Real Me: Update on C25K and WLB

I love acronyms, don't you?

Figured it was time for a little update on my Couch to 5K progress and on my Win, Lose or Blog participation as well, in case you haven't been following along on my contest blog.

C25K

So far? This is kind of my version of hell. Well that's not really a fair statement I guess. Hell for me would be being stuck for eternity in a bathroom my boys have used for a while without cleaning. And there's no antibacterial soap. And no clean towels. Yeah. That's probably a more accurate representation of my own personal hell. But running comes in as a close second. I'm so stinkin' out of shape that this just isn't fun at all yet. I say "yet" as if I'm hopeful that running will become fun. I have some serious doubts about that, but I'm trying to give die hard (aka looney tune) marathon runners the benefit of the doubt. This is HARD. Week one was okay. I managed my alternating 60 second "running"/90 seconds walking intervals with relative competence and without thinking my life was ending, just that it was temporarily really, really uncomfortable. But apparently the difference between 60 seconds of "running" and 90 seconds of "running" (which is the next interval requirement) is MASSIVE. The first time I did 90 seconds all I could think was "Thank heavens there are fewer intervals when we have to do the longer stretch of time because if I had to do this 8 times I would die." By the time I finished up my 2nd interval I was thinking "There's no way I'm even going to make it to 6 intervals!" It was HARD. Sheer will power, competitive spirit and pride got me through that new stage of the C25K training. And I was soooooooo dreading my "run" yesterday! I finally dragged myself outside at about 1:45 to coordinate my "run" with picking up Toby from school. The sun beat down on me and I clomped along during my first running interval. When I finished I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get my breathing back in control by the end of my 2 minute walk period. It was crazy! I'm at sea level for goodness' sake. I shouldn't have trouble breathing but man I could NOT get a full breath. It kind of scared me, to be honest. And then it passed and I found myself facing the next 90 second "run" interval. Ugh ugh ugh. I trudged my way through the 6 running intervals, again purely motivated by competition and pride and somehow I actually finished the workout. I can say I finished it, but it wasn't pretty. I'm literally terrified of the next change-up in the intervals. In my next change-up I have to do 3 minutes of jogging with 3 minutes of walking. I honestly don't know how I'm going to do that! I'm afraid that by accelerating the C25K program to coincide with my Win, Lose or Blog timetable I'm really pushing my body too hard and not giving it the time to adapt to the increases in the intervals. I'm going to keep trying this 6 week plan because I'm too stupid proud to dumb-it down (even though dumbing-it-down just means doing it the original way) but I'm starting to face the reality that I may have to revert to the 9 week plan and give my body a little more time to adapt to this entirely new form of torture I'm inflicting on myself. What an adventure! ROFLMBO :) (PS It will be cool, someday, in the distant future, to be able to drop the " " marks from the word "run". I just have a hard time describing what I'm doing right now with that word heheheh.)

Whining, moaning and complaining aside... apparently this stupid C25K plan is paying off! I lost 4.6 pounds this week (and 6.2 the week before) for a grand total loss so far of 10.8 pounds! Not too shabby if I do say so myself! My eating was a bit less focused during week two of Win, Lose or Blog and I went a little nuts at the buffet on Saturday night for my free day (after downing half a bag of popcorn at the theater when we saw Harry Potter 7.2 - LOVED IT!) but I'm back on my game and hopeful for another successful week. Body-for-Life style eating is starting to feel comfortable again and the only thing I really struggle with is remembering to eat at appropriate times (every 2-3 hours). My fridge is stocked with more fruits and veggies than it's ever been stocked with before. And the good eating is trickling down to my kids. I've given them free rein on anything fresh (meaning fruits and veggies) and we've eliminated all wrapped foods and the ones we have (like pudding, crackers, fruit snacks) are for lunchtime only. They're adapting well and I'm delighted to report that as it turns out, Brady, my make-himself-throw-up-before-eating-a-salad, non-veggie eating child is a big fan of celery! So we've finally found a healthy, natural snack that he'll eat willingly. Hallelujah! I'm really proud of my kids for adapting to this with me and I'm confident that we're laying down some much healthier eating habits as a family and this might make me happier than anything else!

So! Weight is down, running sucks and life is good! There's my update. You can follow along for detailed updates on my day-to-day WLB challenge over on that other blog, but I'll try to remember to update here every week or so, as well. Thanks again to all who've been cheering me on. I can't even begin to explain how helpful that is to me. It's one of the most powerful motivating factors and keeps me "running" even when it is absolutely the last thing I want to do in my day. (Well, the last thing AFTER being forced to hang out in my boys' bathroom...)