Positivity

I'm working on being more positive with myself, focusing on the things I accomplish instead of the things I didn't. The comment from my dear sister on my last post helped remind me of that. Instead of being frustrated with myself for only running 5 miles, I should be proud that I got out there and did the 5, even though they were difficult. Instead of beating myself up about eating Yogurtland three times last week, I should be proud that it wasn't seven times.

My job is being the assistant to the director of about 15 medical offices in the Salt Lake area, and every other week, we meet with the managers of all of our clinics to discuss issues, present new information, and talk about how things are going. One of the biggest things that my company is promoting is Living Well, both to our employees and our patients. Since we all will have better health if we focus on exercising more and living a healthier lifestyle, it translates to our jobs and how we provide care to patients. With huge changes in the health care system, we are all going to be held responsible for the choices we have control over, and will probably start to see serious consequences if we choose to ignore the issues.

So part of our wellness kickoff was giving presentations about healthy living to our managers. Each person on our admin team took a topic (Eat Well, Sleep Well, Move Well, Stress Well), and mine was Eat Well. I felt a little silly going in front of 35 people who manage employees and run clinics, since I am not the poster child for healthy eating (see paragraph 1, sentence 4). But I did a lot of research and gave a presentation about what had worked for me: never trying to "give up" your favorite foods, looking at healthy eating as a lifestyle instead of a diet, and fads that don't work on a long-term basis. I don't talk a ton about when I lost all my weight, mostly because I feel like it's not relevant to most conversations, and I don't want to be the person who is always talking about weight loss. But it was interesting to give this presentation to people who don't know much about my history or story, and still give information that was useful. It made me feel good when several people came up to me afterwards and thanked me for the information about how to pack a delicious salad for a quick and healthy lunch, without all the lettuce and veggies getting soggy (pack it in a mason jar), or share their own favorite healthy eating tip that can help me as I continue.

My boss gave a presentation in which she mentioned what she calls "drops of awesome." This is a system that her family has initiated, where you focus on all the little successes instead of the big, overwhelming goals. So my drop of awesome last week was cutting out one Diet Coke per day, and substituting water in its place. Oh, and not going to Yogurtland every single day!

6 miles....almost.

I have had a few problems with the last couple of pairs of running shoes I've bought- one pair rubbed my arch and gave me problems, and another pair gave me blisters when I ran more than 6 miles. I haven't been fitted for running shoes since about 2008, and between then and now, I've lost a bunch of weight and really increased my weekly mileage, so I decided to start from scratch and get analyzed.

I found out that I've been running in a stability shoe to correct pronation, when I actually don't pronate at all. From what I've read, I think this is pretty common after weight loss, since bodies will change how they distribute the weight when there is less to carry, so I should have probably done that earlier, but I'm glad I know this now! I tried a few pairs and was amazed at how much more comfortable they were, but I'm always nervous in the running store because I feel like I might pick the wrong one. After many laps around the fitting area, I decided on Mizuno Wave Sayonara, not just because they are cute (which they are) but also because they seem to mold right to the shape of my foot. Most shoes I've worn in the past feel a tiny bit loose on the sides, which is typically where I get blisters, so I thought this might help.

I had a super crazy week at work, so I didn't get to try them out until four days later. I decided to run 6 miles at Liberty Park- since it's a loop, I could run it a couple times to get my distance, plus it has a water fountain and if the new shoes killed my feet, I had a way out. I was really excited, since I hadn't run in awhile and have been doing shorter distances after my eye surgery, and thought it was going to be an awesome run.

So, it wasn't.

Every step felt like a mile, and I could barely get through 5 miles before throwing in the towel. My feet felt awesome, so that definitely wasn't the problem, but I felt sluggish and heavy the entire time. It was really tough and frustrating.

Runs like this make the good runs so worthwhile. The day before I had my eye surgery, I had gone to the gym to run 3.5 on a day that it was about 100 degrees outside. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but as soon as I stepped onto the treadmill, everything clicked. My playlist was perfect, I kept my speed, and I felt great the entire time. I actually went 4.5 and didn't even realize it. Those days are the best, but some runs aren't going to be like that. I get that, and am grateful for the ones that are easy and fun.

What a Week.

So, last week was kind of insane. Last Saturday I woke up with a stomachache that got progressively worse until I was rolling around on the bed in pain and husband took me to Instacare. They couldn't see anything, but it was right lower quadrant pain so they sent me to the ER to rule out appendicitis. Fast forward to eight hours later... One CT scan and two ultrasounds showed very normal organs. So, that was really weird, and a bummer of a Saturday.

Then, two days later, I had surgery on my eye. I had LASIK 5 years ago, and it was super awesome and fab, but my vision has changed enough since then that I had to get a little revision. It was not quite as easy this time around, and I was practically crying on my way to work on Thursday because it was so sensitive to light and I couldn't see anything. But, now it's a lot better, so I'm not quite as dramatic about the whole experience.

This past Saturday, I basically did all the fun activities I'd planned for the last Saturday (which got ruined by the random pain bursts), except we didn't get to go to the water park because I wasn't allowed to get swimming pool water in my eye. But we did go see Jobs (which was medium), then watch football and eat 1.5 large buckets of popcorn, and then I got to have dinner with one of my favorite Provo friends, Ashley! She is due with her first baby (her due date is today, actually!) and it was so fun to catch up and hear all about her life these days.

I couldn't exercise for 5 days after the procedure, but I'm back on the wagon. I went and did an hour on the stationary bike while husband mowed his parents' lawn on Saturday. Then I did a 3 mile run on Monday morning - husband's parents neighborhood does a Labor Day breakfast and fun run every year, so that was really awesome. Kind of like a free 5K (almost).

I signed up for this race so I'm working on getting back to being a long distance runner. The longest I've run since June is 6 miles....so it could be tough. But I'm glad I can use my running schedule as my part-time job, since husband will be gone a LOT this semester!