Greetings from Buenos Aires!

The kid is away, so figured it was my chance to get away too.

Just a whirlwind week with a couple of days eaten up with flights, but other than that, lots of walking. Lots of walking. Nice thing about solo travel is I can wake up when I like, just have coffee and a pastry on the go or skip breakfast if I'm not hungry (and I've been weirdly not hungry), spend six or seven hours walking around (museums, gardens, just around town) and then grab a bite to eat whenever if I feel like it (again, weirdly not hungry). 

There are cake and pastry shops on every corner so you think I'd be eating like crazy, but somehow nope. I haven't been drinking enough water either (whoops). 

Tonight I am going to finally have my steak dinner though!

Guilt over a goal achieved

And embarrassment that I let the wellness industry get so far inside my head!

I haven’t been tracking everything every day, because two months of diligence in that department is enough to build the habits I need to maintain. Number one being take your vitamins every day! And meat every day to help build my iron stores. Makes such a huge difference to be properly nourished. I find it makes me more likely to eat less because my body isn’t aching to be nourished. For example, yesterday I made two nikumaki for a portable dinner between running errands and volunteering, but I was sufficiently suffonsified after one.

Nikumaki: meat-wrapped onigiri

Anyway, I’ve been continuing my morning situps, tap dance, riding my bicycle as much as possible, and getting outside for at least a walk around the block every day. And it’s working! I'm down a pound today, just one pound away from my goal weight. More importantly, I could tell before I weighed myself, because the difference, though small, is obvious. So I was excited to weigh myself, and giddy at the number, and then had a reflexive “don't feel happy about weight loss” admonition creep into my brain.

Why does this stuff have to be so fraught? I mean I know why; centuries of everyone feeling free to critique women’s bodies for being the wrong shape, and decades of backlash against that.

Anyway the other thing I’ve been working on lately—at the behest of my therapist—is rewarding myself. Recognizing when I’ve done something difficult, acknowledging that effort, and rewarding myself for doing the work. And it’s hard! My last blog post was all about that. 

But this morning, in addition to my usual therapy homework, I had an additional task that I’ve been avoiding, and I got it started. Extra difficult, so I extra earned my reward. Plus achieving another step towards my weight goal.

So I’m typing this really to remind myself—I have achieved something, and I do deserve a reward.

Pain au chocolat and Mexican drinking chocolate

What a day

Everything went wrong!

Most frustrating: I signed up for a Meetup group called "Hike to Eat" to meet people and get some exercise and of course food. For today's event, a group of 20 were to meet down by the beach, and then walk 9km in an almost loop, so I rode my bike there and figured I'd close the loop at the end to ride home.

Found the meeting spot, introduced myself to the host. There were only two other people there, who didn't have much to say, so it seemed like it would be a wash on the meeting people front, but oh well.

Went to find a bike rack (the host didn't have any suggestions as to where the closest would be) and when I got back a few minutes later they were gone! 

I spent about five minutes wandering around looking for them, but nothing. Finally I checked the event page, and there was a message to someone else who thought they'd be 5 minutes late saying "we leave promptly and don't wait." I posted a question and didn't hear back in 10 minutes so left.

Later the host said he "felt bad" about leaving without warning, but wanted to stick to the schedule. I'm still kind of astonished that someone would just leave without so much as a warning! A simple "heads up we're leaving in 2 minutes, catch up with us on this path if we're gone when you get back" would have made all the difference in the world. 

Anyway. 

So I rode all the way north (uphill) from the Lakeshore to the 401 to do some fabric shopping, so the day wasn't a complete waste. Kind of wrecked me though, because I barely ate before I left the house (since I thought I was going to "Hike to Eat") - 30+ km of hills on half a cup of coffee and a banana. Not recommended! Headache now and an early night. 

A week of many walks

Just came back from a week at summer camp with so much walking! On paths, roads, and trails; on asphalt, gravel, and dirt; up hills, down hills, and across flat meadows. Truly a lovely way to get some exercise! One day we took a day trip to the beach and walked for miles along the sand, another we stayed at the campground and I made an effort to walk and track every trail onsite (walked 10 km that day), another I covered about 5 km of the Bruce Trail—and then of course had to double back to get home. Someday I will figure out how to arrange transit so I don't have to do that!

Back on track?

Well it has been a crazy month or so here.

Long story short: I just started a new job! And, it is a reasonable walking distance from home (about a mile and a half). I walk to work in the morning—which is such a nice way to start the day—and take the bus home in the evening. once I get a decent bike light, I’m going to ride to and from work. No hills! Really excited about that. It’s also nice to get that bonus time back—instead of rushing out in a panic in the morning, I can take my time. In the new year once I’m cycling, I’ll likely work eight to four, so I can spend more time with the kiddo (and supervise his snack, which is pretty random) and have more time to prepare dinner in the evening.

What a great feeling to have a fresh start and finally start getting some exercise!