Torture Report: Clinging to the Wellness Wagon

(G): Oh the holidays get in the way of me staying on the wellness wagon — so do Pop Tarts, Saturdays, a good IPA and well sometimes the sun rising. I can be focused but other times my attention span is gnat-like and I am afraid that comparison is maligning the gnat.

But that’s where I am as we continue to wind down on 2016. I have great days and I have days of great failure.

I am blaming Thanksgiving for my lackluster week, which means I better get it together from now until Christmas because I won’t have anything to blame but myself before the 25th! That said, the week had some bright moments and that wasn’t just the Christmas decorations.

I have been slowly working on getting a slightly faster pace. During my off-season, when I run, I am doing so at .2 mph faster. I know it doesn’t sound like much but it’s amazing how that point-something can really get your attention. The plan is that by the time January 1 rolls around that my pace is a whopping 15 seconds faster per mile. You gotta start somewhere.

I ran on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and I planned on running on Sunday but instead I went up and down my basement stairs about 30 times as I continue to purge my house of unwanted, unneeded items. I figure that has to count for hill work in some parallel universe.

The real challenge this week has proven to be getting off the sugar and the junk food. When the holidays roll around it feels like permission to go wild and eat whatever I want. I’m not the only one who got that permission slip, right?

Anyway, I was eating my way through the holiday weekend until Sunday evening and I decided enough was enough. I got rid of all the remaining junk. I made a huge salad and even whipped up my own dressing. I also made beet juice and drank about a gallon of water. That’s not to say that I didn’t think about chasing all that green, beety goodness with some cake but I refrained. That, of course, was mostly because I didn’t have any cake in my house but I am still calling it a win.

And as all good starts and diets begin on Monday I launched the week with gusto yesterday. I created a wonderful fruit and oatmeal breakfast and about 25 minutes later felt ready for waffles and syrup. But again, I refrained because … yep, I didn’t have either in the house. Are you noticing a trend?

It was time to get back to the strength training after my weekend of overeating, overdoing and nearly having a heart attack watching the Buckeye game on Saturday. I do consider all that extra adrenaline during the football game as some weird sort of cross training.

When I was done with all those squats and lunges and other craziness, my arms and legs felt a little weak and I figured that could only bode well for dinner. If you have trouble feeding yourself then you may not overeat and if your legs are tired you may not feel compelled to drive to the grocery for cake, ice cream or pie. Go with it, it feels like a plan.

As you can see the rest of 2016 will be filled with greatness. What kind of greatness remains to be seen. Great or great failure? I am going to go out on a limb and say likely a bit of both. Until then I will refrain from going to the grocery store for treats, attempt to stay off sugar, and keep eating rabbit food. Who knew the wellness wagon road was such a bumpy ride? These wagons really should have seat belts and some sort of hall monitor.

(L) Every single day for the last week the only thing I can hear in my head is the mantra, “40 days.” I literally cannot get it to stop. It haunts my dreams and my waking hours. Sometimes that is exactly the kind of thing I need to get me motivated.

Thanksgiving week proved difficult on the eating front. Let me rephrase that. I didn’t have any difficulty with eating, it just wasn’t healthy food. I did make an attempt as I made my apple salad for Thanksgiving. It was delicious, but it doesn’t really do the trick like stuffing and gravy!

Back to the mantra. So, every single day over Thanksgiving break I did get exercise. I walked anywhere from 2-5 miles.

Nothing amazing, but I started my 40 days. I didn’t just sit around until I had 33 days left in the calendar year. I also did some squats and began a weight training regimen this week. Tomorrow the muscle soreness should begin to peak. I can hardly wait!

There is something about deadlines that really get me moving and the idea of 40 days seems so doable. So, these next 7 days I will continue to get mileage in the form of running and walking, I will do my weight training and because I know how I am going to feel after a few days I am going to add yoga.