As I mentioned yesterday, I had a great week (as far as my eating habits are concerned). I didn’t really have much of a challenge though. Taking Luke and Riley out to eat was easy; Luke wanted to try Panda Express, which had literally no vegan items on the menu (or so I thought – I didn’t know their noodles were vegan). The place we went to didn’t have any of the new vegan options Panda was offering. So I just ate when we got home.
One thing I *really* need to do is run. I just haven’t had the motivation to push myself to do it. The 10K that Nathan and I signed up for is less than four weeks away and I haven’t trained at all. I really try not to beat myself up about it because nothing good ever comes of it.
My mood was mostly sad considering the circumstances surrounding Luke and Riley (you can read about that if you missed it). Logically, I know exercise is good for the mood; It’s kind of ironic, really, because when I’m not in a good mood, it’s hard to get myself to just do it. If I run, I know it will lift my spirits; and with a better mood I’m more motivated to run.
I was planning on taking Joe for a three mile walk this morning and then a short run of two miles, but I ended up calling it quits after Joe’s walk. It was so cold; even after walking for an hour I could feel the cold to my bones. Being the middle of March, I didn’t even check the temperature – 27 degrees – before I left. I don’t know how I ran when the temperature was in the single digits. The older I get, the less I can stand the cold. (As I sit here writing this, I’m wondering why it didn’t occur to me to just run on the treadmill.)
Anyway, I wasn’t really sure what to expect on the scale this morning. I was super busy yesterday and didn’t make dinner until almost 9:00 last night. I made a vegan version of chicken paprikash and it had a lot of sodium, it didn’t taste too salty, but I had to keep adding more salt as I cooked because it was kind of bland. It turned out well and I ate a big bowl of it. I was sure I would see an increase on the scale this morning (just water weight over sodium), but I was pleasantly surprised to see that my weight was down from last week;
At 143.2 I lost 1.4 pounds from last week. I’m happy with it. I wish the weight would come off as fast as I put it on, but we all know it never works that way, unfortunately.
I wondered how quickly I gained back 25 pounds over the winter and wanted to find out why. I think what happened was that when I lost about 25 pounds really quickly in the fall, it was because I was really overwhelmed and stressed and didn’t have much of an appetite at all. I was actually kind of worried about losing too much weight, which has NEVER been a problem for me.
So I think when my appetite came back my body tried to compensate for the rapid weight loss by giving me a bigger appetite than usual. I try to listen to my body, eat more when I’m hungrier, less when I’m not, and in the last few weeks I think my appetite has leveled off. It will be interesting, if nothing else, to see how this goes from here haha.
Besides listening to my body, my main goal this coming week is to RUN. I have to do this not only for my mental health but also for the 10K. I don’t want to struggle through it. Worst case scenario, I’ll do the run/walk method; but I’d really like to try running the whole thing.
I am going to write a commitment here, I hope to be held accountable this week. I will run three miles on Friday, four miles on Sunday, and three miles on Tuesday. No goals for speed or heart rate or anything like that. just running at a slow pace will be fine.
Well, I’m going to bed and I’ll try my best to sleep early. I didn’t get much sleep last night because my carpal tunnel syndrome was horrible since I was painting in my bedroom and bathroom. Yesterday Noah asked me to mend the waistband of a pair of pajama pants he had and I had to separate the seams; i always forget that my carpal tunnel flares up doing these moves.
It doesn’t feel as bad as it did in 2018 (?), but I’m thinking I might go see a different doctor about it. Last time I saw two specialists, I did a nerve test (I don’t remember what it was called), but the doctor said it was “mild”. I wanted to punch him in the throat when he said that. A tenth on the pain scale is not easy, and this is coming from someone who had a major broken jaw and two surgeries to repair it.
Anyway, this is where I get off track. I’ll put my wrist down and try to sleep. I’m hoping for another good week (which will include three runs).