Week 8

I’m on week 8 of no longer eating total shit and taking better care of my body.

There are things that are be coming habits, and there are things that I still really struggle with.

I drink too much coffee and not enough water.

If I have a busy weekend full of kid stuff and don’t plan far in advance, I find myself with limited (or no) meal options.

I also find myself getting really pissed off with the amount of convenience foods available to the entire population of the United States. We do not make it easy to learn or to practice how to prepare food and feed ourselves and our children, and I’m annoyed with society in general on this front.

But that’s a whole different blog post.

After getting a little bit derailed for a week due to the storm, I am getting back on track with running and swimming, and last week I dropped off my bike at the bike shop after it had been sitting in the shed in my backyard for four years.

It had two flat tires, the handlebar tape was crumbling to dust, the chain was rusted, and it was a mess.

But they fixed it up good as new, I picked it up on Saturday, and today I took it out for a spin.

I hope nobody was watching me, because I looked like a four-year-old who just learned how to ride without her training wheels.

Actually a four-year-old looks better than me.

It had been so long since I had ridden my bike that I literally forgot how to shift the gears.

There were two gears I could figure out:

really fucking hard and really fucking easy.

And I was like, Those dudes at the bike shop seriously fucked up my bike.

I had to pull over to the side of the road, pull my phone out of my sports bra (because that’s the only place I had to stick it and I needed it in case I crashed or fell or rode into a ditch and needed to be rescued), and Google How do I shift the gears on my bike?

(Don’t worry — I clipped my helmet before I went anywhere).

Then I figured out the bike and the shifting and kind of got the hang of it again.

Which is good because I am doing a triathlon on Sunday. The first one in four years.

My goals for this triathlon are:

1. survival
2. to be able to squeeze my body into my wetsuit
3. to not fall off my bike or crash
4. to run the whole 5K without walking or stopping in less than 33 minutes
5. have fun

And I just want to share something.

I am not a good triathlete. I’ve only done like six triathlons in my life, and I hardly know what I’m doing.

I don’t have any fancy gear. I have a used road bike, and I washed my FitBit in the washing machine three times in a row last year when I kept forgetting to take the same load of laundry out of the washing machine, so I don’t have any sort of watch at all. I don’t even have anything to wear for the bike and the run right now.

I don’t have bike shoes or clipless pedals and I just wear my sneakers for the bike part which is totally amateur hour, but I’m petrified of not being able to get my feet unclipped from the pedals if I were to wear bike shoes, so sneakers it is.

And while I’m a decent swimmer, I have major open water phobia, so I’ll hyperventilate for the first hundred yards or so before I calm down and settle in, and then I’ll do the whole swim with my eyes closed whenever my face is in the water because I don’t want to see anything that’s gonna freak me out.

Also I’m a total wuss and I hate cold water, and the water temperature right now is 57° and even though I have a wetsuit that’s still pretty fucking cold.

As I’m typing this out, it doesn’t sound like these things are a whole lot of fun for me, but I really like competing in triathlons and I’m really nervous but also looking forward to  Sunday.

So my point is twofold: 1) Doing something that scares the shit out of you is fun once you’ve finished because then you pretty much feel like you can do anything and 2) You don’t need all the bells and whistles to do a triathlon (or anything).

And doing something like this can help you stay on track with exercising regularly.

I’m not trying to convince everyone to be triathletes.

I’m just saying that if you are having a hard time getting motivated to move your butt, maybe signing up for something like a 5K or something will help keep you on track.

Think about it!

Now for the updates…

I am down 12 pounds, one clothing size (at least), 2 inches off my waist, 2 inches off my hips, my boobs are a little smaller but they almost look a little bigger because my stomach is also smaller, my jeans fit again, and I feel great.

If you are struggling with making healthy changes, here is your motivation!

Week by week I am getting healthier and stronger, and you will, too, as long as you stay the course — a bucket fills drop by drop!