My Story and Motivation

Hi! My name is Christina, and I am a 25 (soon to be 26!!!) year old budding athlete, a first year Master of Social Work student at UCLA (go Bruins!!!) and a recovering bulimic. My battle with bulimia began at the age of 19 when I weighed 235 lbs. I decided to take some initiative in my life, and began to exercise five days a week, and pay much more attention to the type and amount of food I was putting in my body. It took no time at all for me to begin to see results. It also did not take long for me to be obsessed with seeing the number on the scale, and in my dress size disappear. I wanted more than anything in life to, "Just be THIN!!!", but if felt like nothing I did was working fast enough. It didn't take long for the cravings to kick in.My binge eating was out of control. I would spend my evenings consuming as much food as possible and then make my self throw up in order to prevent the weight gain.
This went on for about 5 years. I hid my secret from my family, my friends and my boyfriend whom I had been dating for 3 years. There were periods of time where I would go sober, but it never seemed to last for more than a few weeks. The lies and deceit consumed me and the guilt that I felt made it impossible for to seek help from professionals. So I struggled in silence until about a year ago, when I could not take the pressure anymore.
For the past year of my recovery I have experienced many ups and downs in my recovery. Like any other recovering addict I experience relapse, cravings, mood swings and out bursts and periods of self loathing. Yet I also have days that I can not wait to get out of bed and face the day. I am continuing to learn how to love myself and my body and appreciate them for all they have and can accomplish, as opposed to despising and resenting them for all the things they are not.
During my battle I found one thing that always kept me going and has kept me motivated over.... RUNNING!!! I have considered myself a novice distance runner for the past 4 years who finds joy in taking a 5 mile run around my house or at a park in my old neighborhood. In June 2012 I made the decision to kick it up a notch and challenged myself  with a "Mid-Years Resolution" to run 12 races in 12 months. By doing this, I am hoping to continue to promote a Healthy and Athletic lifestyle for myself as opposed to the thin obsessed mentality that brought me to my lowest point in my life. The races are primarily 10k's (6.2 miles) and half marathons (13.1 miles) and I am still debating whether or not I want to finish next June by competing in a full marathon (26.2 miles). I finished my first race a week ago in the Simi Valley Arroyo Creek 10k and finished with a PR of 53:37:8! (That is an 8min and 33sec mile!!!)http://www.simivalleyhalfmarathon.com/uploads/2012_-_ACHM_-_10k_overall.pdf
My next race is scheduled for Wednesday, July 4th. It is the 2012 Independence Day Classic in Newhall, Ca. http://www.scrunners.org/ID5K.html (It's going to be SOOOOO hot!!!!).
I am also scheduled to compete in the Seashore Half Marathon in Long Beach on July 28th. This will be my second time competeing in a Half marathon EVER. My current Half marathon PR is 2:13. http://www.rocketracingproductions.com/Rocket_Racing_Productions/seashore_marathon.html
My plan is to blog about my progress with training, my struggles with my diet and to share my work out and eating right secrets. I really enjoyed my first month of training and kept going back and forth about starting a blog to share all of my ups and downs. This is primarily for friends and family, but it is more so being used to hold myself accountable. Feel free to share your tools, diet, work outs as well as encouraging words of motivation :)