Summer Goals

Tonight I went on my first ever voluntary run.  I do not like to run.  Well, I guess I don't like to sweat, pant, hurt, turn red or feel like I'm going to die.  So I don't really like exercise, but I especially don't like to run.  I've really wanted to enjoy running, people who run are happier people, have a stress relief outlet, time to think and come home all full of happy endorphins released while running.  I decided that I need to just force myself to like running and the only way to do this is to have a goal at the end.  Munchkie's Daddy and I are going to do a 10K (I think) in September.  The few people that I have told this to are all shocked, which makes me think that we might be a little too ambitious, but we don't care how long it takes us to finish, we only plan to finish.  Now that Munchkie's Daddy is finished with school for the summer we have made several goals that we are going to accomplish before school starts up again, which also happens to be right around his birthday.

Right when we first moved, we got Chinese take out in a moment of exhaustion and frustration.  When it came time to open the fortune cookies, the "fortunes" were shockingly right on target.  Usually they just stir up a laugh, and then get tossed into the bag of trash.  These fortunes however, made it onto the fridge.  When I get down, frustrated or procrastinate something, I think of these.  The one "Begin...the rest is easy" is the one that really hits me.  I put so many things off because there's not a deadline that I have to meet, and I'm just scared to start things.  Things such as exercising, that I know I should do, I want to do, I just don't want to start.  Because starting is the scariest and worst part.
 
We (by we I mean me and I say we, forcing Munchkie's Daddy to be a part of this) made a giant piece of foam board into a list of what we want to do this summer, our end goals (like running the 10K in September - giving us a deadline), and a sticker chart to keep us accountable.  Yes, that's right, we're parents of a three year old, so we made a sticker chart.  We are calling it Our Family's Holistically Healthy Summer Plan.  Some our goals include, reading for fun, getting more sleep, decreasing our car use, increasing our time outside, and various goals for eating healthy.  Our sticker chart is a weekly checklist and some of the things that we need to check off each week are running, reading our bible, loosing weight and exploring a new place.  This was our first week, and for the first week, I think we did pretty well. 

Today we explored a new place, we went to a nearby town to visit Munchkie's Aunt who was at a conference at a nearby college.  When we got to the town we realized that it was right on the water, so we got out and walked up and down the beach for a little bit.  I didn't realize how much I missed living right by the water until we parked our car, got out, and the ocean smell breeze blew into my face.  

Our next accomplished goal this week was running as a family for the first time.  We worked our way up by power walking a few times before starting the couch to 5K running program and ran through a beautiful arboretum nearby.  For me this is a huge accomplishment.  Munchkie was absolutely loving this running time.  We used an app that kept track of time for us, beeping and saying when it was time to walk and when it was time to run again.  She would make sure that we heard it and were doing the appropriate activity.  I had said several times that I was going to die, and this really concerned her (even though she doesn't really know what dying means) so she kept asking me, "are you dying Mommy?"  Then after we were finished running, and began our walk home she was doing stretches in her stroller, telling us that she was dying and needed to stretch out.  

As a family we have set goals, individual goals and goals for our family.  We have a deadline of mid September and a huge chart in our living room to keep us accountable.  I guess we'll see how this goes.