Solutions

This week seems to be about finding solutions.

First, to my "body image dilemma". Namely, how to make the chatter stop. Well, on the day I wrote that post, my husband attended a training seminar at work - he's a salesman. He told me about one of the motivational techniques that he found purely outrageous - the outrageous being my realm, I was of course intrigued. Here's the deal: Salesman A wears a rubber band around his wrist. When Salesman A has a negative, self destructive thought, he gives himself a snap from the rubber band. Ouch. Can you believe that, says hubby? Who would do that, says hubby? Hmmm, says me.

So, the next day, I put a rubber band around my wrist. Any time I had a negative thought about my bod, or was tempted to compare my bod, negatively or otherwise, to another bod, I snapped the rubber band. Sounds wierd. Sounds vaguely disturbing. But it worked. Mostly, because it made me aware of my thoughts and attentive to managing the negative ones. I only had to snap a couple of times - much fewer times than if my thoughts had run unchecked. Interesting. I don't know if I'm ultimately harming my psyche this way, or if I'm raising an inhibited mind by keeping a tight reign on it, but its been a relief to think about other things.

Second: Injury. Or hurt. Or sore leg. I hesitate to give it such an official title as "Injury". I sought the help of my local running store guru who sent me to an official Sports Injury Dr. The guy is good. Unfortunately, my insurance has a huge deductable for his services - one because he's a specialist, and two because he's a chiropractor - but, hubby supports my wish to be treated and, so, I'm going.
He's very thorough, having me bring in both my running shoes and Red Molly (the bike - the name is another story that I will tell another day). I hope he can solve this problem for me - yesterday's run was a bitch. He told me I could continue running as of now, however, so I'm continuing. Pain builds character, anyway.

Today's swim was glorious - 20 minutes of speed work and 30 minutes of long slow swimming without stopping. I can't believe how quickly I've been able to work up to just swimming without the gasping. I'm really enjoying getting in the water - which means I'll probably have to start swimming harder. But, hey, if you can't enjoy the journey, why bother?