Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 94

Like I mentioned yesterday, I had a great week (as far as my eating habits go, anyway)! I didn't really have many challenges, though. Taking Luke and Riley out to eat was easy--Luke wanted to try Panda Express, which literally had NO vegan items on the menu (or so I thought--I didn't know that their noodles are vegan). The location we went to didn't have any of the new vegan options Panda offers. So, I just ate when we got home.

One thing that I *really* need to do is run! I just have not had the motivation to make myself do it. The 10K that Nathan and I signed up for is in less than four weeks and I haven't been training at all. I'm really trying not to beat myself up over it, because nothing good ever comes from that.

My mood has mostly been sad, given the circumstances with Luke and Riley (you can read about that here if you missed it). Logically, I know that exercise is good for one's mood; it's kind of ironic, really, because when I'm not in a good mood, it's hard to make myself just do it. If I run, I know it will boost my mood; and with a better mood, I'm more motivated to run.

I planned to take Joey for a three-mile walk this morning and then follow that up with a short run--two miles--but I ended up calling it quits after Joey's walk. It was SO COLD; even after walking for an hour, I could feel the cold all the way through to my bones. Being mid-March, I didn't even check the temp--27 degrees--before I left. I don't know how I used to run when the temp was in the single digits! The older I get, the less I can tolerate the cold. (As I sit here typing this, I'm wondering why it didn't occur to me to just run on the treadmill.)

Anyway, I wasn't really sure what to expect on the scale this morning. I was super busy yesterday and didn't get to eat dinner until almost 9:00 last night. I made a vegan version of chicken paprikash and it had a lot of sodium--it didn't taste very salty, but I had to keep adding more salt when I was cooking because it kind of bland. It turned out good, and I ate a big bowl of it. I was sure I would see a gain on the scale this morning (just water weight from the sodium) but I was pleasantly surprised to see my weight was down from last week:

At 143.2, I lost 1.4 pounds from last week. I'm happy with that! I wish that the weight would come off as fast as I put it on, but we all know it never works that way, unfortunately.

I was thinking about how quickly I gained back 25 pounds in the winter and I wanted to figure out why. I think what happened is that when I dropped weight really quickly in the fall--about 25 pounds--it was because I was really overwhelmed and stressed and didn't have much of an appetite at all. I was actually kind of worried about losing too much weight, which has NEVER been a problem for me.

So, I think that once my appetite returned, my body tried to make up for the quick weight loss by giving me a bigger appetite than usual. I try to listen to my body--eating more when I'm hungrier, less when I'm not--and over the past couple of weeks, I think my appetite has been smoothing out. It'll be interesting, if nothing else, to see how this goes from here, haha.

Aside from listening to my body, my main goal for this coming week is to RUN. I need to do it--not only for my mental health, but for the 10K. I don't want to struggle through it. Worst case scenario, I'll do a run/walk method; but I'd really like to try to run the whole thing. 

I'm going to write out a commitment here to hopefully hold me accountable this week: I will run three miles on Friday, four miles on Sunday, and three miles on Tuesday. No goal for speed or heart rate or anything like that; just getting in the mileage at a slow pace will be fine.

Well, I am going to go to bed and try my best to fall asleep early. I didn't get much sleep last night because my carpal tunnel syndrome has been awful ever since I was doing all the painting in my bedroom and bathroom. Yesterday, Noah asked me to fix the waistband of a pair of pajama pants he has and I had to pick apart the seam--I always forget that doing motions like that flare up my carpal tunnel.

It doesn't feel nearly as bad as it did in 2018(?) but I'm thinking I may go see another doctor about it. I saw two specialists last time and had a nerve test (I can't remember what it was called), but the doctor said it was "mild". I wanted to punch him in the throat when he said that. A ten on the pain scale is NOT mild--and that's coming from someone who has had a severely broken jaw and two surgeries to repair it. 

Anyway, I'm getting off track here. I'm going to put on my wrist braces and try to sleep. I'm hoping for another good week (that will include three runs)!