Quick check-in

My have things changed since I posted last month.

I finished the Beachbody MM100 workout before we left on our vacation to Hawaii. I wish I could say that I had the time to write up a real review, but I was SO PROUD that I finished all 100 workouts. I felt strong and amazing when I was done with the program.

Our family had a fantastic vacation in Maui. I will try to do a post with pictures if I can.

Then after we got back, I left the next day for a work trip to Vegas and had a long month of March traveling for work. That next week I was called back to Chicago from a work trip in Atlanta and travel was (thankfully) banned for the foreseeable future.

We are sheltering in place here in Chicago and while it is not easy, I know that I have it so much better than most. CP works from 6am-12pm everyday while I watch the kids; I work from 12-6pm and then again after the kids go to bed. I often have calls or things that I need to prior to 12pm so the kids have been introduced to ABC Mouse and have watched more tv than usual. If you remember part of my job (well, all of it right now) is disaster work and our country has never seen a disaster this big. So I am working A LOT at night and over the weekends to help communities respond and keep slowing the spread. However, I'm not on the front lines like a doctor/nurse, grocery store worker, delivery driver, shelter worker, etc., so again, I can't complain too much.

I have been trying to work out but it's hard to get myself up and out of bed to work out when I have been up late working and didn't get enough sleep.

I try to get the kids outside as much as possible although today it will be rainy and 40 and we likely won't go out for too long. They miss their friends. I miss hanging out with friends (we have done two virtual happy hours). I miss my parents. My sister and I had to yell at them a bit, but now they are understanding that even though they are relatively healthy 70 year olds, they should not be doing stupid things.

Hope all of you are staying sane and healthy.

Day in the Life- Winter 2020

Day in the Life- Winter 2020

Thursday, February 13th

CP is 43, NSC is 41, Izzy is 6, Wes is 3.5 

Marshmallow and Cocoa are ?

5- The alarm goes off and CP heads downstairs to do some stretches for his back and make breakfast. I fall back asleep. CP comes back upstairs and takes a lazy shower.

6:35- I hear CP open Wes and Izzy's doors to wake them up. The new-ish routine is for Wes to then run into our bedroom to wake me up and get me out of bed (this is really to get HIM out of bed). So he happily jumps on the bed and me to wake me up. I get out of bed and follow Wes to the bathroom because although he is fully capable of pulling the stool over the to the toilet, pulling down his pants and pullup and peeing, I have to be in the bathroom with him (eye roll). I put my contacts in and put deodorant on. Wes washes his hands and we head into his room.

As we are pulling out shirts for the day, Wes tells me that the last person downstairs will be a rotten T-Rex. 

I hear Izzy getting upset in her room because she can't find her unicorn sweatpants and it is supposed to be cold today. I tell her that they are likely in the wash and head to her room to help her find other warm pants while CP goes to help Wes get dressed.

Everyone heads downstairs while I head to our room to get dressed. CP is working on making banana boats for breakfast (a banana with peanut butter on it), when I see that Wes has on long underwear for pants instead of actual pants. I grab Wes a new pair of pants and then put on boots, a hat, and gloves to shovel the snow from last night off the driveway. Thankfully it is super light.

Part of the way through I randomly decide that today is going to be a DITL. I also notice that our neighbor has a bunch of flamingos in her yard to celebrate her 50th birthday. Ha!

7:10- I kiss CP goodbye and he leaves for work. As always, I am so amazed that he is okay with the fact that he gets up and two hours later he leaves for work, but he never complains (as I would!).

7:12- I finish shoveling and head inside to wrangle the kids. Izzy heads over to the neighbors house for a ride to school.

Gearing up for the cold, snowy weather

Wes ran over to Izzy crying because he hadn't hugged her goodbye. This is not typical

7:20- I get Wes into the car after telling him that he shouldn't walk around in the snow with shoes on. As he gets into the car, he complains about wet shoes.

So nice to see sun in the morning as the days get longer!

7:30- I drop Wes off at school, happy that a classmate grabbed him and got him excited to build a tower. I never know if it will be a struggle to leave Wes at daycare or an easy day. My neighbor texted to borrow our travel car seat for her sister's kid this weekend; I reply that I will be home in a few minutes and can bring it over.

I get home and my neighbor walks over and asks if I dropped a phone. I didn't but I can see from the back that it is CP's work phone which he dropped in the driveway, in the snow, either last night and this morning. I get in the house and text him that I found his phone, then plug it in because it is dead.

I head down to the basement, grab the travel car seat and walk it over to our neighbor's house. I head back in the house, fill up my water bottle and head downstairs for Morning Meltdown 100 Workout #98: Fight Club! 

(Side note: I happened to look back on my Fall DITL from October and that day I did workout #10 so it has taken me a LONG time to get to the end!)


My stomach growls in the middle of my workout which means I need to drink some more water, but otherwise it was enjoyable.

Before I head upstairs I start the laundry because it is piling up. I head upstairs and cross out #98 on my sheet. I seriously can't believe that I am almost done!

Laundry: the bane of my existence

SOOOOO close to the end!

I grab some more water then head upstairs to shower and get dressed while listening to Scene on Radio- Seeing White Part 5. <-----highly recommend="" series="" span="" this="">

9am- Turn on computer and start working. Most days I try to start either by 8 or 8:30 but it's nice to get my workout out of the way for the day and I have been trying to not work as much as next month work is going to be INSANE.

My view today

9:40- I walk downstairs to make tea. I move laundry from washer to dryer & put in a new load while waiting for water to boil.

10- First call of the day while snowplows are barreling down my street.

10:50- Move laundry again, get more water, go to the bathroom.

11- I jump on another call. The call was supposed to be two hours, but was done after 45 minutes. Pee again (I always thought that I peed a lot as I love to drink water but Intermittent Fasting makes me pee even more!)

12- Do some work before my next call at 1pm. Change laundry, another bathroom break. I am definitely ready to eat and hungry, but don't have enough time before my 1pm call so I will wait another hour. I finished eating at 6pm last night so I'll do my second 20 hour fast this week!

1- Called my colleague and then realized that I forgot to invite her to our call so she double booked- whoops! Instead I go to the USPS website to create an account and hold our mail for our upcoming vacation.

1:30- My colleague can jump on a call so we talk for a few minutes.

2:15- I head downstairs for lunch. Fast ended after 20 hours, 24 minutes with three scrambled eggs on a corn tortilla with corn and bean salsa on top, a cup of coffee with Sugar Free Peppermint Mocha creamer, and an orange. Read the Washington Post's Daily 202 newsletter as I eat.

Cocoa wants some pets before I go back upstairs

2:45- Back upstairs for more work.

3- I remember that I need to get Wes' ice skates sharpened so I run to a local ice skating shop to drop them off. I'm back within 30 minutes and I'm working again.

4:25- Start watching a webinar. Get the call that the ice skates are ready.

5- I head downstairs to grab laundry out of dryer and pick up ice skates. CP suggests that I pick up Subway for the kids dinner.

(At this point I forget I am doing a DITL and there are no more pictures!)

5:30- After grabbing dinner, I call CP and he asks if I can pick up Wes since he is running late. I drive to his daycare and pick him up.

5:50- Wes and I are home. I ask him to wash his hands while I start to set the table & heat up the adult dinner (gumbo with rice). Izzy & CP get home. We all eat dinner.

6:20- Izzy and I leave for Girl Scouts. A fellow mom leads the discussion on responsibility with the girls while I sit with some of the moms to discuss dates for a cookie booth next month.

7:25- Girl Scouts is over and I have trouble getting Izzy to stop playing and put her jacket on. We have a discussion in our short drive home about the importance of listening to me. Once we get home we put the Girl Scout cookies on counter. Wes and CP are upstairs reading already.

7:45- I ask Izzy to put on her pajamas while I scoop cat litter & try to fold some laundry. She pouts b/c I tell her that I am disappointed in her for running away from me at Girl Scouts and that as of right now, she isn’t getting a book tonight.

I say goodnight to Wes who wants to give me a hug, get noses, cross eyes & give head bumps.

I give Izzy the chance to get a book by putting away her laundry. She does, so I read 
 three Rebel Girl 2 stories. The last one was about Celia Cruz so I quickly play one of her salsa songs. Izzy's comment is that Celia “sounds like a man singing.”

Izzy wants to show me how she can do two perfect belly breaths, so she does, I give her a hug and a kiss and turn out her light. Wes wants another hug so I go into his room and give him another hug. I grab the cat litter bag that CP passed on his way down the stairs and of course didn't pick up to throw away and bring it outside to the garbage. Damn it's cold out!

CP is on the couch doing work because a coworker stopped him & reminded him right as he was leaving that he needed something by tomorrow. I turn on the tv and start eating too many Dos-si-dos. Damn my fasting window should have started at 6:20 but now it is pushed back to 8:45. But mmmm the Dos-si-dos were good.

We watch episode two of the Pharmacist on Netflix. Halfway through I do the dishes and start the dishwasher. Once we finish the Pharmacist episode we turn on Planet Earth 2. We discuss tomorrow’s plans- we going to the night orchid exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Garden with the kids.

9:50- CP gives me a kiss & heads upstairs.

10:10- I do love planet earth but it is time to go to bed! Thankfully there is a commercial & I head upstairs at 10:19.

Before I head up the stairs I put the kid's valentines in their backpacks so that we don't forget them tomorrow.

I brush my teeth, take out my contacts, and quietly put on my pajamas. Cp is already asleep, no snoring so far- yay!

10:40- Turn on my phone alarm for 5am tomorrow & plug in phone. Turn on white noise app to waves. Good night!

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?