Once again…

I’m writing about struggling with my running. I think this is going to become a regular segment on this blog. As you can see if you have been keeping up with my daily workout page, I haven’t been having a daily workout. Not even close. I wrote a couple weeks ago about struggling and that I was going to challenge myself to running at least a mile every day, no matter where I had to squeeze it in. This past week I didn’t run one single day. So you can see how well that challenge went.

There are two things I’ve figured out:

1. I am not good at sticking to things. Daniel pointed this out to me the other day and it was a major discovery for me but he’s totally right: I have a pattern of being gung ho about something for about 2 weeks. And then I taper off. I get behind, I get lazy, I find a new show to watch on Hulu plus, and I’m done for. I wonder if that means I have ADD… hmmm…
2. My dietary choices drastically affect my running and how I feel about running. A couple of weeks ago, I had left over steak and rice for lunch one day at work and that evening’s run was grueling. It was a real struggle to just keep going. The next day I had the splendid quinoa with black beans and tomatoes and my evening run was easy peasy lemon squeezy. I feel light on my feet and like I could run and run and run. Now, I only ran 2.17 miles, but for me, that’s a good long way. I had a chicken sandwich a fries for lunch today and my evening run was another struggle. So, there you have it. I can’t deny the facts.

All that said, I have to stick to something at some point. I’m signed up for a 5K on April 14, exactly 2 weeks from today. So, that gives me 13 more days to get ready. I had planned to follow the Couch-to-5K plan, but that means that by now I’d be running 2.5-2.75 miles each day by now. The most I’ve done is that 2. 17 mile run and that was almost 2 weeks ago. Having barely run since then, I’m not up to speed. So, I came up with a plan:

• Today I was able to run 1.7 miles without walking. It wasn’t easy, but I pushed myself. So, if I can increase my distance by a tenth of a mile each day through April 13, then I’ll be ready for 3.1 miles on April 14:
  • March 31: 1.7 miles
  • April 1: 1.8 miles
  • April 2: 1.9 miles
  • April 3: 2 miles
  • April 4: 2.1 miles
  • April 5: 2.2 miles
  • April 6: 2.3 miles
  • April 7: 2.4 miles
  • April 8: 2.5 miles
  • April 9: 2.6 miles
  • April 10: 2.7 miles
  • April 11: 2.8 miles
  • April 12: 2.9 miles
  • April 13: 3 miles
  • April 14: 3.1 miles (By the way, I KNOW this is going to be hard. I know it. But I have to push myself. I just have to.)
• I am going to use my Vibram Five Fingers shoes for my runs for these two weeks. I wore them the last time I ran and my legs and tush were sore for 3 days afterward (my first excuse for skipping a run). If I keep running and using the toe shoes, it will help to strengthen and tone my bottom half. This is definitely going to take a toll on my body, especially running so much and not being used to it, but it will be great. This is something I HAVE to stick to. I can’t walk at the 5K. I just cant.
• I am going vegan for the next two weeks. If eating quinoa and fruits and vegetables makes me feel lighter, then that will help my running every day. So no more bagels or cereal for breakfast, only smoothies. And no more sandwiches,  burgers, steaks, chicken barbeque, and take out mexican for lunch and dinner, but back to the Daniel fast diet of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and legumes.

So, I hope you’ll help keep me accountable – Lord knows I need all the help I can get! What are you doing to push yourself these days? What is your big struggle in the fight for healthy living? Who helps to push you when you can’t push anymore??

pinterest challenge: completed

Today I’m linking up to the Pinterest Challenge on Young House Love. Once a quarter Sherry challenges her readers to stop pinning and start doing. And that’s just what I did!

This was my original idea:

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I have a soap dispenser in my kitchen for hand soap. You too? Crazy town! Anyway… the dish soap lives in its giant plastic container under the sink so every time I need dish soap (oh…five times a day?) I have to haul it out from the cabinet. I decided to remedy this situation. I have a matching soap dispenser in the bathroom–both are glass. So, my plan was to bring the bathroom dispenser into the kitchen for dish soap and to label them by etching. I had one other experience with etching and it did not go well. Okay, it went terribly. I tried this method and it was an absolute mess. Such a mess, apparently, that I threw the etching cream out. So when I came home with the vinyl letters to try the Martha Steward method, I found no etching cream in the house.

So, onto plan B:

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Being the book nerd that I am, and having been looking for a wreath for the front door for a while, I decided that a book wreath was the way to go. I took the plunge. I had all the materials, so I just went for it.

It was a time consuming project. It was about 5 hours, 4 episodes of Parenthood, and 3 episodes of 30 Rock worth of work (you can see a little Parenthood in the picture above…). Each page had to be rolled, glued to itself, and then glued to the foam wreath. And in the end there’s almost 100 pages on my wreath.

But I’ll tell you what, it looks fantastic (in my opinion). My plan was to hang it on the front door (obviously), but Daniel came home from Bible study just as I was finishing and suggested that outside might not be the best environment for such a fragile item. I had to admit that he was right and so we searched for a good spot for it inside the apartment.

We have an awkward half wall between the kitchen and the living room that I have never quite known what to do with. I put some items from the wedding on top of it, but mostly I just try to ignore it. Daniel suggested that we hang the wreath there, and I was skeptical at first, but once I saw it, I knew it was just the right spot.

Thanks, first, to Sherry for pushing us to start doing! Thanks to Lindsay for the very helpful tutorial. And thanks to my dad for recently giving me a biology style manual from the 70s that I used for the pages (thoughtful, as I work as an editor–but not really something that I can use. Its pages were just the right weight and yellow-ness). I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out!

So… did you make something for the pinterest challenge? Or are you at least doing some of what you’re pinning??

what i wore: pea green sweater.

This is my favorite sweater. I wear it at least twice a week. I have a bit of a cardigan problem (I have a lot!), but this one definitely gets the most airplay.

Now that the weather is getting nicer, my dresses are definitely making more appearances. I love wearing dresses – I mean, who doesn’t?

I am a flats girl. I rarely, rarely wear heels. I only have two pair. But I have lots of flats in a rainbow of colors.

cardigan::ann taylor loft
dress::charlotte russe outlet
tights::target
shoes::charlotte russe outlet
belt::forever21
necklace::target

motivating myself

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I’ve probably said this 100 times. Motivation is hard to find. I am really good at setting a goal, sticking strong to it for a couple of weeks, and then tapering off, making excuses, and giving up or giving in. If you’ve been checking my daily workouts, you’ll see exactly that. I started off strong and lost it fast.

February started showing signs of spring and I got in a few runs outside, which make me totally happy. But the last couple of weeks have been cold again and I’ve been forced back to the gym, which I find depressing. I don’t push myself as hard in the gym as I do outside. So, I’ve made a lot of excuses to avoid running on the treadmill.

I’m really good at talking myself out of things. Really good. I can convince myself of anything if it means I get to take the easier road. I’m lazy. I had my first migraine a couple weeks ago–complete with shooting pain and blurred vision. Immediately following those three days, I had some sort of stomach bug. It was unpleasant. So, I didn’t work out for 5 days. And even though I wasn’t choosing to miss working out on those days, I felt like a failure. And so, halfway through the week I kinda of gave up. Stopped caring. Started eating crappy again.

But then my hubby came to the rescue. We went to the family cottage on the Potomac River for the weekend and brought our workout gear. If it weren’t for him, my shoes never would have made it out of my duffle bag. But on Saturday afternoon, on another unseasonable warm day, he convinced me to head out to the road. And he pushed me. I hadn’t yet run a mile straight (I usually have to stop to walk for a few seconds at about the half-mile mark), but he wouldn’t let me do that. And so, struggle as it was, I ran that mile straight. And then alternated jogging and walking for a second mile. I have him to thank for that.

The week after the cottage was another cold one. Having to work out in the gym is the quickest way to talk myself out of working out. I only worked out twice that week – and once was using the stationary bike. I pretty much just hate running on the treadmill. Luckily, this is what the weather looks like for the next 10 days. So I have no excuse not to work out. It’s been 32 days since I started tracking my workouts. I’ve had some sort of physical activity on 19 of those days. Even though I haven’t lost any weight, and as half hearted as I’ve felt about it, the fact that I worked out 19 days in the past month makes me feel pretty good. And the thing is, I don’t have to be perfect.

It’s okay if I don’t feel like running every day. It’s okay if I miss a day here and there. It’s okay if I just can’t muster the motivation to put my sneakers on. As long as that’s not happening every day. As long as I can motivate myself (or rely on the hubby to motivate me) most days, then I’m okay.

We leave for Europe in just over 5 weeks. And I’m signed up for a 5K in 4.5 weeks. I want to run the whole route, so I have to stay on top on my running. Ever since we finished the Daniel fast, DAB and I haven’t felt great. Our bodies obviously loved the way we were eating and so, at least until we leave for Europe, we’re doing a modified version of it by cutting out dairy, bread, and sugar. And I am going to do my best to run at least 1 mile every day. It takes me 13 minutes or less, so there’s really no reason I can’t fit that in every day. If I can only fit in that one mile, then that’s better than nothing. I didn’t really work out when we were doing the Daniel Fast before, and I haven’t been eating well during the past month of exercising. I’m looking forward to the results of doing both.

What are you doing to motivate yourself?