Missing those days for camping and then re-dating post titles to accurately reflect the days they were about while still attempting to blog about the current or just-previous days was making me crazy.
As of this post, the camping trip and intervening events are in the rearview mirror and today's post is complete about TODAY. (Ok, except that it's briefly also about the next 5 and 10 days . . . )
We've been running the AC daily since we returned from camping. I still tell myself, "It's nothing compared to Texas" but I also dislike being in the upper floor of house that can't cool down to more than 84° because the piddly little AC that rarely has to work can't keep the house cool unless it's turned on early in the morning and doesn't get over 90° all afternoon. This past week we've been well into the 90°s and I love my open morning windows too much to close them up until the last possible second which means the house never cools completely. Except in the basement. It's a freaking meat locker down there when the AC is chugging away. Saturday I ate dinner in the middle of an empty basement because it was so uncomfortable upstairs.
Today, however, I realized it had gotten to lunch and I wasn't sweating. The clouds stayed put, and the rains moved in later, cooling things into the lovely lower 70°s all day.
Then, I checked the five day, wondering how long this might last. Look!
At that point, I was almost afraid to check the 10 day, since it would certainly have some other hot streak on the horizon. But, nope!
It's not Fall weather by any stretch of the imagination, but it's Be-A-U-TEE-FUL for August!!
In other caught up news, Sammi and I hit the gym again this morning at 5:00 a.m. We made August 1 our kick-off date for re-establishing new habits, the hardest of which is rolling out of bed at 5:00 to work out. The simple truth is, my job is too volatile in its hours and my will is too weak in its follow-through to ever be able to set up a daily gym routine at any other time of the day.
And it has to be every day, none of this 3-days-a-week stuff -- it's too easy to let things slide. And, boy have I. Slid, that is. In 2009 I was down about 70 pounds from my heaviest and feeling wonderful. And that's when it got easy to skip a day here or there on the workouts, to eat a little bit more on the days I did go to the gym because, hey, I'm so far away from where I was! But C.S. was right, again. . .
. . . . "Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." (The Screwtape Letters)
The sad truth is over the past two years the weight has continued to creep back on. It's time to gather my wits about me and turn this ship around. Cutting back on the sweets (read: not buying Blue Bell at the grocery store, sadly) is part of it. But the 5:00 a.m. gym every day is the only way I will do, every day, what I need to do to not only get back to my lowest but break on through to the 140s that I haven't seen since I was in my early 20s. I'm not particularly obsessed about the final number. But I do know 30 minutes of heavy breathing cardio and 20 minutes of panting weight training every day for the rest of the year isn't going to leave me stuck where I am. When my mediums suddenly start fitting me again (without turning into sausage casing) the scale can say whatever it darn well pleases.
The best part is knowing how many people I have on the sidelines cheering me on. They've been blessedly silent about my pudgy softness, knowing that crucial truth that only the person doing the losing can decide it's time to do it.
The fact that Sammi has decided she's ready as well and is joining me makes me very proud. She is the only teenage girl at the gym at that time in the morning, I guarantee. Monday she was still in her old room, adjacent to mine, so I roused her as she had asked. This morning, though, she had spent her first night in the basement and I'd told her if she wanted to go she would need to set her alarm. My girl was in the kitchen pulling on her shoes before I was. Rock on, Sammi girl.
As of this post, the camping trip and intervening events are in the rearview mirror and today's post is complete about TODAY. (Ok, except that it's briefly also about the next 5 and 10 days . . . )
We've been running the AC daily since we returned from camping. I still tell myself, "It's nothing compared to Texas" but I also dislike being in the upper floor of house that can't cool down to more than 84° because the piddly little AC that rarely has to work can't keep the house cool unless it's turned on early in the morning and doesn't get over 90° all afternoon. This past week we've been well into the 90°s and I love my open morning windows too much to close them up until the last possible second which means the house never cools completely. Except in the basement. It's a freaking meat locker down there when the AC is chugging away. Saturday I ate dinner in the middle of an empty basement because it was so uncomfortable upstairs.
Today, however, I realized it had gotten to lunch and I wasn't sweating. The clouds stayed put, and the rains moved in later, cooling things into the lovely lower 70°s all day.
Then, I checked the five day, wondering how long this might last. Look!
At that point, I was almost afraid to check the 10 day, since it would certainly have some other hot streak on the horizon. But, nope!
It's not Fall weather by any stretch of the imagination, but it's Be-A-U-TEE-FUL for August!!
In other caught up news, Sammi and I hit the gym again this morning at 5:00 a.m. We made August 1 our kick-off date for re-establishing new habits, the hardest of which is rolling out of bed at 5:00 to work out. The simple truth is, my job is too volatile in its hours and my will is too weak in its follow-through to ever be able to set up a daily gym routine at any other time of the day.
And it has to be every day, none of this 3-days-a-week stuff -- it's too easy to let things slide. And, boy have I. Slid, that is. In 2009 I was down about 70 pounds from my heaviest and feeling wonderful. And that's when it got easy to skip a day here or there on the workouts, to eat a little bit more on the days I did go to the gym because, hey, I'm so far away from where I was! But C.S. was right, again. . .
. . . . "Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." (The Screwtape Letters)
The sad truth is over the past two years the weight has continued to creep back on. It's time to gather my wits about me and turn this ship around. Cutting back on the sweets (read: not buying Blue Bell at the grocery store, sadly) is part of it. But the 5:00 a.m. gym every day is the only way I will do, every day, what I need to do to not only get back to my lowest but break on through to the 140s that I haven't seen since I was in my early 20s. I'm not particularly obsessed about the final number. But I do know 30 minutes of heavy breathing cardio and 20 minutes of panting weight training every day for the rest of the year isn't going to leave me stuck where I am. When my mediums suddenly start fitting me again (without turning into sausage casing) the scale can say whatever it darn well pleases.
The best part is knowing how many people I have on the sidelines cheering me on. They've been blessedly silent about my pudgy softness, knowing that crucial truth that only the person doing the losing can decide it's time to do it.
The fact that Sammi has decided she's ready as well and is joining me makes me very proud. She is the only teenage girl at the gym at that time in the morning, I guarantee. Monday she was still in her old room, adjacent to mine, so I roused her as she had asked. This morning, though, she had spent her first night in the basement and I'd told her if she wanted to go she would need to set her alarm. My girl was in the kitchen pulling on her shoes before I was. Rock on, Sammi girl.
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