There is nothing like looking at the pictures from your sister-in-law’s wedding and realizing why you haven’t been able to meet the goals you want. My sister-in-law got married the week before the marathon. It was a perfect wedding, the pictures are incredible and I definitely had a lot of fun. But looking at those pictures made me realize I am not physically fit enough to be running a marathon. Don’t get me wrong, I do not think I am fat. However, I do think that I have a lot of work to do in terms of losing excess fat and building and maintaining muscle.

I have always been naturally thin and I have definitely let that dictate my nutrition choices in the past. It has always been easy for me to eat a piece (or 50) of candy or order dessert after I had a big, carb-filled dinner because I know deep down that I am not going to really see any weight gain from it. It’s the reason it was so easy for me to eat so much candy these past couple weeks. And all I am doing to myself is canceling out all of the hard work I put in at the gym. Feuling my body with empty calories and tons of sugar is doing way worse than I am probably accounting for.

So, with that said, I am going to really pay attention to every single bite of food I put in my mouth the rest of this week and really push myself at the gym. It will be the only way I can meet my running goals this year. It will be the only way my body allows me to keep running for years to come. How can I expect my body to get through a 26.2 mile race (at less than a 4.5 hour pace) and the countless miles and strength training leading up to the race if I don’t treat it properly?

Today I took a rest day. I got a headache around mid-afternoon and it is still lingering. It is probably because my body was craving processed sugar and I refused to give in to my cravings.

My nutrition was decent today and I plan to be even better tomorrow and the rest of the week. I started the day with the special breakfast I was talking about last week: overnight oats. Has anyone ever tried these? I used this recipe and substituted the almond milk for regular, organic 1% milk. It was so easy, tasted incredible and I (and my husband) felt really full until lunch!

For lunch I had a salad with mixed field greens, spinach, red onions, cucumbers and carrots. I put a little bit of ranch dressing on the top and had a freshly baked roll on the side. My snacks included a handful of Cheeze-Its, a Farmer’s Market apple and a cheese stick. For dinner I had three small slices of a Trader Joe’s organic, frozen pizza. Not the healthiest dinner, but my day was not too bad.

And let this be my promise that I will wake up for a 7:00 am toning class in the morning and follow it up with a run.