Almost there...join me in my journey

It has been a little over three months since I began exercising. In that time I have gone from a 20 min walk to an 11 min jog average. I feel comfortable saying that I have lost 9 pounds and possibly some or one inch off my waistline. I feel like I can see less spillage in that area. As for anything else, I have gained a stress fracture (self-diagnosis) in my fib, an injury with which I am well acquainted, a tight hamstring, knee pain, foot pain, and resolve. I know that goals are not reached without a fair share of bumps in the road so I'll take what I've got and hope that I can leave out some of the garbage on the next go around. My first mini goal was to do 10 push ups and 50 sit ups every day and that went nowhere so I changed it to one mini goal. I was going to lose 10 pounds. So far I am almost there. To reach that goal I started this blog and also joined an online running/fitness community called Dailymile. I joined a timed mileage group that gave me the motivation to keep going even though I wanted to stop so many times. The goal was simple. Walk 180 miles by the end of the year. I started this challenge in early September and only logged 37 miles. Some of which were before I started this challenge and therefore didn't count. October brought a surprising 67 miles which fueled my resolve. By mid November I thought I would finish the challenge by Thanksgiving but then the weather turned cold and windy and I turned into a wuss logging only 64 miles. So here I am in December hoping, no, knowing that I will finish this challenge and finish it soon. I have logged 12 miles so far this month and have a mere 17 miles left to go. When I started the challenge 180 miles seemed daunting and now I am reading a book where people run that two or three times a week. This book has inspired me to keep going. I may take more days off than I would like during the winter months due to weather but I plan to make up for it full force once the threat of slipping and freezing my child have passed. Today I logged 5 very slow miles due to my leg and knee (and lack of much motivation) on a very warm day. Low 40's was the high and apparently there was steam coming out of my mouth. I don't know if it was the weather but I barely broke a sweat today. It seemed that it was just a day to enjoy being out in the world and being alive. I think that is the best kind of day. It gives me hope that I can do this again tomorrow and the next day. So after my first mini goal is met I will graduate from my beached whale status and move up to hippo status until another 10 pounds are lost. From there I will reach fat cow for another 10 pounds. If I can do that then technically I could just assess since I will be at an ok weight for me so if I can make it another 10 pounds I will be a skinny mini at high school weight. I don't have delusions of grandeur in thinking that I need to lose those last 10 pounds but we'll see how it goes. I hope I can make it and I hope I won't be alone. Join me in my journey.

Call it what you like...

Be it a phase or a revolution, I have the urge to try it! I have never been one to fad diet or anything like that but you put out an exercise "fad" if you will, and I am all over it. Though I have very few of these "gadgets" in my exercise arsenal, I salivate over the infomercials and ogle the products in the store that carry the "as seen on tv" label. How pathetic am I? I have been told many times that I run funny or even walk funny. I do not limp and as far as I know both my legs are the same length so all I can say is, "it's my hips." I have known for a while that I have loose hips...I said hips not legs...so I always tell people that I'm just not built for running and I mean it. I think there is a disconnect between my brain and my body that perhaps hints to the fact that I was a turtle in a past life. Well, if I believed in past lives...
I have been reading a book called, "Born to Run" which of course sparks my interest as it is the complete antithesis of what I believe myself to be. I haven't gotten too far into it but I have spent some time on the internet researching what the book is about. Here comes the gadget. The book is about barefoot running. I have a neighbor who a few years ago mentioned her interest in this very thing and I didn't understand it and thought she was, frankly, weird. But now I find myself interested in it, too.  I want to try the shoes and have been trying to find a replacement for ordering a kit to make the shoes. There have been a few videos on youtube but I was actually hoping to try to order the same materials from a company here at home. Invisibleshoe.com has a kit for sale that is not that expensive but after shipping it is almost $30. I would like to test it out before I take the plunge. I know I may sound cheap but I'd rather be cheap than stupid. So the hunt goes on to find the right material at the right cost to make myself a pair of huaraches. Maybe one day I'll be barefoot for life!

Photo used with permission courtesy invisibleshoe.com