Highs and Lows

Great news! I went shopping this week because I was tired of pulling up my pants all the time and I found out I needed to go down two pants sizes instead of one! I definitely wasn't expecting that, but it was awesome! This puts me to a size 4 now and I honestly have no idea when I was last this size... MAYBE 8th grade at the latest??? My weight seems to be varying in the 125-128 range. I'm happy with where I'm at. I haven't been trying to lose anything for a while now, just letting whatever happen happen. I'm trying to still exercise and eat nutritionally regularly, which brings me to the "low" of my post.

I'm having a harder time lately running on each of my training (for the half marathon) days as I should be, these last two weeks. I think part of it is because we've been working on getting into the new groove of things since moving and such. And I am finding I'm especially having a hard time getting to bed and waking up at a decent hour since Jon started his job at FedEx. Jon's shift ends after midnight, and I am having a hard time getting myself to bed before he gets home. I take advantage of the time while Koen is asleep and Jon is gone to get some things done. And I simply seem to have a hard time going to bed without him. So lately I've been going to bed much too late for early morning runs. I'm trying to work on helping Koen sleep through the night because he still wakes up several times during the night and it does make it even harder to get up earlier in the morning when I am up and down several times in the night. I'm finding I'm starting to feel more tired in the mornings now.

I've still been exercising (P90X) regularly, though not getting in all of the running that I should be. So why exactly am I blogging about this??? Because I feel I am having a "low" and need to put forth more self discipline and I think if I publicly blog about it, I may take more responsibility for my choices and be more likely to do something about it.

What else can I do to help myself? I'm deciding right now I've just got to get to bed earlier so that even if I am waking up several times in the night to help Koen, I won't be as exhausted when it is time to get up for a run. After all, I'm not trying to get up extremely early in the morning.

Moving on... the half marathon Meagan and I are participating in, is a week from Saturday. I am excited and really looking forward to it. Overall, my training has been going very well. I did a 12 mile run a couple of Saturdays ago. That is the longest I've ran at one period of time before and I was really pleased. I felt great the whole time and really enjoyed myself. I could have been happier with a shorter time, though I still feel good about how I did considering I went uphill a good amount of the time and I didn't feel exhausted at the end.

I've been experimenting with energy boosters that are available to runners. They have things such as small packages of gels and gummies that are all designed to give you more energy. Some of them are loaded with caffeine and others are not. Some sounds extremely disgusting and others, not so much. The gel I've had is definitely something to get use to. The texture is the weirdest part, as well as I have yet to find a flavor that I really enjoy. Though I tried some things that are much like a fruit snack and so far, I prefer them much more. They tasted like a simple strawberry fruit snack and I like having something that I'm familiar with and actually enjoyed the flavor of. I've only tried these things out a couple of times for a couple of my long runs. I expect I'll take something for the half marathon as well, just in case I feel I need it along the way.

Ok, I better be going. Especially if I plan on getting to bed somewhat earlier tonight! I will keep you all updated as far as how the half marathon goes and being better at running as I should.

I hope you are all still working on living healthy lives full of nutrition, regular healthy activity, and happiness. Remember that we are all still here for each other.