I spent this week failing to cope with routine changes and stress #Lessonslearned

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

When I started the week I had a simple plan. I was going to change up my running schedule so that I could have an easy day on Saturdays so I could start getting Jimmy back out running, in preparation for entering him in some races. I also had some diet ground to make up as what should have been a single splurge meal turned into a virtual splurge weekend. But all of that seemed pretty easy to handle, little did I know what threats were out there laying in wait for me.

First, kids got sick. Jimmy was sick for 3 days, starting with leaving school early on Monday and continuing until today. Danny was under the weather on Tuesday so I ended up taking a half day from work to care for the 2 of them. That really threw me for a loop, disrupting my routine. And I am just now realizing how much it affects me when Jimmy gets sick like this. He is normally such a rock, and I do depend on him to lead in the mornings, and when that isn't there, combined with worrying about him, just adds a level of stress.

Second, the weather. I was planning on running Tuesday morning, despite having run on Monday, because I wanted to adjust to the new routine. And I was ready to run in snow, I even got out there and started my warm up walk around the block. But, the snow was unusually wet and thick and quickly gathered on my feet like a layer of thick mud. Which wasn't very good running conditions so I surrendered and went home. I then  went out today on my scheduled run, but had a pretty weak run. Partially because people just need to shovel their damn sidewalks! Some times it is just flat dangerous to try and run on the side walks. Which threw off any attempts I made to get into a good rhythm.

Third, all of this stress from the kids being sick, and disruptions in routine led to my falling back into some bad eating habits. And eating too much, and the wrong things at the wrong times. So, in addition to the ice every where this morning my stomach was pretty queasy, taking away some of my energy I needed for my run.

Here is what I learned, or already know. A) None of this is fatal, it's not like having a bad week with a few bad meals and/or poor runs will result in my eternal demise. B) I really need to keep after the Skinny Rules habits, so that when disruptions like this occur the good habits are so built in that I won't fall back into the bad habits so easily. C) All of the above is also why I need to achieve my goals, because it's a heck of a lot easier to recover when you are at your goal weight, there's more of a cushion for a bad week. D) In addition to sticking to the good exercise and eating routines I really need to focus on handling stress better.