I am pleased with this week’s progress. It seems that taking the week off from the gym didn’t have as ill an effect as I thought it might. I did try to eat under 1200 calories every day to make up for the fact that I simply wasn’t as active as usual. I was in a knee brace until Friday, so I kept my activity to a minimum this week to let my knee recover from the sprain I sustained while running on Monday.
I won’t lie, being forced to be inactive this week about drove me nuts. I am at a place in my life now where sitting for long periods of time is abhorrent, and I find myself moving just to move. It’s funny how much things change in a year. I think this is proof positive that the things I’ve learned in my weight loss support group (separate from the WLS support group) have sunk in and have stuck!
The other day, I went to McAlister’s Deli to work on a project whose deadline is coming up very quickly, and that particular place met my three criteria for a workspace that is not my home:
- Good quality iced tea with free refills + Splenda
- Free wifi
- Protein-packed menu options in case I wanted something to eat
I found myself getting up and walking around the restaurant several times during my 4 hours working there. I just can’t sit still for so long any more. That, and it aggravates my sacroilial joint to sit for long periods of time.
I will be back in the gym tomorrow though, but sticking to the bike this week. I will add the elliptical machine back in next week. Running will have to be put on the back burner for now until I can stabilize my knee some more. I don’t think I will attempt to run even with a brace on just yet. In the meantime, I am going to look up some leg strengthening exercises I can do to continue to build the muscles around my knees. I don’t think I want to really seriously run until I know my knees are more stable than they are presently. Call me crazy, but of all the things I want to be able to do before I get too old to do them, running is at the top of my list. Playing tennis and softball are two of the other things I’d like to resume doing, but I can’t really do either of those very well until I can run again. I really actually enjoy running. It is a time for me to just empty my head and think about nothing except my feet hitting the ground, one step at a time. There is something very soothing about it. While I am not fast, my speed does not matter. What matters is that for me, running is like meditation. I can put a playlist I’ve curated on, start my HRM, and just GO.
And I want to be able to do that without getting hurt, and without anyone bothering me. Running is one way I get “me” time, and lately I feel like I haven’t had any. Perhaps I need to start relearning to swing a baseball bat as well, especially if playing softball again is going to happen. Time to find a bat I like and the batting cages I guess! It would be a great stress reliever for sure. I just want to find more ways to be active.
This week’s challenges are getting back to the gym and successfully avoiding injuries. I’m trying to squeeze one more workout day into my schedule so that when school starts, I can still invest time in my health. I don’t want to sacrifice the time in my schedule that I have to work on improving my health and fitness in the name of work. While my work pays the bills, it does not preserve my health, and I have decided over the past 16 months that I am more important than my work.
I’m less than 20 pounds from seeing a ‘1’ in front of my weight and that is the carrot for me right now–to see a 199 or less on the scale before Christmas would be the best thing ever. That’s one of my year-end goals: get under 200 pounds by December 31. I don’t think it’s unreasonable or unreachable.
I’ve got this.
La Guerra de La Gorda 