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I woke up this morning a half an hour before my alarm clock went off thinking about getting ready for my half marathon. I know you can’t cram for a half marathon, but that’s not going to stop me from trying. I decided to walk 5 miles today. I don’t know where that came from, but it sounded like a good number. I text my lil sis and asked her to walk with me in the park. (I didn’t tell her how far). I got up and went to the computer to research before I got dressed for church. I googled “5 miles and Forest Park” and I found this great page, that had it all mapped out for me. After church, I went to the nail shop because I totally forgot that I needed fill-in before I leave to go out of town for work tomorrow. Finally, I came home and got geared up for my walk. My little sister and I went to Forest Park. It was fine, the sun was shining, it was a nice day for early March in St. Louis; almost 70 degrees. We power walked, and walked and walked some more. After about 3 miles, my body was like okay, great, that’s what you’re used to; however, we had 2 more miles to go. The 4th mile was little tough, I had to keep telling my lil sis come on, catch up. Finally the Nike iPod lady said I had 1 mile to go. We kept walking for what seemed like forever…5 miles is a really really long way. Then we finally made it. It was hard, but it wasn’t excruciating. We walked for so long, that sun started to go down and it started to get chilly outside. My little sister said “I’m hot and cold all at the same time.” We were sweating, but it was getting kinda cold. We eventually made it back to my car, and my iPod tracker said I walked 4.98 miles. I’ve needed to recalibrate it since forever. But all I could think was how crappy it would look to post my pic saying 4.98 miles instead of 5. So just for you guys, I walked in circles around the parking lot until Lance Armstrong said I reached my 5 Mile goal, and achieved my longest walk ever! I did it! 5 Whole Miles! It’s still weird, but for the rest of the day, I just casually told people like the skinny people do, “oh yeah, I walked 5 miles today.”
I knew yesterday that I wouldn’t want to work out today, so I planned ahead and called my cousin to go to the gym with me. He is somebody who lives in a perpetual state of feeling like he needs to go to the gym, so I knew he wouldn’t flake out on me on Saturday morning. Just as I figured he text me at 9 am on the dot, saying “Wake Up, let’s go.” I probably would have gotten out of bed right then had we not stayed out until 2 in the morning (I didn’t plan that part so well, lol). Nonetheless, I had to drag myself out of bed, put on some clothes and go to the gym. I’m supposed to be training for a half marathon, and there’s no way to sugar coat it, the truth is, I haven’t been running. So, I went upstairs to the indoor track above the guys playing basketball. It was so humid; it was almost unsafe to run. So I figured we could just walk and we were sweating after only 10 minutes. While we were walking I got a call from Lyle, my personal trainer. He wanted to know when I was coming back to book camp class. I took great pride in telling him I was at the gym; I was so happy that I wasn’t at home eating ice cream or something when he called. Anyway, since it was so hot, we decided to just go down to the weight and machine room. We got on the elliptical machines next to each other for 20 minutes. Then, I got on the treadmill, which normally I don’t do, but because the track was so unbearable, I didn’t really have a choice. I put on my Week 2 podcast since I had already been working out for half an hour. It was a killer, but I did the running intervals for about 20 minutes. The treadmill is not as good as real running on the pavement, but I like that it keeps you running at a steady pace. After the treadmill I was good and funky. My cousin said, nope keep going we have 10 more minutes. So I got on the Exercise Ball 
and did sit ups and balancing exercises. I got in a really good workout today, and running just feels good. I’m trying hard to get back to eating healthy. I had a granola bar for breakfast and I went back to that place Crazy Bowls and Wraps and got a Steak fajita bowl for lunch. While I was there I sampled some Quinoa
(pronounced Keen-wa). I’ve read about it in nutrition books, its a whole grain with protien. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. It tastes like brown rice with a funny texture. The steak fajita bowl was awesome. After lunch, I had to go to work to help out on a big case that’s heating up. After work I went to my sister’s salon and got all cute, and that was pretty much my day.
Today, I would have rather stayed at home and clean nasty chitlins, instead of going to the gym for my run. (if you didn’t laugh, click here.) Of course, I don’t eat chitlins or even have any at home, but that was the least enjoyable thing in the world that I could think of; and I would have still rather done that, than to go for a run. I just wasn’t feeling exercise today. Much to my dismay, about 11 this morning, my little sister called and begged me to go to the gym. I actually told her no, I wasn’t going. Can you believe it? Then she reminded me, ”you’re training, you have to go.” I told her ”No” again, and she called back and asked again. Ugh, how could I continusouly reject her? I couldn’t. I was dragging my feet, and it took me about an hour to get ready. I griped and complained the whole way there. She told me I was making it much worse that it really was. I was still complaining on my way up the stairs to the indoor track once I was at the gym. NOTHING in me wanted to run. I had to do a lot of positive self talk. “Carli, this is YOUR podcast, this is YOUR goal, YOUR health, and YOUR happiness, plus, you’re already here at the gym, so shut up run.” Unfortunately, I did have to talk to myself like that. I turned on Day 2 of Week 3, and guess what? It wasn’t that bad. Actually, at the end of the run, I was thinking, “that was it?” I totally made a mountain out of a mole hill and felt pretty silly for being so dramatic all morning. I guess the next time I’m in an anti-exercise funk, I’ll remind myself, it’s not that bad! …Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase. – MLK
Hello my name is Carli, and I’m a soda addict! The first step is admitting it right? I already have enough addictions (food and shopping) and now I get to add soda to list. Ugh, I can’t believe it. I knew I liked soda, and I knew I drank it pretty much every day, but I didn’t realize I was addicted to it. Not until those ladies called it liquid Satan in their book and I continued to drink it. I thought I was safe and I proudly declared, “I drink diet.” But nope, diet soda is just as bad, if not worse with all of its cancer causing agents. It was such a wake up call. So I decided hey, I’ll just quit drinking that crap, no big deal right? Day 1 being clean and sober was Sunday, no problem, I even drank water with dinner. But yesterday whew! It was awful. I had a headache, I was grouchy and sluggish and irritable. I said no way can this be from not drinking soda. So I Googled caffeine withdrawal, and found that my issues, among others were side effects that occur when you stop drinking coffee and soda. I was still in disbelief, so what did I do? I drank a soda after lunch. My headache went away and I was more alert and awake. That’s when it really became real, I’m addicted to caffeine. I also read online that caffeine addiction is one of the most acceptable forms of addiction in our society. The mandtory morning cup of coffee has become common place for many people. I felt this was something I have to conquer. Roni (my blogging & running role model) only drinks water, and my Mom quit drinking soda a couple years ago. My Mama said her doctor told her to stop drinking soda to alleviate her knee pain. When I asked her yesterday, she said it worked, her knee doesn’t hurt anymore! I had no clue that was why she stopped drinking “liquid Satan.” Anyway, I went the gym after work. I forgot my knee brace (which maybe I won’t need any more since I’m kicking the soda habit.) I went up to the track and put on my Week 3 podcast. The first half wasn’t too bad at all, and I laughed that I actually put the 80’s hit “Push It” by Salt N Pepa 
on the play list. One of the ladies who were walking around the track, slapped me a high five during one of my running intervals, and later told me she was doing the couch to 5K plan. Of course I had to let her know where she could find a much cooler podcast than the one she was listening to. The last half of the routine was a little lot harder, I kept saying “talk to me, Miss Carli, tell me it’s time to walk.” Then finally it was over. I took a 10 minute break and then hit the eliptical hard and heavy for 15 minutes. Moving on to Day 2 of Week 3.
What Did Carli Eat Today? NO SODA! Yay!
B- Fiber One Muffin & Low Fat Yogurt
L- Tortilla Soup & Side Salad
S- Apple
D- Weight Watcher Smart One Pizza (not nearly as good as the Lean Cuisine Pizza) and ½ cup of Kashi 7 Whole Grain Pilaf. 
I used to laugh at people who ate food that looked like bird seed, now I’m one of them. I boiled the pilaf in fat free chicken broth instead of water for flavor, and mixed in some salsa when it was done. It was kind of like Spanish Rice. It was very filling.
Ouuuuu! That’s a spicy blog post title. Today I started reading the New York Times best seller Skinny B!tch
. It’s a fun tell it like it is diet and natural nutrition book for women. I’ve gasped out loud several times when the authors said things like, “Taking medicine will make you feel better for the moment, but f*ck up something else in your body.” If you’re easily offending, this ain’t the book for you. One of the things that stuck with me was “soda is liquid Satan.” They even discuss all the bad stuff that happens from drinking diet soda (or pop depending on where you live 
It’s like you know this stuff is bad, but they make so plain, it’s hard to make excuses. I love Diet cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper, and Coke Zero isn’t too bad either. I normally drink at least 6 glasses of water every day, but a soda or two is also usually in the mix. I’m going to try to make an effort to cut back. When I finish the book, I’ll let you guys know what I think overall. I finished Week 2 today. I’m almost scared to say it was easy. It just wasn’t really hard. I guess that means I’m ready for Week 3. My little sister went with me to the gym today, and she asked me, “Why are you going so slow? Why are you on week 2?” I had to explain to her with running, if you don’t use it, you lose it, quick! Just because I ran a 5K, doesn’t mean I can run a 5K right now. You have to continue running if you want to keep up your speed and endurance. After our workout, we came back to my house and ate a delicious salad, I put southwest flavored chicken and apples in mine, with Kraft Fat Free Ceasar Italian dressing. It was so good! Then, later this evening, I took my little sister (from Big Bro Big Sis) to see Alvin and the Chipmunks 2. It was cute; it made me laugh little bit. In the beginning, I kept asking myself, why is it okay to have 8 inch singing chipmunks in the class room? Then I just had to let go of my adult common sense and enjoy it like I was one of the kids!
P.S. Do you lke my new Logo? I think it’s FIERCE!
