Here we are

Here we are, we are here. Let’s catch up, shall we?

Have minor surgery, they said. You’ll feel back to normal in a few days, they said. Not quite. I’d say it took about a week. My energy was just REAL low, and I just didn’t feel mentally or physically right (and I was actually nicely called out on it, so I know I wasn’t hiding it well). We met friends three days later for dinner and a Blue Man Group show on Friday after work, and I was half of a human, maybe. All in all, even with some extra unplanned recovery time, all went well and the thing they needed to biopsy came back all clear, so I’m thankful my complaints were simply around having to take it easier than I’d like for longer than I’d like.

It may be weird to say, but after I got home from the procedure, it was one of the most relaxing days I’ve had in months. Maybe I need to schedule “surgery” days (day off, just reading, napping, and eating snacks with no goals/chores/to dos) every so often. Pretty proud of my eating habits, I didn’t go overboard in terms of calories that day and tracked everything. I spent the rest of the week off lifting heavy things (or light things, even), and just took a bunch of walks for exercise. We hiked Bull creek last weekend (and went back again today) and am really enjoying seeing fall start to descend on the ATX.

And then, we were back at it. Last Monday at 7am (never going this early again, simply for the Joel-complaining-factor!), the squat witch tortured our legs. We now have a standing appointment at 830am Mondays (much more reasonable), and the goal is to find a time later in the week to do training and go once on our own as well (Monday/Wed/Fri or Sat?). On gym days, we’re doing the elliptical before or after for cardio, at home, we’re biking on the trainer or walking. It’s not nothing, but I really do aim to figure out how to make swimming work and try some short runs soon, maybe even tomorrow. I’d like to remember how to triathlete, at least a little bit.

But hey, it wasn’t nothing. This is what I did:

Week of October 24th:

• Monday – 1h15 min walk
• Tuesday – off
• Wednesday – 30 min walk
• Thursday – off
• Friday – 50 min walk
• Saturday – 2-hour hike (with LOTS of picture stops!)
• Sunday – 1 hour walk

Week of Oct 31:

• Monday – 30 min legs, 30 min elliptical, 12 min walk
• Tuesday – 30 min bike
• Wednesday – 1 hour walk
• Thursday – off
• Friday – 30 min back and biceps, 30 min elliptical
• Saturday – off
• Sunday – 1.5h hike

Monday, we also realized our Iguana wasn’t acting like herself and made a vet appointment… which cascaded into multiple vet appointments during the week when she started going downhill very quickly. We ended up saying goodbye yesterday, which was very sad, but also very much the right thing to do. We decided that it was okay to have a small pity party, so we ordered some pizza and zoned out on TV and played video games the rest of the day. At around 2000 calories, it was the most I’ve tracked in a while, but I think it’s okay to make the exception.

By the numbers:

• Week of Oct 24 – 1503 calories/average per day
• Week of Oct 31 – 1574 calories/average per day

I could have done better, but considering the circumstances of the last two weeks, I certainly could have done way worse (and absolutely would have, would I not be tracking my food).

So how did this play out in the results? It’s really not worth sharing October’s trend line, as most of the month it was just trendweight adjusting to what I gained in Europe, but November is showing a bit of progress so far. This makes me happy, as long as I ignore the feeling that I’m Sisyphus, rolling the same damn boulder up the hill yet again, losing the same weight I lost before, but the other option is to give up and that’s not an option.

So, here we are, we are here. If you know me, you know the question that follows – what’s next?

I’m finding it pretty easy to stick around 1500 calories/day on average as long as I mind what’s going into my mouth and track my food. I’m finding it quite difficult to reduce much further. I think the answer now is to up my activity just a little bit (the moderate to vigorous bits like biking/running/weights/elliptical). So, I’m going to try this next week:

• 2-1-mile runs
• 3-30 min bikes or ellipticals with effort
• 3 strength sessions
• 10k steps per day*

10k steps is a lofty goal right now, sadly, but I’m hoping this will get me outside even if I don’t feel like it some days for some extra calorie burn (and extra sanity points).

Since I’m aiming to up my calorie BURN this week, I’m going to keep my eating habits at the status quo. We are fully on the meal delivery cycle train. However, we’re a bit backlogged because of social events, pity parties, and just a few times I skipped a meal. I suppose, if there’s anything to change, it’s to 100% eat the food that’s being delivered or we’re going to waste some expensive meals.

My other habits are going… okay. I’m still meditating daily, and doing some recovery, but rolling has definitely fallen off from daily to a few times a week. Back to it this week! I have other things I’d like to do but I need to make sure I don’t go into overwhelm. I’m not doing GREAT on hobbies – we have our dateboxes piling up, my guitar has been untouched for a while, and there’s no writing going on besides these journals. However, I’m voraciously editing photos, and I managed to put the finishing touches on my 16th painting and work on my 17th. I suppose all these things ebb and flow.