wise words...

I see a lot of inspirational quotes on FB (who doesn't??) but I saw this one and it really summed everything up.

I'm not trying to lose weight to be skinny, but to be healthy, so I can be around for LJ for the long run (hah, punny). I'm surrounding myself both on- and off-line with people who inspire & motivate me, and slowly... SLOWLY... i'm changing my mindset on things like food & exercise, I'm just *changing* ..

I'm now down 10ish lbs since I started tracking, and while I still feel like bingeing/ mindlessly eating whatever's around sometimes, I try not to. Having to journal on mfp helps, as does a touch of the flu ;) If I were to keep up this pace of weight loss - 10 lbs in 6 wks, I could be down close to 80 lbs total by Christmas. squeeee! I'd still have another 50+ to go, but what a fab cmas gift that would be... All right, enough day dreaming.

Registered!

EEEK! I have just finished registering for my very first 5K run! A friend and I are running in the Sole Sisters 5k here in Dartmouth on June 8. According to a woman in my french class, it's a "fun" run, not timed, great for first timers. sounded good to me. Add in bling, a chocolate station & a hugging station (!), and I was sold. 

So, according to the race's website, I have 131 days until the run. I'm kinda all scared poopless, but excited at the same time. EEK!

new year...

It's only been 6 weeks since I last posted - about average for me. Sorry about that. CHristmas, kidlet's birthday, good times, things get busy. But now January's in full swing, I'm back volunteering at the gym after a two-week break, and have coerced convinced a friend into joining me for a workout on Tuesdays after i'm done volunteering. I mean, it was silly. I was AT the gym, but not working out. Now, win-win.

I started following the Running Room's c25k tonight, because I was not liking how the other c25k progressed. I was able to run the full week one run, and I ran between 3.5-4 instead of closer to 3, and it was actually easier. I'd heard/read that if you couldn't do the runs, you were running too fast. I guess that wasn't it for me. I mean, i couldn't run much more than the 1-minute intervals (7 or 8 of them) tonight, but I ran them a heck of a lot faster than I did previously. I don't know if i'll be ready for 2-minute runs next week, but I'll try. can't hurt, right?

In the meantime, I've joined the myfitnesspal community to start tracking my food intake (wah) and exercise... the little badge doo-hickey over on the sidebar there --> clicks into my profile. if you're a MFP user, add me - I'm hanwayink, same as twitter. I also added a ticker (!!) to countdown to the MacPass Mile race, bc dammit, Imma gonna run it. I might come in dead last, but as long as I don't come in DEAD, I'll be happy.

Well hello there.

I'm Michelle. The gal "running" this place (pun very much intended). I'm married to J, and mom to sweet lil LJ (almost 2). I have been overweight obese most of my life. As long as I can remember though, I've wanted to run, but figured that the impact would kill my knees. I let that, as well as my laziness and love of food, stall me from exercising for many moons. All it did was make the numbers on the scale climb higher & higher.

Being fat for so long (close to 35 years), I've heard all sorts of comments about my size. For the most part, I  pretty happy with who I am, regardless of my 300+ lb stature. I have a good husband, now have a great little boy, stable job, good (quirky but good) sense of humor, and some fantabulous friends. But something clicked in my head in the last few months, and I realized that I can deal with comments made about my weight, but I don't don't want to subject my son to having to deal with them too. Because let's face it, kids are cruel. If they can bug another about something, they will. I don't want to be "LJ's fat mom" for either of us. And the fact that LJ's mom is fat, well, that could/will be fodder for someone some day, unless literally I get up off the couch and change it.

So I've been doing just that. I started volunteering 3h/wk in the JUMP! child minding program at my local GoodLife gym, and in return I get a free gym membership, and free child minding for LJ when I'm working out. Dudes, i KNOW. FREE. it's my favorite thing ever.

I"m trying to work my way up to 5k, and am following a c25k-ish schedule for trying to run, but it's a slow go. Hell, I couldn't run more than a minute when I started, and can now do 2-3 minutes a few times in a 30-min treadmill session (depends on the day). My goal right now is to run the MacPass Mile in August, and I'll be participating in the Bluenose Marathon 5k event in May. I'm not sure if I'll be doing that as a runner, walker or somewhere in between, but I will be there.

So anyway, that's me. Hopefully this blog will chronicle my thoughts & progress on my journey.. I've linked up some running/fitness blogs that I like on the side, I hope you'll check them out too.

Oh. One more thing. A case of the runs. Kind of a sh!tty title, right? But I think of it more as a case of wanting to DO something (ie RUN), rather than "i gotta poop". Hey, I'm mom to a toddler. poop happens. So will running, I hope.