Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Happy runniversary and birthday!

Running birthday picture 2013.
I'm 43 and hubby's 42.

Yesterday was a very special day.  It was my hubby's one year runniversary and both of our birthdays.  I was tired from running the half marathon on Sunday, but I had to run with my hubby on his runniversary.  I took him out for his first run last year on our birthday.   We have both come a long way since then.  A year ago my hubby was doing 2:1 intervals (2 minutes running:1 minute walking) and I was running 6K as my furthest distance with my first steady 3K (no walk breaks). Now hubby can run 15K and has stopped taking walk breaks and I can run 21K and haven't taken walk breaks since last summer.  At the end of this month, he's going to start training for his first half marathon and I'm going to start training for my first full marathon.  We have come a long way baby!

Running birthday picture 2012

Even though I was tired from my half the day before, I still managed a 5K trail run with my hubby. We ran on my favorite wooded trail behind McMaster University.  I wasn't as sore after this half marathon versus my previous half marathon.  This tells me that my body has gotten used to the distance.  After the Chilly Half Marathon on March 3, I was sore for days afterwards.  I bounced back pretty quickly from this half.  I'm sure training for the full will be no picnic.  I just know I'll experience a whole new level of aches and pains.  Bring it on!

I have been feeling down right girly over the past few days.  I wore dresses all weekend.  I wore a dress out Friday night to a recognition dinner with my hubby (he's a volunteer), I wore a dress out on the town while I was in Niagara Falls (no pic though), and I wore a dress out for my birthday dinner last night.  What is happening to me becoming all feminine and stuff?  The Friday night dress I bought last year and only wore once before.  I think it fits much better now.  And the other two dresses I got for under $8 each at Old Navy on Friday night.  The recognition dinner ended early and hubby and I went to the mall afterwards because we paid the babysitter till 9 pm and we never get to go shopping together.  He needed new clothes because he's lost so much weight by following Paleo.  Old Navy was having a HUGE sale I picked up 2 dresses and 4 shirts for under $30.  That was a deal!

How I wore it summer 2012.
How I wore it Friday night.


























Every year hubby and I go to Tucker's Marketplace for our birthday dinner.  It`s a local all you can eat buffet.  We go there because on your birthday, it's free.  We only pay for our drinks (which was Perrier water).  They have a salad bar, carvery and vegetable sides, so sticking to Paleo was not an issue.  Fresh fruit was our birthday dessert.  No cake for us this birthday...or next birthday. And no, I'm not depriving myself.  I just don't want it.  I had a couple of plates of food and found that before I even got full, I got tired of eating.

Lately, I have found that eating has become more of a chore than anything else. I make myself eat because I need the energy, but I often get lazy around the act of actually eating.  I will always eat enough to keep up my energy for running, but never in a million years did I think I would grow bored of eating.  I guess my priorities have shifted considerably.  I used to eat for entertainment, because I was bored, because I was angry, because I was happy, because I was sad.  Now I run for entertainment.  Running keeps me busy, helps clear my head when I'm angry or sad and definitely makes me happy.  When I'm hungry, I don't care about what I eat, just so long as it fits my eating plan and gets rid of my hunger.

I celebrated my second consecutive birthday following a healthy lifestyle.  That is the best birthday gift I could have given myself and I plan to give myself the same gift year after year.  I'm worth it and so is my family.  I'm in the best shape of my life and I refuse to ever go back to how things were two birthdays ago.  For everyday that passes, my former self becomes more and more of a distant memory.  Although I learned a lot of valuable lessons from the morbidly obese woman that I was, I am ready to leave her in the past where she belongs.  I am finally free to enjoy my life the way it was always supposed to be.  There is nothing I could eat that would be worth giving up my new found freedom.  Absolutely nothing!

Summer 2004
June 3, 2013