It'll be just like starting over

I began blogging more than three years ago, here, with a very specific plan. Part of the plan was to post a first-of-the-month progress photo and to compare each new month’s to the first month. After a year, here’s what that looked like.

I planned my menus and exercised regularly. My workouts included a combination of cardio and strength training. I lost weight slowly but consistently and when I got married in 2006 I had lost a total of 39 pounds.

When I decided in January of 2007 to run my first half-marathon (the Country Music in April, 2007), my weight loss slowed down and then stopped. This sometimes happens to runners in training. Looking back on it, the weight training took a back seat to the running and I ate more, because Lord knows you need to fuel up when you run. Heh.

And that, as they say, was the beginning of the end. I haven’t gotten back on the losing side, until very recently, since.

I never made it all the way back up to the weight I was in that very first photo, but I was within 15 pounds of it. Close enough for discomfort.

I mentioned on Friday how frustrated I was with myself for not drinking water and not lifting weights. I want to run more half-marathons and I definitely want to run a full, but it would be ludicrous and disheartening to run either at my current weight.

So. Tomorrow I will post a new progress photo, all by itself. I’m starting over, and this time I’m doing what works. My weekly workout schedule isn’t difficult, but has been proven (in the distant past) to be effective: four days of cardio (starting with walking, progressing to jogging and, in a couple of months, running), two days of strength training and rowing, and one rest day.

As for food, I’m happy with the South Beach plan. It’s a healthful, satisfying way to eat. I like to cook, my husband and I don’t eat out very often and it has worked when I work it.

I’m getting bloodwork done tomorrow, to make sure all systems are GO. My head seems to be in the right place, my aches and pains are minor and I feel very centered right now, for some reason.

I think I’ll bookmark this entry, though, in case I go to hell in a handbasket in a couple of weeks. Heh.