Signs of progress

Random Musings: I do apologize for the long delays in posting. I seem to have fallen apart a little bit since the triathlon in July. Since the tri ended on July 23rd, I let a combination of lost momentum and growing foot trouble kind of knock me out of the box. I ran a couple of times, but mostly stuck with dog walking. In fact, I have not swam a stroke and only biked once since the 23rd of July...

So why would I call today's entry signs of progress? Well there have been a few.

- I got on the scale last Friday and had mysteriously lost 2.5 pounds. I verified it again today and it appears to be real. it makes me wonder if training for an event does really impede weight loss, at least in the short term.

- Between getting off my feet last week and getting some treatment, my feet feel the best they have in weeks. Not perfect, but much better. With some new running shoes, I was able to get back out and run 2+ miles on Saturday and it felt pretty good.

- Starting a path towards the Urbanathlon seems to center me emotionally as well. Which is to say I feel better when I exercise, stunning huh?

Actually that last observation has been the one that floored me the most. I went out for a run Saturday after not doing much of anything for the week. I hadn't realized the level of stress I had been accumulating until I went out and just sweat. It's a sneaky thing. For about 10 days, I had been choosing to have a beer (some days) and lounge in the evening because it seemed recuperative, but in reality I felt fatigued and was starting my brain on the very familiar hamster wheel of looking at 11 different life/career pathways that I'll probably never go down...

Taken individually, they probably all seemed somewhat reasonable, but when looked at as a group, it's just crazy agitated anxiety manifesting itself in my own particularly idiom. Good words huh?

Anyway, I think I'm better now.

Exercise update: As I said above, I took an extended recovery period after the triathlon and to see if my foot would bounce back. Last week, I did elliptical and weights on Monday and then ran on Saturday. The good news is my short run felt pretty good, the bad news is that it was pretty short.

I also decided to try to swing on some monkey bars to prepare for the obstacle in the Urbanathlon. That was not good. I am definitely going to have to improve upper body strength between now and then and it is two months from today. I also tried to do some pull-ups but was only able to do a pull-up, singular. There is certainly room for improvement.

I also purchased a new fitness tracker at www.fitbit.com. It's kind of cool, it tracks and syncs my activity with my own website and compares me to my peers. It kind of appeals to the competitor in me and I hope it helps unlock the key to getting my weight under control.

Nutrition update: As I said earlier, I appear to finally be losing some weight. I am now tracking food on the fitbit site and we will see how that goes. I'm working on my caffeine habit and I'm getting close to being off it. I backslid a little bit last week when I returned to work, but I'm down to 1-2 cans a day right now and should be clear by the end of the month. I'm drinking regular soda, so I'm more accountable for the calories. It also cuts down on my Nutrasweet and I wonder if that is connected with the unexpected weight loss?

Tomorrow I have a health screening at work for our insurance plan and should get more numbers to monitor. I'm curious about Blood pressure and Blood sugar as both have been issues in the past. I'll post more when I know more.