A work in progress

I feel myself slipping a little bit recently on my eating plan. I think it is largely due to stress in recent weeks and a general lack of focus. I have always been a stress eater, I know this, I consider it to be a major step forward that I can actually identify when I am eating due to stress. I also eat when I am bored which explains this weekend. Mostly, it has been an extra popsicle or some chips, nothing major. Anyway, I am working on just drinking my water and eating my packed snacks, an energy bar in the morning, an apple in the afternoon. I bounced up to 159 this morning, I am not worrying about it, especially since I am hitting the time on the month when I always retain extra water weight. I am focusing more on what I am doing right, and watching what I put into my mouth. I ran this morning for 30 minutes, 15 minutes at 5.7 mph and fifteen minutes at 5.8 mph. Every week for about the past month I have raised the speed I am running at by .1 mph, it does not sound like much, but I have gone from running at 5.2 mph in July to running at 5.8 mph now. I am aiming for 6.0 mph which will mean that I am running a 10 minute mile again for the first time in a long time. This from a girl who has never really been a runner before. I have cranked up the resistence on my eliptical machine, I am begining to develop leg and arm muscles, all of these are huge gains. More than anything, I am taking better care of myself than I have in a long time. I slacked off on taking my multivitamin and my calcium pills every day but I am now taking them again. This probably sounds odd, but I have finally thrown away all my out of date makeup and I went and bought myself new facial cleansers. This is also a step forward since I need to take better care of my skin, especially given the amount that I sweat everyday (in and out of the gym, I do live in a really tropical environment). All of these are baby steps in the right direction and I am going to focus on that for awhile, rather than just worrying about occasional slip-ups.