My first week on intermittent fasting

Week one down for Intermittent Fasting! I was pretty worried the first day and how it would go- it was certainly a mental game. I kept thinking about the fact that I wasn't eating and I just kept chugging water. I thought that I would have to slowly ramp up to 16 hours over a few days so my original goal was 13 hours, but I drank my Hi Caf black tea for caffeine and ended up lasting 17 hours! By the time it was time to eat, I really wasn't even that hungry.

1/23 17 hours

Through some research, I learned of an app called LIFE and it has been really helpful! I can keep track of my fasts and there is a place to post messages if you have a question, need support, etc.

I'm realizing that IF is great for not snacking after dinner! 

1/24 16.5 hours

1/25 17 hours

Saturday morning was the first day I worked out while fasting (the first couple days I would wait until the afternoon after I ate). I thought that I would be woozy or slow, but I ended up doing two MM100 workouts and I felt fine.

Saturday night we had a party at a friend's house for the Lunar New Year so I fasted Friday night through Saturday during the day but knew that I wouldn't be able to fast after drinking. Sure enough, we ended up going out to breakfast Sunday morning and there was only 9 hours between meals.

1/26 No fasting

1/27 19.5 hours

Today was my first day that I was FREEZING during the day. I had a blanket on my legs and a wrap around my shoulders, but still ended up increasing the temperature on the second floor so that I could work. 

1/28 19.5

Making lunch around 2 or 3 is super easy- eggs! I love not having to think about making an elaborate lunch other than scrambling some eggs and eating fruit.

1/29 20 hours

I weighed in this morning and had lost 3 pounds since the previous Wednesday!

1/30 19.5 hours

I ended up making banana bars with chocolate chips out of very ripe bananas for the kids and then ended up eating one close to 9:45pm when they came out of the oven (they were for the kids). It tasted delicious, but I was sort of mad that I ate something so late because then it pushed my fast back.

1/31 16.5 hours

According to the app, I have fasted for 118 hours and have spent 40 hours in ketosis (basically the LIFE app says that you are in ketosis after 12 hours of not eating). This is EXTREMELY easy and I really think that it is something that I can do for better health and to lose weight. I haven't been hungry and my caffeine intake has decreased as I haven't really needed it. Win win!

Have you tried IF?

Ski trip

On Monday CP and I decided to take the kids skiing for the first time at Wilmot. We put Izzy in a full day ski school class, Wes into a 1.5 day class. We figured that we could go down some runs together and then would have to take turns watching Wes all afternoon long as he would refuse to ski. At first Wes didn't want to put on ski boots but I found some red ones and told him that he would look like Iron Man. (eye roll)

Ready for ski school!

CP and I had a great time for about an hour with not many lines and short runs. The blue (intermediate) and black (difficult) runs were fairly laughable compared to what we are used to in CO, but it was really nice to get out after 9 years (!!) of not skiing. 

Around 11 we went to see how Wes was doing and found out that he was in the ski school building, refusing to participate in the last 30 minutes of the lesson. CP got him out and we asked him to show us what he had learned. He went down the short hill and then as he was trying to shuffle towards us on his skis, he fell and refused to get up without help.

Refusing to get up

Surprisingly, after asking him if he wanted to ride the magic carpet and ski with us, he was excited to do so. So we did a few runs of going up the magic carpet and then each holding a hand down a small hill. After lunch I got to do a few runs and then caught up with the boys. CP had Wes going down the small hill by himself and then catching him at the end because Wes had no idea how to stop. 

Magic carpet ride

We ended up taking Wes on the "lifting chair" (his words) and down two runs. On his second ride on the lift chair, he realized halfway up that he had to go to the bathroom and started yelling. All of the chairs around us started laughing and we kept telling him that there was nothing we could do (he ended up holding it until we got down the hill and into the bathroom). That afternoon he didn't want to leave and ended up falling asleep within a minute of getting into the car.

Sleepy Wes

Meanwhile, Izzy had a fantastic day on the slopes. She started out in a basic level but moved up quickly as she caught on. During one of my runs I saw her in the chair lift in front of me so I guessed at which run she was on and surprised her. She was SO excited to see me and I was able to watch her ski long S curves down the hill. On the way home Izzy let us know that she wants to come back every weekend!!

Overall, the day was a big success!

Currently....

Reading:  I read the Washington Post every day (especially the Daily 202). Other than that, I am reading Eviction: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond.

Watching: Nothing amazing right now. CP and I finished "Living with Yourself"- the Netflix/Paul Rudd series a few weeks ago and we LOVED it. I have watched a few episodes of the first season of You and continue to be intrigued so I will probably continuing watching.

Listening: To the Scene On Radio podcast series Seeing White. Highly recommend (I'm currently on episode 2)!! 

Drinking: Black coffee with Coffee Mate Sugar Free Peppermint Mocha. It's a flavor that is only out for a few months before Christmas so any time I saw it, I stocked up on it. At one point I think that I had 10 bottles in our extra fridge. LOL. I'll be sad when I finish that last bottle....the sugar free French Vanilla is simply not as good.

Eating: Nothing for another 40 minutes. One of my goals this year was to try Intermittent Fasting and so I stopped eating at 7:10pm last night and my first meal will be lunch at 12pm (17 hours- whoop whoop!). All I have had so far is water and a cup of black tea. I really can't believe that I was able to do it.

Wearing: My Cubs World Series Championship sweatshirts and a pair of super comfortable Columbia hiking pants. It's snowing outside and I work from home. :-)

Loving: Not having to dress up to go to work every day. It's glorious.

Anticipating: A fun weekend as one of the kids' Christmas presents was tickets to Disney on Ice. We took them last year and they LOVED it. Surprisingly enough, we had a great time too.

Hoping: That I can get my plantar fasciitis under control this year. I'm sick of the constant pain every day and want to get back to running. I would say that I'm done with anything over 5 miles, but it would be nice to run at 5K with Izzy in 2020.

Worrying: That the orange cheeto that is currently our President will somehow cheat his way into 4 more years.

Planning: Fun activities for our trip to Maui next month.

What are you currently doing? 

2020 goals

Goals for 2020

1. Eat one vegetarian dinner a week.

I am mindful of how terrible meat is to our environment. We certainly eat more chicken and turkey than red meat these days, but it still has an effect. I generally don't control what we eat but will push for this change in 2020. I would even be okay if the meal is fish. :-)

2. Lose 25 pounds this year.

I am feeling reinvigorated in my goal to lose weight again. I had a goal before I turned 40, I met that goal, but then have slowly gained 10 pounds after I had to stop running in June. I'm back in the Weight Watchers app, tracking my food and paying attention again. I'm not happy in my clothes or my skin so it's time to get back on track.

3. Finish Morning Meltdown 100 by February 21st.

As of today I have completed 72 out of the 100 workouts- this is the LONGEST I have lasted on any Beachbody program! I love this program. I mean, I hate some of the days, but I push play anyway and then celebrate the days where I feel strong and I love the program. It took me 70 days to complete the first 50 workouts....I have exactly 52 days in 2020 to complete the last 50 workouts. I had two work trips already this month and I stayed dedicated but I really want to finish this workout before we leave for Hawaii on February 21st!

4. Get rid of my plantar fasciitis.

I should have known better than to run the 5k on Thanksgiving after I hadn't run since September. Continuing to do MM100 has not exactly helped but I really scale down my jumping- especially on cardio days. I'm just really sick of heel pain that lasts for months on end. My new Hoka One One shoes help, but I desperately need to do something. There is something called the "strechlab" coming to my town in March, so maybe I need to try that out?

5. Spend at least one day knocking on doors on a get-out-the-vote effort. 

I want to make sure that I have done absolutely everything to get the orange asshole out of office. It's no longer enough to write a postcard or contact elected officials (which I will still do). I need to step up my level of effort in 2020, even if it makes me nervous. 

6. Practice tennis with Izzy. 

We have two tennis courts a few blocks away from our house...I just need to stay patient with her and remember that she will only get better with practice.

7. Try at least one day of Intermittent Fasting.
I've read some articles on the benefits and at a minimum it should keep me from snacking at night. I figure it can't hurt!

I should have more goals, but this seems like a good number since it is already almost the end of January. :-)

2019 Goals- how did I do?

Let's check in on my 2019 goals!

1. Eat at least one vegetarian dinner every week. 

I don't really have control over this as CP is the person that cooks every night, but we did very poorly with this one. I would like to push for this in 2020.

2. Lose 25 pounds this year. 

Well unfortunately this fall I backslid into TERRIBLE habits when I couldn't run anymore and while 
I definitely work out more working from home, my daily step count is terrible. It has

turned into gaining weight....so now I have even more to lose in 2020. :-(

3. Work out for at least 30 minutes at least three times a week. 

This has gone pretty well. I started Morning Meltdown 100 (MM100) through Beachbody this

fall and all of the workouts are less than 30 minutes. Even when I travel I can do the workouts

that don't require weights so I should hit workout #50 TODAY! 

4. Continue monthly dates with CP.

We probably hit this.

5. Get our credit card balance to $0 this year.

Done! We hit this halfway through the year and have continued this even through 

Christmas. Woo hoo!

6. Get a new job. 

Done! I love my new job!

7. Continue to be politically active whether it is writing postcards to voters, contacting my

elected officials about things that are important to me, or participating in marches.

Still doing this. Will likely step up my game in 2020.

8. Run in at least three races this year including the Soldier Field 10 miler.

Done! This spring I did a 10k, Soldier Field 10 miler, and a half marathon. On Thanksgiving

Day I powered through a turkey trot 5k which left me in pain from plantar fasciitis for days (I did

not run at all before the race). I have new shoes (Hoka One One) but still find myself in pain 

because I do some jumping in MM100.

9. Run one race with Izzy this year.

Izzy sprained her ankle right before Thanksgiving so we couldn't do the turkey trot together (I

had signed her up for it). Maybe we can do a race next year?

My 41st birthday

Let me tell you all about my annual pretty princess day this year (aka my birthday) on December 10th. CP was in MA for a work trip and I was working from home. The day was pretty normal and boring until I got a call at 2pm from a local number. Turns out it was the nurse for Izzy's school. She proceeded to tell me that Izzy was in her office and that she was sorry she was going to ruin my day....but that Izzy had lice.

OMG. I felt absolutely TERRIBLE because Izzy had been itching her scalp for the previous two weeks or so but lice didn't even cross my mind. She has eczema issues so I chalked it up to dry scalp and had started to use Head & Shoulders on her for a few baths. It turns out she was in class and PULLED A LICE BUG OUT OF HER HAIR and told her teacher about it. OMG OMG OMG.

I IMed my boss and coworkers about the call to let them know that I wouldn't be working the rest of the afternoon and headed over to the school to go pick Izzy up. I felt like a TERRIBLE mom. How could I not have seen bugs in Izzy's hair? I brush and put a braid in her hair almost every day!! The nurse could not have been nicer and told me that the buggers are actually pretty fast and hide from the light. She gave me a bunch of tips and was even nice enough to check my hair to see if I had lice too. Izzy and I immediately went to the drug store where I bought the hair wash and a comb that zaps the bugs. 

I spent the next two hours working on Izzy's hair. I put A LOT of the treatment into Izzy's hair vowing the seriously kill the f*ckers. After the requisite amount of time, she got in the bath and we got to see the carnage. I counted at least 30 adult and teenage lice bugs and then felt even more terrible that I didn't catch this sooner. Izzy started to get freaked out that there were so many dead bugs in the bath with her so we switched to a shower. Afterwards I then spent a long time combing out her hair to get all of the nits. She has pretty long hair so it took a while. I also gave myself a treatment just in case before we went to pick up Wes. 

We were supposed to go out to dinner that night but I nixed those plans and we had leftovers. I also started loads and loads of laundry. The highlight of the day was listening to Izzy sing the Philadelphia Eagles fight song for me (she just needed help spelling at the end).

For the next week or so I would go through Izzy's hair at night. Thankfully CP was able to come home a day earlier than expected (Thursday instead of Friday)- after the lice issue in addition to an urgent care visit Sunday night (only a few hours after CP left) for Wes after he split open his chin, all I wanted to do was tap out on parenting.

Let's hope my 42nd birthday is much better than my 41st!

Winter fun

Holiday pictures

Decorating our Christmas tree. We intentionally did not buy a huge tree this year.

Making gingerbread houses at a friend's house.

Going to see the model trains at our library. Wes was in heaven.

Light show at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

Light show at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. We brought glasses that make lights into gingerbread cookies, candy canes, reindeer, etc. It was great.

Check out this humongous inflatable in our neighborhood! The kids are so tiny compared to it!