My running story

My running story is directly tied together with my weight loss story. It was a long and hard road. A tough battle, but I'm pretty proud of myself for what I've accomplished. Sometimes it's the toughest roads we take that make us appreciate the final destination.

Every runner has a story. Some it's simply "I just started running." For others, though, running is not a "love at first sight" kind of relationship. This is where my story falls.

I have never really been a runner. At one time in my youth I would consider myself some sort of athlete. Not a great athlete, but I played several sports and had some minor athletic ability. For most of my childhood/teenage years this is how I stayed "fit." I played sports because I enjoyed it, I liked being part of team, and I got to hang out with my friend while I did it. It never really had anything to do with staying in shape or working out or trying to get skinny. My workouts just consisted of practice, getting ready for some kind of competition, and then going home and pretty much eating whatever I wanted. I did not know what a healthy diet consisted of so I ate what was availabe, but if you put a vegetable in front of me that wasnt a potato or wasn't swimming in butter, I would throw it back at you. But I digress. Anyways, I wasn't much of a runner. My running consisted of sprinting to first base or baseline sprints on the basketball court. My dad was the long distance runner, not me, never me :-) One thing I've definitely learned, never say never...

In 1998 I graduated from high school, and thus, stopped playing sports ie. stopped working out. But continued to eat whatever I wanted. I didn't binge eat or anything like that, but when I was hungry, I ate, and like most Americans out there, my portions were out of control because I didn't know any better. You probably can see where this story is going can't you? The weight started to find me. Slowly and very surely. I started and stopped numerous "diets" (weight watchers, grapefruit diet, slim fast etc), tried to go to the gym, walk everyday, eat "better" which would always result in me losing a few pounds and then gaining them back plus some. Between the ages of 18-29 I did, on 3 occasions, lose a significant amount of weight, but in a VERY unhealthy, eating disorder, kind of way. All 3 times I gained all the weight back...plus a lot more. This led to a very unhealthy relationship with food, and I often turned to food for emotional support.
But food always let me down. Which led me to eat more to feel better, which made me feel guilty, which led me to eat more to.....well, you get the point. Emotional eating is a vicious cycle.

Then my children came along. My beautiful, perfect children. Will was born in August 2007, Ella was born in February 2009. 2 pregnancies in 2 years. 2 pregnancy weight gains in 2 years. I wouldn't trade being their mother for anything. They are reason number 1, why I run.

January 1, 2010 -time for some serious New Years Resolutions. Ella was a year old and I could no longer blame my weight on the time honored excuse of "I just had a baby..." I was on my way to turning 30 that upcoming July and it actually really freaked me out. A LOT!! I don't share this with many people but the yo yo dieting, major partying after college, and 2 pregnancies left me weighing 210 pounds at 5'6. I was terrified that if I reached 30 and was still that unhealthy, that I would be stuck that way, forever. Now, thats pretty ridiculous, I know, but this is my brain we're dealing with and I'm not always completely rational. So I vowed I was going to do if for real, and for good. I was breaking the cycle. I wanted my kids to have a sane and healthy mom, and I wanted to instill in them healthy habits and mindset.

And like Forrest Gump, I just felt like runnin'. And for me it worked. Now it was in conjuction with new healthy eating habits (I hate the word DIET!!), but once I started running I saw the weight come off like never before.

Eating habits: (this is what worked for me, may not work for everybody)
The first thing I worked hard on was changing my eating habits. With a full time job, 2 small kids and a husband, I relied very heavily on convenient and easy meals. I would cook things like hamburger helper (which today totally grosses me out), mac and cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, or we would just get fast food. So I needed to completely revamp things. After doing lots and lots of research I found some different "diets" that I thought would work for me longterm. I figured out what correct portions sizes should be for me and went from there. I eat 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and 1-2 snacks depending on my workout schedule. I don't count points or calories, and I don't log in every single thing that I eat. That would just drive me crazy. My "eating lifestyle" is kind of a cross between the South Beach Diet and the Zone diet (carb/protein/healthy fat combo at every meal) I try to eat "real" foods as much as possible and shy away from processed or boxed foods whenever possible. I try to eat at least one big salad a day, and get a lot of veggies and some fruits in every day as well. In January 2010 I quit drinking sodas and switch to 1-2 cups of coffee a day and LOTS of water. I teach US History and lecture a lot, so I am thirsty all the time. When I stopped drinking Diet cokes I started drinking a lot of water (sometimes a gallon a day) and I really started to feel a lot better. Now if I drink a Diet coke it really makes me feel yucky.

My running:
I started out slow with the couch to 5k program, and February 24, 2010, at 20pounds lighter, I ran my first 5k at the very speedy time of 44 minutes lol But I was pretty proud of what I had accomplished so far. And it just took off from there. Doing organized fun run/races are just really fun opportunities and helped push me out of my comfort zone and increase my endurance. I enjoy the training and seeing the progress that I've made. This year I've set my sights on running several half marathons (cause right now I'm only half crazy heehee) and next year I'm gonna push myself even farther and run the full monty....get your head out of the gutter, I'm going to run a full marathon!! Hopefully the Chevron Houston January 15, 2012.

Here's why I think running worked for me:

I missed the competition of being an athlete. Working out feels like work, but running and training for my next "race" turns working out into practicing for my next competition. Running is my therapy, my stress relief. I love to just put on my music and forget about the problems of the day. I'm not a super speedy runner, although I have definitely gotten faster the more I run and work on it. I will never be an elite runner and win a race, but I like pushing myself to beat my best times. Even if I don't beat my time, and PR every race, I was successful in running X number of miles no matter what my time was. Having some kind of race coming up keeps me motivated to stay on my training schedule and keep all my workouts. Between January-May 2010 I ran 3 races, 2 5Ks and 1 10K and they were SO MUCH FUN!! I set my sights on running the Aramco Houston 1/2 Marathon January 30, 2011. But I had some other ambitious goals as well. In July 2010 when I turned 30 I challenged myself to run at least 1 race a month for the next 12 months. So far, I am right on track to accomplish that goal.
Heres the races I've done so far:
August: Kingwood Health and Wellness 10K 1:10
September: Toughest 10K in Texas in Kemah 1:09 (4 passes over the Kemah bridge!)
October: Highlands Jamboree 5K 30:59 (5K PR time, but was a very strange race)
November: Turkey Trot 10K 1:09
December: Crosby Jingle Bell run (2 1/2 miles, untimed, but Garmin time was 26:14)
Chevron Jingle Bell run 5 miles 51:10
January: Aramco Houston Half Marathon!!! Most awesome race experience to date.
1/2 marathon time 2:19.44

Next on the agenda:
Feb. 12th, Baytown Jail Break 1/2 marathon! Really excited to do a 1/2 marathon so close to home, but it has one pass over the Fred Hartman bridge so this is definitely going to be a challenge!
Feb. 26th Conoco Rodeo Run -- a year ago this was the first race/run I had ever done. Looking for a rematch this year :-) Last year I did the 5K and this year I'm doing the 10K.

I'm hoping that my relationship with running stays strong. I don't see us breaking up any time soon because we really do work well together. :)
But thats my story. I'm hoping that I can keep going down the path I'm going. I know it won't always be easy, and I know that I will struggle and have some mishaps along the way. But, so goes life. What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger! :)
And I am so much stronger than I ever thought I could be!!