Also, while I was out on the bike I came up with a solution to something I've been mulling over, which is how am I going to do the long bike rides that are coming up (40+ miles) while also doing intermittent fasting? Here's what dawned on me: The most important thing isn't the length of the eating window; it's the length of the fast. In other words, as long as I do a 19-hour fast, I can have the eating window be as long as necessary. Some days, like when I'm not riding or just riding a little, the eating window can be smaller. Other days, like if I'm out on my bike for hours on end, the eating window can be much bigger. The main thing is that when I'm done eating, I fast for 19 hours. Simple.
Last night Baylee and Stephanie FaceTimed me, and I took a screenshot because I thought they looked cute.
Now, they're done with the AZ shows, and they're in CA!
Also, I took this cute pic of the cat this morning.
Today is one week since Mike and I started Isagenix together. In that time I lost 9.4 pounds! I'm floored. Of course, I don't expect every week to be like that, but it's a great start. Here's the thing, though: I only did Isagenix for half of the week. Mike said he wouldn't mind if I quit that and just moved forward with my IF plan, since he'll use all the Isagenix stuff himself anyway, so I happily quit drinking those shakes. Now I'm fully doing intermittent fasting, and it's going well. In fact, I moved to a 19:5 schedule (19 hours of fasting, 5 hour eating window) already, because it was no big deal.
Her: Hey, we finished our show and went back to the motel room, and we found a bunch of cockroaches in there. A huge one as long as my thumb was in Bri's clothes! So we got half our money back and now we're going to a different motel.
Me: Well, couldn't you have just dealt with it for one night?
Her: Mom, that one in Bri's clothes was making a little shrieking noise.
Me: Okay, yeah, good call.
This morning they moved on to their second city in Arizona, where they have a show tonight, then it's onward to California.
When it comes to intermittent fasting, one really helpful thing I heard on a YouTube video is that sometimes you'll be hungry. That's so obvious it's embarrassing, but it's helped me over a few humps. Sometimes people try to sugar coat it and say they're never hungry when they're fasting, but that's not true, at least for me. Here and there I'm hungry. On the bright side the feeling isn't constant at all, it always passes after about 10 minutes, and it's never a big deal.
My big meal for today was this salad, and I'm weirdly proud of it. It's pretty, right? (That's a cut up grilled burger on top.)
Oh, yeah, and I wanted to tell you about my NSV (non-scale victory). When I put shorts on this morning, I needed a belt. I haven't needed one with those shorts before. And then this evening when I changed into pajama bottoms and tucked my phone into the waistband by my hip, so I could listen to an audio book while I cleaned (because there are no pockets in those pajamas), the phone fell through when I started walking around. lol I guess the pajamas are too loose to do that anymore. I've lost 7.2 pounds as of this morning.
Baylee's in Scottsdale, AZ getting ready to perform tonight. She sent me this picture. Apparently it's very hot there. She said they swam in the motel pool, but even that was tepid.
I'm having a hard day today with her being away. She called us really early this morning to say that during the night, while they were traveling from New Mexico to Arizona, she left her wallet in a gas station bathroom. Thank goodness she didn't have any cash in it, but she did have her debit card and her ID in there. Sigh. We're working it out and it's fine, but it's especially rough to be so far away at times like this. The band is taking great care of her, though.
Mike finished another quarter of school, and he's doing really well. This morning, when I took this picture, he said he was so glad to not be doing homework.
This past weekend I went bike riding twice, and both times I loaded my bike in the back of the car and drove to my starting point. Three times in those two days I banged my head HARD on the open back door of the car, trying to get my bike in and out.
This isn't my car, but mine is like this.
Like, who does that? Once is understandable, twice is sort of laughable, but after three times you need to ask yourself if there was inbreeding in your family tree. Anyway, I finally solved it by putting my bike helmet on a little early.
Biking: I only did 31.24 miles altogether, as this was an easier week according to the schedule. Next week things start getting real, though, with some longer distances.
Pic from my ride on Sunday
Diet: I'm so proud of myself! I started Isagenix, and so far I've lost 6.4 pounds. Technically my first week's not even up yet!
Really early into it, like day two, it occurred to me that I'm naturally falling into a form of intermittent fasting with this eating program. That is, I realized I was eating all my Isagenix food within an 8-hour window and fasting the other 16. Once I figured that out I started doing it on purpose, because it's really good for you and it boosts weight loss.
I'm actually thinking about finishing up the 2 weeks worth of Isagenix that Mike bought, and then just continuing on with IF (intermittent fasting). I'll probably do a 19:5 protocol, which stands for 19 hours of fasting and a 5-hour eating window, as it's one of the most popular forms and seems to get good results. I'll work my way down to it, though. I've got an 8-hour eating window this week, then next week I'll drop it to 7 (along with doing my second and last week of Isagenix), then the week after that 6, until finally in a month I'll be down to the 5-hour window that I'm aiming for.
PS: There's a great documentary called Fasting on Amazon Prime. It's on the health benefits of IF, and it's really interesting. So many people have completely turned around major health issues like type 2 diabetes just by using this method, and they don't even have to be extreme with it. A lot of the people in the documentary were older...like 40's and up...and all they changed about their lifestyle is when they ate (not what). They just started eating within an 8-hour or so window of time.
In a nutshell, the science behind it is that fasting for part of each day gives your body a chance to do two things: burn through its fat stores and heal itself. When you're constantly eating throughout the day it doesn't get the chance to do those things as effectively, because its energy is taken up with dealing with the food you just gave it. Anyway, yeah, watch the documentary or read up on it if you're interested.
Trailer for the Fasting documentary:
And a good book on the subject:
On a totally different note, yesterday when I was out riding on the
trail I saw several of these signs. Apparently a cat got lost. The
picture the owners chose, though, makes it look like the cat is saying,
"Yeah, and don't try to find me, either, you mouth breathers."
Baylee said that last night the show in Denver went great, and afterward people bought a ton of their merch (t-shirts and CDs). The scary thing for me, though, was that when they finished there at around midnight they got in the van and drove through the night to New Mexico. I barely slept because I couldn't get my mind off them, and today I'm pretty tired. Thank the Lord they made it safely this morning. Today is a rest day in a motel, and tonight they hit the road again, because they have a show in Arizona tomorrow.
Stephanie sent me this picture very early this morning. That's B in the background. #VanLife
This week has been a...I don't know what to call it...rest week? with my 100km training schedule. It only has me going out 3 times instead of the usual 4, and only for 30 miles altogether. I took it one step further and decided to get all 30 miles done in two bike rides. I went 10 miles today, and I'll do 20 tomorrow.
I took this nice picture when I was out riding this morning, but the gross little secret behind it is that I stepped in SO MUCH Canadian goose poop on my way down to that lake. Every square foot had two or three piles on it. Of course, I didn't notice this until it was way too late, so I had poop wedged into every crack and crevice of my biking shoes. It was so bad I could barely clip back into the pedals. In fact, I couldn't get my left foot in properly for ages. Anyway, when I got home I hosed off my shoes and tires, so I'm poop-free again.
TMA drove from Boise to Salt Lake City today. They've got a show there tonight. Here's a pic they took of themselves this morning as they were getting started on the road.
Baylee will be gone for 24 days, and as of yesterday she's 1/3 of the way through that. I miss her a lot. I talk to her every night, though, and she's doing well. They finished all their studio stuff yesterday, and they're really happy with and excited about how it turned out. Tonight they start the tour part of this whole thing with their first show.
The other night Drew told me a funny story. He said that on his way to work he stopped at a little restaurant and got himself a sub sandwich, then went to the park to eat it. He sat down at a picnic table and got about three bites into his food when a big blob of sauce landed on the front of his shirt. He couldn't go to work like that, so he put the sandwich down on the table, took off the shirt, turned it inside-out, and put it back on. (Yeah, that was his solution. He's kind of a hobo, not gonna lie.) While he was in the middle of doing that, though, a crow swooped down, grabbed the top piece of bread and flew away with it, scattering the sandwich filling all over the table and making everything uneatable. So basically Drew's lunch was a disaster.
I've been doing something kind of fun the last few days: listening to children's stories in French and watching cartoons in French.
I found a bunch of these types of videos on YouTube, and they're really good listening practice because they're nice and slow. (You can turn off the English subtitles, so that's what I do.)
Also, I went into Netflix and searched for "French Audio." That gave me every single show and movie that has a dub-into-French option. The good thing about dubbing is that the voices are very clear and distinct, as opposed to watching an actual French movie where people talk fast and sometimes mumble. Anyway, I found this cartoon and have been enjoying it.
(It's English here, but, like I said, I went into options and changed it to French.)
Sorry I forgot to do this on Monday. It totally slipped my mind, and I didn't even think about it until Wednesday night. Of course, by now I'm well into week 4, but better late than never.
Diet: Week 3 was an in-between time while I waited for our Isagenix order to arrive. It arrived yesterday, though, and I started today. Here's how it works. We eat...
An Isagenix shake in the morning. Mike ordered 4 different flavors for us: chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, and piña colada.
A 100-150 calorie snack mid-morning, preferably something filling and healthy like a hard boiled egg or a piece of fruit. We also have some pretty tasty-looking Isagenix chocolate cream crisp bars, which we can use as snacks. I think they'd be perfect for long bike rides.
A 500-600 calorie lunch made up of lean meat and lots of veggies. Salads are great, but you can get creative.
Another 100-150 calorie snack mid-afternoon.
An Isagenix shake for dinner. (You can switch lunch and dinner around if that works better for you.)
Once a week is a "cleanse day." On those days you eat just a little bit, and you drink a healthy, vitamin-packed concoction that's different from the shakes. To be honest, I'm not totally sold on this part of the program. Mike says when you wake up after a cleanse day, though, you feel amazing, like you're in your 20's, so we'll see.
Anyway, this morning I weighed myself to get an official start weight, and then drank a piña colada shake. It was good and very filling.
Biking: I've already told you guys pretty much everything there is to say about week 3. It went well and I'm feeling markedly stronger. All together I rode 44.24 miles in that week.
Not much going on, so this will be short, I think.
Mike left a little before lunch yesterday to make the long drive to Boise. He got there in the evening, spent the night, and today he was in the studio with TMA, recording a horn part on two of their songs. Before that, though, Baylee took him out for a belated Father's Day brunch. He said the place they went was the best breakfast/bakery food he's ever had. Now he's on his way home.
In other news, I don't remember why I got up or what I ran into, but last night, in the middle of the night, I stubbed my toe so hard on something. It looks exactly like it's broken...purple-ish...but it feels okay. (It hurt bad, though, right at first.) I took a picture of it, but then I thought I'd spare you.
Happy Father's Day! Mike and I celebrated that and our 25th anniversary, which is coming up in a couple days, by going out for a nice dinner last night.
Yesterday I was scheduled to do a 20-mile ride, but the weather was so beautiful and I felt so good (at that point anyway) that I decided to combine that ride with the 8-mile ride I was supposed to do today. I rode from a store called Third Place Books in a town called Lake Forest Park to Marymoor Park in Redmond and back. It turned out to be just short of 29 miles altogether.
I mostly took the Sammamish River Trail and got some good pictures along the way.
I even saw a deer! A baby deer wandered out of the woods and onto the trail for about 10 seconds, and then it walked back into the woods. Another biker and I were the only people who saw it, and we rode on with big smiles on our faces.
The only bad part of the ride...and this is probably TMI...was that for the first time ever I got...umm...chaffing. It made the last 6 or 7 miles torturous. I barely made it, folks. Seriously, I kept having to stand on the pedals, because there was no way to sit that wasn't really painful. When I got home and told Mike about it, he asked me if I was wearing underwear with my biking shorts. I said I was, and he told me that I'm not supposed to, because the leg edges can rub your skin raw. Lesson learned.
Baylee tracked 6 songs yesterday and said it went really well. Then in the evening she and Stephanie went out to explore Boise a bit and get something to eat. Stephanie's from there and was able to show Baylee some cool stuff, including the capitol building. (That's Stephanie in the pic.)
Finally, Mike took this picture of Cooper. He looks so dang old, doesn't he? He's still a good, loving little guy.
Midweek update, because I'm excited about a couple things...
Biking: I've been doing these training rides faithfully for two weeks now (I'm on my 3rd week), and even though that's not much time I can feel a difference in my legs. The last couple days were spent going here, there, and everywhere with Baylee, doing a lot of walking and some stair climbing as we plowed through all her last minute shopping, and I felt strong. I got mentally sick of the shopping, but I never got physically tired. I especially noticed it on those flights of stairs. They were easy!
The other bike-related thing I'm happy about is how much I've learned (or re-learned) in just this short time. On that first ride I couldn't remember a thing, and I was a mess at shifting gears. Now I feel like I've got that down.
Diet: I did quite a bit of research into keto, including joining a handful of private FB groups. What I noticed is that everyone has their own "right" way to do it, and they argue about it a lot. To be honest I was really turned off, because a lot of them were jerks to each other. It made me anxious, like I wouldn't be able to make it work. Anyway, I talked to Mike about my misgivings, and he had the idea for us both to do a program called Isagenix together. He's been doing it for awhile and has had success, and in fact he's asked me to join him before, but I've always demurred. This time I decided to go for it, and so we'll be starting that in about a week. (PS: Isagenix is a really healthy program. It's like keto in a way, in that you're getting tons of pretty amazing nutrition, and you're not filling your body with junk.)
TMA put this pic on their social media today. It's of them in their van on the way to Boise.
That's what it looks like when a drummer packs for a trip. 95% of that is her drum kit.
She told me a little about how things are going to work in the studio, which they'll arrive at tommorrow. She said that in the first day or so the whole band will go in and play, but only Baylee will be recorded. In other words, she'll be the only sound that actually counts during that time. She'll also be the only one working with a metronome ticking in her ear. Then when they've got all of her stuff done, everyone else will be recorded, but they'll have Baylee's drumming going in their ear. Interesting, huh?
Yesterday Baylee and I spent hours together, getting her ready for this studio/tour adventure. We went to three different stores and shopped for all the clothes and things she'll need to pack (PS: She paid for it herself.), and then we went out for lunch (I paid for that.). At one point in the car we were talking about it all, and I started crying. Poor Baylee just sat there in the passenger seat patting my arm and telling me she'll call twice a day. lol Sigh.
One of the things she shopped for was show clothing. We've learned since she's joined this band that "show clothes" are different and separate from your everyday clothes. They're a little crazier than your normal stuff, and you only wear them when performing. Anyway, here's one of the outfits she picked out. Most of what she chose, this included, has kind of a hippy vibe.
Bike: I did all my training rides (4 of them) and went 33.39 miles in total. Overall it went well! Onward to week 3.
Diet: I feel a bit adrift, because I'm really uninformed about this low carb stuff, but I can't ignore it anymore. To remedy that I've been researching by talking to my friend Beth, who lost a lot of weight with the keto lifestyle, and I'm reading an interesting book on the topic called Eat Bacon, Don't Jog. I've also joined a couple keto groups on FB. It's coming together in my mind.
Baylee leaves for her 3 1/2 week adventure in two days. I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I've known about this tour for months. In fact, the whole reason she got a job at Taco Bell several months ago was so that she could pay for her part of it. (And she did that. I'm proud of her.) In all the time I've known about it, though, I've pushed it to the back of my mind, because thinking about it was painful. It'll be the longest she's ever been away from home. Now it's just about upon us, and I kinda have to think about it, and it's rough, folks. It's gonna be a long month.
PS: She's not quitting Taco Bell. She asked for and got a month off, and then she'll go back. They really want her, because she's now their best drive-through worker.
I mentioned yesterday that there was a massive hill on my route, but what I didn't say was how steep and long it was. It was REALLY steep and REALLY long. I almost died, people...and I walked it! I didn't even try to ride it. Anyway, when I got home Zach started grilling me, and he found out about the hill. We had this conversation...
Him: How much of it did you ride? Me: Exactly none of it. Him: Well, next time you should ride as much as you can, and then just try to do a little more each time. Me: Nope. That's not gonna happen, because I'm never going on that thing again. Him: Oh, come on. You need to get stronger. Me: What I needed was carabiners! And rope!
Sigh. On the bright side, after I got home and took a shower I realized it was the perfect opportunity to wear my new shirt.
A couple days ago my friend Beth posted on Facebook a recommendation for the movie The Magic Pill. It's about the benefits of a ketogenic (high fat, low carb) diet. Honestly, people have been trying to get me interested in that for years, and I've always brushed them off, because I love sugar and carbs. I had time, though, and was in the mood to watch something, so I found it on Netflix. It was...how do I put this...it was like having a blindfold taken off. I feel like I can't ever go back to ignorance again. I need to think about this.
TMA decided they want a horn...I can't think of the name of it, but I want to say euphonium...in a couple of their songs on the album that they're going to record. By coincidence, Mike played that all through high school, so he said he'd try to help them out. He rented this, and now we've got euphonium music in the house to add to the guitar, piano, and drums. PS: Isn't euphonium a weird name for an instrument? It sounds more like an element on the periodic table.
A biking picture from earlier this week on the Interurban Trail.
un chat distingué
And here's a couple biking pictures from today. Mostly I was on streets this time, which wasn't my original plan. I had wanted to do an easy 15 miles on the nice, flat Burke-Gilman Trail, but I couldn't find parking down in that area. Then I had the bright idea to go to a different place, miles away, where there's always parking, and do a big loop that included a little part of the Burke-Gilman (and that's what you see in those pictures). I knew the route would include several small hills and one massive one, but I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. I was so wrong. It was hard, and I felt like crying, but that would've taken more energy than I had. lol Anyway, I did it.
Diet: I hit my first checkpoint! It was touch and go, because of the holiday (and all the good food that went with it), going out for Thai with friends one evening, and then going out for Indian with Mike and Baylee last night...
...but I managed.
Bike: I did all 4 scheduled rides for week 1! That's 26.45 miles altogether. I'm actually pretty proud of that, because I had a head cold midway through the week, and I did it anyway.
In other news, Baylee got her hair cut and colored yesterday in preparation for something big that's coming up for her. She's going to be gone for 3 1/2 weeks with the band, first recording an album in Idaho, and then touring this corner of the US. They'll be playing gigs in ID, CO, AZ, CA, OR, and WA.
One of the things about biking is that it gives you lots of time to think, and today the thing I thought about is how pretentious the names of apartment complexes are. Let me give you a couple examples:
Between working at David's House Ministries (which had on-site housing) and moving into a house of our own, we lived in an apartment complex for six months. It was called Alpine Slopes. Here's the thing: We were in Grand Rapids, MI. There were no mountains anywhere around, much less ones with alpine slopes.
Today I passed by an apartment building called La Avalon. Okay, first of all, just the Avalon was stretching it beyond all recognition. There was nothing magical about the place. Second, they had to make it even more ridiculous by tacking a La on the front. I kinda wanna go into their office and demand to speak to the owner. I'd be like, "La and le in front of words that start with vowels get an apostrophe, so it should be L'Avalon, you doorknob! Geez."
We got Baylee's standardized test results back. She did well. She even got "high level" (which means highest marks) in grammar!
