I know that for the last several weeks I’ve come on here on Mondays a little bitchy, blaming my weight on weekend whatever and period/ovulation/tiredness/the hippo I was holding while weighing myself (Oh… I forgot to mention that last week…) but let’s not do that today. I’ve decided to make this a cranky free week (Note: that does not make it a sarcasm free week, I couldn’t do that).

I had a revelation last week that I really don’t know how to rest properly. I know how to sleep and how to be sedentary but that isn’t the same thing as resting. I’ve realized that rest is much more mental than it is physical. As someone who has struggled heavily with anxiety, resting my mind is incredibly difficult. I’m working on it but it’s hard. My ideas on this are still half baked but I think that I’m getting somewhere.

The idea of rest being more mental than physical was vividly illustrated for me on Friday night when I had the urge to run. I love midnight runs. I was tired from work but I craved the feeling of exertion, so I went for it. First I went to the store to get dinner and some fuel for the workout. I decided to try some coconut water because I’ve heard so much about it online. It was without a doubt one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever drunk. It had this really subtle sickly taste. When it threw it in my trash my apartment started to smell like it too. Not good.

I think that it worked, though, because I felt amazing during my run. I started the whole thing pushing harder than I normally do and it was really easy so I upped it even more. I still do intervals, not straight running, but its way more intense than it used to be.

Here’s my post run triumphant, sweaty, hot mess photo.

And for the sake of my pride, here’s a less sweaty but still triumphant photo.

The run was hard, intense, exhausting, yet strangely restful. I even thought that while I was running. This wasn’t one of those, “It sucked but I felt great after,” things; it felt great while I was running. As usual, my ribs now hurt but the soreness is subsiding and is almost ready for another go.

On that note, the goals:

Last Week
1. Give myself a break: Success!
2. Enjoy what I eat but eat well: I took this one seriously. If I didn’t want it, I didn’t eat it. I guess this paid off.
3. Don’t snack: Oops…

This Week
1. Plan meals ahead of time: Okay, so I pretty much already did this one but I’m allowing some flexibility and changes.
2. Exercise between jobs twice: I really mean it, and I really feel like doing this. That makes all the difference.
3. Rest: Keep focusing on keeping rested

I’m happy that despite my sugar intake this weekend I still lost weight and I think that this is lowest I’ve been yet on a Monday morning. Sweet! What are your goals this week? How do you get properly rested?