Pre-Dawn Walking

I've always enjoyed walking, but in January, started tracking my walks through an app because I'd seen this 500k program where you could get Sesame Street swag... and that ended up being a REALLY expensive program, but I thought it would be cool to see how far I might walk in a whole year.

What happened, though, as the month wore on, was that I found myself slipping into disordered behavior, where if I didn't feel like a walk (say, with an older friend, at a slower pace, and not as far as my regular constitutional) met certain criteria, I'd want to walk more later, just to get it tracked. Or if I gave myself a day off, I felt like that space was a glaring missing tooth in the week.

It wasn't healthy, so I decided to stop tracking and just enjoy walking. Which I do when I'm no being weird about things.

I'd heard about a lady who said that, in order to run in the morning before the onslaught of the day happened, she would wear her running clothes to bed so she could just get up and go. I've never wanted to motivate myself to run, but figured that early morning might be a good time to enjoy the neighborhood without having to excuse myself from the family for an hour or more on a regular basis, and also if I could build the habit up before summer, the future me would thank my present self.

Furthermore, we're getting a dog in August, and sleep is going to be spotty for several weeks or more, so waking myself up when it's still dark is some preparation for that, as well.

After I'd walked one morning and really liked it, I set an alarm on my phone to make sure I'd wake up early enough. That felt too official, though, so I turned it off. I would walk if I woke up early enough, and if I didn't... that would be fine. 

So far, this is working.

I'm tending to wake up naturally at 5:35-6:15 every morning. I guess I've probably always awakened at about that time, but just rolled over and gone back to sleep (which, actually, I've done several times, when it's been raining or I decided to give myself the day off, or knew I was going to walk with someone later in the day).

One thing I notice when I'm out and it's still dark out, is which houses already have lights on inside. It feels so early, that I am sorry for those people who have to get up to get their kids ready for the bus (one of them picks up before sunrise), or to head in to work. Today it hit me: I'm up. Dur. But the difference is that we are fortunate enough to have a lifestyle where we almost never need artificial lighting to start our days. 

James no longer has to commute, so the sun is well up by the time he checks in at "the office." Neither of my kids has ever been in school, much less ridden a school bus. And I can get around in the near-dark pretty well. So we all have the luxury of being awakened gently as light slowly breaks us into the day.

As an aside, we bought these to help see when we're out in the dark. They work very well, and they don't mess with your pupils' dilation, so if you're trying to stargaze (or you just don't want to shine a bright light into a neighbor's window), they're super! Highly recommend.

Here are a few pictures from my morning treks.

I reduced my consumption of artificial sweeteners, caramel color, and caffeine; and increased my intake of water. You won't believe what happened!

Hey-o! A few weeks ago (or a few months? maybe 10 or 12 years? who knows, at this point), I mentioned that I was cutting back on my drinking of diet cola, specifically. Since whenever that was, I have drank both less diet cola and more water. Before, I was drinking either diet cola or diet Mt. Dew varieties (we have a Sodastream, and they call theirs "Fountain Mist") all day every day. No water. Because it's gross.

When we got the Ozarka delivery service, and the water is pristine and ice-cold, it was palatable enough that I decided I could try to drink more sad, tasteless water... only less sad and more tasteless (in a good way).

While I long ago made my peace with caffeine and artificial sweeteners, I have read enough about caramel color to make me want to try to cut that down. So I did.

These days, I usually drink some of the Diet Fountain Mist for "breakfast," as some people drink coffee for that initial wake-up boost of caffeine. Even the 4-8 ounces of soda I drink there has less caffeine than a cup of coffee. And usually that's it, unless I'm lagging at that 2-4 PM stretch, in which case I'll have a booster to get over the hump.

I am otherwise alternating between clear diet soda like Sprite (Lemon-Lime in Sodastream-speak) or uber-dyed beverages like Powerade Zero and our magical water cooler water.

Whereas, in the past, I drank literally NO water unless I was mowing the yard (which I haven't done fully in more than two years), now I'm drinking probably 20-30 ounces per day.

I don't have exact measures because I have long since given up tracking precisely anything that goes into my cake-hole, because disordered eating sucks, and, honestly, logging everything that passes your lips, even if it's not compulsive, also sucks... and becomes compulsive. I'd rather be free.

Anyhoo...

So basically: Caffeinated soda, water, caffeine-free beverage, water, caffeine-free beverage, and then maybe another water/no caffeine drink, depending on how long the day is and how thirsty I am; and perhaps another shot of caffeine in there. That's from drinking all caffeine, all the time.

Do you want to know what this has done to my overall, day-to-day well-being and health? Good! Because I'm going to tell you:

The increase of water and decrease of things like caffeine, artificial sweeteners, and caramel color has produced no change in my appetite, either way. It does not affect my level of energy. It has not weakened nor strengthened my sweet tooth. My weight (according to clothes and the mirror, since I don't have a scale) has stayed the same. I am sleeping no better or worse. I do not feel any different (since I got over the mild headaches at first.. which I'm sure would be worse if I'd eliminated caffeine entirely).

A lot of times, people make changes to their diets, then go off on how they have a new lease on life. Listen, if you want to cut out sugar, you do you. But I think that a couple of things play into people's drastic wellness changes when they make a sweeping change in their diet: 1) They EXPECT results, so they experience them (placebo affect, and its negative Nelly cousin, the nocebo effect -- see also "When we let my kid play on the iPad, he acts AWFUL"). 2) When someone makes a big diet change, they're probably also increasing their exercise, paying closer attention to their sleep hygiene, etc. (For a negative example of this, please miss that "documentary" "Supersize Me" where the guy not only ate McDonald's for every meal, but he also forced himself to eat every single bite of everything he bought, AND he stopped working out entirely, even though he'd been an athletic dude before.)

I fully believe that if a food or category of foods gives you physical symptoms (some people can't eat tomatoes or they break out in hives; my older kid can't eat avocado anymore or the left side of their face balloons up frighteningly), don't eat it! But the fact is that outside of those conditions, the inclusion of elimination of any one food item is not going to ruin or supercharge your life.

A couple of interesting effects, though; one negative and one positive: 1) Whereas before, I could drink caffeine in bed as I was winding down and still sleep like a log, my tolerance is diminished. If I have some soda with dinner, I am not sleepy at 11, even if it's been a long day and I need sleep. I guess an upside of this is that I need less caffeine to get a boost from it? 2) When we went to Haiti 7 years ago, I had to find caffeine gum to take with me because I wasn't certain I could find soda there. I did end up having one Coke and one Diet Coke during the week. But I have a wider variety of beverage options now. Mal wanted to get McDonald's the other day on our way home from the Zilker Botanical Garden, and what sounded really good to me was unsweetened tea. It was not good; it was McDonald's swill. But it was drinkable and I finished it. So the beverage world is really my oyster now?

That's it. Sorry it's not more compelling. Reality usually is not. :)