My badge of honor

I've earned my first sticker, although I won't actually be putting it on the back of my car. So this blog will have to be my symbolic bumper. I'm still on a bit of a high from finishing the 5K last Saturday and I'm already looking ahead to more.

Stacy and Eric are having a Running Bootcamp 2 days a week in the evenings that I really want to do, but I simply don't have the time right now and the last thing I need is to add another thing onto my already full plate. I'm sure there will be another after I graduate and I'll do it then.

In the meantime, I'm trying to decide between the Gobble Jog in Marietta or the Thanksgiving Day 5K in Atlanta. I still have time to decide, but I love the idea of knocking out a 5K first thing T'giving morning so that I can eat ALL THE TURKEY I WANT!!!

I plan on heading over to Big Peach Running either today or tomorrow to get me a new pair of kicks! I really need to invest in a good pair of running shoes if I'm going to be putting more time into it so that these feet will last a long time. I also worry about that stupid foot going numb. From what I've read, there seems that there's pressure on a nerve somewhere either in my foot, ankle or leg, that is causing this. I seem to have some of the same symptoms as people on different running forums where the moment I stop running, feeling comes back. So weird, and it's not because my laces are too tight cause they were pretty loose on Saturday.

Stacy took my measurements this week and I had shrinking in all areas, but the biggest reduction was in my arms, going down an inch and a quarter… WHOA!!!

Things are settling down a little and there seems to be a bit of "normalcy" lately, well, as normal as things can get around here. I'm still plugging away at my internship Mondays and Wednesdays (crossing my fingers that they offer me a job) and going to class on Tuesdays, and makin' beads on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and then Sunday is Gods day for Football!!! It's a busy schedule, but I keep telling myself that it will all be over in 2 months. It's just been difficult juggling all things while writing my thesis paper and exercising.

It's time to start celebrating the little accomplishments as well as the big ones. Of course the scale is going down, my body is shrinking, and people are starting to notice. But the things that no one talks about are my rings relentlessly spinning around my fingers, my necklace hanging lower around my neck, my shoes are looser around my feet, the increase in energy that I have daily, and the realization that I need to pick up a smaller sports bra cause this one isn't working out so well anymore. It's those small things that no one thinks of or could even notice, that I feel are to be celebrated even more than the number on the scale or in my clothes.

Not much more to say, been busy, wish I had more time to update my blog, but you'll just have to wait until December for more frequent posts.

Weekly Goal: Download more music to add to my "keep moving mix" for running… Any suggestions?

HUGS XOXOX

When I say "To", you say "Marrow"! "To!" "Marrow!"

Here it is, the long awaited 5K Run Edition of Operation: Longevity!!!

Yesterday was AWESOME! I feel so accomplished and it truly is motivating to meet all these goals. I was even more excited not to do this venture on my own. Jess and Mandi flew in from New Hampshire on Friday afternoon (after Mandi's short make-out session with Enrique Iglesias on stage at the Boston concert the night before - but that's a different story), and Shy met me at my house Saturday Morning and we picked up Nicole on our way down to Atlantic Station. Unfortunately we couldn't find Scott and his daughter Rachel in the crown of 600 runners before the race started, but we were able to meet up afterwards and all go to brunch.

Our Team T-shirts… mine had the ribbon honoring Courtney

First off… the energy was AMAZING!!! All of the volunteers and staff were so excited and supportive of all the runners. The main photographer was excited to see our group and said that she recognized our team name from the registration!!! The gathering site had a bunch of goodies like bagels and cream cheese from Einstein's Bagels as well as coffee, there was a table to sign these giant posters with messages of hope, there was a place where you could register for the donor list and have a buccal swab, and other little sponsor tents.

They had a couple of these standing boards to write on and 3 more tables with posters.

We took a second to visit the little girls room prior to the start of the race and utilized that opportunity for a photo op.

My amazing husband got up super early to come and support us, cheer me on, and I can only assume witness the completion of my first 5K. It was so good to have him there and he was privy to see the first dude cross the finish line at just under 15 minutes… WHAOOOAAAA... that dude is super-human, cause that's just B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!! I don't think I was even at the half-way point at 15 minutes!!! Crazy Kenyan's!!!

I was really excited, not at all nervous before the start, and ready to go. They had a woman sing the national anthem, which was beautiful, albeit soooooo sloooooow. And then we headed over to the starting line!!!

Bummer, but the sun blocked out the "start" sign

Aaaaaaaaand… we're off!

The first mile was super easy, in fact, I couldn't believe how fast it came and went, we hit the 1 mile mark just past 11 minutes and I was thinking… this is a piece of cake, and then came the hills… and more hills, and more, and more, and more. In fact, with the exception of the first half mile, the entire course was uphill… how that's possible?!?!? I don't know… but I swear, the whole freaking thing was UPHILL!!! The second mile mark took FOREVER to get to, and when we turned the corner to see the second mile marker, we were also greeted by this monstrous hill right in front of us to tackle.

If you can't tell already, Nicole was awesome at documenting the entire thing… in fact, we had to take this picture 3 or 4 times because this one lady kept getting in the damn way!!!

There was no way in hell I was able to run that hill… my heart-rate was crazy high as it was, and the idea of adding that much of an incline was preposterous, so admittedly, I walked up the monster hill (and then started running as Nicole was documenting the slope of this monster so it looked like I ran the thing). I was asking the "experienced" runners and they all said that the hill yesterday was a bajillion times worse than the hill in the Peachtree Road Race known as Cardiac Hill. This one was longer and steeper… go figure. In fact Nicole said the entire course was one of the hilliest runs she's done!!!

We rounded another corner and the cool thing is that the 2Day Walk for Breast Cancer was passing us at the same time, so it was really neat to see all of the groups of pink walking the other direction.

The last mile+ was way easier with the exception of my right foot being completely asleep (and had been since about the half way mark). I had to stop and re-tie my shoe cause it was sooooo uncomfortable. I seriously need to get a good pair of running shoes before I do this again, cause it was not a fun feeling. 

We hit the 3 mile mark and I knew it was almost over and the finish line was right around the corner!!!

What an amazing experience, what an amazing feeling of accomplishment, and I have a renewed energy to move forward. 

My final time was 38:43.74 I averaged a 12:29 minute mile. I came in 78 out of the 123 in my age group and 350 out of the 567 participants, overall. Nicole and I both argue that we need to deduct at least 10 second for the times we stopped for photo-ops and our goal is to get down to a 5 minute mile, to beat that crazy Kenyan!!!

I want to send a HUGE shout-out to EVERYONE who supported me. There are far to many of you to name individually, but I had $820 in donations from 23 different donors. I had so many texts, emails and Facebook posts prior to the start of the race to offer support and encouragement. 

And, of course, I can't help but thank my teammates who ran with me. Shy, you rocked it like a bullet, I'm so proud of you and how far you've come, you're such a motivation to me! Mandi, thanks for stopping to cross the finish line with us - it really meant a lot. Nicole, you were right by my side the entire time, documenting every mile and encouraging me along. Jess, you rocked it girl, way to push yourself and run across that finish line!!! Scott and Rachel, I love that I had support from my Bootcamp Family!!!

So… what's next?!?!? Well, there's already talk of the Turkey Trot around Thanksgiving and the Jingle Jog in December… I'll keep ya'll posted!!!

$$$ Show Me The Money $$$

ONLY ONE MORE DAY LEFT TO MAKE A DONATION… Click on the link to the right to support me in my efforts for this 5K and to help me reach my $1000 goal, I'm only a little ways away.

Ooops, I gained .2 LB's this week. That's kinda a sarcastic "ooops" cause let's face it… .2 lbs is a sip of water. I'm actually thrilled that I didn't gain more cause I've come to realize that traveling makes it very difficult to control your diet.

I just got back yesterday after 2 days in Knoxville for a regional SAMHSA Grant meeting pertaining to the grant I'm working on through my internship. It was an extremely successful trip and provided a great opportunity to understand the grant better, see an effective model of integrated health, and get to know some of the individuals that I'm working with as well.

While I was the only person in the fitness room at 5:30 on Wednesday morning (at least until someone else came in at 6am), I realized the difficulty of travel and I now understand how people who travel for work find it difficult to eat well and maintain their weight. I have a relatively consistent diet and the inability to control portions and ingredients was a challenge. For instance, yesterday morning I ordered 2 eggs scrambled (for my protein) and they took a giant spoonful of prepared scrambled eggs that probably equalled the amount of 4 eggs, if not more. That's just an example. Also, admittedly, because I don't travel all the time for work, or pleasure, I use that as an excuse to make less-than-wise food decisions, because "I don't eat like this much".

Another lesson I learned this week was that I am 100% confident that I made the right decision to do bootcamp every morning and not just a stupid gym membership. I WAS SO BORED!!! I ran on the treadmill for 10+ minutes, was bored out of my mind - even with a personal TV right in front of me, and then moved to the elliptical for 20+ minutes - STILL BORED OUT OF MY MIND!!! It wasn't until I got off of the "fancy equipment" and utilized the stability balls, weights, and exercise balls, that I became a little more interested in what I was doing and time FLEW!!!

I did make sure to use my elevator ride to my room, after working out, to text Stacy and save her the trouble of texting me!

On a personal note (non-fitness/weigh loss related), it was very refreshing to be around so many intelligent, powerful, well-spoken, successful women while I was at this regional meeting. There were also men there, but you expect to see the stereotypical business man. What was great was to see was so many women of different ages, backgrounds, races, and education, who are driven and successful. So awesome!

The 5K is next Saturday, Sept. 24 and I'm ready. Not sure if any of you saw the comments on the last post, but last Saturday I managed to run into town and 1/2 way back. Downtown Canton is 2 miles from my house (actually 2.2 miles but I stopped just short of the actual center of town). The exhausting part was all the stinkin' hills that I have to trudge up and down living out here in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains. I'm super confident after this past weekend that I, indeed, can complete this 5K, especially since Atlantic Station is relatively flatter than where I live.

Weekly Goal: Don't get complacent!

HUGS XOXOX

Black hole of time...

I seriously feel like I've been running about 10-15 minutes behind ALL WEEK. No, really. I seemed to wake up late all week and I've been just a little late for everything. So weird cause I'm a pretty punctual person. There are some explanations for some days and others where I've been left scratching my head wondering where the last 10 minutes have gone.

Here's a good example: this morning, I was getting ready to leave for bootcamp at 8:50am, bootcamp starts at 9:15 and it takes me 20 minutes to get there, so explain to me how I was half way there and look at the clock in my car and it was 9:13?!?!? I was still 5 - 10 minutes late this morning. I really don't understand it all.

I've been having alarm clock issues, I got a new iPhone4 and it seems that it doesn't work properly with my iHome alarm clock. I'm finding that half the time my alarm doesn't go off and the other half when it does go off, I'll hit snooze and then it never goes off again. Eventually I find myself waking up just a little too late to get to bootcamp, or even after bootcamp has started, and unfortunately the two times it happened this week were Tuesday and Thursday where there is no 9:15 class. Yesterday I hit snooze, and then suddenly woke myself up at 5:47am. I got my bootie up and rushed to get dressed, got out of the house, into the car and then on my way was stopped at 2 out of the 3 lights in the first 2 miles of my ride over to bootcamp. When I realized that it was after 6:00 and I wasn't even half way there, I decided to throw in the towel and go back home, wait until the sun comes up, and go to the park to run - which I did, but HATE that I missed my bootcamp.

This morning, I set my alarm on my phone which did an awesome job of waking me up on time but I decided to snuggle with the hubby until he had to get up, and figured I can go to the 9:15 class this morning. This is all while Stacy is texting me every day wondering where I am and what's going on, and Michelle, my Belle, is posting comments on here about how she missed me and yadda, yadda, yadda. I'm so thankful and grateful for all of the support and accountability, cause after this past week it would have been easy for me to get into some more bad habits.

On a positive note… DOWN 3 LB's this week!!! WHAT WHAT?!?!? That's right, while I've done a sucky job writing down all my meals (with the exception of the last two days) I've been really good at keeping within my allotted calories EVEN WITH MY DAILY NIBBLE OF CHOCOLATE (which has been 2 pieces of KitKat a day this week - 105 calories).

I'm starting to get nervous about my 5K in 2 weeks. Honestly, I feel like it's a mental hurdle more than a physical one, but when I run my 1mile lap around the path at the park, I just want to be done running after one lap. Part of me thinks that if I was to just start running, had no clue where I was going, or how far I had gone, I would be able to keep it up longer, but the reality is that if I had to do my 5K at the park I would not succeed. I'm also putting a lot of weight on the idea that adrenalin will kick in and I'll just be a force moving with the crowd. Mandi and Jess get in next Friday and I'm really excited that there is a nice little team that's running. I want to go out over the next week and get some t-shirts to make for the run. I already designed the "logo" and a little tribute for The Almighty Talbot.

I'm still short of my donation goal for the Be The One Run, please take a second to click on the link to the right and make a donation if you're able to. I was actually hoping to beat my goal and reach $1000, but it doesn't look like that will happen. I'm still proud to reach $750 - that's a lot of money and that equals 7+ more donors being registered.

GOAL: Keep at writing down all my food, good or bad!

HUGS XOXOX

Calorie is the new cash

Over the past few days/weeks/months I've come to realize that my entire understanding of calories has evolved into a new life-form. No, really! No longer is a calorie a unit of measure to provide nutrients and sustenance for survival (I made up the definition all on my own - are you proud of me?!?!?), but calories are now cash. Each calorie represents a currency of sorts whereby, the more I burn, the more I can eat. Just like, the more you work, the more money you make (theoretically - although still not proven in my case). That being said… I'm now recognizing that the more exercise I do, whereby burning more calories, the more food I can eat. I like this theory. I like food.

The reality is that I will always be a foodie. I like to cook, I like to eat, and I love to dine! I cannot image that at any point in my life will I not follow each and every savory meal with a balance of sweet. I know it sounds really weird but my mouth always feels unbalanced after I eat something savory and the only way to get the Ph level back to normal is to have a bit of sweet yummy goodness. 

I love chocolate and while I haven't necessarily deprived myself of it over the last 5 months, I haven't consumed as much as I feel I my body needs. That's right - I said NEEDS!!! I can't "do the healthy thing" and switch over to dark chocolate, it's just not sweet enough. I live, love, need, yearn, desire, and lust after smooth, creamy, rich, milky chocolate, and if you add a little peanut butter to the mix, I'm in heaven. This is just a reality of life, and if it means that I'll be a size 6 instead of a size 4 - SO BE IT!!! I NEED CHOCOLATE.

Yes, that is me, at my wedding, attempting to drink from the chocolate fountain!!!

The good news is that the 500-600 calories I potentially burn in bootcamp (or any other form of exercise) allows a healthy consumption of chocolate. I'm not all crazy nuts about it, in fact, if I get a package of reese's peanut butter cups I can discipline myself to eat only one. But no longer and I going to deny myself the insatiable need for chocolate. My life just won't allow it. 

Oh lord… Stacy, I can already hear you… "Liz, those are just empty calories… how about you put some peanut butter on a chocolate graham cracker or something" NOT GUNNA HAPPEN - SORRY!!! (Still love you though!) There is no substitute and it's just how it's going to have to be. I can however guarantee that even with my 105 calorie Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, I will still stay within my allotted calories, I'll just have to make adjustments elsewhere. 

Time for my confession… I've really sucked at keeping track of all of my foods. I'm not really eating anything out of the ordinary, which is why I don't necessarily feel like I have to write everything down, but I feel like I'm getting into some bad habits. I seriously eat the same dang thing (or variation of the same thing) every day or week. So the reality is that I'm pretty much taking in the same amount of calories every day. Only issue comes into play is on the days when I haven't exercised. But that's usually the weekend and by the time I have my weigh-in on Friday, those calories are long gone - that cash has been spent!!!

It's my party and I'll eat if I want to...

Well, the scale has not budged in 2 weeks. I totally and completely know why, and I'm ok with it. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am an emotional eater, and the last couple of weeks have been pretty stressful. The funny thing is that I didn't eat bad (well, for the most part), I just ate a lot of good!!! There were a couple of exceptions over the last couple of weeks, one being the post hang-over grease relief and the second being my birthday. The funny thing is that I've now suffered the consequences of my poor food choices but I'm ok with it - but just for now. What I found interesting is that 6 months ago I would have eaten as much as I did on my birthday (and maybe even more) on a regular basis and feel full, but not uncomfortable, but I felt ill after my mexican and couple of bites of my cupcake on Tuesday.

I've been plugging away at running and a couple of times last week I stopped at the park and did a quick mile loop run around. I also have recognized that it's getting harder and harder to burn calories every morning at bootcamp. When I first started this I was burning 600+ calories every morning and now I'm lucky if I reach 500. Usually hitting around 450. That's also part of why I've stopped at the park to run, just so that I can get closer to 600 calories burned. I've learned that the more calories I burn in the morning, the more calories I can eat during the day. And I like to eat!!!

I played hookie this morning. My alarm clock either didn't go off, or I turned it off in my sleep this morning. The past week I've felt like someone is sitting on my chest, I blamed it on allergies, but yesterday I was having a hard time breathing during bootcamp which meant that my heart-rate was up kinda high the entire time. Not to mention that my core - both abs and back - are so sore today, so I decided that I just needed a break today.

I'm getting excited for the Be The One Run in a few weeks and there's still time to make a donation, if you have not done so yet. Just click on the link to the right. I don't necessarily feel like I'm quite ready physically, but I've also heard that adrenaline kicks in once you're there and you just end up running with the pack and it's over before you know it!!!

That's all for now… sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of weeks, I've been busy busy busy!!!

This weeks goal: WRITE DOWN ALL MY FOOD