This is how I spend the majority of my week. In my car. I commute about 1.5 hours each way to work...when I'm in the office. When I'm on the road, I travel all over the greater Toronto area and beyond. So I am sitting on my butt A LOT!!!! I've made some rules for the car. No eating in the car (except for breakfast which is 2 hardboiled eggs) and if I'm doing longer trips to Barrie or Peterborough, I must allow myself a half hour to get out and walk around after my appointment with my client. It is important to get up and stretch a bit before my long drive home.
The eating rule is obvious. I used to frequent drive-thrus regularly. Before (losing weight), while I was driving I'd mindlessly shovel snacks into my mouth. Snacks that were completely unhealthy. But now, I can fall into the pattern of eating too much of a good thing (ie: almonds). No more almonds for me except in very controlled circumstances. I can't handle bulk almonds anymore. Sadly, I have no willpower where they are concerned. Almonds are not evil, but it just reminds me that I am thisclose to binging if the inclination ever took hold of me. That is scary to me.
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| This is what I look at...a lot! |
The best way for me to pass time in the car is to listen to books. I download them for free from the library, and sit back and enjoy. It makes the time pass quickly, and prevents me from daydreaming about inappropriate things like eating. If I find myself feeling sleepy, I will stop, get out, get a coffee, and get on with my trip. Sometimes just walking around for ten minutes can wake me up too. Because I spend so much time in my car, it is imperative that I run most mornings. Which means waking up super early. My morning run sets the stage for the rest of my day. I've had some really bad days and I'm convinced it's because I didn't run. I also get real cranky when I don't run. Running totally lifts my spirits. That's why I run 5 out of 7 days. I force 2 rest days on myself because I know I need them.
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| My new trail shoes. Although they are boys shoes yet again, they do have purple in-soles and purple markings on the back!!!! |
I bought trail shoes today. They were a super good price and since I run on trails 70% of the time, I figured, why not? My hubby fell in love with the same shoes and he bought them too. Now we truly cannot run together. That would just be silly! I also wanted to buy my 3 season coat today, but I waited too long and there were no mediums left. I was a tad bit bummed but my boss Carol called the Burlington store, they had one and she's going to get it for me on Thursday! Score! And because of my employee discount, I get it at 55% off!
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| My soon to be 3 season jacket. I, of course, got it in purple! |
Yesterday I met a woman at the Running Room who used to be a sprinter and wanted to try long distance running. Who knew sprinters had no running endurance? Makes total sense. They are trained for short bursts of speed. Makes me feel good that if I had to run a 10k race against an Olympian sprinter, I'd have a fighting chance of winning. She's currently doing 2:2 intervals (2 minutes running, 2 minutes walking). She needs 2 minutes to recover and I just know it's because she's sprinting for two minutes and tiring herself out.
She's promised to come to the run club tomorrow night so I can teach her to run. Carol (my RR boss) introduced us and showed her my newspaper article from the Spectator. She was amazed that seven months ago, I struggled to run for a minute and can now run 11k without stopping and with a 7:09 per kilometre pace. I amazed myself to be honest with you. I never dreamed I'd be able to accomplish what I have with running. I was a complete couch potato, and now I'm a pretty decent runner. Just goes to show you that if you really want something bad enough, you can do anything!