Cold Turkey
Habits. They're behaviors ingrained over time, repeated so regularly that they become the norm. Sometimes these behaviors begin intentionally, sometimes slipped in unconsciously. Either way, habits eventually feel comfortable, easy. And that easiness often makes them hard to change.
My habit was hiking - and everything that came with it. Waking up with the sun. Eating junk food. Walking constantly. Taking each day hour by hour. My life for 5 months was a series of new habits. Now, I've found myself trying hard to break some of those habits, and trying hard to hold on to some.
Sadly the easiest habit to break has been constant exercise - but not by choice. It was no more than an hour after completing my final summit of Mt. Katahdin that my body shut down. Leaving Baxter State Park, my grandfather pulled the car over 3 times so I could tumble out and vomit on the side of the road. I spent what should have been a celebratory night lying on the cold tile floor of our hotel bathroom.
My symptoms cleared up within 48 hours, but I continued to feel exhausted as we toured Maine's costal towns & flew back to Atlanta. I'd been pretty tired the final 2 weeks of our thru-hike, which I'd attributed to malnutrition (and... ya know... hiking 20 miles a day). I'd imagined myself running a half marathon the first week back home, but now it was clear my body would need a little recovery time. Unfortunately within a day or two of being in Atlanta, I began to feel even worse.
My head constantly pounded. I wasn't hungry for anything. If I stood and talked to someone for more than a few minutes, I would feel my eyesight grow blurry and my hand begin to drop whatever I was holding. I'd immediately have to excuse myself and sit down to avoid a fainting spell. I spent most of the day vertical in bed because all my muscles hurt when I sat up. I actually had to make my mom come help me sit up at one point. Can you imagine how hard it is mentally to go from a lifestyle where you can climb 32 miles worth of mountains in one day, to a lifestyle where you can't even climb one flight of stairs without having to sit down?
After a week of this, I went to the doctor to get checked out. A few tests and a heart murmur scare (followed by a normal EKG result) later, my doctor didn't know what to tell me besides to start me on antibiotics to treat potential Lyme disease while they ran the blood work. The blood work did come back normal, but I have to say over a week into the antibiotics I'm feeling great. I went for my first post-trail run yesterday morning and ended up doing 10.3 miles. Despite my unbelievably sore legs today, I'm so relieved to feel back to normal. Regular exercise will soon return as one of my routines.
One habit I'm working to change since the hike is the time I wake up. When sleeping in my hammock, I'd usually be up by 7:30 a.m.. That's not terrible, and it worked with my hiking schedule, but now back home I want to do better. I've always loved mornings and it's usually the time of day that I am the most productive. So when a friend invited me to join the "Early Risers Club", aka challenged me to wake up at 4:30 a.m. on 21 consecutive workdays, I immediately said 'yes!'. These early hours have allowed me time to workout, time to myself, and time to do silly things like watch the 'Bachelor in Paradise' engagement & tear up. It's amazing to look at the clock and feel so accomplished by 8:00 a.m.! While I'm still new to this challenge, I'm certainly rooting for it to become one of my favorite new practices.
The last habit I'm working to change since the hike is my diet. As sick as I was mentally of Ramen, Snickers, and all the other processed crap, my body still craved junk food. I thought I would miss vegetables so much that I'd dive right back into my clean eating. That notion turned out to be quite false! So to stop myself from going to every Chick-fil-a drive-thru I saw, I decided to try something completely new for fun.
Enter Tim Ferriss' Slow Carb Diet. While I haven't bought his book "The 4-Hour Body" or taken everything exactly seriously ($100+ supplements? no thank you!), I have been following the rules about food and have cut out all white foods and fruit. I appreciate any eating plan with a cheat day per week, and the guidelines are pretty simple. There's not much to say about slow carb yet since I'm only a few days in, but I'll likely write a follow up post when I've finished a month of it. Who knows? Maybe I'll love it.
