How am I doing so far? - Days 1 and 2

OK, here's the scoop for yesterday and today in terms of Leading a Healthy Life:

11/12 -
How did I feel when I went to bed? Not exhausted, just tired and ready for bed. Woke up refreshed, too!

How did I deal with stress? Pretty calm most of the day and I remembered to take my Chinese stress herbs

How's the house? Still a disaster

11/13 -
How do I feel now, just before going to sleep? Tired but not wiped out

Stress? Um, I plead "week before TTOM"...I cried in my office and just dragged myself around most of the day after a morning meeting

House? Total wreckage

So...we see that there are some good things going on (generally not completely wrecked at night) and still some areas to work on (stress relief). I need to do more work in some areas (walking and yoga first, I think) while some things I would have thought would be tough have been easy (eating veggies with every meal). All in all, I'm pleased.

In other news, Alouysius had his "Boy Into Man" surgery today and he's got to wear one of those conehead things for two weeks. (Poor him, poor us.)

Also? A week from today, I'll be crying, bleeding, and soaking in the tub after the first day of The Breast Cancer 3-Day...oh poop.

This will not do

I've been allowing myself to progress in my journey toward a more active lifestyle while completely ignoring the nutritional side of a healthy lifestyle. I've done this very purposefully - I don't want my disordered thinking about food to throw my 3-day training off - and I'm totally OK with it, not feeling guilty or manic or obsessive or any of that. But now these two worlds that I've been trying to keep separate have collided and I need to do something I've put off for a very long time - deal with my diabetes and put together a nutritional plan that supports walking long distances day after day.

What's pushed me to this point is that I'm having a lot of difficulty walking back-to-back long distances. It's not the walking itself that's problematic - my five mile on Saturday was easier than I had any right to expect! - it's the fact that I feel completely drained afterwards and that my blood sugar gets low and then my body starts to shut down bit by bit. Saturday afternoon, while we were on base looking for an iMac, I felt as thought I would faint and had to sit down to eat something immediately. Once I had some food on board, I progressed from feeling faint to feeling hungover. The next afternoon, after doing several loads of laundry plus vacuuming, I started feeling weak and nauseated again - no breakfast, no lunch! I wasn't able to do my planned 4 mile training walk for Sunday even after eating because of the same hungover feeling.

I'm trying not to panic because that's not going to help at all, but it's creeping in anyway. I can't keep missing training walks, and I don't want to, either. (Isn't it crazy that I'm starting to ENJOY walking and being active???) Mick made my lunch for me this morning: sandwich, pickle, apple, soup at hand, and some chips. I need to eat my two fruits and three veggies every day. I need to not eat so much fried food with no nutritional value. I don't want to be obsessive about food because I know where that ends, but changes do have to be made.

Building mileage and confidence

This weekend I completed my first 4 mile walk in preparation for the Breast Cancer 3-day. I've done many 3 mile walks, and this was part of my week 2 training program, but I was still nervous about how I would come through. Turns out that I had nothing to worry about because I sailed through. No, it wasn't easy by any means, but I did it and I didn't die. I have several hundred more training miles to walk before my birthday on October 12 (day after the event) and each step brings me a little closer to the active lifestyle I need to adopt and the confidence that will take me there.

(If you'd like to donate in support of my 3-day walk, click on the pink widget on the right side of this page and it will take you to my personal fundraising page.)

Supporting independence

I just purchased a few used hardback books from Powell's Bookstore in Portland. I did this for two reasons: 1. I just love Powell's. I wish I lived in Portland so that I could spend my Saturdays perusing all of the wonderful books they have. 2. They are an independent bookseller and there just aren't enough of those left in the world. There's nothing wrong with Amazon, and I have certainly donated plenty of money to the continued well-being of their company, but you can't walk around Amazon and smell the books, touch the books, enjoy an afternoon of being around others who love books.

If you have a favorite independent local bookseller, perhaps today would be a good day to drop by and spend some time (and money) at their establishment.

In other news, how is it that a four-day work week has taken forever??? Ugh.

And, in my final bit of wisdom for today, I share with you that I've begun the formal, 24-week training program for the 3-day. If you'd like to donate, I have a pink widget on this site, or you can follow this link.

Hello World!

Did you know that there are people who go door-t0-door selling vacuum cleaners? It's true, I promise you, and I know this because I experienced it first-hand this afternoon. I was preparing to pick the husband up at the airport when there was a knock on the door and there he was...a door-to-door salesman. About an hour later, he left without a sale and I rushed off to the airport. Still, it left me wondering if this is a common experience or if it's just because I live in Suburbia. Certainly there are a lot of people with more money than common sense out here, but I'd think even they would be watching their finances more closely given our country's current economic state. Anyway, tell me if you've experienced something similar, would you?

No walkies today, so we'll make up for it tomorrow when I take Mick out for a nice Easter walk in the neighborhood. The formal training program starts in two weeks, so I'm also going to try out a water exercise class at the Y this week...there's a "one week free" offer on now, so it seems opportune because I need to do two days a week of cross training and water exercise would be a gentle way to be active for 30-45 minutes at a time. We shall see.

Happy Easter to those that celebrate it and Happy Sunday to those that don't - do something joyful today!