It Is Well With My Soul…

I’ve been really stressed out and moody lately, I’m not going to get into specifics… Just a lot going on!  It’s not like my life sucks, cuz it doesn’t… it’s all good things!  Wedding, Work (making money), going back to school, did i mention wedding stuff? (and all the fun little arguments that come with not pleasing everyone with your choices) lol… yeah, i seriously have a lot on my plate right now and it’s not doing me any good!

I stepped on the scale over the weekend… I’ve lost almost 10 pounds!  This isn’t good… I can’t really lose weight because I’m already almost too skinny… it starts messing with how things work…

**shield your eyes men, if you get grossed out** 

I’m gonna get kinda personal… sorry…

 

My period was 7 days late this month… Not to mention that I’ve been miserable and cramping the past 3 weeks… stress and weight loss are not good on this body!  I went a whole summer without one when i was in high school and vowed I would never be that underweight again because I didn’t want to risk any health issues… and thank goodness I am not as skinny as i was back then… but I'm still not in the healthy range right now… so you guys need to hold me accountable.. i need to start eating better and gain the weight back! 

Stress also wears you out emotionally… I know you all have experienced this at least at some point in your life…

Last night, after Josh helped me out with some wedding stuff, I lost it… I had been getting frustrated and just started crying… for no good reason.  It’s a good thing he understands me so well… he didn’t tell me to stop acting like a baby, didn’t ask me what was wrong… just gave me a hug and said “I know you have a lot going on right now… It’s all going to work out!  You’re strong Zaneta!  You’ll get through this!” 

And he’s right…

Sunday before church I couldn’t stop worrying about things and thinking about everything and all of a sudden a song popped into my head…

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and hath shed his own blood for my soul.
(Refrain)

I instantly stopped and thanked God that he was reminding me that he was in control and everything is going to be ok…  I serve an awesome God who cares about me!  It’s hard sometimes to completely trust God with things… but He really is in control!  That’s something I’ve been working on lately… just trusting Him and letting Him handle things the way He wants to handle them, not the way Zaneta wants to handle them…

I truly am so blessed!  I love my life and the people in my life!  It’s time to stop stressing out and start enjoying my life!  It’s supposed to be fun, not stressful!  Planning a wedding to the most wonderful guy, going back to school to get the career that I feel God has been planning for me to have and that I actually enjoy doing,  and in the mean time, having a job that doesn’t mind working around my school schedule, and not to mention I have an awesome family and parents who are letting us live with them after we get married… I just needed that little reminder…It is well with my soul!!

Thursday Thoughts and Fuel Belt Winner!

First of all, wow!! 96 followers?!  You guys ROCK!!  Hello and thank you to all of my new followers!  I love making new friends! :D

I had 131 entries into my giveaway!!  I plugged the numbers into random.org and this is what it came up with:

Congratulations Alanna!!  Please shoot me an email with your address sometime this weekend!  I hope to get your handheld and GU to you sometime in the next week Lord willing! :D   runners.luck@hotmail.com

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Now onto the “Thursday Thoughts” portion of this post!  I’ve been thinking about a lot of things lately and don’t really have time to write about all my thoughts.  Of course, a majority of my thoughts are about running and blogging and everything else life has been throwing at me!

1.  I have been working extra hours the past couple weeks… 15/week to be exact and it leaves me with no time to do anything unless I stay up late.  Which I did on Monday.  4am late to be exact and mostly because I was too lazy to get up out of the recliner from watching tv with my dad to walk back to my bedroom to go to bed.  I can’t be the only one that does this right?!

2.  I’ve been feeling crappy lately.  I do believe it has to do with a lot more than just the late bedtimes.  It took me a week to get back to running after my half marathon… A WEEK!!  And still… I can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve been running since then!  It’s pathetic really.  It’s not that I don’t want to.  I really don’t like getting up early.. I’ve never made it a habit to because I didn’t have to.  My work schedule allowed me to run in the afternoons or evenings most of the time and now since I’m working more, the only times I have to run are early morning or late night… ugh!  So, that has a lot to do with why I’ve been feeling crappy PLUS I’ve been eating crappy too!  You are what you eat right?!  Ok, so I did have an excuse for last weekend because of the fair… but seriously… I  haven’t been eating any veggies or fruits and I’ve been eating on the go … ie: fast food!  GASP!!!  so… lack of sleep, lack of running/exercise, more hours of work, and a crappy diet have all come colliding down on me this week and I’ve felt like a bad human being lol…

3.  It’s not like I don’t have any motivation… ok, I don’t have any lol.  I do have a race on OCT 30th and my goal time for 5k is sub 25 right now and I really want it in my head lol… but I still don’t have any motivation… and its probably because of #2!  So I have decided to stop wallowing in my self proclaimed laziness and business and make some changes!

4.  Not only am I making healthy living changes, but I have thought a lot about changing around my blog.  First of all  I don’t believe in LUCK… I never have.  I believe that everything happens for a reason because God has a plan.  So… I have no idea why my blog is named “Runner’s Luck” other than it sounded cool and I had ZERO creative juices flowing the day I created my blog.  Also… I ran my half marathon on September 25th!  I think my blog needs a new tagline!  I also want to give my blog a little makeover starting with a cool picture header… except I have no idea how to do that … help?!  And maybe a new background?!  What do you all think?!  I would appreciate any opinions you guys have about changing anything on my blog or any help you can give me on creating a photo header!

So those are just A FEW thoughts I’ve had… I’ll save some of the others maybe for greater in-depth posts…  As always I love advice/opinions/comments from  you all! :D  I know a lot of you feel somewhat like I have after running a big race… I think making healthier choices will make a HUGE difference in the way I’m feeling though!  So starting tonight… I’m going to bed before midnight!! :D 

Random Things on Thursday

Well, I was tagged by Quinton, Q, The Guy who loves Jersey Shore, or the Sick Wuss (whatever you want to call him is probably ok*) over at Q on the Move.  I guess this means that I need to come up with 10 random things about me and then tag a few other people…

1.  I’m 23 and sleep with a teddy bear… my boyfriend got it for me for Valentines Day before we were actually dating and I was crushing on him majorly!  The bear’s name is Charles Peter II.

This picture was taken a couple years ago

2.  I have broken a total of 5 bones, all sports related! My 4 front teeth, yes they’re fake now (basketball), My toe (playing barefoot sand soccer, yeah… smart), A bone in the top of my foot (basketball), My collarbone (basketball), My finger (flag football)… yes, basketball was good to me 4th grade through college!

3.  I have major issues with my body… I think my butt is too big and I have never found a pair of jeans that fit like I want them to… If I get them to fit my waist they’re too small in the butt, If I get them to fit my butt they are WAY too big in the waist… you get the picture…

4.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Frank Sinatra music but REALLY LOVE Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly movies!**

5.  I have worked part time job #1 for 6 1/2 years and part time job #2 for 5 years… they took me through college DEBT FREE! (with the occasional side jobs like babysitting and assistant basketball coach etc…)

6.  When I was in Jr High, my orthodontist took an x-ray of my hand and told me I’d be 6 feet tall or taller… I made it to about 5’9” and was disappointed because I wanted to be taller.. I’m still tall for a girl.

7.  I have a twin… I’m 4 minutes older…we don’t look alike, and we don’t have a secret language.  I’m about 4 inches taller than her and have curly hair.

 This is the most recent picture I have of us

8.  I LOVE to knit and crochet!  My boyfriend likes to tease me and tell me I’m an old woman.  I have a blog that I started when I started teaching myself how to knit and crochet… BLOG HERE

     

I crocheted Charizard for my boyfriend and knitted a piano tote for my mom for last Christmas.

9.  I want a flex friendly body!! I get jealous when I see women with big, cut biceps!  Starting next week I’m going to start a more weight friendly workout plan!  (keep me to my word k?!)  We’re not talking HUGE biceps… but bigger than my skinny arms now.

10.  In high school, I was on the dance team and on the dance/kick squad for marching band… I dont see how I made either because I am VERY uncoordinated and very clutzy!  I end up with bruises on my thighs and arms from running into things and I trip over lines in the sidewalk a lot.

                                  

Wow… Senior year (2005)

People I tag are:

          1.  Tressa @ Track Coach &Adorable Wife (Coach, feel free to do it too!)
          2.  Rae @ 5k Rae (I’ll get you the info about the shorts sometime this weekend!)
          3. Pam @ Thirty Schmirty (Thanks for the kind comments on my blog!)

Now, go forth and create random lists!

Sorry for not naming everyone… You all are awesome, I just picked a random 3! So feel free to make random lists about yourself even if you weren’t named! :)

*******HEALTH UPDATE*******

I had my follow up cardiologist appointment today.  It went really well!  He came in and said he had looked at the results more in depth since my echo-stress test and my heart was really healthy!  Exact words:  “You are in really good shape!  Honestly, we rarely have anybody that goes as long as you did in that test!”  (ok…I may have added the exclamation points) but… that made me feel good that my heart was in such good shape!  He said I could run 30 miles this Saturday if I wanted to! haha! 

He said that he thinks it’s just a muscle sprain that caused all of these problems and that he would recommend taking Aleve not only when my chest starts to ache but he would go ahead and take a couple before my race on Saturday.  Does anyone have any opinions about this? 
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I also went shopping today as you can see in the picture! My grandma got me a gift card for my birthday (I think she forgot I was born in July)… it was to Kohls.  I usually don’t shop at kohls, but I did find the cute running shorts there!

 

I couldn’t pass up the Under Armour fleece at Dunhams!  It’s so soft and comfy… it’s like a hug when I put it on!  I also picked up the only running book they had in our local Borders… “Born to Run”  I figured I could read it in the car tomorrow on the 6 1/2 hour trek to Nashville. 

That’s right… I’M LEAVING TOMORROW MORNING!!!  That means 1 day and like 11 hours til my race!!  I’m so excited I could cry, puke, hug someone, smile, laugh… judging by those actions, I would say you can tell I’m pretty nervous too lol.  We’re going straight to the Expo and then heading to the hotel and dinner after that… So, with that, I bid thee adieu!  I have to finish packing!

Don’t forget to ENTER MY GIVEAWAY!!  I know I said you had til today to enter, but really… you have til tomorrow night by the time I get to the hotel for the night! 

 

* Q is actually a pretty cool dude… his comments usually leave me feeling motivated and like I can do anything… AND he thinks my 3D glasses are hot

**If you don’t know who these people are, please go google it or something!

Reactivated!

Well, I was going to post yesterday, but I was having major internet malfunctions, so now I’m just going to post a bunch of random stuff including a recap of my first run back in business!

1) I went running on Monday, which was my first run in almost 2 weeks since my health issues.  I woke up kind of expecting wanting to be back to 100% normal … wasn’t the case... duh! I still had some chest pain… but not as bad, and my breathing is getting easier… just not as fast as I had hoped.

The run itself had me feeling tired and really out of shape.  I ran for about 27 minutes… I dont know how far I went, but I wore my new shoes and used my new fuel belt handheld… you can see it in some of the pictures I took before the run I took them just because I felt like it…  (the outfit is probably my race day get up, what do you think?)

 

**I tried to flex… I dont have much muscle lol ;)  and yes, i love nike, and yes…i am a complete goofball, thanks for asking ;)  glad we cleared that up…

2)  I also ordered GU last week for my half marathon and got it in the mail today!  I was sent some GU last month to try out in exchange for a review so look for that in the near future… I have one more flavor to try.

3)  I got my bib # and corral # in my email this week… wait for it…..

BIB #2203
CORRAL #2

I’m actually kind of nervous… my race is in 4 days!!  Judging from my run yesterday, and how sore my quads are today… I don’t think I’ll be running it straight through like I had planned… I may have to run/walk it.  But, I’m super excited I get to go still! :) 

4) Also, I thought of a bunch of questions regarding my first half marathon… but now I kind of forget them.  It could be in part due to the 4 hours of TV I have watched because of season premiere night of my favorite shows including NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles (2 new episodes!), and Glee… woohoo! What are your favorite shows to indulge in?

5) Since I forgot all my questions… feel free to still give me some advice or fun little tidbits or your favorite things about racing… stuff like that!  If I remember my questions, I’ll post them later!  But, for now, off to bed I go! 

PS – Don’t forget to enter my Clif Bar Giveaway!!  ENTER HERE!

Thank You! (Clif Bar Giveaway)

Well, as many of you know, I went through somewhat of a downer the past couple of weeks.  If you are a new follower (wow! 53 already?) let me recap for you!

I started feeling bad last Monday (9/6) and ended up in the ER Thursday evening with chest pain and shortness of breath

Friday morning I had a cardiologist appointment

Laid around feeling sorry for myself because I wasn’t allowed running on Saturday and my boyfriend took me out Sunday for a fun 3D movie date to take my mind off of it

Finally, on Wednesday, I got my heart exams scheduled at the hospital

Had my echo-stress test yesterday (Thursday 9/16) and got great news! :D

I am feeling a lot better today and have decided to rest over the weekend and get rid of it completely (hopefully) and start running on Monday!!

Phew… that should catch you up about this whole fiasco!  So yesterday, I kinda felt silly after going in for a test and it coming back that my heart is healthy and it was nothing but a chest cold and lack of sleep.  BUT I guess it’s always a good idea to get checked out before you start a new sport/exercise anyways right? 

Well, after each time that I posted an update on my health, you all would leave such fun, uplifting, caring comments!  I would thank you in the next post for being so wonderful and that it meant a lot to me that you all were helping me through the past couple of weeks, and not making me feel like an idiot for being scared about nothing!  But, surely, I could do a little something extra for you all since you were thinking of me and praying for me, right?!

Well, Josh, a representative from Giveaway Scout had contacted me a couple weeks ago about adding my blog to their site and I didn’t think anything of it since I just started blogging and hadn’t had a giveaway.  Well, I remembered it when I was thinking of what I could do, and seeing that I have a lovely LONG list of giveaways on my right sidebar already, I thought “why not do a giveaway?!  Everyone loves giveaways!”  So, that’s what I’m doing!

**If you don’t know what giveaway scout is check them out HERE!  Basically it’s a website that has a list of TONS of giveaways across Internet Land and scans submitted blogs for giveaways to post on their site.  Kinda cool!

As I was sidelined from running, I decided to go food shopping because lets face it… I LOVE TO EAT!  And yes, I sometimes use food as comfort!  So, feeling like going on an adventure, I decided to mosey (one of my fave words) on over to the “health” aisle and I saw all sorts of bars, energy bars, meal replacement bars, fruit bars, chocolate bars, protein bars…. it seriously took me a while to figure out that I wanted to try one of these bars and which one it should be… well, the 10 for $10 sale on Clif Bars kinda won out! (click the words to go to the site)

I didn’t get to try them out before a run, but I did eat a couple crunchy peanut butter bars just because, and they were delicious and not hard to bite into or chew like a lot of other bars I’ve tried!  In fact, I liked them so much I went back for more!  Now I want to share a new found favorite with you guys!

So thank you so much you guys for being so supportive! You guys are SERIOUSLY AWESOME!! :D

Up for grabs is THREE Clif Bars of the winner’s choice (as long as they have that flavor available at my local grocery store). 

This giveaway ends on September 23rd (Next Thursday). The winner will be chosen using the ever so popular random.org and will be posted Friday (9/24) after I arrive safely in Tennessee!

To Enter:

Mandatory:

1.  You HAVE to be a follower of this blog because the whole reason of giving something away today is to thank you for being a friend!  I’m not opposed to making new friends so if you’re already a follower leave a comment, if you’re not already a follower, become one and leave a comment! :D

Extra Entries:

1.  Follow me on Twitter and let me know in a comment.

2. Post my giveaway on Twitter and leave me a comment.  You can use this: 

@superwoman4002 is having a @ClifBar #giveaway on her blog!  http://tinyurl.com/2e39plk

3. Post my giveaway on your blog and, you guessed it, leave me a comment!

 

If you have a product you would like to feature on my blog, or would like to host a giveaway, please contact me at runners.luck@hotmail.com

Fine Print:  I am providing this giveaway out of my funds and the opinions are entirely my own!

Say What?!!

Last night I went to bed early but my mind was racing and I ended up not falling asleep until almost midnight!  My alarm went off at 7:45 this morning so I rolled out of bed and immediately noticed a difference in the way I felt.  My chest pain felt more like a chest cold now, which is kind of weird, and I had a slight cough.  I still had problems taking in a deep breath, but I just knew that today, no matter what the tests said, was going to be a good day! Don’t get me wrong, I was still nervous, I just knew that God has a plan and that all of you guys were praying for me!

So, my dad and I headed out the door and were signed in at the hospital at 9:15am.  When we finally got to the second place we had to sign in at it was 9:44 and the lady said “Hun, I don’t know who told you to be here this early, but your exam isn’t scheduled until noon so you don’t have to be here til 11:30!”  Seriously?!  At this point I’m getting really hungry and I always wake up in the morning dehydrated so I was rather thirsty…. My dad and I decided to just stay and wait it out.  I crocheted a little bit while my dad slept. (He works nights so he came with me on ZERO hours of sleep!  Love my dad!)

2 hours later and I am allowed to go back to the room for my stress-echo test.  Basically its an ultrasound on my heart at resting state, then walking/running on a treadmill to get my heart up to a certain rate, immediately followed by another ultrasound while my heart rate is still up. Like this:

 **Except I am younger and MUCH cuter ;) 

***Oh, and the treadmill I was on started at an incline lol.. and it just kept getting faster and steeper!

Well, I kept expecting to feel like I was gonna pass out or like I couldn’t breath…. and although I was breathing hard and I could tell my chest and breathing aren’t back to 100%, I didn’t have to ask them to stop the test.  My legs were a little tired, but they actually felt good after I started running.

After the test the doctor told me some good news

Awesome news really…

IT’S NOT MY HEART!!!

He actually said that I was in really good shape and that although he doesn’t have the official results, from what he could tell, my heart is really healthy!  The next words that came out of his mouth almost made me cry with joy!  “I want you to start running again… but cut back a lot this week leading up to your half and if it goes well, I don’t see why you can’t run next weekend! He did say that all the lack of sleep leading up to the chilly festival 5k a few weeks ago probably didn’t help matters any and that he thinks it may just be a chest cold.  Then he proceeded to ask me if I’ve ever been checked for asthma. I told him I hadn’t but I’ve never had any problems in sports and running growing up. So…

I don’t have to wear the halter monitor for 2 days now and I go back to see him Wednesday the 23rd (the day before we leave for Tennessee) for a follow up and official results.  And with that… I’m heading to bed… trying to sleep a lot more and take in more Vitamin C and Iron!

PS – look for a giveaway soon!  A little thank you of sorts for being so caring and supportive during this downer time in my life!  You guys are great! :D

Health Update: Exams Scheduled

I was on my way home from job #1 today when the hospital called to schedule my tests.  After being on the phone for about 30 minutes (on hold for about half of that time because I told them I wanted the SOONEST time possible and I would change my schedule to whatever they had available) we finally got a date set!!

TOMORROW MORNING!!!

That’s right, Thursday September 16, I finally get in!  I am, as of 10pm tonight, no longer allowed to drink or eat anything and have to be at the hospital at 9:30 tomorrow morning.  The lady told me to come prepared to be there all day long and that I would probably not get out of there til after 3pm.  So, I’ll probably take a book and some knitting/crocheting to do.  I really dont know what all I’ll have to do or will be done to my body, but I’m ready for it!

I am feeling much better than I was this time last week though!  So… HONEST MOMENT TIME… I have been thinking “What if there is nothing wrong with me?”  I’ll look like such an idiot!  BUT, the chest pain is real!  The shortness of breath is getting better but is real!  So, if nothing is wrong, I look like an idiot/liar/crazy person/loser…  I really do want it to be nothing though!  I’d rather it be nothing than something!  I’m actually kind of nervous lol… 

I guess in the long run (tehe) I’d rather get it checked out and it be nothing than not get it checked out and it be something… make sense?

My follow up appointment with the cardiologist is September 23rd… the day before I leave for Tennessee!  I hope I can run in my half!  Please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers!  I really have appreciated all of you!  You have made this time in my life TONS easier to go through!

It’s a Date!

This weekend, my boyfriend came over every day and just chilled with me around the house because 1) I didn’t feel good and 2) I was pouting.  So this went on Friday, Saturday, and then Sunday my boyfriend decided that after church we were going to go on a date!  Well this instantly cheered me up because I LOVE dates with my man!! :D

He took me out to eat and then we started a 30  minute drive to a Cinema that I had never been to before.  It was probably the nicest movie theater I have ever been to!

 

We went to Resident Evil Afterlife in 3D!!!  I’ve never been to a 3D movie before and neither had Joshuah so it was really neat. He looked over at me during the 3D previews and said “This is so cool!”  I’m pretty sure we both felt like little 5 year olds, but in a fun way… It was so cool!

The movie itself was ok, it seemed like a lot of traveling and you could tell it was definitely made for 3D.  There was one scene when everything froze in midair and the camera panned from one side to the other slowly… that was pretty cool… it probably would’ve been lame if it weren’t in 3D though.  Then it was one of those endings when you can definitely tell they’re making another one… I hate those endings because they always seem dumb to me… nothing is wrapped up in a pretty little bow.

All-in-all, it was a fun date and I’m really glad that we got to spend some time together AND the 3D glasses were pretty sweet!

****HEALTH UPDATE****

I am feeling a little better… I still have some chest pain and at times still have some shortness of breath.  I am STILL waiting on the hospital to call to schedule my exams.  If they don’t call today, I’m going to call them tomorrow to see if I can get in this week!

In the meantime, I’ve decided to continue on as though I am definitely running in my half marathon!  I ordered my GU today and I’m putting together a playlist… I’m trying to make myself not be too excited though, just in case I can’t run.  BUT, my parents and I are still going to the expo and having a mini vacation either way so I am excited about that… I’ll continue to keep you all updated on my health and thank you so much for your concern, thoughts, and prayers!  It really does mean a lot to me that you all care! :D

Follow up with a Specialist

Well, I had an appointment with a cardiologist this morning after spending yesterday evening at the ER.  He could see me around 11 this morning so I went in and hardly had to wait at all out in the waiting room.  I told him about my training and how it was important to me that I be able to run my half if I am allowed to and listened to my heart and lungs. 

Then came the bad news…  tomorrow’s 5 mile race (which I was so excited about) is out of the question.  Basically, I have to get 2 tests done:  a halter monitor for 48 hours to monitor my heart, and a treadmill cardio exam.  But, the only words that my brain can seem to remember and the ones that keep echoing through my head are “no running, or training, until we can get these tests done!”  Say what?!  I mean, the shortness of breath and chest pain can totally be anxiety for my first half marathon right?!  So, it only makes sense that to get better, I’d have to keep running… right?!  RIGHT?!! 

*sigh* Well, I wish everyone luck tomorrow at the 5 mile race and do well Cynthia!  I shall probably see you again at another local 5k race in the future!  Right now, I’m trying to tell my heart to hurry up and heal and trying to make myself go to bed earlier and drink plenty of fluids.  Hopefully the hospital calls to schedule my exams and I can get them taken care of this week… because there is only 2 weeks left til my first half marathon!  (1 of which is a taper week) So there’s still hope!

At this point, I’m trying to stay positive, but I know I will be completely crushed if it turns out to be more than I’m hoping it is and I can’t run my first half marathon in Tennessee!  So please, continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers!  I really appreciate you all and your comments of well wishes!  I continue to be surprised at how much support the blogging world has given me in the short month I have been here!  So thank you!  You all are appreciated and you all truly do inspire me!