Two little lessons

I’ve decided that the recitation of my little workouts is super-boring, even to me—and the list since I last posted would have been QUITE long. But I will say I have been faithfully doing 15 minutes of yoga every morning, along with one headstand on my bench, all of which feels great and seems to be making me stronger. I suppose the lesson is that consistency is good, even if it’s a pretty tiny thing you’re being consistent about.

Another lesson I have learned (in the “Month of Achilles Healing”) is that my Achilles really aren’t going to heal in the face of a poor diet. Earlier in the month we were eating out a lot, and I was making myself gluten-free pizzas for dinner almost every night, and my Achilles were just getting worse and worse despite everything else I was doing for them. Now I’ve gotten all the grains out of my diet again, and it definitely makes a difference. Annoying but true.

More on the art show

Sunday: Yoga 15 minutes, weights 20 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

I forgot to post the picture of my art show table:

I feel so much better today; I slept a normal amount and woke up a normal human. I’m going to assume yesterday’s exhaustion was mostly about the stress of getting this all together and then spending so many hours talking to people.

And I REALLY want to do this again. I’m going to try to figure out how to be a little more professional—like how to finish and frame things so that people can actually hang them up. (The few that are framed were ones where I ripped out ancient family photos and replaced them with painted paper.) Everything you see here was propped up with bookends and/or rocks, so honestly my first task is to buy some display easels. M.H. needs them for his book-selling events anyway.

Art show!

Tuesday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1.2 miles
Wednesday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1 mile
Thursday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk ??
Friday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk ??
Saturday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

Yesterday was Art Walk, where I had a table among about 20 other artists with a bunch of my abstract acrylic paintings. I was thrilled; I sold two of them for actual money and traded one to another artist for something cool. But I am also EXHAUSTED—I don’t know if it was from the stress of getting everything ready and named and set up, the physical exertion of doing all that, or just the fact of having to spend four hours straight talking to people.

At any rate I was in bed by 9 and slept until almost 8 a.m., and still I’m tired to a degree that I wonder if I’m coming down with something or maybe just have reached an age of irreversible decline and infirmity.

Being part of the “art community” in town has been really rewarding, and I learned a lot yesterday. For one thing, I found out that there are a few other annual shows that I could participate in if I wanted. To do that I think it would be good to improve my presentation somewhat and be a lot more deliberate in trying to make quality pieces. On the other hand, there’s really nothing stopping me from just continuing to slap paint around on things and then trying to sell them.

October’s challenge

Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Walk 1 mile
Monday: Yoga 15 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

Welcome to the Month of Achilles Healing! (It’s October 2, but I just decided.) My plan resolution challenge is that every day for the next 30 days, I will:

• Use the Thumper on my Achilles
• Go for a short walk
• Stretch
• Use infrared light on my Achilles
• Stretch with the brace my sister sent me

(It looks like this.)

I’m still chasing the high of that glorious day several weeks ago when my feet just didn’t hurt. 

Some temporary chaos

Saturday: So much yardwork
Sunday: Yoga 30 minutes, so much yardwork
Monday: So much yardwork
Tuesday: So much yardwork
Wednesday: So much yardwork
Thursday: So much yardwork
Friday: Yoga 20 minutes

I am happy our landscaping project has started, but right now it’s messing up my life a bit.

Mud.

It’s so stressful to have loud noises and constant beeping coming from the back yard, I don’t know how to oversee what’s going on and make sure it’s all OK without making a nuisance of myself, I’m putting in a lot of time “helping” with the cleanup and waste disposal but not actually seeming to achieve all that much, I’m worried about throwing out my back from picking so much stuff up off the ground, and I’ve been skipping most of my other exercise. Oh, and I put “free rock” on Facebook Marketplace, which means I’ve also been juggling dozens of daily interruptions from people messaging me and ringing the doorbell. (Yet the rock never seems to totally go away.)

My Achilles have been particularly painful lately, and I don’t know if it’s from not taking my short morning walks, not stretching as much, eating a bit worse than usual, or some combination of that. Actually I’ve been surprised at how much regular walking seemed to make things better and not worse—that should probably be the priority. I just keep spending my entire morning in the yard and then forgetting to ever go outside again.

Landscaping shenanigans

Wednesday: Yoga 30 minutes, so much yardwork
Thursday: Yoga 25 minutes, so much yardwork
Friday: Yoga 25 minutes, so much yardwork

(Yardwork totally counts as exercise—it is much more strenuous than anything else I’m doing and involves plenty of walking for me and my fussy Achilles.) 

We have major landscaping happening in our back yard. It is going to be awesome eventually, but right now we’re at the “oh no oh no what have we done everything is mud and chaos” phase. We’re helping as much as we can with the labor because our landscaper (Stuart) makes more hourly than either of us—although when you consider that I’m not really all that effective at said labor, it does probably make financial sense for me to sit here and focus on my nice desk job.

But anyway. I’m going to spend the next several weeks moving dirt and rocks around, and it’s honestly a nice change of pace.

Interruptus

Friday: Walk 1.2 miles
Saturday: Yoga 35 minutes, walk 2.1 miles
Sunday: Weights 20 minutes
Monday: Yoga 35 minutes
Tuesday: Walk 1.5 miles

I just decided to write out a to-do list for today, and when I grabbed my scratch paper, there sat yesterday’s list with NOTHING crossed off. So that will also do for today. Sigh.

The problem is that I am trying to give away the TONS of river rocks in my back yard in preparation for landscaping. This entails having Facebook open almost constantly and managing literally dozens of people messaging me, plus random people knocking on the front door. It’s going to save us quite a bit of money in the end because the rocks won’t have to be hauled to the dump, so it is worth it. 

But on the other hand, I am so very easily distracted. Every ding and interruption derails me for 5 to 60 minutes, which you can imagine is not conducive to working at my desk. Adding “Don’t get sidetracked” to the list as we speak.

It’s happening

Monday: Walk 1.2 miles, walk 1.5 miles
Tuesday: Yoga 25 minutes, meditate 10 minutes 
Wednesday: Weights 20 minutes, meditate 10 minutes, walk 1.5 miles
Thursday: Walk 1.5 miles

We met with our landscaper yesterday, and the lawn overhaul is beginning as soon as Monday! I’m so excited; there’s going to be a greenhouse and a ton of garden space, and everything else is going to be sustainable. I have so much to learn about gardening between now and next spring—or maybe next winter, since…greenhouse! 

I’m pleased with my headstand bench—I have been wanting to do inversions again, and this is a nice intermediate step toward “real” headstands and handstands.

Weekend fun

Thursday: Walk 1 mile
Friday: Walk 1.5 miles
Saturday: Walk 1.5 miles, hike 2.5 miles
Sunday: Rest

I ended my “Whole30” on Friday after 10 days, but in a way it’s all part of the plan: Eat according to the plan at home and resist eating out for reasons of laziness, but when something fun comes up, don’t worry about it too much.

This weekend’s fun involved a hike, a waterfall, a Shakespeare in the Parks performance, seeing Dexter, a burrito, a sub sandwich, and many snacks. No regrets, although I actually do feel like crap this morning. According to SnoreLab (and my memories, and my throat), I snored with my mouth open all night and woke up like eight times. Now I feel tired and dehydrated and like fall allergies just reared their ugly heads. I tried doing a little yoga this morning but gave up within five minutes.

I’m on the verge of embarking on an editing project that will mean 20 additional hours of work each week. This is technically doable, and I want to do it, but it’s basically taking me all the way to full time for about six to ten months (or more, depending on my other clients). I’ve been thinking through how that’s going to fit into my life—what needs to go and what needs to stay. Somehow I need to doing the food and exercise that is actually starting to make me better…

Skies have cleared

Monday: Walk 1.5 miles
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Yoga 45 minutes, walk 1.5 miles

Yesterday the smoke in town was TERRIBLE, and I also felt kind of crappy. Today he skies cleared up, I feel great, and I gave myself the gift of not going to the yoga class that has gotten so annoying.

I was on a roll with creative pursuits this weekend and made a useful thing out of old T-shirts:

I need to remember that if I’m (1) caught up with work and (2) actually then step away from my desk, I get to do fun things.

Having a nice weekend

Saturday: Yoga 35 minutes, meditate 10 minutes
Sunday: Walk 1.5 miles 

Here’s the result of art lesson 2:

I actually worked on three paintings today, since I feel inspired and am having an AGGRESSIVELY relaxing weekend. It’s clear to me that my brain is continuing to wake up (this is Whole30 Day 5).

Yoga is great, but I’m thinking it probably shouldn’t come at the expense of walking, at least until walking gets less challenging (yes, I said “challenging”). I can’t quite put my finger on what is hard about it. It’s partly that my Achilles often hurt, especially on any kind of upward incline, but really I think I’m just out of shape to a ridiculous degree. So in the name of tendon healing I don’t want to go any farther, but in the name of getting my body good at walking again, I think I’d better make sure I at least do my short stroll every day.

Day 1, Day 3, Day 20

Thursday: Walk 1.5 miles
Friday: Walk 1.5 miles

This is Day 1 of an online abstract art class I’m taking. The first assignment was to tape off a piece of paper and then play around with a limited color palette. The class is called “Find Your Joy” so in theory we are just supposed to be having fun and enjoying the process, but lately I can’t seem to figure out how to make any marks with a paintbrush that I enjoy. It used to be that everything I painted was a delirious free-for-all, but this was not all that exciting:

BUT…this is Day 3 of the Whole30, and I really do think I feel my brain waking up again, so maybe things will get better.

And finally this is Day 20 of a work marathon—I just looked back, and I haven’t had a day off since August 12. But I am taking the entire weekend off, with plans to see friends, do more painting, and chop up a bunch of T-shirts to make T-shirt yarn. I eventually want to use it to crochet a rustic basket in which I can gather all the garden produce I will have this time next year.

Day 1

Wednesday: Yoga in the Park, one hour 

I think it would be interesting to go back and see how many blog posts I’ve called “Day 1” and evaluate how all those big plans worked out. Ambitious “day 1” declarations are sorta my whole personality, according to some people. (I might remind those people that I trained for and completed an entire Ironman, so sometimes things actually work out fine.)

Anyway THIS Day 1 is day 1 of the renewed Whole30, and since the last one went just fine I don’t see any particular reason for ridicule or skepticism. I even got on the scale this morning to get a new “starting” weight (exactly the same as at the end of the last Whole30).

I declared before heading to yoga this morning that I was going to give it one more chance to not be weird, but unfortunately it seems to be just weird now. The instructor was talking a lot about reaching, for some reason, and to demonstrate she went over to a nearby tree and reached for a branch about three inches out of reach. Then she said, “Now watch what happens when I reach for it with my energy,” and we just sat there as literally nothing whatsoever moved or changed. I was half-expecting the branch to bend gracefully into her hand, but no. Then we all had to go to our own trees and reach for our own branches, so I amused myself by going for one I could actually reach and saying, “I win.”

I think if I actually want to start winning at yoga I need to stay home and use my time a bit more productively, but I am a little sad because this started out as pretty fun.

Whoa

Monday: Yoga 30 minutes, walk 1.5 miles
Tuesday: Weights 20 minutes, walk 1.2 miles 

I have been faithfully using the Thumper on my Achilles and calf and have also been pretty good about taking a slow walk every day. Yesterday a miracle occurred and my Achilles stopped hurting.

I’m not sure exactly how to say what I’m about to try to say. But I think when you’ve lived with a pain for long enough—no matter how mild—it just becomes part of your life and actually starts to condition you. So I might say my Achilles feel pretty good today, and that’s true in relative terms, but in the back of my mind of course they’re still going to hurt when I get up after sitting for a while. Or go down stairs. Or walk for any distance. That’s just a given. Only yesterday some of those things didn’t actually hurt at all, and I started realizing that I have been avoiding or delaying standing up, using the stairs, and walking because of the anticipated pain. My pain was slowly training me to be more sedentary.

So yesterday was fantastic and eye-opening. And just to be clear, my Achilles do kind of hurt again today, but nothing like this has happened in four or five years, so surely it points toward healing.

A fresh hell

Friday: Walk 1.2 miles
Saturday: Walk 1.5 miles
Sunday: Walk 1.5 miles

Yesterday the first day in a while that I haven’t been migrainey, but I’ve still decided not to push it (see definitions). That’s partly because I haven’t had a day off work in weeks, and that seems enough stress. 

I’m not sure what happened to me last week—probably a hormone freakout, because on top of headaches I was having terrible hot flashes, which is an exciting new symptom. My strategy for survival was desperately avoiding getting hot, even a little, because a little hot would turn into a lot hot, which would then blossom into a headache.

Definitions:

push it (v): Do literally anything physical beyond a very slow morning walk. 

Migraines and magic

Wednesday: Yoga in the Park
Thursday: Walk 1.5 miles

I’m feeling slightly better but have now started getting migraines—some pain-y ones but mostly visual auras. Today it’s visual auras, which still make it very difficult to work at a computer, so things are piling up alarmingly. 

I don’t know if this new wrinkle is from rampaging hormones or crappy food or a reaction to spending a lot more time than usual at my desk or some combination of those, but at any rate I am making a real effort to eat better today and take lots of eye breaks. Also I just took an Excedrin Migraine even though nothing actually hurts, so I’m hoping that will let me at least get something done this afternoon.

Yoga was pretty good yesterday until the instructor started in on an incoherent spiritual rant of some kind. It wasn’t just that it was super woo-woo; it literally made no sense. Then two students chimed in with weird stories about “energy” + something about tarot cards, and honestly it makes me not want to go back. Or maybe I was just grumpy because I had a headache during all this and wanted to go home and take an Advil, HARD TO SAY. But seriously this class is sponsored by the public library so cool it with the flakiness, people.

Bad night

Tuesday: Rest 

I call it “rest” but really it’s: horrible night of sleep, very early morning, and tons to do today.

We went to bed super-early last night because we had to be up at 4:30 to take Mik to the airport. But the power went out sometime before 11, causing a fire alarm to start making a horrible noise, which woke me up and started me worrying about all the food in the freezer, whether we’d be able to cook Mik breakfast, global warming, etc. So I slept on and off after that, but then starting around 2 the power turned on and off three separate times—and every time it did it would cause M.H.’s phone to light up the room, the Sleep Number bed to make a loud clunking noise, and the fire alarm to switch from its horrible but relatively quiet growl to a loud “low battery” beep every 30 seconds. I must have eventually gotten back to sleep because when the alarm finally went off I was in the middle of a nightmare.

(Obviously M.H. slept peacefully through it all. Not jealous.)

But then I had to give my baby back to his college AND I theoretically have to work all day. Grumpy face.

Transitioning

Saturday: Walk 1.2 miles
Sunday: Walk 1.2 miles
Monday: Walk 1.3 miles

Mik goes back to college tomorrow, and I WOULD go straight back into Whole30ing, but we have a refrigerator full of leftover taco bar at the moment, so it’s going to take a few days. I also really want to do more on the exercise front again, but I haven’t really been feeling that great. I’m not sick, but I definitely don’t feel 100% well either. Hopefully it’s just from lots of gluten and time at my desk, rather than a virus. (Actually, as I think about it for a hot second, I kind of hope it’s from a virus and not just from a week of worse eating/movement, because that would mean there’s absolutely no margin for lifestyle error anymore in my life, and that would be RIDICULOUS.)

The tiny bit of extra walking this morning was because as I was approaching my house, I saw two kids run over to our Little Free Library. I took a detour so they would have a chance to look without me scaring them off. :)

Fast, slow, and upside-down

Wednesday: Yoga in the Park, 1 hour
Thursday: Walk 1.2 miles
Friday: Walk 1.2 miles 

I’ve kind of been swept up into being “busy,” which is not my preferred mode, but here we are for at least another week or so. Plus some of the work of this week was putting together a bid for a contract that would REALLY consume my life for the next 11 months. Not sure if I’m hoping to win it or not, tbh.

But did you notice how I kept doing the slow morning walk despite the work increase? It’s actually a really nice addition to my life, particularly with an audiobook at hand. Someday when our landscaping is done I hope to swap that for a morning putter about the garden and greenhouse, but this is very pleasant for now.

Also…I bought something interesting from a person on Facebook Marketplace: one of those yoga headstand benches. I was once able to do “real” headstands but always thought one of these would allow me to do other interesting poses as well. Now I just want to get back into headstands, but at any rate I’m very excited to have a cheap one.

Me in the future (left)

An opportunity to prioritize

Tuesday: Walk 1.2 miles, yoga 25 minutes, meditate 10 minutes

My typical morning self-care/puttering-around has ballooned into like a four-hour production. I’ve recently added a walk, some meditation, a little cooking, and some Achilles rehab to my pre-work activities, which already included reading, coffee, cooking breakfast, doing yoga, checking out the garden, taking vitamins, etc. Honestly I would love to add painting/drawing/crocheting to the list of morning fun, but I do have to work at some point.*

Also I was just informed that I have a boatload of work incoming next week, so I really can’t continue spending so long on non-paying activities. I’ll have to figure out what’s most aligned with my New Life Plan and go from there.

*For the money, not the satisfaction, particularly. I have concluded that at this stage in my life I could very happily putter around all day and still stay quite busy.

Tiny vent

Monday: Walk 1.2 miles, weights 20 minutes, meditate 10 minutes 

I started my day with learning about an editing mistake I made last week, and that is a CRAPPY way to kick off the workweek. I know logically that I can’t be 100% perfect all the time, but that is still my expectation for myself—as well as the general expectation of my clients—and it’s the one thing I ABSOLUTELY HATE about my job. 

Just to be clear, I really like editing and I really like working from home and I really like my clients. But it is so annoying and frustrating to have a job where the standard is perfection. I mean, I know I’m not a brain surgeon and there was nothing on the line here but…a typo…on the internet. Still if anyone knows of an editing gig where people are looking for about 90% accuracy, would you let me know? 

Because in grade school I got used to seeing “exceeds expectations” on my report card, and that is literally impossible in my current job.

Some insights from the “fantasy success story”

Saturday: Yoga 30 minutes, meditate 10 minutes, walk 1.2 miles
Sunday: Yoga 30 minutes, meditate 10 minutes, walk 1.2 miles

It’s absurd how little I can walk before my Achilles start complaining, but it seems important to do at least this 1.2-mile down-to-the-park-and-back walk. In fact, I wrote out my “fantasy success story” last night, focusing mostly on what I “did” and how I “overcame obstacles” (yeah, it feels embarrassing and I will not be sharing it at this time). But one of the things I found myself writing was: “I think the important breakthrough I had was realizing that I didn’t need to have my Achilles 100% better in order to start walking (slowly, gradually) again.”

That little gem just popped out of my brain unexpectedly during the exercise, but I think it’s valid. I’ve tried not walking at all, and my Achilles just got worse. I’ve also tried walking tons as if nothing was wrong, and my Achilles also just got worse. But little tiny slow walks don’t seem to matter much either way. And even though I know I can do all kinds of other exercise and movement, I just think walking outdoors is uniquely important for human health, and some has to be better than none.

Another thing I wrote about was that I taught myself to LOVE cooking, so now I’m wondering how exactly to go about that. My first thought was that maybe I could try to make my food “pretty” and take pictures of it. 

Breakfast

Unfortunately 1) it wasn’t that pretty and 2) it’s LESS satisfying because it’s just more work. Some other ideas I have are:

• music always playing while I cook
• count the number of different plants I eat in a week and make a game of trying to keep the number really high
• weekly meal prep night with M.H.
• find a cookbook that makes me excited to try new things?
• positive affirmations???

Help?

Fake it till you make it

Friday: Rest

I’m pretty sore and my back feels funky from lifting weights yesterday, so I decided it was time for a rest day. (The plan is no plan: Push myself when I can and rest when I feel like it.) 

I have been using the Thumper a lot. Sometimes it seems like it’s helping, and sometimes it’s more of the usual—my Achilles hurt at random times of day and ache on random nights. All the muscles in my calves feel a bit bruised from the massage. As I recall, that’s usually the point when Dan the Physical Therapist would double down on causing me pain, but I’ve decided to take a BIT more gentle route while still continuing on with it. Another useful thing is that after I massage for 10 minutes, I always take a few minutes to stretch, which I hadn’t been that good about previously.

I’m just staying positive: This IS going to heal, and I AM going to get my weight (and therefore blood pressure and cholesterol) down. Hey, remember when I wrote myself a “fantasy race report”* to prepare for my Ironman race? I wonder if I could do a “fantasy success story” of how I got my health back and injury rehabbed, maybe written from the perspective of 12 months from now. Hmm.

*The actual fake race report is no longer online, but you would find it boring anyway.

Exercising as planned, mostly

Wednesday: Yoga in the Park 1 hour
Thursday: Weights 20 minutes, meditate 10 minutes

Yesterday I went out the the garage again with a damp rag and a husband who knows how to do things. I wiped my bike down, we located the doohickey and the tire pressure recommendations, and he hooked up the air compressor. But…the air compressor is dead. Damn. Got excited there for a second.

The weight routines I have been doing (sporadically before; definitely more regularly from now on) are from a YouTube channel called “Lift with Cee,” designed for “women over 40.” As a total beginner physically but an expert based on past lifting experience, I deem them perfect for me. They can be easy, but there’s lots of room to grow.

Yoga in the Park is great—I keep running into new friends I’ve met in the past year or so. The weather has been perfect, too.

Will she or won't she (ever get on a bike)?

Tuesday: 30 minutes yoga, 10 minutes meditation

I actually semi-thought about going biking today. I tried on two pairs of bike shorts (they didn’t fit, plus they had that weird crackling thing that happens to stretchy fabrics when they haven’t been touched in 12+ years). So I put on regular shorts, went out to the garage, located my bike shoes and helmet, dusted off the bike (cough), and located the air compressor. I could not locate the little adapter I needed to actually inflate the tires, though, nor the writing on the tires that tells you what to inflate them to.

So I reasoned that that was enough for one day (haha) and went downstairs to do some yoga instead. Which was great except that I was coughing a bit from inhaling all the dust on my bike (this is true but also a metaphor). During yoga, I caught myself worrying about all the things I couldn’t do very well, so I decided to start noticing instead of all the things I COULD do well. For example, my hamstrings are very flexible, I know all the poses that are being called out, I have all the equipment I need, my shoulder is fully rehabbed from a softball incident, my spine has a lot of mobility, and so on.

The percussive massager thing (hereafter called the Thumper) seems really useful. It really dug into some tight spots in my calves, and I wasn’t sore the day after using it, so I might get even a little more aggressive with it.

I also got five hours of work done yesterday with most of the company having gone and am planning on five more today. That may not get me totally caught up, but at least I feel like it’s under control again.

A start

Sunday: Rest (and eat)
Monday: Yoga, 35 minutes 

I yogaed this morning to the point where I both worked up a sweat and wondered what on earth has become of my fitness. There are so many things I could do two years ago that I can no longer do. I honestly think I could use nothing but yoga for a while as a tool to get in much better shape. That sounds fun, but I think it would also be smart to lift some weights, and I need to do at least a little biking while the weather is nice. The current weather would be stupid to waste, honestly.

The family activities this weekend were so much fun. Every time I turned around, there was someone I hadn’t seen in five years or more. But this morning, M.H. and Mik both went off to work early, and I freaking CHERISHED some quiet time alone in the house. It may take months to fully refill my introvert tank.

Oh, ALSO! I was talking about Achilles tendinitis with my aunt, and she asked me what kind of stuff my physical therapist (Dan the Physical Therapist) had been doing for it. I mentioned a percussive massager, and she said, “You know you can get one of those for under $50 at Costco, right?” Naturally, I did not, and naturally I now own one for $49.99. I’ve now watched one YouTube video about how to use it on your calves and Achilles and I am eagerly awaiting it to reach full charge.

Interlude from partying

Thursday: 2.5-mile hike
Friday: Round of frisbee golf
Saturday: Rest

Just trying to get in the habit of writing my “workouts” down. The family event weekend is in full swing, and I am eating horribly but having a great time. In general I’ve noticed that the gluten and dairy and stuff doesn’t really hurt me in the moment—with the major exception of cheap pizza, which leaves me pretty bleah for the next 12 hours. After eating four slices for dinner yesterday, I woke up last night with a bone-dry mouth, a desperate thirst, and my app indicating that I had been snoring “epically.”

Almost everyone goes home Sunday, so things get mostly back to normal after that, except for the large backlog of work that’s building up.

Wherein nothing can stop me from doing yoga in the park

Wednesday: 30 minutes restorative yoga

I mentioned before that our library is sponsoring a free weekly outdoor yoga class all summer, which is fantastic except for two instances now (and counting) where the instructor simply doesn’t show up. This time I decided to make the best of it and do yoga in the park anyway. One other person was willing to stay, so we used my Down Dog yoga app and just did the practice it generated for us.

That was a good solution—I got a nice stretch, met a nice lady, and left feeling chill instead of bitter about having wasted part of my morning.

Also: I got my first item to report in terms of exercise for my newly reimagined training blog! But from now through Monday my life is 100% either work or family activities, both of which I will have in abundance.

Theory shot all to hell

I got the results from the blood test ordered by my new doctor, and generally things are good, but it sort of destroyed the low-hormone hypothesis I have been working from. I was assuming estradiol (estrogen) was the key ingredient missing from my life, but it is actually high, not low. So the way I see it, I really have no options left but to 1) go back to perfect eating in a few weeks when life gets back to normal and 2) exercise, exercise, exercise! 

I know there’s no downside to that plan, really. In fact, in a way it will be fun to turn this into an exercise/training blog again. I know I am starting this time from negative zero, but I also know that it’s pretty fun to notice and record improvements in fitness. I just this moment decided that the first step is to get my bike in working order so I can get some movement that way, since walking is currently way more difficult than it should be.

My other big goal is to LET GO of the anger/anxiety/angst caused by the recent family drama I alluded to earlier. It’s out of my hands anyway, so there’s no reason to let it affect my sleep and stress levels. So maybe…meditation?

By the way, I don’t know if I can realistically start any kind of New Life Plan until September, but I can definitely take some first steps.

Shenanigans

I weighed myself again before the “real” end of my Whole30 yesterday (on Day 49) and had lost another 3 pounds. (And no ill effects from butter.) So that was nice to see, but then Mik came home and we ended up eating restaurant food not once but twice yesterday. I’m not blaming him—I just truly wanted to do something “special” while we caught up, and then later we had my mom and stepdad over for Chinese takeout because I was frankly too lazy to whip up a healthy meal for five.

In one more week a bunch of family starts rolling into town, so truly this super-strict way of eating is canceled for about the next month, but M.H. and I both want to try to continue to eat as well as we can, and start up being strict again once the summer excitement is over. He is trying intermittent fasting as well and has been able to take his already tiny belt in not one but two notches, so as usual everything works like magic for him. I’m not jealous. :)

A reintroduction

Since I see the inevitable end coming for this Whole30, I went ahead and officially stopped it (after Day 46) to try at least one food reintroduction, the most important one: butter. So basically I’m going to eat the same way I have been today, except to cook some things in butter. Then I’ll go back to Whole30 eating for a few days. I guess if I suffer any ill effects from butter then I’ll have my bad news, but I’m really not expecting any.

It was a good day to add butter back in, because I got a bunch of adorable pullet eggs from a new “chicken lady” I met on Facebook ($4 a dozen delivered, with the pullet eggs thrown in as a bonus!). The only reasonable way to eat pullet eggs is fried, so you can enjoy all the little yolks whole. And the only reasonable way to fry eggs is in butter.

Contemplating the end

Day 45

I’ve now done a Whole30 and a half! I haven’t got tons to say about my progress or lack thereof, but I am looking forward to getting my lab test done and seeing if that is helpful in any way.

I noticed in the library a non-nutrition book by the Whole30 co-creator Melissa Urban. It is about boundary-setting and is SO GOOD. Then I found her Instagram feed and it is also SO GOOD. I highly recommend both.

Mik comes home on Saturday for a month, and I was saying to M.H. today that we might need to end our 45+ day streak of not eating in restaurants, only because it’s a good way to get our taciturn kid seated across from us to talk. I would like to go on eating this way, and I probably will resume it after Mik goes back to school, but honestly it’s more important to squeeze in some quality time, and if I have to fall on a burrito sword, so be it.

Medical intervention

Day 41

I found a naturopathic doctor who takes my insurance and is willing to be my primary care physician, and went to see her for the first time yesterday. The good news is that I really liked her generally, and that I seem to be in good health except for the obvious and having pretty freaking high blood pressure. The bad news is her first instinct was to approach my weight issue with a standard lecture about nutrition, which made me bristly.

I couldn’t seem to impress on her that nutrition is 99.9% NOT my problem. At the moment, my diet is impeccable—literally as good as I know how to make it for 41 days and counting. And even before the Whole30, my diet was honestly still fantastic, and it’s been like eight years since I’ve had added sugar. She said, “A cup of raw spinach has just 7 calories, and that’s as much as two M&M’s” and I was screaming inside, “THIS ISN’T FROM M&M’S!” I probably should have screamed it on the outside, I don’t know. I need to follow up by sending her an email about a couple of things, so maybe I will include a paragraph about my diet and my history and see if I can get her to really hear me on this.

When she saw my blood pressure, she said, “What do you want to do about this?” and I said, “Literally anything but go on blood pressure medication.” She recommended a couple of supplements to try but agrees with me that if I could lose weight it would go a long way toward resolving the problem.

ANYWAY. Next step is to have some labs done. I have some family stuff going on that is stressing me the hell out and want to wait until I have calmed down a little before going to the blood-suckers.

Play and work

Day 38

Work this summer has been QUIET, which is always slightly alarming but also gives me lots of time to play. I’ve been urban sketching, learning to crochet, reading a lot, swimming outside, doing yoga outside, doing jigsaw puzzles, and passively watching my tiny garden explode. (Plus tons of decluttering, which is not actually fun, but I am enjoying the results.) Let it not be said that I didn’t enjoy summer to the fullest! Honestly, anytime the windows are open, that’s a win in my book.

My Achilles tendons still hurt, which of course puts a damper on everything, but my foot and knees feel better today. I was noticing that my neck was hurting, too, and I couldn’t figure out why until I swam yesterday morning. It’s literally sore from turning my head side to side to breathe! So I’m back to square one in the pool, basically, but I’ll keep plugging away and eventually get a little better.

Actually, between yoga, swimming, and now lifting weights, I have added quite a bit of exercise to my life recently. Maybe I will see some benefit at some point…

Reality check

Day 36

I’m still feeling really good mentally, but physically…ugh. My Achilles really hurt, along with the arch of one foot and suddenly both knees. I don’t know if this is actually the case, but it FEELS like I just weigh so dang much that my supporting structures are wearing out. (I wish I had an anti-gravity treadmill. What could that cost, $20, $30?)

In an effort to report that my strength has improved in 24 days (at the end of two Whole30s), I found a weight-lifting program on YouTube that I like and have done it a couple of times. So I’m hoping I’m actually just a little tired from yesterday’s workout and not riding a downward spiral into owning a recliner with a lift feature.

On the plus side—because I really am doing quite well from the thighs up—I have made a ton of progress on decluttering and am still going strong there. I have been giving things to people from my Buy Nothing group, which takes a little longer than dumping it all at a thrift store but is much more satisfying and seems better for the world.

A watery day

Day 33

I swam again yesterday, 800 meters. This time my lanemate was a delight and I also had a great chat with Michael’s former swim coach. When I got out of the pool there was a text from my mom saying her basement was flooded, so I went home, grabbed a shower and breakfast, and then continued my “workout” by spending the next three hours helping to haul 3½ rooms of her stuff to higher ground. (The disaster was caused by a shockingly negligent contractor.)

I am hoping to establish a schedule of swimming on Mondays and Thursdays, and to do at least 1000 meters from now on. :)

A satisfying bit of decluttering and an urban sketch

Day 32*

I spent a good chunk of time yesterday purging and organizing my art supplies space—moving things around, giving things away, putting like with like, et cetera. And obviously this photo doesn’t show the half of it, but anyway here’s the After.

I probably could have purged more stuff—for example, a friend gave me some oil painting supplies that I don’t have a clue how to use—but I did keep a few just-in-case things like that and shoved them in a shoebox and pushed it to the back. Everything I do want to use should be readily accessible, and in fact my entire urban sketching kit is in a cute backpack, visible through the window, and ready to just grab and go.

Speaking of which, I’ve been hanging out with a local group of Urban Sketchers, and we met again today:

 

*As far as the Whole30 goes, I decided against adding back even butter to my diet. I just think it’s smarter to keep going, at least until I see the Day 60 results, if any.

Whole30 recap

Day 31

Here’s my Whole30 wishlist and an update on each of the issues:

1. Heal Achilles: At times in the past 30 days this has felt better, but at the moment it feels the same or even worse. This has been an issue for YEARS now, so I’m disappointed but not surprised that a miracle didn’t occur. (PSA: This injury is the worst, and if you ever feel a twinge of pain in your ankle/heel, I strongly encourage you to rest until it’s better, rather than playing through the pain until it becomes chronic, like a moron.)

2. Lose fat: I lost a grand total of 2 pounds, which is incredibly disappointing but does confirm my suspicion that all this recent weight gain doesn’t really have much to do with my diet. (But if I could lose 2 pounds every 30 days by eating this way, I would do it in a heartbeat.)

3. Lower blood pressure: I had the opportunity to take my blood pressure last night with my mom’s device and it’s still awful. Boo.

4. Improve circulation: Not sure but possibly this has helped. My legs were feeling super-heavy all the time, and now they feel better—but I have also been wearing a pair of compression socks I found at a garage sale, so it might just be that.

5. Improve motivation and focus: This is the #1 thing that changed for me. I feel smarter, more creative, and more motivated than I did 30 days ago BY FAR.

6. Get stronger: I don’t have any sense that this changed one way or another.

7. Improve endurance: It is really hard to say, because I still can’t walk any sort of distance because of my injury. I may possibly feel better walking up stairs…

8. Stop snoring: I do believe my snoring has lessened, although we started sleeping downstairs recently because it got hot out, and down there we somehow snore much more???

I’m feeling like, whether this helps a lot or a little, I still need to do it so my health doesn’t continue spiraling downhill. I think I’ll just keep going, do the other smart things I know I should do, and check in again on Day 60.

Whole30 Day 29 and 30

I’ve been mega-inspired to tackle the excess stuff these past few days—it might be the Tiger Blood talking or just that I’m fed up and recently read a book about decluttering. :)

I don’t really have strong feelings about the Whole30 coming to an end or how it went (but stay tuned for a recap tomorrow). I think I’ll go ahead and keep eating this way as long as possible, but following their food reintroduction protocol. For example, you have one food that was not allowed on the Whole30—I plan to start with butter—a couple of times in a day, and then go back to the Whole30 for a few days. The idea, of course, is to see if that food was negatively affecting you and how much. I do hope butter doesn’t do anything horrible to me; it would make my life a bit tastier if I could cook eggs in it, for example.

Whole30 Day 27

I think the main thing this Whole30 has done is remind me of how important it is to COOK. We had been getting kind of lazy, to the point where if we didn’t have anything in the fridge and didn’t really feel like making dinner we would just go out for burritos.

(I know that’s not a radically shocking confession, but it is a pretty big regression from the way I was eating 10 years ago.)

“If you want to eat, you have to cook” is what I keep telling myself, and it goes along nicely with my strong feelings about taking care of my own house/yard, even when hiring someone else to clean the bathrooms sometimes sounds like a really fine idea.

Also, I decided it would be dumb to stop the Whole30 one day early for the family party, so I will just have to be slightly annoying and either bring something or find out in advance if there will be something I can eat. I haven’t made any big announcements about doing a Whole30, but everyone is used to me eating weird.

Also, I must be (Tiger Blood!) motivated, because I read a book about decluttering, and now I have a New Life Plan to work on the house clutter for 30 minutes per day until I’ve done the whole thing. (It will probably take six months at that rate, but whatever.) The book says to start in the bathrooms, mostly because there’s very little difficult decision-making to be found in there. Great idea, and I think I decluttered most of my own drawers a few years ago, so it shouldn’t be too bad. Plus all the bathrooms need to be cleaned (speaking of which), so there you go.

Whole30 Day 28 but this is now a decluttering blog

I woke up ambitious and did a bunch of cleaning, as well as decluttered and organized my knitting/crocheting supplies. That was pretty easy, mostly because I did all the untangling and winding a few months ago, and all I had left to do was get rid of duplicates and my unwanted paper patterns. I now have yarncraft basically confined to one area of the house, which looks like this:

Those drawers are ALL full to the top with yarn, but overall, it’s not bad!

I have a lot of work to do on Other Art Supplies. Ideally I would have a whole room—studio!—for that stuff, but despite having a large house with no minor children in it, we don’t seem to have the space. Or at least I can’t bear to turn ALL our guest space into Julie-only space—for example, I would still like my kids to have a place to sleep when they visit.

I think the solution is to get rid of the excess and figure out how to make better use of the existing art-crap space, which currently looks like this:

It SEEMS like it should be enough room, but the art supplies are sharing quarters with first-aid stuff, sunscreen, water bottles, stationery, egg cartons that need to be donated to people with chickens, and other miscellaneous junk. I know I would use art supplies a lot more if I was able to get to them easily…

Whole30 Day 26

It’s getting toward the end of 30 days here! I think I’ve learned that I really do better eating this way, although the lack of progress on my Achilles tendons is a bit disappointing. And I have a family event on Day 29, so there’s a relatively decent chance I may be going off-plan, just to not be an annoying guest. (But I don’t even know what they’re serving, so maybe not!) 

I do feel like it’s OK now to start practicing my long-term plan, which is to eat this way at home 100% but be chill about it in social circumstances. I feel like that’s the same plan I had 10 years ago, but I guess I needed reminding…

Whole30 Day 25

The day got off to a crappy start when I drove 15 minutes to my weekly yoga class only to find that not a soul was there. I hadn’t received any notice about it being canceled, so it was really confusing, but I had arrived just before class start time, so I waited a few minutes and then went home. Only then did I find a Facebook Reel saying it was canceled. (I don’t have Facebook on my phone because I really don’t need any more reasons to have my phone in my hand.)

I think the part that’s bumming me out is that I didn’t really feel like going in the first place—I was having to adjust my whole morning around it and wasn’t really in the mood—but I had signed up and truly felt it would be inconsiderate to just not show up. So it felt icky to me that no one even, like, put up a sign at the park or something to explain. I’m sure there was a good, urgent, last-minute reason, but I guess I’m discovering that I really hate it when people don’t follow through on their commitments.

Anyway. While my crummy mood wears off I guess I will get some work done so as to honor my own commitments? I feel like I should be reporting Whole30 Tiger Blood! every day, sorry.

Whole30 Day 24

Swim: 600 meters

I’m reverting to my old blogging format just to get the boring exercise stats out of the way, not because I am training for anything. Don’t hold your breath! But I’m glad I finally got to the pool this morning. My lane-mate was shockingly rude and unfriendly—SO sorry you have to experience the sight of another human every 90 seconds or so!—but it was nice to be swimming outside, and I had fun chatting with Michael’s former swim coach and another swim-team friend who is back in town for a few weeks.

That 90-seconds thing wasn’t a typo, by the way. I know swimming is likely to wipe me out for the day if I don’t eeeeease into it, so I was just doing 50s with a very long break after each one. Even so, I was dizzy when I got out of the pool and am afraid my arms are going to be rubber later.

But I feel pretty chipper, motivated to work, and motivated to cook the things that need to be cooked if I’m planning to eat for the next few days.

Whole30 Day 23

Forgetting to write for one day threw me off—I had to go find my anniversary post and count to even figure out for sure what day this is supposed to be. (The good news is that I’m not struggling at all to keep up the Whole30 food-wise; the bad news is that I abruptly stopped caring about it entirely.)

I was planning to swim this morning but woke up with a headache—probably just from mild dehydration, since hydration is what made it go away on its own. So I made a batch of “fake Gatorade” (strawberry-infused water with lemon juice, salt, and potassium powder) and will try to do better today and get to the pool tomorrow.

Random fact of note: Today is the 12th anniversary of my Ironman. Which means it’s been like 11½ years since this blog was interesting, haha.

Whole30 Days 21 and 22

What I ate:

A remix of the same exact stuff I’ve been eating for 22 days, I dunno.

What I thought:

All is well; I’m just experiencing a severe lack of enthusiasm for this blog series.

Whole30 Day 20

What I ate:

Meal 1: Soup, beef jerky, kiwi, coffee (7:30)

Meal 2: Salad (1:30)

Meal 3: Potato and vegetable hash with two eggs (6:30)

How I felt:

I feel good, and my Achilles feel good (although I haven’t challenged them at all).

What I thought:

Lots of work is piling up, so I am spending quality time at my desk…

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

Still OK with leftovers/current groceries.

Whole30 Day 19

What I ate:

Meal 1: Soup, beef jerky, coffee (7:00)

Meal 2: Salad (12:30)

Meal 3: Potato and vegetable hash with sausage and two eggs, kiwi (5:30)

How I felt:

I stayed off my feet more yesterday and was able to sleep through the night with no pain, so that was nice. Still going strong.

What I thought:

I wrote a few days ago about the clothing exchange thing, and today was one of their big “swaps.” It’s so much fun! I know I paid to be part of this, and gave them a bunch of my own clothes to get the points, but it feels like you’re basically just stealing stuff. AND everyone you meet there is likeminded about wastefulness and recycling; I can’t overstate how genius I think this concept is.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

We did some shopping to restock all the vegetables and meats.

Whole30 Day 18

What I ate:

Meal 1: Potato and vegetable hash with two eggs (7:00)

Meal 2: Salad, beef jerky, coffee (2:00)

Meal 3: Beef jerky, sausage patty, blueberries (6:00)

How I felt:

I slept poorly last night—mostly because I kept having excruciating pain in my right Achilles—and woke up grumpy. It’s nice that my left Achilles does seem to be healing and never hurts much anymore, but having one functional leg doesn’t actually do me a ton of good. Now that I’ve been to my Wednesday yoga class I feel much better, but the Achilles thing is discouraging. My plan at this moment is to keep Whole30ing until my Achilles are both healed (with breaks for a big family event this summer and anything else that seems to truly require a break).

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

Making some soup, since it is freezing out.

Whole30 Day 17

What I ate:

Meal 1: Potato and vegetable hash with two eggs and sausage, coffee (8:00)

Meal 2: Beef jerky, asparagus, blueberries (11:30)

Meal 3: Chili, hard-boiled egg (6:00)

How I felt:

Amazing.

What I thought:

Little story: There’s a woman in town who started a business focusing on used clothing swaps—which by the way is an absolutely brilliant idea. You bring in your unwanted clothes in exchange for points, which you can then spend on other people’s stuff. No money is exchanged except a small fee to be a member. She’s rented a space and is trying to make a go of it as a business for the long term. I really hope she succeeds, because I LOVE a woman on a mission, I feel very strongly that buying clothes new is wasteful if not unethical, and my “thrifted” wardrobe had been going steadily downhill as I kept going up in size and clothes got harder to find. Plus a lot of this weight gain happened during the pandemic when I was afraid to go into a store of any kind.

ANYWAY, she posted a picture in a recent email of one of the swaps in action, and there was a woman in it who I thought looked a bit like me but much heavier. I couldn’t tell for sure, so I took a screenshot, zoomed it way in, and…it’s me. Which means I literally don’t recognize my own body anymore.

So I hope something more happens in these 30 days to give me evidence that this could be reversed with a better diet. But honestly I don’t say this to be self-deprecating or make anyone worry about me self-esteem. I know people who avoid the mirror because it makes them feel like crap, but honestly I have the reverse of that where I generally look in the mirror and think I look just dandy. It’s photos that sometimes give me pause, but I guess those are easier to avoid.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

Still going strong.

Whole30 Day 16

What I ate:

Meal 1: Potato and vegetable hash with two eggs, coffee (8:00)

Meal 2: Salad with chicken and egg, beef jerky, kiwi (2:00)

Meal 3: Sausage patty, asparagus (6:30)

How I felt:

I’m pretty dang bright-eyed and busy-tailed. And my Achilles actually feel a bit better, or at least I’ve been walking a bit with seemingly no adverse effects the next day. I watched a bunch of videos on Saturday about healing tendinitis and learned a few useful things—one of which was that maybe I need to be working on hamstring strength as part of fixing this. Honestly there’s no downside to trying that.

What I thought:

It’s our 30th anniversary (!!), and even though M.H. has to work and we have no big plans, we surely would have at least gone out to eat if it weren’t for my Whole30ing. In fact, my original plan was to start the Whole30, take the day off for our anniversary, and then start it over again. But we decided that it’s just food—I might as well continue feeling great, continue trying to heal, and see this through as long as reasonably possible.

Today was the first day the pool was open for lap swim, but I never signed up. I’m still on the fence about whether it’s a good idea. I think the main problem for me is that you’re supposed to pay $20 a week to swim four Monday through Thursday, and (1) I think that’s kind of pricey and (2) I would really rather swim approximately two days a week. So I might check over there tomorrow and see if you can just hand over $5 to get in or what.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

Made some beef jerky; lots of leftovers.

Whole30 Day 15

What I ate:

Meal 1: Potato and vegetable hash with two eggs, kiwi, coffee (8:30)

Meal 2: Curry, kiwi, asparagus (1:00)

Meal 3: Chili, kiwi (5:00)

How I felt:

Eh, fine. My progress is a crooked line!

What I thought:

Right on schedule (according to the Whole30 timeline), I had a food dream. In the dream, I grabbed someone’s Coke, brought it to my lips, and remembered just in time that I can’t have Coke. Weird that my mind went there, since I haven’t had a soft drink of any kind in maybe 10 years.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

Fridge is full!

Whole30 Day 14

What I ate:

Meal 1: Sweet potato and vegetable hash with two eggs and sausage, coffee (9:00)

Meal 2: Curry (12:00)

Meal 3: Big salad with chicken (7:30)

How I felt:

I slept so much better and feel nice and chipper—though I did wake up in the night with an agonizing pain in my right Achilles tendon. It never hurts like this during the day, and I was able to fix it by getting out of bed and “walking it off.”

What I thought:

I took the day off and finished an entire book; it was great.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

We bought groceries, roasted three kinds of vegetables, made chili, and prepped some beef jerky.

Whole30 Day 13

What I ate:

Today was pretty busy for me, so I spent most of it grabbing whatever I could find that was Whole30 compliant and eating it whenever I was too hungry to work. At one point that consisted of a spoonful of almond butter and some blueberries, so that pretty much sums up my day.

How I felt:

We kept a window open in the bedroom last night (BECAUSE IT IS JUNE), but I woke up at midnight with congestion, a sore throat, an earache, and an ICY WIND blowing through. I did not actually catch a cold from the Montana-summer draft, but I also didn’t sleep very well. (Oh, also, I thought it would be a great idea to try out a [new] pillow I bought at a garage sale, and I fought with it all night because it’s EVIL.)

Despite all that I’m actually feeling great; sorry to be dramatic.

What I thought:

Thirty days feels pretty long on a Whole30, and it suddenly occurs to me that doing one in June is an awesome way to make the most pleasant days of the year feel longer, if you wanted to put a positive spin on things.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

At some point I finished working, pulled it together, and made some sausage patties and salad chicken. If I’m going to continue this beyond 30 days as I was intending, I REALLY need to work on finding some delicious recipes in the next two weeks. My current food is fine but definitely not as tasty as it was before this.

Whole30 Day 12

What I ate:

Meal 1: Sweet potato and vegetable hash with four eggs, coffee (8:00)

Meal 2: Salad (1:00)

Meal 3: Curry (6:30)

How I felt:

I slept great and feel pretty good today.

What I thought:

I got a little busy at work, which interfered with my intention to pick up all my “projects” scattered all over the house. (There are art supplies and knitting/crochet equipment ev-er-y-where.)

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

No idea…

Whole30 Day 11

What I ate:

Meal 1: Potato and vegetable hash with sausage patty (8:00)

Meal 2: Salad (1:00)

Meal 3: Curry, asparagus (6:30)

How I felt:

I’m possibly still seeing slight improvements in terms of feeling less generally crappy, but I really wish some of my clothes fit better. It is laundry day, and apparently all the items that make me feel decent about myself are in the wash. Plus one of my clients wants everyone who works for them to send in a selfie to post on social media for National Selfie Day—EW EW EW. (Yes, I have become a person who tries not to appear in pictures.)

What I thought:

Honestly, if Day 11 is supposed to be hard because you haven’t seen the magic happen yet, that means Day 12 should be…magic, right?! Imma go ahead and set my watch by that.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

We did some shopping for salad ingredients.

Whole30 Day 10

What I ate:

Meal 1: Potato and vegetable hash, two eggs, kiwi, sausage patty, coffee (7:00)

Meal 2: Curry (12:30)

Meal 3: Salad (7:00)

How I felt:

I managed to reduce my human interaction to the dentist and the other attendees of an “Across the Spiderverse” matinee, so that is helping my mood. Physically I feel about the same as I have been (which, mind you, is still much better than 11 days ago!!).

What I thought:

It’s notable that the Whole30 timeline says days 10 and 11 are “the hardest days”—because the novelty is wearing off and you still haven’t gotten to the “magic” part of the experience. I don’t know that the novelty is wearing off for me exactly. I’ve been in a food rut, but that’s my normal status. And the dietary changes weren’t SO dramatic that this is super-difficult. Possibly blogging again for the first time in years is helping me stay interested.

What I’m worried will actually be the hardest days are the days just after Day 30. I know this thing is supposed to end at that point, but I’ve tentatively planned to keep going as long as possible to really try to heal my Achilles.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

I made an enormous infinicurry.

Whole30 Day 9

What I ate:

Meal 1: Salad with chicken and egg, coffee (8:00)

Meal 2: Soup, asparagus, raspberries (12:30)

Snack: Sausage patty (3:30)

Meal 3: Potato and vegetable hash, two eggs, kiwi, sausage patty (6:00)

How I felt:

I’m tired today. So much so that I didn’t have the strength to do the work I needed to do AND be hungry after a somewhat rushed and inadequate lunch, so I had to break the Whole30 rules by having an afternoon snack.

What I thought:

In addition to being tired, I. am. peopled. out. Or maybe that’s what I am instead of tired. I have just been doing too many things with too many humans—many of them lovely, of course—and can’t take it anymore. But there are people-related plans for both tomorrow and the next day, so I think I’d better get a good night’s sleep at the very least.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

I am definitely making a curry tomorrow, as I am out of soup. :)

Whole30 Day 8

What I ate:

Meal 1: Sausage patty, asparagus, raspberries, coffee (8:00)

Meal 2: Sausage patty, soup (12:30)

Meal 3: Potato and vegetable hash, kiwi (6:00)

How I felt:

It’s another day of optimism that this is actually helping. I feel distinctly better than I did at the start, from head to toe. (As in, a little sharper mentally, a little more motivated, a little happier, a little thinner, a little less inflamed, and in a little less ankle pain.)

What I thought:

I’ve decided to commit harder to healing my Achilles. (Note to self: Remember, that’s priority #1!) I went through several months of physical therapy a couple of years ago, and it didn’t help much, but I did learn the stretches and things I should be doing. I also have a set of anti-snoring exercises from the snoring app that I’ve been doing very irregularly. So for the rest of this Whole30 I am committing to do them both, and probably in tandem, since I can stretch my calves and stick my tongue out at the same time.

Incidentally, snoring is near the bottom of my list of conditions I want to improve (it goes something like heal Achilles, lose fat, lower blood pressure, improve circulation, improve motivation and focus, get stronger, improve endurance, stop snoring). But this is somewhat in my control, and I imagine sleeping better would help with many things.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

Not sure as of this writing, but I think for this to work it is really important to have something in the fridge that can just be reheated. You never know when you’ll hit another wave of low motivation

Whole30 Day 7

What I ate:

Meal 1: Soup, coffee (7:00)

Meal 2: Vegetable and potato hash with two eggs (12:30)

Meal 3: Salad, kiwi, pork and turkey sausage patty (5:00)

How I felt:

Today was more garage sales and some grocery shopping and some stuff around the house, so I was on my feet a lot, but they don’t hurt nearly as much today.

Also, I installed SnoreLab about a month ago, which is an app that records you while you sleep and gives you a report on how much you snore every night. I know M.H. snores sometimes, and he says I do sometimes, so it’s hard to glean anything because I don’t know which one of us it’s catching. But I have noticed that since a few days into the Whole30 (which M.H. is sort of, mostly doing with me), neither of us has snored as much.

First week with the app vs. now

What I thought:

One week down! I’m doing fine and being patient. Honestly the hardest part of Whole30ing today was walking by a cauliflower crust pizza sample at Costco.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

I made some more grilled chicken for salads and several sausage patties (WHY did I wait so long; I should be living on these delicious, proteiny things).

Whole30 Day 6

 What I ate:

Meal 1: Soup, coffee (7:00)

Meal 2: Huge salad (protein: chicken and hard-boiled egg) (12:30)

Meal 3: Hamburger patty, kiwi, sweet potato (5:30)

How I felt:

I left the house early and spent a couple of hours going to garage sales, which is what passes for my exercise routine on Friday mornings. And honestly that much walking left my ankles tired and legs feeling heavy. I suspect my circulation is not great, in addition to the injury.

I’ve had a hard time settling down to work the past few days, which is especially bad because I have a writing task to do, and writing requires a lot of work and concentration.

What I thought:

I thought that I need to change these headings or write less frequently or something, because this blog is starting to bore me. (Better the blog bore me than the food.)

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

I can still work with what’s in the kitchen if I don’t get myself together, but I’m going to go back to the Whole30 book right now and read about the meal formulas again.

Whole30 Day 5

What I ate:

Meal 1: Potato hash with vegetables and two eggs, coffee (7:30)

Meal 2: Huge salad (protein: one egg, chicken), kiwi (12:00)

Meal 3: Soup, hard-boiled egg, blueberries (5:30)

How I felt:

I realize that it’s June, but based on what the temperature reads (pretty moderate) and how sweaty I feel in response (quite), it seems like I’ve been “running hot” the past few days. I googled it, and other people have reported the same thing! Incidentally, I also found this timeline of how one might feel over the course of the 30 days. I’ll have to keep comparing my own experience, but rest assured that I am not experiencing “kill all the things” today.

What I thought:

Of course the tendency is to WANT! RESULTS! NOW! But the little timeline mentioned above has reminded me to be patient and trust the process, so I will.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

I think I’m all set with leftovers, but I did want to try making a curry at some point…

Whole30 Day 4

 What I ate:

Meal 1: Potato and vegetable hash (protein: three eggs) (7:00)

Meal 2: Huge salad (protein: one egg, chicken), coffee (12:30)

Meal 3: Soup (protein: ground turkey and pork),  asparagus, blueberries (5:30)

What I thought:

Our library is sponsoring a free summer yoga in the park on Wednesday* mornings, and the first class was today. I like the instructor—she’s going for “leave here feeling good” rather than “show off and get ripped,” which is perfect. And it was pretty glorious to be outside in the perfect weather. I had to rearrange my morning routine a bit to accommodate the class (i.e., get up and actually go right to work), but I think it will be worth it.

I have also been considering signing up for morning outdoor lap swim but haven’t pulled the trigger on it yet—that one would cost money and definitely be a lot more draining. But I remember doing it years ago when Michael was swimming with the team, and it was so nice to be out in the water/sunshine first thing in the morning. The downside is that the last time I tried to swim, probably six months ago, I made it 450 yards total before calling it quits, which is a really sad thing for a former competitive swimmer to admit. I am hoping that was a one-off and that with a little persistence I can regain some of my ability.

How I felt:

Dandy; the morning sunshine didn’t hurt. 

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

I shopped AND cooked!

*You are seeing these on a significant delay.

Whole30 Day 3

What I ate:

Meal 1: Huge salad (protein: one egg, chicken), coffee (9:00)

Meal 2: Chili, asparagus, kiwi (1:30)

Meal 3: Sweet potato hash with vegetables and two eggs (7:00)

How I felt:

Not much to report, except that I really think my Achilles feel better than usual, which surely has to be wishful thinking. 

What I thought:

Still going strong. I’m not bored or otherwise struggling with this, and I still feel optimistic that it’s going to help. I think some people get fairly strange effects from changing their diet drastically (the first time I did this, I remember it made my teeth hurt???). But the foods I’m giving up this time are along the lines of sheep’s cheese, black beans, and quinoa, rather than cookies and Lucky Charms.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

I prepped pretty well for this Whole30, but soon it’s going to be time to cook and shop again, which is of course where things could start getting tricky. Which is why it’s good that I put in this “how I’ll feed myself” prompt, because it is forcing me to get up from my desk and thaw some stuff. Planning!

Whole30 Day 2

What I ate:

Meal 1: Huge salad (protein: one egg, grilled chicken), coffee (8:00)

Meal 2: Chili, sweet potato, blueberries (1:00)

Meal 3: Potato and vegetable hash (protein: two eggs), kiwi (5:30)

How I felt:

I woke up a bit hungry, which according to the Whole30 book is good—it means I didn’t eat too much for dinner. My ankles still hurt (as per), but I feel less crappy in general. And I spent most of yesterday peeing, so apparently some water weight is already going away.

Lately I have been in a 25-minutes-of-restorative-yoga-every-morning rut groove. Just trying to stay mobile and get gently strong without taxing my Achilles. I am debating whether it’s a good idea to ramp up my exercise in conjunction with all this, but I guess I’ll just do what I feel like. For a few weeks I have been working around the house a lot, which has house benefits if not physical fitness ones.

What I thought:

OK, today I feel a little better about all this—partly because making an effort to eat “clean” just demonstrates how far from clean I actually was eating before. It’s hard to admit, because I have staunchly maintained that all this weight gain was purely an act of perimenopause hormone betrayal, but my diet really had gotten a little sketchy. (Still better than 90% of the U.S. population, I maintain, but apparently not good enough to keep my own personal body in stellar health.)

The tiny bit better I feel from two days of Whole30-ing gives me hope that this is something that will actually help, and that hopeful feeling is nice.

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

I bought a ton of bell peppers at Costco, so maybe today’s cooking will involve sautéing one up with an onion so I have something else convenient to throw on salads.

Whole30 Day 1

What I ate:

Meal 1: Huge salad (protein: two eggs), coffee with unsweetened chocolate and coconut milk (8:30)

Meal 2: Chili and asparagus (2:00)

Meal 3: Potato and vegetable hash (protein: two eggs and a little ground sausage), kiwi (6:30)

How I felt:

Morning: My ankles hurt, my feet and legs feel swollen, and I woke up with a sore throat. So basically like crap.

Evening: Not bad, actually.

What I thought:

I am a little mad that I have to do this. But my body feels out of control: After about a year at a (WAY-too-high) weight plateau that I thought I could live with if I had to, I am again GAINING weight and feeling awful in all my clothes. Honestly I thought my diet was pretty good. I don’t ever have sugar or artificial sweeteners, I eat some vegetables, I take my vitamins, and most days I am gluten-free. But clearly something is not working, because besides the extra weight, I seem to have borderline high blood pressure and two Achilles tendons that have gotten progressively worse for years. And just lately I’ve been feeling particularly achy and inflamed.

My primary goal for this Whole30 is actually to help the tendinitis, because not being able to walk very far is absolutely devastating for everything in my life, including my weight. But of course if I could do something about this belly and at LEAST fit comfortably into my clothes again, that would be a plus. (Really weight loss is also the primary goal. Really everything that is wrong right now needs to get fixed.)

How I plan to feed myself tomorrow:

My goal for today is to make some grilled chicken strips that I can toss on a salad for more protein. Other than that I can eat the same as I did today.

Want to read some blog posts about my Whole30?

Hi, remaining readers of my lapsed blog! I actually hope there aren’t too many of you, because these upcoming posts are going to be fairly embarrassing.

I have gained tons of weight in the past roughly four years. That’s bad, but not as bad as some of the other health issues that have come along with it—like blood pressure that is borderline high, two Achilles tendons that have hurt on and off for the same four years, and lately a general feeling of inflammation and achiness.

I have tried a few things, but I’m 52, so I was sort of resigned to this being a perimenopausal hormone issue that’s largely out of my control. (Weight gain is literally my only symptom, though, so that’s kind of nice—but also not at all nice.) I didn’t want to do anything drastic, like “eat less and exercise more,” which would be bound to not only cause misery but also backfire spectacularly, given that my hormones are already in a tizzy. The only real solution I could think of was to try to walk more, but walking any kind of distance really hurts—and Achilles tendons can actually rupture if you abuse them. I also thought of biking, but I literally haven’t been able to get myself back on my bike since I rode it 112 miles in the Ironman, so…maybe someday.

I was musing about all this recently and M.H. said, “Why don’t you just do another Whole30?” Which is a great idea, because it’s not extreme (except, like, psychologically), and it will let me begin to evaluate to what extent my diet is contributing to all these issues. Also, I reread the book on the Whole30, and one of the first things they mention is that it helped one of the authors heal lingering tendinitis, which is really a thing I need desperately.

Anyway, I am a few days in now and have been writing about my Whole30 journey just for my own amusement. But blogging about challenges and self-improvement and self-experimentation is kind of my thing, so I decided it would be more fun for me to just hit Publish on those drafts, which I plan to do starting tomorrow.