75 Hard: Round 2

Today marks Day 1 of 75 (again). 

I was doing great--yesterday was Day 32--and then last night, I decided to eat way outside of my intermittent fasting window. I wasn't even hungry! I knew what I was doing, but something just took control over me for a split second. It's kind of crazy how a single moment of weakness can make me choose to have to start a 75 day challenge all over again.

The main point of 75 Hard isn't just about working on the goals each day. It's having the discipline to do all of them every single day without fail--no exceptions, no excuses, no modifications. If you don't complete the checklist (even if it's just forgetting to take a progress photo one day!) then you have to start over again from Day 1.

(Here is my post about 75 Hard)

It was tempting to just pretend it didn't happen, but I knew I'd never be able to *honestly* say that I completed 75 Hard. And I didn't break just one of the "rules"--hahaha, I accidentally broke another later on! I saved my 10 pages of reading for before bed (I really need to do it in the mornings) and I fell asleep after reading only a page or two. I woke up at 3:00 AM with the light still on and my Kindle next to me.

So, between the unplanned late-night snack and the unintentional skipped reading, I have to start back at Day 1.

The funny thing is, I'm okay with that! I've really enjoyed doing this 75 Hard challenge, and I don't mind doing it longer. I didn't say, "Well, damn, I'll just start over on Monday" either. I woke up this morning, read 20 pages (to make up for the 10 I didn't read yesterday), took my progress photo, went for my walk, drank my water... all the same habits that I've been doing for the last month.

I got right back on track without missing a beat. I don't think I can say that I've EVER done that. That alone makes me feel like this challenge has helped make me stronger mentally. So, I'll still be writing about it, but just know that I'll be starting from Day 1 (today) and later on, I'll still compare things to my previous Day 1 start (out of curiosity).

---

This morning, when I was walking with Joey, I got a text message and I looked down at my phone for a minute. When I looked back up, I saw a huge black snake just to my left on the dike in front of my neighbor's house! I'm not afraid of snakes, but it scared the bejesus out of me because I was so close to it I nearly stepped on it. It was just a (non-venomous) water snake, but I've never seen such a big one.

Joey and I watched it for a minute before I nudged it to turn around and go back over the dike. Things never end well for snakes, frogs, turtles, and other things that crawl over the dike and try to cross the road!

---

We went to Brian and Becky's house for dinner to celebrate Riley's birthday--she's two years old and SO stinkin' cute! I'll write about that tomorrow, otherwise this post will be way too long.

While we were over there, Noah asked me if I felt the house move. I had no idea what he was talking about, but Brian and my dad had been outside talking and they felt the ground move and Brian even noticed the windows move a little. They'd stopped talking mid-sentence for a second because of the odd sensation, but didn't think anything of it.

Meanwhile, I was in the house getting Riley dressed into her pajamas. I didn't feel a thing. Jerry sent me a text from work asking if I'd felt anything, and I had no idea what he was talking about. It turns out that we actually had an earthquake! 

I think if I had been at home, I likely would have felt it--it originated just a few miles from my house. Brian's house is about 30 minutes away, but my family felt it there. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I've never felt an earthquake before--we simply never have them here! 

Jerry sent me this text from work. Bahahaha!

---

Anyway, I am going to watch a documentary that Adam told me about, so I'd better start it before it gets too late. If it's as good as he says, I'll write about it tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

Continue Reading...

Hello Fresh (this is *NOT* an ad!)

I'm sure you've all heard of Hello Fresh--a company that delivers the ingredients and recipes for meals. I don't know much about it except for what I've heard on advertisements. This is not a sponsored post or an ad of any kind; my mom just gave me part of a kit, so I thought I'd mention it.

My mom's friend orders Hello Fresh (for a single woman, it actually makes a lot of sense). I've never bought into these meal programs because 1) I'm a stay-at-home mom, so I work the grocery shopping/cooking into my days, and 2) It's crazy expensive. 

Anyway, my mom's friend was able to send a free kit to a friend, so she sent it to my mom. My dad is... well, not the most open-minded person when it comes to trying new foods, so my mom shared with me. First, she made a recipe and brought over the leftovers (a LOT, because my dad didn't want it). She also gave me a four-person meal of beef tostadas.

The recipe that my mom made was AMAZING. As I ate it, I realized just how easy it would be to make on my own, so I'm going to buy the ingredients to do that. (I didn't think to take a picture, but trust me--it was delicious!)

Tonight, I made the tostadas. I actually wasn't impressed with the amount of time (and dishes) it took to make this recipe. With a meal kit, I'd hoped it'd be super fast and easy. It was easy, which is great for people who don't typically know how to cook, but it took a lot of dishes to prepare and the prep work was--well, more than I would typically like.

I made the kids do all the dishes after dinner. Hahaha ;) 

Aside from that, it tasted pretty good! I definitely liked the dish my mom made much better, but this one was good, too. I could recreate it, but it's not at the top of my priority list. Here are the cards that show the recipes, so you can see how the meal delivery system works. The ingredients shown are what are delivered with the recipe.

Here is the one that my mom made. It's called "Pork, Mushroom and Carrot Bibimbap". I've never heard the word "bibimbap" before. But just trust me that it tastes really good!

They send you all the ingredients, but nothing is prepped--so you have to do all the prep work yourself. To me, this wasn't helpful at all. Since I do the meal planning and grocery shopping, I will already have the ingredients on hand. However, for someone who doesn't have the time to meal plan or shop, this wouldn't be super convenient. On the bright side, it made a pretty large amount of food! (I used two kits' worth, so it was four servings.)

Anyway, the family liked it (although it was kind of greasy) but I don't think I'd get the ingredients to make it again. The Asian dish that my mom made, however, was SO GOOD that I'll definitely be buying the ingredients to make that again!

---

This morning, Little Duck was cracking me up. He insisted on being in my "progress photo" for 75 Hard. He's grown quite a bit over the last month, so apparently, he wanted to show that off ;)

---

During my morning walk, I took Joey to his favorite place... the access road that goes through the marsh across the street. I like going there because I can let him off of his leash and he LOVES running through the brush and into the marsh and bouncing all over the place. Right now, the path is the most overgrown I've ever seen it, however. I hope that someone mows it soon.

Anyway, here is Joey in all his glory:

---

I finished up the shelves in the garage today! Yesterday, I finished building them and then I primed them. Today, I painted them. I used the same paint that I did on the walls, so it's not very exciting, but I didn't want to have to buy more paint unless necessary and they are going to be loaded with the junk in the garage, so does it really matter that they are the same gray color as the walls? 

I'm just really excited to have them done! Here is a before and after photo of the wall. The before is a true "before"--when I hadn't even started working on the insulation or drywall. It's taken from the same angle as the one from today. A huge difference, right?!

Tomorrow, I'm going to put things on the shelves and hopefully get the garage back to normal! I promised a couple of people that I'd make squirrel picnic tables for them, and I can't wait to have my tools back :)

Continue Reading...

11 Years Ago, I Weighed 253 Pounds

I'm pretty sure I write about this every year on this day, but it's a significant day to me. Other than the birth of my children, this day in 2009 was probably the biggest game changer of my life. (My favorite post I've written on this anniversary date can be found here: Fed Up!)

It was on August 19, 2009 that I stepped on the scale and saw 253.0 pounds. It was my highest weight other than when I was pregnant with Eli (I got up to 271 when I was pregnant). On this day (it was a Wednesday, which is why I've always done my "official" weigh-ins on Wednesdays), I started counting Weight Watchers Points. 

I really had no idea that I was going to stick with it as long as I did. I had tried losing weight a trillion times before and I didn't think this time would be any different. 

There was one thing that I did differently this time around: I decided that I wasn't going to make any changes that I wasn't willing to do for the rest of my life. Note that I wrote "willing to"--not "can". Technically, I CAN make pretty much any change for the rest of my life--but I'm not willing to do a lot of those things. (I wrote a post about it here: The "Golden Rule" That Helped Me Lose 125 Pounds.)

Whenever I'd tried to lose weight before, I made dietary changes that I figured would be the fastest way to lose weight. I was only thinking in the short term; the long term plans weren't even an issue for me. And that is why I was never successful at losing the weight. 

This time around, 11 years ago, I decided I was only going to make changes that I was willing to do forever if that's what it took. My weight loss story is all over my blog, so I won't recap the whole thing here.

But I do like to think back to what it felt like to be 253 pounds. It was so long ago that I tend to forget why I wanted to lose the weight. Here are some things that I remember from before I lost the weight:

I wanted to be able to play with my kids rather than just sit and watch them play.

I wanted to be able to bend over and tie my shoes without having to hold my breath.

I hated that I always felt out of breath. I would cover the mouthpiece of my phone after answering so that the person on the other end couldn't hear my breathlessness.

I was always tugging at my shirt and adjusting my pants to try to hide the rolls of fat, especially in photos. And I would always use my kids or other people to shield me in photos in order to be as invisible as possible.

It's funny--in the pictures below, I actually tried to hide behind a couple of accessories. In my size 24 dress, I used a black sash to try to cover my stomach. And in the other picture, I wore a scarf to try to hide my double chin. Hahaha!

I wore Jerry's size 2XL work t-shirts all the time. I didn't have clothes that fit me because I hated shopping so much. I wore the same few pairs of pants (size 24W) and Jerry's shirts. And Crocs! Because I couldn't tie my shoes, I wore slip-on Crocs most of the time.

I couldn't wrap a bath towel all the way around my body. There was a huge gap in the front.

I wanted to wear cute lingerie so badly, but I didn't feel pretty or worthy enough to wear it. I remember buying my first teddy after losing the weight. I (and Jerry!) loved it ;)

I never felt pretty. I was told all the time that I had "such a pretty face" (why is that so cliché?) but I couldn't see it. If someone complimented me, I thought they were just saying it to be polite. I couldn't fathom the possibility that their compliment may have been sincere.

Some may find it surprising, but I wasn't lazy. I refused to fit that stereotype. I used to take the stairs in office buildings (even if it was several flights up). I parked far from the door in parking lots. I took my kids places like the zoo, where there was a lot of walking. I WANTED to be lazy, but I didn't want to fit that "fat" stereotype.

There are so many other things that I could write about from back then. I actually wrote a post called 100 Ways My Life Changed When I Lost 100 Pounds, and it describes a lot of these in detail.

My weight has gone up and down more times than I can count over the past 11 years, but I've managed to keep most of the weight off. My life is completely different in a lot of ways--I feel better, I look better, I'm healthier--but there are a lot of things that haven't changed much as well. I will always feel self-conscious of my size (even when I was wearing a size 2, I felt uncomfortable). I still don't *love* exercise. I still eat junk food. I still think about my weight way too much and put too much importance on it.

However, the positives far outweigh the negatives. And I need to remind myself every year that I am far better off now than I was before. When I remember how I felt on this day in 2009, I am grateful that I don't have to feel that way anymore. 

Whether I'm having up days or down days, I am always trying to improve myself and feel my best. I have so much to be grateful for, but I am always in pursuit of my happiest life :)

I wanted to post a good "after" photo here, but there never really IS an "after" in my story. There are so many ups and downs! So instead of choosing a photo based on my weight, I decided to choose a fairly recent photo from when I felt extremely good about myself. 

I put in MONTHS of blood, sweat, and tears (and lots of bruises) to remodel my home. I was SO proud of my entire DIY project and I couldn't believe how much I had done. Things I never could have imagined. I taught myself so much and I felt like I could do anything!

So, here is a photo to represent that. Wearing my ratty painting/work clothes standing in the kitchen that I had completely made over, I felt amazing. (Here is the page with all of my DIY projects that I did to makeover my house)

Continue Reading...

Garage Shelves

I am so tired I can barely hold my head up right now--and it's only 8:15 PM! I had such a busy day. I hate to do another "no post" blog post, but I am hoping that I might actually be able to get in bed by 9:00 today.

Well, even 10:00 would be great.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of the shelves I'm building in the garage. I've run into several problems with them (mainly because of the concrete foundation wall) so they have been taking longer than I'd hoped. But I'm almost done. And Eli is going to help me paint them when they are done :)

I planned on using Ana White's plans, but because of the foundation wall and the fact that the front frame part of the plans was a total disaster, I had to improvise. Regardless, I love how they are turning out!

Continue Reading...

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! :)

Continue Reading...

Anniversary Photos That I Almost Didn't Post

Today, Jerry and I have been married for 17 years. In some ways, it feels like forever; in others, it feels like we just got married yesterday. We both definitely feel like newlywed kids--even 17 years, two kids, a nephew, two nieces, a house, and several pets later.

Because of COVID, we didn't make any big plans for our anniversary today. What we really wanted to do was to go to Red Lobster and then to the movies--something we did ALL THE TIME when we were dating. Due to the circumstances, we decided to stay home, make a Doritos Taco Salad and watch a couple of movies with the kids. Basically a typical weekend night ;)

Jerry bought us something fun for our anniversary, and I was SO excited when I saw it. He can never wait more than three seconds to give me a gift, so the second it arrived in the mail, he told me he couldn't wait and he gave me the package straight from the mail.

He'd designed matching shirts for us to wear today! Hahaha, it was so random, but exactly something Jerry would do. And it's one of my favorite gifts ever, because it made me laugh and it was a fun inside joke between us.

He chose my very favorite photo of us (from like a hundred years ago--2013?--but still...) and wrote on it:

[chuckles]
Since 1999

Jerry and I have been together since May of 1999, which is why he put that year. And the [chuckles] is kind of an inside joke. In our "old age" these days, we watch TV with the captions on (my hearing isn't as sharp as it used to be).

When we first started using the captions, we would see the funniest descriptions (and we still do) and it would make us laugh together. Our favorite is "chuckles" because it's such a funny word and nobody really uses it. 

When we got the kittens, we started blending their names together--and when we said Chuck (Chick + Duck), we both burst out laughing and said we totally should have named one of them Chuckles. 

Anyway, that's where the "chuckles" came from on the shirts.

Every anniversary, we like to have one of the kids take a few pictures of us to collect as we age through the years. I've been so self-conscious lately of the weight I've gained and I've been avoiding the camera as much as possible (other than my daily "progress photo" for 75 Hard) but I still wanted to get photos today.

We each put on our t-shirt and posed while Noah took some pictures. I was feeling good because of all of the hard work I've been doing with 75 Hard; and then when I saw the pictures, I got really upset. I don't know what I was expecting, but I couldn't believe how big I look in them. I look the same size (if not bigger) than Jerry!

I really didn't want to share these pictures. I wanted to just pretend that everything was great and that I'm super happy with the progress I've made. I certainly didn't want to let this ruin our anniversary. 

But I keep telling myself that in 20, 30, 40 years, am I really going to care what my weight was today? Will it really matter if people judge me today for how I look? Maybe I'll lose the weight again and maybe I won't--but I'm sure that the most judgmental person is ME. Instead of seeing my husband of 17 years looking amazing and fun and happy, I was looking at a roll here or a bulge there on my body. (But seriously, doesn't Jerry look great?! He's been doing intermittent fasting since a few months before I started.)

Jerry couldn't understand what I was even talking about. He kept saying that I look amazing, and of course, I told him the's only saying that because he's my husband. When he compliments me, I have such a hard time believing it. 

I'm still not happy with how I look in these photos, but I'm going to post them. Because I'm proud that Jerry and I have been married for 17 years and we've been through all sorts of ups and downs. I'm not going to let these photos "ruin" our anniversary, and I'm going to continue to work on ME.

Maybe next year I'll be happy with our anniversary photos and maybe I won't; but these photos are a visual of a very stressful couple of years for me. They represent that things aren't always perfect, but we pull through. In a way, they even make me feel lucky because I have a husband that sees me as beautiful no matter what.

Jerry is my very best friend and I'm continuously in awe that he puts up with my "craziness". It's hard to be with someone who has bipolar disorder! To quote Forrest Gump, my very favorite movie, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Except "life" is me and he opens that's box daily--sometimes hourly! Hahaha.

"I'm gonna lean up against you, and you just lean right back against me. This way we don't have to sleep with our heads in the mud..."

Jerry and I have literally NOTHING in common, but we somehow make our relationship work. I love to spend time with him, even if it's just sitting in the same room together. Some of my favorite parts of our relationship:

We quote from movies and TV shows completely randomly during conversations.
We balance each other out--he's an extrovert and I'm an introvert.
We agree on how we raise our kids.
Jerry is SO willing to take on chores/tasks around the house to make things easier on me when I'm stressed out or depressed. He is not afraid to do laundry or dishes and he never avoided changing a diaper when our kids were little.
We trust each other 100%. About everything.
We don't keep secrets from each other.
We do all sorts of goofy things that people would consider immature, but we have so much fun together.

And that's all I have to say about that. ;)

---

Just for fun... 

Continue Reading...

Saturday Night Tidbits

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

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

---

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

Continue Reading...

Postless

I am not going to write a post today, sorry! Jerry is off work for the weekend, and we are having a movie night with the boys. It's rare that all four of us are home at the same time!

I hope that everyone has a great weekend--I'll write tomorrow :)

Here is a picture of Joey on our walk today...

It's been a great (but tiring!) day :)

Continue Reading...

The Story of Our Psych Cinnamon Pie

I've mentioned before how much my family loves the TV show Psych. It's a great family show and just fun to watch! I adore the banter between Shawn and Gus, and I especially love all of the different names that Shawn creates for Gus when introducing him to people. 

A couple of Christmases ago, I even designed a Psych shirt for each of the kids, and I love how they turned out. I wish I'd have thought to do a shirt with a list of all the names Shawn gave Gus through the seasons! There are probably hundreds.

To the point... 

In one episode, Shawn and Gus go to a small town called Dual Spires. The town is known for their amazing cinnamon, and Shawn and Gus were invited to the cinnamon festival. There is a scene where they go into a diner and are given a piece of cinnamon pie. They were both a little skeptical of it, but after one bite they totally fell in love with it.

Throughout the rest of the episode, they can be seen eating pieces of cinnamon pie--sitting in the diner, walking around town, etc--probably the equivalent of a couple of pies each. They absolutely loved it and couldn't get enough. 

After seeing this episode, the kids, Jerry, and I all wanted to try this cinnamon pie. I'd never even heard of such a thing! I sorted through a dozen or so recipes on the internet until I found one that sounded good. That was about three years ago, and we just never got around to actually making it. Eli's been watching Psych again recently and he asked if we could finally make the pie.

I bought the ingredients and Eli and I made cinnamon pie. The batter smelled just like a cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting--I couldn't wait to eat it!

It ended up being every bit as good as I'd hoped. The whole family loved it, and we all agreed that we need to make it once a week. It has the texture of pumpkin pie and tastes like a cinnamon roll.

The original recipe can be found here on RelatableKate.com; I only made a couple of minor changes, including my crust recipe, which I'll type out here.

For the crust: I used my go-to crust that is almost impossible to screw up. I admit that I suck at baking, but even I can make this crust. 

Ingredients for Crust:

1-1/3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup oil (any flavorless oil will do)
2 Tbsp cold water

Directions for crust: 

In a pie plate, combine all ingredients with a spoon (or your hands). When all the flour is moistened, gather all the dough into a ball and put it in the center of the pie plate. With your hands, press the dough across the bottom and up the sides of the plate, forming a shell. No need to grease the plate (the oil in the dough keeps it from sticking). And better yet, no rolling out the dough! (You can try to make pretty edges, but I don't bother.)

Ingredients for the filling:

8 oz brick of cream cheese, softened to room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 whole egg plus two egg yolks
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3-1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon (it seems like a LOT of cinnamon, but trust me!)
2 Tbsp. flour

To make the filling, combine the cream cheese, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl on high speed until it's smooth and airy. Add the eggs, cream, butter, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Combine the cinnamon and flour in a small dish and then slowly add it to the mixing bowl. Make sure you just add a little at a time to avoid clumps.

Once it's all mixed together and nice and uniform in texture, pour the batter into the pie crust. The pie will rise slightly in the oven, so don't overfill it. Bake at 350 F for about 45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The original recipe says to let the pie cool completely, but we couldn't help ourselves. We cut into it while it was still slightly warm and we served it with Reddi-whip on top. 

Here is a printer-friendly version (with my crust recipe)

And of course, we ate it while watching the Dual Spires episode of Psych :)

Continue Reading...

Two Great Workouts... and a Nap?!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

<hr>

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

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

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

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

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

-One or two sentence description of the transformation

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

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

Thanks for sharing :)

(Here are the previous Transformation Tuesday posts for ideas)

<hr>

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

Continue Reading...