The Little Engine That Could - Part 1

I'm back on the blog!  It's been awhile. I know I don't really have an audience, but I need the therapy that writing gives me, so I've decided to TRY to get back to blogging regularly. I feel like I lived a whole new life this year and I haven't documented any of it!!  Boo me.

2014 was a rough year. Friendships were lost. My husband was gone most of the year.  I was in a FUNK. Totally funkdafied. My health suffered because I was suffering.   I can see it now, looking back on it with a fresh pair of eyes. I was lost, I was sinking into a depression. I'm pretty lucky that my true friends stuck it out with me!

What happens when I become depressed? I stop caring. I start forgetting what the things I love to do are and lack consistency in everything.  It really is a slippery slope. Complacency, it's real. Now, I didn't completely drop everything. Was I in the worst shape of my life?  Nope.  I still was exercising - was I pushing myself? No. Would I rather go out for coffee than workout?  Heck yeah.  I wasn't really focused on my food intake. Clothes started getting tighter. Excuses were being made.  I blamed my thyroid.  I was sure there was a medical reason!

Got my blood work back. Thyroid - healthy!  A1C - above normal.  Pre-diabetic range. Say what???

A1C?  I'd never even heard of it. Well, it measures your blood sugar over a period of 2-3 months.  And my A1C was elevated.

Military doctor's advice?  Diet and exercise.  That was it. I actually didn't even get an appointment to talk face-to-face.  Military medicine at it's finest!  They put in a referral for a nutritionist.  Yeah, that nutritionist works on another base 90 miles away and only comes to the area once every 3 months.  What a joke.

What did happen?  Well, I thought about it. I really thought about my life. And how important it was.  I thought about my husband.  My three kids.  I had to make a choice - keep going on as I was, floating along. Maybe I would get diabetes. A preventable disease.  Some people might choose to go that route.

I didn't make that choice. I chose ME. 

More in part 2 later!! :D

Yesterday's Workout and Self-Doubt

So yesterday's run.

Do you ever have a conversation with yourself, in your head, where you go back and forth on whether or not you can do something?

In my case, it was running for 20 minutes.

It's not as if I've never run a non-interval run before.  I've done it many, many times.  I've run a couple of 5K races.  Heck, I've even done a 5.5 mile run! 

But I've been on this interval-run-kick for so long, where I run 3 minutes, walk 1 (Week 1 of the Ease into 10K, wash, rinse, repeat).

So yesterday I decided I was going to dip back into the 5K training and do a 20 minute run, 3 minute walk, 5 minute run.

I got out there and was feeling pretty good on that first mile. I thought about my BFF Amanda (and new blogger at A Healthful Approach) kicking butt yesterday and busting out a 5 mile run on the treadmill. And that seriously motivated me to just make it happen and go for the 5K.

I did my 3.1 and felt fantastic.  And wondered why I'd even doubted myself in the first place.

My run pace was a respectable 10:33. I know I'm not a fast runner, but hey, I'm getting it DONE.

Now I'm linking up for Weigh In Wednesday (better late than never)!

 

It's my first week, but certainly won't be my last!  I'm happy to have the extra push to get past this number! I just finished hosting an FB Biggest Loser Challenge and did not win. But I was weighing in on Wednesdays, so this will not be new to me.  I'm hoping to try Weight Watchers again because that seems to be the one thing I can stick with. 

Current Weight: 173.3

1st Goal Weight: 168

Ultimate Goal Weight: 150ish

Here's to another step in the right direction!