Path to Enlightment!

Guess what! I've registered for a marathon on January 13, 2008 at Disney World Orlando! I decided to take a huge step and just start training for the marathon. I've always wanted to begin exercising and get back in shape. I decided that now is the perfect time to begin because we're in Florida, we decided not to have any more kids, and we've already set on our trek to the path of enlightment two years ago.

Path to Enlightment - what the ever am I speaking of?

Sonny and I wanted to better our lives so we took small steps just to improve the way we live our lives. It has been a very rocky and hilly path the past two years but it has been worth it all the way. We begun with:

1. Improve the way we eat. Our shame was portioning. On 'According to Jim' comedy T.V. show, Jim's brother in law admitted a secret. He has a 'shame stick'. It's NOT what you think! His 'Shame Stick' was a stick of butter on popsicle stick and rolled in sugar and he would eat it like icecream or a corndog! Our 'shame stick' was the amount of food we were eating years ago. One of our favorite meals are fried potatoes with sliced hotdogs.d We used to throw in 4-6 sliced hotdogs with about 5 chopped potatoes. TODAY, we only fry with canola oil (heart-healthy) with only 2 chopped potato with 3-4 sliced hotdogs. We also add less salt and more tasty spices. Well, we've admitted our 'shame stick' story, what's yours?

My most major success is quitting Mountain Dew over three years ago! I quit it cold turkey one day and never looked back. My kids are NOT going to touch soda at all until they are old enough to make the concious decision to choose milk or water over soda. Sonny is 'working' on quitting coca cola. Pop and candy is just as addictive as cigarettes.

2. Improving finances! We wanted to pay off our credit card debt and improve our daily household budget. We wanted to end this year with ONLY school loans to pay and pay for everything in cash plus have savings for retirement and emergencies. We are very soon well on our way to acheiving that goal.

3. Saving the Environment (and save money) - We decided to reduce electricity usage throughout the house. We replaced light bulbs with energy saving flourscent bulbs. We bought an energy efficient washer and dryer. We've also begun to RECYCLE!!!! I'd encourage you guys to recycle. It is so much more statisfying! We consider it a continious goal to preserve energy and save the environment.

4. Finally, improving our health by exercising and setting a committment to encourage our kids to exercise. Amercia is considered one of the highest population of obese people and we didn't want to be part of that statistics plus heart disease and cancer runs in my family. I wasn't really encouraged to excercise growing up, I was encouraged to read more books to improve english skills plus improve speech skills by attending speech therapy. It was all education but no extracircular activities until I attended SDSD in high school and joined basketball. By then it was too late. There has to be a balance somewhere!

NOW... my running goal:
I joined a marathon to motiviate myself plus lose weight. I have begun to run in the mornings before Sonny and the kids wake up. Sonny is going to begin biking again. We are looking around for a road bike for him plus new gear. I've bought new running gear for myself and today I gave myself the day off from running after 1 full week and I have never felt that bad before. I usually run at 6 a.m. and I woke up at 8 a.m. and wanted to sleep more and my ears were ringing so bad and I was just feeling blah. I perked up after I walked around and made french toast. It is hard to exercise around kids because we don't have the gear to take the kids along but hope to buy them SOON. By 8am it was already too late to go running but I made it up by taking the kids to a nearby park after lunch. I am avoiding running in direct sunlight until I can get used to running long distances and getting used to the heat and sun. In September, I'll begin serious training by running more than 13 miles in 1 day with my buddies. The marathon is about 26.6 miles.

I've hemmed and hawed about posting my running plans on this blog because I consider myself a 'quitter' in the areas of exercising. I've tried to exercise before but always gave up after a few days. 1 full week of running is the longest I've ever had and the benefits of running is tremendous. After I go running, I'm awake and ready for the day! That was surprising to me. I hope to keep it up and suceed with the marathon. Before I die, I'd like to be able to say that I actually completed a marathon to add to my very short list of acheivements.

We have more goals to complete but will begin later once we've established our active lifestyle pattern. One of the goals is to save up some $$$ and go to Europe when the kids are older and can stay with grandparents. Anyone want to help us go to Europe? *winks* Sonny's dream is to backpack or bike throughout Europe. Not a bad idea but I gotta have a few hotel stays along the way. :)

Ciao!