Goals and celebration

I set two goals for myself earlier this year: participate in two triathlons and complete a 50k. The triathlon goal was one I had for a little while and I was excited about it. The 50k goal was one that snowballed with the trickery and encouragement of friends, a goal of which I was apprehensive. As of yesterday, I have achieved both.

Last weekend, I completed my second triathlon. I was supposed to have checked this goal off my list a week earlier, but that race was cancelled due to weather and I was able to compete on Belle Isle (one of my favorite spots) for a discounted price. I was very happy with my swim leg for this race. I didn’t get anxious at all during the swim, even when the current pushed me and some women ahead of me under a buoy. Overall, I took 13 minutes off of my sprint race time.

The trail at Hell Creek Ranch for the Run Woodstock 50k was extremely muddy after a night full of storms. The storms left the air cool, though still a little humid. I felt so badly for 100k and 100 mile runners who ran through the storms all night. By the end of my first 16.6 loop (I had to complete two loops), my hips and feet started to hurt from the pulling of the mud. The last 4 miles of the loop were the worst of the mud madness. Twice I almost slid off of the trail- it was like high stakes ice skating. While it made what might normally be easily run-able parts of the trail completely un-run-able, if the temperature had been 80° with the humidity we had earlier in the week, I would have felt a lot worse and had the same overall pace if not slower. Once again, I’m sure the hundred-ers might rightfully disagree with my preference of the mud to the possible heat.
I don’t know my official time because, for the second time in a week, timing equipment seemed to go wonky around me, but I know I finished around 9 hours and 20 minutes. My knees hurt a lot after and I blame that on the mud as well, but today I feel pretty good. In fact, I really would have loved to go for a short run today and if it wasn’t for my toenails (might have kept them a little too long and my left big toe is actually in a good deal of pain), I might not have been able to stop myself from the temptation of an ill-advised two or three miles.

I have heard people gruffly ask why someone would race long distances. Why would someone tear their bodies down, push themselves so far past the brink of exhaustion, and dedicate their schedules and lives to preparing for such a thing? They ‘pffft’ that “because they can” is not a good enough answer. I have never felt like I could give a succinct answer; it’s a hard thing to put into words. The night before the 50k, I very much believed that I did not belong there and I had no clue why I was doing this. I don’t feel that I gave 100% during training- it was 85-90%, especially toward the end. How could I defend others’ decisions to push themselves like that when I couldn’t even answer the question for myself? Running those trails made me feel alive and happy. While running my first 26.2, there was a point when I was so far past feeling like I had nothing left and then I would tuck my head and burst forth into a run and it fortified my existence. While it wasn’t a particularly long distance, when I came out of the water during my first triathlon (within the first 100 meters, I was ready to give up and go home because I was freaking out so.much.) I was elated. I genuinely enjoy doing these events (especially trail running, as difficult as it can be). However, I found the succinct answer I had been searching for as I crossed the finish line of my first 50k. I participate in endurance events and challenge myself with new, unthinkable things not simply ‘because I can’, but to celebrate that I can. To celebrate that I am alive and that I can. There have been times, times which have even been discussed on this blog, during which I have not always wanted to be alive or did not relish life. Yesterday was difficult and painful, but it wasn’t anywhere near the lowest I have ever been, in fact, it was quite the opposite. Pushing myself to great distance amidst beautiful, changing nature was a high and long before I ever crossed the finish line, I was one step closer to a life well-lived. I am lucky to have the means to participate in these races; it’s a luxury that not many can afford for one reason or another. So, dissenters, I will continue to celebrate that I can do these things in all the ways that I can for all of the different reasons that I can.
Edit: The whole time I was writing this, I kept waiting for the right segue to thank the volunteers at Run Woodstock. There were some aspects that felt a little unorganized and I was a bit harried, but the aid station volunteers were amazing. AMAZING. Almost every single race volunteer I’ve ever had the pleasure of coming across is awesome, but to be a volunteer for something like an ultra and dealing with zombified runners who are aching and just trying to get trough their next step, the constant cheering and the smiles and trying to get the runners whatever they can, just amazing. One aid volunteer at the Richie’s Haven station gave a downtrodden 100-mile-runner the socks off her own feet because the poor runner didn’t have any more dry socks of her own. The runner was crying, saying she couldn’t take someone’s socks right off their feet and the volunteer insisted that she was not running so she did not need running socks on. Just…outstanding. These volunteers were out there overnight with the hundreders, in the same conditions (I’m sure the volunteers took shifts, but still). Thank you, volunteers. It means the world. We could not do this without you.

Lost, then found

I have been wanting to write this post for months, but between training and work, I have less time and discipline to devote to this blog.

It was an easy run, nothing special, but steps into it, I was hit with a wave of epiphany. It was an epiphany about how this journey has morphed and been so much bigger than I could have imagined, even when I wrote 5k for Freedom. I could not fully comprehend how completely I would reclaim myself. It was just about being happy and trying to let go of more recent baggage. I am Emily Elizabeth again. Not the Emily Leach from 7/8 years ago, not the Emily Stowell of 2005. I am the Emily Elizabeth who stood tall at age 9, defiant but loving. Excited, but nervous. Outspoken and earnest. Unabridged.  I am an Emily I never thought I could recapture.

This revival is absolutely not because I was buried under fat. I did not find myself through weight loss. I found myself by believing in myself more and more, bit by bit, opening myself up to self-love. Through self-love, I wanted to eat healthier to feel better. Through self-love, I wanted to move more to feel better. Through self-love, I had more faith in myself to keep challenging myself, keep going because it made me feel more alive than I had felt in a very long time. Slowly and inadvertently, I started to uncover a girl who I thought had been lost forever due to the ongoing war that is life. Eventually, as I saw flashes of a hand, an eye, a knee, I realized she was not gone; I had hidden myself under baggage and pain and a belief that my voice was not relevant or worthy. Every step, every goal met made me realize this was so far from true and I found my voice again. Now I sing out wherever, whenever I can- letting everyone know that I am beautiful, strong,and loved and they are, too.

In a week, I will be going back to Copper Harbor, MI to participate in the Run the Keweenaw festival for the second time. It was on these trails that I started to really become something amazing- I reconnected with the girl who loved nature and hiking, my primal self loved running through the woods with semi-reckless abandon, and I kept going through really tough racing conditions (high heat, humidity, and hills)- the toughest I had faced to date. I am so excited.
To continue the update: I completed my first triathlon, a sprint distance, on June 12 in Ada, MI at the Grand Rapids triathlon under the Athena category. I am training for my first ultra, a 50k. I have another tri and a few other races (mostly trail) coming up over the next few months. I have not really seen the scale move outside of the 185-175 range in well over a year, but I believe my body composition has changed. I am strength training at least two days a week, which is usually all I can manage between the other components of training. I am currently on a vegan diet and have been since April, which is another post for another time, but was not motivated by weight.
If there are readers out there who want me to try harder to post more, comment or like this post and it will let me know that there are people who want to continue to read about my journey and I will start making this more of a priority- just know that this is no longer about weight loss unless someone has specific questions.

Let me tell you, I have missed me.

New Orleans Rock’n’ Roll Marathon

During the first marathon, I hit a wall a little past midway and I was in utter dismay about my life choices. It was slow-going after that, though I managed to get through it and regain some energy.

Just a few hours later, I was ready for my next marathon because I knew I could feel better, do better.

A couple weeks later, I was back into training (though it was started slowly and lesser mileage than intended due to a minor injury). The winter training was rough on me, I think, in large part due to the way the lack of light affects my mood. I have since promised never to train for more than 13.1 during the winter again.

Going from training in icy, snowy weather to bright, glaring sun…I knew it would be rough. even though I spent all summer training for my first full, the rules of water intake had been absent my training long enough for me to forget them and I ended up drinking too much water at once in feverish hopes of combating the sun staring me down. This led to nausea, sloshy stomach, and a porta-john stop- ugh!

There was a lot of walking when the nausea would kick in or the sun was just too much. I was stuck on the image of being able to chew on ice and get something cold into my system (as the water at the aid stops and in my bottle were understandably lukewarm). For at least 10 miles, I had loops of risque tableaus of ice running through my head. Oh, elusive ice. Of course, the more walking you do at that point, the harder and harder it is to get running.

I finished a half-hour over my first full time and it irks me a little that, for my first two races of the year, I feel the need to qualify statements about those races with, “given the conditions…”.

Once again, it only took me a few hours after crossing the finish line for me to say, “I can do better”. In fact, with every day that passes between me and that finish line, the need to try again grows. However, I had made a promise to myself that this was the last longer distance I was doing for awhile…I guess I’ll just have to see if I can keep that promise. Though, I am excited to change my workouts now and focus on other things which is something I have not been able to do much in eight months. I am really happy to put more energy back into weight training and start training for my first triathlon.

While I would like to go back one day to show the NOLA course who’s boss, I have a hard time believing I could participate in another Rock n Roll series event. This event had approximately the same amount of participants as the Freep events, yet it took around an hour and a half to get everyone over the start line. I find that pretty unacceptable. I crossed a little over an hour after the first horn blew when I was expecting my wait time to be 30 minutes at most (which is just above my wait to start at the Freep).

I want to publicly thank my friend, Katy, for opening her house, time, and resources to me this past weekend. It really went more perfectly than I could have imagined. I am humbled to have such a friend and support system. She was there for me all weekend, dealing with my quirks, slow race time, and being a perfect host and genuinely amazing friend.

As mroe and mroe time is put between me and the NOLA course, I become both accepting of what happened and slightly more bitter with hindsight. “But I made it That is two more marathons than I ever thought I could do and it won’t be my last!” And then, “Why did I do THAT?! Why did I drink so much water? I know better.”
Que sera and c’est la vie.

The journey continues.

 

It’s been quite a while

Mostly because I was trying really hard to get back to basics after the marathon. It was extremely hard to reign in my eating once I was done with the major mileage for awhile. During training I did well, I didn’t gain any weight as many marathon-trainers can, but I was I was still obviously eating more calories to keep up with the mileage. During training, while I would not have minded it, weight loss was not a priority- being in an energy hole during a run or a workout feels absolutely terrible and even a little scary sometimes so I tried to eat to make sure that did not happen.

After training, Halloween hit and I went on a few candy binges while also being sidelined with a minor injury. As I said, I had to go back to the beginning and try to be stricter with how often I had a “treat” and substituting things like fruit and whip cream when cravings for sweets were at an all-time high. It was slow getting back into a regiment; it took weeks to even face that I needed to get free of some re-formed bad habits and months to really feel like I had gotten back to me, fully.

I have been inspired to write a new post because, lately, I feel like I have seen a lot of people pushing themselves into extremes of unhealthy behavior because they think it will help them lose weight. While I do not purport that everything I have done to lose or maintain weight will work for everyone, I do know that one’s aim when they’re looking at weight loss should be health. Starving yourself is not healthy. Depriving yourself is not healthy. These tactics are not healthy for your body or mind. I suggest that people get a very general idea of how many calories their bodies burn if they did absolutely nothing but lay in bed all day. To do that, you can use a basal metabolic rate calculator. These kinds of calculators are not the most accurate for calculating BMR, but they can help in giving a general estimation. Once you have this estimation, you can see how much energy your body expends by doing nothing and I feel this could help some realize that they need to eat to fuel their body throughout the day. Said in another way, I’m hoping that utilizing such a tool would help people to realize that eating a meal of only 200 calories is not sufficient to get you through your morning or afternoon. Based on an online calculator, I burn around 1500 calories a day just by breathing and living and it was higher when I was heavier because it takes a lot more effort to keep a heavier body going. To measure your exact metabolic rate, you would have to go to a testing facility which can be found in some hospitals or universities. Metabolic rates change as weight and lean muscle mass is lost or gained.

Food for thought: Is this sustainable? When you look down at your plate, ask yourself whether or not eating meals like that one is sustainable for the nest 6 months or year. Is it too small? Does it make you feel extremely deprived? Will you still be hungry afterward?
When you hit the gym, is this sustainable? Are you going at it too hard? Could you or should you really need to be at the gym for two hours two times a week? Probably not.
Try to form habits that you can see yourself sustaining for the rest of your life. You and your body are in this together for the long haul, be kind and good to it.

5014

I had a post that I started writing a little while ago and, in fact, had completed and then…I accidentally deleted it. I have enough saved that I can piece it back together, but since I just finished my first full marathon yesterday, I think I’ll get a post about that out of the way first.

Training
I started running in March 2014, with a C25K-type phone app. I had a hard time, for a couple different reasons, getting up to running a whole 5k straight through in the time that most of those apps give you to do so (usually 8 weeks). But then, in November, I ran my first 10k and I ran it straight through. After that I signed up for my first half marathon in April 2015. I ran 2 more half marathon (and countless other types of races) while training for my full marathon and then, came the day: the Detroit Free Press/Talmer Bank Marathon. I used the Hal Higdon Novice 2 training plan as I had used Hal Higdon for my first half and liked it. I changed the schedule around a little to fit my own schedule.

The Report
All of the aid stations were great. There was a great energy from the volunteers and I was so grateful to them and the rest of the communities of Detroit and Windsor for being involved in cheering us on and keeping us alive and pumped. This race is international- it goes over the Ambassador Bridge into Canada and comes back into the US via the underwater tunnel, giving it bragging rights to the only race involving an underwater mile. The border patrol authorities were all very nice and were cheering us on- one was even taking pictures. Overall, this was a great race to participate in, if nothing else, for the views and the sense of community. Favorite posters include: ‘Good job, random stranger!’, ‘Chuck Norris never ran a marathon’, ‘May the course be with you’, and ‘Only one more country to go!’
I wasn’t really nervous at all. I had trained for this. I was as prepared as I was ever going to be. The only thing left was to just get it done. I let my guard down after mile 3/4 and started going too fast, too soon. I hit, what I think, was my wall between miles 13.5-15. During this time, I kept joking with myself that I needed to reassess how I make life decisions- this bit of humor actually helped me get through it, but really it was rough and there definitely a few seconds where I was believing I couldn’t make it. I was miraculously able to get through it, though. I didn’t return completely refreshed, but I got through and wasn’t dying when I crossed the finish line. The unfortunate thing that helped hold me down a little was something that I hadn’t ever experienced during my long runs while training. I started having some GI discomfort about halfway through. I have trained through training runs and races with the energy gels and salt pills I used for the marathon as well as eating the same breakfast always- there was nothing new, yet somehow I was facing some pretty painful gas at times. I’m chalking it up to either nerves or the temperature of the drinking water. There was a small checklist of things that have hindered races and runs for me before that I was afraid would hit during this race and, luckily, they didn’t happen. I much prefer the discomfort that happened to the pain that could have happened, but didn’t.
I was a little bummed that I just barely made it under 6 hours because general pace has become so much faster than when I first signed up for the marathon in January that I was excited that I might be closer to a 5:30 finishing time. With a 6:30 time limit, I only wanted to make 6 hours, but I trained hoping that I could get as far under 6 as possible so that I could have a cushion if something went wrong and I’d have to walk more than I hoped. Well, something did go wrong- I didn’t pace myself well enough, had that random GI distress (which lead to something like 5 different porta-john stops), and I hit that energy hole a little more than halfway through (probably due to the pacing issue), so I used my cushion and still made it under 6 hours, even if just.
There have been a few races during which I get emotional near the finish line and, therefore, start to breathe erratically which makes me start to dry heave, so I’ve learned that I can’t increase my pace too much or let myself get too emotional.  However, I turned the corner and saw the finish line and it started hitting me and then my sister screamed to the right of me and was cheering me on and then they called out my name and bib number (5014); my face crumpled. I soared, bawling, through that finish line and stopped in disbelief. I’m a marathon runner now. I run long distances. Heck, I did not merely run 26.2 miles, I ran for nearly 6 hours.

I had friends and family cheering me on throughout the course. I am so, so lucky to have people like that in my life. People who came from 8 hours away to see me cross that finish line and cheer me on at mile 17.5. People who spent their Sunday morning following me from mile 10 to 11 to 14 to 16 to 18.5 to 25.5 to the finish. People who made signs and screamed their lungs out for me. People who belong to the same fitness group as me and hyped me up along the way. Not everyone has that, but this journey has sort of led me to the people who really care for and support me (not that everyone who cares for and supports me has the means to physically follow me around during races, I know that).

By the way, it took me only mere hours to want to sign up for my next marathon. Mostly, because I can do better. Not necessarily for time, but better in pacing, better in how I utilize my gels, maybe. I can do better at how I attack it.

This milestone was so much more meaningful to me than my weight loss. Any time I lift and find I can step up to the next set of dumbbells, that means more. Weight loss is a huge deal, so do not mistake me. It is simply that I find more enjoyment in being able to do- which is linked to my weight loss, but not encompassed by it. Weight loss is only one facet of this journey. Not everyone wants to run marathons or build muscle (maybe one only wants to maintain), but finding something that keeps you active, gives you targets or goals to aspire to, and makes you happy- that is something worth searching for.

I am a marathon runner now.

Now

First things first, I want to share this blog post I read a while ago. To a degree, this post comes from the same place my last post came from. As I get closer to my tentative goal range, I feel this struggle more and more. It’s getting harder and harder to get the scale to move, especially as my focus shifts to running long distances for which I need ample fuel. AND THAT IS OKAY! But some days, it is hard. I have ‘smile, nod, yes, thank you, I have lost a lot. No, I’m not trying to lose any more; you don’t need to worry.’ I’m very good at this script, but it’s been such a lie, readers.”

While I have learned to love my strength and my capabilities during this journey I, too, have failed to nix the notion of ‘after’. Reading this woman’s post was like seeing so many of the thoughts I have been having written on someone else’s blog. I’ve been trying to live everyday as a day in a life, not as another opportunity to lose, which is what it had started to become as the digital numbers on the scale stopped moving as easily as they once had. I have been trying to reconcile pictures of me over a year ago with the pictures of me now. This is difficult, not because I look different, but because I feel so different; so much more empowered. Even though that empowerment comes from realizing my own strength, I have somehow gone and gotten it attached to weight loss.
Bam. *Mic drop*

I had wanted to write an entirely different post and now I find myself lost in the abyss of feels. I will leave you with this…as my faithful readers know, running has become such a HUGE force in my life. Being able to focus on those goals is what keeps me loving me most of the time, rather than looking forlornly at that evil weighing machine. I urge those looking to become healthier and possibly lose weight to find something like this- something with a goal that takes focus away from your weight. I am fairly certain I have issued this proclamation before. I mean it. Go try to lift all of the things or swim as far or as long as you’d like or try to jump rope a certain amount of times.
You got this.

Thin is a four-letter word

Over the last few months, I’ve gotten more and more “thin talk”. People tell me not to lose too much more weight or they tell me I am too thin. They say these things through a veil of compliment or joking and by “people” I mean friends and family, people close to me and none of them medical professionals. I state the last bit because I want to make it very clear that if a doctor told me that I had reached dangerously low measurements, I would rectify that, but I assure that is not the case. What I mean to do by telling you this is to divulge how this possibly well-meant discussion by others on my weight loss is actually a little …annoying? I think it annoys me partly because discussing the shape of someone else’s body seems like such a bad road to start down. It is always nice to hear compliments about getting healthier. Like I said, when people have made the “too thin” comments, they have been given more like a compliment, but to me it feels more like my whole journey has been completely disregarded, especially since these are people who know how I have gotten here- healthily and with so, so much research. I’m fairly certain that if I walked by someone on the street, they would not think “too thin”, but because these comments are coming from people so close to me, I think the change was so fast and drastic, especially after losing the last 40 pounds, that it looks like too much to them. I never quite expected this. I think, in this context, it starts to edge into the issue of how we so often feel it is our right to talk about another’s appearance and appearance only. It is simply preferable to hear constructive comments, rather than neutralizing. I suppose I’d rather hear “you look great” as opposed to “you look so thin”. I hope I look as great as I feel, I hope I look happy and healthy. My feelings toward “thin” are…thin.
I have lost just a little over 100 pounds since January 2014. This morning, I am officially “overweight” according to the BMI scale, when last week I was still considered “obese”. I am 183 pounds standing 5’6″ and I have a healthy waist-hip ratio (what is considered to be more accurate at calculating weight-related health problems). The BMI scale dictates that I should be between 115-154 lbs, but I honestly don’t know if losing another 30 pounds is on the table, especially when I want to build more muscle.  I am currently at a crossroads, wherein I am not sure how much I really should be focused on weight-loss at this point. I believe that I still have a little more body fat to lose just to be in a normal/healthy range (I’m talking a healthy body fat range, not necessarily BMI range), but I have found this blog post from Amber Rogers extremely enlightening and helpful. I feel like this may be where I’m at.
I was 286 lbs at my largest, so over the last year when my thinner friends would ask me about tips to lose weight, I’d do my best to help, but having to lose a large amount of weight is different from having to lose 10-20 pounds. For one thing, an obese person burns calories differently than just a slightly overweight person and it can be argued that it’s a little bit easier to go from sedentary to lightly active than to go from active to very active. However, I find myself here at the place where, if that’s where I decide some of my focus still lies, I could lose another 20 or so pounds and I am in a whole new leg of the journey. I’m paying more attention to my percentages and grams of carbs/proteins/fats/fiber and I’m feeling better about my overall nutrition. I am also changing up my exercise routines again. I am still CONSTANTLY researching methods and techniques in strength-training, particularly weight-lifting, and nutrition.
Those are my thoughts for today.
Love your bodies and respect others’.

Honesty is the best policy

Many of the pieces of advice I give on the subject of becoming healthier serve as more than ‘tips’- they, hopefully, have the power to change one’s perspective. At the very least, they have changed mine.
Something that became a fundamental piece of the fitness puzzle was being unabashedly honest with myself.

Over these last 13-14 months, I learned that I had to be tough with myself- not in a defeatist way or in a mean way. Simply, “no, you know you’re going to be way too full if you eat that whole thing”, “you already had one/two rest days this week, you need to move”, “you are making excuses”.

Everything became so much more manageable when I started cutting through my own bullshit. Or, perhaps, when I started making myself listen to myself. Either way. One of the (many) reasons I say starting out slowly with exercise and exercise schedules is because we KNOW we are bullshitting if we say we can’t get the gym once a week. Yes, we all have those weeks and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t ever missed a week of going to the gym this last year. However, more of oft than not, we should be able to make it to the gym or work out at home at least once a week and if we consistently miss, it should be very easy to point to ourselves and say, ‘Hey, buddy, you are not making this a priority’.

We can have a lot going on in our lives and we may want very desperately to make changes, but when it comes to making those changes, we fall short and feel we have the ‘busy/crazy/rollercoaster life’ reason. Any craziness happening in your life may be throwing you, but it is not reason enough to block you from being a healthier you. Having a work-out schedule will probably make your life feel more stable, regular endorphin highs will make you feel better, and this time you spend exercising is just for you- carving out time to exercise is a way to make time for yourself.

Honesty about excuses and becoming very cut-and-dry on how things needed to work changed my mindset. Working out is not just something I do to stay healthy or lose weight, it’s about doing what is right for me. I got there because I realized I needed to work out at home or at the gym so many days and, while I had to be flexible here and there, no one was allowed to get between me and those days, not even myself.

Even though being straightforward can be applied to other aspects of this journey, like food and measurements (weighing in), I find that most people get so much more tripped up on the exercise side of it because they do too much too fast and they aren’t honest or realistic with themselves. It is hard to start on the right foot.

Write down simple rules about what you need to make this work. Be flexible, but do not give up your ground. This is yours. For you. Take it.

Pictures of You

I’ve seen some fitness programs or sites suggest imagining the body you want or hanging pictures that motivate you. I’ve always had a slight problem with this, particularly this past year, because I have no clue what my body will look like at a healthy weight and putting up pictures of other fit people would force me to compare myself to others which would seem to only promote a negative body image. I suppose that if you were once “fit”, you might want to hang a picture of yourself at that weight to motivate you to get back to that point. However, out of all of my accomplishments and successes this past year, I most love the new sense of self I have found. You cannot go back, but you can move forward to a new place, even if it ends up looking similar, it is not exactly the same.
Personally, while I have been this weight before (10 years ago), I have never been at this level of fitness.

As you may have seen through my Instagram feed (at the bottom of this site) or the gallery to the right, I take pictures of myself post-run. This started after a few weeks of my initial C25K program. I took my first picture after a hard run and I did not feel particularly strong, but I saw my reflection in my storm door and I felt strong for trying. I knew that I was strong for already having lost 30 or so pounds, I was strong for challenging myself- I knew that even though that day I had had a bad run, I was going to go back  a couple days later and try it all again. So I took a picture to remind myself of my own strength. I kept taking pictures, mostly after hard runs, but sometimes when I had beaten a personal record and was celebrating. I do not take one every time, I take them when I need to remember that, less than a year ago, I could not do what I am doing now.

On one of my somewhat recent post-run pictures, a friend created a hashtag for me on Instagram, #postrunwithemily. I then took to Facebook and started getting my friends to use it. I wanted them to experience the same kind of empowerment that comes from capturing yourself in a moment of strength. I told them they could use the hashtag for any post-workout glow, it did not have to be about running. #postrunwithemily is about being proud of accomplishments and motivating you to keep going. I think it would be pretty cool if I started seeing more pictures pop up on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook (though this might be difficult on some sites due to privacy settings) from my blog followers. Go forth and spread the #postrunwithemily love. 😉

My point in all of this is to say, if you’re going to picture or imagine anything during this journey, picture yourself. Picture yourself doing the ten full pushups you never thought you would be able to do. Picture yourself less out of breath. Picture yourself feeling energetic. Take pictures of yourself doing things now that relate to your healthy goal- pictures of your new healthy recipe, pictures of yourself having just completed burpees, or even pictures of yourself after having lost your first 5 or 10 pounds. This about you- now, not “back then when I was ‘thin'”.

Lastly, an update on me: In the last year, I have lost 90 pounds. I am currently just under 200 pounds. I am proud of myself for the success I have had with my weight loss, but along the way, I have found that it truly pales in comparison to the many other goals I have met and exceeded this year. For 2015, I will be training for and participating in my first half and full marathons. Running is also merely one facet of my fitness achievements for the year but, along with my body measurements/weight loss, it is the most quantifiable and easily presented.

What it takes

I have had a lot of people around me who have been gradually trying to get healthier over the last few weeks/months. Some have asked me questions about my fitness journey and spoken about their current issues/frustrations with the scale. Others have told me about their plans to get in shape and what they think it will take to succeed.

What I had hoped to talk about in a second post last week was tracking your food. I have already talked about food/calorie tracking tools in an earlier entry. Some people don’t understand how important tracking can be- yes, it is daunting…at first, now and again, but not always. Considering that you need to know how much you’re consuming vs. how much you should be consuming, tracking is pretty non-negotiable in the weight loss game. I’ve talked about how I let myself off the tracking hook for a few weeks here and there once I had gotten portions and my general hungry/full signals under control, however, I still have to check-in every time I lose another 5 or so pounds. My daily Weight Watchers points target gets reduced every time I lose a certain amount of weight, so I have to relearn what that amount of food looks like. The longer I go without tracking, the easier it is to slip into bad habits because I do not have the visual reminder of how much I’ve eaten that day or how far over my daily target I might be about to go. For a couple months, I felt like I was about to start hitting a plateau, so I started tracking again and really sticking to my daily target with only one indulgence day and, easy-peasy, I evaded the plateau and reignited my weight loss.

While what you’re eating and how much you are eating is vital to be aware of, exercise is so, so significant. Right now, I have followers clicking the ‘unfollow’ button because they’re thinking, ‘Thanks, Super-Obvious Woman. What would we do without your power of obviousness to save us from ourselves?!’ HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, PEOPLE OF METROPIA! This is not as apparent as one might think, at least, the amount of exercise needed is not so conspicuous. Strength training is important for every adult of any age, no matter if you’re trying to lose weight, build muscle, or simply maintaining muscle and bone mass; strength training should, eventually be part of your exercise regimen. Cardio, like food-tracking, is a non-negotiable part of weight-loss. However, movement is what is truly required. Remember? MOVE MORE! It’s why I found my Fitbit to be a game-changer this time around. Even if I had done 30 minutes of mild cardio for the day, I did not stop marching in place or taking a walk until I reached 10,000 steps. Having a pedometer or activity tracker (they do not have to break the bank), like tracking my food, helped me realize how little I was moving before and how much more I needed to move. To lose weight, you need to walk to your favorite restaurant and then dance and then march in place while watching your favorite tv show and then, maybe, you will have moved enough for the day.

Until you are acknowledging and following these basic concepts, you will not see the results you want.

P.S. I am 77 pounds down since the beginning of the year, run/walking the Detroit Turkey Trot (10k) in a couple weeks, and upping my strength training game from 2 days to 3/4 days a week.

P.P.S. Sometimes, I feel terrible about the way in which I update this blog- haphazardly. Here and there. Drips and dribbles. Maybe some of my newer followers who have blogs of their own might understand. Writing each entry takes a lot out of me because I am truly offering up pieces of myself then rereading the products over and over, trying to make them comprehensible to the outside world. This is all to say that if I am lucky enough to have readers who do wait for my newest posts, please bear with me.