A Little Rant and New Goals

It's been a couple of months since my last post. I made it through the winter blues and Snowmageddon 2010 relatively unscathed and I'm looking forward to a sunny spring. (You're listening, Mother Nature, right?!)

One of my goals of 2009 was to run a marathon. I accomplished this goal, however, my performance was definitely lacking. Part of this was due to the diagnosis of IT Band syndrome. Basically, this syndrome is diagnosed when a piece of tissue that runs along the outside of your leg becomes stressed and causes knee pain. According to my orthopedist, I have knees that are prone to this because of the angle my knee caps are in relation to my hips. IT Band can be exacerbated by weight gain. For every pound of weight one gains, FOUR pounds of extra pressure are put on the knees. WOW. I had no idea!

That brings us to my little rant. I think I'm the only person who GAINED weight training for a marathon. And I'm not talking a little - I gained 15 pounds between Jan-Oct 2009! With my training schedule, I felt hungry ALL the time. And I didn't reach for carrots and fruit, I enjoyed peanut butter and cookies and whatever else was in the pantry. It was very depressing. My friends tried to tell me, "Oh, it's probably just muscle", but I knew better and got irritated that I couldn't seem to get it under control.

I'm happy to report that I've lost several pounds since the marathon in October. I feel pretty good about it, especially since I enjoyed myself a lot when I was home for the holidays in December. But I definitely wish I could get back down to my ideal weight. Let me be clear, however, I don't view myself as fat or unhealthy (my physical was actually really good this year) but I do feel better and my clothes fit better when my weight is lower. Blogging about this familiar journey would help keep me accountable and hopefully encourage me when I want to reach for those Girl Scout cookies or Cadbury Mini Eggs (my kryptonite).

I've already started training for my next two races - the Cherry Blossom 10 mile on April 11th and the GW Parkway Classic 10 mile on April 25th. I've been successful doing WeightWatchers before so I've started tracking my points again. Along with my running schedule, I'm hoping to be down to my ideal weight range by the time I head to the Outer Banks at the end of May.

So here it goes: As of this week I weigh ... 136.0 lbs. My goal weight ranged is between 116-120 lbs (which I haven't weighed since high school!). At 5 feet 4, this is a healthy range and I've already discussed my goals with my internal medicine doctor. I would also love to get my body fat percentage down to 20-22%.

Please keep me in your prayers that I stick to my training and diet plan. A few words of encouragement would be great too! I'll try to update weekly on how things are going along with tricks that have helped me get through the tough times. More to come soon ...