May 2011 Arcoiris: 5k's while pregnant

May 2010 was my first experience ever participating in a 5k. March 2011 I ran my first 10k. This May 2011, I ran 3k and walked 2k... because this time I was running 12.5 weeks pregnant. (I would usually push through, but your body lets you know when you need to slow down in pregnancy.) With my first pregnancy, running any amount of a 5k would have been a difficult thing to imagine. I was 214 pounds when I got pregnant and I gained 48 with pregnancy. Most of that was due to a fear of being outside with strangers and what they'd think of me. That fear kept me from exercising the most effective and cheapest way possible: walking outside.

It's been a long and difficult transition since then, but things have changed, in a very ironic setting. Where I was once scared to walk in un-gated places without reason, now I can't walk for very real and substantiated fears. However, excuses are not an option. There is always a way to exercise, you just have to be determined to find it. I have used our 2 level stairway to run up and down, created a mini-track in our garage to run around, found numerous exercise videos on sparkpeople.com that don't require equipment and found many ways to play chase with my toddler creatively. There is always something that can be done. Thankfully, where we work has a dirt track that is free and it has come in very handy!

In addition to this, we now live in a country, Guatemala, where there are always different types of fruits and vegetables in season. Sparkpeople.com also helped me track calorie intake and make better food choices. With this mindset and available blessings, I am starting this pregnancy at 150 and have only gained 3 pounds in the first trimester.

What this doesn't conquer, but helps manage, is the paranoia that uncontrolled weight gain will still be a part of this pregnancy. I think this is something that I will have to prove to myself. Once I experience a healthy, active pregnancy, I will know that I can do it.
I am blessed with people who support me and a healthier lifestyle. While I have learned some independence, I still realize that the support of other people helped me get to the point of being able to be independent.

I would like to encourage you, whether struggling to be healthy in general or during pregnancy, with irrational fears like mine or just seemingly insurmountable weight to lose; you can do it. Don't accept excuses from yourself. Be creative and you can always find a way. I certainly plan to keep proving this to myself!

10k's and Challenges

Since moving to Guatemala in July 2009, I've met several personal goals. One was learning the entire (looong) Guatemalan National Anthem by heart. One was improving my Spanish. One was learning how to cook Guatemalan food. One was reading the entire Bible every year. One was losing 60 pounds. One was learning how to run.

Some of these, like having healthier habits, were made easier just because we were moving and everything was changing anyways. I strove to keep some of those changes going until I could form them into a healthier lifestyle. Other changes were made easier by the lower cost of living, like the price of fresh, healthy produce. Still others were easier because I am surrounded by amazing, active, supportive people at my job. I love the people I work with!

After forming many of these habits (I'm nowhere near finished) I realize how much I could have done at home, but didn't know how or where to start.
-One of the drawbacks here is safety, yet many times I didn't take the chance to walk outside when I could at home... much less run.
-Here, there is a voracious amoeba problem during the rainy season, but I still managed to learn how to swim thanks to an amazing friend. (I only got amoebas once.)
-I had a treadmill and friends with exercise equipment I could have used for free, while here I have to pay for it... but again I didn't know how to use it or where to start!

One of the motivations (out of many) that has been driving me has been that I wanted to get into shape before another baby came along. We plan on using a midwife here. (Hospitals have a 70% cesarean rate here, among other personal reasons.) That thought for me could do two different things: 1)Cause fear because I hadn't educated myself enough or prepared my body for what was coming or 2)Motivate me to educate myself and get in the best shape I could.

I started by walking for an hour every night after putting our child to bed at 8. Then a friend taught me how to swim a little at a time. Then, we started working out at the gym. Then, we ran around her (safer) neighborhood. Then I participated in my first 5k (walking but I knew I could do more.) Then we hiked a bit of a difficult volcano for beginners: Pacaya. Finally, we began jogging regularly after school.

When the next 5k/10k came around I was super nervous, but since it was the same price to enter for either one, I chose to challenge myself with the 10k. I had nightmares the night before... but I finished, though slowly, with a time of 01:03:30.

I have so much more I want to do in life. I will forever be cautious and easier to scare than some people, but I have learned how to not let my fear control me.

Now, I see something that interests me that I have never done and instead of feeling only fear, I also feel the adrenaline rush of a possible new challenge to conquer!


What are you scared of? Can you turn it around and face it as a challenge? I am no super person. Any of this that I did, anyone else can do!

Hiking Pacaya

Last Saturday, August 21, I met a goal I've been working towards since moving to Guatemala; I hiked the volcano Pacaya.

We woke up at 5:30ish to get going. We arrived and bought the tickets.
They kept asking if we wanted to take a "horse taxi" the 3.something (steep) kilometers up the mountain.

The guide took time to explain the medicinal value of some of the plants we passed, and to describe what kind of animals lived there- though mostly before the latest eruption. He also explained how the eruption affected the community.

When we got to the top it was a little bit foggy so the picture isnt as great as it would be with better visibility.

At the top we poked a stick into one of the lava pores to catch it on fire to roast volcano marshmellows!

This makes three goals I have met: 1)losing weight 2) learning to swim and 3) Pacaya.
Disclaimer: Pacaya is probably a fairly simple hike for most people, I've just never done anything like that before.