My Breakthrough Moment: Running 100 Miles and Seeing No Results

Denis Waitley once said, “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace & gratitude.” Happiness... but what does that even mean?

Happiness is the moment the world stands still and you discover a change in yourself big or small. This change is something positive that arises in the oddest of situations. The change I am concerned about is living a healthy lifestyle that works for me. Balance is often a word I associate with happiness. When my world is in balance (which rarely happens), I am truly happy with my surroundings. I live an imperfect life, but who doesn't?

I was introduced to weightlifting in high school, but never really got into it. It was too manly, repetitious, sweaty and just not for me. Now, as I climb the age latter, I realize that my body needs weight-bearing activities to change, so I asked for help.

When you have a breakthrough, you listen and act. I was tired of running, walking, biking, dancing and doing anything cardio related for hours with no results, so I asked for help.

Quick story (or not so quick): The title of my blog "Hannah Ran A Hundred Miles" spawns from a couple challenges that I did with my sister by a well-known fitness blog for women. This challenge gave you so many days within a couple month period to run these 100 miles, whether it was biking, running, walking, dancing or swimming. I did complete one of the challenges, but I did not see any results in my body until the last two days when I completed 11 miles one day and nine miles the next (See why I was a little fed up?!). Many girls did see major differences, but they also followed the workout and nutritional plan. Did I? Absolutely not. I thought, well, if I am burning this many calories I can just eat semi-healthy and do whatever workouts I wanted, but that didn't work, obviously. Okay, end of story.

My breakthrough moment: finishing a 100 mile challenge and seeing no results. Although I was upset about this, I learned something about my body. I learned to listen to what my brother (my inspiration for my journey) had to say about "creating a balance." It is not just a workout that changes your body; it is what you consume, how much you sleep and stress levels.

Based on the "balance" presented to me, it has changed my life for the better and has increased my overall happiness. So this is what I will leave you with....

Welcome to my journey. I hope to inspire, motivate, be honest, increase your happiness and above all, share my story as I learn to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle.