I ran a mile in 12 minutes 13 seconds today!

Guess what?? As you can see by the title of the post, I ran a mile in 12 minutes and 13 seconds today!! That's almost a full MINUTE better than my previous best time of 13 minutes and 10 seconds. Isn't that great?! I was pretty excited about it. In fact, I almost hollered out at the gym but I kept myself restrained to an ear to ear grin instead. :-) I think I have just a tiny bit more room for improvement but we'll see the next time I do a trial. I've been trying to do at least two per month, to see how much I improve, since I started "running". (Which is actually a fast walk and a fast jog, for me. I walk at about 4.1 mph and "run" at about 5.5 mph). I usually alternate between walking 1 minute and then "running" 1-1.5 minutes. I'm working on increasing the "running" and decreasing the walking. I think its going well. I love the cardio aspect of it. It really gets my heart rate up (much better than the elliptical does).

I'm right around the corner from my Wednesday weigh in. I am hoping to be in the magical 180's. I'm really pushing with the exercise, so I hope it brings me down the 2 pounds I need. We'll see Wednesday. :-)

My DH left for Chicago today. He's there on business for two days. He's actually flying from Chicago to meet us in Disneyland on Wednesday night. I miss him already. He's a pretty good guy! I just got off the phone with him and he got into his hotel safe & sound. He said it's COLD in Chicago and he's glad he brought his big coat. I tell ya, we Arizonans don't like that sub 40 degree weather much. It's hard for us to adjust. We are more used to the 110 + weather instead.

We're all getting ready for Disneyland here at my house. We leave Wednesday and we'll get back Sunday night. We go every year and everyone is VERY excited, to say the least. I'm not worried about food at all. I know what I need to eat and I plan to eat it. I will not be derailed by the mouse and his friends. ;-) No churros for me this year but I will take advantage of the numerous fruit stands in the park. Lucky for me, Disneyland is jumping on the healthy bandwagon. YIPEE! I also plan on using the fitness center while I'm there, in addition to the oodles of walking I'll be doing during the time at the park. I think my DH and DD's will work out with me, if not, I'll work out alone or with one of my sisters. Fear not, I WILL work out either way. :-)

Today I became a "Community Team Member" on the SparkPeople web site. That's pretty cool! I'm excited that I get to be an "official" motivator there. It's been a crucial piece of my success, thus far. Between the YOAD message board, the SparkPeople web site and the gym I have found my success story and it is WONDERFUL! :-) Feel free to look me up on SparkPeople, I'm ShannoninAZ. It's a great site and has been SO helpful to me. I have used the motivational tools, the calorie counter, the exercise tracker and message boards. (I have to thank my friend Elizabeth for showing me that site. THANKS!!!).

OK folks, that's about it for now. I'll be sure and post again by Wednesday (sooner if I have some thoughts I want/need to share).

Hugs from AZ,
Shannon