A Breath of Fresh Air & Becoming Unplugged

This week has turned into stress city. Nothing major - family, health is good, our jobs are secure - all good things. But there are a lot of little things that wouldn't be a big deal on their own piling up at once. And on top of that I have been crazy busy at work.



Then I got this awful headache Monday that would not go away. Hormones, caffeine, stress, oncoming sinus infection, need to be better about wearing my glasses at the computer - what was it? Ibuprofen didn't help, more caffeine didn't help, and wearing glasses didn't help (immediately anyway).

I have been logging all my miles on the treadmill for two weeks straight. I love the treadmill, but a work friend finally talked me off the belt and outside for a run over lunch. It's in the 40's this week here which is unseasonably warm and after the cold we have had I couldn't turn it down. Plus we hadn't caught up since before the holidays.

I left my Garmin and heart rate monitor in my bag. I figured I could use a run to just run and enjoy the company of a good friend. I've been obsessing over too many numbers lately - lbs, calories, heart rate, miles, pace. And I work with numbers and spreadsheets all day.

I warned him that I had a list eleventy billion miles long to kvetch about. And boy did I.

It was so nice out that I eventually ditched my ear band and gloves. And I got everything off my chest.

When we were done, we had covered 4.5 miles in 43 minutes - a nice easy pace, but considering my lack of running outdoors, or at that pace, I was pretty happy that I was able to run a 9:30 pace while chatting the whole time.

I got back to my desk and realized my headache was gone! Had the caffeine kicked in? Did the air clear out my sinuses?

Did I just need some fresh air? I suddenly realized that over the last couple weeks, I have spent maybe a total of two minutes a day in the fresh air. Maybe four minutes if I hit the grocery store and loaded groceries in the car. How pathetic is that?

At any rate, I am feeling so much better now. The to do list is still long, there are issues that remain unresolved. But at least I don't have that pounding headache any more and have learned a lesson that we require some outside time every once in a while!

What calms you down when you get overwhelmed and stressed? If you live somewhere cold, do you make a point to get some outside time every day?