Gathering Momentum

I picked up running again, to go with my efforts at putting more veggies and less sweets in my mouth. So far, it's going really well. Today was Day 3 of that Runner's World training program. I haven't had to repeat a day to get it yet: first try all the way! I'm feeling pretty good about that, let me tell you! I think that the furthest I've been into that program is Day 8 or so, so I'm going to start out with a modest goal: Make it to day 10. Someday, I want to run a 5k, but I'm not worrying about that right now. Right now I'm working through the issues that keep me sabotaging myself. Like fear of miscarriage and gluttony. Things that happen in my head that keep the food going in the mouth or the feet off the treadmill.

I'm coming to the conclusion that weight loss isn't really so much about calories (though those ARE important) as it is about psychology or something like that. How many times have I started to loose, been making good progress, then let it all slip away and ended up heavier than when I started?? That's not a problem with my ability to loose weight: the weight loss was working. That's a problem with the things that happen between my ears. So I'm trying spending more time on my knees, asking for clarity and help. It worked yesterday. I managed not to eat more than I should.

I'm setting smaller goals: just this week. I want to loose 2 pounds this week. I'm doing that by drinking water and running. Next week will take care of itself when it gets here. I have to Pay Attention or I find myself with a fistful of M&Ms or something and then another and another... But yesterday I made it. I resisted the temptation to sabotage. And I'm not doing too badly today, though I really need to find my water.

Accomplished: Road to Running Day 1

I did it! I did day 1!! And it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be when I put on my shoes this morning. I hurt So Bad after running on Monday. I thought this was going to be awful. But it wasn't. In fact, it felt good. I could already tell that I've learned a few things about running. I'm sure there's going to be plenty more to learn, but so far the first is the worst. We'll see what sort of soreness punishment my muscles put out this time. And I have to look at what comes next. I know that tomorrow is a walk and I don't run again until Day 3. But I don't remember any more than that.

One really fun thing is that with using Runner's World's workout tracker they count a bunch of cool things. For instance, I have done more than 25 hours of working out since the end of May. And I've run a total of 7.2 miles. Those are fun. But the best part is that it'll map the route that I run and then tell me the pace. And the very first time that I tried running back in May I was "running" a 20 minute mile pace. Today my pace was 16:43!! And that's already improved from Monday's 18:03 pace. And those paces include time for warm-up and cool-downs. So I'm actually running a bit better than that. I'll probably get me some sort of stopwatch to get better times. My watch isn't very well marked for doing this sort of thing and I think I could get to caring about how fast I'm going. One of my favorite parts of doing this program is that it's time based: run 1 minute, rest, run 1 minute. This works a lot better for me than other ways I've tried to run.

Non-Scale Victory!!

I put up the Non-scale Victory badge today because I exercised tonight! That doesn't sound like much to say it out loud, but let me tell you a little bit about my week:

Monday was a pretty normal day. Except that late Monday night I loaded all my canning stuff and my dehydrator into my trunk for the class that started Tuesday.

Tuesday got up bright at early to be at the class at 8:30, which is early in my book, (I'm certifying as a "Master Food Preserver.") and then came home & did regular Mom stuff until late. At the end of the day I did some yoga and learned that I've lost muscle since I was last doing that regularly. Bummer. But I did it.

Today, I had to be at class at 8:00. This is difficult, since it's about 20-25 min away from home and I just don't do mornings anymore. I hope someday that Andy will be on a 1st shift type schedule and we'll shift our lives back into sync with the rest of the world, but until then getting up to be someplace by 8AM is really hard! After class I did more Mom stuff and then I exercised! I did 25 whole minutes of aerobics this evening. It wasn't my best work, but I did it!

Also, a little more than 1/2 of my bloating is gone. I hope to be back to normal tomorrow if I can get in a bit more water tonight.