Even When I Run: In the groove

Thanksgiving 2008 - I weighed about 215 pounds.

Lydia always has a snuggly hug for me when she expresses,

"I'm so glad you're getting healthy, Mom."

By November I had a pretty good rhythm going!

The HOMFIT guys kept showing up at 6 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We would work out for an hour and after they left I'd hop on the treadmill or head outside for at least a 30 minute run.

I would swim while my girls had their swimming lessons on Mondays and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I'd usually run for an hour first thing in the morning.

I was fairly diligent about getting to bed by 9 at night. Of course, I was pretty useless by then anyway! I tell ya, it felt really great to be squeezing everything out of my days that I could.

What about eating, you ask? What was I eating? I was doing well in changing my attitudes about food. By following the guideline of getting all of the nutrition that I needed every day and not worrying about what I shouldn't eat, I had regulated my blood sugar pretty well. I also was diligent in taking my grapefruit seed extract and that also helped kill my craving and crashing problems. I didn't desire sweets nearly as much as I had previously. I was now eating on a pretty solid schedule every day. I had nailed down some favorite healthy snacks and I'd eat them as often as I needed to so that I wouldn't feel hungry. I easily drank more than 8 glasses of water a day too!

Then it happened. My first of many "throw my hands in the air and dance around my room" moments!

I was doing up the laundry to pack for the Thanksgiving trip to my parents. My two best fitting pairs of jeans were in the laundry. (I was refusing to buy any new clothes.) So, I pulled a pair of my women's 18s out of the closet to wear as I was trying to get everything done. I had worn them all through the summer to work on the yard and they'd been comfortably loose. They were almost falling off!!!!! I was standing on the hems! I didn't have enough tummy to hold them up anymore. I thought the women's 16s I wore half the time were starting to feel bulky and not the best fit. I think I didn't want to dare to hope. At that moment I was able to acknowledge that the best fitting pair I had were a pair of Levi's REGULAR 18s that had been hanging out at the back of my closet. Notice I said REGULAR-not women's! (I wouldn't expect any fellas to know a lot about girl's sizes. Let me tell you it's a HUGE difference!) They were the best fitting pair I owned and I had to wear a belt with them and it was on its last hole!!!

I hadn't been solidly in a regular size for more than 10 yrs! Yes, it was a very good day.

November turned into December and I began to look forward to my assessment at the end of the month!

But first, I had to make it through the holidays.

I got through Thanksgiving well. I carefully planned to enjoy whatever I wanted without stuffing myself and it worked really well. Loved the egg nog donuts my brother brought home from his job in a bakery! I continued to remind myself that every food I enjoyed durning the holidays, I'd get to enjoy another time.

And then there is the holiday between Thanksgiving and Christmas: COOKIES!

Gingerbread House Event with my girls.

I let myself enjoy a cookie or two a day. In the past I'd have "enjoyed" dozens. I was now able to really look at the treats and recognize that I could enjoy them for a moment, but they didn't make my overall life very enjoyable with everything they represented if I overindulged. The extra weight, feelings of sluggishness, a poor complexion, a weak immune system, activities I was uncomfortable participating in. When I looked at different foods now, that's what I'd see, everything else they kept me from enjoying about life! They weren't nearly as appetizing as they had been before.

My parents live in northern Minnesota and I was going to be there for more than 4 days. That meant I had to run while I was there. The weather had still been nice enough to run outside before I left home, but there's about a 10 degree difference when I head up to my folks.

It was 24 degrees for my run on Thanksgiving day morning. It was 21 degrees when I ran on the Saturday after. Um, kinda cold.

Everything was beautiful and frosted an icy white.

My parents closest neighbor is a mile away and everything felt wide open and rather glorious. I remember having an overwhelming sense of awe for the landscape and it's Creator and a fleeting grief for all the time I'd missed it. Those runs were times of deep and intimate walking with God. I couldn't even pray and I felt my spirit just bursting as it expressed that to Him, I was just so grateful to be alive and living a more satisfying life!

Right after Christmas I was due for my second assessment with the HOMFIT guys.

Here's what it told us about my progress:

I had lost 21 pounds! (No wonder people kept commenting about how great I looked!)

That's a 13% loss of body fat - FAT, not just weight!

I could plank for more than twice as long as I did during my previous assessment.

My bicep skinfold measurement went from 21mm to 14mm. That's -33%!

My abdominal skinfold measurement went from 39mm to 26mm. That's also -33%!