On the East Coast, the week after Thanksgiving signals that it’s time to put up the holiday decorations.  As I drive home from work at night, I can’t help but notice that all my neighbors have taken advantage of the atypical warm weather the past weekend, and used it as incentive to get those Christmas  lights on the houses, and the lighted reindeer, sleighs, and snowpeople out on the lawns.  Driving home from work is not the easiest way to unwind from a stressful day.  Traffic is not relaxation-inducing.  However, all the twinkling lights of white, red, yellow and green do have a soothing effect on me, and makes a real difference in my nightly commute. Read the rest of this entry →

Running a 5K is a reasonable distance , one that encourages a developing runner to strive for speed.  By design, you are on the road about 30 minutes (+/- 10) , and for that period of time, you can take the pressure of the push — the push for speed.  My approach to the 5K was to break it down into 3 one-mile increments.  The first mile was about testing how I was feeling.  Some days I felt slower than other days, sluggish, heavy on my feet.  Not always sure why , But it is what it is.  Other days I was on fire, like the Olympic God Hermes running with wings on my sneakers.   The second mile was about reserving energy.  Slowing down on purpose, storing up some fuel for the end.  I had to make myself do this, which is particularly harder when you are feeling on fire.  Ever try to slow down a burning fire??  Tough stuff.  But the third mile of the 5K, well this one is the Punisher.  Read the rest of this entry →

So here is the point — if you were going swimming, you wouldn’t go in your jeans and tee-shirt, would you?  Of course not!  You’d brave the oh-too-brite ultraviolet lights of the mall store dressing room, and you’d climb into a tummy-tucking, thigh busting, boob lifting piece of black spandex with red, yellow primary color Hawaiian flowers and you’d jump into the pool.  As a swimmer, you wear a swim suit.  So, I’d imagine if you were a fencer, you’d wear a fencing suit (with lots of padding near the heart , please!)  and as a runner — you’ve gotta get some running gear.   Look, no need to splurge here.  Just one moisture-wicking T-shirt, a pair of running shorts, and a supportive pair of running shoes, and you are off and , well…..running! 🙂 Read the rest of this entry →

When you have a breakthrough and CHOOSE to live a life of Wonderment …(I wonder IF I can xyz?)…..it’s not a big leap of faith from there to Trying.   And Trying requires experimentation.  Trial and Error.  The “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” sort of thing.  And when you apply this experimentation to your weight loss journey or to an exercise challenge like running, you soon realize that you are the Scientist AND the Lab Rat.   With some helpful advice from the experts (ie, your doctor and the Weight Watchers and C25K’s of the world) and some not-so-experts (think Wikipedia and all the other unproven advice on the www), you set out to create challenges for yourself (the Scientist) and then you have to pull them off (the Lab Rat in the Maze).   Read the rest of this entry →

Black Friday kind of summed up how I felt yesterday.  My mood was black, hence why no post yesterday.  (sorry)  I chose not to put my feelings “out there”, because I didn’t want them to take shape, or to spread.   I’ve spent today coming to terms with why I felt so bad, and if those feelings were warranted.  Because sometimes feelings are not warranted, ya know.  Sometimes you have to just let them “Be” and not act on them, not encourage them, not enable them to become more than a feeling.  Don’t let them take shape and become an idea or god forbid, a Belief. Read the rest of this entry →

Visualization is a technique that helps build committment and encourages progress.  At least it does for me.  I stumbled upon this by accident toward the end of the summer during one of my runs.  I was jogging in the streets around my neighborhood, and it was that time in the day when the sun is rising and casting shadows on the road.  I rounded the corner on the street and caught a glimpse of my shadow.  My reaction was, Wow…is my @ss really that big?  Please tell me my shadow is playing tricks on me!!  So after that initial reaction, the rest of my run centered around one idea, one vivid picture , one visualization.  With every step, I pictured myself Running My @ss Off…literally.  Yup.  Every step I took, I was indignant.  I’m going to run my rump, my hocus-pocus, my bottom right off.  Take THAT SHADOW. Read the rest of this entry →

This is the story of my first 5K Race Day!  October 16th, 2011 was a gorgeous fall day.  It was mid 60s, clear, sunny, not much wind — perfect running weather.  My running friend Brian (remember NYC Marathon Brian?), gave me the following advice:  “Treat the 5K race just like your normal Sunday run.  Do all your normal things.”  Ok, that sounds logical.  Sunday was my normal running day, so this could work, should work.

2011 was the 34th Annual running of the East Brunswick Road Races John Ragone 5K.   I had done my training.  By this time, I had been running a 5K three times a week.  By a runners definition, I was over-trained.  By my definition, I was nervous.   Read the rest of this entry →

Remember the old adage, “don’t let numbers define you.”  I think this was invented when the smart, professional women of the 70s began to age and they decided that 40 was the new 20, and 60 was the new 40 and so on.  When “the numbers” started to fall to their disfavor, they changed the rules about “the numbers”.  I like that, Alot.  Women have fallen victim to “the numbers” for a long time, always judging our age, our weight, our bwh measurements to be less than desirable.  It’s hard.  The older we get, the younger the girls in the magazines seem to get.  The harder we work on getting and staying slim, heroine sheik becomes the rage, and skinny girls get called fat on TV.  What’s going on around here?  Read the rest of this entry →

As I was running, and walking during this past summer, I was really hitting my stride.  I was stronger, breathing well, even picking up speed.  Committed was a word I contemplated using about myself.  Yea, I was committed.  Until it rained, or work required me to travel, or my girls had an event I needed to attend.  You know how it can be.  Life needed living.  And somehow it all came ahead of my running.  It was then I had to admit that I was committed to trying, but it wasn’t a priority.   When I googled the definition of committment, I came across words like dedicated application and the state of being emotionally or physically impelled.  Impelled?  I had to look that one up.  And when I did I found this; impelled:  to urge or drive forward as if by exertion of strong moral pressure.  Ooooh, I like the sound of that one in my ear, and in my brain.  I like those words associated with my name.   How could I make that happen???  I wonder….hmmm, good things happen when I wonder!  I was running pretty regularly by this time, but that didn’t mean I was committed.  Nope, unfortunately not. Read the rest of this entry →

So far, I haven’t talked much about FOOD, because…well…it’s another 4-letter word.  But let’s add that dynamic of the journey today, because it’s a critical and complicated component.  Stating right up front, this is one dynamic that I am still working to figure out, and probably will my whole life.  In my past I have had an unhealthy addiction to food.  I was drawn to it, I was controlled by it, I was a slave to it.  Somewhere, somehow my emotions became tied to food, and food became a vehicle to calm me down, to comfort me, to reward myself, to fill any gap I might be experiencing.  But then it became something much worse.  It became a habit.  Eating became an involuntary response, an unconcsious activity.  That was the point-of-no-return that I wish I hadn’t missed.  But I’m here to tell you that you CAN return from the point-of-no-return.  You totally can. Read the rest of this entry →