Fit Just Got Real: Day One, The Struggle

“Dawn. Daawn. Dawn. Dawn. Daaaawn. Daaaaaaawn. Dawn. Dawn. Daaawn. Dawn. Dawn. Daawn. Dawn. Dawn. Daaaawn. Daaaaaaawn. Dawn. Dawn. Daaawn. Dawn. Dawn. Daawn. Dawn. Dawn. Daaaawn. Daaaaaaawn. Dawn. Dawn. Daaawn. Dawn. Daw –“ ~ cake, icing

“WHAT?!” ~ me

“Eat me,” ~ cake, icing

It took a LOT of willpower to walk past the table of cake with icing at the Walk To End Lupus Now event today. It’s like kryptonite … and it was calling my name. My knees buckled, I started to sweat and mentally prayed to Jesus and Mary in Heaven for strength. Because praying out loud would have been weird. I took a picture of it as I dragged myself away, so I could have a souvenir of my victory. 

Probably a better souvenir picture. Because I almost never choose
to do a 5K in the rain ever in the history of me doing 5Ks.

Victory being that I didn't take a piece to a quiet corner somewhere out of sight and pretend I didn't eat the entire thing in one bite. I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one who caved on the first day of this challenge. 

As much as I like icing, having to give up coffee is turning out to be the most distressing. I like to have one cup of decaf with creamer and 1 teaspoon of sugar every morning to help me wake up. 

Coffee itself is allowed, but no sugar or creamer. Yes, Stevia is okay, but have you ever had coffee with only sweetener? It’s like drinking bitterness with a fake smile. So, if you ever wanted to know what bitterness tastes like, it tastes like coffee with no cream or sugar. 

This will wake a person up fo sho. 

Getting to the gym early in the morning was not as smooth as it could be. I'm going to attribute that to not having coffee. But my body woke up after the second round of the warmup. Color returned returned to my face and I looked like I belonged in the land of the living again. 

I may have to adopt running 1-2 miles before work just to wake myself up and get the blood flowing so I'm not rolling into work looking like death. Yes, like death. Even make-up doesn't cover death. If you've seen a corpse at a wake, you know what I'm talking about. 

Something I did take note of is that I snack A LOT. While I work, between meals, after meals, before bed, on my way to the gym, all day, er'day. 

  

Like right now, I’m reflecting on my day eating unsalted peanuts and raisins. I can't sit still and not have a drink or something to eat. I got up at least twice to refill my small bowl, but before that, I made several trips to the kitchen, like a kid, looking for something acceptable to eat. I don't even really like raisins.

Water is proving to be an easy part of the challenge though. I probably exceeded the water requirement for the next two days. Both gallons are gone. Expelled from my body and flushed right down the toilet. I feel like an alcoholic peeing money away, except I only spent $2 and didn't have to tip anyone. "No Ragrets."  

I don't really like water either. It's like drinking liquid air. That is all. 

So, I realized a few things: as much as I eat clean, I can see that all my "just one spoon of this" and "maybe a tiny sip of that" can add up to being a habit. It will be a conscious effort of willpower to curb those habits. 

Maybe I was a little over-confident going into this Whole Life Challenge at the Performance Level. I'm still excited about it, but slightly less because ... 

NO COFFEE.

And just so y'all know, I WILL be bringing coffee back into my life when this is all over.



However, the biggest victory of the day, didn't happen until this morning when I was finally able to log in my daily scores on the While Life Challenge site. Nothing will make a nerd feel more inadequate than not being able to figure out a tech glitch.