Last Walk of 2011

I just took my last walk of 2011. Cooper, my dog I left with my parents when I went away to grad school, and I have been getting out there quite a lot. He is actually a great activity buddy. If I say "Wanna go for a walk?" he gets so excited and won't leave me alone until we leave. He provides that extra little bit of motivation to get outside and be active.

I started using RunKeeper on Dec 19th and since then I have gone on 19 walks/jogs for a total of 26 miles and 3,215 calories.

I think staying active is part of the reason I'm not feeling totally horrible about the weight gain I have had the past few weeks. (That's not to say I'm happy about it.) I know the huge role activity plays in me feeling good about myself. If I'm having a bad day or feeling down, a walk with Coop will usually make me feel better. It's a great way to escape the overwhelming anxiety I sometimes start to feel about being unemployed and not really knowing what my future holds. Getting my heart rate up and sweating out those toxins always puts me in a better mood.

This morning I had a pretty good little jog. It's freezing here right now and extremely windy. But I had a nice jog. I wasn't super speedy and I didn't go very far...but I have to start somewhere. I may feel like I'm not a great runner right now, but I keep focusing on how much better I feel now than I did a year ago. AND, and, and! I keep focusing on how much I progressed at the beginning of last year. I just need to keep going. I feel better and better everyday. I'm excited about adding up the miles and working on longer distance runs. Who knows, maybe in 3 months I will be farther than I ever imagined. Or maybe I have imagined it. For some reason I keep thinking about the number six. Running six miles at once seems like I would be a real runner. It seems so far off, but at the same time a reasonable goal I can work towards. I just have to keep going. Live in the moment and realize it's going to take time to get there. That's the lesson I need to keep relearning...I need to keep in mind ALL the time.

LIVE IN THE MOMENT...LIVE FOR MYSELF.

Now only if they had an app that tracked my weight lifting like RunKeeper tracks my running. ;)