I've read all sorts of things about how changing our habits
takes a long time, how we need to be patient, how small changes over much time
make big differences. This weekend, I've
come across evidence of those truths.
First, a big difference.
On Saturday evening I was out for a bike ride. Rolling on the street through downtown Davenport
(a place I used to be afraid to drive MY CAR, much less a bike), I was
jockeying to work the stoplights. I hate
stopping at red lights. While I'm not
one to run them, I WILL hang back very slowly, barely moving, so as not to
reach it until it's about to turn, and then I shoot through when it's green. So I had done that for two lights, and was
working my third and final, River Drive, before I'd be on the safety of the
bike path (which I do prefer to the streets).
Watching the pedestrian sign count down seconds, I knew the green light
was gonna go red pretty quick, so I was booking down the hill to beat it and
feeling pretty slick.
Just as I pulled into the intersection, a car appeared on my
left side, ALSO hustling to beat the light.
In my heightened state of excitement, my judgment sucked and I just
panicked, thinking maybe it was about to turn right into my path (I am
especially fearful of drivers around here, who are not all that accustomed to
watching out for bikes) and...I dumped my bike.
It wasn't on purpose, it was just a clumsy over-reaction. I landed on my right elbow and knee, sadly to
say swearing aloud as I hit the pavement. (And the car turned LEFT, as in, AWAY FROM ME, thus no need for such drama...ugh.)
There's where one of the big changes kicked in: for years, I wouldn't have had any agility to
deal with such an event. But now I
do. I was moving to get back up almost
before I finished hitting the ground. I
had myself and the bike up and out of the path of traffic remarkably quickly,
IMHO.
The next big change:
I wasn't tempted to go home and put my leg up and baby my knee along and
feel sorry for myself. I stretched and
bent it a few times, got back on the bike, and enjoyed the ride. I have a tiny bit of soreness in that knee
and am avoiding going DOWN steps right now where possible, but UP is still
quite possible.
And then there was this morning. I woke up hearing sounds that told me it was
raining...and I thought maybe I heard lightning (hard to tell, as there ARE
occasional big noises in this area that aren't lightning.) I looked at my iphone weather and the little
icon looked like it meant “storms.”
While I'm willing to put a slicker on and run with rain falling on me,
getting struck by lightning on the Centennial bridge is NOT my idea of a fun
Monday morning. This is normally where
I'd go back to sleep for another half an hour.
But I didn't. I got
up and took the stairs to the 6th floor, where there is a workout
room. I ACTUALLY WOKE UP NEGOTIATING FOR
A WAY NOT TO MISS MY WORKOUT! How crazy
is that?! Now, mind you, it didn't pan
out for me. The workout room must have
“hours” - the door was locked and my key doesn't fit it. I took the back stairs, planning to just come
back down to my apartment for some T-tap, but then I had to go all the way down
to first and around, as the back stairway locks one out of the building
apparently. By the time I did that and
then climbed the stairs back up to my apartment, it was too late to start T-tap
and finish in time to still do my morning grats. Grats generally trump all other activities,
so my “workout” this morning was basically just 6 flights of stairs – not
enough, but hey, I'm still overjoyed that I WANTED to work out.
Since I was uncharacteristically not nauseous this morning,
I rocked the green smoothie for breakfast.
2 cups unsweetened chocolate soy, an entire bag of spinach, 2 bananas, ½
cup blueberries, ½ cup mixed tropical fruit.
I must be getting better at this, cuz I'm not needing to do the “suck,
chew, swallow” tactic – I seem to have utterly pureed that bag of spinach. Here's to figuring things out!
In case you're wondering how my body processed that much wonder that early...it was good. No discomfort, and no unusual amount of trips to the bathroom. Oh, my gut made all manner of spectacular growly noises and such all morning, but without pain or grossness...hey, it was fine!
For lunch I juiced. Not having the presence of mind to read a recipe and pack accordingly on a Monday morning, I just grabbed a lot of stuff out of the fridge and brought it to work. So my juice was made from: a huge double-handful of purple grapes, half a bag of spinach, 2 green apples, 1 peeled orange, 4 oversized brussels sprouts, 3 carrots, and a cucumber. YUMMO! I'm thinking I'll be just fine without fussing too much over recipes, at this rate.
In between I had a couple of handfuls of nuts. Mondays are always Very High Appetite days for me - my body is thrown by the change of schedule over the weekend and responds by pushing the hungry button all day long. Thus far, I am liking this approach to managing that. It's safe to say there will be more nuts in my afternoon.
Final bit of news on that small changes over time business....today I am wearing my size 16 dress pants. I've only worn them 1 or 2 other times, and that was with the extreme support of multiple items like Spanx and Shapeware and tights and such. Didn't bother with any of those today, and in truth, my pants fit better (looser) than they did with all that squeezing help before. YIPPEEEEEE!!!!
Basically, this day rocks.
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