Your Life Is Now

When I was training for my first marathon it was a leap of faith, follow this training, Saturdays are for the long run and show up at the start line. The leap of faith was would all the work pay off and I'd finish what I started. One thing that stuck with me during the training was that the journey to the race would probably end up more important than actually crossing the finish line.

Every training run I spent at least a few minutes visualizing running the marathon and what it would feel like to cross the finish line. I figured there was a chance I'd cry, scream, hug a fellow runner. I had a strong sense that what I was doing each and every day was ultimately more important than the actual marathon. The commitment and routine of preparing my things the night before, eating and hydrating, getting in bed early and waking before the heat of the day set in. All of these little things would lead up to the final day when I would stand along with many other brave runners to test our bodies and minds to run 26.2 straight miles.

The thing is even when running the race, the only thing that matters is the now. Staying in the moment and putting one foot in front of the other with the faith that eventually those small steps equal to miles and those miles bring you to the finish line. I had an epiphany on my 3 mile run yesterday as John Mellencamp's song came through my ear buds. "You're life is now" sang in my ears. Those words made me think and I realized that even training for a marathon and losing weight with the ultimate goal being to cross the finish line or step on the scale to see my goal weight, the here and now is what is important. Keeping the goal in focus while still living every moment is so important because when I reach my goal I want to be able to look back on the journey and remember how amazing it was.

Your Life Is Now

I'm still running!

It's been awhile since I posted but I am still running. I am struggling with the losing but I'm working on that too. I signed up for The Chicago Marathon again and decided to volunteer to lead the 12 minute group for training. I am feeling very intimidated about showing up to training at this weight. I am really hoping to take off at least 15 pounds of this holiday weight before training starts. Next year I swear I'm not going to do this holiday gain. I say that every year... For the next week I am eating Jenny Craig food to try to help get me back on track. My only problem with continuing past that point is the expense. It seems it has gotten even more expensive that before. I followed Jenny Craig quite a few years back and I lost 78 pounds only to gain it all and MORE back within the year. I did not have any skills to maintain the loss and when life got in the way I resorted back to my old habits. I have a very important weapon now, running! If I keep running I can eat a good amount of calories a day and not gain.

SO my youngest two kids have been running races with me on the weekends. I hope that I can give them the gift of a love for running and they can live fit and healthy lives. My Hope my kids never struggle like I have.