My Healthy Journey: Almost 20 years later ....

 Well, I stumbled upon this blog, long forgotten, when I was looking for photos of the Unhealthy Me. 

I am proud to say that almost 20 years later, I kept up the battle and fought a good fight. I remain healthy and at a manageable weight. I hover somewhere around 150lbs, fluctuating between 145 - 155 lbs. This may seem like a odd thing to say but I have found that giving myself the grace to go up and down helps my sanity. When I hit 155lbs, I start cutting back my food and start intermittent fasting. I am not a medical professional, so I cannot say much about it, but I will say that we each have our OWN journey.

If we are going to make LASTING change, we must find the journey that works for us.... there is no magic pill, no one-size-fits-all, no instruction manual and YOU and YOUR body. 99% of the journey is finding the path that you can walk on the rest of your life. 

Would I love to be 135lbs? HECK YEAH!! But that would require more work than I am willing to put in. I have found my balance to accepting my weight where I am BECAUSE I have accepted my trade-offs. I love sugar and anything sweet. Breads and pastas are not a big temptation but put chocolate, cake, and cookies in my reach and I am all over it. 

Could I give up sugar? ABSOLUTELY! Have I given up sugar? YES. Did I lose the weight? YES. Did I like my quality of life in such a restrictive diet? NO. 

So, the trade-off is that I eat what I want, inter
mittent fast when necessary and accept that I am going to carry more weight than I originally thought. 

Twenty years later, the fight is constant... it is daily... it doesn't go away. But I have learned to make friends with it. It is no longer allowed to beat me up when I fail. I give myself a wide range to bounce between... and at the end, I am at peace...finally. 

Twenty years of healthy living.... and a lifetime more to go. 

Mule-ing It

Well, if anyone was looking, they would have beheld a "sight"....

Baby #4 arrived 8 weeks ago and I am trying to hit the road again. I did well with this pregnancy gaining only about 10 lbs more than necessary by the current weight reading on my scale. A LOT better than the 45 that was blinking with the last one.
So, me and my boys hit the trail-one in the jogging stroller, one in the front carrier: 4.02 miles and 1:08hrs later.
Feeling accomplished and ready to take on the extra weight. No running but plenty of energy exerted!

Welcome to my world.

Short and not-so-sweet

My daughter is entering 5th grade.
She is joining the running team at a nearby charter school.
She is so excited, she can't hardly stand herself.

She drug me out of bed this morning.
I laced up my shoes and off we went.
Point six of a mile, a tree limb grabbed my ankle.
There are exactly 4 stops between running and SPLAT.

Shoulder
Elbow
Hands
Knees.

The run lasted another point four of a mile.

53 in 30

With the arrival of my fourth child, I am more determined than ever to lose the weight and get back to running. If you read some earlier posts, you can see the journey that I have been on. For the most part, it has been pretty good...the past 3 years have not been good or pretty.
So, I am challenging myself to run/walk/be active for 53 miles in 30 days. One mile for each hour I was at the hospital being induced and birthing my son, the linebacker.
He came in at 10 lbs and 4oz.

So...the mark drawn, I am set and off I go!!

Dragged, Once More

My sister is running her first 5K.

My other 4 sisters are running the 5K too.

I did not want to run the 5K. Training is hard. Time is limited. Motivation is there but follow through is non-existent.
I need to run it though. I still carry 20lbs of pregnancy gain.

~~~~~~

I am running, and possibly being the captain for the team, a 5K on April 28th.
I am excited to try again to gain momentum in running and being physically active again.
I long to regain my health (and figure).


~~~~~~

I do not want to run. I do not want to feel pain. I do not like getting off my couch.

I will run though. I will endure the weaknesses to regain my strength. I will get off my couch.

I WILL BECOME A HERO TO MY CHILDREN ONCE AGAIN.

Three's a Crowd?

No, three is the reason that I still am not running. Three is the number that may be my downfall. Balancing three is so much harder than two. Three... I love my kids but hate that number (at least until I figure things out and get my life back in order).

I don't even bother to try to set a New Year's Resolution. What for? If I start running it will be because I have gain wisdom and insight on balance... not because I have strong armed my will into doing it.

My Healthy Journey Part 2: 70lbs lighter!

 

Oct. 2006, 70 lbs lighter

10k race with my sisters Grace and Mary

Ironically, I hated running and still hate it at times. It is not therapy, in itself. It is not fun. It is a means to an end. It is a mode of getting from one point to the next. Nevertheless, running has probably been the best gift I have ever been given. It has provided the opportunity to get to know my sister better. It has provided a way to get to know myself better. It has provided a way to be a positive role model for my daughter. And finally, it has provided a way to become healthier.

By the end of my second year on this journey, I had lost almost 50lbs and by the time I got re-married later that year, I had lost another 10lbs and had a BMI that was within the ‘healthy’ range for the first time in 15 years.


Since then, I have had two more children and with that the fluctuations that naturally occur in weight. Overall though, I have maintained a total weight loss of between 60-70lbs. and try to hang around 145lbs. My weight loss was not sudden. It was not an overnight thing. It was a series of small baby steps. Similarly, maintaining that weight was not a one-time decision, it is a journey. It is a journey that requires decisions that come in the form of small baby steps-choosing to eat healthy one meal at a time, choosing to be active one day at a time, choosing to be balanced in my life one moment at a time.

My daughters, Kennedy and Tristan

Getting to the gym on a regular basis, eating the fruit and veggies instead of going for the sugar-laden foods, getting enough sleep and keeping my mental energy up to remain committed to healthy choices is a daily decision. With the birth of my son in June, I am carrying about 30 extra pounds and getting to the gym between three children’s schedules is a real challenge.

Yesterday, I just wanted to throw my hands up and tell myself it is just too hard. Then, I have moments like today: I was dressed to run all day but every time I thought I had a moment to make a break for the road, something came up. When my youngest daughter, who is 3 years old heard my complaining late this afternoon, she immediately began insisting she go “running” with me. For three hours, that is all I heard about. She’d come into the room with flip flops: “I’m ready to go running!!” A moment later she had her jacket on: “I’m ready! Let’s go running!!” So, once Dad got home from work, my girls (now 8 and 3 years old) and I went for a “run.” It was a short, disjointed walk/run around a 2 block area that was painfully slow, but it was the best run I have had in a long time.

1k Fun Run with my daughter, Tristan, 2007

THIS is why I run and this is how I stay strong in my commitment.

Today I ran with my daughters.

Today I passed on a legacy of health and wholeness.

Today I was successful in my game.

Today I was a hero.

This is one of the things that I love about Little Healthy Competition: it isn’t about setting big goals for fast results and overnight transformation. LHC, for me, is about continuing to make the little changes that I can live with for the rest of my life… It is about one moment, one day, one life that we get to live. It is about the small things can we do that build upon each other to create a balanced and centered life for
ourselves and those around us.

Keeping off the weight for 7 years!!!

Keep running!

Chelsea Robinson
Durham, NC