An Update on My Weight Loss and Exercise Efforts

I've been meaning to write this update for a at least a month, but things have been all over the place and I just haven't been sure what to write. Very few things have been going how I had hoped when I started my Cookies Fall Challenges.

First, my exercise... because that's easy to write about.

As I've been sort of mentioning here and there, I've been doing really great with my walk streak. Today was Day 145--I've walked 5+ miles a day for 145 days in a row! And all but a few of them (maybe four?) have been outside.

It's getting harder now that the weather is getting colder. I don't have many winter clothes that fit me (or any clothes at all, really--which I'll write about when I get to my weight). I didn't have a winter coat that fit me, either, but I started wearing one of Jerry's old ones from work. It's definitely too big, but I like that I can wear layers underneath it, there is a lot of pocket room, and it's water resistant). It's rained on several walks I've done, so the water resistance is nice!

Joey has turned into a totally different dog since we started walking. I take him with me every day and he LIVES for it. As soon as I wake up, he's in my face, wagging his tail, excited to go. When we first started walking, we come inside after the walk and he'd plop on the floor, panting, and stay there all day--exhausted.

Now, we get home and he doesn't even want to go in the house. He gets in that play bow position that dogs do, and I play along, so he tears circles around our entire house (outside), runs up and down the dike, and just generally goes nuts with even more energy. I have no idea where it comes from after walking five miles! But I love to see him so happy.

Speaking of which (I know I've written this before so I'll try to keep it brief) he has come to get super excited for the walks because he gets to see his dog friends (and just dogs in general). He knows all the houses where they live and looks excitedly as we walk by.

His "best friend" is Roomba, a black German Shepherd. When she's outside, we stop and I let him play while I chat with Roomba's "mom". When Roomba isn't outside, Joey is constantly straining on the leash toward her house--he wants to see her so badly!

I just bought a poster of yoga poses and stretches, which I plan to start doing after my walks. My chronic pain has gotten really bad and I feel like my muscles are tight all the time. I also get a lot of knots in my shoulders and upper back when I am stressed, and they are super painful. Jerry massages them, but I don't think it's enough. I'd like to go for a deep tissue massage, but sadly, I'm ashamed of my body and I'd be embarrassed. 

Yesterday, I tried using my TENS unit (it's a little device that has electrodes that you place on your skin--it delivers small electrical impulses that kind of tingle (or hurt if turned up too high!). Last night, Phoebs was on my lap while I zapped my shoulders for 20 minutes to help break up the knots and tightness.

Anyway, I hope that the stretching and strength training of the yoga poses will help loosen up my muscles and help relieve the pain. I've never been a fan of yoga, so we'll see ;)

So, exercise has been going well! I'm proud of my walking streak. I have no idea if it's making an impact on my health or body, but it's definitely helped me mentally (as best as it can).

As far as my weight loss goals...

I really wish that I had good things to say about this! When I was doing 75 Hard, I lost 13 pounds. I didn't mind the number so much as I was excited about the change in my body composition. You could see visible changes after just a single week (and no weight loss!). I know that it was from intermittent fasting.

I did great on 75 Hard for the first 34(?) days, and then I learned that I may not have been doing it correctly, and it was a struggle after that. 

My eating plan of choice was intermittent fasting, which was FANTASTIC for me. It helped me so much--not just as far as how much and what I eat, but to keep me from thinking about food all the time. I loved not having to worry about what to eat for breakfast, lunch, snacks... I planned a big dinner and a treat or after-dinner snack (I liked decaf coffee with cream and sugar along with something like zucchini bread). 

I loved loved loved the plan--I was eating on a 20:4 schedule (fasting for 20 hours and then having an eating window of 4 hours). It was hard to get into the habit at first--it took me about four days before I got to the point where I loved it.

One day, I ate outside my window, and then I did it again the next day. And then trying to get back to the schedule was SO HARD. I'm able to wait until 3-4:00 to eat, but then I have such a hard time stopping after four hours. I eat not because I'm hungry, but because the food is there and I use it for stress relief. This year (especially this fall) has been really stressful for so many reasons and it threw off my routine (as you know, I strive for routine). 

So as of right now, I'm not doing well with my diet. I'm not doing terrible, thankfully, but I gained back 8 of the 13 pounds I lost and I've been maintaining this for a couple of months. I would really like to get back to the intermittent fasting, because I felt so much better when I was doing it. Like I said, the first four days are the toughest--so I just have to make up my mind to do it. After that, it literally feels EASY. And I love seeing results so quickly (not the numbers, but feeling my clothes getting looser).

I quit taking a daily photo a while ago, considering I wasn't doing good with weight loss. It just seemed pointless to keep taking photos when I could feel my clothes getting tighter again. I'm wondering if it might help me to continue the photos and then I can see what's NOT working. Who knows, maybe it will just be depressing to see!

Here is a photo I took today. I got dressed out of my yoga pants and sweatshirt for the photo and then I changed right back into them, hahaha. Here, I am wearing my size 10 jeans (which are uncomfortably tight!) and my vanity-sized medium shirt. So I am likely a size 12/large right now. It's been more than 10 years since I was this size and it feels uncomfortable.

I'm NOT planning to "wait until the new year" to try to jump back on the wagon. I'm always trying! It wouldn't matter anyways--it's not like there are going to be holiday parties that are tempting me with food, etc. (I've never been big into holiday parties anyway, but with COVID, I imagine that nobody will be getting together.) Starting now is no different than starting in January.

I wrote a post a few years ago about "My Best Advice for Losing Weight in the New Year". Even though I'm far from my goal weight or just happy weight, I stand by the advice and I definitely need to follow it myself.

So, this is my update! I'm not complaining about how things are going, nor am I being negative about it. It just IS. These are the facts. To end on a positive note, I really am happy with myself for my walking streak--for me, that's a big accomplishment! Now if only I can get my eating on track... :)

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A "Regress" Photo (five pound gain)

Today is Day 115 of my walk streak. Ever since I got done with 75 Hard, I switched to walking five miles every morning (with Joey in tow). I'm pretty proud of myself for doing it! And I honestly don't dread it at all.

I wish I could say I was doing well on the weight loss front, but I have actually gained back five of the thirteen pounds I lost during the summer! Here is this week's "progress" picture (which is actually a "regress" picture. I'm super embarrassed to post it:

As promised, I wore tight fitting clothes for this picture. I'm going to try to wear the same outfit each week so it'll be easier to see (hopeful) progress. (Just the fact that I'm posting this photo is a big deal--I HATE it, but I'm trying really hard to just show things like they are and stop trying to hide it.)

Something that drives me crazy about my body is that I don't gain any fat underneath my surgery scar--you can see it just above where my hips stick out. That's where my scar is and because the fat doesn't grow under there, it gives me saddle bags and a muffin top.

I want to lose enough weight to get back to my best skin removal results. I was 143 pounds when I got my surgery, so it'd be nice to get back there and have my results look smooth again. The curves on my sides were smooth. Here is a photo from when I was 135-ish pounds in the same shirt:

I know exactly what the problem is, too. I messed up my intermittent fasting "eating window" one day and that made me feel RAVENOUS the next morning. 

Usually, I don't even get hungry until 4:00 when I eat dinner, but when I ate far outside my window one day, I paid for it the next day. And after that, it was just so hard to get back to my routine that was working so well. Now, my window has grown to about eight hours, which is way too long for me. I need about a two-hour window (and I actually enjoy a two-hour window!).

When I first started intermittent fasting, I remember it being very hard for about four days. After that, I fell in LOVE with it because it seemed so easy! I felt a lot better, too--sleeping well, not thinking about food, truly enjoying the food I ate, not getting stomachaches, and having a ton of energy. So I know I just need to power through a few days to get to that point again. That has been my goal for this week--wait until 4:00 and eat a good, filling meal. 

Yesterday, my brother gave me some extra boards and plywood that he had leftover from a project. Not enough to do the nightstands, but enough to make something out of it. I'm going to see what I can find. I still plan to do the nightstands--I'll probably buy the stuff this weekend when Jerry is off work. I want a project to look forward to each day that will keep me super busy.

Well, it's already 11:40(!) so I better go to bed. Remember how I was complaining about not being able to sleep? Well, the complaining must have worked. Last night, I slept from 10:15 pm to 8:15 am!! And it was GOOD sleep, too--I didn't wake up at all--not even when Jerry got home, took a shower, and climbed into bed with me. That NEVER happens. 

It could have been because I took a couple of muscle relaxers last night. When my anxiety and/or stress get high, I get a lot of knots in my shoulders and neck. Jerry can literally feel them when he massages my back. When I have my anxiety under control, the knots go away. It's so weird! I was particularly painful yesterday so I took the muscle relaxers hoping they'd help. Unfortunately they didn't do anything.

If anyone has tips on relaxing shoulders/neck/back that get super tense and painful with knots, please feel free to let me know! I've tried physical therapy and chiropractic--it didn't help.

But anyways, it was absolutely fantastic to sleep so good last night. Which is probably why I'm still awake at 11:30--I'm not at all tired, but I want to try to sleep. G'night!

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Feeling Ready to Focus on Weight Loss

Today is the final day of Week 3 of my Cookies Fall Challenge. I had attempted to take on all three challenges, but I haven't been keeping up with the Run/Walk Checklist. It seems like that would be an easy one for me to do, considering I walk every day, but I always forget to check the list!

However, I've been doing awesome with the mileage challenge (just a friendly competition for racking up miles either running or walking). I've been walking a minimum of five miles each morning. I've been second on the leaderboard twice in a row (among the walkers; the top runners are hitting crazy mileage!).

As for the Cookies Fall Hard Challenge (a different take on 75 Hard), I've been doing so-so. I haven't been doing ALL of the things every day, which I would love to change. I want have that strict discipline I had when the challenge first started. 

When starting 75 Hard, my goal was to develop discipline in order to stick with my weight loss goals. I didn't care TOO much about the weight loss during 75 Hard, because that wasn't the point of the challenge. However, now that I feel like I've developed some discipline (like the walking), I feel like I'm ready to step it up a notch.

I want to work my best at losing the weight. I still love intermittent fasting, but I know that I am eating too much during my "eating window", which is four hours. I know that it's not because I'm hungry, but because I'm stressed. We've had a lot going on lately--the kids doing school in a totally new and unfamiliar way, working on building a front porch before the weather gets cold, building Noah's desk, refinancing our car for a better interest rate, researching and buying a new mattress, keeping up with the fall challenges, and several other things. 

I'm starting to get used to the kids' schooling, so hopefully that will be less stressful from now on. I finished the porch, Noah's desk, and bought the mattress. I just finalized the refinance loan on the car (our interest rate went from 5.7% to 1.8%!! We'd bought the car just a couple of days before all the COVID stuff started, and the interest rates dropped significantly right afterward).

Now that all of that stuff is taken care of, I feel like it's a good time to work on focusing on the weight loss. I am extremely uncomfortable in my body right now. I'm worried that I'm going to undo all of the work that my skin removal surgery did--I paid a lot of money for that (even though my insurance covered most of it) and I don't want that to be a big waste.

The Cookies Fall Hard Challenge focuses on discipline rather than weight loss, and because it's so similar to 75 Hard, I feel like it's become a lifestyle for the most part. Now that I have the lifestyle part down, I want to set some fresh goals for my weight loss. Here is my most current full-length photo (aside from my daily progress photos):

While my ideal goal weight is 133, I'm not going to obsess about getting there. I'd be happy with 144, which is the top of my BMI range. That means I have to lose about 35 pounds. (Except for the photo above, all of the photos in this post are of me at around 144 pounds--my "happy weight".)

My plan is to continue with intermittent fasting. However, I'm going to do a OMAD (one meal a day) approach. I felt best when I was doing that back at the beginning of 75 Hard. It doesn't mean eating one small meal a day... it can include an appetizer, large meal, dessert, etc. I typically ate a large dinner and then finished with decaf coffee with cream and a sweet treat (zucchini bread was a favorite). I allowed myself a four-hour window (usually between 4pm and 8pm) but I was usually done eating after about two hours.

Here is an example of a large/filling dinner (Eli made this for us!):

About an hour later, I followed that up with coffee with cream and a piece of zucchini bread that Noah made.

I noticed that when I eat past my window, I am really hungry the next day. So, I'd like to be done eating shortly after dinner. I felt SO good and energetic (and my mood was better) when I was eating that way. I want to feel like that again.

That's pretty much it as far as my diet goes. My fasting periods are "clean fasts", which means that I don't consume anything except for plain water. For more info on intermittent fasting, particularly on the "OMAD" plan, I highly recommend the book 'Delay, Don't Deny' by Gin Stephens (Amazon affiliate link). That's the book that really made me want to try it! There are several different options for intermittent fasting--the OMAD approach is just one of them.

I don't only want to do the intermittent fasting for the weight loss, however. There are so many health benefits that I am hoping to see. I'm especially hoping that it helps with my chronic pain! But that could take a while, so we'll see. It most certainly helps with my digestion. I never feel bloated or stuffed, and I became very "regular".

Anyway, enough about that!

As far as exercise, I'm going to continue my daily walks. The five mile walk takes about an hour and twenty to an hour and thirty minutes. I like to go as soon as it's light outside so that I am back home early--by 9:00, usually. Once we change the clocks back for daylight savings, I'll be able to head out an hour earlier.

My overall goal for the weight loss is to lose about a pound per week (on average). When intermittent fasting, my weight goes up and down like crazy, but the overall trend was downward. So I'll be looking at that instead of a specific weight on a specific day. It'd be nice to see a downward slope of about a pound a week, though.

If I manage to do that, I can get to my happy weight of 144 in about 35 weeks--mid-June. That seems so far away right now, but this year has been flying by, and I have no doubt that June will be here before I know it. It would be nice to fit back into my favorite jeans by then!

Here are a couple of favorite pictures of me at about 144 pounds. Not my thinnest (this is borderline overweight, actually!). But I'd love to get here again. I felt so good at this size. (This is when Jerry and I were training for the Martian Half Marathon in 2018.)

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The How and What I Eat While Intermittent Fasting

I've gotten several questions lately about how and what I eat while doing intermittent fasting, so I thought I'd post some more details here. I always hate writing about my particular food intake because there are always people who "scold" me for eating carbs/sugar/not enough vegetables/etc. 

I am a firm believer that everybody should eat what makes THEM feel best; what works for them both mentally and physically. We are all trying to find out that perfect balance, but that's just it--none of us is perfect. I would never tell someone how I think they should eat!

That said, I am very happy with the way I eat (and with what I eat) so I am not looking for advice or criticism about what I eat. I never delete comments--even the ones that are mean just to be mean for no reason--but for this post, I won't publish comments that are rude and critical of my diet. They just aren't helpful.

You can totally disagree with what and/or how I eat, and that's fine. But the purpose of this post is just reply to those that are curious about how I've been working the intermittent fasting into my life. 

So, that said... here are some details about how I've been doing intermittent fasting for the last six weeks.

First, I have to say that I LOVE this way of eating. This is definitely a lifestyle, something that I could see myself doing forever. Jerry feels the same way, so it's great that we're on the same page.

There are lots of different methods of intermittent fasting, and I won't get into them all here. I choose to do a 20:4 ratio of fasting to eating. That means I fast for 20 hours and then eat my day's worth of calories within a 4 hour window. 

Lots of people do their fasting periods differently, some allowing certain beverages or bone broth, but I do a "clean fast"--meaning I only drink plain, unflavored water. (To understand more about this and the purpose behind it, I suggest reading 'Delay, Don't Deny' by Gin Stephens. -Amazon affiliate link) I also allow plain black coffee or black tea, but I very rarely drink those. I stick with water.

If you're considering intermittent fasting, I'd recommend reading the above book to learn about the different types of fasting. What works for me may not work for you. And what works for you may not work for me.

I usually choose 4 pm to 8 pm as my "eating window". If I'm very hungry at, say, 2:00, then I might have decaf coffee with heavy cream and sugar to fill me up and then I'll cook dinner a little later at 5:00 or so. And then I'll close my window at 6:00. Otherwise, I plan to cook dinner to eat at 4:00. 

I make large, filling dinners to ensure that I'm getting enough calories for the day. I make a lot of the same dishes that I always have--I just look for ways to add calories. I cook with more fat, I add some side dishes I normally wouldn't (roasted cauliflower with garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese, for example), and I eat bigger portions.

A common misconception of intermittent fasting is that the weight loss comes from eating less calories--if you're only eating one meal a day, for example, people think that of course you're eating less calories and you're going to lose weight. That's not necessarily true. I highly recommend Dr. Jason Fung's book, 'The Obesity Code' and another called 'The Complete Guide to Fasting', (Amazon affiliate links) which explains this very well.

My weight hasn't dropped a ton--in fact, I didn't lose anything for the first two weeks! But my body composition changed and I lost inches. I was able to wear clothes I couldn't before, but my weight was only down a couple of pounds.

So anyway, I want to make it clear that I am eating a "normal" amount of calories. I haven't calculated, but because I know calories like the back of my hand, I would guess that I eat anywhere from 1400 to 1800 calories a day.

On most days, I break my fast with my dinner. I'll eat a filling meal and usually I am too full to want anything else. (I'm not stuffed, because I hate that feeling of being super full, but I definitely feel like I've had enough.)

After dinner, I will usually have decaf coffee with cream and sugar--and I sip this for probably about an hour. Sometimes I'll make dessert for the family (I made a peach crisp with ice cream last week) so I'll skip the coffee and eat the dessert a couple of hours after dinner. 

Most of the time, I don't eat all throughout the entire four-hour window. I usually have the one meal and then a dessert or snack if I feel I want it before my window closes.

As far as what I eat... I literally eat anything that I want to! I have found that while intermittent fasting, my tastes change. When I haven't eaten all day, I look forward to a filling meal. I don't crave sweets (at least not until after I've eaten "real food". Interestingly, I crave healthier foods. Once I've satisfied that craving, then I may or may not be interested in dessert. If you know me at all, I used to live for sweets! And I still love them... but I have to be in the mood for them.

All of that said, I went grocery shopping today so I made a list of dinners to have in the upcoming week. These are nothing special... just things that are in my go-to homemade recipe book. Most of the recipes are on my blog, so I'll link to them. (Depending on how filling it is or if I am getting in enough calories, I may make a side dish to go along with them.) I cook a lot of skillet meals or one-pot meals, so I mix a lot of stuff together rather than serve the typical meat/potato/vegetable type of thing.

Ground Turkey and Cabbage in Spicy Peanut Sauce

Hawaiian Fried Rice

Keema with Rice

Beef Stroganoff
(I'll have to post this recipe in the future--I made it today and it was delicious!)

Also, there were a lot of mushrooms in this, but hardly any of them made it from the stove to the bowls. I love mushrooms! The rest of the family doesn't like them, so I just picked them out and ate them while I was cooking ;) 

Moroccan Meatballs Over Orzo 
(This is shown with rice, but that was likely because I didn't have any orzo on hand)

Shipwreck Skillet Dinner
(I haven't made this before, but I found it in a cookbook today; I'll post the recipe if it's any good)

Sausage, Peppers, and Corn Hash with an Egg on Top
(I think I forgot to add the corn on the day I took this photo! But the corn is one of the best parts.)

And that's it--a week's worth of dinners. These are all foods that I made before--before I lost weight, while I lost weight, after losing weight. 

If any of you do intermittent fasting, I'm curious about your method and how you like it! Please feel free to share :) Likewise, if you have questions, I'd be happy to do a Q&A post later. Although I'm not sure how much more I can really say!

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Day 37 (and a recap)

I'm not even sure what to call this challenge that I'm doing anymore--I wrote previously about not calling it "75 Hard" because of a discrepancy about the "diet" rule (that post explains it better). I'm trying to keep this whole challenge simple and enjoyable, so I've just been continuing what I'd been doing all along.

I still want to build discipline, though, so I need a time frame/goal to work toward. So, I'm going to extend the challenge to 90 days total, and I'm not going to start over from Day 1 if I break any of the "rules". Right now, it's just become more of a personal goal rather than a challenge--in my mind, those are different. And that's hard to explain!

Anyway, this week has gone really well. After writing about breaking one of the rules and having to start over from Day 1, I just got right back on track. I think that shows a LOT of discipline (for me) because I didn't let one day turn to two, and then a week, and then just quitting altogether.

Going forward, today marks 37 days since I started "75 Hard". So, I'm counting this as Day 37 of 90. I'm sure I've made this super confusing, but I'm really just trying to keep it simple without "start overs" and questioning myself if I'm following the original rules accurately enough.

So, today is Day 37 of 90 and these are MY goals for it:

• Build discipline to stick with something all the way through
• Gain self-confidence
• Feel in control
• Develop good habits/eliminate bad habits
• Feel healthier/hopefully lose some weight

And these are the original "rules" that I'd been following (and am continuing with)...

1. Follow a diet of choice (I'm doing intermittent fasting with a 20:4 ratio of fasting to eating. I eat whatever I'm in the mood for, but basically I've been making a filling high-calorie dinner and then having either a dessert or snack if I'm still hungry.)

2. Work out 45 minutes twice a day--at least one has to be outside. (I've been walking for most of the workouts, but I occasionally ride my bike. I've done a few treadmill walks, but almost all of them have been outside.)

3. Take a progress photo every day. (I take a full-length mirror selfie every morning before my walk.)

4. Drink a gallon of water every day.

5. Read 10 pages of an inspirational book.

To sum everything up to Day 37 so far:

Follow a diet of choice

The longer I do intermittent fasting, the more I enjoy it. I stay very busy during the day and then eat dinner at about 4:00. I eat enough in my window that I don't feel hungry for the rest of the night. It feels good to eat until I literally don't want any more. I even skip out on dessert or a snack sometimes because I'm comfortably full and just don't want it. I've also been eating healthier meals--since I'm condensing my food intake to four hours, I want to make the food worth it.

Work out 45 minutes twice a day

Lots and lots of walking. This has become complete habit to me by now (the morning walk has, anyway). Joey loves this new habit because I take him with me and he gets so excited when he hears that I'm awake and getting dressed. Even if I wanted to quit my morning walks, I would feel way too bad for Joey!

I actually really enjoy the walking, which has been the biggest surprise to me. Exercise had always felt like a chore--something I did but never looked forward to. Now, I genuinely like listening to an audiobook while walking the peninsula. When I walk, I don't have pace or time goals or anything like that. If I feel like walking slowly, I do; if I feel like pushing it a bit, then I do that, too.

I was kind of surprised when I tallied up the totals today. In 35 days, I walked nearly 165 miles (I'll include this week's totals next week) and I biked 57 miles. I like to keep track of the numbers below because I'm curious if my heart rate will get lower as I exercise more. I'm not doing MAF training (my heart rate is always below MAF when I walk) but I'm still interested to see if all the walking/biking has an effect.

Take a progress photo every day

This has become a habit, too--as soon as I wake up, I get dressed for my walk and while I'm in the bathroom pulling my hair back and brushing my teeth, I take a selfie in the mirror right before I leave. I am SO glad that I have been doing the progress photos. I was bummed that I wasn't losing weight, but when I looked through my progress pictures, I could see a big difference--even from week to week.

Here is a comparison of Day 1 versus today, Day 37:

And here, just for the sake of comparing with the same shirt, is Day 8 versus 37:

Here is a post where I shared some comparisons after four weeks on plan.

Drink a gallon of water every day

Nothing much to say about this. I've done it every day for 37 days now.  The exercise helps me get in the water--I feel dehydrated after going out in the heat and walking for 45 minutes. I hate feeling puffy from dehydration, and that's actually what pushes me to get in enough water.

Read 10 pages of an inspirational book

I'm almost done with David Goggins' book "Can't Hurt Me" (Amazon affiliate link). I've only been reading 10 pages a day--I read really slowly, so it takes me a while. This book is fascinating, though--Goggins' discipline is absolutely crazy. He makes zero excuses for anything at all.

I recommended it to my brother, Nathan, because I thought it sounded like something he'd like. He liked it so much that he bought the audiobook, too, in order to listen during his commute. He said the audiobook has more than the written book--interviews and things between chapters.

I'm not sure what my next book will be. I should probably figure that out!

Needless to say, I'm very happy with how I've been doing on this challenge. I'm feeling good enough about it to extend it to 90 days and I'm actually enjoying the new habits :)

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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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75 Hard: Week 2 Recap

Today is Day 15 of 75 Hard. (Here is the post with the details of 75 Hard.) When I started this challenge, I really didn't believe I'd get past a few days, let alone this far. At first, I planned not to write about it on my blog "just in case" I quit. When I gave it some thought, however, I realized it would give me a way out--if I wanted to quit, I could quit and nobody would ever know. That would make it easy!

By posting about it publicly, I kept myself from quitting several times over the past couple of weeks. Overall, it's certainly do-able and the moments where I feel like quitting don't last very long. Yesterday on the way home from from the U.P. is a good example--after waking up early to walk 45 minutes before packing the car and then spending 11 hours on the road, the LAST thing I wanted to do was walk another 45 minutes. I wanted to go home and eat dinner and watch TV and go to bed early.

During the ride, I kept thinking about how really thought I may quit the challenge because of how badly I didn't want to do my second workout. When I had the idea to have Jerry drop me off 45 minutes from home, I felt like that was the perfect solution. I still didn't want to do it... but afterward, I was so glad that I didn't call it quits.

Anyway, here is a look at my Week 2 of 75 Hard...

Drink one gallon of water every day.

This was a little tougher to do this week because I was away from home Thursday through Sunday. Jeanie's cabin has running water, but because they have a tank that has to be refilled, we had to conserve water as much as possible. I brought five gallons of water with me to drink, but I didn't want to have to be using the bathroom (and therefore flushing the toilet) all the time!

My body is used to drinking a lot of water, and I found that from the two 45-minute workouts daily, along with just being active in general, I actually didn't have to pee all that much. A gallon a day--done!


Take a progress photo every day.

I've been doing this faithfully as well. At home, I just take a full-body selfie in the mirror right before my first workout. Jeanie's cabin doesn't have a full-length mirror, so I had her or Jerry take a photo of me each day. And as silly as it looked, I posed the same way that I would if I was holding the phone up in front of the mirror, haha. I want all of my pictures to have me posed the same way.

Today, I looked at my Day 1 picture versus today's (a two-week span) and I was really surprised at how much of a difference I see already! I will share the photos eventually, but I want to wait a little longer. Maybe I'll do Day 25, Day 50, and Day 75 (assuming I make it!). The pictures are not at all flattering (the point of them is to see changes in my body, not to look pretty for the camera, haha).


Diet of choice + no alcohol.

As I mentioned, I am doing intermittent fasting. I wrote a lot about that in my Week 1 Recap. This week was a little more challenging at first. Being up north, I had to adjust my "usual" eating window to a later time. The first day we were there, I think we ate dinner at 9:00 pm or something--and I usually eat at 4:00! We ate dinner on the later side the next couple of days as well, but it wasn't as tough to wait like it was on the first day.

As far as no alcohol, it was a little hard to sit around the fire at night and not have a beer--campfires and beer seem to go hand-in-hand during the summer--but I had two 0.0% Heinekens on Saturday night after dinner, and that was satisfying.


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

I finished reading The Gifts of Imperfection (again, I wrote about that last week). The second half of the book didn't speak to me as much as the first half did, but I still really liked it. It was a nice refresher from the last time I read it.

Yesterday, I started reading 'Can't Hurt Me' by David Goggins (Amazon affiliate link). I had read some of it before, and I LOVED it, but I got caught up in something else (likely a Netflix show or something) and stopped reading it. I started it from the beginning yesterday, and I'm excited to read the whole thing. It's so good!

I love that he hates the word "motivation". I've always hated that word because motivation is only temporary. I wrote a post called The Difference Between Motivation and Determination that explains my thoughts on it.

Here is a video that shows his "motivating" story in a (very small) nutshell:




Work out 45 minutes twice a day (at least one must be outdoors).

Yes! I did this, and it was NOT easy. Being up north on vacation made this a tough one for me this week. Getting in the first workout isn't so bad. I've kind of enjoyed it, actually! But when it comes time for the second one, I really have to push myself to just do it. It was no different while I was up north. However, it wasn't so bad once I started my walk.

I like listening to podcasts or audiobooks while I walk. It's kind of funny--when running, I couldn't pay attention to an audiobook to save my soul. When I walk, though, I really enjoy listening to them.

Here is what my second week's workouts looked like (all were outdoors except for Thursday morning when I had to fit it in before we left for Jeanie's):

My morning walk is usually a little slower because I like to take Joey with me. You'll notice that yesterday's walk (the one I was really dreading after coming home from up north) is the fastest one of the week. That's because I wanted to get home so badly! (Not that it mattered... 45 minutes is 45 minutes, regardless of my speed). I actually had to walk back and forth a couple of times in front of my house to reach 45.

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I'm happy with how the week went! I really wasn't sure I'd be able to stick to it while on vacation. Even though we were only gone for four days, I am pretty proud of myself for doing it. This week is going to be uneventful, so hopefully it'll go well :)

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Bike Riding vs. Walking

I had a successful Day 4 of 75 Hard. I can't believe I've made it this far, to be honest!

To give my shin splints a rest, I decided to go for a bike ride in the morning instead of walking. I immediately felt like turning around and doing the walking instead. My "butt bones" hurt so bad from sitting on the bike seat! I kept going, though, hoping it would subside (it didn't--I just hope that I'll get used to it eventually and it'll stop hurting).

If I'd noticed the 6.99 miles before I arrived home, I would've gone a touch farther to hit 7.00--I'm sure that number will bug some of you, haha ;)

Anyway, I found it interesting during each of my (two) bike rides in the past four days that my heart rate is higher when riding my bike than it gets when I walk. In fact, riding my bike puts me right in my MAF heart rate training zone (132-142 bpm).

I never would have thought that to be the case. Biking feels easier to me than walking as fast as my legs will go. When I walk really fast, I can dip into my MAF zone, but it's super uncomfortable and makes the walk not very enjoyable. I have to be very conscious of it. When I ride my bike at a comfortable pace (I keep it on a low speed while in the neighborhoods because I have to pedal more rotations to gain momentum--but it still keeps me slow enough for "neighborhood riding".)

I wanted to find the details on Garmin Connect for my heart rate from yesterday as comparison, but Garmin's app has been "down for maintenance" for 24 hours now. I haven't been able to upload my workouts.

If my butt would quit hurting, I'd like to bike ride more often... maybe one walk a day and one bike ride a day for my 75 Hard challenge. I feel like being in my MAF heart rate zone while intermittent fasting is going to be the most efficient way to burn fat.

Speaking of, the intermittent fasting is getting easier, too. I found that, since I eat a large meal to break the fast and follow it with decaf coffee (with cream) and a snack or dessert of some sort, I'm full enough that I don't even want to eat again for the rest of the evening. Since I eat at 4:00 pm, it's really interesting to me that I don't even have the desire to eat in the evenings--whereas, before, I would snack up until it was time to go to bed. I never felt satisfied. Now I do.

(And yesterday, the kids made cheesecake brownies--I didn't even have a tiny bit of longing to eat one. It didn't even sound good. Very odd for me!)

For my second workout yesterday, I went for a walk in an unfamiliar area (to walk in, at least--I know it well by car). Noah had an appointment and I had an hour to kill, so I killed two birds with one stone--I walked to Lowe's, bought the wood filler I needed, and then walked back to my car. I still had about 15 minutes to go (I'd stopped my watch for the 10 minutes I was in Lowe's), so I just did an out and back from the car.

The timing worked out perfectly--ordinarily, I would have just sat in the car (the waiting room was closed because of COVID). So, it felt good to get the walk done without it even disrupting my day at all.

The walk was totally different from what I'm used to. I live in a very rural area, and I'm not used to busy roads. Walking along this road was a little scary! There was a sidewalk, but the cars were going fast and felt so close. It felt cool to experience a change of scenery, though. I noticed my pace was faster without trying to go faster--it just naturally happened because I was out of my element. My first mile was about 16:00-ish, if I remember correctly.

This 75 Hard challenge has really helped get me into a routine. As I've said many times, I thrive on routine--especially considering I have bipolar disorder. Who knows what will happen when the kids go back to school and my routine changes again, but for now, I feel like I'm back in control. Something I haven't felt in a long time!

I'm really glad that Adam asked me to do this challenge with him. I'm ready to start Day 5--I'm going to take Eli to a fishing area and go for a walk while he fishes.

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A Full Night's Sleep (and feeling the need for a routine)

I don't have any photos for today's post, so I'll just share a cute photo that Jerry took of Joey and Duck...

Duck really likes Joey and cuddles with him--he rubs his face over Joey's and he'll groom Joeys face and ears. It's so cute! He also likes to play with him. When Joey turns is back, Duck will jump all over him try to grab Joey's ever-wagging tail.

Last night, I took an over-the-counter sleeping pill because I could feel that I was in desperate need of sleep. I told myself that at 10:30, I'd read a book on my Kindle Paperwhite while in bed, and then I would turn the light out at 11:00.

I slept (mostly) through the night (the kittens wake me when they come cuddle next to my head) but I got up at 6:30, so that was much longer than I normally sleep. The problem was, I was SO TIRED when I woke up. Not tired enough to go back to sleep, but I had no energy at all. It could be residual from the sleeping pill, but my energy level was super low all day today.

It's frustrating! I need to create a bedtime routine and stick to it. Maybe after several weeks, it'll become habit and my body will start getting tired at certain times. I have always thrived when I have a routine, and whenever it gets disrupted (like with this COVID quarantine), I have a very hard time feeling "normal". I think it affects my mood a lot, too.

Being that I was so tired today, I didn't get much done. I worked on the garage in the morning, but I didn't accomplish much. I hung a ceiling fan and then started working on framing the windows. I thought that part would be pretty fast, but considering the studs aren't completely perfect, I have to make sure everything is perfectly square and level. I didn't get far. I even went back out there in the evening to work on it, but was just feeling tired and unmotivated so I quit after only an hour or so.

I did make dinner for the fam--fried chicken thighs. I will not eat them, which is why I never buy them, but I instead ate leftover pulled pork that I made yesterday. I get really grossed out when looking at and trimming raw chicken; if someone else made it for me, though, I'd probably eat it.

Today, I fasted until 3:00 when we ate an early dinner, and I was full when we were done eating. After that, I had a LaCroix flavored water (which you're not supposed to have during intermittent fasting unless it's in your "eating window". I made the decision to close my eating window at 8:00. This should be good if I can just get to bed at a decent hour!

Speaking of which, I'm going to end this post now so that I can read my book for a little bit before turning off the lights at 11:00. G'night!

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Delay, Don't Deny

I'm just going to keep this super quick, because I want to get to bed soon. I'd like to get up early tomorrow to work on the garage some more. It's been SO HOT outside (mid-90's) and I'd rather work on it during the morning.

Anyway, I posted recently that I was reading a book called 'Delay, Don't Deny' by Gin Stephens (Amazon affiliate link). It's a book about intermittent fasting, and several people were curious if I was going to give it a try again.

I wasn't going to post about it yet, considering my history with this kind of stuff--making plans and then not following through--and I don't want this to be just another one of those times. However, since several people have asked, I do think that I'd like to try intermittent fasting again.

I did it as a 30-day experiment last year, and I really loved it. For once, I wasn't thinking about food all day; and I felt better mentally and physically. The problem was that I wasn't losing weight. None.

My clothes weren't getting looser either, which some people said would happen before seeing progress on the scale. So, I was frustrated. I really liked the lifestyle, but I didn't like that I wasn't losing weight.

Jerry started doing it a couple of months ago and he's dropped about 25 pounds! He really loves it, and it's inspiring me to do it as well. I listened to the audiobook The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung (Amazon affiliate link) and I really loved it.

I actually bought the book (in paperback) a long time ago, but each time I started to read it, it sounded like it was going to be a low-carb, no-sugar, keto-type of book. I will never quit carbs or sugar, so I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters.

However, in listening to the audiobook, it went by much faster--and I learned that it's much less biased than I'd thought. It's very factual in HOW people gain and lose weight and it's very different from all the stuff we've heard for decades. He touches on fasting, but only at the end. Most of the book describes how weight loss works (physiologically).

I'm reading Delay, Don't Deny now, which is a much shorter, more basic book about intermittent fasting as a lifestyle. This is the approach Jerry has taken (I'll describe that in another post) and so I feel like I'd like to give it another try.

After listening to The Obesity Code, I realized a few things I was doing "wrong" (or at least things I could have been doing better) the first time I tried intermittent fasting. Now that I feel like I truly understand how it works, I think that I can work it to my advantage better and hopefully lose weight.

Another reason I'd like to try it is because of the chronic pain that I have. I've read about the health benefits of using fasting for reducing inflammation, so I'm curious to see if it would work for me.

I'll write in more detail about all this soon, but right now, I don't even know if I'll stick to it, considering my track record--so I'd like to give it some time before I write about how it's going. But I will write about how Jerry's been doing and what his schedule is as far as his fasting times.

Whether you're considering intermittent fasting or not, I highly recommend the book The Obesity Code. It's fascinating and really helps to understand how the body works (which then helps when deciding what/how much/when to eat for whatever the ultimate goal is (health, weight loss, etc).

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Intermittent Fasting: My 30-Day Trial Thoughts and Results

I thought this photo was entirely appropriate for this post, considering Luke and I were only pretending to eat! hahaha.

This post is overdue by a few days, but time seems to be going way too fast. I had a super busy weekend, of which I spent about half of it in the car--ugh. I had to drive back and forth to a few events that were each over an hour away. I'm hoping this week will be a little less busy.

Anyway, I wish there was a huge update on the 30-day trial I did of intermittent fasting. Here's the basic rundown...

To start this whole trial, I was hoping for a few things: 1) Lose weight; 2) Improve digestion--feel less bloated; 3) Sleep better; 4) Feel an overall sense of well-being.

Week 1: Started with a 16:8 hour ratio of fasting to eating (not super strict to that--sometimes it was 18:6, or somewhere in between). Didn't count calories or anything, just ate within a certain time frame. On this week, I gained 0.4 pounds.

I discovered that I enjoyed doing intermittent fasting, however. I'll write more about that below.

Week 2: Reduced the eating window down to more of 18:6, and tried to reduce the amount I was eating. Lost the 0.4 pounds that I'd gained the week prior, bringing me back to my starting weight.

Week 3: Reduced the window again to a 20:4 ratio. Weight stayed exactly the same!

Week 4: Increased the window back to 16:8. Felt much hungrier than I had the previous three weeks. Gained 1.4 pounds.

I had hoped that I would have been writing about a good weight loss! I even took beginning body measurements, starting photos, and body fat percentage to do a comparison on this post. But nothing has changed, unfortunately.

However! I did have some outcomes that I found beneficial...

1) I stopped thinking about food all the time. It was so nice not to have to worry about what to eat for breakfast, what to eat for lunch. I didn't have to buy food for those things. I typically broke my fast with dinner at around 3-4 pm, and then had a high-calorie snack later.

2) Food tastes a million times better when I'm hungry. Breaking the fast for dinner was so good!

3) My digestion issues improved a LOT. No bloating or stomachaches (other than what I'll note next).

4) I discovered foods that don't really agree with me and cause stomach problems. Because I was fasting, once I broke the fast and got a stomachache, I was able to pinpoint what was causing it. Interestingly, the major food that my body doesn't like is bananas. Last week, I tried breaking my fast with a snack and having dinner a little later, and I learned that bananas give me a bad stomachache for about three hours.

This was interesting to me because I always used to get stomachaches when eating English muffins with peanut butter and sliced bananas for breakfast. I always assumed it was the English muffin causing it (and yet I continued to eat them, because I loved that breakfast). I think that fasting is a really great way to learn what food your body agrees with.

5) Fasting kept me from binge eating, which was a surprise to me. I was worried that not eating until afternoon would make me eat everything in sight, but the opposite happened. I found that because I broke the fast with a nice-sized dinner, I was satisfied for several hours afterward and had no desire to binge.

6) As far as sleeping goes, I didn't notice a difference.

7) And as for feeling an overall sense of well-being, I really did feel good. I loved not feel full or bloated. A couple of years ago, I literally used to look six months pregnant sometimes after eating, even if I didn't eat much. It was painful and miserable! When fasting, I didn't have that problem. (Other than the banana and one or two other foods)

8) I ate much healthier than I did prior to the intermittent fasting. Like I said, I broke my fast with dinner, which was usually home-cooked (crock pot meals, lately!). And later, I would have a high calorie snack--usually cheese, crackers, and salami; nuts; or oil-popped popcorn. I wasn't craving sugar very much. Once in a while I would have peanut M&M's or something, but I definitely preferred salty or savory snacks. Crazy for me! haha

So, even though I didn't lose any weight, I did find a lot of benefits to the intermittent fasting. I think if I want to lose weight, I'll need to either get back to eating intuitively like I did last year or count calories. I didn't feel like I was eating too many calories while intermittent fasting, but I wasn't counting, so maybe I was.

In 2017, my whole mission was to find peace with myself and live my happiest life. I lost that feeling about a year ago (it was right around the time when Jerry started experiencing depression, and in retrospect, I wonder if that had something to do with it--maybe I felt guilty for being happy?). I'd like to work on that again, though. Jerry is doing much better after starting an antidepressant a couple of months ago.

I've found a lot of joy in this project with giving my kitchen, living room, and dining room a makeover, and I will definitely continue to work on that (there is still a lot left to do!). I also printed out a list of "150 things to throw away", and I found that very inspirational! I would love to minimize the "stuff" I have, and I think that would bring me joy as well.

My first time using a router! Making my own laminate countertops.

As far as where I'm going from here...

I still want to lose weight. My clothes are all tight, and I was pretty upset when I tried on some clothes at Salvation Army a few days ago and they weren't even close to fitting. Right now, I don't even care if I don't get back down to my goal weight, but I really want to get down to about 145 to feel more comfortable.

Since I really liked the intermittent fasting, and I really want to focus on finding happiness again, I think I will continue to do the fasting, but I'll keep a bigger window (16 hours fasting, 8 hours eating). And I will do my best to eat the intuitive way I did when I was my happiest last year. (If that doesn't work, I can always count calories--but I'd like to try this way again.)

I fell out of my running groove again when I had to do all of the plumbing stuff for the kitchen. I'm not going to be super strict with it, but I would definitely like to do it when I can/want to fit it in. I kind of miss running in the winter! So odd, because I have turned into a baby in the cold weather, but I was feeling nostalgic for it a couple of days ago.

So, basically, I'm going to take each day as it comes and do the things that make me happy (and skip the things that don't--unless they are necessary, of course). I'd like to work on my 40 Goals by 40 Years Old list, which will be fun.

This 30-day experiment with intermittent fasting made a pretty big impact on not just my eating, but my life as well. I never would have expected that! I'm really glad I did it :)

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Intermittent Fasting Trial, Week 3 Results

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today starts week four of my intermittent fasting experiment. It's been three weeks, and I've learned quite a bit about myself while doing it, even though I haven't exactly gotten the results I was looking for.

My main reason for wanting to try it was to drop the weight I've gained. My starting weight was my highest weight in the last eight years--162.4. After the first week of intermittent fasting, I actually gained 0.4 pounds, bringing me to 162.8. Last week, I lost the 0.4 that I'd gained, and was back to my starting weight of 162.4.

I again made some changes, and was hoping to see some real progress this week. When I weighed in today, I was... 162.4. On the nose. I honestly couldn't maintain my weight this perfect if I tried!

But clearly, my goal is not to maintain my weight, but to lose it. I am trying not to feel frustrated, but it's discouraging to do so much work and not see any results. I've been eating pretty healthy--certainly more so than I was before. This week, I had reduced my eating window to 4 pm to 8 pm. I stuck with that for five out of seven days... there were a couple of days where I went over 8 pm.

I even started running again this week--I ran on Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings.

I don't know how else I can change things up this week to hopefully make some progress. I really don't want to reduce my eating window any more. My guess is that I'm probably eating too many calories, though. I could always count calories, but then that defeats the whole purpose of intermittent fasting (for me, anyway).

I have noticed some things I really like about intermittent fasting, though, so next week I will write a full post about all of my thoughts of the trial.

Despite feeling discouraged, here is my plan for this week (my fourth and final week of this trial):

Keep the eating window to four hours. However, I think I'm going to change this to 5-9 instead of 4-8. I like eating at night, so I think it will help keep me from snacking past my eating window. Waiting until 5:00 to eat will be challenging, but it's only an hour past what I have been waiting, so I'm sure I can do it.

I'm going to have to be very conscious about how much I'm eating. I am not going to count calories, but I am at least going to make sure my portions aren't huge.

I'm going to continue running, but instead of aiming for Monday through Friday, I'm going to aim for three days a week--without going more than two days between runs. That was my general rule of thumb for years, and it worked out well. I really like the heart rate training, so I'll continue with that.

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I'm hoping that I'll see some progress next week. If not, I'm not sure what I will do! I will likely have to start counting calories if I want to lose weight; something I really don't want to do, so I'll have to decide if it's worth it to me.

It's interesting... from what I've read, this would be a great way to get my weight back down! But it just seems to be really difficult for me. I still hope that I'll find the "sweet spot" that works for my body!

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Intermittent Fasting Trial, Day 16: Week 2 Results

Yesterday was the start of my third week of intermittent fasting. The first week of doing it, I actually gained 0.4 pounds. I really like doing it, though, so I decided to try some adjustments until I find what works for me (and something I can maintain--I am not going to make changes that I am not willing to do for the rest of my life).

First, I switched to black coffee in the mornings. I had been adding a tablespoon of heavy cream (50 calories) to my coffee during the first week. I also tried to shorten my eating window. I say "tried" because I wasn't very successful at it.

The problem is that I break my fasting at 3-4 pm with a good-sized dinner. That is where the majority of my calories come from. Because that's a large meal, I'm not hungry again until 5-6 hours later. So then I'd eat a snack at around 9-10 pm.

I enjoy breaking the fast with my dinner, because my dinner is usually pretty healthy food, and I'd like to spend most of my calories on that. I'm afraid if I just have a snack at 3-4 pm, and eat dinner a couple of hours later, I might just snack like crazy for a few hours and then I won't even really want my dinner. Basically, I want to have a good appetite for my main meal of the day.

Anyway, that is why I haven't been doing so great with a shorter eating window. And as for the results of week two, I am down 0.4 pounds... back to my starting weight, hahaha. I still really enjoy this way of eating, so I'm going to make some more adjustments and see if it helps this week:

1) Have a strict start/stop time for an eating window, instead of eating at "3-ish" or "4-ish", and then again just before bed (6-8 hours). So, this week, I'm going to do an eating window of 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

2) Add in exercise. I had a great run a couple of weeks ago, and I was excited to go out again... but it's been SO COLD that I just haven't brought myself to do it. Over the past few years, I have really become sensitive to the cold--I used to love running in 30-degree weather!

However, I have a perfectly good treadmill in my living room that I haven't touched since I was training for the half-marathon in April. This morning, I queued up some TV shows to stream, and decided that I will run on the treadmill for one show per day (M-F). A very simple plan!

Also, I figured that since I'm going to be on the treadmill a lot, it would be a great time to work on heart rate training again. When I'm outside, it's hard to run slowly enough to keep my heart rate down--my mind wanders and then I realize I picked up the pace and my heart rate is too high. On the treadmill, I can just set the speed and then run until my heart rate hits the top of my target (ideally, I will keep it below 144 bpm). Then I drop the speed down a notch, and repeat.

Today, I dusted off the treadmill and tried it out. It felt really good! I forgot how "easy" running feels when I keep my heart rate low. I say easy, but I mean that in relative terms. It feels much better than when I push the pace, and that makes the run more enjoyable. I remember loving my heart rate runs in 2016!

I started watching a show on Hulu, and then it kept buffering or something--it was annoying! I actually stopped running twice to try to fix it, but then I gave up and picked a show on Amazon Prime to watch. It was only 23 minutes, so added to the time from the first show, I ran for 38:41 total--and it ended up being a perfect 5K distance.

I don't think that the treadmill is calibrated correctly, and the numbers on my Garmin didn't make much sense, either. I didn't use the foot pod, so that could be why. As I slowed the treadmill down throughout the run, my pace on the Garmin got faster. So, I'm not going to pay attention to that--right now, I'll just focus on my heart rate and time spent running. I'll dig out the foot pod, though, and hopefully it'll be more accurate.

So, with those couple of changes, I hope to see some good results next week!

(Speaking of our cold weather, my brother posted this on Facebook last night, and I was dying. Luke is SO cute!!)

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Intermittent Fasting Trial, Week 1 Results

I feel like I've been doing this intermittent fasting for so much longer than just a week!

When I started, I wasn't 100% sure about my eating cutoff times. I figured I would aim for 18 hours fasting and 6 hours to eat, but I would be happy with 16/8 as well (which is a common time window).

On most days, I was able to hit 18 hours. I kept very busy so that I wouldn't really think about eating, and I would break my fast each day by having an early dinner (something from the crock pot). I think that having all of the crock pot meals ready to go in the mornings has helped a LOT with the intermittent fasting... otherwise, I could see myself being hungry and just wanting to order pizza or something. Knowing that dinner will be ready whenever I am has been so helpful!

I tried to aim for 4:00 pm. After dinner, I would graze as I felt like it through the evening. I was very curious to see if this would make me binge eat. Since I'm a binge eater, I was concerned that not eating all day would set me up for a binge later, but I have found the opposite to be true. I LOVE not thinking about food! My binge eating has always been about emotional eating, anyway, and not about hunger, so I think that influenced it as well.

Here are my fasting times for each day:

(The app for this is called "Zero", and it's awesome! You just tap when you're start fasting and tap when you stop. It keeps track of everything for you.)

Anyway, here are my thoughts after Week 1:

WEIGHT: For the disappointing news, I did not lose any weight. I was actually up by 0.4 pounds! Last week, I was at 162.4, and today was 162.8. Interestingly, I'm not really bothered by this. Crazy, right?! I'm going to change things up a touch this week, which I'll explain later.

I have to say, despite not losing any weight, I love everything about the intermittent fasting.

FOOD: I used to worry about and plan for breakfast and lunch--when making grocery lists, I had to figure out what I was going to eat for the week, and then I rarely wanted what I planned for. Sometimes I'd eat something crappy for breakfast, which would make me carry that through the rest of the day, eating junk all day long.

I used to constantly think about food--what I was going to eat, when I was going to eat it, etc. Since I started the intermittent fasting, I really don't even think about food until it's getting close to time to eat.

ENERGY: I used to feel a huge drop in energy in the afternoons. I would want to just sit and do nothing. Since I started the intermittent fasting, I have lots of energy! Until I eat, hahaha. After eating is actually when I feel the least amount of energy.

DIGESTION: I used to get bloated a lot, especially after overeating. Then I would feel like crap and not be able to do anything. Since I started intermittent fasting, I don't think I've felt bloated at all! I always feel light and energetic, which is awesome. I know my weight isn't down at all, but I really do FEEL better.

SLEEP: I've always had sleeping problems. I mean ALWAYS. And since my bipolar diagnosis, the sleeping issues have made a lot more sense (when hypomanic, I sleep 2-3 hours a night and feel totally fine all day long! Then when depressed, I sleep 8-9 hours and feel tired all day long).

Since I started intermittent fasting, I've had a weird combination of those. My mood is the most stable it's ever been (not due to the fasting; I felt this way for at least about 6 weeks now) so I'm not hypomanic or depressed. I'm very, very stable. Prior to the fasting, though, I was tossing and turning all night, feeling super frustrated that I couldn't sleep. (And then when I finally managed to fall asleep, I was awakened by burning pain in my arm.)

Since I started the fasting, I have been sleeping much better and best of all, waking up without an alarm. I actually feel really great on about 6 hours of sleep. When I do wake up during the night, it's because of my arm; but for the last few nights, that hasn't happened.

Now, I really would like to lose some weight doing this! So, I'm going to try making a couple of changes this week.

1) Drink black coffee in the mornings instead of adding heavy cream. I'm sure it's not the calories that are the problem, but by skipping the cream, I'll truly be fasting from evening until afternoon. This may or may not be a problem, so I'll just give it a try and see what happens.

2) I'm going to try to condense my eating window to four hours. That way, instead of grazing for 6-8 hours, I will likely have one good-sized meal and one good-sized snack. I'll get in my full day's worth of calories, but in a shorter time frame.

Those are the only changes I'll make this week, and I'll see how it goes. Other than the fact that I haven't lost any weight, though, I really like this intermittent fasting!

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Intermittent Fasting Trial, Day 6 -- EMG Test and Updated Cabinet Pictures

Today was another day that felt rather easy to get through without even thinking about food or feeling hungry until the late afternoon. I have to say, I really like this pattern of intermittent fasting. For those of you who asked, I am eating a full day's worth of calories in my eating window (I would guess roughly 1600-1800 calories, but I'm not counting or measuring). Intermittent fasting isn't about eating very little food; it's about eating your day's worth of food in a shorter time frame.

I finally had the EMG test done on my arm. I'm still having pain and numbness (the pain is at night, and the numbness is during the day) and the wrist splint the neurologist prescribed last month hasn't helped at all.

The drive to the neurology center is an hour, so that alone took up a chunk of the day. The test was done in two parts: the first was done by a technician, where some sort of recording device marks how my nerves respond to stimuli from electrodes. I have a TENS unit for my back, and I expected the test to feel similar to using the TENS unit (it turns out that I was right--that's exactly what it felt like).

The technician, Kim, was super friendly. She asked if she had tested me before, because I looked very familiar to her. We eventually discovered that she actually knows me from my blog! That's happened to me before, where someone has recognized me, but it still surprises me. Small world :)

Kim hooked me up to the machine and we chatted as she zapped me over and over again. From the first ten seconds or so of the test, she said she can see that I definitely have carpal tunnel syndrome. From what I understood, the first part (the test that she did) was to test how quickly the nerves were able to send electrical signals, while the second part (done by the doctor) was to evaluate muscle activity from the signals.

The neurologist came in to do the second part of the test. He placed a needle into several different muscles and had me relax and then flex each muscle (my deltoid, triceps, biceps, one or two somewhere in my forearm, and then two in the muscle at the base of my thumb).

The needle pokes felt like needle pokes, so no surprise there. The doctor confirmed what Kim said, that I have carpal tunnel syndrome. I don't think either one of them really believed me/understood me when I explained just how bad the pain is at night. I KNOW what a 10 is on the pain scale... I've felt it before. I broke my jaw completely through in five places. That was a 10. This pain in my arm? It makes the broken jaw a 9 out of 10, because this is worse.

But it's "just carpal tunnel" syndrome, and it's "only mild", so it doesn't require surgery. If this is mild, I can't even imagine what severe carpal tunnel syndrome feels like! So, I'm supposed to continue to wear the wrist splint (in the middle of the night, I usually wake up frantically tear at it to come off because my arm feels like it's on fire).

Needless to say, I feel frustrated. I wanted hope that it's going to get better, but instead I feel kind of patronized, like a little girl who has a boo-boo and is told that a simple kiss will make it all better.

But anyways, enough about that. When I got home, I put a second coat of paint on the pet feeding station, and I FINALLY put the finishing coat of paint on the last of the cupboard doors! I am so so so happy to be done with them. They have to cure for at least a few days before I hang them, but I'm just glad that I don't have to paint them anymore.

I will be thrilled when I can finally put away the paint for the entirety of the project! But I have to touch up a few spots on the walls, the ceiling, and I have to paint the island in the kitchen. I was hoping to get started on the flooring this month, but it's pretty expensive, and we'll have to wait another month to save for it. In the meantime, we're going to try to get everything else completely ready.

Since I don't have any photos for this post, here are "before" and "current" photos of the cabinets:

I wish I had photos of the "before" complete with the popcorn ceiling and crown molding. It's crazy how different it looks. I will take photos of the whole kitchen once I get all of our stuff put away. Our kitchen table is loaded with cans of paint!

But looking at the before/current photos, I can't help but feel pretty proud that I did that! With my own two mildly-carpal-tunneled hands, and bipolar mind, I managed to do something pretty awesome :)

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