Recently I had the opportunity to spend some time in my son’s preschool classroom.  Now the very special thing about 4 year-olds is that they feel they are the center of the universe, and as the center, they deserve everything they want no matter how it affects others around them.  I had the great privilege of passing out Otter Pops treats to these adorable students.  Of course they all felt they should have the color they desired, but there are only so many pink and blue Otter Pops in the package.  The one phrase that seemed to stop the whining is. “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.”  In kid language this means, “I better not fuss about the color I get, or I may have the treat taken away.”  I don’t know exactly why it works, but in most cases the whining is stymied. 
            This experience got me thinking that maybe we could learn a lesson from this.  What if we all realized that there are some things we can control, and then there are other things that we have no control over?  What if we changed the phrase a little so that it did not feel like it was completely out of our control?  How about, “You get what you get, and you do your best with it?”
            There are certain instances in my life that I personally feel I need to apply this phrase to.  Number one on my list is the shape of certain parts of my body.  I can lose weight, I can build up my muscles at Crossfit, and I could even try doing 100 sit-ups a day, and I will NEVER get rid of that little pooch below my belly button.  When a doctor cuts through those muscles, twice, those muscles will never be the same.  I am not using this as an excuse to slack on my training.  It is just that if I have this expectation that I will have my high school bikini stomach back, I will be sorely disappointed.  I feel that making peace with certain inevitables is healthier for me considering I have had body image problems in the past.  I had two c-sections, so I just need to do the best I can to firm up the areas I can control. I get what I get, and I'll do my best with it.
          I know that in the past, I had lots of excuses for why I couldn't exercise: I'm too busy, it's too dark, it's too cold/hot, I don't have enough money for equipment or a gym membership, and the list went on and on.  Instead of focusing on what I can't do or what I don't have, I use what I have to get it done.  Now, I don't let these excuses stop me from fitting in my weekly exercise.  Because I know I have a busy schedule, I actually plan my exercise like I schedule appointments.  I also found crazy friends who actually like to run before the sun rises, so that excuse is gone.  In addition, I found they actually make comfortable workout clothes that can keep you warmer in the cold and cooler in the heat--you just have to research a little.  And to get around that money issue for the gym membership, I just got creative and traded tutoring for Crossfit. Not only did I use what I had, but I found new people and resources to get it done.
          Speaking of resources, another thing I often complained about was how once we moved from Pasadena, we lost all the nature trails and hiking opportunities in the San Gabriel Mountains that we had taken full advantage of when we lived there.  Despite the fact that I run most of my half-marathons on city street, I am actually happiest when I am close to nature when I exercise.  Amazingly, I just recently found that I am surrounded by the best opportunities for playing outdoors.  Who would have know that I could just run to the end of my street and hike/run/bike through meadows, streams, hills, over boulders--I have my own personal obstacle course right in my own backyard.  Instead of complaining about the loss of my Pasadena Playground, I could have been running through my own personal Murrieta Mudrun for years if I had just focused on what I had and not what I didn't. I get what I get and now I am certainly doing my best with it.
          Finally, one thing that I have been given in life is an absolute LOVE of food.  I can fight it, or I can make the best of this love affair by finding creative ways to make delicious food in a healthier way (see picture below).  I have spent my entire adulthood trying to find ways to take short cuts, bulimia being the worst of those ideas, but I think I have finally found a good balance.  Eighty percent of the time I eat healthy alternatives for the food I love, but twenty percent of the time I eat what I want.  If I want a slice of pizza, I eat it.  If ice cream is what I desire, then I have that.  Because I exercise regularly and eat well most of the time, these little treat meals or days do not affect me like they used to.  I have finally found a way to make peace with food, and so food does not have the same hold over me that it once had.  I have been given this love of food, and I really feel that lately I am doing my best with it.
          Hopefully, you, too, can learn from my son's preschool class.  When faced with something you don't especially want, when you wish something that you can't control was different, find a way to deal with it.  Obstacles are continually placed in front of us, but it is how we deal with these obstacles that determines whether or not we will succeed.  Find people to support you, find new and more exciting ways to exercise, make peace with difficult body parts, and make food your friend not your enemy.  If you move in this direction, then you, too, will be able to get what you get and do your best with it.

          I actually had a different blog in mind yesterday--I guess that one will need to be placed on the back burner until next week.  I just have to brag a little bit today...as well as show a little appreciation to those that have helped me to move forward on my journey.  I have worked so hard in the last few months, and it feels so good to see it pay off.  Today I finally got a PR.
          For those of you non-racers it is just a fancy way of saying I finally beat my best time.  When I ran my first half-marathon at Disney, I was so happy to squeak by in under 3 hours at 2:58.  Since then, I have been able to get my times down so that now I run most races at around 2:20-2:25.  Last February, I was able to do Surf City in my best time at 2:19:36.  I have been trying to best that time for more than a year now.  Granted, I have been doing more difficult races lately--Temecula, Sedona, Tough Mudder.  Still, my goal is to eventually run a 2 hour half-marathon, so I need to shave some minutes off if I ever want to reach that goal.
          In the last two months, I have taken off 5 more pounds, I have been putting in my miles, and I have been going to Crossfit and building up my muscle strength.  I felt very ready for this half at Petco Park in San Diego, and I was sure I would finally get another Personal Record (PR).  Unfortunately, for the last two weeks I have been laid low with some kind of plague that kept me from training as much as I would have liked.  In fact, until last night, I wasn't even 100% sure I would be running at all.  But the weather was perfect, the course amazing, and I just decided I would go for it.
          Luckily, I also had my friend Kay who is a dynamo when it comes to running.  She has this amazingly steady pace, so I told her I was just going to run behind her unless my body told me I needed to slow down.  We ran together for more than half of the race when we somehow lost track of each other at a water stop.  I knew she was probably in front of me, so I just kept running hoping to finally catch up to her before the finish line (which I never did).
          I must say, considering how yucky I have felt for the last 14 days, I really had one of my best races overall.  I ran almost the entire race, with a little walking at this ridiculous hill around mile 9 (almost felt like I was back in hilly Sedona). And the icing on the cake was running in at 2:17:10.  I finally beat my best time by more than 2 minutes!  I only wonder what I could have done if I had been feeling a little better.  Maybe that 2 hour half-marathon is not that far out of my reach.
          So I will continue to run with my friends who push my limits--you know who you are.  I will get stronger through my Crossit workouts, and I will work on getting my body down to a weight where running that 2 hour race will not be as much of a challenge.  Thanks to all my friends who continually keep me motivated to go bigger and better, and most especially to my husband who makes it possible for me to have the time away from the kids to make my dreams come true on the race course. 

          This week was a busy one--lots of work, many family/friend obligations, and very little sleep.  In addition, someone gifted me an extremely resilient cold that I chose to try to ignore by continuing on and completing a pre-planned 5K race and keeping a Sunday morning running date with a friend.  So here I sit on Sunday night without a completed blog (I haven't missed one in months), but torn because I really do need to get some rest so I can tackle the new week--how do I do it all?
          Solution...make it short and sweet.  So I decided to include the Tough Mudder photo to the left because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  I feel this photo says more than, "Michelle is afraid of heights." Everyday we are faced with challenges: unhealthy food, schedules that make it difficult to exercise, stress that causes us to make unhealthy choices.  I could have climbed down the other side of that 20 foot platform and avoided my fear of heights--but I decided to face my fears and just go for it.  Make today the day you, too, face your fears, your challenges, that voice in your head that tells you you can't do it...just go for it.  These two quotes say it all for me:

Accept challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.  George S. Patton
Anything unattempted remains impossible.  Unknown Author

        Face your challenges head on because if you never start, you will never experience the feeling of accomplishing something you thought was unattainable.