Adjusted Reality

Generally, I expect goals to take an agonizingly long time.

It’s pretty cool when they surprise you much quicker than you expect. It’s like when I thought I would need to spend a lot of time trying to qualify for Age Group Nationals back in 2018, and I went and qualified on my first race with that intent. This time, my goal was much less flashy but better for my long-term health, perhaps.

Hi, I am a SALT addict. Sugar, I can take or leave, but give me my salty, savory goodness or give me death (or even if it gives me death?). Even so, I actually did the thing where I stopped salting my food. Weirdly enough, within a few days, it didn’t really bother me. Within a week, I was like, “holy hell, I was putting EXTRA salt on this before?” Last week, I went to Olive Garden and the soups were deliciously salty (and in the past I would have considered putting some salt in them if no one would catch me and make fun of me). I still think fries need to be saltier than they are, but my tastebuds have quickly jumped in line with the rest of humanity otherwise.

I’m eating more fruit (at least one serving a day, sometimes two) either in a smoothie or some watermelon or berries to snack on. I’m eating a giant salad either for breakfast or a snack most days. I broke and had a hot pocket one day after having a little bit too much fun the night before and it was… not as good as I remembered. I ate one crappy lean cuisine protein micro meal (for dinner because I’m an adult and it sounded good, and I’d already had my fruit and veg for the day and wanted something small) and it also did not need the salt I had been adding to it previously.

So, a few weeks of this and what has it done?

Oh, and also-

This, coupled with actually being pretty proactive with calorie counting (either before or hours, not days later) is really helpful for progress. Adding up my over/under on calories, I’m currently about 300 over my plan for the whole month so far. The last week has been a little challenging with activity since I was resting a cranky ankle (which has paid off – I’m running again without pain!), but 300 is pretty small margin of error per day over a month, so I’m going to call it a success.

And, of course, in the midst of some momentum, I’m about to go on a cruise and then land face-first in the holiday season. So, here’s some goals.

• Basically, keep doing what I’m doing. Track what I eat proactively. Increase activity on days I know I’m going to eat more. Giant veggie-filled salad and lots of variety of veggies throughout the day. Some fruit. Don’t go ham on the other stuff. Even ham.
• As per ush – the holidays are specific days, not a full month+. Celebration days can be balanced with extra activity. Small holiday treats are also fine to be part of a balanced diet, again, just have to go back to the first order of business – actively tracking and balancing the calorie checkbook with activity.
• Do this the best I can on the cruise, too. I have successfully LOST weight on a cruise before, and I don’t dare to dream of that, but I can calm my ish on stuffing my face uncontrollably and hopefully arrive home in similar condition to how I left. Remembering my strategies to do this…
  • Unless it’s a diving day, a VERY small breakfast with just enough to get to lunch. I don’t enjoy most breakfast food much (especially in a buffet type situation), and my best bet is to eat as little as possible.
  • For buffet lunch, ONE plate, mostly veggies, with a few other fun stuffs too. The desserts aren’t worth it.
  • If we end up skipping/missing real lunch and getting snacks – as healthy and as small as possible since dinner is at 5 if we go to the dining room
  • I figure we will go to the dining room most days, so if we do, no real limits here besides don’t stuff myself. No doubling up on meals. If there’s something I want that I don’t get, I’ll put it on the mental list to order or make at home.
  • Just because it’s there doesn’t mean I have to take advantage of it. Snacks, late night pizza, etc etc.

And, yeah, that’s about it. I think I’ve established pretty good habits the last few weeks and the metrics are showing it working. I just need to keep on keepin’ on.

As for activity/training/moving my arse:

Can’t complain. 11-14 hours with a “stepback” week after the race of almost 9 hours? Okay, fine.

We also completed a 25k and had this to say about it on the social medias:

Crazy week, not awesome sleep, and everything felt broken this morning, but off we went! The course was gorgeous, the weather was pleasant (if a little warm at the end), and though I (and my ankle) kinda hate rocks with the passion of a thousand fiery suns, we made it happen.

I did learn how to run with my new hiking poles and learned the lesson that I should always check if the liquid going in my camelback is warm (because that was my biggest whine the last 4 miles). I think with a sit, cold refreshing liquids, and some more nutrition (they were starting to bring out the hot foods for the longer races) I coulda gone a little further, but there’s much more time on feet training needed before I even think about going out for double the distance. I’m excited for it, though!

We were only not DFL by the one person we passed right at the end (but ahead of the 10-12 people that DNF’d), but we did what we set out to do. Yay!

Elsewise, I hit 3x week weights minus ONE session early in the month, and I’m also back to the gym mixing it up 1-2x week instead of doing the same stale sessions at home. I’ve been running 2-3x week (mostly 2) and I have DESIRED to run more, I took it easy on the cranky ankle. Because I didn’t push it earlier in the week when it felt “fine”, I was able to get out over the weekend and do a very pleasant 5-miler with no pain or discomfort instead of running through niggles. Patience that is not in the form of persistence is not always my strong suit, but maybe I’m gaining some wisdom in my old age. 🙂

December, after vacation, is going to be about ramping up a little more. I’d like to run 10 road miles by NYE and I’d like to have a 20-mile trail run/walk in the bank by then as well. The weather and our schedules should be decent to get some time on feet. I’d like to be running 3x week with one long(ISH). I’d like to get at least 2 really long hikes ramping closer to our 50k goal. Weights are still on the menu and so is doing them at the gym as much as possible.

Biking and swimming? See you in the spring.

As for all the other hobbies? Most have been out of focus. I haven’t really touched my book. You know when you’re just feeling burnt out about a thing and the idea of doing it just makes you recoil? Yeah, I’m there right now, and I really don’t know why because I love to write, and I was in the flow with the story (mostly just frustrated about the lack of time to write) and super enjoying myself and then all of a sudden it felt like WORK. I realized this and I went ahead and gave myself a pass until after the cruise. I need some time to clear my head and relax before this sounds fun and really, I’m doing this for fun so it should be fun, not a chore.

I HAVE been rocking through photo editing! I finished all the spring stuff, and now I have a few sets of fall stuff including Seattle, which I will very likely finish (or close) before I go on vacation. That leaves the backlog as just Vermont, and now a set of underwater photos from Jan 2023 I found while unearthing my diving camera… so I’m back at a place with a manageable backlog of photos to edit. So I DEFINITELY need to go take more!

I played my guitar a few times. I need to prioritize this because some of the songs in my “learned” column took a little bit to suss out what the notes/chords are. So, I want to make the goal to play 3x week in December (which should be easy since I’ll be home more).

Adulting. I have a lot of December goals once we get closer to vacation. Like, many of the things we talked about earlier in the year (the great office setup for both of us, fixing Joel’s broken dresser which now makes the closet unusable, making the garage able to be used by cars again, etc). November was not a goose egg though. I will say that we got some old work stuff out of the attic, we finally recycled some electronics, and we got some of my photos printed on canvases and hung in the guest bathroom and our vanity area, and I’m making some progress in cleaning out my office.

Alrighty, last month of the year, gogogo!

• Continue doing what I’m doing with fruits, veg, less salt, and actively tracking my food
• Continue activity as normal while increasing run/hike distances
• Pick writing my book back up after vacation
• Play guitar so you can remember all your songs!
• Make time for some bigger house projects once the workyear winds down

But first, some time to relax and get away… are we there yet?

I’m just a girl, standing in front of a weather forecast, wishing it would finally be fall.

Looks like I’ll get my wish tomorrow but holy heck, it’s been a hell of a hot-tober. I’m super glad I’m not marathon training – just 25k training, which is also trails and mostly walking, so that’s not as bad, but still feels bad to be sweating your ass off on Oct 25th when it climbs into the 90s mid-day on the hike.

Besides whinging about the weather, let’s catch up, shall we?

In terms of being of sound mind and body-

I got a female things checkup, and all looks good. Much better than the last few years. While I prefer to solve things without medication, and I’m still figuring out how to be productive and competitive without harnessing the power of anger, I do appreciate being a calmer human being even outside of my pills taking care of the actual problems they were intended to solve. I have a preventative regular checkup and a preventative dermatologist skin check scheduled in January as well. Yay, adulting.

Speaking of adulting, the last few times I’ve visited the doctor or dentist, I’ve had inconsistent (and sometimes high) blood pressure readings. I wrote it off as white-coat syndrome, but I figured I should do some due-diligence on it to make sure. And… it’s kind of inconsistent at home too. Sometimes normal, sometimes a few points over normal, and one day it was super high.

Let’s go back to the place where I REALLY don’t want to have to take medication if I don’t have to. So – my goal over the next 3 months is to bring my blood pressure back down to consistently normal and I spent some time researching how to do that. This made me take a real good look at the thing I’m most willing to change – and seems like will make the most impact – my diet. I started thinking about it over the summer, but I didn’t really follow through. If I can be honest with myself, my diet has gone from super high quality to pretty poor over the last 5 years and maybe just calorie counting isn’t enough to stay healthy and feel good.

So, here we go:

• SALT. Holy crap, I eat a lot of salt already and my tastebuds are calibrated for me to want to add more. Totally works when I’m crushing long distance training in the heat. Doesn’t really right now. I started looking in despair about how to do a low salt diet and Joel suggested what his doctor suggested – start with not adding any. Goal is to not add salt to anything that’s already processed. If I make a potato into wedges in the air fryer – I can add (a little) salt. I can’t add salt to a frozen dinner that’s already 50% of my daily value. I’m not proud to admit I do this, but… I do.
• DIET QUALITY. I used to eat really healthy. Like, so many veggies, some fruits, whole grains, lean protein, some nuts/legumes, all the good stuff. I even tracked it, which made me generally eat very healthy so I could accommodate some splurges (which decreased my points) and still stay above a certain range. I can’t find the damn scale, so I’m going to START with more general goals:
  • Reintroduce fruit into my life. This week, I’ve got watermelon (which increases potassium, which is good for blood pressure) and blueberries (I don’t eat much in the blue/purple categories these days). If I don’t have a smoothie in the morning, I need some fruit in my afternoon snack. 1-2 servings a day
  • All the veggies. Salad for breakfast (unless I have a smoothie, then salad as an afternoon snack). Extra veggies with the prepared healthy meals (e.g. extra frozen peas with my cacio y pepe Snap Kitchen pasta). Fewer prepared meals so I can get different vegetables (e.g. making my own chicken pasta with spinach and asparagus vs the same peas in my cacio every time).
  • Eating my processed low calorie foods (hot pockets and frozen meals) very infrequently and not repurchasing them once they are gone.
• Aim for 1500 calories 5x week, up to 2000 calories 1x week, up to 2500 calories 1x week (long day). There’s very few days I get fewer than 300 activity calories (maybe 1-2 days a week when I just take a short walk) spreading out the deficit will help me not have to starve those days. 1500 is doable when I’m eating healthy with no splurges. 2000 is doable with a small splurge. 2500 is very doable for days I do 1000+ calorie long workouts and if I need to stretch it a little I will (e.g. I burned 1500 on my 14 mile hike last weekend I may stretch that to like 2700).

I’ll try this for November and see how things are going. Besides the BP normalization, I’d really like to come into the end of January at least under the “obese” range (179.9 for me). I’m much fitter than the average bear and carry way more muscle so I’m smaller size-wise, but it’s still that convo with the doctor that I’d love to not have to have. So, goals! Let’s go!

Let’s ignore the fact that we’re heading into the holiday season and I’m going on an 8-day cruise. We’ll make it work. I’ve done it before!

Where I’m doing great is moving my ass. My doctor asked, “are you exercising” and I just said “yes” but um… yeah, I’m walking like 9+ hours a week and running 2-3x week and lifting weights 3x week. I think that qualifies.

Hikes and runs will just continue to progress over the next few months to be longer, so hopefully that will help in the above quest. This is the easy part for me, especially now that I’m done with triathlon for the year and can get out the door on my own two feet (either moving quickly for a run or slower for a walk) there’s no real friction, unlike prepping for riding bikes or getting to a pool to swim. And… it’s finally starting to be temperate enough for walks or even runs whenever (not just at crack of dawn or after dark) so that will help so, so, so much.

I wish now this showed walking, because that’s a lot of my activity these days, but check the hour totals on the weeks:

My worst week was 9.5h activity, best two were 11.5h. It’s like back when I was half ironman training, but less intense. Which is great for not eating like I’m a trash compactor.

Goals this month:

• I did DECENTLY at weights but I do see two weeks where I only did 2x week not 3. There should be no excuse in November as long as I time leg day far enough away from long hikes (oops last week, killer leg day Fri + 14 mile hike Sat = Sunday NOFUNDAY). And I’m going to try to get to the gym for at least two of them per week. I can do it at home, but my workouts stagnate and I get better quality workouts at the gym.
• We are doing a 25k (15.6 mile) race (let’s call it a hike) on Nov 16! Goal again is to simply complete it, maybe do a little bit of running but mostly hiking.
• Start working my 2-3x week runs (let’s be fair, it’s looking like 2x week above) up in distance a bit. 3 miles is easy before work, but I’d like to extend one of them longer at least every other week.

Longer term, we are targeting a 50k (31.1 miles OMG) in March, and we need to get both our mileage and speed up (we won’t complete it in the time allotted if we just walk it). So, over the winter we’ll increase our road running distance to 13-15 miles (also, I’d like to race at least one half marathon if not some other road races), increase our long hikes to… maybe marathon distance (I need to look up a 50k training plan) and incorporate run/walk intervals into some hikes. But, for now, just want to get through the race and keep slowly building distance in both runs and hikes and start smashing the two together.

On the non-health related stuffs… I cleaned out a drawer. Yay! I did a thing. It’s truly on Joel when he wants to start his projects so I’m not pushing him. But I’m trying to pick one small thing in my stuff to clean out each week so I can make small incremental progress there. I also feel like I adulted by doing doctor stuff and trying to fix my diet so I’m not going to put a crapton of pressure on myself to do more.

In the book, I’m at 33k words (so 10k in the last month), but some are notes. I haven’t had that much focused quiet time to write lately, either due to schedule stuffs or Joel wanting to do other stuffs or just not having the brain to do stuffs when I have the time. It’s ok. I’d like to, if nothing else, make all the words I have into first pass writing instead of notes. December will be a great time to make words, and maybe I won’t have my whole draft of book 3 done by end of year, but I shouldn’t be that far off either!

I had a month where I was just unenthused with photo editing. I pretty much took a month off and just posted spookywalk photos with crappy insta filters. My goal is the same as October, get through random spring stuff and Seattle before I leave for vacay, so I’m only one vacation behind!

I didn’t pick up my guitar. Ah well. Maybe next month. Also, I asked Joel to fix my/his/my electric since something is wrong with it. It’s one of those little speedbumps (I have two other guitars) keeping me from doing things.

So, November:

• Eat more veggies and fruit, no adding salt to salty things (and take my blood pressure consistently)
• Complete a 25k and increase distance on long walks and runs, maintain 3x week weights
• Get my notes into real words
• Edit some photos
• Clean out a few small things or help Joel clean out his bigger things.

Now that the weather is going to start cooperating, I feel like almost anything is possible!