- The Moscow Co-op/Saturday Farmer's Market - so yummy!
- Solitude - Without realizing it, living and working in Pullman was like being on a sabbatical. Distractions were minimal and life was very simple
- Teeny-tiny town life - my commute was 1.5 miles and the farthest grocery store was 10 miles away (even though it was across the state border). I purchased gas once a month at most!
- WSU Main Campus - I miss the other students, the access to professors and the library.
- The WSU Student Recreation Center - indoor track, three weight areas, 6 basketball courts, cheap classes, my amazing trainer Sarah and $9 massage therapy!
I grew up in a wonderful home where I had everything that I needed, but I was never really taught how to give myself a healthy life. Food is just something that you eat, medicine fixes illnesses and exercise and team sports are interchangeable activities that I will forever fail at. I never thought that the food choices that I made mattered at all (100 calorie packs are just as healthy as 100 calories of fruit!) or that I could prevent some illness in the first place by eating right and exercising. And after years of being uncoordinated and terrible at sports, I never considered that it was possible that I might one day run a half marathon.
Almost three years ago, a friend of mine suggested that we run a 5K. I was in the habit of using the elliptical a couple times a week at the gym and had successfully worked up to running 1 mile about 5 years earlier in an effort to lose some weight (a plan that worked! If only my body were still as easy to change as it was at 19!). The thought of running 3 consecutive miles, in a race no less, was completely foreign and something reserved for people who were good at sports or were on the track team in high school. We worked slowly and jogged most of that first 5K. Since then, we have jogged several 5K's and I worked my way up to running two 10K's last spring. It was those runs that made me realize that fitness doesn't have to be tied to this false image of an "athlete" that I was so focused on in my mind. I was able to get my uncoordinated, clumsy, cookie-loving self across the finish line. And if I could run 6 miles, then why not 7, 8, 9 or 10?
No epiphany is complete without it's downfalls, of which I have had plenty. Shortly after running my second 10K, I stopped exercising completely and gained a bit more weight...a struggle that I've had my entire life. When I got back to Pullman in the fall, I signed up with a personal trainer with the goal of learning how to weight train. This sounds like a silly goal to people who have ever exercised or participated in a sport, but I honestly knew nothing about muscles, weights or how to improve my health and metabolism with weight training. Sarah taught me about free weights, mat exercises, weight machines, the importance of getting my diet and exercise plan to match, but most importantly helped me get over my fear of being the rogue non-exerciser in a sea of fitness buffs at the gym. It turns out that nobody cares if a tiny, squishy girl is exercising a room filled with 19-22 year old boys. In fact, given the crowd, I was probably more inconspicuous than a fit exercise girl would have been.
The weight training plan was perfect in Pullman, I felt terrific and avoided catching a cold in the fall for the first time in my life. When I moved back to the west side at Christmas, the weight training program kind of fell apart, which is something that I'm not proud of. The good news is that I developed a new goal, and decided to drag the friend who started my interest in 5K's along with me. This Saturday, Jerylle and I will be running (slow-jogging, whatever) the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Seattle. We have worked from 3 miles to 13 over the course of 3 years (or really 4 months if you track our training program). Even though our time won't be anything to brag about, for the first time, I'm feel like I'm able to take personal pride in an athletic event.
My greatest fear is that I will drop exercise again once the race is over, like I have so many times before. This is probably the main reason that I am writing this today. For the first time, I have developed a new goal before the completion of the current goal. It's time to combine all of the new things that I have learned about living a healthy life, while perhaps incorporating new things as well. I cannot stop running after the race...I get a break, but I must keep running 2-3 days a week. Additionally, it's time to pick the weights back up. I experienced so much joy and pride towards the end of my time in Pullman because of differences in my body that were barely noticeable to other people, but made a huge difference to me. With the help of the most awesomely painful toning Zumba class on earth once a week and 1-2 additional days of dedicated strength training, I hope to get that feeling back. On top of this, I need to focus on my diet. I guess that this is my new goal. By the end of the summer (and perhaps my second half marathon...we'll see), I want to be cooking balanced, healthy, vegetabletastic meals every day (or huge quantities a couple times a week-yay leftovers!). Furthermore, it is time to learn how to snack! My body calls for food every 2-3 hours and ignoring the call leads to candy binges. I need to eat appropriate healthy snacks and get the crappy empty snacks that leave me super hungry out of my life. This goal is so much more abstract and makes me really nervous in a way that the last two goals haven't. But basically, it's time to focus on eating foods prepared from vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy products and meats. It seems simple and silly that I have to announce it, but if you saw what I eat some days, you would understand. :) If I don't know what an ingredient is or where it came from, it's time to cut it out of my diet. (Note: many cookies have completely natural ingredients. Therefore, I will still be eating them).
And that's all for today. The race is in three days, and I really don't want to jinx myself with any of this. But it is essential that I put my new goal in words. The strength training plan was declared verbally, the half marathon was declared verbally and on facebook, and now the combo-plan plus whole foods extravaganza plan is being declared in my unpopular blog. I'll hopefully be back by the end of the summer with a new, super awesome goal to improve my health and my life!
Huzzah!
