Wellness Wednesday - Maybe It's Time to "Change It Up"

I felt tired all day yesterday. It might have to do with working outside the whole day before helping our parents with some projects. Then I filled in for someone at work yesterday so there is an extra day of my "day job." Any way you look at it I was tired when I got home from work. I remember thinking on the way home, if Mark didn't go for his bike ride I'll just make us some spaghetti for supper,  read for awhile and go to bed early. But as that garage door went up I could see his bike was gone. No excuses. I had a decision to make, go for my run or curl up in a chair and read a book.  I knew if I sat down I'd never get up again and it was gorgeous outside. I love being outside each day. I had worked INside all day....okay, okay. I changed my clothes and went for my run.  I started out thinking I feel some sore muscles from crawling around transplanting plants yesterday.  I'll walk quickly but if I don't run today that will be okay. Maybe I won't do the whole 2.2 miles - even though it's time to add some more distance, maybe I'll just do 1.2 miles. As I rounded the corner where the "warm up walking" usually stops and the "running" (barely faster than a walk) begins my feet just moved.  Mark and I had just talked about this the day before. Running was NOT something I did as a kid. I tried track for about 1 week as a 7th grader. It was obvious this was NOT my sport. I wasn't fast. I wasn't competitive. I didn't care.  However over the past couple of years I have continued to struggle with fatigue, some weight gain and some very minor health issues.  When I look at the symptoms logically and with my "nurse brain" I can see that much of it relates to poor eating habits and poor exercise habits. I've got reasons and excuses for each of these things. If you want to hear them let me know and I'll easily recite them to you. But I don't think you really want to hear my excuses. That's all they are, poor attempts to make myself feel better about NOT doing something I should be doing.   It's time for a change.

I could start for the umpteenth time a certain program or promise to do this or that. But I realized that if I start again something I've done before with little or no success and expect to succeed, that's just crazy. I've heard that's the definition of insanity. I can believe it. So July 9th I started fresh.  I had been sporadically walking/running for some time. I decided to try to run at least 4 times weekly and to keep track of my time. I was just curious how fast I really did walk.  Along with that for the first time ever I decided to cut all sweet treats out of my diet for 3 weeks. My plan was to get the sweet tooth cleaned out a bit.  I was a bit short on the number of times running in those 3 weeks but I was faithful on the sweet treats and I did much better drinking enough water daily.  I lost the first 5 of 15 pounds I'd like to lose. The best thing is my attitude is MUCH improved. I've proven to myself  that I can make healthy choices consistently.  I allowed myself to eat some treats again but now I'm at a plateau. I, again, have choices to make. This time however, I know I can do it.

As I was running last night I thought about all of this and realized that there are many things in life that we sometimes have to choose to "change it up". We can't always do the same things the same way and get different results.  I have a friend who is a bit older than me, single and about a year ago lost her best friend/companion.  She is lonely, single and lives in a small to medium sized midwestern town. If she keeps all of her old habits, going to the same places at the same times she may never meet someone new to do things with. BUT, if she would sit in a new place at church, swim at a different time at the pool or take a class at the community college she just might meet a new friend.

Is there an area in your life where it's time to "change it up?" I'd love to hear about it!