It's been awhile since I've blogged, and literally, I've not had time! I made a commitment to myself at the beginning of the year that I would do my best to lead a healthier life. So far, so good, but my oh my it takes time and money!!!
Who would have thought that living a healthy lifestyle would be more expensive? It's crazy, you try to do the right thing, and the wrong thing happens! Basically, my grocery bill has doubled. Apparently, fresh food, fruit, and vegetables are a hot commodity! This isn't to mention that once you become healthy, your body goes through physical changes, and guess what? That's right, your clothes don't fit. So now what? Luckily for me, I haven't hit the point yet where my clothes are absolutely falling off of me, but if I keep this up, it won't be long. So, unfortunately for my bank account, that equals bad news. Fortunately for the local shelters, I'm putting clothes on someone's body that probably couldn't afford them otherwise. So, that's my rant about the expense of being healthy.
Now, on to the time factor. Because I've committed to do this, I've had to cut back on other leisurely activities like blogging. It wasn't really intentional, it's just been crazy busy around here and any free time that I get, is spent working out, mostly running. That's right, the girl who only runs when it's raining because I don't want my hair to get wet, is running a half-marathon.
Every year at school, I host a Running Club for my students. The ultimate goal of the running club is to run a marathon, kid style. Basically each child runs a mile a day up until race day and on race day, they run their last mile, which equals a full marathon. 26.2 miles. This year, I have 108 kids running. As a side note, our school is about 600 kids total. That's pretty impressive effort on my kids' part I think. Anyhow, if 1 out of 6 kids at school can commit to running a marathon, it's time I did.
So, I've been running. I started in early January and goodness it was tough. I knew I was out of shape, but whew! I started with an interval run/walk training schedule. Out of the blue one day (probably about 3-4 weeks ago) I decided I would run without walking and see how long I could go. It was a particularly emotional day, receiving news related to cancer about many friends. (This is my chance to say, CANCER SUCKS!) I started running, and each time I thought it was too rough, I thought about just 1 of those I was praying for with cancer, and kept running. Needless to say, I did it. I ran the entire 30 minutes. In my ever so competitive fashion, I've continued to add on miles and minutes. This weekend, I ran 7.53 miles in 1:28.00. Yep, that's right 7.5 miles. Then, I walked 1.5 after that. 9 miles total!
Shannon says that I've become addicted to running, but I'll tell you, not hardly! I'm still not a huge fan. What I am addicted to however, is taking that time to clear my mind, reboot and refresh, pray up, recharge, take deep breaths, and focus not only on myself, but all the others I've been praying for. I will do this.
If you're wondering the date of the Marathon, it's April 30th. The Kid's Marathon is on April 29th. If you live in Nashville, come on out and cheer me or the kids on!
Until then...
