More Than The Scale

I confess. It’s been 11 days since my last run.

It’s Saturday and about 45 degrees. I’m so excited that the snow is melting, you have no idea. (OK, probably you do). I’m also glad this week is over. I’m leaving one part of my life and starting an exciting new chapter, but the transition is painful and onerous. I spent over 24 hours of the past week staring at spreadsheets – not my usual work behavior. The whole process is making me a little nutty.  Also the weather hasn’t helped.

But now I’m in the home stretch. It is gorgeous outside (when did 45 degrees became beach weather?) and I don’t have to look at a spreadsheet all weekend. Nothing is really hanging over my head except a few dreadful emails that I plan to kick off Sunday night.

It’s my week to weigh myself. I’ve discussed in past posts (here and here) how the scale is one of many tools I use to evaluate my progress.  I try to weigh myself once a month, although sometimes it ends up being every other week. (And sometimes, I admit it is more than that). Anyway, I’ve lost about 4 and a half pounds this month, which is just dandy for me, but when I take stock of my other measureables, there have been ups and downs, to be sure:

• Steps – Yikes. I only made my goal of 8,000 steps/day once this week, making it my worst week of the year.
• Runs – No runs this week. I got to the gym on Monday for my personal training session, and didn’t even stay after to run.
• Food – Not terrible. I’m sticking to my food program, although I did break down and eat peanut butter. Also, last night I had popcorn, even though I was very full. I didn’t need it. And I knew I didn’t need it. But it was awfully good. On the plus side, I haven’t been binging or stress eating or any of my usual habits when things get crazy.
• Sleep – Horrible. Many nights I had 3 hours or less. It’s been brutal. This is not because of insomnia, but because I was up working into the wee hours.
• Mood – Hard to say. For most of the week I was exhausted and stressed out. I really didn’t like not running. I was somewhat short tempered. On the other hand, I have this underlying optimism about the near future. I’m getting out of a difficult situation and my future looks better and better every day.

Anyway, today I had to make a tough choice. I had a bunch of errands to run this morning, and a family commitment tonight (which I should be getting ready for now). In between I was planning to clean my house. But it’s 45 degrees and sunny and I wanted to run. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do both. And my house really (really) needs a good scrubbing. But I decided to run after all.

It’s been 11 days since my last run, and every day I don’t run it gets harder and harder to get out there again. Even having made the decision to run, it took me way longer than I expected to put on the running clothes and the shoes and get my butt out the door.

But I did it. I ran 2.76 miles. Not fast. No time records. But I really enjoyed it.
I think I’ll do it again tomorrow.  🙂