Intermittent Fasting, sort of

I started a modified version of intermittent fasting a few weeks ago.  I can't remember exactly when I started, to be honest.  I'm pretty sure this is my fourth week.  It is, I just checked. 

I listen to true crime podcasts (and Watch What Crappens, about Bravo TV shows).  One of my favorites, that I've listened to since the very beginning (only a year and a half ago), is Housewives of True Crime.  They do a lot of gossiping and are very cliche "California girls."  But I enjoy them. I follow them on Facebook and they started another page for the keto diet.  I don't do keto, I have tried to stay low carb, and  have cut way back since they started this group.  But someone in the group said they were doing keto and intermittent fasting.  And then a friend of mine said he lost 10lbs from intermittent fasting, so I decided to try. 

I am very, very loose with my IF.  I wanted to do something that I could do without cheating.  So I am only fasting for 15 hours, instead of 16.  I choose to eat between 11am and 8pm, this is because of coffee and wine.  And believe me, waiting for my coffee is difficult.  I know black coffee is allowed, but I don't drink black coffee, I think it's gross.  I have not been perfect with my timing, either.  In fact, just this morning I ate my avocado at 10:50 and had my coffee.  And last night my last glass of wine was finished at 8:08pm. 

The first couple days I had a headache in the morning because of lack of caffeine, but even though I'm looking at the time from 10am on, I am no longer getting a headache.  I did discover that I cannot run before eating.  I ran one day at 10:30 and it was terrible.  With the hot days coming (remember western WA summers don't start until July 5th, and we had one day of warm weather and today it's cool again) I'm not sure if I will be able to avoid eating because I will need to run before it gets too warm.  I have been running most often at 11:30, time for my coffee to get in me and some food, but then I also run into (literally) the problem of having to use the bathroom.  Sometimes so bad I can't wait.

Last Thursday I had to brave the hospital because it's on my route and I couldn't go any farther without using the bathroom.  The lady that screened me was really nice, but I don't really want to go into the hospital if I don't have to, and I was worried she wouldn't let me go.  I would have had an accident, so I'm glad she was nice.

I have decided that Saturday and Sunday I will not be waiting until 11am to eat.  I did the first 2 weekends and it just doesn't work with my weekend schedule (shopping and running).  But I also figure that it will change things up so my body doesn't get too used to a certain routine.

I think IF is supposed to make it so you eat less, but I really don't think I am.  I still keep track of all my food and my calories are still pretty high.  I did lose 7lbs the first week and a half I started IF, but then I gained 3 lbs back, and then my weigh in this morning (which is not official) I was back down another pound.  So I've lost 5lbs in 4 weeks, which is actually better than I've done in a long time.  I'm going to continue with it for now and see where it goes.  It does help me to quit snacking in the evening, and quit drinking wine.  So that's good. 

I would like to lose another 10lbs before going on vacation in August.  That is only 4 weeks away, so I think that's not going to happen.  If I lost 5lbs I'd be happier, but it would be better to lose 10 . . . I think I have to do better at eating less during my 9 hours of eating.

So we did a thing . . .

I love the summer.  I love the sun and the warmth, and the tan lines.  😀 (I always put on sunscreen, but I still tan.)  I have put out a "kiddie" pool for as long as I've had a house to put one up in. 

 This is from my parent's house, but I couldn't find a pool picture from my house.  This is 2012, Maddox was 1. 😊  It's kind of an ironic picture because the pool that I grew up with was between where the kiddie pool is and the chicken coop.  My parents took it out when my youngest sister went to college.

 This is from 2013 at my old house.  We put the pool in an indent from a tree we dug out of the yard, which was rather perfect.

This is from 2015 at my current house, which you can't see much but me in.  😂

And last year I decided to buy a "real" pool.  We half-assed the leveling of the area, but I loved the pool.  

So this year when I started thinking about the process of leveling again, I really didn't want to have to do it every single year.  Our neighbors put in tile brick for their (big) pool a few years ago, so I decided we should do that . . . so that was my brilliant idea for this weekend.

We spent 10 1/2 hours on Saturday getting the material and putting it together. 

And we were 14 bricks short.  😡  So we had to go back on Sunday and get more bricks.

But it really looks fabulous!  I was so excited to put up the pool, which we did . . . and now our filter isn't working. 

I've never had a pool so level before! But I can't even swim in it, because the filter isn't working.

Chris and I are sore!  I had so many spots that were sore that I've never felt before.  Most notably my right first finger, which I thought was strange, and my elbows.  When we did the last 14 bricks on Sunday, the action of trying to set them in place was painful, I could barely lift the bricks up.  Definitely don't wait to finish projects till the next day . . . the pain sets in and it is hard to do!  My thighs are still really sore, which is strange because I was kneeling and wasn't moving my legs much.  

"only 9 more days to 1000"

Everyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows that I read Runs for Cookies, it's the first blog I started reading before I started my own.  It's also one of the main blogs that helped me get started and keep running.  I probably would never have done any races, ever, if it wasn't for the blogs I follow (although most of the ones I followed when I started no longer post which is sad because when you read someone's thoughts for years and then they disappear, you wonder what happened to them).  Anyway, Katie and her family love squirrels, and she posts about the squirrels they have in their yard.  Plus, a person I worked with (for about 1 month) and am "friends" with on Facebook also posts about her squirrels, so I started watching the squirrels in my backyard.  They are hilarious in their attempts to get to the bird food.  I decided to put out their own food.  They come every morning and make a mess on my deck.  But they are extremely entertaining to watch.  If only I could get them to get a nut out of my hand. . . 

If I can keep the stellar jays away.

The last week or so has been pretty crazy, so there will be a lot of pictures in this post.  Last Thursday was Maddox's birthday.  My sister and her husband came up for dinner, and we hung out for awhile. 

 Maddox loves this costume.  He asked for one, so I thought that would be so perfect for him.  😂

My sister and her husband got Maddox a giant bag of popcorn, it's about halfway gone.

As you know, Father's Day was on Sunday and it also happened to be my parents anniversary, it would have been 51 years.  We didn't want my Dad to be alone, so we arranged to meet him at a rest area on the freeway about halfway between him and my sister and I.  My two sisters from eastern WA also joined us, and Damian was able to go with Asher.  It's the first my dad has seen Asher since February, so it was nice.

Last week Maddox made himself a hammock out of an old firewood carrier and I posted a picture of it on Facebook. 

Well, my Dad saw it and decided to buy Maddox a hammock for his birthday, so it got set up (with a lot of help from big brother) yesterday. 

Yesterday I was feeling ambitious and decided to ask Damian if he wanted to ride his bike while I ran.  Of course that meant that I had to push Asher in the stroller, which is always harder than I think, even on my relatively flat path.  But we did it.

Yesterday was my 600th day running at least one mile a day.  Funny story . . . on day 590 I realized I was close to a "milestone" so the next day when I was talking to a friend I said I was on day 591 and "only have 9 more days till 1000 days of running!"  He laughed at me and told me to check my math.  😂🤣  I've never claimed to be good with numbers.

Finally, I'll leave you with this adorable picture of Asher.  He is soooo stinkin' cute!

Rant follows

This is my blog, this is my space.  It is a very tiny space in the blogging world, I have very few followers, if one of my posts hits 20 readers, it's a big number.  And yet, I stay away from topics that I worry will offend others.  Today, I might offend all 20 of my readers.  I am not going to apologize, my space, my thoughts.  Don't like it, don't read.  I write for me, not for the less than 20 people that read this regularly.

I grew up in rural eastern Washington.  My family were farmers, and Christian.  I went to church every Sunday morning and evening and every Wednesday evening.  I was a "leader" in my youth group, I went to Christian concerts, and Christian events.  My parents voted for Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr and Jr and every other republican out there.  I voted for George W. Bush and did not vote for Barack Obama (I also did not vote for McCain because my sister disliked him for some reason and I agreed with that reason at the time, I don't remember if I voted for Romney, I hope not).  

By the middle of President Obama's 2nd term, I called myself a liberal republican, I was very in the middle of many, many issues.  I had the conservative background of my upbringing, but I work in social services, and social services is well known for being pretty liberal.  And then a few things happened in 2015 and 2016.  I had very close friends that were very liberal, and what happens when you surround yourself with others, you start to become more like them.  I was exposed to many stories and ideas about President Obama that was contrary to what my family said, and it made sense.  And then Trump entered the presidential race.  I thought I love Celebrity Apprentice, but can't stand Trump, and there's no way he will win.  But he did. He did after saying he can grab any woman by the pussy.  He did after attacking a family of an American soldier that was killed.  He did after mocking a reporter with a disability.

I can't agree that he is good for this country.  I can't.  Now, even though many of my beliefs are not different than 8 years ago (some are, I've grown), I am considered very liberal.  I would put myself to the left of middle now (previously I would have been the right of middle), but I can still see both sides of some things.  But somehow in the last 4 years the axis changed and there seems to be no middle.

Many years ago, when Black lives matter became a "thing."  I was one of those people saying "all lives matter."  I said something on an ex-coworkers facebook post asking why all lives matter is offensive, and she explained to me, of course all lives matter, we know that, but right now we are standing behind Black lives because they need it.  How can all lives matter if an entire race is being abused?  And I understood.  

Now, during this time, I want to explain it to my family, I want these people, who I know are good people to understand and to realize we can't continue to scream all lives matter when there are people being targeted simply because of their skin color.  I want them to listen to the stories I've heard about people walking in the mall and being followed simply because they are not white people, how 9 and 10 year old children, children, have guns pulled on them by cops because they are Black and are playing in a park, on a sidewalk, in their driveway.  But they don't listen, or don't care.  

I have liberal friends and I have very conservative family members.  I get bombarded everyday with both sides of the story, and I get annoyed when they don't understand the concept of Black lives matter.  

This is one of my favorite memes I've seen, and I don't understand why the concept is hard to understand.

All of this to say, I feel angry.  I feel angry at the people that stick their heads in the sand and won't realize this is a problem, but continue to spout hate-filled nonsense.  And I also feel like I should stop.  My sisters and Dad aren't as bad as my in-laws (I completely unfollowed, not unfriended, my mother-in-law because I couldn't handle her Fox News filled rants).  But when do I call it quits?  If I call it quits, does that make my silence a part of the problem?  

This is my friend, we did a Black lives matter walk with our other friend who is Black.  It was a good day, but I thought this picture says it all about what I think about Fox News.

I moved the FB icon on my phone to a place where I won't see it as much.  I have to actually think about it and go to that spot in order to get on FB now on my phone.  And for the first day I liked it.  I forgot to get on and I was happier.  But now I'm logging onto the internet more, and on my phone, just going to Google puts up articles that Google thinks I would be interested in (it's only right about 1/4 of the time), but I still get the political stuff there.  

Honestly, it's much easier to put my head in the sand and ignore it.  I'm torn, and frustrated, and angry, and ill equipped to know what to do and how to handle it all.

What has been happening

Chris started work last week, June 1.  The week before we decided we were going to go to eastern WA for a long weekend.  We didn't know Chris was going to start work when we decided to go, but we thought that if we wanted to go, we better do it now, which was a good call.  We decided to go to the house that my family has on Deer Lake near Spokane.  I'm sure you remember that we've been going there for years in August (well, once on the Fourth of July).  

The first year we went was 2015 (all my favorite skinny pictures are from that year), 

then in 2016 (my sprained ankle meant I was swimming a lot),

2017 (when we first got a paddleboard) (I loved those sunglasses), 

and 2018 (4th of July).  

We did go last year, but only for Labor Day weekend because of our Alaska Cruise, and apparently I didn't write a post about it (which is funny, as we were there when I discovered Maddox and I had lice).

Anyway, I didn't mean to make this a photo dump post, but it might be.  😄  

We are still planning on going this August, but it was really, really nice to get away from the "real world" and just float on the Lake for awhile. (We came back to the world gone crazy with all the protests happening.)  However, this last fall there was a leak in the house that no one caught right away (because it's a vacation house) so the entire living room and main bathroom are torn up.  The coronavirus put a hold on construction, and for whatever reason, even though construction has been able to go back to work for a month or more, they have done nothing in the house.  I guess the little work that has been done (removing carpet, walls, and furniture) was done by my family.  My Dad told me that there was nothing, including no stove, but we said that was fine, we'd camp if we had to.  

Really dark of the living room
looking outside

Living room

the main bathroom (tub area)

main bathroom (sink area)
and the other side of the wall
is the front door.

Kitchen where they only
removed the stove?

The only bathroom that is
usable (there is also one
upstairs, but that was where
the leak came from)

The carpet in the living room and up the stairs was orange shag carpet, because the last time anything was done to this house (it was expanded, going from a one bedroom trailer sized cabin to a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2-story house) was in the 1970's when my Grandparents bought it.  You can see the wood paneling, which they are keeping, but thankfully all the carpet and linoleum down stairs is being replaced. 

Anyway, we spent the weekend outside, mostly.

 I got a new paddleboard last fall and this is the first time I was able to use it.

 My sister and her son came for the entire weekend.

 We were joined by my Dad, other sister, and her daughter on Friday, and my niece ended up staying until Sunday with us.

And it wouldn't be summer without my wine on my paddleboard.

Friday was a beautiful day.  Sunny and warm.  It really was nice.  Saturday wasn't as nice, but it was still warm, until the evening while we were having a fire.  A storm rolled in and it started lightning and thunder and then hail.  It was kind of crazy.  The power went out in the middle of the night, I was actually awake for it because the thunder woke me up.  I had to get up to close a window and after I laid down all the fans went off and there was no power.  That made the morning difficult because we had to pack up to go home.  The house isn't the brightest house, even with the curtains open.  Plus, no coffee sucks.

I completely forgot to put sunscreen on Maddox on Friday, and he got a bad burn.  It peeled all last week, but it was kinda fun to pull the skin off his back.  😁

We had to come back though because while we were there Chris got the call that he had to go back to work on Monday.  Plus, I was supposed to be working "from home" but with the house torn apart there was no internet.  My work gives me a hotspot to use but the connection to any G's, much less 4G, was awful, so I couldn't work and Maddox couldn't do schoolwork.  

I just have to remember we are going back in August.

I had other things to talk about as well, but this is too long.  I'll have to save it for another time.