Anyone feeling sluggish as of late? I feel sluggish, slow, and unmotivated. I’m going thru the motions of training but am lacking the fire that usually pushes me to do my best. I don’t want to do my best. I don’t want to do anything. Oh yeah, I want to do ONE thing ……. EAT! While I normally eat a lot of this:
Right now, I only want to eat this:
Please add frosting to those brownies too! Hmmm…. I wonder why I feel sluggish and slow? No clue. Oh yeah, and its cold out so when I have my lunchtime salad, I sometimes add this (Cream of Chicken Florentine is my current fav):
With all this extra food, I can’t afford to miss a damn workout. In fact, I’m pretty sure I should be hitting it 2x a day! So yesterday when I went home and felt like crap I wanted to skip my bike session, I dug deep, told myself that even Wonder Woman has an off month day. So while I’ll probably never have a cool blue tint to my hair like Wonder Woman, I did manage to suck it up and kick myself in the ass to pull out a cross training workout. The stupid marathon plan called for a bike workout. And really, who doesn’t want to put in a few miles while watching Bob The Builder?
Then the Dr. Alexis plan called for wall sits, and toe/heel walks. Michael wanted to redeem himself over last week’s photo so I let him give it a shot. He actually did pretty well and got most of me in the photo. Once I did a little “sharpening” to clear some of the blur, it came out pretty good!
Bottom line, if you are feeling a little sluggish and unmotivated, look at what your putting in your mouth. If you eat crap, you’ll feel like crap and that perpetuates a cycle of laziness due to lack of energy. So I’m once again, sucking it up on the food front and plan to drop a “few of those extra calories”. Then hopefully I’ll start feeling a little more dedicated to my marathon plan. Hopefully. I know what to eat and I do well most of the time but once I fall off that wagon, its a long drop back to reality.
Is the cold putting you in a funk too? While I like running when its cooler, I have a harder time saying no to the comfort foods which totally stick to my ass me. I will do better.
** Saying NO to the Comfort Foods ** Amanda – TooTallFritz **
TooTallFritz 
I took a week off from running and gained a few pounds. I think I ate more than my fair share of comfort food and cookies during my layoff. When I started running again I put on a couple more lbs. My marathon weight is getting further out of range. Anyway, I would agree that comfort food tastes better when it is nice and cold outside.
Yeah, goal weight seems to be a bit elusive at this point. I never got rid of all of my injury weight and am hoping things come back around SOON for me.
I’ve been feeling the same way! The cold is putting me in a funk. Last night it was so warm out it felt wonderful to run outside… except for the monsoon rain. My running shoes will be soaked for the next day. That soup looks delish, did you make it or buy it?
I have bought only bought the Chix Florentine but have been making the “bag soups” a lot at home. Everything from Chicken Tortialla to Cheddar Broccoli, nothing in the good for you category. 😦
I think I was in my funk around the holidays. Tough time of year for me. It is the cookies that do me in. I have seem to have straighten things out and got back on the right path. So instead of being around 10lbs higher than I would like I am more like 7lbs after tons and tons of elliptical work. I just refuse to run on the treadmill. I need to get back to strength training, but I have it in my head I want those lbs gone before I jump back in. Eating better helps for sure. Just keep moving forward.
I am feeling sluggish, but I have been dragging myself out…….kicking and screaming, till.I get there and then I am happy to be out doing it. I did 200 laps at the swimapooloza last Sunday, and have felt slow in the pool since…hoping its just recovery..my run was exactly where it needed to be Monday. I have computrainer tonight with MJ and it will kick my a** again. I am worried about my 20 miler this weekend, not feeling it….hope I do by then!! How is this new plan working for you?? Feels wierd only running 3 days….
Judy
I can’t say no to comfort foods! I just try to keep the servings small and concise. BUT – that being said, I do feel you in the watch what you eat to make you feel lousy. I was in Daytona for the Rolex 24 (my BIL was a driver!!) and of course there was a bunch of food around for me to eat that wasn’t exactly healthy. I went ahead and ate a cheeseburger including bun KNOWING that the bun would cause me problems. Gluten free? At a race track? Not gonna happen. I was miserable for days.
I guess that’s what happens when you don’t listen to your body, right? Keep up the good work. You got this!
Your bob the builder comment made me laugh. At our house, its Bob and Dora The Explorer.
My struggle isn’t what I eat but eating too much post workout. I simply lose control. Any advice?
Bob the Builder is a new one for us. Normally it’s Barney.
I try not to keep much “good stuff”, aka junk food, in the house. I focus on fresh foods and lean proteins. You can eat a lot of fruit or a big helping of egg whites with spinach scrambled in and be full without taking in a lot of unnecessary calories. Another thing that I do, is always drink a post workout recovery drink after hard workouts. That helps me get in what I need for recovery at the proper ratio. I then eat to refuel not to recover. I use the egg whites with spinach a lot, then add a couple cutie oranges for color and sweetness. I also drink a lot of water. That helps keep me filled without overeating. It’s hard to focus on what you need verses what you want. Try to let go of the concept that you deserve “it” cuz you ran 20 miles. That mindset will cause you trouble.
Focus on a healthy eating lifestyle. This isn’t a diet. You can eat what you want in moderation, just keep it clean most of the time.
On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 1:51 PM, TooTallFritz
Thanks for the reply.
I definitely don’t drink enough water post run and that doesn’t help either. I’ll try some of your suggestions soon. Running 16 tomorrow AM so we’ll see how that goes.
Have you been stalking me, cuz I think you didn’t write this blog about you, I think you wrote it about ME! Thanks fo the kick in the tush, 2 liters of water down, 2 to go, clean food, now to tackle the damn treadmill.
I get a kick and a good laugh out of you ladies! Comfort foods? Or do you mean high-fructose sugar and high-fat? Actually…soup can be a great wintertime or anytime of year meal. Maybe got to pay attention to what’s in the “cream-of” part of that soup. If it high-fat…not good for keeping weight down.
I can confess…I feel the same sluggishness and low-motivation you are feeling. But I don’t think it all due to crap food and such. Keep in mind dreary days…less daylight…low light levels….these all affect the physiology and brain….and that affects how well we keep up on our run or cross training.
If you feeling sluggish…try using those energy shots or the Monster Drinks. Big fan of Monster drinks and sometimes use them for hydration in some of the more intense training routines. And…they have low-calorie versions. Monster Rehab has nice blend of energy boosting vitamins and plant compounds and got electrolytes too…and 10-cal. Sometimes I like those “coffee-chocolate-toffee-vanilla” Monster drinks. They pretty high cal, but they got one Java Monster that totals only 50-cal and that a real nice tasting treat before a run that can pick you up.
Give it a try…get out of your funk!
Love the photo shout out to Team Challenge! 🙂
It does seem to be much more difficult to get motivated on the days when it’s so dreary and cold. I’m not sure I have advice… just power through it and hope the fun comes back when the sun does?
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A couple years ago, we were moving out of our apartment and into a friend’s house. We packed away a lot of our kitchen stuff, and stored it in my in-law’s basement. So we had a few days where we couldn’t really prepare much food, and ate a lot of carry out and I started feeling so sluggish and gross. Really makes you realize that you really are what you eat.