Emily and I have decided to go back to this blog to get us back on track with eating and exercising. We are both seeing and feeling the effects of a bad diet and lack of exercise. In my case, I was at the peak of my physical fitness level a couple of years ago when Emily and I did the metric century ride--that was the third year for me of heavy training (two years of triathlon training, then the ride) and I was in GREAT shape. After that, I managed a year and a half of moderate but regular exercise and reasonable diet. I'd occasionally fall off the wagon and gain weight or stop exercising for a few weeks, but I always got back to it.
All that ended this year at Easter. My weight was pretty good at that point (not as low as the 137 I was at Katie's wedding; that weight is my ideal, but I was fine with the low 140's where I hover when I'm not totally vigilant), and I ran the Color Run with no problem. And then I stopped. Stopped exercising, stopped eating well. And now I'm in worse physical shape than I've been at any point in the past 8 years and my weight is up at least ten pounds, and maybe more. I haven't weighed myself in ages because I'm too scared to face the number.
Over the summer I had my usual conflicts with exercise--I normally exercise on my lunch breaks but since Brian went back to work two years ago I don't get lunch breaks in the summer. Instead I spend two hours running Connor from Catonsville to Hunt Valley and then going back to work, and then I have to work late every day. That's no excuse really--I could have gone for runs at night when it was still light out. But I put it off and didn't do anything and told myself I'd get back in shape this fall. And then August hit and Connor's spleen went kablooie and since then we've been in endless doctor's appointments and clinic visits, and between that and Claire's stage crew schedule and freshman team schedule (both of which involve me having to pick her up from school, so I have to leave work early to do that) and my Girl Scout schedule and Brian's teaching schedule, I'm lucky if I take one lunch break each week (and normally I'll use THAT lunch break for running errands and shopping for supplies for scouts).
I'm also dealing with my usual diet meltdown--I'm fine during the day, but as soon as I get home I eat everything in sight. Halloween was ugly (well, not Halloween itself, but the week afterwards when we had leftover candy). I have no willpower when faced with sweets. I have probably six different ways to track my calorie intake now and I'm using none of them.
So here's my goal: I need to get my weight back to the 145 range to start. That's a minimum (well, it should be a maximum). I don't know how far away that goal is because I don't know what my starting point is. Tomorrow is Tuesday, and since that's our traditional weigh-in and start day, that's what I'll do. I may have to do this primarily through diet, so my first step is to dig up my fitness calculator password and start counting calories again (note: Just did that. It says "sarahfran90 has not logged in for a month. She might need some encouragement." You think?). My second goal is to get back to the point where I can run three miles without collapsing. It's horrifying how quickly I get out of shape these days. I miss my 20's! I'm not sure how I'm going to do this. Well, I know HOW to do it but I don't know when this will happen since it requires at least four days a week of exercise and optimistically I can only see managing two days. Seriously, I need suggestions here. I already get up at 5:30 to start getting Claire off to school. My lunch breaks are essentially non-existent. We have evening activities every week Monday - Thursday and often Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are eaten up by scout activities. Also, it's cold and dark at night and I don't have a treadmill. I'll bring my bike back inside and set it up on the trainer. I can use that on Monday and Wednesday evenings when Brian is teaching, so it's at least some exercise, if not as heavy as running or real cycling. But if I'm really, really good and dedicated (hah! Like that has ever been the case recently) I can get two days on the bike, one or two days on the treadmill at lunch, and maybe one day of exercise on the weekend.
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