Hello! I have been meaning to find a community since I started so I stop boring my roommates with details. I also work in a creative tech industry where people get defensive and shamed when anyone talks about trying to get healthier. 
This is my third time trying, but the first time it’s stuck for more than a single session. A combo of lockdown, smoking cessation, and doing the NHS version rather than Zombie Run. I thought I’d like Zombie Run because I’m a huge horror fan, but it’s a little too military for me and I found the fear motivation too much stress on top of just dealing with running.
I had a bit of experience with regular exercise in the past, I used to do weight lifting and a bit of treadmill, swimming in the winter. Always fell off when it got busy in the summer. I had a severe wrist injury two years ago that killed any routine, both from the injury itself and having to quit my serving job which made me very, very, very poor.
It’s my third month cigarette-free! I’ve been in a nicotine cessation program since December. I am starting to ween off nicotine patches, and I’ve been decreasing the amount of nicotine in my vape by mixing 0mg nicsalt liquid with a drip or three of my regular 35mg liquid. This whole thing makes my life extra miserable, but it’s been a really good time to do it since I can rarely go to/walk past convenience stores, and there was a whole month where I couldn’t go out at all and be tempted by impulse buying and bumming cigarettes from other smokers. I am probably weening more than I need to because in addition to that, my patches fall off because it’s so humid in my area, but I really want to be nicotine free before lockdown totally ends in my country.
It’s my second month running! I did 5 weeks on Week 1 because I was worried about injuring myself and it was probably 6 months since I’d done any cardio at all. Now that I have my foot falls worked out and had a trip to the chiropractor, everything is going much more smoothly. I think I did two weeks on week two, I’m on Week 3 now and ready to start 4 tomorrow.
I really need new shoes. My shoes are 6 years old, though I didn’t REALLY use them that much in that time. Shoe stores are open in my area but I’m not willing to go yet, and my body is too broken to risk getting them online, I want an expert to advise me. When I injured my wrist I was diagnosed with crappy joints, and every time I injure myself I fall off any kind of routine and have to start over again once I recover.
I don’t “love” running while I’m doing it yet, but it’s no longer miserable and I really love how I feel afterwards once I’ve taken a shower. I miss it on my days off and am tempted to do it anyway, but I do not. (It’s always more tempting when I am not supposed to?) On running days I wake up with the last song on the podcast stuck in my head and that makes me excited about it. The worst part is the hour or three between getting out of bed and running, I complain about having to do it. The humidity makes it extra tough right now, so I have to start before 11:30am.
I’ve gained a significant amount of weight since I started trying to quit smoking. It makes me feel miserable, and I’ve had weight issues and disordered eating in the past. It’s especially disheartening since a lot of it has happened SINCE I started running, but I’m trying to give myself a break on beating myself up about it. The combo of lockdown, still being in the metabolism mess of weening off 15 years of daily stimulants, and eating more because of the double whammy of needing more food on running days and generally eating more from smoking cessation.
The next goals I want to take on are:
* getting up earlier and running closer to when I get up. Both because of the heat right now, and because I’d like to get a studio job when this is over and I don’t want to lose the routine. (I have been doing shift work and/or feeelancing for 6 years, getting to work for 9 is going to be tough already!)
* figuring out some kind of exercise on my days off from running. I very occasionally do yoga and the ten million stretches/strength exercises from my various paramedical providers, but none of it gets my heart rate up or does any calorie burning. Yoga is very frustrating because I have to adapt everything to not put weight on my wrists, and that just kaputs a lot of the muscle toning positions because they rely on supporting your body weight. I miss weight lifting like crazy but that’s off the table for the foreseeable future. I need some weight control exercises, and I need muscle building exercises because it will compensate for a lot of my joint issues.
First time in forever. 
First time posting...
First time for everything!
First time out in WEEKS!
New Brooks Tested For The First Time
