Disturbed by my image in a half marathon photo

08/16/2015 8:17PM

I hear a lot of me in what you wrote. When I trained for my first half. I was 200 and went down to 150. This January I was 220 and am now 177 - because I trains for another half. I can tell you that both times I looked the same coming in and going out. However in the second one I started giving myself positive affirmations on a daily basis and my outlook on my self changed 100%. Don't know if this could help you, I just know that the first time around I motivated myself by saying - get out there fatty - everyone is laughing at you so keep running so it stops - etc etc. The second time I didn't and it made all the difference. The mind believes what you tell it on repetition (we train like dogs sometimes) and what I didn't realize was I was training myself to have a negative view of me, daily. I know affirmations sound like the cheesiest thing ever - I can tell you, though, they made a huge difference on my self outlook, regardless of current weight. For the record I tell myself I am beautiful, driven, confident and successful. You can say whatever as long as it's positive (and it felt super dorky at first). Anyway, that's my sidebar for the evening. Hope it helps and congrats on doing the half! :)

Laura C

Thanks Christine. My journey is similar, ups and downs, except backwards or on a different time line. I was 150 in 2007 and 2008. Then 180 in 2009. All the half marathon pictures looked pretty good, considering I think my idea weight is around 120. So even though I ballooned up to 195 (which is a 20 lb weight loss bc I started training at 215), I thought well the photos are never bad. I even smiled for the camera. In this 2015 half marathon picture, one can definitely see that I am top heavy, which one couldn't see in the other photos.Today, I decided to add interval weight training to my routine. Lots of reps at a fast pace. I am hoping this will slim my arms. Also, it's supposed to help with running form. In addition, I did several type of ab crunches to attack the waist. I don't know what else to do with what's between the waist and my face. I am hoping that cardio will help slim that.In August, I have had a few good exercise days (Aug 6th -8.7 miles (don't know how long that took bc I spaced the mileage throughout the day. Then lots of days with 15 to 20 minutes of the bike.) Then and I have no idea why early this week (I think it may have started at the end of last week), I found myself in a depressed funk. Today I was back on my feet trying again. I still feel a little depressed. I think it's my lack of progress as far as Diet Bets go. I see people doing really well and I haven't won a 4% kickstarter yet. I have only won 1 round of a transformer. So there's this negati