Jessica's not done yet

This morning I weighed 175.4 pounds.  I am 5 foot 4 inches.  This is not a horrible ratio, and I am proud of how far I have come.  But its not good enough yet.  Jessica's not done yet.

Where I'm coming from:
I was between 130 and 150 in high school.  I could eat anything I wanted, and really the only reason I ever worked out back then was  when I wanted to tone my arms so I would look great in my dress for my senior prom.

Well then I went to college and put on the freshmen 15+, got married and put on "happy weight," had two babies and put on, well you get the idea.  I was in the 250s at age 23.  My weight went up and down a bit, until I in January 2009 I had my quarter life crisis.  It was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

 May 2009

January 2009, approaching my 25th birthday, I had an awakening:  none of our friends knew who I really was (inside at least).  They saw me as a pleasant, plump, mild mannered mother of two.  Even more shocking was realizing that the reason they saw me that way was because that was who I had become!  Something had to change.  I had to change.  So I did.  I weighed 216 pounds, and I set a rather ambitious goal of losing 61 pounds for a new me of 155.  I started counting calories, trying to work out a little, and then had some success with the Daniel Diet.

I also decided to go to grad school and in July 2009 uprooted my family from our comfortable small town life.  I was down to 198 at this point.  Moving on campus I was able to take advantage of the university's gym and I met a fantastic trainer who gave me the tools I needed to start making the changes I wanted to see in myself.  I started keeping a fitness journal (a tool that I have valued ever since) and my trainer made me start the Couch to 5k plan.  A funny thing happened, I who hated running, discovered one day that I was a runner! 

I worked out, I ate better and very slowly pounds began to slowly come off.  I reached my goal of 155 pounds in June 2011, and it was such an amazing feeling to look down at the scale and see that number. 




Me at 155 and smiling






But then new path opened before me and I got a fantastic job as a circulation manager at a brand new library.  The change in my schedule effected my workouts and my coworkers are actually diabolical cooking genius on a mission to make and keep me fat.  I was back up to 165 by Thanksgiving, and as I started training for my 1st marathon, the scale just kept climbing and I was back in the 170s by springtime.

So that brings us to where I am today.  41 pounds lighter, and a lot stronger than I was in January  2009.  I'm not "fat" but I'm not skinny.  And most importantly, I'm not as fast or as strong as I would like to be.  My goals have changed too. 

My goals:
I want to get down to a very strong 145 (so another 30 more pounds to go).  
Run a sub 3 hour half marathon
Run more marathons, but better prepared this time around
Complete an ultra marathon by age 35
Run the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc by age 45
How I am going to get there:
I decided last week that I needed some new behaviours if I am going to get new (and better) results, so I made a list of rules to help me change my behaviors in sustainable ways.  So here is what I am trying right now:

• No TV except on Fridays and Saturdays.  TV keeps me up later, keeps me from working out, and has no benefits.
• Keep a food diary every day.  One week a month I will count calories (but not limit them, this is an audit only)
• Attempt to work out 5 hours a week.  Its too easy to say work out 5 times a week and then cut corners by counting 15-30 minute runs.  I need to increase my actual time to increase my results.
• Train for the Route 66 half marathon in November.  Getting back on a training plan will also help give me direction.
• Keep this fitness blog. Making my actual weight and workout stats public makes me more likely to stick to it and succeed.