So....

...I signed up for a marathon (insert laughter here). I'm running the Nike's Women Marathon in October in San Francisco. I'm hoping that this will help keep me motivated through the summer. I signed up for this site Mapmyrun.com so that I can track how much I run per day and per week. I also looked up other sites on how to train and found an 18 week beginner runner's plan so I'm pretty excited about this. My mom and my sister ran last year and this year all three of us are going to do it. This will be my first marathon ever!! I used to be a pretty good runner, so let's hope I can pick it up again! Wish me luck!!

Ridiculous...

So last week I reached my goal for the first time. It's ridiculous that it's taken me until week 13/14 to accomplish this...

Score!

I took a walk today. Score one for me!

So I have been reassessing my goal and trying to figure out what motivates me. I know I work very well with a reward system, which I find comical, but also makes most people think of dogs. Anyways, not many people know this but my boyfriend smokes (I know as a public health professional and a dental hygienist I should be disgusted), he has cut down in the recent year and has attempted to fully quit several times. He and I were on the phone the other night and I was complaining about my goal and how I don't have motivation. His solution was that we do it together, not the working out part but the changing part. He said that for everyday I worked out he wouldn't smoke. This was supposed to start Monday (yesterday) but I was actually really busy so I started today. I took a walk!! After my walk I promptly called him, asked him if he had smoked today and told him if he had he couldn't smoke tomorrow. He hadn't smoked today but now he has to refrain for the rest of the day and tomorrow we hike so that's another day of not smoking. I don't know how well this will work on his end but it has me motivated!

The stats...

So last class we talked about our goals and what we can do to re-motivate ourselves. Ana suggested that Joan and I work out...yeah not so much, Joan and I have a more of a let's eat together relationship (and I like it that way). So then Rachel suggested that I post a picture on here of me in a swimsuit and I'm sorry that I just don't have the guts to do, nor do I know how to because I've tried to post things on here before (apparently blogger.com and I don't see eye to eye on that kind of thing). So I'm still not that far on my goal but I did walk around campus a lot today so I feel good about that. And over the Easter weekend I took my boyfriend on a walk to Starbucks, which in the end was probably counterproductive after we got our flavored lattes and a little breakfast sandwich. But I am counting these two instances toward my goal and it's the closest I've come thus far to my goal. So go me!

Here are some statistic I looked up about walking for your health courtesy of the Mayo Clinic:
1) Lower bad cholesterol (LDLs)
2) Higher good cholesterol (HDLs)
3) Lower blood pressure
4) Reduces your risk of Diabetes Type 2

All things I already knew and I'm sure most people know (or could guess), but it still makes your think.