Newbie Runner Here, Help me!

Ok, so catchy title for a relatively boring post. Weighed this am and I'm back down to where I was before "THE GAIN". Whatever. I think the scale is testing me to see if I'll crack.

I did well this week on food overall. Yesterday, I ate my breakfast wrap sandwich with the Flat Out bread, egg substitute and a table spoon of picante. The Flat Out bread is very yummy and high in fiber. Only 100 cals. If you haven't tried it, you totally should. For lunch I ate fruit with some smoked turkey I pulled off a sandwich they brought in at work along with some of my tomato basil salad left over from the other night.

At dinner, the kids had spaghetti and meat balls, but I didn't want the pasta so instead I ate a grilled pork chop we had left in the fridge w/ a yummy salad and steamed veggies. The salad I made with romaine lettuce, purple onion, yellow bell pepper, cranberry goat cheese and walnuts. For fun, I tossed in some fresh black cherries we needed to eat. Served with balsamic dressing it was every bit as tasty as any restaurant. I get tired of the same old salads so I try to shake it up mixing and matching things until I find something that works and this definitely did.

I didn't work out yesterday, I was just too busy at work and I decided it would help my mental health to catch up there instead. This am I got up and had planned on working out, but the weeds were mocking me in the backyard, so instead I spent an hour and a half weeding. I definietly feel it in my gluts and legs from squats. Burned some cals and got something done. That's really rewarding. I'm heading out here at lunch and I'll work out.

Date night tonight with hubbie. It's a rare, rare treat. We'll probably see a movie and I'm trying to convince him to go to the fancy one with the good food. We'll see. This weekend I have a lot of yard work and mulching that got behind due to vacation and recent house guests, but I am going to go running on either Sat or Sunday am.

I received a very nice gift this morning from a nurse practitioner student I've been teaching this summer. She and I have been sharing about doing c25K. She just finished and had started the 10K version. She got me a Nike+ chip to sync w/ my iphone. I can't wait to try it out! Gotta gotta remember to start taking more pics to share on here. I've been looking for some before pics to post and I'm actually finding it hard to locate any that don't have me hiding behind children or other various objects. So, I am posting this one of me running last weekend after I finished my 3.6mile run.



I was so proud and excited to be able to do it. I can't wait to do it again! A friend at work has invited me to do a 5K here in town next weekend. I just don't know if I'm ready and it's kind of stressing me out. She's a runner. I mean really a runner. Went to college on a scholarship type runner. Next week is my daughter's birthday party and I just don't know if I want to feel stressed about my first race. I want to enjoy it. PLUS. I'm still so incredibly slow. The race starts at 8:45 and awards are at 9:45. I'll be lucky to be finishing then. I don't want to feel like the loser fat girl last one to finish. It takes me about 15-16min to do a mile right now. I just want my first race to be a positive experience. BUT, the other voice in my head says I'm making an excuse to put it off. I don't know. I'm torn about what to do.

Also, what do you do about water when you run. Do you carry it? And if so with what? I haven't been on the shorter runs I do. I just drink a lot before and after. Just wondering since I see some of the runners around here with various gadgets and I wonder if any of them are better than others, etc.

Soooo...Those of you who've been at this longer than me tell me what you think. There is a 1 mile run which I could do and maybe feel like less of a loser. It's not one of the more well known runs so it'll probably be smaller. I don't know. But, I gotta go work out so I can get back to work later.

Thanks for all your comments. It helps so much!