Catching up

It's been awhile! Between difficult classes, work, and normal day-to-day stuff, this semester has really gotten away from me. I hit the halfway point a couple of weeks ago and I can't even believe that the year is almost over. But, I do intend to be more intentional about updating this little corner of my world. 

Not too much has changed. I love love love my new job at the Career Center. I get to talk to people all day, which is pretty awesome. This includes talking to students that are just as confused about what direction to go in their life as I was when I changed majors a year and a half ago. Plus I work with some pretty fun people. I also got to work at my job back home during Spring Break. Boy did I miss everyone! 

And of course there's the insane amount of schoolwork I feel like I'm always doing and time set aside for friends. It's been really fun, but I have definitely missed blogging and keeping ya'll in the loop on life.


I have kept up with my running, working more on speed than distance as I prepare for my first 5K (!!!) two weeks from this weekend. I'm really excited about it! I wanted to wait until it was a little warmer out because of how my lungs reacted at the last race. So, April 6 I will be running the Point of Honor 5K. It's all about raising awareness for organ donation and that is something I really believe in because it has affected multiple generations of my family. My friend Deana has been training with the Couch to 5K program and is going to run the race as well! It's all super exciting stuff and I can't wait!

At my dad's surprise party over break

Spring Break was definitely a test on eating balanced at home. Aside from various surprise parties, it was mostly how normal day-to-day life will be this summer so I wanted to try to eat how I would eat then. Of course I ate way more junk than I was planning on (namely, donuts) but that's okay. It's a learning process. I made smoothies for breakfast like I do here, experimented with muffin recipes, put spinach on my pizza (not half bad!) and was intentional about picking a lower calorie meal that tastes good and will fill me up when eating out. When I weighed myself in after break, I was about the same as before so I am feeling more confident in how this summer will play out.  

And that brings me to maintenance mode. I can proudly say I have maintained the same weight (aside from some normal fluctuations here and there) since January 23rd! Almost 2 months! I have a "healthy range" for maintenance but honestly I haven't even had to depend on that because for whatever reason I can eat as much or little as I want and not gain/lose anything. I'm not complaining though! Sure I haven't made it to "goal" but I'm only a couple of pounds off, so I am content. And so incredibly proud. I see some of my friends making changes because of me and at the end of the day, that's what makes me the happiest: helping others realize their goals as well. 

An assortment of news

It's CRAZY to think about how blessed I've been this past week. Let me fill you in on some highlights (some you may already know, while some things most of you definitely don't).

1. I got a JOB! It took me a while but I found one that was the perfect fit for me because it is on campus and fills up those annoying breaks between classes that I got stuck with this semester. I am (almost officially) an office assistant at the Career Center here at school! They were all so helpful during the mess of switching majors last year which makes me even more excited to work with them!

2. I ran 3.1 miles straight! And felt like I could keep running, hellooooo runner's high.

3. I have now lost 30 pounds and am 2.3 from goal (as of last Wednesday, I haven't weighed myself since)

4. I got a size 4 dress over the weekend and it fits quite nicely. And I've never been a size 4. Hollaaa!

The dress I bought one in the picture. It's my new favorite thing in the world to wear. Also: my room has been obnoxiously clean lately so I'm not even cringing at the background when I look at this picture. Progress everyone, progress.





4. And last but certainly not least, I signed up for my first race ever last night....and it's this weekend. I'm insane! But it's "just" a two-miler (Whooo says that?! I hate when people say "Oh I just ran 5 miles today, it was an easy day." So rude.) I'm super nervous for a zillion reasons but also really excited. It's for scholarships and such for the Boys and Girl's Club in Downtown Lynchburg, which is a pretty awesome thing to be contributing to. So I'm doing it, no backing out. That and I'm too cheap to back out ;)



Off course the downfall of signing up last night for a race that will be held this weekend: only 4 days of training! Eek! I did Day 1 this afternoon and ran 2 miles in under 21 minutes so I might shoot for that. Honestly, my goal is to have fun and enjoy myself while also attempting to push my limits. Training for the rest of the week includes 1 interval run, 1 run outdoors (weather permitting), a rest day, and another 2-3 mile run.  I'm starting to get really excited!




There's been a few other little things going on but those are the highlights.

Also: I tried a Clif bar this morning. I have been reading a lot of good reviews on it lately so I bought one the other day. I definitely thought it would be dense but not nearly as dense as it turned out but that's okay because it filled me up so well. And at only 240 calories, it was kind of a steal.

Of course I didn't think to take a picture of it until after I had chomped on the bar for a while, so this is a picture of the wrapper and my computer screen.

That's about all of the fun and excitement I've got for today, off to knock out just a little bit more homework before calling it a night!

30!

Well, yesterday morning was weigh-in and I was sooo nervous. Last Wednesday I weighed and I was up 1 pound and while that's not a huge deal, it was slightly devastating in my meladramatic mind. I do think I was holding on to a lot of water weight and that gain was probably because I hadn't run in a week or so and muscle stores water when you start a new workout routine (or something like that).

So, I decided to not weigh myself again until yesterday (even though my normal weigh-in day was Saturday morning). It was awful to resist, but I did it. I was nervous though because I ate like crap a good 50% of the week. I had cookies, chocolate, lots of Chinese food, and a donut from Dunkin' on Tuesday afternoon. I sucked it up and did it anyways and I lost 3.7 pounds! SAYYY what?! Of course some of it was losing that water weight, but it was still very exciting to see! I'm officially at 30 pounds lost and less than 2.5 from goal! It feels so good.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to run a 5K distance on the treadmill for the first time ever. I can run 2.75 miles at a steady pace and a 5K is 3.1 so it'll be just a few extra minutes of running. I'm due for an increase in distance anyways. The reason why I picked the last day of my "workout week" to increase distance (usually that's done at the beginning) is because this blogger I follow, Katie at Runs For Cookies, (check out her blog, she's super inspirational) is hosting a "Virtual 5K" for her birthday. It's pretty awesome that it fell right in time with me being near hitting a 5K distance so I decided to do it! 

This will be my "unofficial" first 5K (hopefully my real first one will be soon!), which is awesome because it's still way too cold out for me to participate in an outdoors race and not get super sick again thanks to my sweet lungs. Am I crazy? Probably. Am I excited? You know it!

What's next after I hit the goal I've been set on since October? I'm not sure yet. Originally, I was just running and eating better so I could hit this goal but I'm finding that I like it a lot better than being lazy and the way I feel after I eat a lot of junk. Maybe I'll just modify it to be at more of a "maintenance" level. I am going to attempt to run further/faster (first I'm focused on further though!). Also, I want to try toning a little better. I am terrified of using weights (not for any rational reason, I just don't like going into weight rooms) so I'm going to attempt some non-weight stuff for the time being then maybe buy some small ones or get over my fear. Who knows. 

Those are the goals I want to focus on 2.3 pounds from now. It's good to have short-term realistic goals because they keep you motivated.

What are your goals?

Determined to Succeed

I have been back at school since Saturday afternoon and I didn't realize how much I missed it here until I was back. But I'm going to be completely honest, I pushed off this blog post because I was ashamed in myself. And it's silly. I know most people won't get the way that I think but those who know me well for the most part understand. I am my worst critic and that is something I have been struggling with as far as I can remember. I automatically stress when I don't go above and beyond, it can be such a roadblock in my life. 

Anyways, that brings me to this week. I get back to school and I have met most of my goals. SO awesome. The only goal that I didn't meet was going to the gym 3 times/week because I was sick the last week I was home and it got to the point it was affecting my asthma. When I started running I made the commitment that I was not going to put my health on the line, so I rested until I could sit on the couch without wheezing and feeling like there was no air in my lungs. Real sweet feeling. 

I met all of my other goals. I should be happy, right? Not the case. I spent the beginning of this week beating myself up over so many things. Looking back I feel foolish but it's just my mentality. I hate my asthma and I was freaking out about how hard it has been for me to add distance. In perspective, many asthmatic people don't even attempt to run, so it should be something to be proud of. But I was just having such a hard time with that. Also, I'm five pounds from goal, which means I lost 3-4 pounds in the month I was home. That's fantastic for the time of year where most people are worried about putting on weight. But I was bummed that I didn't lose more and bummed because I feel like these last five pounds are going to take forever. How dumb is that? I've already lost close to 30 pounds but I'm beating myself up over 5??! In all honesty though, that's just the way my mind works. Putting it into perspective, I feel much better. 

All that to say--today I ran 2.5 miles straight! And to think a month ago I had never ran more than a mile straight! That was definitely the confidence boost I needed and put me right back on track. I've got this. Soon I'll hit 5K length then maybe I'll add more distance. I've also been working on speed again this week by adding in interval workouts, so fingers crossed that those help a little bit. I'm going to be realistic with speed because of my asthma, but it would be nice to be able to do a 5K in under 30 minutes. 

Yesterday's interval run! I didn't get a pic of today's 2.5, ugh!

Hopefully I'll have some exciting news soon! And to those of you that began school this week like me--happy first week back!