Walk It Out

I'm very excited. I have begun my first week of training for the marathon. I am not sure what goal I will be able to reach. When I was younger and healthier, I could always whip my body into good shape in a matter of 4 - 5 weeks. As I have gotten older and experienced some considerable health challenges, I have realized that I can no longer take that ability for granted.

I would love, love, love to run the full marathon. But I don't want to set my sights that high and find myself discouraged to the point of giving up, so I am going into this with the intention of completing the half marathon as a walker - which will still be a considerable achievement for me.

Phil and Amy

Did I mention that I'm a huge fan of The Biggest Loser?

I think I did, but I have hundreds of drafts that never made it to post....still gotta do something about that, but not today.

Anyhow, I have always enjoyed the show, since the beginning and before I was fat myself. While I am not a huge fan of reality tv like 'Real Chance of Love', I have always enjoyed makeover shows of all types. There's something amazing about before and afters, whether it's a home renovation, a fashion consultation, or extreme weight loss.

I especially enjoyed the recent season of TBL because Phil and Amy are from Greenville. (Although, truth be told, I spent a lot of my time rooting for Michelle and Renee.)

Phil and Amy spearheaded a 90 Day Fitness Challenge complete with regular weigh-ins and a daily newsletter. It was a sidebar in this newsletter that inspired me to join TNT.

A funny thing has happened as I approach my 2 year anniversary. I am much less concerned about my locks on a daily basis. I was never really inclined to take pictures. Y'all know this... but I made myself do it earlier on to track changes and growth. And am glad I did it.

However with the start of my business and the fact that I have to keep starting over with my weight loss goals (for various reasons) I have decided that I will post more regularly to this blog in the coming months until I reach my goal.

I want to weigh 110 lbs by May 31 when I participate in the marathon.

Can I do it? Sure.

Will I do it? We'll see.

I intend to participate in the marathon, regardless. Unless injury or illness prevents me.

Racing to Save Lives

Many of you know that I lost my sister Michelle to a blood cancer in May of 2005. I learned about Team in Training through Phil and Amy P. of Biggest Loser fame. (They live here in Greenville.)

I have a plan to get fit by summer and think this is an excellent way to make sure I stick with it!

I'm training to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives.

I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

You may do so by following the link to My Fundraising Page.I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress.

Thanks for your support!

Natasha Little

DAC - Day 2

Still with it, took pills, drank water as instructed.

Slept through breakfast and lunch, so my first meal was at 3 pm. Awful, right?

I cooked Lemon Piccata Chicken with Jasmine Rice. It's basically chicken breasts lightly pan-fried in olive oil accompanied by a lemony sauce with artichoke hearts and capers. Sounds indulgent, but only about 400 calories per serving.

It was bad to eat my first meal of the day so late because even though I had been sleeping, I was starving by the time I ate. It was very difficult to limit myself to a single portion, but I did.

I knew I had to just give the food time to settle, and I did. I finished my serving and drank some water and went on to another activity. Within thirty minutes I realized that I did feel satisfied. However I did want more food an hour after that and I ate a banana.

I decided that would be my main meal for the day and if I get hungry later I will eat another piece of fruit or have some yogurt. Chances are it will be after 7 before I am hungry again and I don't want to eat anything heavy and go to sleep on it since I know I will not be exercising tonight.

Dual Action Cleanse - Day 1

I have to wonder how much difference there is between brands, but a common theme that makes sense is this: they all claim to work better if you reduce your intake of fried foods and starches - foods that 'gum up the works' like bread and cheese - and concentrate on fruits, vegetables and other foods that are raw or high in fiber content. They also encourage you to stay away from sugar, caffiene and alcohol.

Today was my first day and I started off ok in the morning, but before the day was done I gave in to a craving for french fries (fried starch, no less) and I found a Snickers bar while cleaning up (it was at the bottom of a basket of clothes - go figure - I don't even remember buying it, but it couldn't have been more than 2 months ago - a little behind on folding the laundry - yeah....).

Anyhow, I felt like I had four options 1)Put it in the freezer and save it for later when the cleanse is done. 2) Eat part of it now. 3) Eat all of it now. 4) Throw it away.

If I put it in the freezer I felt I ran the risk of breaking down and eating it somewhere in the middle of the cleanse. Better to 'set myself back' at the very beginning than somewhere in the middle, right?

I chose 2) eat part of it now...which became 3) eat all of it now. But then it was gone and could no longer tempt me.

I know, such unhealthy patterns of thinking have gotten me exactly where I am today.

That is why I am trying to blog about it, in the hopes that seeing it in writing and knowing that others are reading it will help me to reset my thought patterns.

We'll see...

As for the cleanse, I did follow the regimen of taking the pills and drinking the water as directed.

You never see results the first day anyhow. It's just a foundational sort of thing.

Is Colon Detox Hype?

Have any of you seen that infomercial, "Is Colon Detox Hype?"

As is the nature of infomercials, it comes on in the wee small hours of the morning.

I've seen it many times and for months now. Haven't watched it all the way through, mind you, only flipped through and listened briefly to parts 2 and 3 minutes at a time. Also the nature of infomercials.

Come to think of it, I probably saw it for the first time 2 years ago.

Well, back at the beginning of August I actually went so far as to log-on to the website to see how much it costs. It was in the neighborhood of $150. So I said to myself: No. Not at this time.

I have tried various cleanses and detox programs over the years and all of them work to varying degrees which are mostly dependent on how closely you follow the instructions.

I've found that powders you mix in drinks are usually more immediately effective than pills, but pills are easier to take and more portable, so that's a trade-off you make. Even though I like the more instant effect of powder-based programs, they are a pain on account of the convenience issue and they never taste good!

So... as much as I value the effects, I never complete a 30-day program because I give up on account of one or both of those factors. (Convenience/portability and taste/thickness.)

I saw the infomercial again about three weeks ago and decided to call.

You know they always say you'll get some special price if you call now!

So I did.

It was probably 3 am and the order-taker I spoke to had a bad attitude and would not divert from her script. All I wanted to know was the special price and she insisted in trying to take me through a series of questions about whether I wanted weight loss and how much and if I'd ever tried to detox before - yada-yada-blah-blah.

When I finally got her to tell me the 'special' price - it was exactly the same price listed on the website. Not special at all!

I was completely fed up, so I promptly hung up!

And that was the end of that. (Or so I thought.)

Roughly a week later I got a call around 7 pm from a friendly sales rep. She asked if I had called recently and what had been my experience and why I hadn't ordered.

I explained that the combination of bad customer service and lack of special had completely turned me off.

I have to give my girl Jennifer her props and the company as well for having a good follow up program.

She offered me the same original package for $50 off and threw in some freebies. She listened respectfully to my complaints. She stayed on the phone with me for about 15 minutes and answered all of my very detailed and somewhat repetitive questions. It was an entirely pleasant experience and I placed an order at the end of the call.

It finally came today! (I say that like it's been a long time. It hasn't. I'd say 7 - 14 days. I can't remember when I placed the order - oh, wait - it's on the invoice: 9/18, so, yeah - two weeks.)

You take the pills with meals - breakfast, lunch or dinner - pretty much whichever two of those three works for you. The kit came this afternoon around 4 pm, so I'm going to start fresh with breakfast in the morning.

This is merely one element of my new eating and exercise plan.

I'm going to try harder to stick to the plan and put forth more effort to blog about it regularly, but y'all know me. We'll see how it goes....

Cooper River Bridge Run 2009

I was just in Charleston over the weekend and I had a wonderful time. I want a reason to go back.

I have a friend who does the Cooper River Bridge Run every year. It's a 10K. And next year it takes place at the beginning of April, which gives me just about 6 months to train for it if I start now.

It was kind of knocking around in my head as something I might want to try, but I was reluctant to commit even in my own mind and I was really reluctant to post about it.

Y'all remember that half-marathon I was supposed to train for a year ago? Um, yeah...that didn't happen at all.

Once I began looking into starting my business, I totally fell off the wagon. All attempts at training fell entirely by the wayside. And I am so ashamed.

However, today I read this blog entry by Southern Girl and I have to say that it has really inspired me.

I'm a few steps closer to committing to it. I appreciate the link she included with the training suggestions. It's called the Couch-to-5K Running Plan.