Thursday 25 October 2012

Be grateful for your collarbones

It amazes me every single day the simple things that I can do.  I told Dan the other day that every single time I go up the stairs I expect it to be hard on my knees.  I expect to feel that familiar pressure on my knees and the tiredness instantly washing over me. Like I'm lugging around a bag of potatoes.  Every single time I go up stairs I expect it!

Every single time I go up the stairs I am surprised by the lightness.  Every single time I feel like I could bounce up the stairs!  We where going to the hospital on Monday to visit our loved one with breast cancer, and instead of taking the elevator like normal, we raced up the steps!  I never would have even considered doing that 100 lbs ago.  Heck, not even 50 lbs ago!

Yesterday I was sitting down having coffee with my mom, and I looked down and realized that I was curled up on the love seat with my knees brought up to my chest.  How long have I been able to do that?!  Not even a little bit of me was hanging over the edge of the cushion.  I was curled up and comfortable.  Let me tell you, I have never been able to bring my knees up towards my chest while sitting.  It's been kind of a "mini goal".  One of those things you envy other people doing.  It felt exactly like how I thought it would, wonderful!

Another thing that I've noticed is that I now feel bloated.  Or rather, I now understand what bloated feels like.  In about the last 5-8 lbs I noticed that if I eat certain foods I feel fatter than normal, and that if I wait a few hours it goes away.  Is that what bloated is?  Before I always felt fat, or full, but I've never felt bloated!  It was the weirdest thing to discover.  If I have a large meal with lots of starch or carbs I feel much bigger and my pants are harder to button up, is this normal?? It's so weird! I can't say I like it, but now I'm small enough to understand it.

It's funny how these things pop up everywhere.  I sat in the back of someones car the other day, and for half a second I panicked thinking that I wouldn't fit.  I thought that the car would creak and lower on that side, and if I could wedge myself in, that the seat belt surely wouldn't fit.  Not only did I have loads of room, the seat belt wasn't even close to being an issue.  Things like this always bring tears to my eyes, and it's hard when you can't bring it up all the time.  I mean, sometimes you just want to interrupt everything going on around you and be like, "HEY GUYS! Look what I can do now!".

I mean, every time I sit in a chair I think of how much room I have.  Do I touch the sides?  Look I'm not wedged in!  My back doesn't hurt! Wow!  I love being surprised like this, it's amazing!

Oh yes, there's another one.  Two days ago I had a bath, I haven't hopped in the bath tub for about a year and I was pleasantly surprised! I had so much room!  I didn't feel wedged in, and I could move with out feeling like I was wedged into a hunk of porcelain.

Let me tell you, I never take any of these things for granted.  Every time I sit in a chair I'm thankful that I fit.  Every time I look in the mirror and see my collar bones I'm grateful.  Every time I sit in a car I'm happy that I can do up the seat belt.  Smaller feels good, very good.



Yesterday I managed to sneak in a run, between doing blog work and visiting mom and going to work.  This is week 7, Day 2 of c25k.  I was a little wary because it's a 20 minute run.  15 was okay, but 20 minutes seemed like a large jump. When I started my knee felt like it was starting to swell or pressure up, but it didn't hurt or ache, so I just ran through it and it went away pretty quickly.   I did it pretty fine until about minute 18, the last 2 minutes I watched the timer pretty heavily, but I did it!



Day 3 will probably kill me though.  I swear one of these runs will kill me eventually ;D  Just kidding!



So I went 2.13 miles (3.43 km) and burned 312 calories.  So I went a hair farther than last time and burned 12 more calories.  I also upped my speed again!  I did the whole run at 4.2mph (last run I ranged from 4.0-4.1) and I felt fine.  I'm really getting used to this faster pace.  Let me tell you, the more weight I lose the easier it is to go faster.  I also did it at a slight incline the whole time again.

I have been feeling light headed sometimes afterwards and dizzy so I was thinking of having a bit of electrolytes while running but I want to look into some first.

These next few weeks are going to be very busy at work.  I call them Hell month #1 & #2 (the two months leading up to Christmastime).  I work lots so it'll be a challenge for me to keep up my running, but I'm pretty confident that I'll do fine.

And now one last word, please be thankful for the little things.  Like I told Daniel the other day, "I will always be grateful for my collarbones.  They're beautiful and they're mine".  Be grateful for your collarbones, be grateful that you can walk, be grateful that you can smile, be grateful for the little things.

What are little things that you're grateful for?

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