Happy Halloween

Quote from Slow Fat Triathlete

If you're a large woman in America, your whole life is an opportunity to feel self-conscious, embarrassed, resentful and way too big. You can hide in the corner or on the couch, you can go to therapy, or you can put on your lycra bike shorts and get out there and move.
—Jayne Williams

This is a great book and one of the reasons I am active today before losing all my weight. Remember, just make a small goal and get out there and do it.

Confucious say, "A journey of a million miles begins with one step."

Whatever it is you want to do, get out there and do it and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Have a happy tuesday!!

5K Done!!

Well, this morning was my Halloween Hustle 5K. It was a beautiful morning weather wise. It looked like a good turn out. I'm not sure how many came last year. This is only the 2nd year for this event. My goal for this race was to do it in under 1 hour.

Well, I finished and I finished in under 1 hour. My unofficial time was 55:13.

I was a little disappointed with how the race was run. They considered this a 5K run/walk. The police that were blocking intersections so we could cross left before I got to them. There was only 1 cop blocking an intersection that I crossed and I thanked her. I did not feel very safe on this course and it will make me rethink if I do this event again next year or not. I will be emailing or calling the race director. I probably would have had a better time if I didn't have to wait for traffic to cross the street twice. One time I almost had to wait a full minute because of traffic. I was very frustrated.

On the flip side of that it was the most beautiful day we have had in a long time. I enjoyed being outside, excercising, and enjoying God's beauty. I had to keep changing my inner dialogue.

Here are the things I was telling myself after crossing the first busy intersection:
-Why did I want to do this?
-I could be back in bed.
-Why do I do these events when I know I'll be in last place?
-Am I ever going to lose this weight?

Here is what I changed my inner dialogue to:
_I'm doing this race because I deserve to be happy.
-I'm so happy I didn't stay in bed this morning.
-Thank you God for a beautiful day.
- Because of me friends have signed up for 5K's and triathlons. I encourage others to make change, so I can't stop now.
-I am going to lose this weight becasue I hate being last at 5K's
-I'll never be able to run a 5K if I never do them, so YEAH ME!!
-I will run my 5K's by this summer.
-My family and myself are so important to me I will make a change.

Here are some things that I am very proud about today (in random order)
-I finished my 5K even though I was very discouraged on the course. The thought of quitting never even crossed my mind.
-I didn't litter on the race course. I am very picky about race litter and don't want these little communities wishing we'd never been there.
-I changed my negative talk into positive, which can be very hard.
-I won an honorable mention medal for my halloween costume. It was a t-shirt that said THIS IS MY COSTUME and a GOOFY hat.
-I met up with my family after the race to spend some time with them even though I really wanted to go back to bed and sleep.
-I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with tomato only at McDonald's after the race. They made it wrong 2 times and I stuck to my guns until they got it right. In the past I would have just kept the one with Mayo on it instead of standing up for myself.
-I already have a plan in place for my next 5K, next month.
-I am proud of being an example to my kids. Next year my 10 year old will be running cross country. Even though I may not be thin they see me being active and I love when they do the same.

I need to run. We are going to the country's biggest corn maze tonight with a group from church. YEAH, more walking. :-) I hope that we do not get lost in there.

Have a great day and stay active.

Fall/Winter Fitness Plans

Here is what I am planning to do this fall and winter.

Here are the events I am planning to do:

October 20-5K

November 11-Bike the tollway 20 mile loop (they have added on to one of our tollways and they are letting people bike it before they open it to cars. The funny thing when you register is there is an asterisk and it says, "Snow removal will be available if necessary." That scares me a little.

Thanksgiving Day- Turkey Trot 5K-still deciding which one to do

Dec. 2- Algonquin Reindeer Run-5K

Jan. 1-New Years Day 5K-downtown Chicago
also Polar Bear Swim in Lake Michigan-Downtown-still deciding on this one-see my poll and vote on whether or not you think I should do this.

My weight loss goal by January 1, 2008 is: lose 20 pounds

There you have it. Once I am done with all these little races I will start focusing on my triathlon training for 2008. I plan on doing three sprint tris. One in June, July, and August. I'm excited.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement.

Please pray for Luz

My Aunt Linda in California has been an elementary school teacher for some time now. She had a student named Luz a couple of years ago. Luz has been diagnosed with Lukemia and has been battling it for quite some time now. My Aunt has been her at home teacher because she was too sick to attend school. My Aunt would go and teach in her classroom and then make time to teach Luz. My Aunt is an amazing woman. She and my Mom are the reason that I work with kids and the reason that I am going into teaching. Anyway, back to Luz. My kids and I write her from time to time. My Aunt is continually amazed at this little girls strength and courage. When she loses her hair she won't wear a wig. She always has a smile on her face. Luz is about to face her most strenuous treatment yet. Here is the email that my Aunt send tonight. Please pray for Luz and her family. If you want to send her a note of encouragement email me at mommymeepa@aol.com and I will give you her address. I know that she loves getting mail.

Here is the email from my Aunt:



Hello Everybody

I am writing asking for prayer for Luz, my little student. Luz just completed her most difficult round of chemo and steroids. Then she got an infection and ran a low grade fever so she was hospitalized this past week and put on three antibiotics. She came home on Thursday and is in good spirits. She lost all of her hair again this past week.

Starting tomorrow Luz will have one and a half weeks of radiation on her brain so please pray for her for God's protection, peace for her and her family, and that they will be encouraged by many people surrounding them. The hospital is providing an apartment for Luz and her Mom that will be near the hospital so that they can rest. Pray also for her Dad and two sisters, Victoria and Vanessa, who will keep the home fires burning! They are doing the radiation as a preventive measure for the future because with her type of leukemia it often comes back in 12 - 15 years (in 5% of the cases) and effects the brain. So I am asking all of you to please uphold this precious little girl in prayer for the next couple of weeks. Soon she will be in maintenance and be able to return to school and be around people more. Then she will still have two years of chemo ahead of her but only once a month until she goes into remission.


Thank you so much for praying!
Love, Linda xoxo

Weight Watchers Update

Today marked 4 weeks since I was last at Weight Watchers. The last time I was there and gave a report was on September 15th. I did not want to go and since it was my birthday that was going to be my reason not to go, but I figure there are always going to be holidays and reasons not to work on my weight, so I decided that I am not going to accept my excuses anymore, so I went to Weight Watchers and not wanting to know I told the lady just to write down my weight in my book without telling me and she said, "Are you sure you don't want me to tell you?" I thought, hmmmm, that sounds positive. So I let her tell me and I have lost 3.6 pounds since September 15th. I'm so proud of myself. I have been making better eating choices, but have not been able to get to the gym for 2 weeks,so I thought I had gained. So here are my stats:

Starting Weight: 306.2
Todays Weight: 301.0
This Weeks Weight Loss: 3.6
Total Weight Loss: 5.2

GO ME!!!!!!!

My Crazy Stressful Week is Done!!

Here is my week in a nutshell. . .

1. Sun. Apple Cider Century went well. Didn't make it the whole 25 miles, but didn't want to hurt my ankle before my week long teaching assignment. See previous post.
2. Mon-Fri. My teaching experience was incredible. I observed on Monday and the teacher had me teaching on Tuesday. I taught Wednesday, Thursday, and helped on Friday. Friday was cool because it was a field trip. I also got an A+ on an art project that I did. The kids were great. They didn't want me to leave. One girl gave me a sweet note and I got lots of hugs as I left. The principal said I could give him my resume when I was done with school. What a compliment.
3. Mon. and Thurs. I went to and finished most of my homework for my two college classes.
4. I was able to make babysitting arrangements for Mon-Thurs. for my daughter who decided that this stressful week was a good week to get sick. She is doing well and was able to go back to school on Friday. HUGE THANKS TO CINDY, AUNTIE DARDAR, KEITH, SARA, and TERRIE (who it ends up I didn't need, but she was willing!!) I couldn't have done it without you guys. YOU ROCK!!
5. Sat.(today)- I took my 2nd state certification test. I'm not that confident on how I did, but we'll see. I can take it again in November if I need too. If I don't pass this I cannot move on to student teaching. Please pray for that for me.
6. Sat. 8:30pm (tonight) I'm getting ready for bed. Good night.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement this week. Thank you all for your support and encouragement on this crazy journey of mine. You all are the best!! My birthday is one week from today. GO ME!!