weigh-2-go.org

Thanks to everyone who made Tunes for Ta-Tas a success: my brother Charley Brown; Kevin McKinney at UUCG; the performers: Allison Adams, Billy Gewin, Liz Lee and Jeff Silver; the guys in the band: John Marlar, Tim Suchalla, and Charley and Kevin; Cathleen Chartier of Hugs & Quiches; Brenda Brown and Bill Benshoof and his family who managed the house and set up the room; and all the folks at UUCG who staff the Universal Sensations coffeehouse events!

I received over $800 from cash at the event itself, plus the donations that came in on the web site to support the event.  I have reached my fundraising goal!!!

Although  my ulterior motive for doing the 3-Day walk was to have an excuse to train and keep exercising, I must admit that the fundraising part of this project has its own challenges and rewards.  Challenges because it is a fundraising project, and not an insignificant one.  I pledged to myself that I was not going to spend my own money to meet the goal–it’s my job to do the walking!  I have met that challenge–yay!  The rewards are in the ways that the fundraising has put me in touch with people who share their storioes about how breast cancer has affected their lives–the stories are heartwarming, tragic, and inspirational!

More soon about preparing for the actual event.

The 3-Day walk is a week from tomorrow!  I am ready and not ready.  I think I am well trained, and getting enough exercise for my muscles to handle the actual walk.  And thanks to a “Packing Party” on Sunday, with the group I train with, I have plenty of great tips for how to pack and prepare for the event itself.

I do have to confess again, though, that my diet has been awful the past few weeks.  I have let a lot of other stressors in my life get me sidetracked from taking care of food.  The bad news is that I am not as strong as I could be in a few ways: my willpower against sugar is weak, which means I have a lot of sugar in my system.  (The weaker I am about giving in to sugar, the more dangerous it is for me…like an addiction.)  Also, just don’t feel as strong constitutionally, as if I am more likely to catch a cold.  I am just generally more fatigued.

The good news is that I can tell my sense of “normal” has changed dramatically.  What I now call “bad shape” is not nearly as bad as it was a year or two ago.  My standard is visibly raised.  So when I get back to “normal,” I will be in excellent condition.

What do I plan to do?  If I can avoid corn, wheat, potatoes, and peanuts, and eat as many green vegetables as I can get my hands on, the rest will take care of itself.

More about peanuts soon.

Some amazing talent has volunteered to perform at the benefit concert for my 3-Day Walk, and the official web page is now live! Please check it out at www.veronicabrown.com/benefit.

Tunes for Ta-Tas
Benefit for Breast Cancer Research, Susan B. Komen for the Cure
Saturday, October 18, 2008  7:30 pm
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett
Sponsor and Caterer: Hugs & Quiches
Visit www.veronicabrown.com/benefit

OMG, this is a serious event now!  Y’all better be there!

So I haven’t been to the Y for week, because I’ve been rehearsing music at my brother’s church, to raise money for the charity that sponsors the physical endurance event that I signed up for so that I would have incentive to stay in shape, i.e., get my butt to the Y.  Life can be so twisted.

With 27 days to go before the 60-mile Breast Cancer 3-Day walk, today I did a training walk of 18 miles, and tomorrow I will do 15.  If I can get through this weekend in decent shape, and do it agian in 2 weeks, I will feel confident about the actual event.

This past Thursday evening, I joined my coworkers on a team for the Kaiser Permanente 5K in downtown Atlanta.  I pushed hard, but managed 10-minute miles for a final time of around 32:00.  That isn’t stellar by the standards of serious runners, but I’m proud enough of it, since I hadn’t exercised at all the previous week while I was on a road trip for work.

Today’s 18 miles generated more pain than I would have liked.  Fortunately no blisters, but sore crampy muscles for sure.  Tomorrow’s walk might make that better or worse–I’ll have to see.  But it’s just a preview of doing 3 20-mile days in a row.  Better to get an idea of how that will feel now, rather than later.

Please save the date to attend my Breast Cancer Fundraiser for the 3-Day Walk.  I’ll be hosting a benefit concert on Saturday, October 18 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett.  Featured artist is Jeff Silver, a local singer/songwriter and recording artist whom you may have caught at Eddie’s Attic or Ragamuffin in Roswell.

Opening act is the UUCG House Band featuring The Browns (of which I am one).  I’ll do a few old-timey vocals as well as some pop tunes with my brother, Charley and the House Band.

Suggested donation is $10, but $20 is better.  Donors on my Breast Cancer 3-Day page will get a free pass, but I hope they will bring a friend.

More details soon.

Today I walked 7 miles, and Saturday I walked 15 miles on a training walk for the Breast Cancer 3-day.  This group I train with is mostly 3-day walk veterans.  They go at a moderate pace (everybody has stuff to get done on the weekend anyway), and they know all about preventing blisters with Vaseline, how much water to drink, how to stretch, and so forth.  So I am learning a lot about 3-day walk survival.

I’m doing fine on these long walks, and I always feel fine afterwards–no terrible cramps or muscle soreness.  But I wonder how much different it will feel to do 4 times as much walking in the span of 3 days.  Will I just fall into a “zone” where the 40th mile feels sort of like the 20th?  Or do I just now know until I do it?  The anticipation is mounting.

Meanwhile, I am not making much progress in Weight Watchers.  This past week I vowed to count my points more rigorously, and then broke my vow.  I at least did stay more conscious.  The scale says I gained weight, but the other day my jeans were loose, so go figure.  Thee are multiple ways to measure success.

Today I did a training walk on my own, instead of with the group.  It was about 10 miles, in a wacky loop that went from my house, near Northlake Mall, through some neighborhoods and back to Shallowford Road to my neighborhood.

What works for me lately is using my little iPod shuffle loaded with podcasts and books on tape.  I am listening to a book for a book discussion group I’m in, and NPR shows such as This American Life, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and Speaking of Faith.  It’s a great way to keep my mind engaged now that my training walks are getting long.

Walking with the team is great, too, especially for the conversation.  But this weekend, some solitude with my audio books and magazines was in order.  And 3 hours of walking gained my 9 Weight Watchers POINTS–sweet!

By the way, I went to a WW meeting today, too.  Counted my points all week.  Starting (or restarting) these onerous good habits is never as hard as I think it it going to be.

Today I trained with a 3-Day Team and walked 10 miles! It was challenging—maybe even more challenging that I was expecting—but we did it in less that 3 hours and it was inspiring to know that I could go that far already. Woo hoo!

There were 14 women walking all over the neighborhoods between Peachtree Battle Shopping Center and Howell Mill Rd. We must have looked like quite impressive walking through the neighborhoods in such a pack.

Many thanks to Mary Sorrel and Lara Lowman, (They are on a team called “For The Love Of Boobs”–click here for their web page) for being my connection to a great training group.

Shameless Solicitation: Support my 3-Day Breast Cancer walk by donating here.