Monday, July 28, 2008

Running, Hydration & "New" Pants

I've found that lately, on the days I run, I'm totally exhausted for the remainder of the day. I've been trying to figure out why this is. I eat healthily, have at least a quart of green smoothie, and drink water. But I think maybe I wasn't drinking enough water. I don't like drinking a lot while I'm running, so I tried to drink a lot of water this morning before my run. Then during the run (67 minutes), I only drank about 8 ounces of water, but during my subsequent walk (Bear was still asleep, so I grabbed the dog and walked about 1.6 miles), I drank another 12 ounces. And then I drank about a cup & a half of water when I got home.

I think I don't drink enough in general. I've been trying to only drink small amounts with meals, since drinking with meals waters down your stomach acids and makes digestion more difficult. But I've found it's a bit unrealistic for me because I just don't remember to drink enough. Or Bear will fall asleep on my lap for an hour and a half and I won't have anything to drink nearby. So my goal is to increase the amount I drink between meals and slowly decrease the amount I drink with meals. I figure overall hydration is the most important thing.

It's almost 6:30 PM, and I didn't get the tireds today! So I think my cunning plan is working.

When I was doing my post-run sit-ups, Noodles decided he needed to sit as close to me as possible and pollute my air space with his stinky breath. He finally moved, at which Bear decided my sit-ups must be a game, and he wanted to join by lying across my stomach. Oh, boy! Another time I was doing sit-ups, Noodles decided to lick my elbow every time I lifted up in a sit-up. Never a dull moment around here!

Don't you love it when you find old clothing that you forgot about, packed away in a box somewhere? About a month & a half ago, I was cleaning out the basement and found a box marked "Medium & Bigger Clothes". Not a particularly helpful label, so I decided to pull them out & see what I could wear. It was like Christmas! I found several pairs of pants, including summer pants and a skirt, that fit, as well as 3 pairs of jeans that could fit after a few more pounds lost. Well, as of today, the 3 pairs of jeans fit, albeit snugly! I don't really wear jeans in the summer anyway; it's too muggy here, but by the fall, I'll have 3 "new" pairs of jeans to wear! I love it :)

3 comments:

Paige said...

I can so relate to the not drinking enough thing; I had to force myself to drink more when I was pg and bf'ing! I'm glad your plan worked though. Thanks for the input on drinking with meals; news to me! Maybe I'll benefit from such a plan.
Cool beans about the clothes! FWIW we were saying that you looked beautiful when we saw you the other night; all your hard work shows. :-) Now could you convince me to do sit-ups??? I'll provide my own distractions LOL

Anonymous said...

I'm inspired!

I need to drink more water and well, I've always been looking for tips for health and fitness. I've been learning ways in which I can drink the water by adding fruit, although I usually just add lemon or lime to the water which gets rid of some of the bitterness of the water.

I don't like the taste of water althoug bottled water is best and I can drink the bottled water without lemon but tap water is just gross.

And when I feel the need to get a pop I'll usually got with a zero calory, vitamine enriched water drink instead of the pop.
It's a good alternative to coke and sugary drinks.

Along with my lifestyle changes have also been in the area of developing discipline with the foods I eat and meal portions. I also have a tendency to binge eat which thankfuly is something that's not too much a factor in my life anymore but I do slip up from time to time.

Is it just drinking water during meals that makes digestion difficult or fluid in general? I'm thinking fluid in general.

This September more changes being made which I think it's time to step it up a notch. I'm still young enough to make these changes without as much pain as there would be if I were much older then what I am. When making changes the younger you are the better not that making changes when one is older is impossible. I think it just becomes more challenging.

Brenna Kate Simonds, Living Unveiled said...

Sarah, I'm catching up on old comments :) It's liquid in general that waters down digestion. We don't drink a lot of straight tap water ourselves, though we do drink purified tap water as well as spring water. I also drink the occasional seltzer water. Soda isn't as much of a temptation for me because I can't eat corn, but I do have a diet soda everything once in a while. I'm trying to cut down on that :)

Paige, you have plenty of distractions, that's for sure! Speaking of which, I hope your oldest distraction is feeling better.