Girls Only Color Run 2016

The Color Run is a family fun day for us. (I say "girls only" because this year only the girls in our family did it.) The first year I did it was 2013 with my oldest daughter. The following year my teens joined the fun. This year only my two girls and my granddaughter were there, my oldest surprised us with tickets! Next year it is my hope to have even more join us. My husband never will because getting covered in paint-powder is not his idea of fun, lol. But that is OK. He actually runs a mile in under 7 minutes, so he passes me up pretty quickly and can run circles around me. 

Here are pictures of me, one from 2 years ago and one from today. I see big changes and my weight is not that much different in the two pictures. Maybe 10 pounds or less. But I was not doing any weight training in 2014. I wasn't even doing a ton of running other than in races. I see so many changes in the second picture. My calves and thighs are smaller. My waist is smaller. Even my face looks different. 

If you are ready to see changes in your body, not just the scale, private message me and we can talk about how I can help you find the road to success like I have. 

~Helping transform lives one day at a time.

Super Juice Me Day Four

Day Four

The weekends are going to be challenging as far as schedule goes over the next few weeks. Today we did a 5K that started a bit after 8 a.m. I drank my water and my morning tea before I left for the run. Sadly, I was NOT able to put my running shoes on so I did NOT run. I walked it. But I wore my sandals and they ended up making the soles of my feet hurt. I had my toe wrapped to keep it from hurting. It feels and looks much better tonight. It was a small run and they did awards for different age groups. Even though I came in LAST out of EVERYBODY I came in third for my age group. Wow! That means there were three people in my age group running, lol. John came in first for his age group. JC came in third and Jenni came in second for their age groups. Jenni walked with me, so that tells you how many her age were running, too. 

When I got home I made my first juice and then took a nap. The juice for 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. is called Anti-Oxidant King. It was full of wonderful fruits and a small amount of veggies. It was a beautiful rich color and tasted wonderful. 

The juice for 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. is Mineral Medicine. It's pretty good. It has more veggies in it and isn't as thick as the morning/evening one. They all seem to be that way. They give you the really thick ones for those two times and then thinner ones during the day. I am enjoying the different flavors coming from the combinations. 

While I am still having thoughts of foods I choose not to eat right now I am considering the choices I will make after my 28 days is over. That is ever in my thoughts, in a good way. I am thinking of the amazing foods we have learned to make the RIGHT way. And I am thinking of how awesome it will be to just enjoy the good stuff and FORGET about the bad stuff I should never have touched to begin with. I am so happy that we have made all the changes we have because that will make all of this so much easier. We still have a ways to go but I know I am on the right track and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

I am currently reading Freedom From the Diet Trap: Slim For Life by Jason Vale and it is so amazing. I am not finished with it yet but I plan on finishing it this weekend. I have learned so many thing just in the first 30 pages of the book. I will share what I learn later. It's under $7 so if you want to check it out, go ahead and tell me what you think of it. 

Changing my life one day at a time.

Hot Chocolate 5K 2014

Saturday I ran my eighth 5K. Last year this race was my very first one. I think I will call it my "anniversary" 5K. I plan to run it every year. My son and I went to pick up my packet on Friday. The hoodie was wonderful and warm. It even has thumb holes in the sleeves, a real plus since the weather has been so cold lately. The colors are GREAT, too. I like it a lot better than the one from last year. This one has a zipper and that helps the hood to stay on your head instead of fall off. Last years was just a pull over and the hood would never stay on my head.

The Hot Chocolate 5K was held in Dallas at Fair Park, again. Thankfully, the traffic wasn't as bad as it was last year. Sadly, the exits were closed off again this year so we had to find a different way into the designated parking area. We didn't arrive at 6 a.m. like they suggested. That is just too early to get everyone up and stand out there, plus I think the traffic may be worse the earlier you are since they tell you to be there at that time? We arrived a little after 7. The walk from the parking lot to the starting line was a good 15 minutes. I had to make a stop at the port-a-potty before getting in line to run. Thankfully they had a lot of them and the lines weren't too bad. But I managed to get in the line where my group was despite the fact that they had already let a few of the groups go by then.

It was 32 degrees and foggy. It was misting a little the whole race. I managed to keep my pace even the entire time and actually ran the whole time. I did not have to slow down or walk. I am super excited about that. This is my first 5K that I have been able to do it. That is progress. As I ran across the finish line I raised my arms and just shouted. I couldn't help it. It was such a victory for me.

After the race I got my finisher's mug filled with yummy goodies. It had hot chocolate, a spot with chocolate fondue for dipping, a banana, a marshmallow, small bag of pretzels, a wafer cookie and a rice crispy treat, all to dip in the chocolate. Yummy. I ate the banana dipped in chocolate but gave the other goodies to my daughter since she had been sitting in the cold with no food in her tummy while I ran. I did not sit around like many to eat. My family had been out in the cold long enough. They were there for me before the sun was up and it was very cold, like I said. We went to IHOP and had some pancakes and get out of the cold. I tried to wait awhile to lay down, hoping that I could get a nap in but was not able to fall asleep at 2 even though I laid there for almost an hour and a half. Around 5, I was able to lay down and get a couple of hours sleep. I ate something and then went back to bed. I slept all night. I can never nap after a race. I am too wound up from the excitement, I suppose. 

My next race is in two weeks. It is my Cowtown 10K. I am super excited about it. I have one 5K in March and one 5K in April. I am planning on signing up for a Half the end of April. I can't even tell you how exciting and scary that is to me. I begin training for the Half next week.

Changing my life one day at a time.

Jiggle Butt Run 5K

Today I ran my first race of the new year, the Jiggle Butt Run 5K. It benefits Safe Haven of Tarrant County. It is a race that I will be doing every year with my daughters. They didn't run with me this year but I am going to get them to do it next year. This race was in my city. I love that I have found some races that are so close to me because it makes it so much easier to get to and from the races without tons of time driving. 

I ran 4 miles on Tuesday and 4 miles on Thursday this week. So the run today seemed much easier to accomplish with less walking and a faster completion time. I did it in 42.56. That is a few minutes off my time of late. I had done it in a shorter distance a year ago but things have slowed me down. That is what I am working on improving, getting my time back to what it was and even shorter. I was very proud of my performance in the run. I pushed myself throughout the run but at the same time I did my best to run at a consistent pace so I could keep running more than walking. I thought I was running very slowly at times but the time show that not to be true. I tried to only walk short periods of time and force myself to run. The whole point of doing it is to actually run, for me anyway. There isn't anything wrong with walking. But if you intend to you, like me, you should run as much as you are able. I do believe you are a runner if you run any amount. I don't think you are less of a runner if you walk during a run. Don't let anyone tell you differently. If you want to be a better runner, just keep running. Run more each time you run. Never give up.

I am working on strength training, too. I want to start running stairs. I saw in the runners magazine that if you spend 20-30 minutes running up stairs and walking down them, over and over, it will help you with running inclines. I just need to find some stairs to run. There was some incline on the run today and I was able to run most of it. For some reason I have no desire to do the DVD workouts that I have done in the past. I have been doing free weight workouts and using the workout machine in the garage. Plus, I want to do that stairs workout twice a week. 

I honestly wish I had another 5K lined up for January. I wanted to do the Polar Dash and didn't sign up for it. I am contemplating signing up with it now simply because I can't stand waiting so long to race again. My next race that I am signed up for is the Hot Chocolate 5K on February 8. That will always be my favorite race. I will do that one every year. So unless I find another race for January my next race is in February. 

Changing my life one day at a time. 

Reindeer Dash 5K

My sixth race this year was the Reindeer Dash 5K on Christmas Eve. I signed up for it right after Thanksgiving. I thought it would be something fun to do that was different. I really like the idea of keeping it fun but also having a good cause to benefit. It keeps me motivated. 

I had no clue when I signed up for any of these winter races that we would actually have a winter this year. But that is exactly what we are having...winter! That morning at the beginning of the race it was 27* and at the finish of the race it had gone up to 30*. During the first quarter mile it felt like my face was going to freeze off. I have never run in temps that low. I suppose I need to find some sort of cover for my face at the beginning of a race in cold weather. After a certain point you just aren't bothered by the temps any longer. In fact, you get so warm that the layers you have on you wish you didn't. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve running shirt and then my long sleeve race shirt plus a windbreaker over that, and gloves. I unzipped the windbreaker and took off the gloves during the third mile.

I enjoyed the race because I got to wish the officers located on all the street corners directing traffic a Merry Christmas. I had Christmas music playing on my phone. There were reindeer located at the start and my daughter got a big kick out of taking pictures of them. 

I ran more of this race than I did the last one. I still had to walk a bit because the cold really bothered me this time. It took awhile for me to get over it and be able to breath regularly without feeling like a coughing fit would ensue if I took too deep a breath.  A hot shower helped a great deal with the steam opening up my lungs. I changed out of the two under shirts and sports bra before we left the race location. I read that if you run in cold temps you should do that because otherwise you can get sick. I am trying to be a better runner and read things to help me. I am also trying to put them into practice. Otherwise, what good is reading them?

I started training for a 10K this week. I have the Nike+ app and it has these new "coach" training programs on it. I am going to do the 10K coach and after that I will do the Half Marathon coach to help me train for the Rocky Mountain Half we are doing in August. That is very exciting to me but I don't want to just keep running races and not run in between and never get in shape. I want to train and eat right so that I will be in top shape by August for the race. I want to run as much of it as I can. I want to improve my race time per mile, too.

I think I have figured out the weight gain. I don't think it is only the coffee that I was drinking. I have stopped drinking my smoothies every day. Those contained all of my vitamins and the other things to help keep my thyroid is good working order. So now I have put on weight, my sleep isn't as good, I am sluggish and my skin is having issues with dryness. I also think I am not drinking enough water. So I am going to start keeping better track of that and go back to drinking my smoothie each day, even if it is for lunch or in place of dinner, I will have one smoothie a day so that I get the benefits. 

My next 5K is January 4. I am praying it isn't in the 20's for that one.

Changing my life one day at a time.

Run or Dye Arlington 2013

Today I ran in my fifth 5K this year. I have one more for 2013. My oldest daughter was signed up for the race so I decided to go ahead and run with her. But she got very sick and then ended up having to work. My younger son took her place and ran instead. He really isn't a runner but he does run really fast when he does run. He has been going to the gym four times a week with his dad for the past several months. He has built up a LOT of strength in that time. He has a really hard time running at a slow pace. He is more of a sprint runner. But he is very competitive and likes to win. He said he was third until he was at the 2 mile mark and had to slow down because his lungs were hurting. I know that if he ran regularly it would build up his lungs like he is building up the rest of his body. I hope he will do that and we can run together again. I love it when my family runs WITH me.

I ran one time last week and then it froze over for DAYS. I was not able to go out and run during the rest of the time leading up to this race. I was a bit sluggish at the beginning. I did have to walk from time to time but I did my best not to allow myself to walk for very long before I set a new goal of what to run to. I would pick a "target" to reach before I would allow myself to walk. I did my best to pick a target that was far away. It is not my goal to walk a 5K. I want to run as much of it as I can. I may run slowly most of the time but I want to put forth as much effort as I am able. When possible, I would push myself to go a bit faster than I had before to make up some time from the periods of walking. 

Since this was a run where they throw colored powder at you, it got pretty messy. We didn't get as messy as we did for the Color Run in April of this year. We were a mess that day. I didn't have sun glasses today to hide my eyes so I closed my eyes as I ran through it. My son didn't realize it was going to be like that and he got a big chunk thrown into his eye, which was not fun for him. He always ended up with a bunch of it in his mouth when he tried to drink something after the race. I love doing the Color Run so I think I will stick with just ONE "color" run a year, if any. My hubby hates the mess in his Jeep afterwards.

They didn't have the miles marked and my tracker wasn't working. I never really knew when one mile ended and the other one began. I think that would have helped. It always does when I am running by myself because I can tell myself I am "this far" or I only need "this much more".  They didn't have the Turkey Trot marked either and my tracker wasn't working. It doesn't seem to want to work at the Ballpark area for some reason. Pandora did work this time. I had made a playlist on my phone and when I tried to play it things went nuts. It would play a few seconds of one song and then change, over and over again. I finally shut it off and tried Pandora. Thankfully, that worked. It is easier for me to run when I have music to listen to and keep me going.

There were quite a few parts of the race that were up hill. Some where down hill and I tried to take advantage of that time and run a bit faster. It made me think about our run in August. That half marathon is going to have a few miles that are uphill. That means I NEED to run uphill HERE to get used to it. I have heard it helps build your strength and speed if you run uphill. I need both. 

Looking at the pictures of myself makes me a bit more sad than I already am about my weight. But it will be fine when I can see how much I have lost in the next year and beyond. I will be able to see how far I have come. At least I ran the race and did something healthy. At least I am taking steps to change the way my body looks instead of just living with it or worse yet, gaining more from lack of effort. 

I will share more about my weight training in a later post. My husband gave me a workout to do and I was sore for three days afterwards....

Changing my life one day at a time.

Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 2013

Jennifer and I ran in the Arlington Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving Day, November 28. It so happened to be my birthday. I am so thankful that she ran with me. We walked a lot because she is not a runner but we did run some. My run tracker stopped working so I really have no idea where one mile ended and the next began. Before long we were at the finish line. It was about 34 degrees out there when we started but I think it warmed up a few degrees by the end of the hour. Here are some of the pictures from our run.

Before we left home. 

Before

After

Changing my life one day at a time.

Color Run Dallas 2013

On Saturday, April 6, 2013 I ran my second 5K. It was called The Color Run. What a blast I had.  Part of the reason I had so much fun was that my oldest daughter ran with me. It is always fun to do things with other people who are excited about it as you are. My last 5K was in early February so I had two whole months between races. I have to admit I didn't run as consistently as I should have. I ran 15 times between races. That is about half of what I should have done, in my opinion. I am glad I ran what I did. I tend to run more as a race approaches. The week before the race I could feel the excitement building. The night before was typical of my first race, I slept little. I got up in a good frame of mind and got ready for the race. My daughter and I had some fun things to wear for our run, a bandanna, sun glasses and tattoo on our cheek. We left pretty early after the traffic we experienced in February. But there wasn't any traffic that day. I think we just beat it because shortly after we parked the line of cars started piling into the lot. 

We found out that they had a before party going with music and dancing. We joined right in. It was so much fun. Since we got there at 7 we had awhile before the race began to warm up. We got in the big start area around 7:45. The excitement was building again as we waited our turn to start running. My *pandora wasn't working so I didn't have any music to listen to except at certain spots where they had their music playing loudly. I didn't let that stop me. I listened to the conversations of the walkers and just kept moving forward. The first mile seemed to pass very quickly. They didn't have any color stops during that one. Right after that they had one set up. You have to slow down and/or stop to get color thrown on you. My time for the first mile was really the only accurate time I have, which was 12.40. There were so many people is wasn't always easy to run around someone in my path. And there were a ton of walkers not always staying on the right side of the path so that the runners could run on the left.

At the end of the race they gathered as a group in front of the stage (the one we had the before party) and every so often they did a color throw. We stayed in that area through about 5 throws so that we had plenty of color on us. We took lots of fun photos. 

One of the things I am going to do with my race memorabilia is make a running scrapbook. I'm super excited about that. I can't wait to fill it up with things for the different races I am planning on doing. 

My next 5K is May 11. We are running to support the purchase of Bibles for the group, Equip Disciples, that we went to Kenya with the summer of 2011. All of us are doing the 5K for this. I have a couple planned for summer, one in the fall and then at least one at the beginning of the new year. I am only signed up for the one next month and the Hot Chocolate in February so far. But there are deadlines for some that I want to do so I might go ahead and sign up pretty quickly.

That is the update on the latest race. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. There are more in my fb page if you are my "friend" on there. 

Changing my life one day at a time. 

Hot Chocolate 5K 2013 - My First 5K

Today was a HUGE milestone for me. Not because I haven't run 3.1 miles before but because I have never run in a race before willingly. I have mentioned getting out of P.E. in school because I didn't want to run laps. That was me thirty years ago. Last year at this time I wasn't even considering running. I was just trying to get up and do a 20 minute workout video three times a week to get the weight off.  I wanted to blog about today while it was still fresh in my mind because of the feelings I experienced.

I had a really hard time sleeping last night. I suppose the excitement was just too much. I set my alarm for 5:30 because I didn't think I could get myself up any earlier but I was out of bed by 5:15. I knew I would not eat or drink anything before the race so I didn't have to worry about time for those things. The race officials suggested we arrive by 6. We should have left at 5:30 but it was hard getting my son out of bed that early since he likes to stay up late. Note for next year and other races: leave earlier. We were right before the exit when traffic came to a stand still. We reached that point around 6:15. Traffic was only moving a short distance at a time. When we finally got up to our exit the police had blocked it off. We headed to the next one but it was blocked off, too. Before we got to an exit that was open we came close, and I mean CLOSE to hitting a car in front of us. John was able to swerve and miss it by a hair. It scared me so badly because it's truly a miracle that we didn't crash our new Jeep and miss the race completely. We didn't get into the parking lot until 7:15 and then we had to walk what seemed like an entire mile to get where we gathered for the race. The race was supposed to start at 7:30 but I think they understood how backed up the traffic was and gave us a few minutes longer. They did allow late arrives to get in the last heap of runners.

Once I was surrounded by all the other runners the excitement started coming back. (The near death experience kind of put a damper on things.) It was pretty cold but I knew I wouldn't be comfortable wearing the hoodie that they gave us. I made sure my ears were covered up so they wouldn't hurt. I warmed up pretty quickly once I was running. I was actually comfortable once I was in the corral. Once again, I think that was due to the excitement. I was in the next to last group to run so I stood and talked to a few ladies while we were waiting. That is always fun for me. I love getting to meet new people.

When we reached the start line and begin to run I was excited but trying not to run over people or get run over myself. I was in a group with a lot of walkers even though it said no walkers. I didn't feel strange about going around people and even getting on the curb to go around like I saw other people doing. I had to do that often. I thought I might have to stop often to get a drink or walk but after I had run the first mile and found out I did it in 12 minutes (over a minute faster than I had been running) that pushed me forward to keep going without quitting. The more I ran the more I wanted to run. There was an up hill overpass that was challenging but instead of getting slower I pushed myself to go faster up that hill. I did slow to a walk two or three times for only about five seconds to take a drink but never considered walking any part of the race.

When I finally went under the finish line I had a huge smile on my face. I was looking for my husband and son but they were farther up waiting for me. I saw them before they saw me. They were such great sports because they were freezing cold while I had been running and didn't feel the cold anymore. That is why they are going to run WITH me next year instead of standing on the sidelines. 

After the race they gave out mugs with hot cocoa and fondue. The chocolate was wonderful! I made a big mess with it but it was scrumptious anyway. I think that was one of the neatest parts of this race, the free hoodie and the chocolate afterwards. It was a fun race.

Now I am looking into running my next race. I am actually trying to plan my runs for the whole year. I know that I have to make a plan or I will be tempted to quit. But I can SEE the changes in myself and my body in the last year. And I am excited to see what I can do this year and what changes I will have made. Looking back gives a person perspective and vision for the future. If I can train and over come asthma related issues that have kept me from running in the past then I can keep training and make some longer strides towards bigger goals. My next goal really is just to keep improving my time in the 5K. I am not sure I will want to run the 15K in this race next year but who knows. Maybe by 2015 a 15K will be something I will be ready for. One thing I want to make sure of is that every race I run has either a fun theme like this one or is a good cause. I don't want to just run a race to run it. I want the race to mean something to me.

My Time

37 min 34 sec

Pace	Overall	Age Group	Sex
12 min 06 sec	3285	184 of 429	2317 of 4732

I can't wait for the next adventure in a healthy lifestyle. Share with me your adventures on the road to health. 

Changing my life, one day at a time. 

Desires Of Your Heart

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Do you know the verse? What do you think it means? What has it come to mean to you? I would love to share the insight the Lord gave me this morning on my daily run in the park. I have said many times that running has never been my thing. Whenever anyone mentioned running my automatic response has always been "I can't run". I honestly believed I couldn't. I was terrible at it in school and never realized that I could take it slowly and get better at it or even want to run.

Here is where this verse comes in. The Lord has created in me a desire to run. He has shown me that it is something I want to do and can get better at. Eleven weeks ago, God placed a new desire in my heart. It started as a little glimmer of an idea from a friend who said she was going to run in a 5K in February. All of a sudden, it sounded like an awesome idea. I wanted to do that. I looked up the Couch to 5K and found a treadmill version. I spend the next 9 weeks running on that treadmill at the pace they set forth for each of the three days a week. I even added a day or two each week from time to time. I didn't JUST run the three days a week that I had to on the plan but I even chose to run MORE than required. ME. Running. WOW! 

I have to say that running outside has really changed things in another way. I don't just want to run because it is what I am supposed to do because I signed up for the 5K already. It is something I get up extra early to do and even WANT to do. I have even added to the amount of time and distance that I am running. I use a new app that helps me keep up with it and I push myself because I know I can do it and feel wonderful afterwards. I have been running outside for two weeks now. 

Can I picture myself running a 10K? Before today, I couldn't. But since I ran 4 miles today, who says I can't up that and actually run 6 miles at some point? I CAN do it! I know if I keep running each week and increase my time little by little I can also add to my distance in the hour that I have to run. It has become a desire of my heart. 

As I was running this morning, a joy filled my heart as I listened to my worship music (I spend my run time worshiping the Lord every step of the way). I realized that HE put the joy in my heart to run, the desire. And I realized that when I decide ahead of time what I am going to do, I do it. On Wednesday, I decided before my run that I would run the whole 3 miles without stopping. Today, I decided before my run that I could run the extra two laps and run the 4 miles. I didn't let myself quit because I made the choice before I got out there. I even got up five minutes earlier so I would have extra time to run if I ran at a slower pace. I actually ran at a faster pace than the other times so I was able to complete the 4 miles in under an hour. 

It is my desire to become stronger and healthier so I can live a longer and better life with my family. I have changed the way I eat and changed the way I move. I am making small but long term changes in the way I live and how my body looks. I can't wait to get to the weight I am going to stay at. But that will not be the end of the road on this running journey. It will only be the beginning. Thanks for coming along on the ride with me and cheering me on. It means a lot. 

Changing my life, one day at a time.