Exercise or Stress?

Doctors would repeatedly tell me that I should work out, and I would laugh. It didn't make sense to even try. I was always exhausted and body parts hurt. Back in June, I went in for a bunch of tests and didn't get a whole lot of answers. I read some articles about different kinds of stress and how to cope with them. Food is one source of stress - foods that are highly processed, high sugar, and hard to digest make our bodies work overtime on processing them. There's work stress, relationship stress, and then there's stress from putting strain on the body. A weird thing happens when we work out. The body gets stressed, but putting the body under a small amount of stress repeatedly makes the other normal stressors in our life seem smaller. Walking up and down stairs between meetings no longer causes cortisol levels to rise. Getting stressed out about a work project becomes more manageable. As stress levels decrease, health is bound to improve. Right?

I made the decision to try running, which is kind of humorous considering I decided this while reading an article on the couch while recovering from digestive issues and fatigue. I started out really small - I would run 30 seconds and walk 5 minutes, repeating 5 times. I stayed close to the house while running just in case my stomach kicked up. Each week or week and a half, I would try to increase the time running and decrease the time walking. I kept reading Brendan Brazier's Thrive Diet book and other articles my husband had laying around the house. Starting at such a small scale helped me feel like I was able to achieve something. Soon after, I ordered a Zumba workout set and started alternating days trying to run and working out to a Zumba workout.

Annie & I, before work outs began

The first few times I tried Zumba, I was exhausted after 20 minutes. I felt like it was a great workout. I would do 20 minute abs one day, run my 5 reps of 30 seconds the next, and do the 20 minute express workout after that. At the same time, I stayed on a vegan diet but decided to incorporate more foods. Some meals had cooked items (still a whole food, not packaged or processed in the traditional sense), I was eating fruit, and incorporating a few grains.

Fast forward 1.5 months and I hit a setback. Around mid-August, my knees started hurting. Each step was painful. I have chondro malaysia patella, and running with weak muscles around the knee is not good. The knee is already prone to tracking incorrectly, and as you continue to run, it just perpetuates the problem. At work, we have a great deal on our gym. It's only $15 for the membership, and the check is made out to a charity. A personal trainer there also had a pretty good deal running, so I started working out with the trainer. After working out with him in September, the pain in my knees is gone and I can run quite a bit. I was wondering if I would have to start out at a minute running and four minutes walking, but found I was able to run longer with all of the cardio with Zumba and alternating bike and rowing at the gym.

I'm not sure exactly when things started to shift for me. I hated working out. After a month and a half, I called a friend to work out with me just so I wouldn't give up. My progress was so slow, I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. I started working out at the gym at lunch and noticed that the day got a little easier to handle. I would have a bad meeting and leave frustrated, then go work out and come back to my desk smiling. Working out in the middle of the day forces me to take a lunch and breaks up the monotony after sitting at my desk and working on reports or sitting in long meetings. It started mattering a little less that my weight wasn't changing at all and I couldn't see an awesome six pack after 5 months of working out more than I ever had in my life (although honestly - that wasn't saying much).

In October I ran my first 5k. I finished in 38 minutes alternating running 5 minutes and walking 3 minutes. A week ago I beat my best time and am down to 35.5 minutes. My warm up before lifting weights today was running a mile. All at once! I've noticed my stomach is more predictable and I have a LOT more energy. I come home and want to unwind, but my boss has noticed I am much more productive and no longer crash at 2pm. I don't plan on being as fast as Lance, but if this keeps up, I may be a runner eventually after all.

Annie waiting for her 5k to start the day after I ran mine

In other news, Annie ran the Dawg Dash with Lance in October and they did quite well. Annie can now run the 3 miles at a sub-6 minute pace and would have finished at 17:30 if someone hadn't steered her the wrong way and added an extra .25 miles ;)

Lance & Annie - post Dawg Dash