Happy Father’s Day! I know there aren’t too many guys who read my blog, but if you do, and you’re a Dad, Happy Father’s Day to you! …..I’m sick y’all. That’s why I’ve been MIA. I tried to go run Week 2 when I got back home, but I was too sick and had to turn around after just a few minutes. I struggled through the week feeling a little bad, but by Friday, I felt so terrible that I called off work. Once I could get up out of bed, My Big Little Sister took me to Urgent Care. I found out that I have a serious ear infection in both ears, and a sinus infection. When the first doctor looked in my ear, she frowned and said “ugh” and when the 2nd doctor came in he said “wow” and jumped back. You know doctors usually try to control their emotions, but it was obvious that I had a very nasty ear infection. The doctor said that flying on the plane and swimming in the ocean, and being enclosed on a ship with sick people made things worse. They gave me antibiotics and ear drops for the pain…. Yesterday, our church had a Health Fair. We had a chiropractor, nurses, computer techs, a lawyer and more. My Mom was on the committee, and she asked for “Running Into Shape” to be a part of it. I was still not feeling well, but if I make a commitment, I try to stick to it. I had a vendor table with business cards promoting my website and Couch to 5K Podcasts, before Pics of me 50 pounds heavier, and a copy of my ACE Group Fitness Instructor certification. I also gave away a free 7 -Day meal plan. It never ceases to amaze me that people take health advice and don’t laugh at fat girl talking about exercise and weight loss. Everyone who came to the table said, oh I could never run. AndI told them all, look at me, if I can run, so can you! What really amazed me was that 3 different people said they remembered seeing me on TV. That was over a year ago, TV is such a powerful medium. The fair turned out to be a huge success and the computer tech guy said that he would help make my website a little more fancy with flashing pics and stuff….. Well, my Dad just brought me some fruit, and told me to rest. So, I’m going to respond to a few emails and comments and try to rest up for work tomorrow.
OMG! It’s Official! I am an ACE Certified Group Fitness Instructor. I wonder if I get to add credential letters at the end of my signature? LOL. My wildest dreams are slowing coming into fruition. My crazy ambition is gradually becoming a part of who I really am every day. This morning I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm went off, which never happens to me; but I guess it was because I was so scared that I would over sleep. Since I’ve been studying all of this nutrition stuff, I selected a breakfast of whole grain toast (complex carbs) and scrambled eggs (protein), and a cup of 100% fruit juice to get me started on the right foot, and prevent hunger later. Then I was on my way. While I was getting in the car, I started to feel so sick to my stomach, why today, of all days would my stomach want to turn flips. Then I remembered back to the day I had to do the TV Evening News interview, and the day of my All-Star 5K race, and I realized it was just nerves. I coached myself, “failure is not an option, calm down, pray, You only need a 71% to pass, quit trippin’” My stomach began to settle. When I got to the school testing site, there was a huge locked gate with no access to the testing building. “Dang it!’ They said in all the study materials that you should scope out the place before test day to help with test anxiety. I figured, “well it’s 10 minutes away, I can find it.” I started to panic again. I had to start up the positive self talk again, “calm down, you’re 30 mins early, failure is not an option.” I had to go around a few streets and finally made it to the security desk. All week I prepared myself to deal with skinny overly excited fitness gurus to look at me ”ask why are you here”? When I pulled up, the security guard said, “what are you here for?” I replied to take the Group Fitness Instructor test, he said “okay”….then he paused said “Ma’am what did you say?, as he sized up all of my extra curves. I repeated I’m here to take the group fitness instructor test, I’d like to help overweight people reach their goals and become more healthy. “Oh! Thats great” he said and gave me a visitor pass. The school building was so beautiful! It was marble everywhere. I snapped a quick pic for you guys. I logged in to the computer based test and I got really antsy after an hour. I was so tired of sitting there. I decided to take a bathroom break and did some stretches and jumps and kicks to get moving again. Two more hours later, when I finished my test the results popped up and the 1st number I saw was 68%, my heart sank, I read down 71%…..still not good enough, down some more 76%, down some more, in the last section I scored 100%. Averaging about 78%, and finally at the bottom in tiny little writing: “PASS” I can’t believe it, I am a real group fitness instructor! No more audio study CD in the car, no more studying until 2AM, no more flashcards in my purse, no more textbook under my pillow for osmosis, (yes I did this, lol). It’s turning out to be a fantastic year for me….My cousins pastor put it best, “God wouldn’t put the desire to go south in a bird, if he didn’t think it would make it there, just like he didn’t put those dreams in you, if he didn’t think you would make it!”
To Forgive is Divine…today started off great with an orange juice and real strawberry smoothie for breakfast, but when I got to work; I still wanted “breakfast.” I went and got a pancake and an egg. Then for lunch I had a huge nacho supreme. Who knows how many calories were in that. I felt so bad; I knew I had to work out. The whole first 5 minutes of my walk, I beat up myself about my poor food choices….then I said you know what, when Kay Quinn asked me about the most important lesson learned, I said “talking back to the negative thoughts,” so that’s just what I did. I told myself no matter what you do; you can’t UN-eat the freaking nachos. Get over it, forgive yourself! So I picked up the pace to my usual jog and finished my 5K (3.1 mile) Run. I finished in a little under an hour. If I wasn’t throwing a pity party in the beginning, I might have beat my official race time…oh well there’s always next time. I made much healthier choices at dinner and had a chicken salad and my fave, a cold glass of Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Oh, wait, I can’t forget to mention, I left behind the 2 cousins who “had” to watch the American Idol finale…although, even after my 3 mile run, and I still caught the last hour and a half!
- My TV appearance
Supposedly everyone gets their chance at 15 minutes of fame. My chance was today, but it turned out to be so much more. I interviewed with Kay Quinn of News Channel 5 at the YMCA where I work out. She was so nice! I felt very comfortable, despite the nervous bubble guts I was feeling in the car in the parking lot. Honestly I felt like I was not ready for a “Look at Me Now” weight loss story. I felt like I was still too fat. But I guess other people see it differently, they were all amazed at the before pics and the fat pants I held up in a size 24. Yikes! But today 50 lbs later, as I emailed and texted family and friends to tell them to watch the news, I got so many responses, I never anticipated. I talked to people about their weight struggles, drug addictions, relationship problems, and even how I brightened their day as a whole with my inspirational story. WOW! I guess there really is freedom in truth. AND if that wasn’t enough for one day. Me and the lil sister worked out as usual, we went to Forest Park, and did the workout we did on Saturday, but at a much faster pace. I was feeling the burn as I climbed Art Hill the 2nd lap around. I wanted to sit down like my other sister did on Saturday. LOL! She is so going to kill me….anyway, we power- walked on over to the stairs and Climbed up and back down. It was a great workout to finish up a beautiful day.
Check out the video at: http://www.ksdk.com/news/health/story.aspx?storyid=175677&catid=9
*Disclaimer…I’m not diabetic or depressed, just overweight and African American..lol
Actually, I feel like I’m anything but a superstar. I’ve been working so many long hours, and been too tired to workout. But I got a cool game for my Wii, Boogie Superstar, it’s a bootleg version of the American Idol game, where you dance and sing in front of the judges. Anybody who knows me knows that I can’t sing or dance, LOL! That’s what made this so fun. At first I got terrible reviews from the judges, “Add some style…try to move to the beat…go back and practice.” But after about an hour or so, I caught on a little bit. I was sweating my behind off, while dancing on the red carpet to a Kanye-like version of his song “Stronger.” It reminded me of my fun times taking cardio strip fit aerobics classes….. ALSO, I signed up for the Komen Race for the Cure today! No more excuses! YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS…..Just as I was about to send this, I got a call from my weight management program saying that Kay Quinn from Channel 5 News wants to interview me as some one who has been successful with weight loss and made healthy positive life style changes. When I asked if I’ll be on TV, her response was “Uh, Yeah!” Geez, who would thought I’d go from little old chunky me, to a TV SUPERSTAR!!!! LOL!!!
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