Forming Day 9

Weekends off from exercise cannot last…… not if I intend to be serious about training.   I play on a ladies softball team on Friday nights in the summer so I use that as my excuses to not only skip my Friday gym session but then Saturday as well since I might be sore.  (I rarely am sore)  Stuff sometimes does come up that I can’t work out on the weekends but in general if I wanted to it could happen.  I really need to buckle down and start getting my head in the game.  I told you from Forming Day 1 that I need accountability and so with that I think I’m going to start running with the MoJo running group every other Saturday morning.  Huge, I know.  If people are expecting me then I will be there.  Why every other Saturday you ask?  My husband’s work schedule has him working every other weekend so for now that is what it will have to be.  I’m really looking forward to running with people of different skill sets and being pushed to go further and run harder.  To be challenged!  Speaking of being challenged…..

So I was running at Lifetime Fitness yesterday and luckily my favorite treadmill was available.  Next to it was two women who had just gotten started on their run and had a pretty good pace going.  I was feeling like it was going to be a great run- my fav treadmill that allows me to watch ESPN and unwilling running partners.  J  I know I  have mentioned that I am competitive so every time the girls upped their speed I upped mine as well (I swear I probably have a mental condition that doesn’t allow me to just ENJOY something, it has to be a competition!)  We settled in at a great pace, 6.5 and no incline.  When we first got to 6.5 I thought there is NO way I’ll be able to keep this up but I really surprised myself and lasted 2.5 miles there.  I was really really impressed with myself!  Now they went on and did 3 miles but I was so happy with my ability to maintain that pace.  THAT is the kind of challenge I need, I would have NEVER pushed myself to run at 6.5 but thanks to those strangers I realized  that I can do something I hadn’t thought possible!  Yea Me!!  However it certainly didn’t help my ego when as I was leaving my post run sweat session I saw the ladies in a cardio class…. Come on!!! 

Something that I have started to think about is my diet.  I’m pretty conscience of what I eat/drink in general.  Now that doesn’t mean I always make the healthiest choice, but I’m at least CONSCIENCE of the junk I’m putting in my mouth. Haha!  I heard Jillian from The Biggest Loser one time say that she only allows her people to drink water that way they aren’t using up their allotted daily calories on drinks.  I like this line of thinking and so I try to drink as much water as I can during the day (after my 4 cups of coffee in the morning!) so I’m free to eat more during the day.  In general I eat fairly healthy but I really really like junk food.  Wait, allow me to rephrase- I like the way junk food tastes, I hate the way it makes my body feel.   I try to remember how gross I feel after eating chips with my lunch as a deterrent from making that choice again; it works about 75% of the time.  ;)  And as always when I start working out, I notice my metabolism working harder, my body slimming down and so I think I can eat whatever I want since I’m burning more calories now…… One would think that after 20 some odd years of watching what I eat and exercising that I would learn.  I just moved beyond that phase, thank goodness it’s usually a short phase.  Last week I was eating like no bodies business.  Ice cream, chips, Sour Patch Kids, etc.  Somehow I still managed to lose a little weight so I think to myself “if I could exercise AND eat correctly how awesome would this be?”   That is my goal for the week, to start being extremely aware of what I eat and asking myself if what I am eating is a hindrance or helper to my goal of running a Half Marathon….  Why would I want to create more work for myself by eating crap that will only make me have to work out more just to burn off?  I’ll NOT be giving up beer though, I’m only human!  I will be cutting back on how often I have a few though.  Softball games wouldn’t be the same without a giant plastic cup of good old American Bud Lite! 

Have a great week everyone and please keep posting your questions/comments!  I’ve noticed that you will have to log in to your Google account to make a comment though so keep that in mind.  I love hearing your thoughts on this blog!!  Take care and happy trails!!!

Jen