Marathon Makeover!

My marathon training started yesterday! I'm excited! I'm following an 18 week plan for the Cross Timbers Trail Run at Lake Texoma in February. I'm so ready to get back to 'me.' I'm not happy with 'me' currently. My weight is at an all time high...where it was when I graduated college, which was ugly and I never wanted to go back there, but here I am. Why must weight be such a battle?? For me, it comes down to food because I have no issues with working out, I love it, although I've really put it on the back burner for too long. But food, oh how I love thee! While I only have myself to blame for my poor food choices, our culture certainly doesn't help the situation. We are completely surrounded with commercials, billboards, restaurants, etc. promoting unhealthy food. Our culture is so centered around food...food for rewards, food for celebration, food for bad days, food, food, food. It attacks our willpower, because you can only say no for so long before you cave.

Things are changing in the Bolton household though. Time for Paleo eating! Essentially, cutting out the processed junk and dairy (that's the short version of it). I did this for a few weeks last year (before the holidays pulled the rug out from under me) and felt great! Whole foods were tasting great! Cravings for sugar and processed stuff were going away. Weight was dropping off. Anyway, I was too weak and crumbled. I hope to be stronger this time. Clint is much more onboard this time which will help. I'm so ready for this healthy lifestyle makeover as I like to call it. Once this eating becomes a lifestyle, we'll be less vulnerable to all the NOISE out there.

And I know those evil holidays are looming, but I'm prepared this time. I know I won't be perfect through them, but I will be cautious and sparing in my indulgences. Plus, I plan to learn how to make some new foods, healthy foods, that can become holiday traditions. Like I said, once you get away from processed foods, it's amazing how alive your sense of taste becomes, everything 'healthy' that once had a dull flavor is now full of life!

I'll keep everyone up to date on our progress. We bought some paleo cook books and already on our first day yesterday we made a yummy dinner AND a good chocolate-banana cake. We were skeptical about the cake, but couldn't believe how well it turned out. So, see, we can have our cake and eat it too! :)

In other news, Clint and I officially joined Mobberly Baptist Church this weekend. We had ben visiting for awhile. I'm glad to feel settled in a new church home rather than in limbo all the time. We are loving the energy that is in this church and can't wait to get involved!

Super Size Me

Clint and I finally watched this documentary this past weekend. Yes, I realize we are a little late to the party since it came out back in 2004. And while I have read and heard reviews about how the guy took things to extreme, it's not comparable to real life eating, yada yada, it was still so alarming. Some of the stats are just so sad. What are we doing to ourselves?? Surely people KNOW fast food, etc. is bad for them, right? Clint and I do know it's bad for us, but still find ourselves eating it. Not as much as the 'average' consumer, but still WAY more than we should.

I think one of the saddest parts of the documentary was when they were showing a young girl and her mom talking to Jared the 'Subway' guy. Jared had come to a local school to give a speech on eating right/weightloss. The girl/mom duo got the chance to talk to him afterwards. The mom was concerned for her daughter because she was obese and her daughter couldn't lose weight. Well, mom was obese too...and mom is the one who feeds daughter. I will boldly say that I think obesity in children is a form of child abuse. Yes, I know there are the RARE medical cases that obesity is a side effect of the condition/medication, so I'm not talking about those situations.

I worked at the McDonald's PlayPlace in high school, doing birthday parties and monitoring the children/cleaning up the area. I would see so many of the same families week after week. The place reeked of ketchup. I saw kids get refills on soda time, after time, after time...many being 'forced' to stick to the orange soda or sprite since those didn't have caffeine. Umm yeah, that's a better solution. And yes, I know even McD's can be eaten in moderation, but I don't think that people know what moderation is anymore!

Anyway, the documentary told us mainly what we already knew. Processed food is bad and it expands outside of just McD's, which by the way I was never a fan anyway. I may have worked there, but I didn't eat there. Now, Whataburger...lol. Clint and I like to think that we are doing good, but we're not. It's time for us to buck up and change that! Last year I went Paleo eating for a few weeks. It's amazing how great I felt! Sadly, I let it all crash and burn during the holidays and it went by the wayside. Well, Clint and I are both ready to take it on. I hope I can make it a lasting lifestyle. I'll let everyone know of our progress. We have a book with many Paleo recipes and I am getitng some more. Really, it's not hard to eat Paleo, the food is good, it's simply a matter of taking some planning time until it becomes more natural. I wish we had better grocery store options such as a Whole Foods, but we'll just have to work with what we've got. I think changing our habits to the healthier now will be so beneficial to when we add a new addition to our family so that we can teach our child how to eat well through example as well. I know we can't cut out all the bad 100%, and I'm not trying to, but we can certainly get away from the American lifestyle.

In other news, Clint and I went out to the Hamby Trails this past weekend with some of the bike club members to clean up the trails to get them ready for this season of mountain biking and trail running. The trails really weren't in too bad of shape...it's been so dry this year so I don't think things have grown as much. I'm excited! Just in time for me to start my training for my trail run in February. My plan officially starts on the 18th!

Things are Looking Up!

So, after my downer of a post on Friday morning, things really didn't improve. After work, I checked the mail and discovered that Clint got a red light traffic ticket. I hate feeling like we are just throwing money away. Then, a little later we got a call that Clint's mom had fallen in the bleachers at a football game and was being transported by ambulance to the hospital. She's fine. Well, she did scrape up her knees pretty good and they were already swelling, but nothing broken or requiring stitches. The frustrating thing with the situation was the lack of communication; therefore, not knowing what was going on.

However, this week, we are back on track! It's been a nice week so far and the cooler temperatures are so refreshing. I am loving running right now. I start my marathon plan in 2 weeks! I'm a little nervous about it because I picked a pretty aggressive plan with 6 days/week running. We'll see how my body holds up, I may end up backing off to five days/week.

Clint and I are also approaching the end of our 4 week budget (right now we rotate on 4 weeks rather than monthly, but plan to go to monthly next year). Doesn't mean much to most, but to us, it means we get to make a big payment to Clint's student loans! I know I was just complaining in my last post about paying towards debt, but while we hate it, we love seeing the huge drop each month. Freedom from debt is within our reach and each time we get to make the 'big' payment, it gives us a boost.

So, while October started off in a slump, it's back to being its usual greatness. October is by far my favorite month of all!

In a Slump

Clint and I have been feeling a lot like the picture on the left lately. To say we are in a slump would be an understatement. We're doing good things and headed in the right direction, but I tell ya' the getting there can be such a drag! So, allow me to rant, or let it all out if you will...

We started the Dave Ramsey plan about a year ago now. It was/IS awesome and has totally turned our lives around. Not that we thought life was bad, but man, our outlook sure did get much brighter. However, we've been paying off debt, paying off debt, paying off debt. Seems like we watch the rest of the world go by. We know we're doing the right thing, but the right thing certainly isn't always the easy thing. We hardly race because that costs money, no vacation, and the list goes on. And while I know we aren't exactly living on beans and rice and cutting off the power to pay things off, we are in such a rut right now: go to work, workout, sleep, repeat. And then on weekends, try to get caught up on the house because we were too tired during the week to do anything.

Work is slow and uneventful. No exciting projects right now. I get frustrated at times with my co-workers/boss for this and that. Meaningless stuff really, but this slump/rut has me on edge.

I hate that I've let myself get so out of shape and put on so much weight. I need that spark again, but with the slump, I just want to come home and space out.

I have a to-do list a mile long and a reading list that's even longer.

My Leadership class met for a lunch meeting yesterday and I was going to go...all the way up until Wednesday afternoon when my boss said we had to go out of town for work. :( This meeting they basically assigned responsibility/tasks to everyone...except for those 5 of us that weren't there. I'm scared that now I'll just merely be 'present' rather than active and I hate that. Of course, the e-mail said that we could nominate ourselves for a position (we officially vote in a couple of weeks). But how do you nominate yourself for something when you weren't even there and attempt to take it from someone who was there??

To sum it up, I'm tired, bored, cranky, mad at myself, ready for a change.

However, I am not going to let myself go down this spiral any further. It's easy to get caught up in this 'woe is me' outlook. I have so many things to be thankful for and really, my life is pretty darn sweet! I need to remind myself of that daily! I've picked a race, found a plan (starts in two weeks), and am ready to take things one step at a time. We are headed in the right, beautiful direction.