Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 8

If I'm going to be posting awkward mirror selfies, I really need to do something about the lighting in my bathroom. There aren't any windows except for a skylight directly above where I'm standing, so it casts a shadow of every wrinkle (both in skin and clothes) on my body. 

I'm so glad that several of you said you may try out the beans and greens recipes/ideas! If you haven't seen it, I wrote a (very long) post yesterday called A Month of Beans and Greens; it took me forever, so thank you for checking it out, haha. 

I'm going to try to keep this short though, since yesterday's post was so long.

First, my weigh-in:

I had quite a bit of a jump down from last week's 149.6, so I'm thrilled with that! My diet has pretty much been the same all along. Even now that my planned month of beans and greens is over, I've still been eating mostly the same stuff (as you can see on yesterday's post, I love curries). I want to have really good numbers when I get my annual physical this fall, and the soluble fiber in beans as well as oatmeal (which I have as part of my breakfast) are great for lowering cholesterol. I figured I probably spent the first half the year raising my cholesterol with all the junk food, so now I need to pay my dues before my physical ;) 

Several months ago, I made a bet with a friend where I would have to pay a significant amount of money if I ate sweets before August 22. I've done that before and it always works well for me. I chose August 22 because I had a family reunion with my mom's family that day. I hadn't seen a lot of my cousins in at least a decade and I wasn't thrilled to look like I "let myself go", so I wanted to work really hard to lose some weight.

So, the reunion was on Saturday and I felt good about going. Even though I'm not as thin as I was 10 years ago, I'm also 10 years older--so of course I look different. Eating well and running again has made me feel better about myself, regardless of how I look, so I'm happy about that!

About the sweets, I still haven't had any and I don't plan to. Right now, I don't even crave them anymore, but I know that if I eat even a single Oreo, I'll go right back to eating my weight in cookies and non-dairy Ben & Jerry's.

As far as my running this week...

Friday- I should have gone out first thing after the sun came up, but I waited until almost 11:00 and it was hot in the full sun. Despite feeling kind of miserable, my heart rate was lower than usual, which is cool. I ran 2.05 miles at an 11:43/mi average pace and average heart rate of 149 bpm.

Sunday- I definitely didn't learn my lesson on Friday about going out early; this time I went at 1:00. I didn't have Joey (he was with my mom) so I did an out and back on the main road and I think that route makes me run a little faster. There isn't anything interesting to look at, really (no houses, just open road) so maybe that's why. Also, once I hit the turn around point, it's so hard to keep from picking up speed in order to get back sooner! Anyway, I ran 2.11 miles at an 11:32/mi average pace with an average heart rate of 152 bpm.

Tuesday- Learned my lesson about the heat, and I went out at 7:00 in the morning. Joey was with my mom again and it was only 55 degrees, so I was expecting to have a really nice run. However, about half a mile in, I just wasn't feeling it. I was breathing hard and I just kept trying keep my heart rate down by slowing down and matching my breathing to my steps (four steps inhale, three steps exhale is best for easy running--if you're bored, check out my super nerdy post about How To Breathe While Running).

I was doing okay with about three quarters of a mile to go, when suddenly a dog ran out into the street, barking and running right at me. I'm not exactly Speedy Gonzalez, so the dog caught up to me immediately and started jumping on me. The owner ran after him right away so it was only a few seconds, but it scared me enough to make my heart rate shoot up. I'd also unintentionally run faster because of the dog, and I had SUCH a hard time catching my breath after that. The rest of the way home, I was dying. So, needless to say, not a great run. I finished 2.22 miles with an 11:40/mi pace and average heart rate of 150 bpm (I swear it had to be higher than that!).

I have to say, I'm very surprised with myself that I'm still hanging in there--it's been eight weeks, and not only have I continued with my weight loss/running goals, I've actually been blogging about it. This is the most focused I've been in longer than I can even remember! It feels nice :) Thank you for reading.

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A Month of Beans and Greens

I am going to post a Wednesday Weigh-In, but I just spent the last eight hours working on this post and I need a break from the computer. I may wait until tomorrow morning.

I've been putting this post off all month because I felt overwhelmed with it. I should have been more organized through the month and wrote down what I cooked in order to keep track of what I was taking pictures of. But better late than never, and "chaotic" is my middle name, so here we go...

Jerry and I had gotten into the bad habit of eating a lot of convenience foods--vegan nuggets, burgers, stuff like that. After reading about so many people in their 30's and 40's getting colorectal cancer, we decided we needed to focus on eating much healthier--no more convenience foods, at least for a while. And so I thought it would be fun to try a challenge to eat some sort of beans and greens every day day for a month.

First, I want to say that even if I was a food stylist/photographer, a lot of beans and greens meals just do not look appetizing. I would say that probably most of the photos in this post might be a turn off from the beans and greens; but remember, I am not a food stylist or photographer in any sense of the words, so please don't let these pics keep you from trying different versions of beans and greens!

Why Beans and Greens?

A grain, a green, and a bean walked into a bar...

They are pretty much the perfect meal: loaded with nutrition, lots of fiber, endless varieties of combinations, super cheap to make, easy to sub ingredients, and easy to get creative with so it doesn't get boring.

I almost always eat beans and greens with some sort of grain (95% of the time it's brown rice). A super easy "rule of thumb" for a healthy vegan dinner is a grain, a green, and a bean. (I include lentils in the beans category because they are so similar in nutrition. I also include tofu and soy curls, because they are just soy beans.

My favorite grains: short grain brown rice, brown basmati rice, bulgur, red quinoa, and barley. (If you want to switch from white to brown rice for health benefits, try short grain brown rice--it's softer and stickier than other varieties and reminds me of white rice. That's how I got my kids to like it years ago.) I would put pasta and bread in this category as well, but I don't really like bread much and I prefer rice over pasta.

My favorite greens: Collards are my very favorite because they are super easy to prep, they hold up well after cooking a long time, and they take on whatever flavor is in the dish. For this Beans and Greens Month, I also tried mustard greens, rainbow chard, kale, spinach, bok choy, and I think a couple of others. The ones I like the least are the kale and spinach, because they have a strong flavor.

My favorite beans: dark red kidney beans, chickpeas, great northern beans, black beans, navy beans. Despite eating quite a bit of them over the month, I don't really love the flavor of black-eyed peas. I usually choose beans for the texture that I'm going for in the dish: kidney beans hold up really well and don't get mushy, great northern are very soft white beans and perfect for blending into sauces, etc.

As far as lentils, I'm kind of obsessed with red lentils and black (beluga) lentils. The red lentils break down a LOT when cooked, which is good if you're not a fan of the texture of lentils or for dishes like curries. The black lentils hold their shape really well and they're very small (about the size of rice) making them perfect for salads or mujadara (a lentil and rice dish with caramelized onions--so good!). The black lentils are super versatile, so they're my very favorite.

You'll see that most of the beans and greens dishes I make are curries--some sort of sauce with spices (depending on what flavor profile I'm going for), beans (sometimes whole or sometimes blended into the sauce), and about four cups of chopped greens. I almost always serve it with a whole grain. Depending on what I'm making, I use other ingredients as well, but those are the basics.

I apologize that I don't have links for all of the recipes (honestly, I can't remember what some of the dishes even were). I'll link to the ones that I'm able. A lot of these came from the How Not to Die Cookbook, How Not to Diet Cookbook, and How Not to Age Cookbooks.

Any time the recipes called for one can of beans, I always used two. And several, if not most, of the recipes don't call for greens at all! When that was the case, I just chopped four cups of whatever greens I had at the moment and added them. When the recipe did call for greens, most of the time I subbed whatever greens I had on hand rather than sticking to what was called for in the recipe.

Here are photos of the beans and greens (and grains!) meals I made in July...

Pasta with Garlicky White Beans and Greens (How Not to Diet, p. 85). I used red lentil pasta for even more "beans", but did not like the pasta; while I love red lentils, the pasta was not a good texture for me.

Creamy Mushroom Coconut Curry by Happy Veggie Kitchen (I added chick peas and extra mushrooms and skipped the sugar and cilantro. Fun fact: when I took the DNA test a few years ago, I learned that I have the gene that make cilantro taste like soap. I never did like it!).

Slow Cooker Lentil and Quinoa Chili by Aggies Kitchen. I've made this a few times; it's super easy to throw in the crockpot and it tastes delicious! Jerry really likes this one.

Persian Black-Eyed Peas and Greens (How Not to Diet, p. 130) with barley. I used dark red kidney beans and red beans instead of black-eyed peas.

Coconut Chickpea Curry by Real and Vibrant with brown basmati rice. I can't remember if I liked this or not, but I think I remember it being bland. I used chickpeas and black-eyed peas because I didn't have two cans of chickpeas.The greens weren't in the recipe; I just added what I had on hand.

I cannot figure out what this was; clearly some sort of lentil curry!

Hoppin' John Stuffed Collard Rolls (How Not to Die, p. 158). I (obviously) didn't make stuffed rolls; I just chopped up the collard greens and added them to the sauce. Instead of rice, I served it over bulgur. 

I know this is shredded tofu and bok choy with short grain brown rice, but I can't remember what I did for the sauce/seasoning.

Coconut Curry Dal with short grain brown rice. This is currently my favorite go-to meal. (I use full-fat coconut milk instead of lite and skip the oil.) There is rice on top because I realized I didn't add enough to my bowl!

Red Bean and Tempeh Jambalaya (How Not to Age, p. 150) with purple rice. I'd only tried tempeh (fermented soy beans) a couple of times, but it had been a while. I really liked it!

I cannot remember what this was (obviously a curry of chickpeas, tomatoes, collards, and brown basmati, but I don't remember what spices I used).

This was some sort of mushroom curry, but it didn't turn out very good so I threw away the recipe.

Cheesy Broccoli Soup (How Not to Diet, p. 20). This is HEAVENLY. Noah actually asks me to make this for him sometimes because he loves it as well. (There is no cheese in it, despite the name.) It doesn't call for greens, but I added some in addition to the broccoli. The beans are blended into the soup, which makes it thick (along with the cashews). I'm actually planning to make this for dinner tonight.

Barley Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (How Not to Diet, p. 167). I used this recipe *very* loosely. I did not use cabbage; I used whatever greens I had on hand at the time. I obviously didn't stuff them; I just combined the filling and sauce to serve on top of the barley.

Black Lentil Dal (How Not to Diet, p. 137), with short grain brown rice. This is SO much better than it looks! I've made this several times (without the greens) and it's a favorite.

Smokey Black-Eyed Peas and Collards (How Not to Die, p. 127) with red quinoa. I added an extra can of black-eyed peas.

Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Butter Beans by Nora Cooks. This sauce was AMAZING. Like, I wanted to just eat it by the spoonful. This was my first time trying butter beans (a.k.a. lima beans) and I did not like the texture of them. I'll definitely make this again, but with great northern beans instead. And *definitely* with tofu.

 African Red Bean and Sweet Potato Stew (also in How Not to Diet, p. 138). This is one of my very favorite recipes ever. Like, in my top five favorite meals. It's what made me start seeing peanut butter as a savory ingredient--so good. Jerry doesn't even like sweet potatoes, but he loves this too! It doesn't call for greens, but I added what I had.

Vegan Creole Beans (with red rice). I didn't have enough kidney beans, so I used some red beans as well. It didn't call for greens, but I added what I had.

Indian-Style Soy Curls (my recipe that I've perfected over time, loosely based on butter chicken and chicken tikka masala). I make this all the time--the sauce is SO GOOD. Sometimes I make it with tofu, sometimes with beans, sometimes with the soy curls. But it's ridiculously easy--you just throw all the sauce ingredients in a blender and blend until it's really creamy. Then heat it on the stove with soy curls/tofu/beans until hot. I serve this with brown basmati rice. I will post the recipe another day soon!

10-Minute Peanut Butter Curry by Healthy Living James. This didn't have much flavor, so I tossed the recipe. It definitely needed more spices.

Doing this beans and greens experiment (not really an experiment.. a challenge?) was fun! It got me out of the rut of convenience food that Jerry and I had unfortunately gotten used to, and definitely helped me with weight loss (I lost 15 pounds in July).

I'm so sorry that I had a lot of "I don't remember" on here! I really should have been more organized. Still, maybe it'll inspire you to try some version of beans and greens for a nice plant-based meal. After working on this post, I am SO hungry--I'm going to get started on dinner. I may post my weigh-in tonight, but if not, I will tomorrow morning for sure.

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 7

As I was writing the date on this, I realized that it's the anniversary of when I started losing weight in 2009. On this day, 17 years ago(?!), I was 253 pounds. I *hate* this "before" photo of me, but seeing the pictures side-by-side really drives home how far I've come.

Of course, I didn't just lose all the weight and keep all of it off for all this time. I've gotten as low as 121 pounds and as high as 197. I feel my best at around 130 pounds, give or take 5. My ultimate goal for maintenance is about 133.

So where was I on the scale on this day, 17 years to the day after I started counting calories?

I was at 149.6... I broke into the 140's! It wasn't that long ago that I was super excited to see the 150's again. A few months ago, I really didn't even dream I'd ever see the 140's again. I'm now only five pounds from being a "normal" BMI (I'm considered "overweight" until I'm under 145). I've been asked several times recently how tall I am--I'm 5'4". 

I've still been doing the same stuff I've been doing over the last seven weeks: lots of fiber, no sweets or snacks (occasionally I have a piece of fruit in the afternoon if I'm hungry, or even a small portion of leftover dinner). Running three days a week, adding just a tiny bit of distance each run. I think what has helped me the most is the not snacking. I used to snack after dinner, but now I've been eating a large dinner and I don't have interest in snacking later.

For my running this week:

I've had to modify my routes so that I run past my house about a mile in (to drop off Joey at the house, which I mentioned last week). Thankfully, my neighborhood is is almost exactly a mile around the perimeter, so I take him around the neighborhood and then drop him off at home and add head back out until I hit my goal for the day.

Friday- My previous run had been 1.53 miles, so I planned to aim for about 1.60. Since I don't know a 0.6 mile route from my house, I just had to guesstimate and I overshot a little (not a bad thing!). I ran 1.70 miles at a 12:08/mile pace and average heart rate of 151 bpm. My "Joey mile" was 12:23; years ago, he would be out in front of me, pulling me along, the entire time; but now I've had to deliberately slow myself so he can keep up. I feel really bad for him; he would run with me until he legs gave out if I let him. I'm hoping once it's not so humid, it'll be easier for him. He's got SO MUCH FUR, the humidity has to be really hard for him.

Sunday- Same sort of thing. Previous run was 1.70, so my plan was to aim for about 1.80. Again, I dropped Joey off (that first mile time was 12:18) and then I did a guesstimate to continue the distance. I overshot again and hit 1.92 miles. I could have kept going in order to hit 2.0, but I decided I wanted my 2-miler to be a special day of its own. Finished the 1.92 miles at an 11:54/mi average pace (11:27 without Joey) with an average heart rate of 151 bpm.

Tuesday- The weather was GREAT for running! Unfortunately, as soon as Joey and I started out, my legs just felt heavy and I was feeling very tired. I was bummed because it was my 2.0-mile day. Since Tuesday was the last day of my running week, I couldn't put it off. I just pushed through it, and was thrilled when I hit the two-mile mark! It wasn't that long ago that I was struggling HARD to run half a mile. Now, my average heart rate is down a little and my pace is getting a little faster (without trying). I finished two miles--12:04/mi with Joey and 11:14/mi without Joey. Overall, I did 2.00 miles with an average pace of 11:39/mi and average heart rate of 152 bpm.

The running has actually done wonders for my day-to-day mood! Even after all these years, I still get really nervous before a run (even a short easy run). I have no idea why. But as soon as I get home, I walk straight to the bathroom, put the shower on straight-up cold water, strip as quickly as possible and jump in before I cool off. The cold water feels SO good! And then I feel good about it the rest of the day. It's exciting to see the improvement so far.

A few random personal things from recently...

Joey- I took him to the vet about his balance/"clumsiness", and after a thorough check-up, the vet didn't find anything concerning. We think it could be his hearing; he's definitely had hearing loss over the last year or so, and a sudden noise can startle him to losing his balance. But he has no balance issues when he runs with me, and the vet was very impressed that he can run a mile at his age. (Granted, we are not running to qualify for Boston, but running nonetheless. The vet also did some bloodwork since he's getting old, and she said there was a slight abnormality with his kidneys. She doesn't think it's alarming, but we're going to retest him in a few months and compare the results. 

When I tell him that my mom is going to come pick him up, he gets SO EXCITED. So we go outside and he stands like this, watching the end of the road for my mom's car to turn the corner.

Eli is starting the fire academy in a couple of weeks! I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but he wants to be a firefighter and has been working really hard to get in shape before he starts the academy. As a mom, I am terrified of him becoming a firefighter; but I am happy that he's chosen to go back to school to do something that interests him. He put in his two-week notice at work yesterday. He still lives at home, but spends most of his time at work, the gym, and his girlfriend's apartment.

Noah is still working full-time and living at home to save money to buy property (he wants to build a house). He's just now starting to look at other options for jobs. He would ideally like to get into a trade like electrical. We've been helping him explore those options. For now, he works a lot (he picks up overtime for the extra money) and when he's not working, he's usually spending time with his boyfriend (yes, you read that correctly; he is very happy and Jerry and I are happy for him!). 

Jerry and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on Sunday. We did the most unlike-us thing we could have chosen... we went to the Henry Ford Museum! I have probably mentioned (several times over the years) that I hate going to that museum because I chaperoned field trips every.goddamned.year. when the kids were in school. But I've changed so much over the last 4-5 years. When I became vegan, I started reading more about veganism--which led to reading more about the impacts of diet on the environment (I *highly* recommend the documentary called "Eating Our Way to Extinction", free on YouTube). That led me to interest in politics, which led me to learning about war, which led me to learning about history. All things I never had any interest in. 

Anyway, Jerry and I went to the Henry Ford Museum and it was like looking at it with fresh eyes. I really enjoyed our time there! (Jerry has always loved the museum.) We were there for five hours and didn't even see everything. My favorite part was that there is a temporary exhibit called Fabric of America: Our Fashions, Textiles, and Technologies. So perfect for me! There were quilts (including one from the 1700's) and lots of clothing and furniture from throughout the last couple of centuries. It was super interesting (even Jerry liked it).

I was stunned to see this quilt called the Vine Quilt from the late 1800's. Every single one of the leaves and vines are hand-appliquéd! Having appliquéd petals on a couple of quilts myself, I know how much time this must have taken. And most of these individual leaves are pieced with multiple fabrics!

The cats are still spoiled rotten. Estelle is about 18 years old and just recently, she's started to show her age a little. She's gotten smaller and is starting to look a little frail, like Phoebe did for a few years before she passed. But Estelle still gets the zoomies occasionally and she always shows the "kittens" who's boss. Chick and Duck (mainly Duck) are about as needy as two toddlers, which drives me crazy. But I'm still obsessed with Duck and we are totally codependent, haha.

I brought them some "cat grass" from Eastern Market in Detroit. They LOVE this stuff!

Well, I guess that's enough update for now. I *promise* to post my Beans and Greens post by Friday. I'm writing that here so that I actually have a deadline and I stop procrastinating!

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 6

I'm still here! I had an insanely busy week last week. I wasn't planning to skip a post, but my therapist asked if we could meet on Wednesday instead of Tuesday last week and I had my days all screwed up. Tuesday felt like Monday and Wednesday felt like Tuesday. Anyway, by Friday I decided to just wait and post today.

About a year ago, I decided that I was probably never going to fit into my old clothes again, and I started working on resizing what I could and even merging two pieces to make something bigger. Which is what you see with the shirt I'm wearing in this pic... I thought the camouflage sleeves would work well with a Jurassic Park hoodie. I cut down both sides as well, in order to expand the width. Then I just took the cuffs from the hoodie and put them on the camo sleeves.

I had also started picking up a few things from Salvation Army here and there, kind of accepting that I wasn't going to lose weight. I've spent a lot of time tailoring and altering the clothes how I like them. And now, after just six weeks of working on my weight, everything is way too big! (I've gone down 2-3 sizes.) I'm working on resizing them--I actually really enjoy tailoring my clothes, so it's been kind of fun.

It's made me start looking more at the quality of the clothes I buy, too. I look for 100% linen (my favorite!) and cotton, mostly. I especially like 100% cotton jeans. I've never liked stretchy jeans--they get distorted and they don't hold up well--but the cotton ones are super durable and they maintain their shape. (That said, the jeans I'm wearing in the photo are stretchy--they've been sized up and down several times, as well as patched more times than I can count. I should get rid of them, but I'm going to wait until I have a few good pairs that fit well.)

My biggest issue now with buying my pants from thrift stores is the number of skinny jeans they have! I've always been a flared jeans person because I have huge calves. When everyone was wearing skinny jeans, thrift shopping was great! Everybody was donating their flared jeans. And now that flared jeans are back, the store is loaded with skinny jeans. I'm hoping a new trend comes along soon.

Anyways, that was a long tangent. I've still been doing really well with my diet and with running. Even though my "beans and greens month" is over, I've still been eating a lot of beans and greens. I discovered that you can add greens to just about anything and not really notice them. I eat rice almost every single day, and it's easy to throw some beans into that as well. I promise to work on my beans and greens post this week; I'd started it and then got overwhelmed.

As far as running goes, I had an unusual victory. My pattern for just about every goal I work has been to start a streak of something and then when I miss a day, I quit. Especially with running.

Well, last week I missed a day. I had planned to run three times a week, no more than two days in a row without running. Like I said, it was a crazy week... but it was also SO humid. I found myself absolutely dreading going out for a run. So, I made a decision to skip a run; but only if I didn't let that make me quit. Yesterday was the last day of my run week and the humidity was killer, but I made myself do it so that I wouldn't quit.

A quick recap of the last two weeks:

Friday (the 31st)- Ran 1.12 miles. It was 84 degrees, sunny, and humid--fun! Since I didn't know a good route that would be just over a mile, I started an out-and-back; toward the midway point, I decided to try for a lollipop route and it ended up being perfect. I was aiming for 1.10 miles. Finished 1.12 at 12:25/mile and average heart rate of 153 bpm.

Sunday- Joey was at my parents' house, so I decided to do an out-and-back on the main road (I don't like taking him on the main road because cars go so fast and drivers aren't great at paying attention). It was raining outside, and I actually really like to run in the rain. This run was a good turning point for me--for the first time since I started running again, I *felt* like a runner. It felt so familiar and I got in "the zone" where my mind wanders and I forget that I'm running. Short-lived, of course, but it was good for my mentality. Finished 1.30 miles at a 12:03/mile pace and average heart rate of 152 bpm.

Tuesday- It was only 55 degrees outside in the morning, so I headed out right when it was light outside. Something my psychiatrist and my therapist have talked about several times is the importance of mindfulness--being aware of the present moment--and I've been trying to work on that while running. Paying attention to all the things I can hear and see and smell; feeling my heavy breathing and my heart beating fast.

During this run, I started to think about why it is that I don't *love* running, like most runners seem to. And I realized that I actually really do love it--if it wasn't for how uncomfortable my breathing is. Other than that, I love feeling the breeze on my skin, seeing the familiar sights in my neighborhood, the slight ache of my muscles. That's why I want to get to the point where running three miles feels easy again. Finished 1.38 miles at a 12:30/mile pace and heart rate of 152 bpm.

Saturday- It was hot and humid, but I headed out early in the morning to get it done. I mapped out 1.5 miles in my neighborhood and headed out with Joey. Surprisingly, I didn't feel awful. About a mile in, I was actually feeling pretty good. It was around that time that Joey started falling behind a little bit. He's old, and I've noticed as we've increased the distance, he tires out toward the end. I feel bad, because he gets SO excited to go that I can't leave him home. So, I might have to start planning to pass by my house about a mile into each run, so that I can drop him off. I'm taking him to the vet today; he's been having problems with his balance and coordination. I hope it's nothing serious! Finished 1.50 miles at a 12:32/mile pace and average heart rate of 152 bpm.

Tuesday (yesterday)- Joey was at my parents' house again (they love having him over), so I chose to do the out-and-back on the main road again. Holy hell, it was SO humid and there was absolutely zero breeze. So I was pouring sweat immediately and it wasn't evaporating. I was shocked, then, when I looked at my watch to check my distance for the turn-around point and I saw my pace was in the 11:00's. My pace has been about 12:30-13:00/mile so far. When I turned around, I decided to see if I could finish out the mile under 12:00. When my watched beeped to signal a mile, I saw that I finished it in 11:36! And then I was encouraged to try to finish the run with a sub-12:00 average. The last half-mile, I ran at 11:09/mi. Finished 1.53 miles at 11:27/mile and average heart rate of 155 bpm.

I feel like running is definitely getting easier--when I first started six weeks ago, I felt like I was going to die--and I feel kind of excited to keep going and increasing my distance. I'm now a little more than halfway to my goal of three miles.

Well, I have to get Joey to the vet, so I'm going to cut this off here. I am really going to try to get my beans and greens post done this weekend. Jerry's and my 23rd wedding anniversary is on Sunday! We actually have plans, but I'll write about that next time.

(I almost posted this without my weigh-in, hahaha)...

I was at 151.2 today, which is down three pounds from two weeks ago (since I didn't post last week). It's definitely slowed down, but that was expected. I'm still doing everything the same, though, and it's been consistent, so I'm happy with that. I'm so close to the 140's!

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 4

I flipped this photo to reverse the mirror image--this shirt was one of my "projects of the week". I love doing reverse appliqué! It's super easy and it's so fun to see the design revealed as you snip away. (The PURRVANA wasn't my idea; I got inspiration from Pinterest. But I love it! Also, can you believe it's been 32 YEARS since Kurt Cobain died?!)

Time seems to have slowed down quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, and it feels nice. Usually, I feel like I just blink and it's a month later. The only time that time seemed to slow down was when I was running ;)

Speaking of running, I reached a mile this week! I'm choosing to celebrate that, because I truly feel like a beginner again and a mile is a big deal for beginners. My first run (meaning, a month ago; not back in 2010) was 0.41 miles at a 13:01/mi pace and I felt like I was going to DIE. This week, I noticed that it felt *slightly* easier. Strong emphasis on slightly.

Thursday- My previous run had been 0.90 miles, so I decided to aim for 0.95. It was only 60 degrees outside, and I think that made a significant difference in how I felt. Since I was feeling relatively good, thought it would be a nice opportunity to go for my first mile. And I did--I finished 1.0 miles in 12:25 with an average heart rate of 153 bpm.

Saturday- It was on the cool side again, and I felt pretty much the same as Thursday. I had no idea what route to run--I can tell you 20 different three-mile routes from my house, but for these shorter runs, I'm basically guessing each time I go out. On Saturday, I figured I would do 1.10, but I did a terrible job guessing and had to run past my house. I turned around too soon and was at 1.04, so I just stopped there instead of entertaining my neighbors' Ring cameras for the third time. Ran 1.04 miles at a 12:38/mi pace and average heart rate of 155 bpm.

Tuesday- I went out at 6:30 and it was about 70 degrees (not terrible) but the air was thick with humidity. I ran about as slowly as I could, hoping to feel good throughout. It actually ended up feeling the best of all my runs so far! Still not easy, but I didn't feel completely spent toward the end. I ran 1.10 miles at a 12:42/mi pace and average heart rate of 153.

When I look back at my first run, my average heart rate and max heart rate are both significantly lower than yesterday's, but I think that might be because the duration was so short. It was only five minutes to start, so my heart rate didn't have much time to build up. Once I reach my three-mile goal, I'd like to work on lowering my average heart rate. Ideally, I'll be able to run at my MAF rate of 136 bpm; at my MAF rate was when I didn't dread running because it felt so easy. I would love to feel like that again.  

Anyway, as you can see, I've added a little to each run and four weeks later, I'm up to 1.10 miles. If I continue at about this rate, I should be able to start three-milers in October--the best time of year to run!

This was the last week of Jerry's and my beans and greens experiment. Since we started this for health reasons, the purpose of the beans and greens was to get a lot of fiber via whole foods--and beans and greens are basically the perfect whole-food high-fiber meal. I'll write more about this in a separate post. I made a big variety of versions of beans and greens, so I'll post photos and recipes/links with all that. Now the problem is that I have to figure out what recipe each photo was for! I should have written it all down.

I wish I'd thought of this beans and greens thing earlier, because holy cow--the weight is dropping off quickly.

I was down 3.2 pounds this week. In the last four weeks, I've lost 14.6 pounds--I'm more than stunned!  These are the factors that have been working for me:

*I'm vegan for the animals, but a vegan diet is probably the only reason I didn't get back up to 250+ pounds over the last couple of years. (There are a lot of vegan junk foods, however, so it's easy to gain weight, vegan or not.)

*I quit eating sweets several months ago. My sweets-eating was getting out of control, so I made a bet with a friend where I would lose quite a bit of money if I ate sweets before the end of August. It was rough at first--it actually took much longer than I thought it would to get rid of the cravings--but now I have zero cravings at all for sweets. I literally don't even think about them (and believe me, that is CRAZY TALK). I mean, my blog is Runs for *Cookies*! Even after this bet is over, I don't want to eat even a single cookie, because I'm like an addict and I just lose all control when attempting moderation.

*Eating a ton of (natural) fiber. Whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruit. (That literally looks like a line from the health food books I love to hate.) In the beans and greens post, I'll write a little more about the specifics; my breakfast plays a big role in my fiber intake. My diet sounds extremely boring, I know; but my spice collection is huge and just by changing out spices, the same meal can taste completely different. My diet is far from boring (in my eyes, anyway).

*Not snacking. This wasn't a "rule" I made; I just naturally fell into it when I quit eating sweets and started eating very filling meals. The fiber makes a big difference--it's impossible to eat a high fiber meal very quickly, so meals are longer and more filling. I eat dinner at about 5:00-ish, and I'm not hungry again all evening (I go to bed at 9:00). Most of the time, I don't eat lunch; but if I'm hungry, I'll eat something (usually a small portion of dinner leftovers). 

*Cutting way back on salt. I've never had high blood pressure, so I never paid much attention to sodium intake. Since I've been eating only whole foods this month, however, my sodium intake was cut drastically. I also scaled back on how much salt I cook with. I've noticed that my weight doesn't fluctuate much at all day-to-day and I think the sodium plays a big part. I used to swing 3-4 pounds overnight sometimes, depending on my dinner!

That's all I can think of right now. Overall, I think the switch to whole foods has had the most impact on my weight this month. My body feels *so* much better, too, and it's only been four weeks!

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 3

It's hard to believe it's only been a week since my last post, because this has felt like the longest week ever. Usually time goes by unbelievably fast!

Posting these Wednesday Weigh-Ins again has been so helpful in getting back on track with my diet and exercise. Getting started was the hardest part, but now that I feel like I'm in a good groove, I feel pretty determined to see it through. And the fact that I saw such good progress in the first couple of weeks was motivating, too.

Running is still HARD. Of course, I don't expect that it'll feel like it did back when I was running regularly and/or training for races. But I just hope it starts to feel easier as I continue to build mileage, because wow, am I out of shape.

This week:

Wednesday- I think I wrote about this last week. Ran 0.80 miles, 12:46/mi pace, average heart rate of 150 bpm.

Friday/Saturday- When I woke up on Friday morning, I let Joey outside and when I opened the door, I smelled smoke really strongly. I thought maybe there was a fire in the neighborhood, but it was 3:00 in the morning and very quiet; I would have heard if there was something like that going on. Still, it was strong enough that I woke Jerry. He told me it was from the Canadian wildfires.

When the sun came up, the sky was so hazy looking. The visibility was terrible. I couldn't even see the trees at the other side of the marsh across the street, which only happens when it's *very* foggy outside. I looked at the weather app, and the air quality was piss-poor (and yes, the smoke was from the wildfires).

This is where the "old Katie" started to nag me. A few weeks ago, I told myself I would run on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; since "old Katie" had a habit of being very all-or-nothing, it would have felt like I somehow failed if I chose not to run on Friday due to the fires. But I could hear my therapist's voice in my head telling me that I was only practicing self-care; running in such bad quality air would definitely not be taking care of myself.

Still, I was worried that I was subconsciously using it as an excuse to procrastinate or skip my run. Trying to let "old Katie" go, I ultimately decided that I'd skip the run Friday and try for Saturday; if the air was still terrible, I'd even put it off again. The hard part was simply the change in plans--I thrive on routine--but this is an obstacle that I've needed to work on for a long time. A change in plans doesn't have to offset my goals.

It rained Friday night, which helped clear the smoke quite a bit; on Saturday morning, it was much better. I headed out before I could change my mind, aiming for anything more than 0.80 miles (my previous run). It felt hard, like all of the runs have felt so far, but maybe slightly less hard than before. I ran 0.85 miles with a 12:43/mi pace, average heart rate of 155 bpm. This is interesting, because my previous run's heart rate was 150 bpm and I felt HORRIBLE, but at 155 bpm for this one, I felt (slightly) better.

Tuesday- (I'll explain below why I didn't run Monday) I set out to run anything more than 0.85 miles. From the very beginning, my body felt heavy and I could have sworn I was running backwards by how slow it felt. Since I couldn't care less what my pace is, I just focused on trying to reach the distance. I truly thought I might have to stop midway, but after half a mile, I could "see" the finish line and that was enough to make me push on. I was going to stop at 0.86 miles, but I was practically in front of my house, so I just continued until hit 0.90.

Despite feeling terrible, I'd run 0.90 miles with a 12:34/mile pace and average heart rate of 154 bpm. Since I was deliberately going very slowly to try to avoid getting to the point where I can't breathe, I was really surprised to see my pace was faster. So maybe I am improving a little, just not in the way I hoped. (Like I said, I don't care about my pace as much as I do the distance and especially the *feeling*; I ultimately want to be able to run three miles and have it feel easy again.)

The reason I ran Tuesday instead of Monday was because Jerry and I spontaneously decided on Sunday morning to go for a bike ride at the Metropark (this led to sore hips and thighs). A spontaneous bike ride is *extremely* unusual for us. Ever since lockdown, we sort of got into the habit of being far less active in our free time. We've never been one of those couples that goes out kayaking, cycling, running, etc. every weekend (that would be great, but it's never been us).

In fact, I couldn't even remember the last time I rode my bike. Three years ago? Five? Jerry even got our bikes tuned up last summer and we never. took. them. out. So, when I was feeling kind of antsy on Sunday morning, I told Jerry that I felt like *doing* something--I didn't know what that meant, just that I had some energy to burn. He suggested going for a bike ride (probably not even being serious) but I actually thought that sounded like a good idea. And now that he has a truck, we're able to easily take our bikes somewhere to ride (we don't have sidewalks or bike paths near home, and it's pretty dangerous to ride on the roads).

We parked in the same place that Jessica and I used to park for our long runs when we were marathon training. One direction of the path leads into the Metropark, and round-trip is 10 miles (I'm surprised I remembered that, considering I haven't done a long run in probably seven or eight years).

It wasn't too hot or sunny, which is why I ended up really enjoying it (if it had been sunny, I probably wouldn't have gone). There were a lot of people out walking, biking, fishing... it was rarely busy when I used to run that route, so it was nice to see people out being active. And it was inspiring to me to make me want to be more active, "just for fun".

We took our time and chatted the whole way, and we really enjoyed it. We stopped for a picture on the bridge where we'd had our first kiss back in 1999!

Remember that time I went for a long bike ride with my helmet on backwards? Hahaha, Jerry never lets me forget it.

We both said we should go again next weekend; the whole thing, including the drive, only took about two hours and it set a good mood for the rest of the day.

Anyway, I feel good about my activity for the week. I did all three runs, increasing the distance (just slightly) each time; and I did exercise when I didn't even *have* to ;)

As far as my diet... three weeks in, and I've still been making some variation of beans and greens for dinner. I usually cook every other day; I'll make four portions and we eat it two days in a row. It's so odd not having to feed kids! Of course they're welcome to eat what I cook, but beans and greens aren't exactly the most enticing for 20- and 22-year old boys.

If I were cooking for just myself, I would eat dahl literally every day, but I've been making a variety of things to keep it interesting. I've been taking pictures and at the end of the month, I'll do a post of all the variations I've made. I honestly think that the beans and greens are what is making my weight drop like it is. We haven't had any processed/convenience food (for a while, Jerry was obsessed with breakfast burritos--tofu scramble with potatoes, peppers, vegan cheese, and chopped vegan breakfast "sausage" on a tortilla--and we ate it way too frequently).

The beans and greens are so filling that I don't even have thoughts of snacking after dinner. The sodium reduction alone is probably responsible for the large drop in what I assume was water weight. After last week's large loss on the scale, I assumed this week would be negligible; but once again, I was pleasantly surprised to see the scale moving along in a downward direction.

I was at 159.6 last week, and this morning I weighed 157.4.

It feels SO good to see progress. My poor food choices over the last couple of years had been hanging over my head and just felt so heavy all the time. But I guess I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to change it. I want to keep this momentum and make some permanent (healthy) habits!

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 2

Mirror selfies are the worst--so awkward!

Believe me, nobody is more surprised than I am that I have kept up with this for two weeks, haha. Knowing that I had committed to posting here on Wednesdays has actually been really helpful, though--now I remember why I liked the accountability (and also hated it sometimes).

This week hasn't been eventful at all, so this is going to just be a quick recap and weigh-in.

Jerry and I have still been eating some form of beans and greens every day for dinner, and I really love it. I don't think my digestive system has EVER been this happy! To find recipes/ideas, I've basically just been choosing bean dishes and then adding greens whether the recipe says to or not. Dr. Greger's cookbooks, How Not to Die Cookbook and How Not to Diet Cookbook, have a lot of good recipes that include beans and greens, too.

I had a container of salad greens that I bought with the intention of having salad before dinner every day, but didn't end up doing that. Next time, I need to make my dressing before buying the greens--otherwise, I get lazy and don't feel like getting out the blender and all the ingredients to make dressing. I didn't want to waste the greens, though, and I wondered if I could incorporate them into the beans and greens. (This was a mesclun/spring mix, so it included some red and green leaf lettuce; and cooking lettuce seemed really weird to me.)

When I googled it, I was very surprised to see it's actually super common to add lettuce to soup and other hot dishes! I made creole beans and added several handfuls of the mesclun mix (chopped) while it was cooking. It all wilted just like any other green and I honestly wouldn't have known what the heck kind greens were in there. We ate it with red rice and it was delicious!

Of course, this morning I happened to read that there is a big outbreak of some parasite in fresh produce, causing cyclosporiasis (main symptom is explosive diarrhea, can last weeks). And guess which of the 34 states who are reporting cases has the highest number? Correct, it's Michigan. Particularly, my county and two bordering it. And the most likely source for it? Lettuce mixes. Naturally.

It can't be killed with the typical chemicals, bleach, vinegar, or from freezing, but cooking food to at least 158 F will kill it. So maybe being too lazy to make salad dressing saved my ass (literally) this time. Jerry and I are going to Eastern Market (a farmer's market) in Detroit this weekend, so I'll buy a bunch of greens there. Collard greens freeze really well.

There is also a Vegan Fest in Detroit on Saturday! Other than my friend Bonnie, who lives in West Virginia, I don't know any other vegans. I'm excited to go check it out and talk to some of the vendors, and not feel like "the weirdo" with crazy harebrained ideas, like choosing not to eat animals ;) If anyone else is planning to go, let me know and I'd love to say hello.

[I started this post by saying it would be short and to the point. Have I *ever* done that?!]

Anyways, my food has been great this week--tons of fiber, beans and greens for dinner, lots of water. No sweets or snacking after dinner. Eating a filling dinner has helped a ton in cutting out the snacking.

As far as my return to running...

It's been SO HARD. I've been doing what I planned (three days a week, only goal is to run farther than the time before, in order to build my endurance up to three miles again). I am still just so stunned at how hard running feels. I had forgotten what it's like to be a true beginner, and to say it's humbling is an understatement. It's also been super hot and humid over the last couple of weeks. I've been doing my runs in the morning, but it's still not very hospitable.

-Last Wednesday, I did 0.63 miles at 13:04/mi. Average heart rate of 148 bpm.

-Friday, I had a VERY hard time. I kept telling myself to just go slowly, I can reach 0.64 miles (just slightly more than Wednesday). I ended up doing 0.65 at 13:23/mi and had an average heart rate of 150 bpm. (The air felt thicker, so I think that had something to do with it feeling so hard.)

-Monday, I was totally dreading it. I'd had such a rough run on Friday that I didn't want a repeat. Thankfully, it ended up going much better than I expected. I even thought about doing a full mile, but then I realized that would mean I'd have to do more than a mile next time. I'd rather just do smaller increments until it feels easier. So I ran 0.75 miles at 13:00/mi with average heart rate of 153 (interesting that my heart rate was higher but I felt better).

-I ran early today, knowing how hot it's going to get, and once again, felt like I was going to die. I pushed hard to finish 0.80 miles at 12:46/mi and 150 bpm heart rate.

And finally, my weigh-in...

Last week, I was at 166.2, and I was 158.6 today--what the heck?! Believe me, I am shocked. I was unsure I should even post this, because it's very atypical; I must have been retaining some serious water weight or beans and greens are magical foods. I definitely notice a difference in my clothes, though, which is nice. I'm not expecting a big loss (if any) on the scale next week after a week like this, but right now I'm happy to see the 150's again!

[It's funny, I remember saying, probably several times over the years, that I "never wanted to see the 150's again". It hits a lot different on the way down than it does on the way up!]

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 1

Surprise! I actually stuck to my plan and I'm posting a Wednesday Weigh-In.

First, though, I want to apologize for last week's blog update email. I use a company called "follow. it" to take care of my rss feed--basically, whenever I publish a post, they send out an email saying that there is a new post on my blog. I even pay extra so that I can personalize the sender, subject line, and get rid of the ads (even if I left the ads on there, that money doesn't even go to me--so why would I do that?!).

Well, the site wasn't taking my payment a couple of months ago, so I decided to try again later--and I forgot. My payment defaulted and I didn't know it, but they reset the things I'd personalized back to their "free" plan (tacky ads, no subject, etc.). Meanwhile, I'd contacted their support so that I could make my payment (the site still wasn't accepting it), I made the payment and apparently everything was good to go. And then I was pissed when I saw the email that was sent out after my last post. You can't even really tell what it is! If I didn't know what follow.it was, I wouldn't have even opened it.

So anyway, I *hopefully* have it taken care of now. I guess I won't know until I publish this post. Moving on...

I honestly had absolutely no idea when or what my previous weigh-in was, but curiosity got the better of me and I looked it up. It was on May 15, 2024--I am stunned that so much time has passed since I stopped writing frequently.

Back then, my weight was at 145.4. Now I kind of wish I hadn't looked, because I hate seeing the effect the last couple of years has had on my weight.

A note about my shirt: I've been really into altering clothes lately--I started by just doing visible mending of some clothes with patches and embroidery to hide stains or tears, as well as covering logos with appliqué. Anyway, my therapist talks a lot about the importance of self-care and it started a routine that I've been doing for nearly a year now and I love it:

My therapist's office is right around the corner from a huge Salvation Army store, and after my sessions, I go pick out a "project piece" for the week. For the shirt in my weigh in photo, I saw the green hoodie and loved the color--but it had a Moosejaw logo across the front. With some inspiration from Pinterest, I gathered up scraps and made the "very hungry caterpillar" to get rid of the logo. I also embroidered "eat the rich" under the caterpillar to let out a little political frustration, haha.

Anyways, now I pick out a project piece each week after therapy and make something that either turns out cute or turns into a dust rag or more scraps for another project. But it's been a really fun routine that I look forward to every week. And then I usually wear my project piece to therapy the next week.

Here is another shirt I did. When I was in elementary school, we had a very fun custodian who all the kids really liked. He used to call me "Katydid" and I remember feeling special that he gave me a cool nickname (although I'm sure all the kids had nicknames).

Before I even get into my weigh-in today, I should mention a few things that may affect my weight loss/gain this time around. First, my age--I started having perimenopause symptoms about a year ago and from everything I've heard/read, it becomes *very* difficult to lose weight in the peri/menopause years. I keep hoping I'm the exception 😂 

I'm also not as active as I used to be. For several years, I was remodeling the house and garage, refinishing furniture, building things with wood, and it seemed like I always had some project that was very labor intensive. My favorite pastime right now is sewing/crafting, which requires a lot of sitting (I do keep my iron all the way across the room from my sewing machine so that I have to constantly walk back and forth, though--every little bit helps!)

Following my surgery, my thyroid (or the half that's left of it) has been doing the job so far of keeping up with my thyroid hormones. As long as that stays good, my thyroid shouldn't cause problems with my weight.

Anyways, about this week... I actually did pretty well. Jerry and I stuck with our plan of having some sort of beans and greens dinner every day. I've been taking pictures, so maybe at the end of the month I'll post the meals we've had. I've been trying to be creative so that it doesn't feel like eating the same thing all the time and it's surprisingly easy to adjust most meals to include a bean and a green. My digestive system seems so much happier now that I'm back to eating loads of fiber and mostly whole foods.

As far as running goes, I chose to go the way of a full beginner again (well, myself as a beginner). I've done four runs since my last post (first one was right after I posted), and my only goal for each run is to run a little farther than the previous run. Even if it's just a hundredth of a mile, I will eventually reach my goal of three miles.

Let me tell you, that first run was HUMBLING. It doesn't help that I picked the hottest/most humid day in the middle of a heat wave to start. For the first day, I decided to start by just going around the block and if I felt okay, try to go farther.

Well. I felt like I was going to die after the first lap around the block--0.41 miles--and I stopped there. It hasn't been *that* long since I ran around the block, but it felt ten times harder than before. And I wasn't even going fast--my pace was 13:01/mile. I don't know if the weather had anything to do with it, but it was already 80 degrees with full sun at 6:30 AM, and the air felt like a steam room.

Friday was run number two and since I know that running around two blocks is half a mile, I figured I'd do that. It was just as hot, and I was really not looking forward to feeling as miserable as the last one. However, because the distance is so short (relatively speaking), I told myself I'd be back home in less than 10 minutes, tops.

It definitely felt just as hard. Harder, even. I almost started walking as soon as I hit 0.42 miles, but I managed to push myself to finish. Total of 0.51 miles, pace was 12:42/mi.

Monday, it was 70 degrees and raining and I couldn't have been more thrilled. ANYTHING was better than the heat and humidity from the previous two runs. I was afraid to try adding another block to the distance, so I ran the same two blocks as before but added a short 0.02 by going just past my house. Total was 0.53, with a 12:49/mi pace.

Which brings me to today. The air was thick with humidity when I stepped outside to fill the squirrel feeder--and that was at 5:30 this morning. I was hoping that I was miraculously back in shape when I headed out to run and it would feel fantastic. Alas, that was not the case (shocking, I know). When I run a block going in a different direction, it's 0.63 miles total, so I chose to try that today. I figured that if it was too hard, I'd just try to make it to 0.54 miles and then walk the rest of the way.

Well, it was definitely hard, so I kept reminding myself to slow down. It's easy to pick up speed without realizing it and suddenly I'm struggling to breathe and I have to slow myself back down. Being this out of shape isn't fun at all.

Anyway, I gave it my all in order to finish out the whole 0.63 miles--I was only a couple of houses from home when, of course, Joey had to stop and poop. So I had to stop my watch for about 15 seconds while I picked up his poop and I could have used that as an excuse to just stop there, since I'd already gone farther than last time, but I started running again and finished it out. Ran 0.63 miles with a pace of 13:04/mi.

I'm going to consider my running this week a success. Even though it was extremely difficult for me, and I was very humbled, I did what I'd said I would--run a little farther each time--so I am happy with that.

And finally, my Wednesday Weigh-In. I didn't do an "official" weigh in for week 0, but I was at 168.8 last Wednesday, and today I was at 166.2. I don't really have any expectations for my weight because of the variables I mentioned earlier, so I'm good with this.

For this coming week, my plan is to just keep doing what I'm going. Lots of fiber, portion control, and building up my running fitness. I have to say, knowing that I was going to be posting this today was VERY helpful all week--the accountability factor is real. One week down, and now onto week two! 

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