Since I haven’t blogged in a while, I figured I would talk about healthy living and fitness. Last year around this time I wrote several blogs that covered my thoughts:
Focus on Health and Exercise

Last year I hit a low of 168 lbs and that was the lowest weight for me in about 15 years but like always, I hit the goal and became lax on my diet. The holidays arrive and there was cookies, cake, fine foods, alcohol and less time to exercise. Since January 1st, I have cut out alcohol, caffeine and have reduced my meat intake (Sometimes vegan/vegetarian). If you read my blog about my Appalachian Trail hike, once my friends and I got off the trail, my whole mind frame went out the window for a few days. Actually, I should say that while I was on the trail and walked through town, I found a place and had a wonderful caffeinated coffee. Once I got off the trail, I enjoyed a huge cheeseburger, and once home, I drank a bottle of wine, ate my son’s kit-kats. The diet went out the window! It was short lived though, after about 4 days, I asked myself…”What the heck am I doing” and got back to my healthy eating and non-alcohol life. I kept drinking coffee but after a few months, I switched over to decaffeinated coffee.

During the last few years I have found the way I exercised is causing me increasing “pains”. My doctor stated “You are of the age…”, well, yeah, I am 47 years old but I see people much older than me who, seemingly, are exercising more than me. Are they having the same pains? I’m still finding the balance with exercise, currently I run 3 to 6 miles on one day, the next day I go to the gym and work on some weight lifting and the third day I do core exercises. I just work that 3 day cycle over and over. I think my “New Years Resolution” is to see a fitness expert to find tune my 3 day cycle. As I have increased my mileage running, I’ve noticed some of those old injuries (IT Band, Knee) has returned. My Morton’s Neuroma in my foot is not as painful but I can feel a “twinge” after my longer runs.

As for my weight, I reduced my calories down to around 1500 and I got down to 165. My BMI still showed “overweight” but if I lost another pound, it would be in the normal zone. So I changed my goal to 164. I hit my goal and started adding more calories to my diet but the weight is still coming off, I’m actually 161.2 pound as of this morning so I will likely increase my calories again and keep that calorie goal for a week to see if I am maintaining, losing or gaining. My aim is to maintain. 🙂

How do I feel? My self esteem is feeling good. I do question if 161.4 is a healthy weight. I mean, my doctor will say it’s a healthy weight but I have always been athletic to bulky so this is almost a whole new world for me. The skinny pants I purchased last year are now my fat pants. I’m really happy seeing muscles that I haven’t have or seen for a while. The flab is firming. I think it’s just going to be a matter of continuing to weight lift and core to get a solid core, I’m not sure a solid core is even possible at 47 years old, if I could get 6 pack abs, I’d be pretty impressed. As 2016 comes to a close, I am really happy and excited with my accomplishments. I’m hoping to put it all together for 2017.

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