Month: May 2019

I did it. I have run twice this week. If I’m good, I will either run, hike, or ride my bike at some point today. I am feeling better about it, and my wife reminded me that it’s hard to get back into the swing of things, but once you get going with fitness, it snowballs and you feel worse not exercising than you do exercising.

Is it necessary to exercise to lose weight? No. I have hit a decent plateau without doing much exercise in the past few months, but I want to get lower, and I know that the only way to get there is to actually do some sweating. So I’m doing it. Oh, and being in the military, fitness is an important thing, too. So, I’m back at it.

I’m still at the, “I hate starting” phase, but I know that within two weeks, I’ll cross the threshold and be back in the, “I’m looking forward to exercise” phase. That’s where I want to be. That’s where I will be. In the meantime, I will be faking it until I make it.

One of the more difficult things for me in the past few months has been to stay motivated to run. I’ve been averaging about one run a week, and it’s becoming clear to me that once a week is not nearly enough. I ran Monday; it is Thursday. I will run again this afternoon after work, but I’ll have to make sure to run again this weekend. The problem I have is that I have quite a busy weekend planned (well, Saturday, at least).

I have no-one to blame but myself. Sherry works out in the mornings before work, and I respect her motivation and dedication to get it done in the mornings. She also has two extra hours in the morning to get ready. I refuse to go to sleep at 7 pm (which is what I’d have to do to get the same amount of spare time in the mornings as she has). So, I just have to juggle.

The other problem is just making it a priority. I let myself slip here and there too easily. Yesterday, for example. I could have run, but I chose not to. I need to stop doing that. I’m tired of being in the 180’s. I also want to get back to eating breakfasts again.

This has less to do with eating right than it does with me being a doof on the treadmill yesterday after work. I hope it makes you laugh.

I wear glasses because my vision up-close is horrible. I’m far-sighted. When I run, I don’t wear glasses because I can typically see anything past about three or four feet in front of me with clarity, but anything within that range is blurry. I can’t read numbers on my watch, for example, unless they are huge. Anyway, I set out to run on our treadmill last night (it’s nice to run indoors with AC and not contending with walkers, dogs, kids, insects, etc), and I decided to use the Quick Run feature. You push the number corresponding to the mph you want to run, and it starts the treadmill immediately. Only, I made a mistake, and instead of pressing the number for the speed, I pressed the number for degrees of incline. The treadmill responded by starting me running at 1 mph, and I thought to myself, this is weird. I hit the 6 and we’re going 1. I thought maybe I had to press 6 a second time, only the second time I pressed it, I pressed the right 6 (which was for speed). Now, I was running at a 6 degree incline at 6 mph.

Normally, 6 mph is a slow and comfortable run for me, but this was tough. Very tough. I was getting tired quickly, more winded than usual, and my left knee started hurting. I thought to myself, “Wow, not running as much has really taken a toll on me!” I decided I needed to stop for a moment due to the knee pain. That’s when I noticed that I was running at a pretty severe incline. I immediately set it to 0 degrees, started back up at 6 mph, and I felt like I was running with wings on my shoes. After that hellish half mile, I was flying and even raising the speed on the treadmill to run faster.

So, maybe in the future, I’ll incorporate some inclines here and there to help me build strength, but I’ll also be more careful in the future to make sure I’m pressing the speed button and not the incline button. That was silly of me.

This past weekend was another National Guard Drill weekend which means I always have too many carbs. Mostly, it’s in liquid form, and this weekend was no exception. I was able to keep the food carbs limited with the exception of one evening: Saturday night’s Habitat for Humanity Fundraising Gala.

Sherry and I had a wonderful time helping to raise money for a charity we both believe in and support, and while most of the food was actually quite Paleo-friendly, the bread and dessert certainly were not. I did partake in both; they were delicious, and this was one of those “Life events” I encourage others to enjoy. And enjoy, we did!

I haven’t tallied the damage yet; I didn’t step on a scale all weekend or this morning. I will weigh myself after my run this afternoon and I’ll know how many steps backwards I took. My trousers didn’t feel too much tighter this morning, so maybe it’s not so bad. But, I did have the sweats last night, and I do feel a bit bloated. But the run will help even that out quickly.

I know I can’t drink every night, so I typically don’t. I know I can’t eat non-Paleo foods without ill effects, so I typically don’t. It’s always a good feeling to return to my normal diet after a drill weekend. I’m looking forward to eating my healthy foods this week. I can always feel the difference, especially in the mornings.