Coming Back to My Run #MoveitMondays

Happy #MoveitMondays!

How was your weekend? Can you believe that Christmas is officially ten days away?! Honestly, this month has flown by – this time next week I’ll be home in Toronto with my family, cozying up at home and enjoying my couple weeks of chilly, Canadian weather. I can’t believe it! I’m hoping that it snows when I’m home – am I the only one hoping for a White Christmas?

This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with J’s family. It was a wonderful weekend. I made my Healthy Monkey Bread and a batch of the Best Vegan Chocolate Chunk Cookies. We also visited the Christmas Market in Bruges and the Medieval city looked as beautiful as always – covered in Christmas cheer and sparkling lights. 

And as for the cookies, I can’t wait to share my latest recipe with you this week! They are so soft and thick in the middle and perfectly chewy around the edges. Everybody agreed they are the best Chocolate Chunk Cookies they’ve ever had!

And I also came back to my run this past week. I didn’t mention it here before (because I was still trying to process it myself) but I took a bit of a break from running. My injuries were not necessarily physical but for some reason, starting about a month ago, the thought of running began to seriously stress me out. I began to dread my morning runs. I cannot really explain why this happened but I went with it. If my body is telling me it doesn’t need something for the moment, I try to listen. So I swapped my morning runs for walks and took some time to slow down and smell the roses, so to speak 😉 I knew that I wouldn’t give up running forever but I deeply felt like I needed a break from it. It’s a bit hard to explain but as I said, when my body needs something I try not to question it too much. This past week, I started to crave my run again. So I came back to my run, slowly but surely.

And I think that part of the reason that I started dreading my run is due to the stress and anxiety accompanied by the end of the semester. My body needed a rest to focus on what’s important at the moment – kicking some serious butt on these final exams! I ran a couple times last week and over the weekend as well. I ran yesterday morning, and it felt great to get back out and get lost in my thoughts, coming back to my run is like coming back to an old friend I haven’t seen in ages.

As I said, I am trying not to judge or question my body on what it needs but as we all know that can be difficult! I am trying to just go with how I feel at the moment. I’m foreseeing a few runs this week but maybe one of those could turn into a long, fast walk. I don’t know yet. I do know that getting some sort of physical activity to clear my thoughts, especially when I’m stuck in a chair all day writing papers, is so important for my overall physical and mental well-being.

 Do you ever feel like you need to switch up/ a break from your daily physical routine?

Wishing you a great week! <3 Lots of love from my kitchen to yours!