51 by 51

Well isn't July just flying by! I am still very focused on my painting, even more now that I will be selling my art at a street fair with thousands of shoppers the weekend of August 12th. I also made an Etsy shop and my bestie bought a whole bunch of items so now I'm a busy bee making more art so my booth can be nice and full next month. In my last post I mentioned wanting to clean things up until a wedding we had July 15. I pre-planned to let loose that weekend because being a second wedding, the invites were nondescript about what the dinner was. So I did standard off-plan meals Friday and Sunday that weekend. As it turns out, the couple had an awesome pizza truck come make pizzas for everyone. It was wood-fired and oh so good! They had a wall of donuts for dessert, (how fun) and yes, I ate one and had a couple of free beers too. I got back on track that Monday but we changed our family dinner night to be whenever my older son has a day off (so he doesn't miss out) and that happened to be Monday. I had some running errands after work so didn't get home until it was time to start dinner so I just ate pasta and bread with my family. It was all-too easy to shrug and say, 'meh, what's one more day?' The weekdays are otherwise on-track though I haven't been fasting and I have been allowing more snacks (keto-friendly) over the past two weeks because my monthly is so late again. I swear it's like 3 weeks of PMS cravings every other month! I'm so grateful these days when it comes because my sanity returns. So, progress, not perfection. I'm still roughly the same weight, despite the indulgences. I did workout a handful of times when I had my clean eating streak. I started enjoying it again. But, I haven't done anything for the last couple weeks again. Sigh. I guess, of the two chronic issues (food or lack of exercise) food was always way way harder for me but now it's opposite. Still, I know if I put on some good music I can easily talk myself into it. Breaking my food addiction took a lot more work! So, I'm looking forward to giving things a more serious effort again in August. The only days that I have something different to account for are the days I'm doing the street fair. I am planning on bringing some Keto Chow meal replacement shakes and beef jerkey or similar. There will be plenty of food booths but I think after smelling it all day I won't be tempted to eat it! I think I will set some goals for myself for August or I may join a Peleton challenge for the month. Some ideas I have to challenge myself are to do at least 8 strength workouts in the month, work on using my standing desk more, I could do an overall workout goal (aim for 20+ workouts for the month) or maybe a daily step goal. I also got inspired to see if I can get my weight into the 150's by my birthday December 29. I wanted to lose 50 pounds by the time I turned 50 last December but I was not prepared for how slow the weight would come off BUT, if I cam get down to 156 that would mean I lost 50 pounds since starting keto in November 2021. OK, maybe the cherry on the top of the cake would be to get to 155 by my birthday, that would mean I would have lost 51 pounds by my 51st birthday. I think if I keep my weekends clean or limit myself to only 1 off-plan meal per week it should be doable. I know strength training has to play a part too,it's so much more effective at riding excess glucose from your body than cardio. So maybe it's time to remember my push ups goal too. I gave up on the Zumba goal. As much as I love Zumba, I know it doesn't push me physically like HIIT training or strength training. It feels good to make myself focus on this again. I like having a goal/challenge in mind to help keep my focus. Last time I got on the scale I was 168 so 13 pounds in 4 months should be doable, I just have to keep my eye on the prize!