Getting Stronger. For Me.

The past month has been wild. I ran my 1st official outdoor race – the Shamrock Run 8k. For those of you who are bad at metrics, like me – that’s 5 miles. (Believe me I had to look it up too; I needed to know what I was getting my self into). This race taught me a lot about myself – I am strong, resilient and I don’t quit.

My training for this race was all indoors– treadmill, elliptical, bike and weights. I ran outside twice before the race. I knew I wasn’t going to be breaking any speed records; my goal was to finish running. It was a typical March day in Portland, cold and rainy. I wore a bandanna over my mouth to warm up the air as it filled my lungs – little did I know my asthma was the least of my problems. The bandanna worked and I eventually had to take it off. I couldn’t see!  My glasses fogged up;  plus I don’t do the gangster look well.

After a mile I set my pace and everything was going well until I hit 1.57 miles my left knee started hurting. The evil enemy known

Shamrock Run 2011 8K map

as tendinitis decided to visit me. I ignored it and kept running. As we climbed Broadway the pain was getting more intense, I got lost in my music and tried not think about it. I remember slowing down to adjust my knee strap and these guys were like “Oh don’t quit, you can do it”. Well that pissed me off. Oh I knew I could do it, how dare they assume that I couldn’t. The anger pushed me even more.

By the time we got to the top of Barbour Blvd my knee was on fire. But I was still running. When we made that turn on to Naito Parkway I was relieved because it was downhill. As I was going down Naito my knee was stuck at a 45-degree angle. I don’t even think I was putting weight on my knee; I was just kind of dragging my left leg along. As we got closer to the finish line I forgot the pain and just started feeling the sense of accomplishment and pride of running my first 8k. I was cold, miserable and hobbling after the race but nothing could wipe the smile off my face.

It took me four days to recover from the race and almost six days until I ran again. I’m now training for the Bridges to Brew 8k on April 17th. I’ve amped my training to strengthen my knee. Treadmill running, cycling, stretching and lifting weights. I know it’s working because I ran outside yesterday – three miles no pain.

The Shamrock Run taught me that I could do anything. No matter what comes my way – Quitting is not an option and I can beat any obstacle and come out stronger and better.

Tags: 8k, Not Quitting, races, running

Getting it together….

Last time I posted on this blog I swore I would post more often – of course I didn’t.  It’s been a crazy winter and I’m ready for sun and blue-sky and to put the past few months behind me. A quick overview of winter:

1. I gained 10lbs – but hey who didn’t? I didn’t freak out – it was what is was and I took care of it. I lost 10lbs plus and extra four lbs..

2. We shipped off my Mormon-convert son on a two-year mission to Phoenix AZ. It was tough and still is everyday – he’s the mama’s boy and I miss him more than anyone could ever know.

3. Teen – The youngest has decided to completely rebel. She’s decided to take the GED test instead of finishing school and graduating. Since my husband and I will go to jail if physically drag her ass to school, we will let her do this and she will learn. She has a job at Carl’s Jr now, but as her friends go off to college and come back,  with stories of college life she’ll realize her mistake. It’s a tough way to learn; but hopefully it will sink in that her way isn’t always the right way.

3. I’ve witnessed the oldest Model/Actor/Stillhasajob grow up some. He has had a job for nine months in a row – A few weeks ago he quit his job BUT had another one lined up. This is progress. Also we are witnessing him being totally whipped by his girlfriend. He serves her food and waits on her hand and foot. The first time we saw this I laughed so hard, I needed my inhaler. Maybe he’s finally growing up.

4. I miss my Uni Student daughter everyday. At least I know she’ll be home for the summer and I can’t wait.

Through all of this stress and sadness I came out a stronger and better person. I did a lot reflecting on myself as a parent. I like to think of my self as the cool, hip parent but there is a part of me that is old school. When I say old school – I believe:

1. You should wait till your with the person that you love to have sex with. Just hooking up randomly is not the right choice to make.  Sex is something you share with that special person – just don’t give it way. I’ve tried to share this with the kids (even though they get grossed out when I try to talk about sex with them).

2. Don’t drink till your 21. First it’s against the law and 2nd wait till you can handle the responsibility of drinking. I know all of them have drunk since they were 15 or 16 but we still try to preach this – especially to teen.

3. The kids should be respectful – not only to their parents but to each other. Well this is 50-50 everyday.

4. If it’s a ‘want” you earn it. If it’s a “need” then you’ll get it.

Now I do consider myself hip, I stay up on the trends -  fashion, music,  and programming that the kids watch and listen too. They laugh at me when I rap to Kanye West and Jay-Z, or talk about whats going in the world today – but having this commonality connects us and I like that.

Through all the stress, sacrificing, laughter and tears I look back and smile – for the girl who was voted “Least likely to have kids” in her sorority -  I think my husband and I have done pretty well and I wouldn’t change anything for the world.

Tags: family, Kids, parenting tips, parents, Teens

Sometimes Life Gets in the Way…

Well as my title says life got in the way of this blog and my weight loss journey. It’s been an interesting three and a half months. Luckily I’ve maintained my weight; but let me tell you I’m ready for the New Year to come.

I guess you can say I’ve been in a period of mourning. Missing my daughter who goes to school in Hawaii, the loss of a friendship, and the death of my beloved 17-year-old cat Charlene all culminated by the death of my father in-law.

I’ll be honest I miss my daughter Blair something awful. Yes, I know we have four kids and I love all of them. But Blair and I have a special relationship we share a love of volleyball, basketball, shopping and have the same type of sense of humor. Now that basketball season has started, I miss watching her play (hopefully next season she’s on the court for UH) and I miss her being here watching Laker games with me and yelling at the TV – its tough. But she’ll ne home for summer and I’m excited.

The death of the friendship was the best thing that could have happened, if hindsight were 20/20, I should have gotten out a long time ago. The negativity associated with it was too much for me and left me drained everyday.  After it ended I felt like a weight had been lifted from shoulders, I felt free, I felt good. If there is one piece of advice I can give anyone its to please get the negative people out of your life, you can’t live life to the fullest with that kind of weight holding you back.

On Friday August 13^th, I lost my cat Charlene. We had her for 17 years. She grew up with the kids and was part of the family. She was as old as my youngest daughter. I had seen her health declining for several weeks and was in denial – but I knew deep down inside it was her time. The night she passed we all said our good byes to her, including Blair via phone. She died in my arms that night, purring. I know she was happy and I know she felt our love. It was one of the hardest things I’ve experienced in a long time. Charlene was more then a cat to us. She was our confidant, our friend and always there for each of us no matter what – good or bad we could always count on her. Not only was it devastating for me, but for the entire family. To this day we still miss her more then anything and its difficult to talk about.

On top of that my husband lost is dad a week before his birthday at the end of a September. Marks dad had emphysema caused by smoking. We watched his health decline over the years and it was tough.  Now I’ll be honest there was no love loss between my father–n-law and I. But to watch my husband (who is a daddy’s boy) experience that loss was tough for me. He was left alone. His brother and sister were not on speaking terms with their dad and they barely speak to my husband and he talks to his mom once a year. It’s tough to watch someone you love so much experience a loss like that.  There are no words. All you can do is stand by them, be there for them and love them.

It’s important for us as husbands, wives, girlfriends and boyfriends to support your significant other while they go through the trials and tribulations of life.  But it is also important to take care of you – do not let yourself go. Your world may be imploding around you, but know you will come out stronger and better off after the storm has passed.

PS

The one thing that did happen through all this was I kept working out and running – it was my escape and probably saved my sanity.  My running has ramped up and I’m up to four miles on the treadmill and it feels great!

Until next time stay safe, eat healthy and keep moving!

Rose

Tags: death, family, friendship, mourning, running, weight loss.

Why Do I Run???

Recently I celebrated an important anniversary/milestone: It was a year ago in August that I started running. It was something I never thought I could do because of many reasons: asthma, my knee, I don’t know how to set my pace, I’m too fat.. the list went on and on.

I needed to shake up my cardio routine and one day decided I’m going to get on the treadmill and run! That particular day, my oldest son Andrew (the aspiring model/actor who needs a job) was with me. He decided to make it contest to see who could last the longest on the treadmill. I said “You’re on, get ready for momma to kick your ass”. Well seven minutes later he paused the treadmill put his arms over is head and starting spouting excuses – cramps, I can’t breath, my shoes, etc… Me, I kept running. Before I knew it I had run a 5K (3.2 miles) and felt great!

Now I wasn’t fast on the treadmill, but I kept at it and hit some speed bumps along the way. I developed tendinitis in my knees and by the time I was done running – I couldn’t walk. This problem was solved by wearing jumper straps and strengthening my knees through cycling and some simple exercises. After figuring out the treadmill and running consistently I set my sights on a goal: The Nike Human Race 10K.

The one thing I did when I started running was I bought a Nike+ system. This system logs my runs, shares on Twitter, FaceBook, etc. It also has a great Coach Program that sets-up a training program for you. To get ready for the Human race I used the 10K Coach Program and followed every detail of it. PS: I ran the Human Race without jumper straps and at mile 4 I thought my knees were going to explode – but I finished. I could barely walk when I was done – but my sense of accomplishment over shadowed the pain I was in.

After hitting my 1st goal, I set my sights on a second goal: Running Outside. Yeah I know it sounds lame, but I was so afraid I couldnt set a pace, I couldn’t do it because of my asthma and so on. So one day I said I need to do this and started with a short two-mile run.  Well, now I love running outside and dread the treadmill! My longest run so far is seven miles and I right now I’m at 5.5 miles and building.

Now with running there are all these terms that runners use like:

Pace (How fast you run)

PR (Personal Best/Record)

Recovery Run

Runners High

For me I really don’t pay much attention to these terms because if I did, I think it would stress me out and take the fun out of it. I’m not the fastest runner and I haven’t run in any races, but one day I will. But for me everyday is a race, pushing myself to take at least a second off my time.

I was always envious of the runners I saw while driving to and from wherever. I never thought I could do it, but now I can.  Now with pride I can say I am one of them and next time you see me on the road running give me a honk and a wave.

Tags: cardio, diet, excercise, fat, fitness, Nike rRunning, Nike Women, Nike+, runnin, running support, weight loss, weightloss, workout

Why, Yes Kids There is Such a Thing Called Karma…

My husband and I are somewhat old-fashioned. We believe and try/tried to instill in our kids the following virtues:

1. Do the right thing

2. Treat others the way you would want to treated

3. Honesty is the best policy

4. Karma, will always come back to get you so be careful

For the most part the kids have listened to these words of advice, they haven’t always followed it (especially the damn bookends – oldest & youngest) so we have had our share of teachable moments.

The youngest seems to want to challenge us at every corner by the way she dresses, acts, friends, you name it – she challenges (I believe she is a true Taurus). We should have known we were in trouble when at the age of 12 she proclaimed she wanted nipple rings. Right then and there we should have enrolled her at an all girls school run by Nuns or Outward Bound.

There is one more big no-no in our house and that’s no tattoos (well at least until you’re 18 and you get them where they can be covered). We are old school in that sense, why? We feel you can lose jobs because of a tattoo and stall your career, etc. Now it’s fine for other people, but not for us or our kids. Of course once the oldest daughter (Uni Student) turned 18, she went and got her first tattoo but,  she respected us and got her tats where you really can’t see them – she now has three.

Now how does Karma fit into this? Well ever since she was 13 the teen (now 17) has wanted to work at Starbucks. Now that she’s old enough she can’t work there Karma has kept her from her dream job. That Karma would be : A LEGALLY OBTAINED TATTOO. Starbucks policy is no visible tattoos and her tattoo is on the inside of her wrist. Which makes it very hard to hide.

Legally obtained yes, she went behind our back and got “tatted”. Last year I received a call from a very angry parent, accusing me of picking up her daughter and my kid from a tattoo parlor. I was shocked. Umm “no” I said, l had picked them from a friends house where they were working on a school project. Well turns out this friend was the “under age resident illegal tattoo artist of Westview High School” and the project was “Giving my damn kid and her friend a tattoo”. PS: this kid had given tattoos to over 50 kids at the school. His goal is to be a tattoo artist, that’s admirable – he’s working on his craft. Thankfully he followed the rules of a tattoo parlor he  used a professional kit, gloves and did that part correct. But he really needs to work on his tattoo design skills – it’s kind of hard to tell what the  teens tattoo is.  Of course the teen thinks it’s beautiful and doesn’t see that its off center and you really cant figure out what it is.

We had warned the teen about doing things behind our back would only come back to haunt her and boy this did: besides being grounded for two-months , there is no job at Starbucks which equals Karma. Is she bummed? Yes. Has she learned a lesson about tattoos or going behind our backs? No, on going behind our back – she’s  teen what else could I expect. Yes, on the tattoo. She still want’s a another tattoo, but now she uses the words “I’ll get it where you cant see it’. and I say “That’s damn right sister, get your tattoo where the sun don’t shine.”

PS:

Eventually we would have found out about the tattoo because the teen uploaded all her pictures she took during her “session” onto my laptop and iPhoto. I do give her credit for one thing – she did a great job of hiding it for a week.

Tags: family, Kids, Parenting, parenting tips, raising children, Tattoos, Teens

Getting it Done with Support….

I started my weight-loss journey in January 2009, I was at my heaviest and tired of being fat. I longed for the body of my past – in shape & athletic. At that point I was just a tub of goo. Since then I have lost 44lbs, I see my athletic body coming back – and now I am on the never ending quest to lose my last 2o lbs.

I have learned many things on this journey including:

How to Eat Healthier

Push Yourself – Even when  you don’t want to workout (You’ll feel better, trust me)

If You have a Bad Eating Day – It’s O.k. you’re not going to hell: Just make better decisions the next day

Support – Without the right type of support your journey is tough.

Now the keywords in the last entry is “The Right Type of Support”. I’m very lucky that I have positive people around me that are my cheerleaders and I appreciate them more then they know. I’ve also had negative support – that had me questioning myself. Here are few examples of the different types of support I’ve experienced:

Good Support

“Keep going”

“You Rock”

“You’re So Tiny” (God Bless Mary Rarick @Mary_Rarick – I almost fell to my knees crying, that one felt great)

“Mom don’t eat that you’ll just get fat” – My teen – that’s positive right? Coming from a teen

“You’re not fat”

Bad Support

“You must have an emotional issue if when you eat food and it makes you happy”

“Just because you lost weight doesn’t mean it’s a good loss”

Please when you hear the positive, thank, embrace and share it! When you hear the negative – ignore – it will only sabotage you by creating self-doubt.

As I said I am lucky and thankful have some great cheerleaders in my life who are supporting me on this journey. I want to thank:

My hubby & kids

Mary Rarick @Mary_Rarick

Yvette @JustYvette

Lisa @LisaQuake

Shari @Sharinomady (She’s awesome – Iron mans, Marathons – she’s my hero)

Cari G @ Mahjerle

Marilyn @Marilyn97128

Michelle @Keep_moving (Checkout keepmoving.biz great inspirational t-shirts)

Kate @Beachchk

Cathy @CAO916

Brenda @Longdoglover

Denise @Darfinc

There are so many more and you know who you are; thank you from the bottom of my heart. Now it’s time to “LOSE MY FAT”

Take care all,

Rose

Tags: diet, fat, fitness, running, support, weightlifting, weightlooss

A Fresh Start……

I originally started this blog to chronicle my struggles with losing weight, getting fit, dealing with my crazy  family and life in general. But I neglected it in order  help someone out who I thought was a friend. Well, today l was blind-sided and learned that wasn’t the case.

But like a Phoenix I will rise from from the kettle corn dust. I will keep battling my roll of fat, running, cycling, lifting weights and wheezing! My hope is to be a support system for all of you you who are on a similar journey, share information and well just be there to listen and help if I can. And if all else fails we will pop open a bag of kettle corn and figure out this journey together!

Tags: diet, excercise, family, fat, fitness, food, running support, weight lifting, weight loss, workout