Two PRs

Every Friday morning since I began this change of lifestyle in February, has been my “weigh~in” day.  I kinda laugh at my routine on that morning.  It starts the night before….  No late night eating, try to skip dessert all together.  Then in the morning I do not take so much as a sip of coffee before I hit the scale.  I {ahem} hit the restroom, brush my teeth {which has nothing to do with the scale, but I feel better}  and get rid of my pjs before the weigh~in.  I want nothing added to that scale.  It’s become a Friday morning ritual.

Back in February I set an initial goal weight.  I’m not sure how I even chose it other than it was in my healthy weight range.  I remember at the time that I really didn’t believe I’d ever hit the goal.  I really believed I’d flatline somewhere about 8-10 pounds heavier and that would be where I would maintain.  This was mainly because I don’t really remember the last time I had weighed that {now goal} weight.

Well…..  This past Friday morning I was .3 pounds UNDER my goal weight!  Woo~Hoo.  But what I’m super bummed about is the fact I have no before pictures.  And what’s even more funny is how few pictures I can find of myself during my “heaviest” period.  I control the pictures in our family and it appears I deleted most pictures of me.  It’s funny that at the time I just thought it was because there were no “good” pictures of me.  Now I realize it was because I didn’t like seeing myself that heavy.

After celebrating my weight goal, it was time to pack the family and head to my folks’.  My Dad retired a few months back and we were long due to visit to celebrate with him.

Every celebration needs a cake!  We had his boat, “The Get~Aweigh” decorated onto it…

We had tons of fun visiting.

There were rides in the convertible….

Lots of boating…..

More car rides… and tons of rides in the golf cart…

And lots of fishing….

Saturday morning I participated in a local 5K.  It was a fast flat course and I dreamed of setting a great PR for myself.

There were 390 participants total, so it was a really fun environment.

The race didn’t have time chips, so I decided to go for it and line up near the front.

In the past I had relied solely on my iPhone app to keep track of my time.  But it’s a little hard to read while running.  This time I used my watch as well.  Much better.

I also decided to use music.  I was sure to create a play list just for this race with only songs I knew I’d want to hear….  so I didn’t have to worry about skipping songs.  Worked great!

At each mile they had a volunteer calling out times, which is super helpful.  I reached Mile 1 at 8 minutes.  I almost asked the sweet lady to check her time until I looked at my watch.  WHAT?  I felt great. Mile 2 I hit at just over an 8 minute mile.  But wasn’t feeling quite as great.  So I was keeping my eye out for the Finish Line….  and I’m pretty sure I slowed down a bit between Mile 2 and the end.  But once I could see the end in sight, I got a surge of energy and ran my heart out to the end.

My final time was 26:35, with 8:18 miles.   {The best I’ve done before that was 9:30 miles ~ I ran my last 5K in 29:25 (to be fair there was a hill at the end).  And for the record, I could not have gone much further at that pace.}

I was shocked.  But even better, I placed 3rd in my age group {the two women placed in 1st and 2nd finished 3 minutes ahead of me} and earned a medal….

That meant it was time to celebrate on the way home….

And NOT with the Fat~Free stuff!

Whippy Dips in the Summer~Time are the BEST….

It was a great weekend topped off with a great date with my man….

who was just LOVING all this picture taking!

It is a great feeling to set a goal and to achieve it.  This weekend felt great.  It was fun to reach my goals and celebrate them.  But, I also know that I could so easily slip away from what I’ve accomplished and land right back into my old ways.

So now I’m setting a new weight goal and am making new running goals ~ even considering training for a half marathon.  Those goals are what will keep me moving forward.