Healthy Living....Again

So, as is typical for me, I go through times of being really conscious of what I eat, and being active and really fulfilling my life mantra of living the life I want right now, and then I go through times of being less conscious and less active and less fulfilling of my life mantra.

This year has been, as is typical, a combination. There were several months where I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been. Then, there were several months where I was doing much better, being active, eating well, losing the extra pounds I had picked up. And then...I slacked off again.

Oh, I had lots of excuses, as usual. I had friends visiting, it was summer, it was my birthday, I went on a trip...whatever.

Come fall I started to get back on the bandwagon and was being more conscious again, and again, lost a few of the pounds I had picked up.

But then...I allowed myself to be distracted again. A few of those lost pounds were found again.

I must say I am disappointed in myself. I wanted to be more fit than I am right now.

But at the same time, I have to give myself some props because I still have yet to give up! I haven't thrown in the towel and I continue to pick myself back up, increase my awareness and my activity levels and re-focus on my overall health. This is such a change from my behavior of years past. I would let myself get to the point where I was very overweight and so unhappy.

With age, time and "wisdom" I have been able to shorten the time span of being "off the wagon" and am able to re-focus sooner.

In this vein, over the last couple of days I have been working on cleaning up my diet. I do pretty well in the morning and less well in the afternoon. Today I committed to not having any sweets. I took the sweets we did have, put them in a baggie, gave them to Chris and said to get them out of my house. I don't know where they are or what he did with them and that is a good thing!

I also decided it was time to put some activity back into my life. I headed out for a walk. It was a beautiful day, cold, clear and dry.

I walked for just shy of 3 miles in about 50 minutes...not fast but at least I got out there. I came home and did 10 minutes of abs work, too.

Later, I thought to myself "I need a goal!" Here it is:

I signed up to run the Happy Girls Half Marathon Memorial Day weekend 2013 in Bend, Oregon. My friend Kelsey is joining me because she is such a good sport!

The Happy Girls Half is a women's only event taking place in Bend along the Deschutes River, through part of the town of Bend and back into the park near the river. I'm really looking forward to it! This will be my third half marathon and my plan at this point is to try and run most if not all of it. 

Just like last year and the Helvetia Half Marathon, I have plenty of time to get back to training and actually run this event. 

Now I have my goal and a friend to keep me accountable. Hopefully this will also help keep me focused on other healthy living choices such as better food and more activity overall. 

Are you thinking about any fitness events in 2013?