I’m vegan, hypothyroid, and asthmatic. The second two are not excuses, just an acknowledgment that my process for attaining fitness might be slower and meet more setbacks than someone who is not asthmatic or hypo. Those conditions are not stabilized, but I am much better than I was a year and a half ago!

I’m also pushing 40 (October) and would really like to get faster. I also want to run a marathon next year.

My current training scheme is running four days a week (2/1 intervals on hills, since we have hills.) Two to four days a week, I do interval body-weight strength training (http://www.bodyrock.tv.) The bodyrock workouts also involve 20 minutes of rope-skipping. I’ve been doing the running since October, the bodyrock since January. I have noticed an improvement in both my speed and my ability to push myself. Next month, I’m going to 3/1 intervals and might add a weekly long, slow run. I have two goals for my exercising– to stay fit, healthy, and strong is the main goal, and to successfully finish marathons under four hours is the secondary goal.

As for the diet, at this point, I’m not doing any serious dieting. Being wheat allergic helps cut out a lot of empty calories, and being vegan really cut out all the foods that disagreed with my running (especially cow’s milk.) I need to cut back on pop and try to eat less food more often (I’m still eating one major meal a day, which is probably not healthiest for me.) Moving really shook up our lives and we’re only now getting back to something we might call normal. If, later on, I can diet in a reasonable way that doesn’t activate any eating disorders, I might consider it to help me get faster. For running purposes, it would probably help to lose 20-40 pounds (I’m currently at 164.) But that’s something to consider later, and only if I can do it in a healthy way.

However, I don’t have as much energy as I would like and I’m beginning to realize I’m going to get old someday! So I’m rededicating myself to a healthy diet and more exercise. My right shoulder has been acting up the same way my left shoulder did way back in 1998. It took years for my left shoulder to heal. So, I’m incorporating some special shoulder-strengthening exercises into my routine to try to avoid problems. We still go to TKD every week. I can only go on Tuesdays until the end of the semester, and then I can go twice a week. I love TKD and I want to get better at it, so my daily exercise will be practicing all of my patterns, punches, and kicks. I also want to get back into running once I get over the latest cold that burned through my family.

I miss my Middle Eastern dance class, but the schedule conflicts with my Scout meetings. Sad.

The key part of my healthy diet right now is working on making my lunches again. I’ve gotten into the VERY bad habit of eating nothing all day except soy lattes and a Chipotle vegetarian bol with guacamole. It’s not that those foods are inherently bad, but I’m not fueling my body appropriately. My eating out choices are very limited… Chipotle is pretty much it for me, unless I want to eat french fries all the time (and at a lot of places, those are not vegan– I’m looking at you, McDonald’s!)

I’ve ordered some new bento accessories and will start planning a week’s worth of bento meals at a time. Last time I did that, I kept packing foods that needed to be heated to be tasty, but this time, I’m going to pack more foods that can be eaten at room temperature. I’ll incorporate my raging love for avocados into onigiri and veggie rolls, for one thing. If I have the time and energy, I will try to photograph these works of art and post them here.

I’m thrilled! I’m amazed. I never thought I would ever be successful.

Some of the things I’m doing include: walking the dogs every night, some Pilates, some yoga, some weights, and some running.

Usually, I just carry rice and veggies or leftovers, but I love the way the food is compartmentalized. It’s also very nicely portion-controlled.

It’s driving me nuts that I can’t remember something I wanted to talk about earlier. It has something to do with my new attitudes about food. It’s so refreshing to feel “normal.” How strange that I had to go vegan to do it. (Speaking of vegan, I went to a special lunch today and was amazed at how many of the foods had meat in them. Even the mushroom rice had meat in it! Why do people feel the need to put meat and other animal effluence in everything? I noticed one other person didn’t eat her rice either.)

Now I remember what I wanted to say. It did have to do with my new attitudes about food. Food has taken a more appropriate role in my life. I eat when I’m hungry, I stop when I’m not hungry, and most of what I eat is objectively healthy (fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts.) I do like chocolate and eat a little piece of it most days, but I don’t obsess about it. The downside of my healthy new attitude is that when I want to give a treat to someone who has done something special for me (or when I have my committee get together), I don’t want to give them junk or anything unhealthy. But how many people would be thrilled with a vegan fruit plate? I would… when I go to gatherings where they lure broke graduate students with promises of food, I’m all over the fruit. It makes me feel weird… not because I don’t eat animal products, but because I’m honestly starting to prefer the healthy choices. They taste better, look better, and make me feel better.

How did I get here and what took me so long?

Well, I’m not making my goal of bed by 11pm tonight, but after I post this, I’m shutting down my computer.

I did some calisthenics and some bellydancing tonight. I can’t take classes right now, partly because they’re at the same time that my son’s Boy Scout troop will be meeting. I’ll miss it. I took classes for a year. But I only have a few more years with my darling son at home, so I’m going to enjoy them. There will be plenty of time for dance classes later.

I took the dogs for a walk. They enjoyed it. It was rather cold, though. About 18 degrees F. So, it wasn’t a very long walk.

I posted about this in another thread, but yesterday, we went to Pizza Hut. I ordered the pan vegetarian with no cheese. After I was done, I had the worst taste in my mouth! So greasy and rancid! My usual fat intake is far lower than 50 grams a day. If I ever go back to Pizza Hut, I’ll try the thin and crispy. I think that has less fat. But it was nice to see how much my tastes have changed. I really do prefer fruits and veggies and low fat foods.

Now, to become addicted to exercise again. I’m working on it!

I can’t remember what I wrote before, but I’m working on going more raw with my diet.  More fresh fruits and veggies.  This does clash with my new break activity, which is baking wonderful vegan breads, muffins, and cupcakes, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

After we get back from the in-laws’ next week, I’m going to ease back into running.  Just 20 minutes a couple of times next week.  And a Cathe DVD or two.  After that, I hope to work back up to six times a week.

My focus now is getting back into my exercise habit.  We’re still running, though we’ll probably switch to evenings because of the weather.  I’m also going to do the Cathe DVDs that are closest to the Firm style… “aerobic weight training.”  I’m probably going to do Cardio and Weights three times a week until I build up my fitness to Boot Camp level.  Cathe has new videos coming out soon, so that should help rekindle the flames for me!

Basically, I have my eating almost completely under control, though I need to watch for the bad habit of drinking coffee instead of eating.

I was hoping to be at 80 kilos for my birthday next Friday, but I’d be surprised if I managed to pull off a 3 kilo loss in a week.  Now I’m hoping for 82.

It’s really not that hard to make good recipes that don’t involve soy, as long as you’re not trying to fake something.  I guess I don’t get the appeal of faking something I don’t want to eat anyway.  I want to eat real meals, not meals that are trying to convince me they’re something else.

Tomorrow, we’re going to the State Fair.  That will be a challenge, because I doubt they will have anything I will want to eat.

I haven’t exercised enough this week because I’ve been so wiped out.  This was my last week of getting up at 3am, so hopefully getting enough sleep will help.

My hopes for next week are that I will run three times a week at 6am, swim two or three times at night, and bike two or three times at night.  I also hope to do a Cathe weight DVD on Tuesdays and Fridays.