I love my Fit Book!

I wanted to post a few pictures of what I use to keep track of everything I eat and all of my workouts. I use the awesome Fit Book (which has space for 12 weeks of food and fitness info). I have used this faithfully for about the past 16 months. I write down EVERYTHING in it and carry it with me everywhere. I take an hour and personalize it every 12 weeks so it makes me happy every time I pull it out of my purse. My Kindergarteners even recognize it and when they find it around the classroom they say "Miss Kristi, I just found your food book!" I love that they know I write it all down to keep track." Sometimes they ask me to get it so they can see if I ran or lifted that morning. :) Here are a few pictures:

Before and after

And I am not even done with my after.....

I do not even remember how I heard about it, but somehow I entered a contest for Life Fitness based on the concept of people choosing to be healthy. And they sent me a shirt, and I was so proud that they sent me a shirt that said I LIVE IT. I hope I live it. I hope I make strong choices every day. I really want to be an example for the girls that they have choices to make in their lives, and I want to fill their choices with healthy options.
Well, today, I received an email from Life Fitness asking me for BEFORE and AFTER pictures (I totally had no clue that was part of the contest or I so never would have entered). So I dug up this horrible picture from a few years ago - there were two of them. When I saw this one, it made me so sad. I felt like it was my head on someone else's body. I really did. When I saw these pictures, I joined weight watchers, we got an elliptical and some weights and I started working. And I have worked on and off for the past three years. The weight has come off VERY slowly, and I still have 15 pounds to go - but I eat clean and feel SO MUCH BETTER every day. I have no clue what will happen with the contest - but since I had to email her these pictures, I thought I would post them, too... the before.... And my after are the race pictures... already posted below... but I wanted to post one of them so I could see them both in one post.
I know I can keep doing this every day. At least I am moving in the right direction, right???

I am a runner.

Wow, that feels cool, to say. I have wanted to be a runner since middle school when I was playing on the volleyball and basketball teams and I would see all the cross country and track kids come through the gym. I thought about how amazing it must feel to be that strong. And to be able to run like they ran. I have always had poor knees, and I thought it would keep me from ever running. Now, at 38 - I started to run this past January. I started slowly following a program that allowed me to build up to actually RUNNING. And, it seemed to work. I was worried my knees would not hold out - they were SO SORE when Matt and I tried to run every other mile in the Indy Mini Marathon last weekend. We only made it to running mile four and it felt like someone was stabbing us in the knees. We still did great and cut 25 minutes off our last years mini marathon time - Matt and I finished in 2 hours and 52 minutes last weekend. We walked most of it REALLY FAST and ran just under four miles. So, our goal was under 3 hours and we did it, but I was sad all week that I was unable to run more.

With my first attempt to run a real 5K happening today, I wondered if I could do it.  Well, I DID IT! I ran the entire thing and there were even hills! It was hard, but wonderful. I wanted to run it all and do it in under 30 minutes if it was possible - well, I ran it all and ran it in 28:06 (and I even had to stop and tie my shoe!!). I started sobbing when I crossed the finish line because I felt like NOW I can say "I am a runner." My knees might never allow me to run a full mini marathon, and I am ok with that. Because I did run a 5K and I ran it wtih a very respectable time. I beat my goal - just 8 days after my knees killing me in the mini. I did it. I ran by myself outside for the first time ever ( I run on my treadmill and I love running inside). I ran fast for me, too. Fast enough to allow me to call myself a runner. And it felt great. Really, really great. And that makes me really really happy.  And I love pictures with some random guy dressed like a banana - that makes me happy, too!