This week's meeting topic at Weight Watchers was about eating on vacation. It seemed of little value at first, because we have no vacations in sight. Maybe a day trip here and there, but nothing more. But as we discussed the issues and strategies, we were asked to remember past vacations and the successes we had. So I immediately thought of our whirlwind trip to Disneyland for New Years this past December. I remembered packing nutritious snacks, and breakfasts, to not only help with food choices but also to save a little money. But more important than that, I remembered how great I felt during that trip. We spent three long days in the parks, but I felt great. I never truly felt tired the way I had remembered past Disneyland trips. I felt like I could walk for days (which we essentially did). I even remember feeling happy and energized as we waited on Main Street for New Year's Eve fireworks at midnight (my two little girls could not say the same; in fact my five year old...

As I mentioned before, in the days leading up to the CIM , I was extremely nervous and emotional. I can't tell you when I did something that scared me so much. I really can't. But I faced that fear. Early that Sunday morning, as the rain and wind beat against the house, I got my stuff together and prepared to start, and hopefully finish, my first marathon. Fortunately, I wasn't alone at the start. My friend Paula (whom I had run several races with during the year, including the NWM half marathon in SF ) was just crazy enough to try a marathon with me. So our beloved husbands dropped us off on that dark, stormy morning, armed with their love and encouragement, as well as our rain ponchos, sports goo, etc.. We were dropped off about a mile from the start and I will say that the weather was crazy awful. As we climbed out of the car, we were immediately greeted by the heavy wind and rain. We pushed towards the growing mass of runners and long lines of port-a-potties (an unfort...

Here I am! I did survive my first marathon on December 2, 2012! I am officially a marathoner! Yay! For those who have been wondering, I am sorry I left you hanging for so, so long. December brought some unexpected distractions and I feel like I'm just realizing its January, even though we're over half way through it. Yikes. Nonetheless, here I am 1-1/2 months later and 26.2 miles further into the amazing journey that is my life. As I left off , I grew increasingly nervous as I got closer to the California International Marathon ( CIM ). Not only had my training not gone as plan due to injury (aka IT Band issues ), but the weather became a huge factor. In past years, the CIM would generally fall on a cool, crisp day, but no such luck for me. It was stormy, wet weather with 30-50 mph winds. I must have checked the weather forecast hundreds of times in the days leading up to it, hoping to see a calmer forecast (and I swear when I went to bed the night before, the forecast was cal...

This past weekend marked the one year anniversary of running my first 5K . And that first 5K was a wonderful and challenging experience. I had never quite run 3.1 miles before the race, but I had been building myself up using the C25K app . I was fairly confident I could run the full distance, but I still was unsure about how it would go. Based on my training runs, I told my family to watch for me at about 45 minutes. And then I surprised myself and set a personal record (PR) running the entire race in 39:44 minutes (a 12:49 min/mile). And as I wrote about it last year , it was pretty magical. So to mark the anniversary, I ran a 5K in the Whole Foods Running School Family Fun Run . And it was just as wonderful and challenging as my first. As usual, I was fortunate to have my incredibly supportive family with me, but I also had two friends running the 5K with me, as well as others running the 10K and the half marathon. But, for me, Sunday's race was about celebrating my 5K. As my f...