What I'm Reading, Watching, and Listening To

Since I started 75 Hard, I've been doing a lot of reading (books), watching (shows), and listening (to podcasts and audiobooks).

Per 75 Hard, I read a non-fiction self-improvement-type book (10 pages per day). I'm really surprised at how 10 pages per day adds up! It sounds so easy--just 10 pages--but I finished one book and I'm on to another, just two weeks later.

I have been trying to go to bed earlier, and I found that reading before bed helps me to get tired. I used to watch TV or play a game on my phone, which could keep me up super late. Reading in bed has helped me to have an earlier bed time. So, nighttime reading is my "for fun" reading.

One of my 75 Hard workouts each day has to be outdoors, and I've been doing a ton of walking. I've done all of them outdoors until last week when I had to do a very early morning workout. While I walk outside, I listen to podcasts or audiobooks. On the treadmill, however, I like to watch TV shows.

So, I've been doing lots of reading, watching, and listening! Here goes... (I'm linking to these on Amazon, which are affiliate links--meaning if you happen to buy them through the links, I may get a small commission.)

Reading

For my non-fiction books to meet the 75 Hard daily requirement:

I just finished 'The Gifts of Imperfection' by Brené Brown. This was a great read (particularly the first half or so of the book). I first read it in 2017 and it really helped me to stop caring what other people think of me and to just be a more authentic me. I stopped trying to please other people all the time and it felt so freeing. I chose to read it again for a refresher and because I'd only read half of it in 2017.

When I finished that, I moved on to 'Can't Hurt Me' by David Goggins. I wrote about this on yesterday's post. This man pretty much invented the word "discipline"--to the tenth power.

I've also been reading a little more about intermittent fasting. I really liked 'Delay, Don't Deny' by Gin Stephens, which inspired me to give intermittent fasting another try. My mom just lent me 'Fast. Feast. Repeat.', also by Gin. I've been flipping around in that book rather than reading it straight through, and it's a good reference--it's answered several questions I had.

(This isn't normally spiral-bound; my mom took it to Staples and had it bound this way. I had no idea you could do that! It is so much easier to read like this. While it cuts off the left edge of the cover a bit, the pages don't get cut off.)

For my "fun" reading, I downloaded a new book by Suzanne Collins called 'The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes'. It's a prequel to 'The Hunger Games' series. I love it! Not as much as 'The Hunger Games' (which is one of my favorite books of all time), but just reading something new about The Games is fun.

Watching

When I jumped on the treadmill last week, I just picked a random show on Netflix called Sweet Magnolias. I loved the first episode so much that I have done the last couple of days' walks on the treadmill (I do one outdoor walk for 75 Hard, and then my second has been on the treadmill). I don't want to binge watch it, so I am only going to watch it while on the treadmill. I just finished the third episode during my second walk today.

Listening To

I've been listening to a few podcasts and audiobooks. I have been mostly listening to podcasts when I work in the garage (it's slow going, but I'm still making progress!) and audiobooks when I walk. I've always loved true crime podcasts, but I started listening to a couple of intermittent fasting ones recently. I really like Six Miles to Supper--she shares a lot of the same viewpoints that I have.

As far as audiobooks, memoirs are my favorite. I love hearing people tell their stories, whether they are sad, funny, inspiring, or anything else. I listen to some podcasts where people tell their stories in a nutshell; but the memoirs are great because they are so detailed.

I recently finished 'Running Man' by Charlie Engle. I'm really surprised I'd never heard of him before! I haven't been keeping up with who's who in the running scene for the last few years, but after listening to this, I was interested to learn more about him. I'd like to watch the documentary that this book is based around, called 'Running the Sahara'.

When I was done listening to 'Running Man', I started listening to 'The Killer Across the Table' by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. I chose this because I really loved the book 'Mindhunter' (and the TV series). I didn't end up finishing this one because I just couldn't stay interested. This might be because I've listening to lots of true crime podcasts so the stories weren't new to me.

And that's about it right now... anyone reading/watching/listening to something interesting??

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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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An Exhausting But Fun Weekend

Wow, what an exhausting weekend!

Again, I'm going to try to keep this short. We just spent 11 hours in the car! The traffic was bad while leaving the U.P. (upper peninsula) and I just want to eat, shower, and unpack.

It was a really nice weekend--Jerry, the kids, and I went to Jeanie and Shawn's property up north. (In Michigan, "up north" is a place, haha. I try to be more specific on my blog to clarify.)

Isn't this such a pretty waterfall? With all of the pine trees and waterfalls nearby, I was reminded of the Pacific Northwest--which you know I love.

The property is very close to Wisconsin, so it's a long drive for us (we live nearly as far southeast as you can get in Michigan). Interestingly, Jeanie lives in Illinois, but the drive is only about five hours from home for her. Anyway, the drive wasn't bad! I wrote about that yesterday.

We spent the weekend with just Jeanie and Shawn, which was great. It's rare that we see them without a bunch of other people around.

Shawn is working on shiplap for his pole barn, and I was really excited to work with him on cutting down the boards. First of all, this pole barn is amazing. It's enormous! After feeling so cramped while working in my garage, the space in this barn was almost overwhelming.

Shawn had several smaller pieces of shiplap that he'd already finished and he decided to piece those together on a small area. I didn't do much to help with this part... he was up until 3 AM because he wanted to get it finished! It looks awesome though... Shawn likes to use boards that I normally would skip over because of knots or weird patterns. After seeing what it looks like when it's finished, though, I can see why he likes them!

(Obviously this photo is to show the shiplap and not the stairs!)

I did help with getting a bunch of other boards ready to stain, though. I got to use some new tools and that was probably my favorite part of the weekend, hahaha. We used raw cuts of wood and put them through the planer and jointer, then cut out the pieces for the shiplap on the table saw.

Then I took a chill break in my hammock while Shawn sanded them to get them ready to stain ;)  I don't know what it was about being up there that made me so exhausted! It felt fantastic to lie down in the hammock under the trees--I could do that all day.

Jeanie has a small handgun (I have no idea what kind) and I'd never shot one before, but she and Noah were shooting at a target, so I wanted to give it a try, too. She showed me how to shoot it, and it was pretty fun! The first time I pulled the trigger it scared the bejesus out of me. I had no idea what I was expecting, but I was surprised at how strong it felt.

Anyway, I'll write a recap of 75 Hard tomorrow (today is Day 14!) and I am happy that I stuck with it the whole time we were away. I knew it would be hard (and it was) but going home and feeling GOOD (although tired) made it worth the effort. It was raining this morning before we left (just a drizzle, but still raining) and I still made sure to get in a 45-minute walk.

I KNEW I wasn't going to want to walk again when I got home, so I had Jerry drop me off at a spot that I guessed would take me about 45 minutes to walk home. That way, when I got home, I could just stay there.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

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A Few Days at Camp Fireside

I haven't had a chance to write since I've been up at my sister's place in the upper peninsula of Michigan. It's been busy! And I don't have wi-fi, so I'm just using a hotspot on my phone to post this (crossing my fingers it posts).

I've been sticking with the 75 Hard challenge... and it's been challenging! The mental side of this is the hard part right now. Willing myself to go out for a second walk when I'd rather do other things, forgetting to read my book until just before bed, eating dinner much later than I normally would, etc.

I've been walking for 45 minutes twice a day for my workouts. Joey loves it! ;)

The first night we were here, I had the best sleep of my life! I went to bed just after midnight, and I had my alarm set for 5:45 to take Eli fishing. I fell asleep immediately and didn't wake up AT ALL until my alarm went off. I was so sound asleep that I was disoriented when I woke up. I almost cried when I told Jerry that I felt such relief at getting the best sleep ever.

I have always had issues with sleeping and I never feel rested when I wake up. Jerry wanted me to go back to sleep, so he ended up taking Eli fishing and I said I'd take Noah to the Secretary of State at 8:30 (Noah wasn't able to get his driver's license after his birthday because the first available appointment was in October! So we checked the SoS offices around here, and they were able to get him an appointment yesterday morning.)

When I woke up, I saw that Jerry had turned off the alarm I'd set on my phone and had taken Noah himself. He was so happy that I'd been able to sleep, and because he'd gotten back early enough to be able to take Noah, he didn't want to wake me.

I woke up at 10:00! The last time I slept that long was probably in college. I needed that so badly. I wish I could say that last night was the same as far as sleep goes, but it was back to the usual.

(And Noah now officially has his driver's license!)

Yesterday was a fun day for me--I worked with Shawn in his pole barn prepping boards for shiplap. I've never used a planer or jointer before for wood working, but they are on my Amazon Wish List (a far off dream... they're expensive!). Shawn had a bunch of 14-inch boards that needed to be ripped down to 12", planed, and jointed.

It sounds nerdy, but I loved being able to use the new tools and see how they work. And now I really want a planer! Maybe I'll buy one for myself if I make it through the 75 Hard challenge. It would be a great reward (even though Andy Frisella, who created 75 Hard, specifically says that you shouldn't do this for a "reward"! haha).

Or it could just be a reward for all the hard work I did on our garage. It's pretty much done--I just have to move everything back into place an organize it. Eventually, I'll build shelves, but right now, I'm just going to make do with what I have.

I actually saw a black bear yesterday. I've never seen a bear in the wild before, so it was pretty cool. It was too far away to get a good picture of it, though! Jeanie said that she sees them pretty frequently up here.

Joey's been having a blast. Jeanie has two dogs (basset hounds)  and she has a couple of acres that are fenced in for the them. It's also secluded enough here that I can walk Joey off-leash, which is really nice. Last night, he was SO tired. After his second long walk of the day and playing around in the yard, he laid on his bed next to the fire and didn't budge for the rest of the evening.

It's been great getting to spend time with Jeanie and Shawn--I don't think we've ever been able to do that without the rest of the family being around.

I don't want to spend too much time working on this, so I'll try to write more when we get home. I just wanted to make sure I don't break my streak of posting every day!

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An Accidentally Scenic Walk

On our way up north yesterday, we planned to drive the whole way to Jeanie's (9-10 hours) with just one stop so that the kids could have lunch. Once you cross the Mackinac Bridge (which connects the lower and upper peninsulas) there really isn't anything at all as far as places to stop and eat.

Jeanie's place is 4-1/2 hours from the bridge, so we decided to stop in Mackinaw City (where the bridge starts). Since I'm intermittently fasting, I chose to go for a walk instead of eating lunch (also, we had Joey with us). I had already gotten up early to walk on the treadmill before we left the house in the morning, so by going for a walk at lunch time, I could get my second 45-minute workout done.

There was a neighborhood off of the main street, so I figured that I would just walk around the neighborhood until the boys were done eating. As I was walking, I caught a glimpse of the Mackinac Bridge, and I headed in that direction to check it out.

It turns out, I'd come across a small park with a beach right at the base of the bridge. It was so cool to see! It was very small--the entire length was maybe 1/3 of a mile--but there weren't very many people there.

Joey was dying to run into the water, so stopped to let him play for a few minutes. I love that I got a picture of him with the bridge in the background. I tried to get a good selfie of the two of us, but he had NO interest in getting a posed photo. He just wanted to play in the water. (In the photo above, it looks like he is sweetly trying to give me dog kisses, but he was really just trying to turn his head to see behind us, hahaha).

So, my second workout was interrupted a few times for photos, but it was worth it! (I stopped my Garmin when I stopped to take pictures).

I am happy I got in my second walk before arriving at Jeanie's. Getting it done early feels good!

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RECIPE: S'mores Pie (a single serving!)

I posted this recipe ages ago on my previous blog, and then transferred it to Runs for Cookies in 2011. But considering I'm going up north to my sister's property, and there will likely be campfires and s'mores, I thought it would be a good time to update the post.

This is the easiest dessert ever to make, and it looks so cute! These are made in mini pie crusts, so they are for one serving. And for those who love s'mores but don't like getting marshmallow all over your face (I'm not one of those people, but hey...) this can be eaten with a fork. Young kids can even make it with very little help, and it's fun to eat an entire little pie by yourself!

This isn't really much of a recipe, with only three ingredients... but it's a yummy treat!


Here is a printer-friendly version!

S'mores Pie  (Serves 1)

1 mini graham cracker pie crust (I find these in a six-pack by Keebler)
1/3 cup mini marshmallows
1 Tbsp. milk chocolate chips (semi-sweet work fine, too, but for a more “s’mores” taste, the milk chocolate are perfect)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Arrange the marshmallows into the pie crust, and then sprinkle with the chocolate chips. Bake at 400 F for about 10 minutes, watching closely--take it out of the oven when the marshmallows puff up and begin to turn a toasty brown color.

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Getting Ready for Vacation

I have to keep this super short, because we are busy doing laundry and packing and getting things ready to go up north to my sister's place.

Jeanie and Shawn (my sister and her husband) live in Illinois, but they have property in the upper peninsula of Michigan. We went there a few years ago for the fourth of July. Since we had to cancel all of our travel plans for this year due to COVID, we thought we could at least do a mini-vacation up north.

I'm not an outdoorsy person by any means, but the boys really love it up there and I'd love to spend some time with Jeanie and Shawn. The last time I was there, I spent most of my time with Luke (who was just four months old at the time) or lying in my hammock reading a book. It was also fun to play cornhole and to sit around the campfire. (Look how little Eli was! And me... I would kill to look that thin again!)

In order to get in my two workouts tomorrow, I have to wake up at 3:30 AM to walk on the treadmill! Yikes. It's a 9-10 hour drive, so I think when the kids are ready to eat, Jerry will take them somewhere to eat and I'll do my second 45-minute walk. Then we'll finish the drive. (I SO wish that I could walk over the Mackinac Bridge! But it's only open to pedestrians once a year for a registered walk/run.)

I am really worried about leaving the kittens alone. They are so used to us being here! We do have a house sitter/pet sitter (although Joey's coming with us) so the kittens won't be totally alone. But still, I just hope they don't get sad or think we're not coming back. Phoebe and Estelle are used to it, so I'm not worried about them.

I bought two 2.5-gallon jugs of water to bring with us so I can refill my water bottle and get in my gallon each day. (Jeanie has bottled water, but I certainly don't want to use that many water bottles--so I just bought a couple of big jugs.)

Anyways, I hate to cut this off now, but I have lots to pack. We're only going for a few days, but I need to come up with several pairs of exercise clothing--and I don't have much that still fits me. (Some of it is getting looser, though!)

I'm going to try to prepare some posts that will automatically publish over the next few days so that I'll for sure get in a blog post every day (I really don't want to break my blogging streak). Cell service up there is sketchy, so I don't know if I'll be able to blog while I'm there.

I'm also going to try to clear out some of my inbox during the long drive (obviously while Jerry is driving). Ten hours is a long time to get some things done!

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Daily Routine, Finances, and Long Term Goals

I don't have a photo for this post, so here is one of Chick and Duck sharing the top of this little bed thing. I think the way Duck is lying on it is hilarious! They are clearly too big to share it now.

Lately, I have been feeling like I'm Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. With the COVID quarantine, all of the days started blending together a few months ago. I literally couldn't tell if it was Wednesday or Sunday!

In a way, it was nice--the kids and I didn't have to be anywhere and we could all just spend our days doing projects and hobbies that we normally wouldn't have time for. (Even Jerry had a few weeks off because he had been exposed at work to someone who tested positive with COVID.) Things have been opening up a bit, but it's still recommended to practice social distancing and masks are mandatory in public areas.

I haven't been going to the grocery store more than once every two weeks or so, but our stock in the pantry is down to slim pickin's. For the most part, our days are the same--except I do take Eli to his fishing spots and Noah to see his small group of friends (a few of them went bike riding today).

For me, especially this past week, each day feels the same. And it's not a bad thing! I really love the routine. I feel comfortable when I have a routine rather than chaos (even if it's controlled chaos).

Since I started 75 Hard, my day typically looks like this:

• Wake up.
• Sit in bed and journal, read my non-fiction book for 75 Hard, and drink a quart of water.
• Ideally, I would write a blog in this time frame, but it depends on what time I wake up.
• Get out of bed, brush my teeth, etc., and dress for my walk.
• Take a progress photo in the mirror for 75 Hard.
• Go for a 45-minute walk with Joey (he's gotten used to my taking him, and I feel guilty if I try to leave him at home).
• Come home and drink another quart of water.
• Change into "work" clothes for the garage (my paint-spattered ones). 
• Go out to the garage and work on whatever I'm doing out there. Today, I finished up one section of it and started moving things back to where they should be. Drink another quart of water.
• If I don't work on the garage, then I do errands, chores around the house, etc.
• I also blog at some point.
• Come inside and change back into my workout clothes (yes, the same ones). Go for a 45-minute walk or bike ride. Drink a fourth quart of water.
• Take a shower and start getting dinner ready.
• Eat dinner with the family, maybe watch a show or something together.
• "Me time"... play Best Fiends or read a book, usually.
• Bed time.
• Repeat.

I had planned on blogging earlier today, but I realized I needed to get our monthly finances done. That just means paying bills, transferring money around, etc. Today took extra long because I had to deal with two credit card companies.

We have a negative balance on the Discover card because Eli's trip to Washington D.C. was canceled, and I'd already paid for it in full. The refund went back to the Discover, which was already paid in full. So I requested a check for the balance, which will be about $1200--nice! (I let him buy a fishing rod and reel with some of the money because of his canceled trip.)

We also have a negative balance on the Delta American Express because I bought our plane tickets to San Francisco on that card (to get Delta points). Since we had to cancel that trip, I hoped to get a refund. Oddly, they refunded two of our tickets, but gave us airline vouchers for the other two. I asked to open a dispute to try to get a refund for the other two. I feel like it should be a refund for all four tickets or none at all. Anyway, I requested a check for our negative balance on that card, which is roughly $1000.

One of the nice things about the quarantine is that we've been able to save up a decent little nest egg in our savings account. It's so strange that a few years ago, we were $14,000 in debt and had NO savings. Then I started the zero sum budgeting and we managed to pay all of that off in 14 months. I never would have thought we could do that!

I've been continuing with the budget, doing it every single month, and it hasn't failed us yet. I love that we have some money in savings in case we need it. If Jerry was to lose his job for whatever reason, we have enough for cover us for a couple of months. Again, I never thought I'd be able to say that!

Noah took his driving test today to get his driver's license, and he passed (I knew he would--he's super responsible and a great driver). He also bought a car from Adam. It's an old car, but it only has 50,000 miles on it. Noah has been saving money here and there for the last year or so, but I had no expectations that he'd get a car this soon. However, Adam gave him a great deal on it and Noah was thrilled.

Speaking of Adam, we got notice from the Detroit Free Press Marathon that they aren't going to be doing the race this year (not a shocker). We were offered the option to defer it to 2021 or to get a 50% refund. Adam, Jerry, and I were planning to run it together (Adam's first ever race); but since I haven't been training, I'm kind of relieved. I chose to get the refund--it really sucks that we only get 50% of it back (the race was $100 per person) but I don't know where I'm going to be in a year as far as fitness goes, so I don't want to commit right now.

My main goal for the remainder of this year is to get my head back in the game to be my best self--mentally and physically. This 75 Hard challenge is getting me there, and I hope that I'll be able to continue to work on myself in these ways (and more) when the 75 days are over.

In a perfect world, I'd be back at my goal weight by the end of the year and feel confident in a plan to keep it off. I would also be working on adding running to my routine--even if it's just a little here and there. I find that sometimes when I'm walking, I have the urge to run.

Yesterday, I tried running from the end of my street to my driveway, and it felt SO hard. My legs felt extremely heavy. I think if I can get some weight off and get in somewhat decent shape with the walking and bike riding, the running may feel easier. And if it feels easier, I'd be much more likely to do it again.

I think that stepping down from coaching cross country was the right decision for me. The season consumes my life each year, and even though I loved it, I wasn't able to focus on anything else. I'd really like to take the time to focus on getting the best ME back. I miss the confidence I felt and the control I had over my choices. I will miss cross country, but I won't miss the stress or the toll it takes on me mentally and physically.

Even if I don't get back to running, I think I can stick with walking for 45 minutes a day. It goes by surprisingly fast and I love listening to audiobooks and podcasts. (Bike riding seems to take forever; probably because I don't use headphones to distract me.) Even when the kids go back to school, I can easily make the time to walk for 45 minutes.

Well, it's already past my bed time (today was a super busy day, otherwise I would have posted this morning). So I'm going to read my book for a few minutes and then try to get to bed!

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75 Hard: Week 1 Recap

First, if you don't know what 75 Hard is, you can read about it in this post.

I can't believe it's been a week already since I started 75 Hard. I thought time would drag on, but it's flying by and I feel amazing--a million times better (mentally and physically) than I did just a week ago. It's done a ton for my overall mood.

Going into this, I was feeling so out-of-control with everything. I was constantly planning for "tomorrow" on getting back on track with my diet and exercise, but mentally, I just couldn't get there. I needed to feel better mentally so that I could have the strength to focus on the physical. I wasn't feeling depressed, per se, but just angry and disgusted with myself for losing all focus.

It's only been a week since I started this mental challenge, but I was feeling better by Day 3. This is the longest I've stuck with any sort of plan in who-knows-how long. And the best part is, I don't hate it; I don't feel like I'm white-knuckling my way through a torturous 75 days. Sure, I could make it "harder" by cutting out food groups and doing insane workouts, but the main reason I wanted to do this challenge is to get my head back in the game.

So, to recap this week... there are a lot of things to keep track of! I've been using a habit tracker app to check things off as I do them, but it's become completely routine now. I actually get most of the items done in the morning.

Drink one gallon of water every day.

This one is easy for me. I have a quart-sized water bottle, and I typically drink the whole thing within five minutes or so. I stop counting the number of times I refill it after my fourth bottle, but I probably drink one or two more after that. So I'm drinking about 1-1.5 gallons of water. That seems like so much!

Take a progress photo every day.

I do this right after I get dressed to go for my walk in the morning. I just take a full-body selfie and in the mirror in my bathroom. I'm not going to post the photos (at least not yet!) because they are terribly unflattering. Depending on how this challenge goes, I may post them later.

Today, I compared the one from a week ago to the one from today, and I already notice a difference in my stomach (a lot of the weight I've gained has been in my stomach).

Diet of choice + no alcohol.

I'm doing intermittent fasting with a 4-hour window. I keep this flexible as far as what time I plan to "break the fast" because I want to be able to allow for social situations. But I typically eat at 4:00.

I've love being able to make and eat very filling dinners. Before, I was always trying to keep calories low for each meal so that I could spread them throughout the day; now, I've had to adjust things to make the calories higher (since I'm condensing a day's worth of calories down to a 4-hour window).

After I eat, I feel totally satisfied until I go to bed, which is so different from when I was counting calories. I always used to "need" a snack at night, but the intermittent fasting helps in a several ways:

1) I love that I don't think about food all the time. I literally don't think about it until I'm cooking and getting ready to eat. When counting calories, all I could think about was food!

2) I like being hungry when it's time to eat because everything tastes SO good. Food always tastes better when I'm hungry. 

3) I love that I can eat until I'm full. I don't eat until I'm completely stuffed, but I eat until I am full enough to not want any more food. 

4) I'm eating healthier foods. Because I'm condensing everything down to a small window, I want to make sure to eat something nutritious. But I don't restrict myself from anything, though. 

5) I don't feel weak during the day like I sometimes did when counting calories. I don't know how or why this is, because I'm probably getting the same amount of calories (I haven't counted, but I can guesstimate). The only time I feel tired is immediately after eating. But even that is starting to fade. It was most noticeable the first few days.

6) This is something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. If I had to follow a particular "diet" for this 75 Hard challenge, I wouldn't have decided to do the challenge. I like doing things that I find work well for me and that I know I can maintain. 

Needless to say, I'm feeling great about the intermittent fasting!

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

I've been reading 'The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are' by Brené Brown (Amazon affiliate link). I received this from my friend Emily as a gift, and I read half of it back in 2017. I LOVED what I read and it really changed the way I was viewing things.

It helped me to stop worrying about what others think of me, which was a huge deal. Writing vulnerable posts on my blog opens up the door to receive some harsh/rude/cruel comments that used to hurt my feelings. After reading (half of) this book, I truly realized why those comments spoke more about the commenter than about me, and it actually gave me sympathy for the commenters. Comments still sting sometimes, but I'm able to look at them differently and realize it's not really about me.

I felt so empowered after half the book that I stopped reading it! Not very smart. I thinks it's a great book for the 75 Hard reading, so I started it from the beginning and will finish it this time. It's been a good refresher, and this time, I'm reading "actively"--highlighting and really absorbing different parts.

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

The hardest part of the whole challenge for me is the second 45-minute workout. Even though I'm only walking or riding my bike, I would rather be doing something else (something lazy). But I love that this challenge forces me to do it because I feel better for it.

I find that doing the first one right after getting up helps a lot. If I was to procrastinate this, I'd have a VERY hard time doing both workouts. And like I mentioned before, because I'm not doing hardcore workouts, I don't struggle with dreading it. 

Here is what my first week's workouts looked like (all were outdoors):

I like looking at my heart rate, especially to see how it works in the MAF zone. I'm surprised that my heart rate gets higher with bike riding than it does with walking, because bike riding feels easier. I have no idea why my heart rate was so high for my walk on Thursday. Since Garmin Connect was done, I didn't log any notes.

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So, the first week of 75 Hard is in the books, and I'm loving the changes I'm seeing/feeling already. This week may be more challenging because I'm going up north to visit my sister, but I'm still planning to do the checklist every single day!

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An Adrenaline Rush

Tomorrow, I'll write a summary of my first week of 75 Hard. Today is Day 7--I can't believe how fast this week has gone by! You can see how much I've walked this week by looking at all the loose change I picked up ;)  This is quite a haul--28 cents! Haha.

Speaking of... has anyone else heard about a coin shortage? I thought it was so odd! Instead of giving back coins for cash-paying customers at Kroger, they credit their Kroger card with the coins they were supposed to get back. And at Lowe's there was a sign about the coin shortage as well. Apparently, because the banks were closed due to quarantine (along with other places to turn in coins), the banks are short on coins. Interesting!

Yesterday was a crazy day--I'd posted about what happened with my parents' bikes and then I went out on my walk for 45 minutes. Then I worked in the garage until about 2:00 (I primed the ledge that I attached to the 2x4 sills--hopefully I'll get them painted today. My carpal tunnel has been bad, so my progress is slow). Then I came inside to change clothes and go for a second walk.

I'd like to ride my bike, but I need another day or two for my butt bones to stop hurting! (I'm sure there is a real name for them, but I keep calling them butt bones because that's the best way to describe them.) My shin splints are better. The only pain issue I have when walking is my left ankle.

This is the ankle that I injured when I fell off the ladder at Nathan's. It hasn't been the same since I fell--I think that was in February? Maybe March. I can walk (and even treadmill run) on it just fine, but whenever I supinate my left foot, I have a sharp pain. And since walking on the side of the road against traffic makes my left foot supinate a little, it causes the pain.

It's not stopping me from walking, though! In the spots where there is dirt or gravel on the side of the road, I like to walk on that. It's softer and doesn't slope like the road does. Also, I've been trying to walk on the righthand side of the road (where it's safe) so it's my right foot that supinates a bit rather than my left.

Anyway, I haven't missed any of my 45-minute workouts this week. It's always a little hard to motivate myself to do a second one each day, but the fact that I'm walking instead of running helps a lot. It's not super strenuous and I find it more enjoyable. I would love to start running again someday, but during this 75 Hard challenge, I prefer to do exercises that aren't as strenuous so that I don't get burnt out and quit. (Or injured)

Just before I was heading out for my walk yesterday, I saw a text message from a reader/friend who said to check my Runs for Cookies Facebook page because someone found my parents' bikes. My adrenaline shot sky high! I wasn't sure of the circumstances, but I wanted to make sure to claim them  before someone else did.

My hands were shaking from the adrenaline, and I hurriedly got the computer to look at Facebook. I saw that I had tons of notifications from people tagging me to let me know about the bikes. I was SO SHOCKED when I realized that they had been found--and that through social media, people connected the dots and linked the found bikes with my parents' lost bikes.

I want to give a shout out to George (manager) and Kevin (owner) from Straight Line Paint & Body (an auto body shop) in Port Huron, MI--I spoke with George on the phone last night and he said that yesterday morning, he noticed two bikes behind the dumpsters at work.

Rather than ignore them and leave them there for someone else to deal with, he took photos of them and posted them to a Port Huron Facebook page as a "found" item. Some people commented, "Hey, I saw these bikes in a post about a couple who had their bikes stolen". Then people tagged me in that post, and tagged Kevin and George in my post, and that's how we got connected.

Kevin called my mom right away and they made arrangements for my parents to drive up there and get their bikes back.

I was in so much shock that my post had actually helped (I knew it was a long shot) and I was so excited! Like I said, my adrenaline was sky high, so I headed out for my walk after messaging George and Kevin.

I was walking faster than I usually do, and I asked Jerry if he would pick me up if I just walked straight out for 45 minutes--I really wanted a change of scenery and I miss my old running routes (when I was running 6+ miles at a time).

It was a great walk. A great day altogether! :)

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