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| Starting to feel normal again. |
The past few weeks has been chaotic. Between events leading up to my European trip, to the actual trip, to the aftermath of coming home and dealing with the jet-lag...oh the jet-lag:-( It took me a full week to get back on my normal sleeping schedule. Funny, I didn't feel the jet-lag going to Europe, just coming home. Was in bed most nights by 8pm and up super early all week. Finally starting to feel like myself again. Back on my regular eating and exercise schedule.
In a jet-lag haze during the week, I did something I have never done before. I deleted my last blog. Don't ask how it happened. I'm not sure myself. It happened from my phone. With the push of a button, it was gone. I don't even have it in my to try and recreate it. It was about my London trip. In a nutshell, I met people, I walked a lot, I saw a ton of stuff and almost got killed by the fast moving vehicles that drive on the wrong side of the road. And I missed my family...a lot!
When I got back from my European adventure, I hadn't run since the half in Stockholm on the 13th. I started running regularly again last Sunday. And I'm back to running 5 days per week. It's what works best for me. I haven't been back to the gym in weeks. And I will go back. But I think I'm going to look at the classes. I felt bigger going to the gym. I like the way I feel and look when I run. Just running this past week has made me feel a difference in my jeans. They are getting looser once again. That and I've had little dairy and fruit and no nuts. It would be awesome if I could have a trainer all the time, but I can't afford that. And the yoga and spin classes will do me well and make me work on the areas I need work on. My core especially with the yoga. I'll still do the machines for my shoulders and arms, but all the leg work I was doing? I don't think it's as important. I get lots of leg work through running.
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| My runs over the last week. I'll add 2K to my Sunday run till I get to 20K. |
I've had conversations with several people over the past few weeks about weight-loss versus maintenance. I've been asked a few times what I think is harder. Losing weight is hard work for sure. And mentally, it's more rewarding. When I was obese, I thought that all my troubles would go away if I was just normal size. And I had no lofty ideas about what my final weight would be. Initially, my goal was to be able to shop in regular size clothing stores. That meant fitting into a size 14. Sounded good to me. I wore size 24+ when I started. I never thought that I'd be wearing a size 8 and fitting into (M) clothing.
I'm not even sure how getting down to the size I am now happened. It just did with running and eventually, no matter if I ate less and exercised more, my size stopped changing. I just stayed the same. I guess this is where my body naturally wants to be. And that's fine. When I was losing weight, it was exciting. My body changed fairly frequently and it was so motivating to see the results. Kept me on plan. I had a goal I wanted to reach, which was to just keep seeing changes.
Once you hit maintenance, that stops. I work just as hard as ever, but I see minimal change right now. And to get any change, I have to work twice as hard. I'm not complaining mind you. My options are very limited right now. I either keep working as hard as I ever have to maintain my results, or I don't and start a steady weight gain again. My European vacation was a great lesson for me. Showed me that I cannot slack off even for a couple weeks without it affecting my body in a negative way.
I exercise daily. I eat a fairly regimented diet and have had to let go of a lot of foods I love for good (ie: grains, refined sugar). As much as I'd love to just eat whatever I want, I can't. And if I ever start doing that, it means I have given up on my health and I pray to God that never happens. Because no matter how much work I have to do now and have been doing over the past 3 years since I began my lifestyle change, it is worth it. The life I have right now is worth it. My family is worth it, and so am I.
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| Being back to work means eating out again. There's always something on the menu for me. |