Ten down; seven to go.

I stepped on the scale yesterday for the first time since January. While I usually avoid scales - mainly because they don't tell me what I want to see, which isn't the scale's fault - I wanted to see just how much weight I'd dropped since I started running about two months ago.

When I saw my doctor in January, I was 167.

Yesterday, I was 157.

TEN WHOLE POUNDS GONE.

I had figured that I had lost that much [judging by how my clothes now fit better and I've dropped from a 10 to an 8], but to see that number looking back at me was totally surreal. The least I've weighed since becoming a mom was 155, and my goal weight is 150. If I could get down to that by the end of the semester [which is eight more weeks], that would be amazing. I still can't believe I'm down ten pounds. Woot!

At this point, I'm re-running Week 4 of C25K [I'll do the last day of Week 4 later today and will start Week 5 on Monday]. I pushed myself on Wednesday and ran an entire mile. That was a freaking miracle. A MILE. When I started this whole C25K thing, I wasn't even sure I could run 1/5 of a mile. Now, I'm seven weeks from my first 5K and pretty much right on track. I've been running consistently for about 6 weeks, so I should be ahead...but I re-ran two Week 3 and Week 4 because I didn't feel confident enough in my running to move forward. I'm glad I repeated though, because Week 4 this time around is going much better than the last round.

I've noticed that I want to run faster, that my body wants to work harder during my runs. I used to do this whole measured breathing thing that matched my breaths with when my foot would hit the ground, but that was slowing me down and causing shin splints. With this week's runs, I've focused on my breathing but on just controlling it, not following a specific pattern. I felt so much better after those runs because I wasn't trying to slow my body down just to breathe. I am just blown away at how my body is adjusting to running, how much easier running is becoming. C25K really works!

I'm also repeating the 14 day ab challenge [on day 5; i skipped a day], and I'm doing 30 Day challenge as well to build up strength. I'm not doing that every single day but am getting in the groove and will hopefully do it every day [or at least every other day, depending on when I run]. On top of that, I started a new vitamin regimen - JuicePlus - that a friend and fellow blogger introduced me to. I just started it, so we'll see how I feel after my first 30 days on the pills.

This is the first time in a veeeeeeery long time that I've been committed to working out. I'm still kinda surprised that I've actually been this committed. I am proof that people have NO excuses to NOT work out. I'm basically a single parent who works all day, begs for more time in the day and struggles to keep up with life in general. I kept making excuses about working out until I got my butt in gear and found a way to make it work. I run during lunch, do the abs stuff before bed or first thing in the morning, and I do 30DS after JJ goes to bed. Where there's a will, there's a way - anyone can work out if they just make the time and figure it out.

I'm slowly getting in the best shape I've been in since high school. Seeing the body changes, feeling the clothes fit better [i got into a size 10 comfortably at alfred angelo when i went last night to try on bridesmaid dresses - last time i wore a 10, it was waaaaay too tight], and seeing the scale tick down are motivation to keep going. Just gotta keep truckin'.

Ten pounds down; 7 more to go. I got this.

I got back into a pair of jeans I haven't worn since college. This is my "shocked that they fit" face.