Running now

Those of you who have been watching my blog since this summer know that I have been fighting the bulge. And it still confounds all my logic. I was able to drop around 20 pounds, but have not gotten anymore off since then. I guess I should be happy I didn't gain it all back over the holidays! Well, I have a wonderful friend named Jackie who is making it her personal goal to help me get fit. I am so grateful for her constant encouragement and high expectations. She's a runner and has decided that even though I've never ran before in my entire life, that I should start. So, my goal is to run an entire 5K by May. I had to laugh when she told me the plan because I've never liked running and could not picture myself ever doing it. However, she has started me out nice and slow and now I really enjoy it. She has helped me to get the items necessary to make running easier than I could have expected. We took a day to go and get me some running shoes. These are my first pair of running shoes that I don't wear except for when I'm running. Next, I needed a much better support and Jackie steered me in the right direction. I told her sports bras just couldn't hold my big girls, but she assured me they did and it's true; they do make over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders. I really, really like this bra and need to get a few more. The straps don't fall off and I don't get black eyes when I run anymore (hee, hee). I have to thank Champion USA for their exceptional design and comfort. I usually run with Jackie and we've worked out a good starting point. In her neighborhood, she's marked out a 3 mile loop and my first time around was 42 minutes walking. My first run/walk was to walk 4 minutes and run on the 5th minute for one minute. Yeah, that was pretty hard and I was there for a good few weeks. Then she thought I should bump it up to running for 90 seconds. And now, I'm up to running for 2 minutes every 5 minutes. Probably next week I'll be bumped up to 2.5 minutes. I'm now charting my progress and runs in this log book Jackie got me for Christmas. And I have this fancy watch that keeps track of the times/dates of each of my runs. As I get better and start logging my time in a mile, it keeps track of my best mile and averages also. Now that I've been running on this schedule, I really look forward to running now. And not on a treadmill. I have run outside everytime. It is so refreshing, fun, enjoyable, beautiful and energizing to be running in the real world. I am thankful that I can run outisde and know that I wouldn't do that in cold Utah. Also, Las Vegas has a lot of 5K runs and in fact, I'll be running in the Make A Wish Foundation 5K next Saturday (1/31). Wish me luck. My goal for this run is to run half of it and get a good time, which would be under 38 minutes. Jackie wants me to run another one before the May run and wants me to run 3/4 of it. That will also get me 2 good times so I can beat myself. I'm a little nervous about doing this one next Saturday and hope it will be a good first 5K.

So, I hope that you are working on your healthy goals this year. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Since I'm not really losing any weight, my new goal is to just run and get healthy. I'm hoping the weight will have no choice but to leave. Good luck!!