I did it!

I reached my goal of 40 miles in the month of August.

And what a beautiful morning it was!

Also, guess what?! I don't have to go on cholesterol medication. Doctor Cragun had this app on his phone where he entered my information, and it came out with a result of "only" a 3.5% chance of me having a heart attack in the next 10 years. If it had been 7.5% or higher, he would have put me on meds. I think it helps that I'm seriously trying to get healthy.

Yesterday by the end of the day I still had 500 calories to go as far as eating, according to My Fitness Pal. But I just didn't feel like eating. Today I made up for it. I went more than 1,000 calories over the allotment. Maybe it's because of yesterday. Anyway, I'm not going to worry about it. I was just hungry; what can I say? Oh, yeah. Those s'mores tasted good.

Cholesterol results

The doctor's office called me today with the results on the cholesterol test done last Thursday. Basically my cholesterol has gone up from two months ago when it was checked. It's now 232. Tomorrow's my check-up with the cardiologist, Dr. Cragun and he's going to put me on medication.... I guess the good thing about him putting me on medication is that it'll get it down so I can manage it from there. I'm hoping that Dr. Clark will want to check it again at one of my next monthly appointments and it will have gone down. I guess we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, I've been pretty good, I think, to follow the doctor's orders. I've been on a walk each morning since seeing him, including yesterday, when I did a two-mile leisurely walk along one of my favorite trails. I took some nice pictures. And then today I jog-walked 2 1/2 miles with an average pace of just over 18 min per mile.

Remember when I first started on here, I could do a pace of 23-24 minutes per mile? See, I'm making progress.

Also I've been better about what I'm eating. I'm tracking it on the My Fitness Pal app, and I appreciate the extra calories it allows me for exercising each morning. But, besides that, I've been better about avoiding sweets and other simple carbs, as the doctor called them. I know it's only been a few days, but knowing that I'll be reporting to him in a month helps a lot.

I told Dr. Clark that I want to get some of the diagnoses off of my medical chart, such as high cholesterol, obesity, and maybe even depression and anxiety. Maybe that's a big dream, but I think it's possible. Along with the above results of cholesterol, my chart now shows a new diagnosis: "Recurrent Major Depressive Disorder in Partial Remission." Well, I'm trying. The walking is what I need. I'm less than four miles away from my goal of 40 miles by the day after tomorrow. I'm going to make it. And then on Thursday I'll go for a "run" to celebrate.

Here We Go

I had my annual check-up this morning. I asked the doctor to help me be accountable for my weight loss goals. He agreed. He's going to have me come in monthly for the next five to six months. These are my assignments:
1. No snacking between meals unless it's vegetables
2. Two meals have no simple carbs
3. A dessert or simple carb each day is fine, as long as it's with the meal.
4. Walk 7 days a week. The 2 miles a day I'm shooting for is good.
5. Track what I eat and show it next time.
6. And, finally, I have callouses on the bottom of my right foot, so a good arch support in my shoe will help my weight to be more evenly distributed.
My next appointment is in one month, on Monday, September 26. We'll see what happens!

I have lost a little weight. Last time I went in I was 214; now I'm 210. I hope the blood tests show a similar reduction in cholesterol.

So I've increased my walking to two miles a day. Last week I got a bit off track due to going to education week, but I counted my miles there for a couple of days and got over 3 miles each day. By Friday my foot was hurting and I rode the shuttles and didn't track miles. And then it took me a couple of days this week to get myself going again. So yesterday I started again with just over 2 miles. Today I did the same route, but the first 20 minutes counted as my run, and I got the first mile in less than 17 minutes. And then I reset the app to count miles walked, and got over 1.3 additional miles that way. I'm still 12 miles shy of the 40 mile walking goal that I set for August, but I'm sure I can do it. I plan to set a similar goal for September, and then 100 miles for October and November combined.

Also, on August 13 Rae Anna and I did the Salem Days 5K and I completed it in less than an hour. My average walking pace is now usually less than 20 minutes per mile. So that's cool. We've signed up for another 5K on September 9. It's in Draper, and it's a benefit for the refugees. Together we want to complete one 5K each month.