progress not perfection

 So how did my first week back at truly working on my weight go?  Well, last week I killed it, I lost 2 lbs.  I am intermittent fasting (IF) from about 6pm-9am . . . sometimes it's closer to 7pm-10pm, depending on dinner.  After dinner, every week night, I am walking, I have a route that's roughly 2.5 miles, but am not really going based on distance, more like time.  

Pre-stopping everything, I talked a little about menopause and beachyogagirl, who did a series of posts on it and how she lost 20lbs after gaining 20lbs due to menopause.  One of the things she suggests is walking, something that gets the heart rate up, but not too high.  She talks about "zone 2," I interpret that on my heartrate monitor to be "easy" which is just under "aerobic."  She says in her blog 20 min of that every day after dinner to help digest food, so you're not going to bed still digesting.  My 2.5 mile walk is 35 min, but I figure that gives me time to get my heart rate up to where it should be.  This week I added some running spurts to keep it up, but they are not long, just long enough to get my heart rate back up.  According to. . . something . . . my "easy" rate is between 109 and 122.  I think I did a bunch of googling last week to figure out what easy was for me.

Not every day, but most days, I spend a little time in our "weight room" in the garage after my walk.  My weights aren't heavy, but they say muscle burns more calories than fat, so I figure building muscle is good.  I am also still doing pilates/yoga with my sister 4 mornings a week.  I don't see that stopping.  I do want to start running again, but for now, this is what I'm doing.

Well, until Friday.  Friday and Saturday I did nothing, especially Friday.  And I drank a lot on Friday, I don't know why, I didn't intend to, but you know, once you get to a certain level, your drunk brain says kee going.  I wasn't as bad on Saturday, but did drink, and no activity other than yard work.  Sunday I was lazy again, but kept myself to 2 drinks.  And yesterday I had gained 4 lbs.  I don't know how you can gain 4lbs in 3 days, but I did.  I also didn't weigh myself at all Saturday and Sunday, and didn't do IF Friday night through Sunday morning.  I started my IF Sunday night and was good yesterday and was down 2lbs (still up 2 from Friday, but back to "starting weight").

I know weekends are my problem, they always have been.  When I was running 10+ miles on Sunday it wasn't as big of a deal, but now it is, so I need to do better.  However, Thursday we are going to the Lake for a long weekend, so I don't think my weigh in next Tuesday (we get back Monday) will be good.  I plan to continue to walk there, but there are no good routes that will take me 30 min, other than on the road I hate, that I used to run on.  

So, next week, when we get back, I am going to really push myself to be good, and I may start running again.  If I don't start running, I may have to change my blog title.  😉 I am going to try to be good at the Lake, but . . . it's hard on vacation.  

Aloha!

 As I was clicking on Blogger, I thought, I don't think I've posted since May.  Then, really, May?  Then the screen loaded and yep, May 18th was my last post.  

I haven't posted because I'm not doing anything.  Or I haven't been. 

So I completely quit intermittent fasting, at first it was because of Maddox's baseball games, they were going until 8pm or so and I just couldn't not eat at all, and then to wait 15-16 hours, that would put me at noon before eating, and that's just too late for me.  However, when baseball was over, I didn't restart.

I did very good with running 3 days a week for April and May, but then in June and July missed a couple weeks, and August has been . . . well, I haven't run at all in August.  I take that back, I ran on August 1st.  

My weight . . . well, let's not talk about that at all.

We went to Hawaii at the end of July for 2 weeks, in fact, today is only my second day back at work.  We stayed in Kauai, so were not impacted by the fire in Maui at all.  I love running in Hawaii, it is my most favorite place to run, and I only ran once there.  I didn't even get to the place that I love the most during my run.  In the past, when I run there, I run 4 miles because it gets me to an overlook that I like, but I haven't been running much, and with the humidity there and the warmth, I barely made 3 miles.  I had plans to drive down a little ways so I could run on the trail that's the really pretty area, but I never did.  We did a lot of activities and I scheduled them all in the morning so that we could go to the beach afterwards, but it made it difficult to run in the morning when it's marginally cooler.  

While in Hawaii I noticed . . . well, that's not accurate, because I noticed it a lot earlier than that, but I really thought about it . . . that I am super unhappy with my weight.  I didn't buy a dress there (I love the dresses), I didn't even want to buy a shirt because I was afraid I'd have to get a large.  It's been a long time since I bought large.  

Then on the last Monday Damian and I went for a hike and he talked a lot about getting into shape.  He's lost quite a bit of weight since we moved, and came to the realization that he's pretty scrawny (his words not mine).  He's been watching some YouTube shorts about motivation and getting into shape, so he has really decided that he's going to work out to "buff" up.  

Before Hawaii I had decided I was going to cut back on alcohol and eat better when we got home. I just feel like a whale and being in Hawaii really reinforced that feeling.  

This last Sunday I started (I know, I gave myself 2 days at home before cracking down).  We got a weight machine many years ago from a friend, that we've never really used, and then he moved and took the weights with him (he did say the weights were a loan). Six months ago, or so I bought a few weights, just a couple 5 lbs and 2 ten lbs weights for the machine, I think total 40 lbs, but we accidentally ended up with two 5 lb weights from our friend, so we have a total of 50 lbs.  I told Damian I wasn't buying more if the machine wasn't used (weights are expensive!!) so I haven't gotten anymore.  

Well, Damian said in Hawaii that he'd like to get the machine out so it's usable in the garage, and start working out.  We did that on Sunday, redid one side of our garage, moved my treadmill over to that side, and now have a mini-gym in our garage.  Damian has big plans, and honestly I'd like to make it bigger too, with a spin bike and more free weights, but not until I know it's going to be used often.  

I've worked out on it both yesterday and Sunday, plus I started walking every evening after dinner, oh and I restarted intermittent fasting.  And the big one, I quit drinking every day.  I am not giving up alcohol, especially wine, I'm just cutting way back.  And I started weighing every day again, which I haven't done for several years.

I plan on walking after dinner every day   most days, and I'm going to keep up with the intermittent fasting and less alcohol.  

We'll see how it works out.  

here's a few of the many pictures I took in Hawaii . . .

If you ever go to Kauai, Jo Jo's Shave
Ice is the best.

You also must go to Poipu beach to see the sunset 
and watch the turtles come to shore.

Sunrise is my favorite there.  Because they are 3
hours behind, waking up to see it is very easy.