all about the weight

In 2019 I started at my highest weight in a few years, close to 160.  I was headed to Hawaii at the end of February and I wanted to get back to the 140s where I am most comfortable (I think I'd be comfortable in the 130s, but the willpower to get there starts to wain as I get down to 145 and start thinking I look good enough, which I do.)  I was able to get down to 147 before going to Hawaii, but decided in Hawaii that I wasn't going to be good, I was going to enjoy myself, which I did.   When I came back I did pretty good at sticking to around 147-150.

My weight hovered around 150-154 for most of the year, but in the fall it started going up again.  And I was at 160 for my December 1st weigh in.  Thankfully I was back down to 154 January 1st, but still. . . that is not my happy place.  (Although, I really think my body likes 150-154, as that is where I've hovered for several years now.)

2020

2015

 I can see a difference in my face, but others have said they can't.  Plus, it doesn't help that 2015 picture was taken at the end of the summer and I was tan (don't forget the crazy eyes) and the 2020 picture was taken . . . well, in January.  😊  I especially see the difference in my collar bone, in 2015 it "popped" more.

So where do I really want to be?  Weight-wise I would like to be closer to where I was in 2015.  I got down to 143 (officially), 140 (unofficially).  I felt great about myself at that weight.  I liked what I saw in the mirror and I loved my size 6 pants (which I had never worn, not even in high school when I was smaller weight-wise).  The thing is, though, I don't want to give up certain things, like wine.  I didn't in 2015, but I was 4 years younger, and there really is something about getting older that makes it harder to lose.  I feel like as soon as I hit 40 my body said "nope, not gonna."

There were a couple things that happened in 2015 that contributed to my weight loss, mostly, I was marathon training.  And while I know that exercise does not completely equal weight loss (look at 2017 when I marathon trained and stayed at 150 or above), but it had a factor in my eating as well.  I had read that often people who run a marathon gain weight, and I was super determined not to gain, so I ate very healthily, except for my long run treat on Sundays (usually a donut and wine).

I always stayed in my calorie range (well, most of the time), but I didn't limit what I ate.  And I lost.  Running a lot and eating well was a very good combination for me.  And I was able to maintain it to December, where I weighed in at 142 on the first, but then after Christmas, I weighed in at 147 on January 1st. I guess, now that I've looked more, I got back to 143 pretty quickly.  And then I sprained my ankle in May.  I continued to eat like I was running, but I wasn't running and I gained weight pretty quickly.  And I decided I could eat whatever I wanted, I would get back to the weight that I was happiest at when I started running again, but I didn't.

140ish               147                    155                   163       
2015                  2014                  2013                2012       

I haven't shared a progress photo since 2015, because my weight didn't go down, it started going up.

So what's the point of this post?  I don't know.  I had decided to try something completely new.  Katie at Runsforcookies decided to try a carb intolerance test as part of MAF training (her post, which is linked, explains it so much better than I ever will).  I thought it made sense.

Plus, my sister did the 30/10 diet (which is a starvation diet and I don't recommend) and lost a bunch of weight and has kept it off for a year. (She is very careful, but does eat everything, but drinks very little.)

So between hearing about these 2 diets, I thought, I would rather do the MAF carb intolerance test because it's only 2 weeks long and I don't have to buy that plan.  Then you go to a low carb way of eating afterwards.  I have been kinda waiting to start this "test" till this week because I was going to my sisters house where my brother-in-law was going to make this on Tuesday when I was at their house.

However, with the snow, I didn't go.  So now I either have to wait till next week, or tell them I can't eat it (doesn't that look fabulous??).

But . . . I've cut back on my carbs last week and this week, and have been trying to eat better.  So I may not do any crazy "diet" fad.

I will say that I like the idea of the MAF training, it's more than a weightloss thing, it's about training your body to burn fat rather than the carbs you ate while you run, hence the carb detox at the beginning.  It also is running according to heartrate, not pace, in order to get faster.  The idea is that as you train your body to burn fat, and run at your MAF heartrate, your body gets more efficient at running, so you run faster.  It's a long term process, the carb intolerance test is 2 weeks, but the low carb diet and heartrate training are permanent, and they say you have to give yourself at least 3 months to see a difference.

Even as I type that, I'm back to thinking I want to try it.  I don't know.

Snow!

When I was young I wanted to be a writer.  I used to write short stories and my Mom used to say she always thought I'd be a journalist somewhere.  One of the problems I had when I wrote my stories was how to start it. I always thought it was awkward to just start, so every single one of my stories started with someone talking.  When I just pulled this up to start typing I suddenly had that same "how do I start?" feeling.   😊

What have I been doing the last few weeks?  A lot of the same stuff I always do.  Work, run, eat, drink wine, sleep.  This last week we had a bunch of snowstorms blow through.  Typically in western Washington we will get snow on one day and by the next morning it's gone.  In fact, when Damian was little I would wake him up in the middle of the night (when I was a night owl and worked swing shift) just to go for a walk in the snow because I knew if I waited we would miss it.  Last year we had snow for most of the month of February, which was kinda nice.  This week we had snow Monday-Wednesday.  I don't know if it's the only snow we'll get this winter, but that's a strong possibility. 

Western WA closes down with the hint of snow.  In typical PNW (pacific northwest) fashion, Seattle school district closed schools for Wednesday on Tuesday, and then had zero snowfall (and the previous snow had melted) on Wednesday.  Mount Vernon, where I live, north of Seattle, got about 6 inches of snow over 2 days.  I decided to stay home with Maddox on Wednesday so that he could enjoy playing in the snow.

Before Christmas he painted a picture

he came home and told me it was Roger and he couldn't wait to build Roger in the snow.  😂  So that was my goal for Wednesday, build Roger with Maddox.  Of course, he got cold before I even finished shoveling (I wanted to do that first) and went inside while I built Roger.

But he loved it.  He was sooooo excited to have Roger built.

And then temperatures are supposed to be in the 40's today.  He was pretty upset to think that Roger was going to melt.  But I said that's the sad and good thing about snowmen, they go away, but you can always rebuild them.

And today I'm back at work.  😒

2019

So, I started this post, and then I did the math on how far I ran in 2019.  And I am blown away.  (I will let you know where I started originally, I won't delete, just so you can see it.)  It completely changed where I was going to go with this post, but that's okay. Numbers are numbers, they tell the real story.

After I did the math on my yearly distance I decided I was going to go back and look at all my past yearly posts, and I have to say, I really enjoy having that record of my life.  If nothing else, I want to continue that . . .  I suppose I will "start" and then tell you where I ended up.

*Original starting point*  2019 was the year I lost all running motivation.  I ran one "race," the Ragnar, which I don't really consider a race. 

The one big thing I did was run every single day in 2019.  I started my run streak November 2018 as the runner's world runstreak, but then continued it through the year. 

smashrun.com

I ran in Hawaii . . .

and on a boat in Alaska . . .

Everyone does these end of year/beginning of year posts, and with my lack of accomplishments I almost didn't do it, but I suppose I will just for the fun of it.  *end of original start*

My yearly running total is actually pretty high.  In 2019 I ran 1053 miles.  Like I said above, I went back to look at my past yearly totals because I suddenly had a "wait a min, over a thousand miles ran? that can't be my highest year" thought.  And in reality, it was.  In 2019 I ran more miles than I ever have in a calendar year.  I want to break this down for you, because this blows my mind.

I started running in 2012, I started at the end of February and ended that year with 607 miles.  In 2013 I set a lofty goal of running 100 miles a month but was plagued with plantar faciitis and ended that year with 822 miles.  2014 I ran 818 miles.  And in 2015 I decided to run my first marathon, thinking that should be my highest yearly mileage, but no, I ran 856 miles, and that includes one month of 133 miles (my highest monthly mileage).  In 2016 I had the goal of running one race every month, but sprained my ankle in the spring, and I ended up with 672 miles for the year.  2017 was my "comeback" year, I did the Washington Half/Full Marathon Series and I ran 4 half marathons and one full marathon.  I did start having issues with my hip, which reduced my running during peak marathon training.  Surely with 4 half marathons and a full, 2017 would be my highest yearly mileage? I ran 965 miles in 2017.  In 2018 I started out strong but my Mom died, and I lost motivation and I ran 766 miles.   So 1053 miles in 2019 is pretty amazing.

I did no 5ks, no 10ks, no half marathons, no full marathons.  I didn't even run the Tulip run, which I have been doing since 2012.  I also did not do Bloomsday this year, another yearly staple.  The one thing I did was that I ran every. single. day. in 2019.  I ended the year with my average weekly runs at only 3 miles, with a "long" run of 4 miles, which seems like would equal to not that many miles.

My highest monthly mileage was March (which is an odd month to have high mileage) at 102 miles and my lowest was September at 74 miles.  This means that I did not run under 74 miles a month for the entire year.  Strange.  This also equals 172.51 hours of running or 7.19 days.  (I spent an entire week of my year running.)

Outside of running, 2019 was a pretty good year for me.  I went to Hawaii and I went on a cruise to Alaska (two bucket list items).  I also became a Grandma (at 43 😲). 

My Dad with Asher

I lost weight, only to gain it back.  In January 2019 I was 157, and in December I was 160.  My low weight number was 147 (which is not on my Scale page because it was in the middle of February, just before going to Hawaii).  (Speaking of my Scale page, I kept track of my weight . . . on my mirror, I didn't realize that I hadn't updated here since May until a few days ago.)

I have no plans for 2020.  I have no running/fitness goals.  Will I run? yes.  Will I run races or even another marathon?  I don't know.  Maybe, maybe not.  Will I run every day in 2020?  Probably not, but who knows, I am still streaking as of this writing (429 days).  Actually, I have one goal, I will buy a treadmill, probably this weekend.  I will probably work on my weight (I've already started, I didn't wait till 2020, 160 scared me), but I'll likely fluctuate.  A good friend mentioned yoga, so I thought I should start that again, which I've already done, but I'll likely not keep it up. 

Another thought has occurred to me, I like even numbers.  So I always think of years that are odd as a "bad" year.  This is not true, 2015 I ran my first marathon and lost a lot of weight, being my lowest since high school.  2017 I ran 4 half marathons and one full.  2019 I ran every day and got my highest yearly running mileage, I also had a very good personal year everyone one of those years.  2014 our house was foreclosed on, 2016 I sprained my ankle, 2018 I lost my Mom.  So maybe I'm not looking forward to 2020 . . .

One last thought . . . my 1053 miles and my 160 lb weight, shows you that exercise does not equal weight loss. 

to end or not to end?

This is a quickie post because I just posted, but I've had a dilemma lately and am not sure what to do.

This fall has been a difficult one for me to want to run.  There were many days that I almost didn't run, but hung on because I had committed to going every day for 2019 (well, I committed to that after I reached 365 days).  I decided I was going to end my streak today.  I was going to run through New Year's day, which I did, and then I was going to end it.

It's harder than it seems to end something after 427 days. 

I wonder if I will get back my motivation to run longer if I take real rest days.  Or will I get lazy and quit running at all? 

Today would be 428 days.

I've reached all my runstreak goals, run through 2018 runner's world runstreak.  Run through Hawaii, run through a cruise, reach 365 days, run through 2019 runner's world runstreak, run every day in 2019. 

Now what?

How do you end a runstreak?

How will I feel tomorrow if I stop?

Someone tell me what to do . . . and soon because I need to go run . . . or not, I can't decide.

Hawaii

Alaska

December

Zero posts in December, oh well.

My December was crazy.  I went over to eastern WA the weekend of December 6th with Chris and Maddox.  On the 8th when we were going to come home we discovered that our tire was flat.  Middle of nowhere eastern WA has nothing open on Sundays to fix a tire or get a new one, so I talked my Dad into letting us borrow his Jeep Grand Cherokee.  He was planning on coming over to western WA on Friday to see my sister, so I thought it would be perfect, he could get my tire fixed and then bring my car over the next weekend. 

Well, on Monday, the day he was going to take my car to get fixed, he had an appt at the FSA office (Farm Service Agency) in the morning and fainted in the reception area.  They called an ambulance and he was taken to Spokane after they thought he had a minor heart attack.  (Spokane is the nearest big town to where he was.)  Thankfully he did not have a heart attack, they determined that he had low blood sugar and his heart had an arrhythmia.  He was kept in the hospital for a few days and then sent home with medications.

On December 21st he was having some issues catching his breath so my sister talked him into going back to the hospital, they discovered the meds weren't working for his arrhythmia so they decided to shock his heart to get it back into regular beats.  He was released the next day, but then on Monday evening he was having problems catching his breath again, so back he went.  They couldn't find anything wrong, so they sent him home after doing a bunch of tests. 

I was on high alert about having to go over there, but I had 3 sisters there, so they assured me it was okay, but they'd let me know if it got serious.  One of my sisters started wondering if he was dehydrated, so she told my dad to start drinking more water.  On Christmas he sounded good, and I was over there this last weekend, and he was okay, slow, but okay. 

We did not have daycare from 12/23 until tomorrow, 1/3, so I have been at home until today (Chris is home today).  Christmas eve was nice, we had dinner with Damian, my oldest son, and his family.  We opened one present and then watched Scooby Doo on Zombie Island.  It's a movie from the early 2000's.  Damian loved the Scooby Doo cartoon movies from that time period and he asked for them, so he opened one of them on Christmas eve.  Damian et al. stayed the night because Chris had to work on Christmas day so we woke up very early to open presents and then he went to work. 

Maddox and I went to see Frozen 2 on Christmas day.  It was a very good movie.  I was very surprised at how busy the theater was. The ticket taker said that Christmas is their busiest day of the year, which I find surprising and sad.  Or maybe it's not sad, maybe families are tired of each other, so they go where they don't have to talk to one another for a few hours. 

Like I said above, we went over to my Dad's on Friday, where I finally got my car back.  However, I loved the Jeep, and was a little sad to see it go.  It had all the bells and whistles, including a heated steering wheel (which was my favorite part).   We went to dinner on Saturday night and then church with my Dad on Sunday morning.  He said it was the first time he had his entire family in church in 7 years. (My brother-in-law, his son, and my other nephew weren't there, but I think my dad meant all of his girls.) While we were in church I realized I hadn't been back to that church since my Mom died, so that was a bit rough for me. 

New Year's Eve we went to our neighbor's house, which we've been doing for years.  They've had a pretty big falling out with their family so it was just us and one other neighbor (3 adults, a couple and their roommate).  I don't know why, but I drank way too much and ended up staying until 3am.  I was HURTING yesterday.  I stayed in bed the entire day.  I did get up to go for a run, and immediately threw up as soon as I walked out the door.  I did run, but it was a little iffy for awhile. 

I have kept running through all of this.  Yesterday marked 427 days in a row of a mile or more.  I have been unsure if I'm going to keep my running streak going, thinking I'd probably stop today, but yet I brought my running clothes to work just in case I have time to go to the gym (which I think I will). 

My treadmill officially died a month or so ago, so I have been looking for a new one. I got some money for Christmas specifically for a treadmill, and I was going to buy it yesterday, but I was hurting too much. 

I know everyone in the blog world is wrapping up their 2019 posts, what they accomplished and what they didn't and their plans for 2020, but I thought I'd update anyone who cares about December and then do a post about 2019 vs 2020.