So in Love...

Todays Workout: 3.5 miles @ 10:39 pace. My first run with the garmin. The second half of my run was faster probably because I eventually focused on running and not checking my wrist every 5 seconds to check my pace and distance. This thing rocks. I am in love.

Good news: the Garmin is already helping me run faster by making me more aware of my pace. I also think my paces will be more accurate now I am not basing it off google maps. I've run more in the last week than I did in all of November!

Bad news: I am slow, lazy, and out of shape. I finally got on a scale and discovered I have packed on 10 pounds since I started teaching. Pretty sure most of it was done in the last 2 months since the marathon. Yikes. I am way slower and my stamina is way down. Better take these lemons and make some new years resolutions out of them (or limoncello, whatever works). And stop eating cookies and gravy with every meal. Sad news, I know.

Although I was tasked with thinking of a name for the Garmin during today's run, I was too busy messing around with the settings, adjusting the wrist so it wasn't so annoy (still annoyed, btw), or thinking about those 10 lbs. I knew I was packing them on, estimated it was around 10, but I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by only seeing a difference of 8 on the scale this morning. I have passed the point I swore I would stay under unless I was pregnant or something (I am NOT pregnant, btw), so I am very disappointed with myself today. This makes for a lot of work before Tahiti. Sigh.

Weight gain is a slippery slope. A pound here, a few pounds there, and before you know it your doctor is telling you that you are medically overweight and pre-obesity. People tell you it isn't a big deal and that you look fine. Many people won't say anything to someone when they are starting to put weight on because they do not want to impose society's bias about what is a healthy body type. We combat the pressure to be ultra-thin by looking away when someone is starting to stray away from a healthy body type. I am not about to tell anyone they look like they are gaining weight. I am afraid to hurt their feelings, send them into a spiral of depression, etc. I will try my best not to enable poor choices and try to make it easier for them to make healthy choices when they are around me, but let's face it, these are the same people that are enabling me to indulge in my guilty pleasures, so most of the time I am of no help to them or to myself. Long story short, you are the only person who can be on top of this, you can't blame others for your unhealthy habits, and you can't depend on anyone but yourself to make change happen.

I originally wanted to write a post about why boyfriends make you fat. But then I realized he could just change "boyfriends" to "girlfriends" to make it about what I do to him. I can't blame the BF for the past 6 months of weight gain (although, I had never had a double stack from Wendy's until I met him). As I ran today and thought about those 10 little devils jiggling all over, I thought about sitting on that exam table, hearing the words "pre-obesity" and promised myself to make better choices. Not in 2011, but now. I know my blood sugar counts are wacky and put me at risk for diabetes, and I really need to stay on top of my fitness. So, off to sushi I go with my mama to get the most out of the 414 calories garmin told me I burned today. That goes a long way on a sashimi platter!

A Year For New Things

Resolving to take 2010 by storm, I have begun to comprise my personal objectives for the year. I realize that I have set the bar for the start of the new decade ridiculously high, and I am pretty sure I will look at this list 12 months from now and laugh my fanny off. However, in an effort towards self improvement, the bar will stay at its unattainable altitude, and we'll just have see how much progress I am motivated to make:

1. Complete a half marathon in 2:00:59 or less. That would be about 26 minutes faster than last year. Ridiculous.

2. Complete a full marathon. Ideally, the Nike Marathon, but I can't put all my eggs in one raffle basket. I'll probably end up dragging myself around Sacramento. Then I can get my one and only tattoo, 26.2, in an undecided location.

3. Get a full time teaching job. Even more ridiculous than the idea of me running for over 4 hours straight, unless the economy bucks up and gets off life support.

Progress towards these objectives should minimize crazy female syndrome over the year. By crazy female syndrome, I obviously mean lack of self esteem and faith in society. My paranoia has me convinced that if I don't become a world class athlete, I'll probably get diabetes and be forced to live my life from the discomfort of a rascal scooter. And if I don't get a job, the credit card companies will repossess everything I own, including my malicious cat. Scooting around town mumbling about my lost cat only contributes to crazy female syndrome.