Is it Sunday Already?

Time is just flying by.  I'm not even noticing the details of my weeks because I'm so jam packed with work, and school, and working out, and playing in my kitchen!  This semester has been a blur!

It's 2 weeks into my dietbet, only 16 more days to go!  I'm currently down another 2 pounds!  Woot!  While normally this would have discouraged me, I learned a few helpful tidbits earlier this year.

• Eat what you want.  Restricting your diet so much that you can't have your favorite foods will make you miserable.  Just keep in mind "in moderation."  Don't throw out those leafy greens because all you want are burgers and fries!  This was a particularly hard lesson for me to learn.  I am a cook.  I LOVE to cook, and I do it as often as possible.  At the beginning of the year I felt like the love had been drained out of my cooking because of all the restrictions I had put on myself.  No cheese unless absolutely necessary, cut WAY back on the Mexican foods, go fat free or low fat on the creamy stuff (cream cheese, sour cream) if I was even allowed to have them!  I learned very quickly that if you can't occasionally cook what you want, you won't be happy through your journey to get healthy.
• Muscles weigh a lot.  This is one of those that just gets people down at the beginning of their changes in life.  When people pick up physical activity, they expect immediate results.  The fact of the matter is, you're building muscles you didn't know existed, and they will put more pounds on the scale.  My 2 lbs lost this week would normally feel like a devastation with how hard I'm working, but I know I don't have these muscles in my legs developed much at all so I'm grateful for a negative rather than a positive number on that scale!
• Have Fun!  If you're not having fun, find something else to do.  I have tried a lot of different stuff.  Some for practical reasons (yoga for ease on my joints and injuries) to super duper fat burning (ANY Jillian Michaels DVD).  If you're not smiling at SOME point of your routine, then you're not getting all you can out of it.  I have 2 VERY bad knees.  I have not attempted walking or running for YEARS because of the pain I deal with.  That being said, I have enjoyed my walking for the last two weeks more than anything else I've tried this year.  I've got aches and pains and some frustrations with injuries, but I'm smiling and that makes me want to go out and do it again tomorrow.

It's amazing the little things we learn from ourselves without realizing it until we put it into words.

I'm currently still only walking.  I just don't have the breath, muscle, or endurance to throw some jogging in yet.  (I'm THAT out of shape!)  But that being said, I walked  13.73 miles this week.  I would have done more but I had some issues with my shins and didn't want to overdo myself before the 5k I have coming up on Saturday.

In that 14 miles, 3 of the sessions were full 5k's or more.  I am so proud of my determination rather than being disappointed in my giving up.  I've decided that after this 5k I'm going to do my training right and start the C25K program for the rest of the year to kick off 2014 right.

I want to be a runner.  I want to experience the exhilaration of crossing many finish lines.  I want to feel like I'm actually trying and succeeding. I'm doing, rather than dreaming and I couldn't be more proud of myself.

Here's to another week of walking.