A Mommy Story

After BlogHer, I was a sloth. This isn’t a new thing, though – I usually come home from BlogHer so mentally, emotionally, physically and any other -ally exhausted that even falling into bed takes effort.

A week and a half later, I’m starting to emerge from the fog, only this time I have the reminder of hey you, you’re supposed to be getting healthier, remember? You’ve done your best imitation of a rock all week – it’s time to get moving again.

So after three nights of telling myself I will run tonight – no excuses! – only to then find excuses, I tugged on my sports bra, laced up my shoes and went outside for a run. I wasn’t ambitious, choosing to go back a week on the Couch to 5K program and do the Week 6 Day 1 intervals.

Starting my first run, my body seemed to click back into sync, and soon I was gliding along at a steady jog. But my brain then got cocky and decided oh yeah, this is a breeze! and my pace immediately sped up as I ran past neighbors, smiling and waving as if I was the freakin’ queen of running.

It took about a minute and a half for my body to realize it couldn’t keep this pace up, and the last three minutes of the first interval were agony as I slowed down, gasped for breath to get oxygen to my pissed off muscles, and tried to remember I like running, right? RIGHT?

I used the first walk interval to catch my breath and reevaluate my strategy. When it was time to run again, I forced myself into a slower pace with far better results. Finishing the entire run, I felt good. Still tired, still dripping sweat, but I didn’t feel like I used my last ounce of energy.

I’m going to try jumping back into week 7 next time and see if I can get back to a 25 minute run again. And I know that I need a goal to keep myself motivated, so I’m scouting out new 5K races in my area to sign up for. If any locals want to join in, let me know!

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But wait – here’s the really insane part of the story this week. For a week and a half, I didn’t exercise, I slept a lot and watched a lot of TV, and despite efforts to eat well, still ate a lot of junk during that time, including a steak from Outback (yum), a bowl of ice cream, a slice of Bob Evans’ Strawberry Supreme Pie (yummmm….) and at least two fast food trips.

Normally, this behavior would result in a 3-4 pound weight gain, as my body usually sees any slip as a chance to jack up the number on the scale. But after a week and a half of slip ups, I somehow LOST TWO POUNDS. I’ll gladly accept the loss, but after working so hard to force that number down for months, a week of no exercise and delicious treats takes it down effortlessly? How is that possible?

So here’s to being two pounds lighter and running again. Let’s keep it going.