95.72 Miles to Go.....

Treadmill final this morning, one of my favorite pics from high school I recently found, my oldest and I last fall, my husband and I the Fall before we got married (my inspiration pic for weight loss), and me last summer.  Pictures I love and loathe for many reasons!

A life without challenges would be, well, nice right?  WRONG!  John 1:2-4 says "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."  Lets face it, without challenges we wouldn't have the opportunity to grow, not only in faith, but in strength among many other facets of growth in our lives.

It is the first day of August, and this year has already been full of challenges for me and many around me.  The biggest life challenge we have faced this year is the passing on of my mother, who I wrote about in a previous post.  Honestly, it has been the biggest challenge of my life.  I feel like I am failing in the grieving process because I can't seem to get her out of my thoughts, my dreams, my day to day happenings.  I used to call her multiple times a day to tell her about everything from the mundane to the troubles I faced.  So it seems, specially when big things happen, I am at a loss.  But I know, for sure, that this process that I'm facing is teaching me things.  Like to rely on others in my life more, especially my husband.  It is teaching me to also rely on God more, and turn to him with all of life's events and troubles.   I know HE wants me to come to him first when I am excited, when I am sad, and every other emotion I am dealing with.  It is a hard lesson, one as I said I am struggling with and feel like I am failing, but I have faith that eventually it will all work out.  Not that missing my mom will ever completely go away, but I will grow and learn how to deal with my grief in a more positive way.

I set our in July with a big challenge.  I entered a challenge actually.  I paid MONEY to lose weight.  I thought it would motivate me, encourage me, etc.  It did for sure.  It was a great challenge to participate in, but I'm afraid I'm going to fail this one.  With the challenge check-out date quickly approaching, I have yet to shed a pound!  Not that I haven't tried, I just haven't been as committed as I should be I guess.  Sure, I am now, with the thought of losing $20 hanging over my head and all the stuff I could do with the $20!  So I have been working out one to two times a day and watching every morsel of food go into my mouth, without being obsessed of course, because I then kill the effort with a glass of wine in the evening!  See, not totally committed!  Yikes!  If I fail this one, and I'll let you know in a few days if I do, I will do it with my head held high, because it has made me more determined.  Not to "lose weight" per say, but to complete a challenge successfully (along with the side effect of possibly getting healthy).

So the August Challenge is to run 100 miles in 30 days.  What?  Seriously?  Sounds crazy when that actually equals 3.3 MILES A DAY!  Who in their right mind runs EVERY DAY?????  Well, lots of people I know actually, and they enjoy it, they love it, they live for it!  But me?  Sure, I've run my share of 5ks, 10ks, and even a small handful of half-marathons, but I haven't done anything like that in a LONG TIME.  Yet, I really want to do this.  And I want to be held accountable to doing this, so that is why I am going to try to blog it.  Whether or not anyone actually reads what I write, at least I will have an account of my effort to try to *FINALLY* succeed at a challenge.  Hey, maybe I'll even get a little "better" if not faster at this running thing.  Check out today's stats; slow and steady wins the race!

Today's Stats: 4.28 miles in 63 min.  95.72 miles to go.