900 days in a row (well, a week ago)

Things I should be doing instead of writing here . . . 

School, most importantly, I should be working on my school assignment for this week.  It is due on Wednesday, but my Wednesdays are really busy and I have a hair appt in the evening, so it needs to be done before Wednesday this week.  

Running, I need to go for a run.

Working.

I am working on losing the weight that I've gained in the last year, as you know.  I was pretty successful throughout January and February, but I faltered in March.  I did intermittent fasting a few years ago (or was it last year?) and it went okay, but I didn't like that I couldn't have my coffee until 10am, and it was into the summer and I wanted to eat before I ran, and I was running earlier because the summer gets warm so I stopped.  I was only doing 14 hours of fasting at that time. 

I decided to try it again after my failed March.  March wasn't a complete failure, I didn't really gain any weight, just quit losing, I did fluctuate a lot though and at some points did gain.  I only have one month until we go to Hawaii, and I am not happy with where I might be.  If I want to be where I want to be, I will have to lose 9 lbs, and that's not going to happen.  I've lost 6.5lbs since the beginning of January, which is amazing, but I wish it was more.  Even the 4lbs I have to lose to be almost happy, is probably a stretch for 38 days.  

I am doing the intermittent fasting a little different this time.  I am allowing myself to have a cup of coffee in the morning.  Coffee itself isn't against intermittent fasting rules, it's the creamer that I put in it that is.  I have been very careful about measuring my creamer for years, but it's still 90 calories (2tbsp coffeemate creamer and 1 tbsp half and half) that I'm not technically supposed to be having.  I started drinking tea, I have never liked tea, but decided to try to find something I like, and found one brand, Sweet and Spicy original tea, and I put a splash of half & half in it, but I miss my coffee, so I am not doing that as much even though the calories are much less.  

I figure that my goal for intermittent fasting is weight loss, not anything else.  So I use it more as a way to control my eating, especially my evening snacking/wine drinking.  I stop at 8pm and start at 11am (it's currently 10:20am and I'm starving).  This means that I'm mostly skipping breakfast, and stopping my snacking at night.  This is good because since the pandemic and working from home, I started staying up later, and that meant more evening hours to snack and drink.  Now I'm back to going to bed a little earlier so that I'm not tempted to get "one more glass of wine" or a snack (or both).

I am also doing 15 hours (16 is just soooo long), and I'm running before eating most days.  The running before eating is hard.  My runs have felt like I'm slogging most of the time.  I feel so slow, and the hills I've been running for years feel really hard.  But I'm still doing it.

It has helped my April.  I lost 2.5 lbs in April.  I suppose when you say it that way, it's huge.  I don't ever recall losing 2 lbs in one month. I am not very big, and I know that the smaller you are, the lower the weight lose numbers usually are, so I should be thrilled with my 2.5lbs gone (and I have a week left).  - I just looked through my "Scale Obsession" page, and I lost 2.5 lbs or more several times, but I still think it's hard and an accomplishment, especially now at age 44.

Speaking of running, a week ago on Sunday I hit a milestone.  900 days of running at least a mile.  I decided to try to write "900" and hope I got the "9" right, unlike my failed "365" that ended up "E65."  I can't tell you how many times I wrote "9" in the air with my finger to make sure I had the right direction.  😂

It was a beautiful day to hit 900 days.  The whole weekend was nice.  

I decided to try a different neighborhood than my "E65" run because I was hoping for a flatter route.  I was wrong, I probably ended up with a steeper hill, but the roads were closer together, so the uphill wasn't as long.  I'm not to the point where I could run 9 miles, so I didn't attempt it.  6 miles is my longest run in almost 9 months, so I just did 5 for this run.  

I do miss the longer runs, I think.  I should work on going higher, just to see if I want to.  But everytime I get going on Sunday I just don't feel like it.  I think I like the numbers on the paper, better than the actual running of them.  Although, I do like the feeling of accomplishment.  Maybe I'll work on it as the weather gets nicer, that's when I really enjoy the longer runs.  Running in the rain and wind isn't very fun.  

Well, I have 15 min before I can eat, and I do need to work on my "portfolio" for school.  (Who's ever heard of a portfolio for a counselor??)