Just an Ounce at a Time

It’s been three months and a day since I ran / walked the Country Music Half Marathon. I’ve been pretty sedentary, for me, since then. Now sedentary as I define it means walking around town at lunch, walking thousands of steps at work each day, and climbing about 20 - 30 floors on the stairs at work every day instead of using the elevator. I’ve done some hiking, as you can see on my hiking blog, and I try to do an hour of water aerobics once or twice a week. So it is not as if I have been a total couch potato. But it also has meant not getting out and running and walking 4-6 miles before work, and sleeping in on Saturdays instead of getting out with Team in Training and putting in another 8 – 13 miles.

Partly it has been laziness. It is very easy each night to say “I won’t get up tomorrow and run but I will the day after,” then repeat that the next night. It is tough getting up early and missing out on sleep. Without having to do that, maybe I would stay up a little later reading or working on the computer, and then realize that I would only get 6 hours of sleep if I got up and run, so I would just defer it.

And partly has been the foot pain, which just kept getting a little worse. I thought by resting the foot more it would go away, but it never did. The cortisone shot actually made it worse for a couple of weeks but now it feels better, so it is time to try some miles again.

I’ve noticed my weight creeping up. My pants and shorts are all feeling a bit tighter. I don’t own a scale but there are scales downtown in the banks. Every time I would get on one my weight would be just a little higher since stopping intense training. Not good, because from January to April I lost 11 pounds by working out so much and was pretty close to my ideal weight. I noted the other day that I have gained 6 pounds of that back since the race on April 25. That translates to only about an ounce a day on average for three months, but it adds up.

So enough is enough! Since I will be a fashion model for a night in less than 3 weeks, I want to be in good shape for that. Therefore, my goal is to lose at least 3 of those pounds in that time so I will look pretty good strutting down that runway! Yesterday, I got up and walked and ran four miles, running about 20 minutes of it. That is probably only the 5th time I have run since the race! It made my right knee a little sore, so this morning I walked 4 miles but didn’t run. Hopefully if I can keep doing this and watch the snacks, some of those extra pounds will come off by the time I strut my stuff in the fashion show!

Later today, I am going to hit the elliptical machine for 40 minutes or so, and the weight room. We fashion models have to stay in shape! :)