By Any Means Necessary (and a review for Healthy Surprise)…

Today I ran 12 miles.

I decided that in order to get that far today I needed a goal that has been lingering in the back of my mind for some time. I wanted to run from my house out to my in-laws house. We go out every Sunday to do laundry, play cards and usually have dinner. I’m slowly working my way up in miles as the Maritime Marathon countdown ticks away over there to the right —–>

Training is a little different this time since I’ve gone back to boot camp three times a week (or at least I try to go three times a week) and cut back on running  to three days (2 short-ish and 1 long-ish) run. Each week I’m adding a little bit to the long runs so that come marathon time I’ll be ready (or so I’m hoping).

Someone had made a comment to my usual “I’m done running so I’m gonna tweet my Daily Mile entry” that they can’t imagine running that long and how awesome it was that I had.

It got me thinking

(as most things do)

It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of running for three minutes straight scared the crap out of me. I mean seriously scared the crap out of me. So much so that when I finished I went home and wrote a post about it. Those days of being an obese runner are still fresh in my memory and in my emotional state of well being. Every time I go out (and I mean EVERY TIME) I think about what it was like back then. All the crying and the embarrassment. All the times I felt like my lungs were going to collapse and then all the times I quietly patted myself on the back for getting out there another day and working towards another weight loss goal taking control for real this time. When I run or do any sort of physical activity I rarely give up. I’m not saying that because I’m trying to toot my own horn, but rather to emphasize that by getting shit done by any means necessary I am continually giving thanks to the body that I ignored for so long. I am giving thanks to that 244 pound 3 minute run at 7am on the waterfront…

Thanks to the 5 minute run

Thanks to the 8 minute run

Thanks to the official ending of the Couch to 5k training

Thanks to the beginning of what I hope to be a long life of running races

We have to be continually thanking our old selves in order to push our new selves into situations we could never imagine conquering. When I first began losing weight (this time around) I had to really step back and instead of seeing the 100+ pounds I needed to lose force myself to only see a few pounds in front of me. I never imagined what it would be like to live in a body that weighed 160 pounds. I did however imagine what it could be like to be 250 pounds…

245 pounds…

240 pounds…

235 pounds…

In the beginning I never imagined what it would be like to run a marathon but I did imagine what it would be like to run for a mile non-stop.

2 miles…

3.1 miles…

6.2 miles…

13.1 miles…

26.2 miles…

(And beyond)

BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

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You remember that I was on the road not too long ago right? You know that road trip I’m talking about don’t you? The one that took 10 days and a total of 3400 some odd miles that went from Tacoma WA all the way back home to Halifax Nova Scotia…right that’s the one I’m talking about.

All along the way, Meegan and I tweet(ed)/facebook(ed)/instagram(ed) about the lovely box of goodies we received from Healthy Surprise. We got super lucky on this because when they asked us to give it a try we were able to get them to send the box to Tacoma so that it would be waiting for us when we arrived and could take it with us on the road. One of the hardest things about trying to make better food choices is having options and to be honest with you being on the road for so long makes those choices a little harder to come by.

We were stoked to open the box up and find it chock full of healthier options:

The Bliss Bar Honey Gold

Home Freet Treats Vanilla Cookies

Hail Merry Vanilla Maple Almonds

Two Moms in the Raw Cranberry Nut Bar

Go Raw Pizza Flax Snax

Oskri Coconut Cherry Bar

Bare Fruit Granny Smith Apple Chips

( just to name a few)

 

We really appreciated having this box with us on the road. There were lots of times when the only option we had for food was ordering off of a menu in which the service person would have responded “Would you like that supersized” or grabbing something quick from a gas station and we all know that you won’t find very many healthier choices at your local Esso (that’s a Canadian Reference there).

The concept of Healthy Surprise is much like my much missed Lollihop. With a particular subscription level a box full of such goodies as listed above will arrive on your doorstep each month. All except the first option come with free shipping (but really $5 isn’t a bad shipping cost) inside the US and an additional $5 shipping if you are in Canada (not bad for shipping “internationally”). The box that we received was the “Healthy” size and it really was jam packed.

Not having a job makes it difficult to splurge on something as cool as Healthy Surprise each month so we were super appreciative of the opportunity to receive and review the box they sent. If you want to see what options you might want to get your hands on head on over to the website’s subscription page and give it a little peruse. Find something you’d like to try out; use the coupon code ALIFECHANGINGJOURNEY for a $5.00 discount (see that pretty much just paid for your shipping if you’re going for the smaller box or live in Canada!)

Happy (And Healthy) Snacking!