I’ve been running and it’s been mostly great. My right knee has been hurting off and on since we got back from England, but it appears to be an exercise thing in general and not specific to running, so even walking hasn’t been as good as I’d like. It’s finally starting to get better, so hopefully that won’t be an issue for much longer. With running, I’m slowly pushing to longer distances and am back to three or four mile runs with one or two short walking breaks in the middle. My time is improving too and I’m back to running around 12:00 or 12:30 minutes per mile. I’m hoping to be at 11:00 or faster by the end of the summer.

As for my weight, it has held steady, with fluctuations of one or two pounds. I can attribute this plateau to my eating, which has been mostly healthy, but there have been too many food  treats lately. On Saturday, I completely and totally binged from noon until the evening. Even as I did it, I knew I’d regret it and, by 6:00, I felt bloated and stuffed. That didn’t stop me from eating more later in the evening. Blargh. It was mostly sugars too, so it wasn’t just overeating, it was an ingredient that I haven’t allowed myself to have much of in recent months. I woke up on Sunday and felt terrible from the food hangover. I had a pounding, throbbing headache too, which has been a rare thing for me since I cleaned up my diet in January. On Sunday, I kept my foods to mostly fruits and veggies, with small amounts of whole grains and dairy in there.  I have no idea what Saturday’s excesses have done to my weight, as I’m not going to weigh myself for a week or so while I detox my body.

Luckily, ’tis the season for fresh produce, as evidenced by all the yummies coming out of my garden and from the farmers’ market. I find it easiest to eat healthy this time of year.

I’ll try to remember to report in next week about how this week’s food detox went.

Two years ago, I weighed almost 20 pounds more than I do. One year ago, I weighed about 10 pounds more than I do. In the past two years, I have lost 20 pounds, regained 15, lost more weight, regained more weight, and (since January 1) lost weight again. It’s a vicious cycle, but I am committed to continuing to work on my health and losing weight.

In the past month, I have lost and regained the same pound over and over again. For the first 12 days of April, we were traveling and, even though I ate with abandon, I still managed to lose a pound on our trip. For the remainder of the month, I was stressed by events beyond my control and did some stress-eating, but not too much. This past weekend, I again ate with abandon as I celebrated my birthday.

This week, I will once again try hard to get back on track and continue with the weight loss that I managed in January, February, and March.

The low is that I’ve had a lot of family stress this month, so I’ve 1) had to skip exercise some days in order to be able to drive across the state to be with family and 2) I’ve done some stress eating. Not too bad, but just enough that I regained a couple of pounds. I’ve started to get things under control and have now re-lost a pound, but the upshot is that there’s no way I’ll lose 5 pounds in April, which is the first month of 2011 I have not hit this goal. There are still five days left in the month for me to lose a pound or two, so hopefully that will happen.

So, the short of it is that we walked miles and miles almost every day of our trip. During that same time, our eating was off and some days we grazed instead of having proper meals. I did eat a lot of chocolate, baguettes, and other treats, but tried to keep things in moderation. I also tried to have fruits and vegetables every day, although some days were easier than others.

Still, according to my scales this morning, I lost a pound, which is amazing considering that we spent last weekend with friends near Bath and felt like I was competing in the Olympic eating and drinking trials, what with the non-stop meals, snacks, tea, cappuccinos, and booze.

One interesting thing that came up is that I had absolutely no back problems on our trip. None. Not one twinge of pain. that says to me that my back problems are environmental and related to something I’m doing during the course of my daily routine. If I had to guess, it’s my desk and desk chair, so I’ll be making some changes just as soon as I figure out what I need to do.

Two weeks ago, I went to the doctor and got approval to run again. I’ve been adding five minutes of running here and there to my walks and it feels good. No shin pain. I’m still having lower back pain, but I think that is now unrelated to running and is simply an overall problem. I’m doing the strengthening exercises, but they don’t seem to be helping. I also got my first massage last week and it was deep tissue massage focused on the lower half of my body. I felt great afterward, but my back pain flared up again the next day. My desk chair could also be a problem, so I’m swapping out different chairs and trying different pillows for my lower back. All that said, I suspect I’ll be back at the doctor again in April.

One interesting thing from my doctor’s appointment is that I got my cholesterol checked. My doctor said she’d call me if it was still elevated and I haven’t heard from her. I can call a phone number tomorrow and get the numbers, so I’ll do that. I’m hoping that my doctor’s silence means that my numbers are down. I’ve been taking the fish oil and niacin supplements per her orders. I’ve also been eating a lot of oatmeal — as in, for breakfast at least five mornings a week for the past four months — which I’ve heard is good for lowering cholesterol too. And, there’s the running too. I’m really hopeful the numbers will be down. I’ll report back on that later.

I haven’t weighed myself since Saturday, but as of then, I was down almost 15 pounds since January 1. I am hitting my goal of five pounds per month, which makes me happy.

We’re leaving for London, Paris, and Bath this weekend, so I won’t be reporting in for a couple or few weeks. I’m not too worried about gaining weight, as I know we’ll be walking a lot every day and I also know that I won’t lose my head and overeat my way through England and France.

After my last post, I went to the doctor about a couple of ailments. First, I had been having shin pain for about three months every time I ran and it had started to hurt when I walked too. Also, I was having lower back and sciatic nerve pain. She told me to stop running and to back off on walking, while mixing in other exercise (e.g. swimming, elliptical, etc.). I was also supposed to do exercises to strengthen my core and back.

I went back to the doctor today for a follow-up, as well as for a general checkup. It had been 1.5 years and, the last time I had a checkup, my cholesterol came back higher than she liked. I was supposed to try niacin and fish oil supplements and come back in a few months. I have been taking the supplements but had not gone back for a recheck of my cholesterol. I’ll get my bloodwork back in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I am cleared to try running again, with strict orders to start slowly and to stop if I have any pain. The doctor was also please that I’ve lost a couple of pounds since I saw her three weeks ago. My lower back is still bothering me, so I need to get more serious about doing the strengthening exercises.

Overall, I’ve lost around 12 or 13 pounds since January 1 (haven’t weighed myself in two days), which is nice because I had plateaued for a couple of weeks.

In terms of exercise, I’ve done more walking than running, due to various aches and pains. I finally broke down and bought new running shoes last week, which made an immediate difference in some of my pains. It turns out that the last time I bought new sneakers, I unknowingly bought Brooks Dyads instead of the Brooks Adrenaline I’ve been wearing. Luckily, the running shop keeps excellent records. The guy helping me and I decided that we’d start from scratch and try on all new shoes and see what worked. I massively overpronate, so we started with a neutral shoe and built up from there, ultimately ending up in the Brooks Adrenaline again.

Unfortunately, the new sneakers haven’t completely fixed everything. I’ve had persistent pain in my left shin when I run for four months now and I’m starting to feel it a bit when I walk. I’m concerned this could be a stress fracture. At the same time, I’ve had worsening sciatic nerve and lower back pain. I’m guessing the sciatic nerve problem is related to the lower back stuff, which has been off and on for the past several months and which is giving me problems right now as I type. I know that running is hard on the back and I’m sure there’s a connection, especially since my back pain started around the same time I ramped up my running. I took yesterday off from all exercise and spent most of the day resting. This morning, I went for an easy walk and it didn’t feel great. I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow. I’m hoping that I can rest and do some physical therapy and then get back to running, but if I have to give it up, I’ll live with the disappointment and try something else. As much as I hate swimming, I could also go back to it. And, the weather is warming up, which means I’ll be biking again soon.  I just realized that I haven’t been on the Wii Fit for a few weeks, so will need to get back into that this week.

The sunny weather mirrors my mood lately.  This past week has been terrific for food and exercise and definitely weight loss. As of yesterday, I am down 10 pounds. Now I’m looking ahead to the next ten pounds, which I hope to hit by early to mid April.

I hit a milestone on Saturday when I tried on a pair of jeans I had not worn in two years and they fit. They’re still a teeny bit snug, but another few pounds should take care of that. And, I’m looking forward to them being too big by the summer.

I’ve had some great walks in the past week, including one that was almost 7 miles. I’ve had a couple of decent-to-good runs and am happy with those.  I’m feeling the urge to start pushing a bit on my mileage, so I’m going to go the to running shop this week to replace my sneakers, which I’ve been unhappy with since I bought them in late October.

I had no food issues this past week — no days that I felt I overate, no days when I was having bad cravings, and no emotional/stress eating.  I’d like to think I’ve kicked my bad habits, but  I know better, so for now I’ll just be happy that things are  going well.

About 10 days ago or thereabouts, I had a few days in which my eating got a little off track. Not too badly, but I did some late night snacking that was unnecessary. I’ve done better since then, but will stay on guard since it’s a bad habit that I’ve been trying to break for years. I’m not really craving chocolate or sugar, which is good. In fact, I made mini corn muffins last night to go with Pete’s amazing chili and felt that they were a bit too sweet. This was the first time I’d ever made corn muffins/bread from scratch and not a mix and I was very surprised to learn that the recipes — all of them, because I looked at about a dozen — called for sugar. I’ll use less sugar the next time.

I’ve continued to get a lot of exercise — walking or running nearly every day, as well as doing the Wii Fit 2-3 X/week to work on balance, lots of stretching, and also strength training (push ups, ab crunches, squats, dumbbells, etc.).  Running has finally made a turn for the better.  I replaced my sneakers in late October and, when they didn’t feel right that first 20 miles or so, I assumed that they needed to be broken in and didn’t take them back.  But, my running was mostly crappy in November, December, and January. I had just enough decent runs to think that I was over the hump, but more often than not, I came back from my runs unhappy. It’s been shin splints over and over again — the kind of pain I had when I first started running. I’ve done some research and am doing the recommended stretches and exercises, so now I’m wondering if my sneakers just suck.  It’s the same brand and style I’ve been wearing, but they’ve been redesigned. Or maybe it’s not the sneakers and it was just a poor mental attitude — I expected bad runs and got them.  Last week, I started chanting a new mantra when I run and I had my best runs in several months.  I’ll keep chanting and see how things go. I’m planning to replace my sneakers in another month or so when I have about another 100 miles — both running and walking — on them.

On a weight related note, I’ve been drooling over the spring catalogs.  Yes, I’ll still be overweight this spring, but I’m down almost 10 pounds and, by May, I hope to be down another 10, so the weight loss should be noticeable.  I still have my warm weather clothes in the next size down, so won’t need to buy too much this year, but I am going to treat myself to a few new things anyway.

I can’t believe how happy I am these days. I feel great physically — very strong and healthy. I know that I am still at an unhealthy weight and that my BMI classifies me as obese, but I know that I’m on the right track with my eating, which has been my issue all along. I don’t miss those bottled Starbucks mocha frappuccinos at all. I’m not allowing myself to have one as even a treat, because I don’t want to remind my tastebuds about what they used to get every day.  Overall, I don’t feel like I’m being deprived of anything. I’m eating healthy meals and snacks and allowing myself a square of chocolate at night. I’m still having a small plate of nachos (or whatever southwestern food we’ve fixed) on Thursday nights, a slice of pizza and a salad every couple of weeks, and a few other “fun foods” every now and then. Last night, my in-laws came over for dinner and to watch the Super Bowl. As I mentioned earlier, Pete made his amazing chili. I set out a place of raw veggies before dinner and nibbled on those for an hour or so before we ate.  When dinner was served, I had a cup of chili with a tiny sprinkle of cheddar cheese and a couple of crumbled mini corn muffins. It was delicious, but I filled up quickly and didn’t want seconds. I made whoopie pies for dessert — my girls have been begging me for months to make them — but I didn’t have any because I was full and not interested in more food.

One thing that was good was that at the beginning of the week, I was stressed and emotional about something, but did not stress eat at all, which is huge.

The running has had its ups and downs for weeks now, but I did have one decent run last week.  I also had some great walks and a couple of Wii Fit sessions.

In addition to my daily walks and runs, I also do other exercises every day — ab crunches and pushups before  I shower, squats while I’m washing my hair, and work with an 8-lb dumbbell while I read blogs. Last week, for the first time, pushups seemed easy to me, so I guess all that work on my upper arms is finally coming to fruition.