January, we meet again

Ah, January. My nemesis.

It’s not that I can’t get down with some chilly days, like today, where I have a totally valid excuse to sit under blankets by the fire. It’s that on the nice ones, when I go play outside, you hit us with allergies, so I’m sneezing and sniffling by the fire under my blankets. MUCH LESS FUN, JANUARY.

But… I was not going to do a 10-mile run that I already had a lack of motivation to do on the treadmill when it was absolutely perfect outside besides the dusting of posionous pollen I took. It makes no sense. My suffering today is mild compared to what almost 2 hours on the treadmill would have been.

I digress. I came here to recap week one and two of the year with the new goals and tracking and super fun stuff like that. Let’s start with the physical.

#1 Lose 1 lb a month OR track for 365 days/weigh 5x week

Well, so far so good on the tracking! I have weighed and measured every day. I’m going to go ahead and give it the full month before I talk about many numbers here for a few reasons. First, I definitely cherry-picked my days to weigh in November and December. My average weight went WAYYY up in January, and I don’t think it’s that I magically gained 2-3 lbs overnight, it’s that I stopped taking any days of “oh crap, that’s what ‘guest’ weighs” and owned each one. Second, I started the month with four days of bloat, which spiked it up. We’re relearning, after most of 2023 not dealing with this, how all that works (and how frustrating it is). I can say my trendweight is somewhere between 187-188 and so at the end of the month, my hope is for a) stabilization and b) for it to be 186-187 (1lb down).

Food tracking has gone well, and I’ve got some idea of maybe why the weight is trending the way it is 🙂

• Week 1: -718 calories
• Week 2: 1511 calories

Not having drinks every other day or so sorta helps the cause. I look at my weeks Monday – Sunday, and if you do it that way, I successfully limited myself to 2 days of measured drinks (which stayed within my calorie range both days). Because I’m the queen of spontaneity, I’ve actually scheduled which day of the week I can potentially have beverages. I know it sounds weird AF, but as a planner, it helps me.

#2 Continuing to earn my right to run

I’ve done quite well here!

• 3x week, strength training. Check week 1, check week 2. Again, nothing I do is more important than this, so unless I have a specific injury keeping me from it, these sessions are first priority.
• Consistent recovery. I missed one day where I only iced but did three the next day to make up for it – so two a day successfully reached. Week 1 I only rolled and stretched 2x. Week 2 I rolled 3x and stretched 2.5x (some, but not a full stretch so I didn’t count it). Baby steps. We’ll get it.
• Run 3x week.
  • Week 1: Monday 2 mi, Wednesday 5 mi, Friday 3 mi, Sunday 7 mi (with a last finishing mile of 9:11! I decided to go for a slightly shorter but faster run) = 17 miles
  • Week 2: Tuesday 5k speedwork (quarter mile alternating 11 min/9 min mile pace), Thursday “hill” run (it’s hilly around work!), Saturday 10 miler (slow and steady) = 16.2 miles
  • Week 3 is a stepback week so likely 5k, 5k, and then 6-8 miles on the weekend.
• Cardio on other days
  • Week 1 I took Tuesday completely off but walked 5 miles Thursday and 2 miles Saturday
  • Week 2 I mostly made use of the elliptical (which I definitely need to remember when it’s hot as well!). 40 mins Monday, 15 mins Wednesday, 15 mins + 20 mins brisk walk (it was cold AF!) Friday.
  • Week 3? Might be a challenge with the weather and the circumstances but I’ll do my best!

While it’s a little bit of “here we are, we are here” with the number on the scale, I’m starting with such a better base of health and healthy habits in 2024 than I did in 2023. I’ve had a full year of good strength training, base running, and overall consistent activity. I’m not a weak little broken noodle. When the numbers on the scale go back down, I’ll definitely be happier with how I look and feel than before. I’m happy with my trajectory and just need to make sure everyone and everything (especially me) stays out of my damn way here.

I did finally sign up for the Austin Half Marathon and the Cap 10k. This will only be my 3rd time at the Austin half (2009, 2012) and my first at Cap 10k. I skipped 3M mostly because I didn’t like the shirt, but I also didn’t want to compare myself to 2019 and 2020 me there. I’m in shape to run a decent race, but not PR pace, so I didn’t want to be disappointed. Neither of these are PR races (read: HILLY!) so the goal is just to go out and go hard and see what happens!

Alrighty, let’s swing on over to the personal, since we have made some progress there too!

#3 Adulting

• We cleaned out the freezer. Honestly, we didn’t have enough trash space for anything else, so the fridge cleanout is on hold until we can get a little time to do it. It needs it. There’s a jar of pickles, one of like 10 jars of pickles or pickled products we have, that I actually can’t pick up because it’s too stuck to the shelf. 😛
• Joel is awesome and found one company to come out in a few weeks to give us a master bathroom quote. I am on the hook to look for 1-2 more for comparison.
• We have an appointment with an accountant in the area to talk tax stuff later this month.

I would really, really like to complete the garage clean out this month ahead of the inevitable freeze/ice storm we’ll have in February, but that may be a tall order. We’ll see.

#4 Staying Happy and Well Rounded

I have made it a goal to be the force of calm around the household and work. Sometimes we all get busy and overwhelmed and in our own heads and start leaking stress all over the place, riling people up unnecessarily, and snapping at people who unintentionally trigger us. I’m going to do the opposite of all that, trying to project an aura of even-tempered peacefulness. When I have to do unpleasant things, I’ll do them calmly and firmly, without incensed passion. I dunno if I’ll make it the whole year, but I’m going to try. Daily meditation (two full weeks and counting!) helps.

• I’ve made probably about 10-15k more words than I had when I last wrote here (closing in on 75k). I think this book will be a little longer than the last, as I’m definitely not at the ending yet.
• I’ve not been doing some much photo editing lately (trying to write more!) but slowly working through Germany in August.

No firm travel plans yet, but hopefully we’ll at least have winter and spring trips settled by the end of the month.

What does this look like on the calendar?

When I check in at the end of the month, I’ll do a full progress/calendar thingee like I did last year, but for now, I simply continue to show up and do all the things that I’ve been doing.