Well I did it. The Pre-Marathon Marathon.

On Saturday I made the decision that since I was 3 weeks out from participating in the Paris Marathon in Paris, France on April 6th, I was keen on making sure I could do the following:

1)  Complete the distance
2)  Complete the distance in under 8 hours

I wanted to be sure that I was bringing the proper fuel and get an idea of what my pace needed to be in order to NOT get "swept" from the race course.  Getting "swept" means that you are unable to stay in FRONT of those officials whose job it is to slowly drive the "sweep vehicle" along the course based on an 8 hour finish time.  They pick up those participants who are BEHIND the 8 hour finish time, since those participants will be physically unable to finish the race in the time allotted.  In a large city such as Paris the race organizers only have SO long to block off the roads, and they MUST re-open them on schedule.  Hence, the time limit.

Part of my mental preparations for this marathon have been truly BELIEVING that I can participate in and finish the Paris Marathon.  So this was a big deal for me to do a "trial run".

Also, I remember back in 2007 when I trained for a Half Marathon, the "Half-Marathon Training Book" told me that if I trained up to 10 miles I could run 13.1.  So, I did what the book told me, and I trained up to 10 miles.  Then I began my race, the Boulder Backroads Half Marathon.  What I found out right about mile 10 was that if you trained up to 10 miles, you could run......10 miles.  I ended up bonking shortly after passing the 10-mile marker, and walked the rest of the way.

SO.  For all of these reasons I made the decision to do a "trial run" literally for my Marathon. 

I went to bed at 7:00 pm on Saturday night, and woke up at 3:30 am on Sunday.  I took 1/2 hour to eat breakfast (Medifast Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal, best fuel ever) check e-mail, get dressed, and stretch a little.

At 4:00 am I set up my Strava Iphone running application and pressed "record".

The music I decided to listen to on my first few hours was from IHeartRadio and it was an "All Choral, All the Time" station.  I can't even describe adequately how it felt to run under the black sky twinkling with stars, the moon beginning to work it's way to setting, and the entire neighborhood being asleep as I silently padded my way around the lamp-lit streets.

The first 3.5 hours were fun and games LOL.  The second 3.5 hours were mind blowingly difficult.  Now, prior to yesterday, I had indeed run 20 miles because the Marathon Training books told me that if I could run 20 miles I could run 26.2 on race day.  Because of my prior experience with this type of advice I didn't believe them.  But in this case, it was true.  I COULD run 26.2 miles.  Well, I could FINISH 26.2 miles within 8 hours, let's put it THAT way. 

I ended up running until mile 16, walking from mile 16-18, and running the last 9.3 miles.  You see, I completed not 26.2 miles (marathon distance) but 27.3 miles.  WHY?  Well that is a funny story but basically when I did the 20 miles a few weeks ago I ran to 20.6 miles and then my tracking application on my Iphone (Strava), whose information I was USING the whole time and whose display SAID 20.6 when I stopped the run, actually RECORDED 19.9 miles on my data feed when it processed my run!  Imagine, going for the big 20, GETTING there according to GPS, and then the program TAKING 0.7 miles away for no good reason whatsoever!  I was NOT going to be bitten twice on that one, and I truly wanted at least 26.2 miles to be recorded on my permanent feed so I ran an extra 1.2 miles to make sure it gave me credit for at least the 26.2.  It actually recorded 27.3 miles so I'm proud of that also.

Ultimately, how did I FEEL?

Amazing.  Amazing and amazing.  Today I have to admit is more amazing feeling than yesterday.  Yesterday I got home, took a very short warm bath (NOT hot...you aren't supposed to take a hot bath after a long run because it increases the lactic acid production), changed into my comfy sweats, took two ibuprophen, drank some powerade zero, ate 2 cups of non-fat cottage cheese and took a 2 hour nap after stretching.  Then I spent the afternoon walking around a local Railroad Theme Park we have in Scottsdale with my family.  Slowly walking that is. 

And I really feel good.  I feel like I accomplished exactly what I wanted to accomplish, running a marathon.

Now my Paris Marathon will be a "fun run" that I can go to and enjoy without the pressure of "Will I get injured?  Will I finish?  What if something happens and they don't accept my paperwork and I can't participate?"  If any of that happens, no biggie!  I'm there, I'm enjoying Paris, I have already run a marathon (marathon +) and all is good! 

I have planned for any contingency, and run my first marathon.  Granted, it wasn't an "official" marathon, it was more of a private event.  A solo event.  An individual time trial, if you will.  =)

How does this fit into my continuing goals of maintaining optimal health?  Well here's the fun part.  Because our program isn't about a "goal weight" but about FIRST attaining a HEALTHY weight, and then moving to Optimal Health, and then moving to Ultra Health, THAT is my roadmap.

I have not "arrived".  I will not rest on any perceived "laurels" I have achieved and say "Finished!  Done!  Now get me OFF this thing!"

No.  For me, I have attained optimal health and maintained it for some time.  I am now adjusting my sites (and have been for awhile now) to "attaining and maintaining ULTRA health".  And I am SO excited about that process I LEAP out of bed in the morning EXCITED to continue the process of BECOMING. 

Becoming that person I always knew I could be.  That person I yearned to be.  That person that I KNEW was inside me waiting to get out.

I believe that much of my angst (sadness, madness, you name it) I felt while obese was simply my insides screaming that my outsides WEREN'T ME.  And that conflict worked itself out in ways that made me MISERABLE.  I KNEW that I wanted to be authentic inside and out.  I KNEW that I was wearing a fat suit (of my own making) and that the "me" I was presenting visibly to the world was NOT in accordance with my deeply held values of living our best life, of living up to our God-given potential, heck, of even TAKING CARE of and being a good STEWARD of this gift-of-a-body that we have been given to take care of.  I was doing NONE of that at 272 pounds Super Class IV Obese and walking with a cane.

Now, at 122, no cane, running marathon(s), enjoying life, modeling health for myself, my family and my community, I can truly say that EVERY day is simply "The Best Day of My Life!"  (Lyrics Below).  And yes, this song IS my ringtone.  

I had a dream so big and loud
I jumped so high I touched the clouds
Wo-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
Oah-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
I stretched my hands out to the sky
We danced with monsters through the night
Wo-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
Oah-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh

I'm never gonna look back
Woah never gonna give it up
No, please don't wake me now

Oo-o-o-o-o-o
This is gonna be the best day of my life
My li-i-i-i-i-ii-fe
Oo-o-o-o-o-o
This is gonna be the best day of my life
My li-i-i-i-i-ii-fe

who oo-ooo-oo cares about everything now
ooo-oo-ooo-oo-ooo

I howled at the moon with friends
And then the sun came crashing in
Wo-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
Oah-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
But all the possibilities
No limits just epiphanies
Wo-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh
Oah-oah-oah-oah-oah-oh-oh

I'm never gonna look back
Woah, never gonna give it up
No, just don't wake me now

Oo-o-o-o-o-o
This is gonna be the best day of my life
My li-i-i-i-i-ii-fe
Oo-o-o-o-o-o
This is gonna be the best day of my life
My li-i-i-i-i-ii-fe

(instrumental)

I hear it calling outside my window
I feel it in my soul (soul)
The stars were burning so bright
The sun was out 'til midnight
I say we lose control (control)

(instrumental)

This is gonna be the best day of my life
My li-i-i-i-i-ii-fe
Oo-o-o-o-o-o
This is gonna be the best day of my life
My li-i-i-i-i-ii-fe
This is gonna be, this is gonna be, this is gonna be
The best day of my life
Everything is looking up, everybody up now
Oo-o-o-o-o-o
This is gonna be the best day of my l-ii-fe
My li-i-i-i-i-ii-fe

Every Morning I Make a New Decision....

Having been successful at losing almost 150 pounds and also maintaining a healthy weight now for 2 years, people ask me "how did you do it" and they also ask me "is maintenance easier?"

The basic thing I can tell you is that each morning I wake up and I make a fundamental decision to live THIS DAY as a fit and healthy person.

Every.  Day.

This isn't a "once and for all and for always" decision that I made 4 years ago with a grand proclamation of "I will from this day on forever live as a fit and healthy person...." no.  Those types of proclamations don't tend to work so well for me.  The only one that has was my decision to get married (and sometimes that feels like a daily decision also LOL!).

I DID however, decide WHO IT IS I wanted to be.  A fit and healthy person.  And then every morning I make the decision to conduct myself today in the same way as a fit and healthy person would conduct themselves.

And guess what?  Utilizing the tools that TSFL had to offer me, I was able to make my dream happen.  One day at a time.  Waking up and looking in the mirror and saying "Ok Self, you have some options today.  How shall you live?  As a Class IV Super-Obese person?  Or as a Fit and Health person?"

And I would make my decision for the day and that was that for 24 hours.

It helped to make that fundamental choice first thing in the morning, because that way I didn't have to fret over 247 more food and drink and activity choices that would have occurred that day.  I just made the ONE choice first thing in the morning, and when those 247 other situations presented themselves I always did what a fit and healthy person would do instead of agonize over whether I "should" or "shouldn't" eat or drink this or that.  I would just think "What would a fit and health person do?" and then I would do THAT.

I didn't think "What would a person on a diet do?"  Because THAT is not the identity I wanted to adopt, either temporarily OR permanently!  I already felt like I had been a lifelong "dieter" and that is a weary life-sucking place to be ALL of the TIME. 

No.  I decided to be a "fit and healthy" person.  I enjoy being one now, and every morning, EVERY MORNING I still wake up and say "who do you want to be today?  How do you want to live today?" and I make the decision DAILY to be and to live like a fit and healthy person.

Even in maintenance.  So it isn't a question of "is it easier".  It is neither easier or harder.  I am STILL on an eating plan of my own choosing, and I am STILL asking myself that question, so in my view nothing has really changed from the 5&1.  My goal was "to attain and maintain a healthy weight" and I just so happen to be in the maintenance part of that, but it doesn't change the fact that I am on a regimented eating plan. 

So if you are reading this, and holding your breath waiting for the day you will be "done with this process" I implore  you to re-evaluate your motivations, and your goals.  Because if your goal is "to lose weight" and that is all, then you will ALWAYS have weight to lose.  It's called the "oscillating pattern of lose-gain-repent-repeat".  But if you listen to Dr. A in Dr. A's Habits if Health, if you incrementally adopt those habits as your own, if you make the decision to pursue OPTIMAL HEALTH and even ULTRA HEALTH instead of making this a "weight-loss diet" look out, your life is about to change in ways you haven't even DREAMED of yet.

Rinse and Repeat!

I can't even relate to the old "me!" anymore!

I have spent some time reading my blogs from 2007.  These were the blogs from my first time on plan.  The time I lost 140 pounds in 14 months and felt GREAT, but I hadn't adopted healthy habits as my own.  I was in "diet" mode.  I was totally pumped, and maintaining my self-discipline through sheer will and motivation in order "to lose weight".

Reading those blogs now made it sound like a complete stranger wrote them.  My life is so different now, my mentality is so different now.

You see, I learned (by gaining it all back) that if my focus was ONLY on LOSING THE WEIGHT then once that task was done, I couldn't sustain my "motivation" in order to KEEP it off.  Sheer white-knuckle will-power will only get us so far, and then we have to come up for air.  We can only hold our breath for so long.

But this last journey, the one I began 4 years ago in 2010 with a coach and learning the habits of health, THIS is the journey where I actually CHANGED my oxygen, I CHANGED who I was, and I FOCUSED on attaining and maintaining OPTIMAL HEALTH.

So, so so so SO different.  SUCH a different process.  SUCH a different result.  "Did you lose the weight?" people ask....

No.  I BECAME OPTIMALLY HEALTHY and I am moving in to ULTRA HEALTH.  Big big difference. 

"Oh, so you DIDN'T lose the weight?"

Again, I say NO.  I didn't LOSE anything.  I CREATED health in my life.  I GAINED optimal health.  I'm absolutely DONE with talking about weight loss.  It is a negative goal.  It is something people want OUT of their lives.  I'm in to talking about what I want IN my life.  What I want to CREATE with this process of getting healthy.

"Well then what's the point of 'dieting'?"

I don't diet.  This last journey was NOT a diet.  It was an eating plan that I used to attain a healthy weight.  Because when you are after Optimal Health, and you are overweight or obese, the very FIRST STEP is getting to a healthy weight.  Unless you smoke, and then quitting smoking is actually the first step, THEN attaining a healthy weight.

But getting to a healthy BMI is the FIRST STEP in the process of attaining and maintaining optimal health!  So it isn't a "weight loss diet" and THIS is the key difference.  It may sound like tricky words and a fancy way of saying the same thing, but it truly at its CORE isn't.  And I am more than confident that I will MAINTAIN OPTIMAL HEALTH.

Do you see what I said?  I didn't say I would "keep it off".  I said I would "maintain optimal health".  Again, saying I'll "keep it off" puts the focus BACK on the weight I wanted to LOSE, and the fact that I wanted it GONE FOR GOOD.  Again, NEGATIVE GOAL.  Non-sustainable.

I am ALL about what AWESOME things I am bringing IN to my life as a result of getting healthy.  I'm NOT about what I want to KEEP OUT of my life or ESCAPE from. 

See the difference?

It makes all the difference in the world to me.  One is fear based.  One is hope based. 

"Keeping it off" is fear based.  It implies that I might gain back what I worked so hard to get out of my life. 

"Maintaining optimal health" is hope based.  It speaks of potential and promise and health.  All the things I want to keep IN my life.

People ask me what the difference is this time as opposed to last time.  The difference is my mindset.  So far I used the "same" eating plan.  Because it worked to achieve my goal.  But my goals were very different.  First time = lose weight
Second time = gain health

Thank you TSFL for giving me ALL the tools I needed to Gain Health.  I am living proof that anyone CAN do this.

My life has changed in very practical ways, some of which I list below.  All because I chose to attain and maintain optimal health.

FROM:  Size 26 Women's Stretch Jeans 
TO:  Size 2 Tommy Hilfigger, Levi's, and Polo Jeans

FROM:  Size 24W Dresses from Dress Barn, Catherine's, and Lane Bryant
TO:  Size 2 Dresses from Nordstrom's

FROM:  Walking with a cane because my knees hurt so bad
TO:  Running a Marathon

FROM:  Getting stuck in the turnstiles at Disneyland
TO:  Slipping through the turnstiles sideways without even engaging the metal bar

FROM:  Salespeople avoiding my gaze
TO:  Salespeople greeting me right when I walk through the door

FROM:  Having 13 sizes of clothing in my closet ranging from 2-26
TO:  Having everything in my closet fit, and only having 2-4's hanging in my closet.

Life is good in health.  Get here as fast as you can!  =)

Rinse and Repeat!

What a fun day! RG3-Warner-Fitzgerald-Urlacher-Bledsoe

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life so far!  I say so far because it seems like almost EVERY day becomes my BEST day when I am in control and living the life I want to live! 

But a little about YESTERDAY.  If you are at ALL in to football, then you will recognize these names...

RG3 (Robert Griffin III), Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Urlacher, Bledsoe, Ponder, Rivers, Smith, Irvin

These are the peeps who were at Kurt Warner's Foundations' Charity Fundraiser Day yesterday (see photo below, I did not take the picture but I was standing next to the man who did!), the Extreme Football Experience which involved 8 Flag Football Teams, each with a celebrity quarterbacking the team.  I was a volunteer because I have a special place in my heart for both the Warner family AND the work that they do with their Charitable Foundation called First Things First (www.kurtwarner.org) .

They took our family on my son's "Make-a-Wish" trip in 2009 to Disneyworld and I got to spend some time with them for a week.  I was at my heaviest.  Brenda Warner is the one who told me "It's never too late to become the person we 'might have' been" and she is one of my real-life inspirations and heroes.

Here's the thing.   Four and a half years ago I was huffing and puffing walking around Disneyworld.  It was torture.  I was hot and miserable.  I got stuck in the turnstiles and they had to let me through the stroller gate.  I needed a seat belt extender on the plane coming back (but not GOING, which showed me I was STILL EXPANDING by the week!).   I had a BMI approaching 50.

Yesterday at the fundraiser I was assigned as the "shadow" to the professional photographer.  This meant that for about 6 hours it was my job to run around the field with him with a clipboard so I could keep track of who he had photographed and who he still NEEDED to photograph in order that all teams would have lots of action shots to document the day.  I had my FitBit on, and I logged 9 miles yesterday of walking/running.  I never broke a sweat.  I wasn't huffing and puffing.  I was in the sun all day long, with a hat, sunscreen (yes I re-applied every 2 hours), appropriate long sleeved but very light activewear, my Asics running shoes (new pair had to break in before the Marathon next month), and my sunglasses. 

And I felt like a million bucks.  Fit and healthy.

My question to you:  Where do you want to be eventually?  Are you willing to sacrifice a few things NOW for what you want eventually?  Or are you still stuck in the oscillating pattern of lose-gain-repent-repeat because you've never deliberately gone about changing your WANTS?

What do YOU want?

Rinse and Repeat!

Old Journal Entries.....

I got out my old journals from my newly married days 20 years ago, and reading them was quite difficult because I was in SUCH a state of UNHEALTH both in body and mind (I believe I had obesity-related depression) and I KNEW it.  I was already over 200 pounds ( 5 foot 3), at age 26.  I ended up reading about 4 of my old journals, because as was typical back then I would buy a new journal, write in it for a few days or a few weeks, and then abandon the effort.  The first few days or few weeks would be filled with some proclamation involving getting healthy and losing weight.  Then the pages would taper off in to food logs, weight logs, exercise logs, and then all the yummy restaurants I was visiting and what I ordered there.  Then a few more pages of self-loathing, depression and then the rest of the journal would be blank.

It was actually rather painful but also enlightening being the NEW me, reading what the OLD me was going through, because I just wanted to help her!  I just wanted to tell her "I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH, I HAVE BEEN THERE MYSELF" and wouldn't that have been ironic LOL!

But seriously, I DID know what she was going through.  I DID live that experience.  I DID come out the other side and find peace.  Finally.  Peace about who I am.

Here is a juxtaposition of two journal entries made by the same person (me), one was written 18 years ago and the other was written a week ago. 

18 years ago: 

"Why do I seem to be slipping back into the mindset of being uncontrollable in my diet ? Like it's too much effort?  Dear Lord, help me, be my strength, help me!  Along with that mindset comes an incredible sense of a loss of self-worth.  It really hurts!  Like being numb and selfish, and having an intense loathing of myself.  Where does it come from?  Why does it continue to haunt me?  I know not, but sometimes I don't feel anything.  I feel like my mind is filled with mush and I am simply unable to focus, to concentrate, to collect my thoughts, to function.  Today, this week, has been one of those weeks.  It's terrible.  How much more will Dave (husband, then and now) put up with?  I feel like I'm a constant let-down to him and that compounds the feelings of hatred I have for myself."

(A sidenote here to the Blog Reader, although this was written 18 years ago, these feelings stayed with me and were consistent, as was my unhealthy body, up until 4 years ago when I began TSFL)

Last week:

"Today I watched in interview with Bono about what his ideas of the Meaning of Life was.  His answer?  Love.  Reaching our Full Potential individually, our true God-given potential, and that God, the God of the universe, is mind blowingly interested in the details of our lives.  Hope.  Optimism.  Love.  These are the things he had as a boy and continued to cultivate through his incredibly inspiring life.  He said he is humbled and blessed.  I feel like Bono.  In the last four years I have been discovering the me I always knew I "could have been".  I am she.  She is me.  And it has absolutely been the ride of my life.  In 28 Days, 4 weeks from tonight, I will be on my way to Paris France to run a marathon.  ME.    Life is grand.  It boils down to choices, really.  Daily choices and daily actions which, over time, show us what we are capable of.  If we accept that we are insignificant and worthless, our actions will become self-fulfilling prophecies as we seek to actively undermine our worth every single day, propagating the lie.  If, however, we embrace the truth that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, if we embrace the knowledge that God truly made each one of us special, if we act on that in love and hope first towards ourselves, we can eventually help others see THEIR value and worth on this world stage.  It starts and ends with.....LOVE."

The tenor of the two entries are diametrically opposite of each other.  And both are accurate to my feelings at the time they were written.

I have realized who I am.  As the Lego Movie highlights, "I am The Special".  Each one of us is The Special.  Each one of us has been uniquely cast PERFECTLY into the role of....OURSELVES.  We each have a heroic story to tell with our lives.  We can each do amazing things.  If we believe we can.

It isn't just gobbledy-gook.  If Morgan Freeman as the voice of Lego Vitruvius says it, it HAS to be true.  =)

We are, each one of us, THE SPECIAL.  We just need to step into that truth and LIVE it every day, with each one of our choices.

Believe it.

Rinse and Repeat!

Honing Our Abilities of Tying Actions to Consequences....

I lived there for much of my childhood, indeed my adult life also.  Where did I live?

Short-Term-Visionville.

My address was "1, Bite Won't Matter Street" which was on the corner of Instant Gratification Way.

I don't live there anymore.

When did I move?  I moved away from there 4 years ago, although I do admit to occasionally finding myself back there, you know when you drive on autopilot and find yourself at your OLD house?  Yes, sometimes I do that too with my journey.

But now I live in a different place.  I call a different place home.

So enough analogy, let's get down to what I am even talking about.

When I had what I will call "fat brain" I rarely tied my daily actions to long-term consequences.  I lacked foresight, by choice, because frankly I liked food too much to get pull my head out of the sand and take a good hard look at where my choices were taking me.

Then I complained about where my choices HAD taken me.  Oh, was I a good complainer.  I complained about how I didn't have enough TIME to do anything about my health (and then refused to MAKE or TAKE the time).  I complained about how EXPENSIVE eating healthy ALL THE TIME was (myth).  I complained about how my feet hurt from plantar fasciitis, and how my back hurt from being compressed with 140 extra pounds that I didn't need.  I complained about how I felt in the morning when I woke up, physically.  I was usually disappointed in myself upon waking, feeling guilty for letting yet another day pass by where I wasn't doing anything to help my health. 

That was a dark time in my life.  From age 23 to age 40 are really just a conglomeration of feeling sorry for myself.

What changed? 

I decided that I was going to fight for ME.  I decided that I wasn't going to let fate or genes or the part of me that felt like a failure determine the direction of my life ANY MORE.  I took control.  I took the pen and decided to write and alternate storyline.  After all, I'm the author of my story, right?

Here's how my story looks now, since I got hold of that pen:

*I make a living helping other people create health in their lives
*I work from home and have time to spend with my family
*I am "fit as a fiddle" so says my Mayo Clinic Cardiologist who recently signed a "permission slip" of sorts for the Marathon I'm running in 4 weeks
*I have a closet full of clothes that FIT and nothing that does NOT for the first time in my entire life
*I greet the day with a smile and a joyful heart full of gratitude
*I smile at strangers

Learning to tie my daily actions to long-term consequences was a key part of the change that had to take place in my life.  And this has had benefits not only in my physical health, but also my financial health and my emotional health and even my spiritual health!  It is a great skill to develop, I highly recommend it.

How do you develop it?

Well, take any action or habit that you currently have.  Whether you love it or hate it.  Now, think "what will my life be like if I repeat this action daily for the next 2 weeks, 2 years, 5 years, etc?"

Do you like the "results" of examining that habit?  Then keep the habit!  It is a good one!  Does your heart cry "NOOOOOO!" when you telescope a particular habit out to next week or next year?  Then look at changing that habit, it isn't doing you any good.

And always remember, as Robin Sharma says, "Seemingly small improvements, practiced daily, produce stunning results over time" and conversely, "Seemingly small neglects, practiced daily, produce tragic results over time".

My question to YOU and to ME is simply this:  "Do I want stunning results or tragic results?"

I think the answer is pretty clear.   I choose stunning.

When people ask me "how long did it take you" with my health journey, my new answer is "one day at a time".

Rinse and Repeat!

DANGER WILL ROGERS DANGER! Healthy Habit ALERT!!

I received my FitBit Force on Thursday of last week and after charging it at 5pm I set about logging steps.  I did manage to get in 5,000 steps by the time I went to sleep, and then logged over 24,000 steps the next day, Friday.  I was SO PLEASED with myself!  Tickled actually! 

But then I activated the "sleep activity tracking" feature last night for the first time.

Uh-oh.

Danger Will Rogers! 

It is a reminder to me that there is MORE to living a life in Optimal and Ultra health than SIMPLY losing close to 150 pounds, maintaining a healthy BMI long-term, and (for me) running a Marathon (I have trained up to and including 20 miles and am running the Paris Marathon on April 6th...my first full marathon event EVER!)

SLEEP!

The recommended sleep for a woman of my age is 6-8 hours. 

When my fitbit synched with my computer this morning I had the baseline reading which has, let's say, STRONGLY ENCOURAGED me to put a laser focus on the Healthy Habit of Sleep as my next Habit of Health to work on.

It told me what I think I instinctively knew, that I need to change my ways.

For ALL of last night in bed, I ended up with a TOTAL SLEEP TIME of, (are you ready for this?)....

1 hour and 58 minutes.

Uh-Oh.

Apparently FitBit told me I averaged a 40% efficiency, and was very restless 9 separate times last night. 

ONE HOUR AND 58 MINUTES of restorative sleep!  Oh man.  I am getting right into my book and reading the "Healthy Sleep" chapter.  Today.  I am going to make some REAL changes.

Starting today.

Rinse and Repeat!