Yawn: Greetings from an Incurable Bedhead

Hello, family. How are you this afternoon? (Or evening, depending on your time zone.) ...Ah, that's too bad. I hope he feels better. I always find a little bit of vinegar applied directly to the sores can help with that.
How am I? Well, I'm tired, despite the fact that it's 12:30 and I got up an hour ago. I had a late night last night catching up with friends, but before you start forming an image of me as some kind of irresponsible, late-night crazy girl, let me tell you about what I did BEFORE the catching up (which happened online anyways, so it wasn't irresponsible or crazy at all. Just comfortably geeky.)
So I went running yesterday with some "supervisors" (a.k.a my grandparents - my mother won't let me run alone) who were willing to let me go pretty much until I ran out of steam. I run every day along the local boardwalk, and yesterday I ran all the way to the end, then all the way back, then halfway to the end again, and then walked back. Obviously you don't know how long that is (for all you know, my "boardwalk" is ten metres long and there's a fries stand halfway), so I'll give you an actual measurement: I ran approximately 5k. Now, this might not be very impressive to all of you regular people out there, but for me it's pretty freaking amazing. The fact that I didn't die while doing it makes it all the more impressive.
In summary, the running is going well. I am kind of neglecting the rest of my responsibilities, such as studying for my driving test, but for the duration of this blog post at least, I am going to be proud of myself.
And when I sign out of blogger and return to the real world - well then I can change out of my shortie pajamas, pluck my eyebrows and finally get to the end of Chapter 2 in my driving manual.

So Far, Holding Up

How are you today, family? That's good to hear. How am I? Well, I was just about to tell you...
I spent today at the pool. I did pretty predictable, pooly things: threw a ball around, splashed, played underwater tag, and suntanned while reading The Great Gatsby. I also had possibly the best pizza I've ever tasted at a little restaurant stand thing by the pool. I used to have this perception of people who advocated fresh, locally grown food; I thought of them as pampered and prententious. Obviously I agreed that it was healthier, both for people and the environment, to eat locally blah blah blah, but I always regarded it as something rich people unfairly expected us regular people to do. Why should we pay more at the grocery store for fresh, locally grown food or worry about whether or not our food was processed when we had so much other stuff on our minds?
But as I continue to taste the local burgers, pizza and the like - normal foods that I can find in my hometown - and taste the difference, I realize how much difference fresh, non-processed food can make.
But I digress.
When I came home I rested for a while, then went running. This is the third day in a row I've gone running, and already it's gotten a little easier. I've gotten back into the rhythm of regular exercise. The only problem is that the people I'm obliged to drag along to supervise me won't take me for much longer than a half an hour, which is barely a workout. Hopefully I'll be able to go for a lot longer tomorrow.
I also made the very frustrating discovery that the only scale in this house is unreliable, inexplicably adding 6 pounds to your weight between morning and evening. I'm just going to have to stick to eating healthy and not very much and running every day, and weigh in when I come back home. It's a little nerve-racking, but there you have it. That's how it's gotta be done. Either way, I'm proud of myself; so far, I'm holding up to my new reinvention.

I Ran! Also, Some Talk About Success Highs

Hey there, family!
Today was a very good day. After a very long time spent begging and pleading, I finally convinced my mother to let me to go running. It felt great. I have to agree when they say 'victory is sweet.' 'Cause it really, truly is. Actually, it is sweaty with a side of running-shoe-induced blister, but, you know, whatever.
I am on that reinvention high that we all experience once in a while. You know the one. You manage to nail that concerto you've been practicing, or make the souffle without f*** it up completely, or you finally get your butt out of the house and into a pair of running shoes - and you feel like you could do anything. You tell yourself: "Hey, if I managed this, then hell, I can manage anything! Come on, Life, whaddaya got? I can handle it all!"
Now, I don't know if this is true, but it makes sense in a strange sort of way. I mean, if you can get the momentum going and start to feel really good about your accomplishments, you'll start to get addicted to them. You'll want to keep riding on the high of your successes, and if you kept that up long enough, you could technically turn your whole life around.
The obvious problem is that you can't just keep being succesful, all the time. Eventually, you will have to have a failure. And then what? The easiest thing to do is crash and burn and stay that way, until you can pick up the pieces and start looking for that high again. But is that really healthy? I think what it all boils down to is illusion, and specifically the illusions we create ourselves. When we ride on these "success highs", we tend to believe that we can continue building our new selves until we become some kind of perfect, immortal being. Someone without flaws. Someone no one can ever be. We delude ourselves into thinking we can be, must be, that person. Eventually, we ride ourselves into the ground. Crash and burn, yet again.
I think the answer is a happy medium (as it is with most things). It is good (obviously) to be happy about your successes and let them motivate you on to new successes. But we must be careful not to let ourselves set goals that are too high, or try to overcome the impossible. Our optimism about ourselves and our futures must be balanced out with a healthy dose of realism.
What does all this mean? I'm going to keep running every day, monitor my weight and eat as healthily as I can with the goal of becoming a fitter, healthier (and hopefully skinnier) person. But I'm never going to be a 100-pound supermodel.
Not that it's such a great career choice for me, anyways. I am a very clumsy walker in heels.