The Hidden Benefits

Mondays, right?

Nothing more to be said, usually. We all roll out of bed with our Game of Thrones hangovers thinking "Why, old and new gods and lord of light and mother of dragons, why?"

More realistically, we THINK those questions, but due to the quicksand filled fishbowl that is our brain at the start of the week, it mostly comes out as "Hodor, Hodor Hodor Hodor, Hodor?" For me, this condition can last the entire day. By "day," I usually mean it's Wednesday and suddenly I'm somewhat aware of my surroundings.

I don't think I was conscious of just how sluggish my days had been feeling until, well, they weren't. Last week, I took up a small but harder-than-it-sounds-for-someone-like-me challenge: run 6 days in a row. Not run far or hard, just get outside in the morning and put in at least a mile from Saturday to Thursday.

The "getting out of bed" being the biggest challenge, of course

Waking up was shockingly easier than it had been over the last few months (during which the snooze button had become that ultimate bad-for-you best friend). Running was a tad harder, but the weather was kind and I easily got through the week, building a little more distance each day. I deliberately decided not to time myself or use MapMyRun. This week wasn't about speed or time improvement: it was purely to wake my body up after a long period of once-a-week walk/jogging.

Shockingly, it REALLY worked! It was about 2PM on Monday when it dawned on me that I had been awake all day. Not "awake" as in "not falling asleep under the soothing buzz of an office fluorescent light," but physically and mentally alert in a way that I hadn't realized that I'd been missing. When you work in an office environment, it's dangerously easy to let the immobility of the job make it feel okay to, well, feel immobile. I'd been walking to the water fountain rubbing my eyes as if it was normal, but this week, I learned it really didn't have to be.

I can't promise this elevated feeling will last forever, but for now, it's a great encouragement to tell me that I'm doing something right. When you don't lose weight easily or automatically graduate to adding another mile onto your run with confidence, it's hard to feel motivated to put so much effort into health. For me, this is a nice reminder that there are positive results not measured on a scale.

Oh look... another person!

Why hello there!  A new blogger is in our midst... who've thought!?  I'm sure you're all wondering, who is she?  Where did she come from?  Is she running this marathon too?  In short, I'm Erica, I'm from Ronkonkoma and hello no!  All due respect to Betsy and Emily, they have far more grit and determination than I do, but marathons are just not for this lady.  Although I do intend to begin training for a 5K sometime soon (I bought new sneakers and downloaded the app so that counts for something right?) I don't really foresee any marathons in my future.

So why am I here then?  I've been asking the same question which is why this post has taken so long.  I think that I was invited to join this lovely blog because much like my beautiful, amazing blog-mates I've struggled with my body almost my entire 33 year existence.  I remember being only 12 years old and already questioning the girth of my thighs in comparison to my friends!  It's been a long journey with this body and it's only over the past year and a half that I've learned how to take care of it and feel good about it and be proud of it!  Which is sheer insanity to think about.

I've done the diet thing before, my method of choice was Weight Watchers for a long time, primarily because my mom was a lifetime member so I had access to all of her accounts and point counters for free.  And it worked for me... twice.  I lost a good amount of weight and felt great!  And then I gained it back, and then I gained it back again and then gained more than I ever had before on top of that.  It was clearly time to do something different because this wasn't sticking.  My (new at the time) boss convinced me to join Jenny Craig with her.  It had worked for her previously so I figured it couldn't hurt!  And it didn't!  I've lost 60 pounds to date, but it wasn't really thanks to Jenny Craig and her food.  Although I am still eating their food 2-4 times a week (my goal is set for 15 more pounds) it is out of sheer convenience for those days I get home and don't feel like cooking.  Oddly enough, being on JC actually taught me how to eat properly.  It taught me portion control and using vegetables to fill my plate, all the same basic tenants of "healthy eating" we've all heard before, but for some reason on this plan it clicked for me.  It may not work for everyone but I'm grateful that it works for me.

So I guess that's primarily why I'm here, because to some degree I like to think I've beaten the curve.  I tackled the largest part of 'fitness' by taking a fairly large amount of pounds off my body.  But doesn't mean my hard work is over, like I said I have 15 pounds to goal, a number of yoga poses to master, 5Ks to run and then comes the ultimate challenge... maintaining it all.