I am back and boy things have changed

Sorry for my absence - It’s been awhile and a lot has changed in life.

The last you heard from me I was planning on participating in 2018 miles in 2018.  Which I completed.  My husband and I ran in the 2018 participated in the Disney Princess 10k (which I also finished) other than that it was a quite for the first 6 months of 2018 then BAM! Big life decision happened.

After helplessly watching my weight climb, even though I was eating properly, exercising and doing everything right I made a decision to investigate Bariatric surgery.

My past medical history and co-morbidities were in control, however my weight had become a constant issue and had to be dealt with.  An appointment to meet a bariatric surgeon - Anthony McCluney, MD - Assistant Director, Steward Center for Weight Control was made.

Dr McCluney asked me one simple question, why did I wait so long.  I was knocking on the door to age 50 and how many more years was I going to keep doing what I was doing a try, fail, try, fail, try and fail yet again.  I told him that I wanted to try to do it on my own, and his reply was “and how is that working out for you?”

Harsh, right?  Nope...exactly what I needed to hear.  He was right.  I have battled my weight for a lifetime and always ended up back to where I started with another failed attempt.

I took all the information he gave me, and a list of lab work in case I decided to go forward and made the decision to go forward.

I will stop here and continue next week on another episode of as the stomach turns....

 Run For Eliza

This mornings run was in remembrance of a fellow runner who was abducted and murdered in Memphis. Eliza Fletcher was a mom of 2 young ones and this needless violence is a wake up call to remember to run safe and aware. Virtual runs are being done all over the country by members of the running community today and all weekend in her memory. Thank you for joining me this morning Kristen Curt Pelchat - it was great to run with you.

I’m a woman. I’m a runner. I run alone. I run in the morning. I run with pepper spray I run safe.

IG: sassensch68

Pay Yourself Back

Well, well, well.  The drippy one finds herself with a pocket of time so let's wind back the clock back to December 2016 shall we?

The story begins with getting my fitness journey back on track after recovering from surgery (covered in my other posts) and still in training for my very first Disney Princess 5K to be done in Feb 2017.  For giggles and grins, the diva and a small group of friends decided to try something new, run/jog/walk 2017 miles in 2017. This is a program associated with Run The Edge.

My sister-in-sweat, my daughter from another mother, one of my Disney loving friends and the drippy one joined forces and set out to accomplish the goal to cover 2017 miles in 2017.  As a team we hit that number by June 2017 I believe.

Personally, my chubby stumps carried me through 1346 personal miles.  Let me say that again, the #drippydiva and all of her sparkle-like sweat and flapping fat wogged to a personal grand total of 1346 MILES.

This former couch potato who would rather sit and binge watch a TV series actually got of her more than ample buttocks and covered 1346 miles.  It's still unbelievable to me.  If I could have only earned cash for that I would be rich!

So as 2017 was nearing the end new goals for 2018 needed to be set, so why not do it all over again? Princess Marathon, 10K this time (signed up and participating at the end of the month) and lace up my Sauconys and take a stab at doing  2018 miles in 2018.

Sounds a bit daunting but when you break it down it is roughly 5 miles a day for the next 365 days. HAHAHA!  Knowing myself and my body in its current state, I know I will not be able to wog (walk/jog) 2018 miles.  However, besting myself and complete 1500 miles is something much more attainable.

I put a call out to my trusty friends and we formed a team for 2018 - we call ourselves the #DisneyDivas..wonder why?!  We are committed, as a team, to complete 2018 miles.  As of today, this mighty group of 3 ladies have already logged 328 miles, not too shabby.

Back to my title and my thought about making money for exercising.  If you are familiar with the whole rewards concept - you do something (like run mile) you get something ($$).  What? Pay yourself for exercising?  Yup, that is exactly what is happening.  For every mile I am depositing .25/mile into a jar.  As it stands today, I have successful deposited $30.75 into the run jar.

What will I do with the funds? More than likely I will put it towards something Disney related, after all it’s all about MM.  The other possibility would be putting the money towards new sneakers.  Last year I went through 4 pairs.  Never in my 49 years have I ever worn our a pair of sneakers, never mind ware the treads down to flat on 4 pairs? That's it for now, stay sweaty my friends.

Am I Really Running?

The tile of this post is the question my brain fires off when I find myself at the gym on a “dreadmill” doing 3.7 miles/hr or approximately a 16 minute mile. Why does this even enter into the brain of someone working hard to make changes to build healthy habits and improve their body image?

When you are “fluffy” the natural action of comparing yourself to “thin” people just happens.  I see all these individuals effortlessly pacing along at 6-7 miles per hour, and here I am expending every ounce of energy to run an apparently slow 3.7 miles an hour. 

This is when I get a visit from those two little people that live inside my brain named Negative Nellie & Positive Polly.  You know they exist, I am not the only crazy person.  

Nellie says  “You have no right to say you are running. You look foolish, sweating like a pig on a spit, breathing heavy, fat bouncing every which way, why don’t you just quit.”  

Polly pipes in and says “Gurl!! Who cares what everybody thinks?  Gym hair, don't care! You are sparkling like the drippy diva that you are! You are crushing it! Run girl, run!”

The mindset of self-hate can and will breakdown even the strongest willed person and deflate motivation in the blink of an eye.

The only thing that can be said is do not listen to “Negative Nellie.”  She is not a fan and will hinder your progress. Tell “Nellie” to back up the bus and step off because she is not welcome on this ride.

For me, YES, running is happening on the very machine being occupied.  Granted my stride is short, but this girl is getting faster & healthy as time goes by.

The lesson that needs to be learned is to never compare your goals, the way you look or your journey to someone elses goals and journey. 

Fast or slow, a mile is a mile and every drop of sweat makes me sparkle like the #drippydiva that I strive to be.

Full Exposure Disclosure

So my Sunday started off as a normal day.....

Roll out of bed, make sure the other half gets up and dressed, grab the prepared gym bag (prepped the night before) and out the door we go.  Pull up to church 7:30/7:40 am shove my beloved out of the car - yell to him as he exists "now get out!" Arrive at the place of no judgement - work out for the predetermined time - fulfill my roll as the #drippydiva, grab my gym bag and off to the locker room I go.

NOW....this is where things take a turn

• Get in the stall, unzip the bag, mindlessly empty it, place soap and shampoo in the shower, return to the changing stall, hang clean clothes to jump into when complete

• UNDRESS and put all sweaty clothes into plastic bag to contain the ungodly aroma of sweat

• Here I am, in only my birthday suit then go to reach for.........my towel....

Yeah.....I totally forgot to pack a flipping towel.  How the heck did I forget to pack a towel?!?!

So I apologize to all people I came into contact this morning at church for my offensively nasty hair and the possible odiferous aroma that may have accompanied me.

LESSON:  double check your gym bag before you leave the house 

Having a Heat Wave A Tropical Heat Wave

Irving Berlin wrote the song back in 1933 and Marilyn Monroe sang it..

We're having a heat wave A tropical heat wave The temperature's rising It isn't surprising, I certainly can-can!

You are probably thinking "What?  We are in November..there are no heatwaves happening here." Wrong!  The Drippy Diva is experiencing her own, internally generated, nuclear level, power surges/hot flashes, tropical heat waves.

The reason she is sharing this is the drippy one has begun increasing her activity level once again.  It has been a long 5 weeks since surgery and she can no longer wait.  In a brief moment of downtime she had this week, the drippydiva hit the gym sans sister-in-sweat and boarded a "dreadmill". Yes, "dreadmill".  She would rather walk outside, but now that it is getting darker earlier we are all being forced to move our activity indoors.

While sweating makes one feel gross, there are many benefits.

-Boosts endorphins and helps to alleviate pain.. -Detoxifies the body.. -Sweat generates a natural antibiotic, such as dermcidin, to help cure any surface injuries we may have.. -Lowers kidney stone risk.. -Helps to prevent colds and other illnesses.. -Zaps zits.. -It's happy juice for the brain.. -And sweating is our own personal HVAC system..

Yeah, sweat is good for us, we might not like it but such is life.

This has been a public service announcement from the sweaty one. Now get movin' and do your body some good!

The Results Are In

In the last installment it was revealed that "The Drippy Diva" had a heck of September; a torn rotater cuff, a new mortgage and a cancer diagnosis. Since then, she is still dealing with the shoulder, she is packing away the funds for the first mortgage payment, and cancer has been dealt with. I am going to dive into my faith for a moment, if you will indulge me.

God has a way of working all things out, period.  In the whirlwind of receiving the diagnosis God was working overtime. To me it's overtime, to Him it's normal.  On a day where I was expecting a call date regarding pre-op testing the call was "there has been a cancellation, we can move your surgery up five days to 9/29."  My thoughts were, hold up, back up the truck! This throws a monkey wrench into the plans that I have made (you know God laughs at that kind of stuff) and now all sorts of calls and conversations need to happen.

After several calls to my husband, my mom, a hotel, and my wonderful boss Deb who said to do whatever I needed, the surgery was set and I was packing up my desk so I could work at home during recovery.  After all, my brains and hands were not broken, it's just below the waist that was out of order.

The Diva had to go to Boston immediately, that night, to get situated to be at the hospital for 8:00 am and then do a wonderful cleanse so there was room for them to fill me with air and make room for all those robotic tools. So I put on my big girl pants and headed to Brighton, MA all by my lonesome (for the time-being.)

Throughout all this, God was by my side.  God kept me safe and calm (as I drove to Boston, at night) and I knew whatever the end result was going to be it would be ok, regardless.

Fast forward to 10/13, my Disney loving Uber driver and great friend Rita and I headed up to Foxborough to hear the pathology.

My Surgeon/Oncologist walks in and delivers the news/results that was being prayed for by so many. Cancer was stage 1A, no spread, all contained, no further treatment besides a one month follow-up with him and 2 follow ups per year with my normal GYN for the next 3 years.

Rita cheered, I thanked God, and the very next words out of my mouth were, bring on Disney.

I am beyond blessed by all my friends and family who have reached out to me and who have cared for me in one way or another.  From the meals (thank you mom and work peeps), the cards, flowers, fruit, emails and texts, I am humbled. I could never thank you all enough.

I look forward to getting active again, as it has been a struggle. The activity restrictions after surgery are/were kind of strict.  My sister-in-sweat has been coming by my house to take me for little walks occasionally (like a dog minus the leash).  I can not go to far or too fast as soreness still presents itself if I over do it, but I am getting better day by day.  Thank you Kelly for your friendship, your prayrs and the laughter while we walked slower than turtles in mud. You are a blessing to me.

So that is all this drippy gal has for you at this time...I would say get me a towel, but the only reason I need one now is for the hot flashes.