It's all in your head...my own running cartoon.

During my run yesterday, I spent some time thinking.

Isn't that what you do when you run? I guess it wasn't like that in the beginning when I was running. It was more like a...

"huff, cough, clear throat, cough, stop, walk, cough, pant, and stop again"

but that changed after a little while. I eventually was able to at least make it to my goal of finishing...despite how beat up I felt.



...but at some point - it all changed in my head from "when does this end - I can't do this - running isn't my thing" to...

...who knew?

we constantly tell ourselves that we can't do it, that it won't happen, that we don't deserve it...but you can, it will, and you do.

Running, weight loss, fitness - much of it is in our heads on whether or not we can succeed. At some point, if you stick with it (and sticking with it is a key to success), you'll have a point in time where you'll think to youself...

"oh, i did it."

Success is around the corner - are you willing to work for it?

Weight Loss Challenge #3 Winner Before and Afters!

The fourth installment into my Weight Loss Challenges has begun. There are 18 participants this time around and it is the largest and heaviest per person that we've had. I am really excited for this challenge for a couple different reasons. The first is because I am helping people get healthy. I'm excited for that. The second is because more people breeds competition. It's easy to tell who the winner would be if it only had 5 or 6 people taking part, but with 18...the competition will be pretty tight. I'm excited for this and the challengers are excited for it.

As I said though, the 4th challenge has started and it is time to do a post about the previous winner. I'm pretty familiar with this last winner as he is my brother. He had joined the 2nd challenge, but it didn't really sink in. Something clicked though and the 3rd challenge was his from the beginning. There were some people that stuck with him, but week after week he added to his lead. Matt lost a total of 20.4 lbs in the six weeks which put his percentage lost at a crazy 9.98%!

I think he was a little upset that he would not be able to participate in the next challenge, but he definitely rocked that one. Below is a before and after picture of him.

He will be directed to this page so be sure to give him some awesome love on here. He has worked hard and sometimes it just feels good to be appreciated for the hard work right?




Be sure to show your support.

Decide. Discern. Deliver. 3 steps to success.

It's no secret that most runners think a lot. When you are running 20+ miles a week - you have a lot of time to think. It isn't always about one thing, but when I am running I think of big dreams, big goals, and big successes. I am a visionary thinker and while that may have its own problems sometimes - it creates movements. I have a lot of big ideas that I'd like to see come into their own in time, but I do understand that many of them will not. Those ideas that will come to fruition though - will come by me following three different rules. These three things will require motivation, desire, optimism, and self-discipline.

The only reason I bring these things up is because if you followed these rules while getting healthy - you will see success. They are simple. They are accurate.

The first step is to Decide. You have to decide to make the change or not. You don't even have to know how to make that change yet, you just have to make the decision to go about changing. Prior to me making my decision to do this - I was unhappy, unmotivated, and held no self-control when it came to health. I did make that decision though and have made it this far. It takes one simple action to say - "I'm tired of living this way - I want change". It's hard to make change happen, but it can happen. It all starts with a decision. This decision is not the only thing though that you need to do for change to happen. I know there were many times when I was sitting and watching The Biggest Loser and said, "I want that to happen to me", while I continued to eat my Stuffed Crust BBQ & Extra Cheese pizza. I made the decision to change, but I did nothing else. I think many of you have found yourself with that same memory. Making the decision is the first step - but it is not the only step.

The second of my steps is to Discern. You have to be able to tell the right way from the wrong way. You have to discern what is the best route for you to take in order to make that change happen. As I made my decision to change while in front of the TV and eating pizza on the couch - I didn't choose the right direction. This is the step in which you do the homework to your change. Losing weight typically doesn't happen without you taking the initiative. That would be nice though for you to make the mental decision to get healthy and then your body agrees and loses without any change of habit. That'd be great! That's not how it works though. You need to have a plan of attack in order to get your health back. Is your method going to be through running, biking, lifting, swimming, and/or another program (this is all mixed in with the healthy eating of course -- what is it, 85-90% of weight loss is due to proper nutrition?). Making the decision was only a 1/3 of how it happens, making a plan to follow is another 1/3, and that brings us to the actual follow-through.

The third step is Deliver. In basketball, when you are shooting the basketball - if you fail to follow through than your shot is going to be off the rim. In Baseball, if you fail to follow through with your swing, you will miss the ball or have a little blooper. In Golf, if you fail to follow through with your swing, you dig at the grass, slice, and miss the mark. It's the same with fitness, if you fail to follow through - you will not succeed. There are many bloggers out there that claim to be on the weight loss front, but are failing to step up to the plate because they don't follow through. Weight loss can be very difficult. Getting healthy can be very challenging. All you need though is to execute follow through and you've done your part. So, you've planned to run a mile today? Run a mile and count that as a success. Did you say you would only eat 1800 calories today? Eat 1800 calories today and enjoy your self-control!

Think of how much you are gaining while you are losing!

Decide to make a change, Discern the best route in going about that change, and Deliver on that decision.

This is for you to do. You can make change happen. You can succeed. You will succeed.

A letter to the 180's. 5k Results. and Commitment.

I stepped on the scale on Friday - which was the first time in a long time - not really knowing what it would say. I have and had been trying pretty hard to get to the 180's for quite some time now...and well, I finally hit it.

189.6

I weighed myself three times. I yelled for asked my wife politely to get the camera so that I could capture that number on the scale for the first time since my sophomore year in high school. I enjoyed that moment, even though I am sure it might have just been a little water weight loss -- I have now seen that number - there is no stopping me from getting under it.

In light of my new found number, I have taken a bit of Half of Jess' idea in writing it a letter.

Dear 180's,

Ha! I found you. You couldn't hide from me forever - did you really think so? I'm glad that we found each other again because the 190's were becoming a bit old. Every time I looked for you - I always found the 190's staring back at me. It was kind of like on Super Mario Wii when you beat the boss and are hoping for princess to come safely into your arms - only to receive the witch. But I've found you. I will enjoy this next ten pound loss with you, but want you to know upfront that I am committed to the 170's. Let's not make this a long term thing 180 - Let's just enjoy it while it lasts.

-Seth

That number on the scale gave me some momentum for the trip I was about to go on. I was traveling back to the town we just moved from in June in order to run my 4th 5k of the year. Yes, that means that I ran two official 5k's in one week. Here's the recap of the Mo2Co 5k from Last Sunday. Saturday's 5k was much easier than last Sunday's b/c there were no hills in the route.

There were 175 people registered for this run (that seems very small to you big city people right?) and we crammed everyone into four busses and they shipped us out to the starting point. We ran along the Katy Trail, which is about 3 yards wide the entire race. There were a lot of people crammed on this trail, but after the first mile - it became much more comfortable. I purposely picked up my pace the first mile so that I could stick myself between the leading pack and tiring pack behind me. It seemed to work alright. My legs seemed tired though, (maybe the cycling I've been doing).

(immediately after Old Glory Days 5k - can't see my number #243...i think)

I finished the race with the time of 26'59". I am not sure where amongst the 175 registered that I fell - they will be sending out an email with that soon. I'm happy with my time, compared to last Sunday's time of 31 minutes and something (crazy hills!), but felt that I could have done better. I've decided to restart the Higdon Half Training so that I could be more meticulous with it. I am going to modify it, as I've told you before, and include more strength training.

I am committed.

One thing my wife and I have been talking about lately is just being committed to the things that we are involved in. Life gets chaotic sometimes and you feel torn between fifty different things - giving less than 100% in each place. The truth is that life happens that way sometimes.

We'd love to have a family, but that hasn't happened yet.

We'd love to have more money, but that is a work in progress.

We'd love to see more growth at the church, still working with it.

We'd love to be fit and healthy, gettting closer!!!!

We'd love to have permanant housing, nothing has come up yet.

There's a lot of things that are going on that seem that they are at a stand still -- but we've committed ourselves. That commitment will take hard work. That commitment will take discipline, self control, and a watchful eye.

It's the same with fitness. There's so much that we see to be done, so much to track, and so much hard work -- but to be successful...you do it.

What are you committed to? How are you going to achieve it?