Cookies' Summer Challenge 2021

It's only May 27th, but summer kind of begins for us tomorrow--it's Eli's last day of school! He normally would have to go for two more weeks, but the school said that any of the kids who are passing with good grades (he has all A's and B's) have the option to be out on May 28th. The kids that continue to go will be going simply to try to improve their grades enough to pass.

Anyway, summer "officially" starts on June 20th this year... and you know what that means. Cookies' Summer Challenge!

I've done this Summer Running/Walking Checklist since 2016. I tweaked it here and there over the past couple of years, but this year, I'm going to go back to the basic checklist. I want to keep it simple!

This challenge is for those of you who want to run or walk through the summer, but you aren't going to be training for anything big, and you're not sure you want to do a strict schedule. You may just want to loosely follow a plan in order to get you moving through the summer.

Most importantly, exercise should be FUN! Summer is all about fun, but I used to completely dread summer runs. Michigan gets very hot and sticky (the humidity is terrible here, despite what you may think about Michigan weather). And what is more fun than challenging yourself and sharing about it with others? ;)

The object of the challenge is to complete as many of the runs/walks on the checklist as you can. These are all items that just about anyone can do--whether you run or walk. You can go as fast or as slow as you'd like, because these workouts aren't based on speed or distance. They are just lists of things to make your walk or run a little more interesting!

To make things even more fun, I created a Facebook group just for people who want to give the challenge a try. In the group, you can post photos from your runs/walks, write about each experience, tell us about whether it was a good or bad run/walk, etc. Brag, complain, ask questions, whatever you'd like! But it's basically an accountability group for those of us who want to attempt to complete the challenge list this summer.

The challenge starts on June 20th and ends on September 22nd--from the start of summer (the solstice) to the end of summer (the fall equinox). I really hope that you'll join in and follow along with others who are doing it as well!

Here is a link to the (closed) Facebook group (note: You must answer the two questions when requesting to join--it helps to weed out spam accounts):

Runs for Cookies Summer Run/Walk Challenge 2021

I chose a closed group so that only other members can see what you share. You will have to request to join, so please be patient with me. I will approve you as long as you don't look like a spam account (also, please plan to participate in the group--even if it just means "liking" other peoples' posts--to keep it active).

As much as I try, I will not always be around in this group--which is why I need your help to keep it interesting. Share things with each other! Make friends! Once in a while I might do a giveaway or some sort of prize for people who are actively working on the challenge as well as posting in the group (last year, I gave away a Kindle Paperwhite). This is not meant to be super competitive, however--just fun.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the challenge checklists (you can click on the photo to view/print the PDF). They are essentially the same list, but the wording is different between runners and walkers:

          

Once you join the Facebook group (if you want to; obviously, you don't have to), then print out either your walking challenge or your running challenge sheet. Then, starting on June 20th, start working on each run/walk on the list in any order you choose.

There are a few that have to be done on certain days... there is one that has to be done ON June 20th, because it's the summer solstice--the first day of summer. Summer officially starts at 11:52 PM ET, so if you run between 11:51 PM and 11:53 PM, you will have run from spring to summer! . (This is explained on the challenge sheet.)

Like I said, do them in any order you'd like. And then if you're in the Facebook group, it would be great if you posted pictures of your completed runs! The only rule is that you cannot count multiple items for a single run--each item must be completed in its own run/walk. For everything else, if you're not sure what "counts", just use your best judgment. Nobody is going to police the challenge ;)

Okay, and there you have it! I hope you are as excited as I am to knock some things off this list this summer :)  (Every year, I say I am going to complete the entire list, and I've yet to even finish 75% of it! So maybe this will be my year.)

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Summary of How I Did With My Cookies Summer Run/Walk Challenge

This year marked the fourth annual Cookies Summer Run/Walk Challenge--a checklist of 56 items to work on completing throughout the summer. The challenge start on the summer solstice and ends on the fall equinox. 

Each year, I say I am going to do ALL of the checklist. I start out strong and then just forget about it a month in. I've always done the running challenge (it's the same either way; but I always chose to run instead of walk).

This year, I chose to walk, and I think that is what helped me the most. I didn't complete the entire checklist, but I'm super impressed with how many of the walks I *did* check off! Here is my list:

Aqua Jog  - Walk/jog in a pool or lake (or any body of water you choose)

✔ Beach Walk  - Find some place that you can walk along a body of water

✔ Bridge Walk - Walk over a bridge of some sort

✔ Early Bird Walk - Start your walk before 6:00 AM

✔ Even Split Walk - Walk 3+ miles with mile splits of less than 5 seconds difference (I couldn't do this again if I tried! Look at how close these splits are)

✔ Evening Walk - Start your walk between 5 PM and 7 PM

✔ Explorer Walk - Walk in a city you’ve never walked in before

✔ Fartlek Walk - Vary the speed of your walk by “walking very fast to the mailbox”, “strolling to the tree”, “walking hard until you see a red car”, etc. Make it up as you go along—it should be spontaneous and fun.

Forrest Gump Walk - Walk without a predetermined distance—just walk until you feel like stopping. Arrange ahead of time for a family member or friend to pick you up when you’re done.

✔ Generous Walk - Leave a few quarters in random places on your walk for others to find (it’s always fun to find a quarter!)

Heads or Tails Walk - Flip a coin every 2 minutes during the walk. If it’s heads, walk fast; if it’s tails, walk slow.

Hilly Walk - Find a hill, and walk quickly up then walk down 6-10 times

Multi-City Walk - Map out and walk a route that takes place in two cities

Night Owl Walk - Finish your walk after 10:00 PM

✔ Opposite Walk - Walk your favorite circular route in the opposite direction

✔ Park Walk - Go for a walk in a park

✔ Penny Pincher Walk - Find a penny (or other coin) on the ground while you’re walking (I find at least a penny on almost every walk I do!)

✔ Photogenic Walk - Stop and take 4 scenic photos during your walk

✔ Podcast Walk - Download a new podcast and listen to it while you walk

✔ Progression Walk - Walk 3+ miles with each mile faster than the previous

✔ Race - Enter a race (any distance) and walk it (official virtual races count)

✔ Rainy Walk - Go for a walk in the rain

✔ Rover Walk - Go for a walk with a dog (if you don’t have one, call a local animal shelter and ask if you can take one for a walk)

✔ Walk in the Dark - Go for walk when it’s dark outside (wear reflective gear and a headlamp for safety)

✔ Fast Walk/Stroll - Do 50/50 intervals of walking very fast and strolling

✔ Lunch Walk - Start your walk between 12 PM & 2 PM

✔ Runventure - Map a route that you’ve never done before, and walk it

Scavenger Hunt Walk - Create a list of 8 items you must search for on your walk; then take a photo of each to document your findings.

✔ Scenic Walk - Choose a pretty place to walk, and walk slowly enough to really pay attention to all the views

✔ Selfie Walk - Take a mid-walk selfie (carefully, so you don’t trip!)

✔ Silent Walk - Walk without headphones or a speaker of any kind

✔ Stone Age Walk - Walk without any sort of technology (not even a watch!)

✔ Sunrise Walk - Start your walk before sunrise, and end it after

✔ Sunset Walk - Start your walk before sunset, and end it after

✔ Tempo Walk - Walk slightly faster than your easy pace—it should feel uncomfortable, but not miserable

Track Walk - Walk on a local track (indoor or outdoor)

✔ Trail Walk - Walk on an unpaved nature trail

✔ Treadmill Walk - It doesn’t have to be boring! Hop on the treadmill and vary the speed and incline for an interesting indoor walk.

✔ Zoo Walk - See if you can spot five different types of animal species on your walk

✔ **Solstice Walk - Start your walk in spring, and end it in summer (June 20, at 5:43 PM ET, marks the beginning of summer)

✔ **Creative Ice Cream Flavors Walk - Walk for ice cream on Creative Ice Cream Day (Wednesday, July 1). Share a picture of your most creative ice cream concoction!

✔ **Independence Walk - Walk 4 miles on the 4th of July, wearing red, white, and blue.

✔ **Buck Full Moon Walk - Walk on the night of the Buck full moon, which takes place on July 5 at 12:44 AM (ET). If the moon is visible, it counts! (Despite the time)

✔ **Chocolate Walk - Go for a walk on World Chocolate Day (Tuesday, July 7) and enjoy something chocolatey later to celebrate

**Embrace Your Geekness Walk - Wear your nerdiest outfit for your walk on Embrace Your Geekness Day (July 13)

**Emoji Walk - Describe your entire walk with nothing but emojis for World Emoji Day (July 17)

**Friendship Walk - Go for a walk “with a friend” on International Day of Friendship. If we are still practicing social distancing, give a running friend a phone call after you each walk and discuss how it went. (July 30)

**Watermelon Walk - Eat some juicy watermelon to refresh after your walk on National Watermelon Day, Aug. 3

✔ **RUN FOR COOKIES! - Celebrate with a yummy chocolate chip cookie on National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, Aug. 4

✔ **Beer Walk - Go for a walk on International Beer Day (Friday, Aug. 7) and finish with a cold beer; Or for an alcohol-free option, walk for a root beer!

✔ **Corn Full Moon Walk - Walk on the night of the Corn Moon on Sept. 2 at 1:22 AM. (If the moon is visible, it counts—despite the time!)

✔ **Book Walk - Listen to an audiobook on National Book Day during your walk on Sept. 6 

**Labor Day Walk - Put some serious “work” into this walk to celebrate Labor Day on Sept. 7

✔ **Rock Walk - Look for a pretty or unique rock during your walk on Collect Rocks Day (Sept 16)

**Appreciate a Friend Walk - After your walk, write a “real” letter (on paper!) and mail it to a friend for National Women’s Friendship Day on Sept. 20

**Fall Equinox Walk - End your summer by running into fall at 9:30 AM (ET) on Sept. 22.

So, as of today, I've checked off 41 out of 55! The final walk (#56) will be on Tuesday. That walk will count as the final walk for the summer challenge AND the first walk of the fall challenge!

Even though I didn't do all of the walks on the summer list, I'm pretty impressed with myself for what I did do. 

And I'm very excited to get started on the (three!) fall challenges! You can check out the details on this post--for the mileage challenge, you must sign up before tomorrow at 11:59 PM ET. I hope you'll join in!

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Ideas for Cookies Fall Challenge...?

I think I have the plan for my Cookies Fall Challenge. I have a few ideas, but here is what I've come up with so far:

1) A checklist of items to complete in a run or walk, very similar to the Cookies Summer Challenge.

2) I will form teams of people to accumulate mileage and compete with other teams. Sign up for a team, and I will make the teams as fair as possible, and then log your miles. It will be a competition to see which team logs the most miles.

3) A "Fall Hard" challenge--very similar to "75 Hard"--where I will have "rules" (a little more flexible than the 75 Hard rules) to follow through the end of fall. I've already thought up the rules for this, and here they are (like I said, they are VERY similar to 75 Hard):

*Follow a diet of your choice--write out your "rules" prior to starting the challenge. You cannot change them midway through, so make sure you choose rules that are challenging but not so hard that you will quit.

*Exercise 60 minutes a day, with a minimum of 30 minutes outside. You can split the workout into two workouts maximum or just do it all in one go. They can be very tough workouts or very easy--your choice--and you can decide these on a day to day basis. You cannot add up steps throughout the day to count them as a workout--the workout needs to be deliberate and done in one or two goes each day.

*Drink 64 ounces of water a day. You can add a squeeze of lemon or lime, but coffee, tea, flavored waters, etc, don't count. 

*Read 10 pages of a book (any book you'd like) every day.

*Write in a journal once a day--even if it is just one sentence. I love my "Some Lines a Day" journal! (affiliate link)

*Take a progress photo once a day--a mirror selfie, or ask someone else to take one for you. Preferably a full-length photo. You don't have to share these with anyone; they are just for you.

Does anyone have strong opinions on the challenge ideas? I wanted to do something different than the summer challenge, but when I asked on the Facebook group, there were several people who really liked the checklist. 

I also wasn't sure if I should keep it to just exercise (running/walking) or to expand on that and make it more about self-discipline (the "Fall Hard" challenge).

Anyway, I plan on doing something like the "Fall Hard" challenge for myself. I've really liked doing 75 Hard, even though I eventually modified my rules a bit after learning that I wasn't doing them 100% correctly.

I wish I hadn't looked into the podcasts to see which was "correct" and which was "incorrect" as far as the stupid rules go. I was so confident for weeks while doing 75 Hard until I learned I might not be doing it correctly, and then I didn't worry so much about whether I was "right" or "wrong". 

This week didn't go nearly as well as I'd hoped. I can't even describe how stressed out I was. With the kids starting school (and nothing going as planned) and all of the stuff on my "to do" list, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. I even had a few panic attacks this week, which hasn't happened in a LONG time. 

My weight hasn't gone up, but I don't see a difference in my comparison photos, so it's a bit discouraging. 

I haven't really solved anything that I was stressed out about (except that I got my printer working this morning!)  but I am sure I'll figure it out. I was talking to Jerry and I think I might even order a couple of nightstands on Amazon instead of building them myself. I would love to build them, but lumber is VERY short right now and it's hard to find what I need. It would be one less thing to worry about.

If you plan on joining in on Cookies Fall Challenge, please let me know what sounds best to you! I plan on posting the "rules"/sign-up sheet next week. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! 

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Overwhelmed - Just One of Those Days

I don't have a photo for today's post, so here is a funny one of Joey, Chick, and Duck!

As expected, I am extremely sore today! All the pulling out bushes and weeds and plants from the landscaping has my upper body feeling like I was hit by a truck. Even my hips hurt this morning when I went for walk.

Today hasn't been a good day (mentally). I feel drained and still so overwhelmed. The kids' schooling is at the top of the stress list, but I am also worried about getting the porch done before the weather gets too cold. A lot of stores are sold out of the lumber I need, and even if I DO find it, I don't have a way to get it home. This is when I really wish we had a truck.

I'd also promised Noah that as soon as the garage was ready, we would build his corner desk. Again, I don't have a way to get the supplies home from the store.

Like I wrote yesterday, the landscaping is a mess. I have to thoroughly rake through all of it, getting out all of the roots, rocks, mulch, etc, as well as kill all of the grass, in order to get it prepared for new plants. 

This all sounds so silly if you look at it individually, but each item on my "to-do" list adds up and I get so overwhelmed that I don't even know where to start. I know I need to focus on one thing at a time, but it's nearly impossible with the amount of things that need to be done in a timely manner (like the kids' school work and the porch).

On top of this, I want to refinance our car. Since COVID, the interest rates have gone WAY down, so I want to refinance as soon as possible. I've never done anything like this before, so I'm not sure what I'm doing, but the savings will be totally worth it.

This morning, I had a bit of a breakdown. I had all of the porch and desk plans typed up and ready to print on my computer, along with a list of supplies that I'd need to buy. When I clicked on "print", nothing happened. My printer kept showing errors and I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what was wrong. I've tried everything! 

After an hour of messing around with it, I just started crying out of frustration. The kids need the printer for school, and I do a lot of printing myself. I did all of the troubleshooting tips and I still can't get it to work.

Despite getting upset today, I managed not to turn to food to escape reality for a moment. My walks have actually been a nice respite to break up my day. 

(I honestly don't mean for this post to sound whiny. I was feeling so stress-free for a while and then all of these seemed to happen at once and I feel so much pressure to get it all done.)

Speaking of walks, I've been trying to come up with a Cookies Fall Challenge (like the Cookies Summer Challenge) and was wondering if anyone has ideas. I could do another checklist, but I think doing a mileage/distance challenge might be fun. Just something to keep us motivated to walk or run through the season. 

I'm thinking of splitting people into teams of about 10-12 people and having them combine their mileage (competing against the other teams). This way, if someone doesn't want to do their walking or running, they would be letting their team down in a way. Nobody wants that, so I think that would be a good push to keep going.

Or another idea would be to combine the mileage to "travel" from one place to another--say, New York City to Chicago--simply based on miles. It could be a race between teams. We could use a map to draw lines each week to see who is in the lead.

So anyway, those are just a couple of ideas. If any of you are interested and have input, please let me know. I really need to get it posted by next week, because fall is coming up so quickly!

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Landscaping Pains

I'm already anticipating how sore I'm going to be tomorrow. My whole body aches!

I woke up super early this morning (5:00), and I laid in bed with Duck for a little bit (he still likes to drape himself across my neck). I read a little of my book, trying to kill some time before the kids had to get up for "virtual" school. Finally, I decided that I was going to head out for my walk at around 6:00. It was still dark outside, though, and I hate walking/running in the dark!

It's one of the items on the Cookies Summer Challenge list, so I thought it would at least be a good opportunity to check that off the list. I dressed in my reflective vest and my headlamp, and headed out for a dark walk with Joey.

It felt SO nice outside--the temp was in the 50's! I still wasn't thrilled about walking in the dark (a lot of people let their dogs wander, and I'm always afraid of coming upon one of them). Joey and I walked my favorite route, and it was nice to be done just as the kids were getting up for school. 

Once the kids were started with school, I started writing up plans to build a desk for Noah. He wants a corner desk for his bedroom, and I told him we'd make one together once the garage was finished. I went in his room to take measurements, and then I realized that his current desk would be good inspiration for the nightstands I wanted to make for Jerry and me. 

I can tell that his desk is handmade (my mom bought it at a garage sale) and I really like the way the drawers were done. I figured I could make just the side with drawers, modifying the size and drawer sizes, and turn it into a nightstand. Then I spent way too much time measuring and planning out the nightstands as well as Noah's corner desk.

I'd like to make it shorter (and not as deep) and have all three drawers be the same size. 

I'd planned to go to Lowe's to pick up supplies for the porch and Noah's desk, but before I did that, I wanted to start tearing out the landscaping so that I can be sure about the porch plans.

This is why tomorrow I'm going to feel like I got hit by a bus. I spent the next few hours removing all of the landscaping... I took out a bush and a few hostas. Then I searched for and removed all of the roots from the three huge bushes/tree things that we'd removed. This is what it looked like a couple of months ago when Jerry removed the enormous bush thing...

He removed the stump, but none of the roots! There were two other bushes just like that one (only one of them was round and only about three feet tall), but I don't have a photo with it in the picture). That's the one I removed today.

Right now, it looks terrible because I'm not done yet. I wanted to start completely fresh with the landscaping--so I tore out everything. We are going to kill the grass as well, and then have the landscaping go right to the sidewalk. 

I also removed the railings from the porch. It already looks better without the railings, which were totally falling apart! But we need to replace all of the deck boards because they are curled and warped. The porch is 17 years old and was built very cheaply, so it definitely needs to be redone.

The problem is that the lumber for decking is extremely hard to find right now! I'm going to keep looking, and I desperately hope we can find what we need before it gets too cold.

Removing the roots from the bushes was the hardest work for sure. The bushes had been there since we moved in here in 2003, so they were REALLY long. I was very proud when I pulled them all out, though. It's so satisfying to pull a root and have it go 10 feet across the landscaping, haha.

And Jerry was thrilled, because he hurt his back at work and he was dreading having to remove the bush and hostas today. Next, we have to kill all the grass, weeds, and literally everything where the landscaping goes. And then start fresh!

In addition to my two 45-minute walks today, I actually went for a third walk (only about 15 minutes)... I was feeling irritated this evening, and rather than go looking for something to eat to take my mind off of it, I went out for a short walk. It wasn't intense or anything, but it was nice to get out of the house for 15 minutes. I'd like to keep that in mind for the future! It sounds so easy, but when I'm in "a mood", it's hard to remember ;)

Jerry is off work tonight, so we're going to play Codeword Duet! Have a good night :)

(By the way, if you haven't seen The Social Dilemma on Netflix, go watch it right now! I'll try to write about it soon. Just trust me, it's worth watching.)

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My Walking Stats: Notables of Exercising Twice a Day

I am SO glad to see that I'm not the only parent struggling so hard with the distance learning for my kids' school! Thank you so much for commenting and sharing your struggles with it, too. I was feeling SUPER overwhelmed yesterday and really disappointed in how things are going. (Eli was marked "truant" from two classes today--I was there when he signed in!) Like I said, I hope that they are just working out the kinks now and things will get better in the next week or two.

While I was walking today, I was thinking about how familiar all the routes are around my house (there are only so many streets to walk). And it got me thinking about my walking stats, or just interesting things about my walks (things I've seen, money I've found, etc.) So I decided to write a post on it!

I started 75 Hard on July 20th, so I'm halfway through Week 8--I'm on Day 53. Here are some notables from the last 53 days of walking 45 minutes twice a day, every single day. I haven't missed a single workout! (I've done a few bike rides in lieu of the walking, but for this post, I'm just focusing on the walking.

Numerical Stats:

• Earliest walk: 5:03 AM (this was on the treadmill right before we left for a 10-hour drive up north)
• Latest walk: 7:23 PM (again, on the treadmill--likely, I was procrastinating)
• Longest distance walk: 3.66 miles (this was a walk/jog on the treadmill; my longest of simply walking was 3.34 outdoors)
• Shortest distance walk: 2.22 miles 
• Longest duration walk: 1:08:17 (3.34 miles)
• Shortest duration walk: 45:02 (2.57 miles)
• Highest average heart rate: 146 bpm (this was during my fastest walk)
• Fastest average pace: 14:17/mile
• Fastest mile: 13:55
• Slowest average pace: 20:37/mile
• Slowest mile: 20:56
• Average number of miles a day: 5.3 miles
• Average number of minutes a day: 94:02
• Total number of miles walked: 261.93 miles
• Total duration walked: 3 days, 5 hours, 35 minutes!

One of my favorite parts about going for walks is finding money. I pick up every coin that I see--it's like a treasure hunt! Since July 20th, I've found $3.25 while out walking. Whenever I find a coin, I tuck it under the shoulder strap of my sports bra, haha. 

The most I've found on a walk since I started 75 Hard is $0.63 cents. It was kind of funny... I was walking along and saw a bright shiny quarter in the middle of the road. Score! I love finding quarters. Then a street over, I saw another shiny quarter in the middle of the road. This actually made me wonder if perhaps somebody who lives nearby is doing my Cookies Summer Challenge and left quarters out for someone to find. Hmmmm?

I've seen lots of animals: the usual cats, dogs, rabbits, squirrels, etc. I've seen groundhogs, muskrats, deer, bald eagles, hawks, cranes, and other birds, snakes, turtles, frogs, geese, ducks, and even a black bear (the bear was up north). And the most unusual to me--something I've never seen up close in the wild--a bat! Unfortunately, it was dead in the middle of the road. While it may be gruesome, I took a photo of it because I found it so interesting.

I've been rotating through shoes--up to four pairs at one point! (Clockwise from top left):

Saucony Triumph 4.0 (newest)

Brooks Ghost 9 (second oldest)

Saucony Triumph 2.0 (oldest but with very few miles)

Altra Escalante (second newest)

I'd been wearing the Ghosts model for YEARS, but when I stopped running and was wearing Converse Chuck's all the time, I thought I'd better find a more neutral shoe with less support when I started to walk. I bought the Altra's, but those are zero-drop (which is a big change from the Ghosts) and I started alternating them with the Saucony Triumph 2.0 shoes that I got in 2016 and rarely wore.

I discovered the Triumph's were super comfy and minimized my ankle pain, so I looked online for more. I couldn't find the 2.0 version ANYWHERE in my size (10), so I bought the 4.0's on eBay (new in box). They are very cushiony, but I don't like them as much as the 2.0 version, which is a bummer. They are tighter on my heels and if I don't rotate shoes, they give me blisters.

I've worn out my Ghosts, pretty much, and will probably need to drop those soon. The Triumph 2.0's are toast--the bottoms have gotten totally worn out. So now I'm down to the Altra's and the Triumph 4.0's. And those have quite a few miles on each of them already. I didn't realize how quickly the miles would add up as I started walking.

Finally, here is a very long calendar with all of my walks (and a few bike rides) on it. I didn't include the bike rides in the totals.

It's fun to see all of this in one place. Especially looking at all the workouts on the calendar like that!

And no, I'm not done. I'm going to continue for a total of 90 days, so I'm more than halfway done now.

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75 Hard: Week 4 Recap (with progress photos)

Four weeks in! This is the longest I've stuck with anything I've set my mind to doing in a very long time. Other than writing a blog post every day (my new year's resolution), I am constantly making goals and then giving up on them after a few days at most. The fact that I'm on Day 29 of 75 is pretty miraculous!

Thank you for the kind comments on yesterday's post. Posting the anniversary photos was SO hard for me because I was so unhappy with how I looked. It did, however, give me the courage to finally post some of my 75 Hard "progress photos" today.

Nothing notable happened this week, so the recap isn't much different than usual.. but here goes:

Drink one gallon of water every day.

For some reason, I had a hard time with this one this week. I think it's because I've gone back to chewing ice throughout the day (I always prefer to chew ice over drinking water). When I first started 75 Hard, I made a rule for myself that I wouldn't chew ice until after I drank my full gallon of water every day. So, this week I'm going back to that rule.

Take a progress photo every day.

I'm still taking a mirror selfie every day. I'm so glad that I've been doing this, because I didn't see any progress on the scale for the first two weeks. However, I could see a big difference in my photos--a lot of people who do intermittent fasting will tell you that it took a while to start losing weight, but that they lost clothing sizes and inches as their body composition changed. I think that's what happened with me.

I have been dreading posting these pictures because they are incredibly unflattering and my "before" picture reminds me of my 253-pound "before" picture! I know that I'm nowhere near that weight, but I feel like I look that size in my Day 1 photo. Anyway, here are a few different comparisons...

First, here is a comparison from Day 1 to today (Day 29):

This comparison below is probably the most surprising to me. My weight was only down two pounds, but I can see a big difference in how my clothes fit:

In these pictures, I'm wearing the same shirt on Days 1, 6, and 24:

And again, same shirt below... only a two-pound difference!

So, while there aren't huge changes, I'm happy with the progress so far. (I'm also very happy to see that my hair is growing out! I miss my messy bun.) I'm really surprised at what a difference the intermittent fasting makes in changing my body composition. In the past, when I'd start a "diet"--counting calories, counting points, etc.--I would typically drop 6-8 pounds the first week. Water weight, of course, but it was still exciting to see such a big drop on the scale.

With intermittent fasting, however, my weight didn't BUDGE for two full weeks. But you can see from the photos that my body was changing. I'm so glad that 75 Hard has a mandatory "progress photo" every day.

Diet of choice + no alcohol.

Intermittent fasting gets easier and easier as I go. I don't really get hungry at all during the day, and I still don't feel ravenous when it is time to eat. I definitely eat a large meal when I break my fast, but I don't stuff myself in fear that I'm going to be hungry later. 

Breaking my fast anywhere between 3:00-5:00 is the norm lately, depending on what I'm doing. The only difficult part of the day for me is if I'm bored at night. I know that I'm not truly hungry; I just want to eat. So, I try to stay as busy as I can. I'm still working on trying to go to bed early, and it's getting better, but still not ideal.

Read 10 pages of a non-fiction/self-improvement type book.

I'm still reading David Goggins' book 'Can't Hurt Me'. Because I'm such a slow reader, I only read the minimum 10 pages per day. But I really absorb the words and I highlight things that speak to me. It's a fantastic book! I'd been bugging Jerry to read it for a long time, and he finally started it last week. He's glad he did, because he really likes it, too.

Work out 45 minutes twice a day (one must be outside).

Out of all the parts to doing 75 Hard, this one surprises me the most about how I've integrated it into my life and it doesn't feel like a "chore" (most of the time). I've really started enjoying my walks, especially in the morning. I discovered a route that is a pretty perfect 45 minutes long, and I've been doing that route daily. I know the scenery will get stale eventually, but right now, I've been seeing "regulars" out and about (people walking dogs, people on bikes, etc). 

One person I haven't seen in a very long time is Floyd. He was an elderly man that I would see walking every single morning--sunshine, rain, snow, ice, whatever--he was out there walking. We always exchanged a friendly "Good morning!" and then one time he asked me if I was training for something (back when I was marathon training). 

One day, I was running and saw him on his walk--I stopped and and asked him if I could walk with him and get to know him a little. So we chatted for a little bit. I learned his name, that he was divorced and lived alone, he was in his 80's, and that he walked every single day to stay healthy (I think he said five miles a day, but I could be wrong). Anyway, he was super nice! 

I haven't seen him at all lately, so I really hope that nothing happened to him. If I knew where he lived, I'd go check in!

Anyway, here are this week's stats for my two workouts a day:

I'm pretty happy with how Week 4 went, and I'm hoping that Week 5 will go well! :)

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Saturday Night Tidbits

I've gotten to the point during this 75 Hard challenge where I completely lose track of, well, everything. I've been doing great staying on the challenge--it definitely feels like habit now--but I feel like I'm so absorbed in all of my tasks that it's taking over all my time (not in a bad way).

I can't remember a lot of what I was going to write about, so I decided to go through the camera roll on my phone and see if I can find pictures of things I'd planned to share and just didn't get around to doing so.

During one of my walks, I was going past the bar/restaurant that is a few blocks from my house, and I noticed a turtle in the middle of the parking lot. The lot is gravel and there are streets on three sides of it, so it was a very odd place to see a turtle. (This picture is from later on; the grass wasn't even near the parking lot he was in.)

I see a ton of turtles on my street because I live right across from the marsh; but this parking lot was three blocks away with no water or anything nearby. I had no idea how it got there--there is no way it could have walked all the way from the marsh to the bar without getting run over by a car. I'm betting some kids probably picked it up and then left it.

Anyway, I decided that if it was still there on my way back home, I'd pick it up and bring it to the marsh. The parking lot was empty because it was morning, so I wasn't worried it would get run over unless it tried to cross the street.

On my way back, it was still there, although it had walked toward the back of the bar. It was a snapping turtle, and even though it was on the small side, I had to be careful when picking it up--I've picked them up before and they don't hesitate to try and snap your fingers off!

When I picked him up, though, he just pulled his head into his shell and barely moved at all. I could see he was alive, but I wondered if he was super dehydrated from being in the sun with no water in sight. He just didn't look very good.

So, I walked him back to my house and I found him a spot on the other side of the dike. I set him down so that he was halfway in the water and I hoped that he'd be okay. He didn't come out of his shell when I set him down, though. (The next day, when I went for my walk, I looked to see if he was still there and he wasn't--so I'm assuming he was fine.)

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Noah turned 16 on July 13th, but wasn't able to get his driver's license because of COVID and the Secretary of State working only by appointments. The soonest appointment was in October! However, when we went up north to visit my sister, the SoS up there had an appointment the next day (that's how rural it is). So, Jerry took Noah to get his license.

I'd been telling Noah for years that he should start saving money for a car, because I said we would not be buying him one when he turned 16. He never listened to my advice until a few months before his 16th birthday, when he started asking family members if he could do some work for them. 

Well, he got really lucky. He'd saved up about $600, which was definitely not enough for a car. But my friend Adam, who just moved into a renovated van, didn't need his car anymore. So, he offered to sell it to Noah for $500. 

Now, this car is old. It's actually the same year of MY first car, which I got 22 years ago! Hahaha. It's a 1989 LeBaron--and it only had 49,000 miles on it! Noah was thrilled--he's like me in the sense that he prefers retro-style things and he loved the idea of having such an old car. He even learned what it means to "roll" down the window ;)

We put about $600 into it for new brakes and rotors and a couple of other things. My dad is an auto mechanic and he and Noah checked out the whole car and they are going to be working on replacing those parts together. It's a great skill for Noah to learn, so I'm happy about that. 

But Noah's lucky to have gotten his license and now he'll have a safe car to drive that will last as long as the motor and transition hold out--hopefully he'll get a few years out of it. I love this photo of him with his new wheels! Hahaha.

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I went for a bike ride with Renee a couple of days ago, and it was great to see her! I haven't seen her since before the COVID quarantine. We met up at the Metropark and rode about six miles to the neighborhood where I grew up, so I showed her my old house and all that, then we rode back--it was about 12 miles total. (Naturally, I forgot to start my Garmin until a quarter mile in.)

I still find it so interesting that my heart rate is much higher when riding my bike versus walking! I was at or above my MAF zone for over 50 minutes during the ride with Renee. I have to work really hard when I walk to even get to the lower end of my MAF zone--so I usually don't hit it. I'm not doing MAF training, but I still get curious about my heart rate)

(Zone 2 below is my MAF zone--it actually should be 132-142, so I'll have to fix that, but it's close enough).

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I happened to get a photo of this rare-as-a-unicorn moment... Phoebe taking a nap within a 20-meter radius of the kittens! 

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Usually, Duck wakes me up in the morning by sitting on my head or draping himself across my neck, so I was surprised a couple of days ago when I noticed it was actually Chick that came to cuddle with me while I was reading my book. Kitten cuddles in the morning are the best!

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Yesterday, my dad took me in his truck to Lowe's so that I could buy the materials to build a wall of shelves in the garage. There was no way I'd be able to get that stuff home without a truck--I had to get eight 2'x4'x12' boards, six 2'x4'x8' boards, and three 1/2"x4'x8' sheets of plywood, ripped in half. 

Today, I cleared the wall and started building. I should be able to finish them tomorrow or Monday. Once those are finished, I'll have so much more space to store things in the garage and everything will have a place. The four shelves will be 12 feet long and 2 feet deep. 

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I'm still going strong on 75 Hard! Tomorrow will be Day 28--four full weeks. It's also Jerry's and my 17th wedding anniversary! :)

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Two Great Workouts... and a Nap?!

I don't have any pictures for this post, so here is a picture I took of Joey and Chick. Little Chicklet loves Joey and just went and curled up with him for a nap. Joey always looks uncomfortable (like, "why is he lying here next to me?!" but he deals well with it).

And here is a cute picture of Duckling--I don't know how he sleeps like that! Estelle does that, too.

My body must have seriously wanted to catch up on sleep--after dinner today, I was sitting in the living room talking to Jerry before he went to work...

...and the next thing I knew, I was waking up two hours later!

I texted Jerry to ask what happened and he said that I just fell asleep and he didn't want to wake me. He also said that Noah took my car to go to his college class (he'd had one classroom session left before the COVID shutdown, and today he was able to take the final exam and--hopefully--pass the class. He's a smarty pants, so I'm sure he will pass.)

I am clearly getting old. I never used to take naps (EVER) but over the past few weeks, I've done it twice. Today was just so weird because I slept so deeply. I didn't hear Jerry leave, didn't hear Noah leave, I was totally out of it. 

I'm mostly bummed out that my eating window closed while I was sleeping, hahaha! I had a very filling dinner, though. Right now, I just feel groggy and even more tired than I was earlier. I hope I'm able to sleep tonight after taking such a long nap today.

I got to check off two new items from the Cookies Summer Challenge list today: the Silent Walk (no headphones/music/podcasts/etc) and the 50/50 Walk (alternating running (or fast walking) and slow walking).

During the Silent Walk, I decided to try to work more on leash training Joey. Reader Karissa, who is a dog trainer, suggested in a comment that Joey tends to call the shots on my walks which makes it less enjoyable when I'm walking for deliberate exercise. When I used to take Joey for runs, he knew that running meant business--we don't stop to smell pee on the roses, so to speak. And then after the run, I'd let him smell everything and pee all over the bushes and all that to reward him for being focused on our run.

Now, it's hard to get him used to walking for deliberate exercise versus fun walks. So, today I worked on keeping him close to my left side with a loose leash. Every so often, I'd tell him "Okay, go ahead!" and he'd pee on the fire hydrant or telephone pole or whatever. Then we'd get back to business. It worked out pretty well! If I'd been listening to a podcast or audiobook, it would be way too hard to constantly tell him to "heel". I must have said "Heel" and "Good boy!" and "Leave it!" at least 10,000 times. The "leave it" is for sniffing out dog poop or road kill or other gross things.

Anyway, Joey did really great today! We'll need to keep practicing so it'll hopefully become natural, but using the "Silent Walk" today was very helpful.

For my second workout, I got all ready to head outside for a walk, but then I remembered that I wanted to watch my show on the treadmill (Sweet Magnolias). So I did that instead. And to check off an item from my Summer Challenge list, I decided to do 50/50 intervals of running and walking. 

It's funny how choosing walking for exercise has given me a bit of motivation to throw a little running in here and there. Today, I set my watch timer for five minutes each--run five, walk five, run five, etc.

I did my walking at 3.0 mph and my running at 5.0 mph. At first, I wished I'd chosen to do 2-3 minute intervals instead of 5 minutes, but I think the 5 was good. Long enough to feel a little tough (considering I haven't been running in such a long time) and having the longer walking intervals was a nice breather in between.

For the final five minutes, I started on 5.1 mph, and then each minute, I bumped it up by 0.1 until at 44:30, when I bumped it up to 6.0 mph for 30 seconds. 

I felt so good about that workout! Even though my running is relatively slow, I don't care about the pace right now. Just the fact that I was running made me feel good. And the best part is, I'm still planning on walking being my main form of exercise. When I try to force myself to run, I resent it. When it's optional, I sometimes get the urge to do it.

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As I wrote yesterday's post, I was thinking about how much I miss doing the Transformational Tuesday posts! I wasn't getting any more submissions, so I stopped doing the posts, but I'd love to continue them if people would submit photos.

Basically, Transformation Tuesday is just a post of before and after photos of anything you'd like--a DIY project, a new haircut, a rescue pet, weight loss, etc. I LOVE before and after photos, so please consider submitting one! Here are the guidelines:

1) Email one "before" photo and one "after" photo, of anything you'd like, to: transformations (at) runsforcookies (dot) com.

Please keep the photos separate rather than collaging them, and refrain from using words, filters or Photoshop on the photos (I like to keep the photos on the post relatively uniform). If necessary, I may crop or resize the photos simply to fit uniformly into the post, but I will try to keep them as original as possible. Also, if there is someone in the photo, just make sure it's cool with them that I share it here.

2) You may include a link to your personal blog or social media page if you'd like (no business or promotional pages--this will be at my discretion). Please include the following:

-One or two sentence description of the transformation

-First Name; Location; A few words of who you are (i.e. "New DIY'er" or "Cat Lover", etc). If you want me to leave out name/location, just let me know.

3) I will post whenever I get enough submissions to do so--it could be one week or it could be several. But I will post them!

Thanks for sharing :)

(Here are the previous Transformation Tuesday posts for ideas)

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Tomorrow morning, I'm supposed to meet up with Renee for a bike ride. I'm looking forward to it--I haven't seen her since before all the COVID stuff began!

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The Most Awkward Walk Ever

I've been wanting to actively try to work on my Cookies Summer Challenge list now that I'm in the habit of walking twice a day. Yesterday, I had to get a couple of things from Lowe's for last finishes on the garage, so I decided to stop at the state park and do my walk there before heading to Lowe's. 

As far as the list goes, I chose to do the "scenic walk" where I go slowly, pay attention to my surroundings, and just truly enjoy nature--taking some scenic photos along the way. 

Speed was not an issue; I didn't even stop my watch when I stopped to take photos or anything like that. There is a random set of stairs that you can climb to get a good view from high up, I guess.

I even walked up there and decided to take a panoramic photo. I never take panoramic photos, but during the "scenic walk", I thought it'd be a good idea.

I held up my phone and balanced the little arrow on the white line to get the panoramic pic, and then I climbed down the stairs and continued walking. I stopped to look at the photo a little bit later, and I realized it wasn't panoramic. I had no idea what I did wrong! I stopped to test it out at another spot, and it turns out I never pressed the button to start the panoramic photo. *sigh*

I didn't want to go back to the lookout, so maybe I'll do it another time. It wasn't anything super special to see anyway, though. Here is the "test one"...

I continued to take some more photos along the way. I was walking a three-mile loop. The state park wasn't very busy--I came across about three people going on the opposite direction on the trail up to the halfway point. Whenever I run or walk there, I only see a few people on the path.

That arrow is pointing to a long that for the most fraction of a second, I thought was an alligator. BAHAHA. I watched WAY too many episodes of Billy the Exterminator and maybe Naked and Afraid. (I know there are no alligators here, but in my daydreaming mode, it startled me for a second).

So here is where the awkward part comes in...

...after about 1.75 miles, I saw a couple of women walking toward me. I was just about to say, "Good morning!" as we passed each other when they apparently decided that was their turn-around point. They were literally about 15 feet away from me when they turned around. And they happened to be walking the same pace I was (maybe a little slower, but I didn't want to rush ahead of them and then have them walking right behind me).

It was SO AWKWARD. For a little over a mile, they were just steps ahead of me. Why on earth would they have turned around when they did? Didn't that make them feel awkward knowing that I was practically right on their heels? I tried walking slower, but it just felt TOO slow (about a 22:00 minute mile). And I didn't want to stop and wait a while, because hey, it's my exercise time, too.

I had headphones on and was listening to my audiobook, but they were chatting--knowing I was right behind them. I even cleared my throat a couple of times to remind them that they may want to hold the private conversations for another time. 

Finally, I just gave up on my "serene" walk, and I started playing Best Fiends on my phone while I was walking! We were going slow enough and I was trying my best to fall back--but it seemed like the slower I went, the slower they went, too.

I've been running/walking regularly for 10 years now, and this is something I've never encountered. If I've ever been at my turn-around point and someone is there, then I just go farther before turning around to make sure there is some distance so that I'm not super close to them. If I had been running yesterday, it'd be no problem to just pass them and then get a good distance ahead. But they clearly saw that I was walking. 

It was just odd to me. 

But! I got to check off my scenic walk for the first couple of miles at least.

This morning, I did my sunrise walk. Duck woke me up at 5:45 by trying to fit his entire face into my nostril, and I was debating whether to get up or try to fall back asleep. I remembered that I still hadn't done my sunrise walk, so I checked what time sunrise was (I have an app on my phone that tells me the sunrise/sunset times). Sunrise was at 6:35, so to check this item off my list, I had to start my walk before 6:35 and end it after.

I got dressed and headed out at around 6:20. I wish I'd been able to get to the lake a little faster to take a picture right at 6:35, but I ended up getting there at 6:41. 

I made some serious progress on the garage today (hanging the rest of the trim, priming and painting the trim and door, and priming and painting some boards that I'm going to place where the flood vents are. I already made some screens on frames for each flood vent, so we can open them when it's hot outside and get even more airflow in there. It'll make more sense when I post pictures. I'm really hoping it'll all be completely done by next weekend!

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