Who needs the rest of these 21 days?

I do that's who!

Today I got up early; late in comparison (a comparison not a judgement) to my three weeks previous to Thanksgiving where I was going to the gym 5 days a week.  It honestly became exhausting.  I was tired packing my gym bag, showering and getting everything ready at the gym.  It made for a long day so I gave myself the week at home this week.  I was gifted a free elliptical machine- awesome!  And I have a lot of things you need for a home gym, we just have a small space and my workout room also happens to be the spare bedroom, but this time of year it takes over as the holiday wrapping/craft room too.  I've maintained that my elliptical is easy to get to as are my weights and other equipment, because I know how important this is to me.  I haven't run as much in the last two weeks, something I'm feeling my body ask for.  I just want a good run, a strong run, a happy run- my problem?  I don't give myself time.  I over-schedule myself so IF I have time for a run, it's limited to a short run.  When I trained for marathons I would devote my whole Saturday to the run, now I'm lucky if I get 30 minutes.  It's amazing how we let things that don't matter change our priorities, when the only thing that is truly important is taking care of myself.   Although tomorrow is booked, the next 2 Saturday's remain free and I can't wait to see what's in store and what can happen if I just intuitively let myself go.

I will say over the long weekend for Thanksgiving I spent two days at home with little interaction with anyone.  It was blissful, it was what I needed to recharge my batteries and really, truly a welcome time to slow down and do whatever I wanted which included decorating for the holidays and doing crafts.

Let's try that again.... today I got up early and got right on the elliptical machine for 45 minutes which a brief pause 5 minutes in for a bottle of water.  I could tell my body needed something, but I was sure it wasn't food just yet and sure enough it needed some hydration.  It felt great to listen to my body.  While on the elliptical I had the chance to read a few of Jamie's other articles, if you aren't following her yet, you should, if you aren't doing the challenge, JOIN!  It's truly an incredible thing to be reading so much that really feels like you are looking in the mirror.

Today I'm going to try to be an intuitive eater.  I'm going to 'fake it 'till I make it' but just to see what it feels like and how freeing it can be.  I've just sat here with a bowl of cereal and black coffee and enjoyed eating something delicious, I even poured a little too much, but stopped eating when I was full.  Yay! Baby steps!

I have some delicious foods in the refrigerator at work for lunch and snacks and know my true challenge will be when I go to an open house/holiday event tonight.  I am not prohibiting myself, but I am going to try my hardest to be intuitive and maybe even eat a snack (if I'm hungry) before I leave work.

I think the hardest thing for me in this journey is I'm a planner and I need to plan my meals so #1 I have something to eat and #2 I don't overspend and order lunch out everyday.  However I'm realizing I can still plan but maybe have more than one choice for lunch/snack (it's easy to make the same thing for the whole week) so depending on what my body is craving I can provide it.

With love from IE day 3,
Alyssa