My Walk to Disney *** Comments Welcome

[Love2Run]

I always find starting a thread/journal awkward and hard to do. Where do I start?

I guess I should start with the basics.

Name: Kelly
Location: Iowa
Age: 28
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2, DS 4 and DS 5 weeks
Trips to Disney: 20 +
Favorite Park: EPCOT, although now that I have children I do prefer Magic Kingdom with them.
Favorite Attraction: Tower of Terror. Use to be Journey into the Imagination before they changed it. "What about science, science, science . . ."
Favorite Resort: Grand Floridian
Favorite Disney Movie: Lion King
Favorite Disney Character: Figment

This Journal is going to document my journey to the Walt Disney World Marathon on January 11th.

My goal: “Run” to Disney before we leave for our trip. (Oh Yea and lose 60 lbs)
Yes that’s right I am going to Run and/or Walk 1,212 miles in just over 6 months. It comes out to an average of 37 miles a week.

Do you think I can do it?

I will count all walking and running I do for exercise towards this goals. (I won’t count just the walking around I do for daily activities. It has to be intentional exercise) I plan to make this my personal “magical” journey back to health. I will highlight fun “stops” along the way, document the trip with pictures, and end it with a week-long family Vacation in Disney!

and a 26.2 mile run too.

Why am I doing this you ask. I am doing it for my sons, for my husband and most importantly for myself. This isn’t all about just being skinny, although feeling confident in my clothes will be nice. It’s really about finding myself, being healthy and setting an example for my children. My life has been a roller coaster the last 3 years. I went from being in the best shape of my life to the absolute worst. I moved across the country away from my family and friends, I became a stay at home mom to a 2 year old overnight who we feared had autism, I supported my husband as he left his career in the Navy, and then to top it off I got married it Las Vegas, moved back to my home town and had a baby all in the same year. This has been a crazy time, an amazing time and honestly sometimes a very difficult time but it got me to where I am today with a beautiful family and an amazing husband. It also got me 60 lbs heavier than I want to be and VERY out of shape. It is time for these things to change!

I started weight watchers 3 weeks ago. First week went great and lost 5.4lbs. Second week didn’t go so well and I gained 2, but I think I forgot to take my shoes off . . . . . (do my excuses work with you?) With my son now 5 weeks old I am ready to get back to exercising and hopefully running by the end of the week.

Please comment often as I would love the advice, encouragement and just general feeling of not being alone.

 

[Love2Run]

Saved For Introductions and Pictures

 

[Love2Run]

 

[srbrophy]

Great idea. Think I will try to do the same. I also put a dollar into a jar for each mile run to help pay for runs and shoes

 

[Love2Run]

So I weighed in at WW this morning and was down 4.4 lbs! It was nice to see that the tracking and walking were paying off. There were some difficult times where I wanted to give in and have the burger in fries but last weeks WW topic really kept me on track.

Last week at the WW meeting we talked about the power of having an anchor. What is an anchor you ask? Well by definition

Anchor:
1: a device usually of metal attached to a ship or boat by a cable and cast overboard to hold it in a particular place by means of a fluke that digs into the bottom
2: a reliable or principal support : mainstay
3: something that serves to hold an object firmly

HAHA ... I guess you all probably knew that.

Now what does that have to do with weight loss is a different story. To me an Anchor for life is something that keeps you on the course when things are overwhelming, are difficult, or your just wanting to throw in the towel. It is the thing that keeps you from eating the entire cake in the fridge after a bad day. Its the thing that gets you out of bed to work out when you didn't get to sleep until 2 am. (Or in my case were up from 2 - 5 comforting the baby) I realized at this meeting that I had never really thought of it as in anchor but had been using them for many years.

A few from my past:
1. The add for the Mickey Marathon is what kept me on track for my training for the first Marathon.
2. My DS4's laugh kept me going through the fear of figuring out why he wasn't talking and our fear of autism.

My anchor right now is a picture of my family from our first trip to Disney all together.



I was happy, fairly healthy, and having us all together in Disney was a dream come true. I was not afraid to have my picture taken, I felt happy and confident. Looking at them now just brings me joy. It drives me to get back to that place. To the place that I can now bring my youngest son and have pictures taken with all of us and not be ashamed. Where I feel confident with myself for how I ran the marathon. Where I am proud to be sharing that moment with the ones I love most.

I found that having this Anchor really helped me stay focused on WHAT I wanted to achieve and WHY I wanted to achieve it. Suddenly getting up early to Walk or saying no to the cupcake got so much easier. The joy I will experience in Disney, but really the joy I am experiencing now and will have along this journey is better than any food item or sleeping in. (Don't get me wrong though, Sleeping in does give me joy too and there will be many Saturday mornings where I will)

This weeks WW Topic: Packing healthy snacks to be prepared and the 12 week summer challenge

Summer Challenge week 1: Pack a healthy snack at least 2 days

I find healthy snacks other than fruit or raw veggies and dip hard to come by. So this week I am going to scour the internet in search of a few and will report back what I find.

What are some of your anchors you have used or are using right now? What about any snack ideas you suggest I try?

 

[Belle Ella]

Finally had the time to drop by and post! I love your thoughts on using anchors. It's really made me think and I don't think I've ever really had one. Maybe it's been a part of why I haven't been as successful as I wanted in past endeavors, but even not it can't hurt. I'll have to think long and hard on that one though because I still don't even know. Right now what keeps me going is a desire (/need) to get my half marathon time under 2 1/2 hours.

As for snacks, before I got into trouble with my tooth the easiest snack that I carried with me at all times was a small bag of raw almonds, unsalted. They're pretty darn filling! Hmm ... other than that all of my snacks are definitely fruit and veggies (although I usually skip the dip). I'm also a fan of Lara Bars when I can get them at a good price. They are fruit and nut bars that are gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, vegan and kosher - for the most part no added sugar as well but you have to look at the ingredients. My favorite is the coconut cream pie which has dates, unsweetened coconut, almonds, cashews and extra virgin coconut oil. There's a cashew one I'm a fan of as well.

Anyway, you've got me following along!

 

[fairymum]

I also love the anchor concept. Following along!