I thought I had a lot to say and maybe I do, I’m still not sure.  I’ve been getting so exhausted lately that I don’t know what to do.  Sometimes I wonder if there is something medically or hormonally wrong with me.  I will be fine over the weekend but then Sunday afternoon and Monday night I am so tired I can lie down and sleep and sleep and sleep.  Yesterday I slept from about 3pm until 7:30and then slept all night long and now today I am tired as well and can’t wait to go home and take a nap!  I’m sure tomorrow I will be fine and back to my usual self but this gets old after a while.

I still haven’t started officially training for my half marathon in October.  I know I should have started but every weekend that I want to do a long run, something comes up.  I know I can run 6+ miles no big deal.  Do I really need to train for a half marathon?  I suppose if I don’t want it to be an embarrassment I should.  I have also decided that I want to do a Tough Mudder race next year sometime.  Probably the one in Kansas City.  I have reviewed their website and the obstacles involved and it looks insanely physically grueling.  Right up my alley.  If you haven’t heard of it, think Ninja Warrior meets mud run and people do this just for fun.  I had someone tell me today that I was somewhat masochistic and I guess you could say that.  It’s not the pain I enjoy, it’s the adrenaline rush that you get waiting for the gun to start the race.  It’s the endorphins that kick in mile after mile.  And now with the Tough Mudder, the idea of obstacles that push your physical boundaries, well that is just tantalizing to say the least!

I had a friend tell me that I could not both lift weights the way I want to and be a runner and be able to run long distances, but I just don’t see why not.  Lifting weights makes you more efficient as a runner because your muscles are able to recruit and work together and use less energy to do it.  When you are strong, you can maintain better form for longer periods of time and your body has a better oxygen delivery system so your muscles and you don’t get tired as fast.  I like to lift heavy stuff.  We were helping a friend move recently and I remarked that I wasn’t getting stuck with the vacuum cleaners, I wanted to move furniture.  Everytime I tried to pick up something heavy there was a man trying to take it away from me or an older woman telling me to knock it off and I shouldn’t be doing that.  My body is fully capable of picking up heavy stuff and I enjoy the way it makes me feel.  I love being able to pick up stuff that weighs almost as much as I do and move it from one side of the room to the other.  It’s a strange feeling of self-sufficiency and independence.  At the same time, people look at you like you’re a freak and I rather enjoy that.  Maybe I am a freak.  I’m good with that.

A brief history

Some of you reading this probably don't know me or have never met me at least so I thought I would share a bit of me with the world. 

I was always a thin child. My grandma used to call me a beanpole and always said that one day my appetite would catch up with me. Boy was she right!  I graduated high school in 1995 and in March of 1996 I married my husband. In November 1996, my son was born. Before baby I was still fairly thin. A size 8 probably. After he was born I remember struggling to get back into a size 12 and was basically stuck at a 14. I even tried weight watchers and failed. So I resigned to being "fat". In 1999 I became pregnant with my daughter and after she was born I ballooned up to 225lbs. I felt terrible. I went on a diet and ate healthy and even started working out and got back down to 138lbs. I felt great, but I started having a pain in my left knee. A visit to an orthopedic surgeon rocked my world. He told me that I needed to stop running and that I wasn't doing myself any favors by continuing. There's nothing that can send a runners life into a tailspin faster than being told you can't run. I slipped into what I would call a deep depression and gained back every pound I had lost plus another 50 or so pounds. I tell people I got back what I lost and it brought friends and had a party!  In 2011, I decided that the whole diet thing wasn't working for me and that I needed a real incentive to work for. I needed a push that had no work around, no loopholes. My husband shared with me that he was considering a gastric restrictive procedure and I thought he was crazy at first. So I did my own research and we made a decision together to do it. We began the process together and worked together to accomplish our goal of successful surgeries. The closer the time got, the more excited I got because I knew this would open up a whole new world of possibilities for me. I had my surgery on April 12, 2012. At my heaviest, in January 2012, I was 287lbs. The day of my surgery I was down to about 265lbs. It was my goal that when I hit 200lbs, I would start running again. My husband had his surgery about 3 weeks after I did. It hasn't been easy by any stretch. The surgery is simply a tool and is not "taking the easy way out" or "cheating" at all. People that think that clearly don't understand what it takes to be fit and that some people just need a little help along the way!  We began exercising little by little in the months prior to our surgery date and started back up again within weeks after our surgeries. We set a goal that we were going to take a Disney Cruise during spring break of 2013 and we wanted to be at our goal weights by that time. We had been to FL a few years ago but due to our weight, were unable to enjoy many things that do not accommodate larger people. This would be our chance to "do it again" the right way. 

In July 2012, I hit my goal of 200lbs, just 3 months after my surgery, and bought a pair of running shoes. I could barely run across the street! I was able to start at the indoor track at the YMCA and could run 1 lap, walk 1 lap and paced myself that way. I did this a couple of times a week and it got easier and easier. Within a few months I was able to run a whole mile without stopping! So, I signed up for my first 5k. I did The Color Run in October and ran almost the whole thing. I use the term running loosely because my sister was walking next to me! My second 5k followed in November. It was timed so I know it took me about 38 minutes! I was so proud of my accomplishment! I had been bitten by the race bug! 

I hit my goal weight of 138lbs in March of this year and so far am holding steady. I think my body has found it's "happy place". That is, as long as I take care of myself and don't stop moving. I have run several 5k's since last October and even 2 10k's. as of right now, I am training for the IMT Des Moines Marathon half marathon. That's right, the girl who couldn't run across the street one short year ago is going to run 13.1 miles in October of this year! Thank you Terry Peterson for talking me into that. He also talked me into a sprint triathlon that I did in Feb 2013.  

I hope that you will follow me on this journey and encourage me and find encouragement through my journey as I chronicle it! 

It's been an even longer time...

Wow...

So I decided to make a fancy new Facebook page and keep with the times and I linked it to my blog.  When I went to my blog, I realized I hadn't written a post since 2010!  Almost 3 years have passed!  Let me tell you a lot has changed!

At the beginning of 2012, I had ballooned back up to 287lbs.  In April of 2012, I underwent a sleeve gastrectomy gastric restrictive procedure.  It has been almost a year and a half and I down to 138lbs and am feeling great!  I lift weights, not just any weights, heavy weights...I bench press 135lbs (1 rep max). I mean, I enjoy picking up heavy things, thoroughly.  I run....and I run....and I run some more.  Right now I am training for the IMT Des Moines Marathon half-marathon which takes place in October 2013.  I'm also looking forward to doing the Adel Sweet Corn Festival 5k on Aug 10th.  Actually, at this moment, I am looking forward to just getting back out on the road and running period.  I broke a toe last weekend and have been stuck in sandals, unable to wear tennis shoes, for the past week.  Nothing drives a runner more crazy than to not be able to run and drive down the road seeing other people out running.  I feel like a wild cat pacing, waiting for it's prey!

As far as diet is concerned, I am still doing my best to not prepare "processed" foods for my family or consume "processed" foods myself either.  We have a couple boxes of Hamburger Helper in the cupboard for emergencies but they've been in there a while.  My fridge is usually bursting with veggies or fruits, cheeses, greek yogurt and the like.  My family's favorite meal seems to be when I make stir fry because you can put just about anything in it and it always tastes good.  My biggest thing right now is high fructose corn syrup.  I refuse to buy food that has it added which excludes just about any "processed" food.  I always read the labels and try to explain to my kids that they shouldn't eat things that contain words you can't pronounce or that look like someone's science experiment.  My husband and I journeyed to Whole Foods for the first time this last week and I was bound and determined to find something in that store that couldn't possibly live up to the standard that people thought it did.  Needless to say, Whole Foods won.  I checked the ketchup, the bbq sauce and everything I could think of but did not find anything containing anything I wouldn't feed to my children (yet).  We also tried grass-fed ground beef for the first time this last week.  Thanks to my friend, Shanen Ebersole of Ebersole Farms, we grilled up some super burgers and I am pretty sure those were the best tasting burgers I have had in as long as I can remember.  So juicy and flavorful!  I cannot wait to see her again and grab some more grass-fed beef, YUM!

My family and I spent the whole afternoon today working out in the yard and my back is killing me, so I am going to do some relaxing the rest of the evening and will plan to visit my soapbox again real soon.  I promise this time!!