Steps

Last week was so busy but my focus was so much better! I had tasks planned all week after work and kept me busy almost right up until bed most nights. I finally got our taxes done and stuff for church and much-needed housework. I decided to take a caffeine pill Monday morning after not sleeping well. By the time I got back from walking my dog I felt so fantastic that I had no problem convincing myself to work out. I repeated that all week except Friday when I had the caffeine pill but didn't work out because I needed to be done with work earlier to get my husband to the car repair shop before they closed. I was thinking about my coffee and how I had gotten in the habit of having a cup with heavy whipping cream right away in the morning instead of the caffeine pill. The cream in my coffee breaks my fast. So I am not sure what I'm going to do about the caffeine thing in the long-term. Today I had iced coffee black while fasting and didn't mind it black at all. I am still taking the pill when I wake and it feels good but by 2pm I feel so tired and I can't tell if the pill is the cause. I may have to experiment again. I had a largely successful week and weekend. My weight dropped down to 172.0 and I really thought I was going to see 171 (which would be exactly 35 pounds lost) but it didn't happen yet. Heading into the weekend I knew I was going to try to keep it clean because I really want to break the 170 barrier and get myself into the 160's. Thursday evening my husband brought home pizza. I abstained and it didn't even bother me. Friday we ate out and I had a burger with avocado and basil aoili without the bun and a side salad. Saturday we had Jimmy John's subs so I had an "unwich" which is a sub wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun. One of our favorite local bar and grills was the only place serving on Easter Sunday and my husband wanted to order from them because they are struggling to stay afloat since a new bar and grill opened up right across the street. so we ordered. I ordered a pizza bread bowl, filling intending on just eating the insides and letting my husband have the bread bowl to make a meal out of. Earlier in the day, though, I had anothet argument with my friend. I forgot to block her on Instagram because I rarely use the app, and we started talking over the weekend. We each got a chance to explain our side and our feelings. It got to a point on Saturday night that we agreed to stop talking about the trip and disagreement and we made some small talk that felt more how it used to be so I unblocked her. Easter Sunday I woke to more negative messages and it escalated to the point where I told her I just have to walk away from the constant negativity because it's draining. I blocked her and I'm not sure I want to even give her a chance to complain to me again. It felt good, not because I'm happy to lose a long-time friend but because I am standing up for myself and my needs. After that was over I painted. It normally feels so calming to focus on the paint kissing the canvas, but my mind was still playing over all the pieces of the argument. So once I finished my "masterpiece" I decided to go for a long walk to hide the rocks I painted over the winter. I live in a small city on Lake Michigan and everything is pretty close for walking so in an hour and a half I walked all over the town, hiding rocks near small art shops and eateries and ended up at the beach for some time. It felt really food to examine all the different rocks and think of how old they are. The weather was nice too. I got so many steps in and ended up feeling great but I realized that I didn't eat enough all day and when that bread bowl full of pizza toppings was in front of me I decided I was going to give in for one meal and move on after. So that's what I did. I regretted it later when the heartburn came. This is life teaching me once again that eating for emotional reasons is not worth it. I bought an at-home hemoglobin A1C test and did that over the weekend and was very pleased with the results. This is a test to determine your average blood sugar levels over the last 3 months in a measure of how glycosolated your blood is (how sticky it is, essentially). Less than 5.7 is normal, then when you get 5.7 or over you are either pre-diabetic or diabetic. Since my fasting glucose levels have been at the high end of normal I wanted to know my A1C because that can signal if you are insulin resistant. I got a 5.0 which is really good and no current risk for diabetes. My short-term focus items are figuring what to do with the caffeine situation, making a loose plan for exercise, and I'm still adding sweeteners to my water but in much smaller amounts and not every bottle of water. I am seriously considering buying a Keto Mojo monitor, which tests glucose and ketone levels, so I can see how much of a spike I get from using those drops in my water. It's the only way I'll know what metabolic effect that stuff has on me. It may seem a little over the top to do it that way but after time I will be able to narrow down things that agree with my body and filter out things that don't. Despite my boots hooked eyelets getting caught together and making me fall on concrete this morning, I plan to workout this week and keep pushing towards my goal. All the steps I took all weekend (over 10,000 steps each day) made me realize I still need to work on strengthening my lower body because I was stiff and hurting after that many steps. So thats where I'm at. still trying to make the scale move. I think I'll take measurements and progress pictures soon so I can see it because this scale sure doesn't play very nice! Hope everyone had a nice Easter!