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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