April Showers Bring Gym Powers

Wow, people, I have been OFF TRACK with diet and exercise for the past month -- I mean, big time.  I woke up this morning to lots of gray sky and rain, and knew immediately what I had to do: The Manfriend and I have a family party tonight, but my day was wide open... I threw on gym clothes and headed out the door.  By 10 AM, I'd worked every single part of my body, and was on the road home, smoothie in hand. 

Food-wise... well, I haven't been terrible, but haven't been great either.  My workdays have been passing in the blink of an eye, and I've been so booked (and double booked and even triple booked) with meetings that many of them have occurred over the lunch hour.  I haven't packed my lunch in I-don't-know-how-long, and dinners have been rather pathetic.  I think that last week I had stuff going on every single night -- the week before I was out of town, then sick, and the week before THAT, I had another "plans every single night" type of week. 



THIS week, I am blissfully plan-free and can't get enough of it.  I have plans to go walking with a girlfriend on Wednesday night, and I'm gonna try to go see my niece and nephew, but other than that, my goal is to stay unscheduled... other than scheduling some gym time, some cooking time, and catching up on lots of sleep.

Anyway, that's my quick check in.  Not much to report... just didn't want anybody to think I'd abandoned the blog. ;-)

Oh yeah -- half -marathon... um.... I'm facing the very real possibility that, again, this might not happen.  I hate that.  But just when life has calmed down and allowed me to train, the weather has conspired against me.

Only the next few weeks of time will tell!

Off and running,
~Jessica

What A Long, Strange Trip It Has Been

Whew.  

I'm about to tell a story about where I've been for the past few days, but I'll start at the END, and say how happy I am to wake up this morning feeling semi-normal.  I spent from 9 PM on Wednesday until 9 AM on Thursday worshipping the porcelain God in a hotel room in Green Bay, WI -- alone, sick, exhausted, and thinking that I quite possibly was going to die.  I'm still not sure if it was food poisoning or just a wicked quick bout of the flu, but it really wiped me out.  I expected to step on the scale this morning having lost about 6 pounds... alas, the scale was only down 1.5, but I guess that means that my illness just negated the effects of spending four days in Wisconsin, land of beer and cheese (and mayo and fried food -- I mean seriously, I haven't seen a vegetable in days). 

I was supposed to get on an 8 AM flight home yesterday morning, but after waking up every hour or so all night to get sick to my stomach, I knew there was no way I could get on the plane -- I easily switched to a 1:15 PM flight, and my sweet Mom (Thanks Mom!) picked me up at the airport around 2:30, armed with ginger ale, saltines, and Mrs. Grass' Noodle Soup (the absolute best soup when you're sick!).  I crashed early last night, and woke up feeling quite human today.  I'm going to go into work around 11, for a meeting I absolutely cannot miss, and we'll see how long I last.  But I am feeling really good today. 

Whew.

So where have I been and why? 

Well, I journeyed to the adorable Two Rivers, WI -- about 45 minutes outside of Green Bay -- with a whole bunch of co-workers.

We were visiting the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, which basically contains the largest collection of wood type / letterpress materials in the country, maybe the world.  It has been around for 150 years, and is quite a hidden gem.  This particular museum was featured in a documentary called TYPEFACE, and since the art of letterpress is important in the history of advertising, my team decided a little field trip was in order. 

When I checked into my cute little hotel on Lake Michigan, this was my view:

It was about 30 degrees -- we've been hit with an unexpected second winter in MN and WI -- but it LOOKED like my days of travel to California... and come hell or high water, I was going for a run.  The next morning, I did just that.  Laced up the shoes, bundled up, and headed out for a quick one.  It was cold and windy, and some bad weather was rolling in, but 30 minutes later, I took my tired bod back to the room for some hot coffee, hot shower, and a quick disco nap before heading to the museum.

I'm sure you're wondering "what is wood type?  Basically, it is how magazines, newspapers... anything PRINTED used to be created.  

Basically, you take a block of wood (always Maple!), and a big fancy machine, and very carefully cut it into letters, symbols, numbers, whatever..

 

...until it looks like this. 

...which ultimately gets painted over and over again with different colored ink, and placed in trays after use, where it looks like this:

The level of artistry and expertise here is amazing - in this case, the trade and art form has been passed down through multiple generations of the family of the men pictured. 

Then you arrange the pieces of type in a press, as he is doing above, paint it with the correct colors of ink, and run paper through it, until you come up with things like this (These are all old advertising / promotional images that were created using wood type):

After workshops and projects and lots of laughter and photo-documentation, we had a lovely dinner out, and then back to the hotel for sleep, sweet sleep. 

When I woke up on Wednesday morning, this was my view:

Apparently we'd been teleported to Alaska overnight!  It felt more like January than April, and I went to bed Tuesday night to the very loud sound of the wind over the lake, and the view out my window of snow whipping through the air.  I was nervous about my drive back to Green Bay on Wednesday evening, but it turned out that Wednesday was a beautiful day -- my drive back to Packerland looked like this -- sunny, blue, and bright. 

I got into my hotel around 8 PM, and by 9, the plague had hit -- out of the blue.  Out of nowhere.  Out of feeling completely fine.  It started out with thinking "Hmm, I suppose I should think about dinner, but ugh, food doesn't really sound good" and quickly morphed into my becoming a permanent fixture on the bathroom floor.  Weird.  But it's a Good Friday after all, because today I woke up feeling... pretty much fine.  Food still doesn't sound that great, but I FEEL fine.

So I'm unpacking and doing a bit of laundry and then heading into the office for at least a few hours.

Have a great weekend everybody, and Happy Easter!

Off and running,
~Jessica

PS: Half marathon training?  What's that???  Hopefully this week the weather will warm up and I'll find my stride, but as of right now, I am definitely not going to be ready to do more than WALK the half-marathon.

PPS: I recently made the jump to an iPhone -- and while I'm still getting used to it after being a blackberry girl since basically 2003, I really like it, if for no other reason than the PHOTO quality is so amazing -- all of those pictures were taken with my iPhone, then many of them edited with Instagram, which is an awesome app that you should check out!

Why I DIDN'T Run

Following up last week's awesome post about how running is great, la la la, and makes me feel like king of the world, la la la, and how I'm so glad (so glad, guys!) to be back on my running program, I guess I decided to spend my week NOT exercising, and eating in restaurants, and drinking wine.

Here's the deal - due to some staffing changes at work, I've been leading not one, but TWO campaigns, both of which are shooting next week.  That's on top of two other big projects that I normally work on, plus general "run the business" work duties.  So I've basically been in back to back meetings from 8 - 5.


Every.Single. Day. 

My meeting schedule has been so nuts that I've mostly also had lunch-meetings... simply because there was no other time to schedule them.  Then, because I'm traveling to the shoot next week, I've been trying to schedule a few catch-up evenings with various friends and family members -- at the end of the day, that means that I've arrived at Friday pretty worn out and ready for a weekend of nothingness... and cooking.  I'm actually excited to prepare my own food -- between the take-out and the social life, it feels like it has been ages.

Also, I owe the city of Minneapolis a huge apology.  I spent 75-degree-Sunday swapping out my storm windows for screens... and then promptly, spring got scared and ran away.  It is about 35 degrees here this morning, and snow expected this weekend.


Snow?  Really? I mean, I'm a Minnesota-girl through and through, so I'm used to March being the snowiest month of the year, but April??? 

April, apparently you misunderstood the term "showers."  Because I'm pretty sure that SNOW is not going to bring us many flowers.  

Or pilgrims, for that matter.

On that note - it has been a long time since I've been on set for a shoot, and if memory serves, it poses a LOT of food challenges.  Between craft service and catering, late nights and long hours, my memories of multi-day shoots are that of sort of a food nightmare.  The upside was always unlimited free bottled water, and since I was in California, ample opportunity for running on the beach in the middle of February.  I don't THINK that this shoot is going to be quite like my video shoots in the past (this one is still photos only, and in an old museum in Wisconsin), but I'm prepared for the worst.  I'll be heading to glorious Green Bay, WI on Monday evening, returning Thursday morning, and although it isn't NYC or LA or SFO, I'm looking forward to a small change of scenery, and to experience my first shoot for Target. 

Knowing that business travel is hard, especially to the land of beer and cheese, a friend and I have embarked on a "one week only" challenge.  From Friday to Friday, we're going to exercise, drink water, and eat healthily. 

One week only.  Because you can do anything for a week, right? 

So today is Day One of or "OWO Challenge," and I'm kicking it off right -- although I'm not hitting the pavement in the cold*, I'm about to go make a healthy smoothie, pack a healthy lunch, toss some microwave popcorn in my work tote, and hit the road.  It is a quiet weekend - not much planned - and I couldn't be happier.

I remember when my Fridays were filled with the promise of happy hours, dates and parties... I guess it is a sign of old age maturity that the thing I'm most excited about today is that I get to wear jeans and running shoes to work. 


Off and running,
~Jessica


*I am continually amazed by the fact that two weeks ago, 38-48 degrees felt like a heat wave, but after a few 70 degree days, yesterday's 48 degree weather felt like the start of winter.

Why I Run.

My alarm clock this morning went off in the format of the coffee pot starting to brew in the other room - it was enough to wake me wide up, and although I spent about 15 minutes in bed contemplating my next move, I knew what I was going to do -- the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the sky was blue.  Although it was only 44 degrees, as soon as I saw that sun shining into my bedroom window, I knew what I needed to do.

I put on my workout clothes, socks, shoes... strapped on my HR monitor and my iPod... and the finishing touch?  My "I AM A RUNNER" rubber bracelet.

It wasn't a great run -- my knee was sore where I'd banged it on Friday night; my foot was sore because I stepped on something yesterday while cleaning, barefoot (yes, I am a klutz).  I ran about 20 minutes and walked about 20-30, but in the end, I'd been moving for about 45-50 minutes and burned over 300 calories.

It was cold and windy and a little painful, but worth every step.   Even though I often hate the experiences as it is happening, running is what has made me who I am today -- it was the ONE thing that I "couldn't do" when I was younger, and the hardest battle I've conquered.  It has made me stronger, both mentally and physically, than anything else I've ever attempted. 
1) Because of the sense of pride and accomplishment I feel after every run, even if it is only 15 minutes.
2) Because running melts fat from my body -- no other form of exercise is quite the same. I can tell that my body shape physically changes after only a few runs.
3) Because when I'm running, I solve my problems.
4) Because when I'm running, I appreciate the physical world more
5) Because I sleep much better at night when I've started the day with a run
6) Because I carry myself with more confidence throughout the day
7) Because I'm obsessed with efficiency, and there is no other form of exercise I've found where I can torch 300+ calories in 40 minutes, on a morning I'm not even working that hard at it.
8) Because eggs and hot coffee are so much better after a crisp morning run!
9) Because running brings me closer to God
10) Because it was the one thing I used to be sure I could never do  -- and because spending last year "benched" with plantar pain made me appreciate every step of every mile of ever run. 



This morning, there were a million reason that my body screamed "NO" -- but my heart and soul said YES, and that was all I needed to get me off the door.

The payoff?

A beautiful sunrise over Lake Nokomis.

I snapped two more pictures on my way home -- the beautiful blue sky, and green green grass.
When I got home, I stretched, gulped down some coffee and threw myself in the shower.  I got out the door looking semi-put together (except for my wet hair in a bun), having eaten a smoothie and thrown a bunch of healthy snacks (string cheese, clementines, apples, pistachios, granola bar, almond butter), in a bag... no time for lunch today, as I'm in back to back meetings until 5...

Then - off to meet an old friend for a very quick drink, and home to dinner and an early bedtime in anticipation of tomorrow, when I'll do it all over again*.

YES.

Off and running,
~Jessica

*this time maybe on my bicycle, which I finally brought upstairs after a long winter in the basement!

Play Me Yours, and I'll Play You Mine

The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules. Anyway.  ~High Fidelity

 I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the BEST part about blogging personally and being super honest and transparent and promotional about a blog is that you get a lot of support from unexpected places.  I've been blogging since I was 25, but it was only at about age 30 that I started writing semi-publicly, and only in the past two years that I have promoted my writing in a way that I WANT people to find it -- these days, I post links on FB, twitter... See Jess Run is on my resume; my mom and dad and Manfriend read my blog (or at least know about it), and while that sometimes gives me pause about what I write, it also makes me think to myself, "do I want the whole world reading this" every time I write.  I don't think that in the history of THIS blog, I've ever written anything I have felt weird about... although my Mom often objects to my use of 4-letter words.

(Mom, you say them too, you just don't admit it.  Own it!)

One of the great things about social media is that it brings you back in touch with people you lost long ago -- some would argue that this ISN'T a great thing, but for my purposes it has been amazing -- often times when I post or read things, I hear from people in a way I've never expected (Betsy F, Betsy K, Gabby, KEB, Mike, Mike, Pharron, and others, I'm talkin' to you).

I've spent my whole life battling my weight -- when I was a teen and young adult, I felt like I was surrounded by a size 2 sea of people who absolutely could not understand... these days, as life and time and adulthood, and in many cases motherhood, have evened the playing field, I've found that my tiny peers have caught up to me, or at least started to have to THINK about things they never have before.


While I never wish this struggle on anybody -- I have to admit, it is refreshing.

I have this friend named Katie.  Katie and I met in high school when our two junior high schools joined, and she was "the best" flute player from SV and I was "the best" flute player from VV (I would argue that actually neither of us was "THE BEST" but that is beside the point).  We became friends through fluting and marching band... we spent MANY years sharing folders, stands and solos... we became friends instead of rivals, and to this DAY she is one of those GLORIOUS people that I hold in my reservoir of totally fun, un-pretentious, super smart, super awesome people I know.  Katie had raw talent -- not only musically, but on the soccer field, and while music was the thing I lived and died for, athletics was the gig for which she spent hours "in the practice room" achieving perfection.


If I hadn't LIKED her so much, I would have hated how naturally musicianship came to her.

BUT -- I'll never forget hot days, windy days, freezing days, and hilarious days in the band room, on the stage, or on the field, right next to Katie, enjoying her company.

Katie is one of those size 2's I reference above -- she was the skinniest (and funniest) little tomboy you'd ever meet.  We shared the band folders and chairs and field positions with my dear friend Mike1 and our hours were filled with "pull my finger" jokes and other acts of (at the time) hilarity.  In fact, I"m pretty sure that if I saw her today, the first thing I'd say is "pull my finger."

She lives mere minutes from me, yet our paths don't cross - we "hang out" on facebook, and I adore her to pieces.  Life has thrown us random coincidences and people in common... but she was the athlete; I was the band geek.

Katie has two kids now -- and recently starting blogging about her efforts and struggles with re-finding her athleticism as a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom, for those not in the blogosphere).  She writes with AWESOME honesty about getting back in shape, post-children, and about her goals... which, much like mine, are mostly fueled by the need to have something to STRIVE for.

In fact, it was one of her first blog posts that made me think "Why the hell not?!" and sign up for the half marathon.

We agreed, through comments on each others blogs, to create each other workout playlists -- after all, the foundation of our friendship started with music... why not use that as a means of support?

My point (I swear, I'm getting to a point), is that sometimes when you ask for it, you get support from unexpected places.  For me -- that support has always been the result of writing things down.  I'm great with verbal words in the workplace, in most (okay, some) of my relationships... but when it comes to my weight, I don't always like to TALK about it -- so this place has always provided me a "safe zone" to pour it all out... and get feedback without eye contact, if that makes sense.

(Don't judge me.)

When I wrote that "Conflicting Evidence" post, I was STUNNED By the feedback I got -- family, friends... and old baby sitter... friends I haven't talked to in years. Two guys I dated, pre-Manfirend (one with helpful advice -- one who said "stop bitching about your weight, you're gorgeous").  Emails, FB messages, comments... I didn't expect to get ANY response, but it is clear that when it comes to nutrition and fitness and weight management, we're ALL confused. 

I don't' have any answers, but it did motivate me to get off my ass (sorry mom), and go running the next morning -- to a great playlist, that I crafted for my awesome friend Katie.

KATIE  (and Betsy, and Betsy, and Diana, and Kristen, and Gabby and Heidi and Virginia, and Mike and Mike), thank you for being an unexpected source of inspiration, motivation and support.  I think you RULE!

Without further ado: here is....

MARRRRRRRRRRRRK TIME MARK: SONGS TO MARCH (BIKE RUN WALK SWIM) YOUR ASS OFF TO (curated with the idea of rhythm and tone in mind)

1.  F.I.N.E – AerosmithIve

2.  Endorphine Machine – Prince

3.  Girlfriend – Avril Lavigne

4. Sabotage – Beastie Boys

5. Let’s Get It Started – Black Eyed Peas

6. Tasty Tasty Tasty – The Blenders

7. Born To Run – Springsteen

8. Fighter – Xtina

9. Drrrty – Xtina

10. ‘Till I Collapse – Eminem

11..Paralyzer – Finger Eleven

12. Bright Future In Sales – Fountains of Wayne

13. It’s My Life / Confessions mashup – Glee

14. Gin and Juice – The Gourds

15. Paradise City – Guns and Roses

16. A Little Bit More – Jamie Lidell

17. Canned Heat – Jamiroquai

18. Throb – Janet Jackson

19. Anything’s Possible – Johnny Lang

20. Work It Out – Jurassic 5 w/ Dave Matthews

21. Stronger – Kanye West

22. Last Friday Night – Katy Perry

23. Grow a Pear – Ke$ha

24. Let It Rock – Kevin Rudolf and Lil Wayne

25. Are You Gonna Go My Way – Lenny Kravitz

26. Don’t Stay – Linkin Park

27. Rock Me – Liz Phair

28. Kiwi – Maroon 5

29. Shake It – Metro Station

30. Hey Ya – Outkast

31. Ready Steady Go – Paul Oakenfold

32. Every Day Is A Winding Road – PRINCE

33. When I Get You Alone (Thicke)

Off and running,
~Jessica

Dillicious

Please ignore my very messy desk and casual camera-phone pic, but mid-lunch it dawned on me that I hadn't done a good Jesscipes post in a while - and that I'd just made and eaten something definitely worth writing about!

Those who have followed my kitchen adventures for a while know that Quinoa Chicken Salad is a staple for my lunch menus -- I make a big supply of it on the weekends, and then portion it out for lunches all week.  Whenever I try a variation of this salad (tuna instead of chicken; cous cous instead of quinoa), it doesn't turn out very well, so I was THRILLED that this week's variation was amazing.  I was out of balsamic vinagrette, and had already done my weekly shop, so I decided to make due with the contents of my fridge.  Also, spring is in the air, so wanted to use some fresh spring-like ingredients -- luckily I had both a container of fresh dill and a bright yellow lemon in my fridge, begging to be used!

Ingredients:
2 grilled chicken breasts
1 cup of cooked quinoa*
4 oz of ff feta**
1 cup of diced red grapes
1 bunch of celery, diced
3 scallions, diced
3 TBSP of mayo***
1 TBSP dijon mustard
juice of 1 lemon
3 TBSP fresh chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste

To save myself some time and energy and cleanup, I bought 2 pre-cooked grilled chicken breasts from my local market... they have a great deli with a lot of healthy options, and one of the awesome things they sell is plain pre-grilled chicken breasts.  No oil or marinate or seasonings, etc... Just made things a little easier.

While the quinoa was simmering, I diced up the grapes, scallion, celery, and chicken - dumped it all in one big mixing bowl and topped with the feta... then moved on to mixing up the dressing.  Once the quinoa was done, I dumped a cup of it on top of the salad mixture, and THEN added the dressing and mixed it all up (the warm quinoa helps to spread the dressing evenly)

Divided it into 5 containers and called it a day.

The details?

(Assuming 5 servings)

Calories:    252
Fat:           6 grams
Carbs:      36 grams
Fiber:       4 grams
Protein     17 grams
Points:      7 PointsPlus values

It was delicious - light and flavorful, with the zing that only lemon and dill can provide.  D

Dill always makes me think of Easter****, so it felt like a natural choice at this time of year. 

When I got home from work last night, I snapped this picture: hard to tell, but it is the start of some little tulips poking through my newly-snow-free grass!  HURRAH!

Off and running,
~Jessica


*1 cup quinoa + 2 cups water = about 2+ cups of quinoa -- I use half of it, and store the other half in the fridge for future use
**I didn't measure this, but it comes in a 6 oz container, and I used well over half of it
***YES, I used real mayo, but the kind made with olive oil
****Easter = lamb = greek food = lemon soup and  tziki sauce = dill & lemons!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd She's Back

Walked 11
Ran 60
Walked 15
Resting HR - 65
Average HR - 152
Max HR - 171 (up a hill)
Theme of the run: Right Here, Right Now by Van Halen

684 calories burned.
No foot pain.

Later today I might die of stiff and sore legs, but right now?  

I feel very much alive.

Off and running,
~Jessica

Conflicting Evidence

For a lack of anything of substance to say today, I'm going to repost something I read during my morning peruse through the weight loss blogosphere.  Do you guys read "Results Not Typical Girl"?  If not, you totally should - mostly because she is hilarious.  But within her humor there is always a nugget of wisdom that I carry around with me throughout the day. Today's post, a Top Ten of things she's learned since she joined WW, really hit home with me.  I'll let you go and read the post for yourself, but her #1 reason is something I've been struggling with for a while now:

It’s wrong to pay $40 a month to be a spiritual member of Weight Watchers. When I do go, my goal should be less of please-don’t-gain-please-don’t-gain-please-don’t-gain-ness and more of I-made-that-scale-my-bitch-ness.

I've been a "spiritual member" of Weight Watchers for a long time now -- longer than I care to admit.  And while counting points and meeting "good health guidelines" are always in the back of my brain, it has been a very VERY long time since I went to a meeting, and it has been just as long since I strung together more than 5 days of accountability in terms of journaling, counting points, and honoring the program.  Yet every month, my checking account is debited 40 bucks, and I get a little membership card in the mail, taunting me.  With it, I get access to eTools -- which I do find miraculously helpful -- and access to the message boards is always free.  That is a community that I've on-and-off been a part of since I was about 25, and quite honestly, it might be the greatest source of support I've ever found throughout my weight loss battle. 


Unfortunately, much like my gym membership, simply carrying the membership card in my wallet doesn't result in weight loss or increased fitness.

How ANNOYING.

Once again, I find myself confused about weight management -- I feel like I've been at this so long and LEARNED so much that I don't know what is true. 

Clean eating?  Low carb?  Low fat?  No dairy?  More dairy?  Seratonin diet?  Paleo diet?  Caveman diet?  Single-30-something-girl-diet of popcorn and pinot grigio?  Run marathons?  Go for walks?  Don't factor in exercise at all?  All yoga, all the time? Skip the cardio and lift?

At the end of the day, I come back to "eat less, move more," and the wisdom of Jillian Michaels ("just count your calories.  Seriously.  That's all there is to it"), but I find myself with a brain full of pieces of knowledge that often conflict and confuse each other.


So I ask you, gentle reader, what is your method of weight loss?  Are you a points person?  A calorie counter?  Do you hit the gym, pavement, trails, class?  Or just manage your caloric intake?   Do I keep spending that $40 a month and force myself back into meetings?  Or should I put that money towards something else?  


Help a sister out.
Off and running,
~Jessica

Manifest Destiny

True to form, it is April, and it is raining.


I’ll take it – even though it’s raining, it’s supposed to be in the 40s today, which feels like kind of a heat wave. The snow is still melting… but half my lawn is green.  The expansion of dry ground goes a little further every day, taking over, little by little, until the snow disappears. 

I was pretty thrilled to rip the March page off my big desktop calendars today… exposing a clean slate for April, lots of empty boxes, just begging to be filled. March was sort of a crap-month for me, given that I was sick for about 3 weeks, and I’m thrilled to let the showers of April wash away the remaining mess of March. Mostly, I’m looking forward to getting back into a spring-weather routine.

Recognizing that I do better with accountability when working towards a goal, I did something a little impulsive yesterday and registered for a half marathon. It is on June 5th, which means I don’t really fully have time to prepare to run the whole thing, but I am pretty sure I can interval it, and worst-case-scenario walk across the finish line the moment the course closes. This is the half marathon that my friend Kat and I registered for two years ago, but then I started my job at Carlson – and started having major foot problems -- so rather than cross the finish line with her, I was simply in attendance to cheer her on. After spending the past year as a non-runner, I’m hoping to find my stride while the weather warms back up.

So those blank squares on my April calendar? Pretty soon they’ll be filled with daily mileage goals and workout plans – and I’m just enough of a nerd that I can’t wait to start mapping it all out.

I've been thinking a lot about manifestos lately, since a friend asked me for my wise words about healthful living.  Last winter, you might remember when I posted this image, which I now have hung up in my cube and to the inside of my notebook:

It is sort of hard to read in this small format, but I'm amazed how everything I didn't like about my old job went away and like magic, I'm now doing exactly what this manifesto proposes: Do what you love and do it often.  Seize opportunities.  Life is about the people you meet and the things you create wtih them.  Life is short; live your dream and share your passion. Once again -- getitng lost helped me to find myself.
And not to be outdone by the words above, Lululemon created their own version, which I might like even better!

After careful thought, this is how I responded to my friends question -- although not as graphically pretty as the images above, I think my words carry some value:

1) The miracle isn't that I finished, the miracle is that I had the courage to start. And restart. And restart. And restart.... the first part of the quote is John Bingham, and what convinced me to run a marathon. The extra stuff is all mine. ;-)

2) Dont do anything to lose weight that you aren't willing to do every day for the rest of your life. Give up carbs? Booze? Caffeine?  Sure -- but if that is what gets you to your goal, you'd better be prepared to live without them forever.  Diet pills? 4 hours per day at the gym?  Again, might get you to goal, but not sustainable over the long haul.

3) Each day that you do this, you're better off than the day before - start to look at it as just choosing to live a healthier life and the weight loss is a by-product. Even if you gain or maintain, you're still better off for having worked the program and incorporated movement into your life.

4) Food can be a spiritual thing, depending on your beliefs. Everything we need to be healthy and happy and satisfied is naturally present on this earth, without the addition of chemicals or a great deal of processing. God created fruit, vegetables, cows, chickens, grains, and even sugar! He didn't create high fructose corn syrup, partially dehydrogenated oil, 100 calorie packs, bread, pasta... all of the latter can be a part of a healthy diet in moderation, but the former will keep you the healthiest.

How about you?  What are the words that you live by?  What's your manifesto?  What gets you through the toughest of days?

Off and running,
~Jessica