AmazinGrace 5k...

First of all, even though it has been six weeks or so since my last blog posts, I do want to say that I've been keeping up with my daily workouts and vlogging daily on Youtube. (See my previous post for a link to my youtube channel). I've gotten to 'meet' several people who are also doing the Jillian Michaels Body Revolution program. One woman, Carly, lives in Canada and we're on the same schedule as far as doing the same workout on the same day. It's very cool to hear someone else's perspective on how they liked/disliked the different moves throughout the workout. So onto Phase 3 of the program, tomorrow and I'm excited! I don't want to spend too much time hear talking about the JMBR workouts, but seriously if you're thinking about ordering it, check out my Youtube page or Carly's (carly32).

Moving on, to another goal I had mentioned, the AmazinGrace 5k was tonight. It was HOT outside! Way hotter than last year's race. Good thing we had volunteers handing out water at each mile! The race was a lot of fun. One of the things I like about running/jogging is that the only person you're competing with is yourself (just trying to finish or beat a previous race time) Don't get me wrong, I love competitive sports and stuff, but sometimes it's nice to just compete against yourself. I finished the race in 37 minutes and 20 secs. Not quite my goal of 35 minutes, but I'm still proud! We spend way too much time trying to define ourselves by numbers...weight/gpa/bra size/pant size...I could go on and on, but it's just important to always do the best you can! I'm looking forward to Crazy 8s July 14th. It's an 8k (5 miles). I'm aiming for a one hour finish time. Then the Eastman Road Race 10k in September and (maybe....jeeepers!) the 1/2 marathon October 24th. We shall see my friends, we shall see.


Another important milestone has passed, I've officially finished one year of my master's program. I have two semesters left. I will be taking three summer classes and three in the fall to finish up my degree. I have met some of the most incredible people at ETSU and I'm looking forward to starting to work on my thesis in June.

My first class of the summer is a Digital/Mobile Media Class that I will be taking in Rome, Italy. I am super excited about it! I will be blogging about that adventure so be sure and follow my blog about my experience in Italy, www.missygoestorome.blogspot.com

Ciao bella!

Missy

My daddy and I! 

My adorable parents walked the race! So proud of them!

What's a vlog?

There is no rest for the weary that's for sure. After a wonderful Spring Break trip to visit a special friend :) I was back to grad school and all of the work that it entails. Classes are going well, just busy.  I can't believe this semester is halfway over. Wow, time goes by so fast. Trying to remember to not get too stressed and just enjoy life as it comes. I get to have lunch with a great friend I haven't seen in a while on Friday and I can't wait to hear what's going on in her life. She's about to graduate with her masters in a couple of months. (and I'm not jealous at all. haha).

So this morning in church we had a wonderful classical band lead in worship. The Annie Moses Band. are a family of classical trained instrumentalists. The music was beautiful. They were trained at Julliard. It made me wish I had learned to play the violin when I was younger. They have a youtube page and they also have a vlog as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pScvEauSUXU&feature=related

In other news, the first week of my journey with the Body Revolution is complete! (Hip hip hooray!) Just some of my feelings about it for others who are thinking about getting it. The workouts are 30 minutes each day for 6 days with one rest day. The dvds rotate on one minute cycles so they're not boring. I'm enjoying this series way more than I did with p90x. For one the videos are shorter in length and not as challenging. Plus I feel like I'm getting slimmer instead of getting bulking, which is not the look I'm going after. Also, I must say that I enjoy working out with Jillian instead of Tony Horton. For those of you more interested in my experience, check out my youtube channel with my vlog www.youtube.com/TNMissyMS for my daily journey with that program.

"Let us RUN with ENDURANCE the race that is set before us" Hebrews 12:1

The videos arrived :) I'm going to read through the material tonight and hopefully start Video 1 tomorrow. My throat is a little sore so if it still hurts tomorrow, I will probably just rest tomorrow and start on Wednesday. I'm excited about starting this new program.

I wanted to write a little about motivation and how to encourage ourselves. I think it's an important part of the journey, especially with any weight loss/fitness oriented goals. These are life-long journeys and don't end. To me,  the more in depth the goals the better. I have several reasons for wanted to do this.

1) Working out makes me feel better about myself physically and emotionally. It helps me de-stress and also keeps me focused. Eating well does the same.

2) I want to run in the races that I mentioned in the previous post. The last time I ran Crazy 8s was in 2008. It was so exhilarating to cross the finish line and last time I barely made it under an hour (which was my goal). This year I'm aiming for 55 minutes for the 5 mile race.

3)My bum right knee is acting up again and if I want to run these races then taking some weight off would definitely help me.

I would strongly recommend telling a few friends about your goals so they can encourage and pray for you. It's hard to do these things on your own. Support is crucial. I find support through my family, my boyfriend, my friends, music (BarlowGirl's "Mirror" is my favorite song to listen to when I'm having an "I'm ugly, I'm fat" day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpVRgye2ihk) I don't recommend looking at celebrity pictures to find an "ideal" body. Airbrushed and unrealistic.

I want to share a quick story about how one of my friends helped to encourage me. My freshman year of college I decided to run in my first 5K(3.1 mile) race ever. I had just had knee surgery the previous year and gain about  30lbs (eating and not exercising) . Once I started exercising again the weight slowly came off. I was so excited to be able to walk without crutches again that I started running. Needless to say on the night before the race, my roommate disappeared for a little bit to "work on a class project". The day of the race, she and another friend showed up to my race to cheer me on with this sign.

I still remember how much her encouragement meant to me. That was a great day! It also reminds me of how I should encourage others.

October 2007

"Let us RUN with ENDURANCE the race that is set before us" Hebrews 12:1

Here we go!

Well I'm back in the blogging world (changed emails...couldn't figure out how to switch to my old blog, so I made a new one :)  I was doing some research on a new fitness product I wanted to try and I came across some very brave women who are posting videos about their experience with Jillian Michaels' new Body Revolution (http://www.jillianmichaelsbodyrevolution.com, you've probably seen the informercial). I ordered the program a couple days and am excited for it to arrive. I think it would be fun to blog about my experience through that. Now I'm not making any promises with how frequently I will blog with this grad school thing going on, but I'm going to try my best.

In other news, after several doctors visits in the fall (around October) and having a medical issue, I got serious about changing my diet. Through food journaling (which I highly recommend, I discovered that I was eating more calories than I thought, even 'healthy' calories. But a calorie, is a calorie, is a calorie) I used the website, (loseit.com), which is great! and FREE to keep track of my daily caloric intake.  And it helped me lose 9 pounds in 4 months. Granted this may not be super fast, but slow and steady wins the race. After all, being healthy isn't a sprint...it's a marathon. A life-long marathon.  Baby steps every day. And slow weight loss=healthy weight loss. I know especially for me, extreme dieting leads to a dangerous road. I don't want to be skinny (whatever that means these days?!?!?!), I want to be strong!

I must say I'm feeling a lot better since I've been exercising more and I feel like grad school is more manageable since I'm not so tired all the time. I'm looking forward to starting this new workout series in a  couple weeks, running in a 5k with my 6th grade girls Sunday School class to benefit our church's medical clinic (http://www.fbcamazingrace5k.com). Perhaps, I'll train for crazy 8s, an 8k in July. We shall see.

I hope this blog serves as a source of encouragement to all who read it and maybe a source of hope.
Here's to physical, emotional and spiritual health!


I can do all things through Christ~Philippians 4:13