[teawithsunshine]

SIGH....

I'm not gonna get into the very long problem that occurred at work today that left everyone, in addition to me, stressed out (corporate-related).

what was different for me about experiencing an upsetting/frustrating/stressful situation this time around was how I responded to it.

Two years ago, I would have stuffed myself with TONS of free pizza (ironically, it was free pizza at lunch today) and then raided the candy machine afterward (I was a compulsive overeater for many years since childhood-- it's how I reached 307 lbs as posted as my starting weight on this forum).

Today, I was pretty upset that I ignored the MANY pizza boxes stacked on several tables in the lunch room, and just nuked my prepared lunch from home and ate it.

Since I've just started TOM, the upsetting event just heightened my emotions & sensitivity. It also made me tired at times (as it does for any female chickie on this site).

So I arrived home and vented. Then I moped a bit while preparing my breakfast & lunch for the next day (friday) and decided afterward that I didn't feel up to doing pilates tonight.

I also then had to decide how I was gonna do my aerobic activity when just snuggling in bed and a movie sounded SOOOO much better (Hey, the only thing that even convinced me to do any form of aerobic activity tonight was in the hopes another workout session leads me closer to losing another pound or two ).

The answer was simple: I'd start walking at 3.6 mph after warming up. During the warm up, I decided I'd stay at 3.6 mph for the duration of the exercise routine but jack up the incline level to a level 6 instead of my usual 5 and see from there.

As I progressed reading a magazine during my walking experience, I thought to myself: "Man, why don't I just really go alll the way here and just do an hour's hike on the treadmill, but keep it at the same mph since I don't feel like going fast. There are other ways to keep the intensity going like jacking up the incline."

**(The decision to hike for an hour is almost twice the amount of time I currently spend aerobically at walking on the treadmill since I've been used to walking several miles outside in a hilly neighborhood for the past few months-- but cold winter weather currently forces me to exercise indoors so I've been building my up my endurance on the treadmill.)**

I also really needed the extra time walking to just REALLY get all the frustration and crappy feelings I had earlier today out of my system. By the time I was done, I was just drenched.

Afterward, I took a shower & had a late dinner, I felt great and more relaxed than I had been all day and even watched part of a romantic comedy before doing my evening chores (related to having pets ).

I'm now just going to go ahead and enjoy my weekend since it's already been preplanned before this crappy day at work today. Nothing I can do about it so I plan to just exercise on saturday & spend the rest of the weekend enjoying a new movie at the cinema & snuggle up in bed with books & the second season of "Ugly Betty" on dvd

Two years ago, I would have stuffed myself with TONS of free pizza and then raided the candy machine.

All I wanted tonight was a different way to get the anger & frustration & stress out. I found it by walking and writing this post on 3fatchicks.com

~ tea

[Barbie]

i totally understand what you're saying. its like i already tried the bad way and it didn't work, i might as well do something that won't make me feel like crap in the long run! thats nice that you realized how far you came and how you're not the same person.

[Jeannette311]

I did the same thing yesterday. Well, kinda. I ate a bunch of crap, but I did 2 hours on the treadmill. I felt much cheerier after that.

[jademarlene]

Good for you in not going for the pizza, you would have felt worse afterwards, kicking yourself for over doing it. Enjoy your weekend!