Day 13: 16 Minutes

I had a very hard time waking up this morning. It seems like I have so much more to do in the evenings now that an hour is being dedicated to my workouts and I blog every night. I'm finding it difficult to find time to work on my freelance projects and my other projects (in this case, Mother's Day stuff and graduation invitations for Helen), but I'm trying to balance it all. I know that I feel like I have WAY more energy to handle it all now that I'm more active, though! Cheers to more energy! The old me would have felt like handling all this is impossible. A favorite mantra of mine: "I can do ANYTHING, but not EVERYTHING!"

Breakfast was my usual Honey Bunches of Oats & 2% milk at around 8:40. I had a snack of half of a Kashi dark mocha & almond granola bar at 10:45, and I didn't eat lunch until about 1:00 since I still felt full from my breakfast & snack. I made a yummy salad of romaine, celery, carrot, cherry tomatoes, and baby spinach with 2 tbsps of an Italian vinaigrette.

I used the leftover chicken from last night's
supper to add some protein to my salad today!

I had another snack of a cup of blueberry Activia at around 3:00 and I finished off the rest of the Kashi granola bar at 5:15 when I left work.

I had to stop at Target on the way home because one of the valve covers on my front bicycle tire is missing! I bought a pack of them, and since Target is Target, I took way too long to get out of there since I did a little shopping. Target is a dangerous place for my wallet. I was able to escape with minimal damage, though. I only bought the valve covers and a couple of head bands for my workouts!

I didn't get home till around 6:45, and I hit my apartment gym at 7. I started out feeling really tired, but after I warmed up after 7 minutes, I decided to run. I put the treadmill at 4.2 mph, and started going...

I RAN FOR 8 MINUTES WITHOUT STOPPING!!!!!

I was SO SO excited!! I ran from 7:04 to 15:15!!!! Looking back, I don't know why I decided 8 minutes was my cut off point to slow down back to 3.6 mph, but it was another smiling time on the treadmill this evening. I took a 9 minute "break" by powerwalking at 3.8 mph, and sped up the treadmill to 4.3 mph at 24:00 and ran for another 2 minutes to 26:00. 10 MINUTES TOTAL RUNNING. I powerwalked for another 4 minutes at 3.6 mph and 3.8 mph and ran AGAIN from 30:00 to 34:00! 14 MINUTES TOTAL RUNNING. I took another short break and ran ANOTHER 2 minutes from 38:00 to 40:15. BAM. 16 (ish) MINUTES TOTAL RUNNING!

Woo to the Hoo!

I think I'm making beautiful progress. I decided that I am keeping up my 45 minutes of cardio every day until I get to my goal weight (unless I get sick). I have been SO happy every night after I've been done with my workouts and I don't want to lose this feeling of euphoria! I guess this is the beginning of the fitness/runner's high I keep hearing about. Even now, I'm smiling as I type this! SO very much of it has to deal with not wanting to disappoint any of YOU who are reading and keeping up with my journey. I truly CANNOT thank you all enough for all your advice and words of encouragement! They get me off my butt when I'm feeling too tired. They get me going to try harder so I can prove to you all AND to myself that I can do this!

I was not that hungry after my cardio workout, so I had a HUGE banana and some Kefir.

This banana was as long as my forearm. No lie.

Tomorrow marks 2 weeks, and I'm SO very thankful to God and to all of you for this new change in my life. This IS the new me.