This week was much better than last when it came to my diet. Jerry and I are back to eating whole foods (although only a few days ago) and I already feel ten times better. It’s very interesting how much of a difference diet makes in the way we feel. We’ve all heard that a healthy diet and exercise are crucial to feeling better, but it’s one of those pieces of advice that’s so generic that it’s overwhelming to even think about.
One thing I’ve noticed over the past few months is that my running pace is closely related to my weight and diet. My mile pace had dropped to around 9:00 for a while in the fall, and then when I gained weight or just didn’t eat very well, my pace went up to around 12:00.
Over the weekend, after eating so poorly for a couple of weeks, my 0.4 mile morning run felt like a 10K run, and that was at an 11:00/mile pace! This morning, after just two full days of eating whole foods again, my pace was 9:55/mile and I felt a million times better during today’s run than I did last week. Less effort and faster. I know I didn’t get much fitness in two days, so it has to be my diet.
Anyway, the week passed without incident. My birthday was last Wednesday, but I don’t like celebrating my birthday, so we didn’t go out to dinner or cake or anything like that. Since I don’t have a car during the day now, I’ve been doing a lot of small projects around the house (things that only take a couple hours at a time, like touching up paint, cleaning, and organizing). closets, mending clothes, and even building a couple of nightstands for my bedroom out of scrap 2x4s).
It was so much fun getting back to work on a wood project in the garage! I didn’t do much woodworking over the summer because I felt exhausted. I sewed a ton over the fall and winter, but I think I’ll make sure to do some fun woodworking projects this summer.
Noah’s girlfriend came over a couple days ago because she wanted me to help her sew something for Noah for Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is his favorite holiday, isn’t it interesting? This is the first time I’ve heard someone say that his favorite holiday is Valentine’s Day. This will be your first Valentine’s Day in a relationship and the gift you are giving her is SO CUTE. Noah doesn’t know she’s making something for him, but I think she’ll love it. (Once she gives it to you, I’ll post a photo.)
Finally, to get to the point of this post… my weigh-in!
Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I’m up a pound from two weeks ago, but I know it went up last week (and over the weekend). I felt really bloated, but eating really well the last few days has made a big difference (I can always tell by the way the ring fits; sometimes I can barely get it off, but right now it slides easily along my finger) . )
For next week, the plan is to continue eating (mostly) whole foods. Also, just for this week, I’m adding another block to my morning run; I haven’t increased the distance at all since I started in September (aside from a few random runs where I felt good and wanted to run a little further). It’s only 0.1 more mile to add a block, but I don’t want to think, “I have to run more!” to make me stop running in the morning completely. So, I’m going to try it this week by adding a single block and seeing how it works.
I feel confident going into this week. Let’s hope it goes well!
