FitBit 30 -- Day 3

It'd be so easy to lie about this challenge.  To simply not document tastes or snacks or to lie about portion sizes.

That makes this 30 day challenge as good an exercise in self-honesty as in self-discipline.

Here are today's results, after a day of work, errands, chores, and making cookies and puppy chow:

Calories out: 2647 

Calories in: 1508

Surplus/Deficit: -1139

In regards to what I talked about yesterday, adding 2 healthy behaviors a day:  success!  I meditated twice today, which I can't recommend highly enough.  I use an app called Calm, or its corresponding website, calm.com.  They have both free and pay services, as well as both independent and guided meditations.  I also invested some good time in prayer and Bible study, which was a wonderful bit of my evening.

Isn't it nice how positive behaviors result in positive feedback loops?

FitBit 30 -- Day 2

In a lot of ways, waiting 9 years after undergrad for medical school feels like I wasted an entire decade of my life.  There are a lot of things I won't get to do/enjoy during my 30s -- the prime of my life -- because I am doing med school and residency.

But thank God I didn't do it all back when I graduated from undergrad at 20.  I could have been a doctor at 24 -- a mere child.  I was way too young, both numerically and emotionally, to be a good physician, but I'd have been great at what medical schools like:  memorizing shit and doing nothing else but medicine.  And maybe I'd have ended up a surgeon.

I started a vascular surgery rotation today and had 7k steps by 8am.  It's going to be a pretty cake rotation, but I can see a) what's attractive and fun about surgery b) what great physicians the surgeons are c) how they change going from PGY1 to PGY 5, and not in a good way, and d) how much you really have to devote your life to it.

There's no way I'd want to now.  I am enjoying a much healthier work-life balance now than would ever allow me to be a surgeon.  Plus, I still want to have kids.

But yeah, got close to having my steps in yesterday.  Didn't hit it, because I came home and crashed for a few hours.

Calories out:  2432

Calories in:  1350

Deficit/Surplus:  -1082

Mondays are date night for us, whenever possible.  It's hard to have date on Monday nights because we're often so exhausted from getting back to the work week, but they're important to make a priority.  We knew we'd be exhausted tonight and had decided on going out to a movie.  We hadn't seen one in the theatre in ages so headed out to finally see Star Wars: Rogue One, which ended up being an amazing show.  Unfortunately for us the theatre had the volume up so loudly that it almost physically hurt to listen to it.

Anyhow, there's a point to my story:  I love popcorn.  I have an affair with it that is unhealthy probably both emotionally and physically.  I even have little enamel popcorn earrings.  My other love in life is Slurpeees/Icees/Slushies.

Which makes movie theaters dangerous places to be.

I managed to make it through the whole movie with nothing except a couple mints and a lindor truffle I snuck in via my coat pocket (it was disappointing -- I should have checked the  flavor first), which I of course tracked, and no popcorn.  NO popcorn.  Or a slushee.

I'll take the little wins with the big ones.

Adding Daily Healthy Activities: For Tomorrow

As I've said previously, I have a million ideas of what makes one "healthy" and since it's impossible to add them all at once and probable that adding one at a time will take to long to be effective, I've decided that my daily goal will be to do two "healthy things" a day minimum, in addition to my FitBit goal.

These might include meditation, stretching, running, Bible study, journaling, etc.

For example, tomorrow I'm going to try to meditate 2-3 times and do a Bible study. :)

Note:  I'm going to be backdating these entries so they show up for 11:59 of the night they apply to.

5k a day -- Day 17

This evening sucked.  My life can be stressful, as I'm sure yours can be.  Somehow I made it out the door for a run, in a pissy mood, which is an understatement.  Sometimes life is just so stressful, overwhelming, frustrating, and disappointing that a run is awesome, cause you can cry while you run and people think it's just the sweat on your face.

I, however, was running in the dark, and my city is poorly lit with lots of trees.  Which means less than a mile in I tripped on uneven sidewalk and managed to eat asphalt.

Sunburned legs + Road rash = ow.

I walked some.  I ran some.  Maybe like half and half for the first two miles?  Or more running than walking?  I dunno.  By mile 3 my leg was throbbing.  I dunno, but I did it.  That's all I've got, folks.

The 5k:

5k in 47:33

15:21 min/mile average pace

Splits:  14:41/13:18/17:25/21:54

The Workout:

72 squats

105 seconds plank

26 modified push ups

A bit of failure -- 5k a Day -- Days 17 and 18

I'm almost glad I didn't complete this challenge 100% perfectly, because it gives me a chance to address that.

Day 17 (take 1)

On Sunday, we rolled out of the tent and into the freshly-rain-washed campground, headed up to the central office, and signed up for tubing.  We had just enough time to read a chapter in our books (it felt so good to read for pleasure after boards.  I read some real brain candy, The Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard, and it was so nice to not read something for school), and then packed up the cooler and headed to the river.  It was about a 4-5 hour tubing trip down the Rifle River.   The trip started out cloudy and about 73°, so not the most ideal tubing weather, but it ended up warming up nicely.

The trip was incredible.  We were so relaxed and lazy, I even dozed off once.  Paul amused himself by using sticks to steer us and get us out of tangles.  It was cool enough that it wasn't until the sun really came out from behind the clouds (after about 3 hours) that we thought about applying the sunscreen we had brough with us, which we did with great purpose.

And by then it was too late.  Guys, cloudy days can still burn ya!  My shoulders and face were okay because they're already mildly tanned, by my poor pasty white legs were burned from below my knees up to the tops of my thighs.  That's an uncomfortable feeling.  Paul fared even worse -- he looks like a lobster on the front of him.

It was stupid of us -- we both believe in sun safety and protecting your skin.  We're a little embarrassed we failed to take care of ourselves!

Anyhow, we hobbled back to camp after our trip, and took turns pulling the heat out of our burns with towels soaked in the spring water the camp pipes up, which was ice cold.  Repeat, repeat, repeat, do it more.  Paul's feet were so burned he couldn't even put shoes on.

There was no 5k gonna be happening that evening.  Neither of us felt like we could physically do it with our burns.  No workout, either.

Day 18 (take 2)

We crawled (slowly) out of our tent, testing the tensile strength of our burned skin. 

We (slowly) packed up camp and loaded the car.

We headed west to Houghton Lake, MI, where some friends of ours have a cabin, and we had committed to hanging out with them the last day of our vacation.  This was awesome cause:

a) they are awesome people

b) they have a boat

c) they have tubes for their boat

This was not awesome because:

a) we were both still incredibly burned

Poor Paul.  Walking was painful for him.  But we slathered up with aloe, lidocaine, and sunscreen, and decided we could handle sitting on the boat.  The water felt amazing on our burns, and we even got in a tiny bit of tubing, but the plastic tube was too brutal for our skin.  Also, I forgot that when wearing pigtails, one should apply sunscreen to one's hair part.  Or one's scalp will be painful to use a comb on.

By the time we got home last night, it was 9.  I unpacked the car while Paul reapplied lidocaine to his legs, and we passed out early.  Pain and a busy day = no 5k, no workout.

Not quite as planned

So there it is guys.  Two days where I didn't get my 5k or workout in.  I'll be doing a 5k tonight hopefully, and it'll be Day 17, version 2.0.  I did get over 10000 steps each day I didn't do the 5k, but it doesn't fall into the spirit of this challenge.

So what can I learn from this?

First of all -- if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  Yup, cliché but true.  I didn't plan for hiking/running paths when we booked our campsite (which was done last-minute).  By not making the 5k a priority in our planning, it because incredibly hard to do.

It's about intention -- from having to substitute a workout bike for 2 days to meandering around camp for the 5k, I still did the "active" portion of this challenge those days by intentionally completing a 5k.  Rigorous adherence to rules is less important than intention, especially in an active challenge.

Falling off the horse is one thing -- watching it run away from you is another.

We're all going to make mistakes.  We're all going to fail to meet goals.  What is just as important is what happens next. Do we say "oh, I failed to do part N, so forget about parts O-Z"?  Nope.  Getting back on the horse is just as important a habit to build as these 30 day challenges.  Not letting that small failure turn into a bigger one is good practice at preventing negative thinking and self-sabotage.

Ever been on a diet and gone over your calorie limit for the day?  What are your choices?

Choice A) Figure out how to "earn" those calories back in your bank with a workout deposit.

Choice B) Say "whoops", and stop right there, being gentile with yourself.

Choice C) Say "fuck it", and go get that Chipotle burrito with everything on it, followed by Coldstone Creamery ice cream for dessert, and snack on chips during your Netflix binge, because it's already screwed up.

I'd say choices A and B are both perfectly fine!  Choice C is what we have to train ourselves to avoid.  It's self-sabotage at its best.  And it doesn't mean you don't hold yourself to stringent standards, or that you're "accepting failure".  You're accepting your human-ness.  Which is probably a good thing to come to terms with, since it probably won't be changing any time soon.

So today I practice chasing down that horse and getting back on, even when I missed two days of this challenge.  

Bonus pictures:

You can already see the red starting on my chest.

Our little cooler is seen floating in the background

5k a Day -- Day 15, Day 16

Note:  this is a "catch up" post, as I was without internet service from Saturday till last night.

Day 15

We got to the campsite after dark, set up camp, and walked around to check out the camp site.  We did the 5k just by walking around.  The site was in a hilly part of the norther Lower Penninsula, in the middle of nowhere.  Unfortunately, the site straddled a major country road with frequent speeding traffic, and was generally unsuitable for hikes/walks.  We made large loops around the camp, trying to avoid interloping on others' campsites.

There was no way I was going to be able to jog at this campground, so walk it I did.

Also, without cell service, I had to rely on my trusty steps via my Fitbit to track my distance, so I do have proof I did it.

Also, we made tacos over the campfire.  Don't tell me that's not impressive.

The Pot is the only real convenience we take for food prep.  Paul cut the beans open with a pocket knife.

I mean, delicious.

The 5k:

Yeah, I don't have any times, etc.  It was a 5k, plus a little.  But at least I did it.

And 6.something miles total for the day

The Workout:

68 squats

95 seconds plank

24 modified push ups

I did these on the tarp outside the tent, and I'll say working my abs to keep from sliding down the tarp added a lot to the workout.

Day 16:

I walked around the camp again to get the 5k, but my fitbit was almost dead at this point, and we had no electricity on site, so I have no proof of such a thing.  I did, in fact do it.  

The 5k: 

We headed over to a nearby village to try to find walking paths.  Maybe even running paths!  But we were thwarted.  They had about a quarter mile of good paths, but these were interrupted by a classic car show going on.  We explored the tiny riverwalk, walked through another campground, and wandered the city, trying to find an ATM and hit our 3.1 miles.  We eventually did, but it was a mess, y'all.

What a mess this was.  Lots of dead-ends, as you can tell from the map.

This isn't even worth tracking the times.

We did find ice cream though:

Mine was blue moon and watermelon sorbet.  Seriously, great combination.

The Workout:

Failure.

Guys, I didn't get the workout done.  After the 5k, we headed back to camp and sat down to make dinner at the campfire while we still had a few minutes of light, but those minutes and that light were quickly gone.  A massive rainstorm came through -- basically a deluge of Biblical proportions.  We quickly stuffed two hotdogs in the fire, and retreated (soaked) to the protection of our tent.  

It continued to pour until around 4 or 5am, and when I say pour, I mean pour.  And I simply wasn't up to getting on my hands and knees in the mud and rain to do the workout.  (There was no room in the tent.)  Not when we had no power, limited dry clothes, etc.  But, at least I got the 5k done.

Don't worry, I'm still doing my 5k daily!

We're camping in northern-ish Michigan at the moment and cell service is almost non-existent. But I am doing and tracking my 5ks and workouts!

I'm updating this as we drive through a tiny little village and I have 2 bars of 3G for a moment, but I'll share all the lovely details when I get home Monday. In the mean time, here is a picture of ice cream. 

5k a day -- Day 13

Gonna be a short post today.  In less than 12 hours I'll be knee-deep in the last hurdle between me and being a doctor.

Got to my hotel today (I find it important to have a quiet, controlled, cleaned-for-you environment before these things) and studied a bit.  Then headed down to their gym for my 5k.  They have two treadmills, one elliptical, and and a stationary bike.  The first treadmill was taken by some lady walking, so I hopped on the other treadmill.  It was out of order.  So I hopped on the treadmill.  Not only was it adjusted for a very tall person, but the resistance was broken on it.  So, stationary bike it was.

I felt guilty knowing I was biking and not walking/running the 5k, and I knew I'd be done a lot faster than usual, so I bumped the resistance up to 10 and made sure I'd be working hard for the whole time.   I have to say, my legs and butt definitely felt it, even more than when doing my squats.

iPhone apps are not handling the iOS 10 beta well, so I'm in the process of rolling back to iOS 9 for now . . . unfortunately, until that's done, MayMyRun is still no-go.

The 5k:

Not even gonna list times/splits, cause it's not fair.

Look, you can even see my practice questions, courtesy of Combank

The Workout:

64 squats (my knees are killing me today)

85 seconds plank

22 modified push ups

5k a day -- Day 12

Guys, I'm about to lose it.  Boards are two days away, and on the surface I feel find about it, but then I realize I've had mild/weird nightmares the past few nights, am irritable, and generally feeling a little emotionally labile.  Guess that means the anxiety is getting to me after all, at least on a subconscious level.

The weather was nice so I was going to run tonight, but I pulled up board review questions on my phone and did a set while I walked instead.

In good/other news, Marshmallow came running down the street to meet me.  While I was rubbing his belly, a family pulled up in a mini-van, and parked.  Apparently, Marshmallow is "Cloud" (which I think we can all agree is a much inferior name) and is one of 6 cats (I guess 4 are kittens?) in their house.  They let the two grown up cats outside during the day.  They seemed oblivious to the danger of their cat running up and down a well-driven road.  Despite the fact they called him and he came running, almost getting hit by a car in the process.  They also don't seem to realize both his eyes are infected, and he likely needs eye drops and a FelV (sp?) workup.  I did mention that the city is pretty strict about collars and licensing of animals, so they had better do that before the cats get picked up as strays.  It makes me sad that they're not being properly cared for, but at least Marshmallow Watch Day 3 ends with some answers.

The 5k:

5k in . . . .um. . . 

So I updated to the iOS 10 public beta, and my MapMyrRun app keeps crashing.  I can log workouts on it but I can't review them, and it hasn't uploaded them to the website.

So.  To be updated?

The Workout:

(At least I only keep track of the numbers for this part)

62 squats

80 seconds plank

21 modified push ups

5k a day -- Day 10

Sometimes you have a plan.  Sometimes a little interloper messes with it.

I waited until I couldn't stand to do a single additional board review question, laced up, and headed out.  I had been sitting at my computer all day, so my intention was to walk a mile for a nice long warm up and de-stress, then run a mile.  Then for the third mile, I simply hadn't decided yet.

I walked my first mile.  My right hip gets pretty tight, so I'm working on stretching it out during the day, and paying good attention to my stride when I'm out.  That's the knee that hasn't been the same since jumping in and out of ambulances for 10 years, which means I try to watch how I hit the ground with that foot.

Anyhow, I hit mile 2 and started running.  About 0.3 miles in, I noticed a car stopping to shoo a kitty cat out of the street.  Kitty came running towards me, and I paused (and paused my timers) to make sure everything was alright.  He began to rub against my leg and beg for attention.  I petted him, and started walking.  Kitty kept following.

I walked for about a half a mile with this little white and blonde kitty following at my feet.  He only paused for rubbing up against me or plopping at my feet, begging to be petted.  He was fat, and obviously domesticated and well fed.  But no collar, and no claws.  I was torn -- he was dumb enough to lay down in the middle of the street, but he obviously had a home.  Was it safe to leave him?  

I turned my tracker back on and started retracing my steps back to where he had joined me.  He even followed me when I walked across the street to ask a couple out by their car if they knew who Marshmallow (he looked just like a toasted marshmallow so obviously that was his name) belonged to.  They had no idea.  I petted him while we chatted, and then he seemed content to lay there on the sidewalk, so that's where I left him.  I certainly hope he'll be okay, but it *was* nice to have a walking buddy for a half mile or so.

I also hope I'm not hurting his pride by calling a she a him, but in all honesty, I didn't check.

Sorry for the potato pic, but doesn't he look just like a toasted marshmallow?

I suppose I could get deeply philosophical and metaphysical about this and say the moral of today's story is that when our plans our ruined, it's worth being open to the change because you never know what new companion will come along side you.  But really, we can all agree that's reading too much into all of this, no?

My plan for the night now ruined (and having abandoned my new companion to his plop on the sidewalk), I walked for the rest of that mile, and then ran that last mile home.  My perceived rate of exertion for that last mile was fairly high, and I'm not sure why.

The 5k:

5k in 51:42

16:41 min/mile average pace

Splits:  20:41/17:27/11:35/19:57

The Workout:

58 squats

70 seconds plank

19 modified push ups

5k a day -- Day 8

Not gonna lie, I kinda phoned it in today.  I had the day off, and dedicated to board prep, so I slept in much later than normal.  By the time I woke up, it was well over 90 degrees and more muggy than two rats screwing in a wool sock.  I studied all day, then simply walked the 5k tonight.

And that's okay.  I don't have to want to do my challenge every day.  I just have to do it, especially on the days I don't feel like it.

So I did.  Wandered around the dark neighborhood in air so thick you could feel the weight of it pressing down on your shoulders.

The 5k:

5k in 1:11:53

23:11 min/mile average pace

Splits:  22:58/23:06/23:27/22:52

The Workout:

54 squats

60 seconds plank

17 modified push ups

A thought on squats:

I had always done wide-stance squats.  One day Paul volunteered to do my squats with me, and I noticed he was doing narrow based squats -- something it had never occurred to me to do.  After that, I wondered which was better, since they felt like they worked different muscles.  Instead of researching it like the scientist I am, I got lazy and decided just to split my squats half wide and half narrow.

Tonight I decided to do a little research on it.  And I found this link on bodybuilding.com basically saying that wide stance squats are more powerful, more versatile, safer, and all around better.  Other articles, like this one and this one say it depends on who you are, how you're built, and what your goals are.

So, for now, I guess I'll keep splitting them 50/50 as long as I can keep good form.

---

Part of 30 day challenges is calling it in if you have to.  As long as I do the minimum, I win.  So, I win. :)

5k a day -- Day 7

Tonight was a pseudo date night for Paul and me.  I've been studying for boards and work has been super crazy for him, so we decided my 5k would be a good excuse to go for a walk together tonight and catch up.  I'm so glad we did it -- I've been incredibly stressed (the life of a senior medical student applying for residencies could fill a whole other blog) and the walk really helped me recenter and unwind.

The 5k:

5k in 1:11:55

23:01 min/mile average pace

Splits:  22:45/22:45/22:38/29:08

The Workout:

52 squats

55 seconds plank

16 modified push ups

Note to self: don't wait until after dinner to do that many squats.  Oy vey.  

Dinner, just to brag, was delicious:  steaks with bleu cheese crumbles, broccoli, garlic bread . . . mmm

By the way, Paul says he can already see the difference the squats are making in my butt.  I have no idea if he's just saying that to be nice or what, but any excuse for my fiancé to look at my butt is fine with me. :)

Active vs. Passive

In these two 30 day challenges I've worked on (Whole30 completed(!) and 5k a Day in progress), my goal was to continue to exercise my "willpower muscle", but I'm finding that I'm actually exercising two very different willpower muscles.

The Passive Challenge

The Whole30 involved a lot of active work -- shop for certain things, do menu research, do a lot of meal prep -- but in actuality was a very passive type of challenge:  you didn't have to add something to your life, you had to not do something for 30 days:
      Don't eat grains.
      Don't eat sweeteners or added sugar.
      Don't eat legumes.
      Don't eat emotionally.
      etc.

At first it was hard to break those habits, but eventually saying "no" to myself became a lot easier.  It became second nature.  Sure, it was annoying and sometimes just damned inconvenient, but the "no" was what got easier.

The Active Challenge

In my attempt to continue that 30 day challenge result, I started this 5k a Day/Core Workout challenge.  And guys, it's totally different.  Instead of "don't do", I'm adding "do."

      Do walk/run 5k every day.

      Do squats every day.

      Do planks every day.

      etc.

I'm using a totally different willpower muscle this month.  It's the "active voice", if you're into literature at all.  It's saying "Yes" to things.  Here I am trying to continue the same thing as 30 Day Challenge 1, but I'm not even working the same muscle!

How Passive and Active Play Off Each Other

My best friend, D, practices Buddhism.  We happened to have a conversation today about her future ordination into the first level of Buddhist leadership, and she mentioned the "don't take a life" rule.  I asked if that meant she needed to be vegetarian, and her reply was basically no, with a great explanation, and it ended with:

The vow is "I undertake the training of life-affirming action" . . . . in Zen the vows are flipped from "don't do this" to "do this". 

She also suffers from fibromyalgia, and she was able to make another connection between her practice of Buddhism and her day-to-day life as a sufferer of chronic pain:

. . . with fibro, you have to think in terms of what you can do, vs the opposite.

---

In the human body muscles often occur in pairs: to flex your arm, you contract your biceps and relax your triceps; to extend your arm, vice versa.  When body-builders work muscle groups, they do them in pairs, because they know balance is key.  Strong biceps with weak triceps can lead to damage, injury or pain.  At the very least, it leads to dysfunction.

So as with all things in life, here is another area which seems blatantly obvious once I've thought of it, but was like a lightbulb moment in the difference between what I'm training myself to do each month.

So, Future Challenges?

I guess one of the things I'll have to decide is if I should alternate the active vs. passive willpower challenges, make sure there's a component of each every challenge, or not take it into account at all.

Not sure what the best answer is, and as I'm only a week into this more Active Willpower challenge, I'll keep paying attention to what I learn and how I grow throughout the rest of the 30 days.

5k a day -- Day 3

I know better than to eat before a run.  I really do.  Wait, let's do numbers first, and then I'll explain why they look a little funky.

The Run

5k in 53:20

17:12 min/mi average pace

Splits:  11:45/20:50/18:35/21:38

And the workout:

44 squats

35 seconds plank

12 modified push ups

Back to the story:

I generally don't eat anything before a run -- my body just doesn't like it.  But I slept in today, so I didn't run immediately upon waking.  Plus, the weather was perfect so there was a great reason to head to my favorite park for the run.  So given the later run, and the 35ish minute drive to get to that park, I figured I could/should eat something small and that by the time I got dressed and got started, the food would be pretty settled.

I was wrong.

The plan was to just jog a slow, easy 5k, so I was pleased when I looked down to see my first mile was 11:45 -- faster than my usual time.  But then.  *gurgle*  Huh?   *grumble*  Damn. 

I slowed down to a walk, hoping less jostling = less upset.  No dice.  The path at this beautiful park is a 5k loop, and by now, I was at the far end of it.  So that 20:50 second mile was mostly me looking around for a bathroom.

Also no dice.

I spent the rest of the 5k walking back to the entrance (where there are bathrooms) alternating "I should get there quickly as possible and speedwalk/run" with "no, no bouncy, no bouncy, nice and smooth."

I know, TMI.  

Here, as an apology for the TMI, and so you can see why I love running here so much, have a picture of the trail. 

At the end of the day, I did my 5k, and it ended up turning into an active rest.

5k a day -- Day 2

I won't lie -- it's hard to get out of bed on a Saturday morning.  But the gray, cool weather was perfect for a run, so get up I did.

In an effort to improve my speed, I decided today's 5k would involve HIIT-type running.  I'd run at a faster pace for 3 minutes, then walk for a minute, then repeat.  Yesterday's average was over 12:00/mile, so I was amazing for 11:00/mile during that 3 minute period.  To be honest, MapMyRun wasn't really accurate enough to keep track of pace (it kept bouncing all over the place) so I just aimed for a higher level of exertion:  somewhere in the "this is hard" range.

I made it 2 miles using the 3:1 HIIT plan, although I did add an extra walk minute in between interval sets 5 and 6.  After that, I walked an 1/8 of a mile, jogged for 5 minutes, and alternated walk/jog for the rest of the distance

And guys, it was hard.  I was pushing myself during those 3 minute periods.  I'm hoping to add another interval every time I do that.

Bonus:  saw about 7 rabbits during my run.

So here are the numbers for today:

5k in 40:38

 13:05 min/mi average pace

Splits: 12:53/12:35/14:04/10:23

And the workout:

42 squats

30 seconds plank

11 modified push ups

A little about my post-Whole30 diet:

You can follow me on MyFitnessPal at DocWhitney and see what I've been eating.  The day after my Whole30 ended, my fiancé and I went to one of our favorite restaurants and pigged out a bit.  But I didn't actually crave that junk food.  I thought I did, but my body really wanted clean protein and fruits and veggies.

Today I'm studying for boards at Panera, and one of my favorite things used to be to keep a Diet Caffeine Free Coke from their fountain around to sip from while I studied.  Today, I threw it out -- it tasted way too much like chemicals for me!  I'm gonna stick with my caffeine free life for now, and I've got a water with lemon in front of me and a decaf earl grey tea (yes, with cream and sweetener) instead.   Edit:  the earl grey tea didn't sit well with me.  Maybe the cream?  Ugh, I hope I don't have a milk allergy or lactose intolerance.

I'm thrilled with how my brain might still crave comfort food/junk (tells me how much was psychological) but my body wants healthier food.

5k a day -- Day 1

Day 1

I did it -- I got out of bed, got dressed, and went out for a run around the neighborhood.  How was it?  Well, not bad, till about mile 2.5 when I started to get pretty hot.  I don't know if the humidity spiked or something.  The people in my neighborhood are uniformly anal about watering their lawns first thing in the morning, resulting in a creative run of "avoid that sprinkler" if I'm not hot enough yet to enjoy the spray.  But when the sun comes up hits all that water lying on the sidewalk, it's sad trombone time for people who don't like humidity.

Starting numbers:

Measurements
	Day 1	Day 30
Weight	179.1
BMI	30.8
Bust	41
Bra Line	37.5
Natural Waist	37
Upper Belly	42
Belly Button	41.5
Hips	43.75
R Thigh	24
R Calf	16.25
Neck	14
R bicep	12.75
R Forearm	10.75

Okay, not horrible.  Hilariously, according to Active.com's body fat % calculator, I'm at 28% body fat.  But my size 14 butt doesn't believe that for a minute.

So on to the run:

5k in 38:46

12:29 min/mi average pace

Splits:  12:45/12:24/12:22/12:12

And the workout:

40 squats

20 seconds plank (way too easy -- will inrease this more than planned tomorrow)

5 modified push ups (will also increase this tomorrow)

Feels good to be starting a new challenge.  Let's see how it goes.