Run, Baby, Run

Today I made it to the official 10-lbs-to-goal mark. Woo hoo! I want to see if I can SEE the 160s this week. I only have to lose 0.1 lb. I'm not good at short-term weight goals--my body seems so unpredictable--but I am bicycling to work this week, plus running, so I hope to see a little more scale movement and a peek at the 160s. That would be so cool!

Today I was thinking about my goal weight, for about the millionth time since my surgery, and realized something that now seems like a big DUH. At 160, I'll be smaller than I was at 160 in high school. How can that be? Well, I have at least 10 extra pounds of skin. That's how. (I guess there's another thing too: I'm a couple inches taller than I was in HS.) WLS women who get tummy tucks usually lose a minimum of 5 lbs of skin during the procedure; people who have massive PS after massive weight loss can lose well over 25 lbs of skin (sometimes more than that just off the pannus). So even though I'm pretty lucky in the loose skin department--I have less than many folks do, and I don't look like a melted candle--and even though I will never have PS to remove ALL of it (just the tummy, some day, maybe), I really am smaller under all the skin. It makes more sense to me now.

I just got back from a short-ish run this evening; it's still over 80 degrees, and I was running in new shoes (breaking in the spoils from the sale at Portland Running Company--my same Asics 2130s that I LOVE), and I biked to work today, a route that includes lots of hills that I'm not buff enough for yet, so I didn't go crazy. But I was thinking about the idea that running is more mental than physical. Much of it is convincing yourself to go, and to keep going once you've started. Not unlike most exercise for those of us who aren't usually exercise-inclined. How do you keep at it? (I wonder this, because I don't want to get tired of this exercise--I enjoy it, and it works for me--but I know people get burned out.) Here's what I think:

1. Like any exercise, make a commitment to yourself to do it--you're less likely to back out. For me, this means set running days (every other day). Also planning it into your day--at the beginning of the day I know I'm going to run in the evening. If I know I have a late start in my morning, I'll run early.
2. Give yourself an out--on the days you aren't feeling it, it's okay to say "I'm just going for 10 minutes, and if I don't feel like going further I'll go back." Usually 10 minutes is enough to keep you going anyway.
3. Give yourself a lot of praise, even if it's what you do every day. This means more on the days that you would rather just go to bed, like today was for me.

I hope this works for me in the long run. I think also changing things up helps--changing routes, changing mileage, adding in other exercises, like my walk and bike commutes to the hospital. Running regularly makes it easier for me to be more active in general--like going to play frisbee with my hubby, or going for a hike.

Ok, off to shower, then bed. I'm hoping to see 169.9 this week! Fingers crossed...