*Series in progress* This entry is part of a series I’m writing
leading up to my running (walking…but hopefully mostly running) my first
5K. For more information on this series
check out the introduction here or just continue on reading this
entry. I have also included links at the
end to the other entries and to both the Terry Fox Foundation and my run
fundraising page.
This entry is proving one of the harder ones for me to write but one
that I think is incredibly important.
Over the years I have found it a struggle to really celebrate the things
I accomplish. As a perfectionist I tend
to see what I did wrong rather than what I have done right. I can look at most things at find something
that I could have done better or should have done differently and fixate on
it. This has never really served me that
well so I figured while I’m changing everything else I should see if I can’t
try and change this way of thinking as well.
So with my list of goals in place I decided that I would find a way to
mark or celebrate every accomplishment that I cross off the list as I make my
way to the 5K. Sometimes it is just a
quick Facebook status and sometimes I treat myself to a present (usually in the
form of a new book). It doesn’t seem to
matter how I recognize the work I’m doing as long as I do take some time to
recognize it.
In the past 6 months I have really noticed how much happier and more fulfilled
I feel about what I am doing. Some of it
is coming from the focus that has come from having specific goals to work
towards but I think a greater part of it is coming from the fact that I’m
finally recognizing the best parts of me.
In celebrating my milestones I have not only found pride in my own
accomplishments but I’m have also found a way to affect others. People keep telling me that I inspire them
and make them want to change. I have
even had a few friends who have told me they are now doing things differently
because of what I have been doing. This
means the world to me because what I want most in this life is to know that I
am making a difference in the world for the better. If I wasn’t taking the time to share my
accomplishments none of this would have been happening.
The idea of celebrating and acknowledging goals has become incredibly
powerful. As I mentioned above my
version of celebrating varies but one mainstay for me is a quick post on my
Facebook. It feels a little like
bragging sometimes but I think I deserve to brag a little (as does everyone). We really do need to shout it from the
rooftops when we do something that we have worked hard for. It took me a little bit of time to accept
that it was okay for me to be excited about my accomplishments but what I didn’t
realize at first was just how special those Facebook statuses were going to
become. Sharing all my accomplishments
opened me up to a world of support that I don’t think I necessarily really
realized existed. It is also helping me
make sure that I really remember just what I have done. It only takes a few minutes of my time but
the benefits have been huge.
A few of the benefits that I have noticed include feeling happier and
fulfilled as I mentioned above but it has also led to me feeling more excited
about this journey, more driven and like I’m actually getting somewhere. I don’t think anything has ever made me feel
better than I have the last few months and I think at least in part some of it
is owed to actually taking the time to recognize my accomplishments. It has
been a huge change in my mindset. I
highly recommend giving it a try.
I hope that you anyone reading this has enjoyed it so far. Tomorrow I will be shifting gears a little
bit and starting to talk about the lessons I have learned about my body and
just how amazing it is to watch the changes that have been coming my way as I
continue to work towards my 5K.
To donate and check out my progress please visit my page here.
For more information on the Terry Fox Foundation and the run check out
their page here.
Finding My Running Legs Previous Entries
*Series in progress* This entry is part of a series I’m writing
leading up to my running (walking…but hopefully mostly running) my first
5K. For more information on this series
check out the introduction here or just continue on reading this
entry. I have also included links at the
end to the other entries and to both the Terry Fox Foundation and my run
fundraising page.
When I think of the things that I have learned that have made the
biggest change in my life it has been the idea of tracking. I have kept a journal in some form or another
since sometimes in elementary school…grade 3 I think, so the idea of recording
at least thoughts was not strange to me.
As I have moved my way through Weight Watchers I had to use tracking as
a way to be accountable for what I was eating.
So when I started working out this time around I decided that I wanted
to keep track of what I was doing and how I was feeling about it. It has proved to be the most rewarding tool
that I have found so far on my journey.
The first thing I did was found a notebook that I loved because I knew
it was going to be something that I would have to keep handy. The practical side of my brain found
something that was small and hard covered so that I could take it to the gym
without worrying it would get wrecked or in the way. The girly side of me made sure it was purple
and flowery. Then I figured out what I
should track. I settled on recording the
date, activity, time, calories burned, heart rate at 15mins, distance travelled
and then of course a spot to record any comments on the activity especially any
aches or pains. I made sure that after
each work out I recorded as many of the details as I could. (As a side note I have evolved this tracking
to record it on my phone and just transfer it to the book so that I can
actually do the recording as I wind down my workouts and make sure I capture
all the important feedback that comes off the machines at the gym especially.) At first this just seemed like an extra task
but after about a month or so I realized the power that came from this task.
I woke up one day in a bad mood.
I was tired and cranky. It took
all my will power to get me out the door and onto the treadmill at work. On the treadmill I did a workout that I had
been doing for the past week but couldn’t find the joy or ease in it. The whole workout was a struggle. My legs were moving but for the first time I
felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. It
was a day where I realized just how long my journey to healthy is going to be
and it felt incredibly daunting. At
lunch time I sat down at my desk and pulled out my book and began to flip
through the earliest entries. My very first entry I recorded I did 30mins on the
treadmill on 2.0miles/hour with a 0% incline.
I wrote about my back being sore and feeling tired. The day that I was struggling I did 35mins on
2.2 miles/hour with a 2% incline. I
wrote about being in a bad mood but there is not a single mention of any aches
or pains (which I always record if there are any). Looking back to the first entry made me
remember back even further to when I got my fitbit, which really was the first
step in tracking. I remembered barely
being able to walk on the spot through the commercial breaks without feeling
like it was the biggest chore in the world.
Suddenly my bad day felt better.
Sure it wasn`t my best workout but at least I wasn`t back where it was a
struggle to get through a few minutes. I
was able to see that I actually was making progress.
This little journal has come in handy over and over on bad days as a
way to remind myself that I am moving forward even if I feel like I’m standing
still. I think sometimes it is easy to
forget where we started or how hard it was when we took the first steps. It becomes easy to take for granted that
where we are now is where we have always been.
I think it is because when you are working towards a goal you push
yourself. You don`t really let yourself
get comfortable. While I have been
learning to run if my workout gets easy I make it harder so that most of the
time I feel like I’m struggling. This
sounds worse than it is because we need to struggle to get better but
constantly being there does make it seem like it will never get any
better. I quickly realized that I needed
to change that mindset and that I had to find a way to negate some of the
negative feelings that were coming my way because I am always having to fight
my way forward. Looking back on
everything has become my solution. Reflecting
through my workout journal allow me to see that I have actually moved from
where I started. It reminds me not only
how hard the journey can be but it also shows me that what was once hard gets
easier if you just hang in there. That
truly is one of the most powerful lessons that I constantly try to remind
myself of. It is the idea that there is
a light at the end of the tunnel and that one day I will reach this goal just
like all the small goals I have already crossed off my list.
To donate and check out my progress please visit my page here.
For more information on the Terry Fox Foundation and the run check out
their page here.
Finding My Running Legs Previous Entries
*Series in progress* This entry is part of a series I’m writing
leading up to my running (walking…but hopefully mostly running) my first
5K. For more information on this series
check out the introduction here or just continue on reading this
entry. I have also included links at the
end to the other entries and to both the Terry Fox Foundation and my run
fundraising page.
As I talked about in my last entry I am not a natural goal setter and I
think one of the reasons that I never took to goal setting was because I never
actually knew how to set goals that were realistic and achievable. In today’s entry of Finding My Running Legs
I’m going to talk about the process I have been using to make my goals. I don’t know if it would work for everyone
but in picking and setting my goals I have found that it has been incredibly
helpful for me. My ideas on goal setting
are not new or probably all that innovative they are simply what I have found
leaves me feeling the most positive about what I am doing.
The first principle I applied was the idea of picking a goal and
setting a time frame on it. I am one of
those people with lots of big ideas but I don’t usually apply them to anything. This time I took that idea and changed it
into my goal – to run a 5K – but at first I still didn’t have a timeframe on
it. Running a 5K is something that I
have always wanted to do but obviously without a timeframe I hadn’t managed to
do it yet, even though I have talked about it off and on for the last few years. So I went searching for 5Ks that I could
run. I settled on the Terry Fox Run for
a couple reasons, one of which was that it was far enough in the future I
figured I had lots of time to get ready.
This gave me something that I could happily call a goal because it had
not only the idea of what I wanted to do but it had a date in which I would
need to do it by.
This led me to my first true lesson about goals and that is while
having a big goal is great it at least for me was not motivating in a tangible
way. After I wasted away the first month
doing nothing to get ready for the run I quickly realized I needed something
more that would actually get me doing something towards my big goal of the 5K. So it only made sense to set some more goals. So I basically made a to-do list of all the
things I needed/wanted to do to get me from the couch to running. I didn’t necessarily think of these things as
goals at first but that is what they became.
I sat down and brainstormed all the things that would get me where I
wanted. I included the smallest of details
including things like join a gym, go to the gym, and actually try running. There were even a few that seemed a bit silly
but they still go on the list things like buy a good pair of runners and figure
out how to track my intervals. Once I
had my list of things than I gave myself deadlines because as a procrastinator
it is easy to keep putting things off but with deadlines I was more aware of
them.
The second lesson that I learned in setting these smaller goals or
tasks was that this list had to be a little more flexible then my big goal,
although even with my big goal I have tweaked it since I first set it. As a perfectionist this was a struggle
because once I put my mind onto something I really want to make sure I get it
and do it 100%. I keep reminding myself
though that the reality is that I have never done anything like this before and
so I didn’t really know what all the little tasks should be. I learned that I needed to be able to not
only add new tasks to the list but also change some of the deadlines I had
already set for myself as I learned what I was capable of. I quickly realized for example that my
ability to move through the interval training was going to be slower than I had
hoped. In my head one week would be
enough to transition my running up to the next level but the reality was my
body was not that quick to be able to adjust and do it. This realization also ended
up causing me to re-evaluate and modify my first goal of running a 5K to just
being able to complete the 5k as quickly as I can while doing as much of it
running as I can.
So with a little trial and error I was able to come up with a list of
things in my head that I knew would help get me where I wanted to go…crossing
that finish line on the 14th.
The best part is setting small goals is that working on them seems so
much easier and less daunting than thinking about running a 5K. I know this topic is probably not the most
exciting but I hope that it helps. I can
honestly say that while having a big goal is important there is nothing wrong
with breaking down into little mini goals that will help build towards that big
goal but also remember to cut yourself some slack and allow for at least a
little flexibility in those goals (as long as you are still actively working
towards them…hehehe).
Tomorrow I will be writing about one of the things that I think is
making the biggest difference not only on this goal to run a 5K but also in my ongoing
journey to lose weight and become healthier…it is the idea of tracking.
To donate and check out my progress please visit my page here.
For more information on the Terry Fox Foundation and the run check out
their page here.
Finding My Running Legs Previous Entries
