Hello again! It’s the time again – when I update you on my progress to self-improvement!
Well, August was a pretty bad month. I’ll just get that out there first. Didn’t reach any of my goals this time around.
August was a busy month. I hosted book club. School started. The Boy celebrated his birthday. I fought a kidney stone. Those things, and more, all added up to less than stellar results.
Let’s review:
Goal 1: Lose 8 pounds. Well, I didn’t lose eight pounds. I came so close. On August 31, I was down 7 pounds and had a week to go. I knew I’d reach the goal. But on September 1, I took myself to the ER at 6 a.m. because I was peeing blood, vomiting, had a fever, and was suffering from unrelenting back pain. Three hours later I came home with three prescriptions to treat the kidney stone that showed up on the CT scan. By September 4, I was UP four pounds from my August 31 weigh-in. All because of the meds (which I had been warned would probably happen). Yesterday’s weigh-in was tough – it showed my first gain since I began this journey on June 8. And as a result I only lost 5.4 pounds this month instead of the 8 pounds I was on track to accomplish only one short week ago. The good news is that I’m down 33.6 pounds since June 8. Had I not had the weight gain this week, I’d be down over 35 pounds – a nice round number that screams milestone to me. Oh well. Next time. If I lose 8 pounds this month I’ll be down over 40 pounds, which is an even bigger milestone, right?
Goal 2: Walk 25 miles per week, and 30 miles at least one week. On this one I didn’t even come close. My highest mileage over the past four weeks was last week when I did 21.37 miles. But the week before that I only went 14.84 miles. I blame the busy schedule for this one. I had a lot of after work events that had me getting home long after dark. And then this past week I did no walking at all because of the kidney stone.
The one success I had was that I participated in a 5K walk/run in Charlotte a couple weeks ago and beat my best time by about 7 minutes. I was very proud of myself for that accomplishment. I had hoped to come in at under 53 minutes minutes, which would have beat my previous best time of 53+ minutes (which was down from the 71 minutes that The Girl and I clocked when we did the fun run at church in late May). So imagine my shock when I crossed the finish line at just over 46 minutes!
The other success came in the form of a complete physical, something I haven’t done in at least 9 years (I’m not typically one for going to doctors, except for childbirth and kidney stones). I was worried what my lab work results would be, but was happy to see that all is well! My glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure and all the other things they test are at good, healthy levels!
So what’s next for me? New goals for September 8-October 8.
Weight loss: I’ll set an 8 pound goal for the month again, knowing that once I begin going to the gym (yes, I joined – will start going next weekend once it opens) I can work out even after it gets dark and get in more exercise than I currently get. Also, I hope that this last bit of weight I gained this week falls off and jumpstarts another quick few weeks of loss as we head into fall.
Exercise: As for an exercise goal, that’s a tough one. I could make a goal to work out 7 days a week, but I know that won’t happen since we’ve got a couple family road trips coming up in September. I suppose I will make a distance goal again – aim for that elusive 25 miles a week again and see if I can get it done this time.
Oh, ouch! I’m sorry you had to deal with that kidney stone nastiness. You’re definitely on a roll with your fitness goals, though. Way to go!