starting young

as i was doing a workout video after tonight's run (thanks to the gummy bears and cheez-its i had for lunch and the resultant guilt!) i looked over and spotted this:

a little pajama-clad shadow with about 2% body fat lifting a dumbbell that's about 1/6 of his total body weight.

here's to the kids inheriting my reluctant love of working out to go along with my sharp cheddar and krystal addictions that are no doubt lurking in their DNA.

haircut

my last haircut of any kind: 5/29/2010. that is until friday 10/14/11.

this my hair "style" literally 90% of the time. it is only ever down if it is wet after washing or if i am sleeping. i am that lazy.

front taco with a side of rat's nest. the sides are 'spiderfinger chic'

but i have always been like this. have really long hair, never use it or show it off, except for 4 times a year maybe. but it was beyond bad recently when the last few times i have actually "tried," --aka, blow dried, flat ironed, brushed-- my hair it hasnt even looked good. it is so void of style that it wont even respond to effort at this point.

so i saved my etsy money and hit the salon for the first time since layla was a shrimp-sized fetus. i had them throw a bunch of layers and some "swoopy front pieces" up in there and bumped up the color with some highlights. it feels better already.

after:

shorter, sassier, healthier. i am blurry with joy.

i will still only wear it down a maximum of one day a week. let's not get crazy and expect any real change. the blow dryer is still ridiculous as it takes more than 20 ludicrous minutes to dry my hair. call me when the insta-dry technology from marty mcfly's jacket becomes a reality. and even straightening is now a mega-chore since 2 pregnancies gave my previously straight-as-an-arrow hair some legit curls...but only in the BACK of my head! not useful.

if youre on the southside of atlanta, i highly recommend kristie p. at ici paris in peachtree city. she 100% delivered on my scattered, non descriptive wishes AND showed me new ways to style it. and i LOVE my color...she can do it all!

i demolished the professionally styled perfection (which you can never really recreate on your own!) 12 hours later by pulling the hair back into an elastic prison and dragging it 9.3 miles on our 15k. i was blazingly fast without my split ends snagging on the wind.

phase 2

well it's been 231 miles since i exposed myself at a professional sporting event and decided i was tired of feeling like trash about my health and my body. with a surprising amount of self-awareness i said in that post that i would just try to become a runner and see if i could stick with that before i added in nutritional changes and other forms of exercise.

you guys, craze of all crazies: i am a runner now. the slowest, most ungainly one in the northern hemisphere? why, yes (i still have those chubby antarctic penguins beat...my waddle is faster!), but i can run 20 miles a week with no problem--and actually enjoy it. jesse and i are running a 15k this weekend which will be my farthest EVER...until it is eclipsed my our half-marathon training runs and finally the 13.1 race itself.

but here's the thing. i have maintained this new habit surprisingly well (for me), but as a "reward" to myself for this added positive hobby, i have been really letting it rip on the nutrition. to the point where i started to wonder if i maybe had a fast food addiction.

does that sound melodramatic? hell yes. but red flags start flying up when you polish off a chick-fil-a spicy sandwich for lunch and all you are thinking about on the way home is how to talk your husband into romantic big macs for dinner. isn't that how drug addicts are described? always looking for the next hit? yeah, that's me and trans fat. oh, the shame!

so i have compensated the running with way more unhealthy eating habits than i ever had before i took up running. it was a lazy and indulgent way of saying, "well i'm sticking with the running, i deserve a little something to be easy and fast and fun...for about 10 meals a week!" ugh.

so here we go on phase 2. like i said, food is my main squeeze. i will never be able to go all-paleo or zero-sugar or any extremity like that. leave me 5 extra pounds and a fried snickers at the carnival and a chili cheese dog every time i'm near the varsity. that i can handle.

but i can (and should) be able to tackle embarrassingly small goals like, "oh, hey, eat A vegetable today!" or, "maybe try not eating fast food this week."

so that's where we are. i am cooking at home and making a seriously conscious decision to just try when it comes to diet, to be aware of what's going in and to make it the best i can. rather than just squeezing my eyes shut, and shoveling in waffle fries and acting like it all cancels out because i ran 3 miles. no more.

there will always be a place in my tummy and my heart (the arterial regions) for chickfila and even that poisonous mcdonalds. but as a very rare treat not something that is my post-run daily due.

i lost 10 lbs and gained a ton of confidence over this last 6 months of running. i am excited to see how much better i feel physically and mentally by improving my nutrition.

is this doesn't work, i am going to rage-eat my way through truett cathy's entire bounty.