Goal

As of today...





I have lost 6.7 pounds since August 7th.
12.9% of my goal is complete.
I am measuring various aspects of my body as well, but have not had enough time go by yet to check for a difference.
I biked 10 miles and ran 2 miles today.
Which puts me a 60 miles when combined with last week.
I feel better and stronger and have much more energy.
I have an extremely hard time going to sleep at night (my body just won't shut down). My poor husband is tired of this problem, as I hate to be awake alone.
I will probably start setting an earlier alarm to see if that will make me sleep at night.
My back is stable. It was in bad shape before I started and maybe is a little bit better, but that depends on the time of day.
I am trying to eat approximately 1200 calories a day. Some days more, some days less. It creates incentive for me to cook at home because it is much easier to control my calories at home.
I have rediscovered hunger. I haven't really been hungry in years. I ate whenever it was suggested or a normal meal time arrived never really given time for hunger to develop.
I eat a great deal of protein now because it helps hold back the hunger.
I have heard many times, "Eat to live, don't live to eat." I am now understanding what that means. It really amazes me how little I need to eat in a day (comparatively) to get by and keep up with my increasing workouts. And, I have begun to really feel the "eat to live aspect" about an hour before meal time on lower calorie days, I can feel my mind and body start to get sluggish. Then it's meal time and everything picks back up.
All in all truly understanding the idea of portion control and making my body perform as my mind wills it.

Abnorm

Not my normal post to post about politics, or even to read much about politics, but the pastor of my church was asked to write about his thoughts on prop 8. Here's what he said. Let me know what you think.

I will say Chris and I had a moment of pause after our wedding, realizing that we were married in the eyes of God, but not yet in the eyes of the government, because we did not even sign until we had returned from Michigan. That part of his answer made a very clear distinction in my mind, which made for a clear distinction in the reversal.

FYI: I biked 8.5 miles today at 17 miles per hour and am headed home to run 1.5 miles at 6 miles per hour.

Scale

The scale and I have not been on friendly terms lately. So, I am working hard to become at least acquaintances by Kevin and Annie's Wedding. After all, who wants to be on a beach in a swimsuit when they feel more like a beached whale than a woman. I am started working out again this week and really being careful with what I eat. The eating is far more difficult for me. I eat when I am bored and I eat when I am upset. I have a far larger stomach capacity then most people I know. I could eat and eat and eat and never get full. Bad combination. So I have been trying to be very careful. Much smaller portions of the dinners I make for Chris and very very very small meals during the rest of the day. Yogurt and Nature Valley Bar have been my friends the last few days.

The working out is much easier. Takes only a limited amount of motivation. I have to get myself psyched to get on the bike or the treadmill, but after that I am done. Don't have to coach myself beyond that like I do every time food rears its ugly head. There is a bike in my office at the church now. I hop on it right before I head home. Today I rode for four miles. I will then drive home and try to ignore the roast in the crock pot and go for a run on the treadmill and likely do at least one mile on there. Then, I can check out of exercise world for the day and read to my husband while he puts up the siding.

Now, the part that is really not fun. I know I have to build some muscle before I lose weight. So as I work out and eat very little, I watch the scale go up little by little and I get super frustrated. I might even like to break it's little glass face. But, I know that it will eventually go down after a while. I just hope the motivation of "getting started" lasts until the motivation of "results" begins. I may post some progress once I begin to see it.

By the way, my poor husband is struggling to figure out the appropriate response. I can see his brain working. If I tell her she doesn't need lose weight then I won't be supporting her and doing what's in her best interest. If I tell her I think it's good she is trying to lose weight then she will wrongly assume I don't find her attractive. Poor guy. And what's worse, I go back and forth on the reaction I want to hear, so I can't even give him a hint of what I need to hear. Oh the plight of being a newly married man. Dear sweet man.

Very soon, there will be a sickeningly sweet post of just how amazing he is and all the wonderful things he does for me. Just thought I would prep you.