The Most Precarious of Times

Aaaah! 

Hi! So - first let's do the fun part and give you some pictures!

I have been training on Saturdays and Monday nights with the group of people doing Run for God. It's been really fun actually. I used to run in races a lot with my mom when I was younger and I couldn't believe how much I missed running with a group of people. I don't approve so much of running next to someone - I found I'm actually quite terrible at trying to make my pace match someone else's - but being in an environment where there are other people working for the same goals I am is really helpful. This is probably why I love the gym!

Anyways, I've always liked running out doors/cross country more than track or on a treadmill. It's WAY less boring and a lot more entertaining.

One of the days we went out though, the weather decided to be biting gold and barely anyone showed up. Even my roommate, who pulled me into this, figured I wouldn't go! But ohohohoho I proved her wrong!

Me and that doubting roomie! We have exaggerated happy faces on because we were both FREEZING.

Boooo weather!

THE ONLY attendees for that run that day. WE ARE TROOPERS.

Anyways, so that was GREAT.

Unfortunately, it always seems like at the peak time of improvement, SOMETHING has to go wrong. Just this last Thursday, I had to go get surgery on my side because there was a funky looking mole there I noticed and when I brought it up to the dermatologist, she thought it looked weird too. After removing it and testing it, they found that the cells there looked mighty precancerous - so they took a big chunk outta me! I heard them measuring as they were slicing and they said 6x2 inches of skin! Talk about grody!

I'd post pictures but this is a running blog not a "Caitlin grosses out the people who support her" blog. Tee hee.

Because of this fun surgery times though, I'm decommissioned from doing ANYTHING strenuous like lifting, pushing, pulling, running, - BASICALLY anything I do when I go to the gym or running or like. Grocery shopping even.

So I was pretty upset initially because - WOW I'm making progress. I can see it, random people can see it, the people who see me every day can see it. I am not about to lose all this progress on not being allowed to exercise for a week or two.

So I've shaped up my eating some more for best results. I am not gonna lose all that progress and I'm not going to lose the control that I've gained over my body and my life, due to a forced lack of activity let me tell you! My mom helped with some food selections and my perfect Auntie Shelley is also preparing a list of things I can eat without murdering my progress as well. It's great!

Anyways, that's about it for me - I just wanted you all to know that even in the face of not being able to exercise, you still have to pay attention to your body. This is the most precarious of times! Pay attention and take care!

I hope all of you are doing wonderful. I appreciate every word of support I get and I hope I keep you entertained!

Until next time!

<3

I Love My Body

Hi guys~ 

I'm sorry, I know it's been a while. And frankly, not speaking to any of you about this has really put a damper on the progress I ought to be making. I think I got past the honeymoon phase of it all and now it's at the part where everything seems to be a struggle for motivation. 

Strangely enough, eating junk food just isn't a temptation for me? I just seem to crave absolutely NOTHING. In fact, most things sound unappetizing and I have to force myself to eat because not eating isn't good either.

Anyways, other than coming here to tell you that yes, I'm still putzing along on this epic adventure and yes, I still think of you all often and YES ANN, I need to blog more because it honestly does make this harder, I did want to speak about something specific.

This is my body!

I love my body. I really do. One thing that's been bothering me a little bit is that I sincerely hope none of you think I'm doing this out of shame or because you think I want to be pretty. I'm already pretty great looking. 

I mean, look at me! 

Something that I think is really important to lifestyle changes is learning to develop a love for your body. I haven't always loved my body like I do right now. And I found that anything I tried in the past to lose weight never worked when I was doing it out of shame or pressure or because I wanted to impress someone I had a crush on. It never worked.

This thing...it's sticking. Like, okay, not gonna lie, I'm not 100% true to this new lifestyle change. I can't help it guys, burritos are just really fabulous creatures okay? But there's never once been a "Aw man, I messed up, I may as well give up now" thought running through my head. I am doing this thing. I'm doing it like a cow running through traffic but I'm still doing it. And I think that so much of this comes from me needing to do this for me. Not because I feel gross, not because I'm not beautiful, not because I want to impress anyone, not because of pressure or society or stupid humans.

Just me.

I know it works differently for other people but I just. I believe so strongly in loving yourself and making changes out of love for yourself and not out of pain or shame.

LOOK. Remember that picture I posted a while ago? Well there's TOTALLY a little bump there now.

YESSSSS.

So I thought I'd share some of the foods I've been eating.

 I've got this beautiful thing right here. HOMEMADE SALSA. Me, my sister and CaTyler made all this stuff up a couple of years ago and it was awesome. Lauren and Tyler did most of the work honestly but I am an extremely efficient taste tester.

This was my first time making it by myself but my roommates are all swearing by it. I have actually ruined all other salsa for them because they loved this so much. 

One night me and my roommate made dinner together - we do this a lot - I barbecued chicken on my new adorable George Foreman and she made AMAZING Ratatouille which, let me tell you, is the most perfect thing in the entire world and I never thought I could like vegetables so much.

One of my plans of action was to season a bunch of meat for the rest of the week, toss it in the fridge and then just pull out the little serving size for my meal that day. This ended up not working out so well because chicken goes bad REALLY fast. Whoops. 

So Caitlin's just going to go back to defrosting things a few hours beforehand like normal humans.

Anyways, other than all that, I have also been drafted by the previously mentioned roommate to train for a race in July called Run for God. There's multiple races and I haven't quite decided which one I'm going to do yet. A big chunk of me wants to give the 10k a try but I'm definitely going to need to buy new shoes if I'm going to continue training for long distance racing. I only have track sprinting shoes and we all know those suck after too long.

WELP that's it for me, kiddies I'm going to go finish this surprisingly delicious protein shake, take a shower and then sleep for the next 1,384,3284,2466,567,34645657457456436345 hours.

Thanks for reading!