Social Boston Sports – Soccer Novice League

My friend Jess L. asked me to join a soccer league with her, and I figured, why not? She’s been a great running coach, so I don’t see the downside to adding in another fitness filled night with her in my week.

Jess and I met in Social Boston Sports Fit League, so my one requirement was that the soccer league be through SBS.

Last night was our 1st game, and the start time was 10 PM. (Luckily most of the games this season are much earlier in the night.) I’m usually going to bed around 10 PM most work nights, so I wasn’t sure how this would work.

We’re on a “free agent” team, which means that everyone joined the league individually and we were grouped as a team. So, all the team members besides Jess are strangers, but they seem like nice people and they were very encouraging.

I was the only one on the team who had literally never played soccer before, but I warned the rest of the team and didn’t mind their direction from the sidelines.

We were competitive and ended the 1st half of the game tied 2-2, but the other team prevailed in the second half. Oh well! We still had fun and figure there’s no where to go but up.

A lot of other members of our team were winded as they came to the sidelines, and I wasn’t. I’d like to think this is because I’ve taken up running, so sprinting up a soccer field doesn’t bother me. (I’m not sure if it’s that, or that I didn’t run as much as others.) But, I did earn 3 Weight Watchers activity points for the night, so I was moving. 🙂

I’m looking forward to a fun season.

90’s Music Themed Flywheel Class – 2/22

I had a wonderful time at the 2/22 Flywheel Boston class, “tearing up the torq”. It was a 90’s music theme ride featuring boy bands and pop stars, including Backstreet Boys, ’N Sync, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Boys to Men, & more.

When I walked to the studio and Hanson was playing and it wasn’t the song MMMBop, I knew I was in the right place! (I’m a huge Hanson fan and proud of it!)

The music in the class was very motivating & I happily mouthed the words to most of the songs. LFO’s Summertime Girls made me laugh.

Here’s my ride results:

It also earned me 3 Weight Watchers activity points.

Realizing Your Body Is Changing

I don’t keep the fact that I follow Weight Watchers much of a secret.

I’ve lost 25 pounds since I joined Christmas week 2012, and I have 25 more to go to get to my goal weight. (I know this is possible, because I lost 41 pounds following Weight Watchers in 2007 and I used to work for them as a Leader.)

Now, I’ve gone down 2 sizes since I started losing weight, but I didn’t notice the big difference I now have in my shape…until yesterday.

It’s also no secret that I’m not a morning person. In rushing to get ready for work yesterday morning (and start my 1.5 hour one way commute) I grabbed a favorite blouse of mine.

Now, this blouse sticks in my head as a favorite, because it’s color and pattern remind me of the logo of the nonprofit I work for. I even wore it to a volunteer recruitment fair at UMass Medical School in Worcester in 2013. (That same volunteer fair is coming up next week, and I’ll be back staffing it.)

Me, staffing a table at 2013 volunteer fair

Anyway, I was swimming in that blouse yesterday and it shocked me. Intellectually, I knew I was losing weight and getting leaner looking from working out. But, weight loss with Weight Watchers is purposely slow. Small changes make the gradual weight loss sustainable!

It took accidentally wearing a blouse from my starting point and seeing how it looked on me now, to make the how far I’ve come feel real to me.

I know other friends who’ve lost weight say they still see their former bigger sized self when they look in the mirror, instead of seeing what they’ve become. I think the blouse being grabbed out of the closet was a wake up call to me to celebrate my 1/2 way point, and how far I’ve come.

Today, I’m wearing skinny jeans that I purchased at a thrift store a few months ago that didn’t fit when I bought them (women’s clothing sizing is nuts), a rockin’ pair of boots that have heels that are at least 3 inches, and a blouse that is form fitting – not hiding my shape.

Terrible selfie taken today

I’m proud of my change into someone who is actively embracing change, and achieving weight loss in a positive way.

Have any of you had a similar “wow” moment?

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Cupid’s Chase 5K – What is MS & Race Recap

Saturday, 2/15, my husband Dave & I ran/walked Cupid’s Chase 5K to benefit the National MS Society.

The National MS Society is a cause that’s very close to my heart.

I worked at the National MS Society, Greater New England Chapter for 2 years, managing Walk MS Boston and the 3 Day, 50 Mile MS Challenge Walk Cape Cod. I’ve become friends with many NMSS event participants, and still consider some MS Challenge Walk walkers & volunteers my “Challenge Walk Family.”

My Mom has MS. She’s doing incredibly well. You wouldn’t know from looking at her that she has MS, and for years she didn’t want me telling anyone. (As an adult, I now understand why she feared her employer knowing her diagnosis.) My Mom is a huge inspiration to me. When MS took away her ability to hold a calligraphy pen, she didn’t stop creating art. She just moved to painting with thicker brushes and created works of art using computer design programs.

I’ve seen 1st hand the advancement in MS medications. For 20 years, my Mom gave her self an injection every week, in hopes that it would keep her MS symptoms from advancing. Just this year, she switched from shots to a pill! That’s an amazing quality of life change!

I’m hopeful I will see a cure for MS in my lifetime, but these small steps in the meantime are encouraging. (Many of my friends with MS have switched from shots to pills for MS treatments too!)

MS is thought to affect more than 2.3 million people worldwide. While the disease is not contagious or directly inherited, epidemiologists—the scientists who study patterns of disease—have identified factors in the distribution of MS around the world that may eventually help determine what causes the disease. These factors include gender, genetics, age, geography, and ethnic background. MS is significantly more common (at least 2-3 times) in women than men. MS is not directly inherited, but genetics play an important role in who gets the disease. While the risk of developing MS in the general population is 1/750, the risk rises to 1/40 in anyone who has a close relative (parent, sibling, child) with the disease.

Exciting update: Cupid’s Chase 5K raised $5,000 which will go directly to the National MS Society!

Ok, enough about MS and how much I want a cure found – on to talk about the race!

There were about 300 runners, which was great for a 1st time event.

Unfortunately, the course was very icy, and often roads were not blocked for the runners, so we’d have to walk single file in the shoulder of the road. Since there was still a lot of snow on the ground from recent storms, I was afraid of slipping on ice, snow, or slush and falling into traffic. I walked most of the course to prevent this.

My husband Dave was great at encouraging me, and we ran during non-icy parts of the course, in intervals of running & walking between light poles.

I just got our race results, and it turns out we actually ran 3.5 miles, not 3.1.

David Kempe         Total time 49:27 Pace 14:08
Danielle Kempe      Total time 49:27 Pace 14:08

I’m glad that one of the 5Ks I run this year is for a cause so close to my heart.

Stop Stroke Shuffle 5K

One of my favorite bloggers, Dani, from Weight Off My Shoulders is hosting a virtual 5K as part of her fundraising for the Boston Marathon “Tedy’s Team“.

Stop Stroke Shuffle 5K participants register for the race (which is a $25 donation to the American Stroke Association) and then run 5K on their own between February 9 and February 16.

Last night, I joined Jess L. for a run, and brought my Stop Stroke Shuffle 5K race bib to make it official.

It was very cold last night when we ran by the Charles river, so it definitely slowed our pace to a walk, but we did it!

Here’s a picture my husband took of me when I returned home after the run. (You can’t see it well, but I turned Dani example bib  into “Danielle”)

I’m very proud to support Dani’s fundraising!  You can donate too at the Stop Stroke Shuffle link above!

I’m looking forward to meeting her in person when I run the Cambridge 5K on her team in March.

(Dani & I have a few overlapping friends. She’s a Weight Watchers Leader in Boston and I used to work for Weight Watchers in 2008. I stayed in touch with a few people that are her co-workers. Her weight loss & fitness journey inspire me. I wish I worked closer to the meetings she leads, so she could be my Weight Watchers leader.)

Spin Class at Flywheel Boston

On 2/6, I returned to Flywheel Boston for my 1st spin class with a Flywheel account.

I had a great time, even though I didn’t push as hard as the rest of the class. (I’ll get there, but right now, I was concerned about not being too sore today. I look silly when I hobble around the office.)

When I returned home, I had an e-mail telling me how to check my personal stats for the ride. Pretty cool!

I have 5 classes left on my membership.

If you’re interested in signing up for spin at Flywheel Boston, use my personal link: http://flywhl.me/c458 You’ll love the classes, and I’ll get a $50 credit for you signing up. (I’ll even join you for a class, if you’d like.)