Weigh-in:  214.5

Not down, but not up, either, and that is lovely.  I've been exercising most every day this week, but I haven't been logging my food or doing anything quite as hard as I should be.  It's a start and I'm ramping up.  At least, that's my story . . . .  If I don't start kicking it here pretty soon I'm going to have to be upset and start scolding myself.

Anyway, Aunt Flo stopped by this afternoon and she might have something to do with the weight issues and the whole craving sweets and carbs thing.  Or it might just be me.  Either way, I'm happy enough not to be up in weight again.

Exercise log
Justin and I went for a bike ride again.  I love this.  We work pretty hard and I feel really tired when we're done, but we're not pounding the snot out of my joints while we're doing it, and we can chat back and forth sometimes while we're going.  It's great together time and a good workout at the same time.  We went up to the movie theatre again and back home, just under 8 miles.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way home again--needed the fixings for stir fry and more romaine for salads.

We're going on another ride tomorrow.  I'm not sure where we'll go or how hard we'll make it, but he said he'd be willing to go again tomorrow, so that's the plan!

I really do enjoy having this great variety of exercise activities.  I can walk, jog slowly, roller blade, bike, do DVDs, swim when it's slightly warmer (though we do plan to check it out tomorrow), do yoga, lift my 5# weights, crunches, run up and down the steps in my house, dance like a crazy person in my living room . . . .   That's not a short list!  I can't say I don't have anything fun to do for exercise.  I just have to admit that I'm a stupidly lazy person and I need to get my butt moving and enjoy the moving!  And I am!

Now I just have to get my brain around the concept of logging my food so I can actually work the math and get the numbers all around going DOWN.

It's a process.  I'm getting closer.  I almost feel brave enough to log.  Just not today.

I went for a 3-mile walk this afternoon.  It took me the end of one story and 30 minutes of the next one, so I'm obviously not moving very quickly yet, but it felt good to get out and move my legs.  I'm still really stiff and sore from the run yesterday, so moving was really lovely--got to get all those burs out from my muscles.

My shoes are still wearing in, apparently.  Yesterday, I got a half-blister on the ball of my left foot (just loose skin but no pain) and a full-on blister on the back of my ankle.  The backside one bled on my shoes at work today and bled again during my walk, through my sock and onto my shoe.  I told my husband that no one can ever steal my shoes, now.  They're indelibly printed with my DNA.

I'm enjoying not enforcing goals onto my exercise yet.  I'm not really setting time or speed expectations.  I have a sort of distance goal when I head out but it's just because if I head out somewhere as a destination (end of the road, circle around the housing development), it has a specific distance to and from home.  But if I don't make speed the whole way or if I decide to turn back early, I'm not bothered by that because I didn't have a specific goal to go that distance in the first place.  I'm trying to remind myself that it's not about hitting those self-imposed limitations.  It's not about making a 10 or 8 minute mile.  It's not about making it 3 or 5 or 8 miles.  It's about moving.  About being outside when I can.  About working the muscles in ways that they haven't worked all the rest of the day.

It's liberating.  I got to enjoy just *walking.*  And it was wonderful.

Whoopsie!

I had a post about running on Monday and then completely forgot to post it.  I was waiting to get the distances and times and all that and never managed to get around to it.  I’m going to post it later today, probably post-dating it to yesterday so I can maintain chronological order.  So if you see it and you’re a little confused, that’s the reason right there.

Last night I went to yoga.  It was a big class again, with nine of us, not counting Bonnie.  It’s exciting seeing business pick up, even if things do get a little tight sometimes.

I was kind of irritable when I came home last night so I was really looking forward to the quiet difficulty of yoga.  There’s no huffing and puffing.  No loud music.  Just soft music in the background and quiet talking from Bonnie while we all quietly move through the asanas.  It was exactly what I needed.

We started a new routine last night.  We’d been doing the same flow for several weeks and now we’re doing something totally different.  It was fun to have new poses.  We’ve got chair pose and warrior 2, which are a couple of my favorites.  I do a kickin’ warrior 2.  I don’t know the names of all the other poses yet, but I’ll get them in a few weeks, I’m sure.

There are a few that I still just can’t do like they’re supposed to be done yet.  My calves are too tight for the poses and I have to modify it slightly.  And my hips aren’t flexible enough for a real pigeon pose, either.  I’ll get there eventually.

It was good, strong hard work.  I had sweat dripping down my back about halfway through and it was fantastic.  Last week I left class frustrated and upset at myself.  Last night, I was resting in a pose and thinking, “I am strong, I am able, I am flexible, I am smart, I am beautiful, I am competent.”

I left class feeling fantastic.  Sticky and sweaty, but happy.  I have some new poses to practice on Friday when I do my yoga at home.  I’m getting better at twists.  I’m getting better at plank.  I’m getting better at standing forward fold.

I’m getting better.  And I feel fantastic.

On a completely different note, today is the first full day of the wheat and dairy elimination diet that Justin and I are trying.  The acupuncturist recommended that we try this to see if maybe some of the problems Justin has with getting sick so often and having heartburn and stuff are because of bad reactions to wheat or dairy.  It’s possible.  There’s a little family history there.  So we’re giving it a solid try.

Have you even thought about how much wheat and dairy we eat?  LOTS.  At least if you eat like we do.  I mean, there’s even wheat flour in canned tomato soup!  Almost all of our normal meals are totally out of the picture.

Last night we started this off with salads for dinner.  Delicious salads.  Mine had some sliced chicken and bacon, mandarin orange slices and sliced strawberries, topped with pomegranate vinaigrette.  Justin’s had bacon and sliced turkey and I don’t know what else topped with a Caesar dressing (not quite dairy free but close).  It’s shocking how many of our dressings have dairy products.  Anyway, it was really delicious.  Until about two hours later when we both felt nauseated.  It was really weird.  The only thing we both had in common with our meals was the bacon and romaine.  We didn’t even have the same thing to drink.  We’re both fine this morning, but it wasn’t fun falling asleep with upset stomachs.   I’m really not sure what caused it or how we’re going to figure that out.  But the salad really was fantastic.

The good news is that there are lots of resources with recipes for wheat and dairy free foods.  The bad news is that lots of those items are hard to find in your normal grocery store.  And if they are there, they’re more expensive.  We’ve got food for a couple days figured out, but we’re going to have to go back and search more extensively for other options that will work for us.

Today I’ve got a soup and some fruit.  I’m not sure if the bag of popcorn in my desk is in the clear or not so I’m going to have to do some research there.  At least my breakfast is easy enough—oatmeal, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground flaxseed.  Same thing I’ve been having for breakfasts for months.  One of these days I’ll find some more variety.

I made a big pan of brownies to take to church and then ended up not having them finished in time to take them.  Justin and I have been eating them slowly, but they’re totally off the menu now.  So I brought them in to work.  My coworkers are thrilled, let me tell you.  I hope they eat them all.  I’d hate to have to throw it all away.

I think we’re going to try this for two weeks.  It’s going to be an interesting challenge.  And what a time to do it, right?!  Right over Valentine’s Day and my birthday.  No cake for me.  :(  Hopefully it’ll be worthwhile, though.  At the very least, it’s eye opening about the sheer amount of wheat and dairy that I’m eating on a regular basis.  Those are high calorie items.  Is it possible for me to lose weight easier without those items in my system?

Justin was feeling well enough last night to go running with me.  And we decided that instead of running laps around the pool, we would try running out along the road for a while and then turning back around.  Which was exciting!  I like the track around the pool, but it’s seriously getting dull now.  A change of scenery was thrilling!

Unfortunately, I forgot how much harder it is to run across actual terrain.  There was grass.  And mole-riddled ground.  And little hills.  At one point we ran across loose gravel and soft dirt.  The sorts of things that you look at and think, “Heck!  I can run across that!”  And then you do it and realized that it’s a whole lot harder than expected.

I haven’t mapped out the distance yet but it seriously could not have been very far.  I felt like such a wimp.  I actually had to stop running because of my heart yesterday.  Even though my heart rate monitor didn’t read anything higher than 160 something, it suddenly hurt so badly just above my heart that I had to stop and walk for a while.  And then, after we started running again, I only made it a few minutes before I had to stop and stretch my calves because it just hurt too much.

We decided that we like it, though.  We like having somewhere to run to instead of just running around in circles.  And the difference in running surfaces is good.  And eventually I’ll not be falling over dead from the effort of it all.  So dumb.

Here’s our route—we walked out from the house down and around the corner to the roundabout with the silo where we stopped to stretch for a while.  I think I might ask Justin if he doesn’t mind walking just a little further so we can stretch where I won’t be pointing my butt at passing cars.

After stretching, we ran up the very slight incline to the north entrance to our housing development.  From there we turned north and ran along the trail beside the road.  We ran up to the soccer complex and followed the road into that.  Halfway up the drive was where I had to stop and walk for a while.  But I was able to run again when we got to the field and we ran along the perimeter of the soccer fields.  When we got to the opposite corner, where there’s a bathroom shelter, I had to stop and stretch for a while.  After I was feeling better, we followed a path that took us south and through where they’re building something along the road.  So far, it’s just a patch of dirt where they’ve cut down the trees and pulled up the roots.  Through that, we turned south onto the trail and back to our development.  We ran back to the silo and then walked the rest of the way home.

Once I’m feeling more up to it, we’ll run all the way around the soccer fields and then back up the driveway to head back down the trail instead of taking the shortcut.  But I just wasn’t feeling up to it yet.  Even better will be when we run sprints on the fields increase our foot-speed.  And we’ll find out how to round out our run so it’s a nice length.

It’s a slow progression, but I’m still impressed that I’m running at all, weighing as much as I do.  I ran down a small set of stairs yesterday and was disgusted to feel my stomach bouncing up and down as I descended.  It’s frustrating how slow this is taking and how much fat I’ve allowed myself to drag around.  I want out of this fat suit!

I’ll have to fill in the times and everything later when I have my watch.  Same as the distances once I can get on and find out how far we made.