Soldier Field 10 Mile

What a crazy past week. My eating has been pretty good..I am finally under 190 pounds. I am at 189!! Just a pound but it is better than nothing! 7 pounds to go and I will have lost 50 big ones! This weekend was a huge accomplishment for me. I ran the Soldier Field 10 mile race on Saturday. I was very nervous and not sure if I would be able to actually finish. Well I DID!! I am so thankful for so many great people in my life that have been encouraging me! I ran the race in 1 hour 58 minutes and 12 seconds! I was amazed at how awesome it felt to cross that finish line knowing that I ran a consecutive 12 minute mile. This was the first race that my mom got to see so it has been a great Memorial Day weekend! (shout out to Nichole, Crystal, and Jill) It is so wonderful to have people who will tell me in a loving way to “put the gummy bears down!”

This next weekend I am running a 6mile race and I am hoping to run it at a 11 min 30 second  pace…we will see! 

New Record

What an awesome day yesterday!! I ran the Kankakee Hospice 5K and broke my 5K time. I ran this 5K in 34:00min flat….wooohooo and it was a hilly run too! I was so proud of myself. My hard work is starting to show.  Today I did the Weight Watchers Walk-it with some friends and had a blast. It is so fun to have people support me and want what is best for me. Next week is the big one…the Soldier Field 10-MILE….wow that is going to be a long run. My goal is to finish it, I have been trying to set a time goal but I am really not sure what it should be…I have finished my 8K’s in about an hour….so maybe two hours. I dunno, I do not want to set myself up to fail. SO I guess finishing is the goal. 

Where I am today

 As of today I am 192 pounds- I have lost 42  I have about 30 to go! I am now in a size 14 pant and it seems like a miracle! Sometimes my goal seems so far away but with each pound I drop I feel like I can do it! This has been a very crazy journey but worth all of the sweat and tears! I never imagined how emotional this would all be, but I have learned so much about myself. I really am starting to see how much of a self image problem I had and how those things don’t change nearly as quickly as the number on the scale does. This is a whole life changing thing not just a weight thing- and if someone would have told me that I would have thought they were lying…I thought this was all a number on the scale issue….but turns out it is a lot more than that!

I have learned that I can do anything I put my mind to! One huge thing I have learned it how important it is to surround myself with people who love me for me and who only want the best for me. With the support of those people and my dedication to be the best me I can be I will do this. And you know…sometimes these people who love me tell me to put that food down J or they ask hey did you hit the gym today?? But it is always out of love! 

This is a picture of me currently 

The R word- RUNNING

Wow where do I even start with this topic, I was a softball player in high school and we would run..some and I hated even second of it. When I started teaching may teachers in my district would participate in this 5k called The Jingle Bell Run and I have walked it for three years. Then this year I was with a friend from work and she encouraged me to jog it with her and it was not too bad. After that run I got to know a really crazy friend of mine who really enjoys running and she convinced me to Run in the New Years Day 5k in Chicago. That was it I was hooked on this running for fun thing, I have since run the Cupid Shuffle, St Paddy’s Day 8k, Shamrock Shuffle 8k, and the Race to Wrigley 5k. Well then I think I lost my mind because I am signed up for the Soldier Field 10 mile race that is in two weeks. My goal is to just finish this one…but IF I can do it in a decent time I would like to do the Chicago ½ marathon!! We will see. And you must know something about me, I am a very picky runner…I hate running in the snow (Cupid Chase) I hate the rain (St. Paddy’s Day 5k and Race to Wrigley) and I hate running in the cold (New Year’s Day 5k). I really prefer sunny and 65 J Too bad I know that very rarely ever happens. But I can say that with the support of my roommate- thanks C (who has been trying to get me to run since college) and Nichole who has me suckered into this running business I am really starting to enjoy it! My times are slowly starting to increase with each race and that is all I can strive for is to become a better me!!!

Here are a few race day photos

What I have been doing

Well I finally made the decision that I was going to do this….and I was going to be truly happy. I was going to do what ever I needed to. I have been logging my food (most days) and working out at least three days a week. It has not been an easy journey and I am not done…I am determined to get to my goal weight of about 160 pounds. Or a size 10  I know they say that size doesn’t matter but lets be honest it does….and my dream as crazy as this sounds is to be able to walk into Abercrombie and Fitch and buy a pair of jeans  I want to know that I can walk into any store and be able to buy clothes. May sound nuts to some but it is the truth! 

Then I understood

So I did not feel the best about myself when I started teaching but I loved my job. I had no problem eating whatever I wanted and complaining about how I looked in my outfit. In my own personal defense I did not have ANY free time my first year of teaching. I spent what seemed like my entire first year at school. But I was not ready to change. And please know, that this entire time I am paying $24.95 a month for a gym membership that I am not ever using! My second year of teaching is a different story. I thought that I was ready for this life change so I decided to join our schools biggest loser competition. Now at this school is a woman (my dear friend) that has lost a ton of weight in a healthy way. I would talk to her all the time about it. And she said to me “Stephanie if you are not truly ready this will not work.” I thought how dare this lady say this to me…so I did the competition and you know what I sucked at it. I maybe lost 5 or 10 pounds, which I packed back on over the summer. So needless to say I thought that I was ready and was not! This continued until about 2010. Then I decided that I was really ready. And I sat back down with my friend from work who told me exactly what she had done and the big thing was writing down what she was eating and exercising everyday. I thought OK I can do this but I knew that I needed a bit of a jump-start. So, I went to the gym and signed up with a nutritionist to understand food better. I begin to see food in a new way and how important it is to really know how much I am putting in my body. My friend from work has been such an inspiration and someone that truly understands what I am going through! I owe her a huge THANK YOU!!! I understand now where you truly have to be willing to make changes in order for any sort of weight lose to work. You have to truly be ready for this CHANGE!! 

Where I Began

I have always been on the heavy side and when I graduated from college in May of 07 I was at the heaviest I can ever remember. To be completely honest I do not know what my weight really was my senior year of college, but I do know what my weight was when I accepted my teaching job in Bourbonnais. I weighed in at 232 pounds for my physical to be a teacher. (Wow I cannot believe I let myself get to that point) I remember being happy but always struggling with food. I ate everything I saw and pretended it did not matter…when really it did. I was an emotional eater that had no clue a Big Mac and Fries had over 1000 Calories. Below is a picture of what I looked like at my college graduation party- May 7, 2007.