Still Sick

I was horribly sick from Thursday afternoon through today, I am better today but not nearly better. I find myself getting tired quickly if I try to do a lot of stuff and that is very bad. Especially bad given I am in trial right now. Fortunately we are doing a half day tomorrow because I don't think I would be able to manage a full day. I took Friday and Saturday off from working out and depending on how I feel, I will try and do a gentle workout tomorrow. I did not pay attention to what I ate, but I ended up eating healthy anyways. Today, I made it to the grocery store (because I had no food left) and then I slowly (i.e. with lots of breaks to rest) did my laundry and cooked food for the week. As you can see below it is uninspired because it was all about easy to prepare food.

Roasted Red Pepper hummus
Roasted sweet potatoes
Carrots
Turkey Burgers with whole wheat buns
Onions
Reduced fat provolone cheese
Oatmeal with Splenda and Cinnamon
Roast Chicken Thighs
Pears
Bananas
Mango smoothies
Light Yoplait Yogurt

I have been craving hamburgers with buns for some reason (well not while I was sick, before that) so I bought 100 percent whole wheat buns to go with the turkey burgers. That will be dinner all week long and hopefully by next weekend I will feel inspired to make something different and more complex for food.

Pushing through the wall

I do not really feel better today, but then again I do not feel worse. I cannot tell where that leaves me at this point. So, I keep working out and eating all of my usual foods in the hope I will get better quickly. My run this morning was not great, probably because of the cold. I hit a wall at 16 minutes (and yes I know it was exactly 16 minutes) where I suddenly felt like crap. I kept running to see if it would pass and it did eventually but it made the rest of the run rather unpleasant. Really, I think it was all mental and I just had to convince myself to keep running and moving through the workout. This I suspect is the part that trips everyone up in weightloss, the inability to convince one's brain to push through a mental block. I am getting better at it, but it is really hard on days like today.

Exercise a cold

My head hurts, and I can't breathe through my nose. Still, I had a decent run this morning which makes absolutely no sense given my head cold. Admittedly, I usually workout through sickness unless I am really ill. Most everything I have read says that you can keep working out with no ill effects as long as you are careful. So, rather than break my workout schedule, I got up this morning and went to the gym. I will go tomorrow and keep running until I feel like it is a bad idea. It was back to work today for me and that means going back to my carefully planned weekday meals which are the same as they have been for the past five months. I really don't get bored of eating the same thing which is good news for me because it makes my life simple. Anyway, I am off to curl up in front of the tv and then crash early because of this cold.

Like coming home

So, I will find out some time this week if I made it into the play or not. I am really rusty so who knows how I did in my audition. I can tell you this, it felt like coming home (hence the post title). It felt really good to do something that I love to do and to be free to express that side of myself again. Part of the reason I stopped doing theatre in high school was the teacher and part of it was because I knew I would never get major parts at my weight. This time around it is less about the parts and more about the love of acting and I am more at peace with who I am and what I look like (although I am still working my butt off at losing weight). I will say that one of the things they don't tell you about working out is that it makes you brave. Somehow the fact that I can get up in the morning and run for 30 minutes makes me fearless and willing to try a lot more things. I lost that for awhile over the past couple of years but it is back now with a vengeance. So, on I go and whatever happens with this play, I will be back to audition for the next one as well.

My weekly menu

I am about to head out the door to try out for community theatre. I doubt I'll make it into the play, there are only three female parts and I have not been in a theatre production since my freshman year in high school. In other words, here goes nothing. However, I thought I would pop in with the weekly menu which is as follows:

Roasted Red Pepper hummus
Roasted sweet potatoes
Carrots
Turkey Burgers
Peanut Butter Pumpkin Soup
Oatmeal with Splenda and Cinnamon
Roast Chicken Thighs
Pears
Bananas
Blueberry smoothies
Light Yoplait Yogurt
Light Coconut and Soy Milk Rice pudding

I am finally all but finished with the bran muffins I made a month ago, now it is on to finishing off the pumpkin soup which is still hanging out it my fridge. If I don't finish it this week I am going to chuck it.

Community Service Again

Once again this is community service night for me. So, I am working what amounts to an eleven hour day although I do not begrudge the time I am spending volunteering. Partially I suppose it is because the more I work out, the more energy I have in the long run. I am a little tired today because I stayed up late last night (10 pm which is late for me) and I am relying on the energy from my run this morning to get me through the rest of the day. We will see how that works and whether I make it successfully through everything. I did run at 5.5. mph today and while it was not a great run and my legs feel pretty spent, at least I managed to run. I have one more run left this week and hopefully I will accomplish that (unlike last week) with no major issues. I did wear ballet flats to work today to rest my improving ankle and I think that will help as well with running. Food is fine, and I am still staying away from white bread and sugar which is my major concern in terms of my food. I have been a little low on protein so I am going to work on increasing that amount in my diet over the next couple of weeks. I think it is low because I have been eating a lot of vegetable soups and I need to have more chicken and fish in my diet since I am not big on red meat. So, I am keeping going and at least tomorrow is Friday.

Back to 5.5

Today I cranked my speed back up to 5.5 mph. It was not easy for the first 10-15 minutes but the second half of my run was not bad. I am going to have to stay at 5.5 mph for at least another week until my body really adjusts to the speed. I did decline a lunch out with a friend of mine today because I had a feeling that if there was bread within five miles of the restaurant I would inhale it in a heartbeat. So, instead I stayed at my desk and ate my carrots, pear, hummus, roast chicken, and roasted sweet potatoes. I have a yogurt left for the day as my afternoon snack and I ate a banana this morning for my mid-morning snack. I suspect that I will be low on calories today but it is better than inhaling half a loaf of bread for my midday meal. I have learned that sometimes it is better just to stay out of the way of temptation than to try and remain strong while directly facing it. I am also still toying with the idea of a personal trainer, mostly because I am going to try out for community theatre and I am not sure when I will fit in a trainer if I make it into a play. I think I can fit it in, I just am not sure how much I want to juggle right now. Anyway, I will make up my mind in the next few weeks.