My Winter Blah Plan

The January blahs are still clinging to me even though I've been trying to shake them off.  Its so cold and its so hard to get myself out the door.  So Im doing a few things to combat the winter blues.

1.  Get my eating on track.  Today I decided I was going to kick my eating into gear by doing the Cooler Plan #1 from the "Eat Clean Diet" book by Tosca Reno.  You should only do this plan for 1 - 2 weeks because its hardcore.  It gives your diet a boost and then your ready to work at Eating Clean. I think I can handle it for 1 week....well Im going to try.   

• 6 meals a day, the last meal at 6, eat every 2-3 hours.
• 1 apple
• Chicken, tuna, egg whites, turkey, bison, elk, non-oily fish - five x 5 oz servings
• Raw veggies: cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, lettuce, asparagus, green beans, sprouts, celery - five x 1 1/2 cup servings
• Yams and/or sweet potatoes - 1 over the course of a day
• Oatmeal cooked with water - 1 cup cooked
• Distilled water or fresh water with no sodium - 1 gallon
• No juice
• No bread
• No salad dressings, only lemon juice.

2. Sign up for a race.  I've signed up for the Chilli-Half Marathon March 3.  I need a realistic goal to work towards. I ran 14K last Saturday because I knew I had to start upping my mileage again if I want to be ready by March.  Also I paid $96 for the registration, Im too Dutch to waste that!

Here's the jacket I get for registering, bonus!

3. Read an inspirational book.  Last winter I read 2 inspirational running books called "Run to Overcome" and "Unthinkable".  They really got me in the mood for training and working hard at my goals. This winter I've started reading a book written by my pastor Peter Slofstra called "In Tandem a Sea to Sea Cycling Odyssey".  Its about a bike tour across Canada called Sea to Sea that he and his wife did on a tandem bike.  I look forward to reading my book after my workout and Im all showered and rested.

4.  Be more disciplined with my devotions.  I have the verse 1Timothy 4:8 written on my blog but do I really mean it?  I realize that many times I put physical training before spiritual training  Doing my devotions is a must if I want to get rid of the winter blahs. 

Thats my winter blah plan and Im starting to feel them leave already : )

Taking The First Step to a Happy New Year

I usually have a break from training in December.  There is extra shopping and tasks to do for Christmas and I find it hard to fit running in.  So I just give myself a break and try to run whenever I can and just enjoy it.  The problem with that is I eat alot more at Christmas.  There is a constant, glorious flow of chocolate and Bailey's Irish Cream which I just cant resist.  I'm not proud of this but my daughter and I show each other our Christmas food baby bellies.  Well I need to give birth to this baby!

I usually put on 10 lbs which is an annual event I need to put a stop to.  By the time January comes I'm ready to get serious about running and working out again.  This January I had a hard time getting started.
Maybe it was because I didn't have a huge goal to work towards like last years turning 50.  I needed a new goal to get myself pumped up and excited about. 

Then I had a great idea.  I had a friend who had talked about doing a 5K.  I wrote out a walk-to-run schedule for her and told her I would do the race with her at the end of the training. What a great idea ! I'm so awesome!  I got all excited about whipping my friend's butt into shape but turns out she didn't want her butt whipped.  Oh well, guess its just me and my ole butt for 2013.  I picked some races for the year and told myself I was excited.

The day I was supposed to get back at it was really windy and cold.  I had just come home from a bunch of frustrating errands and felt very frazzled.  I knew I had to run or I would feel even worse.  I had to get this year into gear.  I just decided to go and not think about it.  I put my running clothes on as fast as I could like I was in a hurry.  I looked rather silly but I didn't think about the weather or how long I was going to go.  I just pushed myself out the door as quick as I could.

It was cold at first but as always I had a great run.  Whats so great about running is that you have this quiet time to really think about things.  I was thinking about my ho hum start to my 2013 goals and I think my problem was that I needed it to be big and amazing to be worthwhile.  But maybe it didn't need to be so big?

Maybe....... its just enough that I started. 
Maybe...... if I just took the first step in my goals, God would take care of the rest and turn it into something big and amazing!
Maybe...... when I feel God nudging me to do something I should just do it quickly before I talk myself out of it and just push myself out the door.

You always end up having a good run.  Wow running is so deep!