Day 33, 34 and 35

 My toe is all better! Yay! I'm still not sure what it was but I'm glad it's gone. Walking has been going well and I've been continuing to get in extra miles each day. Also the strength exercises are going alright. I'm kind of bummed that I still feel sore the day after the exercises. I'm hoping that the soreness goes away as my muscles get stronger. It sucks that I'm so out of shape that this small amount of exercises its so tough for me physically. I just need to not get down about it. I'll get stronger and the exercises will get easier. 

The heat hasn't been too bad. It's warmer than I'd like but at least we aren't having any heat waves yet. I've gotten a larger water bottle, though, just to be prepared for when summer hits. Oh, and I also bought a new pillow that I'm hoping will help with my stiff neck. I've been getting them on and off recently and I think it's because of being a side sleeper. I can't sleep on my back anymore because of an eye issue so it's been an adjustment to only be able to sleep in my side. I bought a pillow specifically designed to help keep your body in good alignment while sleeping on your side, so I hope this will help prevent any more stiff necks.

To continue my backstory, after that first summer, I don't remember what changed or why, but I started to enjoy running. My dad became my coach and we figured out that I was better at longer distances. He created a running schedule for me and we started running together almost every day. I had to keep a running journal and I even have a part of it still. I don't know what happened to most of them, but it's fun to reread the entries I kept. By the time the next summer came along, I was ready to compete. I looked forward to the training and competitions. I loved to run. I'm hoping to get back to that feeling some day.

Day 30, 31 and 32

 Listening to Ozzy right now as I type this up. :) So I checked my toe the other day by holding a mirror under it and found out there is a bump. I guess it's a bug bite of some sort, maybe. I'm not sure but at least it doesn't hurt as much and the bump seems smaller. When I walk it hurts for a little bit at first, then feels fine until I get home. Weird. Anyway, I'll keep an eye on it and hope that it goes away really soon. 

Strength exercises and walking are going well. Today didn't feel quite as hot as yesterday, so that's good. Also, I did a little experiment last night and totally regret it. I've been good about no screen time for the last hour before bed and I've been sleeping fairly well. Then last night I decided to test my luck and doom scrolled up until right before bed. I got caught up in learning about some different bands and where they are now and all that fun stuff. Well, very bad idea. I slept very poorly, had bad dreams and woke up tired. So definitely no doom scrolling tonight. Bad!

To continue my backstory, I remember that first summer we did Track & Field with the Summer Rec program and in particular, one specific day. We went to another school for a track meet and my parents even showed up to support us. I don't remember most of the day but I do remember my 400m race. The 400m race is one loop around a track. I hadn't done any type of training or preparation for this day, so I just started running when the gun went off and the other kids took off. I must have been very, very slow as I don't remember anyone else around me. And no, it wasn't because I was in first. I jogged but really did not want to be there. I cried almost the entire race and desperately wanted to get off the track and go home. I even looked up into the bleachers hoping my parents would just magically remove me from the track. They didn't, of course. I finished the race. Absolutely last. And for some reason, my parents kept me in Track & Field for the rest of the summer. And, as it turns out, I returned to that Summer Rec program for Track & Field every summer for the next 7 years. The program was for 14 years old and younger. 

Day 27, 28 and 29

 I just have to start off by saying I have a new favorite song that gets me up and ready to move. It's "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne. I heard it in the car the other day, so I found it online and have been listening to it on loop every day since. Anyway, the soreness is all gone although one of my toes on my right foot has started hurting and I have absolutely no idea why. I checked it out and can't see anything wrong, so I don't know what happened but I'll keep an eye on it and hope that it goes away as quickly as it appeared. 

The strength training is going well. It definitely upped the intensity with some of the moves. And I do appreciate the warm up and cool down. I think if all continues to go well this week I might increase the number of reps a bit for next week. Also, my favorite walking buddy and I have almost doubled our amount of daily walking, so Yay! It's getting pretty hot out, mid 80s today, so I need to make sure to wear sunscreen and bring lots of water. I wear a sun hat which helps shade my face pretty well but it doesn't always block the sun from getting to my neck so I need to remember to put sunscreen on before leaving for my walks. As for the water, we've been stopping home to refill before doing our second loop. That works ok, but maybe I'll buy a larger insulated water bottle for summer. 

I also thought I'd share a little background. I started running way back when I was 7 years old. I hated it at first. My parents wanted my siblings and I to get out of the house during the summer and keep active so they signed us up for the Summer Rec Program which included different sports and other activities. We ended up trying out Track & Field. I had no idea what I wanted to do so the coach had me try out pretty much every event over the course of the summer. I was terrible at everything. Of course, I had never run or done any kind of field events before in my life, so why would I be good? But I was a kid and at the time didn't realize how much work people put into becoming better. 

Day 24, 25 and 26

 Ok, so the past couple days have been a little rough because of how sore I've been. I think the extra long walk on Tuesday followed by the new additions to my strength training may have helped me find my current limit. So I'll be sticking to this strength workout for a bit and lower the amount of walking some since 3 hours is a bit much. At least now I know my max. I do feel pretty good today so I will get more walking in than the past few days. And hopefully the pace will be peppier, is that a word? More peppy, I could say. 

Another thing that has been working well is my timer. I have the timer on my phone set to 50 minutes so that every hour I'm getting up and moving around for 10 minutes. I thought that would be more disruptive to my work, but actually it has been nice. It forces me to stretch out my muscles and to focus on correcting my posture. Plus, it gets in some more walking. Even if it's not getting my heart rate going, it still counts as movement and activity. 

I think I'm going to do some more research on eating habits. I want to learn how to get the most out of what I eat. The hope is that I fuel my body properly, not only to build muscle and create healthy eating habits, but to avoid quick boosts of energy from sugary treats and such. And I've learned that I need more sleep. Well, not more sleep so much as better sleep. I have to look into what I can do to help with that. One thing is probably going to be stop with the screen time right before bed. I doom scroll sometimes and I'll be that's not good. :)

Day 21, 22 and 23

 Who knew that walking for almost 3 hours would leave you sore the next day? It was so worth it, though. I met up with friends and we walked and talked for about an hour and half. We got caught up on all kinds of things and it was really nice to spend time with them. The other hour and a half was from walking to the park and walking home from the park. It was quite a workout. And then, to top it off, I did a double long walk with my favorite walking buddy. Whew! So many miles! And to be honest, I'm actually not as sore as I thought I would be. 

This morning I started on my strength workout. The main difference is that I added in a warm up and a cool down. Who knew those two would make such a positive difference. It is a total of 20 minutes and it felt like I was working out every muscle group. I'm still keeping the reps to 10 and only 1-2 sets because I don't feel strong enough to up the number of reps or sets yet. Again, I want to play it a bit safe to begin with so that I don't pull any muscles or anything. It's early days still, so that should be ok.

I actually ate really well yesterday and didn't feel hungry like I usually would when I try to cut back on excessive calorie intake. I had lots of fruits and veggies and some protein and plenty of water. Oh, and I've started drinking a Boost drink for breakfast. It has a lot of vitamins and minerals and extra protein so it's pretty filling and I like the taste of the chocolate flavored one. For lunch I have avocado, hummus, cheese and pretzel crisps. I want to try to include some fruit as well. And then dinner usually consists of salad, meat (usually chicken), and some sort of roll or something. Oh, and a large glass of milk. Is there room for improvement? Yes, of course, but I feel like it's a decent start.

Day 18, 19 and 20

Oops! I forgot to blog yesterday so I'm doing it today. I found some new strength and stretching exercises to add to my routine. They are the single leg balance, the step and reach across and the glute bridge. I also found a good warmup and cool down to add as well. I'm really happy with how my walking and strength exercises are going. Unfortunately, my eating is not on track.

So, I hate to do it but I think I'm going to have to start counting calories. I've been trying to manage my portion sizes but I'm not seeing any change in my weight, which tells me that I need to be more intentional. That's why I'm going to start counting calories. Once I get myself to be more aware of what I'm eating, how much I should be eating and how much certain not so healthy choices have, I'm hoping that will get me on the right track. 

Another thing I'm going to do with the counting calories is lower my daily intake. 2000 calories a day is the average, so I'm thinking I'll drop mine to 1800 and see how that goes. I'm not looking for a quick fix, instead I want to make life changes so I can keep this up forever. And for now, the calorie cut is because I know that I need to take in fewer calories than I use up in order to lose the unwanted weight. I wonder if setting specific goals would help. Hmm? Maybe.

Day 15, 16 and 17

 I had a win this week with my eating choices. I had to go to the store for some veggies and I completely ignored the pastry section. Yay me! I also resisted the temptation of Ben & Jerry's ice cream (my absolute favorite treat). So I'm happy about that. I've also increased the amount of veggies I eat at dinner. I'm trying to add more veggies and fruit to lunch and breakfast, so hopefully I can increase those over the next several weeks. It's times like this when I wish I was a chef or at least knew a chef who was willing to make all my meals for me. That would be awesome!

My walking is going great especially because my favorite walking buddy is super fun to chat with. My strength exercises are good. I will need to increase the intensity of the wall plank. It still isn't very challenging. I know it would be a lot more difficult if I did plank on the floor, however, due to my eye situation, I don't want to put extra pressure and/or strain on it, so I have to stick with the wall version of plank for now. Also, I learned of this new way of doing squats and either I was doing them wrong before or these are tougher than they initially sounded. So it's like a regular squat except you have a chair behind you and as you squat down, you tap the chair with your butt and then stand up again. I know, it sounds funny, but it seems harder to do than a regular squat. Maybe I just wasn't squatting completely correctly before, I guess. Anyway, I definitely feel the burn with this version. Give it a try and see what you think

The other strength exercises I do are bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, knee lifts, leg kickbacks with resistance band and hand grips. I'll probably need to add more at some point, but these seem to be pretty good for now. I should add some stretches in, too, to improve my flexibility. I'll have to look those up. I suppose yoga would be a good option for this. I bet they have some classes nearby that I could check out. I'll most likely check that stuff out in another few weeks or so, once I'm starting to feel comfortable with my current activities.