Week 1 training-Am I really doing this? Oh I SO AM...

Man, two post in one day! Aren't you lucky? Eh, I just never shut up. Get use to it. It actually can be one of my very cute habits, you'll learn to love it, trust me.

So anyways, WELCOME PEOPLE THAT FOLLOWED THE LINK FROM FACEBOOK HERE! TA DA! I'M RUNNING A MARATHON! Shocked? I am too. First off, thanks for stopping by! Leave some love, let me know how you are doing, tell me "way to go!" or tell me "man Lisa, you are going to kill yourself." Either words of wisdom inspire me at this point. Secondly, if you are inspired by my will (or insanity) and would like to donate money to the charity I will soon be running with, PLEASE E-MAIL ME! Here is the e-mail, get ready for it: lisa.management@gmail.com Did you get that? Good. If not, (well if not, you need help folks, it's right there) just send me a facebook message and I'll get in touch. Now give me money. Well, give a good cause money, just it goes through me so I can do this crazy marathon thing. When you e-mail me, I will get in touch with you, and will let you know what charity I am running with as soon as I know (hopefully cancer related, it's a cause close to home, but we'll see), and at that point I will also e-mail you and let you know how you can send in pledges, donations, money, puppies, firstborn, whatever you want to send that will help out. If you know any businesses or individuals that maybe interested in donating to this crazy cause of mine, please forward them my site and/or e-mail address, and I will get right back to them. Family, friends, whoever. I'm looking at getting t-shirts made with sponsor names on it, so that maybe incentive (not written in stone that I'll have those, so don't quote me kids!). Ok, now that all that business is out of the way, on to my original second post for the day (blame the endorphins [or however you spell that] for my perky and overzealous blogging).

So this is the first week of full on marathon training. I'm following a 20 week training program for walkers and run/walking people. It's from an awesome book called The Non-runner's Marathon Guide For Women by Dawn Dais. My doctor told me to check it out, and boy am I glad I did. This women has become in the past two days one of my personal demigods. Nothing but mad respect for her. She was a lazy person that hated moving of any kind that decided to run a marathon, and the book follows her training schedule, her advice, and her journals from her training. I just got the book, and I'm almost finished. It just so happened that her marathon training schedule was for 20 weeks, which is just how long I have! And also the first week was no different than what I was doing now, actually a bit nicer, so I now have a schedule set in stone. I'm also reading French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano, another amazing book, to help me get better with my eating habits and to keep my diet in check. Both books are very down to earth and are easy to read, with no massive amount of doctor and science talk, but just plain practical and wonderful advice from regular people that have changed their lives for the better in very wonderful ways.

So I'm writing down everything I eat and how much I work out, I'm working out almost every day on a set schedule, I'm reading health and wellness books, I'm buying shoes with "shocks" and the Nike swoosh and heel support on them, and charting the pace and calories burned with my iPod. In less than a month I've become a person I don't even know. And I'm actually really loving that fact. Usually at this point in a diet (and I've been on way too many, trust me) I'm miserable and end up having a bad day for one reason or another, will go and eat a ton of crappy food, and stop working out. But oddly enough I'm not feeling this at all. I'm eating well, even out in social situations, and I'm actually getting out of bed at 7 am without having to be dragged to go work out. People lately have said I look so happy and that I'm just radiant and glowing. I would usually dismiss this as them being polite, but I think it's actually the truth this time. I do feel like I'm glowing and radiant, I feel healthier already, and feel like I have this amazing confidence and determination that I haven't had before with things that include sports and/or body image. I went out last night, and for the first time in a long time thought to myself, "man Lisa, you look cute today, go get em girl!" I've found this new sense of willpower and self respect. It feels pretty damn good. Granted I may loose this new found bit of willpower when I start walking the big miles, but it will still be in the back of my mind, pushing me every bit of the way. I've made this amazing choice to do something really awesome for myself while helping others too, and it's just totally got me pumped. I haven't felt this excited about something in a long time. Boy does it feel pretty inspiring and good.

So I hope everyone returns and keeps tabs on my progress as I start this long road (we're talking 300 plus miles I will walk before the marathon during training, woah) that lies ahead of me. Keep it real folks, and keep giving it your best. You know I will be doing the same.