She let herself go...

It was a simple statement from my husband, about a girl he knew in junior high.  It wasn't meant to be mean, he was just stating his surprise in how different the girl looked.  That simple statement got me to thinking about how different I look from a few years ago, say about 6 years ago, on my 21st Birthday.

Yup, that's me with my mom just under 6 years ago on my 21st birthday.  This is me now.

Personally, I look at the two pictures and I can see a difference, but not a huge difference.  Which makes me think that if I were to just exercise more and eat less during this next year I could look more like the top picture.  When I was at my parents for the holidays they had a picture on their fridge of me when I was thinner.  It helped me to think twice before I ate junk food.  I will be posting the first picture on the fridge at home as possible motivation.

Here's looking forward to a healthy 2012!

2011-The year of achievement

Do you ever have those years when you look back and just think, "This was a really good year"? A year where you can only think of the positive things that happened in your life?  As an optimistic person I'm usually able to always look at the bright side of life, but there are just some years that are better than others, years that had a lot less struggle and a lot more achievement.  The last year I can remember like that is 1997.  I know, it has been a long time, but every year since then has seen some sort of serious sickness in my family or even in my own life.  Or else there have been car accidents, break ups, poor decisions, just random negative things.  This year has been a positive year though.  I feel like there has been so much that I have been able to accomplish and it has all been because I've learned to totally rely on God again.  When I look at the turning point in the year when the achievements started, it was when I finally got the guts to do what God had been asking me to do.

Since I am coming from a year of accomplishments I want to continue on the positive path that was started.  I want to accomplish so much more in this next year.  I have laid out goals for my crafting, Etsy shop, and revamping Mr. Badango and I's eating to a healthy lifestyle.

Wedding Pics

NanNoWriMo

I think I may be nuts, I am going to attempt to write a novel, or 50,000 words, in a month.  Yes, I will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year.  I've heard about it every year but have never really thought about joining in until this year.  I have a friend who has started up a Christian Creative Writers Forum and for some reason that reminded me about my love of writing.

Up until now I have enjoyed posting occasional blogs here, and I will still continue to enjoy it.  But I don't feel like I am pushing myself in writing.  It isn't necessarily a life long dream to be a professional writer, but it is something that I always thought would be cool.  To get paid to write and to have people actually look forward to the stories I have to tell.

As with running, I needed a set way to challenge myself.  NaNoWriMo is the perfect opportunity and I actually have a story bouncing around in my head.  I will be using my sarcasm to its full extent for this story, but I will also be writing as if I was the main character achieving her goals.

Yarn Sale Fun

The Buffalo Wool Company is having a Trick or Treat Yarn Sale.  It sounds like fun and for $10 I get two skeins of yarn.  Can't beat that deal, check it out.  https://store-f3c65.mybigcommerce.com/trick-or-treat/

Couch25K Week 5

This is the week that I have been dreading, the week that it seemed like things got real.  I just finished Day 2 of this week and it felt easy, almost too easy.  I guess it turns out that all of that dreading was for naught and I may actually be able to complete this whole week no problem.  My stamina has gotten a lot better and while my legs are yelling at me they are carrying me through.

Part of my worry about this week of running has stemmed about reading others struggles with this week.  I guess I have learned that everyone has walls that they hit with a training program and they are all at different points in the program.  I think I hit mine in Week 3 of this program.  It was early on, but it was a struggle to get through the jogging for 5 minutes straight.  Hard to believe I did 8 minutes twice today, no problem. Then again I am getting my pacing down a lot better.

Here's to Day 3 on Friday.  Hoping I can get through the 20 minutes.

Jogging

When I had my left hip replaced in 2004 I was told I would never be able to jog or run again.  For 7 years I would actually have dreams that I was running.  It isn't like I was an avid runner before I had my hip replaced, but I did enjoy being able to push my body in that exercise form.  I tried running a few times in that 7 years, but every time I would end up with pain in my left hip. 

Then something changed this year.  Maybe it was the fact that I had been exercising with a coworker and I was able to jog in place.  Maybe doing that motion built up the correct muscles.  But somehow I was able to start jogging in little spurts at the beginning of this year. 

I decided to start the Couch 2 5K program the last week of August.  Amazingly enough my hip hasn't hurt during this whole past month of jogging.  Today I was able to jog for 5 minutes straight, and and additional 6 minutes broken up over two spurts.  I'm wondering if I'm crazy to have my ultimate goal be to run marathons.