So… enough of this doom-and-gloom blogging I’ve been doing lately. Ugh. I was even getting annoyed with myself!
Cue some lovely motivation from random Sparkies posting on my other blog (thanks Texas_Grl, Moreenergyat43, and SarahJ19!!!) and also a friend add from Fit-Whit, a Sparkie who’s blog I’ve followed pretty consistently for the past few months, and someone who I find very, very inspiring.
She posted a blog this morning that really resonated with me — “The Distracted Driver: Time to Tune Up and Map Out Success.” In it, she talks about how she’s just gotten off track due to lots of “life” issues — buying a home, running here there and everywhere with a crazy schedule, and just all around being distracted and less than perfectly dedicated to the healthy lifestyle we all know we need to lead.
“Wow,” I thought. “I can’t believe that other people are going through the SAME THINGS I am… people who I really think have got their act all together and lead the healthy lifestyle without even thinking about it can make mistakes too… Hmmm… Maybe I’m not such a loser, after all!”
Which, of course, got me thinking. So much so that I left this very long, could-come-across-as-stalking-
but-I-didn’t-mean-it-to comment on her blog:
“I am totally in the same boat as you right now — I just moved into my first home, too, and boy… you’re right. It completely throws your life off track! I like all the things you posted to keep yourself on track. I’m doing the same, but I’m trying mine differently. I get so frustrated when I try to track EVERYTHING and do EVERYTHING I know I should be doing perfectly all at once, so I add a healthy habit every other day. That way, I don’t get so upset with myself with one mistake. I just correct it and add another good behavior on top of it.
So far, I’ve been eating a healthy breakfast at 6:45 every morning. I sit on my front porch for 15 minutes and eat my cereal, and watch my cat play with the lavendar bush that leans over the railing. I’ve been doing that for two weeks. Then last week, I started doing 3 sets of 15 reps of 15 lb weights with arm rows, overhead presses, and bicep curls at work when I’m on conference calls and my attention is waning. (I keep a weight on my desk at work. My coworkers don’t even look at it like I’m crazy anymore.) Then two days ago and yesterday I made sure I was eating items that were on my meal plan at the scheduled times I was supposed to be eating them. Now today and tomorrow, I’m doing all those things, plus making sure I get a 15 minute walk in sometime today.”
Plus a couple of other random “Hey, I think your blog is great, congrats on all your accomplishments, etc” comments that make me look like a gushing fan of a celebrity (which, really, to me she kind of is).
ANYHOW!
So that’s the plan. Getting back on track. No excuses. I even managed to cook all my meals for this week on Sunday! (There is lots of chicken and rice and fish involved. YUM!) There’s snow peas and celery and carrots and apples and bananas in my kitchen. There’s a gym bag and clothes and an iPod and shoes and YMCA membership card in my car At All Times. There’s a schedule that I stick to. And a fire burning in my heart of WHY I want this for my life.
I like looking in the mirror and being surprised at all the changes I see, changes that go beyond the numbers on the scale. I might have fallen off track a bit, but I’m “recalculating” and getting Right Back where I need to be!
Next stop: Aug. 13, 2011 — Charity: Water 5k. : ) Training starts Sunday!!! I’m really excited.
Thanks for everyone sticking with me while I’ve not been myself. 
I really appreciate it!
And, in that vein, last night I ran for the first time outside… on the track… in public. I did a mile at a mostly very fast walk, and about a lap of sprinting (half jogging, half full out sprinting). Track lap times were 4:10, 4:00, 3:50, and 3:31. I’m a happy girl!!! Now to continue the strength trainings and the running. 5k, here I come!
