Good Monday morning to you! I hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready for the week ahead.
I had a really hard week last week, and everything was affected. My job is super stressful right now. Hopefully it is just all this stress that is what is giving me daily headaches, and has me feeling generally run down and exhausted all the time. In fact, yesterday I drove to the greenway to meet my husband for my long run and fell asleep in the car waiting for him. When he got there, he told me I was in no shape to attempt a long run, and we went grocery shopping instead, and then I came home and took a nap. Saturday was a good day though, and I got in a good three mile run on my new Hoka's, and I spent the day with my kids, which really helped my heart and my stress level.
Here's a recap of last week's goals:
1. Continue to log all of my food with My Fitness Pal. Nope! I only logged all my food for one day last week. With the stress at work, and how I was feeling, counting calories was just one more thing, and I just didn't get it done.
2. Follow my training plan, and average 10,000 steps a day. (I'm trying a new training plan for my June half, and I really want to stick with it this time. It will definitely be a challenge until school is out for the summer, because my time is very limited. In fact, this week, I have two evening meetings in addition to my regular workday, which greatly limits my training time. But I want to make it work regardless.) This also added stress to my week. I jumped into a new difficult training plan, which increased my run days from 3 to 5, and greatly increased my mileage. It was unrealistic, to say the least. I have re-evaluated and realize that until I can get this stress and my body back in check, I should stick with what I know I can do.
3. Finalize my lesson plans for the rest of the year. (In three weeks, I'll be chaperoning a class trip for the whole week, and I will have a sub finishing up the final week of classes for me. I want to get everything ready so that I'm not scrambling at the last minute.) Nope! Failure all the way around for me! Lots of unexpected stress at work took my time and I am not ready for the rest of the year. The classes I teach are the one part of sanity and happiness in my workday, so this is not something I am willing to give up, even though this week, stress and time demands worked against me.
And here are my goals for this week:
I'm changing it up this week, in hopes that I can feel better physically, mentally, and spiritually.
1. Take a multivitamin everyday. I don't think this can hurt. It may not be a cure-all, but perhaps it will help.
2. No soda. Drink water or unsweetened tea, but mostly water. I don't drink much soda, but sometimes when I get stressed at work, I hit the vending machine for a diet dr. pepper. I know that soda is not the proper fuel for my body, and again, this isn't a cure all, but it can't hurt.
3. Take a (planned) break from My Fitness Pal, but focus on healthier choices. Counting calories is an added stress for me right now, and I think I need to take a break. I know that technically I haven't counted 6 of the last 7 days, but those were days where I started counting in the morning and by lunch I had given up. I will not be giving up or throwing in the towel to eat whatever. I am focusing on healthy choices, without logging every calorie.
4. Follow my (old) training plan. This week on my old plan calls for two 30-45 mile runs this week, and an 8 mile long run this weekend, in addition to three days of cross-training (I usually walk to get this in.) My goal is to feel well enough to make this happen, and not worry about doing more just yet.
That's all for this week. Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer, but I am being honest and real. In the past, a week like I just had would have led me to take a break from blogging because I wouldn't want to publicly admit failure. But failure is part of life sometimes, and I can't deny it just by only posting the good.
I hope you all have a good week and reach all of your goals!
