Week Three Begun
Well, I’m keeping on track with this couch-to-5k thing, amazingly enough. Today I did week 3, day 1 – run 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes, repeat the whole cycle once.
I can’t believe I ran 3 whole minutes — twice! — but I did. Ok, I should say “jog,” not “run,” but still! I would say that the first week was actually more difficult than today was. I wasn’t even mumbling in my head about wanting to quit during the first three-minute run, and I didn’t start trying to justify why it would be ok to stop early until I had 30 seconds left to the last 3 minute run. But I stuck it out. I told myself, “I don’t care what you want. I don’t care what you say. You’re going to do this and say you did it without reservation or qualification. Suck it up and keep going!”
Yes, sometimes I just have to check and make sure expressions mean what I think they mean. Maybe on Wednesday I’ll tell myself to shut up and be a man about it. :)
Now, 2 whole weeks down and the third week begun and I have lost a grand total of — wait for it — one pound. Disappointing. I’ve been trying to make myself believe that I must be gaining muscle weight as I lose fat, but I’m dubious about that. Jessica promised me week 4 saw dramatic changes, so I’m holding out for that. You better be right, Jess!
Before beginning running, I had adjusted my eating habits (mostly I just stopped the post-partum-justified indulgence) and been inconsistent with exercise and lost several pounds. I might have to reevaluate the eating plan if I want to see more marked weight loss. Autumn chill is creeping into the air already, so I have not only the motivation of buying a new dress in 6 weeks, but also the necessity of fitting into my regular jeans. Many of my summer skirts are more forgiving. However, I have packed up and put away all maternity clothes so they are not even available to fudge into anymore. Also, I opened up my boxes of between pregnancy (that’s a more accurate term than “pre-pregnancy,” although I still have one small, hopeful box of size 6/8s left. If I ever fit them again we’ll have to see if practically-30-year-old me will still want to wear what 18-year-old-me bought). I reminded myself what normal clothes look like and how nice it would be to wear such things again. When I first started trying to get the pregnancy pounds off, I started a chart:
When it hits 5 pounds left to lose I should be able to get into my regular clothes, but at 0 pounds left to lose they will fit nicely. And, of course, after that I could stand to lose another 10 (and be able to pull out those size 6/8s I just haven’t been able to part with), but let’s be reasonable.
As far as energy goes, I think I might have noticed an increase. However, the first part of last week Knox slept 3-4 hour stretches, so that could be responsible for my increase in alertness as well. The last half of the week he went back to 1-2 hour stretches with one 3-4 (usually beginning at 8 and I didn’t go to bed when he did) stretch and then I was lethargic again. So, my suspicion is that getting adequate sleep is what will really help my energy levels, but I can’t really do anything about that. As it is, surprisingly, I don’t think getting up at 6 or 6:30 and running has decreased my energy, so that’s good enough for me.
