Fitness Journey Hurdles

My Anatomy professor gave me an excuse to check myself out:
Look at that GASTROCNEMIUS

I've lost six pounds in eight weeks since coming back from the Grand Canyon thanks to running, cycling, and a monitoring of carb and protein intake. The use of MapMyRun and MyFitnessPal has helped significantly.

But as I progress, there are many hurdles on the fitness journey!

1. People questioning your motives. Why put yourself through so much self-denial, pain, and unhappiness? Just because I think skinny is beautiful? Why complicate my life for a superficial reason? First, I understand that I have been influenced by media to believe "skinny is beautiful." But I'm turning away from that and I'm focusing on performance and fitness. I think I'd be truly unhappy with my body if I was skinny but wasn't fit. I love when I can run a 7:30 mile for four miles straight--being lean is a nice benefit and losing weight has drastically helped my performance thus far. Second, self-denial is not always painful. It is really difficult. But it doesn't mean it's painful. No one got to where they wanted without utilizing self-discipline!
2. Not letting compliments get to your head. It feels great when people notice your results and it makes you want to have cake. But the journey isn't over! The journey. Isn't. Over!!
3. INJURIES. Overuse injuries are the bane of my existence. I do a good amount of legwork focusing on muscle imbalance. I do a lot of stretching focusing on myofascial release. I give myself 1-2 days off my feet (but I still take the stairs to get to work...). But things always seem to hurt in my legs and feet. In particular, I have average to high arches and I still feel weakness in my left leg since surgery. Injuries are the most annoying part of this journey but I really think it's more about understanding my limits and going at a pace my body can handle. Things I am actively trying to prevent or working on:
   * shin splints - calf stretching, massage
   * peroneal tendonitis - peroneal stretching, massage
   * burning arches - calf/peroneal stretching, foot message
   * post-op knee, anterior pain and flexibility - quad and hamstring strength and flexibility, knee scar tissue massage
4. Muscle Soreness. I'm getting stronger - there's no doubt about that. I'll feel it in my pecs after a swim, in my abs after a downhill run, in my quads after difficult runs and rides... but the price to pay is muscle soreness. And like in hurdle # 3, I sometimes don't know how much rest I need.
5. Time/energy. I feel distracted from work all the time because I get obsessive over exercise and nutrition. Often, I'll also feel tired during the day because of tough workouts. Sigh. Sometimes I wish I could just take 3 months off from life and focus on getting fit. But only Olympic athletes are allowed to do that. And I should really learn how to better my work/life balance. 

I've found what works at the moment is allowing myself a weekend to chill out on dieting and eat what I want. However, I do have the tendency to binge and I want to be able to get past that. 

The binge doesn't just happen with food. As always, the running lifestyle is a reflection of life in general. I've always known myself to be an "all or nothing" type of person and while there are merits to that, it's less effective in the slow-burn marathon parts of life. I'm slowly learning how to deal with myself as a person. 

"To keep on going, you have to keep up the rhythm." --Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

As an emotional person (an ENFP), I tend to surround myself with Rationals to keep me calm and secure. I admire how many of my friends are so relatively unfazed by the emotional ups and downs of life. My boyfriend resets every day - even when life rhythm gets interrupted. He's steadfast and diligent and outwardly unswayed by emotions even though I can sense when he's stressed. 

In contrast, I'm not a scheduled type of person and I abhor routine. Emotions hit me hard. I can get obsessive about things - bad or good. Like a sprinter, I go all in or I go all out and I don't have a medium in between for the tedium. But I would certainly love to find a rhythm to the madness. And not only that, I'd love to train myself to quickly recollect when said rhythm gets interrupted. 

I believe that when I mature to this level, I can confidently say "I am going to make a change in my community," remembering that we all start with the [wo]man in the mirror.

So, life. I'm training myself to make healthier choices.

That's part of the reason why I'm starting up monthly commitments. (Update: In March, I've missed my 6:30am wake up time once after staying up late to do work two nights before. And so far, I've been successful at not eating out at restaurants.)

Currently Reading: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami, 2007)