For the last few days, after waking up, I’ve been spending some time in bed, running my hands along my body and man, I’m liking what I feel. I’ve been running, on average, around 30km a week for almost a month now. Some weeks a little more and some a little less. I initially wanted to do 40km per but it’s harder than I thought to find time for myself. Regardless, I’ve been more disciplined than ever before and it hasn’t been hard for me to find the motivation to get out the door. That rhyme was unintentional. I do have my off-days but I’m generally okay. Even today I did 11km although I had about five hours of sleep. Not bad, eh? I’m going to feel damn exhausted in a few hours though…
There have definitely been some tricks to help keep myself on track. I think it’s been really helpful having a concrete distance goal; that way, I can plan out my weeks in advance and ensure that I can set aside the time for my runs no matter how packed it may be. I used to run at night but lately I’ve been running in the mornings and early afternoons. By doing my laps first in the day, I’m more likely to have the energy and to fully commit to it. Before, I would leave my runs for last, after everything else in a day and I would often use an outing that ended much too late as an excuse to skip a night run. Now that I’ve been reserving this time for myself, it has encourage me to make people work around my schedule instead of the other way around and my decision to run generally does not depends on other events planned in my day. It’s great. I’m giving myself the time to work on me, which is something that always keeps me going. I’ve also paired running with tuning into podcasts and it definitely has been keeping me really entertained. This week I’ve learned a lot about cockroaches, walruses and Sea-Monkeys. Did you know walruses can be around 3000 pounds? And Sea-Monkeys are actually human-altered brine shrimp? An hour goes by much faster than listening to the same ol’ run track I use. When it comes to bringing yourself exercise, I’ve heard it’s very helpful to do things step-by-step. Instead of sitting around, battling with idea of going to the gym, etc., it generally helps when you just start by put on your gym clothes and running shoes first. At that point, you’re just one step closer and you’re more likely to pull through. I totally think it works. For me, strangely, it’s taking a shower and putting on makeup almost as soon as I wake up. I feel like once I prepare myself for the day, it’s a waste and it’s quite hard for me to sit at home. Makeup’s expensive shit, man. And thank god I usually don’t sweat. When I’m done my run my makeup’s still fresh and I’m good to go for the day. Having a routine in general definitely helps too. I think it helps condition body and mind to be ready for the dash. I always give myself some time to sip on decaffeinated Earl Grey and listen to opera to help wake myself up. Having all these things together just gives me all the willpower and now it’s all easy-peasy.
It’s just really exciting that I can finally see some results. I haven’t looked at a scale at all but there’s no denying that I’m losing some flab. I’m nowhere as skinny as I want to be but I’m very satisfied with where I am now. No more belly spilling over my waistband, my sweats are starting to feel loose around my thighs and butt, and running in general is so much easier without all those extra pounds. I just need another month. Another thing I’m super happy about.. I know it’s not the way to go but having been running so much, I haven’t had to pay much attention to my diet at all. I eat what I like, until I can’t anymore. I think my meals are general pretty healthy but I haven’t cut down on my sweets at all and I eat a lot. Maybe around 100g of chocolate a day? Just a couple of nights ago, I essentially finished a large bag of Ruffles All Dressed chips on my own. And I’m still losing weight. I have to say that’s pretty sweeeet.
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Woke up from an ant crawling on my body… signs of spring.