Update: A Fro in Progress

Last update:  http://tenby30.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-fro-in-progress.html


Let's recap...

Baby Fro!!!  October 2010

January 2011

July 2011

July 2012



October 2012

 I know that last pic is kinda blurry.  *my bad*

But peep the progress!  With 3 weeks left until my birthday, I'm on my way to a fro of epic proportions!

Cue the Insanity...

After a weekend of running, relaxing, and Richmond, I am back on the grind today.  Oh yeah... I ran a 5K this weekend in Richmond, Virginia.  But not just any 5K.  It was "the happiest 5K on the planet":  The Color Run. 

I had a blast!  I had paint tossed at me at several points during the race.  I guess I shouldn't call it a race--there were no timing chips and I certainly didn't time myself.  I can't wait to do it again next year!

After my race, I was plum out of fitness goals.  This is not a good thing.  Without a goal, I become hapless and complacent, trudging through each day without purpose or any kind of caring.  So, I set another goal.

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And as long as I'm scaring the crap out of myself here, I thought about the one program I've always wanted to try, but assumed I didn't have the guts to complete:  Insanity.

Insanity is a 60-day conditioning program, full of high intensity cardio and resistance exercises.  I'm trying to make this lifelong fitness journey less about aesthetics and more about my total health.  But I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'm secretly hoping Insanity will help me get ready for my birthday "freakum dress."   Just sayin...

I've heard that Insanity is tough, but I've seen people get ridiculous results from it.  So I'm giving it a whirl.  Why?  Just because right now I think I can't, and I really want to change my mind. But in order to do it, I have to start thinking that I can.  I can and I will.

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As far as my diet is concerned, of course I'll be keeping better track of it.  My primary concern is getting enough calories, so I will likely use My Fitness Pal to track my diet.  There is a handy dandy nutrition guide (with recipes) that comes along with the Insanity package, so I'll utilize that to plan my meals.  We're talking lots of lean protein, fruits, and veggies, and 5 meals a day.  I have a basic idea of how I want to structure my meals, so I'm excited to hit the grocery store and stock up!

I'll take before, 30-day, and 60-day progress pics.  I would take measurements, but I never seem to do those right. I will post before pics in the next post, along with my results from the Fit Test. 

Stay tuned!

ETA:  So I didn't post pics on the next post, but they are coming soon!

Did I mention I ran a 10K???

Run4Shelter 10k, Kent Narrows MD

On Saturday, September 8th, I left my house at O-Dark-Thirty in the morn to head across the Bay Bridge to the Run4Shelter in Kent Narrows, Maryland. The race event was held to benefit a local homeless shelter.

Armed with my iPod and water bottle in hand, I started out on a 10K course with high hopes of finishing what I started after the Warrior Dash in May.  I had been training like a beast, running twice a week until the end of July.  My resolve began to dissolve and all of a sudden I stopped caring.  I've been under a lot of stress lately, and have been struggling to manage it.  I know now that I can't let anything else bring me down but we all fall off the horse from time to time.

At the start, I was pumped.  I took off with a swarm of runners, across a bridge and onto a beautiful wooded trail.  There were runners of all ages, shapes, and sizes.  I even spotted a young girl with her father.  I later found out the girl was just ten years old!  I pictured myself as a ten year old girl... yeah I was amazed!

Anyway, I set a *really* modest goal of simply finishing the race.  Then I decided I would finish in under an hour and a half.  I knew it had been a couple of weeks since I had a really good run and that I would need to pace myself.  And pace myself, I did.  I made it past the halfway point before slowing down for my first walk break.  After a sip of Gatorade, I picked my pace back up and headed for the finish.  I ran and walked for a couple more miles after that first break.

Around Mile 5, an ambulance pulled up behind some of us, and I noticed a young lady curled up on the sidelines with an oxygen mask around her face.  I still don't know how she fared that day.  The last mile was sooooo long.  Even once I passed the 6 mile mark, with two-tenths of a mile to go, it seemed to stretch on forever.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I crossed the finish line.  I couldn't believe that *I* just finished a race, much less 6.2 miles.  I imagined me as the overweight, asthmatic little girl who always finished last in gym class.  I hated running and could not jog even a quarter of a mile without literally gasping for breath.  I watched for my time and didn't place among the first 217 runners.  I checked my time online a few days later, and discovered that I completed the race in 1 hour and 21 minutes.  My pace was slow and I did walk for about a mile or so, but I FINISHED what I started, and that counts as a VICTORY for me!

My next goal is to maintain my 10K and improve my speed.  Half-marathon training may be on the map sometime in the future, but I want to work on my pace first.  I joined a running group called BGR, and ran with them for the first time on this past Wednesday.

Since I traveled to the Run4Shelter all by my lonesome, I only have the 2 pictures I posted on this blog.  However, there are professional pictures from the race at the following link:

http://chessiephoto.com/f922952373

To view my photos, enter "rs49" in the search box at the top right.  I'm not sure how long these photos will be available, but I was not about to pay $53.85 to post them here.

Oh!!  But I also found this YouTube video clip of the 10K starting line.  See if you can find me (in the gray Warrior Dash T-shirt--the one with the horned helmet lol) at 0:26!

A Fro in Progress

I was born with a thick head of coily, kinky, curly, spongy hair.  For years I tried to impose gravity on my hair, when by nature it was designed to defy that very thing.  Instead of working with it and loving and appreciating the awesomely wild beast that is my fro, I worked hard to tame it.

I began a cycle of growing out and cutting my hair until I got fed up in April 2010 and quit using a chemical relaxer to straighten it.  So I grew out my hair for four months, and in September 2010, I cut it (ha!) into a baby fro.  I never really knew how to care for my natural hair properly.  I had chopped my hair off before with the intent of "going natural," but I always gave up and returned to relaxing my hair.  I didn't know there was a growing wealth of knowledge for women with my hair type who wanted to wear it the way it grew out of our heads.  Growing up, I didn't know very many women who wore their way like that... you know... nappy. 

So now that I've gotten to know my natural hair, I'm growing it all the way out into the biggest fro I can muster.  Peep the progress from July 2011 to July 2012:

Want to see what my hair looked like boy-short almost two years ago?  Click here for a throwback.

Or click here for video I made celebrating one whole year with all natural hair.

When you don't feel like doing ANYTHING...

Motivation, I think, is a myth.  Not just a myth, but a crutch that people rely on to propel themselves into the fantasyland of success that they have built up in their minds.  At the risk of sounding cynical, the other crutch may be inspiration, which is also somewhat emotional.



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Either you do something or you don't do it.  There is no "try."  I love that. I use that notion often to get my butt out of bed at 5:00 am to head to the gym before work.  I use it to push through each work day, and to catch up on that neverending pile of laundry/dishes/whatever.  We like to coddle ourselves and others around us in an imaginary hammock stretched between failure and success.  Failure is not a bad thing.  It is a simple fact that we somehow allow to change and define us.  What we do with failure is either positive or negative.  Failure itself rests on neutral ground.

My last blog was about goal setting.  I wanted to talk about motivation because, this week, my motivation has been very low.  Last week was pretty awesome, but this week sucks for some reason.  Maybe it's the cloudy weather we've had since the weekend.  Maybe I'm just generally feeling funky.  Sometimes I am hit by a wave of BLAH that renders me useless.  I decided to create a vision collage to remind me of all of the reasons why I am reaching for my goals.  Although inspiration alone won't make me do the work that is necessary to reach my goals, it does help me to focus on what needs to be done, rather than how I feel. 

My vision collage

So, if you don't really feel like doing something you probably *should* do... do it anyway.  Or if you don't do it, just don't wallow in guilt and beat yourself up.  Take a nap or go for a walk or chill out for a while [or go make a vision collage!!!], and start fresh. 

Reaching for the Stars: Why I'm in Love with Goal Setting

I have always loved stargazing.  There is nothing better to me than sitting underneath a blanket of stars.  Even better to catch a glimpse of a shooting star or rare comet.  I have loved astronomy since I was a small child.  For a week of my life, I seriously thought I wanted to be an astronaut.  But I kind of suck at science, and I hate math so…

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I grew up believing that I could be anything, and that the possibilities for my life were as endless as the starry universe.  All I ever wanted was to know my purpose, and to truly live my life, free as a bird, with no regrets.  To be honest, I often have no idea what I’m doing.  I still don’t have a solid grasp of what my purpose is.  I don’t even know if I think I have one purpose.  Maybe my purpose is an underlying thread that ties all of my experiences together.  Maybe my purpose is not what I do, but who I am/who I will become.  #deepthoughts

I love setting goals.  It makes life more exciting for me.  When I pinpoint a goal, I get giddy with excitement.  My imagination runs wild.  My heart races.  I start to focus instead of floating randomly through life, like a feather through the air.  It gives me a sense of purpose.  I immediately start researching and figuring out what I need to do to reach that goal.  I become obsessed and relentless until I reach it.  No matter what your goal is, the steps to reaching it are pretty much the same:

1)      Ask yourself:  Is this goal reasonable?  Like, seriously?  If it is, give yourself a deadline.

2)      Ask yourself if you are really willing to do what it takes.  The only thing stopping you is yourself.  That pretty much eliminates excuses.  You will always find a way to do what you truly want to do.  You can't always rely on inward motivation or outward inspiration.  Sometimes you are not going to feel like doing anything.  Stuff happens. The goal becomes bigger than yourself, and a consistent effort is what will produce results.

3)      Do some research.  Read stuff.  Ask people who have done what you are trying to do… how did they do it?

4)      Break it down into small steps so it’s not so overwhelming.  If your goal is a big one (like running a marathon or purchasing a house), set some mini, short term goals as stepping stones to the end result.

5)      Surround yourself with like minded, positive people.   Get yourself a support group.  There is power in numbers.

6)      Eliminate anything (or anyone) that is not helping you reach your goal.  If your goal is weight loss, get rid of the junk food in your house.  This also goes with #5—if there are people in your life who will not support you, cut waaaaaaaaay back on the time you spend with them.

7)      Get organized… okay, try to get organized.  Do your prep work.  Do your homework.  Work toward your goal a little bit each day/week.  Results come with consistent effort.

8)      Spend your time more wisely.  I am a die-hard procrastinator with a love/hate relationship with schedules.  I hate the monotony of following a routine week after week, but I need it so badly!  Haha!  I made a block schedule of my week in 30 minute increments so I could figure out where to fit in various activities (like my daily workouts). 

9)      Reward yourself for reaching your mini-goals.  This doesn’t have to be anything big and expensive.  Give yourself a pat on the back, or a sticker or something.  Enjoying the journey is just as important as the end result.

10)   Once you’ve reached your goal, set another one right away!  Rinse and repeat.  Don’t stop until you die.

So basically, if I didn't reach any of the goals on my 10 by 30 Bucket List, it's because I probably faltered on one of the above steps.  Or maybe I set too many goals at once.  That’s been known to happen… 

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