For some reason, my right foot was not willing to participate fully this morning. I had a small pain that was causing me to sort of walk to the left, but it was helped by walking along a bit of road that created an incline that I had to walk against on the right side. I had a pretty active Saturday for me, so I probably did a little too much.
Today, we were supposed to go to Edmond in the afternoon, but I ended up falling asleep while watching a movie.
[Walk #50]
I got caught up on sleep finally! I don’t have trouble waking up in the morning, but I have been having trouble getting to sleep at night. I fell asleep yesterday afternoon and stayed that way until about 5am today. I feel rested, but I also think your body pushed you better when you aren’t. I don’t feel as pumped up and ready to go today. That said, my walk was much easier. I went all the way up to Brush Creek Rd and back today, which I hadn’t done before. The furthest east I had gone before was the marijuana farm a few doors down, which I noticed this morning is seemingly abandoned. That’s not an industry I know anything about, but I did think it seems a shame that those greenhouses couldn’t be used for growing food this year. I’m of the opinion that setups like that one should be common, filled with vegetables, and probably subsidized by some sort of government program or paid for through subscriptions by those who are able to get the produce. Programs like that would be actual decentralization of industry, something that a lot of extreme Left & extreme Right folks are always claiming an interest in. I sometimes wonder if what they really mean is “as long as someone else does the work.” We really shouldn’t be looking at food as a commodity. We have the ability to make it both abundant and local. We just lack the will… and probably because it would result in lower food costs, which would mean there is no profit in that plan. I see that as a good. I understand why others don’t.
About halfway between here and Brush Creek Rd is a house set back as far as Mom & Dad’s house; their driveway was lined with medium sized dogs, including what I believe was a doberman or something similar (when I was trying to look, I did have the sun right in my face). I don’t get too nervous around dogs, but I can tell that if I have any trouble with dogs, those will be the ones I have trouble with. Just like the little dogs just on Fairgrounds Rd, I should go meet them so they aren’t scared when I walk by. That situation feels a little less conducive though. At least the homeowners on Fairgrounds are always outside when the little dogs are.
[Walk #49]
Another brisk morning, but this time I dressed appropriately and put on both a hoodie and sweatpants. That worked so well for me that I went even longer today; it was also drier than yesterday. I made it about an hour before I felt like I needed to stop. That said, if I had been walking around the lake or some other trail, if I had a few minutes to rest I could have kept going. I think the 3 mile walking path around Boomer Lake is finally a thing I can plan in my day. It’s less convenient than up and down the street, but I assume easier on my feet. The gravel does start to get a little annoying eventually.
[Walk #48]
It was chilly on my walk this morning. Yesterday, 5:45am felt great, but for whatever reason my morning started with me feeling just a little anxious. Maybe it was a combination of the cold and the dark. I’m not sure. It just felt a little too early at first, but as soon as the light crested over the horizon I got really into it and got in a new record on distance. I felt like I might go another 20 minutes or so, but the dew was pretty intense and my socks were getting pretty muddy, so I stopped shortly after 2 miles. While I didn’t get my heart rate up as much as I like to, I still kept it up pretty well. I just had no interest in running or anything close to it this morning.
This morning’s playlist was perfect. It was just a great one to keep me going, and having the best song at the point when I could stop or keep going and get to 2 miles was perfect. It just made me want to get that in. Getting those songs in the right order can make all the difference. I’ve had some lists that were fails, even though I liked all the songs on them. I find I’m motivated greatly by the types of music. As I get into longer walks, I want to find something I can incorporate… podcasts, but I’d really like to have playlists with a mixture of some spoken content and music. I’ll have to play around with Apple Music. I’m sure there’s something.
I ordered Justin a $15 smart watch. For that price, I expect very little, but it should get him started. He likes tracking his steps, but his phone isn’t the best at recording those accurately. If this thing does even marginally better at that, it’ll be a better option, plus it can check heart rate. Eventually, I’ll probably get him an Apple Watch, but this should do for now.
[Walk #47]
I had a very early morning walk, so I made it last as long as I could. I’m starting to get impatient, but I need to let things take their course. I will improve as quickly as I naturally can. There is no need to rush anything. While it was still just slightly too dark when I started, I really appreciated doing my walk that early and it might be the right time to get the steps in until the end of August when it’s still just night at that time. I almost feel like anything done before 7 is good with me, so when I start at 6:30, I’m only getting in 30 minutes, but 5:45 gives me 45 additional minutes and I don’t really mind walking them. I didn’t last that long this morning. I did get in 40 minutes, which felt pretty good. My shoes are holding me back a little bit. They are fine, I guess, but they wore out years ago and they are being held together with hope. The sole is so thin that they offer me nothing, so I really should switch. I’ve been reluctant to switch because this place turns shoes red and I wouldn’t mind clean things when I move. If I want to get those steps in, I might just have to deal with it.
Sleep was elusive last night, but that’s because I slept until 3pm yesterday. That’s going to make today a challenge, but if I can get myself to stay awake until 7 or 8 this evening, I can just catch up and be back on track. That’ll be frustrating though.
It looks like my weight is starting to trend down again. I keep hitting these two week long plateaus followed by dramatic drops. I don’t mind a plateau; I was fully expecting them when I started. But two weeks can feel like an eternity. I miss the simplicity of that fall when my weight dropped steadily. It might end up being the same pace, but it was more encouraging. I’m glad it’s headed back down. I’d really like to see 270 by the end of the month. I’m shooting for 10 lbs a month right now, which should let me see 250 by my birthday. I won’t be upset if I can see more, but I’m not doing anything drastic to encourage weight loss I won’t be able to sustain. This has been very manageable so far.
[Walk #46]
I had a dream about running last night. That’s crazy to me because it was so recently that I had so much difficulty walking at all. To be fair, I definitely cannot run still. I have started incorporating sprints in my walking routine in order to get and keep my heart rate up, and that doesn’t seem to bother me at all (other than my arms always getting tangled up with my earbud cords). In my dream, I had attended a wedding at the Stillwater church of Christ building (because most dreams are set there) and afterwards I went for a short run, just down to Duck, then over past Husband, up to Boomer, left, then past McDonald’s, where I turned to run through the parking lot, then took Husband to the back entrance of the church, and back into the building. The nature of the dream changed at this point, with me complimenting the weekly diet of someone I don’t know (a young man of about 20, blond, European accent of some sort), but I did say I am vegan so it isn’t perfect. His diet was visibly 100% vegan, so I’m not sure what I found objectionable, but he started telling me about how lack of genetic diversity is seeds is a problem that farmers cannot ignore, and I told him “farming is a choice” and left him to whatever he was doing. I spent a few minutes wandering the halls of the church feeling guilty for saying that, although the guy did not take any offense. I ended up in the kitchen where a group was cooking some vegetables and wanted to add them to a package of vegan ground beef. I suggested tofu, but said the ground beef would be good too. I left the kitchen. This dream is full of opinions. I walked the main hallway that used to lead to the nursery back up to the foyer around to the hallway to the restrooms and meeting room, back into the kitchen at the end of the hall (there is no kitchen there in real life; that room was the multimedia room and later the main office for Rainbow Preschool. I’m not sure how it is being used today). When I got to the kitchen, I noticed the vegetables had been abandoned, left cooked in the pan. so I picked up the pan to go find the guy to talk about what he could do it instead of just abandoning it. I ended up in a large storage room, one wall wooden shelves with everything labeled. Some of the labels were not facing out, which frustrated me because I had designed the room and expected people to put things away correctly. Someone had followed me in and asked me if I thought the labels were so important, why were the small drawers near the door not labeled. Those, I explained, contain sleeping birds, so they are facing the right way. I pulled one out slightly, partially revealing a pigeon-sized orange peacock who squawked at me and I put him back into his little hiding spot before leaving the storage room. I no longer had the pan, I was no longer running, the wedding guests had all left, so the dream had started to fall apart at that point. I don’t remember anything that happened after that.
My point is, should I start running? And I guess secondarily, should I genetically modify peafowl until I miniaturize them and I can get them to be orange? Probably not that second one…
[Walk #44]
I’m probably one of the few who is glad that the cooler temperatures are sticking around. It’s so nice to go walking in, but it’s been pretty wet lately and everything is pretty squishy out there. I spent most of my walk going up and down the driveway and even that was a little muddy in spots. If we keep getting rain this week, it’ll probably force me to do some indoor workouts while I wait for things to dry a bit. I am looking forward to living in a place with sidewalks.
[Walk #43]
I guess I had something; I had a moment when a fever broke and I started feeling better after that. Whatever was going on, hopefully it’s over now.
[Walk #42]
Spent the day not feeling very well… I don’t know if it is weather, allergies, or something else. Just felt generally off and cranky most of the day.
[Walk #41]
It’s a beautiful day. Cloudy, cool… great for my morning walk, even if that was a little late. I was so tired this morning; I decided to just sleep a little longer. I thought I had gotten enough, but my watch says 6hr48min, and I have no reason to say it is wrong… that does not include the extra hour and a half though, so maybe I have a reason to at least be suspicious.
I’ve gotten lazy with my calorie counting. That was always meant to be temporary, but lately I keep forgetting to record everything as I eat it and then you’ve got me trying to keep my eyes open as I’m going to bed trying to recall how many kidney beans I had with lunch. In general, I’ve been trying to work on getting to everything. I wish I could let go of a lot of things to make room in my brain for just my daily habits checklist. All of the stuff in life can start to weigh us down and I feel burdened by it all sometimes. I mentioned recently that I actually love how chaotic I can be, and I still think that. I love that when I want to do something, I spend hours watching videos and collecting materials and familiarizing myself with the ins and outs of it all, even if I don’t ultimately retain that hobby. I still love that about me, but I need to work on coupling that with the self awareness required to purge and let things go that I am no longer interested in. I usually see that as a failure of some kind, and that’s not something I’m interested in any longer. It isn’t a failure to move forward. Learning new things is the hobby, and I think that is great. But if I’ve already learned everything I want to know about a topic, it is more than okay to let someone else have the materials I collected.
My walks are going very well, but I do wish I could get my heart rate up more. I’m trying to remember to have patience with myself; a year ago I struggled to get through a shower without needed a rest, so it will just take some time to get to where I need to go. I had been doing at least 20 minutes a day in exercise (walking unless it’s just too muddy), but I think after the past few days I’m going to change that to at least 1 mile of walking. That currently takes me roughly 25 minutes, but if I can get that down to 20 minutes that might help me keep that heart rate up. It’s worth trying at least, and then I’ll revisit my goals after that. I’m still looking forward to Brad getting cleared to do exercise, although by that time it’ll be too hot to continue on outside and we’ll have to start meeting at the gym. And that is just fine too… maybe preferable.
[Walk #40]
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |||||
Copyright © 2025 The Vegan Hermit