Author: melissaroper2017rbl

Twelve weeks ago when I was told that I would be running on April 22nd, I understood it as, “you will do your best to run, but if walking is your best, you can do this”  Needless to say, I did not believe I would be running. Most of the last three months have been positive and I feel stronger than I ever have.  I have 35-55 pounds to go to where I would like to be, BUT I am comfortable in my skin again after 10.5 lbs have disappeared, and a total of almost 12 inches are gone from my chest, waist, hips, thighs, and arms!!! I have also lost 1% on my BMI and 1.8% Body Fat since the beginning!

There have been many rough days and sore days, and days it was difficult to get out of bed,but I succeeded in this journey for me. There have been more good days than bad days. I still have areas in my lifestyle I need to do better, but thanks to this support group,our trainers Doug, Leslie, and Brooke, I feel prepared to continue this journey on. Thank you to His Radio for this opportunity to kick myself back into gear. Last June I cried to my doctor because I was upset that I gained all my baby weight back almost a year after my daughter was born,and since he prescribed me to an exercise routine in July 2016, I have lost 15.2 lbs, 1.8% BMI, 1.8% Body Fat, 2.5 inches in my waist, 2 inches in Hips, 2.25 in chest, thighs R-2.75″, L-4″, Arms R-3.25″, L-2.75″. I’m monitoring my numbers as I’ve seen how the inches and how I feel is my better gauge to success than the awful scale. It’s obvious from my numbers that RBL did more for me in 3 months than doing it on my own for 6-7 months.

I open to organizing a running group if anyone wants to join to keep this going. Connie and I agreed tonight that we are going to continue to meet once a week and begin working up to a 10k. Who else is in???

You ladies know what I am talking about! I have a half shirt kind of Spanx that is like a part of my daily wardrobe. I wore it today for the first time in about 4-5 days! It has been so freeing, and when I felt the humidity this morning, I wish I had chosen a better outfit that did not make me feel that I needed it.  It feels good to be more toned in areas that just 11 weeks ago were flabby and jiggly.  I am encouraged to continue to a point where I can go Spanx-free 24/7, in all my outfits!!!

Today has been rough! I teach a night class on Mondays and this week my husband was off and watched our daughter while I taught. When my husband is with her, he never picks up after her, not to mention I usually do the laundry and vacuuming as well. After a busy weekend and barely being home, my daughter’s destruction was/is everywhere and I’m too tired to care. So this morning all I could think about… 2 loads of laundry, pick up toys, put away laundry, tend to our daughter and… It’s bath night! Let’s just none of it happened! How does one get it all done? If you have a magic button or a secret, please pass along! I seriously considered skipping my workout tonight to tend to the house and child. My husband is no help as he works nights… Now that I’ve done my workout/run, I’m hurting! I don’t know if it was the heat or that I didn’t feel well earlier in the day with chills and aches, but felt better so I decided to run. As I entered the last 10 minutes I felt like everything was pushing back and shouting “stop!!! Quit making us do this!” But I finished, the house is a wreck, the laundry is still piled up, and I’m sore and tired! Needless to say today was not a good one and the only positive is that my daughter fell asleep before 9!!!! Praying tomorrow is better!

As rough of a week it has been, I had a great run today, in fact it was my best yet! 16 minute mile! Actually it was 15:59 minute mile!!! I didn’t care that I was the slowest runner of our group. I showed up, I did my best, and my best was an achievement for me! And that’s no April Fool’s!!! 🙂

This is my excuse for this week.  It has been a rough week, on top of returning to work after our Spring Break, Monday is my long day and I was not only tired from returning to work, but also HUNGRY!!! I felt like I ate everything I could find to snack on. I even hit up the snack machine because I just didn’t feel myself without that Snickers! LOL… and it was a snickers! Then Tuesday happened! My daughter had a run in with a rooster on our farm and the poor girl stayed with mommy all afternoon following our visit to the doctor. I planned to run, but she wouldn’t let me put her down. So, I said, it’s ok… I’ll run tomorrow… ahhh, tomorrow… What happened to Wednesday??? Tonight… Thursday was the night! I finally got back into it today and it felt so good to be back in the routine. Thank you to my weekly Running Partner Connie! Thank you that the rain held off for us to run! Thank you for muscle memory after 5 days of being idle! Thank you God for strength to not give up when I felt like I was beginning to slip!

Yesterday is the first time since we all began this journey in January/Early February that I have had a pain that worries me.  My left ankle is hurting and it didn’t start until 3 hours after my exercising, when I took my shoes off. BUT, there is joy in my suffering.  As much as I wanted to sleep in with the cloudy gray sky above, my little family made it to church, and here was some of the message. We are beginning a study of Philippians and it is known as the epistle of Joy. As my pastor referred to some Old and New Testament scriptures, I thought of our RBL Journey.

1st Scripture; Psalm 16:11 “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” God has given us this great PATH to join and walk/run together.  He is with us on the journey, and therefore fills us with joy (even when we feel we cannot go on).

2nd Scripture; James 1:2 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” How many of us have not experienced some kind of trial in this journey? Muscle strain, stress fractures, knee pains, flu, allergies, sadness  and sorrow within our family, etc… trials are going to happen, and it is those trials that bring us back to God. As I hit the hardest moment on my runs, it is when I would begin praying for God’s strength.  On my easiest runs, is when I remember to pray as I begin in my warm up.

3rd Scripture; Romans 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not a matter or eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” As another RBL blogger posted recently, Pray, pray, pray… God is with us.  Not that we should ignore what we eat and drink, but more of doing so in a righteous and joyous nature to God.  I was joyful when I ate my serving of Lasagna last night 🙂 Not because it was lasagna, YUM, but because I knew it was the sustenance I needed at that moment.  Food tastes better when I am more thoughtful in my choices and making those choices to honor God and not myself. I am not dieting, I am not exercising, I am doing what I should be doing and do it joyfully to take care of the life given to me.

Last scripture Galatians 5:22; “But the fruit of the Spirit is… joy…” Whether literally or metaphorically, is it not true? Naturally sweet to our taste buds and we crave more. As we reach more milestones in our walk, everything tastes sweeter and is more enjoyable. We are more “huggable”, “energized”, “healthy”, what ever you want to finish this sentence with, it makes it more personal to you.

I love that this journey is not about just losing weight or inches, but more about making a permanent change to our lifestyles and seeing the impact it makes overall.  That brings me joy!

Being on Spring Break I have found my time is not being spent wisely as the time is flying by, but I have gotten a lot of Spring Cleaning done.  I even moved the desktop so now I am back up and running on the computer at home.

Tuesday I ran my first run.  I obviously did not check the weather prior to planning my run in the afternoon while my daughter napped and my cousin stayed in to watch her.  As I hit the pavement, I realized, “Wow… 80 degrees is hot! And my street has NO shade at 3:30 in the afternoon!”  My typical run: The first quarter mile is uphill, typically can get to the top by the end of the 5 minute warm up, the next quarter mile is slight downhill and back up, but relatively straight compared to the first, then I usually turn and lap the top quarter mile of the street until I get to the 5 minute cool down, walking down the last portion.  As I approached the top of the first 1/2 mile, I told myself, today I am going to go down the hill and come all the way back up (knowing I will be running up the hill).  I did it! Got my 2 miles in and did not have to stop and walk once in this circuit. (That was accomplishment one!) Oh, and got home and looked at the weather and it was 85 degrees! I downed several glasses of water and was so thankful I had AC already kicking!

Accomplishment 2 came today.  This morning I put on my wedding rings with no effort!  Since the middle of my pregnancy, about 2 years ago,  I have not been able to just slip on my rings.  They have been too tight and some days I have swapped them out with other rings just for a day of relief. It feels good to see these milestones.  I never would have pictured myself running, but I am so glad I am, and seeing results each weeks.

It’s been a week or more since I logged in.  Between life and work it’s been busy and I am still behind. My laptop crashed over the weekend and I cannot grade on a tablet… Nor do I like typing on the touch screen. But tonight I am making due so I don’t feel anymore behind.

Last weekend I was at the beach for a marathon my family was to relay in, but our team fell apart.  So I ran on Saturday morning on the beach, and man was that a workout on my thighs… I expected it to be easier! I was wrong.  After my run, Those of us that did make the trip went to the finish line to cheer in the marathoners as they crossed the line.

When we returned home, it was back to work and a messy house.  I was behind all week with grading, tired from traveling, and the last thing I wanted to do was housework.  So I put it off to this past weekend.  But during the week I did get 3 runs in and my Barre Class on Friday morning.  It felt good to get those in, even though I still had so much on my mind.

This weekend I had something to do everyday.  Saturday morning began with a work related task that kept me occupied all morning, so I missed my group run (sad), but then came home and since my daughter was wide awake, I started cleaning her room, putting clothes up that were too small, rearranging her room, vacuuming, and dusting.  My main goal was to move some of her toys out of the Living Room and into the her bedroom… Success! Then I moved to the Living Room, rearranging, vacuuming, and dusting.  By Saturday night, I felt like I had a new kitchen, and energy to spare.  Then Sunday… My husband used the snow as an excuse to stay home… I didn’t argue. I started laundry and was done with all of it AND folding/put away shortly after lunch! While my daughter napped, I cleaned the kitchen and dining room (as the bar and table becomes our collect all) It was so nice to have a clean table to eat dinner on.When my daughter fell asleep at 7:30, I thought, perfect… I still have time to get in a workout before bed, but I feel God was saying you’ve done enough… As my daughter woke up after 30 minutes and it took her another hour to fall back asleep (thank you time change!).

Today I am ready to get back into the run, but work on Mondays is always long, so it’s my off day.  Back to running tomorrow! I’m ready… Let’s Get Our Run On!

I see people running on my way to or from work, or even some of the folks in my At Home group and they make it look so easy, like running on clouds… Tonight as I ran I dreamed I was running on clouds just to try to see if that helped. While I’d like to say it did, it did not, but it did take my mind off the pounding I feel like I do as I run.  I feel like with every step, I’m stomping/pounding the pavement. But tonight was a little easier. I ran/walked 2 miles in just shy of 35 minutes. To me this is improvement.  And I’m trying not to think about the 20 minute run we will be doing in just over a week. I’ll just dream I’m on clouds the whole way through!

At least I feel that way today.  In my office building I occasionally have to walk down a hall to check on students or check-in with a colleague.  Today I noticed I no longer leisurely walk like a tortoise! As I returned to my office from my trip down the hall I thought, “Wow! I just had a faster pace in my walk!”

Little Milestones!!! 🙂