It seems that I have a bit of a stomach bug. No running since Tuesday due to parent/teacher conferences and late meetings, then my long has been canceled both days this weekend because of this stomach issue.
Argh.
I hate this. I feel so guilty for not running, like I’m lazy. Logically, though, I know that I really should not be running until I am over this.
I’m getting back at it. Finally. I got off for a couple of weeks. Work has been incredibly stressful lately, and I just haven’t been handling it well. All I have wanted to do is go home, curl up in a ball, and watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians. None of these things is a good idea.
On a better note, though, I’ve suddenly found myself able to run. I mean run. Really run. Not the shuffle along then walk a while thing that I’ve been doing. Thursday I ran 3.5 miles non-stop. The longest I’ve ever run without stopping.
Today I did 5 miles. I walked the first quarter mile to warm up a bit. Then I ran. I had to stop at the 3 mile mark to tie my shoe and fix the tape on my knee. I walked for 30 seconds before I started running again because my knee didn’t feel great. But, I got back at it, and ran the remainder. The picture I took was at the 5 mile mark, when I slowed down for my cool down. All said and done, I did 5.25 miles total- .25 warm up, 4.75 running, .25 cool down, with a 30 second walking break.
I have never ever done that before. Ever.
It blows my mind.
That is what I love about running. I love runner’s high, but getting there is miserable. I always feel awful the first mile or two (or three). But I love the feeling of achievement. Of directly seeing the effect of hard work. Of proving myself (and others) wrong. Of doing things I never ever thought myself capable of.
I just have to remember that feeling when I’m tempted not to go run.
…but not my running or weight loss ones! I’m down to 157.5, though it’s been a struggle.
This morning I was down to 158.5! I FINALLY broke the 159 barrier. I have been trying to get beyond that for 3 weeks now!
Today’s going to be very exciting. At least five loads of laundry, 30 memoirs to grade, and a very messy apartment to clean.
I think it’s possible that someone could tell I’ve lost a few pounds? I don’t know.
I’ve been neglecting my tumbling duties. Thanksgiving was rough- I put on about 2 pounds over the 5 day weekend. Yoiks.
I’ve been working since then to get those two pounds off. This morning, I finally got back down to my pre-Thanksgiving weight. 159.5 With that weight, my BMI is 27.4 - officially closer to healthy weight than to obese! Woot! Just have to keep going.
On Thursday I get my foot checked out. I hope I can start working out. I really want to be running, but I’ll take swimming, biking, elliptical, anything. Going to the gym would really help me beef up the calorie deficit for the day, and it helps with stress so much.
This weekend, I took some time for myself. I have all of the grading done at the moment, and I’m planned out a few days ahead of time. I didn’t bring anything home to work on. So I’ve pretty much done nothing all weekend. It’s been kind of nice.
Until the stress fracture, I’d been losing weight primarily through running. I don’t think my eating habits have been terrible lately- it was last year during my hellish first year of teaching that things got out of control. As a result, I’d been able to drop about 10 pounds just through running.
But stress fractures stop running.
So I got serious about the calorie counting.
I’ve been doing really well. I’ve lost a lot of weight in the two weeks since I started- about 7 pounds. Normally I’d say that’s too much loss too fast, but I know from Weight Watchers that people usually lose a lot their first couple of weeks and then it evens out. I can’t even tell you how great it feels to be down 18 pounds.
But man, this food thing is hard for me. I know that’s why I gained the weight. It is how I handle stress. Every time the kids left the room last year, I snacked. Seriously. Upwards of two snacks per day. And I was eating all three meals. They were not small meals.
I know this has to be a lifestyle change. And it has to be permanent. I want to be a faster runner (so I need to stop being an overweight runner…), I want to be healthier, I want my back to feel better, I want to look in the mirror and be okay with how my clothing looks, and I want to not be horrified when I look at my yearbook photo. I know so many reasons why it’s important that this happens, but it is so hard.
Right now, I only get 1350 calories per day. If I could get back to running 2 miles every morning (and a lot more on the weekends) I’d be able to eat more than that. 1350 seems so constricting, but that is where I have to be when I am at no movement or exercise in a day.
Well, I hope that with all of the running stuff I asked for for Christmas, I can also start running!
I visited my back doctor today. This time 6 months ago I was in pretty excruciating pain when it came to my back. It was waking me up in the middle of the night. Keeping me from sleeping. Making my days generally miserable. The occasional numbness in my leg had spread, causing my foot to go completely numb on the bad nights. Definitely the worst that my back pain has been since directly after my surgery.
So, I went and found a new back doctor. My old one just would run an MRI, say ‘the instrumentation looks fine,’ and send me home. On top of that it took months to get in to see him. Upon visiting the new doctor, we made some discoveries. One being that I have lost a fair amount of feeling in my right leg. I don’t notice it, and I hadn’t noticed it until this point, but when he did a pinprick test it turned out I had pretty decent loss of sensation in a lot of my leg. We did more MRIs, a CT scan, and some Xrays. Turns out that there was nothing wrong that a surgeon could fix. So he sent me to someone else.
She discovered that scar tissue was impeding the nerve that goes down my leg. It can’t be fixed really. But she prescribed a medication to relieve that nerve pain, physical therapy, and told me to keep running.
My back felt better this summer and fall than it has felt in years. And by years, I mean since I was about 9 or 10- that’s right. I was an elementary schooler with back pain (I’ve always been an old woman, and not just in demeanor!)
More recently, since my stress fracture, I’ve had an increase in back pain. I still have pain with weather changes, so I figured it was probably just that.
Turns out this stupid walking boot is causing it. And also the fact that I can’t run. My back doctor looked at it and said I needed to be doing whatever cardio I possibly could- running, biking, swimming, whatever. But I can’t lose the core strength that I have built while training for that half marathon.
I totally agree. Except the ortho guy who I saw for the stress fracture in my foot doesn’t. He doesn’t want me doing ANY form of exercise, not even swimming, for the next three weeks.
ARGH.
Yet another reason I want to get back to running!
159.5 as of this morning! It’s cheat day, though, so that probably won’t stick around. I’m just thrilled that I’m actually losing a significant amount of weight!
