Superstitions

Just because it is SO much fun and  you can't help yourself, let's jump up and dance with Stevie Wonder on Soul Train first!!

                                                                     

I'm not superstitious. I don't believe that certain days or animals or actions intrinsically have bad luck. I do believe you can think  your way into creating bad circumstances, but that they exist on their own in the universe -- no.

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My mother (bless her heart) kept a running list of things that would bring disaster down upon us. You couldn't talk about a dream before breakfast or it would come true. Black cats crossing the road in front of you were portents of evil to come. Never, ever walk under ladders and don't open an umbrella in the house. Breaking a mirror would give you 7 years' bad luck. If you spilled salt, you had to pick it up and throw it over your shoulder. The list went on and on. It was wearisome trying to keep up with everything, and I realized early on that following all the mumbo-jumbo took a great deal of time and sure did keep you from living life.

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So, I hereby declare ArmsWideOpen a superstition-free zone.

That said, I want to unveil on this Friday the 13th our first Famy Friday. I wrote about this in my very first post:

All negatives will be relegated to the "Infamy Netherworld" and you won't find them here. Only famy found here! I'll be having "Famy Fridays," where I'd love it if you would share the positives that happened to you during your week, or that you did for others. I firmly believe it enriches us all to be reminded of the good things in life and share our gratitude for them.

I'll start off:  I signed up for my first half-marathon! I am absolutely terrified, but incredibly excited at the same time. I'll be running May 19 in Jacksonville, NC, home of the Camp Lejeune Marines. The race is Run for the Warriors, which raises funds for service members wounded during the war on terrorism. It's a tremendously good cause, and an inspiring race. One year ago, I ran my first 5k there. That route led through a neighborhood next to the town high school, and the streets were lined with people sitting out in lawn chairs in their front yard, waving American flags and cheering us on. It made me feel I was doing something good and brave and patriotic. I can't think of a place more perfect to run my first half marathon.
                                                               

                                                                 
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It absolutely amazes me that one year ago I ran my first 5k and now I'm going for a half marathon. I say it again, I never exercised AT ALL, and now my life has been transformed. If you want to do something, you can. Don't be afraid. I'm proof that you can achieve things that you never thought were possible. Take that first step!!

So, what wonderful things have you done or seen this week? I'm eager to hear from you! Have an active weekend, and don't go walking under any ladders today. Not because it's Friday the 13th, but because that's just not a smart thing to do under any circumstances.

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This Healthy Stuff Is Killing Me!

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Well, I guess it just feels that way.

 And I know, I know, it's going to get better.


Why do I feel like it's killing me?  Because dear readers, I am doing a LOT of things that are wayyyyyyy outside my comfort zone. And we know from experience, when that happens, it can hurt. Am I right?

Did I mention that, recently, my husband said to me that I was an athlete? And that he was proud of me? I almost cried. See, you have to picture this: when I was growing up, I was tall, skinny, gangly, uncoordinated, and extremely shy. Not the last picked in gym -- next to last. Never did any organized sports. Never won a trophy. Never had anyone cheering for me for anything. So when he said I was an athlete, I wondered, "Holey moley! Am I? I AM!!"
                                       

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                       I don't look like her, I just thought she was pretty...
                              
Well, a couple of weeks have gone by, and I guess that "athlete" remark may have gone to my head. Because soon I was "liking" all sorts of fitness pages on facebook. And then I found myself signing up for several challenges. Sooooo...here's what I am doing right now.
                                                                             

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I am in the midst of training for my first half marathon. I started this in January, but was derailed by a 2-week illness --  I'm just now beginning to regain some of my strength. I'm in Week 6 of the training, which looks like this:

Mon - 4 mi   Wed - 6 mi   Thurs - 4 mi   Sat - 11 mi


I next signed up for 100MileMarch, a challenge in which I have pledged to run 100 miles in the month of March.

I also joined a private group, which is geared toward 90 days of clean eating and exercising more. I have a personal accountability partner that I talk with every day.

And last, I just received my Shaun T Insanity and Rockin' Body dvds.

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                    I don't look like him either, I just thought he looked fiiiine....          

                    
Yep, I MUST be insane. 

As of March 4, I'm already 21 miles into the 100 miles I need to run. If I keep to my training schedule this week for the half marathon, I am well on my way and won't need to worry -- I'll easily make the 100.

It's the eating that's been hard for me. I LOVE the idea of being vegan or vegetarian -- I support it wholeheartedly. But darn it all, I just like meat so much! Before I even signed up for clean eating though, I have been making changes for myself and my husband. My goal has been to have at least 2 or more meatless meals a week, plus 2 fish nights. That leaves about 2 meat meals, and that's usually chicken. I am cooking a bigger variety of vegetables too. I've felt positive about these changes. Clean eating, though, is taking it to a different level. So far, I'm not doing too well with it, but I'm only 5 days in, so there is a lot of hope.

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I'm feeling very good about everything over all even though I joke it's killing me. Yesterday I ran 10 1/2 miles (YEAH -- ONE HALF, do you know how hard a half mile is to run after you've managed 10??) I am beginning to think -- I just may live through this after all...

How's your week going? How are you feeling about YOUR goals? Drop me a message and let me know!

What To Do When Your Children Try To Kill You Off Early

Last year, my oldest daughter, who lives in Boston -- did I mention she is an attorney? < insert image of proud mama beaming like this has something to do with how I was in labor with her for 14 long, grueling, horrendously painful hours with NO epidural, and absolutely nothing to do with her own intelligence> --called to tell me she had started this program named C25k. It sounded vaguely outer-space-ish to me, perhaps because in my uniquely circuited  brain I kept somehow confusing it with  Mystery Science Theater 3000, which is often abbreviated MST3k.

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At any rate, she kept telling me she'd started this cosmonaut program (or whatever) and thought I would love it. I listened with half an ear, as mothers of four are wont to do, until I realized it was a RUNNING plan. "What?? I am 52 years old!! I've never exercised in my entire life! Are you trying to get your inheritance early?" I asked incredulously. "Do you EVER remember me doing anything even vaguely healthy??" She had to demur that she did not. I was pleased with her recall.

But she kept on about it until finally, on New Year's Day 2011, I decided if I didn't try then, I was only going to become more decrepit and wizened and would never be able to maintain my health enough to someday live with each child just to pay them all back for what they put me through in their teenage years. So I climbed onto the dusty state-of-the-art treadmill which takes up a good third of our bedroom, pushed start and -- nothing. I discovered it needed to be plugged  in.

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I quickly realized I was in over my head.  This plan meant I had to actually move!! For minutes at a time!!

Here was the schedule for Week 1 Day 1 for Couch To 5k:
5 minute warm up
Run 30 seconds
Walk 45 seconds
Run 45 seconds
Walk 60 seconds
Run 60 seconds
Walk 90 seconds
And -- most unbelievable of all --repeat this THREE TIMES!! FOR THREE DAYS A WEEK!! AND IT GOT HARDER EACH WEEK!!!
(Then cool down with a 5 minute walk. You should always have a cool-down period.)

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Were they insane????? The people who created this training program must have found directions for torture from the Spanish Inquisition! I mean, really -- I was 52, for Pete's sake! I could keel over and die! I could pull something! I could have to pee! I could.......SWEAT!

Now, there is nothing worse to me than sweat. I was born, bred and raised in the South, and I will die a Southern belle. In the South, we "glow."  During this program, my "glow" plastered my hair to my head, dripped into my eyes, ran down my back, slid over my paunch,  and puddled around my feet. I learned to sling that "glow" off my forehead with a perfected flip that even a professional athlete would have been proud of.

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Side note:  I look absolutely nothing like Vivien Leigh (I could only wish) but if you are going to put a photo of a Southern belle in your blog to represent you, you want the epitome of belleishness. Hey, I'm not crazy, I get to pick the photos.

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 Side note: My husband said in all fairness I should show who I actually look more like.                                                                        
 So, each day I'd venture out into the neighborhood, hoping not to run into anyone I knew (read my "Boo Radley" blog of how I have frightened small children), and,  iPhone in hand, I'd push the C25k app. Off I would glow, gung-ho for the first 5-minute warm-up walk, but then that darn bell would ring, and a voice would pleasantly scream: "RUNNNNNNNNNNNN!"

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Now, running 60 or 90 seconds may not seem much to you. It doesn't even sound that difficult as I type this. But time is a funny thing, my friends. Have you ever noticed how fluid it is? When you are enjoying something, time simply flies by on joyful little sparrow wings. Before you know it, practically before you can even register the pleasantry in your brain, it's over. It has rushed right by you like a barrel over Niagara Falls.                                                          

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Yet the opposite is true for bad things, right? People who are in terrible accidents or have had some type of traumatic occurrence say that time stops for them. We've all seen those horror movies, where the crazed knife-wielding maniac in a hockey mask is approaching the sniveling, screaming, scantily clad slutty girl in slowwwwwwwwwwwww moooooooootion, so slowly she could easily escape, but no, of course not, she is a girl and so the director has her trip and fall over her own stupid feet, not once but maybe three or four times.....ummm, yes, well, anyway, when bad things happen, time really drags, that's my point.

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Those 60 seconds of running became for me a river of Elmer's glue- and wet-cement -laden molasses paved not with tumbled rocks but sticky fly strips holding each foot captive.  I was slogging for a decade through a yawning chasm of glowing, gasping, on-the-teetering-brink-of-death-right-before-you-tip-over-into-it agony by forcing my body to do something it had never done before, 52 years of every ache and pain I'd ever experienced rolled into tiny, torturous, 60-second increments. I hurt. I hurt bad.

But each day, I got out there -- because if my daughter could do it, so could I. More importantly, SHE thought I could do it. What mother wants to let her baby chick down? Oops, didn't mean to show my maternal side, I'm trying show my bad-ass side right now. Raar.

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And an amazing, miraculous thing happened along the way.  Those 60 seconds of running got --- easier. I quit hurting. I began to look forward to getting out there. Each day, I began to think of the challenge as something I was going to push myself to achieve, and best of all, I began to believe I could triumph.
                                                                           
Flash-forward a year. I've run 3k, 5k, 8k and 10k races, and I've won a little age-group bling. Pretty proud of it, actually. I'm looking forward to running a half-marathon soon -- training for it as we speak. So, what I want to tell you is this:

                                                                               
Get out there and make your dream a reality. You CAN do it!! Whether you  want to start C25K yourself, or you want to take a yoga class, or you secretly yearn to run a marathon, my advice is never, ever give up! Because the best revenge when your children try to kill you off early to get their share of the will is -- you'll be in such great shape they'll never be able to catch you.