As many of you know, on my road to flabulous I have logged many miles both running and riding through the streets of both Southern and Northern California.  As much as possible I try to get up extra early so I make sure that my exercise time does not take away from my time with my children, but this isn’t always possible.  On those days when my kids are awake and I am out exercising, I find myself feeling guilty.  I feel like I should be home spending time with them instead of selfishly thinking about myself.  It is during these times that I need to remember that I am not just doing this for me…I am trying to set a good example for my children as well.

         In one of my earliest blogs, A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words, or Is It?, I shared how the effects of not exercising and making terrible food choice not only affected me but my family as well.  In one of the few photos I ever allowed someone to take of me from that time period, you see my husband, my oldest son, and my daughter all carrying more weight than they should have.  I have to take partial credit for that.  I was setting a terrible example for them.  Now, most meals we eat are fairly healthy.  My goal is that my youngest son will not suffer the same fate that my poor oldest had to—the middle school chunky phase.

         I also truly feel that I am a better mom for my kids these days.  I feel great, I have more energy, and I can actually keep up with them now.  I think as parents some of us feel that every waking moment outside of sleep and work needs to be spent with our kids, but I find that if I take even a little time for myself I am more refreshed and happy mother.

         Finally, I really want to live long enough to see my kids grown and raising a family of their own.  With the seventeen-year age spread between my youngest and oldest I need to be around for the long haul.  When my soon to be four year-old graduates from high school, I will be nearly sixty.  I want to run across that stage to give him a big congratulatory hug, and I am hoping to look good enough so that no one mistakes me for his grandmother instead of his mother.

         The other day as I finished my four-mile run, I was headed up the last hill when my husband and son came into view as they walked the dogs down the sidewalk.  My son ran as fast as he could to greet me with a huge hug despite my sweatiness and said, "You runned Mommy...good job!" Then and there I knew the time I spend running is not wasted.  My son has a good role model in me and also in my husband, and he is already seeing the value in my run time like I do.  I am hoping that there will never be another day that my kids have to worry about their weight.  Hopefully they will have learned from my mistakes and from the better example I am now setting for them.

Happy Birthday to my two boys.  I feel so amazingly blessed to have had the opportunity to be your mother.  You bring me such joy on a daily basis, thank you!

        In a little over nine months, I will be forty-five years old.  There is nothing magic about that number except for the coincidence that my goal weight for my entire adult life has been 145 pounds.  For this reason I have decided that my new goal is to be 145 pounds by the time my birthday comes around in 2012.

        One of the things I have learned through my journey is that I cannot become too fixated on a number.  I need to remember other measures of success as well.  Are my clothes fitting better?  Are my runs getting easier?  Am I making healthier food choices?  While I am setting my goal at 145 because it is a concrete measure, if I feel I have reached the healthiest me at a heavier weight, I will be satisfied with that number as well.  

        In order to keep the scale from having too much power over me, I have also taken measures of most of my important body parts.  This will enable me to see the change in my body shape that exercise is affecting.  I learned this summer that while the scale did not budge, I had actually lost inches.  I also took pictures of myself from the front, back, and side so I can visually compare how much closer I am getting to my ideal goal weight, whatever it might be.  I am now a size 10 so my final indicator will be that my clothes fit better and that I am in a smaller size.

        As stated in previous blogs, few goals are attainable without planning some steps to help you reach those goals.  It is important to continue the strategies that are working, and utilize new resources when something is not.  In my quest to break my plateau of 170 pounds by the time I turned 44, I drank more water, pumped up my exercise, and attempted to do a better job of tracking—well, two out of three ain’t bad (darn food log). I will continue to utilize these three strategies, but I have decided to tweak things a little bit. 

        First, we were looking for a way to eyeball good food portions and make healthier food choices when Sean saw someone on one of the morning talk shows sharing The Food Lovers Fat Loss System.  So far, this system has really impressed me because they start right away by making sure you eat three meals and at least two snacks a day.  Many people make the mistake of thinking that skipping meals will help them lose weight, but I have learned the hard way that the opposite is true.  I used to skip breakfast, but I have actually lost weight by making sure to eat breakfast every morning even if I feel I am not hungry.  It sounds counterintuitive, but it actually works because your body does not go into starvation mode where it begins to store anything you eat as fat.  The other thing this plan does is make sure you are eating balanced meals—a third protein, a third slow carbs (fibrous vegetables, beans, berries), and the final third fast carbs (processed grains, pasta, even alcohol).  Any food plan that prohibits certain foods is not one that will work for me, so I love that there are no taboo foods.  The final thing I love is that they teach you how to identify the right portion size by using some tools you always have with you—your hands.  One suggestion they give is that a good portion of lean protein should be as big as your palm to your first knuckle and as thick as your hand (not your husband’s hand).  I really feel like all this will just help us make more educated food choices.

        The last thing I will continue to do, although it has always been my weakness, is to track more consistently.  I am hoping to use the iPhone I will be getting for Christmas (please Santa, please) to make it easier and a lot more convenient.  In the meantime Sean has created a Google doc for me to quickly keep track of my meals and snacks.  Since there is no real measuring or keeping a tally of points, this should be easy enough, even for me.

        So on June 10, 2012, I am hoping to share with you that I have finally, after thirty years of trying, reached my goal of being the most flabulous me ever.  I have my goal, I have my steps to meeting that goal, and I have all my family and friends to support me…how I can I not be successful with all these things on my side?

         The other day as I was looking back at my previous blogs, and I was trying to figure out what really keeps me moving in the right direction when it comes to improving my health.  It occurred to me that there are two secrets I can share with you that might help you on your journey—no matter what that journey is.

          First, surround yourself with amazing people.  In my previous blogs you can see how many people have helped me along the way.  I have a husband who supports me in my exercise by running or riding with me to keep me safe when I need to run before the sun comes up.  My Team in Training mentor Stephanie who not only prepared me for my first half-marathon at Disney, but she also continues to check up on me and send me information about upcoming races.  My friend Mary, who despite being injured, still inspires me to move forward by sending me encouraging messages.  I am surrounded by people who make me feel that I am not alone and that my journey, while difficult at times, is completely worth it.

         Secondly, I have planned many events that I would not be able to do without continuing to train and get in better shape.  I have five half-marathons and one more mud run planned between now and May, and I am sure I will add a few 5 and 10Ks as they present themselves to me.  I know that if I do not have a race planned I may have an excuse to hit the snooze alarm when it goes off at 5 AM, or I may make excuses for why I don’t need to ride my bike on my non-running days. 

         So what does any of this have to do with my mud run? Both of the above secrets remind me of my friend Kay.  She is an amazing inspiration to me, and she is the whole reason I added mud runs to my exercise repertoire.  She spent part of the summer running with me in the early morning hours, and she thought that it would be fun to run the Murrieta Mud Run as a team.  Now what you need to know about Kay is that when she sets her mind to something, she does not do anything halfway.  She made sure we trained hills, steep hills, and that we had enough miles in so that we could easily run the 5K mud run. She is the reason that I did almost an entire half-marathon last weekend, the most miles I have been able to do in a while.

         As my team, the Dirty Chicks, took off from the start line this morning, I knew that we were prepared.  The run itself was a piece of cake, but it was hard to  be fully prepared for all the mud pits and obstacles we faced.  We ran through muddy tires, climbed over wooden fences and mud walls, and crawled through mud puddles under low hanging fencing material.  In addition, after running and wading through the mud, about five to ten pounds of it hitchhiked on my clothes to the finish line—the extra weight made it just a little more challenging. 

         In the end, we not only had a good 5K run through the mud, we also had a lot of fun.  This may be secret number three--enjoy what you do so that you want to continue to do more of it.  Surround yourself with supportive friends and family, plan activities that ensure the need to train and keep up with your exercise routine, and have fun while you do all of this.  There may be other factors that will move me forward on my road to flabulous, but none are more important than these three secrets to ensuring I stay on track toward lifelong health.

        When times get tough, it is easy to give up on yourself.  It is in these times of trial and self-doubt that we define who we are by how we react to the challenges around us.  To illustrate this point, I am going to share a little about my amazing daughter who will probably be mortified that I have chosen to focus on her this week.  Sorry kiddo, but you inspire me, and I think others may be inspired by your approach to the roadblocks life puts in front of you.

          From the time my daughter was eight years old, she had set her sights on becoming an amazing volleyball player.  She even told us that when she grew up, she was going to be a professional volleyball player and then be a veterinarian in her spare time.  While reality has set in about her career choices, her dream of becoming a strong volleyball player has never waivered.  In fact, despite having had some coaches that sat her on the sidelines and didn’t believe in her, instead of quitting, her reaction was to work harder—she determined that she was going to prove them wrong.  She went to extra clinics, lobbied us to send her for some private lessons, and put her whole heart into improving as a player.  Last season she was actually a starter on both her high school and her club volleyball teams as a right side hitter...her hard work and positive attitude had paid off.

          Unfortunately, in spring she began to experience extreme pain in her shoulder, which is not good for a player who depends on getting power from a strong overhead swing.  She ended up once again sitting on the sidelines—yet another set back.  True to form, instead of giving up on herself, she decided to improve her passing as this did not involve her shoulder.  Her injury did keep her off the high school varsity team, but it does look like her improved passing may earn her a defensive position on the JV team where she will only need to pass.

          So let’s focus back on why I felt compelled to write this blog in the first place. Life is going to continually present us with challenges.  When these challenges arise, how will you react?  Will you give up just because others don’t believe in you, or will you prove them wrong?  When you get injured will you just give up on exercising altogether, or will you find some other way to move your body? If you have one bad meal or day will you just throw the towel in and stop eating healthy, or will you realize one small detour should not take you away from the ultimate prize—a more flabulous you?

          Amazingly, Siobhan received the fortune at right last weekend just when she was feeling a little sad about missing the opportunity to be on her school’s varsity volleyball team.  It reminded her to focus on something different.  She can’t change what team she is on this year, she can’t magically heal her shoulder, but she can use her current abilities to focus on her goal.  She WILL succeed and so can you!