God had my back...and gave me a friendly shove...

So yesterday was one of those blah days. It started out with little sleep, a pounding sinus headache, and just an overall weak feeling. I didn't really care too much about what I ate(I had a donut...gasp), and a few other things that were not so great. I already had an excuse to not go running, as Dad was supposed to be taking Mom out for her birthday. Until Mom called and said he was sick so she would be free after her meeting. CRAP. There went that excuse...sooo I just came back with "I'm not feeling well...we'll see how I am this afternoon." (I really didn't feel very well until about 4... when the headache seemed to lift.) She called me at 5:50 and said she would be ready in 15 minutes. Alright then. Shelby was already feeding Lenae supper and there I stood with zero excuses left. SUCK.IT.UP. Surprisingly when I pulled up to the track almost instantly I felt energized, and was even optimistic about the run. I thought to myself..."Won't it feel great when I can finally pass that 1 Mile hump that seems so daunting? That will be the day!!" We start out with the 5 minute warm up walk, and do the first 2 laps of jogging(which always seem to be the hardest because my legs have to adjust to running, not walking.) They were ok, wasn't really overcome with tiredness or the worn out feeling like normal. So onto the next set of running(only supposed to be 3 laps), halfway through lap 1 I kept having this overly optimistic thought..."Okay Joelle, I wonder if you could actually do this? It's just a mile...you did it all the time in high school" Then came lap 2...still wasn't tired, actually I was the complete opposite. "Hmm...I really bet I could. Wouldn't that feel great?" Then the realist in me said "Uh whoa...you just wait til you get to lap 3 and then see how you feel missy!" Now mind you, all of this is bouncing around inside of my head...far from where anyone else can hear it and actually hold me to it...and I hear Mom say "Put it in your mind...we'll get to the end of Lap 3 and just see how far we can go after..." The optimist said "UM...DING DING DING" So we get to the end of lap 3 and we are not dead...like the previous few times we had felt. We kept going and man it felt great. We finished lap 4. 1 MILE. I seriously just ran a flipping mile. That thought I had when I was getting out of my car on how wonderful it would eventually feel...yeah well, that was that day! We probably could have actually gone more, but we still had another set of 2 laps to do. (Which we did by the way) So all in all we walked 1 mile, jogged 2 segments of .5 miles(which totals to a mile), and jogged a straight mile. That's 3 miles. Wow.

I really firmly believe that God knew I needed last night to happen. To push me over a day that had started out so rough, and had me feeling so down on myself. It was a major pick me up. It's funny how just 1 off day can potentially ruin an entire month's worth of work on becoming healthy. Before the run, I was almost ready to toss everything out I had been working on and just pig out on ice cream and bread and french fries. And then after the run I went to the grocery store, bypassed the ice cream section and grabbed a pack of Jello Cheesecake snacks (only 130 calories) for my sweet tooth. Okay I know they still aren't the healthiest thing...but it saves me from that 500 calorie bowl of ice cream with hot fudge! After putting the groceries into my car, I looked for the cart rack to take mine to, and actually opted for the one that was further away. This coming from the girl that usually based where she parked on being close to the rack.

You know what else I have noticed in the past 2 weeks? My ankles and feet don't feel like they are breaking everytime I get up from the couch or out of bed in the morning. I used to cloud my head with the excuse that it was because I was getting older. (Seriously Joelle?!? You're 25...your ankles and feets have absolutely no excuse to feel that way. STOP)  It used to take me a few Zombie like steps to loosen them up...but there's no more zombieness to it at all. I can feel the weight lifting...

Today I also decided that I am going to start making a game out of drinking my alottment of daily water. In order to have my beloved Diet Coke, I have to first drink 1- 33 oz bottle of water in the morning. No water, no Coke. And before I have my 2nd Diet Coke(usually with supper) I have to drink 2 more of those bottles. I try to get in anywhere from 80 to 100 oz of water in a day...any less and I feel like a big bloated ball. So far today I've had 1 Diet Coke, and have 1 1/4 bottles left for my 2nd. I better get to gulping!!

Guess what I am going to brave and where I am going again tomorrow????

But...probably closer to closing time and still the shorts and tank top...baby steps. SOMEDAY...SOMEDAY Pin It