A Love Hate Relationship

With this....

I decided the year before I turned 50 that I was going to get in shape.  I had had a couple of bad years struggling with kidney stones and was very inactive.  My goal was not necessarily to look better, although if that happened I would be fine with it, but mainly to get heart healthy.  At the time I was working at a small private school and the gym teacher for the high school allowed me to take the class along with the kids.  When I say I am not athletic that is no joke.  However, I did learn how to play basketball, shoot arrows in archery, play volleyball, and my absolute favorite, to play soccer.  Doing that really helped me get into better shape but my goal was to run a 5K.    

I started running in April 2010 and ran my first 5K in May just a few days before I turned 50.  I ran two more 5K's that summer and then spent alot of time walking my dogs so I wasn't running.  I am planning to run that same race again this year so I figured I better get at it.

I have figured out I am visual learner and for me I need to see progress.  I have a Nike+ which is a little gadget that plugs into the bottom of my ipod and it tracks your runs.  Then you link it to the Nike+ website and you can see your progress on a page that looks like this.  You can set up goals and even make a little mini you! So fun!

Another tool that is useful is the site Sparkpeople.  One of the blogs I follow Me Making Do posted about it recently and I decided to start using that tool too.   Check it out.  It is totally free.  They have both a food plan if you want to lose a few pounds or an exercise plan.  There are alot of options within the program so you can make changes if you want. 


So yes, a love hate relationship.  Right now I'm not loving it so much but I am hopeful that will change as I keep plugging along.   


Let me know what you are doing to get in a more healthy place!


Blessings!