31 Days

Today's the day. 31 days of working out without limitations.

31 days.

Today, I celebrated the last day of my "comeback" month with a 2 mile run. No walking. No intervals. A good, solid, consistent RUN. What a way to end the month. I have never in my life been able to run so far or for so long without taking a walk break. I'm not even positive how I managed to get here after 14 months of no physical activity and only 31 days to build up to it. But, I am SO thankful and feel SO blessed to be here.

One month ago today, I could not even run. I could barely walk a mile. There is absolutely no way possible I could have made it through 2 full miles of running today without the support of some amazing people. Sean, Shane, DJ, Diane and Lori have virtually taken every single step with me. I'm so incredibly thankful for them.

31 days. 39+ miles (some walk, some run, some row). 18 1/2 hours. 11,000+ calories burned. 33 workouts logged. What the doctors said would never happen again just happened. And it's going to keep happening and keep getting better. I cannot wait to see where I'm at after the month of February.

Something else to celebrate. I have been absolutely disgusted, frustrated, angry, upset and many other things about my body. I detest what being sick and not being able to work out has done. I hate being swollen and being out of shape. I cry at pictures of myself because I can't believe how fat I look (only in comparison to myself and my normal pre-sickness weight and size). On December 28th, I weighed in at my heaviest weight ever - even heavier than the day before I gave birth to 11 1/2 pounds of twins. I have never been so huge in my life, and the doctors warned that I would just keep swelling and gaining more if I began working out again. I am very happy to say that I have proved them wrong on that account this month too. I have lost 12 pounds in the past 33 days. 12 pounds! That is not my focus and not what my intentions are - but I am so thrilled to see the scale finally showing signs of all of the hard work and effort. I feel better physically, emotionally, psychologically and overall. I haven't changed much about what I eat - I normally eat clean, healthy choices first with some treats here and there. I have noticed that I've had more water out of necessity (I have to be very careful not to dehydrate) and less tea, lemonade or soda. I've had less chocolate and sugary snacks - they just don't appeal to me at all anymore. But I basically have the same healthy diet I've always had. It's the sheer amount of calories I'm burning that is making the scale move. I hope as I'm able to tolerate longer and harder workouts, the scale keeps moving down. I'd love to be able to say I'm happy with my weight again. I don't ever expect to be tiny again - but I would love to be in the "normal" range for my height and build.

This has been an amazing uphill climb over the past 31 days. I can't wait to climb higher still. Praying that my body will continue to cooperate and allow me to keep working out and running. Praying the doctors don't put a sudden stop to it all. And praying that I continue to be able to find these little nuggets of success to celebrate to keep me motivated. I want these two races so bad. Everything in me longs to have a good, happy, enjoyable race on both race days. I just want things to go right for once. Some days that means I have to keep myself from complaining about being held back when I want to do more - trusting that I'm being kept healthy and injury-free. Some days it means pushing myself when I'm afraid or just not feeling it. Some days it means taking a day off and doing nothing. Again, I'm so very thankful to have an awesome team in my corner keeping my head on straight and keeping me focused on the long term plan.

Bring on the next 31 days!!