Great day of running!

This morning I picked up my 18 year old niece and took her for a 4 mile run. She had started right off running faster than me, I told her I run about and 11 min mile. But she ran off in front of me, I let her go, I dont talk on my runs anyway, she would look back and see where I was and keep going. when we got to the 2 mile mark on the trail we turned around, and she was walking, she looked kind of in pain , something not feeling right, she said her shoulders hurt. So anyway, I was running and soon she passed me. it wasnt until we got back to the hill that she was walking, and I passed her, when I got to the top of the hill I looked back and she was still walking, the end of the trail wasnt too far off so I ran to the end and waited for her. I was very proud that I outran my 18 year old niece!
Then this evening after I took Jake to work, I then went out on another run, this time it was 3 miles. My time was the same, I cant seem to get past the 11 min mile , I dont know what it takes to get past it! I felt AMAZING running twice today. Even Brett asked me when I was heading out for the second run " Didnt you already run 4 miles today" I said "yes" he said, " so your running again now, WHY?" I said " Because I want to " .
That is just it, I did it because I can!! I am not sure if anyone really grasps how amazing I feel, I am not even sure I can explain how it feels to be in this body , and experience all that it is capable of doing.

14 TO GO!!

Stepped on the scale this morning and I saw the most amazing number, one I had never seen in my life ( well , of course I saw it once before, but I never paid attention to it) A number that I was most likely 16 when I last saw this. I stepped on the scale 3 times just to be sure.
I have 14 pounds to go!
So again, as in my previous post, maybe this has to do with taking the week off and resetting the metabolism , I dont know for sure, but I will take it!!
I wont update my weight loss ticker on My Fitness Pal for a few more days. :)

15 to go!!

I cant believe I only have 15 pounds to go until I am at my goal weight!!! I have had an awesome day all day just thinking about that one!
Good week, even though I was busy busy busy , and had 3 nights in a row that I didnt even get home till after 9:30 , it was a good week. In the mist of all the chaos, I still managed to get in my 5 days of working out, a bunch of running, even with the bad leg.
I dont know if the losing 2 pounds last week was because it was just time to finally drop some weight, or if it was cause I had taken the previous week off from working out, to reset the body. I guess I will never know if it really worked and "reset" my body, but next time someone thinks about it and asks my advice, I Will tell them my results.


I have to leave you with a story from the gas station Saturday morning. It was raining and yucky, I was on my way to my nephews high school graduation, and I had on the dress in the post below. As I got out of the car to pump the gas, the man at the pump across from me gave me the up and down look, and smiled at me. I smiled back and went on with getting the gas. He then looked at me again, and said " I sure do appreciate such a pretty outfit on a day like today, thank you, you brightened my day" Why Thank you Strange man at the gas station, you brightened my day too!
Still strange to get use to though.....

I DID IT!!

Oh My GOODNESS!!
I cant believe I did that, and I didnt freak out! I will totally admit that I took a pill that my DR had given me so I wouldnt be a nervous wreck, and it totally did the trick! I didnt have butterflies at all and I only wanted to cry twice! When I started talking and I was saying the reason why I agreed to public speaking is because I want everyone to feel as wonderful as I feel, and I want them to know, know matter where you are with your weight, anything is possible if you just put your mind to it. That was when I wanted to cry.
Then I went on and on and on, and talked for about 45 mins maybe longer. I could have talked FOREVER!
I know there were things I could have said, and I certainly could have gone into more detail about certain things, but I feel like, and was told so, that I touched on so many points that every woman in the room could relate to me. It was so good!
there are some snippets of video floating out there, it hasnt been sent to me yet, but when it does, I will post it here if I can figure it out :)
So I must go to bed, its been another crazy week for me and I want a normal week, with nothing to do but work and go to the gym at night. Thats all.

but before I go, I really want to say that I am so happy I did it, It was such a good feeling thinking I was helping even just ONE person to get to where they want to put themselves first and change their life. I Love that I was asked to share .

Speaking Tuesday Night!!

AACCKKK!!! a little nervous, But as I was writing my speech out , I started feeling a little bit better about it. I have some friends that are coming and I was thinking of scattering them all about so I always have a friendly face to land on when I am looking out at them. :) Good idea, Huh?

I have to say, that when I was getting my poster board together with all my pictures, I got very emotional. I had been gathering all the pics for a while, but it wasnt till I had it all spread out in front of me and I was looking at the timeline of my life that I just broke down in tears. I had spent MY WHOLE life , overweight, I had wasted my whole life being fat. I know that isnt really a good way to look at it, but it was how I felt at the moment. Yes I had lived my life, I have 4 wonderful boys, a man who loves me. But I still felt like I had wasted my whole life being fat. Plain and simple, being overweight made me live my life differently than how I really wanted to.

How can something take that much control away from us? how do we let it, and why do we not notice it is happening when it is happening? And even if we do notice, how come we just accept it? Is it cause the thought of losing so much weight is overwhelming? Do we think we are not worth the change? ( Cause we are!) Hmmm. something to think about .

Ok, It is late, I need to get to sleep so I am well rested tomorrow, But I wanted you to have something to read when you wake up in the morning :)
Here is a pic that most of you probably have seen , but I am posting it here anyway.

Me , inside my old shorts, size 28. WOW!

Do I ever get to where its second nature to eat healthy?

That is what my neighbor Steve asked me today after my run. He was out washing his car, I was limping back from the run. ( I will get back to that limp) . Anyway, He asks me questions all the time about weight loss. He is in his sixties, single, and wants to lose weight. He asks me what I eat , how much I exercise, he is interested, you can see the wheels turning, but he hasnt gotten it into motion yet. Anyway. He today he stopped me as I was passing his house and said " Silly question to ask you Tami, But do you get to the point where you dont have to think about eating healthy, and you just do it" ? yes, I told him, I am at the point where my first choice , is a healthy one. but how I eat today is certainly different than how I did even 1 year ago, 6 months INTO the weight loss. So as we talked, I was saying I wonder if I will get to the point that I wont be frustrated with how slow these last 17 pounds are coming off. ( only lost 3 pounds last month) . I told Steve that, and he said he would be so happy to lose 3 pounds a month, cause that would be 36 pounds in a year! I was so happy that he thought of it like that, GOOD FOR YOU STEVE!!!! But what bugs the HECK out of me is that I am working HARDER than I did a year ago, when I was losing 2 pounds PER WEEK, and eating better than I did then, and I am busting my butt to lose 3 pounds in one month?? I WANT TO BE DONE!!! not so I can stop working out, ( cause I can tell you right now, I am addicted to working out, so I wont be stopping ) and not so I can eat more ( but it will be nice to increase the calories a tad) but so I can stop having it hang over my head. I want to say " I achieved my weight loss goal" and I am now maintaining my weight. I want to say " I have no more weight to lose" for the first time in MY LIFE, I want to be able to say that!! I want to be a size 7/8 and lose these last 17 pounds.

Back to the limp. the moment I started running today I felt a pain in my right hamstring. I kept running, cause often times when I start running, I have some aches and pains. But this one kept going. But so did I. the hills really hurt, and I did stop and walk one of them, I even kind of limped and ran for a while. all the while I kept thinking " when is it not right to push thru the pain" and I kept wondering that, while I kept running. the pain gets worse with each passing hour.