Day 14....Where have you been, Helen?

I am a horrible blogger.

Well, that isn't completely true.  During last month's challenge, I was right on top of that blog posting!  I amazed myself with how often I updated. ("Pats self on back, cough, cough.")

This month I have not been as faithful and I think there are two reasons.  One is that I have been much, much busier this month.  Daughter two had her dance recital and daughter one was home for a weekend, the in-laws were here, I've had the carpets cleaned, and I've been trying to get the garden in.  The second reason is that this Love Your Greens challenge hasn't really been much of one - a challenge, that is.

I loved greens before I began this, but I'm not a huge smoothie person.  Sure, smoothies are good, and I've had my share of them.  But drinking a smoothie every day isn't my thing.  When I've made smoothies in the past, I pretty much always made them green with either spinach or kale, so adding greens to smoothies wasn't much a stretch for me.

But there are always lessons to be learned from anything, and thus far I have learned that I need something really challenging to keep me interested.  Next month, I will up the ante and see how hard I can be on myself.

One of the many lessons I learned from the Whole30 challenge was to listen to my body.  I know the cues of real hunger now, and when I need rest or water or something other than food.  Since the month is over and I haven't been as strict when I've been out, I can tell when something has snuck into my food that I haven't been eating and it makes me feel horrible.

So here is my confession for the day; I have grown to hate running.  I was forcing myself out that door every morning to get a run in and feeling very angry about it.  It felt like a job and it was just painful to think about lacing up my shoes and forcing myself to go 5 or 8 or 10 miles.  So, I listened to my body and I stopped.

I've been biking and walking and continuing with my first love, yoga, and running a quick 3 or 4 miles here and there and I feel so much better.  I had decided to not do the half marathon coming up, but today I thought that I might like to walk it this time.  I haven't decided yet, but it felt so freeing to know that I didn't HAVE to do it, that I don't HAVE to be out there training for it.

Oh, one other lesson from this month.....lime juice in smoothies is gross.