A New Plan

Someone posted this picture on Facebook within the last few days – if it was you, please let me know so I can give you credit!

I’m home from work for the second day in a row thanks to a nasty cold, fever, and overall feeling of not wanting to move more than an inch at a time. Of course, all of this free time – where I can’t be distracted by anything more than getting water from the kitchen – means that I have more time to think.

Let me back up: I started thinking about all of this on Monday night, after putting together a half training plan that included running, yoga, and Ripped in 30. That’s when I realized that all of my workout-related goals left very little time for recovery, time with my family, or time for myself. Training for a half marathon is time consuming by itself, but add to that Ripped in 30. hot yoga, and family time, and the next 16 weeks were enough to really make me stop and think about what I really want out of the next few months.

So.

I’ve reached a difficult decision and that means no spring half marathon. As much as I enjoyed last fall’s half with my sister and as much as I want to run the Marine Corps Historic Half, there are some things I need to remember. I barely lost any weight during the 12 weeks of half training last year. And right now, running another half isn’t my real goal: it’s weight loss. Remember my post about finding balance? My fear is that committing to another half would throw that balance way off and I’d end up over (or under) trained, injured, and at the same weight as when I started.

As disappointed as I am that I won’t be crossing the finish line in May, that doesn’t mean that I won’t do any races this year. I don’t know when I’ll start running again, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea for me to lose a bit more weight first. For now, the new plan is to stick with Ripped in 30 and hot yoga; I had great results from the 30 Day Shred so once I’m feeling better, I’m going after Ripped in 30 just like I did the Shred.

Another thing that I’ve been thinking about is my eating ‘plan’. You may remember that I cancelled my Weight Watchers membership in October, but that was not because of the program itself; I cancelled because I still wasn’t making the right decisions while using it. I’ve decided to give WW another go, this time employing all of the lessons that I’ve learned from Whole30 and not allowing myself to again fall into the processed foods trap. I have changed it up a bit this time and joined online instead of the in-person meetings (mostly due to financial and time restrictions), but I’m excited to have accountability again. I’m not proud to bow out of Whole30, but I know this is the right decision. My weigh-in day will be Fridays and I’ll start posting those next week (9/18).

Although I won’t be doing Whole30 anymore, I still want to know how you’re doing on it and what you’re learning – so please feel free to comment or email me (dawn@priorfatgirl.com) or send me a tweet (PFG_Dawn).

Now that I have all of that out of the way, let’s hope this cold goes away soon so I can get down to business!