Perfect Moment Monday: Endorphins

It's a little difficult to pick one moment this week. Last Wednesday was Ben's first birthday and then we had his party this weekend and there were lots of wonderful moments, but this weeks perfect moment is just about me.

I was on swim teams from the time I was 7 until I finished high school. Every summer, sometimes in the winter when I was in elementary school, and during the winter every year of high school I was on a swim team. I also played lacrosse from middle school through high school and rode my bike all over the place. Even so I have always struggled with my weight. The struggle got more difficult after high school when I stopped participating in regular organized sports. In my 20s I would go through phases of working out regularly and a few times managed to lose weight and get into pretty good shape. My last best effort was before I got pregnant with my daughter. In the year or so leading up to trying to get pregnant I started running. There was a great 1.7 mile loop near the apartment we lived in at the time and I got to the point were I would run 2 or 3 circuits of the loop a few times a week. I was also going to the gym and strength training a bit. I'm sure at the time I still wanted to be in even better shape, but when I look back at photos from that period of time now, I think I looked great. Then we got pregnant and I miscarried and winter came and I wasn't working out so much, but I was doing the Weight Watchers program and in the month just before I got pregnant with Lucy I reach a weight I hadn't seen in years (and have yet to see since). When Lucy was about a year old I started a diet and began working out at the gym regularly and lost a good bit of the pregnancy weight. Unfortunately, I didn't keep up the good work and then a year and a half later we started trying to get pregnant again and then infertility and well it all went to hell. And then I got pregnant with Ben (yeah!), which was great, but more weight.

I really thought that with 6 months of maternity leave all during good weather months I would go for lots of walks and get exercise and lose the baby weight and at least some of the IVF weight. HAHAHAHAHA!

And then I went back to work and a crazy schedule added to my usual laziness and lack of discipline meant that I made no progress toward weight loss or just being healthy. But about 7 weeks ago a friend of mine asked if I wanted to start running with her and train for a 5K hosted by the PTA at my daughter's school. And I said yes. Her husband came up with a 6 week training program for us. It wasn't easy (still isn't) and I haven't really lost any weight and the running is still hard. BUT, this past Sunday was the 5K and while we were slow and finished behind about 3/4 of the other runners, we finished without stopping. And the perfect moment... we actually finished with enough energy left to pick up the pace a bit as we approached the finish line. My husband was standing there holding Ben and managed to get a photo of us as we approached the finish and when I looked at it later in the day I realized that we both had big smiles on our faces.

Go see who else had a perfect moment here.