Still Moving!

Hey!  Me again.  😄

It's been a week into my journey back to being an active person.  

Last week I worked out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.  I took Saturday as a rest day. 

Most of those days I got up early and did the workout first thing in the morning to avoid the heat.  Because I 100% know that I hate working out in the heat and will find all the excuses to not go.  

This week I have already worked out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today.  Planning on a swim tomorrow, hopefully in the outside pool and the sunshine!

Gotta love purple flowers on my first run of the summer!

Love seeing the blue sky after a very rainy spring!

Love the flowers throughout the neighborhood!

Sun coming up as I finished my walk on Sunday.

Doesn't seem like much.  The distances weren't great and the time wasn't long.  But I had said I wanted to work out at least 30 minutes every day and I did that.  

So I'm taking the win.  

I did eight run/walks that totaled 19.4 miles.  One bike ride for 6.2 miles and a swim that was 437 yards.  

This totals up to 25.85 miles of exercise for the first eleven days of my working at being active again.  

Doesn't sound like a lot but when you compare it to zero miles it sounds like quite a bit.  ;-)  

Perspective.  

Tuesday I woke up with a headache and just had a hard time getting going.  I had summer school at 9:00 am so I didn't get my run done.  This meant I had to do my workout after I got done at noon.  I'm not going to lie, I didn't want to do anything when I got home.  I was tired and all I wanted to do was take a nap.  But I knew if I did that then I wouldn't do the workout at all.  

So I put on my running shoes, got the dog and headed out the door.  

At the local park there is a path that is 1/2 mile long.  I have been trying to run (slow job really) at least one lap every walk.  Today I got 6/10 of a mile.  Doesn't sound like much but I'm just wanting to do a teeny bit better each time than I did before.  It doesn't always work but I'm trying to be okay with that as well.  

Tuesday my run was a little farther, a little faster and the actual run portion was a little longer.  

I'm going to take that all as wins.  

I haven't gotten on the scale since the first part of last week.  I don't want to be discouraged so I'm ignoring that for right now.  

I have been logging my food into MyFitnessPal just to keep an eye on how much I really am eating.  That has been pretty stable overall.  But it's good to keep an eye on that to be sure. I've also been drinking more water.  I can tell that it will be really really nice to have a bathroom right next to my classroom next year.  Maybe I won't geel like I have to stop drinking water because I can't go use the restroom when I need to.  It's a lot easier to step out of the classroom for a couple of minutes (depending on the class) then it is to leave and have to go on a short trek there and back and be gone five or more minutes.  Chaos often ensues in that scenario.  lol  

It's a lot of small things.  I'm hoping by the end of the summer they have added up enough for me to see and feel changes.  

I know it won't happen overnight. 

Although I do wonder why the hell the weight goes on so fast and goes away so slow?!  It is grossly unfair!!

Joe and I have a spot to hang our race bibs and medals in the living room.  Every year we put the medals on big medal holder we have in our bedroom and start fresh in the living room.  Because of all the weirdness of the past two years I had just left our medals and bibs out in the living room.  But after putting in all of the events we have planned I decided that it was time to go back to the tradition of starting fresh each year.  You know, in June.  😉  

When I was putting the medals I earned in 2020 and 2021 I realized a couple of things.  First, I have done A LOT of different events over the years.  Which is really cool.  

I also realized that even though I feel like I have done NOTHING the last two years that isn't entirely true.  

I did a 13.1 mile bike ride for the Father's Day event my brother-in-law created at the beginning of COVID. 

I did an Aqua Bike event for Best in the West in 2020 (swim and bike) and got first place, first place in my age group AND last place.  I was the only one. 😂  It was virtual but I still did it at Foster Lake and had a fun day.  I also got my five year belt buckle because I've done five years of events at Best in the West.  That is super cool!

In 2021 I did the 5k at Best in the West, mostly so I could keep working towards getting the belt to go with my buckle.  😊

I also did the Silver Falls 7 Miler in 2021.  

So not maybe at the level of years past, but not sitting on my ass completely.  

Today for the first time in what seems like FOREVER I ran one mile without stopping!  

Slower than slow but I did it!

The crazy thing is that I was looking at my Facebook memories this came up.

Twelve years ago today was the first time I ran a mile when I first started running.  Here I am, back at it.  

On the one hand, it's hard to be starting over.  Everything hurts and I'm so slow.  

But on the other hand I haven't given up.  

I'll take that as a win.  😀

Seems like there are lots of things in the win column right now.  

Starting Slow but Starting

Well it's been a hot minute since I last posted.  September of 2021 to be exact.  I've been tired, stressed and cranky.  I hate being all of those things!

Here's a short list of the things that have been on my plate this school year:

• Teacher in the hardest year ever.  Which is saying something because teaching online wasn't a picinic!
• Youngest daughter moving to Florida for a new job.  Now all three of my kids live in far away states.  Makes for a sad momma!
• Teaching this year.
• One parental unit that lived with us for a month because their dementia had gotten significantly worse while we looked for a care facility.
• Teaching this year.
• One beautiful niece who went to heaven.  Makes me tear up just typing that.  
• Teaching this year.
• Other parental units with various health issues.  
• Have I mentioned teaching this year?  

I have pretty much stayed off of social media for the last six months.  The negativity in general and the teacher bashing was more than I could emotionally handle.  

Emotionally handling things with food was definitly a thing the last two years.  

And now I'm starting over.

Again.

But I'm working really hard at being proud of myself for taking the steps to start over again.  

I have regained all the weight I lost.  And I mean all of it.  That's hard to deal with.  

I have been really angry with myself for getting right back to this spot once again.  I've had a terrible time trying to get back to the mentality of being a mover and a shaker. 

It hasn't been easy!

I look in the mirror and see a fat lady.  Not going to sugar coat it, I see an ugly fat lady.  It's really hard to feel that way when I look in the mirror.  

I've been going to a counselor since last November and it has helped a lot.  Right now we are working on body image issues and using food for comfort.  Not easy conversations to have but it's good to have them.  I promised my counselor and my doctor that the Monday after school got out I would start making changes.  

That was the day before yesterday.  

Monday my friends Josh and Wendie came over and we walked around the neighborhood.  Only 2.1 miles but the goal was to just get out and move.  Mission accomplished!

First time with new Brooks on the first day back at it! 

Gotta love seeing purple flowers!

I had decided that instead of being pissed about not being where I used to be with my fitness, I would truly approach it as starting over.  So my goal to start with is moving at least 30 minutes every day this week.  

Tuesday I got up early and did the exact same route as the day before but I ran the 1/2 mile trail around the local park.  Actually it was more like a slow, painful trot but I was moving faster than a walk so it counts.  I almost gave up a couple of times but managed to get the whole 1/2 mile done.  So that was the win for the day. 

Wednesday (today) I went to Corvallis to meet Wendie at the pool there and have the first swim since December.  The swim before that was in June, so I have done three swims in a year.  lol  

We had planned to use the outside lap swim pool but unfortunately the swim team was using it and no lanes would be open until 8:00 am.  I am teaching summer school for a couple of weeks so that wouldn't give me enought time to swim and clean up and get back to town.  So we went inside and use the indoor pool  Little bit of a bummer but it was fine.  Again, the win was that we went.  

The pool was a 25 meter pool and boy did that feel long!  I only went 400 meters but I am defintely feeling it in my arms tonight.  

But I have worked out every day this week for at least 30 minutes.  

It's only three days but hey, it's three days better than I did last week.  

I really want to get back to being the person who working out was just a part of my normal routine.  So I'm planning to work really hard in developing those habits again during the summer so that it's easier to keep them when school starts next fall.  Hopefully, next school year will be a LOT less stressful.  That would certainly help!

Here are the crazy things I have signed up to do in order to try and motivate myself to keep moving:

We are doing a one day relay near Hood River next month.  Four of us in the van and three legs each.  I know it won't be nessicarily pretty but if I am consistent for the next four weeks it will be better than if I did it tomorrow!  

I also signed up for a 24 hour race.  This is where you have 24 hours to see how far you get doing loops.  I think the loop is 2.4 miles for this one.  I have done a 5k, a 10k and a half marathon in the past.  I have never done a marathon.  Partly because I worry about the time limit that most marathons have.  With this format I basically have the full 24 hours to get a marathon done.  Many people have far loftier goals like 100 miles.  lol  The nice part is that I can rest if I need to without the pressure of the time limit.  My thinking is that I will try to get most of it done during daylight hours so that the last bit will be "easier".  I have some work to do to get ready though.  

We will also be signing up for the Silver Falls trail weekend.  I will probably do the 7 miler again.  Last year wasn't pretty.  No training and then walking with a major migraine.  I was SLOW!! The goal this year is to go significantly faster than last year.  

Here's a funny thing.  In my head, SLOW meant that I did something like 3:30 last year.  I went to look it up and I got 2:44.  

That shows how badly my mind makes it seem like I did way worse than I actually did.  

So before this realization I was planning on shooting for less than three hours.  Obviously I did that last year.  So now I'm shooting for less than 2:20.  It's the weekend after the 24 hour race so we shall see how I do.

I haven't signed up for anything at the Best in the West weekend yet.  I am kind of waiting to see how things go for the next couple of months.  I will probably either sign up for the 5k and try to slap down last year's time.  Or I will sign up for a sprint triathlon to remind myself that I have been a triathlete and I can be again.  

I took before pictures on Monday.  I won't put them here yet, not quite ready for that! Another goal I have is to have a new set of pictures to compare (positively) when I go back to work in the fall.  When I weighed on Monday I was 270.2.  Hopefully that will be a lot less by the end of the summer.