Today was a good run day. I woke up at 5:30am and almost got up to get ready to run then, but decided to wait. It was a cold Florida night, and we had had the windows open all night, so it was cold, and the covers were warm.
I'm glad I waited. I suited up before taking my daughter to Pre-K, so when I returned, I was ready to run. The weather had warmed up some, the sun was shining, and there was an abundance of butterflies along the dirt road leading away from my house. It was a beautiful day and felt so good to breathe in the fresh, cool air.
I wanted to run another five two-minute intervals today, but decided to stop at four. It just felt right. I am trying to really listen closely to my body this time around and what it is telling me to do.
I was pleasantly surprised by how fast I was running today. I have no idea what my pace was, but it felt like I was flying. I wasn't even trying to, it just happened. I kept feeling like maybe I should slow down, especially after dealing with a stiff, cool, wind for the first part of the run, so much so that it made my eyes water, but my body was telling me it was okay. It was a really good run day, and it felt like I was floating on air. I began to experience that "runner's high" after only about a minute into running.
At one point my right hip area began to hurt again, and I was like, "Oh no..." But as I did a quick survey of how I was running, I realized I was taking shorter strides again. So I changed back to longer strides, and the pain immediately went away. I am coming to the conclusion that, as a taller woman with longer legs (I'm 5'8"), I was meant to take longer strides. Maybe it will help me run faster, too. :-)
I'm starting a new diet today, too. I want to make running as easy on myself as possible, and the less I weigh, the less pressure there will be on my muscles and joints, not to mention all the other fringe benefits of weighing less. And when I say, "diet," I don't mean I'm going on a temporary diet to lose a certain amount of weight. I'm using the new diet as a way of getting back into the groove of healthy eating habits. My goal is to permanently change my eating lifestyle, and it will be a work in progress.
I grew up in a family where eating was associated with love, and there was a lot of focus put on food, too. Not to mention the fact that there was plenty of southern cooking. I took those poor eating habits into adulthood, and it hasn't been until the last decade or so that I have begun to learn what it means to eat healthy.
Recently, I was able to finally get a handle on eating healthy, enough so that I lost about 25 lbs., but when I had the injury and had to stop running, I allowed myself to get discouraged, so before reaching my goal weight, I gained back--as of today--9 lbs. I am teetering at the very top edge of my normal weight range now, and I do NOT want to go back into the overweight range. So today, I am getting serious again.
I need to lose that 9 lbs. back, then continue on to my goal weight. I have chosen to try The Carb-Lover's Diet, by Ellen Kunes and Frances Largeman-Roth, as my vehicle back to healthier eating habits. I just bought the book today, after I picked up my daughter from school. I had seen an article about it in a magazine (titled, "Carb-Lover's Detox"), which peaked my curiosity, so when I happened upon the book in the grocery store today, I looked it over and decided it was definitely something I wanted to try. The meals looked tasty, simple to fix, and within my budget.
Today starts the 7-Day Kickstart Plan. I had breakfast before I bought the book, so it was different than what was on the plan, but was actually very close to the breakfast for Day Two, which was oatmeal with walnuts, cinnamon, and a banana. I had had oatmeal with a banana (made with half water and half milk). So tomorrow, I will have the breakfast from Day One.
My mid-morning snack after my run was close to today's snack in the book, too, since I had taken the snack idea from the magazine article. I had 3/4 cup plain yogurt with 2 tsp. honey and 2 tbs. oats. The only difference was that it was supposed to be Greek yogurt, but I was out of Greek yogurt this morning, so regular yogurt it was.
Lunch was 1 cup baby spinach, 1/2 cup diced chicken breast, 1/2 cup green pepper strips, and 2 tbs. low fat Italian dressing on 2 slices German dark wheat bread. It was supposed to be whole grain pita bread, but since I had plenty of other bread on hand, I didn't want to buy pita bread for just one meal this week.
I found that I was still hungry after lunch, so I improvised and had the banana shake that was one of the breakfast options from Day One. Then I had six almonds, drank some more water, and was satisfied. The first seven days is lower in calories, only 1200, so it's not surprising that with the running I did, even only eight minutes' worth, along with twenty-five minutes of brisk walking, I needed a little more. I lose weight steadily at 1600 calories, even 1800 calories, so I'm certainly not worried.
It's 4:30pm now, and I feel better already. No bloat so far today, which is something I've had to deal with the past few days with my less than ideal eating habits. And when I say bloat, I do mean BLOAT. It was pathetic. I thought my intestines were going to explode. I was a bad, bad girl. My body did not like me anymore. It wrote me a note telling me it was going to runaway from home if I didn't stop feeding it junk.
The hardest part for me will be resisting the ice cream and frozen yogurt (one of my "vices") for the next seven days, but maybe I'll incorporate the banana shake every day to help ease the pain a little.
By the way, this Blog is a work in progress, so stay tuned for ongoing improvements. I am not very Blog savvy yet, so I have a lot to learn.
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