I was excited to weigh myself this morning. How often does that happen? I knew my weight loss might slow this third week of my diet, but since I stayed on program and my clothes definitely felt looser, I was confident I had lost a pound. I got on the scale and I was up two pounds!!!!! WTF??? You know what I did first, don't you? Naturally, I weighed myself four more times in a row, to make sure the weight was accurate. I realize it is probably water weight or "digestive issues" but I was still highly irritated!!
I made myself focus. It wasn't easy. I have to choose results, regardless of what the scale says. My clothes do feel loose. I seriously asked myself what Katie or Linda would do? :)
I didn't count points today but it wasn't because of my lousy weigh in. We had our annual staff luncheon today and I had decided previously I would eat intuitively and enjoy a small dessert. I had plenty of weekly points left to cover it.
I have to admit though that later in the day when I picked up the homemade dessert I had contributed (peanut butter cookies dipped in chocolate) I ate two unplanned cookies! UGH. However, I didn't keep going on a downhill slide. (Score one point.) I quickly gave the rest of the cookies away and I also came home and did my workout. (Score another.) That's where the inspiration part came in.
Slim Katie has been blogging about when she first became a runner, and her readjustment to running after surgery. She also answered some readers' questions about how to increase speed. She wrote about running faster than normal, but not so fast that you feel like you are going to puke. I read about when Katie first began running and noticed that within a month she built up to a mile. Then I looked at my calendar and realized that in my fifth week I am only "running" for ONE song or about .3 or .4 mile. Nor do I feel even close to puking. I realized I needed to REALLY step it up.
I have been following my mantra of "choosing results" with my eating, but I felt like just logging three exercise sessions a week was practically heroic. I love exercising on the weekend, but on weeknights, after a full day of teaching, dinner, and homework, it is hard to muster up the energy. I was kind of going with my status quo - run a song, walk a song, repeat for 30 minutes. Anyway, reading Katie's blog made me realize I have no excuses!! Then I read Linda's comment on Katie's blog, that she runs between 6.0 and 7.0 and I almost fell out of my chair. (I run s...l...o...w.)
So, today I hopped on the treadmill and decided to see if I could run for a mile straight. I did! Then, I walked for .5 and ran another mile! (Obviously I hadn't been pushing myself enough.) I've never really been an "athlete" so I guess I was impressing myself by exercising at ALL. I didn't feel the need to take it up a notch. Thanks Katie and Linda.
That is SO awesome Michelle! You expected more of yourself and delivered! If you continue to say you can do it, you will. It's pushing all of that negative banter out of your head. Sometimes it will creep back in, but the positive talk is just like a muscle that needs to be worked. I have the exercise thing down, but my eating has been an issue as of late. A lot of stress with my dad's health the last few weeks has made me think I have permission to overeat and not take care of myself. Logical thinking, right?
ReplyDeleteMake sure you go at your own pace and don't compare yourself to anyone. Just do the best you now know you're capable of! I am so very impressed! You're doing way more than Couch to 5k would have you do!
Dang, Michelle!! You definitely had it in you and just weren't pushing yourself--you can do ANYTHING :) Great job!
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