Healthy and More Confident

As most of you know by now, I have been taking English Comp this fall and haven't really had loads of time to sit down and write in my blog.  Since the beginning of the semester I have written two essays and I am working on a third.  The first one was posted here on the last post.  Although it wasn't about running or healthy living, it did contain a lesson that can be applied to many areas of life.

My second essay was a process essay.  I won't go into all the details but I did write mine about how to live a healthy lifestyle.  Before you read it though, I want to give an update on what I've been accomplished since my last post.

I am still training hard for my marathon which is coming up pretty fast.  I have ran my longest distance of 19.1 miles just a few weeks ago and will attempt another 20 miler this coming weekend.  I haven't gotten to run during the week like I should but I've been busy on the road too.  For the most part it has been great weather for training the last few weeks.

Now that that is out of the way, here is the essay that I wrote for my class.  Thanks for taking the time to visit and read it.


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Healthy and More Confident

Since I started on my journey to a healthier lifestyle over three years ago, I have heard,  “How did you use lose all that weight?” “What diet are you on?” “I bet you feel so much better.” and “I wish I had your will power.”  I would not have believed it before, but I am convinced, now more than ever, that a person can make small changes in their lives that will make them feel better and more confident to reach any goal.

When I first started on this journey, I set some goals.  I set small goals that I wanted to accomplish in a short period of time and some larger ones that I wanted to accomplish in the coming months and years.  For example, a small goal might be to lose five pounds in a month and walk three times a week for the next six weeks.  However, a larger goal would be to keep those five pounds off for six months or walk one hundred miles in the next four months.

Second, I started weighing myself on Sunday morning, and this was really motivating.  It let me see the progress I was making and let me know if I was headed toward or away from my target.  Experts say people should weigh themselves everyday, but that can be demotivating especially if weight was gained.

After setting my goals and weighing, I decided I would start to exercise.  Since I didn’t want to disturb the normal family routine, I thought it would be best if I woke up early and went for a walk.  I started out walking thirty minutes and then increased it by five minutes every two weeks until I worked up to an hour.  Eventually, I decided that I would try running and now I am half marathoner.

At the same time, eating the right foods plays an important role in my pursuit to a healthier lifestyle.  I began to eat healthier foods.  Instead of eating a candy bar for a snack, I would eat some grapes, a banana, or a serving of almonds.  For breakfast I would eat oatmeal or some other kind of cereal with almond milk.  These changes were gradual and not all at once.  To help me stay focused I used an app on my iPhone to track my calories.

Equally important is getting plenty of sleep and rest.  They are just as important as doing the exercise.  It is during sleep that the body repairs all of the damage.  The body always builds back stronger than it was before.  It is generally accepted that getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night is best.

After a while, I started looking for others that were on a similar journey.  Over the last three years, I have met some of the greatest people too.  These are the ones that have been there to give me advice and encourage me.  It also gave me a chance to help them out as well.

Finally, I began a blog and wrote in it weekly.  This kept me accountable to others and kept me focused on what I wanted to accomplish.  I would write about my activities from the previous week, whether or not I tried any new foods, and how my weight loss was progressing.  I wrote about the good and the bad.  Eventually, I started writing about other running related subjects that I found interesting.

Living a healthier lifestyle isn’t just about being healthier but it is the person that is revealed during the journey.  After losing over forty pounds and becoming a healthy runner, I am confident that I can set any goal and accomplish it.  If I can do it, then anyone can.

Small acts of kindness make the world a better place

As promised on Facebook, I am going to post my essay that I wrote for my English Comp class but first I have a few things I'd like to write.  First, I want the world to know that I have the best running friends in the world!  Although they are scattered all over the place, they are still the best!

Second, this past Saturday was one of the best running/walking days.  It started for me at 4:15am.  I started my run just before 5am and made a loop around the Coke course.  I was going to run for a while but for some reason I was just having a bad day and I stopped at 7.5 miles.  I got cleaned up and made my way to downtown Corinth for the start of the Rotary 5K.  This was a race that I ran a couple of years ago and last year I attended and took pictures.  I did the same thing this year and really enjoyed it.

While I was doing that, some of my friends were running the race and some of them were in Winchester, TN, running either a half or full marathon.  A couple even completed their first marathon and got a spot on the Wall of Pain.  Congrats to all of you that crossed the finish line no matter the distance!

I also got to participate in something awesome too.  As you may or may not know, I am running as a St Jude Hero in December.  That simply means that I have committed to raising funds for St Jude.  My goal was to raise $500 and as of this writing I have reached that goal and then some.  I am a member of Team Corinth and we had a roadblock in Corinth and I got to work the 11am-1pm shift.  It made me feel so good to see so many folks come through and give.  If you came through and gave while we were out there, thank you so much!  It's still not to late to give if you want.  You can go to my personal fundraising page and donate by clicking here. (I'll take this link down at the end of my fundraising)

Now for what you have been waiting for.  When I was coming up with ideas for what I wanted to write my essay about, my instructor gave us some guidance.  I won't go into all the boring details but I knew almost immediately what story I was going to tell.  This is a story about Nanny and me.  It is also about something little that she did for me many years ago that I have always remembered and have told on occasion but never wrote it down.  Anyway, the topic applies to so many areas of life but since this is a blog about my running I will tell you about how it applies here.  So many people have come into my life over the past three years and all of them have made a difference in my life.  It doesn't matter how simple they might have thought it was but I can tell you that it changed the direction of my life.  For example, those three people that kept posting their runs on Facebook until I finally said, "If they can do that, so can I."  I could go on and on but I won't.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the essay.

The Ice Cream Cone

“Small acts of kindness make the world a better place.” That was one of the many sayings my grandmother, Nanny, used to tell me while I was growing up.  She set the perfect example for many others and me during her lifetime.  Every time I go out for an ice cream or drive by the local dairy bar, I am transported back in time when I was on the receiving end of one of her acts of kindness.  Even though I was only six or seven, this one small gesture would stick with me throughout my life.

It was a hot, summer day in 1978, and my parents, sister, and uncle decided to go swimming.  I wasn't going because I had just recently had tubes put in my ears and couldn’t allow water to enter them.  Instead, Nanny was going to carry me to the dairy bar and treat me to some ice cream.  Before we even arrived, I knew I was going to choose vanilla because it was my favorite flavor.  As we pulled up to the front of the building, Nanny asked in her soft kind voice, “What do you want?”

“A great big vanilla ice cream cone!” I replied excitedly.

As she handed me some money, she told me to go order and pay for two large ice cream cones.  Ordering at the pickup window wasn’t something that I had done before, and this made me feel like a big boy.  After I ordered the cones, I was going to carry the first one back to the car to Nanny and then return for mine.  What happened as I was returning with the second cone was totally unexpected.  As I was walking from the pickup window to the car, which couldn’t have been more than 15 feet, the top part of my ice cream slipped right off the cone.  I didn’t know what to do and just stood there and looked around to see if anyone had seen what happened.

As luck would have it, the lady, who had given me the ice cream cones, had seen and opened the pickup window and said, “Come back here, sugar!  I'll put some more on it.”

I returned to the window and she topped me off with more ice cream.  As I was making my way back to the car, the ice cream fell off a second time.  Again, I didn’t know what to do and quickly made my way to the car and sat down.

Nanny could tell that tears were beginning to form in my eyes and she looked over at me and said, “Here, son.  You can have mine and I’ll eat yours.”

As we exchanged cones, a big smile came over my face and as I looked into Nanny’s eyes, I could see the love she had for me.

Although this small act happened over 35 years ago, I still look back at it and am reminded of the times I pay it forward to my children, hoping one day they will look back and pass it on to future generations too.  It is truly those small acts that a person does that really count and do make the world a better place.

Has It Really Been 3 Years?

I wrapped up my running for the month of September this past Sunday and with that I also wrapped up another year.  I can’t believe that it has been three years since I first stepped outside and took that very first step to a new me.  In just under 11 weeks I will arrive at the start line of my very first marathon.  Something that I would have never thought I could do even one year ago.  This past Saturday I reached a new personal best in distance of 16.5 miles.  It had been a while since my last PR and it was worth the wait.

I’m actually going to do my marathon a little different that most of the runners that I know.  I am going to be running 16 minutes and then walking 4 minutes.  This will have me running 80% of the time.  I first tried running 8 minutes and walking 2 but that just wasn’t working out for me.

Today I want to share with you some stats that I’ve accumulated over those three years.

Total Mileage: 2,254.46

Total Time:  2 weeks 4 day 21 hours 54 minutes 1 second

Total Days Walk/Run:  423

2013 Mileage:  720.42

2013 Time:  5 days 16 hours 11 minutes 15 seconds

2013 Runs:  81

2012 Mileage:  850.41

Total Mileage from 1/1/2012 to 9/30/2012:  567.41

I have ran 153 more miles this year than this time last year.

I have ran 1,003.42 miles since last October 1st.

Thanks for all of your support by reading this blog and I hope to get back to blogging on a regular schedule pretty soon.

Too Many Irons in the Fire

It's been almost two weeks since my last blog post and with some reservation I am sorry to say this may be my last for a few weeks.  I have had so many things going on the last couple of weeks that I need to get a few irons out of the fire.  I have decided that it would be in my best interest to only blog when I can find the time to sit down and write a really good post instead of just throwing one up.  That has really only happened a few times because I did sit down and write it out when I had plenty of time.

As some of you may know, I have returned to college and am taking only one online course.  That is what is taking up most of my free time while on the road during the week.  My marathon training started a couple of weeks ago and that is really important to me as well.

I will return here every few weeks and give an update on how I am doing on my training and write some words of encouragement too.  If you'd like to keep up with me during the meantime, please feel free to "like" my Facebook page because I will still be posting there as I always have.

Thank you all so much for reading my blog and I look forward to see you over on Facebook.

How Do You Define Success?

Last week I had to deliver in Arlington, TX, and while a couple of guys and I were unloading the furniture, one of them says, "What is the secret to your success?"  He just says it out of the blue and I told him I'd have to think about that for a few minutes.  I'm not sure how much of a "success" I am as a truck driver but I thought about the question the rest of the week and how it applies to lots of areas in life.  I believe we all define success different.  Acquiring lots of money may be one person's definition and define it as having what he/she needs.

Today, I want to look at the question like a runner.  I'm sure some of these could also apply to other areas of life as well.  The first thing that comes to mind is "Always be nice to others."  When I first began this journey, I was almost on my own.  I only knew a few runners and really didn't know what to ask.  I hope they didn't get tired of answering my question but they'll never know how much they helped me along the way.  As began to gain knowledge, I was better able to help others.  I still don't know everything, and never will, but I can probably point you to someone who does know the answer.

The second thing that I thought of is "Be patient."  Again, when I first started, it was hard for me to slow down and not do too much too soon.  I wanted to walk just a little farther and do it a little faster.  I wanted to be out there everyday and not take rest days.  I'll never forget when I was about to run my first 5K and saw the start of the half marathon.  I was pumped and felt like I could run 13.1 miles!  I really couldn't but at the time I felt like I could.  It would take me just over a year to run that distance at one time.  Since I am following a training program right now, I am sure I will have trouble not going longer than my plans says.  For example, on August 31st, my plan calls for an 8 mile run.  It has been a while since I've only ran 8 miles on a Saturday.  I will enjoy it because that is my shortest long run.

Thirdly, the "secret" to my success is to help others.  It kind of goes along with the first one but this is a ways to pay it forward.  I've had so many people that have helped me over the last three years and the best thing is the many friends that I have made along the way.  I am thankful for those and also thankful for you that read this blog week in and week out.

Am I the fastest runner? No! Am I successful runner?  In my book, YES!  I've never placed in a race but the feeling you get when you cross that finish line isn't something that you can experience anywhere else.  I love crossing that finish line no matter the distance.  I also love the feeling I get when I go farther than I ever have.

My first week of marathon training is in the books and I logged 24.1 miles running and 21.3 miles on the bike.  I had planned for only 20 miles but got in 4 extra miles last Monday morning before I had to go to work.

Thanks for stopping by this week and I'll see you back here again next week.

Are You Serious?

Does vacation ever last long enough?  I know mine didn't and I had to get back on the truck and delivering freight again.  My marathon training officially started this week and I decided to take most of last week off from running last week.  After a week of eating lots junk food and not eating the most healthy diet, I'm sure my body was glad that I started fueling it with things that are good for it.  Although I haven't given up meat, I have reduced the amount of meat that I eat.

When I first started this journey, I soon stopped eating beef.  I went for about ten month without eating any beef at all except for a small amounts that were probably in pepperoni.  I love pizza and pepperoni is one of my favorite toppings.  Over the next 18 weeks my plan is to still eat the foods that I like but have more control over the portions that I eat.  I'm sure I will start getting hate mail from Little Debbie, McDonald's, and Wendy's.  I will still have my eye on Wendy's chili because of all the fiber and protein in it.

While in Murfreesboro, we went to a store named Lily's As Seen on TV.  When we walked in the door there were three machines sitting right in the middle.  My cousin inquired about them.  I was a machine that simply sat there and vibrated your legs.  Here is a link to it.  The salesman said that it "contracted the muscles in your legs and standing on it for 10 minutes was like being on the treadmill for an hour."  I said to myself, "Is he serious?"  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  They were promoting this device as a way to lose weight and relieve pain.  I don't know about the pain part but I'm sure that it's not going to help you lose weight.  What do you think?

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I don't believe in using pills or other weight loss products.  Sure, those things will help you get started but you can't continue to take them for the rest of your life.  You must make some uncomfortable changes in your diet and also the things you do.  Although I promote running, you can do other things to be active.  Walking and biking are two other things that I enjoy.  I had to start walking before I could run.  One reason was because I was too heavy and the another was because I needed to get my body used to moving.  Losing weight isn't easy but it is so worth the effort.

I went on three bike rides this past week and only ran one time.  I ran 12 miles on those hills of Hwy 350 on Saturday morning with the other Lunatics.  My three bikes rides were on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday with a total of about 56 miles.  Riding with friends is as fun as running with friends but it's much easier to talk while biking.

Thanks for stopping by this week and I'll see you back here again next week.

Thankful I Get To Run

My week of vacation finally arrived and I got a lot of exercise and ate lots of junk food too.  Now it's back to work and I'm ready to start eating things that are good for my body again.  I still ate some fresh fruit this week but not as much as I usually do.

I started my week off with a nice run in Murfreesboro, TN, on the greenway.  I wasn't sure what route I needed to go and ended up in the Stones River Battlefield.  I was a nice trail through the battlefield where only pedestrians were allowed.  As I ran along, I saw a deer up ahead of me and she acted like she wasn't even scared.  I stopped to take her picture and took some video too.  I thought she was going to run off but she stopped and then I went on my way.  After getting back on the greenway, I saw lots of people either walking, running or riding bikes.  I saw 40 people and then stopped counting.  Talked to a guy who said it was crowded on the weekend.  After going out and then back to the hotel, I ended up with 9.5 miles and it was just then warming up.

I had planned on running again on the greenway but going in a different direction on Wednesday but when I got up it was raining so I just went back to sleep.  After we got home that afternoon, I had to get the bike out and ride for a while and rode 13.1 miles.  It was much needed and was a great ride.

After making plans to run with Amy and Jeff on Thursday afternoon, I wasn't about to back out.  As I mentioned in last week's post, I just haven't felt motivated to run in this heat.  Amy and I left downtown and after a couple of miles, I was ready to turn around and just go back home and call it a day.  I did run a total of 6 miles but every single step was terrible.  After I finished I was glad it was in the books.

Friday morning was too beautiful to not get out so I took the bike out again.  This ride was on a route that I haven't even ran before and was something different.  After riding for 18.5 miles I felt that I still had gas in the tank and was feeling great.  I was wondering how my long run was going to go the next morning.

It wasn't very warm at 6am on Saturday but it was humid.  As always, I ran most of the first four miles alone and then Jeff and I teamed up and ran another 10 together.  It was by far my fastest 14 miler but after 3 hours and 14.3 miles I was glad it was in the books too.

I was going to get up and run Sunday morning but decided to stay in bed.  That afternoon I did go on a 17 mile bike ride and it was even better the the previous rides.  If I had known I would love a bike as much as I do, I would have gotten one a long time ago.

This past week I also became I college student again.  I'm only taking one online course but that will probably be enough for now.  With this blog, a college course, training for a marathon starting next week, a full-time trucking job and all the things I do as a family member, I'm sure I will be busy until mid-December.

A year ago, I reviewed the Fitbit Ultra here.  I used it until about a month ago and now have the Fitbit Flex.  It is similar in many ways but also different.  The Flex is worn on the wrist in a band and only has five lights on it.  It doesn't have a display but you can still get live information from it via your iPhone 4S or 5, iPad 3rd or 4th generation, iPad mini, or select Android devices.  Since I don't use an Android device, I can only tell you about the iPhone.  I only use my Flex with my iPhone 5.  If you don't have a compatible device then you can use the included dongle to sync wirelessly.  The Flex uses bluetooth to sync with the Fitbit website and you can see live stats via the mobile app.

Although I never wore the Ultra while running, I do wear the Flex while running because it is water-resistant.  They even encourage you to wear it in the shower but I don't do that either.

One last thing before I go.  I saw a quote on Facebook last Friday that I thought was so true.  It basically said, "We shouldn't fret over having to run tomorrow.  You should be thankful that you get to run!"

Thanks for stopping by this week and I hope to see you again next week.