Resurrecting the Runner

I have waited many months for this day........ and here it is. Back in July, when I returned from the rez and got more serious about my diet and exercise, I bought the running shoes that you see in the pic above (yes, my feet really are that big). I also took a pic of my Lakota nephew Bernie and his two girls and had it made into a size 2X t-shirt for me to run in.

At the time that I bought the shoes and the shirt, neither would fit me and I was far, far away from doing any running. At the time, my shoes were a 13 XXXXW and my shirt a 4X-- and those are men's sizes. The shoes above are a 12 xxw - the size I wore when I was last able to call myself a runner -- about 11 years ago. And the shirt is a 2X-- a size I hoped to be able to fit into by spring.

I've been wearing walking shoes and have noticed them getting looser and looser, so my feet are actually smaller now. Last night, I was doing walking/jogging intervals on the way to the gym and when I really started to get into it and push myself, one of my shoes actually came right off. LOL

So, today, I got brave and took the new running shoes off my dresser where they have been sitting since I bought them (so that I'd have to look at them first thing every morning)and slid them on---THEY FIT PERFECTLY, almost as if they were custom-made for me. And they are so flippin' comfortable! I love them!

I was so thrilled that I decided to see how the t-shirt would fit. IT FITS!!!!!! I nearly fainted! So, outfitted in gear I didn't think I'd wear until March, I headed out the door to do my walk/run intervals--and I couldn't ask for a better day. It is unseasonably warm here in CT. I had on a light hoodie and got overheated at the end.

I can already see that my hilly neighborhood is going to be a challenge in determining how far I can actually go at a stretch. A lot of the hills are tough enough that back when I was a fit runner, I would have found them difficult. Now, I can barely walk them.

Last night, I filled out and printed my application to run in the New Haven Road Race, which is a half-marathon and takes place on September 6th, 2010. I am not mailing it yet though. I stuck it on the cork board by my desk so that I have to look at it every time I come to my computer. I'll leave it there for awhile as motivation and mail it in a few months.

Bernie (on the t-shirt) participated in the Sun Dance and my friend Jeanne and I were there to support him in that. As you know, I was so fat when we traveled to the rez that I had to buy two airline seats. Bernie and his family keep praying for us and for our health. They are people with a lot of faith. In fact, faith is one of the few things they have a lot of on the rez.

So this t-shirt is to remind me that I only want to buy ONE airline seat this time. And it's also to keep me from getting so physically oriented (through the diet and exercise) that I forget to allow myself a spiritual life.

Even though this journey began in March and was renewed in July, I felt another sort of renewal today, my journey back to becoming a runner became more real today; it moved from being something that might happen in the future to something that is happening now. This has really revitalized my enthusiasm! The lighter you are, the faster you can run-- so this should be motivation for me to be even more careful with the food going forward.

Helen, thank you for the offer of running links and advice. I'll take any help I can get, with gratitude. So, wrap it up, I'll take it!

Well, that is enough for today! I have a lot of work to do and need to squeeze in a ChaLEAN workout in order to stay on track with my fitness goals for the week. I hope you are all well! Be good to you today!

I ran (but not with a flock of sea gulls)

Happy Wednesday my friends. If you need an extra shot of motivation, just visit Steve's Wednesday's Word of the Day over at his blog. Look in the upper right hand corner for today's message!

Yesterday and today were both very busy but I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I spent part of yesterday just running errands. In our town, June is the month that you license your dog and we had let our dog's licenses lapse. (yeah, I know, I know). After that incident Thanksgiving day with the pack of vicious dogs, I want to be prepared and completely "legal" if there is another incident.

So I went to our vet yesterday morning and got copies of our guys rabies shot certificates and brought those down to the town hall to update their licenses. It felt good to get that done. On Thanksgiving when we had that incident, the officer didn't ask if our dogs were licensed, if she had, we would have been sunk.

That taken care of, I went to the army/navy store down the road and bought a big ass can of pepper spray. This can is bigger than what I expected but it shoots a powerful stream up to 8 feet away. I tested it and it really does spray in a powerful stream, not a mist-- so it would probably be very effective.

It also doesn't spray in bursts but has continuous action and will spray as long as you hold down the button. It is made for security people working a crowd. So if that pack attacks again I can sweep it across them as they approach and it should work.

I dug out a fanny pack that I bought to wear during my trip to the rez and I will use that for walking from now on. It can hold the pepper spray, my camera, ipod, and cell phone without a problem.

By the way, speaking of that fanny pack, it was designed for big people so it was extra big to begin with--PLUS, I had to order an extender for it. Now, I took out the extender and had to cinch up the other part too. That sure felt good!

After that, I took Zeke for a walk/run at the Beach. Once again, I would walk for awhile then jog for awhile. Zeke LOVED it! He kept looking up at me as if to say, "Holy crap, mom is running with me." He was a good boy and stayed with the program. When I needed to walk, which was a lot at this point, he would slow down and not pull at the leash. So Zeke and I did two miles of walk/jogwalk/jog yesterday and I was so happy!

Today I got up and immediately did the Denise Austin cardio dvd that I used to do all of the time when I first started. It is only 25 minutes so I put it away when I began to feel like I needed more time.

SO I popped it in and found that I can put a lot more energy into it than I used to be able to do. This is pure cardio, but I wanted to make it more difficult so I held 5 pound dumb bells in my hands the whole time.

This worked, as I really had an elevated pulse through the whole thing, yet 5 pounds is not enough weight to make my arms get tired or sore. I am going to do this work out here and there when I get the chance so that I can take off as much weight as possible before my doctor visit at the end of the month.

THEN, late morning I took a 2 mile walk/jog around the neighborhood and followed that up with the ChaLEAN Extreme Push circuit 1-- which is a lot of arm work. It is only Wednesday and I already surpassed the fitness hours I put in last week and it looks like I will finish this week strong.

I am able to do bicep curls with 25 pounds now and triceps work with 20 pounds. Yes, I feel like my arms are going to fall off, but I CAN do it and I am so proud of how strong I am getting.

Yesterday I received a huge box of crafts from the Lakota kids. I needed to go through the items to see what everything is and what I would try to sell it for. I sat the box in front of my chair while The Biggest Loser was on and went through the crafts during commercials. I was able to get the whole thing done and started photographing them today-- so I'll have new items in the eBay store very soon.

There is a half marathon in my area every September and I am toying with the idea of pre-registering for it after the first of the year -- sort of as a new year's goal. My trip to the rez will be in early July and I hope to be very close to goal by then. But I want something for after that. I don't want to come home from the rez and not already have something else that I need to work on.

If I do sign up for it in January, I will have 9 months to get myself into good enough condition to run 13 miles. I think this is doable. I actually thought of this after seeing the Biggest Loser marathon last night. If they can do that after 5months, I should be able to do a half after 9 months of training, especially since I've been exercising since July.

I went back to being a little stricter with my food for the next few weeks. I really, really, really want to be under 300 when I go back to the doc's at the end of the month. It would be so incredible for me to start the new year in the 200's.

I have heard people talk about "one"-derland. Right now, I'd be happy with Two Town. LOL

I have work to do, just wanted to make sure I posted today. I hope you are all well and back on track now that turkey day is almost a week behind us.

The Road to a 200-Plus Pound Weight Loss

The Former Runner

I was never what you would call "fit" until after I had my children and I took up running and weight training to get rid of the pounds I picked up having babies and quitting smoking.

As much as it sucks to contend with a life-long struggle with weight (I know, I did it), I would have to say it sucks even more to attain fitness and then lose it ( I know, 'cause I did this too). I can't go back to the runner I was, I can only go forward from where I am. This is my story......

Fed up with the forty pounds I put on while quitting smoking --- added to the 60 pounds I had put on during my pregnancies, I was looking for a way to get some pounds off without resorting to the same old boring combination of low-calorie diet and half-assed attempts at exercise.

A co-worker had lost 80 pounds and developed a good level of fitness through running and weight training. She encouraged me to try it every chance she got and gave me a stack of running books with training programs designed to take someone from walking to running. I was fed-up with how I looked and felt but just wasn't wasn't ready to make a REAL commitment to do something about it. The books collected dust on top of my dresser for months.

Shortly after Christmas that year, my friend Richie, who was only in his late 40's, was found dead in his apartment --- he had a massive heart attack. He was overweight and had been sedentary his entire life. I was stunned that someone so young could die like that. Richie was one of my "eating buddies." I had shared countless pizzas with him and numerous orders of greasy Chinese take-out--- would I also share his fate?

Immediately after Richie's funeral I went on a diet and began to read the stack of running books that my friend had given to me months before. I DID lose weight in spite of the fact that the only exercise I got was turning the pages of the books as I laid on the sofa reading them.

Eventually I realized that in some instances, knowledge is not power-- with fitness, the empowerment comes with the doing, not with the learning about doing. LOL I had to stop reading and get off my ass. It was hard, really, really hard, as I was still quite heavy and it was the middle of winter here in New England, but I bought a pair of New Balance walking shoes and started walking everyday - even in ice storms, I'd be out there --afraid of falling on my still-fat ass in front of the whole neighborhood, but I would do it none-the-less.

It took me a lot longer than what was outlined in the books before I could jog a complete mile with no walking. It was hard not to compare myself to what others could typically accomplish within a certain time frame, I was constantly discouraged, but I did not give up.

The day that I jogged my first complete mile was like nothing I had ever experienced before that. I had never asked so much of my body and was in a state of shock that it finally did what I had been wanting it to do for months. This accomplishment really raised my self-esteem and made setting new goals (and working towards them) a lot easier -- not in terms of the physical effort as you have to keep challenging yourself if you want to improve -- but mentally and emotionally it became easier to stick to my goals and binge eating became a thing of the past (for the most part - LOL).

To make a long story short, I eventually joined a health club and added weight training and yoga to my routine. Within 8 months, I was running 3 to 6 miles a day and put in two hours at the health club 3-4 days a week. I lost over 100 pounds. I felt and looked BETTER than before I had my kids -- as even though I weighed less back then I was not fit and didn't eat right.

I could run an 8-minute mile and I was so flexible that I could not only touch my toes but I could place the palms of my hands flat on the floor with no strain whatsoever on my legs or back. For someone who once weighed over 300 pounds and smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day, this was quite and accomplishment.

Right around this time, I felt that I had reached a point where I couldn't progress anymore without some type of guidance and I was looking into getting a personal trainer. I am 6'3" - quite tall for a woman, and when I started using weights I discovered a thick, natural layer of muscle all over my body that had been there all along--- just covered by the flab.

I had managed to firm up in the gym without really knowing what I was doing -- but I had reached a point of wanting more. The running I did pretty much on my own with the help of books. But the weights I found more intimidating. I had no idea how to safely challenge myself but wanted to go further. I wanted to become even even fitter and was just about to take things to the next level when disaster struck!

While driving to work, a tractor-trailer evidently didn't see me when he was changing lanes and sent my mini van into a spin. From there it rolled across three lanes of traffic before coming to rest on the driver's side. I am still amazed to this day that I did not die that night or wake up paralyzed for life. I was not wearing a seat belt. The van rolled more than once yet never hit any other vehicles. Other than Divine intervention, I don't see how I wasn't either thrown from the vehicle or had my spine crushed when the van rolled.

You can probably guess the rest -they told me that my running days were over for a long time, if not forever, and the rest is history. I became depressed, began eating like a pig and gained back all the weight in record time. Just in case the original 100 pounds of excess weight were lonely, I gained ANOTHER hundred to keep them company.

My friend Jeanne and I started a non-profit organization to help Lakota Indians on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, as poverty is really extreme there. In March of this year, we planed a trip out there to visit friends and contacts and to attend a Sun Dance ceremony that is run by a friend of ours.

I was MORTIFIED when I realized that I would have to pay for two airline tickets --one for me, one for my ass. Yikes -- talk about a wake up call! I went on a very low calorie diet in April but just couldn't seem to stick with it, so in May, I switched to a low carb plan.

I haven't been on a scale in years but estimate my starting weight at about 450 pounds. I believe that I lost about 40 pounds prior to our trip to South Dakota in July. It got a little easier to breathe but overall, no one but myself would really be able to tell that I had lost weight. The heavier you are, the more that you have to lose before anyone notices.

When I returned home from the reservation on July 14, I immediately went on a water fast, not just for weight loss but for health and spiritual reasons as well. I remained on the water fast for 25 days and began a program of brief walks and upper body "toning" work with very light weights. I was so out-of-shape and heavy to start out with that a few blocks is all I could manage with the walking and I'd be ready to keel over.

When I stopped fasting and returned to food, I started the plan I am using now which I will outline in a separate post. It is August 13, 2009 and I believe that I have lost at least 100 pounds since May of this year.

I was searching online looking for weight loss and fitness support when I noted that a lot of people on similar paths keep blogs and this seems to help them-- so I decided to do the same. And so I will log my goals, progress photos and achievements here, and hopefully make a few new friends along the way.