Month: June 2024

The Wandering Hermit: Justin & the 10-Day Meal Plan Plan

   30 June 2024  Leave a Comment on The Wandering Hermit: Justin & the 10-Day Meal Plan Plan

I’m starting to feel a bit better.  I was reluctant to wake up this morning, but I still just did it anyway.  I’ve got some yard work to do this morning, but I think I might try to get some extra sleep this afternoon.  I have a lot to do this week and I want to make sure I’m fully over whatever has been keeping me lethargic lately.

Justin has decided to do a 10 day diet.  He wants to start on the first.  I think that’s great for him.  He struggles with the permanence of a new way of eating, but he knows he can handle a 10-day diet.  And when that’s over, I think he’ll give himself a few days to go back to normal and then he might resume the 10-day plan as a more permanent situation.  I had been trying to help him do some planning that included all of the things he likes, but that wasn’t working.  He found creative ways to go around the plan and sneak in hundreds of unaccounted calories.  He needs something far more strict.  He is also working uphill a little since one of his medications causes weight gain.  It used to be easy for him to stay thin.  Now he has to work at it, and I think adjusting to that is frustrating.  I totally understand that.  Since he’s doing something strict, I’ll probably be tightening up my own eating for the month.  And I love that.  I’ve gotten a little lazy about food; I’m still basically eating the same way, but I’ve found myself forgetting to record things.  Part of that is that I had started using Cronometer, but I’m back to writing everything down.  I am far more mindful about my diet when I’ve written it all down as I eat it.  Cronometer is a great tool and I still use it for planning out Justin’s meals for the week, but for myself it quickly became a crutch and an excuse.

[Walk #106]

The Wandering Hermit: Preparing for the Rest of Summer

   29 June 2024  Leave a Comment on The Wandering Hermit: Preparing for the Rest of Summer

It’s entirely too warm; the next month is going to be rough if I base things on this morning.  The watch told me it was 79ºF, which is already too warm for me, but the gravel was still radiating heat from yesterday and so it felt a little like standing in front of the dryer while pulling out clothes.  It’s not exactly unbearable, but it’s a lot of heat coming from unusual angles.

Speaking of clothes, sorta… I’m in the midst of a plateau at the moment.  They happen; in fact, they happen a lot.  But I break through them eventually so I’m not stressed about it.  I wanted to wait until I was down to 250 pounds before I got some new clothes, but it seems like I’m just inching my way down to that, so I broke down and got a few shirts, a couple pairs of shorts, and some leggings.  That should do for the summer; I am still hoping to get some stuff that fits better later this year.  Some people have been bothered by my threadbare shirts and ripped sweatpants.  Those things don’t bother me, but I am honestly annoyed by the fit of my clothes.  It is definitely past the point where I like how everything just hangs on me.  That was a nice reminder of progress, but it can be annoying, especially pants that never want to stay up.

Yesterday, I went from being mildly under the weather to fully feeling sick and then better by the time I went to bed.  I’m still feeling it, but my body seems to be handling the threat pretty well.  I’ll probably spend the day hydrating and not doing a whole lot.  I always have a lot to do, but I don’t want to push myself and then end up getting sick.  That’s far less convenient than taking things a little easier for a couple of days.

[Walk #105]

The Wandering Hermit: Just Before the Sky Catches Fire

   28 June 2024  Leave a Comment on The Wandering Hermit: Just Before the Sky Catches Fire

I’m feeling a little bit under the weather, but I am just not interested in excuses.  Of course, if I end up being sick I’ll have to act accordingly.  There’s no point in pushing myself when it would be harmful to do so.  This morning was a nice walk though, even though I wasn’t feeling awesome.

I’ve been oscillating between feeling unrealistically optimistic and feeling the whole weight of the world pushing down own me.  Of course, my reality is probably best described somewhere in the middle, but try telling my brain that!  I’d prefer to not worry much about things; I’d love to dwell in the feeling of walking on a cloudy morning just before sunrise when everything is so dark, but then the sky starts to catch fire, burning for a few minutes until you realize how blue and illuminated everything is and you don’t remember it happening because you were too distracted by the colors of the sky.  Why can’t we live in those feelings?

[Walk #104]

The Wandering Hermit: Building Rome

   27 June 2024  Leave a Comment on The Wandering Hermit: Building Rome

I’ve been thinking about schedules since my walk yesterday.  I do tend to obsess over things.  I need the structure.  I have a tendency to never get something done if I’m not operating within a strict schedule, and I am never doing that!

I have a slight amount of swelling in my legs at the moment.  I don’t know if I’ve overdone things this week or if I’m having a histamine response.  I’ll keep an eye on it; I don’t want to cause myself problems by being overly ambitious.  And I’m not sure it’s unusual, but my legs have looked better for a while, so it is concerning me.  Rome wasn’t built in a day, and all that.

I’ve gotten lazy with food lately.  Not reckless, but lazy.  I started using Cronometer instead of writing things down in a notebook and I think it has just allowed me to pay less attention to what I’m doing.  I think I need to go back to the notebook actually.  It isn’t hard to track calories; I thought an app would help by showing me nutrient breakdowns of my day.  It does do that, and I can plug that in anytime I want.  But I feel more connected to my day’s meals when I’m responsible for writing everything down and weighing it all.

[Walk #103]

The Wandering Hermit: Stupid Stuff That Doesn’t Matter & Extra Miles

   26 June 2024  Leave a Comment on The Wandering Hermit: Stupid Stuff That Doesn’t Matter & Extra Miles

This afternoon was much less disorienting than my morning was.  I feel a little like I really can do anything I want to do in life.  Getting in an extra mile takes very little time, but it was a bit on the hot side.  I think saving that walk for dusk is a much better plan.  It takes less than half an hour and I feel great.  Now, that means I’m taking showers all day, but I like doing that anyway so I guess that’s not really a problem.

I was thinking that I need to start making a schedule.  Having my whole life up in the air makes me want to take some control in any way I am able.  I think the easiest thing is to start making a full day’s schedule.  It has been working for mornings.  I schedule my days from 5am to 8am, but then I just let the rest of the day happen.  Sometimes I get a lot accomplished and sometimes I get hung up doing stupid stuff that doesn’t matter.  The stupid stuff that doesn’t matter is an important part of life, but not as often as I do it now.  Having a detailed schedule would be nice…. and I already enjoy overplanning, so scheduling works well with that.

[Walk #102]

The Wandering Hermit: One Step Sideways

   26 June 2024  Leave a Comment on The Wandering Hermit: One Step Sideways

It’s already been a bit of a chaotic day.  Maybe that means the rest will be better.  Although, that isn’t to say my day has necessarily been bad.  It’s just been frustrating so far.  We had some heavy rains last night, so this morning everything was just soaking wet.  I could have walked, but it was so muddy that I decided to let things dry a bit.  So, I didn’t walk until 10am, and only did 1 mile then.  It was already getting hot out there.  I did do a few minutes of running on the porch, but that wasn’t really going anywhere (pun not intended), so I did my old route in front of the house to the neighbor’s driveway three times.  It was a good walk, but it has made me feel off a bit.  It was at the wrong time, it was the wrong place.  It didn’t feel like a step backward; it felt like a step to the side.  I felt like I was in a place I shouldn’t be all of the sudden.  I wanted my routine back!  I’ll have to do a walk this afternoon to make up for the missing mile, and maybe it is good that I had a difficult morning.  I was wanting to test out a split walking schedule.  Of course, I was still wanting my morning walk to be the enjoyable experience I expect it to be, but apparently we can’t have everything we want in life.

My VO2 Max number is still teasing me and just hovering below where I want it to be.  It has improved a lot this year, so I am trying to remain patient about that.  Continuing to do what I’m doing is improving everything.  My issues didn’t occur overnight; I shouldn’t expect to clear things up overnight either.  It takes time to undo a lifetime of stupid decisions.

[Walk #101]