My good friend Megan at elbowglitter.com every Monday posts a post she titles, “Motivation Monday”. So I thought that today I would take a moment to talk about what is motivating me for the month of April.

When it comes to my health there are three components that I feel contribute to my success: diet, cross training and running. I have different motivators this month for each of these areas.

Diet – DietBet.com ROTE Challenge
Several of the folks over at ROTE started a challenge on DietBet.com. It is an interesting concept where everyone puts money into a pot and has a common goal and those that achieve their goal then split what is in the pot. So you aren’t out more than you initial bet and there is more than one winner. While I recognize that the 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks is not ideal for my current body weight I still find it motivating to help me stay on my best behavior.

ThroughHeathersLookingGlass.com Cross Train or Remain the Same Challenge Loop
This morning I joined a challenge on Challenge Loop put on by Heather of Through Heather’s Looking Glass. The goal of the challenge is to encourage folks that run to work Cross Training into their routines by completing at least 8 workouts this month. I have been working hard to increase my cross training with ChaLEAN Extreme, so this is the perfect motivation to help me keep those workouts up through the month of April.

My Training Plan for the Disneyland Dumbo Challenge
My next big race is not until September. I did that in purpose because I wanted to drop my mileage back and work on my base before building up for my next half marathon. I have two goals for the Dumbo Double Dare: PRing the 10K distance and doing my half marathon in sub-3 hour time. I know to do this I need to be consistent with my running and a training plan will help keep me on target. I took the Hal Higdon Intermediate Plan and modified it to make room for my ChaLEAN Extreme workouts. I know I won’t be able to stick to it 100%, but I figure it is a good guideline to keep me training safely and arrive to race day ready to make my goals.

While I know everyone is motivated by different things, races, plans and challenges help keep me moving. If you find something that keeps you moving embrace it and go with it.

So I signed up for Weight Watchers yet again.  It worked for me once I know it can work for again.  One step I took this time that I haven’t in my other attempts was I went in and hit the magical little button that wiped out your weight loss history.  It is symbolic of the bigger picture for me.  I can’t try to recreate what I have done in the past.  I need to start from scratch and create a whole new story not recreate my past.  Part of it is also a little selfish in that I want to earn those 5lb stars.  I want a chance to get my 75lb star.  Little rewards go a long way on these kinds of journeys and those little jpegs mean a lot to a tech geek like me.

In 400 days and 14 hours I will be standing on an alter ready to a big step in my life as I become Mrs. Katie Riley-Schwarz.  That journey will not only include becoming a new wife but also a new Mom as I become part of a family that includes a beautiful and intelligent 9 year old girl and a handsome and vivacious 5 year old boy.  I have always told myself that I wanted to be healthy before I became a Mom so that I did not raise children with the same bad habits that have caused me to battle my weight my entire life. 

Sitting here looking over my blog I can see the amazing journey I took back in 2006 and how healthy I became.  I have struggled since then as my weight crept back up on me.  I take responsibility for the bad choices I made and I recognize that I am the one to blame for weight I have put back on.  As I look towards October 25, 2012 I know where I want to be on that day and what kind of example I want to set for my future step-kids.  That starts with the next breath I take.

So my first step is looking back at what made that original journey so successful and this blog was a HUGE part of that as well as the support of my online weightloss community.  Now is the time to set myself up for success.  Now is the time for K80K.com to be brought back to life to document the next chapter in my life.  So hello old friends!  I have missed you!

So people are probalby wondering what happend with my “Sad” post from a couple weeks ago.  Well I have cleaned up my eating, but I have been choosing not to talk about it.  Rather than obsess over it I just want to do it.  I think the past I have become so wrapped around my diet that I created too much pressure on myself and eventually I cracked.  This technique is working great for me so far.  I am down 7 lbs from the “Sad” day and I have loads of energy.  I have been counting my points and planning my food and that’s it.  No obsessing going on here.  I don’t even feel the urge to go over to the next row to get a donut.  :)  That is probably all you will hear until I hit some major milestone of some sort.  Maybe my 10%.  It would be nice to hit my new 10% before going to Disney in May.  That would be 20 lbs… We shall see.

I decided to clean my bedroom tonight.  This involved mostly hanging up the pile of clothes that collected on the quilt rack because they were rejected during my daily wardrobe selection process.  While I am happy that the bedroom is now clean, hanging out in my closet made me sad.  I have a ton of clothes in there I bought when I hit my lowest weight that don’t fit.  I want to be in my size 12 jeans again.  That is when I was my happiest and healthiest.  I pulled one of those size 12s out and I have it hanging on my bedroom door so it is the first thing I see when I get up in the morning.  I need to remind myself why I need to count my points.  I go overboard with my food when I don’t count my points.  Counting my points is what got me to my size 12s in the first place, they will get me there again and beyond.  Tomorrow is a new day.

 

Took another day off.  My ankle felt pretty good today and I didn’t want to push it.  I plan to run my 5 miles in the morning.  It is supposed to be 28 degrees with 5 mph winds.  My cold gear should do just fine.