Free to Be Healthy July Running Challenge - 75 miles

Today's progress: July 4 = 1.8 miles. (75-1.8 ) = 73.2 miles to go in 27 days = average 2.71 per day.

The most important thing in life is showing up. I teach this to my girls, and I believe it. I'm 53-year old single mom to two beautiful daughters, age 15 and 3. I adopted both girls from foster care. I've also had 9 other kids in foster care. One of the most powerful things in all the kids' healing was the power of kept promises. Because adults in their lives were unreliable, they found it hard to trust at first. Rebuilding trust took time, commitment, and consistency - showing up every day, keeping promises, doing the work every day. Now, in order to make sure I can keep showing up - for instance, to be at the girl's weddings without a walker - I need to apply that same consistency and commitment to my journey toward fitness.

You helped today. you showed up, responded to my thread, and joined me. We don't always get to see the impact we have on another person's life. I was sitting here earlier a little discouraged about going for my run - I was busy with chores and didn't make it to the air-conditioned gym, so now have to run in the heat; I'm tired from a poor night's sleep; I've got worries over money that drain me; and I've already worked hard today at chores. Then I got on here to log in my lunch, found an accountability partner in you, and I'm ready to go. I'm pretty sure I would've still gone running, but now it's more fun.

Thanks for showing up! Happy trails!

Bonnie

Day 2 - Jog/Walk 34 minutes, 2.1 miles, 19.5 minutes jogging, 14.5 minutes walking. Tired today but felt good to work out hard. Didn't do abs or strength but did lots of chores. Trying to decide if that counts and, hmmm, since I'm sitting here rationalizing, I'm guessing not. I did post some encouragement to others, which is part of my goal for both altruistic and selfish reasons - it helps others, which I like, but also helps me stay motivated

WIMP OUT ALERT - WAIT- REPHRASE: GOAL CHANGE ALERT:: My original goal is unrealistic. - it would require me to average over 2.5 miles every day the rest of the month. I'd like to do that, but may need a day off due to life or the need to rest and avoid injury, So, I'm resetting my goal today to be 60 miles.

60 less 2.8 less 2.1 = 56.1 / 26 days left - average 2.1 - much more achievable.

Have a great Sunday!

Way to go...sometimes I think that balancing family and fun and prioritizing life is as much of this journey as the logging and exercise. It takes such dedication to stick with a plan that it can become a mini-addiction and it's healthy to take a step back and just live once in a while. I, too, took the day "off." My 14 year old turns 15 Friday, so after church another mom and I took her, 5 of her friends, and my 3 year old to the river for a day of sun and floating and fun, and now the teens are spending the night. I was active the whole time, so I'm calling it good. My nutrition wasn't the best but I didn't overeat. I have to get up real early to go back to work, so I might not even log it. (I teach pre-school special ed, and we have a 4-week summer session so kids don't regress).

I think part of the value of having accountability partners is for that reality check, so that if one of us starts to have two many days where we are giving reasons to not exercise, we can call each other on it.

Have a great start to the work week and I look forward to hearing how we both do tomorrow!

Way to go on your run - I also admire how you are using your day-to-day activities as a way to fit in your exercise. Way to be creative! Today I went back to work, super busy so I got in 2 miles of walking there, (which I don't count toward the challenge). Then I got home, and ate too much salty food - I drank alot of water today so was craving salt. That made me feel yukky and it's blistering hot here in Portland, Oregon, so I REAAALLLLLLY did not want to run...but I did. Honestly, the only thing that got me out the door was wanting to set the example for my daughters. Anyway, I did 2.6 miles, really slow abd it was super hard but I feel GREAT now! Happy Tuesday and enjoy your run and the break it provides from your normal roles. Thanks for sticking with it!.

Thought for the day - the power of collective habit-forming. Today was our first day back at work after a break. Several of us went to lunch, and it didn't occur to me until I was out running that each of the 5 people I lunched with had very healthful food, and everyone took some to go. This is a big change from when I started at this school almost 2 years ago. Earlier this year, a co-worker and I started a healthy choices group that met once a week at lunchtime. It was pretty informal, just a bunch of people all trying to make small changes toward better nutrition and moving more. Little by little, the culture at our work, due to the efforts and examples of several people trying to do better, is changing. You never know who your example of hard work is touching. Go!

Hope the surgery went well - I think the worry is often more exhausting than the hours. I only ran a mile tonight - had to run in the hottest part of the evening after a crazy day at work, because I had promised my 3 - year old we would go to the pool after dinner. My legs just did not have anything left - I had done 6000 steps at work. This is one thing I struggle with - how to tell whether I'm legitimately tired or am just rationalizing being lazy. One tool that works for me is that, if I think I might really need to rest, I have to just get out the door and work out 10 minutes. If I feel better after that, I keep up the workout. If I don't, and I have exercised at least 2 of the previous 3 days, I can quit after 10 minutes. I have a tendency toward all-or-nothing and my weight loss has come to a grinding halt for several months twice due to pushing through to the point of injury. Do you have strategies you use to tell when you need to rest?

Anyway, sending prayers for your daughter and hopes you have a great day tomorrow after some rest.

1.2 miles today = 51.3 left to go. I'm really failing on the strength training part of my challenge to myself. Haven't done any, and have rationalized the strength work at my 2 jobs (cleaning houses and teaching special needs pre-schoolers, both very active jobs). But it isn't strength training, time to put on my big girl pants and do the work! :-)

Bonnie

Had a bad day yesterday - bone tired and hot and got home late - didn't run. Gotta just let it go and try to get out today.

I'm not - sorry to go AWOL, and way to keep it up. Two jobs, a kid heading to camp, heat wave - struggling a little but have made plans to get back on track - hired a sitter for 3 runs next week since my older girl will be at camp. Still getting a lot of exercise - have a part-time cleaning business which is successful because I work super hard.