Happy New Year, Belated

Hello all!

I am still here. A few days turned into a couple weeks, and... well, here I am.

Not too much new and exciting to report, to be honest. I am still going between doing really well and really not-so-well as far as eating goes. Exercise has fallen to running once a week since before Christmas, but that's better than nothing. I am still playing around in the 270s – a couple times nearly hitting or dinging 280, and last week getting back down to 271. Today finds me solidly PMSing and in the middle at 275, which I will take gladly.

Part of me is sad that I haven't made any new progress, but the other part appreciates that I am still more or less maintaining, not giving up.

The best news has been that I seem to be getting my running groove again. I ran as part of a four-person half marathon relay team last weekend, and it was great – I've had a couple good ~three milers in the 14's, and the relay had me at my best pace since summertime, about 14:40. The Winter Warrior half in Rochester, NY was pretty fantastic, a very well-presented race with lots of awesome volunteers and a loop course that allowed me the amazing experience of running among people instead of always being behind them. What energy and inspiration! All kinds of people throwing out kudos as they passed by. I loved it.

Obligatory race photo: Me (3), Amy F. (2), Emily (1), and Angela (4) as the Buffalo Gals relay team! 

Now I am all signed up for the next session of No Boundaries at Fleet Feet and I decided to go to the next level – 3.0, which will take me to running eight miles by the end of April. I'm also registered for my first longer-than-5K, the Shamrock 8K in Buffalo in March. I plan to do the Grand Island 10K in May! Very exciting. 

Otherwise, I have just been continuing to enjoy the fact that regular daily activities that were becoming challenging at my heaviest are now nothing to me – snow shoveling, cooking, cleaning, walking from a distant parking spot, tying my shoes, getting dressed. I truly take real pleasure in all of it. I will never take my physical abilities for granted. 

I should never want to give them up, either, which is what would happen if I don't really buckle down and get back to the business I need to. Truth be told, if I never lost another pound I would be OK, however, at this weight I still feel precariously close to an edge I don't want to be near. 

I can just challenge myself to move farther away from the edge. It doesn't have to be the whole 100 or more pounds I think I'd like to lose. What if I only thought about, say, 25 pounds? 

Maybe that would help. 

Maybe knowing I want to run faster and easier would help. Losing 25 pounds, heck even 5 pounds, would take off thousands of pounds of pressure off my knees when I'm running, for example. 

Hey! I also rejoined my old gym. They made me an offer of my old rate and no initiation fee, so I jumped at it. I haven't yet gone, but I will be using the pool and I'll go to a class every week. (When do I start, hmmmm??? What am I waiting for???) Yoga, maybe Zumba. Oh, but the swimming! I kind of can't wait!

So anyway, that's where I am at for now! I'm proud to say that I am better off than I was a year ago today, and that is what I will always strive for. 

How are you doing?