Hi all, Raquel here

I’ve been staring at a blank page now for hours. Unsure what to write here for my introductory post. Questions flying by in my head.

What do I want? What kind of people do I want around me? What needs changing?.....

Then I had an epiphany, a total “light bulb” moment.

I got on board here with the intention on doing the C25K (couch to 5K) program. It perfectly is a 9 week program and the timing couldn’t have been better.

But now I need these 9 weeks to be so much more than just this. I want to find ME. Not just be healthier and train for the 5K but also work on my inside. But I’ll get back to this in a bit. First let me introduce myself.

My name is Raquel, but I think you knew that already. I’m 29… with the big 3-0 just lurking around the corner. I live in a town that likes to be called a city and is located less than an hour from the real city of New York City.

I was laid off 4 times in the span of 1.5 years. Thanks to the lovely economy. The last time being the February before last. But I took this as a sign that it’s time to do me and do what I want to do. So I went back to school to get my bachelors. I’ve now completed a full year with a GPA of 3.75 (I think, I’m to lazy to look it up) and have just this fall and spring to go. I am loving my classes and my professors and as lame as this may sound, I have such a thirst for knowledge right now I can’t seem to get enough. The next step in this plan is to get my Masters in MHC (mental health counseling) with a focus in adolescents and suicide/self injury, abuse, and PTSD.

Health wise I would probably say I’m the worst I’ve ever been. I’ve been paying Weight Watchers $40 a month for the past 6 months but I haven’t really stuck to the plan. I need to lose probably 70lbs. No one believes me it’s this much but I guess that I’m lucky in that my 5’8 frame holds my weight well.

I’ve recently become a vegetarian that eats seafood… a pescetarian. It’s been 4 months of no cow or pig and about 1 month with no chicken. I’ve also drastically cut down on my dairy intake. The fact that I was able to do this is really what proved to me that I can do things I put my mind and heart into.

I live with my boyfriend of almost 7 years. I’m not sure what else to say on this right now. Let’s just say that this is one of those things that I need to work on (think about) over the next 9 weeks.

So that’s enough about the boring stuff. Basically I’m a sarcastic, brutally honest, and painfully shy person. I will talk about anything and everything and really have no filter or “off limits” topics. But I will make sure this stays PG for grandma, no worries there.

Until recently I usually put others before myself. I’m only now seeing that may not be a good thing. I can’t be there for others if I can’t be there for myself. I’m not sure if this is a result of that but my RL friendships have been lacking. I feel as I’m connecting more and more to the people I’m meeting online than those around me. I’m starting to become on the outside the person I am on the inside. I have a great fear of what people think about me and always feel as if I’m being judged but I’m working on not caring. It’s not easy but I’m doing it bit by bit.

Basically my life need a reboot and this challenge came at a perfect time.

So in nine weeks I’m going to be able to run a 5K in 30 mins. But because the training plan for this (I’m using the one at coolrunning.com) only has runs 3 times a week I decided I want to tackle other hurdles as well so I made a list.

1. Obviously the C25K program
2. Get back to Weight Watchers and tracking
3. Figure out school options for masters and move on that
4. On top of doing the C25K start working out again
5. Figure out what I want
6. (and because I needed to not have 5) figure out my tattoo and get it