I Believe

"Your body can do anything. It's just your brain you have to convince."  

I've never been an athletic person. I've never liked working out, or even playing sports that much. Mostly, it's because I am hopelessly uncoordinated; so any physical activity requiring skill wasn't something I wanted to try, lest I completely embarrass myself. 

All these years of being fairly inactive, though, meant I had almost no endurance when it came to working out. The lack of endurance led to frustration when I did try to start a workout routine, and thus you can see the cycle.  

Couch to 5K was almost one of those casualties. I made it through exactly 4 days of C25K back in 2010 before injuring my knee, and I never went back to it, believing I was probably just too fat to do it. Until now. 

I have to honestly tell you that I've completely surprised myself every step of the way. I was so inspired by the success stories of people who have completed it, while highly doubtful that I'd ever be able to follow it. But at some point, I had to stop thinking of myself as weak. I watched my Dad, 57 years young, train for and run his first marathon last fall. How amazing is that? 

I remembered the 60 second runs being a lot harder the last time around. That gave me a boost, so I moved to Week 2. Again, I was surprised at the relative ease of running 90 seconds. I cautiously kept moving forward each week. Some runs were hard. They were not all easy. Three minutes felt hard, until I ran four one day when I miscalculated my time. Then I thought, "If I can run four, I should be able to run five". And I could! I read the above quote last week, just before starting Week 5. I was nervous about it. I had been searching the internet message boards about Week 5. The general consensus was, resoundingly, "You will be so surprised at what your body is capable of'", or "Week 5 is when most people quit". 

I decided I was not going to quit. I did Day 1, which was still kind of an offshoot of Week 4, just with three 5-minute runs instead of two. Day 2 of week 5...two 8-minute runs. During the first run, I didn't even look at the clock until 7:15, and I knew I had plenty of stamina left to get to 8 minutes. I almost started crying...happy tears, tears of amazement, tears of relief. 

The second 8-minute run was harder, I hit the wall right in the middle. But I kept repeating the quote, and telling myself, "You just ran 8 minutes, you can do it again". And I did it, reminding myself that if I couldn't finish it, I would have to repeat the workout. 

Tomorrow, the run is an attempt at 20 straight minutes. As I told my husband last week...for the first time, I am actually beginning to believe I can run a whole 5K.  

If you had told me 5 weeks ago that I would be able to run 8 minutes without stopping, I would have told you to "pull the other one". 

And I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of me doing this program. The encouragement you all have given me has been amazing. I see so many other people trying this program on Facebook, too, and I think it's awesome. 

I never thought I could be a runner. But I do now. 

On "Food"

I really like food. But, I should probably be more specific, right? I really like "food". The kind of "food" that isn't really fuel for my body, but is actually a bunch of ingredients and chemicals manufactured to look like food. It's not easy for me to give up "food", but when I do, there's a mountain of evidence that it benefits me in so many ways.

I've done quite a bit of investigation into what really goes into "food", and as I get older, I find my body reacting more and more - in negative ways - to the artificial chemicals in "food". MSG, added colors, preservatives, several different forms of processed sugar, the list goes on...many of them are known class 1 carcinogens (and for someone whose mother died of cancer, that one really gets to me), or at best excitotoxins or neurotoxins. Yum...sounds appetizing, right?

To avoid anxiety attacks, chronic migraines, cravings, and heart palpitations, I have to eliminate those things from my diet. Essentially, we try to eat whole foods, locally grown and sourced meats, and avoid as many processed options as possible. But, we still enjoy good stuff! I make our favorite foods at home. We found a recipe for homemade Chick-Fil-A sandwiches that my husband loved (visit Food Babe's blog for the recipe!), and I still make chicken tenders, and freeze them for easy meals, but I know every ingredient that has gone into the breading, because they're all from my own pantry. We make hamburgers from locally grown, grass-fed beef, and they taste fantastic. :)

Of course, it's not the answer for everyone, but when I personally started paying attention to how my body was feeling when fueled by "food", and how it felt when I left those things out, it was an obvious choice. Not everyone reacts to these things in their bodies. Lots of people manage a good balance. That's awesome. It just doesn't work that way for me.

Last week, when I was at a particular place in the month, I indulged in quite a few sugary treats (I am not talking about a candy bar...I'm talking about eating "food" for three straight days). For four days, my stomach just hurt. I felt slow, sluggish, tired, short-tempered, and just...bad. I didn't work out for three days, and I started to wonder if something was really wrong with me. But when I stopped myself from eating the sugary stuff and got my usual daily diet back on track, I was back to normal in a day or so. I'm still amazed at how terrible I felt, and how fast it happened. My body was rejecting the "food" I was giving it. I hadn't eaten like that in over a month, and my body wasn't used to processing those things anymore. I hope I never forget how awful those four days were...I hope I can remember them the next time I'm tempted to over-indulge.

Another new thing I've been trying this past month is kefir. It's a pretty amazing little thing. My kids' babysitter started drinking it, and passed on some of her grains to me. We've been drinking it daily for a month, and we all love it. Even my skeptical husband found that he really liked it. My kids clamor for their smoothie every morning (which is frozen berries, kefir, and honey), and my hubby said he likes how it gives him energy and makes him feel full longer. I love that my cravings are greatly reduced, and that it's chock full of protein and prebiotics/probiotics (upwards of 50!!). Also, the kefir grains eat up the sugars (lactose) in the milk, which means this lactose-intolerant gal has exactly ZERO issues with it. I love it.

So, it's not a very complicated plan. No points, no freeze-dried meals, no prepackaged "nutrition" bars. Just whole food. Sometimes simplicity is all you need. :)