My Journey With Health And Fitness – I’m Back, In More Ways Than One

Ok, I know I haven’t posted in a while but once again I was at the condo and sometimes I get a little too wrapped up in doing things there rather what I would normally do at home. We returned home last Wednesday and I have been super busy ever since trying to get everything caught up. It didn’t help that once again while at the condo I was the financial agent for a local by-election at home and ensuring all of that information is up to date and accurate.

I made a commitment to myself that on this last trip it was time for me to get fully back on track. I know I have tried this several times over the past 17 months without a lot of success but this time I thought there is a really simple way to do this, get back to my old routine. Having said that, while at the condo between a strained back, a cold, and technical issues with my online fitness class system, there were more classes missed than what I would have liked but I tried. I also had a few mornings where there was not any walking because it was hurricane season and some mornings the rain was too intense for me to go for a walk.

So where to start? Actually it hasn’t been that hard, I just need to go back to what I did to make everything in my health improve. It has started with diligently recording absolutely everything I consume and make sure the calories in are less than the calories out. In order to help with this I also committed to reduce alcohol consumption. By that I mean nothing during the week and maybe a beer at lunch on Sundays. I’m actually trying to stretch that a bit and maybe not have anything until November 11th. Either way, that will absolutely help with the calories (though I will miss my beloved wine and tequila).

As for workouts, I’m going back to a rigid schedule. I have found especially in the last 6 months that I was letting myself come up with a few too many excuses not to workout as much and it shows. And so we are back to Monday to Friday 1 fitness class and at least 2 hours of walking then 2 hours of walking each day on the weekend.

But there is a big change I made while at the condo. I came to realize that my stupid ankle wasn’t really hurting that much anymore. Now I have been pretty good about doing my ankle exercises every day though admittedly I often do them at night when I can’t sleep but they still are done regularly. I thought, hmm, while here since the streets are really flat, let’s try doing some running. I hadn’t done a run in 18 months so I decided let’s take this slow and build up.

I want to note, I always wore my ankle brace when doing this but had actually gotten to the point where I didn’t need to wear it on that flat terrain when walking. And so I started doing 10 intervals, 1 minute run, 4 minutes of walking. I set up my initial goal of at least 3 times a week though all but 1 week I was able to get in 4 sessions. Each week I would increase the run component by a minute, dropping the walk portion by 1 minute. Then I did it, a week ago Sunday I did a full on 5km run! Last Tuesday I did another one and then on Saturday I boosted it up to 6km. I’m running slowly and gently but damn, I am back!

Going forward I am not going back to running every day, that is how I got myself into the ankle trouble. Instead I will do shorter runs Tuesday/Thursday and then on Saturday I will do a longer run, this week the goal is 8km. I have sworn to my husband that if my ankle starts to bother me I will back off but I am hoping that by being careful this will go well.

And so words I never thought I would say, I really missed running and have enjoyed these past several weeks of building up again. There is also some irony to this, now that the ankle is feeling better last Friday I got a letter advising after 14 months I finally have an appointment with the specialist. I am going to take advantage of the appointment so that going forward I can protect my ankle and hopefully not have another injury.

Oh yeah, I am back!