Update and Random Thoughts

Goal update:
60.7- Miles completed thus far this year.
43- Total miles jogged/ran
40- Books read (by me) to Hunter so far this year (not counting nightly prayers we read).
4.5- Hours Toning
6th week of Master's class. Doing good with my assignments so far. Getting them done early and making great grades.

Records to date:
8- Most miles completed at once (ever in my life). This was at the end of last year when I was trying to reach my goal of 366 miles.
5.5- Most miles ran straight through.
6- Most miles ran in one trip (not straight through).

I've been making great progress for the year so far. Feeling great about myself, too. The only thing I've been slacking at lately is the toning/videos. I need to just make time for that, but I've been spending my extra time being a mom or doing schoolwork. If only I would make myself get up at 5 when my alarm actually goes off, instead of hitting snooze and getting up at 5:30. Soooo not a morning person.

I shared a couple of photos on my Facebook page today, so I'll share them here as well.
This is me 9 months ago on May 14, 2013 about an hour before my c-section to meet my lovely little daughter. Photo courtesy of the hubby.

 This is me today, February 17, 2013. 35 lbs down from 9 months ago. The outfit is new from this weekend. Finally did some ME shopping and bought a lot of workout clothes and some new running shoes. Great buys at Kohl's this weekend! Felt great that I believe this is one of my first shopping trips in years that I bought ALL medium size clothes and NO larges! Even tried on a couple of smalls. :)

 A few pounds to go, but feeling great so far! 

I am so proud that NONE of my weight loss can be attributed to any dieting supplements. I tell ya, sometimes having a free market economy makes it hard on a lady. There are so many temptations to dieting programs of many sorts out there. It seems like everywhere I look for motivation for continued weight loss, I find someone trying to advertise some program or pill. To me dieting supplements (or whatever they may be called) are so risky, not to mention EXPENSIVE! So many of them women (or men) can become dependent upon and they must keep using them or the weight loss subsides and everything that was lost comes back on. Their body is trained to only do what the medicine tells them to do and then when they try to stop, the body gets confused. All you really have to do is convince your mind that anything is possible that you work for. SERIOUSLY! I believe weight loss is 100% mental with the exception of those who are physically handicapped and their body truly won't let them do things, however I have read of many stories of physically handicapped people taking their life back and getting in shape as well. Had someone told me years ago that I would run over 5 miles straight by the time I was 28 I would have thought they were losing their mind. I have put my mind to it, though and have done it! And I'm going to put my mind into doing many more miles as well. I am not one of those people who weight loss comes easy to. I have struggled with being overweight and sometimes on the obese scale all of my life, although I never wanted to admit it. Even now my childhood babysitter says one thing she remembers about me is that I had some of the biggest baby/child thighs she ever saw. :) Thanks. :) Anytime I would find my height and weight on a chart, I was and actually still am in the overweight category for BMI. Sometimes I was even considered obese. That hurts to know, but I'm glad I've gotten past that and am on my way down.

One thing that I can attribute to helping with some of my weight loss is that I primarily ONLY drink water these days. Drinking anything else is a rare occasion. Yesterday I went to Taco Bell with my SIL Kelly and had a Pink Lemonade with my meal. Although it didn't have any caffeine, it did have calories. I was happy, though, normally I would have re-filled my drink before I left. I decided that having a large Pink Lemonade was already enough calories that I didn't need to have anymore. I ended up not even drinking the whole large cup I had.  Something else helping me lose weight is of course my walking/jogging. I've seldom done much of anything else. 4.5 hours of toning/videos for the year is nothing to brag on. If you want to lose weight as well, get up and move! Sitting there thinking about it or just reading about other people losing weight sure isn't helping your waistline. That was me for so long. I would pin motivational pins and exercise ideas on Pinterest, but that was the extent of it. Now I'm the one who makes sure I go do something physical before I get to the Pinning (most of the time). It feels great to know I'm making myself a better person to hopefully be around for many more years to have that time with my hubby and kids. Speaking of kids I want to add that most of my exercise time is done when the kids are napping, so I'm not even compromising much of my family time for exercise. I have a great hubby who stays home with the kids during naptime while I go for my runs. He gets "his time" to do what he pleases either in the mornings or after I get back from my runs. Have I mentioned lately that I love my hubby? :) I do! Anyway... to recap.... You can find a way to get everything in the day if you make a way. Think of when you waste the most time and use that time to do something good for yourself instead. Don't wait another day! You are worth it!

One more update.... I've been doing perfect with not eating chocolate, which I gave up for lent. I haven't had ANY so far! However, I've replaced my m & m snacking with Jellybean snacking. Probably not quite as unhealthy, but still maybe not the best thing to replace chocolate with. Oh well. Small steps. :)