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Learning to Like It

Ended up with an "okay" week as far as training goes. First week of full marathon training done!! And I stuck to my schedule too. I'm happy with that even though I did have two days of nothing - hope to fix that next week. I have the my calendar filled out with what's supposed to happen, now to make it happen. I'm trying to do some gentle 2-a-days. We'll see. I'm actually starting to feel like I've been working out. I really can't explain it but I'm feeling better overall and I feel more "fit" even though I still look like a walrus. (That's going to change!)

This week I played with my diet a little bit. I have been very careful to not overindulge in high sodium foods, but I did allow some small cheats. Here's what I've learned. I can tell a huge difference between allowing more salt from packaged foods versus having more salt added to my foods. I weigh in every single morning and I've been able to maintain real close to my 10 pounds loss. I know if I gain 2 or more pounds I overdid salt the day before and I'm retaining water - that's a really bad thing and I have to learn to avoid it. But when I eat all fresh, cook-it-myself, not pre-prepared at all foods I lose or stay the same and don't gain at all. I haven't gone over the 2000 mg limit - but I can tell the difference in the types of salt I allow. So....

I'm game for some more changes. One thing is that I ran out of cheese. I love cheese! However, it has a lot of salt in it, and I have little self control. It's just so handy to grab a chunk or a slice! ....sigh... but it's gone. So this morning I was making my scrambled eggs - with onion and jalapenos and was missing the cheese. I thought about how good they would be with just a little bit of sharp cheddar! Then I thought of the health risk I take by eating too much. My thought was - then I'll have to learn to like my foods without it. That's a big step for me - but necessary at this point. You know what? I added a little oregano and my breakfast burrito was perfect! I enjoyed it. I'll learn to like it without cheese.

There are some other things I don't really like either. (Like taking meds - but that's nonnegotiable. I'm taking them! lol) I don't like it that I can feel wiped out so easily some times and that I feel like my body forces me into walk breaks. But this is where I am - and it's better than sitting on the couch. So I'll have to learn to like the fact that I can take walk breaks and continue racing.  I may be slow - but I am where I am. I didn't get in this spot overnight. I got here because I ignored my body's first signals. Ignored them for nearly a year until they got so bad I couldn't run at all for a short time. If I'd gone to the doc early on - it would have never gotten this bad. But I am where I am today. I can change my future by doing what I have to do today.

I'm determined to learn to like doing things differently so that I can continue to do the things I really like. I ran over 5 miles today and enjoyed it. I pushed as much as I felt like I could without overdoing - I have learned that I don't like the after effects of doing that. So I will learn to like run/walk intervals while I crawl out of this hole I got myself into. I'm learning to rest when I need to; but I'm also learning that I really do feel better if I do some sort of cardio every day. When I skip days I get very sluggish. So I guess I'll learn to like riding my stationary bike too!

Dedicated to this journey - where every step is a victory!

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