Fabulous Financials

[source: Oh She Glows]

I woke up feeling strange this morning.  The silence piercing the air reminded me of the drastic change that has just taken place in my life.  After 18 years of being a mom, I am now an empty-nester.  As of yesterday, I took my only child to college for the very first time.

Accepting new my reality, I knew when I rose out of bed, I had to make a choice. A good choice. A healthy choice. A choice that would help me sort through my thoughts and emotions. A choice that would lay the foundation for the rest of my life.  Within minutes of opening my eyes, I decided to get dressed and go for a run.

By 7:30, it was already 70 degrees outside and getting hotter each minute.  I chose to run the same path in my neighborhood that I’ve run before. The one with the hills and random uneven pavement. Similar to last week, I ran each hill with determination.  But I refused to quit and walk this time.  I refused to be defeated.  The longest hill was the most challenging and it reminded me of some of the most difficult challenges I’ve overcome while raising my daughter.  As I reminisced about the past 18 years of mommy-hood, my mental stamina kicked in and I decided to push myself beyond anything I’ve ever physically done before.

I pushed through each of those hills and did NOT take a walk break when I reached the top.  I felt healthy and strong, so why quit if I didn’t “need” to.  I glanced at my Polar to check my hear rate, which read 186 and exceeded 80% of my maximum.  So I slowed down a bit, but continued to run and run until I reached the landmark that I had identified as my official stopping point.

However, when I reached that landmark, I decided to keep running.  With each step, I replayed the previous day’s events in my head.

• When she walked out of her (now empty) bedroom for the very last time.
• When we finished loading the car, got in, locked the doors, I asked “are you ready?” and she responded “yep!” with a slight hint of fear in her eyes.
• When we arrived at her dorm room door and saw a welcome poster from the band with her name and music symbols beneath it.
• When she used her key to unlock her dorm room door for the first time.
• When we unloaded the car and set everything up exactly the way she wanted it.
• When we walked around the campus and she kept grabbing my right arm to pull me close.
• The look in her eyes when I gave her the the mini photo album of hand selected pictures from age 2 through senior year.
• The tears in her eyes when I presented my hand written letter, but asked her not to read it until after I was gone or when she needed something to make her feel close to home.
• The smile on her face when I gave my final “mommy lecture” on smart decisions and life choices.
• And the final moment before I left when I wrote “I love you XX ~Mommy~” on the dry erase board outside of her dorm room door.

The memory of each moment made me smile and cry.  I used my shirt to wipe my sweat and tears, but I kept running.

When I circled back and reached the entrance of my community, I decided to cool down and head back to my apartment.  As I walked the rest of the way home, I realized, yesterday was absolutely perfect and everything that I had imagined.  After 9 months and 18 years, my daughter is now a college student. And after 8 months of practice, I now consider myself a real runner.

Back in January, I shared 4 motivation milestones to keep me focused on my overall fitness goals.  The intent was to divide my larger annual goal into 4 smaller pieces that were spread evenly throughout the year.  Recently, I realized that all of them will be complete in a few weeks.

1: Annual Physical – this was done in March, all results were normal.  Thank God!

2: Graduation Day – this is in TWO days.  Finally, I can see noticeable results. Yes!

3: European Vacation – this is in a few weeks.  I’m so unprepared!

4: My Very First 5k Race – I completed my first 5k a lot sooner than expected and it was a wonderful experience.

Now what? I need to think  of something else because there are still 6 months left in the year and I have 16 more lbs to lose. *sigh* These are my new motivation milestones:

College Check-in: When I bought my size 6 jeans as motivation, BG made a statement “mom, wouldn’t it be cool if you could fit those jeans by the time you drop me off at college?”  Would it????  Heck yea!!  It’s a stretch but this milestone goal is to fit into those jeans (comfortably) on the day I drop her off.

Second 5k: I’m going to run another 5k in October.  For this one, I will have plenty of time to train properly.  I may even create a performance goal.  Sure would be a lot easier if I were 16 lbs lighter. LOL  This will definitely be another milestone achievement.

My Born Day: I plan to spend my birthday on an island…near white sand…surrounded by blue water…sipping a fruity drink…in a 2 piece…on uber fabulous status! Yea baby!

The year is already 1/2 over with only 6 months left.  At this point, nothing, I mean NOTHING but an act of God can stop me from reaching my fitness goals.

If you’re with me, let’s get it in!

Guess what I did yesterday?  I wore my Polar FT4 HRM and chest strap all day and night because I wanted to track how many calories I burn in a full 24 hour period.  I put it on Thursday morning around 6am before getting dressed for work and set an alarm for Friday morning at 6am to remove it.  And lawd, that sucka was hella uncomfortable!  I was twisting all day and twitching all night, but I was determined to keep it on. Ha!

At the end of my little experiment, I tracked for 23:59 and burned 2,722 calories.  Wow!  I was shocked!  Granted, Thursday was a run day and I usually burn close to 500 calories when running, I was still shocked at the total number.  According to my SparkPeople records, I ate 1,335 calories so I had a caloric deficit of 1,387.  Woot!

Nooooooooow I finally understand what they mean by “eat fewer calories than you burn” if you want to lose weight.  I always thought they meant calories burned from exercise.  I use to think “how in the hell am I supposed to lose weight if I only burn 400-500 when I exercise!?!?”  Now I see that the phrase means ALL calories burned, including those burned from regular everyday activities. Duh!  I’m so slow. LOL

So if I burn 2,722 on run days (3), let’s assume I burn 2,222 on strength training days (2), and a conservative estimate of 2,000 on rest days (2).  That means I burn a total of 16,610 calories in an entire week.  Let’s be more conservative and round down to 16,000 or an average of 2,285 per day.  Hmm…if I continued exercising with the same level of commitment, I could eat over 2,200 calories per day and maintain my current weight, 1,700 to lose 1 lb per week and 1,200 to lose 2 lbs per week.  Veddy interesting!

A few people have asked what I listen to when I’m working out.  Here ya go!

• Get Me Bodied – Beyonce
• Single Ladies – Beyonce
• Boom Boom Pow – Black Eyed Peas
• Gonna Make You Sweat – C&C Music Factory
• You Must Have Lost Your Mind – Beyonce
• Workout Plan – Kanye West
• Stronger – Kanye West
• Bootylicious – Beyonce
• Tambourine – Eve
• Hard – Rihanna
• Hollaback Girl – Gwen Stefani
• My Humps – Black Eyed Peas
• I Like to Move It – Madagascar Soundtrack
• Low – Flo Rida
• OMG! – Ursher
• In Da Club – 50 Cent (warm up and cool down)

I need new music with a fast bpm for running. What ya got?

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EDIT TO ADD (10:00pm)

Playlist #2 just created for Race Day!

• Women Lie, Men Lie – Yo Gotti (my favorite, helps me find my pace)
• Imma Be – Black Eyed Peas
• X Gone Give it to Ya – DMX
• Y’all Gone Make Me Lose My Mind – DMX
• My Chick Bad – Ludacris
• Bring Em Out – TI
• Say Ahh – Trey Songz
• Lil Freak – Ursher
• OMG – Ursher
• Diva – Beyonce
• Temperature – Sean Paul
• Stronger – Kanye (for last stretch motivation)
• Pocketbook – Jennifer Hudson (warm up and cool down)

Keep the suggestions coming. I love the variety!