30K in 2015

Yeah, that would be a nice bonus, but I'm not talking about money. I've set a goal to participate in at least six 5K events in 2015. No biggie. Walk 30 kilometers, or actually just under 20 miles, 3.14 miles at a time.

If you've seen me lately, you know how ambitious this is. That little hobble that is worse some days than others. That almost permanent addition to my wardrobe of the knee brace. The expanding width of my ass.

I was SO excited in that picture up there. I was the last one to cross the finish line (even those who had run the half-marathon), but it didn't matter. I walked the 10K and I finished. The encouragement along the way brought me to tears every time. The runners would pant "good job" as they passed me. There were still several people at the finish line cheering when I crossed. I was sobbing - in fact, I'm getting choked up with tears in my eyes right now remembering it.

I quit smoking a week later.

I maintained my weight until the arctic blast hit us at the beginning of 2014. I tried to blame the first 5 pounds on quitting smoking. I had quit working out, cancelling my gym membership because we weren't going - I hated the philosophy. I did not want a personal trainer - I had one I slept with every night. I would get phone calls asking when I was going to make appointments and was told: "Well, yeah, we have the equipment but we are primarily a personal training studio."

By May, I was at the heaviest weight of my life - again. I had reached what I weighed when Elliot was born. He was my biggest motivation in 2013. I wanted to be around as he grew up. Now I have three grandchildren and I want to stick around to dance at all of their weddings - many years in the future!

I know where my problems lie. It's not so much the food, even though (like everyone) I'm not perfect with what I eat. I don't move enough - period. I wrote an article way back in the day. The simple things I know to be true about losing weight and keeping it off, I just don't follow.

Then, I hurt my knee. Would it have happened if I weighed less? I can't answer that. Maybe it's just age, All I know is I've lived in pain in my right knee every single day since June 22. Some days are now better than others. I feel that I'm at about 95% most of the time. When I know I'm going to be on my feet for awhile, such as a marathon session in the kitchen, I wear my knee brace.

I know it's hard to believe by looking at my dewy complexion, but I'm going to be 50 this year. In fact, as of this writing, I will be 50 in less than two months. If the women on both sides of my family tree are any true indication, I have a lot of years left in me.

And I hate the fact that at nearly 50 years old, I have a hard time getting down on the ground to play with my grandson because I'm not sure if I'll be able to get back up again.

So, I have a plan. Walking to build up my endurance is obviously part of it. If the weather is too craptastic here (as it usually is in January), I have a mall that is open to walkers at 8:00 a.m. about 20 miles away. I also started my belly dancing classes last night. I loved it when I took them a couple of years ago. I felt stronger and more flexible. After last night, I've got some burn in my thighs, but it's a nice burn.

What I can't do after those belly dancing classes is what we did last night. Harry suggested a pizza and I said "Great - and I can get a salad!!!". Yeah, this pizza shop believes a salad is shredded iceberg lettuce topped with cheese, pepperoni, a couple of slices of nasty winter tomatoes, and olives. Not exactly what I was looking for. So, Thursdays will be slow cooker nights for the next few months.

AND!!!! I've already registered for my first event. I'm going to do the Pi Day 5K 2015 on March 14, 2015. (Pi Day - 3.14 - get it???) It will be just 10 days after my 50th birthday. Less than two months from now. But you know what?

I've got this.

Guaranteed Weight Loss - Get Sick!

I was so full of determination on New Year's Day. I measured. I weighed. I kept track of every single thing I ate - which was no small task.

We went to Mom & Dad's for New Year's dinner. In our family, that means pork & sauerkraut. This year the pork was BBQ Baby-back ribs! On diet day. Might as well face the challenge head on. I checked the calorie counts before I went to Mom's to get an idea of how much meat I could eat, to know what I was going to put into my body before I put it there. I actually did really well and even had room in my chart for a glass of wine before I went to bed.

Sometime during the night, the evil germs from my daughter's cold snuck through the house and attacked me! I woke up on Sunday feeling like absolute hell. And I'm starting to show minor improvements each day. I probably shouldn't blame it on Allison. I have writer friends all over the country with many of the same symptoms. I think we should all check our computer filters.

Being sick is a positive for losing weight. I didn't feel like eating because I couldn't taste anything. I'm drinking tons of water because I'm so dehydrated. That's the other problem - I'm drinking so much water that by the time I'm thinking about going to bed, I have to pee every 10 minutes!


A special shout-out to Marie Anne St. Jean! She's keeping us together with Fess Up Friday! over at her blog Marie Anne's Missives. Go visit her, subscribe, be inspired. I'm working on my blog roll over at the side this weekend. A lot of my friends who have taken on the challenge this year have blogs dedicated to their journey.

Over at Weight Shedding Freelancers, I saw mention of some song lyrics that brought inspiration to someone. I agree with them. But, I'm going to use this space for a video of what I consider to be my most ass-kicking inspirational song of all time.

A New Year with a lot of changes to be made

I've got to clear a lot of things out of my life!

This isn't just about losing this fat ass. My office has once again made me insane. After four summers of a licensed home bakery, we're ready to pack it in - 80 man-hours a week for a $250 net is just not working. That means I've got more pans of every sort possible to banish to other bakers along with a lot of other sundry items like a tall-boy rack and packaging materials. I have craft supplies I've collected over the years just taking up space with the "oh, I'll get to that this winter!".

I will confess: I'm a book hoarder! I love to see books all around me and the pile next to my side of the bed is obscenely high. I've run out of room on all my shelves. This is after I left 5 boxes of books in the basement that I didn't have room to display upstairs when we moved in over 2 years ago. The other problem is the cookbooks. I think a safe estimate is over 500. A lot of them are magazine-type, the smaller Pillsbury series that you pick up at the checkout and I received Gramma's collection when she died.

A lot of these books have got to go. So, my first call Monday will be to the Centerburg Senior Center to see if they have room in their library. I guess another option would be Centerburg's Interchurch Social Services to see if they could sell them to buy food. Trey said that Half-Price Books pays well for hardbacks - sometimes he would get around $15 for a box. But, that involves driving to Columbus for a "maybe" shot at a few bucks plus interfering with my writer's morals about no royalties for 2nd-hand books. The cookbooks? I love to look at the pretty pictures! But, I plan to especially sort through the smaller books and magazines and open up a word program and type up anything I might be especially interested in.

I've got to start moving more often. I don't mean physically moving residences, I mean getting off my ass. I was cleaning out one of the basement refrigerators the other day so we could sell it. I hurt so bad the next day from the bending and reaching and that has got to end. Winter-time is a pretty bad time in Ohio to start to think about walking. But, there's a young lady that lives somewhere near us who runs every day she's home from college. We watch her all through the summer and I've seen her every day over the last two weeks, even when the temps were in the teens. I figure I've got a lot more insulation than she does - I should be able to do this.

There's more changes to come but wow. It seems like we can all give great common-sense advice but when it comes to following it? I've got a long way to go!