August Plan

Thanks for all your kind words on yesterday’s post. I’m a little embarrassed I posted that to be honest, as I re-read it to day, I realised it came across as needy and helpless and I am not that way at all. I was going to delete it but too many people had commented already.

I spent all of July focusing on Whole30 and getting my eating, not only, under control but also eliminating foods that weren’t good for me or were triggers. I think I’m good to continue and now its time to get my exercise game back.

A monthly plan is a good way for me to stay focused without getting overwhelmed because I still have many other issues going on in my life I’m trying to sort out. One by one, they’ll drop off my list, but in the meantime I’m not keen on adding more to it.

A week into my post-Whole30 and I have still not had wheat or any other grains or legumes. I did have some white potatoes (homefries) with ketchup (some sugar) with one meal this past week but it wasn’t a trigger. And of course, no soy or alcohol either.

I’ve had cream in my coffee and also some cheese in omelettes and on burgers and it does seem to upset my stomach even with the digestive enzymes so I am going to try and cut it back even further. I still have no plans to reintroduce grains or legumes or sugar (except the small  amounts in the condiments I use from time to time). I did have half a packet of Splenda in my coffee and honestly, that was from habit more than anything else, I realised I had done it when I tasted it (at a restaurant – I don’t have artificial sweetener at home anymore so I don’t use it at all) and then didn’t put any more in with my subsequent cups of coffee.

New habits are forming, but the old ones sneak in when I’m not paying attention.

We’ve had wicked heat and humidity for most of this summer and although I have tried to run a few times later at night when it’s cooler, it’s still been really hot, plus I’m not comfortable running alone in the dark, all that to say, I’ve mostly been walking rather than running and for the month of July I did walk every day at least 3km but I only ran 2-3 times a week.

There’s a 10K Clinic starting at the Running Room this week that I am planning to do with my friend Melissa and some other women I’ve met at the Running Room.  Although I still run pretty slow compared to the average runner, my endurance is good and I have run 10K several times on my own in the past few months so I know I can do it. The clinic also does hill training and some tempo training and I think those would be good challenges for me as well as starting to run longer distances more regularly.

The clinic is Thursday nights and the practice runs (and the hill/tempo training) are on Wednesday and Sunday.  I’m good for Wednesday and Thursday – it’s awkward to get to, but not impossible and if I want to do it badly enough I will figure out a way to make it work! 

Sundays were more problematic but I think I may be able to get a ride most Sundays and may only have to miss one or two in which case I will have to make sure I get out and run on my own to keep up my distances.

Throughout July I also wasn’t using my Nike+ app to log my runs, sometimes I would use my Garmin watch, sometimes I’d use RunKeeper (which is not very reliable on my iPhone), sometimes I’d use nothing. My goal is to use my Nike+ app for all of the 10K Clinic  (Aug 9 to Oct 11) so I have a log of my progress just like I did for (most of) my Learn to Run and 5K Clinics. 

I’ll try and update y’all weekly cause I know you are riveted to your seats wanting to know all about my progress!