Tuesday's Tip

Be thankful. 

One of the most powerful thing we can do for ourselves is give thanks.  The following exercise is intended to help us find things to be thankful for, even when we do not feel particularly thankful.

Take a piece of paper and a pen. Write down three (or more!) things for which you are thankful.

Feel free to share your list here or just keep it to yourself. No matter what you decide to do, focusing on the good things in your live helps you to keep the positive energy flowing.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

~Psalm 107:1

Tuesday's Tip

Get your family involved!

I remember when I first trying to lose weight after giving birth to my youngest. I felt like I was committed to my own weight loss goals but despite my best efforts, I just couldn't lose. One of the main reasons that I was failing was because even though *I* was buying healthy food for me, our cupboards were still packed with all the typical junk found in an average American's home: cookies, chips, ice cream, etc. In addition to that, I was spending the evenings laying around watching tv or movies. The combination was a recipe for disaster - When that midday hunger was striking, there was a wide array of foods for me to eat stuff into my face. And, I wasn't moving enough to compensate for my food choices.

After a couple of months of failing to lose more than a pound or two, I realized what was going on and asked my family to become more focused on the health and well being of our household. It became less about losing weight and more about eating right and being active in order to be healthy. When everyone in my family was on board, I started to have more success. And instead of the kids seeing Mommy "dieting" by eating different foods than the rest of the family, we started to find recipes that were healthy, delicious, and kid friendly. We demonstrated to the kids that eating healthy foods is not just a diet for losing weight, but rather it's a diet for being strong, fit and healthy. The entire family was benefiting from our new lifestyle as we spent much more time moving than sitting in front of the tv. Our nightly walks at the park became a great opportunity to talk about our day.

Slowly but surely, the weight started to fall off of me. The more I saw progress, the more I wanted to keep it going. I knew that I couldn't have done it without my family's support so I kept them moving too. They kept me going as well by becoming my cheerleaders at local 5K races and by insisting on our after dinner walk even on the days I just wanted to relax. I learned that an active family is a happy family.
 
If you are struggling, try getting your entire family committed to making lifelong behavior changes. It highlights the positive while moving toward something good: a happier, healthier family.

Marathon Race Report

Alright, so this *should* be Tuesday's Tip day but instead, I am going to share my race report from the Marine Corps Marathon from this past weekend. Remember, I am the same person who was 50 pounds overweight and in a size 14 about 3.5 years ago....

MARINE CORPS MARATHON - OCTOBER 30, 2011

Traveling there: Never thought it would snow at the end of October but it did. My aunt and I drove over the mountains to get there, thinking we were being smart but avoiding the turnpike. Well, it ended up being super snowy. Accident count on the way there was 8 and the 4.5 hour journey took a little over 6 hours.

The Expo: I was not impressed with the expo but I suppose it would be difficult to arrange for 30,000 runners so I'll cut them some slack. First, you had to go to one building to get your race bib and then to another building for the t-shirt. The shirt is a really thick cotton and is a mock turtleneck. Definitely not my style and I prefer a tech material so I can wear it for running. Apparently, you can buy finisher shirts but I never found the area at the end to do so Since we were in so much bad weather, we never stopped for lunch so we ate at the expo. There was a concession stand set up and no seating. Fail.

The Night Before: I had been having random heel issues ever since I wore those stupid shoes to usher at the Cake Boss event. It wasn't pain exactly, just a weird numb sensation. It was freaking me out though and I ended up canceling on going out to dinner with "F" and her friends so I could rest it. Instead of getting on the metro to meet them, we headed to the mall that was across the street from our hotel and went to a pub style restaurant. I got a French Dip sandwich and mashed potatoes. I crawled in bed at 8pm but didn't fall asleep right away. I got up at 3am to blow my nose (hotel air always has that effect on me...) and slept on and off again until 4am. I woke up to a sweet video from my family and a couple of friends to watch and it made me cry.

Race Time: After taking the Metro in the morning, I met up with friends at an office near the finish line. (Thanks for the hookup, "J"!!!)  I had bought breakfast at Panera the night before and ended up eating about 3/4 of a chocolate chip bagel and 1/2 of a banana.  We used the nice clean bathrooms there and headed out. It was fuh-reezing out there!  The bridge we had to cross in the one mile walk to the start was icy and that made me nervous. The start was super crowded. I had been planning to start with "F" but I lost her in the crowd and ended up lining up at the 4 hour corral with another girl I met that morning. I probably should have been a little further back but it was so insane that I just figured I would be better off stopping than risking stepping on toes to keep moving. The start was awesome. They were playing "Moves Like Jagger" which reminds me of my oldest son (we tease him that this is his favorite song) so he was my first motivation. Drew Carey was the "starter" for the race. I had a throwaway shirt on and tore it off, literally, in all the excitement of tossing clothes. I also dropped my pack of Kleenex at the same time.

The miles ticked by pretty quickly. The first 7-8 miles are pretty hilly. One of the hills was really similar to one in my neighborhood and I felt myself passing people on that one. I was grateful for my hill training at that point as there were quite a few runners taking walk breaks. I tried my best to keep my pace consistent and only sped up once and sprinted when I saw "F" just a bit ahead of me. I think we were around mile  7 or 8? I smacked her butt and asked her how she was doing. She wasn't feeling great and was looking for a bathroom. We ran near each other for about another half mile maybe and then she peeled off to the port-a-potties. I spent the next few miles thinking about her. I had my name on my shirt and was feeling like a celebrity as people called out my name and encouraged me along the way. Instead of listening to music like I do on all my long runs, I high fived, fist pumped and woo hoo'ed the crowd and other runners. I had a blast.
A few times out on the course, I was running near this girl who had a small veil on her ponytail and a shirt with the name of a soldier who had passed. I tried so hard to fight back tears because I am pretty sure she was planning on marrying him. There were lots of other moments where I nearly cried, like when I passed the pentagon and when I saw a Marine running with an artificial leg. This was such an inspirational race!

I passed the 13.1 mark at about 2:01:00 and said to myself that if I doubled that and added 10 minutes from that point, that would be awesome. At mile 14, I started to feel a blister developing on my left big toe and that slowed me down a little. I changed my goal about 100 times out there, finally deciding that it would be really cool to beat my last marathon by 20 minutes which would be a 4:17:00.

Around mile 19, I felt my legs starting to fatigue. In addition to that, I felt like I was going to throw up. I am blaming the chocolate Gu for that one. I think next time I will alternate between Gu and sport beans. I started walking through the water stations and hearing people calling my name was about the only thing keeping me going. My aunt was in the crowd at that point but I was pretty delirious and wasn't sure if it was her voice that I heard. She says I stuck my thumb up in the air when she yelled. LOL! The last few miles were really difficult. It was through an area called Crystal City and there were tons of turns. We'd go down a street and then loop back to the other side of that same street. At that point, I was just ready to be done but figured I could stick it out til the end. The sun was shining a lot at that point and I wanted to tear my running tights off but obviously, I couldn't do that discretely so I settled for unzipping them at the bottom.

At mile 24-ish, I saw a guy from Pittsburgh that is at all my races. He was walking. I stopped for a couple of seconds to check on him. He said he was tightening up and encouraged me to keep going. He said I looked great out there which was a total lie but I was willing to go with it at the moment. I also saw the girl I had started with at mile 26. She had been trying for a sub 4 but had ended up having some issues with her left leg. I was super proud of her - this was her first marathon. We encouraged each other as we headed to the last bit.

The end of this race is up a hill, turn right and up again. I *knew* the finish was right there and started to sprint a little bit. Instantly, my stomach got a giant knot in it and I was about to puke. I didn't want that to happen there at the end so I walked for a second to catch my breath and trotted in for my finish. The clock read 4:14 something and my chip time was 4:11:09. I was and still am over the moon. This is a 26 minute PR for me The marathon was a thorn in my side as I feel like I am fairly quick on all the shorter races but just wasn't able to overcome the marathon distance. Well, now I did and though yesterday, I swore I was done with marathons, I am guessing that if you give me a week or so, I'll change my tune.

I was really grateful for all my friends who were tracking me as I thought about you all every single time I hit a timing mat.

Post Race: We waited in line for the Metro for 20 minutes and had only moved a few feet up so we decided to walk back to the hotel. According to the navigation on my phone, it was 2.4 miles. We headed off and it was pretty hard to walk. I wasn't tightening up yet but that blister was killing me. About a mile into the walk, I spotted a cab and hailed it. We got back to the hotel with 15 minutes to spare before I would have to pay a half day room rate. I quickly showered and threw on some clothes with my aunt packed the car. We set the keys on the front desk counter at 1:59pm and the staff congratulated me on the marathon as well as my quickness in getting out of the room.  I was really impressed with the service at the Hilton. I will definitely recommend them anytime.

Tuesday's Tip

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.

You've heard it hundreds, maybe even thousands of times but that doesn't make it any less true. Losing weight is not an easy task. If you've tried to lose weight before without success, don't view yourself as a failure. Instead, learn better weight-loss strategies, try again, and make this time different! Doing the same thing over again should give you the same result. So, if what you did before worked, do it again. If it didn't, find something else to try. It's not a game - it's your life. Make it what you want it to be...

For your information...

My blog post from yesterday has come under some scrutiny as to whom I am referencing in my story of a broken woman and her path to healing. In light of this, I have removed it. Never fear, dear readers, as I am carefully revising it and will be sharing it with you all soon.

Tuesday's Tip: Break the Cycle

Break the cycle.

Not so very long ago, in a land not so very far away, lived a sad girl who was with the wrong guy. Everyone knew it. People whispered about it behind her back. Family members called meetings and even staged mini interventions to warn her. Within the first few weeks of dating, she was crying over things he said to her yet she stayed. Within the first few months, she ended up with a baby in her belly and heavy sadness in her heart. Friends told her that she should leave and raise the baby alone. Sadly though, being pregnant and having low self esteem as well as a strict Catholic upbringing (Catholic guilt, anyone?) pretty much left her no choice but to marry him.

Once she was married, her family was bound and determined that this marriage would last. Divorce was not an option in their world. Throughout the years, she tried to make the best of it. He would tell her she was fat (even using the cruel nickname of "Bigs McLarge Huge") so she would try to work out. Instead of being supportive, he would make fun of her as she tried to run or lift weights. Every time she would try to leave, her family would rally around, saying that she wasn't a good Catholic if she couldn't make this work. And the crazy thing about that was that he didn't believe in God and continually made fun of her for doing so. 

By about the 3 year mark, she was finally broken. She started to believe every negative word that was said about her. And instead of trying to change her situation, she settled into an unhealthy lifestyle of fast food, lethargy, and fighting. She turned to food to heal the brokenness inside of her. The more she ate, the better she felt and sadly, the larger she got. It was a terrible cycle and it needed to end.

And it did. Finally. Sparing you of a lot of long drawn out details, she eventually started working at a job when she was in a power position. This, along with a Bible study she joined, were just the right combination to empower her to do something about her situation. She started believing in herself and knew what she had to do. She asked him to leave and never even considered that they would reconcile. She made her family upset with her decision. She made her son upset with her decision. She rocked everyone's world with her choice. But, it was her life and she needed to live in a world where she wasn't afraid of the next time he would get angry...a world where she didn't have to hear every terrible thing about her repeated in arguments...a world where she was surrounded by people who treated her the way she deserved to be treated.

Hit fast forward and you'll find that our sad girl is no longer sad. She is a happy, healthy Mom of three wonderful kids, has an amazing husband, loves her family, her friends, her faith and is currently writing a blog about exercise and motivation. Who would have thunk it, right?

I have friends who are caught in many forms of unhealthy cycles, and I truly wish that they would find a way to believe in themselves. Situations are not going to get better by sitting around waiting for them to do so. And sometimes, drastic action is necessary to make change. 

God grant me the serenity 

to accept the things I cannot change, 

the courage to change the things I can, 

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Tuesday's Tip

Pay attention to what goes into your body.

You are what you eat. Seriously. The "health craze" has been going on for awhile now and has people making healthier choices, but... and yes, there is a "but" here... due to high demand for fruit and vegetables, many farmers have had to resort to using a cocktail of pesticides to control disease and insect attack. This is good news for their bank balances  but not good news for your health. Seems like it might be time to be informed of the advantages of organic food.

Did you know that if you consumed an average apple you would be eating over 30 pesticides, even after you have washed it? Sadly, the quality of food produced has gone down over the last 40-50 years. The fruit your grandparents consumed as children contained more nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

Trust me, once you try some organic produce and taste an apple the way it should be, and perhaps how you recall it tasting in your youth, you will never go back to mass produced fruit again.

Here are some of the many differences between organic and conventional foods:

If you think about it, how can it be okay for you to eat chemicals and not expect some form of reaction in your body? Our bodies are wonderful machines but are also delicately balanced. Any form of foreign chemical is bound to cause irritation, at the very least. All I ask is that you do a little research about what is going into your body and make an educated decision. For those who don't have time or patience for research, just look for the USDA Organic seal. Those items are required by law to be at least 95% organic.

So, what is making up YOUR body right now?