I took the weekend off from exercise and my body feels much better. This morning's run was so much easier than last week's runs were. Sometimes you just need a break.
This weekend I needed a change of scenery so Jack and I decided to go to Hermann, MO, for the day. We had heard a lot about Hermann and it was billed as "The Most Beautiful Town in Missouri," so off we went for a little day trip. We drove through thunderstorms to get there and were convinced that we would get rained on all day long, but we went anyway. Turns out Hermann is not much of a town, unless you like to visit wineries. Since neither of us were interested in drinking our day away we did not visit the wineries and we just wandered around the town, instead. I dragged Jack up every hill I saw, just so we could see what was on the other side. For the most part the answer was not much, but we did get one pretty view of the Missouri river. We left Hermann at about 1:30, after spending about 2 hours there, and decided to stop at Rocheport on the way home. We had remembered reading about Rocheport on my iPad as we were driving through Missouri on one of our many road trips. What I remembered most about it was that it was supposed to be haunted. We didn't see or hear any ghosts, but Rocheport is a lovely little town. We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon there, walking through the town, visiting the little shops full of local artists' offerings, and then had a lovely dinner at a very small, yet elegant, restaurant in town. Even though we made healthy choices for our meals - we started with light soups, then had small salads followed by fish entrees (salmon for Jack, trout for me) - I am still a pound heavier today than I was Saturday morning. We did eat a little bread, I wish I hadn't, it wasn't worth it, and had a glass of wine with our dinner, also not worth it, in retrospect.
We got most of our chores done yesterday and I spent several hours cooking enough food to get us through the week. That was the most cooking that I have done in a while. It will be good to have a selection of meals to choose from this week. That should help a lot! No excuses.
What is on my mind does not have much to do with our day trip or with cooking, though they are of ancillary significance. I've been thinking a lot about how different life is becoming and I am seriously wondering how to get from where I was to where ever it is I am going. It's not just me and it's not just our generation, but it seems like the human race has always used food and drink as the centerpiece for socializing. Friday night I got home from work feeling a little restless. I wanted to do something, but what? I did not want to eat or drink, I just wanted to go out. I wasn't in the mood for a movie. I know there are things we could have done and we will get creative and figure it out, but I was frustrated by the number of things we just crossed off the list because if we weren't going to eat or drink anything, the event would be awkward. Not awkward like if we were sober we couldn't enjoy ourselves, but awkward in that we would be taking up space at an establishment that makes money selling food and drink to people and we wouldn't be spending any money buying food or drink. It got me to thinking about how many social events are centered on either food or drink or both. The fact of the matter is I cannot use food or alcohol as a form of entertainment, not on anything close to a regular basis, or I will gain weight. It just can't happen. It won't happen. But when people get together, they want to eat and drink. It's natural, I guess, but it is not part of my life anymore. I realize now that I have to replace that type of socializing with something completely different, but I don't know what that something completely different is. I need to figure that out.
For the year that I was losing weight I did not think about it too much. I was on a mission to lose the weight and that was good enough. I wasn't thinking about the long term implications as much as I was thinking about what I needed to do today to get it done. Then for 8 months my life was ridiculously difficult and busy because of work. I was too tired to think about what I was going to do for rest, relaxation, and socialization. I was working, exercising, kissing my husband good night, and going to bed. But now that work is calming down and I have a little energy left at the end of the day and there is time for more than work and exercise; I realize that we are going to need to figure out ways to play and to socialize that don't involve food and drink.
The other big thing on my mind is my training regimen. I went to my first class at Endura Camp last night. It was a yoga class which was focused on stretches for triathletes, so it was not too difficult and probably very good for me. But I am thinking pretty seriously about switching from working with a personal trainer at Aspen Fitness Center to attending classes regularly at Endura Camp since they focus on training triathletes. It feels like a huge step, though. It feels a little scary. I met with the owner for a few minutes after the yoga class and he suggested that I come to several classes over the next few weeks and then we meet for an hour or so after a month or so of me attending classes. At that point, he will know my skill level and I will have a feel for him and the group of people at Endura Camp. This will be very, very different from going to the gym. This is a community of people focused on the sport that I have chosen. I am hoping to get a couple of things out of this. First, I am hoping to become a better triathlete with more focused training. Second, I am hoping to meet like minded people and to become part of a community.
This short post is all I have time for right now, but it is a lot to think about. Sometimes I feel like I am over thinking it, and other times I realize that I am completely changing how I see myself. This is a big deal. It's not just that I eat less and exercise more, I am transforming my image of myself. That requires a lot of thought.
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