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Thursday, January 2, 2014

New year, new me, yada yada yada

I know the title of this post sounds cynical, but this picture made me laugh out loud so I wanted to use it  on the blog! And if you're my Facebook friend, you've seen it already. (Okay, I really love it!)


I really am using the new year as reinvention time, or rather, remembering my reinvention. I've been on this journey for quite awhile, but after eating tons of sugar, drinking, and not exercising most of December, I need a reminder. So to help me along, on New Year's Eve I registered for the Lincoln Half Marathon along with 12,500 of my friends. They upped the number of spots by 2500 and still sold out by noon on New Year's Day. This despite opening registration at 12:01 a.m. on 1/1/14. I know I was in no shape to fill out that form at 1:30 a.m. (bet I wasn't alone in that), and when I woke up the next morning I checked to make sure I hadn't registered for the full by mistake. That would have been a major error!

I'm glad I did sign up, though, since it will make me train for it instead of just thinking "Oh, I guess I should go work out." And for this race, I have a goal time in mind, other than to just finish. I know I can do 13.1 since I have completed two halfs (halves?). I may share my finish time goal the closer it gets to May 4th. Or I may not. We'll see how it goes. I'll be using the same training program as in the past, with a few modifications. The plan calls for two short runs and one long run each week, but I'm going to add in a day of speed work - mostly because I want to say the word fartlek. I am also planning on weight training Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, and a day of cross-training (bike). It sounds like a lot, but it still give me two rest days so I think it will be fine. I had planned on doing all that last summer and fall (minus the speed training) but I kept forgetting not wanting to. It's like that old saying, "If you keep on doing the same thing, don't expect the results to be any different." Or something like that. I just figure I need to change things up a bit.

And then there's the other saying, "You can't out-train poor nutrition." It seems like the trend in healthy living now is not all diet and deprivation, but rather listening to your body and trying to eat like a normal person. For me, that still means using My Fitness Pal as a food and exercise diary - because for me, it helps to be held somewhat accountable. And I just like lists. I am not making any big changes on the food front, other than cutting back on all the crap. Over the past few years, I have tried to eat "lean, clean, and green", some days with more success than others. A few things I've picked up on in reading lately is to not eat anything that wasn't a food 100 years ago, don't eat anything that doesn't have a mom or been grown in the ground (think about it), and nothing with names you can't pronounce in the ingredient list. Basically - cut back on the processed food. So that is my main goal.

Another goal for the upcoming year is changing how I think about ME. Every single issue of every single magazine directed at women is about making yourself thinner, firmer, and sexier. I am so over it. Not even the models are as perfect as they seem (hello, Photoshop!) I am 58 years old, in pretty good shape, have a husband who loves me and still wants me (kids, sorry about the TMI), have three wonderful children who are all in happy relationships, have the most beautiful grandbaby EVER, and I still feel like that fat weird kid in high school. I really am working on this whole self-image thing. So I would like to propose a toast (if I wasn't cutting back on my alcohol consumption - notice I didn't say eliminating). It's a simple one:  Here's to 2014; healthy and happy!

TTFN

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