Warrior Girl

Ever since I discovered Wonder Woman as a little girl, I’ve wanted to be a superhero.  Then, in high school and college, I became a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, and I totally wanted to be that girl.  The one who can kick serious butt while wearing stiletto boots and a skirt.

But there was one little problem to this desire.

I was lazy.

As a little girl, I did gymnastics, and even ran track for a few years.  But once puberty hit, I became way more interested in boys and fashion then I ever would be in sports and sweating.

In high school I was one of the girls who opted to “walk around the track” during gym class to avoid breaking a sweat (or God forbid a nail) during volleyball.  I only owned a pair of sneakers because it was required for said gym class.  I was not a jock.

I really wanted to be strong, fast, a superhero, but I had no desire to actually, physically, do anything strenuous.

Then, in the last few years, I started working out more, and then running, and then, suddenly, in this last year, everything changed.

And on June 28^th of this year, I did something that my inner “stiletto wearing, make-up loving, boy crazy” girlie girl would have told you was ABSOLUTELY NOT EVER going to happen.

I ran the Warrior Dash.

What is the Warrior Dash you ask?  It is a 3 mile “run” through the woods, over obstacles such as 20 foot walls and rope ladders, ending in a mud pit of epic proportions.  Go here for a better idea (including a video of the insanity).

Yeah…I did that!  And I loved every muddy moment of it.  It was taxing, and challenging and exhausting.

It poured that morning, so I was wet, and sweaty, and muddy and gross.

I had bruises and cuts all over.

I have never been so dirty in my entire life.

I can’t wait to do it all over again next year.

Pushing beyond the limits I set for myself years ago felt amazing.  I felt like a butterfly finally pushing out of that cocoon.  There was this feeling of re-birth.  The new me emerging, muddy, and sore, and laughing.

I am an athlete, and I have the medal and the bruises to prove it.

I am Warrior Girl.

FitNhealthy - July 2010

If you've read my blog the last few months, and/or if you follow me on Twitter (@CandidK - please do) then you know that I've joined my buddy Ami in her monthly FitNHealthy Challenges. You can find out more about these at her blog here.

Basically, however, each month Ami is challenging us to join her on some fitness challenge of her making, or if we choose, one of our own. If you click here you can see what I've challenged myself with the last few months.

I've been doing C25K, so last month, this was my challenge to myself: By the end of the month, I’m hoping to be able to not only finish week 5, but also week 6. If I can follow the C25K plan exactly, I should be ending Week 7 just as June comes to a close, but I’m giving myself a break, and taking my time with it, so I’ll be happy if I can be ready to begin week 7 by the end of June. (Week 7 is when the straight running, 25 minutes each day, begins).

Along with C25K, I’m also going to keep doing Shred on Mondays, and try to squeeze in a little bit more strength training on my in-between run days.

So, how did I do? Well, unfortunately, I only attended one Shred class in the month of June, because my gym cancelled the class at the beginning of the month to make room for the 6th Zumba class there...I'll save that rant for another day (sigh), but needless to say, no more Shred for this girl. I was NOT happy about this.

But, the good news is that my parents opened up their pool, so I decided to substitute swimming for shred a few days a week.

Except...uh...I've only done that once or twice so far.

BUT I have stayed with C25K. I've been running pretty much every other day this month with the exception of 2 weekends ago, when my cousin got married, and I, as a bridesmaid, was caught up in all the pre-wedding hoopla.

However, on the evening of her wedding I danced for about 5 hours straight, so,you know...that counts.

I'm not quite at week 7 of C25K yet, I can't seem to reach the 25 minutes of running straight yet, so I've been repeating week 6 for a while now. But, I'm still trying, and I'm pushing forward, and I'll get there.

So...now onto July's goals.

This month Ami is challenging to work on our eating habits, and I'm actually quite glad for that, because exercise has become a habit, and a need for me, but my eating habits can ALWAYS use improvement.

So, her challenge: Eat at least 4 servings of vegetables each day and incorporate one new-to-you veggie each week.

Okay, I think I can do that...I'm in.

Also, I'm going to continue to challenge myself with C25K, hoping to be much closer to running that 5K by the end of July, and I'm going to try and incorporate some more swimming, and some abs and other work into my routine as well.

What do you think? Will you join us? What fitNhealthy challenges are you up for this month?

fitNhealthy - June 2010

It’s a new month, which means it’s time for a new fitNhealthy challenge, but I’m a little delayed in kicking things off this month or even in tying up last month…

But, hey, better late than never, right?

Let’s recap last month first, shall we? Let’s see…according to THIS POST my goal last month was to do at least 30 minutes of exercise at least 5 days a week in the month of May.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really keep track of my exercise to be able to tell you whether or not I was successful in this challenge, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that I was, because I’ve been doing Shred at the gym on Mondays(which is an hour long class) as well as usually 25 to 45 minutes of cardio before class, and then I’ve been doing C25K (more on this in a bit) at least 3 days a week. I don’t usually go more than a day without exercise, some days doing 30 minutes, other days doing 2 hours, so I’m going to call the May challenge a success.

Enter June. Ami’s challenge this month is to “try at least one NEW exercise activity each week”. We are also building on May’s challenge to exercise 30 minutes a day/5 days a week.

Before anything else, I have to confess that I didn’t start June off very fitNhealthy at all. In fact, I kicked the month off on vacation, and I decided to give my body a vacation from exercise and from eating healthy. I went away, I ate whatever I wanted, and I barely exercised besides some walking around for the first 4 days of the month. Throw in the last few days of month, and I gave myself a 6 day stretch of no exercise and eating like crap. And well, by that 6^th day, I felt like crap. I realized after coming home that those 6 days of no exercise were the longest stretch I had gone without working out in about 4 months. And my body wasn’t happy with me.

And this actually made me happy. My body craves exercise now, and so does my mind. This is a good thing, and I’ll take it.

So, anyway, onto June’s challenge then. I’m actually not going to join Ami on her particular challenge, because I’m sort of hitting the peak of my own.

See, I’m on week 5 of C25K. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Couch to 5k (C25k) is a 9 week running program geared toward “non-runners”, to do exactly what it says, get you from your couch to running a 5k. You can learn more about it here.

For those who are unfamiliar with me, and how I used to feel about running, let me sum it up in one sentence I used to say when people would talk to me about running: “I run if someone is chasing me”.

And then the damndest thing happened. Last year, while out on my “power walks” I decided to start running. And I loved it. Except, I was doing it all wrong, with the wrong shoes, on uneven ground, and I hurt myself. So, I decided once again that running wasn’t for me.

But I missed it.

Then this year, I learned about C25K, and I decided to check it out. I also decided to buy the right shoes for my gait (I underpronate, in case you are wondering).

And now, here I am, week 5, and right before my little vacation, I ran two 8 minute stretches. Without question, the long straight stretch of running I have ever done. TWICE. Up until 2 days ago, when I ran a 10 minute stretch and then an 8 minute stretch.

Because of my little break, I’m repeating week 5 starting this week, and gearing up for that scary day 3, which involves a straight 20 minute run. I’m not sure I’m quite ready for that yet, so I might repeat days 1 and 2 of week 5 a few times before I get there. But I will do it.

And that is my fitNhealthy challenge for June. By the end of the month, I’m hoping to be able to not only finish week 5, but also week 6. If I can follow the C25K plan exactly, I should be ending Week 7 just as June comes to a close, but I’m giving myself a break, and taking my time with it, so I’ll be happy if I can be ready to begin week 7 by the end of June. (Week 7 is when the straight running, 25 minutes each day, begins).

Along with C25K, I’m also going to keep doing Shred on Mondays, and try to squeeze in a little bit more strength training on my in-between run days.

That’s my fitNhealthy goal this month. What’s yours??

Active April - Fit N Healthy

Last month I joined my twitter buddy Ami (@smtwngrl) on her challenge to be healthy and ‘active’ during the month of April.

This was not to be the first, and certainly not the last (and in fact, not even the only April) “fitness” challenge I did on Twitter.

Fact is, if any one of my Twitter friends mentions some sort of health/fitness/etc. challenge, I’m probably going to at the very least, investigate it, and most likely, join it.

In January, I attempted (and came very close to fulfilling) @AmberOliver’s 31 day fitness challenge.

Also in April I attempted (and failed miserably) in @swissms99’s 10 day clean eating challenge.

There have been others.

Truth is, lately, I’m all about eating healthy, exercising, and basically, changing my lifestyle to one where health is just a matter of life.

I hate “diets”, I hate “crash courses” and crazy goals and impossible feats when it comes to what to eat and how much exercise to do.

I love food. I like lounging on my couch and watching television.

But I also like the way my body looks when I am taking good care of it. I like fitting into my size 4 jeans. I like that the other day, when I flexed my arm, I saw muscle there. I like that I used to be out of breath going up one flight of stairs and now I can walk/jog 3 miles and be barely winded.

I love being healthy.

So, if you mention some sort of fitness challenge to me, you can bet your booty I’m going to ask you more about it.

In April, I was active. I didn’t exercise every single day, but I came close. So, when Ami asked me if I was up for joining her for another fitness challenge in May, I, of course, said yes.

Enter #fitNhealthy. You can find out more about the challenge here, at Ami's blog. But the general idea behind it is that for the month of may, Ami is challenging us to do AT LEAST 30 minutes of exercise AT LEAST 5 days a week. I'm in.

In fact, I've been doing that already for the last few weeks, and most days, I do at least an hour worth of exercise. I'm going to just stick to Ami's challenge however, and see if I can "outdo myself" and push for an hour each day.

For me, these challenges, these Twitter buddies of mine who are focused on their health, are just added motivation for me to live the life I want to live.

In the last few years, I’ve gone from being the girl who would say “I run if someone is chasing me”, to the girl who is determined to run a 5k race before this summer is over (OMG, did I really just admit that out loud?)

And I owe a lot of that to Twitter. The constant motivation, encouragement and commiserating with my Twitter buddies, both the ones who run marathons and the ones who, like me, struggle along, has helped to change me into this person I am becoming.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret, I really like this person.

So, what do you say? Join me in being #fitNhealthy? You can find me HERE on Twitter, if you don’t already follow me, and join me in changing the way our minds work, so we can change the way our bodies work, look, and feel.

31 Day Fitness Challenge - Make that the 12 day challenge...

And here we are, February 2nd. So, Amber's 31 Day Fitness Challenge has come to an end. I obviously don't need to tell you that I didn't complete this challenge, as my last post on this very topic already made that plenty obvious.

That being said, I'd like to focus on the positives here.

I kicked off the year with a fitness plan in mind. I worked out EVERY DAY for nearly 2 weeks.

I was in the gym with all the "New Year's Resolution" babies, and I didn't kill anyone.

I discovered a step-aerobics class I really enjoy.

I lost 2 lbs.

And yesterday, February 1st, I kicked off my next fitness challenge. I'm calling this one "Work out whenever I can, try to keep a routine, don't beat myself up when I miss a day here and there".

Yep...overall, I think I did pretty well.

Amber, thanks for hosting the challenge, and bring on the next one...I'm ready!

Pain is Sweet

As I write this blog post, I sit at my desk with very sore legs. In fact, every half hour or so I need to get up and walk around my office building, because the muscles in my calves seem to be atrophying, and it KILLS if I sit too long.

Why the pain? Because yesterday, my dear readers, yours truly went for a run.

WAIT, let’s see that again, because I need to make sure I really wrote those words…

I, Candid Karina, went for a run.

Yep, really happened.

If you know me at all, then you know what a shocker that is. Anyone who knows me has heard me say on more than one occasion (okay fine EVERY SINGLE TIME anyone mentions going running) that I don’t run. If I’m running, then you best believe someone is chasing me. Because I? I. Don’t. Run.

Except, yesterday? I went for a run. And no, nobody was chasing me. So, what in the world happened?

It all started innocently enough. Having gotten an “early release” from work, due to being in an all day training that finished early, I was going to head to the gym. But we got a break in the gloomy rainy weather we’ve been having, and when I left work it was sunny and gorgeous out. So I decided to go for a walk instead.

I’ve been walking the “hills” in my neighborhood for a few weeks now, and I really enjoy this walk. The ups and downs of the hills give me a real workout, and it never feels like “just a stroll”. What started as a real challenge, however, has now become an easy 45 minute walk. By the end, I’m not longer out of breath, I’m not really “feeling the burn”.

So yesterday, halfway into my walk I decided I should try running it. And so…I did.

Truth be told, at this point running for me means stopping quite frequently to walk slowly while I gasp for air (okay, not gasp, but there is certainly some very heavy breathing involved). But, regardless, I ran.

And you know what? I liked it.

I KNOW! I can’t believe it either.

I’m not entirely sure who this person is that has taken over my body, but I have to admit, I’m growing fond of her, and I think she can stay.

Over the last year I’ve dropped 25 lbs., and I’ve found myself growing increasingly interested in health and fitness. I’m eating better, I’m eating less, and I’m genuinely interested in maintaining a healthy diet long term. I’m also working out regularly, and not just enjoying it, but finding myself wanting to push harder and harder each time. I’m not just satisfied with going to the gym and doing “enough” to “not gain weight”. I want to work harder, I want to do more, I want to reach new levels of fitness I have never reached before.

Here I am, in my 30’s, and I want to become one of those “athletic” people. It’s such an interesting phenomenon for me. The last time I did any sort of running that didn’t involve trying to catch a train, I was in the 6th grade and on the track team. By junior high school, I’d decided that I was NOT going to be the girl that went out for sports teams, I was much more interested in books and make-up. I never played any sports after that, and my stints at the gym were either because I wanted to look half-way decent in a bathing suit, or because I was watching the boys intramural basketball teams play in college.

And now? I’m thinking running might be something I might actually want to take up. I’m looking forward to hiking trips with a friend of mine, and I’m even considering taking up golf. WHAT? No, I’ll deny it if you tell anyone I said so.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go take a walk around the office, my legs are atrophying again. OH the pain…so sweet!