My week started off on a bad note: I came home from work on Monday feeling exhausted and lethargic, and my stomach hurt for some reason. I was planning to work out anyway, but then my boyfriend came home and started talking to me about his day. Of course I don’t mind, because lord knows he listens to me endlessly talk about mine, but the longer I stood still and listened, the less motivated I felt to work out. He suggested taking a rest day, and I admit I didn’t fight the idea very hard.
A rest day is fine, but then I ordered pizza and wings for dinner. And I didn’t eat just one wing, or a few. I devoured a barnyard’s worth of those bad boys. When I entered my meal into my food diary, I was stunned at how many calories I had just consumed.
Tuesday was time to redeem myself, right? I went for a run that evening that turned into limping around and stopping to stretch every five minutes. I gave up on the running part altogether and just walked. I came home discouraged and angry and frustrated. I don’t know what the issue is. Almost instantly, when I try to run outside, I get a deep pain in both shins. And I think I can train for a half marathon? I came home, ripped down my 5K training schedule from the wall, and threw it away.
Finally, Wednesday, I got a great workout in. I have the Les Mills Combat set, and I have never done the hour-long workout. I decided to give it a go last night and hopefully make up for two crappy days. I felt pretty strong, definitely sweating and working hard, for the first 40 minutes, then suddenly hit a wall. I had 20 minutes to go and felt like I was going to die. I really wanted to finish, so I modified what I had to and completed the workout. Booyah!
I definitely earned my shower last night! I was sore almost immediately after the workout, so I knew I’d be feeling it today, and I certainly am. It felt good to finally have a good day.
Once upon a time, a bad day would have been an excuse to write off the entire week, go for broke, pig out, and forget about working out the rest of the week. I may have struggled to get this week started, but I am proud I didn’t let it turn into a week-long binge. I have a long, long way to go, and my weight loss so far isn’t even noticeable, but changes like this in mindset and attitude are crucial to me finally getting to my goal.
