Oh the vanity...

Sometimes I have moments where I catch my brain thinking about myself as if I'm still an overweight person. I'll be looking at clothes or whatever and just pass certain things by because they're probably not flattering, or I won't eat junk food in front of people because I think they'll judge me.

I had a moment like this the other day that's kinda embarrasing. (That of course is the reason I'm sharing with the entire internet.) I was getting frustrated with my running stamina, especially when I've been in calorie defecit for more than a few days, and I was trying a few things that might help. More iron in my diet, more sleep, caffine, and maybe even breathing more deeply.

So I'm on the treadmill trying to focus on deep belly breaths (like my pilates teacher taught me!) and expanding my lungs as much as possible when I realize something: The way that I hold in my stomach has been impeding my ability to breath properly. (Facepalm) In order to take that big deep breath, I have to completely relax my belly. It's not like I think I have a big belly and need to hide it, this is something that's carried over, something I've just always done for years and years, the way that I hold my body out of habit.

And behold, I could run for longer! The pinching feeling in my airway went away. I feel pretty silly, but glad I've relized what I'm doing. From now on, I'll be letting it all hang out.