Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Charge me

I woke up this morning.  I was scheduled to run 4.5 miles today.   I listened carefully......nope, I didn't think it was raining.  And then I realized that I had a problem.  I hadn't charged my headphones in a while.   I counted in my head how many runs I have done since the last charge.....6 miles , 2.5 miles, 4 miles, 2.5 miles, 2.5 miles, 6 miles......Yikes....I KNOW that I have used my headphones without a recharge for at least the last 5 runs.  The charge lasts for 6 hours.  hmmmm....it was gonna be close.   I briefly thought about using wired headphones but then decided to just go out and run.  I need to learn to run without headphones....what happens if for some reason they malfunction during a race?   I don't want to fall apart because the music is not pounding in my head in direct correlation to my feet pounding on the pavement.   So I went out with my awesome headphones that were woefully unprepared for a 4.5 mile run.   Right around mile two the voice interrupted my music.  "Charge me".   I knew I had roughly 2 more songs.  I heard her calm soothing voice requesting 'charge me' once or twice more and then all as silent.   I ran on.  It wasn't bad either.  My pace wasn't altered and I wasn't miserable.   I completed my run  4.72 miles.   And yes, the headphones are currently charging even as I type.

So I'm running in my peaceful solitude and those worse kept resonating in my head.  Charge me, Charge me, Charge me.

As I have been on this weight loss journey  one of the things that I have learned is that I need to take care of my body.  I need to charge my body so that it functions properly!  How do I do that?    I came up with two main ways that I need to charge my body.

1.   Sleep.   Every night when I lay on that bed, I am 'plugging myself in' and I am recharging.   Sleep is vitally important.   Our ability to function diminishes with lack of sleep....and it is proven that weight loss efforts are affected when we fail to properly charge ourselves with a good night sleep.

2.   Food.   Food recharges us. But we need to be putting good food into our systems.   How in the world can we expect our bodies to function to the best of their abilities when we are feeding them crap!   Healthy foods.  Foods rich in vitamins and minerals are essential to being properly charged.    This is particularly sad for me for sure.  I'm a food addict and lets be honest.  I don't get that 'high' from eating a carrot.....or a piece of lettuce.....or a grape.  I eat them, because they are good for me.  They are charging my system, and I know that the piece of cake just isn't charging my system to the fullest.  Sad but true.

Over and over my body has 'told me' that I'm eating too much junk or sometimes just too much food! How many times over the years have I come on here and written about being sick from overeating?   Too many to count and I'm not even going to go find links to any of those instances......believe me, it's not something we want to relive!   I wasn't properly charging myself.   

Taking care of myself means that I have to 'charge me' properly!    The cakes, pies and pastries?   The pastas and breads?   Yeah, I'll still have them.  Moderation is the key.  I'm not looking to live like a monk that has vowed to only eat grass and water or anything drastic like that.  I plan on living my life.  However I need to be cognizant of how efficiently I am 'charging' my body.