Fighting Mothra

That moth on the windshield of my car? Yeah, he was on the INSIDE of the car instead of the OUTSIDE...I couldn't tell at first, until he landed in my hair as I was driving home tonight. UGH!

On a much happier note, today I retraced my Friday night run with my car, because I knew my stupid, cheap pedo watch was wrong. 2.2 miles in 34.33 minutes. That's a 15.6 minute mile! I'm getting faster!

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

That's Not Right...

I went for a run tonight...I know I ran further than 1.78 miles, but my stupid cheap pedo watch begs to differ...i'll prove it by driving my route tomorrow night. UGH!

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line.

New Year, New Goals, New Determination

It's official! I'm now 42 years old! Over the past year and a half I have achieved many things, including losing 55 pounds, running half marathons, and hopefully becoming a better person throughout it all.

While I'm still motivated, and still putting my shoes on, it's time to crank up the intensity once again. Today, July 26th, starts another weightloss journey. My first goal has always been 175. I have reached that, but my underlying goal has been 150. So now it's time to hit that milestone.

Some people have told me many times that I would look weird if I lost any more weight. That's very irritating, because how would they know? How would I know? I haven't been this small since high school, and I was Fat Connie in high school.

It took me almost 10 years to prove "haters" (including myself) wrong, that I wasn't an athlete, that I couldn't run. Guess what...I am and I can.

I'm giving myself a year to get to my SECOND goal, 150 lbs, but I can't do it without all the support I've gotten from everyone. If I hit it before then, great! If I lose more than that, FABULOUS! Like a wonderful friend of mine said, "if you do look weird, you can always gain it back."

So "haters", keep hating...hate on me...but know this...I'm living my life like it's golden, and I'm feeling good!

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

 

http://youtu.be/4QCXr79Rkcw
http://youtu.be/Sy8JGiHqvDo

New Identity

This year I had the distinct pleasure of renewing my driver's license. YAY! This means no more Fat Connie...or so I thought.

A couple years ago the Nebraska DMV changed the way to get a new license. The way I understood is that you have to apply online. Two months ago I got a postcard in the mail encouraging me to renew online. Two weeks ago I did that. Ok, done...or so I thought.

Right after I received an emailed receipt of payment, I started thinking about what picture they were going to use. I suddenly realized it would be Fat Connie. CRAP! Here's Fat Connie, haunting me yet again. I've lost 105 pounds, and I'll be DAMNED if my new license is going to represent Fat Connie for another 4 years! So, off to the courthouse I go, three days later.

UGH! Present receipt to treasurer. Present receipt to DMV after Jackass #1 totally cuts in front of me. Fill out paperwork so you can actually talk to DMV officer. Get photo taken. Find two forms of ID with full address information(that's hard to do). Pay an EXTRA $13.50 JUST to get photo taken. UGH! What an annoyance, and the worst thing, I'm annoyed at myself for going the roundabout way in the first place!

So after paying $50 to Nebraska DMV instead of $13.50 at the Treasurer's office, and being informed to cut up the FIRST issued license, I now have new license with Not As Fat Connie and am MUCH happier, especially having beaten Fat Connie in that round of the epic battle.

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Writer's Block And Observations

I still have writer's block, so I'll share an observation instead.

Cows tend to poop after you make them stand up or moooove.

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Writer's Block and Conundrums

I have writer's block, but I love the word "Conundrum". It sounds like a dirty word, but really, it's not. Say it with me...

"Conundrum"

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Good Versus Evil

Fighting Fat Connie...That's the true title.

Calm Down...I'm talking about myself. Ok, my (somewhat) former self, or is it?
The battle is on, and it's turning out to be an epic saga. It's a battle of good versus evil, and tonight Fat Connie is winning. In fact, Fat Connie has been winning for a while.

FAT CONNIE:                                                                           

Just one more trip through the drive through.                             

You don't need breakfast.                                                            
Sure, stay up as late as you want!                                              
You don't need to run this morning.                                             
You'll look weird if you lose any more weight.                       
That's not excess skin...                                                                

NOT SO FAT CONNIE:
But I did that this whole week!
Are you sure? It's supposed to fuel my whole day.
UGH! I just worked a 12 hour day...but this is a good movie.
Yes I do! But it's so hot out...just 5 more minutes of sleep...my knee hurts anyway.
How do you know?
(Silence)
I'm not looking for pity...I'm just sayin...

The battle rages on.

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line.



AWESOMENESS...PERIOD!

I can't get over how great my weekend was! I got the chance to interview a guy who is helping change people's lives and become better people as a whole, and he's just an ordinary guy! He never expected to have the following he has. He's just an ordinary guy who was overweight and depressed, and needed to find happiness again.

I, myself, find it a bit weird to hear that I'm an inspiration to others through my weightloss journey, because I'm not used to hearing those comments. It's a whole new experience. I'm doing this journey for myself, but it's cool that people are looking at my achievements to help them better themselves. I'll take that too.

Now imagine millions of people feeling inspired by your journey.

http://www.bendoeslife.com/


This last Saturday, I interviewed Ben Davis, creator of the "Do Life" tour, when they stopped in Omaha. Ben and some of his family are touring across the country on a 5k tour, meeting people, running with them, and hanging out at lunch afterwards. Not only is he sharing his story, but allowing others to share their stories as well. Trust me...my achievements PALE in comparison to some I heard last weekend.

"Do Life" Tour Comes To Omaha

These people are motivation personified, and I will use their motivation to help keep me on my track, to continue my journey, because I want to, and because I can.

AWESOMENESS...PERIOD!

Zumbarunner...Whether it's shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Motivation Part 3

In less than 48 hours, I will meet(again) someone who inspires me, who motivates me, and I'm SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!

I know I have mentioned him in past blogs when he was in Lincoln last month.

His name is Ben. Last year when I was just starting to run, a great friend of mine shared a youtube link of a guy who lost about 125 pounds by running. He started out about 350 pounds and just started running. He did it as a promise to his grandmother, who knew he was unhappy and depressed with his weight.

He now competes in IRONMAN competitions with his brother and father. They are driving across country this summer, going to 30 cities in 30 days, talking to people, sharing each other's stories, running a group 5k, and enjoying dinner afterwards, while training for an IRONMAN on top of it. He seems to be one of the nicest guys I've met, and I get the distinct pleasure of doing a story with him in Omaha this Saturday morning!

Here is his website. He encourages people to DO LIFE.

http://www.bendoeslife.com/

I CAN'T WAIT!

TRAINING: JULY 14, 2011...45 minutes of Zumba.

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Just Breathe

TAKE A BIG ZUMBA BREATH IN...

After holding my breath for nearly an hour, practically turning blue, pacing, contemplating hiding in the bathroom, in tears and choking up as I'm getting mic'd up 30 seconds to air, and a five minute segment later...

AND, RELEASE....

WOW! THAT, was terrifying. I haven't been in front of a studio camera since "Romper Room" when I was 5 years old.

In case you're wondering, some of my coworkers at the TV station asked me to be on one of our programs to talk about my weightloss journey.

I couldn't even bring myself to watch the segment, but I just did...GROAN! I'll post it here anyway. I hope I was at least coherent AND made sense!

Can I PLEASE go back to hiding behind the camera again?

Don't laugh too much!

Training today...Extra long run before 1 hour Zumba class! TONS of de-stressing to do today.

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Weight Loss Story

Umm...Too Late Now!

What was I thinking?

Groan...

Tomorrow I'm going to be on a local tv show; NTV's Good Life, talking about my journey, my weightloss, and who knows what else. YIKES! They'll even air pictures of my six year transition from "Fat Connie" to "Not As Fat Connie".

GROAN! UGH! YIKES! sigh...

I prefer to be BEHIND the camera for a reason!

Umm, have I said GROAN, UGH, YIKES and sigh yet?

I'm just nervous about it. It has been a transformation, and I feel better about myself, but I'm doing my journey for myself. If I happen to be an inspiration to others, that's cool too. It's flattering, because I never considered myself to be an inspiration.

Oh well. As long as I don't look or sound like a complete schmuck, I think it'll be ok. Just do me a favor...if you get the chance to watch it, don't point and laugh too much!

I just hope someone tells me that I have food in my grill or a boogie in my nose BEFORE I go on!

Training: 45 min excruciatingly HOT Zumba class and 1 mile run after. Food eaten today... 1 glass chocolate milk and 1 VERY large chocolate chip cookie at the mall. Protein, calcium and carbs. YAY!

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Junk Food Junkie

I just may have fallen off the NO JUNK FOOD criteria I set for myself last year, because honey, they've sucked me in.

Recently I've been combing the drivethrus of McD's, Taco John's, and Arbys, but I do pretty good with the selection...chicken (mostly), and then there's the potato ole's...MMM...SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD!!!! This past weekend alone I've hit BK three times. YIKES! I don't even like BK all that much. All of these bad trips for good food may be the reason of why I've been feeling so sluggish lately...all those freakin' gut bombs are takin' their toll y'all...yelling at me and kicking me in the yass (and in the budget)!

There is an upside to this though, if you can call it that. I am STILL staying away from the donut shop and the pop (soda to some, but who knows why).

This doesn't mean that I'm stopping my journey, it just means I have to step up my discipline, kick myself in the bootah, and start focusing again. We all struggle with issues. Food just happens to be one of my biggest ones, of which will be a future blog at some point or another.

This morning I went back to bed instead of starting my training, but I was EXHAUSTED! Don't worry...at least I thought about training.

Tomorrow Training Starts...FO SHO!

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Bug Bites, Vodka, Tanned Hides and Wet Bootahs

Here's my weekend in a nutshell. I got bit on both my legs by mosquitos, chiggers and flies.

I drank some vodka and hung out with some really awesomely cool people.

Working outside in 100 degree weather helped my driver's tan on my left arm, a nice burn on my chest, but did nothing for my pasty white legs. What gives?

I underestimated Ma Nature's moodiness again today. She decided to dump a whole bunch of rain in my car. It's probably my fault for having the windows down a bit, so I ended up with a wet yass while driving home from work.

Hill and sprint training starts tomorrow...oh joy!

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Busy-ness

It's been a busy week here, even with having July 4th off. Whew! I've been exhausted! You would think that being so busy and tired wouldn't hinder my workouts at all. Sadly, it has. 

I have worked out in some form or another this week, whether it's Zumba a couple days, street runs a couple days, or ab cruncher a couple days. It's just been hard to start out. I'm finding that if I don't work out in the mornings, I'll struggle to make it through the day, let alone do something at night. It's not a lack of motivation, because I'm just as motivated as ever, but I do occasionally struggle with it. Everyone does.

I'm also struggling with the fact that up until my half marathon, I was pushing myself every week to improve, add an extra mile, or decrease my time. Since then, I've only done short runs. What's the difference? I wish I knew the answer. I can throw excuses out there though..."it's too nice to run 13 miles indoors on the track," or "I just don't have enough time," or "I'm too tired," or "I don't have any half marathons until next year." Those excuses don't get you anywhere.

Monday will start "back on track" week, with a few unexpected twists and turns yet to come. I'm looking forward to it, but in the meantime, can I go back to bed now? YAWN. Obvious answer, nope...gotta work. Hi Ho, Hi Ho!

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Tackling The Treadmill

I've been running (seriously) for a few months now, have pushed myself further than I think I can possibly go, so you would THINK that I've got this running thing down...not even close! There are so many things to think about, to learn, to implement in this sport. It's funny if you think about it, that running is supposed to be the cheapest sport out there. All you need is shoes, right?

But when considering the mental cost of running, that bill can be bigger than trying to feed just half of the teams in the NFL (well, before the lockout). One of those mental costs happens to be the dreadmill. Oops, did I say that out loud? I meant the treadmill.

Treadmills and I don't get along very well. I can walk on one, but not comfortably. I have balance and stability issues, so I'm afraid of them. That fear ratchets up about 50 notches with the thought of RUNNING on them. Running? Pshhhhhhhh...please! I can barely walk on them, let alone run, yet the fact that I want to be faster, and need to start hill training for future runs, makes me have to face one of my biggest mental demons.

The treadmill. The time has come, after months of avoidance and excuses not to run on them at the Y. The treadmill. So many people despise the machine. The treadmill. It's time. I asked a trainer friend to help me tackle the treadmill today. "I can walk on the treadmill without holding on"..."ok, start walking slow, then when you feel comfortable, SLOWLY bump up the speed a little bit till you start walking a little faster...then up to a jog. HOLD ON IF YOU HAVE TO." UGH!

REALLY???

"It's mostly mental." That's what stuck in my head, because ain't THAT the truth!

My running is someone else's walk or jog. How embarrassing...ok. I can do this, and, I did it, eventually WITHOUT holding on. I kept increasing the speed until I got to 3.5mph, which is my usual running speed. YES, PATHETIC, I know, but hey, I'm slow. Don't judge. I got to 3.5mph and ran without holding on.

I tackled the treadmill today! Now, if I can jump off without killing myself off, that will be a work in progress. For now, I know I'll be able to run on the treadmill when the time comes.

Taming the beast will be another story.

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Nothing, really

It's day two of my surprise three day weekend. It's a surprise because I found out last Friday that I wasn't on the work schedule for the Fourth of July. WOO-HOO! So after running a 5k yesterday morning (July 4th), and taking a much needed nap, I decided to head to Hastings with the folks for fireworks. Finally, I was going to actually watch fireworks for once.

Today was a day full of nothing except quality family time, running much needed errands...putting way too much crap in my mouth (bad food in case anyone's wondering), oh, and clothes shopping. While I didn't find anything to buy (had two close calls though), I have to admit, I'm now LIKING clothes shopping now...gasp...shocker!

I'm now dvr'ing  Eat Pray Love for the 10th time (complete with satellite outage from thunderstorm), listening to my cd player in my boombox (yes, they still make those), and putting yet MORE crap in my mouth.

I'll call today my "rest" day, and tomorrow, back at it again with (of course) Zumba, some running, and maybe tackling the dreaded treadmill...and reveling in the fact that today I did nothing, really.

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Breakfast Pizza

This morning (July 4th), I ran a 5k in Shelton called the Shelton Stampede. I started off way too fast because I was trying to keep up with the pack. That was a mistake! Sheesh! After about 2 steps, everybody else pulled way out in front of me, and there I was, running my own race again. I'm getting used to this, but it's not very cool.

Before I got there, I read on my race brochure that there would be pizza afterwards...hmmm...pizza at 9am?

So as I'm running, I see a black cat, a few birds, maybe a bunny (I forget now), an unmanned water station, and five dead, squished toads on different streets. EWWW!

I think the girl who WAS manning the unmanned water station felt sorry for me and started walking about a half mile in front of me so I could have someone to keep my sights on while running my own race. I did almost catch up with her though.

As I was trying to survive the last couple blocks, I noticed everyone there, and I told myself to finish strong, and kicked it. I pr'd!  I finished in 49:26...18 seconds faster than the Community Olympiad last weekend. The organizers even held off on the awards ceremony until AFTER I crossed. That was cool! Although I didn't win any medals, I found out the pizza was actually Breakfast Pizza.

I'll run for Breakfast Pizza any day!

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

I Should Be Sleeping...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I have a 5k in 6 hours. My carb loading was three tablespoons of cold mac n cheese, converted into pasta salad, and worked an EXTREMELY long day.

Why am I ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...SNORT!

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

Big Gorillas

Pssst...There's a giant gorilla in Kearney. Really, I saw it! It's wearing the Rocky 3 boxing shorts, and holding a derigible.

NO REALLY, I SAW IT! TODAY, UP ON THE HILL!

You don't believe me. I'm sad. No, I didn't get proof, I just SAW it! Fine, don't believe me, but I know what I saw!

He was also in Hastings today, but going commando without the Rocky 3 shorts and derigible.

I don't understand why you STILL don't believe me!

I know what I saw...

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

ps...He was buying fireworks. It must be a guy thing!

You Can Not Possess Me, NO!

Some people start working out to get over a broken relationship. It's true, TMZ said so. A few months back they showed a photo of Halle Barry coming out of a gym in L.A. just after reports started flying around that she had split with her ex. 

While there are a myriad (yes, I know big words), of reasons why I started on my journey last January, I do have to admit, that "dude" played a role. Sparing any details, I knew "dude" for a few months, and thought we were cool. He evidently didn't.

Enter Bon Jovi.

Thanks everyone, now I can't hear ANYTHING because of all the SCREAMING!

The whole concert day was AWESOME! Jon Bon was HOTTER THAN EVER, even from the cheap seats, and I made some new friends. What could be better? "Dude" actually being there. A few days earlier "sudden sinus infection dude" says he can't go.

"I'll leave one (ticket) at will call so that you can meet me there". NOPE.

"Connie, just sell your ticket" say all my new friends. NOPE.

I had a FABU time seeing Jon Bon rock out. With the amount of money I spent on two nosebleed tickets, I could have been in the main section of the arena with everyone else.

Two weeks later, "dude" calls me and tells me about a light kit for his motorcycle that I'm GOING to buy him for his birthday. UMMMM....EX-FREAKIN-CUSE ME??????????

AWW, HELL'S NO!

That was last February. I've lost 55 pounds since then, and even though I've thought about "dude" from time to time, we've never reconnected...until recently. Just a couple weeks ago, actually. All of a sudden, from out of nowhere, "dude" is back. An instant message pops up..."hi there".

Wow. Just out of the blue, like nothing happened in the past 1 1/2 years. We started talking a bit. I actually bitched him out more than us actually talking. He now thinks we're cool. I'm contemplating.

The spell was lifted as I started on my weightloss journey, and I will NOT let "dude" cast his spell or derail any future progress.

"You can NOT possess me, NO!" said Judy Tenuta in her standup act back in the '80's. Yes, the '80's. Remember, I'm old!

I love this line. It can be attributed with so many issues in life, but right now, it's focused on "dude".

"You can NOT possess me, NO!"

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!

ps...I started sprints today, July 1, 2011. YUCK!