Well, my exercise has definitely been on the backburner for the last week or so. Unfortunately, so has my nutrition. It’s not that I’m eating too much, but that my lack of a routine has made it hard to eat regular meals. I get up between 7:00 and 7:30 every morning. I usually intend to eat a bowl of cereal, but this may or may not happen depending on how long I procrastinate. A lot of times, I end up putting it off until it’s time for lunch, which is whatever food I can scrounge up. We haven’t really gone grocery shopping while my sister was here, we were too busy enjoying her company and …

Just as I thought, my exercising has taken a backburner while my sister is here. She’s only here for a couple more days, and we’re really enjoying hanging out together on our screened in back porch with our cat. Despite my considerably more sedentary lifestyle this week, however, I’ve been losing weight. This is a huge contrast from the weight that I gain when I exercise (and it’s definitely not muscle being gained – trust me). While this is mind-boggling, I can’t help but feel that this is my body’s way of resetting so that my exercises can be effective again. After my sister leaves, I plan …

My fitness is still pretty much on track. I’ve still been working out at least every other day, and try to get extra cardio in whenever possible. Unfortunately, my workouts will probably be on the backburner for the next few days. My oldest sister Stefanie, and her fiancée Alex, are visiting from California for a few days. I want to spend as much time as possible with them while they’re here since I won’t see them until my birthday in November. On the bright side, today they will be attending my sister’s best friend’s wedding, so I will have plenty of time to get my workout done. Today, my …

With the oh-so-wonderful heatwave that we’ve been experiencing lately (do you detect my sarcasm?), it’s been more and more difficult to run. It’s impossible to run outside in this heat, so I moved my treadmill into my basement from my back porch to try to make it easier. Unfortunately, it’s also very difficult for me to run on the treadmill, even when I’m inside. First of all, with my treadmill being manual, I have to keep my arms on the handles to keep the belt’s momentum going for the duration of my workout. Running with my arms still feels very awkward, and I think it’s actually more …

Rainy days are a blessing when it comes to cooling down the weather, but it's only really beneficial when the rain actually stops long enough for me to finish a workout.  Luckily, my dad spotted a manual treadmill (yes, it is "self-propelled," no electricity involved) at a yard sale this weekend, and he got it for me for only $35. It's surprisingly easy to use. The belt moves really easily and smoothly, and once I get moving, I almost forget that it isn't motorized. I've always wanted a treadmill because I feel like it's pointless to pay for a gym membership and spend gas money to drive to a …

Tonight, I’m doing something that I don’t do very often: I’m taking two nights off of working out in a row. Last night, I just didn’t feel like it. Tonight, unfortunately, I just can’t. I’ve got a really bad headache that feels like someone is stabbing me through my right eye socket and into my head. When I get up and about, it hurts even worse to the point where I’m actually vocalizing my pain. I’ve never had a migraine before, but I’m thinking tonight is my first one. I’ve always handled pain very well. I ate a hot dog from 7-eleven on my way home from my tonsillectomy when I was 7, and my …

I’ve wanted to be a little more productive lately with my exercise, so I decided that I would like to go for a walk on my off-days from running. Last night, I walked 2.8 miles with my mom in about 35 minutes, and it went really well. My mom told me that she could tell by the way I was walking that my legs wanted to run, and that I seemed to have a lot of pent up energy that I needed to get out. I did run for a short period of time to get it out of my system, but I don’t think that my body’s reaction to walking for exercise was a good one. I feel that my body might be too used to running, and …

Last Friday I was so tired when I got home from work that I fell asleep within a few minutes of sitting down, and woke up to a pretty intense thunderstorm. The storm had some pretty strong winds that ended up knocking down some trees, so needless to say I had to wait until it was over before I could run. I didn’t run until about 11 pm when my mom and I finished watching a movie with my mom, and it actually was really great. The rain had made the humidity go down, and because it was nighttime, it wasn’t unbearably hot. I actually managed to do my entire 25 minute run with no stops, and it was …

Humidity (or a lack thereof) can really make or break my runs. It’s been so humid lately that sometimes I can’t run for more than five minutes at a time because it tires me out so fast. Luckily, my mindset on having incomplete workouts has changed since the first time I did Couch to 5K. With the general grossness outside from the pollen, humidity, and heat, just the fact that I’ve actually gone out and tried to do a workout every other day for an entire month makes me feel good. Before, I would freak out and feel like a failure if I was two minutes shy of finishing my route. Now, I’ve …

I spent Sunday in a bit of a fasting mode. I only ate fruits and vegetables for most of the day, and drank a lot of water. I ended up losing 6 pounds just on that day, so that tells me that a lot of my weight gain wasn’t real weight gain. Friday night was my best friend’s 21st birthday party, and I ate a lot of the finger foods that were available. I was probably retaining water this weekend due to all of the salt that was in the foods. I drank a lot of water starting on Saturday, after weighing myself, and I think that the increased water intake helped flush out the sodium and stopped some …

I don’t even know what to do right now. I’ve been gaining weight, despite running every other day (which should be enough to at least maintain my weight). I haven’t even been eating ice cream every day anymore, so I really just don’t understand why I’m still gaining weight. My dose for my thyroid medications was just increased, but I can’t help but feel like it’s still not enough I am now about 15 pounds heavier than I was at my lowest weight while writing this column. Worst of all, I have lost over two years of progress, as I now weigh more than I did in December 2008, and am only about 20 …

I’ve been a lot better about finding balance with my exercise. I’ve been doing really well with only running every day, and not obsessing about my exercise or my food. This is a good thing, because I’m not being insane, but a bad thing when I’ve already gone one day without running and don’t feel like doing it at all. I’m not going to lie, my day today started off pretty terribly. I got called into work last minute, had to battle with traffic, and when I finally got to work, there seemed to be a new disaster every time I turned around. Needless to say, by the time I got home, I was pretty …

Today, I really didn’t want to run. I felt bloated and was in a terrible mood, and it was really hot and humid outside. The humidity was making me feel gross, and all I wanted was to shower and be lazy. However, I didn’t just sit around. I actually went out there and ran. Granted, it was hard, and I was about a minute shy of finishing the whole workout because unfortunately the tail-end of it ended up being uphill and it really tired me out, but I did it. I’ve always been really good about honoring my commitments to other people. I don’t like backing down on plans, but it’s time that I honor …

Five days and four runs later, I’ve already made as much progress as I made in 12 runs the first time around. Each week usually takes three runs, but I’ve moved on to the next week after each run so far. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can move onto week five as quickly as I moved onto the rest. I barely finished my second 5 minute run yesterday because it was so hard to breathe. It was sheer willpower that got me through. While I was very happy that I managed to finish it, it is disappointing that my lungs are holding the rest of me back. The longest run in week four is 5 minutes; week five …

Now that I have restarted my running program, I am finally able to finish an entire workout without feeling light-headed or like I am going to pass out. I can also go much faster during the running intervals than I did back in February, because my body still wants to go long-distance like it is used to. Unfortunately, my lungs and the rest of my body are still not on the same page, so I still have a very hard time with breathing. While the run was difficult, the two weeks or so where I was not running enough (and for the last week, none at all) was even worse. I do not like how I feel when I …

With it being finals week for me, I decided that I’m not going to struggle with running until after I’ve finished my last exam. In fact, I made an even bigger decision – I will be starting over with my Couch to 5K program. I feel like I need to re-learn how to run in this spring weather, because the pollen seems to be getting worse as time goes on. Because I work for Fairfax County Public Schools, I will not have a regular job over the summer. This will allow me to devote a lot more time to my running and overall fitness. Hopefully I can beat the pollen count, or at least keep trying until it…

A couple of months ago, I decided that I wanted to see how much I could improve my mile time by Easter. As I am writing this, it is Easter, and I checked my mile time today. I ran a mile in 8:21, and it was terrible. Don’t get me wrong, 8:21 is by far my best mile time to date (before the best was 8:35), but the air quality is so terrible that I kept wondering if the people in my neighborhood would be able to figure out how to contact my parents when they found me passed out on the sidewalk. At the same time, by the time it was really hard to breathe, I only had two tenths of a mile left and …

I just got back from seeing my nutritionist, and overall it was a very good appointment. She told me that vegetarianism in people my age, especially for someone who is trying to be active, is not a good idea because my body is still changing at a rapid rate. I showed her a three day food journal of how I typically eat, and she told me that overall my eating habits are fine, for the most part. My nutritionist agreed that I should no longer be counting calories and just worry about eating the right nutrients and keep track of serving size. She also liked that I try to eat whole grains whenever …

I’ve mentioned before that I got very upset with myself over the fact that I had a few bad runs in a row due to unexpected heat, dehydration, and my allergies and asthma. I have come to realize that this isn’t because I was getting worse at running, but because Spring is just a terrible season for me, respiratory-wise. When I was in middle school, I once got a doctor’s note to miss over a month of PE because my allergies and asthma made it so I wasn’t getting enough oxygen to support physical activities. On occasion, I even had to get nebulizer treatments at my doctor’s office to get my …

After almost two weeks of unsuccessful runs, I was very afraid that I had lost all of my progress. Due to unexpected heat that I didn’t know how to deal with, dehydration, and allergies (which triggers my asthma), I had only been making it one mile the few times that I was able to run (due to weather). I was getting really upset with myself for letting me get out of shape. I have been gaining weight, and I blamed myself completely for not having been doing 3 miles every day. Fortunately, the running isn’t to blame. I got my blood test results back the other day, and my thyroid levels are …