Week 1 Report: It's All About Consistency

Last week I mentioned in my blog that I was going to clean up my diet and get back on track for my marathon. It has now been one week since making that commitment. While I have not eaten flawlessly this week (it's hard to just stop cold turkey), I did WAY better than I have done lately, and I am feeling much better as a result. I did make 2 big mistakes, which I'll get to in a moment, that hindered my progress; but overall I did make progress. My weight is down a little, the pain in my achilles has subsided considerably, my energy level is up, and I feel much more emotionally on top of things. I feel more inspiration and focus than I was feeling before, and I feel much more on track to being prepared for my marathon (only 20 days away!).

The two big mistakes I made were first, I chose to take the day off from eating well on Saturday. I had been to an overnight mom's retreat (it was really awesome; it is actually meant for LDS homeschooling moms, and even though I don't homeschool my kids, I came away from it very enlightened and inspired; if you're interested in finding out more about it, go to momsretreat.org), and as a result I decided to take a retreat from healthy eating as well. That's one of my weaknesses that I am still working on correcting: taking vacations from eating right whenever I go on any sort of vacation. So Saturday turned into binge day for me, and it wasn't pretty. As a result, I gained back some of the weight I had lost earlier in the week, and I went back to feeling lousy for the next couple of days.

I realized--again--that when it comes to eating right, consistency is key! If we eat really well for a few days and then eat lousy for a day or two, we are seriously hindering our progress. Now don't get me wrong. I am in no way saying that you can never have a treat again. On the contrary, I believe the all-or-nothing approach is like trying to break up: If you're not emotionally ready, you are sooner or later going to rebound back and have a crazy binge of all the junk you've been so carefully or desperately trying to avoid. So consistency! Write it on your bathroom mirror so you won't forget. Or better yet, put it on the door of your fridge where you'll have to look at it every time you're going for that less-than-ideal treat.

The retreat I was at this weekend took place in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, and on Saturday morning we had the opportunity to go on a little hike and watch the sun rise from the tops of the hills. It was a beautiful and inspiring experience, and on the way back down, I was overtaken with the desire to run down. So I had a nice little run back down to my cabin and felt very satisfied by the time I got to the bottom. Unfortunately, my achilles did not feel quite as satisfied. In fact, it was so not satisfied that I found myself limping around for the next several hours. I suppose trail running was not the brightest idea I've had this week given my already tender achilles tendon. That was the other big mistake I made that accounted for not quite as much progress as I had hoped to see by today. It is feeling better now, but this little experience has reminded me of the need to listen to my body more.

So in summary, I would call this week a success in that I made progress in the areas I was working on, but I definitely didn't get the A due to a couple of poor choices. That's okay, though. Life is all about learning from our mistakes, so forward march!

School Days = New Routines

L insisted that I take a picture of him "with my blankie and sucking my thumb."

My big boy!

My little baby started preschool today. Sniff. Sniff. I have to admit that as much as I've been looking forward to this school year and having a few hours of time all to myself for the first time in over 9 years, it is hard for me to see my little ones growing up. As I've watched each child start school, I always ask myself if I've given them all they need to survive in today's world. I know there's always more I could have done, but I, as well as every other mom out there, am doing the best I can and hoping that's enough.

As we start into a new school year with new schedules and new routines, why not take the opportunity to work a new, healthier routine into your and your family's day? Now the trick with this is to just do one thing at a time. Don't try to start 5 new things at once or you will likely end up overwhelmed and discouraged, and all of them will fall by the wayside. Just choose one thing that you feel you can stick with, such as taking a 10-minute walk every day, making it a priority to have dinner together as a family, establishing 10 to 15 minutes of moving time with your kids either in the morning or after school, including a fruit or vegetable at the table with every meal, etc. Even if it seems so insignificant, making a little change like this is just one step in your journey to a healthier lifestyle. And that's the way to do it: one baby step at a time. Every little change you make will add tools and knowledge that will benefit you and your family for a lifetime. So choose that one thing, stick with it the best you can until it has become a habit, and give yourself a pat on the back for doing something good for yourself and your family.

The Silver Lining

Earlier this year I trained for and ran my 3rd half marathon, and it went great. I cut more than 20 minutes off of my previous race time, coming in less than a minute behind my husband and feeling really happy with my performance. After that the plan all along was to continue on and train for my first full marathon. I really thought everything would go smoothly since I was already in the best shape of my life and running better than ever. But the 3+ months since finishing the half marathon have been plagued with injuries, illness, discouragement, and lack of motivation. I've gained about 12 lbs. in that time, and while I've managed to make it up to 20 miles on some of my runs, training has been sporadic and, to put it bluntly, rather pathetic. In fact, I've hardly run at all for about 3 weeks now, and the marathon (which, of course, I've already signed up for) is in less than a month away.

A few days ago someone suggested that maybe I should just bag the marathon since my training and preparation are going so poorly, so I've been pondering about where to go from here. I've really thought a lot about everything that's happened, and the conclusion I've come to is that all of the problems I've been having are a direct result of my inner fears relating to running a marathon. It's a distance I've never attempted before, and I think deep down part of me doesn't believe I can do it and/or doesn't believe it will be a good experience. Those fears have then manifested themselves as injury, illness, depression, junk food cravings, etc., anything to sabotage my training and give me an excuse to fail. So I can either let my fears win by dropping out, or I can continue forward and prove to myself that I CAN do this! I CAN do hard things! It's all about what I truly believe I'm capable of anyway, so if I can let go of those fears and doubts and really believe that I can do this, then I know I'll succeed.

As you might have guessed, I've decided to do the marathon still. But for this last month, there will be some changes, particularly with my eating habits. I am really going to clean up my diet by once again cutting treats and processed foods down to a minimum and sticking with whole foods. I'm actually excited to do an experiment with my nutrition to see how much progress I can make in one month after all of the damage I've done. While I have no illusions that I am going to come back and qualify for the Olympic trials as a result of eating well for one month, I am confident that this way of eating will help me have a wonderful experience come race day. I believe I will have more energy and motivation to train, I will be able to drop a lot of that recently-added weight, and I will be injury free by the end of this month! Add to that some emotional work to help me let go of the doubts and fears, and voila! Insta-marathoner! So let the game begin!