cynosure

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Project: Summer 2010! (Project What?) – Weeks 1 & 2

Week 3

• Sunday: I woke up at 6am… and felt it was too cold (I soon learned my mistake, though) and thus waited on going out to move in the sun all day, leading me to feel idle. I went on a walk with my neighbor, though, and that was nice. Then I jogged for about 10 minutes in the dark before I seemed to get a cramp (which passed pretty quickly after, but ahh, whatever). I used to be fine with running/jogging/walking in the dark but now I feel like I like it much better when I can, well, see things. Then again, in the past, it was because I always slept far into the day and thus couldn’t go out in the blazing daytime heat… yay for changing habits! Night owls CAN reform.
• Monday: Successfully did some jogging & walking intervals and it actually started feeling easy, so decided to step up the game for the next day. KOed (to sleep) by eating uncooked multigrain cereal (oats, barley, etc.) even though.. I thought it tasted fine, like muesli or regular cereal.. but apparently it took its toll on my hardworking digestion.
• Tuesday: By the time I woke (10am or so), it was already starting to get too hot outside… plus my stomach hurt. Rawr. The 3rd Tuesday that I didn’t move for one reason or another.
• Wednesday: Did longer jogging & walking intervals. Got a slight cramp, but… It felt challenging in a good way!
• Thursday: More jogging & walking intervals, more walking afterward, and a two-hour walk & talk with a friend. Did a lot today! (Though my eating habits were a little off-balance in these few days…)
• Friday: Jogging & walking intervals, even though my stomach felt queasy at first… I ended up feeling a lot better.
• Saturday: Walked around the airport terminal. Woke up too late as a result of staying up late to read more of The Amber Spyglass, which I finished that day. Had three flights and little rest… kind of frustrating because I spent all day packing and had no time to do much.
• Sunday: Walked through airport (it was a long walk!), picked strawberries for a short while, took a short walk through a park… I was exhausted on a couple hours of sleep. I didn’t feel like doing anything, let alone running to energize myself.

Week 4:

• Monday: I woke up with cramps. I thought, Okay. I’ll move my body in order to feel BETTER. I did not take painkillers, even. I should have. (My family line is famous for absolutely unreasonable cramps– my sister had to be carried to the emergency room once, and I had to go home the first day of 7th grade [and many other days] because I threw up!) It was the most painful half-hearted jog EVER. I was going at my walking pace, and I kept on thinking I’d feel better… this was one time where it really would have ended much better if I’d listened to my body and stopped. It wasn’t an excuse. It really damn hurt. And I’ll know better next time.
• Tuesday: The first Tuesday I actually did something! I felt much better than the day before and got in a pretty successful run. For the first time, I actually mapped it out… and I was confused, because the distance seemed a lot longer than what was proportionate to my pace! Ahhhhh well.
• Wednesday: More running/intervals, really. Then I tried to take a walk but it was so windy outside I was freezing in shorts. I still made it around the neighborhood though. I was a little sore from the day before… and my head felt so heavy and fatigued by afternoon. (And I started logging my miles! My original “far-reach” goal of this year was to run 365, or 500, miles. Then I didn’t run… for the first six months of the year. But at this point it might actually be possible I’ll do it!)
• Thursday: I walked/hiked up and down Mont-Royal (which isn’t actually a true mountain, and is pretty short… but still!). I forced myself to have a recovery day since I felt I might need one due to soreness, but in reality, my rest day made me very restless! Next time I’ll at least jog.
• Friday: Went out as early as possible. I usually spend about an hour drinking water/preparing to go out to run, but this time I was on a time limit and gave myself 15 minutes… and thus… I felt quite dehydrated! (I drink a lot of water usually. A lot.) I made a detour to the park to the water fountain. I feel like I’m getting slower. Or maybe my muscles are tired and need to get used to it? No matter. I didn’t feel like I really did much though. Oh! And I went on a long walk with a neighbor, who walks to and jogs back from the nearby shopping center every day after dinner. She’s going to be my after-dinner walk buddy
• Saturday: Since I did quite a bit the day before, I decided to just “jog for as long as possible” without any set plan. And then realized… I don’t jog continuously for very long (yet)! I basically jogged for 10 minutes. And later pulled weeds.
• Sunday: Struck by self-induced insomnia the night before, I slept way too late (when the sun was coming up) and didn’t wake up in time for a morning jog. I walked around downtown though. Just a little. But I’m focusing on the positive so I count that as a day of movement, albeit minimal.

Reading:

• I finished His Dark Materials!!! And um, it was awesome. I haven’t been absorbed into a book’s world (no spacing out when reading) in so long. I’m glad I read it now… I wouldn’t have understood a lot of the concepts had I been younger.
• I finished Anna Karenina. It was… okay. I read Madame Bovary last summer, and in the end Anna reminded me of Emma Bovary. Sigh. I’m not going to get into it because of spoilers and it’s not important (read: I didn’t really like this 870-page book behemoth that took me almost a year to finish) but I really disliked the very character who pretty much represents Tolstoy!
• I don’t know about Les Miserables… I thought it was 1100 pages, but it’s actually 1500. That makes it a little different. And makes me want to devote an entire year just trying to finish it, and not reading anything else.
• Instead, I’m reading another one of Dr. Wayne W. Dyer’s books. It’s influencing me positively so much already, and I’m only 20 pages in. After I finish a couple other of his books I want to maybe devote a whole post to his works. They’ve been pivotal in my self-development. (Apparently Dr. Dyer recently was diagnosed with leukemia. May he heal well.)

State of Health

• After getting a second infection in one year, I’m wondering if I can finally pass the final frontier and change the fact that I eat nourishing foods most of the time but then, half the time basically eat… refined sugar with very little nutrition value. The final frontier for me (other than veganism) is definitely: Eat less (or no) refined sugar. Not going to lie, this is a task I’ve avoided in the past. I’ve cherished my daily dessert after dinner. But I could make it myself or choose a reputable (vegan?) bakery. (Right now it’s kind of hard to make it myself since this isn’t my house. But must that stop anyone?) After last night, supermarket pastries? Never again. (Hydrogenated oils, artificial ingredients, food coloring, and a questionable orange-and-green colored iced topping…)
• Also, I could always be more caring towards myself, instead of causing myself stomachaches, or the too-full feeling that results in my wanting to avoid contact with all other human beings because I feel sick.
• I’m also transitioning (slowly and steadily!) towards veganism. Currently, my constantly eating with meat-eaters (who are the ones that decide what to eat!) is a little taxing.
• My body (and yours!) is a temple, after all. And if I can love myself in every other way, I can love myself in this way.

My July goal is to move every day, no excuses! So far I’m doing well… except for the fact that the odd week out of this summer, Montreal is going through a massive heat wave. (And here I was relishing escaping I’m planning on waking up at 5am to beat the heat tomorrow, but even then, the lowest temperature is 77F/25C!) I woke up at 8am today and found the humidity and heat outside unbearable.

My eating has also been in a rut because I haven’t been able to actually use the energy I consume, and when I don’t get hungry/feel full I very ironically feel inclined to eat more, and when coupled with living with others who expect to eat at specific times…

Ah.

So I can see the allure of a gym, but I still prefer moving outside.

Even when it’s 90F/31C at 9pm as the sun sets… ahhh…

What do you do to deal with
extreme temperatures, hot or cold?

Maybe I’ll find a place to swim that’s not under the scorching sun…

(Would you rather these Project: Summer 2010! posts weekly or biweekly [as it is right now]? Would you like me to continue writing these after summer’s past? Too early to tell?)

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tags: books, personal development, project: summer 2010!, reading, running

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 19:34 and is filed under food and eating, growing, moving your body. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.