...and I ran

Today I ran for 30 consecutive minutes. No walking, no stopping.
Just run for 30 minutes.
And I am so damn proud of myself.

oh man...

It’s has been way tooo long. The last week of may and the first two weeks of June are always my most busy time of year, gearing up for all of our summer recreation programs.
So I’m going to do an update of sorts, in list form. I love list updates. Hooray.

1). 5k training. My 5K is next weekend!!!!! Eeeek! I’m so excited and nervous about it!. I’ve been following the Couch 2 5k training plan, and tomorrow will be my final run of week 8. It so happens that my last training workout co-incides with race day.
I injured my back two weeks into training, and it set me back a week. I was hoping to have an extra week before, but that is ok.

About a year ago I posted that one of my fitness goals was to run a mile…I can now proudly say that I can run 2 miles….Seriously, I don’t take the time to think about that often, and I often compare myself to marathoning bloggers, but…I should be proud of myself.

2). My husband and I joined a new gym last weekend. I joined Gold’s Gym almost two years ago when we first moved here, and am ready to let that membership go. We joined Anytime Fitness, a franchise near our house. It’s a small gym, but adequate enough, and it’s not super crowded and for the two of us we are only paying 20 bucks more per month then I paid for JUST ME at Gold’s.

Tied into number two, my husband and I have started working out together. He hasn’t been regularly exercising in along time….it’s so exciting to be getting healthier together. Our goal is to run a 5K together in the fall…I’m hoping that training with him for a 5K will make me a faster runner.

3)I’ve been working on cleaning up my eating. I just tried almond milk in my morning smoothie (green monster style) this morning. HOW COME NO ONE TOLD ME ALMOND MILK MAKES SMOOTHIES THE BEST THING EVER????

that time of year...

I'm nostalgic today. The radio station I listen to at work is talking about graduation. They are also playing all those "graduation" type songs, focusing on those that were popular between 1999 and 2001. Odd..the years I was in highschool. I'm not going to wax poetic...but I am going to post the "Sunscreen" Graduation Speech. I remember being in highschool and really like this....I like it even more now.

"Wear sunscreen.If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.
Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy.

Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on.

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise.
Politicians will philander.
You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen."

and the winner is...

Well, the wellness competition we’ve been having at work is over. Sadly, I didn’t win any of the categories (most muscle gained, most fat lost, highest combined fat lost and muscle gained), but I still did pretty well for the effort I put in.

Here are my stats:
Pounds Lost: 6
Inches lost: 2.5 on chest
3.5 on waist
2.5 on hips.

% of body fat lost: 2%

That brings my body fat to…..
Hooray! I’m glad that I’ve been making progress on my fitness and health levels again. I set a goal with my husband to lose 24 pounds in 2009. I don’t know if I’ll reach that, but I know that the small changes I have been making…are adding up!
Have a great weekend everyone!

Reason # 13280394820934 your back is important

So, I’ve been having some back pain this week. Grrr.
Sadly, I am not a stranger to back pain. 7 years ago (I can’t believe it’s been 7 years), I was hit by a drunk driver while I was driving home from a concert with some friends. I had pretty severe whiplash from this accident. My physical ability went from 100 to 10 in a matter of minutes. I couldn’t lift anything that weighed more than 3 pounds, I couldn’t run, and walking over uneven train was pretty much impossible.
Through Chiropractic care and Pilates, my back go back to as normal as it will ever be, about an 80. I still can’t lift super heavy things (it makes moving day terribly frustrating for me) and my back gets fatigued easier than it used to.

So…while I was under going this chiropractic care, it came to light that one of my legs is 12mm shorter than the other. This is an anatomical thing, and can’t be changed with any amount of therapy or surgery. Obviously, since I was born that way, or grew that way, my body has been used to having a shorter leg for years. After my accident the DC gave me a heel lift to wear in my shoe to help my spine be straight and to help with pressure on my low back.
Well….lets just say that at 19 I wasn’t exactly perfectly diligent about using my heel lift. I always used it when I exercised, but often times my thoughts were on the cuteness of my footwear, not their function or importance. I’ve recently been better about wearing my heel lift, but I’ve never been 100 percent consistent. Sunday morning was a day when I wore it to walk the dog, but then didn’t transfer it to my gardening shoes. So my spine went from being aligned to misaligned, and then I bent over to pick up a rock, and that was the end of that.

My pain has been getting better and I was able to go for my run this morning. I also had an appointment with the chiropractor, just in case. I almost didn’t go, because my back has been feeling so much better for the past 24 hours. Let me just say, I am so glad I went.

While the doctor was examining me, he started applying pressure to the area on either side of my spine. My upper back was fine, but when he got to my lower back it felt like he was stabbing me. Seriously. I cried.

Oops. Guess I should be a little better about my heel lift right? I hate feeling “less than” and like I am defective (I know, I’m not, it’s just in my head) so I kind of ignore the ramifications of not wearing my heel lift, and then I end up in the doctor’s office crying.

Moral of the story? Listen to your spine, have good posture and for petes sake…take care of your self! You only get one shot at a spine…..

an open letter to my body

Dear Body,
You are really throwing a kink in my 5k training. First you had the r2d2 stomach ache and now you have lower back pain. I’m not sure what caused the lower back pain, and I promise I’ll take care of you by going to the chiropractor tomorrow if you are still hurting. I know we only get one shot at a spine, and it's important to take care of.

Also, why is it necessary to have period cramps and a twinge in my lower back? It sort makes sitting….really uncomfortable.

I love you body and I want you to be healthy…..but it would be really great if you could cooperate!
Love always,
Mind.

n1h1, r2d2?

I'm bummed. I was all set yesterday to move forward with my training for my 5k. I got up at my normal time, went to the bathroom ,and realized I had some sort of stomach/digestive thing going on....and forced my self not to run.

That is right, I had to "force" my self. I have this problem, when I am excited about exercise and starting a new problem...I don't like to take a day off due to sickness. I'll take a day off if I don't feel like exercise, but if I feel like an outside force (illness) is forcing me to rest..I don't like it.

I stayed home from work, and told everyone I had swine flu, which of course i don't. I'm feeling better today, and debated doing my planned run from yesterday this morning, but I decided to wait it out one more day and do my scheduled run for Saturday.

Man....I was so stoked to use my new stopwatch to time myself too!

this and that...

Yesterday I completed week 3 (my first week) of the Couch to 5k program, for the training I am doing for the 5k I signed up for on June 20th.
Here is a picture of me after my run on Saturday Morning. It was pouring rain and I was sweating…hot isn’t it…
Tomorrow I start week 4. I’m a little nervous about week 4. Not the amount of running, the lack of tracking ability of distance that I have.
When you start the C25k plan, it tells you that you can train by distance or by time. (IE run either 200 yards or 90 seconds). I’ve always used the time option, but I realize that the training plan assumes you run 10 minute miles. HAHAHAHAHAHA. I do not run a 10 minute mile. I actually don’t know how fast I run a mile. My pace for the run/walk intervals of week 3 was 14.5 minutes per mile yesterday ,which is not much faster than my walking pace. I run sllllllooooooowwww.
So, I realize, if I really want the endurance to run for a 5k, I have to use the distance factor. The loop around my subdivision is .6 of a mile…..almost a half mile, so I’m just going to wing the distances.
I still feel good about the 5k and I was really feeling motivated after the Biggest Loser last night. If Ron, can walk for 13 HOURS! I can run for 30 minutes…

I’m changing topics with no transition now…..breakfast.
A few weeks ago I posted about how I’d been having green spinach smoothies for breakfast. I continue to do that, but this week my husband did the shopping and got the small box of spinach, so I’m spacing my smoothie eating out.

I’m sick of oatmeal. I just have no desire for another bowl of banana oatmeal with toppings for a while. But…I like oats for their whole grain qualities and their health benefits, so today I decided to attempt the famous “breakfast cookie.”
I used Meghann’s most recent recipe, as a base for mine. Last summer when I didn’t want hot breakfast I tried a bowl of “cold oats” that everyone around the blog world seemed to be eating and it was disgusting to me…cold and gloppy…so I’ve been wary of the “breakfast cookie”

My recipe:
½ cup oats
2 spoonful’s applesauce
1 spoonful peanut butter
Some craisins-didn’t measure..maybe 2 tbsps?
Cinnamon.

I mixed it all together, spread it out on a salad plate and put it in the fridge.
This morning I topped it with 1 spoon full plan non fat yogurt, ½ a banana and some pecans.
I didn’t count the calories in this bad boy….but I’m guessing it was around 500-550?

This was much better than I expected. It wasn’t soggy like overnight oats are, but it wasn’t hard either. Like a thin flat soft cookie…eaten with a fork. I think I’ll be adding this in to my summer rotation of Kashi cereal and Green smoothies.

now i've done it....

Well...I went and signed up for this race.

I first read about this 5k when I was in the See Jane Run store a few weeks ago buying my new walking/jogging shoes.

How cool is a race called "I run for champagne and chocolate."

I had kind of written it off, until this week. I recieved an email while I would out of town about the Wellness challenge that we've been having here at work. Our final "monthly challenge" is to put in as many miles (walking, running, biking, whatever) until May 15th. On May 18th we are going to have a 3.5k (random) "race" as a culmination to how of how fit we all are now. We'll after being in Georgia last week, and feeling motivated...I wanted to RUN that 3.5k.... Then I started thinking about running and that old bug to be a "runner" caught on again. So I looked up other races in the area...and found the See Jane Run 5k and remembered how cool I thought it was when I was in the store the other day.

So, I dusted off my old print out of the Couch to 5k training program...and on Tuesday I jumped in at week three. And it was great, and I felt great and I felt so motivated that today I signed up for the race. No backing out now!

So...now you know. I've signed up for my 3rd ever 5k.

Last time I did the couch to 5k program I was 20 pounds heavier and I crapped out on week four. I already know that I can do the distances of week four....but I'm still a little nervous!

I'll keep you all up dated on my training and how everything goes!

I love your eyes and your wild wild hair.

Krissie posted on her blog about how it’s easy to get down on oneself. I’ve actually been thinking a lot about this for the past week. Last Wednesday I went to Georgia with my best friend to go visit our other best friend. Le’ts call them Best friend B, and Best friend G. :)

B. is naturally thin. She doesn’t have to work out and she is one of the blessed people who naturally eats intuitively. G. has lost…I don’t know how much weight in the past 8 years. I don’t know what she weighed before or what she weighs now, but let’s just say that she went from an 18/20 to a 10/12. Well..before we were a size 18/20 together. And then she got diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, started taking meds AND working out. Then she started eating better, and she looks phenomenal. This past week while we were visiting, I had a great time, but at the back of my mind I sort of felt like the last fat girl standing. I had similar feelings during this weeks episode of the Biggest Loser. Mixed feelings of feeling fat and “bad” and feeling motivated. I sort of had to put myself in check and remind myself of how far I have come, and how healthy I am. I have super low cholesterol, I’ve lowered my body fat by a significant amount, I am active, I eat vegetables. But…the nagging voice is my head is still there.

I was reading through Krissie’s post, and decided to take her up on her challenge….
Here we go!
THE ONLY RULE: No backhanded compliments. No “I like my eyes ’cause they distract from my incredibly large ass.” Only positives.
The “I LOVE ME” List
1. What do you absolutely love about your body?-I absolutely love my hair, I’m sorry. I really do, but I also love my shoulders and my calves and my breasts.
2. When did you surprise yourself with your physical strength?-Hmm..I’ve always felt physically strong, more recently I surprised my self with endurance—I ran further than I’ve run in a long time, with out stopping.
3. When were you braver than you ever thought you could be? Good Question! I would say when I moved half way across the country for my dream job, by myself.
4. When did your self-control blow you away? Ok, I don’t like this question, but only because I’m not into restriction due to my past eating disorder. I’m going to morph this question into a moment when I was blown away by how far I’ve come past my disorder. Last spring I had purchased some Kashi cookies to keep at my desk. In the middle of ED I would have eaten the box in a day. I had that box of cookies for two full weeks.
5. What is your proudest moment ever? The summer I moved for that job, and I did harder things professionally than I ever had. That summer is full of proud moments for me.
6. When was the last time you felt absolutely beautiful? Yesterday afternoon in bed with my husband. Sorry…you asked. J
7. Why do you deserve to meet your goals? Because I’m worth it! How biggest loser of me. J

Lean and Green

We all have things we have tried because we read food/healthy living blogs right? How many of us ate oatmeal with such zeal before KERF came along? And I certainly didn't eat Fage, Larabars, flat out wraps, or goat cheese.



One thing i've seen around the blogosphere is the "green" smoothie for breakfast. There is only one thing that can make a smoothie that green.....VEGGIES! Well..I suppose green food coloring...

Anyway...I had decided I was not going to try this. A) it sounded disgusting and B) my blender sucks.

Well..I finally gave in yesterday. I realized that I had WAY too much spinach to eat before I go out of town tomorrow, and that left to his own devices..my husband won't eat the spinach. Spinach at all three meals!

My smoothie included:
1 cup milk
1/2 a banana
2 handfuls spinach
and aprox. 6 pieces of frozen fruit (a dole, frozen fruit medley) I think I had melon, pineapple, mango, strawberries.

The Verdict:AMAZING!
Super good, and such a freaking cool color! Plus, who doesn't love the benefits of spinach for breakfast?

I rounded out the meal with peanutbutter toast...cause I need more than 200 calories for breakfast.

like a record...

I wrote this post on Tuesday, and finally have the time to post it!!!

Things are still crazy busy here on the western front, but I wanted to do a quick post…..

This past weekend was my birthday. My Husband and I went out to this great little locally owned fondue restaurant. I think fondue is officially my new favorite food. Hello….I get to eat carbs dipped in melted cheese? Heaven!

Unfortunately my husband came down with bronchitis earlier in the week, so he was a trooper through my birthday dinner, but the rest of the weekend he was curled up on the couch.

Last night I arrived home to find him making me dinner. He had a glass of red wine ready and told me to “take my wine, and go relax.” And he made a healthy dinner!
He made, Baked sweet potato fries (and bless his heart, he bought an actual sweet potato, instead of a yam….which we all call sweet potatoes!), fresh fruit salad (from the store with raspberries, kiwi, black berries, and blue berries. Delish), spinach salad, and lemon pepper chicken breasts.

I was seriously touched. The last time he called to tell me he wanted to make dinner I came home to bratwursts, Doritos and bloody Mary’s. Which is a deliciously sinful meal in it’s own right. I thought he was so sweet to a) make me dinner as a surprise and b) make a healthy dinner full of things I love.

We’ve been taking our dog to dog training, and the first two weeks of class you aren’t supposed to take your dog on a normal walk. Taking them on walks before they have been properly trained to heel and be obedient, un-does all of the work for dog training. This has been throwing off my morning routine, as I had gotten into a pretty solid routine of walking the dog and doing jogging intervals on MWF and then getting up earlier to walk the dog and shred or strength train on Tuesday and Thursdays.
Routine is key for me to continue to work out, the minute I get out of routine I have habit of careening of the healthy path into the great beyond.
I also start to feel it. I’ve still been going exercises with the dog, practicing the dog training is hard work! But I’ve let my strength training slip a little bit. I only did one day last week, and by yesterday I was just feeling a little soft(er) than usual.
This morning I decided I didn’t feel like jumping around in the shred, so after our dog training practice as a warm-up I did levels 2 and 3 of Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga
I had done level two before, but not level three.
Loved it! I loved that level three-used Yoga foundational poses and added weights.
Do you like the picture I drew? That is me in warrior two, doing bicep curls. There is my TV in the background. The stick figure with the bulging biceps is Alli Vincent. Holy crap I want my arms to look like that womans.
I can see how, if you did all three levels of this tape in one sitting you would be SORE! My shoulders are sore from just the second two levels. I’d like my Saturday mornings to include all three levels…..

Well…that’s all folks. See you next time I have a minute! Take care!

Spin me right round....

Ok,
It's my crazy busy time at work, getting all of my programs in order for the summer. But I'm still alive and reading blogs!

In the News Lately:
1. I moved to the 2nd level of the Shred today! LOVE IT! I took it back down to my 3lb weights for day one, but I can tell that I am going to want my six pounders for some of the exercises. I really like this level, it's more interesting to me, although VERY TOUGH!

2. I am going to Savannah Georgia in 3 weeks!!!!! I am going to visit my best friend, with our other best friend!!! I've never been to the South and I am super excited.

3. I bought new running shoes last week, from THE BEST STORE EVER! Awesome awesome store. And after 500 miles, on my old running shoes, these new shoes feel AMAZING!

Insert foot in mouth

So I didnt' take the Shred with me to my parents. I didn't do it yesterday morning either.

So, I was back at it for day 2 this morning after my 1.5 mile walk with the dog.

This morning? Umm..Jillian kicked my butt! I upped my weights to 6 pounds in each hand, which was perfect until the lateral raises with the side lunge at the end. Oh. dear. Lord.

I might use my 3 pounders for those tomorrow!

Also, after two years of short hair above my shoulders...I've decided to grow my hair out for locks of love. If it doesn't annoy the crap out of me first.

hopping on..

I jumped on the bandwagon.....
I have heard about this DVD, and thought about ordering it, but after reading a few reviews and reading about Caitlin''s challenge..combined with having some "fun money" in savings...I purchased it from amazon.
It showed up in the mail last night, and I did the workout for the first time this morning.
the verdict? Not as hard as I expected. don't get me wrong...It was hard. i was sweating and grunting and cursing. But I never felt like I couldn't go on. I would have loved for it to be one or two circuits longer. Granted, this was just level one.
I am undecided on how I am going to approach this program. I'm actually flying to my parents house tomorrow, and debated taking it with me. Is it better to put a DVD in your checked bags or in your carry-on?

I think I might try level 1 for 7 days. Or maybe do the even 10:10:10 split.

the best part about this? my husband even did it with me! He got up, 1.5 hours before he had to...and did a workout video. It was awesome.

yumm

When did Clif Bars start tasting good? Seriously. I picked some up at the store this week for afternoon snacks (I'm so sick of yogurt). In my memory these bars aren't too soft and tasted "blah."
Not anymore! I've had three flavors this week (carrot cake, chocolate chip ,and chocolate almond fudge?) and all were DELISH!

They've also been tiding my hunger over pretty well, even for being pretty calorically dense.

WOOHOOOO

When I started going to Gold’s Gym in August of 2007, I got told that I got “one free fitness assessment” with a personal trainer. I wasn’t too interested in that, so I never scheduled my assessment. Well, about a month and half in my working out (and losing weight/ getting healthy ) life style change, I got cornered on morning on the stairs by a new trainer. She said Hi, and introduced herself and asked if I had had my free fitness assessment yet. Damn. Busted. I’m a terrible liar, and I don’t like being rude, so I told her no. Of course she persuaded me to schedule one with her. I did. And it wasn’t bad. She took my picture, and weighed me and did my body composition.
At that time, my body fat percentage was 41%. That was a harsh reality for me. I have always prided my self on being extremely muscular and strong. It was a wake up call, and the start of a 3 month process of me dodging that particular trainers sales pitch to “make an investment in my health.”

Eventually that trainer left Golds, but that is neither here nor there. The point is…..
I have a different body fat percentage now.

Wanna know what it is?
We had our body compositions done for our Wellness Challenge at work (since the Challenge is to lose body fat and gain lean muscle). When this number got delivered to my inbox yesterday, I didn’t believe. I sort of still don’t. I suppose I have lost 20-25 pound since I first started working out, and I know I’m pretty muscular, but I wasn’t honestly not prepared for the number to be that low. I was assuming and hoping that it would be lower than 41%, but I was totally shocked.
I even emailed the trainer and told her I was in shock and was she sure that was my number. Well..she hasn’t gotten back to me, so hopefully that really is my number and I don’t have to eat crow after blogging about this!

I am so proud of my self. Seriously.

Look before you leap

Oh man.
Lent is not going well.
I cut out dessert, and now all I think about is dessert. Seriously.
In the past year and half, since getting on this path to health, I’ve never restricted my self. I still ate pizza and desserts and chips and everything, but I did it in moderation, and I never really felt deprived.

I am feeling deprived. Seriously deprived. It’s all mental. And this is such age old ‘why diets don’t work” kind of stuff. Once you tell yourself you can’t have something, it is all you want, and you think about it, and your mind tricks your body into thinking it needs whatever is being withheld more than anything, and then you cave. And when you cave, you cave good. I do anyway. For the past month, as I’ve tried to retrain my focus on healthy eating habits, I’ve been having dessert probably about 3 times a week. And on the nights that I didn’t have it, I didn’t think about it too much.
But now…it’s bad.

And I’m a little scared.

Many of you know that I used to be a binger. I didn’t purge, just ate. And ate sugar. And I hid it. I have a distinct memory of taking a box of girl scout cookies out of our families stash and hiding it under my bed, and eating it in secrecy in like two days. The fact that I can now have an open box of cookies in my pantry and eat them like a normal person is a big step for me.
But, with this Lent deal..I find myself thinking about how I can sneak the food.
Uh oh.
Each month we celebrate the birthdays in our office with a cake during our once a month all staff meeting. Well…like I’ve said previously, the spirit of competition is high around here for the wellness competition, and when I didn’t have a piece of cake, my male co-workers (who are all on a team together) were ribbing me and trying to get me to eat a piece of cake.
I didn’t eat the cake, and when I sat back down at my desk, I seriously planned on how I could have a piece of cake, I would just have to sneak it so that no one would notice.

This is not good.
I did some thinking this afternoon, and I think I have to give up, giving up dessert foods for Lent. It triggers my binge eating/sneaking food behaviors. The most important thing in my healthy journey is learning to have a healthy relationship with food, and I can’t compromise that.

In other news....

So, a while ago I was asked to write an editorial article for a local website. It relates to what I do in my profession. I was honored, and then totally freaked out. Blogging is not quite the same as writing an article that reflects upon me as a professional.
How did I ever manage to write two or three essays a week in college?
Anyway, in case anyone is interested...here is the link.

I gave it up

So, I am giving something up for Lent. I don’t normally give things up for Lent. Infact, the whole practice of Lent wasn’t really ever a huge deal in my house growing up (it wasn’t stressed in my church, like it is in Catholic Churches).But, mostly I don’t give things up for Lent, because I never follow through.

I think it’s a similar affliction that I have with New Years Resolutions. I start out strong, and either forget about my resolution, or I fall of the wagon, and don’t hop back on again.

So, I hadn’t given much thought to giving up something for Lent, until my Husband announced a few weeks ago, that he is giving up Beer for lent. I thought he was kidding at first. He wasn’t. Beer is his chocolate. The man could go the rest of his life with out ever eating a dessert again, and he wouldn’t notice. But Beer? This is truly a sacrifice for him. Now, I’m making him sound like he is an alcoholic, he isn’t. He just enjoys a few beers on Fridays, and Saturdays. And Maybe a Tuesday.

Anyway….so I decided that I wanted to give up something to. I’m such a follower! I’ve thought and thought about this…and I thought of all the things I could give up that I probably do too much, or consume too much of, I could give up Facebook, I could give up gum, or coffee, or splenda (woops already did that, I haven’t had Splenda in a week! I don’t miss it really.). But really, none of those things would be a true sacrifice for me. A true sacrifice would be giving up desserts. Candy, Cookies, Ice Cream, Brownies, Cake, Pies….you get the idea. I have never given up sweets for Lent before, because I didn’t think I could do it.

Well…I know I can do it. It’s going to be hard. I think I will still eat “dessert” in that I will allow my self to have a small “treat” after dinner. But it can’t be any of the following items: candy, cookies, ice cream, brownies, cake, chocolate chips, etc. It can be; fruit, granola and yogurt, uh…fruit. Fruit. Fruit.

I am interested to see where this goes. I’m curious if it will add to my weight loss, or how it will make me feel.

Oh yeah, I should add…one thing I always do during Lent (and I’m better about this than the sacrifice thing) is to add something to my life that helps others. Like holding open the door for whoever is coming through it next, every time I go through a door. Or praying for a particular person for those forty days…..

Happy Friday Everyone!