20 minute miracle

Today was the 20 minutes of straight running in the C25K schedule and I almost talked myself out of it when I started.  But I decided to go for it and boy am I glad.  It went fantastic.  I ran it mostly faster than I have been running most of the time lately.

I am certain that running in the morning is just way better - I am able to run faster and feel better while doing it and feel less fatigued.  All good things in my books.  So mornings it will be - as often as possible!

Well I am off for a while - out of town for some training for work. I am planning to do week 6 while I am away - and maybe will even start out on week 7.  I am feeling pretty good right now and so it seems like a good idea to keep at it!

Pushing Myself

Today I did day one of week 5 of C25K - it has 3 5 minute duration runs.  Boy I can tell you I had to work for it today. Each one of those intervals of 5 minutes felt really long to me today - I wanted to slow down on all of them - not really because I was that tired in truth but mostly just because they seemed to be taking forever.

But I made it through, and I didn't slow down I kept up the pace I had set for them (which is quite frankly not very fast to begin with - it probably would have been hard to go much slower and still be jogging lol).

Tomorrow is day two of week 5 - and it has an eight minute interval I am going to try very hard to make it through that one without slowing down.  Day after is 20 minutes straight and I am still not sure how I will make it through that one LOL.

But one step towards doing well on those is that I am going to bed nice and early tonight so I can have the energy for that run!  And a little private dance party in the morning (I am going to start dancing for 2 or 3 songs each morning to get the blood pumping).

On to the next little victory, tomorrow morning!

Victory and Defeat

Here is a little story of a small victory and a small defeat.  Start with defeat so I can end on a high note ;-)

So last night as I sat and played that silly computer game for hours until my hand felt like it belonged to an 80 year old arthritic grandma.  I followed it up with take out food, and hours of television (well a movie and several episodes of a series on netflix).  This despite my stated desire the other day of cutting back on both game play and television screen time.  So a defeat, and one I did while consciously telling myself I had said I wasn't going to do this anymore.  Well, the justification monster came out and said, get this out of my system (although that was the excuse for it time too) so I can start fresh.  But this time I am headed out of town for some training (and a couple of days of holiday time as well).

So, it will be good to be away from all of this and able to concentrate on something more productive.  I am hoping to work more on my writing.  Sadly there is a second part to this defeat - I was up until a hideously late hour and subsequently didn't get to my Essentrics class today.  But I will be running tomorrow and I did a bunch of housework today so that at least had me moving a little bit.  My plan is to get tonnes of walking in while I am away.

Now on to victory, in this case victory of my self sufficiency and creativity over badly designed products.  As I just mentioned I was doing a bit of housework - mostly dishes and the related tasks.  Well I emptied out a few sealer jars and washed them and the lids.  The sink we have is rectangular with actual corners not rounded ones, so that is already a pet peeve.  But the drain seemed okay, until one of the sealer jar lids settled into it on top of the plug.  And it was stuck, with no give to be able to pop one side down a bit so I could grab the other end etc.Why did they design the drain so it sat down in that deep a drain, and why doesn't the plug have the little handle coming up enough so that something wouldn't sit flat across just like that.  Well I guess they designed it for looks, not for people to actually really use!

So my little anger ball started to build up, because I just wanted to drain the sink and finish up, but no, this lid was jammed in there with no hope of getting it out.  I was definitely considering just leaving it after I used a table knife to try and get it to pry loose with no luck.  Seemed like it would make sense to just leave it in there for my husband to deal with (since the sink was his choice - and in fairness it looked like it would be great because it is nice and big etc so I can't blame him for the choice, although I was trying to as I got frustrated with that stupid lid!).

But I decided that was just a bit of a ridiculous response and not one that will help me be a better person LOL.  So I bailed the water out of the sink and could clearly see what I already knew (that the pry attempt with the knife meant the lid was ruined).  I grabbed the hammer and a handy little punch and I got that baby out of there all on my own.  I know, you might be thinking "big whoop" but it just feels good to be doing those handy things on my own - I didn't leave it for someone else.  I guess we grow up a little more all the time if we want.

Another Run

Today my week 4 C25K run was even better than yesterday.  It went well, I went a little faster and I felt good through it.  I did my run at lunch time today again and that was good.  I am liking the lunch time run for the time being although I am looking forward to trying to get to the stage of going in the morning before work.  To that end I am going to start working on getting to bed a little earlier and waking up a little earlier.

And I would say it was a good day of keeping my promises to myself in getting myself going to do my run when a little part of me was trying to skip out on it because it was so nastily cold outside.  Tomorrow will be my day off for the running but I am going to do the physio exercises I have been supposed to be doing for a while now.  I am going to decide on a schedule for that as well - right now I am thinking that if I could do it 3 times a week that would be a good start.  And that the "setting" my core I should do at least twice a day every day.  So maybe that is where I will start tomorrow morning.  With setting my core a couple times first thing in the morning.

On the topic from yesterday I do feel like my pocket full of sunshine was there for me today - I kept it kind of in mind most of the day and it was a good day overall.

Pocket full of sunshine

I watched the movie Easy A last night, I love that movie so much.  It has a part with that Pocket Full of Sunshine song and it has been stuck in my head since then.  But what a great idea a pocket full of sunshine - no one can take away your pocket full of sunshine.  This just takes me right to the Covey idea of us being greater than our moods - one of my favourite concepts of all time - even if it is one I have a lot of work to live up to.

This is part of the quote I found online (although it is a little different than the one I was thinking of but this one is perhaps even more important for me right now).

By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods.  --Covey

Pair that with the idea of carrying a pocket full of sunshine around and that can lighten up any mood that might have me considering letting my mood rule my behaviour!

Glad I came on here tonight to write about this as it really just helped me to clarify something.

On the topic of fitness of the physical sort (not the mental sort that was the topic of the first part of this).  I did the week 4 run pattern today - glad I have worked myself back to that stage.  I know that next week I will be able to do the week 5 again - so back to where I was before the Christmas break and the cold/flu.  So that just adds an extra ray of sunshine to carry around in my pocket for the next time I need one!

Big Fat Liar

Just lies, to myself.  I tell myself that I am going to work on some challenge or another and then I don't even really make an effort.  So, what is my lie right now, mostly the tv and computer game one.  I haven't really cut down very much at all.  I took a couple days away from the game but then was right back to it.  The sad part isn't really so much that I am doing the watching/playing, it is that I am NOT doing what I had hoped to use that time for.

So again here is the re commitment that I will work on this.  And the challenge is that tonight is the night I had planned for my game playing night, but I used up that game playing time yesterday and the day before so none for me tonight.

And of course there is the catch that the lies to myself in this area and in eating commitments means I am much more likely to end up honestly being back to the first two words in the post title.

Cutting Back

I know I often don't like thinking about things as cutting back, or restricting etc.  I rather think of ways to expand on their alternatives etc.  But I think in the face of some of my choices lately I want to think of restriction and cutting back a little bit.

First, is cutting back on the amount of screen time I am spending on non-productive endeavours.  TV watching and computer game playing I am looking at you!  Both those things have taken up a huge amount of my time lately and I really want to move away from that.  I have done really well on the computer game front already - having decided that a bit of time on weekends is all it gets from now on.  As for TV, with a cold/flu battering me around a bit I had been taking refuge in hours and hours of the boob tube (at least it is through Netflix so there are none of the toxic commercials I so despise).

But, excuse of cold or whatever I need to cut back.  So I have decided that one tv episode a day is the new limit.  I can also watch a couple of movies a week - haven't decided on a number yet but I am going to shoot for no more than 3.  That does not count any movies I might actually leave the house to see in a theatre, those are outings and as such will not count against me.

I will try to keep note of where I am at with this commitment to restriction over the next couple of months.

Excusercise

Totally stole that term from someone else who used it recently.  But that is what I did today.  Instead of going to do my c25K day today I looked at my bag and saw I forgot my water bottle and that was enough to make me skip it.

Sad I know.  I really think I need to get things worked out so I am able to do that run in the morning, so much easier for me to not excuse myself from it.  But the plan is for tomorrow and Friday to both be run days now so that is okay with me.

Right now I think I will use my time skipping exercise to close my eyes and pretend to nap.

Reasons for Eating

I know last post I said I was going to talk about emotional eating and think about how I can reconcile that quote from yesterday with emotional eating.  But a related subject is in mind and I want to talk about it instead.

So yesterday the hubby brought home something from the bakery, it is a favourite of mine and they are really delicious.  But he brought home 4 of them (oh how I wish he had brought only one so I wouldn't have to talk about this lol).  These are a treat I love, they are from the local bakery so I know they aren't as loaded with crap as the stuff you get at the store etc.  But still loaded with sugar etc so not really a "real" food qualifier.  And I know this, and I know I really enjoy them, so what did I do, I ate 2 of them instead of just one for dessert and with the mindset of "I need to get rid of these so I can start fresh".  What kind of thinking is that????  This time is sure wasn't about pleasure or any of those great reasons from the quote.  Why do I say that - because I didn't savour those desserts that I love, I wolfed them down to get them gone.

Well it sure isn't eating for pleasure, community, etc but it is all about one of the negative side effects of the desire to eat healthy foods with the "nutritious" label stamped on.   With all things there is the flip side of the coin.  If I want to eat nutritiously on an ongoing basis it follows that I have to "end" my non nutritious eating ways - one way to do that - eat all the non nutritious stuff in the house so there is none left lol.  Sadly more always seems to show up.

Just had to write about this, I always think writing about something like this helps me to avoid making the same choice for the same reason another time.  So here is to eating for good reasons like pleasure more often going forward.

Real Fooding it

I want to start out by quoting something I just read from Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food

"We forget that, historically, people have eaten for a great many other reasons than biological necessity.  Food is also about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world, and about expressing our identity.  As long as people have been taking meals together, eating has been as much about culture as it has been about biology."

This is such an interesting quote to me.  For such a long time on the WW site you would see so much discussion of how to avoid eating all the great food at various gatherings and events.  Just an ongoing topic that would revive at every major holiday, and any life event points etc.  So, trying to get in line with the above quote makes for some interesting thinking - at least in my books.

The couple of catches here are that often the food at the gatherings under considerations are not real foods but again as Pollan phrases it "foodlike substances".  So, those would be wise for us to avoid.  But what about when those are the main things there and few other real foods are available.  What then of our opportunity to engage in food for pleasure and community etc?  This is actually what makes it really hard in my mind.

Then there is the nature of the food like substances and how they (at least in my own experience) tend to leave a body and mind unsatisfied leading to the consumption of larger quantities to find that elusive satisfaction, that elusive pleasure.  Then too, many of those foods are loaded up with all kinds of "taste" junk (sweeteners, artificial flavours etc), so while they may seem somewhat pleasurable to eat, the satisfaction likely still isn't there.  Along with that lack of satisfaction my own finding is that many of them also act as triggers, because they don't stimulate true satisfaction they trigger our body and mind into wanting more, more of them or more of something, that gap is still not filled.

The question is can I sit to eat for pleasure and community etc and truly enjoy myself with that if there are real foods in front of me? I think that yes is the answer here.  In particular I wonder if for someone like me for example the real missing element of satisfaction is that there isn't enough of the non biological reasons in my choices.  Maybe counter to the whole "only eat if you are hungry" mindset is that it leaves our minds, souls, and ultimately our body hungering for more - so maybe it should be "eat for your body and spirit".  I think I will have to think on this a bit, because this also brings up the whole emotional eating thing to my mind and I want to dwell on that a bit and see how I feel it fits into things in my mind.

Fresh Starts, Fresh Foods

Well it has once again been a while since I wrote on here and I definitely see a connection between what is going on with my body fat and what I am doing in this area of things - the mental arena. When I start slacking off and not really giving thoughtful consideration to what I am eating and not writing about it, reading about it etc I start sliding backwards into old patterns of eating stuff that is unhealthy.

Recently I revisited a site someone had told me about a long time ago, it is the 100 days of real food site.  It has given me something to work on and something to consider, and it is certainly more in line with my thinking about food than some of the stuff that is part and parcel of the whole WW thing.  While I love that program in many ways and believe it helped me to get much healthier, there are just things about it that always did sit poorly with me (i.e. no fat dairy is a power food but regular real dairy is all points heavy).  Things like that just made me cringe, that is not something I believe and certainly don't think is good for them to promote.  That is why I am moving to this new way of looking at it.  I am going to work on this real food challenge, and try to hit as much of it as I can.  The local sourced stuff will be a challenge this first while since it is winter in Saskatchewan - can't get much local produce right now.  But for next year we will be much better set since I am going to have grown a bunch of stuff and will freeze and store it so that will help keep it more local.

My plan is also to post on here at least once a week to talk about how it is going, food and exercise because that is certainly still part of my plan - since along with the other stuff my activity has also slipped quite a bit.  But I am going to get back to the 5K progress (by the way I am going to restart on week 5 where I left off) and I am going to see if I can find a once a week squash partner because that seems like it would be one of the best ways for me to get back to some great fitness that is also a tonne of fun.