Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 3

It's hard to believe it's only been a week since my last post, because this has felt like the longest week ever. Usually time goes by unbelievably fast!

Posting these Wednesday Weigh-Ins again has been so helpful in getting back on track with my diet and exercise. Getting started was the hardest part, but now that I feel like I'm in a good groove, I feel pretty determined to see it through. And the fact that I saw such good progress in the first couple of weeks was motivating, too.

Running is still HARD. Of course, I don't expect that it'll feel like it did back when I was running regularly and/or training for races. But I just hope it starts to feel easier as I continue to build mileage, because wow, am I out of shape.

This week:

Wednesday- I think I wrote about this last week. Ran 0.80 miles, 12:46/mi pace, average heart rate of 150 bpm.

Friday/Saturday- When I woke up on Friday morning, I let Joey outside and when I opened the door, I smelled smoke really strongly. I thought maybe there was a fire in the neighborhood, but it was 3:00 in the morning and very quiet; I would have heard if there was something like that going on. Still, it was strong enough that I woke Jerry. He told me it was from the Canadian wildfires.

When the sun came up, the sky was so hazy looking. The visibility was terrible. I couldn't even see the trees at the other side of the marsh across the street, which only happens when it's *very* foggy outside. I looked at the weather app, and the air quality was piss-poor (and yes, the smoke was from the wildfires).

This is where the "old Katie" started to nag me. A few weeks ago, I told myself I would run on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; since "old Katie" had a habit of being very all-or-nothing, it would have felt like I somehow failed if I chose not to run on Friday due to the fires. But I could hear my therapist's voice in my head telling me that I was only practicing self-care; running in such bad quality air would definitely not be taking care of myself.

Still, I was worried that I was subconsciously using it as an excuse to procrastinate or skip my run. Trying to let "old Katie" go, I ultimately decided that I'd skip the run Friday and try for Saturday; if the air was still terrible, I'd even put it off again. The hard part was simply the change in plans--I thrive on routine--but this is an obstacle that I've needed to work on for a long time. A change in plans doesn't have to offset my goals.

It rained Friday night, which helped clear the smoke quite a bit; on Saturday morning, it was much better. I headed out before I could change my mind, aiming for anything more than 0.80 miles (my previous run). It felt hard, like all of the runs have felt so far, but maybe slightly less hard than before. I ran 0.85 miles with a 12:43/mi pace, average heart rate of 155 bpm. This is interesting, because my previous run's heart rate was 150 bpm and I felt HORRIBLE, but at 155 bpm for this one, I felt (slightly) better.

Tuesday- (I'll explain below why I didn't run Monday) I set out to run anything more than 0.85 miles. From the very beginning, my body felt heavy and I could have sworn I was running backwards by how slow it felt. Since I couldn't care less what my pace is, I just focused on trying to reach the distance. I truly thought I might have to stop midway, but after half a mile, I could "see" the finish line and that was enough to make me push on. I was going to stop at 0.86 miles, but I was practically in front of my house, so I just continued until hit 0.90.

Despite feeling terrible, I'd run 0.90 miles with a 12:34/mile pace and average heart rate of 154 bpm. Since I was deliberately going very slowly to try to avoid getting to the point where I can't breathe, I was really surprised to see my pace was faster. So maybe I am improving a little, just not in the way I hoped. (Like I said, I don't care about my pace as much as I do the distance and especially the *feeling*; I ultimately want to be able to run three miles and have it feel easy again.)

The reason I ran Tuesday instead of Monday was because Jerry and I spontaneously decided on Sunday morning to go for a bike ride at the Metropark (this led to sore hips and thighs). A spontaneous bike ride is *extremely* unusual for us. Ever since lockdown, we sort of got into the habit of being far less active in our free time. We've never been one of those couples that goes out kayaking, cycling, running, etc. every weekend (that would be great, but it's never been us).

In fact, I couldn't even remember the last time I rode my bike. Three years ago? Five? Jerry even got our bikes tuned up last summer and we never. took. them. out. So, when I was feeling kind of antsy on Sunday morning, I told Jerry that I felt like *doing* something--I didn't know what that meant, just that I had some energy to burn. He suggested going for a bike ride (probably not even being serious) but I actually thought that sounded like a good idea. And now that he has a truck, we're able to easily take our bikes somewhere to ride (we don't have sidewalks or bike paths near home, and it's pretty dangerous to ride on the roads).

We parked in the same place that Jessica and I used to park for our long runs when we were marathon training. One direction of the path leads into the Metropark, and round-trip is 10 miles (I'm surprised I remembered that, considering I haven't done a long run in probably seven or eight years).

It wasn't too hot or sunny, which is why I ended up really enjoying it (if it had been sunny, I probably wouldn't have gone). There were a lot of people out walking, biking, fishing... it was rarely busy when I used to run that route, so it was nice to see people out being active. And it was inspiring to me to make me want to be more active, "just for fun".

We took our time and chatted the whole way, and we really enjoyed it. We stopped for a picture on the bridge where we'd had our first kiss back in 1999!

Remember that time I went for a long bike ride with my helmet on backwards? Hahaha, Jerry never lets me forget it.

We both said we should go again next weekend; the whole thing, including the drive, only took about two hours and it set a good mood for the rest of the day.

Anyway, I feel good about my activity for the week. I did all three runs, increasing the distance (just slightly) each time; and I did exercise when I didn't even *have* to ;)

As far as my diet... three weeks in, and I've still been making some variation of beans and greens for dinner. I usually cook every other day; I'll make four portions and we eat it two days in a row. It's so odd not having to feed kids! Of course they're welcome to eat what I cook, but beans and greens aren't exactly the most enticing for 20- and 22-year old boys.

If I were cooking for just myself, I would eat dahl literally every day, but I've been making a variety of things to keep it interesting. I've been taking pictures and at the end of the month, I'll do a post of all the variations I've made. I honestly think that the beans and greens are what is making my weight drop like it is. We haven't had any processed/convenience food (for a while, Jerry was obsessed with breakfast burritos--tofu scramble with potatoes, peppers, vegan cheese, and chopped vegan breakfast "sausage" on a tortilla--and we ate it way too frequently).

The beans and greens are so filling that I don't even have thoughts of snacking after dinner. The sodium reduction alone is probably responsible for the large drop in what I assume was water weight. After last week's large loss on the scale, I assumed this week would be negligible; but once again, I was pleasantly surprised to see the scale moving along in a downward direction.

I was at 159.6 last week, and this morning I weighed 157.4.

It feels SO good to see progress. My poor food choices over the last couple of years had been hanging over my head and just felt so heavy all the time. But I guess I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to change it. I want to keep this momentum and make some permanent (healthy) habits!