5K's and Other Little Victories

Another entry.  The second in just a few days.  How very odd and consistent  of  me.  Who knew I could be so prolific?

As shared earlier in the family e-mail, Stephen, Hannah and I did a 5K over the weekend in Belleville, IL while we were visiting the area.  Stephen of course, ran it, and ran it in very good time.  Hannah and I took on the challenge together and though we walked it, we had a very good time.  It was fun doing it with my daughter.  It took us just under 55 minutes.  A better time than when I ran the 5K back in November.  I'm not quite sure what to make of that, but, hey, it's yet one more victory.  I'll take it.


The view from Corral C where Hannah
and I started the race.

It was a beautiful morning.  It started out cool and got quickly warm.  I overdressed and was sweating profusely by the end of the race.  The route took us through a lovely historic distric with well-kept century homes with beautiful flowers blooming everywhere.  Every now and again a family would be out on their porch or we came across them sitting by the sidewalk cheering people on.  How very cool!  One little girl of about 7 or 8 was handing out clover flowers.  I promptly tucked mine behind my ear but alas, by the end of the race it was gone, having disappeared somewhere along the route.

Nice T-shirts!  The race was sponsored
by Law Day.  Monies raised went to
Legal Aid.

I enjoyed having the time to just talk and talk with Hannah.  Having not seen her since Christmas, it was good to be together and just talk.  We talked about a lot of stuff. 






One of things that we talked about was an insight that one of my co-workers and I shared while, what else, complaining about  how to be more regular and disciplined about the fitness thing.  She is a busy young woman who is working full time, planning a wedding, and going to graduate school.  She was quite an athlete in highschool but after graduating somehow got too busy with other things.  She knows she "should" be more active, "should" take the time to eat more healthily, but finds herself so overwhelmed with everything else that fitness feels impossible.

I was sharing with her something I came across in my reading that suggests that when beginning to diet and get back in shape, that you should aim for about an 80% rate of follow-through.  This way you don't find yourself caught in that perfection trap.  You know the one:  "Well, I ate a candy bar yesterday" or "I missed a workout"  so "I might as well give up".  If your aim is 80%, you end up with some wiggle room before declaring yourself a failure.  My co-worker, who is getting her master's degree in social work, jumped on this concept.  She told me that in all her classes, that her instructors tell them that when they are working on writing up goals for their clients, that they need to aim for a 25% rate of success toward the goal the first months, 50% rate the following months and move progressively toward the 100% compliance.  Eureka!!  This sounds  infinitely more do-able, and seems like a person has a much better chance of feeling like a winner.  Instead of going from that couch potato to marathoner in one huge chunk... give yourself a chance to get used to the changes, to  move little by little to being a more active and health conscious person.

It's sounds kinder and more forgiving to me, the one who is always holding herself up against the perfection standard.  If I can redefine "perfection", perhaps I can make myself a happier person, as well as a healthier one.

Here's to small victories!