Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Choices: decisions that will bring success in my fitness levels

Every day we make choices. I would like to think that I make wise choices. But then again, I weigh just shy of 250 pounds so apparently I don’t always make wise choices. I am trying to change that. I was proud of some of the choices that I made this past weekend. While I am not happy with one of the choices I have come to make, I know that it is probably for the best.

Good choices over the weekend. In my last post, I wrote about my choice to not get the cookie at Jimmy John’s. I also wrote about my choice to not get the super high calorie, albeit tasty milkshake from a popular fast food chain. I was trying to break the barrier of that weekly rise of the scales  What am I talking about, I seem to have a pattern where my weight drops during  the work week… It’s very low during the weekend… And then it’s back up high again on Monday. I don’t like that pattern. So I made choices this week to try to break that pattern.While the choices that I did make were still not perfect (I made edible cookie dough for myself in a very small batch which was a much lower calorie count than the other options), I did not see my weight rise by the typical 3 pounds.   I am within a pound...so maybe a bit of a jump on the scales, but NOT the three pound jump!       I will take that as a successful choice.

I had that meltdown on the bike, while riding the trail of tears. I was four or five miles from the car. I had a choice to make. I could walk the bike out of the woods or I could ride out of the woods. I rode, I made a choice and I got back on that bike and I rode. I am very proud of that choice. I turned a failure into a success… OK maybe not a success but I at least kept the failure from not being absolute and complete. A good choice!

Sooo here comes the big choice that I have been contemplating!   I miss running.  I made a vow a few weeks back to start running again.  I meant it from the bottom of my heart.  The problem?  I am being pulled in two different directions.  I am riding my heart out on the weekends.  I come home decimated.   Ok, that’s a bit too over dramatic.   But I come home tired!   Running on top of that is just not wise or even really feasible.   I can do one but then the other suffers.  If I run in the morning my legs are already half dead by my bike ride and vice versus.  Sooo...I have had to come to a conclusion.   Right now, my focus is on riding. If there by chance is a day when no bike ride happens, well then I will go out for a run.  It won’t be a fast run or any great run.  In fact that day may be mostly walking.   In time when I start to feel amazing on the bike (or if we have to slow down the biking at any point for some unknown reason) I will THEN add running into the mix as a priority.  Right now however, I feel as if  I am spreading myself too thin if I try to conquer both of them at the same time.  .   I want to be successful at both but I will be only partially successful and it will take a lot longer if I try to split my time and focus.  That means that for me, right here and now, I need to focus on just one.   So biking it is!  It was a choice...and I’m prettty sure it is a good one. 

This doesn’t mean that I am giving up on the running.  NO!  Im just pushing that to the back burner.  If I have a day where I’m not on my bike when I should be, running it is.  I will enjoy the run and wait for the day when I can have the bike thing under control and be able to give running my all!   The bonus for when I start running?  My cardio fitness will be strong due to the riding, my legs will be strong due to the riding.  I will be one step ahead of the game.  But for now,  one thing  at a time as I make myself fit and strong!