September already??

Wow summer is winding down and so is 2011.  If I would recap this past year as far as my fitness journey is concerned I would say it has been amazing.  I can't believe all that I accomplished in the last year. Since January I've lost over 37 pounds of fat and gained almost 10 pounds of muscle.  I started this year at 172 pounds and 9 months later I weigh 141 pounds and fit into a size 4 pants!!  Even I couldn't believe it when I put on those pants and they fit. I did a dance of joy in the fitting room at Ann Taylor!  Which by the way is my new favorite store for pants because they have a curvy line for women like me who have hips and big butt going on.  You just don't know how hard it is to find the perfect pair of pants for "curvy" women. Every store should have line of pants. But I digress.....

Since I've reached my weight loss goals I've noticed that motivation to exercise has waned a little. The month of August I was really lax when it came to exercise. It was for a couple reasons. One of which was work. It has been a crazy summer at work.  I was literally going from the moment I got there until it was time to leave and by the time I got home I was exhausted. And the other reason was because of my hair.
I know, I know I've blogged about this on several occasions.  But one thing that has really taken a beating since I got on my exercise journey was my hair. Because of all the sweating and lack of proper care on my part my hair started shedding really bad. I had to end up cutting several inches off. Too tell you the truth I was a little depressed about the whole thing.  Watching my hair break off strand by strand was not fun. But with the help of my hairdresser and my sister who lent me her hair rollers and dryer I think I'm on the right track as far as my hair is concerned.

I'm not going to let that deter me from my fitness goals.... which brings me to the next phase.
What to do next?  I've reached my weight goal. So I need something to keep my motivation up with brings me to my next goal which is running a half marathon. Yikes!   Yes a half marathon. That's 13.1 miles.  I've been starting to train for that and the most I've done is 6 miles. But my average on a run is about 3-4 miles. 13 seems sooo far away but I know I can do it. Just need to train better and eat better.

Which brings me to another think I've been getting lax on. I find myself slowly going back to my bad habit of grabbing the quickest and nearest fast food. but the thing now is that I'm so in tune with my body now that when I eat those foods my stomach feels wrecked hours even into the next day after I've eaten the food.  I always chide myself saying I should know better. But when you're hungry your stomach just wants anything doesn't matter how bad it is for you.

So I must do better.  Which means carrying healthy snacks with me if I plan on leaving the house for more than 4 hours.  Bananas, plums, nectarines,  peanuts, yogurt, cheese, whole wheat bread.   Nice healthy whole foods. Notice that nothing "granola or snack bars" are on that list.  I'm really trying to get this clean eating thing down pact.  Which means no package foods.  Those granola bars may seem good for you but they are filled with too much junk and way too much sugar.

I'll get my sugar from cake. LOL   Hey I'm a work in progress!