Friday, September 23, 2011

Health and Running

I've been thinking a lot lately about weight and being healthy.  This comes because over the weekend the hubby took a photo of my at the York Fair with my pumpkin funnel cake.  I love funnel cake.  It's one of my favorite foods, but I limit myself to one a year.  It's not all that healthy, in case you didn't know.  ;-)  This year I skipped my baseball funnel cake in lieu of having one at the Fair, since it was made of pumpkin and covered in icing.  To.Die.For.

The issue with the weekend's funnel cake was that it happened during a day of complete abandonment.  I ate crap all day.  Soft pretzel at the York Revolution, a slice of pizza and pumpkin funnel cake at the Fair, and chips and salsa at home.  Just crap food all day.  Not at all one should be eating when they are trying to lose weight and make better food choices.

Then on Wednesday we attended the first York Revolution play-off game.  We ate dinner before going to the game (not only to control calories, but costs.).  We took our season ticket holder cups with us and asked for diet soda when we got to the counter.  The girl looked at us and said you don't need to be drinking diet soda.  I thought that an odd comment.  I said hubby sure didn't, but I do.  She looked at me and said I didn't either.  Which made me start thinking a bit about how I am really seem by others versus how I see myself.  And apparently, I see myself in a totally different light than the camera (see above) or nice concession stand people serving me soda.

So, I went to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) to see if they have official weight ranges.  I wanted to see where I stood in relationship for where I should be based on height.  In order to do so, I had to enter my height and weight for them to calculate my BMI (body mass index).  When I entered it, it stated I am overweight, which I knew.  But, it listed the weight range I should be in to be healthy. When I saw what it was, I was shocked that I am only 14 pounds above where I should be.  How could that be?  14 pounds isn't that much.  It's almost to the point of being 10 pounds overweight.  That amount that every woman in the known universe states she is.  "Oh you look fabulous!"  "Really?  I need to lose 10 pounds."  It's crazy to me to think that I am this close to being "normal."  I've been stressing out how much I weight, how overweight I am, how I'll never lose that amount of weight.  But, what I'm realizing is that to be healthy and to be normal, it's 14 pounds.  Sure, I can go below that and still be healthy, but I'm not really that far away from the healthy mark.  I'm much closer than I ever thought I would be.  It's a light bulb moment.  It's a moment of it's possible.  It's not some distant dream, but a realistic reality.  I could even reach it by Thanksgiving.  Whoa.  Crazy!

And the running?  Well, I have a 9.5 mile run tomorrow. My longest run since February and the Half Marathon.  Scary stuff that.  Especially since it's been raining like crazy here lately.  Rained off and on today.  And if I'm reading Weather.com correctly, 60% chance of rain come the a.m.  Ugh.  I was going to run at the Rail Trail, but I'm thinking with all the dirt and gravel it might not be the best surface.  So, I'm thinking either around here (boring) or maybe in Harrisburg.  It might be raining, but neither location is a dirt path. 

I really am nervous about this 9.5 miles.  The Rail Trail would have allowed me to break up the run into four 2.5 mile segments.  It made it seem easier to think of that way.  But, without the Rail Trail, I'm kinda dreading this run.  I know I can do a 5 mile out and back course, it's just finding a place that let's me do that.  My normal run area is not an out and back, it's lots of streets and turns.  Going to Harrisburg lets me run on Front Street and possibly City Island, which at least would be different.  I just have to get through this run.  After hurting my hamstring two weeks ago and turning an 8 mile run into a 6.5 mile run, I need the confidence of running this 9.5 miles.  Wish me luck!  I need all of it I can get!

1 comment:

  1. Great post Chris! Congrats on getting sooo close to your goal weight!

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