Starting Over

I went to the gym on Wed and again on Fri. Weights and Spin class. They kicked my ass, but it was awesome. I can't wait to go back again this week! After we returned from our trip, my weight was bouncing around all over the place, but it finally settled out at about 220. That is wholly unacceptable to me, so I dusted off my Livestrong account and punched in my numbers and have begun tracking calories again. Weekly weigh ins will return tomorrow! Stay tuned! I weigh just about the same as I did when I started this journey ~ so I had a hard time figuring out why this time I have almost 1000 fewer calories everyday. I started playing around with my account and somehow, some way, I must have accidently set my goals to "maintain" the last time I was counting. It makes sense. I didn't lose very consistenly or very quickly. I was never hungry and very very rarely did I go over my calories. Huh....well. I've had to make some changes this time. On the days that I don't work out, it's really hard to come in under my calories. I'm only letting myself have one cup of coffee on the days I don't work out and I make sure to get my green smoothies in. Then, I go from there. In injury news ~ my foot feels tremendously better. Before I was dealing with plantar faciitis pain, achillies pain & heel pain. Almost all of the time and it was excruitating after I was sitting for a while and had to get back up. I've back to the gym for half a week and my foot pain is almost entirely gone. My achillies feels great. I'm stretching my calf all day long and keeping it loose. My heel pain has completely disappeared. GONE. Evaporated. Nada. And my PF pain is still there, but it's very localized and when I walk barefoot is just feels like I'm walking on a marble. I know from experience that a little bit of ice and some massage can fix that right up. I haven't run in quite some time. I'm going to give myself another week in the gym with cross training and no running, then I plan to start slow and ease some running back into my weeks. I'm pretty sure the half marathon isn't going to happen. But there are lots of them all year long in these parts. I'll find one. I'll do one. I'll finish one. A few people have asked me why I'm so hell bent on getting back to running. They've asked why can't I just get my exercise from the gym since I seem to like the classes so much? Well, these people that ask me such things aren't runners. It's not about the exercise. It's not about getting a cardio workout. Running, for me, is about freedom. Serenity. Peace. It's about that high that I get after a great run. I've never gotten that high from the gym. Not once. I miss that feeling. I crave it. And I can't wait to feel it again!