The Day After

The walk ended more than 24 hours ago, but man, my legs are stiff! This morning, my ankle was throbbing as I hobbled down the block to the bus stop. It doesn't hurt anymore, but I still feel as if I'm 80 years old when I heave myself out of a chair.

It's all good, though. Hurting because I can barely move my fat ass down the street sucks. Hurting because I completed something physical that benefits a great cause is totally worth it.

Meantime, I'm finding that my tastes are changing drastically. I haven't given up carbs, but I eat fewer of them and am much more mindful of the type I eat. In other words, I no longer have white bread, white potatoes or white rice; instead, I have whole wheat or brown rice.

Anyway, while I still have bread or bread-like products like corn tortillas, I'm not craving them as much. Yesterday for instance, I treated myself to Uno's veggie pizza made on a five-grain crust. I haven't had pizza in months, so I was really looking forward to it. But it was just meh. I could take it or leave it; it wasn't like, "Oh, pizza, how I've missed you!" Tonight, I ordered chicken enchiladas in corn tortillas ... but I ended up eating just the chicken and leaving over the shells.

It's amazing how we can train our bodies to do things -- to walk further than we ever anticipated, to completely overhaul our eating habits, to function more efficiently, both mentally and physically. The beauty of being human is that in many cases, you can change those things about yourself that you want to improve; you can always start over. I've been given many chances to turn things around and am grateful that I'm getting yet another.

A Little Bit Of Nothing

I think the cleaning marathon got to me because I completely CRASHED this afternoon. I took a nap on the couch, then awoke with the intent to go walking with Jon -- but just couldn't move. I felt as if a block of lead were holding me down.

On the one hand, I'm disappointed in myself because I really do need to keep up with the walking. The diabetes event is three weeks away and I want to enjoy it. I don't want to be whining or in pain the entire time because I didn't train enough. However, my body was obviously trying to tell me something because I haven't crashed like that in a couple of months. I have been doing a lot between walking, cleaning, preparing for my upcoming jewelry show and well, working full time, so I guess I needed a day of rest.

The trick to lving healthfully, though, is to keep at it. Sure, I might have had a bad day today, but I can't let tomorrow become another one. I'm already planning to walk or go to the gym after work. And I'm already at a point where I can comfortably walk three miles, so the five mile event doesn't seem that daunting. I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't a race; it's a walk to raise money for people like me -- people who have diabetes. Plus, I'll be with a nice group of friends. Perhaps we'll be the last group to cross the finish line, but if it's a nice day, we'll just get that much more fresh air.

I'm trying not to be so hard on myself. I can't be the perfect model of fitness every day, especially when I'm not feeling 100 percent, but I can keep doing the best that I can.

Water's Edge

I just got back from a great evening with friends. One lives close to where I work in lower Manhattan, so I walked to her place, and then she and I and our other friend went for a walk along the river. They recently built a park there with flowers and benches, so it was very pleasant to stroll through it. Plus, the weather was perfect: sunny and breezy with a chill in the air - just the way I like it.

I was a little frustrated because I had to stop and rest my leg a few times (the three miler I did this weekend affected me more than I'd thought), but my girlfriends were patient and I still managed to get a lot of walking done. I figured that we'd covered about a mile, but when I clocked it, it came out to 2.3 total for me. Not bad!

Later we had dinner at a cozy Italian place on Front Street. I haven't had a lot of Italian since I received my diabetes diagnosis so I wasn't sure what I'd be able to eat but it was fine. I had an arugula salad with shaved parmesan, dressing on the side; broccoli rabe with pepper flakes; and then chicken and sausage in a brown sauce with potatoes and spinach on the side. I had one bite of potato, but left the rest. The remainder of the meal was delicious and chock full of veggies. What I liked, too, was that the portions were human sized. There were about four oz of meat on the plate, just enough to fill you up. However, it wasn't a huge dish with enough food for three people, as is often the case at restaurants.

My friends commented that I look good, which was really nice. I still don't think that the weight loss is so obvious, but I think I just look healthier in general. Everyone who has complimented me so far has remarked that I have more color in my cheeks. I know now from seeing my friend's wedding video that I looked deathly pale earlier this summer so I guess the contrast is noticeable.

I think the change is also from me changing my eating habits. I'm finally eating the recommended portions of fruits, veggies and whole grains and it shows. My skin has cleared up and I no longer have dark circles under my eyes. I don't look like a zombie -- all good!

My friends agreed to join me in the diabetes walk, so we now have a whole team with six people. It's going to be fun! It's a month away now so I need to step up my training. This weekend I plan to do four miles and I also want to return to the gym. Ideally, I'll be able to finish the walk without taking breaks, but that might be a tall order for me with my leg issues. More realistically, I'd like to complete it in two hours. Either way it'll be nice to have Jon and my friends by my side. I'm not happy to have been diagnosed with diabetes, but hey, let's make this walk a party!