Be an AHB Rockstar: Megan Week 5.
Comfort zone? What comfort zone? Half way through her 12 week program and Kathleen continues to redefine her comfort zone and she gets welcomed into a pretty exclusive club…
After my mini rant/breakdown last week I gave myself a few hours to complain and be upset. I vented, I cried, I rechecked the scale. And then- I got over it because honestly I have no time to sit around and complain. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve got goals to meet here!
In trying to find ways to make my next meeting more positive, Maisie and I decided that I would get back into logging my meals with My Fitness Pal (who has been anything BUT a pal lately). As tedious as the process is, it’s been a good way to keep myself in check this week. I know that I’m not going to spend the rest of my life logging every little thing I eat, so I’m willing to stick it out in the meantime.
Part of the frustration last week came from the fact that since I have been running so much lately, I couldn’t understand how their wasn’t enough cardio in my diet to be making a big enough impact on the scale. One would think that running these nice 2 mile routes every few days would be doing the trick. Turns out that the easier running is getting for me, the less of an impact it’s having on my weight loss. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned so far? If you want to meet your goals, you have to be willing to move outside of your comfort zone.
Crappy quality picture, but it was wicked early and my fingers were frozen
Enter interval training. Those nice, “easy” miles I had been “running” (ok, fine, jogging) needed a swift kick in the butt. Moving out of my comfort zone apparently meant meeting Alicia at the beach before the sun rose (did I mention the temperature was pretty close to freezing?). 30 minutes later and a combination of running and jogging up and down the beach and I was having flashbacks to being 40 pounds heavier and just starting out. It was terrible.
The funny thing is that after I recovered later that day, I found myself researching articles about interval running, weight loss, and becoming a better runner in general. Maisie had suggested a sports nutritionist who I might find interesting, so I downloaded one of her books and started reading it. Did I find it fascinating? Yes. Did it make me step back and think about my eating/training? Absolutely. My apologies for throwing out a completely sappy cliche – but I’m really starting to understand that the journey is far more important than the destination. The weight loss is fantastic (and what got me here in the first place), but this “Kathleen” that I’m beginning to unravel? She’s an even greater discovery. As it turns out, I really like exercising, running and pushing my body to new limits. Suddenly I have new friends who share the same interests, my wish list of fitness items is growing, and I’m already dreaming of my next pair of running sneakers. I feel like I’ve been let into a club that I wanted to be part of for so long. Every time a runner passes me and waves, the girl inside me gets a little giddy: I’m officially “one of them” 😀
Welcome to the “Club” Kathleen
# of sarcastic eye rolls towards Alicia: 3! Second week in a row… are we on a downward trend here?
# of days I logged my meals: 6. Painful, but I did it.
# of times I ate chicken: 4
# of “real” pushups: I’ve forgotten what “fake” pushups even look like at this point!!
Sorry again for the crappy quality picture, but a little sneak peak into what those not “real” pushups looked like. Let’s just say, they weren’t pretty and we won’t be seeing them again.
Be Healthy. Be Balanced.
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