As far as my diet goes, this week has been much better than the week before. Jerry and I are back to eating whole foods (albeit only for a few days so far) and I’m already feeling ten times better. It’s interesting how much of an impact our diet has on how we feel. We’ve all heard that a healthy diet and exercise are essential to looking your best, but this is such common advice that it’s hard to even imagine.
One thing I’ve noticed over the past few months is that my running speed is closely related to my weight/diet. There was a period in the fall when my mile pace dropped to around 9:00, then as I gained weight or just wasn’t eating well, my pace went up to around 12:00.
Over the weekend, after weeks of not eating well, my 0.4 mile morning run felt like a 10K race at an 11:00/mile pace! This morning, just two days after going back to eating whole foods, I was at a 9:55/mile pace and today’s run felt a million times better than last week. Less effort and faster. I know I’m not that healthy in two days, so it has to be my diet.
Anyway, it’s been a quiet week. My birthday was last Wednesday but I don’t like celebrating my birthdays so we didn’t go out to eat or have cake or anything like that. Since I don’t have a car during the day right now, I’ve been doing a lot of small projects around the house (things that only take a few hours at a time – like touching up paint, cleaning and organizing cabinets, mending clothes, and even using scrap 2x4s for my bedroom Make a few nightstands).
It was so fun to do wood projects in the garage again! I didn’t do much woodworking over the summer because I was exhausted. I did a lot of sewing in the fall and winter, but I think I’ll focus on some fun woodworking projects this summer.
Noah’s girlfriend came over a few days ago because she wanted me to help her sew some Valentine’s Day gifts for Noah. Valentine’s Day is her favorite holiday – isn’t that fun? ! This is the first time I’ve ever heard someone say their favorite holiday is Valentine’s Day. This will be her first Valentine’s Day in a relationship and the gift she made is so cute. Noah doesn’t know she’s making something for him, but I think he’ll like it. (I’ll post a picture once she gives it to him.)
Finally, onto the meat of this article…my weight!
Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I’m a pound heavier than I was two weeks ago, but I know last week (and the weekend) was higher. I feel pretty bloated, but eating the last few days has really made a huge difference (I can always tell by the way the ring wears – sometimes I can barely get it off, but now, it goes easily along my Finger slide. )
For the next week, the plan is to continue eating (mostly) whole foods. Also, just this week I’m going to add another block to my morning runs; I haven’t added distance at all since September (except for a few random runs where I felt good and wanted to run further a little). Adding a block only requires running an extra 0.1 mile, but I don’t want the thought of, “I have to run further!” to stop me from my morning runs altogether. So this week I’m going to test it out by adding a block and see how it goes.
I feel confident going into this week – hope everything goes well!