Sorry I didn't write last week summer is flying by and I don't have the brakes to stop it!
I decided this week that I need to start taking better care of myself or I am not going to be able to do all my races this summer. I am going to test myself in the next few weeks and try something different that could help me both mentally and physically. Like this week I am going to really clean up my diet and try to eat whole healthy foods. I will write down how I feel throughout the day. My goal is to see if my anxiety and depression are directly affected by my diet.
Changing my diet will also have a direct influence on my pre-diabetes. My family's genetic makeup, when it comes to diabetes, is very strong. My mom, who is a nurse, has told me it's not if I get diabetes but when. Well, I am a bit stubborn and I really don't want to go on medication until I absolutely have to. To do this I have to take better care of myself by changing my diet. Although this sounds pretty simple; I know it will not be easy, but I know in the long run it will be worth it.
So, here is my plan the next few weeks, try something new or something I have tried in the past to take care of myself. Whether it is meditation, yoga, watching less TV, journaling etc. I will try it and write in my blog about it each week. If anyone has any ideas to better take care of myself leave it in the comments please.
My hope is that, maybe through brainstorming, I can try some new, healthy habits and others will learn from it.
Well, hope everyone had a good weekend., and always all comments are welcome.
I will be attaching my link to my donation page for DetermiNation, If anyone would like to donate all are welcome.
Thanks.
DetermiNation
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Sunday, June 4, 2017
DetermiNation
I am writing a short post this week and it as follows:
Okay as many of you know I have a very personal interest in eradicating cancer.
:) My father died over 13 years ago from this disease. So, I am very happy to say I am working with DetermiNation again to raise money for cancer research. I will be doing the Mankato Half Marathon on 10/22/17 and by doing so raising money for a great cause. If anyone would like to donate I am attaching my fundraising page. Every little bit helps! When donating if anyone would like to reference a survivor or in memory of I will be wearing ribbons on race day with those names on it! Thank you!
Link to donate
Okay as many of you know I have a very personal interest in eradicating cancer.
:) My father died over 13 years ago from this disease. So, I am very happy to say I am working with DetermiNation again to raise money for cancer research. I will be doing the Mankato Half Marathon on 10/22/17 and by doing so raising money for a great cause. If anyone would like to donate I am attaching my fundraising page. Every little bit helps! When donating if anyone would like to reference a survivor or in memory of I will be wearing ribbons on race day with those names on it! Thank you!Link to donate
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Sometimes you just need a massage
My intent has always been to write every Sunday to be consistent. Unfortunately life got in the way this past Sunday. Some how I tweaked my neck. For the past week I have been unable to turn my head with out pain. Sometimes with training things like this happen and you have no idea how it happened. This was the case for me. I was using Advil, Tylenol and a heating pad for days and it did not seem to be getting better. Saturday I had a 5k. I knew running was not in the cards as it would just make it worse. Rather than forfeit the race or the experience, my friend and I just walked it at a brisk pace. We chatted the entire time and before we knew it 3.1 miles were done. It was fun, and I know that getting out there and moving was better than sitting on the couch. Always remember that.
Sunday my neck was still sore and stiff. Sitting up from a prone position was difficult. My husband suggested a massage. This is something that I have done in the past while training, but had neglected to add to my training this time around. After the massage my neck every day since has gotten better. Today it is almost 100%. My point to this short blog post is to remind everyone working out is great, but you also need to take care of yourself. This holds true whether training for a specific sport or just your normal wear and tear on the body from daily workouts. YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. Massages are good way to do that. Just like drinking water and stretching, massages can make daily training easier. Don't wait until you actually have an injury like I did. With my training I am going to include monthly massage and hopefully I don't have anymore setbacks. Just remember do what is right for you, listen to your body and life is easier. :)
Well, I hope everyone is having a great week, as always all comments are welcome.
Thanks,
Paula
Sunday my neck was still sore and stiff. Sitting up from a prone position was difficult. My husband suggested a massage. This is something that I have done in the past while training, but had neglected to add to my training this time around. After the massage my neck every day since has gotten better. Today it is almost 100%. My point to this short blog post is to remind everyone working out is great, but you also need to take care of yourself. This holds true whether training for a specific sport or just your normal wear and tear on the body from daily workouts. YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. Massages are good way to do that. Just like drinking water and stretching, massages can make daily training easier. Don't wait until you actually have an injury like I did. With my training I am going to include monthly massage and hopefully I don't have anymore setbacks. Just remember do what is right for you, listen to your body and life is easier. :)
Well, I hope everyone is having a great week, as always all comments are welcome.
Thanks,
Paula
Sunday, May 21, 2017
MIssing Training.
Let's just clear this up right now: YOU ARE GOING TO MISS TRAINING DAYS every now and then. Of course you don't want to miss it too often as it will become too common and your training will become derailed, but you WILL miss training. Perfection is not an option nor should it be. If you try to be perfect, when you do miss just one day of training, you will be upset, overwhelmed, and then the Fuck it attitude will come into play. Before you know it you have missed a week of training.
Don't let this become you. What I am doing is giving myself a number of the amount of training workouts I can miss. I may not miss them all but at least in doing this I am giving myself some flexibility. Case and point I knew this week I wouldn't get all my training days in because it was our 16th wedding anniversary and we were going to be gone from Friday-Sunday. This had the potential to take 3 days out of my training. It ended up taking 2 days out. So, I got 4 days in rather than 6 but I am good with that. I enjoyed our mini vacation with no guilt.
Monday I will be back on track and I will get my 6 days in, you just have to remember there are days when life changes your perfect plan, and that's okay. If you cannot go with the flow of life some times in my case my wedding anniversary you are not living. Training is not supposed to beat the fun out of life. It is supposed to ENHANCE your life. For me it does every day and I never regret a run, or weight training and life just gets better.
Well I hope everyone has a great week! As always all comments are welcome.
Paula
Don't let this become you. What I am doing is giving myself a number of the amount of training workouts I can miss. I may not miss them all but at least in doing this I am giving myself some flexibility. Case and point I knew this week I wouldn't get all my training days in because it was our 16th wedding anniversary and we were going to be gone from Friday-Sunday. This had the potential to take 3 days out of my training. It ended up taking 2 days out. So, I got 4 days in rather than 6 but I am good with that. I enjoyed our mini vacation with no guilt.
Monday I will be back on track and I will get my 6 days in, you just have to remember there are days when life changes your perfect plan, and that's okay. If you cannot go with the flow of life some times in my case my wedding anniversary you are not living. Training is not supposed to beat the fun out of life. It is supposed to ENHANCE your life. For me it does every day and I never regret a run, or weight training and life just gets better.
Well I hope everyone has a great week! As always all comments are welcome.
Paula
Sunday, May 14, 2017
Pushing Through
My training this week went great! I was able to get 6 days in and I felt great most days. The 5th day I was tired and mentally wasn't really wanting to train. I started to think "I could take a rest day today." This is typically my MO after a few days in a row of training. I would take an unplanned day off, and that one day would turn in to 3 or 4 missed days. Before you know it I would be derailed again.
This time I just talked myself into going for a mile walk. I did it and before I knew it I had gotten 3 miles in. When I was done with the walk I was still a little tired, but mentally I felt so much better. I pushed myself and didn't let up. The 6th day of training I felt great I got my long run in and some additional training. Pushing through even though I really did not want to made me mentally feel great and my training continues with no hiccup. Changing my thought process even if only to push myself to get 1 mile helped me and I got 3 miles in. When in reality I could have just went back to bed. If I would have done that though my day would have turned into a beat up on Paula day. One of those days where I am mad at myself for not getting my training in and by the end of the day I would have broke down all my progress and more than likely it would have been about 4 days till I worked out again, and those 3 days in between would not have been healthy physically or mentally.
Instead by doing my scheduled training I got another day in, took my planned rest day off and feel ready to start on Monday. This is not to say I will be perfect I will have off days where I just will miss a training day I know that, but this week, today is what I am going to concentrate on and be happy with my progress. That is all we can do, take it one day at a time.
Well, Happy Mothers Day to those mom's out there I hope you enjoyed your day as you should!
Have a great week all, and as always comments are always welcome. Thanks!
Paula
This time I just talked myself into going for a mile walk. I did it and before I knew it I had gotten 3 miles in. When I was done with the walk I was still a little tired, but mentally I felt so much better. I pushed myself and didn't let up. The 6th day of training I felt great I got my long run in and some additional training. Pushing through even though I really did not want to made me mentally feel great and my training continues with no hiccup. Changing my thought process even if only to push myself to get 1 mile helped me and I got 3 miles in. When in reality I could have just went back to bed. If I would have done that though my day would have turned into a beat up on Paula day. One of those days where I am mad at myself for not getting my training in and by the end of the day I would have broke down all my progress and more than likely it would have been about 4 days till I worked out again, and those 3 days in between would not have been healthy physically or mentally.
Instead by doing my scheduled training I got another day in, took my planned rest day off and feel ready to start on Monday. This is not to say I will be perfect I will have off days where I just will miss a training day I know that, but this week, today is what I am going to concentrate on and be happy with my progress. That is all we can do, take it one day at a time.
Well, Happy Mothers Day to those mom's out there I hope you enjoyed your day as you should!
Have a great week all, and as always comments are always welcome. Thanks!
Paula
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Training
I was thinking today about what I was going to write on my blog, I realized that one thing I seem to do is start something whether it is running, losing weight, or blogs :). I start something ready to take on the world determined I will finish. I'm sure we have all felt this way at some point in our life. Ready to take on anything only to pitter out in the end.
Well, in 90 days I have a 10K mud run. This will be different than the many other races I have done. It is a combination of running and obstacle courses with mud. So, training will be a combination of weight training and running. This will take planning, healthy eating, plenty of sleep and most importantly a positive mentality. What I don't need to do is over think it. My overthinking leads to second guessing myself and inevitably quitting due to negative self talk.
Even though I don't want this to be a part of if I finish or not; my depression is a part of my training. For myself one of the most important things when it comes to my depression is awareness. I need to be aware of when I am having a depressive episode. When I am aware of it I can do something about it. I can meditate or go for a walk. When I am aware of it I am EMPOWERED. I can get thru my depression without derailing my training like I have allowed in the past. I am not a victim. Having depression for over 10 years now I have come to terms with it and realized it is a part of my life, but here is the biggie, it doesn't have to control my life. I am not saying to just shake it off. What I am saying is for me, through medication and certain tricks I have learned over the years, I know what works for me. We all have to do that, whether it is through medication, therapy, heathy eating etc. You have to find out what works for you. It's not a one shoe fits all. Mental illness just does not work that way.
So, for the next 3 months my blog will be heavy on training and possibly some healthy recipes thrown in there for good measures. So, we shall see what kind of trouble I can get into. :) I rested this weekend and binged watched Burn Notice.
The real work begins on Monday. Hope everyone had a great weekend, As always all comments are welcome.
Paula
Well, in 90 days I have a 10K mud run. This will be different than the many other races I have done. It is a combination of running and obstacle courses with mud. So, training will be a combination of weight training and running. This will take planning, healthy eating, plenty of sleep and most importantly a positive mentality. What I don't need to do is over think it. My overthinking leads to second guessing myself and inevitably quitting due to negative self talk.
Even though I don't want this to be a part of if I finish or not; my depression is a part of my training. For myself one of the most important things when it comes to my depression is awareness. I need to be aware of when I am having a depressive episode. When I am aware of it I can do something about it. I can meditate or go for a walk. When I am aware of it I am EMPOWERED. I can get thru my depression without derailing my training like I have allowed in the past. I am not a victim. Having depression for over 10 years now I have come to terms with it and realized it is a part of my life, but here is the biggie, it doesn't have to control my life. I am not saying to just shake it off. What I am saying is for me, through medication and certain tricks I have learned over the years, I know what works for me. We all have to do that, whether it is through medication, therapy, heathy eating etc. You have to find out what works for you. It's not a one shoe fits all. Mental illness just does not work that way.
So, for the next 3 months my blog will be heavy on training and possibly some healthy recipes thrown in there for good measures. So, we shall see what kind of trouble I can get into. :) I rested this weekend and binged watched Burn Notice.
The real work begins on Monday. Hope everyone had a great weekend, As always all comments are welcome.
Paula
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Learning as I go.
I seem to be learning new things every day since I starting writing in my blog again. Writing seems to cause more critical thinking. This is causing me to learn new elements to myself. I love this when it comes to writing and proves that I needed this outlet again.
Full disclosure I have been diagnosed with Clinical Depression, General Anxiety Disorder or GAD, Panic Disorder, and severe insomnia. I have always said that working out helps with my illness and it really does, but I haven't, in recent memory, had that "high" that people say they get with a good workout. I am sure I have had it before, but as I stated earlier this has not happened in recent memory. I woke up on Thursday morning ready to get my 4th workout in this week. I knew I wanted to push myself more as I had a 5k on Sunday (which went really well) so I pushed to get 3 miles in and I did. I noticed my outlook on this day to be different though, literally for the first 4 hours of my work day I felt great my anxiety was way down, I was more positive and the dark hue of my depression that I had lately seemed to dissipate.
This made me very hopeful. Hopeful in the respect that although going off my medications completely may never be in my cards, I am hopeful that sleeping and my daily anxious mind, anxious to the point that fear lives with me daily, could possibly be controlled at some point with diet and exercise rather then medications. This is something that I really hope and work toward daily, but this week made me think that it could actually happen!
What this week has taught me though that consistency is the key. In the past I have worked out or trained sporadically. This week I got 6 days of really good workouts in and have felt so much better. I am going to continue to work on this, and hope that I continue to improve on my overall feeling thru mindfulness, diet, and exercise. It will not be easy but I know it will be worth it.
This weeks blog was more of a revelation on my part, but it just goes to show that we are constantly learning new elements and awareness of ourselves daily.
Well, I hope everyone has a great week and as always all comments are welcome.
Peace,
Paula
Full disclosure I have been diagnosed with Clinical Depression, General Anxiety Disorder or GAD, Panic Disorder, and severe insomnia. I have always said that working out helps with my illness and it really does, but I haven't, in recent memory, had that "high" that people say they get with a good workout. I am sure I have had it before, but as I stated earlier this has not happened in recent memory. I woke up on Thursday morning ready to get my 4th workout in this week. I knew I wanted to push myself more as I had a 5k on Sunday (which went really well) so I pushed to get 3 miles in and I did. I noticed my outlook on this day to be different though, literally for the first 4 hours of my work day I felt great my anxiety was way down, I was more positive and the dark hue of my depression that I had lately seemed to dissipate.
This made me very hopeful. Hopeful in the respect that although going off my medications completely may never be in my cards, I am hopeful that sleeping and my daily anxious mind, anxious to the point that fear lives with me daily, could possibly be controlled at some point with diet and exercise rather then medications. This is something that I really hope and work toward daily, but this week made me think that it could actually happen!
What this week has taught me though that consistency is the key. In the past I have worked out or trained sporadically. This week I got 6 days of really good workouts in and have felt so much better. I am going to continue to work on this, and hope that I continue to improve on my overall feeling thru mindfulness, diet, and exercise. It will not be easy but I know it will be worth it.
This weeks blog was more of a revelation on my part, but it just goes to show that we are constantly learning new elements and awareness of ourselves daily.
Well, I hope everyone has a great week and as always all comments are welcome.
Peace,
Paula
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