My motivation for change

I have for the last few months been very serious about changing my diet and eating patterns. I will admit after my second child, I started to lose my motivation for being in excellent shape. Okay shape seemed good enough and I wasn't really near okay actually for a year or so. I had settled into pudgy Mama mode.

My Mom is terminally ill with a degenerative disease. She has Lewy Body Dementia which is a delightful combination of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and schizophrenia. My mother has always been very thin but never exercised and lived on nicotine, caffeine and sugar for most of her life.

I have been watching my strong independent intelligent Mother slip away and at Thanksgiving she was in awful shape. I want to be in the best possible shape that I can be in so that I can be an active Grandmother the type of Grandmother my Mother would love to be but cannot.

This week I have worked out twice but had a massive cheat meal on Sunday night. It was worth it.

My brother has asked other friends to run some races with us. And I am starting to get more and more worried about how sllllooooowwww a runner I am.

Jay's decision on the race

So I told my brother to pick one race, one. Here's his e-mail to me:

"OK, bayyyyybeeee, here's we go. Let's start easy in a month or so with something close to my heart (and my house): the Calabasas High School Charity 5K Run at Pierce College on Saturday, February 20. Here's the link, mamacita:

http://www.active.com/running/woodland-hills-ca/calabasas-high-school-athletics-for-all-charity-5k-run-2010

But that's really too easy, I mean a 5K -- that's just 3 miles. You and I could do that now. That's just a taste. We need a spicy 10k to build to. So, I'm thinking, March 21, we do The Great Race in Agoura Hills. I hear it's very pretty, and a nice 10k through Old Town Agoura. Here's the link for that one:

http://www.active.com/running/agoura-hills-los-angeles-ca/the-great-race-chesebro-12-marathon-pacific-12-marathon-old-agoura-10k-deena-kastor-5k-kids1m-2010

Great idea, though, to get me up and out of my stress-filled fat ass pants and back running. Yippie kay yeah, mofo!"

Damn. What have I got myself into.

Getting started

Really? Why did I not think this through before opening my big mouth Wednesday morning? I publicly committed myself to letting my older brother choose the race that I would enter. My older brother who would delight in watching me hurl is going to pick the race. Great. That was good thinking. Remind me next year to a) think about this before the morning of the first day of class and b) get more sleep the night before the first day of class.

Okay my goals.

Workout 5 hours a week.
Participate in one race of Jay's choosing by semester's end.

Game plan:

Workout in my totally amazing gym 3 times a week
Run/walk/stumble quickly twice a week in my neighborhood or in a near-by park.