Preparations

I walked yesterday, a nice loooong walk in which I was not at all in a hurry to be done. I wasn't in a hurry while I was actually walking, either, as my pace ended up being just slightly faster than 3 mph. But the distance was seven miles. I would have been awfully tired on the way back had I been going much faster.

Or so I like to tell myself. Justification and rationalization can be very good buddies.

It was a perfect day for walking – upper 60s, breezy, sunny. Spring is here, finally.

It occurred to me as I was ambling along that the by-the-book Whole 30 I'm doing with Gingerzingi will begin a year and a day after the first one I did last spring. I might have to do a Whole 31, and begin anew on the same day as last year.

This week has been pretty good. It's easy to get off track, but knowing I've made this commitment makes me want to stay ON track. A few days of clean eating and several decent walks have made a weight-loss difference in the amount of two pounds this week. It's so very nice to see the number go back down again, and it reinforces for me the idea that this thing really works.

For me.

I'm going to make some pumpkin muffins (using almond meal and coconut flour), because I've been wanting "bready" things but haven't taken the time to make them using paleo/primal ingredients. Much easier to eat a saltine or 10.

And I always pay for it – with achy joints and interrupted sleep – when I eat a saltine or 10.

Mostly, though, I'm ready.

And I'm especially ready for more long walks. I'd hoped to make it to 100 miles in March, but that didn't happen. In fact, I fell well short. But each month's mileage grows and I'm still going to work hard to hit the 1500-mile goal by New Year's Eve.

A week ago I had to lose 19.5 pounds to reach a normal BMI. Today it's down to 17.5. That's 5.5 more than my lowest weight last year. Winter was brutal, outdoors and in!

This week's progress makes me feel so, so hopeful.

At the prison last night I happened to run into a woman who used to come to the AA meeting. I recognized her, and wished her well, and she shared with me that she'd be leaving soon, going back home to St. Louis.

She asked me what my volunteer service was. I told her, and she said she used to go to that meeting and had, in fact, been the group leader for a month. She absolutely didn't recognize me as the same person.

A little thing, perhaps, to not be recognized by someone who you didn't know very well anyway.

But a big thing, too.