I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!  Mine was great!  My friend, BD, cooked EVERYTHING!  If your chef(s) was half as good as him, I know you ate well! 🙂

Unfortunately we can’t eat like that everyday, so… back to reality!  As I have mentioned here before, I am overweight…and that’s being nice about it.  Crazy me let Southern Cousin talk me into running a half-marathon with her and another cousin in March.  I have started and stopped training multiple times since this summer.  I have eaten well for about a week and a half then I go back to being bad and eating McDonald’s for breakfast, white bread for lunch, and drinking Cokes everyday. No more!  I decided that last week was my last week for being bad.  No more greasy fast food, no more white flour, and no more soft drinks.  No more coming up with excuses why I can’t run or go to the gym.

At the suggestion of a friend, I sent a message out to the Facebook group of Black Girls RUN! DC and asked for a running buddy that lives near me and is open to running in the mornings.  Yes, it’s dark at 5:30 am AND it’s cold.  But to my surprise, TWO ladies reached out and said they wanted to run with me!  So we set up to start yesterday.  I had a great run, and I’m ready to go out tomorrow and do it again. And I have apparently inspired others, because two friends have reached out to me because they want to start running, too.  Now, I’m not a seasoned runner by any means, but I’m getting there.  I know if I keep at it, I’ll be ready for this half-marathon in March! I also know my weak point is that I’m, well… weak.  My upper body strength sucks.  So I’ve made it my mission to hit up the gym on the mornings I don’t run to do strength training.  I have even set up a personal training session for tomorrow evening.

As anyone will tell you that’s into fitness, you lose the most weight by watching what you eat.  So no more biscuits and no more sodas, which have become the bane of my existence.  I’ve cleaned out the junk food from my cupboards.  I have oatmeal (the real stuff) for breakfast, fruit and whole grain popcorn for snacks, have bought groceries (lean meat, veggies, and jasmine rice) for lunch and dinner.  I even purchased a meal plan from Black Girl’s Guide to Weight Loss.

This extra weight I’m carrying isn’t going to magically disappear.  And it’s not going to be easy to lose it.  But if I work at it, stay motivated, and even have some friends along for the ride, I know I can achieve my fitness and weight loss goals!  Until next time, I’m just a Southern girl…in the city!

Related articles

• What to Eat while Training for a Marathon (heallovebe.com)
• Half Marathon Challenge? (minimalistworkout.wordpress.com)