14/14 week 12 - done with walking!

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I "completed" the prevention program.   I skipped 3 days last week, but I was so dreading the long walks on the treadmill, I'm not going to try to finish them. I was so bored, and so not looking forward to dealing with my kids while I was trying to work out.  I feel good about having done most of the program!

For this coming week (week 13), I'm starting a couch to 5K running program.  I've never been a runner.  You know how in school they made you do a running test for some fitness assessment? Totally not my favorite thing.  I remember in 6th grade (when I was especially chubby because of changing, hormonal, transitioning girl-ness) doing the run/walk thing.  I don't remember how long it took me to walk (running only when necessary and in the eye of the PE teacher). I do remember the horrible stitch in my side when I ran. I remember this being the case in high school, too.  That's what I'd been dreading about starting a running program.

You know what?  I did day one on Monday, and I ran for 60 seconds, alternating with 90 seconds of walking, for 20 minutes (with warm-up and cool-down on either side of that).  I never once had my side hurt.  My knees started to twitch, and my shin started to ache a little, but otherwise, just fine!  Maybe I'm in better shape than I was even in high school, even if I am 30+ pounds heavier than I was back then.

I watched The Biggest Looser tonight. Seeing that the female contestants lost 12-15 pounds in 6 weeks at home makes me reevaluate the amount of effort I'm putting into really loosing weight. At the low end, that 2 pounds a week. That would put me so close to my 14/14 goal, even if it isn't going to happen by the end of 2010.

I feel like I've put forth a lot of effort for what seems like practically no return in the scale numbers. It's disappointing and frustrating.

On a different note, I took a look at some of the before and after/in progress photos of some of the ladies that I hang out with online. It hasn't happened fast for those ladies, but it has happened.  They have families, they are figuring this out without a personal trainer breathing down their neck.  Several have had babies in the midst of their weightloss journey, but they persist. It's easy to look at people I don't "know" and think about all the advantages they may have.  When I see people like me, that I interact with on a regular basis making progress, THAT is inspiration!

So, even though I'm clearly not going to meet my 14/14 goal, even though I wanted to have an awesome story to have chronicled about a real person working and succeeding at dropping to a healthier weight, I'm not going to give up.  I do regret that I feel like I've wasted 3 months (in terms of not moving the scale), but I'm going to work at figuring out how NOT to waste then next 3 months.