went for a moderate length walk with my husband this evening that turned into a walk/run for us, each taking turns running what we could. And I did pretty well, considering I haven't run in over a week now. Plus I felt great afterwards! The endorphins go pumping through my bloodstream better than others sometimes, and sometimes I feel terrific after I run, like I could conquer the world. There's nothing else like it! This motivated me to stick with my goal of the 5K, and I will just run what I can and do my best, instead of feeling like a failure that I can't run it entirely and not doing it at all, which I had been seriously considering.
So I'm back in!

I don't promise a daily post to this blog, just enough to update my progress (or lack of) and when I have something interesting to say or an epiphany.

And in the meantime... if you see something coming towards you that you can't at first identify as you are driving down the road in my little rural part of the world, it could be this Large Lady On The Move.

Until next time....

LLOTM