Lunatic Dog

 It was a rough week.  I mean, rough!  I didn't make all that many strides toward being the healthiest version of me.  But, I will still call the last week a win because I survived and I didn't gain.  Sure, I didn't lose weight, but I also didn't gain!  

I woke up on Monday and I was so ready to get rolling with exercise.  Still in my nightgown, I threw on some tennis shoes and commenced with my planned exercise.  I was sweating and getting into it when the dog came ambling out of the bedroom.   Yes, my dog does NOT like to wake up and will typically stay in the bedroom for for at least 10-15 minutes if not longer until she is sufficiently awake.   She came out and instead of laying down near me, she went to the sliding glass door to go out.  I paused my workout and walked to the door.  I actually looked out to make sure there wasn't any wild animal in the yard and slid open the door to let her out.  You see, Jason never has her on a leash and I have been following suit, while he is home. It is so nice on these cold mornings (it was chilly) to not have to 'suit up' to take her out at 5AM!  She walked out and immediately squatted to do her business.   I gave her a 'good girl' as she finished up.  But then she took a few steps further into the yard.  My mind was thinking, "ok, she has to do number 2 also."   But no, she took  a few steps and then took off running into the dark.  My heart sank!  It was 5AM and my dog had just run away!  I yelled for her to come back and do you think that pesky dog came back?  Of course NOT.  I called for her a few more times and she didn't come.  In my head I envisioned her already down at the corner chasing who knows what wild animal.  I turned and ran back inside and straight into the warm steamy bathroom where Jason was showering.  I yelled out my dilemma and then turned to run back outside to try to coax my wayward dog home.   The next thing I knew, Jason was standing beside me right outside the sliding door.  He called for the dog a few times and whadya know?  That dog came lopping right back into the yard and skedaddle right into the house.  She knew she was in trouble...she RAN to her crate and self punished herself.   Now you may already be laughing about this story.....but I haven't mentioned the absolute best part!  When Jason came out of the shower he knew he had to corral his disobedient canine quickly...so he had wasted no time.  He did not dry off.  He did not get dressed.  In fact, he didn't even grab a towel.  Yes, my husband was out yelling for the dog naked as a jaybird!  At lunch when we texted each other, he actually asked me. "Do you think they neighbors heard me yelling at her so loud at 5AM?"   I busted out laughing and responded. "I don't know if they heard you or not, but you should have been more concerned about if they SAW you"  I giggled ALL. DAY. LONG about this.   

 Most awesome story ever.....and no, I never finished the workout. 

Tuesday morning was no less eventful.  I woke up sick as dog!  I laid in bed for a bit,  thinking that I must have a touch of some stomach bug. But then I started to really isolate where the pain was.  Once I realized WHERE the pain was coming from, I knew.  I was having a flare up of GERD.   Oh hell no!   Last year I ended up in the ER and they gave me IV medications and all that jazz.  I did NOT want to go that route.  So , miserable as I was and even though putting anything into my mouth (food, pills or water) was the last thing I wanted to do, I started to down medicine.  I dosed myself up heavy.   I ate mylanta like it was candy! And luckily, I was able to get the flare up under control.  It was a pretty miserable day though!

I woke up on Wednesday just tired.   The GERD flare-up just wiped me out!  No exercise for me!  But I did walk the dog (on a leash) at the normal time before work.   We were walking through the grove of nut trees, heading to drag the garbage can back up to the house.  When all of a sudden Zoey saw a dog and she took off running. Normally this is not a problem. She is on a leash so she runs and then stops.  But this time she ran around a tree.  The force of the leash catching and stopping her momentarily wrenched my arm backward and reflexively I dropped the leash.   And just like that, my dog was on the loose again.  I was yelling out to the person on the road, "she is friendly...she is friendly"  as I chased after my dog and her dangling leash.   Zoey showed no sign of aggression.  Nor did she jump up.  She just wanted to be friendly with the man and his dog.  I got there and untangled the leash and kept apologizing profusely about my lunatic dog.  

No exercise that day because of just being so tired and wore out from the flare up!

Thursday, oh my aching arm and shoulder!  Remnants of lunatic dogs great escape the day before. Dumb Dog.  No exercise those days either!

I made the choices this week.  Exercise doesn't always mean health.  I made choices for my HEALTH and that is ok.  

Food wise?  I haven't tracked a single bite I have eaten.  That is ok also because I maintained!  The no exercise and no tracking can't continue though!  So back at it!

10 week Challenge Week 1 Recap

 I started my 10 week challenge one week ago.  The week has flown by and it is time to share my progress!  If you are doing the challenge with me, let me know in the comments how you did!

 To start with, I will go ahead and recap quickly what the 10 week challenge is.  There are 4 basic parts.  Food, water, cardio and a few strength moves to be done 5 days a week with two days of rest built in (or two days with extra opportunity to get more movement).  The strength moves are easy and focus on functional movement.(you can download the chart here)

 Cardio

I totally nailed the cardio aspect of this challenge. I got my cardio and completed each of the five 'required' week days cardio workouts.   On the weekend I didn't do any formal exercise routine but rather  stayed busy with life and yard work and other manual labor things.  (I used the push mower and did all the trim work, I weeded a LOT, I moved downed tree branches to the burn pile, took mulch from our big pile and mulched a complete path, etc.  )

Admittedly, there was a one day (Day one actually) were the cardio just about killed me.  OK, killed is rather dramatic!   But seriously, that day I was NOT feeling it and wanted to quit every one of those 20 minutes!  But I stayed consistent and completed it.  The only thing that kept me from quitting was this 10 week challenge!

While I did have my day of struggle, I also had some victorious days where I went above and beyond to complete 40-50 minutes of cardio.  Some in one sitting and once with a double workout! (Once before work and once after work, for 20 minutes a piece.)

Water

I nailed my water consumption also!  Totally nailed it.  I did so well on this that toward the end of the week I went from 64 ounces of water consumption to 80 ounces.  I did have a few issues with bathroom trips in the middle of the night on one day when I didn't get my water done early enough in the day. My typical plan for water is to drink the bulk of my water during the day and to be done heavy drinking by 5PM.  I still drink in the evening, but not as much.  This has historically always been the trick to keep me from getting up a gazillion times in the night for a potty break. I didn't do that one night this week and I lived to regret it with multiple bathroom trips that interrupted my sleep.  But I learned my lesson and didn't do that again! 

Strength

As you can see from the above chart the strength stuff is really just functional movements.   I am embarrassed to admit how difficult these have become for me.  There was a day just a few short years ago that these movements were NOTHING.   I remember when Jason and I were talking about planks one day in our early days of dating.  We did a plank challenge to see who could hold it the longest.  I lowered to a plank and  held it....and held it....and held it.  Minutes upon minutes.  No shaking, no quaking no struggle.  I just held that plank.  This week I discovered that my plank ability has disappeared.  5-10 seconds was a struggle.  How sobering is that?

It wasn't just the plank that was difficult. The sit ups and crunches were tough and the wall sits were murder.    I don't know why I was so shocked at how difficult they had really become.  If I am being honest with myself, simple functional movement in life has become quite difficult for me in the last year.   It was seemingly overnight that it became difficult for me to kneel and then stand again.   Even sitting down and standing again has felt like a lumbering chore.   It has freaked me out.  It happened overnight.  I'm only 51! I'm too young for that!  This challenge is a place to start to regain that movement!

It was difficult, but I completed my week of movement for this aspect of the 10 week challenge.  I may have had to do my planks in 5 second intervals.  My push-ups may have been the sissy version and barely a push up at that.    I may have been shaking and struggling on the wall sits and my sit ups and crunches may have not been perfect or even correct.  But I did them!

Food and the Scales

I did great with my eating!  I kept my calories within the proper range each and every day.   I had a few struggles through the week, but I kept it under control.  I was so super proud of myself!   So how in the world did I manage to only maintain my weight?    I was sure that I was going to show a loss!  How could it be anything else?   Yet, the weight didn't budge.  (In fairness, it didn't go up either, which is a good thing!)

How disappointing!  How demoralizing!  How utterly horrible!

On to week Two of the 10 Week Challenge

I'm not letting it get to me though.  I made great first steps toward regaining some of the mobility that has been slowly slipping away.  I have been drinking my water.  I've been exercising.  And my food has been controlled.   What I did would have been enough to see BIG losses in past years.  However, it's not working for me now.  My body and hormones are adjusting, so that means I need to adjust also.   I just need to tweak one or two things to start losing.  I can't blame it on anything other than my food this time because I've gotten all the components for success in place.  So food is where I am focusing.

My first thought was to up my protein.  I've heard protein is huge for a woman of my age.  So I did my research to see how much a 51 year old woman should be eating.  I then went to Myfitnesspal to see what my recommended daily amount was. (It was the same.)   I then looked at my past week to find out where my stats lay.   I was pretty spot on with my protein.   There may have been one day that was a bit lower.  But for the most part I was spot on.  So I knew that protein was not the issue. (However, I will continue to monitor and try to increase wherever I can.)

So that left me with my second thought.   Calories.   I have long kept my calories at a low level.  1200-1500 is my range (and honestly, I prefer to keep them 1200-1300 for weight loss).     Now immediately, I know that some people will be like 'well that is your problem, it's too low".  BUT, I have long tried to hold on to some semblance of normalcy.  I am already hyper focused on tracking my food, I wanted to retain some sense of freedom by not weighing and measuring every bite of food I eat.  So for me, the lower calorie count is my way or allowing myself to not measure everything and to not worry about counting that squirt of ketchup or drizzle of chocolate syrup.  It has historically worked for me, so I had no thoughts that it wasn't working.  But clearly SOMETHING is not working.  So, the goal for this upcoming week is to measure, weigh and count EVERYTHING.   It's possible I will need to do this long term.  However, it is possible that I just need a reset of my mental judgement for measurements and portion sizes.

Honestly, I am NOT looking forward to this.  I have always resisted losing this last piece of freedom.  But it is what it is!   I want change to occur, so that means I need to change.   Crazy that that thought of change came to me a few days ago.....and this disappointment on the scale that has forced me to look at myself and forced  ME to change.   I don't like the view of where my life is going without change.......so I will change myself to change my future!

I did it...but

We had a great weekend....but.    

I started out my weekend on Friday morning.  I had the day off so I spent it with my mom.  We had some random errands to run and we got everything on  

mount list completed so I was happy!   One of the items to do was for me to get a pair of slip on (backless) tennis shoes to wear around the house.   I am hoping that wearing a shoe every time I am on my feet will help eliminate some of this plantar fasciitis mess!  If it helps  I will feel embarrassed that I went a year with pain to only find that wearing shoes 24-7 fixed it...but after 2.5 days I am cautiously optimistic.  My foot does still hurt but it hasn’t been too bad this weekend!  I had some pictures from the day.....but.......

On Saturday we headed out in the morning to one of our mushroom locations!  We were out hiking for about two hours, but that spot was just a dry mushroomless barren ground for us!  I took pictures of the nice scenery though!  BUT........

Since mushroom hunting was a bust, we headed home and grabbed our bikes!  We just went to the canal but we got a nice ride in!  Boy....switching bike seats sure does make my keister hurt!  But it will toughen up!   We enjoyed the fabulous weather, the time in on our  bikes, some light mushroom hunting and the day together!  I took pictures....but!

On Sunday we headed out to our mushroom spot that has been generous with us this year.   We knew that due to the projected weather that this would most likely be the last of the morel mushroom hunting for this year!  Our spot was very generous with us again!  We were out for a few hours...crisscrossing and circling trees....following animal trails...tromping through brush and briars!   I even stopped to take a picture....but.....

About three hours into our successful mushroom hunting expedition I reached down to grab my phone to take a picture!  It was going to be a beauty!  Only....my phone was not there!!  My phone had somehow become dislodged from my possession!   We used the find my phone feature on my watch and Jason kept calling my phone so that I would know should we be close to my phone and we headed back into the woods.  But we had walked and roamed aimlessly (well not really aimlessly...we covered the woods like a blanket) for three hours prior to me noticing the absence of my phone.  Were we at this tree?  Or was it the tree over there?  Let me see if my phone is close to us.  Nope....we aren’t close enough to the phone...let’s walk a bit further. We never got any reaction from my phone. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.  A needle that we never found. After an hour of searching I admitted defeat.

My only consolation was that my phone was old and was going to have to be replaced within the next year anyway.  Ok, that’s not much of a consolation is it.   I was also consoled that I did have the money to buy another phone outright....but once again...not much of a consolation because that purchase was taking away from my quest to save money for a down payment for a house!

We left the woods and we headed to the store....yup...I am now the owner of a new phone.  And a good chunk of money poorer!  I will say though....the newest iPhone cameras are amazing!   (IPhone 12 Pro Max).   Zoom is crystal clear...even in lower light!  I will be enjoying grabbing pictures!    I just need to figure out how to superglue it to my fingers whilst hiking and mushroom hunting!!

Random facts:

**Luckily I am pretty good about backing up my photos from my phone.  So I only lost about a week or so of pictures!  (Including all the pictures from this weekend)

**I am not planning on downloading the scores of mindless games that I had on my previous phone....they are a mindless waste of time and I feel I would do much better with things that are enriching to my mind.

**I almost caved with the games last night in the middle of the night while I laid in bed wide awake!!  But I held firm and downloaded them NOT!

**An app to post on my this blog was one of the very first things I downloaded.

**Kiwi was the subject that I used to test the camera the most.   (The picture below is zoomed in...I was sitting about 10 -15 feet away!)

**I managed to grab one or two of Jason whilst he was being silly also. But I swore I would not post them on Facebook....bit wait...this isn’t Facebook is it?? Hmmmmm

**This was the first phone I ever lost or broke!!   May it be the last!

**I have been with iPhone since my very first smart phone....which I got so the in a year or so of them coming on the market.  It is what I know and am comfortable with.  Jason loves his Android/galaxy phones.  But I still love him anyway!  Hahaha 

So you get a mostly pictures blog post today!

As for my weight....I showed a maintain but I ate like a starving pig all weekend long...crazy foods...not much healthy about my food intake this weekend!  

Healthy Choices

I am super proud of this past week.   The scales may not show my efforts and the steps that I took to be healthy.  I however know what I did in the arena of my healthy eating and my healthy fitness pursuits and I couldn’t be happier!  

Exercise through the week

Let’s start with exercise because this may be the place that I am most proud.  I started my work week and I had been planning on running on my lunch breaks and that very first day I wimped out!  Oh yes I did.  All morning I flat out decided and vowed that there would be no run!   And then about 10 minutes before lunch I got my mind straight and I went out!   Day one done!   I used my lunch break all week wisely for exercise (except one day when I had some other stuff to do)  I rode the exercise bike one day but the rest of the time I was outside jogging.   And of course we had that nice hike over the weekend!

Healthy Eating

I am not going to lie or stretch the truth and say that I didn’t have ANY sweet treat.  I did.   The first day of my weigh in week I splurged and had a piece of shoofly pie.   The rest of the week (and the week before) I did not indulge in any sweet treat!    I didn’t succumb to any unhealthy snacking temptation.  One day I was really struggling and I ate a banana!   I ate lots of fruits and veggies.  My lunches were a nice salad.   I was eating healthy nutritious food.

My calories were up between 1600 and 1800 calories each day.   That is exactly where all the calculators and whatnot tell me I need to be in terms of caloric intake. 

Scales are Stupid

I made healthy choices all around this past week.   For a while I thought I was going to have a gain....but at the last minute my weight leveled back out and I had a maintain!    (Whew!)

It is infuriating to be active and make healthy choices and still gain/maintain!!!!

So looking more deeply.   I know that 1600-1800 calories should have me losing weight.  I read the books, I listen to the comments.  I try it, because honestly I WANT to be able to eat those calories!   But I figured out long ago that my body doesn’t work that way.  When I did weight watchers (successfully) I figured out that when I ate my extra flex points/weekly points/exercise earned points that I didn’t lose weight. I remember a night when a friend from the meeting turned to me and said, ‘I find it so sad that you can’t eat those extra points’.   It just doesn’t work for my body!  I have at various times over the years had my thyroid checked...it’s working just fine.   It’s just how MY body works...sadly enough!

Moving forward to lose weight

I plan on continuing the lunchtime runs/bike rides.   I also plan on keeping up with the healthy nutritious foods.    The big change?  I will be working to bring my calorie count a whole lot lower!!!!  I know for my body it is important.  I talk about it constantly, but I just have resisted doing it!!!!   I can’t resist any longer!!!!