Dear James, Daniel and Emily
The first few days of the New Year went well, I was running, and eating right. Then I caught the terrible flu bug that is making the rounds. Leading to several days of laying around, coughing so much it hurt, and having little to no energy. I was only able to get back to running this past Sunday, and even then it is clear I don't have my full wind back.
I could let this bring me down, forget about all my attempts to get back into good habits, and focus on rest as my form of recovery. Instead I am going to attempt to pull a mental jujitsu move, and let the momentum of recovery pull me forward into better habits.
The biggest place I am using this is eating. Specifically my appetite. One of the hardest things to change is appetite, eating less is hard. But, one of the byproducts of the flu was that I had several days with little to no appetite. And I have focused on not returning to the holiday eating habits as my body has recovered. Because, even in recovery, I simply don't need to be eating that much. So I am doing my best to simply ride that temporary loss of appetite and convert it into the good habit of eating less.
And so far so good. I am starting to see some small, subtle differences. Just have to retain my focus while the good habits take hold. And I have also been better at holding to the 'is it protein or fiber' question when eating anything. I haven't been perfect, but I have gotten better.
And while the physical recovery may take another week before I am back to the New Year running level I am at least at the stage where I am running again this week. And I know that if I just run, even if it is not the desired route or distances, those will come.
All in all, it sucked to get sick. But I can at least find ways to use the enforced down time to my advantage and let that be my basis in not only recovering from illness but also recovering from the lapsed bad habits of the extended holiday season.
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