Official Photos!

Here's the official Color Up 5K photos of me and my friend Anna at the end of the race. Her shoes were killing her feet so she took them off. She didn't run without shoes.

And here's proof that I actually ran the thing. Slightly freaked out? I was. Didn't quite recognize me. I was really really excited because the hill finally leveled out. Yeah, two color stations on that hill. It was HUGE!!!! That blue in my left armpit stayed there for 4 days. The green in the photos above stayed on my face and neck for 4 days. I did shower when I got home. I didn't wait 4 days. Just so we're clear.

Color Up 5K!

I ran the color run in April as a capstone to my losing 35 pounds and to prove to myself that I could run an entire 5K. Today I ran the Color Up 5K to support a friend who was running as a capstone to her weight loss. The Color Up run is much like the Color Run but on a much smaller scale. It was here in town which was nice since I live about 2 miles away from the course. But we started in white and ran through rainbows just the same. There was a big difference in this race, however. In April, the skies were cloudy, there was a cool breeze and it was April. Today, the sun shown down upon us suckers. Beat down on us really. It was already above 80 when we started. This course was also quite hilly. Really, really hilly. Like steep, switchback type hills. And I ran it. Okay, I ran the hardest hill. It was first. Then I kept running. About halfway through the race, I decided I was way too hot and needed to pace myself. Part of me wanted to just keep going to prove to myself that I could do it and that I'm strong and capable and awesome. But a larger part of me wanted to finish the race on my own and not with the help of the medic's go-cart. So I took walk breaks. And I didn't feel guilty one little bit! It was a tough course and I did it. I ran most of it and got myself slathered in color (which is why you go).

I am now a Weight Watchers leader. Like I've arrived. I should feel at the top of my game right? Truth is, I still struggle. I've gained 3 pounds in the past 2 or 3 weeks. I know what I need to do to get back down to where I want to be and I'm not too worried about it. But I realize that even the leaders continue to fight for their ideal body. It's like I said at the beginning of this blog, a journey ends and you turn back around. I'm determined to stay the course. If I have walk breaks in the middle, it's fine. Because in the end, I want to cross that finish line on my own merits. I want to be able to look back 20 years from now and still be at a healthy weight. I have learned that I will always have a weakness for cookies. I don't know if I'll ever be able to just eat one and be fine. But that's something I had to learn for myself. I have to know my weaknesses in order for them to become strengths right?

I had kind of a cool moment while running this morning. I was taking a walk break and kind of eyed a point ahead of me where I would tell myself to start running again. This is how I have always "run" in the past. I would pick a point, start running when I got to it, pick another point and try to push myself to get to that point with the promise of another walk break. Today I picked a point that was several yards ahead of me. I told myself I'll catch my breath then start again. Then something happened. I looked down at my feet and saw that I had started running again. I was a good 20 yards away from my target point. But my body was ready. It just went. My weakness in running was always my head. My inner monologue would tell me cheap lies like "just make it to this point and you can walk." and "if you keep running right now your legs will fall off and your lungs will explode." I've shut up that voice and replaced it with a cheerleader. I can honestly say that I love running and only want to get better. And I'm totally looking forward to my next race! In the cool, cool Fall...

Before
Already sweating!

After
Really sweating.

Leader!

Since February I have been training to become a Weight Watchers leader. There have been a mix of online classes, at work practices and an awesome conference in Orlando that have given me the tools I need to become a leader. Throughout this whole process I have been getting more and more excited about the program and helping people succeed. Orlando was such a great experience. It was 3 intense days of learning with 25 of the greatest people on the planet! It was great in that not only did I learn the ins and outs of leading meetings, but I really learned a lot about myself in the process. I gained more confidence in myself. I gained a better understanding of who I was, am and want to be. I gained some pretty great friends. I didn't gain a pound (woot). Since my trip to Orlando, I have had the opportunity to lead 2 meetings while being observed. I've received great feedback and feel ready to take this on.

Next Tuesday is the day to take it on! I'll be leading the Tuesday night meeting here in town. I am super excited. Can I just say I'm super excited. I feel so comfortable doing this. I have been a receptionist for meetings since March and have loved it. I love getting to know people and their stories. I feel like it's such a privilege to be apart of their lives. This is my chance to give back. My life, and the lives of those closest to me, have been changed for the best since I joined Weight Watchers 9 months ago. There's no way I can repay my leader, my meeting family, the whole program in general. What they have given me is immeasurable and you can't pay back something you can't quantify. So I pay it forward. I love this stuff so much and believe in it, and the people, so much that I am truly excited about my job.

I'm nervous and yet eager to start. I feel like I'm such a newbie still. There are members that have been there much longer than me yet I'll be the one guiding them? But everyone has to start somewhere. One day I'll be the leader up there saying I've kept off my weight for 12 years and still feel awesome. Being a leader totally fits who I am and I am excited. It's awesome to be able to help others and keep myself in check all at the same time. Bring it on Tuesday nights!!

On a quick side note, I kind of impulsively made the decision to run a marathon on my 40th birthday. But it sounds pretty good. So I'm sticking with it. 5K for 30th birthday, 26.2 miles for my 40th. And 50th. And 60th.

Running Mix

I'm starting to really love running. Once I got over that mental hurdle of "you can only make it to this point" and just kept running through that point, I've discovered that my body is capable of running 3 miles without dying!!! Your heart is supposed to beat faster and your breath is supposed to get heavy. If you quit just when that starts to happen, you never get stronger and you're stuck in a mental rut. I've discovered that the voice in my head is powerful and can be very negative. I've been trying to change that into a more positive voice, but the negativity is always there somewhere. So I've learned to tune out that negative voice with some tunes while I run. Here's what I'm listening to right now:

I Run To You - Lady Antebellum (warm up)
Let's Get It Started - Black Eyed Peas
Stronger - Kelly Clarkson
Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benatar
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Fighter - Christina Aguilera
Miss Independent - Kelly Clarkson
One More Night - Maroon 5
Independent Woman Pt 1 - Destiny's Child (is that right right title?
Hey Ya - OutKast
Rock On - Blondie's cover
Body Work - Morgan Page
Rumor Has It - Adela
I Won't Give Up - Jason Mraz (cool down)

Need to get Going the Distance by Cake.

I read on my cousin's blog that her best friend from high school only listens to her running songs when she runs. That has changed my world. I think I have a Pavlovian response to these songs now. I just run. It's becoming just as easy to run as it is to stop and walk. I think I need to start working on my speed.

What songs do you work out to?

The Words I Never Thought I'd Hear

I took my kids to the dentist first thing this morning. Ellie took a little longer than Jack so I took him back to the waiting room so he could play while we waited. After talking to the people at the front desk I sat down. There were some ladies sitting on the other side of the room. I'd guess they were mid-20's. They were with a little girl who was waiting to go back. So one calls out to me and said that she just told her sister, "I like her shoes, I like her shirt" (Note: I was in my workout clothes because I was going to run when we were done). Then the sister says, "And I said I like her stomach! It's flat!!"
Who me? After I had Jack (and by after I mean a year), I couldn't even suck in my stomach to go flat anymore. My stomach has never really been flat, mind you, but I used to at least pretend it was for about 16 seconds before I had to exhale.
So that's awesome. I am struggling a little bit though. I'm getting too lax. I notice that I'm slipping into old habits, only I'm keeping active. It's starting to show a bit on the scale though. I just can't kick myself into gear. I keep forgetting to track. I start out great, then by lunch I just space it. By the time I remember, I don't want to track because I know I've snuck too many things in my mouth and I just don't want to be accountable for it. It's not like I eat a whole key lime pie or anything. I eat 2 or 3 PointsPlus values at a time. But those totally add up. I've got to get in gear. I'm supposed to be the example now! This has been going on for maybe 2 or 3 weeks. I've stayed within plus or minus a pound or so, but I want to lose about 5-10 more and the way I'm sliding by is not going to cut it. I blamed it on my period at first, but that so can't be an excuse anymore. I'm going to clean my fridge tomorrow. Maybe that will help things. I've noticed before that when my fridge it clean, I'm more likely to go there to find a snack than my cupboard. The fridge always has better snacks for me. And if my kitchen is clean, I'm more likely to cook something in it. That makes my kitchen dirty and thus the downward spiral begins. But I'll try it. I'm going to clean out my fridge and keep my kitchen clean. I'll check in next week and post my progress.

What does 35 pounds look like?

First off, I'm still living off my Color Run high.
Second, I decided to take some measurements this morning. I haven't done it for a few months and I was just curious. Here's the differences.
Since September 2012 I have lost:
4 dress sizes
4 inches on my hips
3 inches on my arms
6.5 inches on my waist
4 inches on my bust
and 3 inches on my thighs.

Sometimes I look at 35 pounds and think it's not that much. It's Biggest Loser's fault. They make it seem like you need to lose 100 pounds in 12 weeks to be awesome. People there lose 35 pounds their first week. So I'm glad I did this little measurement. 35 pounds is an awesome accomplishment!! I've lost a Jack and a half! I think this calls for some clothes shopping :)

COLOR RUN!!!!

The Color Run claims itself to be the "Happiest 5K on the Planet." I can verify that the Color Run IS the happiest 5K on the planet! I was smiling so much even though my teeth were blue.  We had such a blast!!!

My run was fueled by adrenaline. I didn't sleep much the night before due to children in my bed (read: elbows in my side, legs in my eye). I was up at 5:40 and we were ready to go at 6:30. In the morning. We arrived and there were literally thousands of people ready to run. The energy was fantastic. There was a dress code of white shirts. It's a sight to see thousands of people dressed in white ready to look like a rainbow sneezed on them. Here's us before:

Left to Right: Connie, Erricka (Aleasha's sister), Aleasha (my sister-in-law), Ashley (Leash's friend and Connie's daughter), Me, Abby (Aleasha's friend, Ashley's sister-in-law, Connie's daughter-in-law), and Chris (see Abby's description, it's the same for Chris.)
Got it?
We were so clean and neat as we set off on our race. My goal was to run the whole thing. Guess what? I DID IT!!!!! By about halfway through I said to Aleasha, "It's just as easy to keep running as it would be to stop and walk." The energy was so contagious that it was hard not to run and high-five people as we passed. Our team name was "Kickin' Asphault". Aleasha, Ashley and I put it on the back of our shirts. 3 people stopped us asking if they could take a picture with the back of our shirt. Um, yeah you can! People were in tutus, crazy hats and funky socks. It was seriously a party.

And after!!! This guy photo-bombed us.

So we embraced it. I was totally eating a Kind bar when they took these pictures. They gave them out at the finish line. I am now a HUGE fan of Kind bars. 

We had crazy elbows after the race. All of that sweat made cool diamonds. Gross and awesome all at the same time. My hand is there at the top. The one with the crazy long thumbs.

We also got crazy tie-dye tacos. I think I won for best tacos. Greatest tacos ever!!!

This race marked my weight loss of 35 pounds!! That's me saying 35, not 8. Although we can lie and say I did an 8-minute mile... As fun and carefree as this race was, it was also deeply emotional for me. I have reformed my life and am morphing it into a healthier, happier, crazy runner, awesome life. I ran the whole thing. I want to do a 10K now. It was AWESOME!!!!!

Victoria wanted me to take a picture of me breakdancing like the guy in the official Color Run video. This is my attempt. Pretty close.

After a 20 minute shower, I was pretty cleaned off. One armpit is still a a little blue and my toes look bruised but I view them as a color badge of honor. I'm still sneezing blue but my teeth are white again. It was so stinking fun. I am so glad I did this. I had an amazing time. The people I was with helped make it such a fabulous experience. I'm sure we'll be kickin' asphault again!