Ultra-marathon and southern food!!

Well here I am a little more than 20 miles into the Strolling Jim 40 miler.  Relaxed, happy, and full of energy. HAHAHA  My wife took this picture as she drove away from giving me some of my Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem.  At this point in the race I was of course actually feeling a bit tired.  Five miles more though and I hit a serious second wind and took right off.  This is a good example of the scenery that I ran in too.

 

After the race I ate the traditional barbecued chicken lunch with coke, but a couple hours after that we went to the historic bell buckle cafe.  Bell Buckle is the birth place of the Moon Pie and RC Cola.  It is also home to a fantastic cafe with real southern cooking.  Southern is short hand for deep fried and tasty fatty yumminess. HAHAHA  I had pulled pork, fried corn bread, blue berry salad that was actually a cobbler thing, fries,  and something else that I can’t remember.  The picture is of my wife’s food.  It was great.

Scared to be thin! Are you? Part one of the “fear” series.

Good morning to all and to all a good morning.  I have received a couple of emails describing a fear that is not talked about often.  It is a fear of reaching goal, of looking thin and sexy and lean and happy.  Why would this be a fear you ask?  Well, that is what I am leaping into today.    Why would a person be scared to reach goal and finally be thin.

Food, exercise, and blog encouragement

To start off, I want to say thank you to each and every person who visits, reads, and comments on this blog.  You guys have no idea how encouraging you have been to me since I started this place.  The love, encouragement, advice, information, and cheering on that takes place here, not just towards me but also towards other readers, is amazing.  Run4change got it’s 3000th comment this weekend.  WOW!  Matt, at Running with Strength happened to be #3000.  Thanks Matt

Now on to the food and exercise.  I did good on my program this weekend but I was on the very edge of going off on a junk food binge.  I wanted to soo bad.  It was not so much a craving but a yearning to rebel completely against WW and self-control.  After “discussing” the difficult patch with some of you and also some people on the WW boards, I was able to break through and make the right choice:  STAY ON PROGRAM AND EAT HEALTHY.

I just did not have enough time on Saturday to do any exercise but I think I made up for it on Sunday.  I went skiing with my wife, brother, and his wife on Sunday morning.  What a wonderful time it was.  We skiied pretty much all day with a small lunch break.  I brought a lunch so I was good on the food.  When we got home I went out for a 12 mile run which was also spectacular because the weather here was perfect.  Little bit cool and sunny.  I loved the run.  It was refreshing and happy.  I am having a bit of pain in my right knee which scares the heck out of me and I am going to take it very easy for a couple of days to see where it goes.  I don’t want to get injured so time off now will reduce time off later if I get really hurt.  Never had knee issues so this is a surprise.  I ended Sunday with good, healthy eating and a movie with my wife.

How was your weekend on the healthy journey?

Why I felt great here contest!! 12 submissions, extended, and international people

 This contest is open to ALL people.  Even the ones that don’t live in the USA.  The contest has also been extended to go through 2/27/2009.  There are now 12 wonderful contestants who have submitted their pictures.

See the original post for instructions on participating here

The popular post that inspired it all here. 

Subscribe here to receive your own personal contest updates.

All entries can be seen here

Non-blogger contest entry. Why I felt amazing here.

As you all know, not everyone who reads blogs has their own blog.  So I have allowed non-bloggers to participate in the contest as well.  Just as a reminder, international people can partake in this too.  I know I have received several comments regarding this and I have left the contest open for non-US people too.   So here you go, the first non-blogger submission.

Here is a contest submission by Cecile

I have lost 47 lbs.  It has really made a difference too.  I can walk better and enjoy life that little bit more now.  But for the contest I wanted to show a picture of my family.  They are my true joy in life.  I’m fortunate enough to have an amazing family that loves me very much and shows me that they do.  I have lots of good moments I could enter but I really liked this one for the contest.
My daughter invited me to their  new cabin for a little vacation. I took the train and she picked me up at the station.  We went to her cabin.  It was such a wonderful time.  We did some walking (she jog’s  and I walk), toured a few wineries, and visited the town of Leavenworth; but the best part was I got to see my two awesome grandsons.  One came from college and the other from Louisiana.  They brought a couple of friends with them.  They were so good to their grandma and it was great seeing them.  So this picture is me with my two grandsons (center) and their buddies. Now don’t you think that’s an amazing moment when a gray haired grandma is surrounded by 4 STUDS. I sure enjoyed their youthful energy and humor.

Win a run4change T-shirt. Why I felt amazing here, contest!!!

 

 

 

So many of you mentioned that you loved one of the most popular posts here at run4change.  Some of you thought that the post theme would make a great T-shirt.  Then, one of you mentioned that the cool T-shirt should be the prize for the winner of a contest held here at the blog.  So I did a contest to see who could come up with a great contest idea and you all voted on the one that you thought I should use for this contest.  Here is the idea that you voted for me to use for this T-shirt contest:

How about submitting a pic with a short description: “Why I felt amazing here.” It could be a way to focus on times when we FELT great regardless of size/appearance.

You loved the idea and so did I.  So now it is time for the contest.  Read on to find out how you can participate and win a run4change T-shirt (I will be getting the shirt made after the contest is over so I know what sizes to get).

Contest #1: Best idea wins. Idea submission now closed: Don’t forget to vote on the contest vote post on 2/7-2/9

Ok, it is contest time.  This will be the first contest of hopefully many fun and lively times here at run4change.  The competition will be about WHO CAN COME UP WITH THE BEST CONTEST IDEA.  How are we going to decide who the winner is you ask?  You are going to decided.  Here is how we are going to do it.  I think this will be good because you will constantly be able to see who is ahead and what ideas are comming in.  The winner will get a free writing journal to keep a log of food, exercise, blogging ideas, etc.  (That is a link to the journal info.) We are going to save the T-shirt for the next contest.  So here is the way we will do it step by step:

1. The contest is on who can come up with the best contest idea!  You can submit more than one idea if you want to.
2. Leave a comment on this post with you idea in your comment!
3. After one week of people leaving their ideas in the comment section of the post, I will do a new post with all the ideas in it.  For the next 2-3 days you will leave your vote in your comment on that post.
4. At the end of the contest I will tally up the votes and anounce the winner who will get the prize.  The winner will email me their address and I will mail off the prize to them.

To stay updated with the contest ideas coming in, subscribe HERE.

Recap- Who has the best contest idea according to you guys.  Leave your idea in your comment.  Vote for your favorite idea in your comment on the contest vote post.  Winner takes all.  The contest will last for 8 days.  Today-Friday are idea submission days.  Next Saturday-Monday are vote days.  I will announce the winner on Tuesday early morning.

Wow, there is good news out there

I found a cool news website a while back called Good News Network.  It is news from around the world that is positive.  So much of what we see and hear regarding world and local news is all bad news.  I thought I would let you all know about this website. It is a nice change of pace and it’s neat to realize that people are doing great things out there. 

Hopefully you get encouraged and inspired.  The link to the website is below.  Don’t forget to let me know what you think about the good news.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/