Ouch! ^^ Who IS that girl?!

I was once a fat kid. Actually, I was a fairly fat young adult too. If you’re a regular reader you know I have written about my weight struggles before. This is nothing new.

On that post ^ I showed some photos from my original goal weight… the weight I was when I married Dave. What I didn’t show you was the before pic. So here it is.

Crazy huh? That was me at about 26 years of age in 2001 or early 2002.

So every day I live my life knowing that I once made it from that “before” pic to my goal weight – some 60 lbs less than that. I know how to do this.

It’s not easy, but I’m doing it again.

Now I know what you’re thinking… I know that in that other post I wrote I said I was ready to take the weight off again… and I know that was early in 2009. I wasn’t ready. I wanted to be ready. But the amount of commitment required to make such a drastic life change is something that either comes or it doesn’t. No amount of wanting it will make it so. You have to not only want it, but be ready and willing to do what’s needed to make it happen. As it turned out, it wasn’t long after I wrote that post that I found out we were expecting Mini-Boy; the timing just wasn’t right for me.

In January of this year, however, I decided it was time to get things going again. No, it wasn’t a New Year’s resolution, but just an acceptance that I’m not getting any younger and if I’m going to do this, I should do it soon.

I’ll be 37 this summer.

Thirty seven is really, REALLY close to 40. I want to roll into my 40s in the best shape of my life. I want to be in better shape than I was after losing 60 lbs and running my first Half Marathon in 2003. I don’t want to age gracefully. I want to grow stronger. I want my body to function as it was designed to. I want it to keep working for a really long time. I want to teach my kids to enjoy sports and revel in their own strength. I want to see my muscles. I want the Mack girls to learn that it’s better to be strong than to be skinny; it’s better to be confident in who you are than to aim for some unattainable perfection.

I still have goals. Lofty ones too.

So this year I’m back to running and I’m back to Weight Watchers Online. I’ve signed up for the SeaWheeze Lululemon Half Marathon in August and I’m planning to run the Seek The Peak Relay (Solo) at Grouse Mountain in June. I think I’m also going to take a stab at a new 10km PR at the Vancouver Sun Run in a couple of weeks. Even Big Mack is on board with me and will run his first 5km race in Summerland in June!

Because I’m a little older and a little wiser than I was when I was running pre-kids, I’ve decided to do a Half Marathon training program that only includes 3 runs/week and two days of cross training. I’ve been taking a High Intensity Interval Training type class from Jorg Mardian of Mardian in Motion since December. I can’t believe the awesome results I’m seeing from that class. I also think it’s having an amazing impact on my running too.

In fact, I’m loving the interval training so much, Big Mack and I decided to buy a video series to do at home when we can’t get to Jorg’s class. It’s called Insanity by Beachbody. We’ve just just about completed a home renovation project to finish our basement to add a 6th bedroom (so all the kids have their own rooms) and a home gym. I can’t wait to get it all set up and be able to really stay consistent with my training.

So how am I doing so far? In the last 10 weeks I have:

• Lost 14 lbs in total
• Lost 3 1/2″ off my waist
• Lost 2″ off my hips
• Lost 3″ off my bust
• Lost 2 dress sizes
• Run out of holes on my belt
• Run my first sub-1hr 10km since 2003

Last week I ran 27km, took 3 Interval Training Classes and went snowboarding once.

Now, I still have about 20 lbs to lose but I’m only about 7 lbs over where I was when I ran my first half marathon in 2003. This year, I’m hoping to be leaner by the time the race rolls around and I’m hoping to beat my time of 2:08:02. I know I’m almost 10 years older, but I think I can still do it.

Who knows? Maybe I’m crazy…

On the diet front, Big Mack and I are making a concerted effort to eat a clean diet. I first got excited about this concept when I read Jillian Michaels’ book Master Your Metabolism and wrote a little about my clean eating efforts here. I think this is the key. As much as I love the flexibility with Weight Watchers to be able to eat a doughnut every now and again, I know the refined foods, the GMOs, the corn products, the additives and garbage that our bodies consider foreign are not helping my efforts. I think giving up this stuff and eating clean will never come to a place of perfection, but a simple awareness is a huge start.

I really feel like this is a re-birth for me. I’m so excited about my upcoming races and the training in the months ahead. I also have my sights set on running the Tough Mudder… maybe in 2013. Now THAT would be insanity.

Maybe I am crazy, but crazy suits me just fine! I say set lofty goals. I say dream big and find a way to go after what you want to achieve. Prove it to yourself that you can do it! You’ll never know what’s possible until you push beyond what’s comfortable. I feel very blessed to have had some of the opportunities I have in this life – military training, skydiving, black belt testing etc. – because they have given me the confidence to know I can survive a whole lot of stuff and come out stronger on the other side.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me – Phil 4:13 NKJV