Have you Committed?

Four weeks ago I post that I had committed to myself, my fitness and my running. I've officially registered for the VT Marathon on May 30th. I sat down and planned out the next 5 months of training. Now 4 weeks into my training commitment how are things going....

• I've gotten in all of my schedule runs and many of them there longer than what I originally scheduled


• I've gotten in all my weight routines


• I've gotten in all of my weekly yoga routines


• I've had trouble getting in my extra cardio for the week.... to be honest I've only got it in two of the four weeks


• I lost 8lbs total in the four weeks...

I've just committed to my workouts and the nutrition followed. There are still big improvements I need to make in my nutrition. There are also new things I need to learn since this is the first I'm I'll be regularly running at least 12 miles on Sundays.

Start with the workouts and the changes will start to happen in your nutrition. You can't fuel your body for intense workouts with junk food. You will start to look for that nutrition that you body needs. So get to the starting line and commit to yourself and your workouts!!! It is good for your body, your health and in turn good for your family.

The Importance of Yoga...

I know that most of you starting P90X do not want to do Yoga and it is one of the longest and hardest workouts of the week. Check out this interview with Tony to see why it is just so important.

January Newsletter

January 2010 Newsletter

Am I Dedicated or Crazy ?!?!?

My training schedule this week had a 5 mile run today. I got up this morning and checked the weather on http://www.weather.com/ and this was the current temperature when I headed out for my run.

Yes you are reading that right. Only 3 degrees Fahrenheit!!!! Was I crazy to go out and run in that temperature? Well I'm sure most of you think that I am. I even thought that I was when I headed out to the running group in my car and it was only 5 degrees when I made it to the meeting point. There was only a group of 4 of us that showed up to brave the weather.

I was still thinking I was a little off my rocker at that point. The minute we started running the cold air hurt my lungs, but after a few minutes I settled in and it wasn't all that bad. I had bundled up with plenty of layers and only my face was cold. It was a hard run in the cold and I have to thank my friend Al for running with me, but when we were done it felt great. At 9am this morning I had finished my 5 mile run and had the rest of the day in front of me.

So was I crazy to go out? No, I'm just a runner dedicated to my training plan. If I didn't have a plan and goal then I probably would have just stayed under the warm covers this morning. Instead I followed my plan and I'm having an extremely productive day. So make your plans and stick to them that is the only way to make it to the finish line.

I Can't Believe My Eyes....

This is one thing I thought I would never see from the Creator of P90X. I guess he hadn't come up with Ab Ripper in 1996. Good thing for Tony that he meet Carl Daikeler only a few years later.





I hope everyone gets a good chuckle out of this.

Remember Where You Came From....

We should all keep a reminder of where we came from when we started on this up and down journey for our health and fitness. We all know that photo or that comment that made the light bulb go off in our head and made us realize the way our lives were headed. We are all now on our journey to a healthier life so that light bulb moment all got us to change our lives for the better no matter how painful or embarrassing it may have been.

For me my life changing moment was when I saw a photo of Pat and I from my 10 year high school reunion. Most people are thinking about how they look before they go to the reunion, but for some reason I didn't think I looked all that bad.

What was I thinking! I was wearing a dress that was a few sizes too small. It should have been loose and flowing on my body instead of tight and ready to rip the minute I sat down. It wasn't until I saw this picture that I realized I had to do something about where my health was headed.

In this picture I was more than 40 lbs heavier than I am now and almost 50 lbs heavier than I was in high school. This picture was taken Thanksgiving weekend and the Wednesday after Thanksgiving I committed to make a change for the better for my health.

Now today 4 years later and 40 lbs lighter I'm as fit as I was in high school and have completed two half marathons, a 24 hour relay road race and I am on to the road to my first marathon.

If you had asked me four years ago if I thought I would be doing any of these things I would have said "No Way!". I now look at these to pictures and I realize I'm not the same person I was 4 years ago physically or mentally. I had just gotten comfortable and forgotten about my love for running and for fitness. Both of these pictures are so very important to me because they show the amazing journey of the past 4 years. Plus the first serves as a constant reminder of how hard I have worked to get where I am and how easy it is to go back to where I was. I love the person I am today and I am striving to make myself better everyday. I can't wait to see what incredible picture I get to add next to this story!

Goals for 2010

Most of us have a long road to out fitness and personal goals. The most important thing you can do for your fitness and for your personal live is to set goals for yourself. Make sure you are settings fitness goals for things you can do physically and not just goals for a number on the scale or a pants size. We need to make sure we remember the most important reason to do any fitness routine is to be healthier and to be around longer for our loved ones. The outer physical effects are just a bonus to feeling better and living longer.

I spent a few hours last weekend sitting down and thinking about my goals for the next year. Of course like most of us I do have the scale or pant size goal, we all dream of that "Itsie Bitsie Tinie Winnie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" The goals I’m really looking forward to achieving this year are those things I have never done before but haven’t been physically able to do until now.

My first personal goal of 2010 is to run my first marathon. I have dreamed of being able to say I’ve completed one for over 10 years and this year I’m going to make it happen. Today I committed to that goal and put down my $85 registration fee and I’m now officially registered for the Vermont Marathon on May 30, 2010. To date I have done 2 half marathons and the leap from 13.1 to 26.2 miles is scare and so exciting. I can’t wait to report that I have completed it. So now for the next 18 weeks I will be putting in some serious mileage a long with my Beachbody workouts.

After I have completed my first marathon I will tackling another mountain. Which one? I will have to figure that out after marathon. Maybe another marathon, maybe qualify for the Boston Marathon (I’m dreaming big here). Who knows but I need the goals to keep pushing my fitness forward to new levels.

We all have those “mountains to climb” that we have dreamed of for years, 2010 is the year to make that happen! So write down that dream goal and commit to achieving it in 2010!

Vicky