Oh Readers, I am so sorry I have been slacking on my blogging. I've spent most of the summer writing comps for my doctorate. At the end of an 8-10 day of writing, I do not want to touch another key on the keyboard. Usually my eyes hurt and there are no thoughts left in my head. By the end of this week, I will have uploaded the comps and will then start working on my dissertation proposal. There have been many times this summer that I have questioned my decision to become Dr. Bunch. Many times, indeed. I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank my wonderful husband for his support. He has been incredible during this process. He supported the idea to cancel our vacation to Colorado. While the mountain air would have been quite refreshing, we both knew I would not be able to relax. We spent a couple of days in Branson instead.
Now with all of this brain draining writing going on, I have still managed to get to the gym. Sometimes, I have actually promised myself something like this: "Finish this section and you can go work out." Going to the gym has been a great stress relief. I feel like I've slacked a bit. Trainer and I didn't see each other for almost a month during July. He was getting ready for a show and I've made it clear what I was doing. We couldn't get our schedules coordinated and when he is close to a show, it is completely necessary for him to focus on himself.
Needless to say, when we met again last week I was feeling a tad nervous. It was like the first time all over again. I made it through and was pretty proud of myself. Afterward he said, "We took it a little easy today since this was the first time back." Astonishment overcame me. It didn't feel like we were taking it easy!!!
A couple of other really inspiring things have happened recently. Last Saturday night I was invited to a birthday party for a friend from high school. I didn't know that this was a surprise party for myself and another friend. We are the two youngest in our class. We have watched all year as our classmates have turned 40 and now it's about our turn. The party was incredible. Stephanie had flown here from Las Vegas and had a cake made for each of us. Mine was in the shape of a foot (you all know how I feel about feet) complete with toe hair! Never did I imagine a foot could taste so good. Nothing like white birthday cake! At the party I had so many people tell me how amazing I look. After a summer of feeling like I haven't been hitting the physical part of my journey hard enough, this really boosted my spirits.
I've been unofficially back to work for the last three weeks. Tomorrow the contract actually begins, but there's too much to do to wait until then. Anyway, as I've been seeing people throughout our district, they've been recognizing my efforts too. WOW!!! It makes me feel so good.
Over the last week as I've been trying to get some things done around the house that had been neglected (My friend Amy thinks this is my way of procrastinating. I agreed with her, but it's also the result of all the Hoarders and Hoarders: Buried Alive that I watch!), I've been cleaning out closets and such. 8 bags of clothes to go to a thrift store. 8!!! Yes, I had a lot of clothes, but I had not done anything with the ones that were too big until this past week. So long..ain't goin back there no more!
The most touching thing that has recently happened was last night at the gym. A friend of mine recently joined and came in at the same time I was working out. When I finished, I was chatting with her and she introduced me to a friend of hers. Turns out my friend had referred this other friend to my blog. The "new" friend knew the exact date of my last entry. Most of the time when I'm blogging, I don't think anyone even cares about it. So for her to know this tugged at my heart. They proceeded to tell me what an inspiration I've been to them. WHOAAAA!!!! When people tell me things like this, it makes me work even harder. It makes my journey of weight loss even more meaningful. Weight is something that so many of us battle and we all know how hard it is. J and B, thank you! Your honesty and compliments are a encouragement to me like you can't believe. Go Forth and conquer one step at a time! I will support you however I can.
One of the questions that arose in our conversation last night at the gym was "How do you run?" I am not the runner I want to be. I had hoped to shave two minutes off my mile by my birthday. Let me just say that even though the gym is air conditioned, when I walk in there on a 100+ degree day, running is not my first choice. I started running because my trainer made me. I would rather run sprints than distance. I would rather run off the treadmill than on. After visiting my massage therapist for several sessions of bad low back pain, I learned I can run better if I stretch before and after. Other than that, it's a mind game. I give myself a two minute warm up and then go for it. Sometimes, I make it to a half mile, other times I make it to a quarter of a mile before I need to walk for a minute. The things that go through my head while running are NEVER "Oh I like this. Oh I want to run a marathon." They are usually, "Tammy go just a little further." "You are burning a lot of calories." "Come on Tammy, you can do this. You did it yesterday." On days when I'm feeling really stressed about things it might be "You stupid treadmill, I'm going to win today." No matter what my thoughts are, the way I run is one step at a time, one day at a time....
