I surprised myself!

I have so much to say today that I don't know where to begin...so I'm just going to start and I apologize now if it seems all over the place.

First of all I need to give a HUGE thank you to three fellow bloggers that each, within the last week, have nominated me to receive a blogging award for being inspirational!!! I never thought that anybody would find me inspirational! I started this whole blogging thing looking for inspiration myself! I am very flattered that those who inspire me find me inspirational! So, again, thank you Karen, Tonya, and Mary for the recognition!

Ok, so...I've been whining on this blog for a couple weeks about how the C25K program was having me jump from running 8 minutes straight to running 20 minutes straight. I even wrote about the different ways I was planning to avoid it. Then yesterday I read a blog post by Leigh over at Poonapalooza where she discusses how she got running and talks about the differences between a LTR (Learn To Run) training program and the C25K program. She wrote about how, in her experience, many people doing the C25K program end up quitting at the 5 week mark because of jump from 8 to 20 minutes of straight running. I was not surprised and totally agree with her that most quit at this point...but seeing it written there I thought to myself..."I don't want that to be me...I want to prove this statement wrong (for me)!" I even commented and told Leigh that her post had motivated me to go out and try to run the 20 minutes straight! *I think I had gone crazy!

I was feeling like crap yesterday and did NOT want to run AT ALL...but I got my butt out the door with my Garmin and my mp3 player. I decided to just go for it and run until I just couldn't anymore...which I guessed would be about 10 minutes worth. Once I started running I vowed not to look at my Garmin until I had listened to 5 songs (figuring 3 min. or so per song that would put me at 15 minutes and some songs are longer). The third song that came on was Courageous by Casting Crowns, a Christian song. It gave me such motivation, certain lyrics could be used to describe my decision to start this journey to a healthier, more active person. Especially a part of the song where it says "In the war of the mind, I will make my stand!" How I interpreted that for me was in how much exercising, running in my case, is largely a mental battle and I was going to win that war in my head and run that 20 minutes without stopping!!!

After the fifth song started I was getting antsy to look at my Garmin so I did and I only had 3:30 left!!! I was SO happy...I was smiling for that entire 3:30. If my neighbors saw me they were probably thinking "Look at that crazy, fat girl smiling while she's running...what is wrong with her?" For the first time ever I experienced what people refer to as a "runner's high"!!! I felt AMAZING when I stopped running and the song that started playing just as I had stopped running was an upbeat heavy rock song by Nickelback called Burn It To The Ground...and let me tell you...I really did feel like I was "ALL IN, BALLS OUT" on that run! : ) *I know, I have very differing tastes in music don't I? I was singing (in my head, but mouthing the words) and dancing a little all the way back home. : D

There I am, in all my sweaty glory! I had David take my picture after I got back...he called me a dork.

 

I was pretty slow...but not as slow as I thought.

Now for a little update on how things are going being on the Phentermine. Yesterday I woke up extremely dizzy and remained dizzy off and on through out the whole day. Dizziness is a possible side effect of Phentermine, but I have had dizzy spells before starting this medication which are most likely a side effect of my MS. This morning the scale read 230.7 lbs. I'm hoping to break into the 220's before my next official weigh in for the Lose a Marathon Challenge on Monday.

I am also noticing that when I get super stressed out...I still immediately start thinking about eating something...but I've been able to keep those urges in check so far. I'm thinking my monthly visitor is going to be here soon because I always have stronger cravings just prior to starting, as well as being extra irritable. Sorry if that's too much information.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I don't have any plans yet (or any that I can remember) so I'm hoping to relax.