Wordless Wednesday

Back in the Saddle - aka - Cancelling the Pity Party

Today is the day  that I start again. Well, technically yesterday I took the first step, but today is the day where all the pieces are back into place.

See a week ago today, I had my lower left wisdom tooth removed. It was impacted below the jawline so it had to be removed by an oral surgeon in the fun, cut your jaw open kind of way. I was told before the procedure I was off any kind of heavy exercise, running and whatnot for 5 days. That was a rough pill to swallow for me.

Me, looking pathetic right after surgery

Well, I'd love to say that things went smoothly from there, but unfortunately not so much. See my tooth was a stubborn little bugger and didn't want to come out without a fight. The doctor eventually won, but not without a bit of damage to the nerve that runs right below there. Long story short, today is Day 7 of not having any feeling in the front of my face. Well, no feeling isn't exactly right, sometimes it feels like crazy. But only randomly. Needless to say, I've been a bit down in the dumps about the lack of activity and lack of feeling in my face and have had pretty much a week-long pity party.

But that's over now. Time to get back to work. Numbness or not.

So here's where I now. Basically, the not being able to feel my front teeth thing has made eating an issue for me. Most form of chewing are right out as of now which has made it a challenge to eat enough protein and veggies without actually having to chew protein and veggies. I've had to been creative in order to get in the calories I need, and I'll be honest, I've been failing. I met with a nutritionist last week and she wants me to eat 1300 calories per day. I've been averaging around 700 on a good day. I know, not cool.

Yesterday I picked me up a big ol' container of Plant Based Protein shake stuff, almond milk and berries and made up some overnight oats and a smoothie. I also cooked up some chicken breast and blended it within an inch of it's life along with some celery, onion powder and mayo in order to make pasty chicken salad. I will attempt to consume these items today to hit my calorie count.

Meanwhile, I ran a pretty slow 4.5 miles yesterday at Riverwalk to get back into the swing of running. This morning, I did the Bi/Tri/Shoulder class at Burn. That felt pretty good. Had half the smoothie before and half after, and while typing this, I am working on the overnight oats.

Also, this morning I set my weekly plan for both workouts and nutrition. I've never been consistent with keeping a bullet journal, but I am hoping that this week will be the one where I can make it stick.

Mostly, this week I'm working to get back in the saddle of my active lifestyle despite my new normal. Hopefully the numbness is temporary. But there's no way of knowing at this point when or if feeling will return, so sulking over it any longer is not longer an option.

Happy Runniversary to Me

Pre race - ready to run

Today is the Anniversary of my first race. 3 years ago and a bit more, I decided I wanted to get healthy and for some reason, running was my answer. In Feb. 2014, I set a goal, I was going to run a 5K at the annual Come See Me festival that April. I ordered a Couch to 5K program on my phone and set to work. I followed the plan to a T and on race day, I was incredibly nervous, but ready. That was 3 years ago today. I did my first 5K, running the whole way, in a respectable 35:40 min.

Crossing the finish line!

3 years, -40 lbs, hundreds of new running friends and too many races later to count later, I am still going. Every year when the Come See Me Road Races roll around I get a bit nostalgic. The past 2 years, I ran the Half Marathon option, but this year I am doing the 5K again (they phased out the Half this year) on April 22nd. Here's to many more!

What was your first race? Have you run it since?

The Big Question

Why? I get that asked of me a lot. Why do you run? Here's my story -

I have struggled with being healthy for most of my adult life. Never really happy with how I looked or how I felt, but not really unhappy enough to do much more about it than sporadic dieting and/or exercise. I wasn't really obese, but I wasn't thin by any stretch of the imagination. Just in that zone where you get comfortable.

In Feb. 2014, we decided to take my little one on a birthday trip to Disney World. When we got home, I started the daunting task of going through the over 1,000 photos we (and others in our group of 9) took during the week long trip. Looking at photo after photo after photo, there was no denying it, I looked FAT. That week I decided that was it. I was going to get into shape. I didn't have a whole lot of disposable income due to just dropping $5,000 on a week long Disney trip, so I figured, hey, it's free to run. I used  a gift card left over from Christmas to Kohls to buy a pair of Nike running shoes and downloaded a free Couch to 5K app on my phone and hit the road. Almost 3 years later, I have learned so much more (including that running is NOT free) and I'm still at it. I've lost 40 pounds, become so much healthier, accomplished a number of goals and made life-long friendships.

So for me, ultimately it started as a free/cheap way to lose weight, but running has become a bit addictive to me now. I start to get antsy if I go to long without a run now. It has become a part of who I am.

How about you? Why do you run?