My 40 year old Body

Aren't I a little young to be breaking down all the time?  I'm only 40.  And 40 is the new 30, right?  Well, according to all my 40 year old friends it is :)  Anyway, I woke up yesterday with my back hurting like heck.  I took some tylenol, and later some ibuprofen, and it pretty much hurt all day but at least I could stand up and walk somewhat normally after all the pills.  I was on the fence about going to the gym but finally realized I'd be dumb if I went.  Grrr, I'm so irritated.  I feel like whining like my 2 year old, my baaaaaack huuuurts.

Today (Friday) was a bit better and I was planning to go to the gym.  According to my schedule I should ride the bike and do legs and shoulders for strength training - nothing that would be too hard on my back.  But Miguel talked me out of it.  "What's one more day?  If you go and hurt yourself more you'll be out for longer."  Ok, I was a bit tired, it's Friday, and I mostly agreed with him so today was day 3 with no gym.  Speaking of no gym, today was weigh-in Friday.  Another ugh.  I am up 1.4 pounds from two weeks ago.  My body is definitely doing the two steps forward, one step back thing.  This is the second week in a row with no loss.  Two more weeks like this and it's back to Weight Watchers for me.

Prior to the back fiasco things were going well.  As you may recall I had a fabulous workout on Sunday.  On Monday I rode the bike and did back/biceps for strength training.  On Tuesday I did c25k, Week 6/Day 1 on the treadmill.  Oh, here's more news.  When I started my run on Tuesday it was hard.  I couldn't figure out why it was so much harder on the treadmill than when I'm outside.  I realized I probably run slower outside.  So I slowed down the pace from 5.0 mph to 4.7 mph.  Much better.  But I hated it.  I want to run a 12 minute mile for crying out loud!  How much slower can I get?  I read somewhere that the definition of running (vs. walking) is when there is at least some point during the stride that both feet are off the ground at the same time. Hmph, I wonder if that happens at 4.7 mph.  Why do I let these things even enter my head?  As if this working out and trying to lose weight thing weren't hard enough I have to go around looking for ways in which I am inadequate.  What was that John Bingham quote??

"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run."

Of course, I'm not sure if I meet the exact definition of running and without a video of myself I'm not sure how I could know (I certainly could not trust someone else to tell me, "yes, both your feet are off the ground at the same time for a millisecond").  But really, how ridiculous is this conversation I'm having with myself right now?  Ack, stop, stop, stop.  I am a runner because I run.  I run, I run, I run.  I know John Bingham would agree with me

I am 99% sure I am going to the gym tomorrow, even if it's just to do my cardio on the bike.  The air at the gym does something good for my brain so I need to get there no matter what.

On the eating front I'm trying something sort of different.  I eat Special K Protein Plus for breakfast sometimes and I was reading the back of the box.  It suggests eating their cereal (there's a shocker!) for two meals a day to kick-start weight loss.  They suggest breakfast and lunch but dinner makes more sense to me since dinner (and after) has been when I'm overdoing it lately.  So, as I feel like I could use something like a kick-start I decided to eat that for dinner for a week just to see what happens.  I might not always eat it for breakfast (I love my Grape Nuts too!) but if I can stick to eating that (and only that) for dinner I might nudge some of this fat off my body.  Lunch will be the biggest meal of my day, which I've heard is better anyway, and I'll be sure to have a late afternoon snack, I don't want to slow my metabolism down by not eating enough.  #1 - I'm curious to learn if I can even stick to it.  It's only a week so hopefully I can.  #2 - I hope it will help me break some of my after dinner snacking habits I've fallen into lately.  #3 - Maybe I will actually lose some weight??

I'm beat.  Thanks for stopping by.