Hey hey, it’s MJ,

            As I am writing this post I have been up since 2:15 AM and I cannot tell y’all why. I’m not even sure if I am writing this in English at the moment, but here’s hoping. I was going to come out with a fitness post in like July or August but it got a lot deeper and sadder than planned so I never posted it. 

            In June I did over 250 miles in two weeks on a stationary bike and did the Yes.Fit races, The Kraken, Will Run for Tacos, Poseidon, and started Llama Rama, I am still working on Llama Rama so you know how much I have done in the last several months. July and August were hard for me mentally and it was hot. It was hot until like last week. 

            I am currently working on my fall 5K’s, I have my fall cold at the moment though and that means that I have had to take time off to recover from that. I am hoping by the time that this post goes up I will have finished my actual Gourdy’s race (I have not, I hurt my knee and I had a cold so it just didn’t happen, this week.) and am working on my Spooky Ooky 5K, because I have a problem and everything that Gourdy’s comes out with I just have to have. 

            I have already completed two/thirds of my fall-natic challenge and that is a 5K in September, October, and November. I did September in under an hour and October in just about 30 seconds over an hour. I even ran a little bit because I do miss running, I started running and enjoying it and my podiatrist told me to stop because I could do severe damage to my left foot because it’s already messed up. I just wanted to feel that rush of running again and I run a little in each of my mile long loops. 

            I will eventually post all of my medals because they are so much fun and right now, I have all of them stored because I have all my Halloween decorations up. My dad made me a new medal holder and it’s super cool and I am really looking forward to filling it up. 

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            I am doing Gobbles again this year as well, hopefully on Thanksgiving again; weather permitting. 

            I started this journey one year ago, I walked my first 5K on October 15^th and as of me writing this that was yesterday, which is kind of fitting. I have had so much progress and so many setbacks because life and weather get in the way. I promised myself that I would preserve, that I would keep myself accountable. I have been doing okay, but in the last few weeks I have been snacking again, my stress levels have been through the roof and I feel like everyone’s are; that is not unique to me and I know that. I am trying to keep a positive attitude and hope that everything works out but some days that’s difficult. 

            I feel like I don’t have any insights into pretty much anything, I don’t pretend to. I am on a journey and at the moment it’s slow. I am trying, some days that means that I go one step forward and three back, but I am still trying. I bought jeans last month for the first time in about 6-7 years so that’s growth for me. I know it’s not much but I am getting slightly more confident in who I am as a person and that is part of my journey. I am not here on this earth to impress anyone but me, I am not here to live up to or manage anyone else’s expectations of me. It took me 29 and a half years to figure that out, but here I am, living for me as a person. I am violently myself; I am not one to pretend to be someone else or change myself to fit in. I did that for a long time and one thing that COVID taught me was that I am who I am and I’m not going to let anyone change that. You just have to deal with how I show up, if you can’t handle that that’s your business but I am not going to shove myself into a box of your expectations of me to make you feel better. 

            I have two more 5K’s this month which I am looking forward to actually doing because now the weather is chilly in the morning and I love that kind of weather. I also have two next month which I am also really stoked about and I will post pictures of the medals at some point here soon. I mean, they will also be on Instagram at some point because my Insta doesn’t actually post to the blog, I don’t know y’all it just doesn’t want to. 

            It doesn’t matter how slow your journey is, it might be one small change a day and guess what? That’s amazing, keep going. 

            I will be back on Wednesday with another post and until then I hope that everyone has a great start to the week and stays safe, happy, and healthy! 

            -MJ