a journal of sorts

like I need to spend anymore time on the web, but I've decided to keep an online journal about the half-marathon.
maybe it will keep me more accountable, maybe.
Have a good evening!

needing motivation

(just have to have color, bright too, you know)

early this morning, perhaps because I was under the fog of sleep, I got online and registered to do a half marathon in April. 13.1 miles. is this crazy? I can't tell you the answer to that just yet, but last night we were talking to some friends who had already signed up to do the marathon and they told me it would be a great experience (ah,the beauty of peer pressure). in fact one of our friends told us that he intends to walk the whole race. truth be told I've been struggling with getting down a regular exercise routine since our move (I'm so not consistent-I've been going to the gym once every two weeks and at times less than that!)
I guess it boils down to my strong need of external motivation. exercise and I have a strange relationship. I avoid it, mentally talking myself out of it-however there are those rare moments when I show up and "just do it" (thanks Nike for that one). Then as I work out I find myself liking it (especially when I have my music pumping), but what I love is that after workout feeling, if only I could hold onto that feeling. Well for this upcoming month that feeling is going to keep me going, it just has too.

Happy Sunday!

green smoothie Wednesday

Our green smoothie today-interesting combo but still very good, at least I thought so and so did my youngest-surprisingly! My oldest on other hand drank hers while closing her nose (this is shocking because it is my oldest that totally eats almost everything, veggies and all, while my youngest prefers barbecue chicken with a side of chocolate). Really I think its all about the texture-and the context,"ooh a smoothie is a cool juice like drink", the youngest thinks while the oldest says to herself, "wow this seems like a blended salad, I'll eat my salads whole, thank you very much."
Our smoothie included watercress, frozen peaches, an old apple (I bet you can tell I have lots of old apples around), a small piece of ginger, coconut oil, lemon juice, a splash of water, ice cubes, and a big squeeze of agave nectar. I loved how the ginger gave this smoothie some pizazz.

~in the blender


~let's drink!


(this afternoon I wanted to get some stretching in, so I decided to go to yoga. Stretching my goodness, I was sweating buckets in that class. Some of those positions were super tough, but you do what you can do, and drinking a green smoothie can only help :)

run, girl, run

I've been contemplating about whether to post about this or not, but I'm going to go ahead and post about "the run" (or more like the run-walk-run). You see around the beginning of April I was shopping at our local food co-op (I'm usually in there at least two or three times a week) and most of the time after I finish checking out I go check the bulletin board at the front of the store. Usually on the board there are flyers for local events, classes, things for sell and so forth. On this particular day a flyer caught my eye, it was a flyer concerning a 5K walk/run. In my head I said to myself "if this race is on a Sunday, I'm game!" (we attend church on Saturday). I took a registration form home and realized that the date for the walk/run was on April 25th-a Sunday, decision made.
In the weeks preceding the race, I started working out more-using the gym membership that I already had, but now putting it to more use. Not all the workouts were enjoyable of course, but the after workout feeling made the workouts seem well worth it (and I do like sweating, it makes me feel like I'm doing something :) I also found this program to be a helpful reference.
The weeks flew by and finally race day approached, which was this past Sunday. More that eight hundred people from our city woke up early to participate in this race (the race benefited a local business that employs people with disabilities).
When I arrived at the racing venue, I placed on my number and got a chip to put on my running shoes. I got out to the starting line, went to the back of the crowd and finally took off when the guy yelled "go!" through his megaphone.
I started off with a slow jog, but then about 1/2 mile into it my calves cramped up (note to self, running on a treadmill is not the same as running on pavement, thanks). I stopped jogging and just began walking-for about a mile and a half. The walking helped out my calves and for the last leg of the race I was able to jog it out to the finish line. I was glad to finish, my body was glad also.
Really what possessed me to do this? I think it's because I need goals-especially in the area of exercise. For most of my life I had periods in which I'm active, and then I fall into the abyss of non-activity-it's a cycle, active, not active, active, not active-around and around. I'm going to be completely honest here and say that really I'm far from my ideal weight and I've struggled with this for most of my life. Genetics, having children, moving from state to state, along with other life stressors, I can try to blame-but excuses, are exactly what they are-excuses.
Now that the race is over, I wonder if I'll keep up my workouts, will I be just as motivated as I was before the race? I think so, a friend of mine gave me this verse when I told her about the race- "I can do everything by the power of Christ. He gives me strength." Philippians 4:13 NIRV. So true. When it boils down to it, its not about the race, or really about the weight, its about being responsible with my health-being a proper steward of it.