Hello, my name is Rachel and I am a runner!
I wasn't always a runner but it is something that I have truly come to enjoy in the last few months. In fact, if you ask anyone that is close to me, running and healthy living have pretty much consumed my life. I really have no problem with that either because it is helping me to achieve my goal of living a truly healthy and happy life. This blog is about my journey through life as I become more of a runner each and every day. It is also about my journey to finally achieve a healthy, happy life that will last rest of my life. Besides running and fitness, I also love photography and travel, which will probably show in a post or two every now and again.
I used to be a total workaholic and had allowed myself to get really out of shape. I hated to step on the scale, shop for clothes and really hated looking at myself in the mirror. My unhappiness in my appearance was starting to affect every other aspect in my life, including my relationship with my wonderful boyfriend. He always told me that he loved me for who I am and not what I looked like, which only made my insecurities worse. After my 26th birthday in 2010 and the following holiday season, I decided that enough was enough. For the first time ... ever, I actually decided to make a New Year's Resolution that I was going to keep. I decided to live a healthy lifestyle (of course anything was healthier then my current lifestyle). I made no concrete decisions on how I was going to go about it to be as vague as possible so that it would be easier for me to stick to. It has not been an easy road at all but it is the path I have chosen for myself. I wasn't quite sure where to start and it took me a few weeks to figure it all out.
My resolution didn't start off very well but one day I stepped on the scale and realized that I was obese. Once again, I decided that enough was enough and started to really pay attention to everything that I was putting into my body. I taught myself portion control all over again and really started paying attention to the nutrition labels on everything. I completely stopped eating red meat, pork, and fried food (goodbye french fries and chicken fingers) as well as Oreos (so good yet so bad) and the Monthly Birthday Cakes in the office. It took a week of eating better to realize that it was working and the weight was starting to come off. I felt like I needed to do more. Eating healthy is only piece of the puzzle and I wanted to solve the mystery that has eluded me and my family for years. I decided that I needed to add exercising to my routine but I wasn't sure what form of exercise to start.
So on February 1, 2011, I climbed onto a treadmill and started running. A year before around that time, I tried (and failed) to start running regularly. It didn't stick and then my job got in the way. This time I decided to make it stick. I figured that the best way to make something stick is to have a goal to work towards. So I signed up for a race ... my very first athletic competition since high school. I also started the Nike+ 5K Training program for beginners. It still didn't stick for a couple of weeks at least to the point where I needed to go for a run. Most mornings I had to remind myself that I had to train in order to run the race that I already paid for. By the end of the first month, I was actually OK with waking up for my runs. When I crossed the finish line of my first race on April 10, 2011, I knew that I had caught the "running bug". Since that day, I run at least 3 days a week and have added strength training to my weekly routine. I have run in another 5K race and have signed up for 6 more races, including 3 half marathons.
