Inspiring Cuteness

Jess - LOVE IT!! That was hilarious! That poor girl - not only the horrible choker, but... hello?? what was going on with her pants? Were they camo? Or were they shreds of fabric pinned together? And yes, I think if you can't get that move that it is not a terrible thing, as the move was pretty funny :) BUT I think it looks like a great workout, and a really fun way to get some good exercise! Thanks for sharing :)

My hip is better. I am really glad I didn't run on it yesterday - I think that day of rest was just what it needed. It's good for me to write that out and see it (and to have experienced it), because I can tend to drive myself too hard, not believing that rest does any significant good (I take after my dad in that sense - can be a good thing to be so persevering, but it can get out of appropriate bounds real fast). But it's clear to me that resting yesterday did help. I didn't succeed very much at massaging throughout the day - partly because when I tried in the morning I never really found the right spot, and partly because the later part of the day was spent out of the house. The other thing I want to remember in the future is using a heating pad! I finally remembered this before going to bed, and I really believe that's a big reason I feel better today.

So today I debated giving my knots another day of no exercise to work themselves out or not, but opted to go ahead and go for a run, since my hip didn't really bother me most of the day yesterday, and the knots themselves weren't feeling too bad today. I'm glad I did - at this point, nothing hurts from it. I stretched pretty well afterwards (which I'm usually terrible at doing), and massaged my back more. I did crunches (but no push-ups, just in case).

Here is a shot of one of my motivations to get out for a run. This little girl LOVES riding in the stroller. She's usually silently fascinated the whole time, and if I pause at a stoplight and peek in at her, she barely even looks at me because she's so "in the zone" gazing at all her surroundings. I love it.



(not sure why the picture looks so bad - if you click on it, the larger version is much clearer)

I give myself a B for how eating went yesterday. I didn't have any major setbacks, but in the evening I just kind of fuzzed (don't ask me for a precise definition of that word). Part of it was, the snack I chose in the afternoon ended up being quite a bit more filling than I expected, and I wasn't hungry for dinner (which is always a bummer for me - I love eating dinner as a family). And then, I'd tried a new recipe for dinner and not only did Daniel not like it, but I didn't like it! :( One little "loss" I am grieving with letting go of eating a bit more is that when a meal is disappointing, it bothers me more than it used to. It's like I make the effort to not indulge in snacks or nibbles and "save it up" for being hungry for my meal, and when the meal "lets me down," boy is that disappointing! (I'm sorry if this is kind of silly, but it helps me to try and sort all of this out here.) One thing I want to try and consciously do differently in the future if this happens, is to consider not finishing my meal. Last night I finished it anyway, but then felt very dissatisfied even though full. And, more than that, I felt mad! Mad that the meal didn't turn out, and then mad also because now I'm full of food I did not enjoy. This led to nibbling later on in the evening, as if to "make up for my loss" of a good satisfying meal by eating more (which, for the record, does not work). Instead, one obvious option for next time, would be to finish the meal but be more intentional about brushing my teeth or something afterwards and just waiting for the next meal or next time I'm hungry to eat. Or another idea would be to try stopping mid-meal and eating something else, or doing something else with the food. (For example, last night it was an Indian-style meatloaf with curry and a tahini sauce. The meatloaf itself was fine, but there was way too much tahini on top and I didn't like it. So I could probably scrape off the sauce and make a meatloaf sandwich with BBQ sauce or something that would be much more satisfying.)

Another reason for the "B" is that I didn't drink enough yesterday (largely due to being out and about).

One major victory was that I stopped at a place I love to pick up lunch (it's far away and I only go there once a month when I meet with my spiritual director, who is right up the street from it), but didn't eat past full! (which is not easy for me to do at this place) I just kept the rest in the box and had some for a snack later in the day. That's a big deal for me! I also noticed how it wasn't as extraordinary of an effort as it sometimes has been in the past to do that, which is encouraging to me.

Another thing I want to remember that I did today is eating a nice, full, satisfying breakfast (or any meal). If I eat a really good solid meal, I am about 98% less likely to snack between meals, and the amount of food I eat in a day (while still feeling satisfied) is significantly less. Sometimes I just grab something that I know isn't a full breakfast, instead of taking an extra 2 minutes to put together a complete meal, but it's like giving myself an excuse to just graze all morning because I am "finishing breakfast" (this isn't a good direction for me to go personally).

Em - I talked to Daniel about the chiropractor and he said sure! However, I'm guessing that I ought to go in when I'm in pain, right? Not after the fact? Since my hip is feeling better, should I just wait til the next time something goes wrong, or should I go in before that, even if I'm not in pain, just to make sure things are right?