I don't know if I'm alone in this or not, but I find that often the week before or after or (if I'm really lucky) both weeks surrounding my period I am a bear to deal with. Not only for those around me, but also for me to be an innocent bystander inside of my own self-loathing, negative head. I am cranky, tired- no matter how much I sleep- and walk around with a panic about life that everything I do is wrong and my life choices will never add up. Upon waking, I feel as though I'm in a fog of general bitterness and ill intent. Sounds fun, doesn't it?
Lately, I've been pretty fed up with myself for feeling this way, knowing that I'm wasting precious time that I could be using for more productive, more fun, healthier purposes. I feel like I've tried everything to break myself out of this p.m.s. coma without any success. Chocolate doesn't help, my wonderfully supportive boyfriend doesn't help, even shopping irritates and frustrates me. Then, to top it all off, I get even more frustrated with myself for not being able to pull myself out of it, knowing that I am the key to my own happiness, blah, blah, blah. Like this is what I want to hear at that moment! (Further stressing me out!)
Solution:
Running. Simple, right? Even silly and something you've heard already? Entirely possible. The only difference between that advice and this? Maybe nothing. Or maybe the fact that I am a real person who has been fed up with my p.m.s. for too long without any relief in sight. It worked for me. That's all I know and that's why I am sharing this with you, the reader and possible fellow p.m.s. hater.
Why it Works:
First, a word. I am not, nor have I ever been a runner. I hate running to be completely honest. I don't like shin splints, feeling sore, or sweating so much my shirt sticks to my back. But who does? In order to get myself in better shape (and for yet another hobby) I have decided to run a 5k. Mostly I'm doing this because of a bet I made with my boyfriend that I would be in shape for a 5k before he would. I don't think this is a bet I will win but I am competitive and it suits the healthier lifestyle we are going for, so why not?
After waking up for what seemed like the fiftieth day in a row cranky and tired, with not much else going on and my looming 5k date drawing nearer, I decided to test out my handy iPhone app (C25k) and start training. I have to admit I felt like sludge on the side of a house before deciding to do this. I am not one of those perky get-up-and-go morning people that rise with sunshine spewing out of them. (Ask my boyfriend or my mother. They will fully certify that statement!) But I decided to do it anyway. I find that when you are finally sick of feeling sorry for yourself, p.m.s. induced or otherwise, you do things you wouldn't normally do to break out of a bad habit. Like running.
So off I went, shirt sticking to my back, gasping for air, into the eighty something degree weather in hopes of breaking the cycle. And you know what? It worked. It worked because a) it was a distraction mentally from the negativity I was feeling, and b) because any type of exercise is good for your body. It's funny, I've been reading and hearing that for years and while I fully understand the statement and it's implications, I've always thought avoiding work-out pain was a better way to go. Until now. I don't know what changed me. Maybe, like I said, just being sick and tired of being tired and grumpy. But now I get it. You have to push your body and your mind, give it exercise and exhaustion, expel your demons, whatever you want to think of it as, in order to get different results than you've always had. Not to mention the immense pride I felt from doing something I thought I couldn't do. While I didn't finish the entire first workout (I left 8 more minutes of alternating run/walk cycles) I did run/walk farther and for a longer period of time than I ever have in my life. Well maybe since 6th grade track. And that's something that I can take personal pride in. For now. Until I actually finish a complete work-out cycle. But hey, the pyramids weren't built in a day, right? Isn't that what they say? I'm starting to have a new appreciation for sayings like that. Maybe they, whomever 'they' are weren't so crazy after all.
Closing Statement:
Run. Run until you can't breathe and then push a little harder. And then give yourself credit for what you've accomplished. But most of all, run the living crap out of your p.m.s. and general fogginess so it can no longer rule your morning, week, life. It worked for me so it must work for you. Good luck. Run number two takes place today, dread and heat and all. Wish me luck!
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