Discovery

I just discovered an awesome website.

In my efforts to become who I want to be this year, one of the elements I have been lacking in for the last long while and started working on as of late is Strength.

To accomplish this I have been eating a lot healthier and I started running....for fun.

I actually really enjoy running- the act of.

One thing I do not enjoy is being out of breath.

So, I am starting slow.

I don't want to burn myself out on my first run and never do it again.

I ran a few 5K races last year and actually really loved being a part of it but I had no endurance so it was pretty painful, especially with my hip and knee issues

 (plus I was running wrong....who knew there was a wrong way to run?! More on that later...)

My goal is to run the races and have fun doing it. Right now I want to run a 5K (not walk...hehe).

So I will be tracking my journey right here. You should join me. :)

When I do things that matter to me, I like to do them right so I have been researching the keys to success (as I do for many other things). I have been looking for an app or program that could help me log my journey of fitness.

I found a super one.

www.myfitnesspal.com

After finding this site I realized that it looked familiar!

One of my friends is blogging about her weight loss journey and she mentioned this website a while back that she has been using. (www.110percentmotivated.blogspot.com). 

Go ahead and visit her website.

So, MyFitnessPal helps you track your food intake, exercise, charts your goals and creates graphs of your progress. It has a huge database of any food you can imagine so it will automatically record the nutritional information into your food diary. No more calorie counting! It does it for you.

It also tells you what you need to do everyday to reach your goal. It is quite awesome.

Whether you are trying to lose weight, gain weight, maintain or just be aware of where you are.... you should check it out. It is super easy to use and I am really glad I found it.

Best part? It's FREE! You have absolutely ZERO to lose...except maybe some cellulite (I can't wait!)

If you join, we can be friends in the network and see certain facts about each others progress. (ie: so and so just filled out their food diary and is under their calorie goal!)

It's like having a buddy right there!

{No, I have not received any money in exchange for this promotion ;P }

So what am I doing exactly to become strong?

Food: I am trying to eat as much fresh food as possible and stay within my calorie goal. That's pretty much it. I do try to keep in mind balancing protein, veggies, fruits and carbs but I don't fret over it right now. (The website can do that for you too!) As I get used to this then I will venture out a bit into balancing the diet a bit more. I am already healthier than I was.

Exercise: My goal is to slowly increase my endurance and speed when I run. To start out, I am doing 30 minutes, about 3 times a week. I jog for 2 minutes then walk for 2 minutes and repeat for a total of 30 minutes. Starting out with a 5 minute walk to warm-up, stretch, do the routine then a 5 minute cool-down and stretch. That's it for this week. Next week (or when I feel comfortable) I will increase to jogging 3 minutes, walking 2 minutes and each week continue increasing my time jogging until I can jog for 30 minutes straight. After that I will increase my speed and time (and therefor distance). I will also soon add some strength training in between running days to get a strong core, which I have found REALLY helps decrease and even eliminate my back pain.

Not too bad. I can do it. :D
I honestly didn't realize how beneficial running was until I started looking into it.
It does a lot more for you than you even realize. Google it. Check it out!

I remember when I was athletic, strong, limber and felt like I could do anything.

I crave that feeling again so I think, why not?!

If any of you have any other recommendations I would love to hear them!