Day 150 A Treadmill 5K and Closing My Eyes To See The Road Ahead

Day 150

A Treadmill 5K and Closing My Eyes To See The Road Ahead

Tonight's workout was a milestone workout. You might remember twenty-some days ago I attempted a treadmill 5K, but had to stop at 2.3 miles with a strange pain in my right leg. In that blog I said “I'll get it!” Well, tonight was the night, I got it! A treadmill 5K is a little more strenuous than a walking trail 5K because the treadmill is a constant speed and at the trail it's only natural to adjust our speed up and down without even realizing it. What normally would take me almost an hour to do outside, took me just over 53 minutes tonight. 3.1 miles at 3.4 miles per hour. I could have put it on 3.6, but since I planned on a 5K, I wanted to pace myself. By the time I was finished I had sweat dripping off me. I never sit down and compose myself after a two mile treadmill walk, I just grab the disinfectant spray, clean the machine, and go to the vehicle. But tonight I had to take a seat. It was a celebration sit-down. I was so proud of myself for doing it! I filmed the final minute on my cell phone and I've posted it below. I've since changed the quality setting on my phone camera to “high,” so this video is a little pixilated, but future “On the go” videos should be much better quality. During the 5K I did something I haven't been comfortable doing, I let go. I wasn't holding on at all for a little bit. I didn't do the whole thing like that, but I can totally see myself jogging on that thing someday with my arms pumping at my side, not clutching the rails or heart monitor. I also closed my eyes and totally got lost in my music. I was lip syncing to Christopher Cross's “Sailing,” Green Day's “Good Riddance(Time of Your Life),” and REO's “Time For Me To Fly.” Like I mentioned the other day, these are not your typical workout type songs, but they are extremely special and inspirational to me. I played them over and over, day dreaming all the way. I must have looked crazy with my eyes closed, my lips moving, and my legs truckin', but I didn't care. I was in my own little world. As far as I knew, it was just me, the treadmill, three of my favorite songs, and my dreams. What did I dream about? I was dreaming about the future. I was visualizing really positive things. The twenty minutes or so I spent with my eyes closed tight were truly magical. The ability to dream about the future is so important. At over 500 pounds, it was all about dreading the future, and not being completely confident that my weight would allow me to even go very far into it. Someone once said, “if you can visualize it, you can achieve it.” I'm going to need sunglasses. I made a breakthrough on that treadmill tonight. I taught myself to take the focus off the sweat and energy it was taking and focus completely on my positive visualizations. I almost didn't notice the whole walking part, I was that deep my friend. I snapped out of it long enough to capture the last minute as I 'crossed the finish line' and hit the stop button. I told my mom about this triumph and she told me how great it was and that she didn't think she could ever do something like this. I told her she was wrong! I told her she could do this eventually. Think about it, it's taken me nearly five months to get in the condition needed to accomplish this goal. Don't forget this: It's one day at a time...putting one successful day after the other...staying consistent...never giving up...focusing on your motivating thoughts...making good food choices...and quickly, without fail, the endurance grows...and soon you're doing things that could have killed you 150 days ago.

Irene prepared an amazing meal tonight. It was my kind of dinner! Lean steak, mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, and corn on the cob...Oh wow. I've always been a meat and potatoes kind of guy. The potatoes and gravy were 160, the corn cobbette with a touch of Blue Bonnet was 120, and the steak was a small lean portion for 250, oh and I used a tad of A-1 for 15. Broccoli was also on the table, Irene and Courtney love that stuff, but broccoli and I have never liked each other, we don't look at each other, we don't smell each other...we just pretend the other doesn't exist, and when it comes to those little trees, I like it that way. My plate came in at 545 calories...perfect!

After reading the blog yesterday, Whit made a great suggestion, why wait to learn how to dance? She suggested learning real soon, and use it as exercise! You are so right Whit! I'll have to look into that right away. Both of my daughters commented the Myspace version of this blog yesterday, and it really made me feel great. The bottom line is being here for my family for as long as I possibly can and living it to the fullest. Setting an example for those two beautiful girls is the most important thing to me. Until next time, sweet daydreams, good night and...

Good Choices,
Sean


One last minute...The finish line was in plain sight and I'm all smiles!