Need some mental counselling

well, I have no answer to this dilema because it happens to me as well.  I find that I have little patience for people who 1. don't eat like I do, 2. don't exercise like I do, and 3. don't sleep like/when I do.  This mostly applies to my family, and I better figure out how to get over it fast!

Max, you had better not repeat this to Mike!  LOL

Yup - nothing like a quiet night in with Mrs Bigpikle, discussing whether I need to reduce my aerobic HR zone quite as low as recommended by Dr Maffetone in PC Coach, or whether the slightly higher levels in my previous calculations will give just as much benefit! The only benefit is she is a doctor so roughly understands some of the rubbish I talk about.

We went away last weekend to the South West for a weekend with my parents in the country and then spent Sat morning in the coolest bike and tri shop admiring £'000's of bikes and gear, while she read a magazine in the thoughtfully provided sitting area for bored relatives. The only interest she showed was trying to persuade me to do a wetsuit for the first time and try it out in their indoor never-ending pool!

Help - a triathlete has stolen my body and is impersonating me.......

Oh My Gosh!!! AMEN to that, Andrea! A great philosophy! Will try to apply some of your tidbits of knowledge to my own life. Thank YOU!!!

LW

I'm finding some similar patterns in my life. I used to be fat. No, not "a little overweight." I used to be Fat with a capital F. I was 222 pounds 2 years ago. I was a completely different person because, as a fat woman, I felt like I was always "apologizing" for being fat by being over accomodating. I never said no to anyone. I was always trying to prove myself.

Now I find I have much more of a "to hell with you if you don't like it" attitude. As I said to a friend when sharing a story about a person who used to have no time for the "fat" me, but was gushing over me after I lost weight...you should have been more interested in me when I was fat because I was a MUCH nicer person then.

I don't dislike people who don't eat right and workout, but I don't have patience for them if they try to derail me. I want to slap the next person who tells me I am getting too thin or need to stop losing weight. (I haven't lost weight for over a year.) As for people who sit at the table stuffing burritos with (literally) 1/2 cup of sour cream on them into their pie holes while telling me they try to lose weight but can't...well let's just say I'd like to beat them with their own flabby arms. I find that many many people don't understand what a healthy person eats like or looks like, for that matter. I'm not lucky that I've lost weight, I worked hard to do it. I not lucky to have great legs, these legs run and bike all over the place to get that way. In fact, let's just remove the word "lucky" from our vocab. I am lucky to have the blessing of a body that I can move and the opportunity to take the time to exercise. But as for my weight loss and fitness having ANYTHING to do with luck, BS. It has everything to do with dedication, goal setting, and hard work.

As for balance with my husband I will say first of all that we embarked on weight loss and fitness together, so that's helped. Second of all, he is probably the most wonderfully supportive person on the face of the earth. However it is important to ME that he never feel left out of this whole process. He's not as gung ho about running as I am, but he'll run because he's seen the benefits I'm enjoying, and he wants to do stuff with me. I try to make my training runs a couples thing. He can't run as fast or as far as I can, but he can ride his bike so he'll ride along with me while I run. I'm safer and we're together. When we do run together I slow my pace down and take "detours" (run down a block to the end and back, letting him get a bit ahead, and then catch up with him). I can work on speed work at the Y or when he's on his bike. If I want to do a long bike ride (which I don't do often enough) we do it together. I am faster than he is at biking too so I'll go ahead and then come back around. Again, I can work on speedwork on my rides to work or at the Y.

Last week we started a challenge. We are going to run 100 days and call it our 100 day challenge. That doesn't mean I'm going to overtrain. The rule is at least one mile a day and on "rest" days no more than that. I use those days to work on speed. He's finding that when he doesn't have to do more than a mile, he is enjoying the running more. Tonight I did a mile and a half, hopped off the treadmill (raining drove us indoors) and onto the bike to wait for him to finish. He ran three miles! I have a marathon training run tomorrow and a 10k Sunday so I didn't want to overdo it. (Don't worry, the marathon training is for a half and the run is only 2.5 miles tomorrow.)

Including your spouse in the training is important if you can. Let them share your excitement. Roy might never do a triathlon, but he can cheer me on. Of course you never know...he also said he'd never run a 5k. He ran one last week, the week before, and is running one this Sunday. Never say never. (He just better NOT get better than me.)