NSV alert!!! Color Foam 5k (lots of stinking cute pictures)

Thanks to an old friend (like since we were 5...girl scout days) I was able to participate in my 2nd 5k of my life!

The last one I went with Cupcake to the Color Run back in October of 2012...so I was 3 months post op. I remember when I got home and my daughter saw me she wanted to go with me to the next one....well...sorry kid...mommy's been broke! lol In walks me old friend. She had bought a ticket for her and her husband to the Color Foam 5k and then he had to work, no refunds BUT you can transfer registration...which she did...to me...for free. Seriously sweet and awesome ya'll.

Soooooo..... Friday when I picked up Kenz we went to Wally world because I told her I had a surprise for her and we had to go get special white clothes. When we got there I finally told her why we needed white clothes and shit you not that kid was jumping up and down like she won the lottery in the middle of Wally world.

Now going into this I told her we would be on her run schedule. Run until she's tired and we will walk. I thought for my crazy, insane, hyper ass child would run me into the ground....

ummmmm.....NOPE! This is about how it went.

Ran for about 4 minutes.
"Mommy i'm ready to walk"
"Ok sweetie"
*7 minutes later*...."Ready to run again?"
"No mommy... I think we need to just walk for now"
*7 minutes later*..."Ready to run kiddo?"
"Umm...yeah!"
*30 seconds later*
"Mommy! I'm too tired...let's walk"

The only time the child would run was when she knew we were close to a foam station....

Ummm....did I just out run my crazy kid? YEEEEPPPPPPPP!!! Sure did...

Not gonna lie...I held my head pretty high...Although, i'm not sure if I should be so proud of out lasting a 5 year old...but dammit I was!!!

It was fun...Not as fun as the color run...but Kenz had an absolute blast "running" with mommy.

OK....now the reason you all clicked on this blog post....PICTURES!!!!


Yeah...we are pretty much too cool for school. Especially that kid.... This was obviously before hitting the pavement :)


Rad pic after the run through the initial foam :)


Direct hit from the water cannons...look at all that cheese...





Look at that sass....




This kid....smh...it never ends....She cracks me up





We did it!!





Before and After!





And Last but not least.....the absolute best picture of the day in my opinion....







Look at the absolute joy on that kids face.....awesome sauce

So...I went Jogging...I believe it's jogging... or yogging. It might be a soft J...

Sooooo....In my last POST I told you about my trainer Luto breaking the awful, heartbreaking news that on the days i'm not working out with him I need to run...
Like RUN...
Like propel myself forward one leg at a time at a high rate of speed.
You know..like walking...only faster.

Oh crap, did I lose you there?

I know, I know...don't worry, it took me a while to grasp the concept too.

This is totally how I felt....However I just fought back the tears and said "Ok..."

Being someone who at her highest weight was 275 lbs this was a tough pill to swallow.

I've never ran before...
I take that back...
I had to run when I was younger, at football practice...
AAAANNNNNDDDD I puked every.damn.night.

Great...and I was an effing kid back then. What in the world will happen to my tattered 28 year old post massive weight loss body?

I decided I would die.

Don't get me wrong...he told me to run, so I was gonna run...but I was also pretty sure I was most likely going to die, and some poor jogger with the stamina of a cheetah would find my shriveled up mess of a body. That would totes suck, I know I don't want to find a body while I'm getting my fitness on, that's one way to turn a dedicated runner into a paranoid homebody that doesn't leave their house for 6 years because of re-occurring night mares and turns to food for comfort and gains 300 lbs ....
And I can't live with that on my conscious... so I just shouldn't go running right?

No? That's not a legit excuse?

OOOOKKAAAAYYY FFFIIINNNNNEEEEEEE......geeeze....I'll go for a run.

I put on my little workout outfit and laced up my shoes....put my headphones in and cranked that music up as loud as I could so my mind would focus on the music and not the fact that my ass is attempting to run...for the first time...down the sidewalk of a busy street...where people can see my awkward jiggly bits flopping about the sidewalk
And I REALLY didn't want to hear myself breathing.....I didn't even want to imagine what it sounded like....*shivers*

So I started out walking...for about 5 minutes until I built my nerve up to start jogging.

Here goes.....

Hmmmm....So this is running...

I'm thinking in my head "If I can just make it to that tree I think I will be doing great"

I made it to the tree....and...and...and...

KEPT GOING!!!

I couldn't believe it!

I WAS RUNNING!
Like...running!
Like propelingl myself forward one leg at a time at a high rate of speed!
You know..like walking...only faster!

Now don't get too excited, I didn't run for 3 miles or anything... I think I made it through a whole song on Pandora.

But I was just completely and utterly positive I would only make it like 100 feet...or like 25 seconds.

I also walked a lot...


But the amazing thing is....I ran...in spurts maybe...and there was a lot of walking in between...
BUT I DIDN'T DIE!

Yay me! Not dying is a marvelous thing!

It was my first day so I wasn't expecting miracles or anything but holy bajeebus if I didn't impress myself! And realize that I don't give myself enough credit, or believe in myself enough.

Not only did I NOT die.....Just the opposite....I felt absolutely UH-MAY-ZING...
 I felt awesome...on top of the world...like I could do anything.

I was red, and sweaty, and huffing and puffing... (the picture doesn't do it justice)
But I felt awesome!

And now? 3 weeks later?
I absolutely love it.
There. I said it.

Who the fack am I? Who is this person?

You guys.....I think I might be a runner....





P.S. That still sounds weird..."Going for a run" or "Just got done with my run"...MY run? MMMYYYY run? Yep....my run :)

OH hey there MOTIVATION! It's about damn time I found you!

MOTIVATION

The elusive, mythical and mystical creature...

It's kind of like a leprechaun... or Sasquatch...or the Loch Ness Monster.

People talk about spotting it briefly once, on a dark night through the trees. OH WAIT! I THINK I SEE IT!

Nope....just a rock...

I have been searching for what seems like a very long time for motivation. I did so well, for so long after my surgery. I lost over 100 lbs...I was motivated...I followed most of the rules...umm...most of the time lol But I was motivated... I loved seeing that scale go down...down...down...down...and down some more. It was exhilarating, almost addicting.

Then something happened....

Not sure what....
Not sure when....
      But it happened....

I started eating shitty.... I started drinking cokes and eating candy bars every day. Thank god my band was tight enough that when I ate actual food, you know nutrition... I couldn't eat much so at least I didn't gain any weight...

But I didn't lose any either. I have yo-yo'd from 153 to 160 for weeks....ok months....
OOOOKKKKK it was like a year!  THIS is why I haven't been blogging....
How awesome would a weight loss blog be if all I wrote about everyday was caving in to cravings, drinking 3 cans of coke and eating a butterfinger for breakfast. Probably wouldn't be too inspirational that's for sure.

But that's my fault...and I apologize...SINCERELY...

I promised to give you all of me from the very beginning.... The good, the bad, the ugly.
That's easy to say when it's all good...all gravy...all awesome sauce.
But when you go through a pretty deep winter depression...
eat everything around you...
NEVER exercise....
and lose any glimmer of motivation you had?

Well, it's a lot harder to share that with all these people who tell me I inspire them. Who tell me reading my blog gave them the courage to go ahead with THEIR surgery...
I didn't want to let anyone down...
I felt like I already let myself down and I didn't want to let you all down too.

Now let me backtrack a little and tell you this is how I FELT....not how I FEEL.

How do I FEEL now?

 For the first time in a very long time I feel UH-MAY-ZING....

I have found a rainbow shitting unicorn and rode that unicorn all the way to the end and found the pot of gold..... MOTIVATION.

And I know it all comes down to myself and making a decision within myself to give it my all...but I seriously have to give a LOT if not all credit to 1 person.

I met this person through my boyfriend... they have been friends for forever and it happens to be one of the first people I met through my boyfriend. Like the 2nd night we ever hung out. His name is Michael Avelluto but we all know him as "Luto" which is what I will call him on here (unless i'm posting about his business then I will use his full name)

I knew he was a personal trainer...and I have known that for a year and a half now. I just never thought with us all being friends...and you know...me being broke that anything would ever come of that whole thing.

Until one night while we were hanging out I told him all about how I LOVE exercising and that I am so close to my goal weight and I just need to find that X factor to get me going.

Then the words that kinda...well...changed everything.

"Let me train you"

OH SWEET 8 LB 7 OZ BABY JESUS!

Did he just say that?

Get it together here Julie....Pull up your big girl panties and answer the man...

The only response I could muster up in my internal excitement was .... "ummm...DUH...YYYESSSSS!"

SO....boot camp is where I was invited...every Tuesday and Thursday night at 7.

Yup.....soo....boot camp...
SHIT I'm nervous....
261 lb Julie brain started in....I got all self conscious.

But I was so heffing excited I couldn't sleep the night before. The whole afternoon after work waiting for 7 that first Tuesday I did all kinds of things...
I got my scale hooked up to my wifi and got batteries all in it...

YAY ME!

I took some before pictures in my sports bra and underwears.... (yeah, NO CHANCE i'm posting those until I have some progress pics to post next to them!!!  Don't want to blind anyone SHEESH!)

I will give you one picture though....




This is right before I left for boot camp.... excited and nervous... I had never been to a boot camp before I had no idea WTF to expect.

OH yeah.... I weighed myself before I went too...
Pretty sure I almost passed out...
163 lbs folks... I choked on my spit.
Not cool... I never wanted to go above 160 again.

But it is what it is. I was starting day 1 of my new adventure and nothing was going to hold me down.

OOOOOHHHHH EEEEEMMMMM GGGEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

I FUCKING LOVE BOOT CAMP!!!



I came home in a pile of jellied noodles on the floor but I was happy...and I felt amazing...
THIS is the feeling I have been yearning for...but I needed guidance.

The next 2 days I could barely walk, or sit, or stand, or function I was so damn sore. But it felt ooohhh so good :)


Thursday came around and I was back at boot camp....Luto was getting excited about my enthusiasm...and so was I. I worked again until I almost puked on my shoes.
And I left feeling aaaaayyyyymaaaayyyyziiiiinnnnggggg again.

I think i'm starting to like this....

And then he told me I needed to RUN on days I wasn't at bootcamp....

I choked on my spit...
Looked at him frighteningly...

"ummm.....Like RUN run?"

"Yeah, like run for 30 minutes every day"

"oh ok..."
 *panic...panic...panic*

RUUUUN?!?!?!??!?!
I don't know if you have ever met me sir....but I don't run...
 Unless someone is chasing me....with a knife.

And that's where I will leave off because I have a whole new post about running....

Bottom line....things have changed...and i'm beyond excited to see where this takes me....

I'm now finishing week 3 and really seeing results!!!

More to come...PROMISEEEEEEE!!!!!