Tiptoeing back into it

I know, I know… it’s been a long time again. I’ll be honest, I was hiding from here. I was ashamed to even come here and update. It’s been a difficult few months as far as my weight and running go. Last I updated I was doing well with short runs and I am happy to report I even had a few longer runs that were highly successful. But, the nasty pain has returned and is being downright evil!

No real answer for the pain yet, but the doc has me going for more tests. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really mean much one way or the other for my running. Last run (Sunday) the side pain came back with a vengeance and has stuck around every day since. It’s pretty constant in being annoying, but it wavers in severity. My biggest fear is that I will get out onto the race course for the half next month and the pain will hit me within the first 2 miles and I’ll be screwed!

Anyway… how about some good news on the race front?  I was supposed to run a race last month, but after being sick all week I bowed out. To my surprise my oldest decided she still wanted to race for the first time. So, off we went for our Mom & Em Day together, kicked off with a kid run in Esko. She loved it and is currently prepping for her first 1 mile race next weekend. I’m so proud of her!!! Here’s my munchkin heading toward the finish line!

I also completed my first mud run at the beginning of the month. That was a blast and I love running with the friend I went with. We always have entertaining runs – whether training or racing! Here we are as Warriors!

Outside of running, I’ve been beyond frustrated with my weight. I haven’t changed my lifestyle all that much in the past 3-4 months, or at least I didn’t THINK I had, but I found out that changing my form of birth control was wreaking  havoc on my body. It’s amazing how quickly hard work be undone and how quickly your self-image can go to crap! In 3 months I gained 17 pounds and I’m not happy!! Instead of waiting to see if my body would sort itself out, I switched back to the old form of birth control and have a lot of work ahead of me.  

It’s crazy how quickly it happened, but I have to take responsibility. I wasn’t 100% on track and my running has been here and there. I’m back at it this week and doing so much better and FEELING better. I have 3 runs scheduled for this week as I hit the height of my training with two long runs the next two weekends. And other than a little “off night” tonight due to doctor’s orders for the HIDA scan – I’m supposed to eat a highly fatty dinner, so I’m having fun with it – I’m feeling more in control.

My biggest issues are slowly starting to fade. I’m not hungry all the time anymore – I learned AFTER the fact that progesterone will give you horrible cravings and make you feel hungrier than usual, on top of causing headaches if you are already susceptible to them (that would be me). I went from having pretty good portion and craving control, seldom snacking and just generally feeling content with eating meals and a couple snacks a day to eating almost all day, every day and never really sitting down for a real meal. I felt like a bottomless pit! I didn’t even really notice because I was so used to eating when I was hungry before that I kept doing it, but didn’t realize how much MORE I was eating. I’m back on the water wagon outside of just rehydrating after runs. And I’m slowly getting my energy back. I am shocked at how run down I have been, with no major motivation to get out for runs, softball games, etc. It didn’t help having a couple of rounds of sickness thrown in there, but just this week I have felt more like myself again and I’d like to keep it that way.

So, I guess the moral of my story is… listen to your body!! I should have corrected the problem within the first couple of months, but was told my body may sort itself out. I didn’t pay attention to all of the signs my body was giving me that it was less than happy until AFTER the fact. Now I’m noticing all of the things I missed on top of the very obvious signs that made me take action. Lesson learned the hard way… yet again. J But I never really have been one to do things the easy way!