Committed (Crazy, but committed)

My first Ragnar Relay

I had decided when we moved from Texas that it was time to lay aside some old bad habits like:

*No more staying up until the middle of the night and then staying in bed through work out time. This became an easy habit because my husband traveled 4-5 nights per week. Having to be the go-to parent during the 12 hours of the day my kids were awake, I often used time when they were asleep to do those things necessary to keep our home functioning; dishes, laundry and toilet bowl cleaning. I'm sure you can get the picture!

*No more believing that because I have a lot to do I don't have to pay attention to what I eat. My attitude in TX was pretty much "eat what you want, you don't have time to think too much about it". This was a poor choice of lifestyle to be sure, as trips to Subway or Panini bakery became more common and the use of leafy green vegatables or anything that required peeling, chopping or general preparation became less.




I've decided to now pick up some old good habits. Like:

*choose a race or two and train to compete to my personal best. At John's insistance, I've registered for and am working towards completing the RUSH triathlon in Rexburg ID this coming August. At my buddy Erin's urging I am registered for and working to not embarrass myself as a member of a 12 woman team for the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay. At the invitation of my sisters I am trying to be ready to ride in the Little Red Riding Hood 60 mile cycling experience the first weekend of June. I'm finding that none of these races are particularly convenient. Training for anything with 6 kids to teach and nurture is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Trying to train for 3 different events that take place in a 12 week period (the bike race and the relay are only 2 weeks apart!) is more like insane selfishness at best. But I've made the commitments, so I'll work to follow through and I'll hope I can perform beyond my expectation.

*Learn how to eat in a healthy way, and choose to leave sweets and sugar behind. I set this goal about every 8 weeks. I do great for 4-5 weeks, lose a couple of pounds and start to feel like I've got a handle on it all-then I spend the next 4 or so weeks slowly slipping back to the days when chocolate chip cookies and late night ice cream seems justifiable in some ludicrous way. This may be my eternal challenge. Learning to feel satisfied when a really good brownie is not going to be part of my daily routine....

so my summer will be full of swim, cycle, run (and run and cycle and run) in the early morning hours while John is here to stand watch. And I'll be licking fruit only popcicles while my kids dig in to whatever the guy in the ice cream truck has for sale. Think I can do it? I hope so. After years of being on the sidelines I'm intrepid at best to jump back in.